“If you hurt them, I’m going to kill you.” Riley’s voice was cold steel. “I don’t care what it takes. What I have to do. I will murder you. I need you to understand that deep in your bones. If you hurt those I care about, you will be hurt next.”
“Everyone talks, Riley. Everyone always talks. You know what I like best about Harold? He understands that talk doesn’t matter. Action does. Today, if your friends won’t listen to reason, you’ll see my action. You can talk, but after this evening, I think you’ll have a lot less to say.”
Harold came to Riley’s door next, hours later.
“He’s ready for you.”
“And he sends you?” Riley stood up.
“I do as he wishes, yes.”
“For how long?”
Harold smiled. “Until someone more powerful comes, of course.”
“He knows that?”
“I imagine he knows everything, but we are spending too much time talking. Come. Your friends are almost here.”
Riley felt helpless, and she hated that. She had never felt helpless but had always possessed the power to do something. Now she didn’t.
“Here.” Harold stepped forward holding one of those green necklaces in his hands. “You’re to wear this, so we don’t have any more mishaps like before.”
He reached out to put it on her.
“No.” Her voice was icy steel. “I’ll put it on. You can check it after. Don’t put your hands near me.”
She’d been left without restraints or one of these necklaces since just after he’d first captured her, Rendal clearly feeling he could handle her if he wanted to. She sure as hell wasn’t letting this cretin touch her.
Harold studied her face for a second, obviously deciding whether he wanted the hassle of a fight.
He handed the necklace over. He didn’t.
Smart of him, she thought.
Riley took the necklace and put it on, latching the back together. Harold moved behind her.
“Good. Now, upstairs we go. You first, Right Hand.”
Riley walked, unsure what to expect. She knew what was expected of her. That had been made explicitly clear earlier in the day. Give the party line. Do not try to attack. Watch as her friends are decimated—and that is what would happen. She held no doubt about that.
She could preach for hours about how much she loved Rendal and his compound. How it was a fucking dream.
William wouldn’t believe it.
Mason wouldn’t believe it.
And they would attack. Regardless of who else was with them, those two wouldn’t hold back.
Then what would she do? She didn’t give a damn about the necklace. The magic that had erupted from her before had acted on its own accord. What she needed were her hands, and these fools apparently weren’t going to chain her.
That was a serious mistake on their part, although she understood why they were making it: she couldn’t very well sing Rendal’s praises while in chains.
But if her hands were free to move, people were free to die.
Lucie, she thought.
The man was evil, no doubt about that, but he was also highly intelligent. Cunning. He’d thought through so many possible outcomes, and he knew all the angles.
Instinct, then—that was what Riley would have to rely on. She would have to see the lay of the battlefield, how the separate armies were positioned, and then make her decision to attack or to stay silent. To hold her friends’ lives or Lucie’s in higher regard.
They reached the compound’s large front doors. Rendal was in front, waiting for them to open.
“Have you heard your friends calling?” He didn’t turn around.
It was only the three of them—Rendal, Riley, and Harold.
“No,” Riley answered.
“Remember, if you do as I say, Lucie lives. If you try to fight she will die, along with your friends. There will be no winner here except me.”
Riley was silent. Rendal flipped his hand, and the doors in front of him started moving. He wore two bracelets now, although she didn’t understand why. One was green, the color she’d seen over and over since showing up here. The other was a deep red.
As the door opened, light poured in from outside—the rays of a falling sun. It was nearly dusk.
The green bracelet lit up, the red one remaining a dull red.
What is it? she wondered. What’s it do for him?
“Harold, please take your position.”
“Yes, sir.”
Harold walked behind Riley, leaving the incoming light. Riley shielded her eyes for a moment as the door opened fully.
Rendal went first and Riley followed, her eyes adjusting. She looked to her left and right at soldiers in a huge semi-circle. She thought there must have been a hundred on either side. Riley quickly looked at the top of the compound behind her, finding the archers she was looking for.
Her mind had flipped into war mode without any direction from her, understanding the layout and where all parties were situated. Her training was taking over, and there was nothing she—or Rendal—could do about it.
Before her stood fourteen people. Their shadows lay across the dirt as the sun dropped beneath the horizon. Mason was in the middle… Stupid, stupid, stupid, Riley thought. She wanted him behind the line and to the left since she thought that would be the hardest place for the archers to see.
She understood why he wasn’t, though.
He was the Assistant Prefect, head representative from New Perth, and to hide in the back was beneath that position, and him.
William stood to his right, and Verith to his left. Spread out on either side were people she didn’t know. Rendal had been right; they were mutants. People with growths in places that shouldn’t have any, and bare spaces where they should have body parts. Riley had heard of people like them, descendants of the long-ago wars. She’d never seen one before and had no idea why they would be here now.
“Rendal Hemmons, as Assistant Prefect from New Perth, I command you to release our Right Hand. If you do so, we will return without violence. If you refuse, the power of New Perth will fall upon you.”
Rendal stopped, and Riley did too. They were alone, the soldiers fifty feet away and Mason another thirty in front of them.
