by Thandi Ryan
Rufus reached the other side and he was met by Amara and Michael; Rufus wore his hood up and only Amara could see who it was.
‘Rufus, have you come to try and stop us?’ she asked him.
‘Not try,’ he said dryly, as he hurled an energy ball at Michael.
Amara stuck out her hand so that it was in the path of the energy ball and in the way of Michael.
‘Return!’ she said powerfully and on her command, the energy ball reversed and flew back to Rufus. Rufus stepped to the side and dodged the ball even though there was no need. Amara turned and looked at Michael. ‘Leave us,’ she said to him.
‘Amara...’
‘Michael, leave us,’ she said again. ‘You cannot help me now and there is much for you to do,’ she said to him.
‘Very well,’ he said to her reluctantly.
He glared at Rufus and then looked at Amara for a few seconds, before he turned and left her to fight him.
‘You were right to send him away,’ Rufus said in a sly tone.
‘There is no point in you both dying by my hand.’
‘No one else is dying by your hand Rufus.’
‘Stop me.’
‘Ice!’ Amara said, as she stuck out her hand and pointed it at Rufus.
As she said the word, Rufus’s feet were stuck to the ground and ice began to form around them and freeze his legs together; the ice grew quickly and crept up his legs and was now at his thighs freezing him and his cloak still.
Rufus looked down and pointed his hands to his frozen legs and fireballs shot out of them. The fireballs melted the ice but the ice kept coming, Rufus looked down at the ice again and then it came to him, he pointed his hands downwards and froze the ice and when he did, the creeping ice stopped growing. He looked down at it and visualised it in his head and commanded it to shatter: which it did instantly.
Rufus retaliated by throwing a volley of energy balls, which Amara dodged or deflected and then he uttered a spell in Latin and the ground beneath Amara began to drag her in and down. Amara wobbled around and tried to gain her balance as the ground began swallowing her and Rufus looked on and laughed as the earth took her.
Amara knew she could not fight the earth and so she closed her eyes and racked her brains and then the thought come to her. She closed her eyes again and then she disappeared from sight before reappearing behind Rufus and tapping him on the shoulder. He turned around to see her staring at him.
‘You aren’t the only one who can teleport,’ she told him and then she looked down at the ground and smiled.
Rufus looked down too and saw that the earth was now swallowing him and he gave Amara an extremely hateful look, before the ground consumed him. Rufus could not teleport, nor could he freeze the whole earth, which made him struggle against the soil as it swallowed him greedily. Rufus watched as the ground took him, it pulled him in inch by inch and in no time at all, he was up to his neck in soil. He closed his eyes and covered his mouth and nose with his one remaining free hand before the earth swallowed him whole.
Amara looked on as Rufus disappeared beneath the soil; she stayed for a few seconds ensuring that he had really gone and then she was satisfied that he had. She walked away and went to join the other sorcerers who were working away at the sides. She had only just reached them when the ground began to rumble: Amara turned around and she knew immediately that the cause of the rumbling was Rufus.
She ran back to the spot where he had been and just as she was about to reach it Rufus shot out from the ground and into the air. He somersaulted in mid-air and as he descended under control he sent down bolts of energy and fire to Amara and everyone who was around her ran and took cover but Amara stayed where she was, ready to face Rufus once again. Rufus landed on his feet and Amara did not wait a second longer, she went on the offensive immediately and she stuck out her hands and began to chant.
‘With this power that I hold
Bind him for a time untold.’
As Amara said the spell repeatedly, a yellow stream of energy left her hands and began to encapsulate Rufus, Rufus tried to escape the binding yellow energy that Amara had placed upon him, but he could not, He tried to freeze the energy but it did not work, he tried burning it, dousing it in water and ice but the energy still remained and Rufus – with all of his power – could do nothing to escape it. Amara looked on at Rufus for a while before she spoke:
‘The bind I have upon you is not as powerful as the one on your other brothers. This bind will fade soon but when it does, it will be far too late for you to do anything.’ She told him before she walked away from him.
At the time Amara had taken on Rufus, Zach had clashed with Luxor. The two of them immediately went on the offensive and launched fire and energy and unleashed powerful spells upon each other.
‘You’re no match for me,’ Luxor told Zach.
‘Only because you wear a cloak,’ Zach replied. ‘Had we been on fair terms it is you who would have been no match for me.’
Luxor laughed arrogantly flinging his head backwards to let his laughter out.
‘Very well,’ Luxor said in a humorous tone. ‘I shall pull the cloak back, behind my shoulders. That means I am no longer invincible,’ Luxor said in the same amused and arrogant tone. ‘You are still going to die though.’
‘We’ll see,’ Zach said, as he flung a powerful energy ball at Luxor.
Luxor levitated into the air and the ball missed him by far, while he was in the air, he sent down a volley of small energy balls that hit Zach in different parts of his body; they were nowhere near as powerful as the energy ball that Zach had sent to Luxor but they were still quite painful on contact and Zach yelped with pain. The pain was enough to distract Zach and as it distracted him, Luxor reached into his cloak and pulled out a small vial. He opened the vial and tipped the contents out into the air. The powder from the vial became a black cloud of dust and Luxor looked at it and concentrated.
