“As long as you are willing to supervise it, I have no problem with it,” Karen said.
Harry and the other mage nodded. Slowly, Cynthia nodded slightly, frowning as she did. I had a sense she knew she’d gotten played, and further, I had the sense she didn’t care for it.
5
The inside of the warehouse was cool today, though in actuality, it was often cool. I stared at the ground, looking at the circle that had been worked with metal into the concrete, a near perfect circle allowing me to trap power. From there, I was able to practice different magics. The warehouse was empty other than a series of circles just like this. Metal walls had very little insulation, and massive ductwork hung overhead, blasting cold air. It was almost too cold for me, though I was wearing only a T-shirt, despite knowing Barden often liked his warehouses cool like this.
“Are you able to feel the nature of the magic flowing?” Jessica asked.
I glanced over to the woman. She was petite—about a foot shorter than me, but compact with thick muscle. She looked as if she had been training as a fighter her entire life, as if to compensate for her lack of stature. Despite that, I’d never seen her raise her voice when she was training others, and I knew her to be incredibly skilled, even though only skilled in a few areas of magic, unlike Barden.
“I feel it flowing,” I said, “but I still am not so sure what I need to do.”
“Barden wants to ensure you understand how to use your magic quickly.”
That was what he had said, and it was reason enough for me to want to practice what he asked of me, mostly because I understood the importance of it. The more I worked with speed, the quicker and better I became. It was not just using my power, but he wanted me to be comfortable, so if I were ever attacked again, I’d be able to respond in such a way that I wouldn’t have to worry about getting injured.
As I worked with these spell coins, a nearly endless supply provided by Barden along with what we had stolen from Matt when we had defeated him, I tried to use that power in a way to allow me to ensure my safety. Barden wanted me to practice to the point where I was nearly as efficient and effective as any of the operatives had been. He didn’t want me to be overwhelmed by someone like Matt.
The problem was that Matt had trained with others often enough to develop a reflexive skill. I couldn’t even imagine what effort he had put into working with his magic over the years, or how I would ever get to that point with my own. I had seen Matt operate often enough to know how skilled he was. The things he was able to do were unlike anything I’d managed. There was not only a skill to it, but there was also speed. That was the most impressive.
“You’ve been watching me for the last few weeks,” I said to her.
“I have, and you’ve continued to improve, but there are ways to improve your speed.”
“I’m trying,” I said.
I was asked to hold onto the protective circle while also triggering these spell coins. Many of them I’d helped Barden make. There was something about making the spell coins myself which connected me to them better. In doing so, I had a better attachment to my magic, and a better attachment to the magic within the coins. I understood the symbols used, and yet, it wasn’t always about the symbol but the way I pushed power into them.
“I’m going to create an attack, and I want you to try to disable me,” she said.
The first time she’d told me the same, I’d smiled at her. The idea I would have to try to disable her was laughable, though that was only because she looked so small. Then again, part of it came from my own arrogance. I had just survived an attack with Matt and John Adams when Barden had brought me to face Jessica.
She didn’t seem as if she would be imposing, but her power was enough to make it impossible for me to disarm her. I’d struggled against her, and the first time I faced off against her, I’d ended up on my ass more times than I wanted to count. It made me question why Barden hadn’t brought her into the fight with us, though I did wonder if he was trying to limit how many people had knowledge of the organization. Then again, it was also possible Jessica had been off working somewhere else and not available to help.
“Are you going to give me a hint as to what you’re going to do this time?”
She grinned at me. “Not this time.”
Many of the times I’d worked with Jessica had involved her giving me hints as to what she might be doing. When she did, it gave me an advantage in that I didn’t have to be so much at risk from her attack. This time, she looked as if she relished the opportunity, as if she wanted to throw me on my ass again. “Why do I get the sense you will enjoy this?”
“I think it’s going to hurt me more than it’s going to hurt you.”
“Yeah, right.”
She flashed a smile.
I stepped away from the circle. The ring of metal in the concrete was really only for me to practice throwing spells which might be dangerous otherwise. In this case, there was no purpose in me having access to the ring of metal, and I wasn’t going to use it to throw up a protective circle. I wouldn’t have a ring like it in real-world situations, so Barden didn’t want me to have it now. It was his way of forcing me to continue to work with my own abilities. As I did, I would learn how to use the protective coins I had access to. Many of them could throw up a protective circle rapidly, and they didn’t take a lot of energy for me to maintain the circle.
Readying for what Jessica might do, I watched for a clue as to the nature of her attack. There came nothing. She circled around me, magic building from her, leaving my wrist cold from the sense of power flowing from her.
I held onto my own connection to magic. At least that had gotten easier for me, and my use of magic had come faster, though still not nearly as fast as it should. For me to withstand the attacks I might have to face, I would need to be better prepared and ready to use my magic at a moment’s notice. I needed to be able to draw upon it within a heartbeat, sometimes less. That was part of what Barden was trying to train me for. It was preparation, not only with a preparation of my own magic, but also preparation of my mind.
