by Sean Stone
I silently corrected my course and headed towards the water.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The trees broke to reveal luscious green grass, the kind that you only saw in brochures. At the bottom of the bank was the river. The water was red reflecting the sunset. The River Sanguin was strong enough to extinguish Kagen’s flames but looking at it now I wondered if there was perhaps someway to use it to kill him for good. The power of the river had healed me when I’d been burned. Here we were at its source.
I heard the rush of wind as Kagen soared through the sky. I turned in time to watch him touch down to the ground majestically. His blazing feet scorched black marks into the Earth and killed the grass. His wings of fire folded behind his back and vanished. His fire shrunk down so that his body was covered in a molten glow.
‘Have you finished running away now?’ he asked mockingly. ‘The big bad Wraith running from me.’
‘Save your words. I’ve heard enough from you,’ I spat.
‘Oh, Jacob. Are you not enjoying this? Someone really needs to teach you how to have fun.’ His lips stretched into a nasty grin as he released a stream of fire at me.
‘Obidio,’ I muttered. My shield deflected the fire and sent the flames right back at him. Not that they would cause him any harm. When the fire cleared I saw the molten phoenix man running at me. He drew his fist back preparing to punch me. I threw myself down and rolled under his arm. As I rose back to my feet I threw out a spell of icy spears at him. Only one of them found a home in his chest, the others missed their mark and vanished into the air. Kagen was jolted backwards by the single spear and dropped to one knee.
I ran forwards, not quite sure what I was going to do. I only had to keep him busy until Leah arrived to finish him off for me. Kagen channeled fire into the spear and it melted away. He rose at the same time as I reached him. One molten fist smashed into my cheek and sent my sprawling across the dirt. Insane heat licked away at my face and I screamed as I tried to fight against the burn.
‘Looks like your magical protection is wearing off,’ Kagen sneered. He raised both hands and I knew that an unstoppable blaze was about to come my way.
‘Rabole!’ I cried. The spell took the bare remnants of my magic. It barely even made him step backwards.
‘Oh wow!’ he said and then burst out laughing. ‘I wish I was getting this on camera. The mighty Wraith at his most pathetic. Maybe after you’re dead I’ll become the best assassin in the country. I mean—‘
I didn’t let him finish. He’d made the classic bad guy mistake and attempted to start a rambling monologue. I jumped to my feet and ran right at him. He looked at me with bemusement as if he thought I was simply going to try and tackle the man made of fire. I was doing something far more dangerous than that. I slipped my arms under his armpits and wrapped them around him tight, lifting him up off the ground. Then I ran. Believe me when I say, nothing could have prepared me for the pain of pushing my body against his. When he realised what I was doing he turned the fire up to the max. I couldn’t see myself but I had no doubt that I was blazing just as much as he was. He screamed in fury. I screamed in agony. We reached the edge of the river bank and I lost my footing. Even as I fell I refused to loosen my grip on the Phoenix-Born despite the blistering heat that was threatening to combust me. We both hit the ground hard and then rolled down the bank and into the river.
Only when the delicious icy depths of the river took me did I finally release Kagen. I didn’t pass out this time. The power of the river was greater even than I’d expected. The burning hell that my body had become was gone in mere seconds as a cool bliss passed over me. I would’ve been happy to remain in that water forever, letting its power wash over me for the rest of my days. But the river had other ideas. The water pushed against me like hundreds of iron-strong hands. I rose upwards until I was launched out of its heavenly hold and thrown back onto the grass bank.
I landed soaking wet, but no longer burned at Leah’s feet. I looked up at her exasperated expression and smiled like an idiot.
‘You seemed quite happy to drown in there. If I hadn’t turned up and pulled you out then you would’ve done,’ she told me, like an adult telling off a child.
‘I’m healed though,’ I said, as I climbed to my feet. She grabbed my arm and helped me up.
‘Almost,’ she agreed.
