As soon as I passed through the dust-and-wind veil, lightning blinded me. I tumbled free of crow form, landing lightly as a cat. I skidded across the stony ground, tucking myself beneath a stone shelf, trying to see Velyn or Eagan before they saw me.
“Oh look. They sent the baby.” A dry laugh echoed against the stony plain. It was strangely quiet on this side of the dust veil.
“Told you they would,” Velyn rasped, voice tight with pain. “It makes sense to protect the one with the stronger power.”
That wasn’t it at all, but I didn’t have time to correct them. The stone above me snapped beneath an embroidered boot and Eagan sneered down at me. The point of his sword dropped towards me, but I shifted again, dodging the unwieldy weapon easily. Nothing moved quite as quickly as a rat. I ran free of the broken stone, dodging curses and thrown flames. Velyn screamed as I shifted to my snake form, fangs sinking into his shoulder.
Dust it, wrong shoulder. I got a mouthful of ice and the cold was not good for my reptilian form. I shifted to cat, leaping over Velyn’s shoulder and landing as a human. An ice-pike formed in his hands as he turned to block my daggers.
Smoke plumed behind me, putting Eagan at my back. My fae blades rang as I tapped them together and slid them across each other, changing them into stilettos. One slithered between the tines of Velyn’s pike, snapping the end off. The other diverted a strike from Eagan.
Kestral and Kila better hurry up, I thought, sweat pouring down my face as I struggled to fight both of my brothers at once. I couldn’t keep this up for long.
I managed to trip Velyn and toss him into Eagan’s path. The elder snarled, shoving Velyn aside as he charged at me, blade swinging down in an overhand blow. I crossed my stilettos, catching his blade between them but the blades simply weren’t as strong as they were when they were daggers. I managed to twist away enough so that only the tip of his blade pierced me, drawing a line of agony from my shoulder to my chest. I cursed and thrust his blade away, dancing back a step.
Velyn stood up, lifting his hand to the sky to call down lightning. As I prepared to dodge, he was suddenly knocked off his feet, hitting the ground with a surprised cry. It took my mind a moment to catch up. When it did, I shifted to crow form, narrowly missing a wall of solid air. Eagan stared around puzzled until a force slammed into him, driving him back a pace.
“Reina!” I shouted along my bond to Kestral. “Reina is here somewhere!”
From above, I saw Kestral shouting to Kila, who was half-slumped over a boulder. Two fire-golems remained, one currently trapped in a stone pit, though it was slowly melting the rock around it, creating a platform to climb up. Kestral distracted the second one while Kila scraped herself up off the boulder. The heavy magic use was taking its toll on her.
Lightning split the sky and I instinctively went into a dive before realizing the strike was nowhere near me. Looking around, I saw Reina hovering in the air, her hand over her head holding up a dome of solid air. Lightning crashed against it, shattering into tiny sparks before fading.
“What did I tell you, Eagan?” Velyn snapped from far below. “I saw it during the full moon; it was prophecy!”
“Big Sis!” Eagan called cheerfully. “Come to give me a lecture, just like the old days?”
“Fool,” Reina said, voice full of contempt. She flicked her fingers and Eagan was forced back another pace.
I didn’t have time for them. I darted down to help Kestral and Kila. Kila had propped herself up, but she was still trying to catch her breath. Kestral’s armor smoldered in several spots and sweat tracked clear paths through the ash on his face. I swooped in front of the fire-golem, hoping to distract it long enough for them to recover. As expected, the fire-golem turned from Kestral to pry up a modest-sized boulder and hurl it at me. Kestral scowled up at me, but before he could yell at me, an invisible force pushed him back.
As I watched, Kestral was swept away from the battle with the golem, putting him closer to Eagan and Velyn. When he regained his feet, he tried charging back to the fight, but met an invisible wall. He tried the sides and then behind him. It appeared that Reina had boxed him in. I dodged another golem-thrown boulder, trying to figure out what to do next.
“Reshi, go help him!” Kila shouted up to me. She placed her hand on the boulder next to her. The stone rumbled and snapped, shifting beneath her touch. When she lifted her hand, the boulder had been reshaped as a long stone lance. “I can face that monster.”
