To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  “Absolutely,” Samuel replied, although the underlying sentiment in the sending held traces of doubt.

  A broadening beam shot from Vance’s dagger and Daniel reacted instantly, placing a shield, wall to wall and ceiling to floor, right in its path. There was a bright flare as the energy was absorbed by the barrier.

  “You will never defeat me while hiding behind that shield,” Cummin taunted him. “Members of your guild are dying in this complex and countless thousands of your allies are dying in the south.” Each word had appeared as it was spoken.

  Unfortunately there was truth to the taunt. Vance’s shield kept Find All from sensing anything outside of the chamber, but Daniel could feel some of the people he had healed in the past perishing, particularly among the Sentinels out in the incredible long hall considered to be the duel zone.

  The Ceiling-to-floor shield was one way and therefore passible in one direction. Daniel pictured himself standing behind his opponent, conveyed there, and before Vance could possibly blink the flash from his retinas, Daniel focused Shatter Sphere, engulfing the enemy Maestro in a topaz globe.

  The Maestro turned and faced him. “Fool, there are no holes in my defense,” he said while his spell wrote in the air. He punctuated the statement by sending a lightning bolt from the tip of his dagger.

  Daniel willed a man-shaped shield over his body, but expanded a finger-width out, and then the jagged light hit. His shield absorbed most of the energy but the force picked him up and slammed him against the back wall. He ceased Shatter Sphere, hit the floor, and sprang to the left while sending a wall of wind at Vance.

  The Serpent flew back and into the ceiling-to-floor shield, the impenetrable side, which was near the rim of the pit closest to the door. Cummin’s energy field had kept him alive, but it took him a few moments to get to his feet. Daniel focused a lightning bolt at him but all it did was briefly push the evil man back up against the energy barrier.

  Daniel’s man-shaped shield had cut off his air, making him feel faint, so he cast Freshen Air, and his breathing went back to normal. It took a little more energy to maintain the personal shield against his skin and the new one, but the result was worth the investment.

  “Maestro, Darrel Logan and his team of one hundred have arrived and each has brought with them one hundred Accomplisheds of Aakadon, all members of the Joint Mission Task Force,” Leah informed him. “Even with the reinforcements we are seriously outnumbered. I would order a retreat if it did not mean leaving you here alone.”

  Even though Daniel was beginning to wonder if he could defeat Vance Cummin, it was good to know help had come to those fighting for him in the rest of the mountain complex. She was right about the disparity in the forces, but his instincts told him to keep the battle going. “Ten thousand extra master spell-casters are a fine addition. Fight on while I figure out how to defeat a fellow wielding a crescendo created by Tarin Conn.”

  Self-recrimination and deep regret along with a strong sense of frustration came through the link ahead of the words, “I am sorry, Daniel, none of us anticipated this situation. Twenty-three of my ospreys have died near the Nests I had them spying on and sixteen of my rats have met the same fate. I am receiving similar reports from Defense, Seekers, and the ISIG. The Serpents were on to us for I know not how long and used our scout to lure us into this trap.”

  Vance sent a sonic beam across the pit and Daniel jumped to the side, allowing the blast to strike the wall behind him, and then sent an orange-white jet of fire back at the man.

  “Leah, there is no need to apologize. I thought it was my swirl at work when it is clearly Tarin Conn who is enjoying favorable events. Be that as it is, we can still win this, we must win this, and we will win. Remember, in winning there is loss. We have known this all along. I will find a way to defeat Maestro Cummin and then you and I will take down this Nest.” He projected so much certainty through the link it almost convinced him they could not lose.

  “Of course we will,” Leah sent back and the boost in confidence he sensed with her words, just before she ended the communication, proved he had successfully transmitted positive emotions he did not actually feel.

  He was maintaining the jet of flames and knew the temperature in the room had to be climbing, so much so people sleeping in the pit were beginning to perspire. Vance was completely bathed in fire and yet he did not bother to step out of the way. The shield protected him.