Rendal turned around, looking at the archers perched above him.
“It seems that the power is on my side, Assistant Prefect. Not to mention, you’re breaking our deal. You give your Right Hand to me, and I leave New Perth alone. Now you bring war to my place?”
“Release her,” William called, “or I’m going to bury my sword so far up your ass you’ll think you ate steel for dinner!”
“Everyone talks,” Rendal said quietly. He turned slightly to Riley. “Your turn.”
Riley didn’t know where Lucie was. She hadn’t seen her so far, but that didn’t mean the woman wasn’t here.
Riley stepped forward, her hands at her sides. Her senses were insanely perceptive, feeling everything around her. Her hands kept wanting to reach for the sword that no longer resided on her hip.
It doesn’t matter what I say here, she thought.
“Mason,” she called loud enough to cross the distance between them. “William. You both need to leave. I’ve made my choice, and it’s here. With him. There’s nothing you can do about it, so please—” She felt real emotion then, needing them to understand she wanted them to leave. “Please, go. There’s nothing for you here. I’m not leaving.”
“He didn’t put any chains on you, Riley, but I can see that green necklace the same as I can see you.” William’s voice was louder than hers. “He doesn’t want that magic bursting out, does he? Wants to keep you nice and safe. I gotta say, Rendal, someone wearing that magic necklace doesn’t seem like they really want to be there to me. Seems like you’re fuckin’ keeping her there against her will.”
Rendal turned his back on them, glancing at her as he did. “You did well. Now they make their own choice.”
R
iley watched him start walking back toward the door, his robe billowing slightly as he did.
“Fuck it,” she whispered.
If her friends were going to die today, she would too.
She rushed forward, her feet deadly messengers, their message the person they carried. She made almost no sound as she reached the mage, jumping into the air, her hands outstretched to take him down in a devastating roll.
Rendal turned just before she hit him, his eyes red and his hands in a cupped position, pointing at her.
Fire blazed out, a flood of it.
Riley knew at that moment that she was dead.
Yet she watched as the fire spread out around her as if hitting some field she couldn’t see.
“Silly mage!”
The voice came from behind her, and Riley realized she wasn’t falling but hanging in midair.
The soldiers behind Rendal rushed forward, their horses’ hooves like thunder.
Riley was being pulled backward, moving through the air inside some invisible field. Rendal was no longer throwing fire at her; he’d turned to the man who had shouted. The people around Mason were spreading out now, and—
“NO FUCKING WAY!” Riley shouted with an amazed smile.
Fire engulfed William’s sword.
Riley was still moving backward, although she didn’t know who was controlling her.
The archers had let their first round of arrows fly and were now reloading.
Riley knew everyone was dead, just as she’d known she was dead moments before. They had no shields, no protection at all from the metal speeding to pierce them.
Riley’s eye caught a woman on the far right. She was moving her hands in an odd way at the arrows streaking through the air.
The arrows coalesced as they got closer to their targets—and then they simply burst. Not apart, but their metal tips went every which way, some simply fluttering to the ground while others were flung far into the distance. They were no longer a threat.
“Wind,” Riley whispered. “She used concentrated wind to scatter them.”
Riley touched the ground, and whatever was holding her dissipated. She was twenty feet behind Mason, who was marching forward with his own sword drawn.
“MASON! NO!”
He turned around and looked at her. Her senses were still focused, but now only on him. He wasn’t supposed to be out here. He was a Prefect, meant to command troops, not be one.
Her feet flew, rushing across the ground towards her commander.
“Go. Get out of here. I’ll stay and fight.”
He laughed. Actually laughed at her as screams rang out across the expanse.
“I didn’t come here to run back home, Riley. You want my sword or this hand-axe? We’re going to kill this fucker.”
She looked beyond him. So many things were happening that she couldn’t focus on any single event—and right now she had to figure out how to protect Mason.
“What weapon are you best at?” she asked.
“Probably the sword.”
“Give me the axe then, and listen to me, you damn fool. Stay behind me at all times. Fucking behind me, you got that?”
He smiled, looking like a mischievous boy. “Yeah, I got you.”
She grabbed the axe, immediately feeling safer. She hadn’t known how much she’d missed having a weapon in her hand. How much like home it felt.
She surveyed the scene. William was on the left, and she so did not want to hear him bragging when this was finished. His flame-enshrouded sword was flinging fire across the land, killing multiple adversaries at once. There were people with him, although none were using weapons. Riley could hardly understand what she was looking at, but it appeared to be a mixture of flames, rocks, and…
“That’s not possible,” she whispered.
A flock of birds was descending on the group to the left, but only on Rendal’s men. They were screeching, pecking, and clawing, raking the flesh from Mason’s enemies.
On the right of Rendal was another group. Verith was with them, and although he didn’t have fire attached to his sword, he still wielded his steel brilliantly. Riley saw flames everywhere, dirt and rocks flying from the ground, and what looked to be electricity ripping through the air.
And in the middle? Rendal stood, his eyes red and his hands wide to his side.
