Garden Mage

by Tim Niederriter

  “Knocked over by a feather,” he said, looking back the way they had flown.

  The air was filled with fluttering black feathers, obscuring their view of anything beyond the gate. Ursar bounded to the top of the gate. Hyreki ascended to join him, beating two black feathered wings that emerged from behind her shoulders. No sign of Santh or Brosk.

  “Two against three hardly seemed like a real fight,” said Hyreki. “Shall we better our odds?”

  Zuria and Edmath looked back and forth. A man approached from either side. A woman with a limp and cane Edmath recognized from outside the west gate cut off movement along the street. Santh stepped out of the gateway, emerging from the cloud of fluttering feathers.

  He cracked his neck, a black dagger in each hand.

  “I’ll race you to take Benisar’s head, Kiet,” he said.

  Black feathers floated in the air within the broken gate and over the street. Santh twirled a dagger as black as the feathers in one hand. He smirked.

  "Where's Brosk?" Edmath shouted at Santh.

  "Where he was. He'll be busy for a while," said the assassin. "I left him with a few of our associates."

  Hyreki nodded to Ursar.

  "Take your revenge on Benisar. We won't let anyone stop you."

  The Dawkun snarled and jumped from the gatehouse. He sailed through the air, eye flaring then turning black and opaque. Edmath cast a shield of wood between him and Zuria and the murderous gaze. Splintering sounds filled the air as Edmath drove roots into the stones around them, hoping it would hold the structure steady.

  A thunderous crunch came from above, followed by snapping sounds. The shield collapsed inward. Edmath darted out of the way, but Zuria sprayed venom at the place where Ursar crashed through the shattered shield.

  He caught the blast full in the face and clawed at his eyes. A scream of fury erupted from his lungs and filled the air. Edmath grabbed Zuria's arm and pulled her out of the wreckage of his dying plant structure. They ended up face to face with a man wielding a dagger in one hand, shirtless with a cloak around his shoulders. He lunged at them and caught Edmath beneath one eye in a blur of steel.

  The blade emerged red. Edmath staggered, then fell. Before the man with the knife and his fellow mercenary behind Edmath could close in and finish them, Zuria cried out a vocal sign, rare among Saales. Massive serpentine coils exploded into being around her and Edmath, hurling the mercenaries back.

  The woman with the grass hat drew a blowgun from her bamboo cane. A dart whistled over the coils of giant snake surrounding them as Zuria helped Edmath to his feet.

  "It was a near miss. You're lucky you don't look like your father in law," said Zuria.

  Edmath cursed and pressed a finger to the deep cut. It hurt like a beast, but nothing compared to his other battles with Dawkun had gone. Then again, this was far from over.

  He struck the air as the snake began to deflate around them, gradually losing the magic Zuria had invested to create it so suddenly.

  "Do you have a plan?" he asked her.

  "Leaving everything to me, brother?"

  "Not at all. Good hit on Kiet."

  "Not good enough. He's still alive."

  "We can't kill early and hope to win," he said. "There are too many."

  "Neutralize as many as we can. Then get your stethian," said Zuria.

  "Easier said than done, but possible," said Edmath. "Or we could avoid the ground fighters altogether. Follow me."

  He drew in what magic he could reach to the dregs, then grew a branch at an angle, racing toward where Hyreki perched atop the gatehouse. He and Zuria raced up the broad limb, reaching the high point then, leaping at the enemy mage.

  She must be a Saale, judging by the way she wielded the stethian. A traitor with such skill did not bode well for their situation. Edmath formed the sign of the fist but modified it as he fell. The green hand he grew unclenched its fingers as Hyreki raised the stethian to counter-attack.

  His green hand snatched the Saale weapon and carried it out of sight into the courtyard of the shrine below. Edmath skidded to a stop on the edge of the gatehouse's slanted roof, just in time to catch himself. Hyreki kicked out at him with a leg ending in birdlike talons that tore his tunic wide open and drew traces of blood from his chest.

