“He senses it,” Fina said when Jez asked him about it.
“Senses what?”
“That we’ve moved beyond civilized lands.”
“But you said Sharim was in Korand.”
Fina let out a long breath. “Only lines on a map say we’re still in Korand. Osmund spent far more time with the beast men than either of you did, and from what he’s told me, it brought a more primal nature to the forefront of his mind. He’s more sensitive to such things. Ziary is very close to the surface now, and doing something as mundane as working with the sword helps Osmund stay grounded.”
“It’s just weird. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use one that wasn’t on fire.”
“You likely won’t during a real battle. He’s too good with flame. This is just an exercise.”
Jez watched him for several seconds. He'd always known Osmund was good with the blade, but aside from once in the arena, he’d never actually seen him fight unless Jez himself was in the battle too, and that hadn’t given him much chance for observation. Jez had never imagined anything like this. It was almost a dance. Osmund moved with a liquid grace that looked more cat than human. In fact, it reminded Jez of the lion man Galine.
“Of course, that’s probably who he learned it from,” he said under his breath.
Osmund was so focused on his swordplay that he didn’t notice the crowd gathering to watch. There was a small release of power with every motion. Jez felt the wind stirring against his skin. The earth trembled slightly when Osmund stepped, though Jez didn’t feel the familiar surge of protection magic. He turned to Fina.
“Is he using terra magic?”
Fina shook his head. “His ability with protection magic has always been limited. Even his shields are more the redirection of destructive energies than true wards.”
Osmund stepped again, and the earth shook so hard it knocked several people off their feet. This time, Osmund stopped, looking surprised. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word, the ground shook again. The earth split at his feet, and he had to throw himself to one side to avoid falling into a fissure a dozen feet long.
The smell of sulfur spewed from the opening. Jez drew his sword, the gold veins in the metal shimmering with power. Master Fina’s eyes flickered to the weapon. Then, he shrouded his hands in flame. Osmund did the same to his sword as soon as he got to his feet. Some of the soldiers, seeing the reaction of the mages, drew their own weapons. There were shouts of alarm from other areas in the camp. Jez looked up to see that at least ten other fissures had opened.
“I’ll deal with this one,” Jez said as an arm, seeming made of stone, reached out of the earth. “Get the others.”
Jez lunged at the demon as it pulled itself out of the ground. His sword hissed as it cut through the air and into the creature’s neck, meeting only slight resistance. The demon’s head, looking like nothing so much as that of a poorly carved statue, came off and rolled for a few feet before going up in a gout of flame. Jez looked up to see everyone staring at him. Other rock demons had started coming into the camp.
“What are you waiting for? Go!”
He didn’t wait to see if they reacted before throwing himself at the next demon climbing out of the fissure. This one carried a blade seeming to be made out of the same stone as the rest of it. Its weapon caught Jez’s, sending out a shower of sparks. Jez fell into his sword forms almost by instinct. Like most demons who carried weapons, this creature was a deadly fighter, but Jez had spent years honing both his physical skills and his magic to deal with such things. A surge of terra magic ran up his blade, and the next time the weapons impacted, the stone demon’s sword shattered. Jez’s weapon barely slowed as it cleaved the creature’s head in two. The engagement had only taken seconds, but by then, a veritable army of demons had spilled into the camp.
Jez moved without thinking, striking with both blade and magic. He lost track of how long he fought. At some point, he discarded his metal sword and summoned his crystal one. The power involved made his flesh tingle, but the pharim’s weapon cut through the demons with ruthless efficiency. None of the creatures could stand very long against him, but there were so many, and his sword arm eventually began to slow. More than one demon scored a hit on him with claw or blade. Rather than spilling from his wounds, however, his blood seemed to crystalize. A dim part of his mind realized that couldn’t be good, but he didn’t have the time to worry about it. As he accumulated more wounds, his body began to feel stiff and more attacks got through, forcing him to draw more deeply of Luntayary’s power. He was so lost in battle that he could barely feel his flesh start to burn away.
Eventually, Jez found himself fighting side by side with Jabur and a dozen others soldiers. The former bodyguard looked little like he had earlier that day. He’d sprouted orange fur, and his fingers had elongated into claws. He lashed out with bolts of emerald and scarlet energy, and whenever a demon came close, Jabur would fall on it in a flurry of claws. He was a deadly fighter, but they were outnumbered too badly.
The circle of demons closed around them. Only a few of the ordinary soldiers near them remained standing, but without magic to aid them, they couldn’t do much. Jez noticed that one of them, a girl with raven black hair who was perhaps eighteen years old had picked up his gold-veined sword. She was more effective than the rest, taking down two demons when they got close, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
One of the creatures lunged at Jez. He brought his sword up to meet it, but he was too slow, and it slipped passed his defenses. Its claws were an inch from Jez’s face when a brilliant green bolt of energy struck it, and it exploded into a cloud of dust. Jabur’s hand was still shimmering from the power he’d hurled when another of the creatures fell on him.
