The Shadow Wand

by Laurie Forest

  Perfect aim.

  The bright sunlight beats warmth down on us like a kiln, as I step back and eye the rune spear I’ve just thrown. It has impaled the center of a circle Valasca chalked onto the dark trunk quite a distance away from me.

  And the results are the same even if I hand the Wand off to Lukas.

  Perfect aim. Fully conferred to me by the Wand of Myth. Even if I’m not in contact with it or holding it.

  Like a gift of power.

  My mind struggles to adjust to my sudden transformation.

  I’ve felt physically powerless my whole life. And I was so quickly thrust back into that state by my total lack of control over my magic, and then by the trees wresting hold of it. But now, the Wand has granted me some real power. Small, compared to the power of a Black Witch, but power nonetheless.

  A heady sense of possibility rises within me, impossible to contain.

  Valasca throws Lukas and Chi Nam a dangerous grin. “Let’s throw rune sorcery back into the mix.”

  She pulls out the large blade sheathed against her thigh. There are countless very small, rotating Amaz runes along one side of the hilt, an intricate etching of the Amaz goddess on the other, the goddess’s image gorgeously worked in gleaming mother-of-pearl and decorated with small garnets. Valasca hands the blade to me.

  I close my fingers around the hilt and press my fingertip onto one of the runes. The motion briefly stops the runes’ rotation.

  “This is the Ash’rion,” Valasca tells me pointedly. “It is a sacred blade. One of the most powerful rune blades my people have ever fabricated. Its elemental power is unparalleled.”

  Lukas eyes her with amusement. “Now, how did you ever get hold of that?”

  Valasca flashes him a slightly irritated look. “I borrowed it.”

  Lukas laughs. “You heretic. That’s used in your religious ceremonies, isn’t it?”

  Valasca shrugs noncommittally.

  He arches a black brow at her. “Interfering with deep-seated religious boundaries and handing a sacred religious object over to the Black Witch. That’s sure to win the Amaz to our side.”

  Chi Nam cuts Lukas an arch look. “The future belongs to those who can move past their preconceived, rigid lines.”

  Lukas flashes her a feral grin. “I think the future belongs to those who can learn to decimate Vogel and his Shadow creatures.”

  Chi Nam nods at this, chuckling as she says something to Lukas in an obscure dialect not translated by my runes that prompts a knowing smile from Lukas and his own nod of obvious, wry agreement.

  “But I’ve known for some time that you’re a complete heathen,” Chi Nam says to him, switching to the Common Tongue. “It’s a reason I’ve always liked you, quite in spite of myself.”

  “You like me because I can almost best you,” Lukas shoots back with another grin.

  “Careful, child,” Chi Nam says, smiling coolly. “This battle will not go to the recklessly overconfident.”

  “How do I use the blade?” I ask them, gripping its hilt as the runes whiz against my skin and send out a static whoosh.

  “Shall we demonstrate?” Lukas asks Valasca with a relishing look of challenge as he draws his own rune blade.

  “Oh, I thought you’d never ask,” Valasca says with a grin, reclaiming the Ash’rion from me. She eyes Lukas wickedly as they face off a few paces away from each other. “You’re on my territory now, Gardnerian.” Her predatory smile broadens. “This is going to be fun. I’ve imagined this moment so many times. It’s a real shame we’re on the same side now.”

  Lukas gives her a look of mock caution as he fingers his blade’s hilt then gracefully pulls his arm back, coiled for attack. “Do not permanently maim me.”

  Valasca shakes her head as if ruing the situation. “I so wish we were still mortal enemies.” She drops into a fighting stance. “All right, Crow. Give it up. Show me what you’ve got.”

  Lukas smiles, and I’ve the sudden sense of his firelines heating to a scald. Whip-fast, he hurls his blade at Valasca, a rush of golden fire bursting to life around the knife and blasting ahead of it toward Valasca.

