Mageborn: Book 04 - The God-Stone War

by Michael G. Manning

  A heavily muscled man followed the large weapon through the shattered door. He was armored in a leather coat with steel plates sewn across the chest and back, though his forearms were bare, covered only with tattoos. The iron hammer of Doron, the Iron God was prominent among the designs, indicating that the man was probably a temple guard.

  Even as Penny noted those things, another man, one of the castle guards, followed the stranger through the door, thrusting at him with a spear. With an almost beautiful grace, the foreigner sidestepped the spear thrust, and reaching out with his right hand, he caught the guard, gripping the top of his breastplate. Twisting, he easily lifted and threw the guardsman into the wall, tossing him as though he weighed no more than a ragdoll. The castle defender slumped to the floor limply, though Penny couldn’t be sure if he were dead or merely unconscious.

  The guard’s helm fell from his head and then she recognized his face. His name was Alan, and while he was an unassuming and quiet man, he was frequently selected to guard the door of the Illeniel family suite. He was no one of importance, but Penny knew the man would have died before allowing an enemy to hurt them… in fact he might just have done so. Enraged, she leapt forward, her sword eager to repay the intruder for his rude treatment of one of her people. “Keep the children back,” she shouted, hoping her companions would understand. And cover their eyes, she thought belatedly. She knew that what was about to happen wouldn’t be something she would want her children to see.

  Racing toward her opponent, she was surprised at the speed with which he reacted. The massive iron mace he was wielding came up far more quickly than should have been possible, even for a man of his size. She was forced to dodge to the side to avoid it, but even so, she wasn’t worried. No matter how strong her enemy was, her sword would be far faster than such an unwieldy weapon. Twisting her torso as she dodged, she brought her sword neatly around to sweep above the head of his weapon, as she launched herself upward.

  Or rather, as she attempted to launch herself upward… the formal dress that she had worn for the celebration, caught upon something at the last moment, tangling her legs and sending her unceremoniously to the ground at her enemy’s feet. Unable to check her fall quickly enough, her head struck the stone floor hard enough to make her see stars, while her sword went skittering away from her hand.

  “Looks like your dress got caught on something, bitch,” said the man, with a ghastly smile on his face.

  Dazed, Penny struggled to roll away, but her body was still sluggish from the shock of the blow to her head. Looking down, she discovered the reason she had fallen, the man was standing on the hem of her dress. It was an effective tactic, and one she had used many times herself, one she probably wouldn’t have time to recover from.

  Before she could move any further, she was struck in the belly by a heavy boot, driving the wind from her lungs. Leaning over her, the grinning bastard laughed, as he began ripping the skirts from her dress. “Let me help you Countess,” he said while she lay on the floor, choking and gasping for air. The strength in his hands was incredible, and he shredded the fabric simply by pulling, as though her dress was made of tissue rather than sturdy linen. “Your husband should have taught you better. If you’re going to fight, you shouldn’t be wearing a dress.”

  Her eyes locked on his as she realized that the stranger knew exactly who she was. She struggled to get enough air into her lungs, if for nothing better than to curse him, when a glimpse past the man’s legs showed her Lady Rose running frantically toward them.

  Rose had her dress pulled up to keep her legs free, and she ran on bare feet, to keep from alerting the man looming over Penny. Unfortunately, her hands were also empty of anything resembling a weapon.

  “After you’re dead I’ll make sure that what’s left of your mangled corpse, will send a proper message to your dying husband,” said the man, as he finished ripping away the last of her skirts. His eyes followed hers and looking over his shoulder, he spotted Rose. “Guess I’ll have to kill this one first,” he said with a shrug, lifting his mace easily with one hand.

  Penny had finally gotten a half breath of air ,and her hand caught the man’s where it gripped the handle of his mace. “No,” she wheezed. You’re not killing my friend.

  The stranger ignored her, though she had his hand locked in an iron grip around the weapon. Instead he stood and dragged her upright along with the mace. His strength was such, that it seemed as if he might happily attempt to swing her along with the heavy iron club.

  Having used his help to stand, Penny threw a poorly aimed jab at the warrior with her free hand. Predictably, given the lack of force, he caught her fist in his own. Once both their arms were locked together however, she pulled backward using all the strength she could summon and simultaneously drove her knee into the man’s sternum.

  She felt a crack as her knee connected, and she knew that whatever had broken, her opponent would be helpless and unable to breath. Depending on how badly she had hurt him, he might even die.

  It appeared that someone had failed to explain that to the stranger though, for he still held her in an iron grip. Instead of collapsing, as any normal man would have, he straightened and pushed forward, driving her smaller mass against the stone wall. “It will take more than that to stop the will of Doron, bitch!”

  Penny lost her focus as she hit the hard stone. This time at least, she managed to keep from striking her head, but now he had his hands around her neck. She struggled with him, trying to pull his hands away from her throat, but despite her own strength she was unable to do more than achieve a stalemate… one that she was slowly losing.

