Rogue Magician (The Magician Rebellion)

by Cornett, Curtis

  “That was brilliant work,” Avelice told the young enchantress. “You do your mother proud.”

  “Thank you, Avelice.” Minnie smiled at the compliment.

  “We are outnumbered thirteen to one. We should escape,” suggested Rex, changing the subject to the pressing concern of survival. “There are surely enough runes that we could all be transported safely away. We would be scattered, but alive.”

  “Only Minnie and I know the art,” Avelice reminded him, “and each of us could only take one other person. Four of us could escape, but the rest would be left to die.” She thought a moment and said, “If the two of you wish to go, I will not blame you, but I can not abandon the others.”

  “Nor can I,” added Minnie.

  “Then I guess my decision is made for me,” Rex sighed, “but you are both right. Defending the others... and avenging Quevine is the honorable thing to do.” The young man clenched his fists at his sides as the full impact of Quevine's death and the sudden memory of what he had become swept over him. Rex opened the door of the cabin in a rage and began hurling lightning bolts out into the trees screaming like a madman.

  “Rex, calm down!” Minnie shouted grabbing his arm. “Quevine would not want you to die for nothing. He died fighting at our side. Would you make his sacrifice meaningless?”

  Her words pierced Rex's heart as no weapon or spell could and he fell to his knees and began to cry as Minnie held him in her arms cradling him not unlike a child. She was aware that the door was wide open, but did not want to let her friend go.

  Instead it was Avelice who closed the door and secured the latch. Her face looked ragged from the exertion of all the summoning and Minnie suddenly felt the fatigue of manipulating Bertran's mind repeatedly. A sudden realization that if the remaining assassins were to attack now in mass, they would all be killed dawned on her.

  “The three of us can not win this fight alone. We will need Turshyn's help even if he is not at full strength,” Minnie said wearily. Her fear and exhaustion were evident. “Even then... I do not know...”

  “We need to even up the odds,” came a voice from behind them. It was Turshyn making his way down the stairs. “If we can get someone behind their lines, someone powerful, we could attack from both sides trapping the assassins in the middle.”

  “As usual, Turshyn, you are wise beyond your years. Sometimes I forget that you are no longer a boy,” a weight seemed to lift from Avelice’s shoulders as a spark of hope glinted in her eye. “It is time to call for help.”

  Chapter 46

  It was mid-afternoon when Byrn returned to Lion's Landing. Before leaving for the Western Province to begin his new life as a noble, he made a copy of Avelice's rune to the life temple for just such an emergency although he never expected to use it so soon.

  The sprite, Lauralee, came to him mere hours ago huffing as if she had spent the entire morning searching for him. Her normal flightiness was replaced by a worry that was all the more disturbing fore Byrn had never seen the sprite exhibit an attitude any less than cheery.

  “Avelice sent me,” she had told him, huffing breathlessly, “The school is under attack by Kenzai assassins. Everyone is trapped inside the cabin and the Kenzai have set up a perimeter to keep them there until they either starve to death or become desperate enough to attack.”

  Lauralee explained Avelice's plan and vanished to return to her own realm leaving Byrn alone with his thoughts. The knight-magician sat at the desk in his study and after a short time he put quill to parchment to write what could be his final words to his mother should he fail to return. The letter explained the situation he would be walking into and the curse Ashura placed on him that would kill him if he ever took another's life as he was now being asked to do. Byrn hoped it would not come to that, but steeled himself to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary. That is why he wrote a second letter addressed to Avelice and Turshyn should they recover his body.

  Byrn patted the letter inside his cloak’s inner pocket along with his grimoire to reassure himself that it was still there. It was a short walk from the temple to The Hasty Rider where Byrn brokered the purchase of a horse with the innkeeper, Jack Wolffang. Wolffang always kept a few of his own horses on hand for sale or trade to travelers with urgent business and made a sizable profit in the process.

  Within minutes Byrn was outside the city walls and driving the horse forward at a gallop. The sun would set in a few hours and he intended to cover as much ground as possible while he could still see well enough to do so. At his quick pace he expected to reach the clearing an hour after nightfall.

  ***

  Byrn approached the clearing on foot, leading his horse with pads on her feet to quiet her hooves. He did not believe he had crossed the assassins' perimeter yet, but wanted to be sure that they did not see him before he was ready to make his presence known. The moonless sky was making it difficult to see, but Byrn fared better than most. His perception had become enhanced over time as he used the magic of manipulation to enhance his natural senses repeatedly. Byrn imagined this must be what it was like for Ryonus Southsun, the manipulation master. Still Byrn remained cautious as he tried to avoid every twig and leaf that lay in the path before him.

  Suddenly the elementalist stopped moving and stood perfectly still. However, the horse was anxious and tried to pull back. Byrn stretched his senses to the limit, but did not hear or see anything out of the ordinary. He was about to move forward again when he realized there was a faint warmth coming from the tops of the trees maybe ten yards ahead of him. Once he noticed the radiating heat Byrn could not understand how he had never felt this before. The level of warmth was too strong to be birds, squirrels, or whatever else might inhabit a tree. It had to be the body heat of the assassins.

