The Three Swords (The Ways of Mages)

by Catherine Beery

  “A what?”Jeremy asked.

  “I’ll explain later.”Terana told him softly.

  “My lady, I would advise that we wait for Razyan and the others.”Tsoya said.

  Terana shook her head.“No. My family is trapped in a house right now.”

  “You said that you would wait for help if there were too many.”Tsoya pointed out.

  “I said that I would wait for help if we looked and saw that the situation was too hard for a small group of us. We haven’t looked yet. Let us do that first.”

  “What about my pack?”Russy asked.

  “See if you cannot find them. We will meet you at the forest room after we check on the situation at the town.”Terana said.

  Jeremy frowned but the others acted as if his sister talking to an animal like it understood her was perfectly normal.

  ***

  Cold fear held her in its grip. Seeing only one Cursed had been bad enough, Terana thought. Seeing many more than that was enough to freeze one’s heart. The great, red eyed eagles walked silently about the streets of Plarn. Every once and a while, one would snap is beak. Sometimes this was because it just felt like doing that. Other times it was because it was snatching up a chicken that had panicked.

  Terana and the others had been surprised that Jeremy was right. The Cursed were making no attempts to get into the houses. And it was obvious that the creatures new fresh meat was in there. Russy crouched in the underbrush next to her. The small group and the wolf pack were interspaced along the edge of the forest. Tsoya had not been happy when Terana had refused to leave the valley. But Terana wasn’t able to. She couldn’t explain it, but something would not let her leave. And besides, the only family she had ever known was down there and she had to do everything she could to fix the mistake she had made. And despite what Tsoya and Jewel had warned that there was probably a Sheyestivan present, the wolves had told them that they had not seen a blue eye eagle. Nor had they sensed any illusions. Neither Jewel nor Tsoya disbelieved the wolves who obviously knew their valley quite well.

  So the group now stood where they were. The wolves were going to try to distract the Cursed away from town. While the Cursed were gone, the two-legs would take care of any Cursed that stayed behind and get the townspeople out. At a signal from the pack leader all the wolves, including Russy, slipped away like smoke. Terana’s hand fell to the hilt of the silver sword at her hip. It was almost time…

  Suddenly the Cursed shrieked and began to chase after the fleeting forms of the wolves. They were heading off in the opposite direction of the rest of the party. Terana prayed that the wolves would be okay. She and the others then began to make their way through the fields as quickly as they could. It was difficult because everything was ready to be harvested. The golden wheat swayed and seemed to resist their passage. Terana grimaced thinking about how much trouble they would have been in other wise for walking through a farmer’s crop. Farmers never took kindly to that…

  A piercing cry shook the valley. The companions only had time to glance up and grab their weapons before the Cursed dove around them. The Cursed attacked the others, but not as much as they went after the dragons. Tsoya and Terana had shifted to their draconic forms to even the size between the groups. Jewel also changed, but didn’t attract the same amount of interest. No one had time to question it. Jay Dee, Jeremy and Grim were stuck on the ground. Jay Dee shot darts and throwing knives at the eagles, but it didn’t do much. Even the poisoned darts didn’t have the desired effect. Grim watched the arial battle with a focused expression. His sword was held at the ready as he waited for a Cursed to attack them. Jeremy felt very unprepared with only a small knife in his hand. He wasn’t even sure that a Cursed would feel it. Liam was in pretty much the same situation, but with a staff. The silver dragon, that was incredibly Terana, dove out from under a tight knot of Cursed. Magic rippled along her scales as she moved. The Cursed followed her low to the ground. Tsoya came from above and shot more of the star blue magic at them from above. With a cry, several Cursed fell from the sky.

  “Terana!”Jewel roared a warning. Terana looked back the way she was going and barely managed to roll out of the way of an oncoming Cursed. The Cursed swerved and followed her, chittering hungrily. It dodged her defensive bolts. She zig zagged closer and closer to town. Suddenly the Cursed squawked in pain, an white fletched arrow in its wing joint. Terana glanced down and saw that the townspeople were peaking out of their houses, hunting bows in hand. She could see Cameron seemed quite pleased with himself. The creature lost altitude. It kept flapping after her, but its wing would no longer work right. Several other arrows found its wings and peppered its eyes. The Cursed fell to the ground. The townspeople scurried out of the way. Terana slowed the creatures fall so it wouldn’t hit any of them. She then veered back to the others.

