Dire Prophecy

by Zack Finley

  Argon and I shared a look. Was this part of someone's plan to sow chaos in advance of the asteroid strike? Even if they didn't succeed in one kingdom, the disruption to the economy of the region would make it hard on survivors.

  "Only a small group know we have any mage prisoners. We think it is critical no one learn of their capture. We are crediting you with all the information they have revealed. While the cover story is a foreign power has targeted the two kingdoms based on family ties, it seems likely they would have targeted Klee regardless. If we buy time with this fiction that will be worth it," Ruton said.

  "Has Inoa learned what is being hidden by the black geas?" Argon asked.

  "Regrettably, no," said Cleon. "We do know it kills the mage if pushed too aggressively. But we are being more careful with the others."

  "Not that we care if the prisoners die," Cleon added, "We just want them to tell us everything they know, first. They were careless to let you capture them." Cleon and Tobron shared a bloodthirsty grin. "If anyone can break the geas, my mom can."

  "King Ruton, we don't know what we can do to help find the Klee assassination cell, but we will help where we can," I said.

  "Providing us with a fair warning was more than enough, but we will call on you to help in Klee if needed. Where you can help the most is outside of Klee. While I would like to send several companies of Klee King’s Guards and a host of Klee mages to assist in Augun, I am reluctant to weaken Klee's defenses at this time. Perhaps after we catch our own assassins, we can spare them, but not before."

  Jenia grabbed her son's arm to interrupt. "My father hopes you can help his kingdom. We are keeping his survival under wraps until he can return to Augun and take charge."

  "I told the new Augun commander the king was alive and in your care," I added. "So, I doubt this will stay secret for long."

  "Alba thinks with your help, my father can return to Augun within a few days," said Jenia. "Failure to keep this secret shouldn't be a large problem. I am hoping you can locate his current heir. I think it odd no one has heard from my nephew. I worry that assassins may have killed him."

  "And I hope you can scout Kavil and Ylee," said Ruton. "Until we identify our own traitors, I can't afford to send expeditions to these cities. I want the existence of our prisoners and that we know other cities have been attacked to remain a complete secret."

  We agreed to do what we could, starting with helping Alba heal King Rufix. Cleon was to remain our main contact with the king, queen mother, and Commander Flexon.

  They would spread the word we had stumbled onto the Augun mess while conducting business there. We warned the Klee government and subsequently returned to our personal business.

  Commander Flexon wanted to keep us totally behind the scenes, but the king insisted we take part in the recent conference, especially since we were included in the prior one. It also helped hide the existence of our captives.

  The king agreed to play down our role in the actual rescue of King Rufix. He was also willing to let us fade away, at least officially. He and the commander had agreed to leak a cover story crediting several elite fighting teams of Klee King’s Guard with rescuing the Augun king. They guessed that while the assassins might know Argon and I were there, they might not be aware it had mostly been a two-person show.

  “The commander is worried the assassins may target you, next,” sent Tobron. “He’s hoping this cover story will help.”

  Tobron teleported out with Cleon and we 'ported to the hospital. Alba cleared us through a squad of king’s guard and led us back to where they were treating King Rufix.

  "I have completely drained my healing power," Alba shared during the walk. "So, has every healer in the unit. We still have two more mage healers on standby for extreme emergencies, but you two are the only other untapped healers available in the kingdom."

  The collapsing keep had nearly crushed Rufix. The king's physician helped stabilize him initially, but that physician was now amongst the missing. None of our prisoners knew what had happened to the healer, according to Inoa.

  The assassins took the Augun Mage Guild healer prisoner. The experience traumatized the young mage in part because they prevented her from actually healing the king's injuries. Alba doubted the young mage had either the skill or the power to heal him. She blocked the king's pain, kept him alive, and sedated for three weeks. Even that effort drained her healing power nearly as fast as it replenished. Inoa still had her in custody, although she was in the Klee hospital, rather than a prison.

  King Rufix didn't look much better than he had when Argon and I dropped him off. The healing amulet seemed to have minimized any new injuries caused by us relocating him, but it depleted even before we returned to the Augun keep.

  "He has so many skeletal and internal injuries, I'm hoping Steve can rebuild his bones so we can stop the internal bleeding and restore a few functions," Alba said. "My magic is so depleted if Steve needs help I can only provide some basic guidance. I need Argon as my backup, ready to step in to help keep the king alive. We have two mages in reserve if necessary, but if we get another medical emergency, they won't be able to respond if we tap them out."

  Argon and I showered and changed into hospital gowns before joining Alba at Rufix's bedside. They had magical machines breathing for him, bottles of blood, and other fluids dripping into him and other machines monitoring his vital signs. Not that much different from a hospital in America.

  In our earlier hospital visits, Alba had explained that while healers could maintain these functions, it was a low priority use of healing magic.

  Alba, Argon, and I joined hands and touched the patient as we had in training. The man's spark of life was faint but strong, but his injuries were more severe than either Argon or I had ever seen.