  Daniel increased the temperature to the point of turning the flames pure white and held that level beyond the count of three hundred. The desire to take a sip from his canteen was growing, but he dared not give in to the temptation, so ceased the fire, conveyed right beside Vance, and then kicked him in the side. The two shields collided, both glowing with potential, but the blunt force knocked the enemy Maestro to the floor. Cummin, while still on the floor, aimed his dagger, and blasted a bolt that sent Daniel into the air and against the ceiling-to-floor shield he had crated earlier.

  He again landed on his feet. “Maestro, Terroll Barnes has sent Willow air-cruisers to the cities currently under attack. He sees this as perhaps the most important battle of the war and is bringing as much of Aakadon’s resources to bear as he can manage,” Daria reported the good news, causing him to smile.

  Vance was staring at him. Both of them stood with crescendos aimed and ready to focus something intended to end the other. “Time is on my side. The Willow Guild’s flying inventions will be decimated by my Sky-cruisers, but you will not be alive to fret over their fate.”

  The old Serpent was receiving reports through his array. Daniel was not in the least surprised. While he was worried for his wife and everyone else currently fighting, the only way he could see to help them was to win the duel. In answer to the comment, he focused his spell, levitated Vance off the floor, and threw him at the only chair in the room, which broke apart when the more experienced spell-caster slammed into it.

  Cummin stood up and sent a Freeze beam in response, the energy of which was absorbed without even causing Daniel to stumble. They fought for he did not know how long, blasting spells at one another while fighting was taking place in the mountain and out over the cities of the alliance. Many of the people he knew and cared an awful lot about were dying while he was doing his level best to defeat the Maestro of the Serpent Guild, a chore that seemed nowhere close to completion. It was possible, Daniel realized, his best effort would not be enough.

  “Your wife informed me of the situation,” Terroll’s voice entered his head just as Vance sent another lightning bolt. “One of your Accomplisheds, Quala Robin, has come to Aakadon at Sherree’s request and has brought a hundred Seekers. She and her team will soon leave here with ten thousand Accomplisheds. The Coronas, Cyclones, Soarers, Artisans, and Foresters, will be led by Lena Beyers.”

  The lightning bolt struck and spun him around, but did no more than that. “That is good news. The Serpents are packing a mighty punch and we can use the help. The entire mountain is in flux and you will need those Artisans to shape and reshape tunnels,” Daniel sent, while in another compartment in his mind he thanked his wife. The response was a sense of love and relief that he was still alive, which meant she was also alive and well. The non-verbal response made him want to try harder.

  Going by the last report he had received, the additional Aakacarns, when they arrived, meant his forces would only be outnumbered two to one, which he counted as an improvement. Scores of his Accomplisheds and hundreds of his Sentinels were dead; he had felt them die one by one while their Maestro was locked in a big round box that could only be escaped through victory over an Accomplished wielding far more potential then him.

  His thirst was growing and going by the way Vance was licking his lips, so was that of the enemy Maestro. The temptation to drink from the canteen had increased in proportion to his thirst but Daniel would have to lower his shields to indulge the need.

  “Hold on, the Maestro of the Sun Guild will soon be there,” Terroll sent the e
ncouraging thought as Cummin positioned himself against the wall beside the broken chair. The Grand Maestro must have sensed Daniel’s growing vexation through the link.

  “A Benhannon never drops a set chore,” he sent in reply and then focused Shatter through his finger at the barrel.

  The large water container burst apart and then he focused a lightning bolt through the diamond-bladed knife. The jagged light streaked across the distance and struck the liquid that was pooling around Vance’s feet. Sparks flared and vanished, but the Maestro only laughed at what turned out to be a futile attempt to electrocute him.

  “Hold onto that thought,” Terroll sent and then ended the communication.

