by Ann Macela
Saxt said nothing—out loud. His scowl and clenched jaw more than adequately expressed his dislike of the idea. Johanna knew he was the one she had to convince.
“First, the duel itself.” Johanna looked straight at Phil. “It will take place in the large arena, and be open to the public. Nobody will be on the arena floor except you, me, a referee, and two healers. I suggest Harlen Grimstead for the referee. He’ll do everything by the book. All protective barriers will be in place.”
Phil nodded, but kept his mouth shut.
“Second, what constitutes ‘losing.’ The standard loss in a duel occurs when one pentagon cracks, opens, or otherwise fails to stop a magic attack. I see no reason to change that. The referee will make the determination of fortress failure if the duelists cannot agree.”
“What about blades?” Clyde asked.
“No blades,” Saxt and Miriam said together.
“Correct,” Johanna replied. “If a duelist draws a sword, he or she loses, then and there.”
“I can agree to all those requirements,” Phil said.
“I’m not finished,” Johanna stated. “Win or lose, you will agree to abide by the following conditions. You will immediately drop the idea of a lawsuit. You will accept that you will not be on Clyde’s team as a member or for practice, and you will stop asking, demanding, or bringing up the subject in the hearing of any member of the team, or elsewhere. You will never again challenge me, any member of my team, or any of us here to a duel.”
“Fine,” Phil said, as if he didn’t care one way or the other.
“Win or lose, you will not speak badly of the team or any member to anyone. You will not attempt retaliation, by word or deed, on any of us. You will also have nothing to do with any underage student from now on. No mentoring, no helping with spells. If any ask, you will refer them to the masters. Finally, all these conditions will be put into writing and signed by all of us here today.”
Johanna shot a glance around the table. Everyone on her side was nodding, including Pryce Oakley. Phil’s two buddies appeared distinctly unhappy. Too bad. The man himself was smiling and eyeing her up and down. Probably thinking she’d be easy to beat. Did she have a surprise or two for him!
She looked from Miriam to Saxt and back. “Do either of you have anything to add?”
“Yes,” Miriam answered. “Bellman, if you lose, you will inform your friends, followers, and adherents that, should they try retaliation or revenge, they will be brought before the Council for censure and fines. If you do not follow these agreements, you will be denied access to all evil items, even for your own practice, and I, personally, will bring you up for censure and monetary fines. If you form a team and do not follow these stipulations, the team will be decertified and denied access to evil items.”
“I have two more,” Saxt said. “If any of your friends attempt to help you before or during the duel, you lose. Also, if you do form a team and a member is harmed in your attempts to destroy an item, you personally will bear the entire cost for their medical and psychological care.”
“When do we duel?” Phil asked gleefully, rubbing his hands together.
“Saturday afternoon at three,” Johanna stated. “That should give us time to draw up the agreement. We can sign it before the duel.”
“I agree to all conditions,” Phil said, folding his arms over his chest and grinning. “Do you agree to mine, the apology, team certification, being part of the Stone’s destruction?”
Johanna looked at Clyde, and they nodded. Clyde answered, “Yes, we agree to those things we have control over.”
“I agree to those parts under the Committee on Swords,” Saxt said.
“And I agree for the Council,” Miriam added. “Give me your notes, Johanna. Pryce, will you help us draw up the paperwork?”
Oakley said, “Gladly.”
Johanna handed over her notecards. Phil agreed very quickly, probably confident he could defeat her. His overconfidence would play directly into her hands. She reminded herself not to let her own self-assurance, over or otherwise, to do the same for him. What was that old saying about Sword arrogance being a trap for the unwary?
After Miriam set the time and place for signing the agreements, the group broke up. Phil and his two sycophants sauntered out, congratulating each other on their victory. Miriam, Barnaby, and Oakley left to confer on the exact wording of the conditions.
Johanna braced herself as the door closed behind them. “Before everybody yells at me, do you want to know why I did that?”
“No, I think we all understand why.” Saxt sounded more weary than angry, as he sat back and rubbed his forehead. “I, for one, would have appreciated some discussion first.”