  Then Zuria barreled into her. She grabbed Hyreki's arm and twisted her hips, sending the other woman airborne. Hyreki flew from the wall. She descended into the street, gliding on black wings.

  "Brosk." Zuria panted for breath. "We need to help him before the enemy catches up."

  They looked together into the courtyard below.

  Amid drifting feathers from Hyreki's initial blast, Brosk faced two women with spears and a big man, the one Edmath had seen pushing the cart outside the restaurant, with a large mace. The women were familiar too, from the table that had been watching them when they went inside. The mercenaries had been tracking them all along.

  Brosk stared the three of them down, holding his striker chain in one hand and Edmah's stethian in the other.

  "Good catch." Edmath whistled.

  "Most definitely," called a voice in the rat language.

  Surba stood on the uppermost branches of Orpus Rakoi, just a few paces behind Brosk, having crept closer through the courtyard.

  "You shouldn't leave us outside again," Rakoi said. "Edmath, we came to warn you."

  "A little late, but I’m glad to see your safe," he said.

  Zuria raised an eyebrow.

  "Another tree. And a rat?"

  "An interesting rat, yes."

  “A large rat, strange wizard.”

  Rakoi approached the wall. Edmath and Zuria climbed her branches to the ground. As he dropped onto the paving stones, Edmath watched Brosk's massive wave of algae and their enclosing liquid blast two of the mercenaries back, showering the small garden behind them with seawater. Only one slender spear woman managed to stay standing. She rushed at Brosk with a battle cry on her lips.

  His chain wrapped around her spear. He yanked it from her hands. She reached for a dagger, but he grabbed her wrist, letting the chain fly away with the spear. He pulled her close and the knife clattered to the stones at his feet.

  Zuria and Edmath joined him as the mercenary struggled in his grip. She lashed out with her other arm, then her head. He brought his whale-toshed head down to slam the woman’s temple. She went limp in his arms.

  "Guess you don't need our help," said Zuria.

  "But we need to get out of here before Santh comes back." Brosk motioned to the gates, now held shut and reinforced with whalebone. "We need another way to go."

  "What about her?" Edmath motioned to Brosk's unconscious attacker.

  "I think she could give us some answers. It seems fair to take her along," said Brosk.

  "Right, of course." Edmath turned to Rakoi and Surba. "How did you two get inside?"

  "The walls on the far side. Follow me!" Rakoi said. "I'll show you."

  Brosk slung the woman over one shoulder. The three Saales followed the tree and the rat through gardens of monks and nuns in defensive positions to an open face of the cliff. Edmath stopped to explain the attackers were only after him and his friends to the defenders. After apologizing, he let Rakoi carry them over the cliff and a few vertical paces to the ground below.

  "We need somewhere to hide," said Zuria.

  Brosk nodded.

  "The whale hostels are too far. We need somewhere closer."

  Surba turned to Edmath.

  "I know a place humans can hide in this city. Trees and rats too."

  Edmath stared at her.

  "You're sure?"

  "It's very safe." Surba scampered down Rakoi's trunk, then turned. "This way."

  "Everyone, follow the rat," said Edmath.

  Surba called the place Greenwell, and it was that. In the northwestern part of Diar, where few royals dwelt, a deep pit bored into the earth years ago sat overgr
own with vines and shrubbery. Edmath stood at the top, spotting a walkway leading downward in a spiral into the pit. He scowled.

  "I don't like the idea of being buried," he said.

  "It's not burying," Surba said. "It's hiding. Rats know when to go underground."

  "That you do," Edmath said.

  Zuria glanced at him.

  "Do you think this is a good idea? I've never heard of this place. I suppose I wouldn’t have."

  Brosk shifted his weight, keeping the mercenary girl on his back steady.

  "Neither have our enemies, hopefully."

  Edmath turned to his sister and his friend.

  "I agree with our good whale prince. We need a place to hide, not a place to live."

  "This looks like a place to hide, that's certain." Rakoi crept to the edge of the wide pit and extended a few roots over the side. "It seems stable. I don't like all the moss growing on the sides though. It could crawl all over me."

