To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  The angry stallions bucked and kicked and paid little attention to their riders, who were trying desperately to stay in their saddles. Daniel admired the skill of those men who managed to stay on their steeds. He summoned the potential for Sleep Time; beams of light flew from his fingers, rendering the riders unconscious. They fell off and were immediately trampled to death by their crazed horses. Carlos clearly knew what he was doing, the stallions would live but the riders wouldn’t.

  “It would have been kinder to use Die Now,” Simon remarked and then followed his own words by launching that very spell in a beam that fanned out and struck fifty men, who were all dead before they hit the ground.

  Half of the Suttons who shared the east side of the trench with Daniel and his squads were slowly making their way over the bodies that had filled Sero’s handiwork and the other half, thousands of them, including spheroid slingers, turned to unleash their fury on the five hundred topaz blue-cloaked figures who had finally caught their undivided attention.

  “Maestro,” Jeremiah Lassiter’s voice sounded within Daniel’s head. “Four semi-Grand Circles are teleporting in and flashing out of New Oben, the raid is causing severe damage to the city, particularly the port. I cannot spare any Accomplisheds to assist you at this time, which I had intended to do.”

  Daniel appreciated the sentiment, would have been thrilled by the help, but knew the importance of the task assigned to the Conductor of the Defense Department. “The raids were not unexpected, which is why you and your teams of Accomplisheds are guarding the Capitol, and Sandra and her teams are guarding Ducanton, while Leah and I are here fighting Chen and Kall. The Serpents are trying to distract us from our task. We will manage, but this chore is going to take a while.” Dawn was only a few marks away.

  “Acknowledged,” Jeremiah replied along with sending a jumble of emotions; agitation, frustration, and determination, all of which were coupled with a strong sense of duty.

  The communication ended. Daniel knew the raids would come, Lassiter’s report merely confirmed the fact, but it also made thoughts of Sherree, and those under her direct command who were in place to defend the Benhannon Northland Holding, fill his head. A Serpent raid could strike there at any moment. Samuel Cresh led the defense of the Benhannon Estate, and Martin Varroon, a former Oceanic of the Aqua Guild, Three-bolt Accomplished, and currently the Conductor of the Department of Education and Research, led the defense of Mount Shantear, and all of them could be attack at any moment. Danger, the risking of life and limb, had been a regular part of his existence for a quite long a time, and he expected danger would continue to be. The battle against Kall and Chen was no different. Daniel considered Conveyance to be a handy spell to have in his repertoire, but it could not allow him to be in multiple places at once. The sooner he completed his chore, the sooner he could get to the others. As the battle raged his determination grew, firm as the mountain on which he had been born.

  Hundreds of horse-mounted Suttons drew their sabers, pointing the tips at Daniel and his squads of Accomplisheds. Solidified blades of air, about three paces long, shot from the points. Two hit Daniel faster than he could blink, one in the chest, and the other hit his forehead, both had hit his personal shield and were absorbed, but the first one sliced through his blue silks before adding its energy to his shield. Clearly, Tarin Conn chose to give his commoners spell-powered weapons similar to what Daniel had given the non-Aakacarns serving him.

  The Suttons had to be tapping those gems because it seemed thousands of glowing blades were flying across the shortening divide. Several hundred Pentrosan archers carrying longbows drew their fletching’s to ear and then let fly. Daniel cast a broad forward shield to block the blades that were coming straight for his squad, as did the other squad leaders, and those blades hit and were absorbed into the shields, making them stronger with each impact. The arrows rained down from over those shields and hit Simon in the shoulder, the ground in between each person, Silvia in her left shoulder, Accomplisheds in the other targeted squads, and Daniel in the left foot; exactly the way any arrow would, except these exploded.

  Through Find All he had been sensing trinitrotoluene, but had not realized until the last moment that it was in the arrowheads. He sensed no iron shards as there would be in spheroids, but the smaller charges were bad enough. The ground irrupted in red-orange bursts, throwing dirt high up into air, and obscuring all sight. Daniel was blasted off his feet, flying ten spans through the air, and landed on his side, Silvia slammed into the ground and was not moving, and Simon too was shoved to the ground by the force of the blast that detonated upon hitting his shoulder.