  In a flash Valasca sweeps up her own blade, the image of fractured mirrors crackling into my mind as Lukas’s stream of fire hits her blade’s glinting side. Valasca sweeps her blade down, throwing the fire off to the side as she dodges Lukas’s incoming blade, the streak of fire colliding with a small knot of brush that bursts into a bright blue conflagration.

  “I win,” Valasca gloats, her eyes full of confrontational glee.

  “I’m just warming up,” Lukas spars back with the trace of a smile, as I’m hit with the vision of silvery fire rushing through his lines. Without warning, Lukas pulls his wand and flicks it toward Valasca, veins of white lightning spearing out ahead of it.

  In a blur, Valasca pulls a second blade, her fingers dancing against runes as she holds both blades up in an X before her. Lukas’s lightning slams into the center of the X and doubles back at him.

  Lukas flips his wand toward himself and conjures a rippling golden shield over his body, the lightning crackling over him in a shower of sparks before dissipating.

  “Show me how to do that,” he says to Valasca as he drops his shield, obviously impressed.

  Valasca eyes him incredulously. “Mage-power deflection is an Amaz military secret.”

  Lukas is undaunted. “Teach me.”

  Valasca snorts out a laugh and narrows a cheeky glare at him. “There are some things I will never share with you, Gardnerian.”

  Lukas grins and shoots Valasca a suggestive look. “There are many things you will never share with me, Valasca.”

  A spike of jealousy flares in me. “Hey now!”

  Both of them turn to me with looks of amused incredulity in response to my territorial outburst. I bite my lip, abashed by my reaction to their mutual teasing as heat blooms on my cheeks.

  Lukas gives me a warm look and sends out an invisible tendril of fire to caress my lines. I shiver from the pleasurable rush of his fire and sheepishly meet his gaze, unable to suppress a slight smile as affection for him rises.

  My fastmate.

  My fastlines are hidden by my glamour, but suddenly, they don’t feel so much like a cage anymore, even though I’m bound to Lukas by them. My flush heats further as Lukas’s fire sizzles through me and I briefly consider the many ways I don’t mind being paired with Lukas.

  “Stop flirting, you two,” Chi Nam chides then gestures to Valasca. “Give Elloren the Ash’rion.”

  Grinning, Valasca strides toward me and hands me the Ash’rion blade, the static energy in the runes prickling against my hand.

  I look to Chi Nam. “Can you fight like them?” I ask her, curious about her abilities. Lukas and Valasca turn to Chi Nam as well, like two panthers looking to the lead panther.

  Chi Nam’s lip twitches up, as if she’s amused by my question. She glances at Lukas and Valasca. “Attack me,” she says, almost fondly.

  “Stand back, Elloren,” Lukas says as he pulls both a wand and a blade, eyeing Chi Nam with a level look of respect.

  I step back as Valasca takes two blades in hand as both she and Lukas crouch down and Chi Nam’s fingers slide over the runes on her staff.

  Lukas and Valasca exchange a quick look.

  I’ve a split-second sense of Lukas’s fire blasting into his wand and blade as well as Valasca’s press of runic lightning energy into her knives, before they hurl their weapons and magic at Chi Nam with such ferocity, I recoil, their fire power bolting and forking through the air.

  Their combined magic slams into Chi Nam, and an earsplitting crack sounds, painful in my ears, as a shield springs to life around the sorceress and she’s briefly encased in a web of chaotic blue lightning.

  Chi Nam angles her staff, and the web of lightning flies out toward Lukas
and Valasca, knocking them both onto their backs and pinning them to the ground like two fish caught in a net, their weapons thrown from their hands and now beyond their reach.

  Chi Nam turns to me and calmly leans on her staff as if she’s expended no energy at all, some small threads of blue lightning still crackling over her form as she gives me a shrewd look. Her fingers move slightly over the runes on her staff, and the nets of energy around Lukas and Valasca blink out of sight.

  Both Lukas and Valasca stand, brush the red sand off themselves, and retrieve their weapons. Then they pause to incline their heads toward Chi Nam in an obvious showing of respect.

  Chi Nam focuses in on Valasca and motions toward me with a flick of her finger. “Test her elemental power.”

