Shadowborn's Terror: Book IV of 'The Magician's Brother' Series

by HDA Roberts

  "Remember, quick is key; fast and nasty," Hopkins said.

  "Okay," Lilly said. She called Magic and drew in energy. It took her a couple of seconds.

  "Relax," I said, "don't drag it in, let it in."

  She nodded, sweating. She thrust her hands towards me, shutting her eyes. A trio of weak lightning bolts flew out. One hit my shields, the other two smacked into the ground.

  "Good, Lilly," I said, "but I've seen you do better. Remember, it's relaxation and concentration. It's a balance between the two."

  She nodded, "I don't like shooting lightning at people," she said, pulling in more static electricity from the air.

  "Good," I said with a smile, "But you don't learn because you like it, you learn for the day that you might need it."

  She closed her eyes and nodded.

  Two out of three hit me the next time. I helped her tighten up her spell work, and on her fourth try, she hit me with all three. Then she got it right three times in a row. I smiled at her and she grinned back.

  "Alright, very good," Hopkins said, "You may sit, Miss McFadden. Next?"

  And so on and so forth until everyone had taken some pretty decent shots at me. It took well over an hour for Hopkins and I to get everyone blasting in the right direction and on target (me). It was good practice for me too. I worked on my adaptive shields while they had at me. Generally, I used general Force-Shields layered with Dispels for my defences, but I could also tailor specific, far more efficient, shields for each type of incoming energy. The drawback being that they were useless against everything else.

  Still good practice, though.

  Finally, Belle sat down after exhausting herself trying to get through my shields. She liked to come up with surprises for me, trying to get past me. I didn't mind; she was getting better, and it kept me on my toes. Belle had been advancing in leaps and bounds since she stopped trying to be a duellist and focussed on Magic as a subject rather than as a means to an end. She was about to take her Level Three tests, and I was helping her study for the theory part in between everything else on my plate.

  "Alright, if everyone's quite finished trying to kill Mister Graves-" Hopkins began.

  Demise stood and Hopkins looked up as she walked down the steps and took the gauntlet from Belle before stepping into the ring.

  "Oh," Hopkins said, a little surprised, "well, why not?"

  "I can think of a reason. Or five, mostly involving my imminent injury," I said.

  "Do I have to call you names again?" Hopkins asked.

  "If it gets me from here to the nap I had pencilled in to start ten minutes ago, then sure."

  There were some laughs from the crowd, but more in the way of anticipation. Demise was a largely unknown quantity, and barely even noticed on account of her concealing Magic (which she was still refusing to teach me). What few people even remembered her thought that she was some sort of exchange student, which was the story we'd told them.

  Demise stood in front of me. She looked utterly calm and focussed.

  "What's up, Dee?" I asked.

  "Spar now," she said, tightening up the gauntlet.

  "Any particular reason?" I asked.

  "May need to kill you one day. Good to know what I'm dealing with."

  She said it so coldly, so clinically, that I took a step back.

  "I don't think I want to do this," I said, stepping back out of the ring.

  "Why?" she asked, "Are you a coward?"

  "As a matter of fact, I am," I said, pulling my gauntlet off.

  "Is that what you said to Puritus?" she asked as I stepped out of the ring; I froze "When they held you down and carved that thing into your face? Is that what you said? 'I don't think I want to do this'? Did you cry? Did you beg?"

  Hopkins was white with fury as she stepped towards Demise. I put up a hand and she stopped, but I could feel Space starting to warp a little in her rage.

  "What did you say to me?" I asked Demise, turning around. My voice was very low, very cold. People recoiled from it. Lilly broke into tears on the spot.

  "You heard me," Demise said.

  I yanked the gauntlet back on and stepped into the ring.

  "Miss Hopkins, would you mind refereeing?" I asked as gently as I could, now pretty angry myself.

  "Of course," she replied, her eyes boring into Demise.

  "Best of three touches," Hopkins said, "No High Magic."

  I nodded.

  "I will not be restricted," Demise said.

  "Yes you wi-" Hopkins began.

