by Alix Sharpe
The stream of wizards fed directly into a large open hall. Kyle spotted Master Pallas and Master Merlena standing at a large podium at the front. His heart leapt into his throat. Even Pallas looked concerned.
He glanced down at Angeline, she had apparently noticed the same, her face even grimmer as she stared at the withered Arch-Master. Reaching down he placed his palm on the small of her back and guided her through the crowd to the front, where the few other soldiers had congregated, all half dozen of them. All Mages, not a single Salamander. No fire-power. What kind of idiot would leave a stronghold so poorly guarded?
As they drew closer he saw that master Pallas wasn’t just worried, she looked downright distressed.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know how they could have done it.”
“How do you not know?” Merlena sneered, flipping that ugly-ass blue hair. “You know everything. You can See it all.”
“My Sight is fainter these days,” Pallas said, dark skin looking even more green than the day before. “Perhaps this is the same mysterious magic the elves used to curse those amulets.”
“The amulets were cursed?” Angeline cut in shoving her way to the front.
Pallas gave her a grim nod.
“Not that it’s your business,” sneered Olga the Obnoxious, crinkling her blue eyebrows.
“It’s my business if Elves are on their way,” Angeline spat. “You may be a Master, but I’m the highest-ranking soldier in here.”
“Not if I take away your rank, like I’ve been considering anyway,” said the stupid blue cow.
“If you want to play your little games, fine, but do it when there aren’t dozens of lives at stake. Look around you.” Angeline gestured wildly to the hall of panicked wizards huddling in small groups, whispering in fear.
Pallas put a frail hand on Merlena’s meaty forearm.
Merlena narrowed her eyes at Angeline but kept her mouth shut.
“Yes,” Pallas said softly, ashamed, “A hundred Elves approach the Castle as we speak, closing in on all sides. They’ll breach the walls in under an hour. I don’t know how I didn’t See them sooner, none of us did.”
“Then we need to evacuate,” Angeline said, standing up taller.
“We can’t,” Pallas said, “in every vision I’ve Seen, no more than a pair can escape their formation. If more than two leave they get caught every time,” her voice dropped to barely a whisper, “and made an example of.”
Kyle’s gaze fell back to Angeline, her jaw set tight. Two could escape, why shouldn’t it be the two of them? They weren’t even supposed to be there. He knew she wanted to stay and fight, to protect the Castle and its inhabitants, but six soldiers against a hundred Elves? That was suicide. He’d have to get her alone and try to convince her to leave with him.
“Then we send two out, to call for reinforcements,” Angeline said.
“I already mentioned that idea,” Merlena said smugly.
“Who are you sending then?” Angeline demanded. God the feisty Captain thing was starting to get kinda hot.
Kyle gritted his teeth. What was wrong with him? Why was he even thinking that way? Maybe because he’d already made up his mind he wasn’t sticking around for the shit show, and neither was she. They could be the two who left, they could go get reinforcements. He’d be protecting her and getting away from the Masters at the same time.
“We’re not calling for reinforcements,” Merlena said, face souring. “Besides, I could have just teleported an SOS to the camps in range already if that’s what we were doing.”
Pallas placed her hands on the podium, as though she might be sick. “If reinforcements arrive, the Elves will slaughter all those inside.”
“Besides,” Merlena said, “to get sufficient numbers we’d have to call in the three closest camps. It’d take half a day to get here.”
Kyle couldn’t help himself. “Well who the fuck created that set up? Why the hell aren’t there more soldiers stationed here?”
The soldiers, the Masters, and a few surrounding observers turned toward him, shocked. Except for the Viking shrew, she just looked pissed. Guess he got his answer. Of course she set it up. Shit, why did those at the top always seem the least competent?
“There was never a need for soldiers,” Merlena said, narrowing her eyes, “our Diviners used to See all threats days before they occurred.”
“I know,” Pallas said, breath rattling, “I have failed us all.”
All fell silent for a moment.
Angeline’s face grew dark. “We only have one choice. We have to evacuate the Masters.”
