Master of Tomes

by Raconteur, Honor

  Mei Li was heartened to hear that. Sometimes, seeing the situation with your own eyes was what it took to really hammer a decision home. And she’d rather he was determined and set in his course when dealing with something this huge.

  “I’m glad, Finn. Help me get people in motion. Let’s step back a ways to make camp. I don’t want us anywhere near this area while we’re trying to eat and sleep.”

  Finn nodded. “I certainly don’t.”

  They more or less had camp chores settled on a rotating basis, so she didn’t need to give any instructions for the usual tasks. She called for Simeon and had him search for an unpolluted water source.

  By the time they’d found a good spot to pitch the tents, Shunlei was back. He set down on the sandy beach, taking in their progress as the sky started to turn reddish-gold.

  “You caught them?” she greeted, straightening from her attempt to get a stake into the ground.

  “I did, yes. And told them precisely what to get. They’ll be fine, the nearest town is a short flight away. They’ll be back by dinner, more than likely.” Shunlei gave her a quick kiss, then took the hammer out of her hand. “I’ll do that. So, everyone understands the risks of our destroying Odom?”

  “I’ve been filling people in as we set up camp. I think everyone understands at this point. Word has been going around even without me spreading it.” She gave an amused shake of the head. “I also told the dragons, no flying over that area. The air above it isn’t to be trusted. They promised me, under threat of death and your displeasure, that they wouldn’t go anywhere near it. Somehow your displeasure worried them more than death. I’m not sure what that says, exactly.”

  “That they’re silly. I’m not as scary as death.”

  “You say that, but you’re laughing.”

  He shrugged, no defense on his lips. “Whatever keeps them alive, I suppose.”

  While the cooking team made dinner, Mei Li organized everyone else, asking them to set up workstations. She took measurements of people’s limbs and heads, creating patterns for goggles, masks, and foot wraps. By the time Tengfei and Bai returned, they were able to divvy up the cloth and start in on the cutting.

  They’d only need it for this one job, so no one was interested in making it pretty. They sewed it with functionality in mind, no hemming involved.

  Mei Li asked for anyone comfortable cutting glass, got a volunteer, and set them to carving out round discs. As they worked on that, she taught others the right treatment and insignia to put on the cloth. It was a multi-step process, and there was no way they could finish tonight in the failing light, but a head start never hurt anything.

  By the time they stopped for the night, it was solidly twilight, and only the campfire gave them any light to see by. Mei Li feared mistakes and called a halt before they ruined their material and had to buy more.

  Besides, she was exhausted; everyone else had to be as well.

  Wearily, she headed into the tent she shared with her husband, only to find that he had laid out their bedrolls at some point and gotten things organized. Bless him. She’d been too distracted to do it herself. She climbed into something comfortable to sleep in, then collapsed on the bedding.

  Shunlei was a beat behind her, closing the flap, leaving a shuttered lantern hanging above their heads to give a bit of light. “You look done in, my love.”

  “Absolutely exhausted. I’d demand a vacation after this if we didn’t have Kovel Below to deal with.” She turned on her side to look up at him. “How are you? I don’t think you’ve rested more than I have.”

  “Hmm, I find the idea of a vacation splendid, I will say that.” He dropped down next to her, sitting with his hip touching hers, and picked up a hand. With a soothing stroke of his thumb, he massaged her palm, helping it to relax.

  Mei Li hummed in happiness. He really was the best at hand massages.

  “You can keep doing that until your fingers fall off.”

  He let out a low chuckle. “You always enjoy this.”

  “It feels amazing.”

  “I bet it does. You do so much with your hands—always fine work—that of course they grow tired.” His thumb moved up to sweep the wrist, working in gentle, firm strokes. “I do have a bit of good news to pass along. Dolan told me earlier, as he couldn’t seem to find the right time to tell you. All the dragons who originally volunteered have agreed to help with Kovel Below. Their return message was that they would leave the very next morning.”

