I honestly didn’t know how she did it. Rena had a few butterflies in her stomach but she’d never been truly nervous about combat. Because destruction came naturally to her? Even she didn’t understand why. Of all times, I would think it would be now, as we had more minions, twisted and grotesque, than I had ever seen. It made the Njorage shard look like a walk in the park by comparison. I couldn’t even get a good count on them because they kept moving, so I had no idea how Rena intended to deal with them. I counted every possible woodland animal, trees, even some squat, leafy things that might have been bushes in a previous life. These things had been twisted almost past all recognition, little more than a vaguely bipedal form, hunched and deformed. The only thing that gave me a hint on what they had originally been was the traces of fur or the glimmer of half-faces. Stuff of nightmares, all of it.
My Rena faced them without a glimmer of unease. She stood now in the forefront of the group, serene and determined, eyes flicking back and forth, taking in every detail, and I knew that expression well.
Things would explode very soon.
She spoke the words that I knew well, demolishing a wide expanse through the barrier in a crescent shape, clearing the area of all minions in one fell swoop. I could tell who the disbelievers were because they let out startled oaths seeing her work this kind of destructive magic through what had to be at least four barriers. I felt a spark of pride ride in my chest as the ‘door’ inside opened and we quickly stepped through. Whatever people thought of Rena’s magic, they wouldn’t doubt her now.
All three teams sprinted through, the other two coming up into flanking positions as soon as we had the space to do it in. I fell into line with Rena, on her right, and the rest of the team formed a square formation around us like we had done this a thousand times before. Maksohm and Nora’s shield stayed flexible and strong, keeping us safe from Toh’sellor’s energy, and the other teams mirrored ours, familiars outside in a first line of defense, the mages and agents inside.
The shield protected us but I could still feel the energy. I’d stood on top of a cliff, once, watching a typhoon come in, tidal waves arcing high enough to wash out a town. Even protected as I had been, I’d felt the sheer destructive power in the storm. The air had a smothering intensity to it, a denseness that made it hard to breathe, like an anvil sat on my lungs. Being buffeted by Toh’sellor’s energy, even through two protective shields, made that summer typhoon look like a light breeze. Most of my survival instincts and the bond clamored for me to run in the opposite direction. The rest of them either offered bribes or begged for mercy, depending.
Not unlike being punched in the chest, over and over by a very angry five hundred pound gorilla. I sought to ignore it, just putting one foot in front of another. My nose kept pitching a hissy fit, proving non-ignorable, as the scent of the place had a cloying decay to it that made me choke. It smelled like old man, wet moss, and ash all mixed in. I’d never smelled anything like it and prayed never to do so again.
Rena’s efforts notwithstanding, we barely had the teams into formation and our shields up before we got slammed with minions. I hated minions. They fought stupidly, with brute force, and they just rammed into you without any sort of finesse or skill. The only reason why I struggled with them was because of their sheer numbers.
“Sard it!” Rena burst out, more angry and alarmed than I’ve ever heard her. “What mangled, ruttish, sinful glob of a whore’s mouth is this?!”
Chi let out a low whistle. “Wow, Rena, I didn’t know you had it in you. Bannen’s clearly a good influence.”
I’d never heard her swear like that so my head snapped around, daring a two second peek at whatever had caused that outburst.
Oh.
Yeah.
That would do it.
“Sarding son of a Bauchi,” I snarled, my heart beating hard enough to go right through my ribs. “Maksohm, you said there was possibly one shard near the barrier!”
“I stand corrected,” he responded tightly. “I count four. Nora, confirm.”
“Four, possibly five,” Nora confirmed, voice cracking. “I think there’s one just past this one on the far right—”
Rena sounded ready to start a massacre on the spot. “There is. Maksohm, get me close to these. If we’re going to have any prayer of getting through here and keeping the barrier up, I need to destroy at least three shards. Or do you want me to do four?”
I could hear the strain in Maksohm’s breathing, hear it in his voice—he didn’t like this situation and he really didn’t want to linger in here more than another minute. But we all knew that leaving the shards up would reduce our chances of getting through later. It would put an additional strain on the agents maintaining the barrier outside and they had too much to deal with already. “Do it.”
“Go right fifty-six paces and stop. I can reach two shards from there.”
And didn’t that scare me right down to my marrow, that she had two shards within fifty feet of each other that she could reach simultaneously.
Another wave of minions hit with an audible crash and I didn’t have any room to breathe, much less think. It took concentrated effort on the whole team’s part to keep them from hemming us in, cutting off all routes, and I wished, fleetingly, that Maksohm had asked for four teams to go in, not three, because I was not sure if we had the firepower to deal with this.
Rena took a moment to clear out some of the minions, likely because she had to in order to get a clear view of the shards, then she started that longer incantation that meant she absolutely could not be disturbed or distracted for the next three minutes.
Strange, how three minutes could seem like an eternity under certain circumstances.
Of course Rena managed, somehow, to down both shards in one go. All of the minions created by them evaporated like so much dust in the wind, and while normally that would mean the end of the fight, it only meant we went from Imminent Death to Hovering Death or something along those lines.