  Valasca returns to my side as I hold up the blade between us, the multitude of scarlet Amaz runes gleaming on the side of its hilt.

  “So, Elloren,” she says, “this is perhaps our most complicated elemental blade. These runes all correspond to elemental forces in one form or another—fire, lightning, water, ice, and so on—and they’ve been precharged with spells. You can throw out elemental force with the blade by placing your fingers on specific runes.” She gives Lukas a scrutinizing look, head to toe. “You need to size up your opponent and try to figure out what type of magery he’s likely to attack you with so that you can choose the most effective counter-element. For example, water neutralizes fire.”

  “That should be easy,” I say. “I could sense your magic before you used it.” I gesture toward Lukas. “I felt his fire powering up before he threw his blade, and I sensed his lightning forming before he released it from his wand.” I lift the Ash’rion blade. “And I had a vision of some type of mirror sorcery before you used this to deflect his fire power.”

  Lukas steps toward me, serious now. “You sensed all that?”

  I nod. “Like I can sense affinity power in Mages and Fae.”

  He sets his calculating gaze on Valasca and Chi Nam, his eyes blazing with possibility.

  “She’s magically empathic,” Chi Nam says to Lukas. “It’s rare for it to be this strong. I’ve encountered only a lower level of magical empathy in a few powerful Mages and Fae, and only the ability to sense other affinities or Fae thralls. A sense of runic charging means that Elloren must possess latent light magery.”

  Valasca lets out a swooping whistle. “Hell of a battle skill.”

  Chi Nam’s mouth curves into a cunning smile as she turns to me. “You do realize what this means, Elloren?”

  Giddiness rises up. “That I might turn out to be pretty good with rune weapons?”

  Chi Nam gives a laugh, teeth bared. “It means that once you learn the runic systems and correct finger positioning—” she gestures toward Lukas and Valasca “—you’ll be able to take down these two.” Both Lukas and Valasca give me looks of lethal delight.

  “We’ll need to retrieve all the Noi and Amaz rune manuals,” Chi Nam directs Lukas and Valasca, her eyes fixed on me like I’m a door that’s suddenly been thrown wide-open. “Drill her in all the elemental combinations.” She looks to me. “I’m hoping you’re as dexterous as this one.” She points to Lukas with her thumb and flashes him a broader smile. “He’s got some of the nicest runic fingerwork I’ve ever seen.”

  “Pianist,” Lukas comments, holding up a hand. “It has applications in the runic martial arts.” He looks to me, his mouth tilting. “Elloren has pretty deft fingerwork too, being an accomplished violinist. She’s very good with her hands.” The suggestive glint in his eyes has me flushing anew, but I’m also warmed through by his approval.

  “This isn’t going to be all cerebral runic exercises,” Valasca says to me, warning in her tone. “We’re going to train you hard. We’ll start with runic systems today, but be ready. First thing tomorrow morn, I’m going to start treating you like I’d treat any Amaz military apprentice. Becoming a warrior is not just about the magic and weapons mastery. You need to become mentally and physically tough.”

  I meet Valasca’s hardened gaze, sobered by the memory of how I folded when faced with the first scorpio that attacked us.

  “I want that,” I agree, lit up by the idea of becoming tougher in every way and gaining control of some true power. “Train me like the Amaz.”

  Valasca’s eyes flash with a feral light. “You won’t like it, Gardnerian.”

  Defiance sparks as I bristle at her certainty.

  And at the feeling that she’s probably right.

  An incoming flock of purple-flecked ravens snags my attention and I look past her, the birds swooping down to light on branches of the dead Baobab trees. Their wings settle as they turn toward us and grow still.

  I’m suddenly filled with the unsettling sense that all the birds are watching me.

  Along with the trees.

  Part Five

  HIGH MAGE

  RULING

  Declaring that a State of War exists

  between the Holy Magedom of

  Gardneria and Noilaan.

  All necessary force will be used

  to subdue the Noi aggressors and

  their Vu Trin forces to protect

  the Holy Magedom.