  “Now we know why Kall ordered in the extra archers,” Daniel said, unable to hear the sound of his own voice, and then began coughing.

  It was impossible to hear anything other than the near deafening roars of the exploding arrowheads as dirt fell on Daniel while he struggled to catch a breath. Simon was already getting to his feet and repairing his silks, but Silvia lay still, half buried in dirt. Daniel sprang up, dodging exploding arrows, and reached the Seer about the same time as David, who began brushing the dirt off of her.

  A dome-shield, hyacinth in color, appeared protecting Daniel and his team. He looked right and left through the red-orange blasts as visibility became a little clearer, he saw twenty-five similar shields, of as many different hues, were covering the other squads. In addition to blocking arrows and absorbing blades of solidified air, the shield also cut off all sound coming from outside the dome.

  He could see inside one of the nearest shields. Accomplished Finnius Gronan, grandfather of three, lay on the ground. His potential had been discovered a few months back by Ginnie Cree, a Seeker. He became a Talented and recently graduated. The right side of his hood had been blasted away by one of those explosive arrows. Most of the force must have been absorbed by his personal shield, but enough had entered his inner ear to burn into his brain. Quala Robin was bending over him, focusing potential in a clear attempt to heal the damage, but not even Daniel’s Symphonic spells could bring a dead body back to life.

  It was time to concentrate on someone he could save, Silvia. “David, reach inside her blouse and turn the wolf-head amulet around so I can touch her forehead.”

  Sero stood a few paces away, watching the arrows and blades striking his shield. “I think it considerate of the saber wielders to keep launching their blades into my shield,” he commented. “The energy from those spells is being absorbed and nullifying the draining effect of those trinitrotoluene-filled arrowheads.”

  Considerate, more like, ignorant. Daniel thought while summoning the potential for the spell, How Do You Feel, and placing his hand on Silvia’s forehead, which felt dry to the touch. Her normally luxuriant dark hair had a brittle look to it. He glanced to the left and noticed the blast had ripped the fabric away from her shoulder, exposing smooth unblemished skin, although it appeared to be dry and flaky.

  “What is wrong with her? Will she be alright?” David begged to know from right beside him.

  The energy of Daniel’s Symphonic flowed into her and he could find no injuries anywhere in or on her body, yet she remained unconscious, and then the problem came into his awareness; she was dehydrated. “David, when I am finished, you must be ready with a canteen, when she awakens, she is going to be mighty thirsty.”

  The body of a normal human does not metabolize water quickly, a fact everyone knew, but he did not tell what he suspected was the reason for her condition. The need to verify assumptions was a lesson that had been drilled into his head. He knew she was dehydrated but it was the possible cause that concerned him.

  The former juggler nodded and grabbed his canteen.

  Daniel ceased the potential for, How Do You Feel and cast, What Is This. The spell formed elements interpreted as pictures of chemicals and substances easily recognizable to his mind, showing him what she was made of. He did not need to go far enough to see her helix-shaped recipe strands or down to the tiny wor
lds with their even tinier moons circling them. He concentrated to the point where the vat containing Silvia’s life-force energy, which lay at the center of her being, was coming into view. Neither the vat nor the liquid inside were physical in nature; it was simply how the spell related the metaphysical reality. Back when he composed the music, he had been thinking about a cistern collecting rainwater on a farm.

  Daniel’s own vat was huge and contained liquid topaz. His vat and those of Aakacarns continued to grow until the day they died, although at differing rates of speed. The energy filling those reservoirs also grew at different speeds and in unique hues. The vats of non-Aakacarns were exactly the same size, never grew, and filled with what appeared to be clear water. Silvia’s vat was nearly empty, which meant she had perhaps days to live if the problem was left uncorrected. The two amulets, combined with the energy required to protect her from the explosion, was more energy than her body could supply and remain conscious. Daniel sent his liquid topaz into her reservoir, filling it to the brim. Eventually, her body would transform the topaz and make it clear as water, as the energy Daniel had received in the recent past had turned to the color of Topaz when the ever-replenishing-and increasing life-force energy started again. The phenomenon had ceased for him after the Battle of Shantear for about six months.