  A spasm went through the man, and his arms went limp. Pushing his heavy form back Penny saw Rose standing behind him, and as he slowly collapsed, she glimpsed the hilt of a long dagger protruding from his neck. She had driven the blade into his spine. “He wasn’t easy to kill,” commented Rose. That was when Penny noticed the second wound. Apparently Rose had put the blade through his kidney once before switching targets. “He didn’t even flinch at the first wound,” Rose added.

  “Where are the children?” asked Penny, as she sought to steady herself. Neither they, nor Elaine, were anywhere to be seen.

  “Right here,” answered Elaine, becoming visible not twenty feet away. Lilly stood beside her, holding onto Irene, while the rest of the children gripped Elaine’s dress.

  Relief shot through Penny once she was sure that everyone was alright, but Matthew immediately began peppering her with questions. “What happened to you, Momma? We couldn’t see! Did you kill that man?” Although he seemed calm, Penny could feel the undercurrent of fear in his voice.

  “Momma, you’re naked,” added Moira, observing that the bottom half of Penny’s dress had been ripped free, exposing her long legs.

  Penny sighed, “It’s just my legs, dear-heart. I’ll explain later. We don’t have time to talk now.” She started to ask why they had been unable to see when she realized that Elaine had kept them invisible the entire time. Mort had explained previously that, when invisible, the person hidden could no longer see, because the light was being diverted around their body. That was a blessing in disguise, she thought to herself. After a second she began chuckling at the inherent pun in her thought. Mort must be rubbing off on me… wait till I tell him. That thought triggered a whole host of unwelcome emotions, so she quickly shuttered them away. There will be time for that later.

  Before they could move Elaine interrupted them, “There are more coming!” Throwing her hands up, the younger woman spoke an unintelligible word and gestured toward the open doorway. The guardsmen on the other side were all dead now, and four of the strange warriors were heading towards them, with deadly intent on their faces. The first of them ran head first into the invisible barrier that the young wizardess had erected to block the shattered door, bouncing back as though he had struck stone.

  “Lilly! Rose! Take the children up the stairs! Don’t wait!” ordered Penny, as she re
covered her sword.

  “You can’t handle that many if they break through,” protested Rose.

  Penny straightened her back and let her anger show openly on her face. “Damnitt Rose! I don’t have time to argue. Elaine, stay with them. If you meet any more of the enemy hide them all,” commanded the Countess di’Cameron, before adding, “Rose will be able to open the door to my rooms… make sure she opens the door first. Do you understand?”

  Rose stared at her without showing any emotion before nodding her acceptance, but Elaine’s face was tormented by unexplained sadness. A tear rolled down her cheek as she answered, “I’m so sorry,” before turning away to obey Penny’s command. With Lilly carrying Irene, and the other children close beside them, the three women hurried to the staircase and the hope of refuge.

  “I’m not dead yet,” replied Penny without understanding the underlying reason for Elaine’s apology. “If I can’t manage them, I’ll try to draw them in the other direction,” she added, heading back toward the doorway blocked by Elaine’s magic.

  Standing about ten feet from the invisible barrier, she couldn’t help but imagine what a ridiculous site she must have been for the four men standing on the other side. She wore no armor; that was still in her bedroom upstairs. Instead, she was clothed only in the upper portion of what had recently been a beautiful formal gown. The skirt had been ripped completely off, leaving her bare legs fully displayed. Her only consolation was, that she had worn soft leather soled slippers under her dress, rather than the awkward thick soled shoes that many women preferred, to give them the illusion of greater height.

  One of the men drew back with his heavy mace and swung it against the magical barrier. The weapon bounced back, and the barrier held. Growling he began to swing again.

  Meanwhile, Penny drove her own sword into the stone floor in front of her, to free her hands for a moment. Reaching across, she ripped the sleeve from her left arm, a task that would have been difficult but for her enhanced strength. Never taking her eyes from the doorway and the men pounding at it with their iron clubs, she used the torn sleeve to tie her long hair back. It had been elaborately coiffed not long ago, but her recent fight had caused it to fall loose.

  Once she had finished, she pulled her sword from the floor and assumed a relaxed pose, waiting for her opponents. They had been battering the invisible wall for two or three minutes now, which led her to doubt her decision. If I’d known it would take them this long, I would have stayed with the others. She toyed with the idea of following them then, but she knew if she did, her enemy would see the direction she went. Better to kill them here, she decided. She closed her mind against the possibility that she might not survive.

  Then the barrier vanished, and one of the intruders stumbled forward as his heavy weapon failed to meet the expected resistance. Penny was waiting for him. Despite her calm pose, her body was thrumming with adrenaline. As the brute’s body came through, her sword flicked out, faster than thought and neatly sliced through his throat, before whipping back and severing the tendons of his weapon arm near the wrist.

  Blood sprayed from her enemy’s throat and arm, and a thrill ran down Penny’s spine, erasing the doubt that her previous near failure had left her with. Banishing all thought, Penny leapt forward, sidestepping the dying man and thrusting her sword at his comrade standing beside him. As she went, she noted the quick reactions of the two others standing further back, both had their weapons up and whistling through the air almost as quickly as she had advanced, whipping the heavy iron maces through the air, as though they were as light as willow switches. One came in high while the other would strike her at the waist, either would likely kill or maim her with a single blow.