The bald man who had screamed earlier was approaching him, his hands at his hips, palms facing the mage.
“You magic, aye? Me magic too.”
Rendal brought his left hand up and sent out a bolt of fire, and the big bald man dodged it easily, simply moving his shoulder as if someone had swung at him.
“That magic? Ha!”
He kept moving forward.
Rendal’s right hand attacked next, shooting out tiny flakes of fire, arrowheads that streaked over the ground.
The bald man raised his left hand and electricity sparked from it—bright and shining like static in the night. He shot it forward, long strands lacing over one another and forming a net. The fire plunged into it.
“Silly mage!”
The bald man was nearly to Rendal now.
Riley saw the green wristband get brighter.
“No,” she whispered. “We’ve got to help him.”
Rendal brought both hands together, and a thunderous roar rolled across the expanse.
The bald man brought his other hand up, but whatever he’d wanted to do with it didn’t matter. He flew back as if struck by a titan-sized fist. He hit the ground hard, skidding across the dirt. He scrambled to gain traction, his left hand still sparking with electricity.
Rendal turned, the bracelet on his wrist still burning bright. The sun was descending further, and the green looked even more menacing. Rendal watched his hundred soldiers being decimated by five people.
“No.” He waved his hand.
The five were scattered as if a giant had reached down and overturned a game board.
“Fuck this.” Riley had had enough. “Stay here, Mason.”
Rendal started turning to the other side and Riley lunged forward, knowing she’d already waited too long. The axe was in her right hand, and her arms pumped wildly. In the coming darkness, she looked almost like a ghost—not truly there, ethereal in her speed. Her peripheral vision showed her that William was still wreaking havoc and that he didn’t see what was coming for him.
Rendal’s left hand started sweeping up from the side, ready to decimate the small group.
Riley’s right arm moved like a slingshot, barely able to be seen. The axe flew from her fingers, flipping end over end.
It hit home just as Rendal was starting to flick his wrist.
It split his shoulder, digging deep and pushing him over. He slid to the ground, whatever spell he’d been casting broken.
“FUCK!” he shouted, looking at his wound.
Riley didn’t stop running toward him. She was only twenty feet away now and closing.
Rendal didn’t climb to his feet, but simply levitated, his body lifting off the ground until he was upright.
Stop.
The voice filled her head—his voice.
Or Lucie dies.
Riley planted her feet, skidding across the dirt. With his uninjured arm, the mage pointed behind him, behind the archers atop the compound. Lucie floated above them, the green necklace visible in the fading light.
The red bracelet caught Riley’s eye as it lit up on Rendal’s wrist.
Suddenly fire roared out from her left, so hot it nearly blistered her skin. Riley fell to the ground, shielding her face but still able to see what was happening.
Someone else was there, clearly—someone she had never seen before. He looked brain-dead, his eyes staring into the carnage blankly, his face lax. A red necklace rested on his neck while fire blazed from his hands, and everyone had been scattered, both Rendal’s men and those Mason had brought. Fire roared across the ground, burning on dry weeds and dead twigs. It burned on people, good and bad alike.
The man kept pouring it from his hands.
“You see, Riley?” Rendal stepped forward, pulling the axe out of his arm. He grimaced and dropped it to the ground. “There’s no way to stop me. Not you or your little friends. New Perth is mine. It’s always been mine. None of you realized it until now.”
Riley saw his eyes flick behind her.
Mason!
“Yes, Mason. The one you care for above all else.”
Riley rose to her feet nearly as quickly as the mage had.
“You’ll have to go through me.”
Riley felt the heat growing closer on her left, and the sounds of the struggle died away.
“Riley!” William shouted. “Run!”
She didn’t turn to the sound of his voice but kept her eyes on the mage.
“Join me, Riley. Join me now, and all of this can end. Because this bracelet on my wrist, the red one? That’s the fire you feel, even if you don’t understand it. Join me, and I’ll let you all live. If you don’t, everyone here will die right now.”
Riley understood that he was telling the truth, and she also understood she’d made a mistake by agreeing to come here, to begin with. There would be no peace with this man. He wanted New Perth, and he meant to have it no matter what.
Riley looked down at her feet; the fire was still growing hotter and spreading farther and farther. She could hear William’s grunts, fighting soldiers even as the flames grew closer to him. She could sense people standing on her right, bones broken from how the mage had sent them sprawling.
The bald man with magic was slowly standing behind her.
Her body and mind focused on trying to find a way out of this. A way she could stop this evil man and save her friends.
The hand-axe lay discarded on the ground in front of her.
Okay, Riley. One chance. Make it count.
She launched herself, a blur in the darkness. She saw the mage’s hand moving, trying to keep up with her long enough to shoot something deadly her way. Riley slid across the ground, grabbing the axe with her right hand and stopping her slide with her left. She swung, a shot aiming directly at the back of the man’s knee.
An inch from connecting, she was propelled into the air and watched with growing horror as Mason was pulled toward Rendal.
The Dark Mage Page 18