The tolling of a bell sounded through the camp. Why would anyone think to sound the alarm now? It tolled again. The third time, the sound was so loud it drowned out everything else. Jez thought his ears were about to bleed, and he almost lost his grip on his power.
Abruptly, a wave of energy washed over them, so thick it was visible even to his mundane senses. As it passed over the demons, they shattered, leaving nothing more than piles of rock and dust. Jez looked around and saw Besis, the protection master of the Carceri Academy, glowing with power as he walked through the battlefield. Besis saw him, and his eyes went wide.
“Jez, you’re wounded.”
Jez nodded. The world spun, and he fell into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 8
Jez woke to Besis standing over him along with an orange-robed apprentice he didn’t know. The room rumbled, and it took Jez a second to realize they weren’t under attack. He was in a bed aboard a moving wagon. Besis held his hands clasped on Jez’s chest. They pulsed with light, switching from blue to orange and back again. Jez’s flesh tingled, but it wasn’t the all too familiar sensation that accompanied drawing too deeply on Luntayary’s power.
He tried to speak, but his mouth refused to open. In fact, he could barely move at all. The noise from his throat attracted Besis’s attention and the protection master moved his hands over Jez’s face. The gentle lights lulled Jez into listlessness. The next thing he knew, Besis was waving a hand in front of his face. Jez sat up, and the room spun, but it stilled after a few seconds.
“What happened?” Jez’s voice was raspy, which apparently was not unanticipated because Besis was already holding out a tin cup of water for him to drink from.
“You were attacked by sidens,” the master said.
Jez blinked and tried to remember his lessons. “Blood freezers?”
“More like blood crystalizers, but yes. The effect can spread to others if we’re not careful, so we isolated you. You took enough wounds to have paralyzed a man three times your size. Another few minutes and your blood would’ve been solid. I’m not sure how you made it through that.”
Jez took a deep breath and stood up. The jostling of the wagon made it difficult to keep his balance, but he managed. He
glanced at the healer with whom Besis had formed a contingent. The protection master nodded and dismissed him. At his instruction, the wagon stopped just long enough for the healer to get off. Once it started again, Jez spoke.
“I think it was Luntayary. He must’ve been using terra magic to counter it without me realizing it.”
“Aren’t you two separate?”
A wave of nausea hit Jez, and he put his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes until it passed. “We were. I asked for his help a few times when we were dealing with the memory shadows a few months ago. I think the asking may have weakened the barrier.”
“Mortal choice?” Besis asked.
Jez shrugged. “It doesn’t seem as bad as it was two years ago. Maybe it’s because I’m stronger.”
Besis shook his head. “I wouldn’t even hazard a guess.”
The wagon rocked, and Jez lost his balance, but Besis caught him.
“Where are we going?” Jez asked.
“Back to the Academy.”
“What? Why? What about Sharim?”
“We took too long to find him. We can’t beat him in a straight fight anymore. He has too many, and the fact that he’s sent demons against us says he knows we’re coming. Right now, he has every advantage.”
“We can’t just leave him out there.”
“No, we can’t,” Besis said, “and we won’t, but Jez, where do you think he’s going to go first?”
A shiver ran down Jez’s spine. “The Academy?”
“Even if we didn’t have the greatest repository of knowledge in the known world, there are objects of power stored in the levels beneath the spire.” His eyes flickered to the door to the wagon. “Speaking of which, there was someone who wanted to see you, if you’re feeling up to it.”
“Osmund?”
“No, we have half a dozen of the larger wagons set up as healing wagons. He’s in one of those. Don’t worry. He wasn’t badly injured. That scion of his protected him and about two hundred others. No, this was a young woman. One of the lay swords. Are you feeling strong enough?”
“I guess,” Jez said. “What does she want?”
“Why don’t you ask her? She’s been marching alongside this wagon ever since she learned you were here.”
Jez nodded, and Besis poked his head out of the door. There was a grunt as the soldier pulled herself into the moving vehicle. Her raven black hair went down to her shoulders, and she had deep brown eyes, as well as the tanned skin of someone from Limar or one of the other kingdoms south of Ashtar. She looked familiar, but he didn’t recognize her until she knelt and drew the sword at her side, holding it out hilt first toward Jez. The gold veins in the blade glimmered in the light of the lantern. It was his own sword.
“You’re the one that picked it up when I called my other one.”
She nodded and took a step back. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, and she didn’t look up.
“Yes, my lord. Forgive me if I was presumptuous. I’ve come to return it to you.”
Her reaction caught him off guard. She seemed almost afraid, and it took him a moment to understand. “You don’t need to worry. I’m not Dusan.”
She relaxed visibly, but still didn’t look up. He sighed and took the blade. She bowed so deeply her head touched the wooden floor.
“Thank you for the honor of wielding it, my lord.”
“You did what you needed to do. What’s your name?”
She looked up. Her voice cracked as she spoke, and he could practically see the fear in her eyes. “Narva, my lord.”
“You’ve done well.” He hesitated for just a moment. “Captain Narva.”
She shook her head almost violently. “Oh, no, my lord. I’m just a lay sword.”