  A Cursed was on the ground, threatening the men there. Grim was just managing to keep its vicious beak at bay. Terana thought he was able to do that much because he was such a strong man. Otherwise, the eagle would have sent him flying long ago. Terana dove onto the Cursed from behind. The healing heat from deep within her rose and flooded over and into the creature. It shrieked before melting into the human it had been before. Terana gasped and was so surprised that she changed back into human form when she saw that it was farmer Trellis. She touched the side of his neck and found that he was, thankfully, still alive. She looked up at the rest of the Cursed and wondered how many were from Plarn.

  “Terana!”Jeremy called. She looked at him. His brown eyes were staring behind her. Terana turned to look and saw a black eagle diving toward her. Unlike the others, he didn’t chitter hungrily. He was silent. It’s the silent ones you need to be wary of. She remembered hearing somewhere. Terana saw with a feeling of cold realization that his eyes were not red. Only her intense lessons in swordcraft had her drawing the Enaza Terelle and angling it to meet him.

  A black mist took the attacking eagle and the next thing that Terana knew was that a painful force drove her back and to her knees. Her eyes were wide as she watched her sword grate against the black one that had slammed into it. Her ears cringed from the high screech of blade on blade. She gulped and looked up into the face of the one whom she had only ever seen in dreams. Kaishan.

  She hadn’t realized that she had spoken aloud until he smiled and inclined his blond head.“Terana.”he acknowledged courteously.

  “Terana!”Jewel shouted. How had Kaishan come so quickly? How had he known? Jewel wondered as she blasted a score of Cursed with mage fire. She and Tsoya struggled to get through the wall of Cursed that had suddenly come between them and the imperiled Terana.

  Tsoya was trying hard not to panic, but the sight of her princess and friend on her knees before the one whose name had become a thing to scare children with was horrifying. And only crossed swords were between them; the weapon that Kaishan was a master of and Terana was only just learninglearning… The difference in skill level between them was like comparing the size of mountain to an ant hill. Only a mircle would see the ant hill winning against the mountain.

  “Don’t look into his eyes!”Jewel warned. Tsoya glanced at the emerald scaled dragon with copper wings. She quickly looked back to Terana. The young woman was looking up at Kaishan’s face…Oh no! More Cursed formed a barrier between Terana and her friends. The men and Jay Dee hurried as fast as they could but they were in even more danger from the Cursed then either Tsoya or Jewel as they could be picked up and dropped.

  Suddenly Jewel’s wing beats faltered. No! oh no!her panicked thoughts echoed Tsoya’s but for an entirely different reason. One she had prayed about since God, through Terana and Grim, had saved her from the Lord of Nightmare. She could hear howling on the wind.“DARK SONS!”Jewel bellowed the warning. Just in time as the fiery tongues of hellfire sprang into the world. The grotesque creatures were the same ones who had attacked Jewel back in South Port all those years ago. Instead of turning to Jewel, the dark sons flickered toward Terana and Kaish
an. Even though they were not targeting anyone else, they seemed to take glee in threateninganything in front of them. Liam’s staff caught fire and he dropped it before it could reach his hands. He then stumbled away from the flaming monster. The others were too far away and with problems of their own to come to his aid. Before the servant of Wrath could incinerate Liam, a Cursed shrieked and struck it. Liam could only stare where the fiery monster had been.

  Meanwhile, Terana heard Jewel’s warnings just as Kaishan met her eyes. The intense blue darkened to navy as they dominated her vision.“Found you.”He said. Terana lost all sense of reality.

  Kaishan caught the young woman, a feeling of satisfaction rippling through him. He used telekinesis to put the Enaza Terelle back into its sheath. At Jewel’s bellowed warning, Kaishan looked up. He snarled at the sight of the grotesque, flaming creatures that were coming toward him. The Cursed were attacking them and killing them, but there were too many of the things. Something primal within him hated the creatures that were threatening, not him, but the woman in his arms. He didn’t know how he knew they were after Terana, but he did. The simple fact was, they couldn’t have her.