“Left three hundred and two feet, then stop,” Rena directed, not even sounding out of breath.
I found it easier to move, to keep up with her, to fight off minions as I no longer faced a swarm of them. Not to say I could just walk forward, I still had plenty to fight, but I no longer felt like I faced a tidal wave or a tsunami of nightmares.
Just, you know, half a tsunami. Did tsunamis come in halves?
Remembering what happened last time, I grunted out, “Chi? How many arrows you have left?”
“Brought two quivers this time.”
“I love a man that knows how to plan ahead,” Nora stated with a laugh that sounded too strained. “So that means you’re fine?”
“Should have brought three.”
In other words, no. “Need a sword?”
“Now that I did bring.”
He needed it, too, when we stopped and Rena went to work on the third shard. I hated being a stationary target more than being trapped in a fatal funnel, but it happened on a fairly regular basis. You would think that with enough exposure I’d get used to it, but conversely I hated it more now, probably because Rena was vulnerable. I had very strong opinions about my girl being vulnerable to danger.
The shard shredded into magical vapor and all of its minions with it. Rena immediately turned on a heel and moved the opposite direction, and I could see the sheen on her skin as she moved, that flat look in her eyes that said she hated every second of this but wasn’t about to let the enemy win. She stalked toward the fourth shard, and we moved with her, gravitating and re-orienting ourselves like planets around the sun. “Four hundred, eighty-six paces and stop,” she called out strongly, already gearing up to destroy minions before they could overwhelm us.
She was seriously sexy as sin when she became like this, calm and in control, dishing out destruction with nothing more than a flick or her eyes and a few choice words. If it were possible to fall for her any harder than I already had, I would have done it in this moment. I felt thankful t
hat we all had more than enough on our plates because I was sure my face gave my feelings away in that moment.
Almost five hundred paces took far too long to move across and I felt a clock ticking in the back of my mind. How long had we been in here? The sun didn’t shine directly overhead, it still climbed its way up steadily from the east, so I knew we hadn’t been in here four hours. But I had a bad feeling we’d passed that two hour mark some time back. Maksohm would get an earful for this but really, did we have any other choice?
At least we had gotten the basic reconnaissance done: situation a sarding, foul mess. We’d need at least seven teams just to get inside, make it halfway, and create that base camp. Any less than that, we’d lose good people on the way in, and not have the manpower necessary to protect Rena when we finally got to the heart of Toh’sellor.
Fifty feet away from the fourth shard, we stopped, Rena speaking so quickly it was a wonder that her words didn’t trip over each other. More minions seemed to be crawling up from the valley floor, like ants swarming towards an intruder, and I braced myself, breathing a little too hard as they approached. As soon as Rena got this fourth shard down, we need to make a run for it. We weren’t properly equipped to fight here for the rest of the day, and that’s what would happen if the next wave of minions hit us.
I could feel the change when the fourth shard went down, the minion—what had likely been a very old oak tree at some point—facing me immediately puffing out into thin air. I didn’t need to hear Maksohm’s order of, “Move out! Back to the barrier, move!”
We turned as a unit, literally spinning in place and going at a quick jog for the barrier. I kept Rena to my right, flicking my eyes over her in a quick scan, but she didn’t show any signs of strain. She looked tired, like we all were, but the days of worrying about her collapsing and not being able to breathe were well past.
Not all of the minions had left, of course, but the majority for this area had been demolished by the teams. The few stragglers still present were quickly dispatched. As usual, we made the return trip to the barrier line in a fraction of the time it took to fight our way in.
The barrier promptly opened large enough for us to pile through, and we kept moving, giving everyone behind us enough space to make it as well without crowding.
“Agent Maksohm!” a harried voice boomed out over the crowd. “You’re an hour and half overdue!”
Maksohm groaned, resigned, and made his way toward the senior agent in charge. I did not envy him the debriefing for this. Or the paperwork. From what I had seen, the MISD seemed to run on coffee and paperwork.
Rena gave everyone a tired, somewhat strained smile. “Good work, everyone. Thanks for backing me up.”
A woman I didn’t know, in the blue MISD uniform, gave her a jaunty salute. “After seeing you in action, we’re glad to do so, Magus. I think I ask this for everyone: will defeating Toh’sellor itself be as easy?”
Smile growing crooked, Rena responded honestly, “Deities willing.”
They’d only been in there for three hours, and I knew that everyone could have fought all day if they needed to, but they flopped around the room as if they had been at it all day. Vee, never comfortable at sitting in a chair, had commandeered a corner to prop herself up in. Chi took advantage by laying his head in her lap, stretched out, eyes closed. Vee apparently didn’t mind, as she ran her hands through his hair. I felt sure that if Chi could, he would be purring.
The rest of our team sat around the table, Nora with her head pillowed on her hands, Maksohm next to her with his chin resting on his palm, both of them disgruntled. Bannen sat next to me with his chair tipped back, eyes closed, head angled toward the ceiling in a relaxed pose that didn’t fool me one bit. My familiar wanted to scream on some level, if he hadn’t already.