In this case, it was no different from how I worked with residents. Part of what they needed to learn was how to respond quickly, to think through situations as rapidly as possible, to be prepared for any situation that might happen. Only by doing that could they become the type of emergency room physician most who came to our program wanted to be.
Suddenly, magic surged from her. The fact I had the ability to detect magic helped me respond. I dropped, quickly throwing down a protective circle coin and triggering it. It exploded around me, and her blast of magic bounced off of my protective circle. I wondered what attack she might have used if it struck, though knowing Jessica, it would’ve been something unpleasant. She had proven she was far too willing to use things which, while not lethal, were certainly painful.
She pulled on more magic, a different spell, and I readied for one of my spell coins. A barrier could only withstand so much, and when it came down to it, Barden had wanted me to learn and understand that there would be times I would have to go on the offensive and might need to avoid simply trying to defend myself. If it came down to it, he wanted me to be ready for the possibility I would have to remove the threat.
The power within the spell barrier I held was fading. It happened slowly, though far more rapidly than if I had placed a barrier myself. Using the coin only granted me the power from within the coin, and there were limits to how long I would be able to maintain it. I was testing those limits, trying to learn about how long I could use them, and had so far only begun to uncover the extent of those limitations. The more I worked with Barden, the more I knew what I might be able to do in a real situation. I had to remove the protective barrier if I wanted to attack.
Jessica watched me, an amused twinkle in her eye. I wondered what attack she might prepare for.
I grabbed a pair of spell coins, and decided I needed to try using them both at the same time. It wasn’t dif
ficult to do. I had experience in triggering more than one coin at the same time. In this case, I needed to do them rapidly—first the attack, and then the defense.
Just as I was watching her, Jessica was watching me, waiting for the first signal I was going to attack. I threw my spell coin, pushing power out from it, triggering it. There was an explosion. There was nothing clean or neat about the nature of that spell, but when it came down to it, there was no need for it to be. The entire purpose of this coin was to shoot power outward.
As soon as I triggered it, I wrapped myself in another barrier, a protective spell which would keep me safe, and held onto it while waiting for Jessica to prepare her next attack.
It didn’t come. Slowly, the haze that followed the explosive spell faded, and I didn’t see any sign of her. I worried it might have been too much, though in all the times I’d been training with Jessica, there’d been never a time when I’d actually worried about harming her. Most of the time, I was more worried about ending up on the wrong side of an attack. She’d proven I was barely able to reach her with my magic when it came down to it.
As the haze cleared, my protective circle began to fade, and I reached for a couple of spell coins, ready for the next wave, but it didn’t come.
“Jessica?” I stepped forward, breaking the barrier.
As soon as I did, a spell struck me. I should’ve known better. She used a painful spell which I’d felt before. It sent me tingling, pain surging through my arms and down my chest, all the way through my legs. It was fire, burning needles that pierced my skin. It didn’t fully incapacitate me, but it was supposed to mimic the nature of another attack where someone who intended to do real harm could reach me.
Licking my lips, I tried to throw out another protective circle, but I was too slow. Jessica approached, power surging from her, the spell she was holding onto drawing more and more power, and I could feel it flowing through my bracelet. When I did, I knew I needed to offset what she was doing. The nature of her power was more than I could withstand.
What if I tried two interlocking circles? I had never tried to place such a barrier, though there was no reason it shouldn’t work. I dropped one, triggering it, and it still didn’t sever the nature of her spell. I did another, dropping it closer, and triggered it, pushing out more power, trying to maintain my focus.
As I did, there was a gradual easing of the pain to the point where I was able to focus once again. I let out a deep breath, wiping my brow, and readied a pair of additional coins. The protections would only linger for so long, and as soon as they faded, she’d be able to move on to the next attack she was going to try.
“There was something else you could’ve tried,” she said.
“What?” I was panting, tired from the effort of exerting myself like this. Even though it was a magical exertion, it still tired me and drained me far more than had expected.
“You continue to focus on defending yourself, and yet sometimes, the best defense is going on the offensive.”
“Even when I’m hurting?”
“When you’re hurting is the time when your attacker will least expect it. If you can’t find it within you to attack when your opponent is focused on something else, you may not be able to succeed.”
“I’ll try the next time.”
“I hope so,” she said.
I started to release the barrier, when I realized she was still holding onto a spell. I studied Jessica. The smile on her face persisted. She wasn’t about to release me, which meant she had no interest in stopping this battle. She was going to carry on as long as she wanted, and I had to be ready for whatever she might do. If I couldn’t hold onto a defensive spell any longer, then the only thing left was to do as she said, and to attack.
I reached for another coin and quickly triggered it. The timing came a moment too late. My spell faded, collapsing, and as it did, her spell struck me before I was able to attack her.