  Kaishan teleported Terana and himself away from the threat. They reappeared at Emeran and waited for Reshan. It didn’t take too long for his brother to appear.

  Chapter Twenty-Six–The Darkest Hour

  The City of Pershara

  Perela paced through the maze that was the Thief’s Guild. It was eerily quiet. Which didn’t help settle her nerves. Perela was finding it hard to sleep. For a multitude of reasons, not the least of which she knew what night it was. It was the night that heralded a time of darkness, the Child of the Dark would be born sometime this night. It was a harrowing thought on its own. But it wasn’t the only one keeping her from sleep. The Grimedian knights had finally arrived, which was a good thing. But they brought word that Jason had been taken by a Maltacken priest. The news had struck Trevor hard. Thankfully, Ryan was able to tell them that he had Seen that Jason was still alive. He was also in the palace. But that wasn’t the only news the knights had brought. The reason why Jason had been close enough to be captured by an enemy priest was a huge dragon-like monster that seemed to eat magic and those who used magic.

  For once, Robert and Bendon had been there to hear this. The rebel leaders had frowned in puzzlement and some fear at what the knights were describing. Bendon, Robert, and Perela had been openly concerned.

  “So at least one survived.”her father had said gravely.

  “Do you know what it is?”General Stanton had asked.

  Bendon had glanced at Robert before sighing. His aged fingers fiddled with the red cloak in his lap.“Unfortunately we do, don’t we?”He muttered softly to the cloak. He looked back up at the other leaders.“The creature Master L’teran describes is a monster from the dragon wars. It was created by the Dark Lords. I think they wanted to have dragons on their side, but of course no self-respecting dragon would do so. So they made their own. Either they managed to capture a dragon and twist it or they made it from lizards. But, as we know, Dark Lords cannot create something. They are not God. There is always a flaw in their things. This creature’s was magic.

  “Dragons absorb vast quantities of magic from nature. They are like stars. This creature is the equivalent of a black hole. It cannot absorb magic from nature but it can steal it. It must steal it in order to live. Father Thomas was correct in saying that the only option one has to fight it is with mundane weapons. Anything with magic would just heal it.”Perela’s father had then paused before continuing.“It is a kal’es, or nameless creature. It served its purpose in the war perfectly. Scores of them hunted true dragons. But it soon became apparent that the creatures didn’t care where they got power from. They began to attack the Dark Lords on the field.“

  Bendon had smirked for a moment.“The kal’es became such a problem that both sides hunted them down and killed them. But somehow, one survived.”

  Perela shivered, drawing her cloak closer. A kal’es still existed. Had, in fact, gotten within several miles of the city!

  Unable to do anything yet about the kal’es, the leaders had then turned back to figuring out how to rescue Jason. It was decided that Trevor, Duncan, Tommy, and Ryan would go and save Trevor’s cousin. The rest stayed in the Guild. Perela prayed that Duncan and the others would be kept safe. Perhaps she felt uneasy because they had gone to the palace on the night the Child of the Dark would be born?

  A door opened down the hall. One of the older pick pockets entered the hall. He smiled at Perela. Perela started to smile back when she caught sight of the knife in his hand. The youth grinned, his eyes completely black. A snake-like hiss emanated from his throat.

  ***

  Meanwhile the four rescuers had made it into the palace walls using a secret tunnel that Tommy knew about. Smaller than the other three, Ryan slipped into the lead. Tommy followed next to him. Slinking behind the two thieves were Trevor and Duncan bringing up the rear. Ryan moved quickly through the courtyard making good use of the shadows. They were near a side door when Ryan raised his hand. The others stopped and listened, but they could hear nothing. But they waited for a few moments. Still nothing.

  Tommy eventually made to step slowly around Ryan when the younger man grabbed his sleeve.“Don’t.”He whispered.“A guard is about to walk out that door. There will be only one. He will forget that the door needs to be pushed closed in order to lock. Just wait for another minute.”