  Alba guided me to his chest wall and asked me to rebuild the ribs and backbone. The king’s ribs had knitted in the wrong places. This caused me some concern until Alba showed me how to banish the broken parts. I already knew how to grow a replacement section. My health magic power level had barely dipped when I finished the ribs and began to repair sections of his backbone.

  The spine was a much more complex problem. Alba directed Argon to handle the soft tissue and nerves while I concentrated on the bone. Argon created a joint mind space for the three of us to work together.

  We saved most of the vertebrae. Some were cracked, others were broken but repairable. Several were so badly damaged I would have replaced them if they were the only injury, but there were too many to replace at once. I stabilized them and encouraged the bone to heal in the approximate shape of a vertebra.

  The main damage was near his pelvis, where the spinal cord was severed. I had to grow two new vertebrae here. By the time I started there, we were all getting tired, but my knowledge of the Jaloan body was growing. I'd rebuilt so many vertebrae that growing two new ones no longer seemed daunting. Once the new vertebrae slipped into place, Argon extended and spliced the two ends of the spinal cord together.

  Alba confirmed the signals from the patient's brain were now sending and receiving input from his lower torso. The spike in pain made that obvious before Argon reset the patient's pain block.

  We needed to take a break. Although I'd only used half my health magic, I needed to eat, badly.

  Alba sent us to the hospital cafeteria for refreshments as she stayed behind to monitor Augun's king. We promised to return for another healing session before leaving to get some much-needed rest.

  Hospital food was better than field rations, but not by much. They did offer some fresh fruit, so I picked up a few chocolaty red fruits. "Polet," reminded Argon. While she ate her pink Brussels sprouts. "Cala," she said.

  I needed to remember those names, someday.

  Our second healing session was easier. I repaired the king’s crushed pelvis, retaining as much of the original bits as possible. Argon had to repair several damaged blood vessels to prevent him from bleeding out.

  Alba then suggest
ed we help boost the healing of his organs. I was still a bit hazy on what each part did so I channeled my remaining healing energies wherever directed. By the time I was done, I had a much better idea what Jaloans looked like on the inside.

  The king looked better when we were done. Alba was considering disconnecting him from the breathing machine and changing his drips, as we finished our work.

  "I know he wants to talk with both of you," Alba said as we gathered our weapons and armor. "Most of his organs are working better now. Though we have a lot of rebuilding to do in his lower extremities, we should be able to wake him up for a brief time tomorrow. I know you aren't the only ones who want to talk with him, either."

  We promised to keep in touch and return in the morning. We suggested to Tobron they might want to post a trusted mage warrior in the room with King Rufix, just in case. Some strong wards against unauthorized entry might be a good idea. He promised to endorse this suggestion to Cleon.

  After all, you aren't paranoid if they are really out to get you.

  We returned home for another meal and some much-needed sleep.

  ◆◆◆

  Chapter 24

  When I woke up, I had no idea what time it was and for a split-second no idea where I was. Argon's warmth and mental calm washed over me, reassuring me all was well. Even Allo, who had somehow inserted herself into a tiny area between us, radiated contentment.

  Hydraulic pressure provided me with an incentive to leave the warm nest as I slipped away from my girls.

  I checked the link with Tobron. He and Inoa were offline, likely asleep. Argon was sound asleep. I could feel her exhaustion.

  I was awake, and while I was always up for an amorous encounter, I knew tonight that Argon needed sleep more. She had pulled harder on her magical power sources than me.

  My mind, force, and healing magic were lower than normal, but all were rebounding nicely, and my four elementals were as full as they get.

  Since it didn't look like I was getting back to sleep anytime soon, I decided to conduct my own after-action review of yesterday's combat. Such reviews are the cornerstone of the teams. I wanted to think through my actions as soon as possible. I'd literally been running non-stop since arriving in Jaloa, just over a week ago. So much had happened.

  When Argon got up, we'd critique the whole mess, but for now, I wanted to consider what I learned about magical combat.

  Don't rely solely on mind magic to track your enemy. Reading minds and locating people using a mental signature was an awesome advantage. Until it wasn't. They had suckered us into the trap and could have killed us. We weren't even hurt, but that was only because the mages springing the trap had seriously underestimated us. That three mages were still watching our ambush site minutes later suggested they thought we were the vanguard of a larger group. I suspected the mage that got away might react differently next time.

  I needed better ways to locate the enemy. I needed to see around corners and through keyholes. Fiber-optics were out, but there was probably a magical equivalent. I just hadn't thought of one.

  Confirming a mage hasn't 'ported away to fight another day was hard. We were lucky our opponents hadn't adopted the dead man's switch teleport spell. According to Tobron, the longer you were in combat, the harder it was to maintain. It was a constant drain on your force magic and might activate in a moment of drowsiness. The mages we faced had been in action for weeks, so it was no surprise they didn't have a dead man’s teleport active. If they were on the offensive or in the early days of combat, this would not be the case. Finding a way to interfere with even an automatic teleport spell was essential. Understanding how the teleport spell worked might provide a clue.