  Mei Li blinked up at him. She was a little sleepy thanks to the massage but not so tired that her relief was buried under it. “That’s great. I assumed they would; I wasn’t worried about it after what everyone said.”

  “I didn’t expect any other response, truthfully. They were all so disappointed when I told them I had enough help. Now they have a chance to get in on the action.”

  Mei Li eyed him, not quite sure where things sat on the scale. “I’ve heard Bai and Ling Ling’s answer, but I’m curious about your take. How much of this is the desire to help, and how much of it is wanting to make bad things go squish?”

  His blue eyes were alight with laughter. “I’d say it’s fifty-fifty. They’re young, after all.”

  “Excuse you, old man, I’ve seen you trounce things with great delight. I do not think you grew out of that.”

  “Guilty.” Shunlei wasn’t the least bit bothered by this accusation.

  She shook her head, laughing internally. He really hadn’t changed much at his core. He’d just learned to hide it better behind a straight face.

  “Not to change the subject, but let’s carve out a few hours somewhere. I think you’re overdue for a preening.”

  “Ah, bless you, the wings are a bit itchy. Especially around the base of the spine. But I didn’t want to bring it up while we’re so busy.”

  “Shun, honey, we will always be busy,” Mei Li responded with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t let your wings fall into a state of neglect. I still remember the first time I saw them, how bad they were, and I never want you to be in that state again.”

  “Which first time?” Shunlei arched a brow at her. “When I was Red or Black?”

  “Saying first isn’t helpful with you…time travel really messes with the tenses, doesn’t it? I’ve got to find a better way to phrase things like that.”

  “Do it when your brain isn’t half asleep,” he advised.

  Wise counsel. Mei Li did feel like she had one foot in dreamland. She had some witty remark, but it was too much effort to say aloud, and before she could find the motivation to articulate the words, she felt her eyes fall closed.

  Her last impression was of a gentle kiss against her forehead before sleep claimed her completely.

  Mei Li had known this would be hard.

  But she’d still underestimated it.

  Odom let out a roar, lifting both hands above his head and slamming them against the ground. Their talismans, wrapped around bricks, jumped a little at the impact. One, precariously perched, skittered out of alignment, knocking everything off just enough that the spell warped visibly—and then failed.

  “Lady Mei Li, this isn’t working!” Dolan called to her from the other side of Odom.

  No, it wasn’t.

  Mei Li’s teeth gritted in frustration, her anger rising. She had no ready remedy for the problem, either.

  Unlike with Zaffi, who had been surrounded by handy snow and soil, there was nothing but rock around Odom. It had been melted by his lava and reformed into odd little pockets, smooth as glass in some places. Placing bricks there was fine, but they had no purchase and slid around whenever there was any kind of thump against the ground.

  Odom had figured this out quickly, curse him, and jumped around like a three-year-old on a sugar high.

  People had tried bracing the bricks themselves, putting a foot on each one. But that just unbalanced the people and sent them staggering a little with each thump. Short of pouring glue under the talismans and literally adhering
them to the rocks, she had no idea what else to try.

  Shunlei was, as ever, right at her side. He let out a strong call over the noise Odom made. “DRAGONS, BRACE THE TALISMANS!”

  She should have thought of that. It didn’t matter if the dragons moved a bit; they didn’t have to stay perfectly in line with anything. Trust Shunlei to implement the obvious solution.

  There were just enough dragons to brace all the talismans, and they promptly did as they were bid.

  Odom turned his head toward her, and there was an evil leer on his craggy face. “You won’t succeed a second time. Even the dragon who once helped you is no longer here, and he was the reason you were able to subdue me last time.”

  That was true. Shunlei had battled him to this very spot long enough for the mages to spring the trap and seal Odom in.

  Shunlei, even as he put a foot squarely on the brick, objected. “You’re making me sound like an unfaithful and unreliable husband. I’m right here!”

  Odom blinked at him, head canting as he studied Shunlei.