‘Become, become life, become many and become more.
Become!’ he boomed.
As Luxor finished his spell, the black cloud began to buzz and hum and then it began to thicken into mass and as changed, the humming grew louder. Within seconds, the black cloud of dust had become a swarm of wasps and on Luxor’s command; they flew forward and went to attack Zach. Zach scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could and when he put some distance between himself and the deadly swarm he turned to face them and held out his hands.
‘Shield!’ He said and as the bees came in to attack him they were stopped by a force field that Zach had created.
‘Incinerate!’ He commanded and as he shouted the wasps began to incinerate en masse and returned to being a pile of black dust once again. Luxor was inches away from Zach now and before Zach could do anything, Luxor landed a backhander across Zach’s left side sending him sprawling backwards and then he raised his leg and landed a side kick square into Zach’s chest sending him flying and on to the floor. Zach was in shock for violence had been completely unexpected and he looked up at Luxor and glanced for what he considered to be a foul move.
‘I know more than magic,’ Luxor said, smirking at Zach as he approached him.
‘Roots of the earth take him,’ Zach commanded, and on his utterance, the earth and its roots began to take hold of Luxor. Luxor looked down and laughed.
He pointed his hands downwards at the ground and then spoke: ‘Scorch and scorch deep,’ he commanded and the roots and ground beneath him began to burn with intense heat and die.
Luxor jumped free of the scorching earth and by the time he cleared it, Zach was on his feet, ready to fight again. Zach faced Luxor and thoughts ran through his mind as he watched him. He knew Luxor was evil and would resort to foul play and he knew he would have to steer clear of Luxor’s fists and feet, for Zach was no warrior and so he vowed to keep a safe distance from him.
Zach hurled fire and energy at Luxor and the two began again; they used powerful magic’s as they attacked each other and
defended themselves and as they fought, they would jump, levitate and summersault all over the place; attacking and deflecting live magic and spells. Neither one of them was relenting and they each punished the others bodies, whenever they hit their target.
The fight did not look as though it were going to end but they were interrupted by a loud and powerful humming noise and as the noise grew louder, the ground began to shake and vibrate; both Luxor and Zach were distracted by the noise but they carried on fighting regardless of the growing noise grew and constant vibration.
As the vibration grew, Michael – who had been in the thick of the fight, gave his men the order to retreat and when they heard the order, the guard and the islanders began to retreat from where they had come. Luxor wondered why the guard were retreating and then he looked at Zach, who was now smiling at him.
‘It’s over,’ Zach said.
‘It’s never over,’ Luxor replied.
Zach hurled as many energy balls at Luxor as he could but rather than continue to fight, he began to retreat backwards; Luxor followed as Zach continued to retreat and the fight was now on the run. As the two men continued, Luxor saw a red beam on the ground and then he watched, as it rose and rose to at least thirty feet high, creating a pink transparent barrier.
‘What the hell?’ Luxor asked out loud.
‘It’s your cage,’ Zach answered him. ‘It’s the cage where you will all remain.’
‘And its the cage where you shall die,’ Luxor raged, as he attacked Zach with a volley of energy balls.
Zach deflected most of them but a couple of energy balls hit him; one hit him in the shoulder and another hit him on his left leg, and he fell to the floor. He was only feet away now from the barrier but it looked as though Luxor would have his way too. Zach made one last attempt to get to the barrier that was now forty feet high and he began to speak in Latin:
‘Power of the earth I call on you
Wind of the sky I call on you
Take this thing from my sight
And carry him away with all your might.’
A gust of wind began to grow and it grew between Zach and Luxor; Luxor knew what the wind was for and he made a last ditch attempt to get to Zach and take him with him. Luxor fought through the wind and grabbed hold of Zach but Zach was ready for him, he quickly broke free of Luxor’s grip and delivered a kick to Luxor’s middle, sending him flying and before Luxor could recover from the kick, the gust of wind had picked up enormously and it picked up Luxor and carried him over a twenty feet through the air before it died down and dissolved; dropping him to the floor far away from Zach but still within the magical barrier. When Zach had freed himself of Luxor, he ran towards the pink bubble and ran through it.
By now many of the sorcerers, guard and islander were on the other side of the force field and when the soldiers tried to follow them, they were held back by it. Amara had left Rufus and exited the field and as she departed, the magic that she had used to bind him dissipated and Rufus was now free from it.
As soon as he was free from Amara’s bind, Rufus made his way to the force field to do everything in his power to take it down but he could not. He looked around him to see that the field encircled them for at least a mile and that there was no way to escape. The force field was now over fifty feet high and he attempted to levitate but to his surprise he could not. He tried repeatedly but had no luck and so he went back to the force field and tried once again to escape it but this time, he found that his power simply bounced off the field. “It’s grows stronger,” he thought to himself.
Rufus stepped back from the force field and this time he surveyed all that he saw properly; only his soldiers remained, most of the guard and sorcerers were on the other side of the barrier and he watched as they miraculously stepped through the field that was holding him and his army hostage.
