Distant shouts of alarm sounded. A moment later, Zadok ran into her tent without warning, throwing aside the tent flap. In one hand he carried the long thin sword the Geneshans had confiscated from her while she was unconscious. Another sword was at his waist.
“What—” she started.
“It’s time, Aunt Ava,” he said approaching her. “The sorcerer is in his tent communicating with others. You have to go.”
“What did you do about the guards outside my tent? And—”
“No time to explain. We have to go. If you don’t kill the sorcerer, Myra said the rest of the plan won’t work. He can track us.”
She swore inwardly. She hated not having answers to her questions. Tyrus used to keep some things hidden. She knew that was just part of command. After all, she had done the same. But even Tyrus had never kept her so thoroughly uninformed. She didn’t even know if Myra’s plan made sense.
Maybe that’s the point. Don’t give anyone time to pick it apart. Every plan will look foolish eventually.
Zadok reached out with an empty hand. She pulled away when she realized it was moving toward the bolt in her shoulder.
“No.”
“What are you doing?” he asked. “Sorcery is negating your powers and protecting it from being drawn. My resistance should protect me.”
Should. Not will.
Though she admitted the thought had crossed her mind.
“After I take care of the sorcerer you can try it,” she said and snatched her sword from Zadok.
“But how—”
“He’s too strong for me to fight with sorcery,” she said.
She could see he wanted her to explain, but as Zadok had already told her, time was important. and they had likely wasted too much already.
With the bolt still in me, he won’t be able to detect my link to the power, which means I should be able to sneak up on him.
Since Nason’s warning, she had spent all her time thinking on how best to defeat the master sorcerer. Removing the bolt made the least sense.
There’s likely some spell woven into it that will alert him of its removal. Then our element of surprise is gone. And we need that surprise because there’s no way I can match him with sorcery alone.
She had decided their best approach was sharp steel.
Ava nudged Zadok out of the way, moving toward the tent entrance. “Anything else I should know?”
“Just that I’m supposed to stay with you until the sorcerer is dead. She said my resistance might help.”
Ava knew it would. No better proof of that than when she and Tyrus had fought the Geneshan Master Sorcerer at the end of the war. That hadn’t been the first time that his resistance and her sorcery coupled together gave other magic-users fits in battle either. However, her brother was better trained, older, and had a stronger resistance than Zadok. She didn’t like the idea of using her nephew in the same manner as she would have Tyrus, but she saw no other way. Ava was also surprised Myra would be so free to place Zadok in danger given how protective she could be.
That should tell you something, Ava. This is all or nothing.
She met Zadok’s eye and held back a curse.
Stupid girl. This is when sharing your full plan would have come in handy. I could have prepared Zadok for how to fight a sorcerer or explained to him tactics I might want to use. But we don’t have the time for that now.
“Fine. Be careful and use your head.”
He nodded.
She slipped her head outside the tent flap, surprised not to see a guard. Most of what she saw was soldiers running toward the river as smoke filled the air.
“The rafts are on fire!” someone shouted in Geneshan. “Save them!”
How did she pull that off?
If she didn’t know better, she’d try to escape with so many distracted. But Myra was right, a Master Sorcerer would be able to hunt them down, and she was not strong enough to counter his seeking spells.
The sorcerer’s tent was a mere ten yards away on the left. She re-gripped her sword and darted over to it with Zadok on her heels. She hugged the side while gliding toward the front. Unfortunately, the distraction by the river had not been enough to cause the sorcerer’s two guards to leave their posts.
She looked back to Zadok and mouthed. “Sure you can do this?”
He gave a surprisingly grim nod. Despite his overall positive demeanor, the look suited him.
He’s got more of his father in him than I realized.
She hated having to put someone so young in such a position, but they had so few options.
War makes everyone grow up sooner. Tyrus, forgive me.
“Stay behind and finish the first one off,” she mouthed again.
He nodded once more, exhaling a slow breath.
Ava made her move.
She ran around the corner of the tent, sword ready. She was never considered a master swordsman, someone who might win a duel in the courts of Hol while marveling the crowd. Tyrus would never have taught those skills anyway. He believed in efficiency and trained her with that in mind. Every move was all about how quickly one could incapacitate an opponent.
The guard wheeled toward her, drawing his sword in one fluid motion and raising it to deflect her attack. His speed was outstanding, and Ava would have worried about her success had her first move been real. But it was a feint, and she turned her high strike low, slicing across the man’s midsection, a place she knew from years of experience was a weakness in the Geneshan armor.
She barreled past the first guard, shoving him with her free arm, while moving to the second, who, given an extra couple seconds, was much better prepared to face her.
Had her brother, Ira, or anyone else from her old unit, been on her heels, she wouldn’t have thought twice to present her back to an opponent. But with Zadok, someone young and inexperienced she had never fought with before, the hairs on her neck stood in nervousness.