The only person taking this situation in stride seemed to be Yez, as he sat up properly, looking around the room with interest.
Me? I could feel hysterical laughter building in my throat and had to swallow, often, choking it back. I wanted to protest that I didn’t sign up for this, but I think I had. “Do we have enough manpower to do this?”
“Yes,” Maksohm answered.
At the same time Nora growled, “No.”
The cousins lifted their heads long enough to glare at each other.
“Well that cleared matters right up, thanks for that,” Bannen drawled without changing his position one iota.
“Technically, we do,” Maksohm argued, more to Nora than the rest of the room. “But it means we don’t have any reserves. We don’t have any real means of retreat. We’ll have to be all in or not attempt this at all.”
I understood what he meant. Bannen made an inquisitive noise so for his benefit, I explained, “The barrier can’t take multiple breaches. By opening it, even for a brief minute at a time, we’re weakening its durability, making it harder to maintain. If we do multiple forays through it, it strains the mages holding the spell, and will break it. The next time we go through, we need to be committed to staying in there until the job is done. We can’t back out again, not without sacrificing at least four mages to rebuild the barriers we’ve compromised. They’re too thin as it is. Toh’sellor is shredding them every second of every day.”
“I had a feeling,” he sighed, sounding grim and resigned. “The barriers here are too transparent.”
Sometimes I forget that Bannen, while not knowing much about magic constructs, still has good instincts regarding them. “Yes, they are. Maksohm, I estimate we have three or four days before we absolutely have to move. Otherwise we’ll have to delegate some of our mages to help keep the barrier stable.”
Nora flopped her head back down. “Correct.”
The way that the barrier’s spell construct strained, with fissures in the magical coding, also told me that if we didn’t move soon, this would no longer be the last line of defense. They would have to abandon this area, and the town, and retreat outwards a good mile before setting up their defenses all over again. We’d lose people in the process. We’d have to assign even more mages to the barrier, as it would cover a wider area, and it might take years before we had an opportunity to go in again. If we ever managed to recover enough to do it at all.
My mind ran the numbers even without my conscious decision and I hated that part of me a little—the way it calculated odds, probabilities, magic, power and spat out the answer. It was a depressing answer and I didn’t want to know it right now. “We have enough for seven teams of seven and a dedicated Healer, right?”
“Right. My plan was to send four teams in, create a base camp, then switch out with a fresh team to actually attack Toh’sellor with.” Maksohm rubbed a tired hand over his eyes. “But doing that means breaching the barrier at least four more times and that’s not feasible right now.”
“If we all go in at once,” Bannen finally lifted his head to participate in the conversation, “do we have the means to create a large enough camp to house everyone?”
“Yes and no. Yes, we certainly would, but it would mean losing some of our shield bearers when we actually go to attack. The way to offset it is to create as small of a camp as possible, where we’re basically sleeping on top of each other, which we can certainly manage—”
Chi snorted from his comfortable lap pillow. “We’ve certainly done it before. Remember that time in Hampton?”
Yez gave him a glare. “We don’t speak of Hampton. Ever.”
“Rule eight, Chi,” Vee complained to him.
Maksohm kept speaking as if he never got an interruption. “—but it wouldn’t be a situation that we could tolerate for more than two days. Which means that Rena would only have the afternoon to work in on the first day, do whatever observations she needs to, and then actually work her magic on the second. Rena, can you promise me that?”
I hesitated strongly before I answered. This wasn’t a situation where I could blithely promise a client that I could do something and then figure it out later. I had to know
the answer. Chewing on my bottom lip, I finally gave him the most honest answer I could. “If I can’t figure it out in the space of an afternoon, there will be little point in us staying in there at all. I either see the structure and figure out how to destroy it, or I don’t.”
That got everyone’s attention and they turned as one to look at me.
Squirming a little in my seat, I felt myself go defensive and struggled to keep it out of my voice. “Normally that’s not the case, the few times I’ve gotten stuck, I could research it. Or draw someone else in for a second opinion. But there is no other source of information about Toh’sellor. The only person that could give me a second opinion is Master Mary, who absolutely would not last trying to go in there with me. I either figure this out in whatever time you give me or I don’t.”
No one seemed pleased by this answer. I didn’t like it either but I couldn’t lie or exaggerate to them. Not with this much on the line.
“The one upside we have to this,” Bannen spoke into the uneasy silence, “is that Toh’sellor has already used up all of his resources. It’s not like he can keep throwing minions at us or spawning new ones to replace the ones we destroy. We’ve already made the situation a little better for ourselves today by taking down the four shards.”
True. I hadn’t thought of that but he had a good point. Of course it would take years for us to destroy every shard and minion in there, but everything we did now helped the barrier maintain its integrity for a little longer.
Maksohm let out a decade’s worth of sighs. “I honestly don’t know which would be better, to try taking everyone in at once, or to reconfigure the teams a little to make a slightly smaller group. I have to work out the optimum amount of firepower versus the need to shield said firepower.”
Now this, this I could help with. “Let’s talk numbers.”
The Void Mage (The Familiar and Mage Book 2) Page 23