Johanna kept her mouth shut. Discussion wouldn’t have changed the end result—not for her.
“Johanna has good reasons for her action,” Clyde said. “Phil has been a thorn in all our sides for a long time. Now he’s handed us the chance to put an end to his complaints.”
“What were you all going to do if she hadn’t taken up the challenge?” Kendra interjected. “Let Phil bring the suit and hope the Council will stop him? All that would have accomplished is a lot of time wasted. Believe me, you couldn’t have talked him out of either his suit or a duel.”
“She’s right,” Jake said. “If we can shut him down once and for all, I’ll be extremely happy. Adding that bit about his staying away from the students was excellent. Yes, he agreed to that verbally in the discussions over Chuck, but this puts it in writing.”
At her friends’ support, Johanna breathed a silent sigh of relief before she said to Saxt, “I can win. I know his tactics, and I have level on him. I also have a few surprises of my own.”
“I’m sure you do,” Saxt said, studied her for a long moment, and finally nodded with an acquiescing expression. “What were we saying last night about being Swords? Here we have a perfect example. I still don’t like it, though.”
“Thank you.” Johanna felt her body relax at his agreement. Saxt would support her, not try to take over.
“Speaking of surprises,” Kendra interjected, “why don’t you show me the ring spin, and we practice a little. I’ll play Phil.” She smirked and assumed a Phil-like posture, tilting her head to look down her nose.
Kendra’s antics broke the tension, and laughing, the group split up to gather robes and meet in the small arena. Johanna went with Kendra to the concierge for her robe from her suitcases. On their walk to the Defender Building and after a few minutes of catching up on their respective families, Kendra gave her a penetrating study, and Johanna tried to play innocent.
“Oh, don’t give me that,” Kendra admonished. “Saxt is The One, isn’t he? You’ve found a new soul mate! It sticks out all over you both. I didn’t know you could even have a second one.”
Johanna sighed. “Neither did I. Yes, we might be mates. He’s a widower and is as surprised as I am. We’re still at the ‘getting to know each other’ stage.”
“Do you think he’ll try to stop you from fighting Phil? Despite what he said?”
“No, not really. Last night we talked about both of us being Swords. We both realize it’s going to take, shall we say, a period of adjustment.” Johanna hoped what she was telling her friend would come true. She knew they’d be discussing it again tonight, this time in a real situation, not a hypothetical one.
“An understatement if I ever heard one,” Kendra commented drily. “Well, no matter what, I’m tremendously happy for both of you.”
“You’ll find yours one of these days, I’m confident,” Johanna said with a smile.
“Oh, no, I’m not meant for a soul mate.” Kendra looked positively horrified at the prospect.
“I know why you think that, but I don’t agree,” Johanna said emphatically.
Kendra shook her head and ordered, “Tell me about the ring and energy and how you figured it out.”
They discussed the ring, the spinning procedure, and Phil’s tactics
the rest of the way to the small arena.
Clyde and Saxt were waiting for them. Clyde raised the lead box in his hands and said, “Jake was called away, and I’ve taken the liberty of picking up a small item. I’ll lock us in so we have no observers. I’m looking forward to this. I haven’t watched you two practice for a long time.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
About thirty minutes later, Saxt watched the two women prepare to do battle by setting their fortresses at each end of the arena. He and Clyde had activated the oval’s barrier and established their own pentagon on the side in the middle and outside the magic wall.
Saxt stood with arms folded across his chest and a strange feeling in his middle. Whether it was his stomach or his magic center, he couldn’t tell. Maybe both were grumbling unhappily. Maybe they both should be.
Damn it! Here he’d found her only the other day, she’d agreed only last night that she was his mate, they hadn’t even mated yet, he hadn’t had a chance to get used to the “Sword” in her, and what happens? She was going into a duel with a vindictive, sneaky, conniving son of a bitch, who, if Saxt read him right, also wanted her. Not simply for a fellow team member.
Bellman wanted Johanna for mating purposes.