The second guard attacked with a tight stab to her gut. She deflected it, not as crisply as she would have liked, but it did the job. Ava winced at the ring of steel. Every moment spent outside the tent, every sound made, would only send warnings to the master sorcerer that might bring him out of his communications spell. She had to hurry. She tried to counter, but the guard recovered quickly. She found herself sidestepping a sweeping blow to her head, then a crosscut to the shoulder.
She cursed herself for wasted time, and took a gamble, stepping into the fourth attack, rather than around or away from it. Doing so, took the power out of the guard’s move. Her sword deflected his blade while the palm of her free hand came up and slammed into the guard’s unprotected neck. The blow with her free hand brought a tremendous amount of pain given the bolt still in that shoulder, but she bore it well. The guards eyes bulged.
Ava swept her blade up across the guard’s chest and into the man’s face. He reeled at the assault and fell. She flipped her blade, stepped forward, and stabbed it into the man’s neck.
She wheeled, still worried about Zadok and the first guardsmen. Her nephew stood over the prone guardsmen, gripping tightly his bloody sword. He stared at her, waiting.
Ava wanted to ask a question, but they had no time. They darted inside the master sorcerer’s tent, Ava leading. She didn’t get far, perhaps half a step when a pulse of power that felt very much like a D’engiti’s fist, struck her. She went flying into the side of the tent, struggling under a small table that fell on her.
A moment later, another crash sounded. She managed to blink away her daze, despite fighting for air the fall had stolen from her. Zadok was on the opposite side of the tent in a similar state as her, though he did not move at all.
Gods, no. Please be all right.
The master sorcerer stepped into view, towering over her. He wore a disappointed frown, speaking in thickly-accented Turi
ne, “You know, you almost had me. If you had been a better fighter and finished my guards more quickly, you might have made it in here while I was still vulnerable from communicating with others.” He motioned to the bolt in her arm. “I see that didn’t slow you down as much as I thought. Impressive. Not sure I’ve met a Turine mage who could actually use a sword properly.”
Having stopped for a moment, Ava noticed the sounds of panicked soldiers outside had grown much more worrisome and troubling than the confusion from earlier.
“Hmm,” he continued. “I see there is more to your little intrusion than I thought. I wonder who the organizer is in all this. Care to tell me, or shall I find out myself?”
Ava said nothing, allowing the spell the sorcerer had cast on her to work its course. She could feel some life returning to her limbs as each second passed, faster than she expected.
The bolt. I wonder if it is disrupting his spell just as it disrupts my connection to the power. Almost like I temporarily have a minor resistance.
“Fine,” said the Master Sorcerer. “I’ll find out on my own, and that person will be sacrificed to Beel immediately.”
“Won’t your god be angry for not waiting?” Ava managed.
“Beel will understand.”
He raised a hand toward her. Light flickered at the tips of the sorcerer’s fingers. Ava began to push off the ground toward him. But she was still moving too slowly to do anything to threaten the sorcerer.
Ava wasn’t even halfway to standing when the sorcerer arched his back, shrieking. He flung himself around, stumbling. She saw a bloody slash across his back where Zadok had snuck around and attacked. The power meant for her surged out of the sorcerer’s hand. It blasted into Zadok. Her nephew flew across the tent once more, and her gut clenched in dread. Then she saw the deep slash across the length of the sorcerer’s back Zadok had inflicted.
Though still groggy and moving slowly, she dove at the distracted sorcerer with sword extended. She felt the blade meet resistance as she rolled on top of him. He yelled out in pain.
She looked down. The sword had pierced the man’s thigh.
A fist struck her across the face. Like most Turine mages, Geneshan sorcerers weren’t known for their skill in hand-to-hand combat. But because of the lingering effects of the sorcerer’s first spell, the punch knocked her from him.
I’ve had far worse.
The sorcerer started to rise, hand reaching for the sword in his thigh when she lunged for it. Her fingers wrapped around its hilt and she twisted it, then dragged it upward with all her strength. It scraped across bone and hip. When she met resistance at the hip, she turned it into the man’s crotch.
The sorcerer’s scream was so deafening, she wondered if she’d ever hear again. His body shook and weak hands reached out to her. They fell as the sword jerked up into his gut.
With a final shudder, he gagged, convulsed, and went still. The stench of his bowels releasing overwhelmed her.
Full feeling and control of her body returned. A pleasant side effect of killing any user of sorcery is that their spells were usually negated. However, this wasn’t always the case. Exceptionally powerful spells often had fail-safes built into their structures as did certain magical items. She took a chance and tried to remove the bolt from her shoulder, then cursed as pain flared in her arm.
The Geneshan sorcerer had apparently not been so confident, taking into account his own demise.
I hate overachievers.
She scurried over to Zadok who had begun to sit up.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
She held up his chin and began examining him like a healer even though she hadn’t the slightest idea what to do outside of basic spells. None of which she could cast with the bolt in her.
“Just tired and nauseated.”
“You’re lucky that’s all you are,” she snapped.
What in the name of Ao am I doing? Scolding him like a mother right after he saved my life.
“Stop, Aunt Ava,” Zadok said, pulling away.
She hadn’t realized she was still looking him over.