  The new shield composed by Tarin Conn was presenting a real problem, Daniel pondered in frustration. The duel amounted to his fourteen bolts of potential pitted against Vance’s thirty-one, making the contest more than slightly mismatched, and not in favor of the Chosen Vessel. The Melody was tied to that dagger and therefore had far more energy to draw on than did Daniel. There was nothing in his repertoire he could cast to break the energy field and time was running out, people were dying, and he was getting thirstier by the moment. At the same time, Vance could cast nothing that could break through spells written to absorb the life-force energy directed at them, nor could he take time to quench his thirst, unless he was to cast a spell to draw the water up off the floor.

  “Maestro, I have come with help from Aakadon,” Quala informed him through the array.

  “Excellent, we can use the help,” Daniel replied and sent a jet of flames.

  The fiery line hit the puddle, steam filled the air, and then even the vapors vanished, leaving the floor perfectly dry. “Drink that,” he allowed the letters to form in the air.

  Vance licked his lips and swallowed. “Is that your feeble plan, hope that I will grow thirsty enough to lower this shield or perhaps the one on the room so you can escape while I go to refresh myself? That is pathetic.”

  Daniel sent a lightning bolt at the head of his opponent, which caused the shield to glow, but did nothing more. He started walking toward Vance while contemplating the nature of each other’s shields. “My plan is to kill you. We will soon see whether or not it is pathetically feeble.”

  The Maestro laughed at the response, but the chuckles began to dwindle, and stopped by the time Daniel had shortened the distance between them by twenty strides. “That is far enough,” Cummin wrote and then sent a lightning bolt.

  Conveyance was one of the spells Daniel had been keeping a Da Capo on for quick use, and he used it, picturing himself right beside his enemy. By the time the jagged streak of light struck where he had been standing, he was within reach of his foe and willed the extra shield away from his arms.

  He had fought and killed a mountain lion and in the same way, he pounced onto Vance, and soon had him in a wrestling hold Tim used many years ago. Only with great difficulty had Daniel been able to break free from his friend. The more Cummin struggled, the more his shield protected him from harm, but the same was true for Daniel’s shield, which was clashing with the one composed by Tarin Conn.

  “Get off me you fool!”

  The demand probably would have had more effect if it had been audible rather than having been spelled out in the air.

  The two Maestros struggled, both shields grew brighter as the one Tarin Conn composed drew more power, and the one Daniel had composed absorbed that energy. Vance tried to shake him off and nearly succeeded, but Daniel repositioned his arms up, under, around back, and locked his single-shielded hands together firmly at the back of the Serinian’s neck. Enough force was being used to crack the vertebra if it were a normal struggle with no shield involved. The physical move did not hurt the spell-caster, but it did cause the shields to grow brighter, and Daniel wished he could see the look on Vance’s face. The spell-caster could not have been expecting such a mundane attack, an attack that was completely illogical in a duel between two men who were masters of their potential.

  “CEASE THIS FOOLISHNESS AT ONCE!”

  If the Maestro of the Serpent Guild thought that he would be obeyed simply because he had used all capital letters, he thought wrong. After a few more attempts to break the hold, each nearly costing Daniel his footing, Vance brought the dagger up, thrusting the sharp point toward Daniel’s left eye. It was one of the flaws with that particular hold, if the person being held had a sharp weapon, he could stab you anywhere in the head or neck, but this was no ordinary match, and no ordinary men. The point stopped a finger-width from Daniel’s face.

  “You will die now,” the words appeared and the brief sentence stretched nearly the width of the room.

  It was the response Daniel had been hoping for. Life-force energy flowed from the dagger, into his shield, which absorbed the power, and caused Vance’s shield to draw an equal amount of power from the dagger, which was feeding the spell the Maestro was casting. Both shields grew brighter and brighter as one fed off the dagger and the other absorbed that energy, while the spell Cummin had focused also fed off the dagger. It was a continuous loop that could only end one way.