I looked down and saw my exposed body was peppered with pink burns. It was nothing compared to what I must’ve looked like before I’d throw myself into the river. Most of my clothing was now gone. Luckily my boxer shorts were largely unburned and were clinging in their wet state to me, leaving very little to the imagination. Thankfully, Leah had the class not to look. Even so, I pulled them away from my little fellow and shook them out as much as I could.
‘Don’t suppose you have any of that ugly hemp clothing?’ I asked.
She simply raised her eyebrow. I took that as a no. I was going to have to finish this fight in my underwear. Lucky me.
‘What the hell happened to you?’ Drew shouted as he came towards us.
‘Phoenix fight which you slept through!’ I shouted back. I walked across the grass towards him. It was a relief to see him alive. A part of me had feared that Kagen had killed him when I’d run away.
‘Good thing I did. Imagine if I’d had to witness your latest botch job. Is he dead?’
I shrugged. He was in the river and no longer attacking me. For the minute that was good enough.
‘No,’ Leah replied. ‘I can hold him in the river for now. When he drowns I’ll pull him out and we can deal with the ashes.Where are the lead boxes?’
‘Back at the Patch,’ I replied.
‘I’ll get them,’ Drew said and then headed back towards the Patch. Once he vanished back into the trees I turned to Leah.
Ethan must’ve been lurking nearby because he now sneaked up behind Leah and smacked her in the back of the head with a gigantic tree branch. She cried out and then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Ethan threw the branch aside and stalked towards me. ‘Don’t want you saying I had an unfair advantage. Like magic,’ he growled. He balled his hands into fists and his biceps bulged against the sleeves of his t-shirt. It was the first time I’d noticed how big his arms were. They weren’t particularly muscular but they were still considerably larger than my own. I’m quite a lean guy. Ethan as a whole was about twice as broad as I was. This kind of thing didn’t usually matter because I had magic. But this time I was all out of juice. I still had my combat skills though.
I swung my fist first. Always better to attack than defend. Ethan ducked out of the way of my strike and then rose up and jabbed me with his fist right in the nose. My head whipped back and my nose cracked issuing blood all over my chin. Another fist caught me in the stomach and I doubled over, no longer able to breathe. Then his bulbous knee slammed into my face sending a fresh burst of pain through it and slamming me onto the ground. He was a lot stronger than I’d expected. Once again I’d underestimated him. I knew I would’ve been able to beat him if I hadn’t been so exhausted from fighting Kagen. Running out of magic twice had left my body pretty drained of energy in all respects.
Ethan straddled my chest and brought down blow after blow on my face. I brought my arms up to defend myself but he just punched them too. My face and arms were treated to a wicked assault that was not helped at all by my lack of clothing.
‘You. Murdered. My. Fiancee.’ Each word was squeezed between another punch. My head was a chamber of noise. My own subconscious was screaming at me to stop him but without magic I couldn’t figure how. I had combat training but in the heat of the moment it was kind of hard to focus on the correct method of defence.
As I was trying to figure out a way to stop him I realised that even now when there were no witnesses and he had me at his mercy, he was still insisting that I had killed Ruby. Did he truly believe that I was the killer? Had I been wrong all along? Was Ethan innocent of her murder?
&nbs
p; He stopped to catch his breath and that’s when I struck. Despite the fact that my entire head felt like a football at the end of a ninety-minute game, I brought my forehead up and butted him right between the eyes.
‘Oh!’ he cried out in surprised pain. As he jerked his head back I grabbed him with both hands and threw him off me. He thudded to the ground and landed on his back.
I might have been having second thoughts about whether or not he had murdered Ruby, but I knew for certain that he had set up this whole business with Kagen. I unleashed my fury and began kicking him repeatedly in the ribs. I didn’t use any of my combat training, I just went hell for leather on him. He rolled onto his front and attempted to rise. I brought my foot right into his jaw and sent him crashing back onto his back.
‘You bastard! You set all this up!’ I screamed at him. ‘You tried to have me killed!’
With a surprising burst of speed he flung himself off the floor and rammed all his weight into my front. I staggered back and only just managed to remain on my feet.
‘You fucked my fiancee!’ he screamed.
