Thread Skein (Golden Threads Trilogy Book 3)

by Leeland Artra

  Lebuin wasn’t sure if Ticca could hear him, so he repeated it as loudly as he could. As he looked back, he could see that there were at least five people on horses pursuing them at a distance.

  Ticca signaled to continue running.

  “Should I attack them?” he yelled at Ticca’s back.

  She glanced over her shoulder at the pursuers and then signaled him to wait.

  As they topped a small rise, Lebuin’s stomach sank when he saw there were three other riders ahead. Initially, they weren’t moving. Within a second, that changed as their horses leapt into a gallop, heading straight for Ticca’s party on an intercept course.

  She saw them, too, and slowed to fall back near Lebuin. “Can you drop those three?”

  He considered his choices. He could soften the ground, but not at a long distance. He didn’t know an incantation strong enough to take out a group of men. There were explosive incantations, but he’d pretty much ignored them, thinking he wouldn’t need them in the library.

  I really wish I could have been warned I would need those incantation formulae.

  “All I really know will only work on one at a time, and I might miss, especially riding a horse.”

  “Well, don’t wait! Get busy!” To her team, she yelled, “Lebuin’s attacking! If he fails, be ready to circle up when they get to us.”

  Oh, thanks. No pressure at all.

  His heart raced, and his senses were still tingling from the magic energies surging at the base behind them. Taking a deep breath, he forced his emotions away. Concentrating on the lead rider, he recalled the incantation, creating the magical formula’s channels in his mind and filling them with enough power to begin to focus the incantation.

  The world turned to the gentle colors of magic as his senses shifted to the magical aspects. The area was strangely saturated with mana, as if they were riding through a pool of power. He didn’t have time to experiment with drawing mana from the surrounding area, so he forced himself to ignore it. He found the energies of the lead rider, and he concentrated on connecting his incantation’s flow to the man’s center of power.

  Tendrils of magic flung out from his magical construction, latching onto the rider’s core. Lebuin felt a surge of pride that he had managed the connection under those conditions. Then he threw all the power he could into the incantation. It rushed into the channels, swelling them, and was filtered to the connection as the construction burned itself out, sending all the refocused power down the connecting strands.

  In the rush of things, Lebuin tried to put too much power into the incantation. It warped under the pressure, and some of the excess energies rebounded to him, singeing his own magic channels. Still, the effect was spectacular.

  A twisting beam of blue and orange leapt from him, to slam into the lead rider. With a splash of blue light, the man was thrown off the horse backwards, slamming into the horse behind him before falling hard, causing the second one to trip over his body. It cartwheeled, breaking its neck and landing on top of its rider, crushing him. Lebuin’s magical sight showed the splash of energies, indicating that the man was killed as well.

  The third rider’s horse was startled by the flash next to its face, and it dug its feet in, trying to turn away from the unexpected light. That caused it to flip sideways as its rider was thrown off. The man flailed in the air before landing poorly.

  Ticca whooped. “Impressive! This way!” She zigged her horse to angle away from the bodies of the three men.

  Their group shifted with her as a ball of fire shot past. If they hadn’t turned, it would have hit at least one of them. The blazing sphere landed only twenty feet farther on and exploded, throwing bursts of flame two stories into the air.

  Looking back, Ticca said, “The one in the middle is the mage. Lebuin, can you do something about him?”

  His moment of pride was gone, replaced with cold chills running down his back.

  I can’t face a Nhia-Samri mage. They have all that power at their command. I can’t possibly fight that!

  Ticca yelled a warning; the group made another hard turn and another ball of fire exploded even closer than before.

  Carda was shouting something at Ticca, but Lebuin couldn’t hear it. Ticca glanced back towards their pursuers with a frown.

  As best he could, Lebuin looked, too. The base behind them was glowing. He shifted to mage sight, and his thoughts scrambled. It was as if everything he thought he knew about magic was meaningless. Five mana lines were focusing on the center of the base, and a sphere of mana was growing like a soap bubble. It was almost as large as the central building.

  My Lords, how can that be possible?

  ‘They have channeled the power through a Loehesh Pattern, stabilizing and transmuting it to a near-physical state.’

  Lebuin almost fell off his horse at the answer to what had been a rhetorical question he’d only asked himself in despair. The deep resonance of the presence left no doubt in his mind that it was his grandfather, Lord Argos, the All Father. Lebuin’s hopes lifted instantly, knowing that Argos was watching.

  Grandfather, please help! The other mage has power I cannot match.

  ‘You are looking at power.’ Argos’s tone was almost reproachful.

  Ticca turned them again as the other mage threw two more burning orbs. Instead of turning with her, Lebuin set his jaw and yanked back on the reins. Spinning his horse around, he reached out with his will to the sphere of mana forming back at the abandoned base. Tendrils of control launched from his hands, traveling the distance in an instant.

  As the masses of fire flew towards him, he strengthened his shields and pushed them out, feeding them from his reserves. His magic tendrils were unable to gather, hold, or control any of the mana in the growing sphere of magic at the base.

  I need that power. It isn’t normal; it’s been changed. I wonder if that’s the same power the Nhia-Samri mages use.

