by Logan Jacobs
“I should start the engine,” Darryl declared as he tried to run toward the door while bent over.
“Hex?” Sorcha asked as she watched Darryl scuttle away.
“Leave him,” I told her. “Is there anything you can do to control one of those mages out there?”
Sorcha crawled toward my side and peered around the splintered pane. She studied the mages for a moment, then nodded. She crawled to one of the other windows for a better view, then started to talk in her deep voice.
I wondered how she could control the mage if he couldn’t hear her, but I got distracted as something burst near the window where Evan and I were. Evan started to cough as a green smoke started to waft inside, and then the old man tottered. I held my arm over my face as I pulled the older man back inside and pulled him toward the table where Sorcha and Darryl had been just moments before.
The green gas started to spread through the room, but a gust of wind sent most of it back toward the red robed mages. I waited until most of it had cleared away, then peered down at Evan. He had a confused expression on his face, and he jabbed at my chest with one finger as if he wasn’t sure I was real.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“It’s me, Hex,” I assured him.
“Hex?” Evan repeated. “What kind of name is that? And why am I on the floor?”
One of the other windows in our room broke, and a tendril of flame started to flicker on the wall. Evan and I both watched it for the moment, and then Evan scrambled away from me. He ran toward the flame, batting at it as if he intended to put the fire out.
“Evan!” I cried out as I ran after him. I managed to knock him to the ground again with a flying tackle that knocked the breath from the older man. He wheezed, then rolled slowly onto his back. He looked a bit like a frog at that moment as his eyes bulged out of his head.
“How much do you weigh?” Evan gasped.
I shook my head and snatched up a blanket someone had left in the room. It took a few moments, but I managed to beat back the fire before it could spread. I glanced at Sorcha and saw her brow was furrowed in concentration. I spotted Evan as he crawled toward the door and decided to leave him to whatever his addled mind was up to. I crept back to the broken window and looked around the edge again.
It took a moment, but I finally spotted the mage that Sorcha controlled, or nearly controlled. It was a woman with short brown hair, who stood near the back of the mages. She had an odd look on her face, not unlike Evan after he sucked in a lungful of the green gas. She raised her hand as if she wanted to launch a spell, but then she paused, as if she weren’t sure where she should throw it. I looked over at Sorcha, who had started to sweat as she tried to command the mage.
Sorcha finally won the battle, and the mage lowered her arm and pointed her fingers at the backs of those in the red robes. Lightning shot from her tips, and several of the mages cried out in pain and surprise. Unfortunately, that didn’t include the leader who quickly engulfed the woman in a pillar of light that dissolved her into ash.
“Oh, gods,” Sorcha cried out as she sat back with a hard thump. Tears poured from her eyes, and I could tell she was shaking despite the distance between us.
“Sorcha!” I screamed.
“I felt him kill her,” she explained as she tried to recover.
I started to move toward her, but she held up her hand to stop me.
“Just kill that bastard and the rest will leave,” she instructed me.
I nodded and turned back to the window. The leader had moved away, and I wasn’t sure where he had gone. I had plenty of other targets, though, and enough ammunition to take them down. Aside from the need to protect the school, I hoped the sound of the rifle might draw the leader back into the fray.
I peered around the edge again, and couldn’t help but chuckle. The remaining mages along our side of the building were lined up in a neat little row. With the leader gone, the shield had shifted upwards again as the red robes continued to lob fireballs and other strange spells toward the riflewomen on the top floor.
“Like shooting turkeys,” I muttered as I took aim at the first red robe.
I set my stance, and waited for a puff of smoke to clear, then pulled the trigger. I could feel the force of the bullet as it flew down the barrel and then the snap of the weapon in my bones. I kept the gun pointed at the target until I saw the mage grasp at his shoulder as he crumpled against the red robe standing next to him.
It all happened in a heartbeat, yet I felt as if everything had slowed down. I could almost see the bullet as it flew through the air, and I saw the spume of blood as it burrowed into the mage. It was such a strange sensation, that I almost forgot there were still more mages to take down. But the next mage in the line turned and tried to grab the body of his fellow red robe as he fell. I shook off the strange feeling and sighted on the new target.
The next mage in the line started to shout something to his fellow red robes, but I’d already lined up a path to his head. The crack and roll of thunder blended with the sound of a fireball smashing into the ground, so no one noticed when the next mage went down, with one ear completely gone.
In fact, I’d left five bodies on the ground before anyone seemed to realize just how many mages had suddenly gone down. Someone started to scream about moving the shields again, but even as the mages struggled to expand their protection, I took out two more.
I tried to shoot through the shield but it felt odd. I could feel the bullet strike the magic, and then some of the power seemed to fade away. The bullet made it through after what felt like an eternity, but it was off target and moving less quickly. It smacked one of the mages in the butt, where it buried itself just below the skin. There was no explosion nor fountain of blood, just a yelp of surprise and a funny little dance as the injured mage hopped around on one foot.