  She let her husband take on the task of distracting Odom while she frantically got all twelve mages back in line, forming the flat sea walls that would be their first barricade against him. People were quick to dive back into position, even as she pointed them into place.

  Odom’s head reared back in surprise, and he swore like a stevedore. “YOU! You are the same one!”

  “As I said.” Shunlei had a feral edge to his words that was not at all nice. “How dare you insinuate that I’d let my wife go into battle alone? Especially against you.”

  “But you were red-skinned the last time I saw you!”

  “Much time has passed since then. I’ve changed. Dragons do that, you know.”

  Yes, everyone was in alignment again! Bless the dragons. Although, it did help that Odom wasn’t thrashing around at the moment. Mei Li connected with the magic streaming from mages to talismans, and the first wave of ocean water came up around her feet and ankles. Seriously handy to have the coast right behind her. She could call as much sea water as she wished in order to build walls Odom couldn’t escape from.

  Odom’s head turned, taking in the multiple hues of the dragons all around him, and the realization sank in. “How much time has passed?”

  “Five thousand years, give or take,” Shunlei answered lightly. “You can see why your threats don’t worry us much. We have five thousand years of experience to bring against you now. And this time, we brought much more help than we had before.”

  Odom threw his head back in a laugh. “You cannot stop me again! I am lava and earth. You cannot defeat that with magic alone.”

  Shunlei just stared him down, and Mei Li could practically feel his pitying sigh.

  Odom lifted his feet up and jumped—sort of, he wasn’t nimble, and he only got about half a foot off the ground—and then looked around, expecting his usual result of sending them all scrambling.

  But while he bantered with Shunlei, the sea wall had gotten two feet off the ground. Water streamed up steadily in flowing blue-green waves, building a wall of hard water that was stronger than Odom’s petty stomping. He didn’t have the ability to knock anything out of alignment—not talisman, dragon, or mage.

  “Dragons, release!” Mei Li called. “Any longer and you’ll be part of the wall!”

  They hastily let go and stepped back, giving the mages more room to maneuver. And more room for water to come up out of the ocean.

  “No,” Odom hissed in realization. “No, you’ve thought of a new method. One that calls upon the power of the sea.”

  “I’ve lived through a volcano destroying my city,” Mei Li told him, mostly to keep buying them time. Odom proved to be more distractible than either Jingfei or Zaffi had been, interestingly enough. “The only thing that stopped the magma was water—it took a little time, but the water cooled the magma. Water is your direct opposite in Wu Xing. I realized that the last time I fought you.”

  He threw two fists against the original seal, which was still up—barely. And barely containing him. “I’ll break through this. I’ll break through this and kill you as I should have done!”

  “Do entertain yourself by trying,” Mei Li encouraged. “It won’t work; our new wall will be up before you get through. But at least you can keep yourself occupied that way.”

  Shunlei chuckled behind her. “So snarky, my love.”

  “I blame you for that. I picked it up from you.”

  “I think it’s the other way around. You were always a bit snarky.”

  She grinned. He kind of had her there.

  Nobody expected Odom’s next foray. He didn’t stomp his feet or punch at the wall. Instead, he stared straight down, opened his mouth, and spewed pure magma out of it. It sizzled against the sea wall, cooling quickly around the edges.

  But worse, it pooled around his feet, pushing up the floor under him. He was building himself a higher platform, pushing his body up and up.

  And surpassing the sea wall they were creating almost as quickly.

  Mei Li swore. She couldn’t demand they pick up the pace; it would unbalance the work they were doing. You couldn’t build a sea wall in a hurry. It took methodical pacing with everyone perfectly in unison, otherwise you’d just have a lot of water.

  “Let me fly up and in with him,” Shunlei offered. “I’ll distract him with a fight, keep him caged in.”

  “No!” Mei Li said sharply, barely turning her head toward him. “Remember, you can’t remove the mask. This area—especially at his feet—is thick with the gas. It’ll kill you the second you take that mask off.”

  “Would it really be instantaneous? I don’t remember this problem from the first battle.”