Kila charged, driving the point up through the fire-golem’s midsection, making it roar in fury. It brought a fist down towards her, but she pivoted expertly, tossing the golem off the end of her lance. I lost the rest of the fight as I flew to Kestral’s aid.
It was a box of invisible walls, as I had thought. Kestral knelt at the bottom, scratching a run into the base of his steel gauntlet. He looked up as I landed on top of the nearly invisible wall and shifted. The top of the wall was too high and sheer for Kestral to climb, but I was able to reach down far enough to take his hand. I grunted as his weight nearly pulled me forward. I mean, I loved his muscles, but did that have to make him so stars-cursed heavy?
Kestral braced his feet against the wall, helping with the weight until he was able to scramble on top with me.
“Why didn’t she just seal the box and let me suffocate?” Kestral asked, catching his breath.
I shrugged.
“She can’t,” Eagan called up to us. Almost lazily, he raised his hand towards us, flames rushing forward. Kestral pulled me backwards so we tumbled back inside the invisible prison, protected from the flames but trapped once again. I scowled at Kestral; he shrugged.
“What about it, Reina?” Eagan shouted to the skies, where Reina was still hovering, sending invisible walls against Kila and blocking lightning from Velyn. “Should I tell them all your secret?”
“I have so many, I doubt you know one of any import,” Reina replied in a bored tone. She flicked her fingers, sending a wall towards Eagan. He raised his hand in front of him, but instead of issuing flames, it issued smoke. The black smoke outlined the wall, allowing Eagan to dodge it neatly.
Kestral crouched, scratching again at his bracer. I started to shift but he grabbed my arm and shook his head. Over his shoulder, I watched Kila still sparring with her fire-golem. The trapped one was nearly free. We didn’t have the luxury of hiding in a protective box for very much longer.
“Did Reina tell you she bartered with the fae for her magical training?” Eagan called as he vaulted another invisible wall. He pushed off it, gaining enough height for his flames to reach Reina in the air.
She sighed as she moved her fingers, creating an air-shield between herself and the flames.
“I did tell them. That’s no secret.”
Eagan puffed into smoke, landing safely on the ground instead of falling. He grinned wickedly. “Did you tell them the price you paid for the training?”
Reina scowled. “I forgot I told you that.”
“There was a time you told me everything.” Eagan said, voice mocking. “Remember how we played as children?”
“They knew each other?” I asked Kestral.
He shrugged and stood, blowing steel-dust from his gauntlet. “Noble children. Eagan’s family probably visited the capital regularly.”
Kestral placed his hand against the invisible wall and the new rune he had made glittered with violet light. The wall shattered, allowing us to walk free of the box.
Velyn’s winds whipped at Reina, tugging at her clothes but failing to move her from her sky-high perch. “Rust it, Eagan, what is the secret?”
Eagan grinned. “She can’t kill with her magic. She traded any sort of fatal magical blow for her magical education.” He turned to smirk at me. “Lucky for you, Reshi. I doubt you would have walked away from her otherwise.”
I had barely limped away from her even without the use of fatal magic, I thought, standing behind Kestral as he destroyed another solid air wall sweeping towards us.
There was a triumphant shout from across the battlefield. Kila, standing atop a stone spire, had speared the fire-golem through the head with her stone lance. At her cry, the lance shattered, breaking the beast’s head into a thousand smoldering pieces. It slumped first to its knees before dropping heavily before her pillar. The fires swirled viciously, fighting for their lives as they slowly diminished. Kila stepped off her spire, dropping through smoke to walk over the dying flames, obviously exhausted but grinning.
“Using magic to kill is cowardly anyway,” Kila declared. “I’ll take any of you in mortal combat right now.”
“You!” Reina shrieked, spinning on her aerial perch. “Don’t you dare speak to me! How dare you even breathe the same air as me, you uneducated knuckle-dragger?”
Kila snorted. “Who put a rock in your boot?” She made a face. “I mean, slipper.”
Reina’s face turned ugly, blotchy and red in her fury. “You are too stupid to even begin to comprehend what you destroyed when you crushed my study. Magical history is set back decades, thanks to you. Spells that could have helped people! Spells to help the kingdom!”