Saxt had watched Bellman closely in the negotiations over the duel. Every chance he had, Phil looked at Johanna, and it hadn’t been a simple glance. No, sir. Phil had almost drooled as his gaze wandered over her hair, her face, her body. Saxt wanted to howl in challenge, and his fingers itched to hold his blade—preferably at Bellman’s neck. Or lower.
Phil wanted to ‘prove’ himself, all right, not only to show his Sword abilities were stronger than hers, but to demonstrate his worthiness as a mate. The man was crazy if he thought Johanna would ever be his mate. Didn’t he understand the phenomenon at all?
And Johanna didn’t have a clue about Bellman’s ulterior motives. Or if she did, she was ignoring them.
And if that wasn’t bad enough? At least the duel was in the future. Right this minute, his soul mate and the most powerful Sword he’d ever seen next to Fergus Whipple were going to be throwing fireballs and lightning bolts around like so many toys.
They’d demonstrated the ring for Kendra with Clyde, Johanna, and Saxt doing the spinning, and Kendra inside the ring alone. Before she’d taken a single bit of energy from it, Kendra’s blade had shined gold with white streaks. Saxt had watched her sword itself turn white just before she hit the evil item with a killing beam. From all he’d experienced, the beams didn’t change to white until they hit the object. Furthermore, Kendra had disintegrated a level-seven item totally by herself, without the help of another Sword.
That blade color and that last ability placed Kendra Degen off the level scale. Her power wasn’t “next to” that of Fergus. Her power surpassed his. Now her fortress shone silver with gold streaks—a level seventeen at least.
“It’s okay, Saxt,” Clyde said softly. “Kendra and Johanna practice together whenever they can. Kendra has a very exact calibration system in her magic. I don’t know how she does it, but she can deliver the precise level of spells that you need. Johanna will be fine.”
“My mind knows you’re right. Other parts aren’t so sure.” Saxt crossed his arms over his chest and told himself to settle down.
“I’m set at a level fourteen,” Johanna called out while her pentagon walls flared with violet and silver. “Hit me with the same level.”
“Okay, here comes some fourteen stuff.” Kendra sent a fireball and two lightning bolts at Johanna’s structure. The sizzle and whoosh and thunderclaps filled the arena with noise and smoke.
Even though Johanna’s pentagon easily deflected or dissipated the energy, Saxt flinched, almost certain he could feel the missiles hit. He knew he had to show no reactions to the battle. Wouldn’t want Johanna to think he didn’t believe in her ability. Damn, it wasn’t easy.
“Raise your level to fifteen,” Kendra said. “I don’t trust Phil. That big magic center he claims may give him the power to cast higher. Incoming at fifteen.”
The next bolts from her were more-silver-than-violet streaks of pure energy. These too had no visible effect on Johanna’s shield.
“Hit me with a whole bunch, and keep them coming,” Johanna told her opponent.
Kendra threw a combination of lightning, fire, and pure energy at Johanna’s fortress for several minutes. Flashes of colored light caromed around the walls of the oval, and through the soles of his shoes Saxt felt the reverberations of the hits on her pentagon. He kept a close eye on his soul mate—who, in point of fact, appeared to be having a great time.
When the attack stopped, Johanna shouted, “WooooHoooo! What a rush. No problems. No dents, no cracks, no thinning.”
“Okay,” Kendra told her, “I’m lowering my pentagon to fifteen. Throw those specials we were working on the last time I was here. Ready? Go!”
Johanna stood absolutely still for a moment before she held out both hands in front of her. Out of her pentagon in quick succession leaped a huge fireball, next a spear of a lightning bolt, followed by a strange blue and green ball that unfurled into a tidal wave in the middle of the arena and crashed and foamed onto the fortress. She finished with a silver/violet energy beam shaped like an axe head that slammed into the wall with an audible “thunk.”
“Woooooeeeee!” Kendra yelled. “That’ll blow Phil’s mind. Before we do any more, however, I thought of a problem we need to address.”
The four of them gathered in the middle of the arena.
“What was that ball and wave?” Saxt asked.
