by Kyra Halland
“I’m not the one who picked this fight,” Lainie replied. She drew Silas’s gun into her left hand. It was big and heavy, too big and heavy for her, but it made her feel stronger, like Silas himself was fighting at her side. “Show me what you got.”
Another ball of green magic barrelled towards her from the left, from the mage whose knee she had shot out. Lainie spun out of the way and fired at him as the attack sped past her and crashed into the same building beyond her. Her first shot just clipped his shoulder; she fired again and hit him in the chest. He collapsed back onto the ground. Two shots left, she thought. As long as she could, she would keep shooting the ones who attacked her while they were unshielded, to delay having to use her own power and risk depleting it.
A wave of pale green came flying at her from the right. She pivoted and fired; the mage who had attacked grunted loudly and staggered back, a darker stain spreading across the chest of his black tunic. The magical attack struck Lainie’s shoulder, sharp and hot, and knocked her down to the stone-paved street. Before she could get up, three balls of power, deep orange, bright blue, and yellow, flew towards her from different directions. She scrabbled backwards; the attacks collided with each other in an explosion that flattened her to the ground. She rolled, got to one knee, and fired the last bullet from her gun at one of the mages who had attacked. He fell back, blood spurting from his chest. Lainie holstered her empty gun, switched Silas’s gun to her right hand, and fired at a second mage. He fell to his knees, clutching his side, then collapsed.
That was four mages down, five to go, and five more bullets in Silas’s gun.
All at once, the five remaining mages launched a rainbow of attacks at Lainie. She scrambled to her feet and ran to the left, crouching low to dodge the attacks and firing as she ran. Her wrist hurt from holding Silas’s revolver, and her aim was off and she missed a couple of shots, but another mage went down after being shot twice, then another fell –
And then the gun clicked but didn’t fire. Lainie holstered the empty gun and dropped flat to the ground as a dark yellow attack flew towards her from the right, from one of the three mages left standing. It sailed over her and crashed into the triangular building behind her, then the mage in the middle, the one who had spoken, threw a glowing violet sphere at her. Lainie rolled aside and it blasted into the street where she had been lying. As she got to her knees, she called up her own power and flung a bolt of rose-colored lightning back at that mage; he started to form a shield, but the bolt struck the half-made shield, shattering it. The mage staggered back but didn’t fall. A pulsing knot of red power hurtled towards Lainie from the left; she flattened herself to the ground again, rolled the other way, and threw a wave of her own power against it. The two attacks met in a collision that shook the earth beneath her.
When Lainie’s senses cleared from the explosion, she saw the last three mages still standing before her, one far to the left, one in front of her, one well to the right. Attacking one would leave her wide open to the other two. Even though those last three mages had been using large quantities of magic, by the looks of the new attacks they were starting to shape they could still give her a tough fight. She was good, she was powerful, but she wasn’t as highly trained in magical combat as these men. And she was alone, while they were working together.
But she could do things they couldn’t, she reminded herself as she got to her knees, then back on her feet. And she was probably physically stronger and more fit than any of these city men. Most of all, she was fighting to protect the life and freedom of the man she loved, as well as her own, while they were only fighting for the sake of some stupid rules.
Her mage ring glowed brightly as she called up more power and focused it. The mage to the right finished shaping his attack; as he wound up to launch it, she flung out a rope of power at him like she was roping a runaway calf. He cried out in shock as she seized as much of his dark yellow power as she could and pulled it in. Careful not to take the stolen power into herself, Lainie shaped it into a giant ball bound with the rope of her own power and twisted to heave it at the mage on the left. That mage’s own attack was only half-formed, but he threw the wave of red power anyway. Lainie’s attack smashed through it in a blinding burst of magic and crashed into him with enough force to send him flying back a full two measures. He hit the ground hard and didn’t move again.
Only one mage was left standing and able to fight, the mage in the center, the one who had spoken to her. He finished shaping another attack and threw it at her as Lainie called up more of her own power and heaved the unformed mass at him. The two attacks slammed into each other in an explosion that made Lainie stagger back and almost lose her footing.
And then the mage she had shot in the side got to his knees and threw an attack at her. She twisted aside, but the power still struck her as it went by and sent her tumbling to the ground. The hard landing knocked her breath from her and her shoulder stung where the magic had hit it.
Damn it, why wouldn’t they stay down? If they kept getting up, she was going to run low on power. She couldn’t afford to drain herself, not when she still had to get Silas out of the city. Breathing hard, her legs shaking, she stumbled to her feet. At the same time, both of the remaining mages attacked. Lainie ducked back from the attacks; they whizzed past each other, one plowing into the street and the other hitting the building beyond her.
She drew Silas’s gun again. He had never shown her how the magic in his gun worked, and she had only seen him use its various magical functions a few times. Did it take a lot of power to make them work? She switched the gun to her right hand. I need you, she told the Sh’kimech.
Deep inside her, they stirred awake. Icy pain burned in her breast and shot through her right arm as she sent Sh’kimech power into the gun. She cocked the trigger, and felt something click into place on a level that only her mage senses could detect, connecting her mind, her anger and determination, the Sh’kimech power, and the gun.
