by Eric Vall
I turned and ran after the mage who’d gotten away before my women could argue, and I sent a powerful surge of my Terra powers throughout the stonework of the entire fourth floor as I went.
Luckily, the eight remaining mages hadn’t fled to another level yet, and as I sensed my women splitting off to take them down, I wove through the hall with my pistol at the ready.
I passed the king’s keep and several lofty chambers that were all deserted, but then I stumbled across two cowering servants hiding behind a copper statue. Both of them frantically pointed in the direction the mages had run, and I nodded as I quickly continued.
“Stay low to the ground and get out of the castle as fast as you can,” I ordered over my shoulder, but Aurora suddenly shrieked as someone’s powers broke through my own.
The tortured screams of a mage followed almost immediately after while I reformed the ground beneath Aurora’s feet just in time, and I turned a corner to finally catch sight of the fleeing mage.
I fired before he could dodge my shot, and I was already leaping over his flaming body when another tortured scream echoed through the castle. That’s when I sensed two mages climbing to the next story, and I changed my course to head for the nearest flight of stairs.
The walls of the fourth floor shook as the mages attempted to break them apart, but I doubled the force of my Terra powers and fought hard to keep the stones in place. The floor shook next as I felt my veins vibrate from the effort of countering the mages’ collective powers, but I was finally nearing the fifth floor now.
I could hear revolvers being fired below, and Cayla ordered Aurora to back down while I sensed Shoshanne’s magic spark in the air. I was slowly stalking my way through the hall as panicked screams broke out downstairs again, and I couldn’t help grinning when Deya’s silvery giggle came shortly after.
Only four mages were left, and knowing two of them were up on the fifth floor with me eased my concerns for my women by a degree. The four of them only had to take down their last two, and hopefully, I’d have handled my own by then.
Rapid fire broke out below me, though, and I froze in place as I heard two bodies hit the ground. The mages must have found the servants I’d tried to save, and the fury I felt knowing they were picking off innocent bystanders made my Terra powers flare with determination.
I sealed off the doors of every remaining chamber on the fourth floor in case there were any others in hiding, and when another tortured scream echoed back, I grinned and turned down the next hall.
It was almost pitch black in this corner of the castle with only a single torch at the far end of the hall, and I could hear a heartbeat thudding not far off as shots fired in the distance. I stalked forward while the stones under my boots began to tremble, and I knew the next mage was waiting for me around the corner up ahead.
I tried to lock him in place with my Terra powers, but he was countering my attack with the full force of his own magery, and I began to sense my magic draining rapidly from the effort of maintaining so large a space. I couldn’t risk pushing my limits while my women were relying on me to keep them safe, so I stopped trying to go on the offensive, and I held my pistol outstretched instead.
Then I kept moving forward, and as a final terrified scream echoed through the fourth floor, I grinned and shifted my Terra magic. Now that the last mage downstairs was dead, I just needed to finish off my end of the bargain, so I directed my powers straight to the feet of the mage waiting for me.
He growled angrily as I locked him in place and ran forward, but then the entire wall broke apart beside me, and I managed to block the rubble flying my way so I wouldn’t be buried in it. Another wall broke open before I’d even reformed this one, and I could sense the mage fleeing down the hall as he tore the side of the castle open wide.
Shrieks echoed from the courtyard as I came to a stop and stared out from the edge of the tower, and I caught the stones and sent them another direction before they could reach the nobility far below. My gut dropped when I saw how high up I was, but I didn’t have time to holler down and move the crowd farther back. The crack of a revolver split through the hall as a bullet grazed my shoulder, and I dropped to my knees as I fired into the shadows.
Flames burst across the walls when my bullets struck stone, and I cursed as I vaulted forward and clambered over the rubble. Another wall broke loose as I passed, but I managed to dodge the onslaught just as I saw a mage lunge into a stairwell.
They were too fast for me to keep up with, but I didn’t back down while I barreled down the hall and took the steps three at a time, and I could hear my women beginning to panic as they searched for any sign of me below.
Then the steps broke open as a revolver fired at my back, and I realized I was sandwiched between the last two mages. So, I let the steps drop me while I clung to the remaining edge of stone, and I fired into the blackened stairwell to light it up. Flames coursed over the stones as an eerily vacant face flickered into view, and when the mage raised his revolver, I swiftly sent a bullet straight into his chest.
Then I holstered my pistol while the flames devoured the possessed mage, and I dragged myself up onto the remaining steps before I reformed the ones above me. I continued my course to the sixth floor as fast as I could, and when I came to a panting stop, I listened carefully for any sign of the final mage.
The footsteps I heard were already at the other end of the tower, though, and I broke into an all-out sprint through the deserted hall. Then the mage started blasting the walls and ceiling apart as he went, and I did my best to repair the damage while I leapt over boulders and fallen statues. My Terra powers were beginning to falter now as the destruction slowed my pursuit, but when I reached a moonlit archway leading out onto a battlement, I finally halted and scanned my surroundings once more.
I couldn’t hear any footsteps, but this was the only direction the mage could have gone, and I strained to catch even a single sound that might give me a hint of where he was lurking.