Kila rolled her eyes. “You don’t help people by locking yourself away in a tower and scribbling on parchment. You help the kingdom by fighting on the front lines, putting your life on the line.”
“You near-sighted simpleton. How could you possibly understand?” Reina rolled her wrist and the final fire-golem rose out of its stone trap to race towards Kila.
“Reshi, distract it,” Kestral ordered.
I shifted as Kestral chased after the golem. I expected Reina to try to break my crow form with solid air, as she had before, but before she could, a lightning bolt struck her invisible perch and she fell, vanishing before Eagan’s flames could roast her. The battlefield quickly became chaos as lightning, fire and solid air raged against each other as well as against us. Kila, despite her earlier bravado, was barely able to keep ahead of the fire-golem. I flew at its face, flapping my wings and cawing at it, taking its attention off her and allowing her to gain a safe distance. Kestral caught up to us, slashing his sword through the flames at its ankle. It did nothing to harm the flame-beast other than make it angry. It chased Kestral while I searched for an advantage.
I wove through the air, riding Velyn’s wind currents and trying to avoid walls of solid air. While Kestral held the golem’s attention, I dove at Velyn, raking my claws through his hair, slicing the skin beneath. Velyn cried out, spinning to track my flight as blood dripped into his eyes. He raised his hand, intent on striking me down. I swooped low, then banked hard, narrowly missing the lightning.
The fire-golem, however, caught the full strike. It appeared stunned, head snapping back, arms flying wide.
Kestral ducked, hiding his head beneath his arm as Kila grinned wickedly, slamming her foot onto the stony ground. A rock spire erupted beneath the golem, shattering it into smoldering pieces, creating more dust to blow in Velyn’s winds. Kila stood her ground, one hand on a sheath as the other moved to put her shortsword away.
It happened so fast that I couldn’t even scream. One second Kila was grinning in triumph, the next a narrow blade had pierced her from behind, sprouting through her chest. She staggered forward a step, ripping the blade free of Reina’s hands as she turned to face her. My eldest sister raised her chin, violet eyes flashing in satisfaction as Kila groped at the blade in her chest. I was dimly aware of Kestral running towards her as Eagan and Velyn shouted. All I could do was watch in horror as Kila dropped to one knee, then lunged forward, shortsword shining like a star of retribution.
Reina gaped as the blade entered her stomach and ripped upwards through her chest. She tumbled backwards, raising a hand as if for mercy, but Kila dove after her, burying her blade in Reina’s neck. Blood sprayed as if from a steam vent. Kila fell backwards, holding one hand tight to the needle-like blade through her chest. She tried to stand, tried to scramble backwards, as the red spray turned to twining, violet mist.
Eagan and Velyn rushed forward, intent on the purple mist before turning on each other. Velyn caught an elbow in the eye from Eagan. He threw a hand out and Eagan’s boots stuck to the ground encased in ice. Kestral seemed torn between running to Kila’s side and defending the purple mist from my brothers. He stood halfway between them, looking from one to the other as he tried to decide.
No one noticed the tiny black spider drifting along with the wind-tossed ash and the falling smoldering remains of the fire-golem. By the time Velyn noticed and shouted, I had dropped into the center of the violet mist, reaching out with my magic to gather this new power. With a snap, the mist coalesced into a violet silk cocoon. Before my brothers could come for me, I shifted to my cat form, grabbing the cocoon in my teeth and running. Kestral, having made up his mind, caught Eagan mid-charge, blades singing as they met with a crash. Ice formed ahead of me and I slipped, sliding along towards the wounded weather mage.
Another shift carried me aloft on black wings, violet cocoon held in my beak. Lightning split the sky; I angled my wings to miss it. I was running low on magic, but then so was everyone else. I soared higher, the precious coalesced power in my beak. When the air became thin, I shifted to my human form. I looked down on the battlefield as I began to fall. Eagan and Velyn stared up with identical looks of horror. Kila was still moving, but her breath was coming in fits and starts; not a good sign. Kestral stood looking up at me, blue eyes boring through me.