“Do you surrender, Miss Banfrey?” the mage who had spoken before called out.
“Let us go, and I won’t fight you any more.”
“You are in no position to dictate terms to us.”
That was it. She had given him enough chances to end this. If he insisted on forcing her to fight, she had no intention of holding back. She aimed Silas’s gun at him and pulled the trigger.
A bolt of utterly flat, light-negating black shot like the opposite of lightning out of the gun and pierced the mage who had spoken. His cry of pain rose to the scream of one damned to all the hells as darkness continued pouring into him. His body arched backwards and stiffened, then seemed to split, revealing streams of dark Sh’kimech power and his own violet power writhing and twisting together. The rifts widened, then disappeared in a blinding flash of black and violet light. When the flash cleared away, only ashes and tattered clothing remained where the mage had been.
Looking at the mage’s remains, Lainie felt a churn of sickness at what she had done, while inside her, the Sh’kimech exulted at the destruction of this small part of the infestation that polluted their world. Now that they had been given a taste of what they wanted, they clamored for more. To wipe the infestation from existence, to cleanse and purify the surface of the world…
No, she told them. I let you destroy that one. I don’t want to do that again.
Sister, we must destroy them all, they said. It’s what we desire.
And so did she, Lainie realized, as their pleading put words to what she was feeling. She hated these men who wanted to take away Silas’s freedom and even his life when he had done nothing wrong; she hated them every bit as much as she hated those who had captured him and damaged his mind and his body. Longing for revenge, to punish, to destroy, filled every fiber of her body, as powerful as magical hunger or demonsalts cravings, and turned her horror at what she had done into a desire for more.
No. She would only destroy her own soul that way, and everything else she loved. Giving in to th
e desire for revenge for the sake of revenge, for power for the sake of power, would shatter her control over the Sh’kimech and allow them to take possession of her. I just want my heart back, she told them firmly. I don’t want to destroy them; I just want them to leave us alone and let us go free. That’s all I want.
As you wish, Sister, the Sh’kimech replied grudgingly. They had no choice but to obey her when she rejected what they offered. They retreated a little, and the hunger for revenge and destruction faded.
Only a short moment had passed during her struggle with the Sh’kimech. The last mage, the one who had gotten up after being shot in the side, still knelt where he had been, bleeding heavily from his wound, staring at the remains of his comrade. Lainie aimed Silas’s gun at him. “There’s more where that came from,” she said, surprised at the steadiness of her voice. “Are you going to let us go, or do I have to prove to you that I can do that again?” She prayed that he wouldn’t call her on her threat.
A long, silent moment passed. The mage didn’t move. She kept the gun trained on him. His eyes shifted, dark in his deathly pale face. Movement from the right – the mage whose power she had taken, but she hadn’t taken all of it –
She pivoted. Cold shot down her arm again into Silas’s gun and she pulled the trigger. Black lightning streaked out, met the glowing ball of dark yellow power that was flying towards her – met it and shattered it with a light and noise like the breaking of the world, and continued on into the mage’s body. He screamed, and she sensed the Sh’kimech’s triumph as they destroyed him in a burst of black and yellow power which cleared to reveal nothing but ashes and rags.
From the left came another shifting of power. Lainie spun; the dying mage, bleeding out from the wound in his side, was preparing yet another attack. She slammed her power against his, driving it back inside him, deeper and deeper, smothering his power with the weight of her own until it flickered out like a dying candleflame, followed by his fading life force.
Her senses returned to her own body. She stood shaking, breathing hard, soaked with sweat, battered and aching from head to toe. Slowly, she took in the scene before her. In the street lay the bodies of seven of the mages, some of them definitely dead, the others possibly just disabled, and the remains of the other two.
“No,” she said between hard, gasping breaths. “I won’t surrender.”
Chapter 12
LAINIE HOLSTERED SILAS’S gun and turned to fetch him from his shelter. All at once, an unreasoning fear seized her that she would find the shield and Silas both gone. Her heart pounding, she ran the few steps around the narrow corner of the triangular building to where she’d left Silas. The shield was still in place and intact; a weight of worry lifted from her mind, leaving her shakier with relief than she already was from the fight. She took down the shield, drawing the unspent power back into herself, careful not to let a single wisp of it go to waste. And there was Silas, sitting hunched over, face buried against his knees, shaking hard, but safe and sound.
She went to him and took his hand in hers. “Come on, baby. It’s safe now.”
He looked up at her, his eyes wide and terrified in his bruised, scraped, pain-lined face. Then the fear in his expression eased. Holding her hand, as trusting as a child, he let her pull him to his feet.
She peered around the corner of the triangular building. The street in front of the hotel was still deserted except for the bodies of the dead and injured mages. A few constables stood at each end of the street, holding back frightened onlookers. It was only a matter of time before more Mage Council people showed up; Lainie wasn’t foolish enough to think that the Mage Council was just going to let them go now. If she was lucky, they might have time to make it out of Sandostra before the hunt started up again. She tugged on Silas’s hand. “Hurry,” she said.