“That was an illusion with no real energy behind it,” Johanna said with a grin. “The last time we practiced, we came up with the idea of a total diversion to throw off the opponent, and a tidal wave seemed like a good idea.”
“And she taught me how to cast it,” Clyde put in. “Sending one of those waves down the arena is a lot of fun.”
“Even though I was expecting it,” Kendra said, “the contrast of fire, then lightning, and then water instead of energy threw me for a few seconds. I couldn’t see outside at all. I had no idea what was coming next. When the energy beam hit, it surprised me. If I had a fourteen fortress instead of a fifteen, the wall would have cracked. Instead, it bent inward about a foot.”
Evaluating the situation as a Sword, Saxt was thoroughly impressed by the two women. Evaluating it as a mate, he was in better shape, having seen Johanna’s power, but his stomach and his center still grumbled.
“Given what you’ve showed us,” he told Johanna, “I think you’re going to give Phil a fight he won’t forget. There are two problems to watch out for, though. First, if you can’t knock him out quickly, the battle’s going to become a war of attrition, and whoever has the most energy wins. If he truly has a large energy well, and he can generate the power, he’ll last longer. So, the more energy you can force him to use, the better. I like the illusions, especially if he can’t tell whether you’re sending him a real bullet or a dud.”
“How is Phil at illusions?” Clyde asked.
“Unless he’s been practicing a lot,” Kendra replied, “he’s lousy. When I was little, I used to sneak in to watch the classes and the practices. Phil could barely make an animal illusion—you know, like a lion for defense.”
“I worked on that tidal wave for a long time,” Johanna said. “I have a repertoire of other illusions—a wall of fire, big walking trees, fast-growing poison ivy, and a blizzard.”
“Fine,” Saxt said. “My second problem concerns a worse-case scenario. What if Bellman draws his blade? Grimstead is a thirteen. He won’t be able to force Bellman to cease fire. You need to be ready for that possibility.”
“I agree with you,” Kendra said. “Beams from blades are inherently more powerful than the ones you cast from your hands. That’s what I wanted to discuss and practice—use of blades. I’ve never liked Phil, and I don’t trust him one little bit.”
“If he draws his blade, I’m drawi
ng mine. Good idea. Let’s go,” Johanna agreed.
The women took their places again, the men returned to their own pentagon, and short bursts of sword beams began to fly.
While Saxt watched the battle, he hoped the fight wouldn’t come to blades. It was so damn dangerous. But … why did the sight remind him of … a story his grandfather told? A dueling spell? When the missiles hit the pentagon walls, the recollection grew stronger and stronger until he remembered it all. In only a minute, he had worked out the physics magic behind the story. Oh, yes, that might work. Woooeee, indeed.
He waved his arms at the combatants. “Stop!”
When the beams stopped flying, he called out, “Come here. I have an idea.”
Everybody gathered in the middle again.
“As I was watching you,” Saxt told them, “I remembered a story my grandfather used to tell. He heard it from his father, maybe his grandfather. However many generations in the past doesn’t matter. One of them lived at a time when Swords dueled more and often to the death, just as the non-practitioners did. They developed a way for concentrating the beam as it comes from your blade. Now when you shoot, it comes in a shape as thick or wide as the sword itself is. They reduced it to a very fine beam that, with enough power behind it, could cut right through their opponent’s pentagon wall.”
“Like a laser?” Clyde asked.
“Exactly,” Saxt nodded. “Assuming his story was true, why couldn’t we do the same? Right now, I shoot beams out my blade tip without thinking about how wide it is. Why don’t we manipulate our blades to emit as fine a beam as possible. Pushing more energy into a narrower tube would have the same effect as pushing a river through a narrow canyon. The water goes faster, flows more strongly, destroys more.”
“Since energy already flows through our blade’s inner cores,” Clyde said, “we should be able to make the exit smaller.”
“How can we try it?” Johanna asked.
“Let’s use my fortress,” Kendra said, pointing at the glowing structure. “It’s on auto maintenance and set at fifteen.”