‘I didn’t know you even existed,’ I snapped back. This whole situation was ridiculous. A simple misunderstanding had escalated into this shitstorm of a scenario.
‘Well you do now,’ he said. He ran at me. This time I was ready. As he reached me I spun around and brought up my leg in a perfectly executed roundhouse kick that struck him right in the side of the head. He let out a feeble yelp and then went down. This time he did not get back up. He was out cold.
I let out a massive sigh as I fell onto one knee. I was ready to rest but I wasn’t going to get to.
‘Jacob!’ Kagen screamed from behind me.
With Leah out cold she had been unable to hold him in the river. He was up on the bank now, totally naked, dripping wet, and standing above Leah. He was in human form and held a blazing sphere of fire in one hand.
‘Don’t!’ I shouted. I started forwards but he held his free hand out to stop me. I did as he bid, terrified he’d hurt her if I didn’t. ‘One wrong step and she’s toast. Literally.’
‘Your fire can’t hurt her,’ I told him. If her river was strong enough to overwhelm him and heal wounds he caused then surely he would not be able to burn her.
‘When she’s awake she can defend against me. But she’s so helpless right now.’ He lowered his free hand and slowly stroked his fingers through her hair and down her cheek. ‘Such a pretty face. It would be a shame if anybody was to burn it.’
‘Leave her alone. You want me. I’m right here.’ I stretched my arms wide turning myself into an inviting target for him.
‘I’m getting the impression this might hurt you more. Since my flames may not get the job done I think I’ll fly her up into the sky and drop her. The fall should be more than enough to pulverise her into dust.’
His body roared to life with glowing fire and his wings stretched out from his back once more. I didn’t know how to stop him. I couldn’t close the distance between us in time. When we panic, and I mean truly panic on a level that makes all other kind of panicking look like nothing in comparison, there is this part of our minds that we access, a part that is usually closed for business. Only in times of extreme emergency can we break through the protective glass and access it. In this restricted part of my mind I discovered a spell that I’d seen when I was younger but I’d never used it. It was a spell forbidden by the Hall of Wizardry, although I couldn’t remember why. Maybe they’d never told me.
I used it now, forgetting all about the fact that I didn’t have access to any energy to convert. I summoned energy anyway, just like I usually would. And I found plenty. Energy from all around me came rushing into my body transforming instantly into usable magic. I felt like a battery that had been overcharged as it surged within me. It didn’t feel like the usual energy I drew on. It felt purer, like breathing the air in an unpolluted place after living in a city your whole life. Something about my appearance must have changed because I saw the look of uncertainty pass over Kagen and he took an involuntary step back. His flames flickered.
I reached out with both hands and screamed, ‘Zurzek Zabotsva!’ Everything around me flashed purple as the magic rushed out of me and raced over to Kagen. The Phoenix-Born was hit by a blast of power almost as strong as a hurricane. His flames were snuffed out like a candle in the wind. He yelled as he fought against the power I was channelling right at him. His lips drew back to expose his vicious teeth. His eyes began to bulge out of his head as the skin withered and cracked and then fell away to reveal his muscular frame. Blood and tissue curled and shrunk and that too fell away and was whipped into the distance by the torrential wind. His scream lingered on the air even as only his bones remained and then they too cracked, shattered, and fell to dust. Kagen was no more. I’d reduced him to dust. I dropped my arms. The wind vanished. And I fell face first to the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Never in my life had I ever felt so drained. I mean, I was already drained from using up all my magic twice this evening but this was like somebody had cracked me open and scooped out everything they could get their hands on. Each of my limbs was as heavy as lead. Even the idea of lifting my eyelids was unimaginable. The feel of the soft grass beneath my body, between my fingers… it was too welcoming.
‘Jacob…’ Leah’s voice called. Concern. Fear.
More power trickled from the ground and into my fingertips, converting into magic as it made the rounds through my veins. My eyelids flew open and lifting my head took next to no energy at all. I was on my feet in a flash.
Leah was standing at the top of the bank. She looked a little shaken but otherwise fine. When she saw me rise to my feet a wave of relief washed over her face. Seeing her concern for me brought a smile to my face. It was nice to have someone care about you.