  Stunning and paralysis were awesome tools. Perfecting their use could save a lot of lives. Paralysis worked to varying degrees, some like Shala had used on me, just froze you in position, but you could still swallow and blink. A deeper paralysis might stop someone from accessing their magic.

  Tobron said paralysis would trigger whatever spell you had preset on a dead man's switch. It could be as benign as a teleport or as destructive as a suicide bomber. If one could cast a spell with a time delay, you could cast the delayed spell then teleport. Have your bomb without the suicide. I needed to ask someone about whether a time-delayed spell was possible and whether you had to be there when it went off.

  Using my lava bullets made me feel connected to my prior life but had blinded me to some of the other advantages magic provided. I hit the mage to my right, then the mage in front of me but missed the mage on my left. If I blasted all three simultaneously, I'd have maximized my chances for success. I should have set the shots up and triggered them with a single command.

  And, I needed to work on my bullets. All mages had wards of some type. Lava balls provided significant force, earth, and heat impact. If these projectiles had a strong dispel spell on their leading edge, it could weaken the wards and allow the lava ball to contact the mage's body at velocity. It made me realize that I didn't really understand how wards worked. You had to get inside a ward to damage a mage. If their ward started wavering, they would just teleport away. I needed my magic bullet--whatever its composition, to kill or disable the mage on the first shot.

  I used my new stylus and paper to document unresolved issues.

  Flooding the corridor with lava was overkill. It allowed one of the mages to vanish and we didn’t learn he was missing for nearly an hour. Catching the place on fire was also a bad thing.

  But, the debacle confirmed I could cool lava and put out fires without applying water. The lava sounded better than it worked.

  The water blast that hit before the slab of rock fell on us had just warned us we were under attack. They might have been better off just dropping the slab of stone on top of us without any warning. Water blasts seem useless. Unless you froze them, in the shape of knives. Could you banish water from someone's body? Freeze their blood?

  The new way Argon used her air magic had sure worked. Sneaky just removing all the oxygen, that way they never knew what hit them. They'd have known something bad was going on if she just banished all the air. Trying to breathe vacuum was a real eye-opener.

  As I considered future combat options, it was crystal clear that I survived, but just barely. The most glaring example was what happened when we surprised the two mages after returning to the sick room. I'm not bad when I can think through and prepare actions in advance, but when surprised I fell back on brute force.

  Vowing to do better, I doused the lights and went back to bed.

  Argon was still sound asleep as I slid back under the covers with her. Allo reluctantly made room for me, uttering only a slight sound of protest, before we returned to sleep.

  Kisses along my neck and jaw woke me up. Argon was snuggling against me and sleep was no longer on her mind. Her hunger for me ramped up my desire as I rolled to embrace her.

  My hands slid under her thin nightclothes as my lips feasted on hers. Our tongues twined in an ancient dance of passion. We had faced combat and lived, sang through Argon's mind. It was time to celebrate life. It was time to celebrate our love.

  This morning's lovemaking was a languid and sensual feast with little foreplay. We were both ready for the coupling as I slowly eased deeply into her. It was like coming home as our minds intertwined and meshed. The slow, steady stroke would soon not be enough, but for now, we both wanted this moment to last forever.

  Our rebellious bodies took control as we responded to the maelstrom of feelings generated by our loins and the pace of our union quickened into a driving beat. Argon urged me on, wrapping her legs tightly around me as I thrust again and again deep into her, forever seeking to bury myself inside her body.

  The shudder of her release coaxed me over the edge with one heroic thrust, only to collapse, fully spent inside her.

  A flood of joy surrounded and fulfilled me as we slowly returned to the real world. I was home. I was loved.

  The nagging needs of the re
st of the world intruded before I was ready. I sensed Tobron and Alba were both hard at work.

  I reluctantly released Argon so she could shower and I headed to the kitchen to make chee.

  When Argon came in from her shower, I rose and gathered her into my arms, bending to claim her lips in a possessive kiss. She matched my possessiveness and pulled me tightly against her pelvis.

  Only the urgency of the situation in both Klee and Augun pried us apart. I headed for the shower and Argon tossed some breakfast together. I was one lucky guy.

  After breakfast, we contacted both Tobron and Alba.

  Inoa was still groggy after a full day and much of the night spent interrogating our captives. Tobron said Inoa had learned a lot but was still missing critical information. No clues about who or what was behind the attacks.

  The captives either didn't know the name of the Klee traitor or the geas protected that information. Inoa was trying to narrow down the list of potential suspects from information the assassins revealed, but Tobron worried it might not be enough.

  From Alba, we learned King Rufix had improved overnight. We confirmed the hospital would be our first stop and that both of our healing power supplies were nearly full.

  Argon's mind magic was still refilling. She estimated it would be overflowing by lunchtime, barring a major need to apply it. Other than that, we were both full up and ready to rumble.

  I liked the enchanted gear we picked up in Augun so put it on. Argon preferred her old studded leather, though I noted she kept her enchanted blade. We checked our wards and reactivated our teleport dead man's switch. We didn't expect to need it, but we agreed to keep it engaged whenever we left home.