I was stuck waiting for one of the mages to take a misstep. It tried my patience, as the rest of the mages on both sides continued to launch their own attacks. Fire rained down from the skies and lightning bolts lit the scene with an eerie brilliance. Wind blew strange gases in both directions, and a dark plume of smoke started to climb skyward. It was impossible to gauge how much time had passed, or even whether it was day or night.
But then one of the mages moved toward the corner of the building. I saw her place her hands on the rough stone and then I heard some of the beams start to creak. That was all I needed. I swung the barrel until I was lined up with her head. When she glanced upwards, I fired my next bullet.
The woman’s face vanished in a red mist and her brown hair was slick with blood. Her mouth hung open, as if she had been about to scream, but only blood poured forth. Her body seemed to hang in the air for a moment, and then it dropped like a stone. She looked like a puddle of red goo, though I couldn’t be sure what was the robe and what was blood.
The rest of the mages started to panic, and that made them careless. They tried to move toward shelter, though that took them away from the protection of the shields. I dropped several more mages as the report of the gun became a constant sound. Almost without pause, I lined up the shot and fired. I lost count of the shots, but the number of mage bodies on the ground grew steadily.
But then the alarm started to sound in my head, and I knew I was on the last bullet. I scanned the few mages that still stood outside the window and looked for the white hair and angry glare, but the leader was nowhere to be seen. My bid to draw him back toward the window hadn’t worked, and I only had one more shot left in the rifle.
I heard the sounds of battle from the other side of the building and realized he might have thought he could sneak up on me from behind. Or he might have thought I was on that side, since it sounded like one of the riflewomen was now firing from that side of the building. Whatever the reason, I needed to find him and take him down. If Sorcha was right, that was the only way we would be rid of the red robes.
I moved away from the window and ran into the hall. As I darted across the
marble floor, I realized that something in the basement had started to hum. I thought about the mage I had shot who had placed her hands on the building and hoped that they didn’t have a second such mage in their group. If they did, then I needed to find the leader before the whole building came down on our heads.
I ran into the room directly across the hall. I barely registered the smoking pile of debris near the center of the room, or the body that was sprawled under one of the windows. One of the younger defenders looked at me in surprise, and just a bit of fear, when I burst into the room. I ignored him and bolted toward one of the windows for a quick glance outside.
I spotted the leader as soon as I peeked out the window. The red-robed mages on this side were faring better, and they had a strong enough shield to fend off most of the attacks from our mages. The leader was in the middle of a small ring of mages and yelled instructions on where each attack should be directed.
As I tried to decide on the best way to separate the leader from his ring of protection, another sound started to fill the air. At first, no one paid it much attention, but then I saw the people outside starting to look around. The young man with me also had a puzzled look as he glanced outside, then down at the floor, which had started to shake beneath our feet.
“Darryl’s engine?” I guessed and hoped. The young man gave me a quizzical look, as if I had just uttered something nonsensical.
The rumbling grew louder, but the building seemed to settle. The shaking gave way to a gentle vibration again, though the same couldn’t be said for what was going on outside. Many of the mages looked down, and several stumbled as if they had suddenly lost their footing. The leader scowled and issued another round of instructions, and as a group, they started to back slowly away from the building. He was still inside the shield, but he was moving further away. I debated whether to risk taking the shot anyway, when the earth around the mages seemed to open up.
A hole appeared beneath the red robes, and several disappeared into the abyss with a scream. Unfortunately, the leader wasn’t among them. I spotted his white hair as he teetered on the edge of the hole before another mage grabbed his arm and pulled him to safety. I lined up my shot, and placed my hand on the trigger, determined to put an end to him and the battle.
And then a great metal machine appeared from the hole and blocked my shot. Its snout, for lack of a better word, was cone shaped and had a spiral edge, like a giant screw. The cone spun as the great metal beast slowly emerged from the ground and climbed up the hole. It stuck on the edge for a moment, but then the sound grew louder, a plume of steam filled the air, and the machine inched its way onto solid ground.
At the center of the machine was a glass-enclosed seat, surrounded by rods and dials. Darryl was in the seat, a look of pure joy on his face, and I was fairly certain I could see him bounce up and down as he brought his engine to a halt.
The battle had come to a halt as well as everyone watched the machine emerge from its hiding place. Even now, the sound of the thing was the only noise that could be heard. I glanced at the mage in the room with me, but he looked as surprised as those in red robes. Clearly, neither Darryl nor Evan had told anyone else about Darryl’s engine.
I wasn’t sure what to do next, but Darryl made the decision for me. Without the magic flying around, he must have thought the battle was over. He opened up a door on his little enclosure and leaned out. He waved toward the building and then toward the red robes, a big smile on his face. I almost waved back, and even a few of those in red robes made a half-hearted wave at the grinning mage.
But their leader wasn’t as impressed with either the machine or Darryl. I saw him lift his arm and point toward the sky. I raised the rifle as he made a circular motion with his wrist, and I pulled the trigger as he turned his palm toward Darryl, who had just stepped outside his glass box.
