Rune Mage: The Rune Mystic: Book Two

by D. L. Harrison

  He added, “Although, I could…” he snickered as Lia elbowed him in the side.

  Carolynn said, “You did good today. I didn’t even notice a problem, until it was already too late.”

  He nodded, “Familiarity none of you have. No one casts spells at sword practice, it’s against the rules, and we’re all far too afraid of Jaren to break that rule even in jest, so it stood out to all of us in the late morning weapon class in a way it wouldn’t for others. But, thanks.”

  Karina grinned, “I bet they’re glad they didn’t just send us away yesterday, like unruly children.”

  Lia giggled.

  He said, “I also learned something. At the time, I thought it would’ve been impossible to save the princess if he hadn’t had his shields down. My spell wouldn’t have gotten through his shields, to disarm him.”

  Lia tilted her head, “That’s not true?”

  He grinned, “Oh, it is, the second part at least. But if he’d had a shield on, I could’ve given the new queen a sharp shove with my magic, and just pushed her out of the way of the sword strike. That hadn’t even occurred to me though, at the time. Fortunately, it worked out this time, despite my lack of experience.”

  Carolynn shrugged, “You didn’t have any time to think, it was a reflexive action. I believe in tomorrow’s practice some of the life mages will stay enhanced the whole time, and not participate in practice, just guard. Don’t get me wrong, they’re grateful you were there, but also embarrassed they failed to anticipate such a possibility.”

  Yeah, that’s why they were called traitors. No one expected to be betrayed by family, not in a healthy family at any rate.

  He sighed, “I didn’t see it coming either. Rune magic is just faster. I also felt him casting, where anyone else would have had to have noticed him doing it.”

  The privacy spell broke behind them, one that would prevent anyone eavesdropping, and they knew it was lunch time. They went inside, and sat at the table closest to the queen’s, and started to pile food on their plates. The room slowly filled up, as the guards started to take breaks, but they’d never have less than two thirds of their people on guard during the talks.

  Talia said to the room at large, “I have news. We’re making progress, I’d say by this time tomorrow we should be finished, assuming we don’t run into a pain point. More than that, my husband contacted me this morning. The fighting in the pass is slowing, he believes the enemy is about to pull out. While a good thing, I could’ve wished it waited a couple more days, it’s going to complicate things if half the mages on the border are released from that mission. They’re all working together down there in our common defense, but there’s obviously a lot of suspicion and tensions from what’s going on back here at home between the towers represented.

  “Right now, we have about half the mage population caught up in this civil war standoff, making it three quarters won’t really help. Pass on the word after you eat, both the good and the bad.”

  Lia asked, “Can we know what the core ruling was?”

  He was more than a bit curious about that as well.

  Talia shook her head firmly, “Right now, it’s close to what we asked for, but that could still change as we go over the pertinent laws of the crown and rules of the guilds. Putting out information like that, then changing it later, is just a bad idea, and would lead to confusion.”

  The food was excellent, as always. Fresh, well-seasoned and cooked, and he was starving as he cast detect poison and dug in. It’d been a long morning, and he hadn’t had a very large breakfast after his harrowing save. He’d lost his appetite at the time.

  The one bad thing about that update, was it gave Tanner a deadline. The master fire mage needed to move before tomorrow at noon, or he’d likely lose his support. Not all of it, but certainly some if not most of it. Those that were only there to fight for their freedom, wouldn’t fight anymore once they had it.

  The rest of them? The few that stood with Tanner, Sun, and perhaps Kaitlyn until the bitter end. Well, he wouldn’t want any of those in the guilds anyway. Or was he being naïve again, would they rather put a mage dictator in charge, than earn what they had, and perform service to pay for the schooling and the advantages they had? He hoped not, but he knew it was possible. People could be lazy, and entitled, a position he would never understand. He’d been to grateful when Cain had accepted him, and he’d earned the right to work hard to earn a trade, then earn coin to start a family. Mages shouldn’t be any different that way, and there was a pride and satisfaction in supporting yourself.

  If Tanner won out, the mages would have all the freedoms with none of the responsibilities that came with them.

  Perhaps Kaitlyn, only because she could still come back to their side. She hadn’t done anything that the queen couldn’t pardon her for, yet. He was sure she was weighing her choices, but at the moment, the air tower mistress seemed to be playing both sides. Her support of Tanner was little more than her presence, and lack of opposition. A bit contemptible, but if it took most of the air mages away from Tanner’s side it’d be worth it to put her back on the council.

  It was all far above him anyway, which he was grateful for, he didn’t want to make those decisions, but he had his opinions.

  The room slowly filled with conversation, as the second half of lunch came and they all slowed or finished eating. The four of them stood up when they were done, and they took their post behind the queen. That’d last for twenty minutes or so, when the council would no doubt clear the room again for more negotiations.

  The afternoon dragged slowly, and their speculation about the future, and what freedom would really mean started to wane. There was only so much they could talk about it, and only so long that they could beat a dead horse. Their conversation moved to other things, the various play houses, and the plays themselves. The best places in the city to buy clothes, or other shops who were friendly to mages visiting.