Then I slowly made my way out onto the battlement, but even with my Terra Magic sifting through the stonework, I couldn’t sense anyone. I sent my powers back through the entire sixth floor to see if he’d doubled back, and my heart began to pound heavy as I realized my four women were just about to mount the steps. Without knowing where the mage had gone, I couldn’t protect them, and I split my magic to send it across the bridge of the battlement and up to the seventh floor at the same time.
It was like the mage had vanished into thin air, though, and I realized there was one place he could have gone to manage such a stunt.
My gut churned uneasily as I moved toward the edge of the battlement with my pistol clutched in my grip, and I slowly peered into the courtyard below. A harried sigh escaped my lips as I saw no bodies below, but my relief was short lived, because that meant he was still up here somewhere, and Aurora’s voice calling for me was getting closer.
“Come on, you bastard,” I muttered under my breath. “Make your move.”
I turned in a circle to eye the edges of the battlement next, and as my gaze drifted over starkly moonlit ridges of stone and deep black shadows, a flicker caught my attention. Suddenly, there was a heartbeat right near me, although I had no idea where it had come from, and I squinted into the shadows as my grip tightened on the trigger.
Then the stone bucked under me, and I was thrown clean into the air and off the bridge. I could hear the shrieks of the nobles in the courtyard as wind coursed over my body, and the twisted grin of a mage appeared at the edge of the battlement as he watched me drop several stories down.
I was grinning, too, though, as I steadied my aim and fired my pistol before I could do another roll in the air. My fall was gaining speed now while the stone of the castle tower flashed by, but the mage’s chest erupted in enchanted flames as my bullet struck true.
His pained screams drowned out the shock of the nobles as he flailed and tipped forward off the bridge, and his body was entirely consumed by the flames w
ithin seconds.
Then I forced my Terra magic to spark just before I hit the ground, but searing pain shot through me despite my efforts to soften my landing. My rune roared in my ears as I realized I couldn’t move my legs, and above the elven chanting, I could hear my women screaming my name as they looked down at my body on the ground.
“Fuck,” I managed to wheeze, and I let the leaden abyss of the healing rune take over my mind as the dead mage’s ashes rained down around me.
Warm blood was seeping out of some part of me, and the bones in my back felt like splinters against my organs, but they were gradually reforming themselves with every passing minute as I laid there trying to take deep breaths. I could tell my arms were fully healed first, and my skull stopped throbbing by the time the ground under me rumbled from a swarm of nobility running my way. When I managed to pry my eyes open, Temin was stooped over me looking as close to death as I was, and the many nobles surrounding us took turns screeching, weeping, and generally being unhelpful while they gaped at me.
“Can you move?” the king demanded.
“Nope,” I grunted as I gritted my teeth against the stabbing pain in my legs. “Just give me a minute. I’ll be fine.”
“Gods, Mason,” Temin gasped, and his face leached of all color. “You’ll be paralyzed after a fall like that. I can’t believe this. How could I have let such a--”
“Move godsdamnit!” Aurora suddenly bellowed, and my women crashed through the crowd to drop down beside me.
Shoshanne even shoved the king aside before her tear streaked face came into view, and I sent the caramel beauty half a grin.
“Hey, beautiful,” I muttered.
“Mason,” the healer whimpered. “I thought … I thought--”
“Is he alive?” Deya gasped, and her hands were stroking my hair as she trembled from head to toe.
“Don’t worry,” I mumbled. “It’d take a lot more than a fall to kill me.”
“C-Can you breathe okay?” the healer asked, but I could already sense her magic seeping into my lungs to help me anyway.
“I’m almost healed,” I assured her. “Any guesses why the pain won’t fucking stop, though?”
“Where?” Cayla demanded.
“My leg,” I groaned through gritted teeth.
“Everyone move back,” Shoshanne ordered the nobles, and they shuffled several feet back while they kept murmuring anxiously to one another.
I could feel my women groping at my legs on either side now, and Deya gasped as her hand closed around the most painful spot. I jolted and reached to rip her hand away as pain burned through my entire leg and foot, and Shoshanne cursed under her breath.
“Mason, your rune healed your bones improperly,” she murmured as quietly as she could. “They fused too quickly, we have to get you to the infirmary and re-break them.”
“Just get it over with,” I hissed.
“But--”
I sent the healer a stern look, though, and she nodded at once before coming around to my other side. Aurora and Cayla gripped my forearms while Deya pressed down hard to hold my thigh in place, and then I took a deep breath just before my shin snapped apart.
“Fuck!” I yelped, and Shoshanne began forcing my shattered bones into place as quickly as she could while my rune chanted with a vengeance already. I didn’t know how many times I cursed under my breath while she broke the bones two more times and shifted them into place, but eventually I ran out of filthy phrases and just focused on not throwing up.
Then the chanting began to quiet down as the pain subsided, and once I was able to think more clearly, I decided I was beyond grateful my spine had at least healed properly, because the few minutes I’d spent paralyzed honestly terrified me. If Dragir were here, I would have probably fallen at his feet now for branding me with the healing rune, but since he wasn’t, I settled for thanking the gods as my women hastily checked the rest of my bones.