One of the soldiers leaned in. “Won’t that cause a panic? Look how many eyes are watching.”
Angeline turned and gazed upon the sea of frightened faces. Kyle followed her line of sight. Bunch of kids. Mostly scrawny. A full ocean of black amulets, dotted with the occasional blue of the Castle Mages, glorified washing machines in a room full of brainiacs. How the hell were they supposed to fight heavily armed shit-demons, twice their height and triple their weight?
Another soldier questioned the small group. “What do they even want? There’s no doorway to Earth here. They can’t cross The Veil.”
Kyle watched as the last little light in Angeline’s eyes went out.
“This isn’t about the doorways,” Angeline said, voice softer now, “not yet. They haven’t been able to get close, because we always See them. So, they’re going to blind us. Half The Realm’s Diviners live within these walls. They’re going to kill these kids.”
CHAPTER 15 – ANGELINE
The group sat quiet for a long time, and still no answers came. They slowly started drifting away to try and console the panicked young Diviners and Castle Mages. Angeline was so dazed, she didn’t even ask where they were headed when Kyle grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into a side room.
“Two can leave,” Kyle said closing the door.
Angeline blinked, the clouds of stress fogging up her mind. She’d never felt this hopeless, this powerless, even when she was with Jesse.
Kyle stepped closer to her, voice barely a whisper. “Why should it be the two Masters who screwed everything up? I’m not sticking around and dying because they had their heads up their asses.”
Oh. The break up. So, he was leaving after all. For a moment she’d let her brain wander, let herself think of maybe. But no, she had no logical reason to think he’d changed his mind. Regret bubbled in her gut, regret at her own naivety.
The regret churned into anger.
“Go if you want then,” Angeline hissed between her teeth. Honeymoon period over. She knew this was coming, he’d never even wanted to set foot in the Castle. Why would she expect him to stay? Oh right, because she slept with him and got her emotions all mixed up. Typical. He was just like Jesse, when shit gets heated, bail. He—
“I’m not leaving without you,” Kyle said, wrapping his large, warm hands around her forearms.
Oh. What? Mr. Lone-Wolf was asking her to come with him? For a split second a little voice in the back of her mind squealed in satisfaction. That voice was Angie, the dumb little girl who fell for bikers with bad tattoos, the girl who threw away everything important to her. The girl who even lost control and burned a goddamn building down.
“Well I’m not leaving these kids,” Angeline said, pulling out of his grasp. She saw something shift in his eyes. He wanted to argue, she could see him mulling over his words carefully. So cute.
Fuck. How was she letting herself get distracted by him? This situation was a fucking CODE RED. There was a very real possibility that everyone in that Castle might die, and there she was, ogling Kyle Kallen instead of strategizing.
He stepped closer to her, the heat rolling off his skin, desperation burning in his eyes. “What are you going to do for them, Angeline? You don’t even have an amulet.”
She narrowed her eyes, ducked out of his grasp, and flung open the door. Glaring over her shoulder, she marched straight over to the nearest C
astle Mage, a skinny, white kid, with tiny braids all over his head. She held out her palm. “Give me your amulet. I command you. I am—”
The kid whipped it off his neck and handed it over before she could finish. “Yes, ma’aaaam.”
Uh. Okay.
He waggled his eyebrows at her and slid his gaze up and down her body.
Goddammit. She’d gotten that vibe from Salamanders before, but a Castle Mage, right then? Really? He did know they were quite possibly on the brink of death, right?
“Anything baby likey, she get,” he said, rubbing his hands together, staring at her chest.
A plump-cheeked Diviner girl popped up between them. “She is no baby, Lance, this be a great Captain!”
“Yo, Imma Captain too, essentially,” he said, crossing his arms like he was on the cover of a 90s boy band album.
“You are no Captain,” the girl squeaked, “I See no sporting in your stats.”
“Dude, Krystal, it’s like a, a mentalphor.”
“Metaphor.” Angeline said slipping the amulet over her head.
“Right, baby, you know. I was Captain of my team, runnin’ the game in city college n’ shit. Thug Life 101.”
