Red Magic: an Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 6 (The Othala Witch Collection)

by JC Andrijeski

  I didn’t made a sound, but just sat there, as the news sank in.

  My mother... or aunt... or whoever she was to me... was cleaning up.

  She was now the holy Regent of District 6 of the world Othala, and nothing would take that away from her. Certainly not me.

  Donal and I were simply the last two loose ends on her list.

  Chapter 19

  THE NORTH

  WE TRAVELED BY armored truck over a wide dirt path cut into the countryside.

  I’d never seen such a vehicle before, much less ridden in one.

  Unlike the rusted hulks I normally encountered on the broken roads of the Capitol, this one looked like a great green insect, polished to a high sheen and covered all over in thick metal. The insides smelled of cleaning chemicals primarily, with the faintest trace of blood and sweat underlying that more bitter smell. The leather-covered bench seats were worn in parts but still had their coverings intact, and the corrugated metal floor had been hosed clean.

  Supplies filled all of the overhead and side compartments.

  Bullets, guns, grenades, even a few longer weapons that Donal told me were rocket launchers. He explained how each thing worked, in the event I might need to use it, and told me that much of this ammunition was of an older make, prior to the last great wars.

  He scarcely stopped talking at me the whole way up there, teaching me everything he could. He also had me go over their code and hand-signal books, so that I would understand anything I might see or hear on the radios or in the field.

  We both knew weapons malfunction was hardly the worst thing that might befall us, of course. At one point in our drive up, Donal asked me if I remembered what Yanna had told me, about the fire lizards and how the white witches controlled them.

  I remembered.

  I also felt that sick feeling in my gut worsen when I looked around at the faces of Donal’s Phoenix Squad, knowing they’d likely all be dead not long after we reached the fighting areas of the north, collateral damage in my Aunt Annika’s desire for power and war against me.

  She wouldn’t even have to leave her reception hall to do it.

  According to Yanna and Donel, the witches of the Capitol had a means of killing that connection between us and the fire lizards, effectively cutting us off from our power.

  Donal told me it had happened before, at least two times that he knew of.

  Both times, those of red magics had revolted against their white magic overlords.

  Both times, those fighting outside the main fortresses were slaughtered.

  Everyone who didn’t have direct access to the fire lizards eventually died. They died either by being overrun by ravagers, or simply because they’d been cut off from the magics they needed to survive.

  I wanted to believe something could stop this from happening, even now. I asked Donal before we left the the compound if we might try to smuggle one of the fire lizards in a vehicle with us. He thought the idea insane but worth trying, especially given my affinity with them, but when we got outside, Defenders held guns on us from all sides.

  They led us to the armored vehicles without detours of any kind.

  In the distance, I saw they’d stationed Defenders at the start of the path leading to the pit of the fire lizards, as well. I had zero doubt they also would have Defenders guarding the pit itself.

  The Lady Annika was, if nothing else, thorough.

  I could not imagine her wanting to take a chance on this.

  “Maia.” Donal clicked his fingers at me, forcing my thoughts back to the present. “Maia, listen to me. If we lose our magic, we’ll have to make a run for it. We can hold the ravagers off long enough to make a short escape, assuming nothing happens to our fuel. We’ll make a break for the trucks and head north... try to reach one of the other districts in the kingdom.”

  I shook my head, my lips pursed.

  “We’ll never make it going north,” I told him, remembering my geography classes. “We’re far better off getting to the ocean, Donal. If we procured a large enough boat, we could perhaps go to the large land to the south, which is said to house another of Othala’s Royal Districts. It would not be easy, and I know nothing of the witches there, but we’d be much safer on the water than we would be on land. The ravagers in the northern mountain ranges would tear us to pieces. The trucks could not manage those mountains, either, so we’d be forced to cross by foot.”

  Donal nodded, his expression thoughtful.

  “Okay,” he said, his voice studiously calm. “We’ll do that, then. Go to the ocean.”