  Both fireballs hit his shields, creating a wall of flames and explosions. At the last moment, his shields buckled under the pressure, and he was pushed back by the remaining force of the blasts. His horse neighed nervously, but didn’t panic. Shaking his head, Lebuin quickly reconstructed the protective barriers. At the same time, he patted his horse’s neck and tightened his grip on the reins.

  ‘Warning: Energy levels low.’ The Argos energy collector’s voice came again. ‘Two thousand eight hundred and eighty-one point six rellums remain. Current load is negative fifty-five point nine four one six. Failure in fifty-one point four six seconds.’

  I really need to figure out how to shut that thing’s warnings off.

  ‘Its guide is in the library,’ came Argos’s impatient reply.

  It’s not written in Imperial! And there are no language books for whatever it is written in. Also, this is NOT the time. We’re under attack.

  Ticca and the others had turned around and galloped back to him. She looked at the fast-approaching circle of riders and the glowing air behind them. She managed to appear heroic. “Um, didn’t I say ‘run’?” Glancing back, she added, “I don’t think we can deal with this.”

  Ignoring her, he tried again to gain some control over the growing mana.

  ‘It is as water,’ Argos prompted, almost apologetically.

  The other mage was launching another pair of fireballs at their group.

  Desperate for power, Lebuin refocused, using more magic to change his tendrils of control into hardened spears of energy. As his efforts rushed down, hardening them, the ends snapped straight, like a whip, and it worked. His tendrils penetrated the thick wall of the growing mana bubble.

  The connection established huge amounts of energy, which rushed towards him, threatening to destroy his control channels. A wave of cold fear washed over him as he saw the power approaching through his own channels. He rea
cted instinctively, altering them, reinforcing them from his core. He felt them begin to swell and strengthen, and he used more of his own energy to speed up the process.

  He split his concentration and began preparing a stronger shield incantation, as well as another pattern for a force attack; they were ready just in time. The power poured into him, and the force was like hitting a brick wall. He swayed under the magical pressure, again altering his channels and core to reinforce them further, allowing them to withstand the level of power filling him. It was amazingly pliable. It had no real nature of its own; it was ready for use as he saw fit. The energy filled him to near bursting. Before it could burn him to ash, he directed it to the shields and the force bolt.

  The nature of the power was such that it caused all of his incantations to swell, taking in more energy than they should’ve been able to hold. His shields grew to surround the whole group, and even dug a deep ditch in a perfect circle around the team.

  The Nhia-Samri attacks exploded in fiery bursts, insignificant to the new protections. Lebuin’s force bolt snapped out the connection strands, looking more like ropes than the fine, thin threads they would normally be.

  The Nhia-Samri mage altered his shields, and power flowed from his necklace into them.

  Lebuin’s strands speared the mage through his shields and connected to his core. The mage screamed out in surprise, slicing down with his hands, spraying magic from his own channels as he tried to break the connection.

  He wasn’t fast enough. The power gushed through, and Lebuin’s pattern transformed into a force strike that shredded the mage’s body, but didn’t stop. Instead, it expanded out, pulping the entire group of Nhia-Samri into a red mist.

  Lebuin’s mouth dropped open in shock at the level of force he’d just delivered.

  ‘You must expend all. It will destroy the area, just as you destroyed your attackers.’

  With that thought came some understanding of the destructive power he held. They’re destroying this base. They know it’s been compromised.

  The power continued to surge into him. I have to get rid of this. I can’t hold so much power.

  Ticca touched his arm, and he twisted in the saddle to look at her. She jerked back with wide eyes and a white face. The rest of the group froze, staring at him open-mouthed.

  Illa spoke for them, and even she appeared ashen. “My Lord, your visage....” She ground to a halt, trying to find the words.

  The power continued surging into him, and it was beginning to burn through his reinforced channels. He felt like he was physically expanding under the internal pressures of the magic.

  First, I need to deal with this power. How can I expend it safely?

  He cast around frantically, trying to think of a way to discharge it.

  Light and fire burn the most power. But how can I...? His eyes shot up. The sky...nothing is up there. Safe distance, just in case I burn up, too.

  He leapt from his horse and dropped his shields, jumping over the nearly five-foot-wide ditch they’d created. His pants held him back as he ran, until, with a ripping sound, he gained complete freedom and surged away from the team.

  Running as fast as he could, he began to create a mixture of light and fire incantations. As they formed, he focused them upwards. The magical tendrils all stiffened, pointing straight up like steel blades.

  The incantations were ready just in time. He was sure he couldn’t continue to contain the power any longer. He looked up and cried out to the sky to take the energy.

  He lifted his hands above his head, palms up, focusing all his will on sending the energy into the heavens. Releasing all constraints on the power channels, Lebuin let it flow through him from the bubble.

  The world became a blaze of white, and the roar of fire was like a long, deafening thunderclap. Once started, it rushed through him like a hurricane. He had to fight to reinforce his magic channels to prevent the power from consuming him like a river carving away rock.

  Above him, he could sense a presence watching him. I can do this, Grandfather!