Jez smiled. “A lot more people would’ve died if you hadn’t done what you did. I say that makes you a captain.”
She just stared at him for several seconds before bowing multiple times. “Th...thank you, Baron. Thank you.” She eyed Besis who cleared his throat. She nodded. “I’ll leave you to your rest.”
She practically bounced out of the wagon. Jez placed his sword next to his bed and lay back down. After a few seconds, Besis’s shadow appeared above him and he opened his eyes. The protection master had a smirk on his face.
“I’ll admit she did well, but I don’t know that I would’ve promoted her a full three ranks.”
Jez felt his face flush. “Well, I wanted to do something, and...” he coughed. “Look, I haven’t really studied the military. I didn’t remember what rank came after lay sword.”
Besis stared at him for what had to be a full minute. Then, he erupted in laughter.
CHAPTER 9
Jez was on his feet after another day, and though the healers had instructed him to rest, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. They had lost nearly a quarter of the army in the attack, and those fifteen hundred ghosts haunted his dreams. He couldn’t help but recall Fina’s words about being able to sleep at night. With that denied to him, he spent his time studying the broken items Besis had brought with him.
Along with two dozen other mages, Besis had brought torn rags and odd pieces of wood and metal. Whenever a strong enough demon was bound, it left behind a totem, a thing that sealed away the demon in the abyss. The totem would exist as long as the demon did. For the most part, that meant it would exist forever, however, six months before, Jez and his friends had been trapped in the abyss. There, they had done the unthinkable. They had summoned an army of pharim and made war against the forces of darkness in the center of their own power. Several demons had been permanently destroyed. Any totems for them that had existed in the Academy had shattered.
“You used one of these to power your binding?” Jez asked. Besis nodded. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Neither did we. One of the acolytes found a reference to it in an older volume in the Library of Zandra.”
Jez raised an eyebrow. “You let acolytes go through that?”
“Not the dangerous sections, and the acolyte didn’t learn how to do it. She found a journal that talked about it and brought it to Master Linala’s attention. Once we knew what to look for, we found it in one of the sections we’ve restricted. You can’t even imagine the volume of knowledge in that place. We’ve forgotten so much. We’ll be studying it for decades. For lifetimes.”
“How is it done?”
“It’s a little like forming a contingent. The initiating thought is the image of the demon that was bound mixed with the feeling of the working that bound it. It’s a lot easier if you used the totem for a demon you personally banished, but it’s not necessary. The power is limited, though a stronger demon will give you more power.”
He handed Jez a torn silk figure that looked vaguely like a man. Jez recognized it. It was the totem for a phobos, the fear demon he’d banished on his first day at the Academy, as well as one of the first demons he’d destroyed when he’d been in the abyss. Jez closed his eyes and concentrated. As soon as he formed the initiating thought, dark power swelled within him. It felt oily, as if it would dirty him just by touching it. It made him shiver and reminded him of the time he had unwittingly formed a contingent with a demon. After a second, he broke the connection.
“That’s not pleasant.”
“No, it was never studied very well.” He grinned. “There’s never been an abundance of broken demon cages to experiment with.”
Jez held the doll toward Besis. “That’s probably a good thing.”
Besis took it and dropped it in a small silk pouch, which he handed back to Jez. “Keep it. You never know when it might become useful.”
Reluctantly, Jez put the pouch in a pocket on the inside of his robes. There was a heavy knock at the door, and before anyone answered, it opened, letting in the moonlight. Fina entered with a haggard look on his face.
“There’s been another attack.”
“How many?” Besis asked. “What kind?”
“Karins,” Fina said. �
��They came at us from the south and attacked just long enough to engage our mages. Then, they retreated. Some of the more hotheaded ones wanted to follow, but I held them back. I suspect they’re trying to draw out our mages.”
“That makes sense,” Besis said. “Karins always were unusually clever.”
“I can’t help feeling like they’re just trying to slow us down.”
“Do you have any idea why?” Besis asked.
“None. I’ve sent some of the beast mages out as scouts to see if they can spot a trap.” He grinned at Jez. “Apparently, Jabur is quite talented in that area. We’ll see what the scouts find.”
“Jabur?” Jez asked. “Do you trust him?”
“I didn’t send him out alone.”
Jez shook his head to clear his thoughts. “How far are we from Mount Carcer?”
“A few days,” Besis said.
“Already?” Jez asked.
Besis smiled. “Another of those things we learned from the library. Terra magic combined with transformation and healing can grant people the ability to march much faster. We have several contingents speeding us along.”
They walked out of the wagon, and Besis locked it. Both he and Fina placed protections on it, and the three of them sat around a small cook fire nearby. After a few minutes, Osmund and Lina joined them. They talked about possibilities while they ate dried rations that tasted more like paper than any real breakfast. They were just finishing their meal when an owl three feet tall landed near them. It shimmered into the form of a heavyset dark haired man. He inclined his head to Fina.
“Master, there is an army approaching from the south. It’s at least a thousand strong, and it’s closing fast.”
“How did they get ahead of us?” Fina asked.
Darkmask (Pharim War Book 5) Page 4