“I’m fine,” I muttered while my rune settled back to a dull murmur in the back of my mind, and I felt Deya and Shoshanne’s hands on my shoulders next as they tried to help me up.
“Mason, we need to get you back to the infirmary immediately,” Shoshanne informed me. “I’m checking you with my healing staff to be sure your organs are alright.”
“Sure,” I replied as I strained to stand, but the residual fatigue from pushing my magery made my head spin, and Cayla and Aurora quickly braced themselves under my arms to keep me steady.
My bones felt fine, though, and I couldn’t help grinning over the fact that I could walk away from a six-story fall. Knowing we’d taken down every one of the mages who’d stormed the castle improved my mood quite a bit, too.
“Should he be walking?” the king exclaimed as he rushed forward, and I chuckled despite how woozy I felt.
“Don’t worry about me, Temin,” I muttered. “It’s not the first time I’ve almost died.”
“We’re taking him home,” Cayla informed the king.
“Of course,” Temin said, and he motioned for the crowd to make way for us. “Is there anything I can do? Do you need anything?”
The nobility parted as they clutched one another and stared in silent shock, and I noticed several young lords fanning their wives on the ground.
“Nah, I’m good,” I grunted. “Thanks for the invite, though. This was fun.”
Temin managed a harried chuckle as he led me and my women through the crowd, and he escorted us back across the courtyard and through the castle while pale faced servants and nobles lingered around, not knowing how to proceed from here.
“I’ll come back tomorrow and fix up the rest of the castle,” I assured the king, but he immediately declined.
“Defender Urn can attend to this mess,” Temin insisted. “You just focus on recovering. If not for you, every noble in the nation as well as the Elders would have been killed. Myself included. There’s no way I could repay this debt, Mason, but I assure you I intend to try.”
“There’s no debt,” I informed him, “I’m happy to help.”
The king shook his head in disbelief as we reached the entrance hall, and when I offered him my hand, he felt as cold as ice as he shook it with both of his.
“Take care of yourself,” Temin urged, “and if you need anything--”
“I’ll let you know,” I interrupted, “but you should probably disperse your guards throughout the castle for the time being. Just in case.”
“I agree,” the king said with an anxious nod. “I’ll triple their watch until we can find out how all of this came to pass.”
“Good. Now, go make sure your nobles haven’t all fainted.”
Temin managed a chuckle as I let Cayla and Aurora steer me down the hall, and he was already ordering his servants to tend to his guests as I shuffled away.
“Are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Shoshanne asked, and her brows were still knitted with worry. “You look ready to drop.”
“Yeah, I’m just worn out,” I told her, but this was honestly the understatement of the year. “My rune doesn’t seem to replenish my mage powers as quickly as my body. It does kind of feel like I just fell off a bridge, though.”
“The moment we get home, I’m taking a look at you,” the healer decided, and Cayla nodded.
“We’ll get you some food, too, but the healing waters could help,” the princess added.
“That’s a good idea,” Deya replied. “Nemris’ magic is stronger than any other. Maybe it could restore his own faster.”
I could tell none of them would be calming down anytime soon, so I let them carry on making an endless list of ways to fix this, even though I knew it was just time that I needed.
Then Cayla’s hand tightened on my hip, and I glanced down to see her eyes burning up at me. She quickly jutted her head to the side as I furrowed my brow, and when I squinted into the shadowy hall to our right, I caught a glimpse of green at the end of the hall.
The man turned just as I noticed him, and I slowed to
a stop as I sparked my Terra magic. The effort immediately made my head spin, but I unwound my women’s arms from my waist as I forced my magic to keep tracing the man in green.
“I’ll meet you at the Mustang,” I told the others.
“Mason, what are you thinking?” Aurora demanded. “You need to get home.”
“Yes, what else could possibly matter right now?” Deya asked as she tried to pull me along. “You have certainly done enough. Come and sit down.”
“I forgot to tell Temin something,” I lied as I tried not to sway where I stood. “It’s very important. I’ll be fine, just get to the Mustang, and I’ll be there in a couple minutes. Cayla and Shoshanne, go with them.”
Cayla nodded as she took Aurora’s hand, and when Shoshanne noticed the look on the princess’ face, she casually looped her arm through Deya’s as they pulled the two elven women toward the doors. The second they were all outside, I turned on my heel and silently ran down the hall to my right, and I could already sense the man’s footsteps nearing a side door that led out to the courtyard.
I closed the distance between us in only a matter of seconds, though, and he was reaching for the iron latch when I caught him from behind and locked him in a death grip with my dagger at his throat.
The man gasped and gagged as he fought to free himself, but I managed to keep him steady despite how little strength I had left in me at the moment.
“I couldn’t help but notice you eyeing my women,” I growled in his ear, and he fought more violently to free himself.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” the man choked. “They disgust me.”
“Yeah, I thought that was kind of odd.”
Then I wrenched the dagger across his throat, and warm blood coursed over my hand as the man dropped twitching at my feet. His eyes bulged wildly while he clutched at his slit neck and gaped up at me, but his twitching slowed rather quickly, and soon he was lifeless in a pool of blood.