  Tommy raised an eyebrow but backed up. They waited and sure enough a King’s Guard stepped out of the door. He was young and apparently quite klutzy. He tripped on flat ground as he walked away. Ryan waited until the lad was far enough away to step over to the door. He grinned at the others when he opened the door.

  “The marvels of having a Seer around.”Trevor said with a smile.“Now, where is Jason?”

  “In the dungeons. They haven’t moved him yet.”Ryan replied slipping down the hall. The others glanced at each other. There was something different about Ryan tonight. They were used to him being sarcastic and somewhat annoying. He had also warned them of things to come as soon as he could. He was observant, laid back, and had a very interesting sense of humor. But tonight he was different. There was nothing laid back about him. He moved as silently as a thief, which made sense, or an assassin. And except for the grin at the side door, he was serious. It was like another side to Ryan was coming to the surface.

  They were in the hall near the busy kitchens. Ryan led them away from the noise and smells of food preparation. He again stilled and said softly over his shoulder.“Ten guards. They are tired. They don’t want to sleep in the barracks, it makes them ill. I think the machine is working.”

  “Will they leave anytime soon?”Duncan asked.

  Ryan shook his head.“They are going to sleep here.”

  “Is there another way to the dungeons?”

  “Yeah.”Tommy answered.“We can get caught and thrown in or take another a tour around the palace.”

  “The Director is right. Even if we did take the alternant route as quickly as we could there are more soldiers that way. This way there are only ten. Two more turns and then the dungeons and the three guards on duty there.”

  “So what are we waiting for?”Trevor asked drawing his long hunting knife.

  Ryan shrugged.“Nothing.”He then slipped around the corner. The others followed him, Duncan and Tommy both drawing their swords. “Evening, gentlemen.”Ryan said to the soldiers. The men scrambled to their feet. Their hands reaching for their weapons. Ryan tisked, wagging a finger at them.“I wouldn’t lads. We are just walking through. All we ask is that you pretend you never saw us.”Ryan met the gaze of each soldier before smiling good naturedly.“Everyone wins. You get to sleep and we get to go where we need to.”

  “They are not going to do that.”Tommy predicted eyeing the soldiers.

  Ryan turned hopeful eyes on the soldiers, his hands clasped before him.“Can you please
prove him wrong? You would help me win some gold…I’ll, of course, give you an equal share.”

  “If Im going t’elp somebody win money, dat person is gonna be me.”One of the soldiers said as he drew his sword. The others followed his lead. Ryan sighed“Well, it was worth a try…Let me tie my boots first.”And to everyone’s astonishment Ryan did exactly that.

  One of the soldiers shook his head and took the advantage Ryan had given him. Seeing the danger, Trevor took a step foreword. There was a thunk on the floor as Ryan stood up. He began to push the companions back around the corner. Tommy insisted they do what the younger thief told them.“Quickly now!”The Director told them reaching for the cloths that Ryan was pulling out of a pocket.

  “Cover your nose and mouth.”Ryan said as he tied his own about the lower part of his face. Duncan and Trevor did as the two thieves directed. Not a moment too soon, either. A hissing sound grew until there was a snap. When Ryan gestured that it was okay, the companions rounded the corner again. All ten guards were on the floor at various distances from a strange metal can on the ground. Tommy pulled his improvised mask down, a grin on his face. He began dragging a soldier to the wall and arranging him into a sleeping position.

  Trevor and Duncan traded a glance before moving to help. The soldiers were still alive, their pulses strong. They were just out cold.“So, what was that?”Trevor asked.

  “Trade secret.”Both Tommy and Ryan said together. The two thieves grinned at each other before continuing their task. Duncan and Trevor rolled their eyes. It didn’t take long for the four rebels to arrange the sleeping men and continue on their way. Two corners later brought them to the door leading down to the dungeons. It was, of course, on the other side of small office with three men playing cards.

  “Why is it they always play cards?”Ryan muttered to himself. Duncan raised an eyebrow at him. The auburn haired man shook his head and waved the knight’s silent question away.“It’s not as masking as dice.”He complained mildly. “I’ll take care of this.”He said before slipping into the room.