  "Well, we are here now, and hopefully not for long," said Edmath. "Let us take shelter and quit complaining."

  "Yes, quit complaining indeed," said Surba.

  "What did it say?" Zuria asked.

  "She said we should hurry."

  Brosk glanced at Surba.

  "I agree with her."

  Surba’s eyes gleamed. She jumped down from the tree and crept to the edge of Greenwell.

  They continued onto the earthen ramp, following it into the dark, mossy pit. Below the surface, the air was more humid, and motes of gray-green dust floated in what light remained from the sun.

  They reached a wide ledge perhaps halfway to the bottom and Surba indicated a cavern-mouth in the shadows to one side, concealed by hanging vines each one encrusted with creeping moss.

  Brosk balked at the opening, though soon all but Rakoi made it through, even the hulking whale prince, though he had to adopt his completely human form to manage it. He lay the unconscious girl on the relatively level floor of the cavern.

  Rakoi stuck its seals through the curtain of vines hunkered down as low as possible to hide light and shape.

  "Should we wake her?" he asked.

  "Strike first," said Zuria. "We need to take care in case she attacks."

  "Indeed. I sensed some magic flowing from her when we fought," said Brosk.

  "A mage?"'

  "Untrained at most," said Brosk. "But worthy of taking care."

  Brosk and Edmath struck and prepared defensive signs.

  Zuria dribbled a few drops of water from her flask on mercenary's face. The girl woke with a start, reaching for a spear they had left behind at the shrine.

  "What did you do?" she said, looking around the dim cave in a panic.

  "We captured you," said Brosk. "But if you tell us what you know about your comrades I see no reason to hurt you further."

  "You—" She started to sit up. One of Rakoi's roots pushed her back gently.

  "Don't try to hurt anyone again. You won't win," said the tree.

  The mercenary stared at Rakoi's glowing seal-eyes, her face turning to an expression of terror.

  "The killer tree from the insurrection."

  "No," said Edmath, "But Rakoi is kin to that one. When did you have occasion to see an Orpus Tree before?"

  The girl kept staring at the root hovering before her chest.

  "Promise you won't let it kill me."

  "I promise," said Edmath. "Rakoi won't hurt you."

  "Unless you make me," said Rakoi.

  The girl cringed away from the root.

  "Right," said Zuria. "That's the most you're going get. Talk."

  The girl trembled.

  "Where do I start?"

  "Perhaps your name?" said Brosk.

  She nodded, then took a deep breath.

  "My name is Buna. I joined a band of mercenaries from my home country—Palatan, to ride north and fight for Kassel Onoi in last summer's civil war."

  Edmath frowned.

  "Go on,” he said.

  "We only fought in one battle. After that, when the war was over, a few of us came to Diar to look for work here. Six of us, all from the Rooster Tribe."

  "Any royals among you?" asked Brosk.

  "Only one. Our leader, Kana."

  "Any mages?" asked Edmath.

  "N-no."

  "Don't lie," said Zuria. "What about you?"

  "I'm not a mage. I just—I have talents."

  "She's untrained," said Brosk. "Perhaps a natural Dawkun on some level."

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "Never mind that for now. Who hired you to attack us?" Edmath said.

  "Lady Denyal hired us for a week. She said it would be dangerous, but nothing we couldn't handle. I don't trust her, but Kana thought we could rely on her coin."

  Edmath nodded, brows furrowing.

  "What do you know about Lady Denyal?"

  "Her given name is Hyreki. She is a royal of some bird tribe. Not sure which. And she's a mage."

  "A Saale?" asked Zuria.

  "I don't know. I never studied your kind or any kind of magic."

  "I believe you," said Brosk. "So apart from you, there are five mercenaries in your group."

  "Six of us total. Three men, three women."

  "Did Lady Denyal hire anyone else?" Edmath asked.

  "I don't know. She only talks Kana and Jekk. He's Kana's second."

  "Well, it sounds as though we may have seen them all, then," said Brosk.

  "We should be careful, regardless," said Zuria.