  I knew what he was thinking.

  We’d never have enough fuel in the vehicles to transport everyone all the way back to the sea from where we were going.

  I knew it, as did he.

  Moreover, we’d have to kill the Defenders guarding us and take over the vehicles first. It would be a bloodbath, from what I’d seen of the weapons on both sides. In the trucks I’d observed being loaded ahead of ours, Defenders outnumbered the red witches and warlocks by nearly two to one.

  More of my mother’s thoroughness, I had no doubt.

  Before I could think of more to say, Donal leaned towards me, catching hold of my curly hair in his hand. He kissed me without waiting for me to react, tugging me deeper against him as he wrapped his other arm around my waist.

  I forgot the other witches and warlocks there.

  I forgot to care they might be watching us.

  I forgot my mother and her schemes, my poor, murdered Aunt Nalia, and my likely equally-murdered Aunt Kalia, who had once been Regent.

  I forgot that Garet likely sat in a cell somewhere, awaiting execution.

  For a long-feeling, blissful number of seconds, I forgot all of it.

  THE MOTION OF the vehicle jerked me awake when we hit a rougher patch of road.

  I blinked, struggling to sit up, and realized I’d fallen asleep in Donal’s lap. My internal clock told me we’d been driving for at least six hours now, that it might even be dark outside the windowless vehicle. When I brought myself vertical, I was greeted by a few grins and chuckles, including from Yanna and Miggs, who sat on the bench across from us.

  “I guess you two are so lost in honeymoon-land, you forgot we were on a mission,” Miggs teased. “Ah, to be young and horny and in love.”

  Yanna smirked, giving me a mock sympathetic look as she nudged Miggs’ arm.

  “Oh, leave the poor princess alone. Looks like Donal here’s done tuckered her out... and her, him, for that matter,” she added, aiming that smirk at Donal next. “Poor, poor dears. And here we were, betting on ye having some stamina, Donal, given all the time you spend in the ring.”

  Shaking her head, Yanna clucked in mock sympathy.

  From behind me, Donal made a hand gesture towards both of them I was already roughly familiar with from here.

  The rest of those sitting on the benches around us cracked up.

  I smiled too, but felt a harder surge of panic, wondering if we needed to tell them what we’d inadvertently dragged them into.

  “They know,” a voice murmured softly in my ear.

  Donal bent over me, caressing the hair off my shoulder. He kissed my cheek when I turned, smiling faintly, although that intensity didn’t leave his eyes.

  “They know, huntress,” he said, just as softly. “They may not know the specifics, but they heard the news of the new Regent, just like we did. They can add, just like we can. They also know well enough why you were dragged on this little excursion.”

  I nodded, swallowing.

  Looking around at the grinning faces around us, I felt another stab of helpless fury.

  These people should not die at my aunt’s hand.

  All their lives, they had done nothing but serve their district. They’d done so faithfully, thanklessly, putting their lives in danger in the process.

  Even as I thought it, the armored truck bumped to a screeching, rolling halt.

  For a long moment, we all just sa
t on the padded benches, stock-still, listening.

  Then a voice crackled over the loudspeaker in the back of the armored truck.

  “Everyone out!” it said.

  I looked at Donal, noting the grim look in his eyes. He slung one of the biggest of the heavy black guns over his broad shoulders, motioning with his chin for me to do the same. Looking behind me, I saw where he’d already checked, cleaned and oiled a shorter-barreled weapon, strapping it down on the bench near where I’d dozed off.

  Swallowing, I snapped the buckle to loosen its tether, and pulled it free.

  I had it around my shoulders even as I rose to my feet, following Yanna and trailed by Donal, with three or four others behind us and in front.

  All of us stood there, waiting, when the metal doors swung open.

  I’D BEEN WRONG.

  It wasn’t quite dark yet, although a large, red-tinted sun hung low in the sky, flanked by crimson-tinted black clouds.

  I stared down over a scorched patch of sloping land, unlike anything I’d ever seen.

