Lost Cause

by S A Magnusson

  “Why not work within the system that already exists?”

  “The system is broken.”

  “But if it’s possible to restore it, then think of what would be gained.”

  John Adams looked up at me, staring at him. “I don’t think this is the time for such debates, Dr. Stone.”

  I turned away, and we made our way along the border until we came across another stone. As we did, I leaned down, pushing power into it. It flowed outward, and when it did, it started glowing, with increasing intensity, until the rune exploded, the power trapped inside disappearing.

  I stood back. Something had changed this time. The barrier had shifted, and whatever power was trapped within it was gone. John Adams frowned, and power pressed away from him, surging outward, flowing from him and into the remnants of where the magic had been.

  “I think—”

  A screech cut him off. I looked up, recognizing that sound, but more importantly, recognizing the sense I suddenly felt. It was magic, but not only was it magic, it was a particular type of magic I’d felt earlier.

  Draconis.

  19

  I scrambled quickly, reaching into my pouch, pulling out as many spell coins as I could. I needed barriers, but I also needed a way of fighting the Draconis.

  “Those won’t work against that creature,” John Adams said.

  “Then what do you think we can do?”

  “Our best bet is to knock it out of the air, and then we can try to fight it, but even that might not be enough,” he said.

  The fact that it was here suggested the creature was working with the Ethear. If it grabbed one of us, then it might drag us off so the Ethear could feed on us again. I didn’t want to fight the Draconis. We had tried that once before and had easily been defeated. If it came down to it again, I didn’t think we’d be successful.

  “What if we do something else?” I asked.

  “What else do you think you can do?” John Adams asked.

  “What if we run from it?”

  He started to smile but then he realized I was serious. “We are going to have to confront this creature eventually, Dr. Stone.”

  “Jen. And we might have to confront it, but if we can find the others, it’s possible we can get help.”

  I had to believe the other mages would be able to help us defeat the Draconis. If there were more than just the two of us, the odds would be better. I wasn’t going to be any help to John Adams. I might be able to fight, but I didn’t have the same skill as him.

  “That might work,” he said.

  We headed for the opening in the barrier. Once inside, everything changed again. It was once again rock, a barren landscape which reminded me of the desolate area we’d ended up on when we’d crawled across the troll. That couldn’t be a coincidence.

  “What happened?” I whispered. I felt as if I couldn’t talk too loudly, not wanting to draw attention to us. My sense of the Draconis continued to build, and I could feel the magic swelling off of it. If it had followed us through the barrier, we might not be able to fight it off.

  What if we allowed it to take us? If it was working with the Ethear, it was possible allowing the Draconis to take us would bring us closer to the Ethear. No. I didn’t want to be captured by the Ethear again. I’d barely survived. I didn’t think I would be able to withstand another attack, or what would happen to my mind. That meant continuing onward.

  I had the sense of Kate burning in my mind, much closer now. Every so often, I could feel it more strongly, almost as if the sense of her intensified, as if she were there, but then it faded again. If, as I believed, this was the Ethear feeding on her, preventing her from reaching me, it would explain why I wasn’t able to reach her, but it wouldn’t explain why she would every so often be able to reach me.

  John pointed, and I followed, noting again that where he pointed was the same direction I had detected the sense of Kate. We traveled along the rocky ground. There was no life other than the occasional plant straining from the cracks. There was nothing but the darkness, the rock, and the strange sense of magic which drifted around me. It was persistent, steady, and growing even more intense.

  Then light burst behind us, and I spun. John was there, and he turned with me, looking at the darkness.

  “What was that?” I whispered.

  “Fire,” he said.

  “I get that, but what caused the fire?”

  “The Draconis.”

  “They can breathe fire?”

  “So it seems,” he said.

  The Ethear had dragons as its allies? They might be called Draconis, but they were dragons, regardless of what else they might be called. This meant there was even more reason for us to get out of here as quickly as we could. If it could breathe fire, there was no telling what else it could do.

  I focused on Kate, trying to ignore the sense of the Draconis growing ever closer. I had to find a way to outrun it. First, find Kate. Once I did, I could figure out the rest.

  Power bloomed again, sending a chill along my arms. I ignored that, focusing only on what I could detect in the back of my mind, the steady burning sense of my friend. It was there, and I knew I could reach it, but how?

  “Dr. Stone. Jen.”

  I snapped my eyes open, and John was looking behind us, in the direction from where we’d come. I turned slowly and realized there was a creature outlined against the darkness. I couldn’t see anything beyond the darkness, and though there had been an opening in the barrier that we had formed, I wasn’t able to see through it. There was no way out from here. Even if we wanted to escape, I wasn’t sure there would be any way for us to do so.

  “What is that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you think it’s a Draconis?”

  John shook his head. “I did at first, but it’s walking toward us.”

  “And Draconis only fly?”

  “Predominantly, but in this case, it’s the posture that leaves me troubled. It’s not moving like a Draconis. I don’t know what else to make of it, but I have a sense we don’t want this creature to get too close to us.”