  In short, they started to get to know each other, and their quirks, though as the tower rules required they needed to keep somewhat of a professional distance. They could never be friends and actually go to one of those plays together, but they could talk about them and get to know each other a little better.

  When the attack came, it was more than clear that Tanner knew their defensive plans, not just how they were positioned, but that they’d try to neutralize and capture them.

  Unfortunately, the reverse wasn’t true. Their greatest advantage was all the blade masters in the royal guard and life mage guild, it was an edge he didn’t think the enemy could hope to match. Fire, death, and air had no ability to speed or strengthen their bodies, and magic was their strength, not physical arms.

  He’d been wrong, very wrong. The enemy had come with a strong counter to that advantage.

  They hadn’t seen Tanner’s plans coming, and the results of that were far more horrifically effective than they’d have believed possible, more than a match for their defenses. Or perhaps, he should say Sun’s plans. In hindsight, it was damned obvious, but it wasn’t something the death guild had ever been able to do in their competitions, so it simply didn’t occur to them. Him, or anyone else on their side.

  War was ugly, random, and unpredictable, and he’d remember that afternoon for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The warning came scant moments before the attackers flowed into the arena from seven sides, utilizing all the spoke corridors. At first, he as confused. They were royal guards, or at least, they wore the same armor the royal guards did, and wielded the sabers of said guard. It wasn’t until they got within range of his detect magic that he realized what he was seeing.

  They were all soaked with death magic. They were undead. Sun and his mages had probably emptied a whole cemetery, and then raided the castle armory to arm and armor them. There was a visceral shock and surprise to the tactic that cost the defenders, as swords raised and lowered, and the outer mages died before they could even get a spell of
f. The blades of the undead stabbing into their bodies and claiming their hearts.

  Several spells went off after that, while the royal guards in the arena supporting the first ring of protection closed in and started to fight.

  Only then, did he notice the fire, air, and death mages coming into the arena, but remaining in the stands, as they directed the undead army. It was another brilliant tactic, the arena protected anyone in the stands from all spells, while the enemy was free to fire spells into the arena and add confusion to their undead army, since that eventuality wasn’t covered by the magic.

  In short, they were screwed, their enemy had come up with a perfect plan to counter theirs.

  He was already horrified, but things would shortly get even worse.

  The undead started to fall. The defenders hardly idle. Royal guards removed their heads with superior sword-work, and earth and water spells cleansed and dispelled the death magic driving them. The initial cost was horrific, as at least thirty of their mages, and several of the royal guard were taken down, but the battle started to slowly shift in their favor as the undead warriors were struck down.

  Then the fire and air mages started to cast in the stands, too far away to feel the spell’s purpose. He wasn’t too worried, the spells wouldn’t be able to kill anyone. He assumed the spell would knock people out, or perhaps capture them in some way.

  Once again, he’d been wrong.

  The spells fired, but not at the mages, or even the royal guards. Not at the living, but at their own undead troops. Another thing the arena magic didn’t account for, the protective spells wouldn’t stop a spell to protect something already dead. Obviously, it was why they were doing it.

  All the dead corpses on the ground, and even the few left fighting, exploded spectacularly. Loud booms deafened him as the undead disappeared in a spray of blood, viscera, and more importantly, metal and bone. The fire and air magic working together had maximized the explosive force to devastating ends. The corpses had been stuffed with nails, sharp pieces of metal, not to mention the armor they wore being ripped apart and sent out in a circle.

  The royal guards were hit the worst, being in melee range to the undead on the field. A great many of them were killed in those explosions. The nails, and other sharp metal, perforating their bodies in too many places, for even the arena to prevent death, in some cases their bodies were completely ripped apart.

  The mages faired a little better, they’d been farther away from the center of the explosion and had been shielded. Some died, but most were just wounded in several places, the arena spells able to staunch the bleeding. He felt sick as they were all highlighted in a red aura, indicating their deaths.

  Olin felt his gorge rise, and the remains of his lunch came back to haunt him.

  Tanner’s plan was obviously to kill, the fire mage had given into his ambition in full measure. He had no plans to capture like they did, and he would do anything to end the queen’s life.

  For the moment, Olin was relatively safe, the first line of defense gutted but not yet fallen.

  His own horror was magnified in Karina and Carolynn, those men and women that just died were their family, not just professional associates of another guild fighting for the same greater purpose. He was also fairly sure Tanner and Sun weren’t even present to witness their evil plan.

  Then, more undead started to come into the arena.

  Aubrey screamed out behind them, he hadn’t even heard the door open, so transfixed he’d been at the true horror of war. How fragile life truly was, and precious because of it.

  “First line of defense, fall back! Life mages, take the mages in the stands. No mercy.”

  He could see the logic of it, their defensive strategy was more than useless against the enemy’s tactics. The life mages would cut the undead down like wheat, and none of the fire or air mages would explode the corpses if their lying corpses were among them.