  No trees decorated that swath of ash and mud. No vegetation of any kind grew there, anywhere I could see. The sky stood like an empty bowl over our heads, dark with smoke and ominous. I heard no birds, saw no wings in flight. I didn’t even hear the buzz of insects.

  Below us, I heard a low droning sound, somewhere in the distance. Whatever caused it, it was at the bottom of that hill, outside our immediate view.

  It was the only thing that connoted life at all.

  Otherwise, the land was so silent I had trouble thinking through that silence. It wasn’t the silence of nature, when everything is at peace.

  It was the silence of death. The utter vacancy of life.

  It struck me suddenly; this was the first time I’d ever been outside the District’s walls.

  “OUT! OUT! OUT! ARM UP!”

  The volume and harshness of the voice made me jump.

  I turned back, watching the rest of the red witches and warlocks pour out of the backs of three other vehicles that had pulled up behind ours. Defenders in black, armored uniforms made a perimeter around our numbers, holding heavy metal weapons, two-handed. They kept those weapons aimed into the center of our circle.

  I glanced around for Donal, only to find him standing right next to me.

  He was staring down the hill, towards that buzzing, droning sound.

  “What is that?” I asked him, following his gaze.

  “Ravagers,” he said simply.

  Something in the way he said it unnerved me.

  I found myself thinking it was the sheer number of them he heard.

  One of the Defenders spoke through the loudspeaker again, and both of us winced, turning.

  “YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS. PROCEED DOWN THE HILL. EAGLE TEAM FOUR IS WAITING FOR YOU AS REINFORCEMENT.”

  “Could they shout that any louder, d’ye think?” Miggs muttered from the other side of Donal. “I think maybe they’re some ravagers who might not have heard ‘im, a few districts over. Like maybe the ones in the Old Bear and the Mongol-Land?”

  Donal grunted, but his expression was anything but amused.

  He glanced down at me, and I saw that fire building in his pitch black eyes.

  “Stay with me, Maia,” he said, still holding that black gun aimed at the sky. “I don’t mean that as an insult... believe me, I don’t. I want yer gun, but stay with me. Don’t go off on yer own. Ye have no idea how fast those damn’d things can move.”

  I nodded.

  When he began to walk, I walked alongside him.

  I held my gun in my hands by then too, as did most of the red witches and warlocks around us. Teams began forming around us as well, clusters of sixes and sevens. Each cluster clearly had one who appeared to be in charge. I knew Donal led all of them, in addition to his own smaller group, and for the first time, the sheer responsibility of that gave me pause.

  It also made me view him differently, and strangely grateful I would be with him out here, at least this one time.

  I watched him exchange hand-gestures with a few of those other leaders, and did my best to follow their meaning, from having studied his book.

  “A thousand?” I swallowed, looking up at him. “You really think there are so many?”

  Yanna answered me before Donal could.

  “Sounds about right to me,” she said grimly, cocking her weapon.

  I watched her as she slung the strap back around her shoulder and began tossing balls of red fire from one hand to another, then putting that fire into her gun and sword.

  “The guns are never enough, Maia,” Choki, another of Donal’s team explained, from the other side of Yanna. “I hear yer magic’s up to snuff. Watch how we use it to misdirect the ravagers, so other’s among us can take ‘em out with the guns. If ye get stuck, send up a bird sign. We’ll know you’re one of ours and come running.”

  “She’s staying with me,” Donal said, his voice brooking no argument.

  “You’re one person, Donal,” Yanna retorted. “So shut up, if you want us t’ help ye keep yer lady-love alive.”

  Donal didn’t argue, but that foreboding look in his eyes seemed to intensify.

  We were only about halfway down the hill when the trucks roared to life behind us.

  Donal immediately turned, his gun swiveling up the hill. The witches and warlocks around us stopped in their tracks, their eyes and guns also aiming back in the direction we’d just left. Miggs’ eyes went as wide as saucers, right before he began waving his hands frantically in the air, signaling to the trucks.