  “Then it’s time for us to run.”

  “I don’t know if that’s the right idea, either.”

  “Why?”

  “Remember what I said about the troll?”

  “The troll was attuned to movement, but the sense of it, not the sight of it.”

  “I suspect the same thing is taking place here.”

  “Then we go quickly,” I said.

  I grabbed his wrist and turned. Sprinting, I focused on the sense of Kate in the back my mind. It was there. The faster I ran, the further we went, the more and more certain I was we were getting close.

  Movement behind me caught my attention, drawing closer to me. I tried to ignore the sense of magic pushing up behind us, the cold creeping along my arms, but it was increasingly difficult to do so. A spell burst, and I twisted, throwing a protective spell behind me, triggering it before running onward. Something struck my protective spell, bursting into sparks, leaving a trail of light behind us.

  That had worked; I hadn’t been sure it was going to. I threw another spell, triggering it again, and using an explosive spell which would hopefully buy a little bit more time. As it erupted, there was a screech, an unholy sound which tore at my ears. I followed it with another protective spell, blasting that, using it as a way to try to ensure we were able to get more time. All we wanted was to get to safety, and the faster we moved, the more time we bought ourselves, the more likely it was I was going to be able to do so.

  “You focus on your friend,” John said.

  “What about you?”

  “I will focus on these spells.”

  “Here,” I said, handing him a handful of spell coins. I suspected he knew how to trigger them. They wouldn’t take nearly as much energy out of him than if he were drawing the spells, and there was a speed to it. The one thing I’d learned about the difference between mages who worked li
ke I did and those who had to cast spells was that my nature of spellcasting was fast. Using coins might take preparation ahead of time, but it did allow me to react in a way that others couldn’t. That was how Matt Gillespie had managed to take down—or nearly take down—a vampire elder, a creature he shouldn’t have been able to even battle and survive.

  John clutched them, and he flicked them in his fingers. It took a moment to realize what he was doing, but he was searching the symbols. When he was satisfied, he started flipping them behind him. There came a series of pops of magic, a burst of power along my arms, and every so often, sparks glittered behind us.

  We continued racing. We were running out of time. Magic started blooming near us, and this time, it came from in front of us. I started slow, but John pushed me forward, sending a coin rolling in front of us, which he triggered. Light blossomed off of it, a series of sparks in a multitude of colors, almost like fireworks. It would have been pretty if it weren’t so deadly and if it didn’t make me so terrified about what we were going to encounter.

  “I don’t suppose you have more of those you can spare.”

  I nodded and grabbed into my pouch, taking another fistful of them. Thankfully, I still had a few more, but I was sacrificing my reserves for him. If he ended up betraying me, or if something else happened before this was all over, I was going to have no way of saving myself. But if we didn’t get out of this, then it wouldn’t even matter.

  I focused on the sense of Kate and let it draw me forward. Power continued to build all around us, and John sent surges of magic, the spells triggering all around us. I marveled at how quickly he was able to use them. It was faster even than what Matt had been able to do. That shouldn’t have surprised me. He was the one who had taught the others, so of course he would be more skilled than the rest at using them.

  The sense of power continued to build all around us, and I felt as if we were running into another barrier. Then suddenly, we could go no further.

  “John?”

  “What is it?” He flung coins, and spells triggered, bursting all around us, holding something—maybe everything—at bay.

  “There’s another barrier here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I can’t see anything well enough to know if there’s a spell I can trigger.”

  “This is going to hurt.”

  Before I could ask what he was talking about, light bloomed all around us. He started glowing, and it stretched out from him, streaking along the ground. I stared at him for a moment before realizing we didn’t have long with this spell. I needed to find whatever was holding this barrier, so I raced along, searching for stones, but watching out for anything of power. I could still feel that magic pressing in on me and knew I didn’t have any time before it reached me, and whatever creatures were attacking, whether they were Draconis or something else, I didn’t think I could linger here for too long.

  Then I found one. Without waiting, I pushed power into it, triggering it. It exploded like the ones outside had. I raced back, searching for another, and just as I found it, a creature loomed in front of me. I fumbled, reaching for my pocket, searching for one of the coins, but I didn’t need to. John Adams was there, throwing a coin, then another, then another, and each of them exploded, striking this strange creature, knocking it back.

  I ignored the sequence and turned my attention to the ground and the rune marked there, and poured power into it, triggering it. As I did, the barrier collapsed in front of us. I grabbed John and staggered forward.

  Light exploded all around us.

  It was a different landscape yet again, and this time we were inside a small room. And we weren’t alone.

  There were creatures standing with their backs up against the wall, almost as if pressing up against the barrier. But it was not them which drew my eye. It was the others in the center of the room. Barden was there, lying motionless on the floor. Next to him was Darvish, stretched out feet to head. And then there was Cynthia Michaels. And Veran Michaels. And finally, Kate. She appeared darker than I remembered her, as if she’d been spending time in the sun, but different. It was almost as if she had shadows swirling around her. None of them moved.