Angeline’s lips formed a flat line. She turned towards the Diviner girl. “What do you mean you can See his ‘stats’?”
“It’s my secret skill!” she half-shouted, inappropriately excited considering the situation. “I’m not so great at the regular Diviner stuff, you know, the visions and the futures, and all. But I can See players stats! It’s like a panel pops up in my head and I know everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, specialties, types… you know, like an MMORPG. PVP with the Elves, now. You have a ton of XP, Captain! I can see HP too, which is going to suck when they start torturing us--”
“Whoa,” Kyle said, stepping in, “can you cool it with the alphabet soup? Plain English.”
“Right,” the girl said, nodding enthusiastically, “Sorry, I’ll slow it down. Your intelligence is a 3, by the way, Sir. If you’d have come out and told me, I’d have made my message more clear.”
“3 out of what?” Kyle said, tucking his brows.
“Out of 5. The Captain here has full marks, so I just assumed she was following along—”
“I was,” Angeline said. “This could be very useful.
“A 3?” Kyle said, scrunching his nose.
“Oh, but you have a 5+ in strength, Sir,” she beamed, clapping her hand aggressively against his bicep with a loud ‘slap’.
“Dude, Krystal, sometimes I think you makin’ this shit up,” Lance said, shaking his braids.
“Everyone, silence,” Angeline demanded. “We are being surrounded as we speak. Now is the time for strategizing, not socializing. Krystal. Come with me.”
Kyle and the tiniest gangster followed closely behind as Angeline dragged Krystal to the front podium. The Masters hadn’t budged. Pallas, she got, she was meditating, trying to See the Elves and their next moves. Merlena on the other hand… she was technically Commander in Chief and all she was doing was sitting on her big, blue ass.
Disgust turned in Angeline’s gut. When she had suggested they evacuate The Masters, she’d really meant Pallas. She’d hoped Merlena would step up and offer her teleportation skills to the fight ahead. But no. The opposite had occurred.
Pallas had insisted on staying, she wouldn’t leave her trainee Diviners. Merlena was all too happy to jump into the lifeboat built for two, she was just waiting around until the rest of them could decide which soldier would be best equipped to escort her to safety. It almost made Angeline want to give into Kyle’s crazy idea, sneak off, just so Merlena couldn’t. But no, Angeline wouldn’t do that, not when she still hadn’t convinced Pallas to leave. Just because she’d failed to See the Elves, didn’t mean she’d become useless to the war. She was the most powerful wizard in The Realm. They needed her alive.
Angeline grabbed Krystal by the arm and flung her in front of Pallas, ripping the Arch-Master from her trance. “Krystal. What do you see when you look at Master Pallas?”
Krystal snapped straight, standing up as tall as she could, and began reciting with a robotic intensity:
“Pallas, Abigail.
Level: ARCH-MASTER.
Intelligence: 5,
Power: 5,
Charisma: 5,
Knowledge: 5,
Bravery: 5—”
“Krystal,” Angeline said, placing a hand on her shoulder to stop her, “list only statistics below a 5.”
“Right,” Krystal nodded enthusiastically. “Speed: 2, Stamina: 1, Strength: 0.”
Angeline folded her arms and exhaled slowly, her eyes fixed on the frail Master.
Pallas simply returned her weary stare.
“Fun Fact,” Krystal blurted out, completely oblivious to the tension surrounding her. “Pallas, Abigail is the single Diviner with the ability to read thoughts. WHOA. Another Fun Fact--”
“Now, Ms. Davis,” Pallas said, a soft, yet sad smile dancing on her lips, “let’s not go giving out my age now or anything.”
“Yes, Sir,” Krystal said, clasping her hands behind her back, pursing her lips shut.
“Arch-Master,” Angeline said, voice pleading, “you have to leave. If the Elves catch you—”
“Captain,” Pallas said, raising a hand to cut her off, “you understand better than anyone, I can’t leave my charges.”
Angeline ground her teeth together. “But when the Elves find out about your abilities, they’ll torture you, they’ll force you to use your power to help them.”