  “Wait!” he shouted. “Wait! Don’t leave us here!”

  “Shut up!” Donal hissed.

  He looked down the hill towards that droning hum, which seemed louder now than it had when we’d been standing on the ridge above the slope.

  But Miggs’ wasn’t the only voice to let out that cry.

  Witches and warlocks all around me began to run back up the hill, shouting at the armored trucks. Donal and I just stood there and watched, unmoving as the ash, dirt and shale hillside slid under their booted feet. The running was tough in the slipping topsoil. A few stumbled and fell, even wearing their guns; they dragged themselves back to their hands and knees and then their feet in the sliding shale, trying frantically to make it back up to the rocky plateau.

  I watched as the last of those bullet-proof doors closed behind a handful of dark-uniformed Defenders. That was when I first noticed the ridge was empty of guards; they’d already emptied their rank into the trucks while we walked down the hill, preparing to drive away.

  I watched as a number of red witches stopped running and pulled down their guns.

  Standing in a broken line, they opened fire on the trucks, throwing sparks as their bullets bounced ineffectively off the shiny, dark-green exteriors. Yanna and a few others threw spells at them as well, small ones at first, then heavier clouds of red flame.

  I saw one of those spells lift the rear of a retreating truck high enough that it would have capsized, had it been a normally-weighted vehicle.

  As it was, it fell back to the rock with a hard thud, wheels spinning.

  A few of the witches began building a bigger cloud of magics between them.

  Donal helped them that time, and I threw my own magics, as well, adding as much power and concentration as I could. Together, we wove our magical energies as one, all of us silently agreeing to aim for the first truck in the caravan. I could feel some of the more experienced in their number hoping it might stop at least one of the other trucks as well, so we might have more than one vehicle to use for escape.

  The flaming cloud built around the eight of us standing there, chanting and pulling magic up through the soil beneath our feet. Two more joined us, making it ten. Then another three, then two more. The cloud expanded outward even larger. I felt the heat of the crackling fire within. It raised the hair on my arms and the back of my neck, made my teeth clench, my hands curl into fists. I saw muscles straining a
round me in necks and forearms.

  I saw the focus of Donal and Yanna aim for that first truck.

  We’re going to hit it, I thought to myself. We’re going to be able to stop it...

  I was so sure of it. I could feel what the red flames would do. I knew it would turn over the truck and stun everyone inside, giving us time to reach them with our guns.

  Excitement built in my chest as the writhing cloud of fire began to ascend.

  I yelled out, a ringing laugh of triumph.

  It begin to move, faster and faster, gaining on the trucks like a living force, gliding silently over the dusty ground, a mass made up of our own pulsing hearts.

  It was nearly up to the last truck in the caravan...

  ...when suddenly, the dense, writing ball of fire began to lose its shape. I saw it unravel before my eyes, growing dimmer right before it dissipated like smoke.

  “The last one! Hit the last truck!” Donal shouted. “Shift course! Now!”

  As one, we redirected the cloud, aiming for the very last truck in the caravan.

  But it was already too late.

  Pulled apart by wind, the cloud’s center touched the back of the armored truck and expanded over it like a blown kiss.

  All of us stood there, watching, as the line of trucks grew smaller in the distance.

  Soon, all we could see was the trail of dust thrown up by tires as the drivers floored their vehicles in the opposite direction.

  When I looked at Yanna, she was shaking her hand, trying to produce another flame. I watched others around me doing the same. A few sparks came off palms, here and there, like the last charges off a dying battery. After a few minutes more, even those stopped, until all of us could only stand there, staring at one another as the truth sank in.

  They hadn’t even waited for us to fight.

  They’d just left us here.

  We were still standing there, not speaking, when a sudden, loud explosion went off right over our heads.

  Chapter 20

  THE LAST ONE STANDING

  I STARED UP, like everyone on that shale and ash-covered hill.