No one came near them as they half-ran, half-staggered across the street. Apparently, the Plain constables were smart enough to stay out of mage business, especially after what they’d seen her do. She kept her eyes averted from the ashen remains, and her mind shied away from the memory of how she had killed those two mages using the Sh’kimech and Silas’s gun. There was no point in regrets or second-guessing herself; she had done what she had to do.
She led Silas around the back of the hotel to the stable, where the hostler had saddled up the horses. When Silas saw Abenar, he went still. Then he walked up to the big gray, put his arms around Abenar’s neck, and buried his face against his mane. “Friend,” he said, his voice muffled.
Tears stung Lainie’s eyes; she blinked them back, not wanting to upset him. “Yeah, you remember Abenar. He’s your friend.”
She reloaded the guns while the hostler strapped their knapsacks and saddlebags in place on the horses and gave Silas a boost up into the saddle. “This your husband, madam?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“What happened to him? Was it all that fighting?”
“In a way. We had a falling out with some other mages.” That would do for an explanation.
The stableman gave a low whistle. “Hard to believe mages would do that to one of their own. You’ve been good to us here, madam. If anyone comes looking for you, I’ll do what I can to slow them down.”
“Thanks, but don’t get yourself in trouble on our account. Just say you don’t know where we’re going; it’s the honest truth.” She handed him an extra ten-gilding piece, on top of what she’d already paid him, as well as some more coins for the stable boys, and mounted up. Silas was holding himself stiffly in Abenar’s saddle, as though afraid he might fall off, but he had a correct hold on the reins. Lainie nudged Mala into a walk with her knees, and Abenar, good horse that he was, followed.
She picked out a route leading over the top of the hill and down the other side, keeping the horses at a walk to make sure Silas wasn’t going to have any difficulty riding and to avoid drawing undue attention to themselves. She kept a lookout for enforcers but didn’t see any; the Mage Council had to be assuming that the nine men they had sent to intercept her at the hotel would have done the job. With any luck, it would be a while before they found out otherwise.
At the bottom of the hill, she picked up their speed a little, heading north towards the great bridge across the Dostra. When they reached the approach to the bridge, Lainie found it blocked by wooden barricades manned by constables and Mage Council enforcers. A crowd of people before the barricades milled around restlessly among their horses, carriages, and wagons, complaining loudly about not being able to get across the bridge. Lainie wasn’t surprised that the bridge was being watched, but she had hoped to have a little more time before the roadblocks were put up. There were other roads out of the city, but she had no doubt they were also being watched.
It was time to make another stand.
She pushed Mala into a gallop towards the crowds at the roadblock and clucked at Abenar to follow. Silas clutched the reins and sat hunched in the saddle as though the faster gait made his pain even worse, but he didn’t look in danger of falling off. Lainie fired two well-placed shots into the road just at the edge of the waiting mass of people. Dirt and rocks flew into the air, and the crowd scattered, screaming and shouting, horses neighing in panic. Still, three enforcers and a handful of constables held their positions at the barricades. The mages threw shields before themselves and the constables, and Lainie sensed them preparing magical attacks.
With her mage ring as a focus, in the space between one breath and the next Lainie drew up power, Wildings, Sh’kimech, and her own inborn power, and shaped it into a massive sphere. She slammed the attack into the ground right in front of the barricades. The explosion shattered wood and shields and threw the guards aside. Without pausing, Lainie urged Mala and Abenar at a full gallop past abandoned wagons, broken barricades, and stunned guards and over the bridge.
* * *
ONCE THEY WERE away from Sandostra, Lainie veered off the main road to cut across the countryside, following smaller roads and tracks a
nd crossing through fields and woods whenever they could, pushing north and west towards the Gap. She drove the horses and herself and Silas as long and as fast as she dared while constantly keeping an eye out for pursuit. She didn’t see any signs of anyone coming after them, though she had no doubt that the Mage Council wasn’t going to just let them slip away. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to her that the Mage Council had been at least as interested in catching her and Silas as they were in arresting the members of the Hidden Council, and the more certain she was that Elspetya Lorentius and her cronies might have even gotten away free.
When they couldn’t go on any longer, she would call a stop for a short time and put up a shield around Silas, herself, and the horses. She couldn’t make the shields as strong and concealing as she would have liked; she was running low on the Wildings earth-power she had brought with, and she never got the chance to fully regenerate her own power. Even with a shield up, she didn’t dare let herself get more than brief snatches of sleep, their food supplies had to be carefully rationed, and replenishing her power with Silas was out of the question, him being in the state he was in. So she had to make do with the small amounts that slowly regenerated on their own.
The clear weather held at first, which spared them the misery of being out in the cold and rain, and made their travel across the unpaved lanes and trails and fields of the countryside easier. But the break in the weather didn’t last; three days out from Sandostra, gray clouds gathered again and rain began to fall. The sky over the countryside was a strange patchwork of cloudy and clear, as mages held off the rains where farmers were busy with the harvest while letting them fall elsewhere. To the west, the clouds thickened and lowered over the Spine. Lainie fervently prayed to the Provider that the snows wouldn’t start yet, but she knew the look of snow clouds over mountains when she saw them.