On the burned grass by her feet was a huge pile of dust. Kagen. The spell I’d cast was the most destructive spell I knew. So destructive that it was actually forbidden. It was a good thing Artemis was dead otherwise he’d be gunning for my head if he ever found out about this. But, destructive as it was, I still wasn’t sure if it had finished Kagen off for good.
‘I don’t know whether to yell at you or congratulate you,’ Drew said as he approached with the lead boxes. He hadn’t witnessed the ferocious spell I’d just cast but on account of Kagen being dust, he figured out that I must have got some magic from somewhere. ‘You did it didn’t you, you figured it out?’ he said excitedly.
‘Well…’ I rubbed the back of my head as I tried to remember exactly how it had happened. Truth be told, I couldn’t remember how I’d done it.
‘What happened?’ Leah asked as she came to join us.
‘He cracked it.’ Drew slapped a congratulatory hand on my back that jolted me forwards. ‘He figured out how to draw power from nature.’ In all my life I’d never seen him look so proud of anyone, not even his own son. It was a little sad really that the time he was proudest of me was when I’d done something accidentally. I hadn’t tried. It had happened pretty much on its own.
‘Go Jacob,’ Leah said, giving me a little punch to my shoulder.
‘I didn’t really figure anything out,’ I confessed. ‘I kind of think it was a fluke. I saw that you were in danger and I panicked.’
‘It’s a start,’ Drew said, refusing to let the fact that I had not mastered the skill dampen his good mood. ‘Looks like your nose is broken though.’
‘Ooh, that does look bad. Does it hurt?’ Leah asked. It was kind of a stupid question considering the state of me, not that I was going to dare to say that to her.
‘My entire head hurts so my nose pain is hardly getting a look in,’ I told her. It was true. My head had turned into one giant ache from Ethan’s assault.
‘Here, let me,’ she said and motioned for me to lower myself. I stooped over and she placed her hands over my nose. A coolness flooded my nose that eased the pain dramatically. I felt the cartilage click back
into its correct position but it didn’t hurt a bit, unlike when Ethan had broken it. The pain from the assault remained even if the pain from having it reset did not.
‘It still hurts,’ I told her when she’d backed up.
‘Yeah, but at least it’s not crooked,’ she said. ‘Man up. Take the pain.’ She shot me a wink.
‘Now all… What the hell?’ Drew said. He was looking at the top of the bank and Leah and I both turned to see what had drawn his attention.
The pile of dust was a pile of dust no longer. The grey dust had clipped together and dampened to form a rising pile of grey mush. It grew wider at the same rate as it grew taller. It looked almost like a pile of clay expanding and taking form. The three of us watched as it took the shape of one of the Pacman ghosts. Things that I guessed were arms started to protrude from the sides.
‘That is not as graceful as I thought it would be,’ I mused. I’d always imagined a phoenix rising from its ashes would be quite majestic. If anything it looked clumsy. Comical even. A molten vein shot through the blob from the top to the bottom and then began branching off in tiny rivers across the entire mass. The growing creature thinned and started to take a more human shape, though not a human who was older than eight.
‘Are we just going to stand around and watch?’ Drew growled.
‘Well, I think it’s a bit late for the boxes and I don’t have the power to pull that spell off again,’ I said.
‘Use a different one. There are tons of killing spells,’ he reminded me. He was right.
‘Morivar!’ I threw out the spell quickly. There was a flash of red as the spell hit the blob but it just seemed to absorb the magic rather than be harmed by it.
Leah threw her arms up over her head and at her command the river rushed up the bank in a massive wave. It looked like she’d called up the entire river as a great wall of water made its way ominously towards the thing that was forming on the grass. The water hit the land and cascaded down swamping the blob. The three of us got hit by a good deal of water too but the only one who seemed to be bothered was Drew. I was already pretty much naked and Leah was a river nymph. I saw the infantile Phoenix-Born hunch over as the weight of the water crashed down on him but as the water washed away he rose up to his full height again, unharmed.