  Gardnerian Guard

  Internal Mandate

  Issued by High Mage Marcus Vogel

  Initiating a military search for Elloren

  Gardner, heir to Carnissa Gardner’s power.

  NOI CONCLAVE MANDATE

  6'203'68

  Ruling War against Gardneria and all those

  who align with them in their aggressions

  against the people of the Eastern Realm.

  The full might of the Vu Trin forces shall be

  employed to cut down all threats to Noilaan.

  VU TRIN MILITARY

  INTERNAL MANDATE

  Set down by Vang Troi,

  Commander of the Vu Trin Forces

  Mandating a hunt for Elloren Gardner,

  the next Black Witch.

  CHAPTER ONE

  ZALYN’OR

  WYNTER EIRLLYN

  Sixth Month

  Amazakaraan,

  Capital City of Cyme

  Wynter wraps her threadbare wings around herself, tight as a blanket, as she makes her way through the Queenhall’s archways of deep-purple curtains, hemmed in by two Amaz soldiers before her and two behind.

  Her fluttering trepidation mounts as she prepares to answer this unexpected summons to Queen Alkaia’s Council Chambers, her mind casting about like a small boat in a storm, unable to anchor itself on what could have possibly prompted this most urgent call to stand before the Amaz queen, a call issued on the same evening that war between Noilaan and Gardneria has been declared.

  Wynter can feel the new defiant tension that this declaration of war has shot through the air of Cyme, the entire Amaz Guard mobilizing for potential hostilities with both Gardneria and the Alfsigr Elves. All of the Amaz soldiers and soldier apprentices she’s gotten to know have already been summoned to the military bases on the periphery of the Amaz territories.

  Amazakaraan.

  The last holdout. The only land in the Western Realm not annexed by Gardneria or Alfsigroth.

  The Lupine lands have fallen.

  Verpacia has fallen.

  Keltania has fallen.

  And now, two monstrously powerful armies are looming on Amazakaraan’s doorstep, and the Amaz’s only remaining military ally is gone—Noilaan’s entire Western Vu Trin force decimated in one day by the Gardnerians.

  Wynter winces as she recalls the fearful questions asked by Amaz children in a multitude of languages.

  Mamma, will the Gardnerians and the Alfsigr come and hurt us?

  Muth’li, will they send the broken dragons? What happens if they send the broken dragons?

  Auntie, if Mamma Tith’lin goes to fig
ht the Gardnerians, will they kill her? Make her stay home. I don’t want them to kill her.

  And always the same answers, said in a variety of ways and languages in the same forced, reassuring tones—

  The rune shield over our lands will hold, sweet one. You need to trust our brave queen and our brave soldiers.

  You’re safe, toiya. The shield will keep the dragons out.

  Nothing will happen to you, my love. Our brave soldiers will protect us. I’ll protect you too.

  But the children catch the undercurrent of doubt, their fear not assuaged.

  Because the situation is an encroaching nightmare.

  The Amazakaraan military is formidable. But they’re vastly outnumbered by combined Gardnerian and Alfsigroth armies. Which means the runic dome-shield cast over the Amaz territories is the only thing standing between the Amaz and complete annihilation.

  Wynter’s birds sweep in around her as she wrestles with her troubled thoughts and advances through the curtained hall. All types of birds, in an avian wave that seems to always move with Wynter now wherever she goes, surrounding her with their dazzling spectacle of color.

  Orioles with persimmon feathers bright as fire.

  Black swallows with backs dusted a sparkling blue.

  Tiny jewel-toned hummingbirds in a shimmering palette of emerald, sapphire, and ruby.

  Golden finches, bright as the sun.

  And the raptors—three owls now, even in the daylight. And hawks and falcons, the predator and prey birds in a wary truce with each other as they bring their messages to Wynter, some frantic and chattering, some in a flash of dire imaging. But all with the same dread-filled tenor—

  Warning. Warning. Warning.

  Burning forests! Corrupted elements! The priest with a Wand of twisting Shadow!

  It’s always there now, the fear that the complete unraveling of the natural world has begun.