by T J Kelly
Of course, there was no masking the results of the concentration of magic with a veil spell. There had been earthquake swarms and increased volcanic activity since magicians moved into the area, especially over the last decade or so. But they felt our presence as far back as the early 1900s when the U.S. Geological Survey built their first volcano observatory.
Apparently, our activities worried them a lot. Not that I blamed them. Magic was dangerous. It caused all sorts of unintended consequences. They even named an area Bumpass Hell after a mundane man who nearly had his legs burned off in boiling mud from an Earth user’s activities before being forced to drag himself for miles to get help.
That had to suck so bad.
I was getting close to the spot where my enemy had been holed up. There was a residual memory from my uncle that told me they would be maybe half a mile beyond the other side of the rocks blocking my path, inside of a massive rocky overhang not marked on any mundane map. I dropped my backpack into a small depression and scooped rubble over the top so it wouldn’t be easy to find. I set a charm to hide it in case the worst happened even if David could negate that if he won.
Not that I planned on losing.
I took a deep breath, and just as evening turned fully into night, I stepped into the clearing.
◆◆◆
My team was waiting for me on the other side.
“And there she is,” Seth said. Anger dripped from his voice like sharp spikes falling from his lips. He wasn’t happy with me. Not that I blamed him. I ditched Seth at the same time I stormed out.
Peter wouldn’t look at me. He was busy playing watch guard, but I could tell by the set of his shoulders he was forcing himself to stay turned away.
Which was fine. I didn’t want to see his betrayer’s face, anyway.
“Well?” Harris asked. He tried to control it, but he was just as angry as Seth. The brothers stood together, a united front against the kid who threw a fit. With my luck, their link probably amplified their emotions. “What the hell, Rector?”
The way I figured it, I had two choices. I could either throw myself on their mercy or brazen it out. And since Peter was in the wrong, I chose the latter. “Fine,” I said. “I shouldn’t have taken off like that. But whatever, we’re all here, we have an enemy not even a mile away, and the time has come to save my uncle. We can talk about it later.”
“I don’t think so,” Harris argued. He had always been so lighthearted, it was a shock to see him so angry. “We’re not going anywhere until we fix this mess. Explain yourself.”
My mouth opened, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. The problem with anger was it burned hot and bright, but also fast. I had been simmering for almost a full day, and I found I could no longer sustain it to such a high degree. Not against my team, anyway.
“Start at the beginning,” Seth suggested. There was a bite in his tone, too.
“I’m sorry,” I said. That seemed like the best thing to say, and it was the truth. Remorse flooded me the second I saw them, and I was trying to pretend it hadn’t. But I had an important battle in my near future and shouldn't waste all my energy acting as if I did nothing wrong. “I should never have left in the middle of a mission. I can’t explain how hard it is to fight off so much darkness. I know it’s not an excuse, but I struggle against it all the time. I saw something awful, and it overwhelmed me. It was unfair to take it out on you, and I’ll understand if you report me. It was a mistake to ditch you guys.” The tears hit me out of nowhere. How humiliating. I wanted to brazen my way through our awkward reunion, but instead, I was about to cry in front of my fellow agents.
The upside was that Seth’s anger crumbled, and he set aside the crystals he had been holding so he could rush to my side. “I get it,” he said. “We all do. We’ve seen what the Dark can do. We know you struggle with it. Man, you get so irritable. You think we don’t notice? Harris and I forgive you, all right? It’s all good. Okay? We were just worried about you. Agents shouldn't split up in the field. Not if they can help it. Especially if one of them is on their first mission like you.” Seth ducked his head so he could look into my eyes. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to see, but it was almost impossible for me to maintain eye contact.
Everything that had happened since I found that stupid letter in Peter’s vest pocket crashed down on me. The anger, the pain. Kamini. Abandoning my team. The connection with my uncle, his agony and despair. Running away from the semi-truck in an empty field. It was all too much.