“We need to get out of here,” he continued.
He reached up to the bolt in her shoulder. She pulled away.
“What are you doing?”
They helped each other to their feet.
“A resistance isn’t immunity, and it isn’t going to be as strong after what you just got hit with. It takes time to build it back up after something like that.”
“I still need to remove it.”
“Your sister can do it later.”
“If everything’s going to plan, she’s long gone and we need to sneak out of here undetected. That means you need your power.”
She cursed. They were wasting time and she didn’t have a better solution.
“Hurry.”
In one swift move, Zadok reached and yanked the shaft out. He dropped the bolt just as quickly, but even still, Ava had to catch him from falling.
“I’m all right,” he breathed deeply.
He threw up. “Well, I may need you to help me walk.” He spat.
Ava glanced at her shoulder. Her leathers had a hole in them where the bolt had been, but her skin was completely closed. She tested her connection to sorcery and felt it once more.
Despite the chaotic noise from outside, the nerves in her stomach settled.
“I can do that.” She soaked in power, eager after being away from it again, and cast a couple of concealment spells. She took his arm. “Let’s get moving.”
They stepped out into a world of thick smoke that blanketed most of the camp. Visibility was less than twenty yards in any direction.
Well, I’d say at least that part of her plan was a success.
Ava coughed. They began to move, but slowly.
To his credit, Zadok never whined or complained. He just didn’t have the energy to move very fast. Ava too was tired, and to a lesser extent a little off balance with adjusting herself to regaining her sorcery.
Her spells were small and subtle, just enough to prevent them from drawing undue attention. The camp was in such an uproar, it’s likely no one would have noticed them anyway.
Based on what she heard, it seemed most of the chaos was around the river. The rest of the enemy formed squads and began venturing off into the woods.
“They’re going after Myra,” Zadok commented low. One of Ava’s spells concealed the noise they made, but there was no need to push their luck. “But they’ll never find her.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she’s not there.”
“Where is she?”
“By the river. You’ll see.”
A new roar of chaos erupted behind them. This time the panic wasn’t just anger or concern. It also held fear.
Ava glanced back to the Geneshan sorcerer’s tent where the fear originated from as others discovered the body. She smiled wide.
One less asset they’ll have when they face you, Big Brother. It’s not much, but hopefully it’s something.
* * *
Ava and Zadok wove through camp, in order to ensure they did not come into physical contact with anyone as the concealment spell would only work so well in hiding them. They arrived no more than a hundred yards from the Master Sorcerer’s tent at the bottom of a hill that had recently formed along the river’s edge.
Zadok pointed and whispered. “There’s an entrance to a cave under the hill at the water’s edge. You can’t see it unless you’re actually in the water. That’s where we need to go.”
They waded out into the cold water and under the embankment. Goose pimples covered Ava’s skin. She clenched her jaw to prevent her teeth from chattering and in hopes of calming her racing breath. The quick inhalations of air brought more smoke into her lungs which only made breathing more di
fficult. Had one of her spells not concealed sound, they would have given their position away long ago to the Geneshans. The water was so deep only their heads remained exposed. It was all Ava could do to keep herself above water while supporting Zadok.
Two feet in, the riverbed started sloping toward a dim light. The hill was actually hollow.
At the top of the slope, Ava and Zadok walked on dry land that expanded quite a distance on either side. It was illuminated by a small oil lamp and a shaft of light coming down from an opening at the top of the hill. By Ava’s estimate, the space held more than sixty people, shivering in wet clothes and sitting in eerie silence. There was a sour, damp smell to the air, but it was a welcome reprieve as very little smoke had entered the space.
“How in the world did we find this?” Ava whispered in awe.
Myra appeared then, holding a finger to her mouth and gesturing to the hole in the top of the hill. She did this while moving quickly and embracing them tightly.
“I was getting worried about you both,” she said low.
“We’re fine,” said Zadok.
“Not completely,” said Ava. “He needs to rest. He’s really weak from the sorcerer.”
“So the Master Sorcerer is dead? And my theory about the shaft worked?”
“Yes.”
She looked relieved. “Then it’s likely no one will find this place.” She glanced up. “Can you make it so no one hears us through the opening and that no one stumbles upon it?”
Ava nodded, then went to work casting spells as Myra led Zadok to a place to lie down.
By the time Myra was done seeing to his comfort, Ava had done more than enough to ensure they all remained hidden.
“How did you find this place? And how did you pull everything off?”
“Long story. I had the pieces in place to burn the rafts for days. That was the easy part.”
“Easy?”
“Yeah, several of the women who used to work with Ma at the Soiled Dove insisted they’d be able to convince the guards to let them move about freely.”
Ava frowned. “They seduced them, you mean.”
Myra shrugged. “They offered to do so. I showed them some quick ways to kill a man with a dagger that Pa showed me and Zadok. Then when the time came, they got out of confinement, killed the guards, got a few others free, and everyone worked to set the rafts on fire with oil the Geneshans had planned to use for their sacrifices.”
Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book Three Page 30