  When a spell-caster used an energy amplifier, no matter how powerful it may be, he or she must supply the life-force energy to be amplified. Vance was pumping out thirty-one bolts of potential, but four of those were coming from his vat, and he had been hitting Daniel with everything he had since the duel began. Simple physical contact with the two shields would have taken so much time to drain a reservoir it would have been faster to see which person could go the longest without taking a drink, but when Vance cast what was turning out to be a High Power spell, he upped the drain on his reservoir by orders of magnitude. The harmonic waves given off had to be staggering, making it difficult for Accomplisheds outside the chamber to concentrate enough to properly focus their spells. If not for Daniel’s shield, the radiance would have blinded him. He would not have been a bit surprised to learn tunnels were collapsing throughout the mountain.

  His muscles were straining with effort to keep the hold as the sheer force of the spell being focused through the dagger threatened to peal him away from his foe. That was of course Vance’s intent, to shove Daniel off his back.

  Those matches with Chas were paying off. Physical exertion had been a big part of Daniel’s life and he had not slacked off just because he could cast spells. His shield protected him, but could do nothing for the burning in his trembling arms or keep his knuckles from turning white with the strain.

  “I will not let go,” he spoke the words when time passed and it seemed his taut muscles were about to fail him.

  He held on even after he and Vance fell to the floor. He held on until the spell blasting towards his eye ceased and the shield around the Maestro vanished. The defeated Serpent was exhausted and unconscious. The man was not dead, but would likely die within the mark without treatment, the withholding of which Daniel was seriously considering. Instead, he shielded off the Aakacarn’s potential and then played the music in his head to summon, Forgettable.

  The spell was not one he had a Da Capo on, seeing as erasing the repertoire of another Accomplished was not what he expected to be doing at Mount Suteck. He had added the extra harmony line to the Symphonic and the power level used quite possibly wiped away decades of memory along with the Melodies, but that did not bother him overmuch. With just a few thoughts he removed the ceiling-to-floor shield and the one over the pit and the one protecting the captive woman in her night gown. For good measure he cast Sleep Time on the fallen Maestro as a precaution, to keep him from communicating with Tarin Conn in the dream world.

  David was the first through the door with Silvia right on his heels. Leah came in moments later and they all ran around the pit. Flashes of light could be seen out in the hall while the mountain trembled due to the tremendous volume of countless spell-castings.

  Find All had expanded beyond the confines of the chamber when Vance fainted. Daniel was sensing tunnels and rooms collapsing while halls a
nd chambers were being reformed or created new. The tens of thousands of active Aakacarns made the mountain seem like an enormous and complex anthill being invaded by a rival colony.

  He willed his outer shield away, but kept the Da Capo on it so he could instantly think it back in place without having to mentally perform the Symphonic.

  The First Accomplished picked up the dagger that had fallen from Vance’s grip and tucked it under her belt. “Sero and Carlos are helping the Sentinels hold this section. Samuel defeated Sera Cray, she is dead, and he is now battling Boris,” she said and eyed her Maestro, who finally took the opportunity to drink from his canteen. “I felt the harmonics coming from this room and new some powerful forces were in play and yet you do not look any worse for the wear.”

  He brought the canteen away from his lips. “That is because towards the end it was Vance who supplied most of the power it took to defeat him. I will tell you about it later, but for now I want you to send enough vitality into his vat to keep him alive so I can give him to Jerrian.”

  Leah looked at him askance. “Why would you give Tobermin such a boon, you do not even like him?”

  Daniel stared down at the unconscious Maestro. “True, but I reckon Vance likes him even less. Talmon might show the man mercy, but I doubt Tobermin will. We’ll let the Eagles decide the former Senior Soarer’s fate, well, to an extent. I have shielded off his potential and erased his repertoire and have no intention of ever removing or restoring either.”

  “I could just slit his throat,” David offered, and by the determined look in his dark eyes, it had been no jest.

  Daniel locked gazes with him. “Thanks for the offer, but I want him to live powerless among his enemies. I’m sure it will be a unique and frustrating experience.”