Pallas stepped down and drifted to Angeline’s side, her long dress dusting the floor. She leaned close and whispered so only she could hear. “Good thing my Strength is at 0, then. They won’t get to torture me long.”
She pulled back and stared deep into Angeline’s eyes, her own clouded with the film of age and dimming sight. She appeared much older now than Angeline had ever seen her before. “I’ll leave it to you, Captain, to determine who best to escort Merlena to safety.”
“If you’re staying, she should too,” Angeline said, voice tight. “She could fight. She could teleport weapons and—”
“No,” Pallas said, “She can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Angeline turned and narrowed her eyes at Merlena, watching them with indifferent detachment.
“If the Elves have her, they will take her to Quadrant 3 and force her to conjure the doorway as soon as she’s in range of their Castle. They will be able to invade Earth with no one to oppose them. I’ve Seen it.”
A knot tightened in Angeline’s gut. “Shit.”
“Shit is correct,” Pallas said softly, a brief twinkle in her dull eyes.
“So your visions reveal Merlena’s fate. But what about you? What about the rest of them?”
“That I cannot See,” Pallas said, “the fate of all others lies obscured.”
“Probably all you Diviners in one place,” Angeline laughed, sardonically. “Your brain power is just scrambling the whole thing.”
“Well, no news is good news, right?” Kyle said behind her, dropping his hand subtly to touch the tips of Angeline’s fingers.
She had forgotten he’d been listening. At least now he would stop trying to convince her to leave. There was only one spot left on that lifeboat. And she knew he would not give that up for her.
CHAPTER 16 – KYLE
“I’m guessing Olga the Obnoxious can’t teleport people? Can’t just zap us all to freedom?” Kyle said, tipping up Angeline’s chin with his finger.
“No...”
“Just thought I’d ask,” he said, attempting a smile, “even though my intelligence might be a 3.”
Angeline didn’t say a word, her beautiful, hazel eyes clouded over in thought.
Kyle released her chin and pounded his fist against the rough brick wall. It wasn’t fair, none of this was fair. “What if Pallas is wrong? What if more than two of us can escape, what if we all can?”
“Pallas h
as never been wrong. Ever.”
“What if this time, she is? You see how sick that lady looks?” Kyle said. “What if there aren’t any Elves at all? No one else Saw them.”
What was this bullshit? Hope? Delusions? Why was he now suddenly thinking that just maybe they’d find a way to beat the odds?
Fuck. No denying it, he knew. It was easy to hope, when he had Angelface right there in front of him…
Not just because she looked like a heavenly creature sent by the creators, but because that woman was so goddamn stubborn there was no way she could lose. Well, except in those impossible odds, maybe.
She was no idiot, she had to know it. She wasn’t in denial; she was trying to stay strong for the kids. Just like Pallas. Giving up their lives for this stupid war, a cause that would just send a fresh batch of kids across The Veil to replace them. It was suicide.
A sudden burst of rage swelled under his skin. “Who decides who the Masters are anyway?”
“What? Why does that matter?” Angeline said, lifting her head.
Kyle bit back the rage percolating in his stomach and did his best to lower his voice. It was quieter now in the hall, Angeline had sent the Mages to work casting illusions to hide the kids from the Elves as best they could. Kyle had pulled her into the next room to talk, but the place was far from private. “Because, it’s that Viking hag’s fault. Her strategy is going to get everyone killed, everyone except her. There are 6 fucking soldiers here, to protect this entire Castle. The nearest stations are too far away to respond—”
“You heard Pallas, we can’t call for reinforcements anyway,” Angeline said, turning her head away from him slightly.
“I know you hate that blue bimbo,” he said, dipping closer to her, “why are you defending her?”
“I’m not defending her,” Angeline said, her jaw flexing with tension. “I don’t have a choice.”
“You do have a choice,” Kyle said, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Fuck this fight. Let’s leave. Maybe if the Elves get what they want, if they capture that cow and force her to teleport a damn doorway, maybe they’ll let the kids live.”
“And get through to Earth?”