‘They knew,’ he said out loud. ‘They knew Cador was coming from the east.’
He walked to the centre to be with his men and they looked to him for an answer.
‘We will be free of this, I tell you,’ he said to them. ‘Three of the Azari remain on the outside and they will do all that they can to free us. For now, now we wait. Tend to the wounded and organise yourselves. Sharpen your weapons and clean yourselves up and then – then be ready, for this fight is far from over,’ he told them.
The men cheered and then they set to work doing as Rufus had commanded them. While the army were carrying out their orders, Rufus went in search of Luxor who he found at the north of the force field.
‘What happened?’ Luxor asked.
‘They trapped us in this force field,’ Rufus said, in a tone, which was free of sarcasm.
‘Can we get out?’
‘I have tried all the magic’s I know and the field still remains impenetrable. I cannot even make a small hole.’ he told Luxor. ‘The power of the field grows with each passing second. At first, it absorbed my magic now my magic simply bounces off it.’
‘How did they…?’ Luxor began.
‘They must have known about our soldiers from the east, for they were prepared and when I saw the guard retreat, they stepped through as though no magic barrier were in place.’
‘Then they must be wearing something,’ Rufus gave Luxor a strange look and Luxor continued to explain. ‘A charm, an amulet – or something that lets them pass through the field, it can only be,’ Luxor said thoughtfully.
The two men walked back to where their men were and they came across Bryce who was still bound. The two of them tried to unbind him but it was of no avail and so they left him where he was, promising to return.
‘He will not be bound forever,’ Rufus said. ‘I am sure the magic will wear off.’
‘Good then, let us search for whatever it is that frees the guard from this cage,’ Luxor replied.
The two men searched the dead guardsmen and islanders who were on the ground and before long, they were stood next to each other as each thought they had the answer.
‘The amulet!’ Luxor said, holding up an armband made of gold and adorned with an onyx, a ruby, and a diamond.
‘Each and every one of them wear this,’ Luxor said.
‘All stones of great power,’ Rufus said nodding his head in agreement. ‘And they have undoubtedly cast a spell.’
The two men put the amulets on and when they reached the force field the attempted to go through it. But the amulet did not work and Luxor and Rufus remained trapped.
‘Damn it.’ Luxor raged.
‘The power of the amulet must die with them,’ Rufus observed.
‘Damn them,’ Luxor said, still raging.
‘We underestimated them,’ Rufus said, appreciating his enemy for their cunning.
‘I don’t care now we estimated them, but I care that we are in this cage.’
‘You don’t do very well in confinement, do you?’ Rufus asked, in a wry tone.
Luxor glared at Rufus and Rufus simply raised his eyebrows at Luxor, which only enraged him more.
‘I think our only hope is Rakan.’ Rufus said.
‘If they haven’t captured him by now,’ Luxor said.
Rakan had not been captured – he was the only remaining Azari who was free and he continued to fight in the forests. He was having a hard time, even though the cloak had made him invincible; for even though the cloak stopped him from coming to any harm, it did not stop others attacking him or trying to bind him and they had learned by now, to attack him in great number – making him go on the defensive rather than the offensive.
Twice now they had trapped him in nets and twice, he had barely escaped, using his sword and his dagger to frantically cut himself free. In the forest, the guard were faring well; the dark army were depleting in their number and there were no reinforcements from the east. The dark army still pushed south and Rakan joined them.
As they were making their way through the forest, Rakan became aware of the vibrating sound and as it grew louder, his curiosity grew. The army
were now at the edge of the forest and were about to enter the city and so Rakan left them to fight and went to investigate what the noise was and when he reached the edge of the forest he could see the hills where his soldiers were fighting and he saw the beginning of the barrier.
‘Rufus! Luxor! Bryce!’ he said out loud.
He rushed forward and broke into a run as soon as he was free of the forest, He kept on running and then he willed the cloak to take him further and faster of which it did. When he arrived closer to the field, he looked around and saw that the guard and sorcerers were making their way back to the forest. He left them to make their way, not knowing that Waldon and Kenaz had already been captured and he concentrated on the field. He knew if he entered, he would not be able to leave for if Rufus and Luxor could have, he knew they would have done by now. He looked at the force field and then used his magic on it but it did not work and after a while he gave up on the idea. Rakan stepped back and thought for a while.
‘Rope,’ he said to himself.
He closed his eyes and concentrated and then he thought of thick rope at least sixty feet in length and as he concentrated, the rope materialised at his feet. Rakan opened his eyes and looked down at the coil of rope and smiled. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder and then turned to the force field. He looked up and saw that the force field was still over sixty feet high and he pulled a strange face and then levitated up in the air.
He levitated over sixty feet and above the force field and then he made his way to the centre of the field, which was still an open space. He took the rope from his shoulder as he hovered in the sky and he dropped down into the field below, holding firmly onto the other end.
‘Hold!’ Rakan commanded, after which, he slowly let go of the rope and the rope remained rigid and vertical from the ground up to where he was. Rakan smiled to himself and he looked down at Rufus and Luxor who were now at the bottom of the rope.