“I really am sorry,” I mumbled. I looked around Seth’s shoulder, and sure enough, Harris didn’t seem angry anymore, either. Peter was out of my line of sight. He would throw off my elemental near-balance I had just spent so much effort trying to achieve, anyway. I had an iron core of resentment about what he did. The kind I could build on when I confronted David Novato. So I left it alone.
“We don’t have time to get into it, but we’re good for now. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.” Seth patted my shoulder. He trotted off to help Peter keep watch while Harris dusted off one of the larger rocks before offering me a seat. I flopped down.
“We’ll talk more about this when we get back to the castle. I think we can skip the formal reprimands. Just this once. Don’t let it happen again.” Man. Harris could be tough. But he was doing me a favor by not reporting me.
“Okay, deal. And thanks.”
Harris gave an abrupt nod, ready to get down to business. “Seth and Peter will team up on this one,” he said as he sat beside me. “Seth wanted to stick by you, but his Air and Fire elements make him stronger the closer we are to the magma. There won't be much water on hand to use, but Lassen is huge for Earth users like me.”
So Harris was assigned to me. Of course. I was the junior agent, inexperienced, and he would have the most accessible power out of all of them.
Besides me. I mean, I had already faced down an arena full of enemies by myself. And I used all the elements. But whatever. Protocol and rules. Fine.
It was a struggle, but I finally wiped the scowl off my face. My treatment had been more than fair, and there really was no time for me to let the darkness rule me, especially when I was facing an enemy. Even if the Rectors used Dark to conquer evil magicians. Our secret weapon. But not helpful if I allowed it to overbalance me while trying to plan. I had to keep my equilibrium.
“How does it look?” I asked. It was strange switching gears. I was all set to face down David and his henchmen alone. Then to have a reckoning with the guys after I succeeded. Instead, I was once again a member of a team, and definitely not the leader. Funny how odd that made me feel. I didn’t mind working as a part of a group, but facing down multiple enemies wasn’t new for me. I fought the largest number of them single-handedly among the four of us. I could have taken the lead.
Then again, I still had to rely on my silver star necklace like a baby with a security blanket. Well, if the security blanket were made of magic that had grown stronger as the centuries passed. Nothing but the best for a disaster like me.
The anger slipped, and my confidence disappeared with it.
“There are at least five men on a guard rotation,” Harris said, interrupting my swirling thoughts. Shaking my head, I focused on the matter at hand. It was too important. I couldn’t zone out at a crucial moment while keeping track of all my failures. “We aren’t sure how many are near your uncle since we can’t get any closer without tipping them off. We’ll fight in pairs to take out the guards, then we’ll face David Novato together.”
The plan was pretty standard, used when we couldn't determine who lay in wait. With a flash of insight, I offered what helpful information I could. Maybe I was a better agent than I thought. “Uncle Ged talked about David’s magic having a limit. It can’t extend out for forever, and there would be no way the veil spell would work if it did. So we can probably take on the guards magically.”
Harris grinned. “That’s a great piece of news. That must be why they could use magic a
gainst us at Castle Laurus.” He rubbed his bottom lip as he thought it over. “That will save on the mechanicals we made until we get closer to Ged.”
“When are we going in?” A pebble bounced away, skittering down the slight slope, launched by my boot. I hadn’t even realized I was tapping my feet.
“Pretty much right now,” Harris said, standing abruptly. “We already worked out most of the details while we were at Craters of the Moon. The rest we’ll have to improvise. Ready?”
Gulping, I stood and brushed off my pants. Harris had streaks of light brown dirt on the back of his, too, and I drew the Earth away with a slight thought. No need to embarrass him. Not like he would even care. We were all about to get dirty. It was funny how magical fights usually turned into brawls. So much for our society being sophisticated and proper.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I quipped. My mind kept waffling between nerves and confidence, but waiting around wasn’t going to change that. Besides, if I concentrated on the battle ahead, I wouldn’t have to think about how worried I was about my judgment. Armageddon said he had faith in me, but the truth was, I still wasn’t sure if I was the right person for the job. Irregulars were a force of their own and made judgment calls every day. And my judgment was considerably lacking if my earlier tantrum was any clue. I had known that for, well, forever.