I crushed the cocoon between my hands, drawing the violet light inside of me. It felt like a fire searing its way into the golden well of light in my chest. I gasped at the pain and the power. Had I nearly been out of magic? I laughed, my fall slowing as the air around me thickened. Velyn threw a hand up. I twisted—that’s the only way I could describe it—and suddenly I was on the ground, standing over Kila.
“Good,” Kila wheezed at me. “Glad you . . . not them.”
“Hush.” I knelt over her. Somewhere ahead, Kestral clashed with my brothers, keeping them back. “I don’t know if this will work.”
“Can’t hurt,” Kila replied with a shrug. She grasped the blade with both hands then shoved it backwards through her chest and out her back. Blood rushed out before I could place my hand over the wound, praying to all the stars for this to work. Kila’s skin turned gray and cool, but when I pulled my hand away, the wound had healed.
“Thanks, Reshi.” Kila smiled weakly. “I think I’m . . . just going to rest . . . for a while.”
I smiled, relieved. “Go ahead. I think you’ve earned that much.”
Kila’s eyes fluttered shut and her breathing came even and strong. I wished I could get her somewhere safe, but that would mean leaving Kestral alone with my brothers. Instead, I left her curled up near Reina and turned around, facing Kestral and the others.
With a dramatic roll of my wrist, I placed my hand against my shoulder and healed the wound Eagan had given me earlier. I smiled as I flicked blood from my fingertips.
“What have we got here?” I shouted, drawing my brothers’ attention. “Looks like baby brother just became a contender.”
White-blue eyes flashed, and orange eyes flickered, staring me down. I merely grinned back, wondering which one would fall first. This new power was enormous, vast and deep like the distant sea. My brothers had to be reaching their limits; this contest was all but mine.
Velyn’s hand leapt to the sky, calling down a pillar of lightning. It didn’t have the presence of his earlier strikes—instead of a column of white fire, it was barely more than a blue fork, splitting the air. Velyn must have been trying to conserve whatever magic he had left. I thrust my hands out before me, envisioning the air before me becoming solid, like a shield.
The only thing that saved me was the lack of energy Velyn put into the lightning bolt. It struck at my feet, tossing me back and sending me skidding across the stony ground. I yelped as a sheer ridge sliced open my arm. I healed it quickly as I climbed back to my feet. Why hadn’t the ai
r gone solid? Reina threw around that solid air so easily.
Eagan and Velyn laughed evilly, almost in sync with each other.
“There’s a learning curve, isn’t there, Reshi?” Eagan called to me. “We should thank you, though. It’s going to be easier taking that power from you than having to kill Reina for it.”
“You mean we’ll have to thank Kila.” There was a hunger in Velyn’s eyes as he stared at Kila’s prone form.
I was close enough to see that she was still breathing but her color was still far too pale. If either one of them got too close to her, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. I couldn’t let them near her.
“You could just kill her, Reshi,” Eagan suggested with a shrug. “Make it a real fight.”
“I’m not like you monsters,” I spat, walking towards them to draw their attention away from Kila. “I never went looking for power or a throne.”
“That throne should always have been mine,” Eagan replied, voice cool.
“Neither of you know anything,” Velyn hissed.
With a confused side-glance at Velyn, Eagan raised a hand towards me. Jets of flame raged forward and once again I tried to harden the air in front of me. Once again, the magic failed. Why could I use the healing magic and the twisting-leaping magic but not the solid air magic? I gritted my teeth and raised my arms in front of myself, bracing myself for the fire.
A powerful thrum of something like magic shuddered through ground and the air around me. The flames suddenly veered away from me, then seemed to dive into a nearby steam vent. I looked up and saw Kestral on one knee, rune-gauntleted hand pressed to the ground. The rune he had carved for Eagan’s magic shimmered with a red-orange glow. He had grounded the fire magic.
Eagan cursed as his fire went out, seeming surprised and annoyed that Kestral was still in the fight. He ripped his sword free of its sheath and stalked towards the mage hunter, shouting an order at Velyn. The weather mage sneered before turning to face me.
Sorcerous Rivalry (The Mage-Born Chronicles Book 1) Page 37