  His mount struggled to move away from the trees ahead and Byrn let go of its reins. It ran off back towards Lion's Landing undoubtedly returning to The Hasty Rider. The magician could always recover the animal later and paid it no mind.

  Byrn reached out with his mind stretching his senses further and was amazed at what he found. He could feel every living creature's body heat for a dozen yards in any direction from the men hiding in the trees to a family of rabbits in a nearby burrow to a spider making a web in a far off tree.

  Byrn stretched his mind out even further and found he could sense the life of his friends coming from the cabin more than a hundred yards away. Stretching even further, he could sense more bodies on the side of the forest opposite him. The cabin was surrounded as Avelice had suspected and her estimation of forty attackers did not seem to be far off if a little light.

  Through Lauralee, Avelice asked him to move throughout the forest and start fires as he went driving the assassins into the clearing where the assembled magicians would release their full force upon them in a massive attack, but the undertaking would be far more difficult than Byrn had expected. Avelice guessed most of the Kenzai would be located in the trees or the brush nearest the cabin, but they had the clearing completely surrounded to prevent any escape. Byrn would need to create a ring of fire nearly two hundred yards in diameter to catch all of the assassins in it and force them from hiding. He had never done anything on such a scale before...

  “Best not to think about it,” he told himself under his breath. If Byrn allowed himself to think that it could not be done, then he would surely prove himself right.

  Byrn moved a few feet back to a relatively clear spot where there were no trees within a few feet on either side or in front of him. He held his staff in both hands, parallel to the ground, and chanted a focusing phrase under his breath while marshaling his power for one great burst. Byrn felt like his body was on fire as he built the energy up within him and refused to let it out. He held on for several minutes building his energy until he could take in no more and released the magic in one great display of power.

  Fire shot from each end of the staff lighting the night itself aflame. Assassins yelled warnings to one another and Byrn
was dimly aware that an arrow flew at his head, but it was knocked off course by the waves of pure force flowing out of him. The walls of fire were ten feet high and rapidly growing as they ate at the trees. He moved them effortlessly like they were his own arms forming a circle around the assassins.

  Once the circle was complete Byrn began to will the walls of the inferno toward the clearing. Assassins jumped from their perches. Most who started down their trees when they first saw the fire escaped into the clearing unharmed, but others twisted ankles or broke legs as they misjudged their rolls or were forced to leap from too high branches in order to get clear of the approaching flames before becoming engulfed. Byrn tried to keep the fire's progress towards the center slow enough so that every assassin could get free although there were more than a few with somewhat scorched legs as they dragged themselves along the ground. Byrn held onto some small hope that he could help his friends destroy the assassins without being forced to take a life personally.

  When the flame walls reached the start of the clearing he held them in place. He found that holding and maintaining the fire was not as difficult as starting the spell had been, but Byrn wondered if he would be able to hold out for long enough to keep the assassins from escaping back into the trees.

  Chapter 47

  Flames danced in Turshyn's eyes as he stared out a crack in the cabin's door beholding the fury of Byrn's spell. As far as he could see there were giant flames dancing in the air on all sides. The silhouettes of assassins stood black in stark contrast to the red-gold dance behind them. It would have filled Turshyn with fear had he not known that it was Byrn who wielded such magic as this.

  “I did not know Byrn could cast such a spell,” Turshyn said awe-inspired.

  From behind him Avelice replied, “I doubt he knew it either. That is the work of a true master magician... Swing the door wide. It is time for us to do our part.” Turshyn did as he was asked and stepped aside clearing the way for the master necromancer to cast her spell.

  Avelice slammed her staff into a rune inscribed on the floor and stumbled back as the ground began to shake. Minnie grabbed her and stopped Avelice's fall so she could steady her feet.

  “Thank you, dear,” Avelice told her, but if Minnie replied Turshyn did not hear it over the sound of splintering wood as the ground surged up through the cabin floor and a large stone hand and arm twice the size of a man's took shape. Another followed the hand and they slammed into either side of the hole as if they were pulling something up from the earth underneath which Turshyn guessed was exactly what was happening. Next a stone head emerged followed by a thick rocky neck and broad shoulders. Its stare was eerily vacant, as the creature did not possess eyes to fill the dark sockets. The torso rose up last, completing the earth elemental.

  Avelice told the great stone spirit, “In the field are assassins. Kill as many as you can, but be mindful of any magicians you come across. We will be joining you in a moment.”

  The elemental grunted in agreement at its master and seemed to will itself forward breaking the doorframe as its wide girth smashed through seemingly without effort. Turshyn could see no clear way that the elemental managed to travel. The only clue to his movement being that the earth beneath him was upturned leaving a trail of fresh dirt behind him. Turshyn wondered if it had legs and feet under the dirt or if it propelled itself by shifting the ground underneath it.

  “Give the elemental a wide berth,” Avelice told them. “It is on our side, but cares little about collateral damage. Elementals are so powerful that they do not fully understand how fragile the human body can be.”

  “Certainly,” Turshyn agreed recalling his experience with the water elemental, “but when we are done can you teach me that spell?”