Harris caught Seth’s attention. Maybe they were telepathic. I saw no outward sign that Harris did anything, yet Seth turned and trotted our way as if he had received a signal.
“When Peter gets back from the edge, let him know it’s time,” Harris said. I squinted my eyes and could just make out the slight trace Peter had left behind when he rounded the tip of the rocky hill that blocked our enemies from view. The guards should have been patrolling the side we were on, too, but so far they hadn’t. Sloppy.
Seth gripped my shoulders. I wanted to back away from the intensity in his eyes, but I held still. To my surprise, he leaned down and gave me a quick, fierce kiss. “Take care of yourself,” he said before running to his position.
I guess I shouldn’t have been thrown off. Guys always kissed their girlfriends before running off into battle. Especially when the girlfriend was going into battle, too. It was lucky. All I needed to do was remember that we were together now and things like that would eventually stop shocking me.
◆◆◆
Peter and Seth paired up at the north edge of the hill. Harris and I were already positioned at the southern end, nearest to where my uncle had been tied to his chair. I slipped the small posts into my ears so seeing in the dark would be easier. The sun was long gone, and although an orange glow radiated over the top of the rocky hillside separating us from David Novato and Armageddon, there would be enough shadows in the night to make fighting difficult. And any edge we had over our adversary, the better.
I held onto a couple of nets and Shift-sliders. The whole point was to capture and incapacitate the guards so they couldn’t warn David we were coming. Harris and I stood back to back, a few feet apart, standard formation when keeping an eye out for the enemy because we couldn't predict whether they would come around the bend near us.
The sound of a scuffle came from the north, but I didn’t turn to look. It was my job to keep watch in my sector and rely on my partner to tell me if Peter and Seth needed our help since he was facing their way. I had been training for months, but keeping my back turned to the enemy was so much harder than I imagined it would be despite trusting Harris with my life. He would let me know if I had to break formation and come to their aid.
If we weren’t otherwise occupied. Two men dressed in brown, just like the men who had attacked Castle Laurus, slipped into view. I didn’t think we would be available anytime soon.
“Evening, gentlemen,” I drawled. The sound of Harris shifting behind me to face the same way assured me that my partner was on his toes. Seth and Peter would have to take care of themselves now that we were engaged.
“Who are you?” the shorter man demanded. His hair was black and long, braided into a fat ponytail down his back. I personally never let my hair hang down like that. Someone could grab it and use it against me in a fight.
Harris cleared his throat. “Agents of the Council. Please come with me - you’re wanted for questioning.”
Every magician knew and dreaded those words. They meant all hell was about to break loose if they were uncooperative. But that didn’t seem to matter to Shorty. “Well, what do you know? Somebody finally showed up. What do you think about that, Bruce?” He nudged the other guard in the gut, doubling his partner over, the man’s shiny bald head dipping so close to the craggy rock face it nicked his skin. What an idiot.
And here I had been worried about the unknown. In this case, it looked like we lucked out.
“Quit it,” Bruce hissed.
A chuckle slipped from between my lips. Harris nudged me, considerably gentler than the short guy had done to Bruce, but enough that I stopped laughing. He was right. I was in danger of underestimating my enemy. Even stupid magicians could perform some nasty spells.
“Will you cooperate?” Harris asked. Obviously, they wouldn’t, but he had to check. It made everything that happened after easier to report to the Council. They loved their paperwork, but none of us wanted to get dragged before them to explain why we attacked before giving the fools several chances to comply.
Bruce’s answer was to dive at Harris’s knees. We took that to mean “no” and stepped aside at once. I threw my net spell straight at him, and Bruce stumbled, his feet tangled in firm Air.