  "It's fine with me," I rasped.

  The scars were something of a sore point for me, as you may have guessed. If she'd also mentioned my brother, all that would be left of her would right now be a greasy stain on the floor.

  Hopkins nodded, "Both ready?"

  Tear her a new one, Matty, she sent.

  Oh, you betcha.

  "Begin!"

  The first round lasted exactly one second.

  I lost.

  In that first second, while I was still calling my Shadows, she'd drawn her sword out of nowhere, closed the ten metres between us, and cut a trough in my cheek.

  It bled heavily, and my face burned with sudden pain. I yelped and turned, my power ready to blast Demise right off her feet, but the chime sounded. I stopped automatically, thank goodness. That remembered response was quite possibly the only thing that kept me from... I don't know. I was that angry.

  "What the hell is wrong with you?" Hopkins said to Demise as she darted into the ring to look at my face. The cut had been straight through the pentagram, and blood was pouring down in a sheet, dripping onto my jacket.

  "Duels are to the first blood," Demise said.

  "I'm fine," I whispered, retaking my stance.

  "At least let me fix that," Hopkins said.

  "Later, please, I just want this done," I said, still whispering.

  Hopkins looked almost as angry as I was, "Will first, Matty. She's a War Mage, trained to murder, not just battle. Get something between you and her."

  That, I'd already figured out.

  "Thanks," I said neutrally.

  She backed out again and Demise retook her place. I tried to calm down and think it through. She was physically faster than me, but I was smarter, mentally quicker, Magically stronger and far more versatile. The mismatch was actually laughable, and yet she'd cut my face open.

  In front of Cathy; who was now crying as well.

  She'd made my Cathy cry...

  "Both ready?" Hopkins said.

  We both nodded.

  "Begin!"

  She bounced off my Will shield almost the instant I'd called it. I strengthened it and she came from another angle, that bloody sword of hers slashing and pounding at my shields. I felt her calling Death and cast my standard shields. They sprung into being between us, and she cast her Entropic beam at them. I shifted my Will shield to deflect it. Force-based shields weren't too useful against Death Magic, Will worked just fine, though. The only problem was that Will was draining.

  That wasn't as much of a problem for me, though.

  I called my Shadows. They came from everywhere all at once and converged instantly on her before flinging her bodily from the ring. It was the most gentle I could be, and she still broke the doors clear out of the wall as she smashed through them.

  The chime went off.

  Demise didn't care. She came right back at me, silently, her sword held high. She threw great gouts of Death Magic through the one-way barrier that kept my Magic contained in the ring. My Shadows were shredded, but there were always more of them, solid and reassuring. I slammed them into the shield, running them through with pure Dispel, I drained huge amounts of power to make a hole and walk out with my spells and defences intact. I'd have had to leave them behind otherwise.

  Slight problem, the gauntlets didn't work outside the circle, and also the crowd wasn't protected from splash damage.

  So I decided to take it outside. I sent a whole mess of
Shadows. They wrapped her up in a cocoon and I simply tossed her out the door, the Shadows dragging her out and away before dropping her into the playing fields half a kilometre away.

  I followed, wrapping my Shadows around me and darting into the air. I landed nearby as she was dragging herself groggily to her feet. I felt her calling more Death Magic. So I hit her again. It took all I had not to let those Shadows grow barbed and ugly. I wanted to take her head off (I'd done that before, to a reanimated Sorcerer-corpse, so it was doable).

  "So, you can get angry..." she said as she brought herself to her knees, dizzy and tired.

  I didn't respond.

  "I was beginning to wonder. Always so reasonable, so kind. It'll kill you one day," she said.

  "I want you gone," I said, my voice vibrating from the Shadows, I sounded ugly and awful.

  "That's not your choice."

  "Right here, right now, it's very much my choice."

  "Only if you're willing to murder me," she said.

  "You pull a weapon on me again, that's what happens."

  "As you will, Lord Shadow," she said, lowering her eyes.

  I dropped my Shields and released my Shadows.

  "You stay away from me," I rasped.