The sound of the gunshot and the clap of thunder roared at the same moment. The machine was enveloped in a blinding flash even as the rifle vanished from my hands, and I had to look away for a moment. When I sensed that the sky was normal again, I peered out the window. A trail of smoke drifted up from the machine which had gone silent. Darryl laid on the ground next to his creation and stared blindly at the sky. A trickle of blood made its way from his nose to his chin, then dripped onto the soil. I had seen death often enough to know the young mage was gone.
I would have screamed in frustration, but I spotted several of the red robes gathered just beyond the machine, their eyes fastened on the ground. A moment later, two of them tried to lift their leader, and I saw the telltale black hole in his forehead. I had found the mark, dead center.
Someone on the upper floors of the building tossed a few fireballs at the Magesterium mages, but they were in full retreat now. Their numbers greatly reduced, they put everything they had into their protective shields as they scurried back across the fields. Two more gunshots rang out but neither found their marks. And then they were gone, and there was nothing left but some smoking rubble.
I helped the young mage to his feet, then went in search of Sorcha and Evan. I peered in what was left of the Operations room, but neither was there. I could hear people start to move around in the rest of the school, and then cheers began to fill the air.
Near the steps to the basement, I spotted a wisp of white hair and a cascade of gold hair disappear downwards. I jogged across the floor and peered down the stairwell. I could hear footsteps echo against the concrete walls, and I sprinted after them.
“Hex,” Sorcha said in surprise as I caught hold of her arm near the last step. “Are you okay?”
“I am,” I assured her as she studied me carefully. “What about Evan?”
“I’m doing much better, thank you,” Evan replied. “My poor old brain is so confused most of the time anyway that the effect of their stink bomb didn’t last very long.”
I raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Sorcha, and she just shrugged.
“He seems to remember more,” she said.
“I know you’re Sorcha,” he declared as he winked at the blonde mage. “And you’re….”
“Hex,” I offered.
“Right,” Evan remarked. “The gun mage. Ooooh, but the red robes are coming for you. We have to get everything ready.”
“Um, we defeated the red robes,” I said as Evan stared into the basement like he had forgotten why he was there.
“Well, that explains it then,” Evan snorted.
“Explains what?” I asked as I looked at Sorcha again, who could only shrug one more time.
“The beast is gone,” Evan explained as he peered around the basement.
“The beast….” I repeated.
“My name for Darryl’s engine,” Evan added. “The original was a boring machine they used to dig tunnels back in the day. He saw one at the museum and has been working very hard to build one of his own. He said we could use it to build an escape tunnel, though I tried to tell him that escape tunnels weren’t usually big enough for a subway to go through.”
“Ah,” I mumbled as I debated how much to say. “He did use the beast in the battle.”
“Oh, he must have been very happy,” Evan noted. “I should go congratulate him.”
“Evan,” I said quietly, then stopped, uncertain how to say it.
“Oh, dear,” Evan sighed as he watched my face. “Poor Darryl.”
“He did save us,” I finally managed to say. “If he hadn’t acted when he did, we could very well have been overrun.”
“Poor Darryl,” Evan repeated as he turned back to the stairs and started to climb slowly upwards.
“I had no idea,” Sorcha said as we watched Evan’s retreating back. “Maybe I should have stopped him from leaving the room.”
“He did save us,” I insisted. “It was the devil that was leading them who killed him when it looked like everyone else would give up the fight.”
Sorcha took my hand and we returned to the ground floor, where a celebration had broken out. Evan wal
ked among the survivors and offered smiles and hugs. When he had spoken to every single person, he held up his hands for quiet. It took a few moments, but the voices died away and everyone turned expectant eyes on their leader.
“You’ve all done so well,” Evan began. “We’ve ensured that this group of children will continue to thrive and enjoy a happy life, just as you did when you were children.”
There were several cheers, which Evan quickly quelled.
“But, there’s no time to celebrate,” the older man continued. “We have too much to do before the Magesterium returns. So, let’s get back to work. Once we’ve safely removed all traces of our presence from this area, and ensured there’s no trail to our next school, we can take a moment to celebrate our win and mourn our losses.”
The other mages murmured, but it was clear they knew Evan was right. Most stepped over to shake their leader’s hand before they returned to their next assignment. I saw Evan use his healing powers with each person that came forward, a fact that left him drained when the last person had finally left.
“You should sit down,” Sorcha said as she started to lead him back into the operations room.
“Yes, that would be nice,” Evan replied. “But it doesn’t look like there’s a chair left.”
I picked through the debris, then found an armchair that had toppled over but had otherwise escaped unscathed. I set it back in an upright position and Sorcha led the mage to the chair. He sat down with a grateful sigh, then peered at us for several moments.
“Thank you for your help this day,” he stated. “You’ve done a wonderful thing for the children.”
We both stammered a bit as we tried to assure the older man that we were happy to do it. He held up an imperious hand, and just as his soldiers had, we went quiet.