Shorty was a real gentleman - he pounced on me. Of course. It was weird how they didn’t try any spells, but since they worked with a magician who could disrupt magic, maybe it made sense after all. I was prepared for the attack, though. My uncle was right about how my enemies would get physical due to my perceived weakness. So annoying.
Harris was occupied with subduing Bruce, who was struggling against the Air net. Shorty was taller than me, so he must have felt super manly attacking a short girl. He loomed over me, raising his fist, but I didn’t wait for him to strike. Instead, I shifted my body, dancing away from him, forcing him to spin around to keep up with me. Using his momentum as I grabbed his ponytail, I made him regret not using proper battle braids.
“What the hell?” Shorty roared. I used his weight to drag him down, slamming the back of his skull into the ground, punching his jaw with my left fist. I put all of my weight behind it so it would work. I was tired of how puny my strength was on that side. It worked a little too well, and I scrambled away as he spit out a wad of blood and teeth.
“You really should tie your hair up before a battle,” I suggested. “It’s dead easy to use against you.” I hopped over his swiping kick, simple enough to do since he was still flat in the dirt and cinders and couldn’t lift his leg very high.
In fact, his combat skills were so lame, I suspected he was a mundane. Every magical family had access to public magician schools, and basic fighting was part of the curriculum. This guy was too ham-handed to have had any formal training. Mort was by far a better teacher than any I had ever had before, so a normal fighter didn’t stand a chance against me. Besides, guys were taught proper hairstyles in class just in case they grew their hair out, and Shorty had no clue. And there was no way a magician would have been taken down that quickly even if he were used to not having magic around David Novato. Some things were instinctual.
A part of me - a very small part - felt sorry for him. But then he rolled over and lunged at me. I couldn’t just let him beat me. I wasn’t using magic, either. So it was a fair fight.
He almost tripped me. Pity made me slow, but I wasn’t stupid. Mort’s training kicked in, and I aimed for his temple, knocking him out.
Harris had incapacitated Bruce. He slipped a few zip ties out of his belt pouch, and we tied them up. It was kind of a letdown our first confrontation wrapped up so quickly, but then I shook it off. They were the first line of defense, whi
ch meant more experienced fighters still waited around the corner.
No wonder nobody recognized David. We never asked the mundanes about him. He had probably made a few local friends to augment his protection. Too bad for him he chose such weak fighters. Not that I was complaining. I had the battle to wage ahead of me and fighting them was like a warm-up exercise.
A shout rang out in the distance. Harris and I took off north, running to join Peter and Seth, who were in a battle that looked ten times harder than what we had just experienced. Flashes of light and a pulsating aura surrounded them, indicating magic in use.
There were four enemy combatants, also dressed in brown, but they had the typical pocketed vests and close haircuts. Male magicians almost always had short hair. Not only was it tougher to use against them in a fight, but it kept loose hairs from being harvested to create targeted spells. Besides, cropped hair looked good in a boardroom. Magical corporations dominated the business world, and they were conservative enough to prefer it.
“Down!” Peter shouted. Seth ducked as Peter hurtled a Flash-bang right between two of the men standing behind Seth. I jerked my head away so it wouldn't blind me, then ran to Peter. Another magician leaped around the piles of rocks nearest to him, leaving him with three against one.
I threw a crystal filled with pepper spray at the newcomer. He screamed, hands batting at his face, trying to ease the burning. I slammed the side of his head with a roundhouse kick and he dropped.
Turning to help Peter with the other magicians, I was instead yanked off my feet from behind, unexpected and shocking. At last glance, only allies were at my back.
Sure enough, it was Seth. He tossed me to the side as a huge rock came crashing down. One of our enemies was an Earth user and had no trouble killing us with his power.
Not that it would have been murder. The laws were quite clear. When magicians battled, everything was fair. At least, if they were working for the Council. And the worst part about that was pretty much every magician worked for them somehow. Especially the dark magicians who did their dirty deeds. Funny how that worked.