  He ended the spell and sat back. Her brown eyes fluttered open and David placed his arm under her shoulders, sat her up, and placed the canteen to her mouth before she could say a word. She drank thirstily while her eyes darted right and left as if she was assessing the situation.

  “I am thrilled Silvia is well again, but what are you waiting for?” Simon asked of him. “You can kill all of them,” he said while waving his left arm in the general direction of their current assailants. “In fact, none of our squads of Accomplisheds are being as lethal as they could be.”

  “Where is your other boot?” Carlos asked, a minor question compared to the one posed by the Chief Aid.

  Daniel looked down. He wiggled the bare toes of his left foot. What remained of his boot and shreds of the sock were over from where he had been thrown by the blast. His personal shield protected the appendage and so he did not feel the bareness. He lifted his pant-leg and smiled at seeing the upper part of the sock covering his ankle, shin, and calf, and then removed the useless fabric.

  The musical score for the spell, Change It, played in his head, summoning the potential, he added a Da Capo and then cast the spell, Hunger, to draw the substance of which the duplicated item would be changed and made into. He touched his right sock and one exactly like it formed out of the dirt. He touched his boot, altered it to be for the left foot, and a perfect replica formed out of another pile of dirt. He put on the sock and the boot and then cast the spell, Laundering, to clean and repair his silks.

  Ten more Grand Circles appeared as Daniel observed the happenings beyond the shield. Energy beams, fireballs, multiple streaks of lightning, freezing spells that fogged the air, and some that might have been tightly focused sonic blasts, began slamming into Daniel’s squads and each group of Atlantans. Leah, Zera, and Darrell, along with their units were fully engaged with the Serpents, and leaving the non-Aakacarns to fight among themselves.

  Through Find All Daniel sensed three thousand Serpents fully committed in the theater and throwing every spell in their repertoires at the shields created by every Atlantan Guild squad, which had been his idea upon which Leah had added her recommendations. If Fenton was in the area, and Daniel believed the Tri-Con would be, the treacherous Serpent had to be using the invisibility spell Tarin Conn composed.

  Simon pointed his finger at a squat broad-shouldered Accomplisheds of the Serpent Guild who was the defender part of the duo standing about a hundred strides to the left, waited for the taller offensive member to cast another useless spell at the shield, and as that beam of energy was striking the barrier, Simon struck at the squat one, causing that fellow to turn green, then brown, and then rot like an old fruit. A moment later David sent a lance of light through the heart of the taller one, completing the demise of the duo.

  “Again, what are you waiting for?” the sandy-haired Accomplished asked. It was possible he had been communicating through his array at the time and did not hear the entire plan from outside the pavilion.

  Beady sent a mental screech, gaining Daniel’s attention. Through the eyes of the owl he could see an officer, definitely General Kall. The Pentrosan commander’s uniform differed from those of his men with the addition of a black coat with gold trim and four gold eagles on his collar. The black hair of his beard and neatly trimmed mustache only made his pale complexion seem pastier, especially through the eyes of an owl, but those nuances were unimportant.

  Excellent! “Thanks, Beady,” Daniel sent to his feathered friend and received a sense of joyful contentment and a desire to snatch up a field mouse hiding over near the tree-line. “Go for it,” he encouraged the owl and then focused on his Chief Aid. “I have located General Kall. This exact situation is what I have been waiting for, the Serpents fully committed, and the precise whereabouts of the General.”

  Had he ever physically touched the man at some time in the past, Find All would have supplied the desired information. Presently the spell made him aware of tens of thousands of non-Aakacarns with whom he had never had contact, making it impossible to isolate one out of the many.

  Simon grinned, clearly eager to be doing something, even if he did not know what, since he had missed hearing it.