I was thrown back, and landed on my backside, striking it with a painful blow. It knocked the wind out of me, and my tailbone throbbed. It wasn’t the first time I’d landed like that, and I hated the pain coursing through me. It felt almost as if something were broken. I still didn’t know if I would heal as quickly as a mage, though I didn’t expect to. My own connection to magic wasn’t as strong to allow that, which meant any injury would require the same time to recover from as if I were not at all connected to the magical world.
Jessica continued toward me, and another spell built. I rolled off to the side, flinging out a coin, and threw up another barrier.
“How many times do you think you can do this?” she asked.
“I think you made your point,” I said.
“I’ll make my point when you decide to attack me rather than retreating.”
“I didn’t retreat. I landed on my butt.”
“And then you should have attacked.”
“You mean like this?”
I threw out the spell coin I had been holding onto, and this one was a little different to the last and wasn’t the same explosive spell. This was an immobilizer, something Barden referred to as a paralytic. I had felt its effects one time before. As it struck, it froze her in place, immobilizing her the same way as the pain was immobilizing me.
Slowly, I got to my feet, watching her as I did, waiting for her to react. With the paralytic, she shouldn’t be able to move at all. I tried something else, and used one of my circle protective barriers around her, wrapping her with that spell.
She managed to overcome the paralytic fairly quickly, though I wasn’t expecting anything less. I’d seen how long the paralytic would last and knew it would dissipate fairly quickly—at least when it came to those with enough power. Barden had proven how easy it was to overwhelm the paralytic spell coins, though they were good for incapacitating somebody briefly. In this case, I wanted that brief incapacitation so I was able to react and decide what else to do.
“How did I do this time?” I asked.
“Better,” she said, managing to do so through gritted teeth. She was breathing steadily, slowly, and as she did, the nature of the paralytic faded, and it wouldn’t be long before it was gone completely.
I took a step back, reaching the metal ring, and pushing a hint of magic through it. It was my way of signaling I was done.
“Are you sure?” a voice from behind me asked.
I spun to see Barden. “I think I’ve had enough.”
“You were doing well.”
“I was, but that doesn’t mean I want to keep attacking her.”
“It was the first time she has won,” Jessica said, shedding the spells I’d used on her.
“Then I would say you are an excellent teacher, and I’m not surprised Dr. Stone is a gifted student. If you like, I would be willing to work with you myself,” he said, smiling at me.
“I don’t know I can do any better against you than I would have before.”
“You need to get accustomed to fighting those who are far stronger than you. It’s the only way to prepare you.”
“Why the sudden urgency?” I asked, glancing from Barden to a form shadowed in the background. I couldn’t tell who it was, though the fact that Barden had brought them here suggested they were someone well connected to him. He didn’t bring a great many people to the warehouse, and he rarely brought them when I was working. Most the time, he preferred to avoid it, not wanting to have me draw any more attention than necessary.
“That, Dr. Stone, is what I’m here to discuss with you.”
6
I followed Barden across the street separating the two warehouses. As far as I knew, Barden owned everything on the street. There were rows of warehouses, most of them different to the one I had first met the man within. It didn’t surprise me that Barden would have taken the time and expense to purchase all of them. It was easier for him to avoid anyone noticing his comings and goings, but it was more than that. It was a matter of ensuring he had a certain buffer of protection. It fit
with what I knew Barden did, driven by his desire to protect everyone who worked with him.
“Who’s the guy who went ahead of us?” I asked.
“You don’t recognize him?”
“Should I?”
“You’ve met Darvish before,” he said.
“That was Darvish back in the warehouse?”
“I figured you would’ve recognized him.”
“I was busy trying to stay on my feet with Jessica attacking me,” I said.
Barden smiled. “I doubt you’ll have much difficulty with her.”
“Much? She’s knocked me back every time I’ve faced her.”
“For now,” Barden said. “Yet, the longer you continue working with her, the more likely it is you’ll be successful. I have little doubt you’ll be able to manage mages who have far more obvious ability than you.”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“Don’t view that as an insult,” he said as we reached the warehouse on the opposite side of the street. “I never expected Jessica would be able to cause you any difficulty for long. I always anticipated you’d reach the point where you were able to overpower her.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because you have the right kind of thinking in order to do so,” Barden said.
We stepped into the warehouse, and this one was different from the one across the street. Whereas that one was an empty space, nothing more than a wide stretch of cement with metal rings worked into the ground, this one had banks of computers with a set of doors at the far end. The door led into his private offices, and Barden had done his best to place protections around the entire warehouse which were different to those he’d used before. As far as I knew, he had used the techniques Matt had taught him, but he also had added elements of his own, and there might be other aspects here I didn’t fully grasp. Knowing Barden, he would’ve done everything in his power to place various protections to prevent anyone from reaching the warehouse, though when it came to the operatives like Matt, anything that Barden did might not be enough.
Lost Cause Page 5