  Every fiber of his being burned with the power; every ounce of his will was focused on holding himself together against the colossal pressures of the energies burning through him. With a hard twist at his core, his channels widened even more, and it flowed through him rapidly, smoothly, and without destroying him.

  He directed it up, to the fire and light incantations that converted and consumed the energies. Despite the smooth flow, he felt himself tiring, and his concentration started to waver. Pushing himself to hold it together, he managed to finish the job. At last, he felt the flow ebbing. The bubble of power had shrunk to about the size of a rabbit. Exhausted, he sank to his knees.

  That won’t hurt anyone.

  He knew he was losing control and would pass out, but first he redirected some of the remaining power, shifting it to help heal and restore him. His internal channels responded and shrank with a comforting release of energies into his abused body. As he slipped into unconsciousness, he broke the incantations to stop the flow.

  “Am I going to pass out after every major confrontation?” He heard himself chuckle as he fell to the surprisingly comforting warm ground.

  ‘No,’ came the proud response from Argos. He said something else, but Lebuin couldn’t make it out.

  Electra

  Electra jumped back as the three console screens in front of her flared white and then went black.

  “What just happened?”

  Vesta was frozen, not even breathing for a full minute. Then she started moving again. “He destroyed the satellite.”

  Electra tried to wrap her mind around the idea that a single mage could reach out so far and destroy one of Vesta’s devices, which was supposed to be heavily armored. “Did he attack it? Do the immortals know about us now?”

  Vesta was distracted and paused before answering, “I don’t have the resources to build another one. I need the crabs to collect more raw materials, but most of them were destroyed in the failed attack on the Nhia-Samri base.” Vesta’s tone quivered as she held back tears. She plopped down into a chair that hadn’t been there a moment before and put her head between her knees and her hands on the back of her head.

  Electra walked over and touched Vesta’s shoulder comfortingly. “Are we discovered? I swear, I’ll defend you to my last breath. They’ll have to kill me to put you back to sleep.”

  Vesta looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. “Thank you. This is more. We failed to stop the Nhia-Samri. We failed to destroy Hisuru Amajoo. We failed utterly to stop the attack on Gracia and the assembly. Lady Dalpha is dead, Lady Lothia is captured, and heaven only knows what else is coming. Now we can’t track the empress to ensure her safety, unless we divert the satellite watching Hisuru Amajoo. There aren’t enough hawks or dragonflies left. The Nhia-Samri are beating us, and they don’t even know they’re fighting us.”

  Vesta grabbed Electra’s waist and hugged her tightly.

  “What the hell is that?” Arkady barked, making both of them jump.

  They looked over and saw that Arkady’s ghostly image had appeared on the communication platform.

  “Vesta, you could’ve warned me that was coming!”

  Confused, Vesta sniffed and stood up. “Electra, I’m okay now. I just needed to let a little of that pressure off.” Turning her attention back to him, she asked, “Arkady, did that energy strike the moon?”

  Arkady was frowning at them with one eyebrow raised. The communication lag between Yur and the moon was only three seconds, but it was still annoying.

  “Strike? Lady, it’s still burning a new crater into the moon!”

  “Sorry, Arkady. When I lost the satellite, I didn’t consider it would get that far, and without it, I didn’t know he was still shooting.”

  Arkady
was looking at a data pad that had appeared in his hand. “Did you know...” He stopped suddenly, listening to what Vesta said before continuing. “...that beam attack is half magic? You’re not going to believe this. It registers roughly 700 gigarellums and 600 gigajoules.”

  After a whistle, Vesta said, “Well, no wonder my satellite doesn’t exist anymore. That level of power would’ve completely vaporized it on contact.”

  “What do you mean, vaporized your satellite? Was this an attack on us?”

  Vesta motioned with her data pad. A few seconds later, Arkady was staring intently at his own.

  As she checked one of the creature monitors, Electra found a pair of hawks that weren’t mated and set them on course to where the empress was.

  Even if we can’t find her, we need to see what was going on there.

  When she looked up, Vesta made eye contact, smiled, and nodded her approval. “It will take them just over a day and a half to get there. We might be able to pick up their trail, but I’m not exactly hopeful.”

  Arkady made a coughing sound. They looked over, and after the time delay for him to see he had their attention, he waved the data pad. “Luckiest diurdu shot I’ve ever witnessed! If you look at the data, there was a massive buildup of magical energies at that base, enough to power that beam. That was what was interfering with our sensor readings. We couldn’t get a solid image because of all the radiant light and energies it was giving off. I bet the Nhia-Samri were trying to destroy that base. I’m more than a little concerned about whether or not the empress and her team survived. The sensor data looks bad.

  “Vesta, I didn’t want to alarm you, so I held some info back. If those gates they use are based on the original Elracian research, they can blow sky-high if they’re fed energy and then shorted out or aborted. The first one took out a small section of a hill. That was when the emperor, on Brandon’s recommendation, classified all such research and had it moved outside of the city to Kiliun Lol and Niuni Lol. Based on these readings, I bet they activated a gate there and then tried to detonate it. Lebuin somehow detected this and redirected the energies. The last moment of data shows the built-up magical energy dropping rapidly, but I don’t know if it was enough.”