  "Of course," said Edmath. He turned to Zuria. "You live near the port. Did you hear any word of a Benisar-family Levoth returning?"

  "The Hearth Emperor is due tomorrow at dawn," said Zuria. "I heard a few sea clan lords talking on my way to the west gate."

  "So Emperor Benisar is returning from Sizali," said Brosk. “He could be helpful.”

  "Chelka is with him," said Edmath. "If we can get to the sea at dawn we'll have our best chances at winning in a fight."

  "You're sure we can't just go to the palace? Roust Tusami, Razili, by the creator any Saales and guards we can find?" Zuria said.

  "Given the combination of the enemy's abilities, I trust muscle over magic for now," said Edmath. "With Orpus Lengbyoi in the palace with the younger trees, I think we needn't worry too much for its safety. I am more concerned they are after Rakoi."

  "Why would they be after me?" asked Rakoi.

  "You're special," said Edmath. "It's why I've been raising you in darkness."

  The girl, Buna, stared at Edmath.

  "A black-eyed Saale who can talk with trees. You were there!"

  "Naturally, I suspected as much," said Edmath. "But no need for grudges though we fought on opposite sides, and still serve opposing goals."

  "They are after the tree," said Buna. "Why?"

  "Rakoi is not merely a tree," said Edmath. "It is also a dormant physical mage, much like you, all bodily gates ready to be opened to flow with magic."

  "A perfect source for a Saale in battle," breathed Zuria. "Brother this is amazing."

  "It is not time to use Rakoi's gates," said Edmath. He turned to the pulsing glow of the tree's seals. "Do not attempt any magic until I tell you, Rakoi. Unless we have no other choice, it could slow your growth."

  "I won't use it. What makes you think I would?"

  "Your desire to help protect us," said Edmath. "It's strong. But it could hurt you permanently if you try to use magic."

  "I understand," said Rakoi.

  Brosk glanced at Edmath.

  "We can lay low here for a while. After dark, when morning is near, we can head for the port."

  "A good plan. We should post a watch." Edmath yawned. "I need rest."

  "You should," said Zuria. "You've been running and fighting without sleep for too long."

  "I'll take the first watch," said Brosk.

  Ursar

&nbs
p; Ursar wretched into the shallow tub, then sat back. Venom pooled in the bottom of the tub.

  "The venom has passed your body," said Hyreki, hand on his shoulder. "That's the last of it."

  He snarled, tasting bile.

  "Good. We need to find them."

  "Agreed," said the slim Rooster Tribe woman with the damp hair standing on the other side of the tub. "They took Buna."

  "Kana, be still," said Hyreki. "We will retrieve your comrade."

  "We had better," said Kana.

  "I told you it would be dangerous," said Hyreki. But never fear. Santh and your Rewebb and Senei have been following them since they left the shrine."

  Kana's eyes widened. She stared at Hyreki.

  "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

  "Because I needed you to give me time. Ursar will be our best warrior now that's not vomiting and hacking."

  "You don't think we can take three Saales without him?"

  "My dear, you and your people had quite enough trouble with just one Saale, if I recall."

  Kana's face reddened.

  "You did little better."

  "True." Hyreki frowned. "But this time we'll herd them into a trap, rather than attacking directly."

  "I'm listening," said Kana.

  "They will head for the port in the night," said Hyreki. We can cut them off by any means we choose, funnel them to where I have another band of mercenaries from the Shark Tribe waiting by the water."

  "The Shark Tribe?" Ursar said. "Those pirates?"

  "They like coin as much as the roosters," said Hyreki. "And all three of them are royals."

  "Stop putting your words against my people," said Kana.

  "If you wished that," said Hyreki, "you should not have let Benisar and his tree escape. My patience is finite, Kana. Now take these instructions and follow my plan this time. No more splitting your team to attempt to earn a bonus or similar foolishness."

  The slender rooster woman's eyes narrowed.

  "Of course, Lady Denyal." She took the scroll Hyreki offered her, then left the rented house at stride.