  “You look like a boy who just found a new toy,” Minnie told him in a thin attempt to lighten the mood.

  Minnie stepped out into the clearing followed closely behind by Turshyn who immediately began carving a rune into the freshly turned dirt in the earth elemental's wake with the blade of his staff so that he could cast the spell of animating the dead and return life once more to the walkers who had since fallen silent in the clearing the night before.

  Avelice rested for a moment then joined them leaving Rex alone to defend the cabin from any assassins that might sneak past in an attempt to get to Mellani and the children.

  ***

  Bertran the Silent twisted his wrists as he tried to slip free of the rope binding him. It was a thin cord not suited to the job of subduing a dangerous man like himself, but the magicians had tied it tight enough to prevent the assassin from breaking his bonds and his own wounded arm made movement painful. He looked around the room for any sharp objects and found none. The assassin laughed under his breath. The magicians probably thought they were very smart. They manipulated him with their magic. They tricked him into revealing information about his mission and his men, but now he was in his right mind once more and he would not allow this insult to go unpunished. They should have killed the master assassin when they had the chance.

  Though his hands were bound behind his back Bertran could still reach his boot and rolling to one side he was able to lift his foot high enough behind him so that he could pull the knot free. Bertran pulled the shoe string free one loop at a time. It took several minutes, but he eventually got the string out and wrapped a loop around the rope between his wrists. He grabbed one end in each hand and began to pull the shoestring back and forth as quickly as possible, which was still incredibly slow and made his arm feel like it was on fire, but the string was laced with iron making it a much sturdier and rougher material than the cord binding him.

  After several minutes more Bertran tried twisting his wrists again and this time found that he could move slightly. It would take some time, but soon his bonds would be broken.

  Soon Bertran would be free and then he would exact his revenge.

  ***

  The Kenzai assassins came at the magicians from all sides hoping to overwhelm the trio with sheer numbers. The open area made the walkers nearly useless, as the agile killers easily outmaneuvered them. The earth elemental was more difficult to avoid, but it could only face one or two assassins at a time and their magic negating blades hurt the monster a little with every strike to its stony flesh.

  Turshyn summoned four war wraiths on ghostly mounts that would have been all but invisible in the night if not for the growing flames in the forest that only served to make the spirits appear more menacing as they galloped around the battlefield brandishing their black blades.

  In the center of it all stood the three magicians. Turshyn summoned spirits and more walkers as assassins died while Avelice and Minnie held magical shields on opposite sides of the group large enough to encompass all three of them providing a barrier to attack from all angles.

  Dark clad figures with blue glowing blades attacked them from all sides. The weapons bounced from the shields, but each strike caused the barriers to shimmer and risk collapse. Turshyn called the war wraiths to him to draw the assassins’ attention away from them while he tried to recover enough energy to cast another summon which was the only effective means of attack while the shields were erected.

  It was Minnie's shield that broke first under the bludgeoning of the blue-white blades. She screamed in panic and Turshyn turned to aid her thrusting his staff at her attacker and catching the man on the spear end. He pulled the blade free of the assassin's chest, but was stabbed in the shoulder by a second Kenzai assassin who leaped on him brandishing a jagged dagger that tore through flesh as it was pulled free.

  Minnie pointed her staff at the second assassin and commanded him to release Turshyn. The Kenzai obeyed. “Now help us kill your friends!” she commanded. Her voice wavered and no longer carried the same musical tone that ensorcelled Bertran earlier. The assassin struggled with the command; feeling the overwhelming urge to obey fight against his own rational mind telling him to ignore the order. In the end he neither attacked his allies
nor renewed his attack on the magicians, as he could not reconcile the enchantment against his own perception of reality.

  Avelice ordered them back to the relative safety of the cabin, shielding Minnie and Turshyn as well as she could. Minnie helped Turshyn to his feet, but he was still able to walk on his own. The war wraiths and earth elemental came to their aid, but the magicians found they were cut off from reaching the cabin.

  Flashes of light came from inside the cabin as Rex was undoubtedly defending Mellani and the children with his lightning. “We have to break through,” Avelice shouted as she pulled on reserves of strength she did know she possessed and summoned a spook while keeping her shield up.

  Then the fires surrounding the battlefield began to die.

  ***

  The body of an assassin crackled with energy at Rex's feet. He kicked the still twitching form down the stairs as more assassins tried desperately to make their way up while avoiding their comrade's fate.

  The assassins would alternate between firing crossbow bolts at Rex forcing him away from the steps and charging to rush him as he withdrew. The narrowness of the staircase and the hall were all that kept the assassins from swarming over him. That and maintaining a near constant barrage of lightning strikes that the young magical warrior knew he could not maintain forever.

  Somehow Rex found the strength to rally and pushed the assassins back once more taking up a position at the top of the stairs.

  A door opened behind Rex, but he could not risk turning to see who it was. It was surely one of the kids coming out to see how the battle fared. He could not blame them. The sounds of battle just outside their room coupled with not knowing what was happening must be terrifying for them. However, Rex could not risk them being out in the hall now. “Get back in your room!” he shouted angrily.