  “He hadn’t infused this area with his gases last time,” she reminded him quickly. “You dragged him here, remember? He didn’t have the time to saturate the ground around him. He’s had plenty of time, now. You take that mask off, you’re dead. And I’ll find a way to revive you just so I can kill you again.”

  “Warning taken.”

  Mei Li would have said something else, but in that moment, she felt the line waver. The magic that should have been flowing steadily hiccupped and faltered for a second. What?! Alarmed, she tried to see what had happened, but the wall now stood at her eye level, and Odom was throwing so much magma around that she couldn’t see much of what was happening on the other side.

  “Simeon!” someone—Rone?—called out. “Get back in line, what are you doing?!”

  “We’ll fail at this rate, I have to—”

  A thud, like a body losing balance and falling.

  “Simeon? Get up, what are you…? Oh, gods above and below...” Rone’s voice got higher. “MEI LI! SIMEON ISN’T MOVING!”

  Mei Li swore. “I can’t even see what’s happening!”

  “SIMEON!” Budworth yelled, sounding panicked. “Someone get him out!”

  Mei Li panicked and yelled, “SIMEON! IF YOU DIE, I’LL FIND A WAY TO REVIVE YOU JUST TO KILL YOU AGAIN!”

  Fortunately, in that moment, he rolled over onto his side, waving a hand to indicate he was alright.

  Shunlei darted from her side, angling to see around the corner. “RONE! What happened?”

  “Simeon was trying something, I’m not sure what,” Rone called back. “And he tripped over this ditch here and fell in. He’s knocked the wind right out of his lungs. Sylvia, try it again! He’s struggling for breath.”

  “Get him out of there, first!” Mei Li urged. “It’s too dangerous for him to linger there, even with the protective gear!”

  Rone immediately used her inherent dragon strength to get a good grip on Simeon and haul him out, then kept hauling him, straight to Sylvia’s side. Sylvia threw the spell at him again, finally getting a good response as Simeon sucked in a noisy breath.

  Mei Li breathed out in relief. That could have been so bad. If Simeon’s mask had slipped away from his face, even a little, he would be a dead man. As it was, she needed
to give him at least a few minutes to get his wind back. He could hardly cast spells or work magic when he wasn’t even breathing properly.

  Odom threw his head back in a laugh. “You see? This entire area is poison to you, mage. You can’t defeat me when you can’t even take a proper breath around me!”

  “Oh,” Mei Li growled, rage like quicksilver in her veins, “you should not have issued that challenge. I will make sure you don’t survive past today.”

  Odom laughed again. “You can’t even reseal me properly and you speak of destroying me?”

  Mei Li could feel Simeon’s absence strongly, his magic gone. Without him holding the line with her, building the wall, she felt the extra strain. But she couldn’t falter now. Even if this left her magically exhausted afterward, she absolutely could not back down now.

  Simeon managed, “I’m alright!”

  “He’s swaying on his feet,” Rone negated. “He’s obviously hit his head. Simeon, for the love of all that’s holy, lean against me before you fall down. Mei Li, I don’t think he can work magic in this state!”

  “Wasn’t planning on pulling him back in,” Mei Li responded grimly. They’d have to do this without Simeon. He was too dizzy to do anything, and this was a delicate balance of power and positions as it was.

  To her right, Finn caught her eye and gave her a firm, resolute nod. He, too, was determined to see this through.

  She turned her head the other way, catching Scott Wismer’s eye. He was equally shaken, but the anger was obvious in the high color of his cheeks. He looked, in fact, quite murderous.

  “I think I know what Simeon was trying to do,” he told her, voice flat. “He was attempting to call more of the ocean in, pour it in over top of the wall and cool Odom down.”

  Mei Li thought that over; the idea seemed sound. It would slow Odom down and buy them time, certainly. She saw only one flaw.

  “But we need it to be empty later, for our whirling dervish.”

  Scott shook his head. “Think of what a whirlpool can do, the force it has. Water and air combined would create that, in this enclosed space.”