  Ordinarily she would have dodged backward, turning her thrust into a feint, but the man behind her, the one whose throat she had cut, was reaching for her with his good arm. She might have wondered at his continued ability to fight, but she was in a place far beyond conscious thought, where time ran slowly, and hesitation led only to death.

  Never take your feet off the ground, Cyhan had taught her long ago. He had punctuated his lessons with painful reminders every time she had used her strength to attempt a high flying jump. As soon as you jump like that, you lose the power to control your direction until you touch the ground again. A skilled opponent will take advantage of this, he had told her.

  Penny sprang upward, twisting into a sideways roll as she went over the heads of the two men at the rear, the ones swinging the maces. Their weapons had too much momentum to change direction, even for men possessed of such inhuman strength as they were. Instead one of them reached for her with his free hand, seeking to arrest her flight and send her disastrously to the ground. It was exactly what Cyhan would have done.

  Her sword removed his arm from the elbow down, the enchanted steel slicing through bones as easily as flesh. Finishing her arc, she landed behind them and let her momentum take her all the way to the floor. Her opponents’ weapons continued to sweep in a full circle, as their wielders followed through in an attempt to strike her as she landed. Her mid-air twist became a spin, as her legs folded into a crouch, and she took the left leg of the man she had just wounded, off at the knee. Off balance, his weapon went wide, giving her just enough room to slip beneath his companion’s mace.

  From that point, the fight became simple slaughter, as she systematically dismembered the four men. She had already discovered that shock and loss of blood had little effect upon them. The only thing that stopped them was removing their limbs, and the only thing that killed them seemed to be decapitation. Fortunately, the magical sword she used was perfect for that task. Their speed and strength was as great as her own, possibly greater, but their combat experience was definitely more limited. If they had been better trained, or had possessed lighter weapons she would have been unable to prevail against so many.

  Those maces are better suited for use against heavily armored opponents… she thought to herself, as she retreated from the bloody scene, heading for the stairs …like the Knights of Stone, the unwelcome thought finished itself in her mind. “Damnitt!” she swore.

  ***

  Meanwhile… upstairs from where Penny was fighting, Elaine, Rose, and Lilly led the children away from the stairs and down the long corridor leading to the Illeniel family’s rooms. Elaine already knew they weren’t going to make it unopposed however, her magesight told her that three waited at the door that led to safety, dead guards at their feet. Two more were entering through a small window at the opposite end of the hallway, their hands ripping stones from the wall to make the opening large enough for them to pass. Within moments she and the others would be trapped between them.

  How can they be so strong?, she wondered silently. In her magesight, they glowed brilliantly with an intensity to their auras that she hadn’t seen since… her mind balked at the thought. That isn’t possible, she thought. Celior’s aura was stronger still, and his presence made it difficult to even think. Besides, there are too many of them.

  “There are three ahead of us, and two more will soon be approaching from behind,” she told the others.

  “There’s nowhere to hide!” said Lilly, in a voice tinged with incipient panic.

  Rose put a hand on Lilly’s shoulder, trying to calm her, “Take a deep breath. Elaine can always make us invisible again.”

  Gram tugged on his mother’s arm, “Where’s Dad? How did they get in here?”

  “I’m sure your father is still fighting below. Once he’s finished there, he will come and get rid of these as well, never fear,” Rose answered calmly, hiding her own fear that something must have gone terribly wrong with the defense of Cameron Castle. “For now we have to take care of ourselves ‘till he can get here. Do you understand?”

  Gram nodded, and Matthew and Moira nodded along with him. They were all listening closely with a seriousness that made it clear that they understood the gravity of the situation.

  “When a Prathion doesn’t wa
nt to be found, a Prathion isn’t found,” said Elaine softly to herself, repeating one of her father’s old sayings. Raising her voice, she spoke to the others, “Everyone move up against the wall. I’m going to shield you from all sight, magical and otherwise, just to be safe.”

  “Will we be blind again?” asked Lilly worriedly.

  “Yes, there’s no way around that, but you’ll still be able to hear… and be heard, so stay as quiet as possible,” Elaine explained carefully.

  Rose was already lining the children up against the wall. Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “You sound as if you don’t intend to be with us. Don’t we have to be in physical contact for you to make us invisible?”

  “Not as long as you stay in one place,” answered Elaine, “This spell will be stationary; if you move more than a foot in any direction, you will become visible again.”

  “What will you do?” prodded Rose.

  “Teach them why it is never wise to hunt wizards, or their friends,” Elaine replied, with a show of bravado that she hoped she could live up to. That’s probably something like what Mordecai would have said, she told herself. She intended to make her mentor proud.

  Only a minute later the two men who had climbed through the window made their approach from the southern end of the corridor, spotting her as soon as they rounded the corner. They stopped some fifty feet away and smiled at the lone woman standing there before them. A moment later, the three that had been in front of the Illeniel family rooms appeared at the northern end of the corridor.