  I turned and walked back towards the gym, where there was quite the crowd gathering. My collar was soaked in blood. Ever since I'd torn out half my living energy, for that woman, I'd been healing and clotting slowly. The cut had been deep, and my face was burning.

  Hopkins was close and she moved in next to me, her hands gentle on the wound. She grunted, and I felt Flesh Magic at work while Cathy came to my other side and tucked herself in under my arm. Hopkins had to be careful. Flesh Magic used the injured person's resources to heal them. With my living energy so low, Flesh Magic could do me as much harm as good if handled improperly.

  Thankfully, Hopkins knew what she's doing.

  "I want her gone," I said.

  "I'll call Killian."

  "I won't have her sleeping next to me. I can't look at her."

  "She'll be gone within the hour."

  "Doubt it," Demise said from behind me, "Watchers aren't disposed of because the Danger is uncomfortable with us. I was assigned. I will stay."

  "You would be well advised to remember who you're talking to," Hopkins said, "And don't all of you have rooms to get to?!"

  The crowd dispersed very quickly, leaving Bill and Cathy with me.

  "I know who I'm talking to, Lady Hopkins. And it doesn't matter, with respect. This was one of his tests. How he responds to anger. It had to be known."

  Hopkins scowled.

  "And how will you report to Killian?" she asked.

  "Any other man would have murdered me. I used secrets told to me in trust to hurt him and he didn't hurt me back. He passed, thoroughly. Even when he's angry, he's a good man."

  Hopkins finished patching me up, which took a while. Demise watched passively, her eyes very intently on the wound she'd caused. I didn't look at her, focussing my attention on Cathy, who was recovering and now incredibly angry with Demise.

  "Warden, a word," Hopkins said, nodding away from us.

  They walked out of earshot. Well, most people's earshot. It was dark, I heard what they were saying through the Shadows like a spider feeling a fly in his web. I didn't want to listen, but I was too frazzled to block it out, exhausted and weakened.

  "Are you insane?" Hopkins whispered, "That was supposed to be the final test! What were you thinking?"

  "I won't have that be the last thing he sees of me," Demise said, "This way he has time."

  "You don't know Mathew Graves. He holds epic grudges, he won't forgive what you just did. If he even speaks to you again, it'll be a minor miracle."

  "He'll forgive me," Demise said firmly.

  "You listened, you drew his pain from him, and then you used it to goad him into anger. Would you forgive him if he did that to you?!"

  "He's better than me," Demise said softly, "He understands. Even the monsters. He even loves the monsters."

  "That's because even the monsters don't do that to him!"

  "I must see to my charge, my Lady," Demise said.

  "He is not your charge! He's my charge. He's your Danger. And you just gave him every reason in the world to drop you, which puts his relationship with Killian and Kron in jeopardy, which puts him in danger!" Hopkins said, her voice rising just a little, "Why? Why would you do that?"

  "I told you, and it's like you said, this test should have been his last. I won't have him remember me like that, like I'm just his tormentor. I wanted to give him time. I knew he'd hate me. I also knew that he'd forgive me if I made him, if I gave him that time. He gave me a part of himself so I could live. I know his soul. I know his character. He'll forgive me."

  I really wished I hadn't heard all that. It makes it very difficult to hate people when you empathise with them. Demise... she was just following orders. But I was still so mad at her! She... I thought she was my friend. I should have known better. And yet she obviously thought well enough of me to want to make things right. How much longer was this whole 'Watcher' thing going to take?

  Demise came over and stood to one side. I ignored her, still too angry. Cathy was glaring hard and squeezing me tightly enough to bruise.

  "Okay, Matty, you can go back to your room now. She'll have to stay. She... she's in charge of your case."

  I nodded.

  I walked away with Cathy and we chatted idly as we walked, trying to ignore the spectre.

  "She wouldn't have really hurt you, would she?" Cathy asked quietly.

  "Couldn't if she wanted to, Cath," I replied, "She's no match for me."