  There was also an edge of anger and vengeance attached to the order. They’d lost close to twenty mages of water and air, and almost a hundred royal guards. Not one of the enemy mages had died yet, but that was about to change.

  By following their evil master’s plan, they’d lost the right to be captured and forgiven. It was a real war now, and no quarter would be given for the evil they’d done, fooled into supporting a man filled with ambition.

  He would hope later, that they had been the most dedicated among the enemy to their masters’ cause. Perhaps that’s why there were so few, because the rest of the fire, air, and death mages would be horrified if they’d just witnessed that atrocity. Or, maybe he was just naïve. If he was naïve, he hoped he stayed that way, and never accepted what he’d just seen as just good tactics.

  The life mages were all enhanced, pissed off, and more than motivated, and they reached the stands before the undead could make it fully down the stands, though that distance had been much greater. There were also no protection arena spells in the stands. The arena protected the stands from all magic cast inside the arena floor, but there was no magic to prevent deadly magic being cast inside the stands.

  In seconds, the second wave of undead looked like they’d been put through a thresher, and the master life mages started to cut down death, air, and fire mages. It was fast, he knew first hand in the competition how deadly an enhanced blade master could be, and though some of the air and fire mages got off one quick spell, they were facing master life mages. The enemy couldn’t possibly live long enough to beat down their shields.

  The remaining water and earth mages, along with the few royal guards still standing, became the second defensive line. He itched to bring payback to the enemy, but he had his duty, which was the last line of defense for the queen. That was his mission, or so he told himself over and over, even as he felt like a coward for not charging. He knew in his mind that wasn’t reality, he was there in case any of the enemy snuck by, as unlikely as it seemed in that moment, it was his place.

  The fierce and ugly battle ended quickly after that, there weren’t all that many enemy mages present, the enemy hadn’t committed all their mage resources to the attack, just enough to keep their undead army running, and enough air and fire mages to explode them.

  The enemy air mages lasted the longest, their shields somewhat effective, but the fire and death mages had almost no physical defense in their shields, and they were cut down by the life mage blade masters quickly.

  The enemy force was killed to last man, so much for a civil war without death, by using the arena. He felt off balance, and disturbed, what would the bastards throw at them next?

  He felt a hand on his arm, and he looked blankly at Lia in confusion.

  She tilted her head behind them.

  His awareness slowly shifted, like swimming to the surface of a lake, as he heard a loud argument going on behind them.

  Elisha said, “We must! Over thirty mages and a hundred royal guards died today. That’s a fifth of the mage population. He still has most of his forces, almost fifty mages, while we have slightly less than that. Who knows what the monster will come up with next? He crossed a line today and he won’t hesitate to do so again.”

  He was confused, what were they arguing about? He did get the part about the mage population, it wasn’t that Elisha thought mage lives were more precious than a normal humans, it was that their population was relatively static and small. It’d take many generations to rebuild those numbers, even if there weren’t more losses, which seemed unlikely at that moment.

  Talia said, “No, absolutely not.”

  Aubrey sighed, “Would you do less, if you were him? To preserve lives. I don’t like it either, but I doubt the young man would hesitate. We could end this now, save not only our own mages, but the ones on the other side, when Tanner, Sun, and Kaitlyn go down.”

  Oh, that argument again. Olin the superweapon.

  Jace said, “That’s not my concern, I won’t risk replacing one ambitious dictator with one that could be far worse. Better
to let Tanner win.”

  It seemed Aubrey defected to Elisha’s side, but Talia wanted to protect him from whatever it was, and Jace didn’t trust him with it. Whatever it was. Of course, the council of seven was four at the moment, there was no tie breaking vote with an even number.

  Or was there?

  Aubrey said, “It’s up to you, your majesty. We have no tie breaking vote, and you should have a say anyway, since there is a risk. I don’t believe it’s an unreasonable one, but Jace isn’t completely wrong either.”

  Jace snorted, “Thanks for your support.”

  Aubrey smiled cheekily, or tried to, but given the battle that just happened it fell flat, even for her.

  Vida said, “I will consider it, and give you my answer after today’s session, we have several more hours to focus on our relationship and the matter of your freedom. I won’t make that decision in the aftermath and heat of such a battle, when emotions are riding so high. It’s also highly unlikely they’ll attack again so soon. They must make new plans and then prepare for another battle first. They were successful, partially, but a second similar attack would fail spectacularly now that we know how to counter it, and they’ll know that. We have, at least a few hours, to decide on such a radical defense.”

  All four of the guild council nodded in acceptance, and they recast the privacy spells as they shut the inn door. The spells would keep them from overhearing it, but he suspected it was more about stopping Tanner from spying on them with magic. Much like he had done to monitor the castle courtyard.

  He’d be curious about that defense, and his place in it, if he wasn’t still reeling from the battle. The arena was wrecked, the ground had craters, and there was blood and dead bodies all over the place. Not just the defenders, but the mages in the stands, and the undead bodies. It was all so stupid, he wished tanner would just run for it, leave the kingdom, but he knew it wouldn’t happen.