  “Sero, maintain this shield. Carlos, I want you to raise a fog in here so people outside cannot not see what I am about to do. David, Silvia, it is public knowledge that you two are my official Teki escorts, and are at my side most of the time, and especially in moments like this. Therefore, I need you to stay beside Simon,” Daniel began giving orders.

  Six days earlier, late at night, he composed a new Melody, Mimic, a quick single-line tune that came to him in a dream filled with pretense and mimicry. It was probably some part of his psyche that enjoyed the time when he and Sherree created and cast illusions upon themselves so they could visit Terroll Barnes in disguise.

  He removed a pair of gold settings along with two diamonds and two rubies and played Mimic in his head. On the back of one setting was and “S” and other a “D.” He placed a diamond and ruby, side by side, in each amulet, focused the spell into the gems, and added the Da Capos. He focused some of his life-force energy into the diamond of one and then handed both amulets to Simon. “I want you to cast some of your life-force energy into the diamond of the second amulet that has the S on the back and give it back to me, and then put the other one I gave you inside your shirt where it can lay against your chest.”

  The sandy-haired Chief Aid nodded and handed back the first amulet and did as instructed while Daniel placed the his new amulet inside his shirt.

  It might have suddenly appeared as if the two of them had switched places, but appearances were definitely deceiving. Simon looked exactly like Daniel, height, clothes, and all, even the color of his potential would appear to be topaz blue. His gold-capped ebony baton appeared to be a diamond-bladed knife. Daniel looked exactly like Simon, shorter, wearing the silks of a One-bolt Accomplished, and even his crescendo looked like that of the Chief Aid. If he summoned potential, it would appear to be cobalt blue. Mimic was far more complex and complete than any mere illusion spell. If another Accomplished were to cast a scan spell at either of them, he or she would not be able to determine one was not the other, until it was too late. Daniel was still a Seven-bolt Accomplished.

  “Wow!” Simon had difficulty hiding his surprise. His eyes grew even wider as he examined himself more thoroughly, his hand, his baton, the spelled-silver canteen that suddenly seemed to be made of gold, and finally looked at Daniel. “Maestro, how may I serve?”

  Daniel glanced at each individual standing around him and Silvia who was still on the ground and had paused in her drinking to stare at the fake Simon and possibly to give h
er body time to digest the water. He focused on the Chief Aid. “I need you to convince everyone that I am still here, that means you need to cast the kinds of spells I would likely summon and focus. Every once in a while I want you to use that crescendo with six bolts of amplification to send Maestro level spells at the enemy Aakacarns. The rest of you need to respond to him as if he is me.”

  Carlos began shaking his head. “But where are you going and why do you need to look like him?”

  Daniel smiled, even though his surroundings and circumstances were grim. “If you had to face off against a Seven-bolt Accomplished or a notorious One-bolt, which would you choose?”

  “The One-bolt,” Carlos answered correctly, although his left eyebrow arched up as if he knew the answer, but did not know how it applied.

  Daniel merely said, “I believe any sane Accomplished would give the same answer,” and then focused on Beady.

  “Here, take these,” Simon spoke out, interrupting the concentration. He tossed two small bags to his Maestro, “Use them if you intend to cast the kinds of spells I would be likely to use.”

  Daniel caught the bags of seeds and shoved them into the inner pockets of his cloak. “Good thinking,” he told him and then concentrated on Beady until he could see through the owl’s eyes.

  The scout looked up from what little remained of the mouse and showed him the General. The senior officer, on horseback, was surrounded by twenty of the very best of his Sutton Guardsmen, along with a Colonel, three Majors, and a trumpeter. The commanders of the host were a third of the way back from the front and sending riders off with dispatches to junior officers throughout the theater.

  Daniel chose a spot behind the command staff and its defenders, summoned the potential for Conveyance, and arrived where he wanted to be moments later. A Sutton, battleax swinging towards Daniel’s head, was bearing down on him, while the two on his left swung their swords. Daniel radiated the spell, Die Now, in a controlled flash that killed every living thing within twenty paces of him, which included the axe wielder, sword wielders, and their mounts, among a few others who wrongly thought they were about to make an easy kill.