  An utter lie. If she'd wanted me dead with that first strike, I'd be dead. But Cathy didn't need to know that. And she'd suffered enough for one night. I said 'good night' to her and hugged her tightly to me. I told her I loved her and she went off to bed.

  Bill ran like the wind (more or less) once Cathy was gone. I rounded on Demise.

  "I don't even know what to say to you," I said, "I am so angry with you right now, I want to spit!"

  "What was done needed to be done."

  "I heard what you said, I understand that. That's not the problem. You did it in front of her. You hurt me, you humiliated me. You cut me in front of Cathy. You scared her, you upset her. She's already terrified for me, and you made it worse."

  "The life of an Archon isn't going to get any easier, Mathew. She can either accept that, or she's going to suffer horribly just being near you, much less with you."

  "That is not for you to say!" I shouted back, "You don't know her!"

  "But I do know you," she said, pointing at her chest, "In here. You can't stop yourself. You see pain and you slam your head straight at it trying to make it go away. That will hurt you from time to time. One day, in spite of what your Wardens will be able to do, that is going to get you killed. You should have tried to kill me today. At the least, you should have broken me for what I did. You lack that instinct, that warrior's heart that will be all that keeps you alive. Even Palmyra has it."

  I shook my head and continued walking.

  "Never do that in front of Cathy again."

  "As my lord commands," she said.

  "There's no need to be facetious," I said with a snarl.

  "I wasn't," she said, perfectly seriously, which took me by surprise and made me feel ashamed of myself.

  "Sorry," I said, "generally when people say something like that to me, they're being sarcastic."

  "You are the Lord Shadow. You've earned my respect many times over. When I use your title, I mean it. When you give me a command, I obey it, to the limit of my orders as your Watcher, and that only because the will of all the others is the only authority greater than yours alone."

  "What about Killian?" I asked, expecting his name to be in there somewhere, and curious why it wasn't.

  "He is my master. I obey his commands."

  "Unless there's more th
an one other Archon around with contradictory instructions?" I asked.

  She sighed.

  I was probably just being unnecessarily nit-picky, but I was still pretty pissed off, and that was how it manifested. I could and would passive-aggressive a recalcitrant donkey into the ground if it had annoyed me as much as Demise had.

  "I am sworn to the service of Lord Killian. I am a servant of Lord Death. I also serve the Archons, as all Magicians do; you are our liege lords."

  "Sounds complex," I said.

  "It would to a man who never does as he's told. Or asked. Or begged."

  "Oh yes I do," I said sadly, "All too often."

  Chapter 24

  Weeks passed. May began, and A-Level Exams started to loom horrifically.

  Demise was always there, and our relationship seemed to recover somewhat. It took me a while to stop being so mad at her, but I got there. She even helped me with my revision for exams. By that point, she'd been in every class with me for months, after all; she knew the material almost as well as I did.

  Cathy grew a little distant, not that I could blame her; her life depended far more on the A-Level results than mine did. Between the simple fact that I was an Archon, and the existence of the trusts, I was financially and vocationally secure, but I still wanted to go to University, to learn; to experience a bit of a normal life, and I really wanted that to be with Cathy.

  That's what I worked for.

  Bill, Cathy and I helped each other out as best we could. Mostly we studied together, under a tree, in a library, wherever it was quiet. As we started getting deeper and deeper into the month, lessons and extra tutorials crammed ever greater amounts of revision into each day. Our first exams would be in the third week of May. Windward did the AS and A-Levels at the same time, rather than splitting them up over two years as most other schools did. It would be painful.

  Start to finish, the whole thing took a month. A long, frustrating, ugly, intensive month. Demise was, to my immense surprise, kind of a rock about the whole thing. Steady and constant. She tested me; she re-read the material with me; she made sure that I ate and rested and slept enough.

  Cathy was a mess. I tried to do for her what Demise did for me, but more often than not, she wouldn't let me. I hoped that it was just the stress of exams, but she was getting very snappy towards the end. She wasn't as affectionate, she barely even looked at me; it worried me, but I didn't push, hoping that she'd be alright given time and space.