  “John?” I whispered.

  “You are going to have to take care of that, Dr. Stone.”

  “Why me?”

  “Well, you are the physician, but you also might be the only one who can trigger whatever it is that has been done to them.”

  “But—”

  I didn’t have the opportunity to say anything more. The creatures lining the walls began converging into an attack. John shoved me, sending me staggering forward, and rather than arguing, I let the movement carry me, falling next to Barden.

  He was the closest to me. I scrambled, searching along the ground. I tried not to look up, though I could feel the sense of magic bursting all around me. A series of spell coins triggered and I realized John didn’t have enough.

  “John!” I reached into my pouch, digging out another fistful, and I held my hand behind me as I was searching around Barden. Something scooped across my hand, and I prayed it was John and not one of the creatures, but I didn’t dare look. At this point, all I could focus on was what we were dealing with, and whether or not I was going to be able to save Barden and the others.

  There had to be something here, didn’t there? I had to find what was near them to trigger. I looked all around, searching for a stone, for something similar to what had been used on John, but I couldn’t find anything. I sat back, crouching, looking at all five of them, knowing if I couldn’t figure this out, they were going to die. The Ethear was going to continue to suck their magic, and would feed, growing stronger, and eventually…

  No. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen to my friends. I focused on Barden. I wasn’t sure if I could save him, but I was damned sure I was going to try. I pressed my hands on either side of him and decided that if I was going to trigger something, maybe it was something inside of him… Yes, it was the same thing that had been done to me. As I gripped his shoulders, I sent power flowing out of me. It came from a deep place, as if it were unleashed in a way it had not been before. I didn’t know whether it was just the nature of what I was experiencing on this side of the Veil or whether it was something which had been unlocked within me, but it didn’t matter.

  I found the spell. It was there, in the back of his mind, the same way as it had been in the back of my mind. As I realized it, I pushed. I triggered the spell, using the same technique as when I triggered any other spell. While I was triggering it, drawing power from deep within myself, I realized something else. I might be the only one who could do this. That was a strange realization.

  In medicine, I was a generalist. In the emergency room, I had to be able to manage anything that came in. Therefore, I was good at many things, but I was not an expert at any of them. We would often call specialists down to the ER to help those with more complicated cases. In medicine, specialists had more prestige—and were usually paid better.

  In magic, the generalists were often the most powerful. People like Barden and Darvish and John Adams were all incredibly powerful. I had learned I would never be able to rival their power, but I didn’t need to. All I needed was to have my specialist ability. And this was my specialist ability.

  I pushed through the spell in the back of his mind, sending power flowing through it, and it triggered. When it did, something released from his mind. I could feel it release, and I continued to push until that spell was completely gone.

  Barden gasped. He took a moment, but he sucked in a deep breath, and then sat up. He blinked a moment, looking around before locking eyes with me. “Dr. Stone. You found us.”

  “Apparently you were all attacked by an Ethear.”

  “How…” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You need to help Dr. Michaels.”

  “I know, but I think her magic is able to withstand this creature better than yours. Everybody else is in danger of dy
ing from it, and I don’t think she is.”

  “If anyone else dies, you understand what she could do.”

  I frowned, putting it together. Kate was Death. She had a connection to a power I didn’t fully understand, and I didn’t need to fully understand it. All I knew was that power allowed her to do the things she needed to. “Go help John Adams.”

  Barden frowned and looked as if he wanted to argue with me.

  “He’s helped, Barden. I understand he did terrible things, but regardless, he’s helping us.”

  Barden got to his feet, and power began to build from him. I turned my attention away, knowing there was nothing I was going to be able to do with that. I wasn’t a fighter. Barden might have been training me to fight, and there were times when I might need to fight, but that wasn’t my skill. This was.

  I raced over to Kate, crouching down next to her. She was leaner than the last time I had seen her, and far more muscular. She looked like a fighter, the kind of person I never would’ve been. Even unconscious like this, she had a certain beauty about her, though it was a dark beauty now, whereas before, there had always been a certain glow radiating from her.

  I pressed my hands onto both shoulders, and pushed into her. This was a strange sensation. There was some resistance, and with that resistance, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be strong enough to trigger the spell. But I didn’t have to be strong enough alone. I reached into my pouch, searching through it, worried I might have handed to John all of my trigger spells, and found two, but I didn’t know if that was going to be enough.

  Getting to my feet, I found John throwing coins, facing off against a trio of strange creatures, and I raced over to him. “Trigger spells,” I said hurriedly.

  He glanced over to me. “This isn’t for—”

  “Trigger spells. I need the trigger spell coins.”

  He shuffled the coins he had, and he thrust five of them toward me. I reached into my pouch, and gave him another handful of coins, and he nodded.

  Taking the coins he’d given me along with the ones I had, I raced back over to Kate, and I stacked them on top of her. There was movement all around us, and I tried not to think about what was happening, or what we might be encountering. I couldn’t shake the strange sensation in here, knowing that if there was something here, it might be enough to harm me.