FIERCE: Sixteen Authors of Fantasy

by Mercedes Lackey

  Sara turned with one question on her lips. “Why?”

  Nissa straightened her head into what had to be a painful angle as her body hung limply to the side. “Because I know how to defeat them. And your captain was ordered to escort me here for that sole reason.”

  Sara hesitated.

  Nissa pleaded as another blast rocked the ground not far off. “I’m bound by the sorcerer’s shackles. I can’t use my gift. Do not leave me here. You and your entire kind will regret it if you do.”

  Sara snarled, then cursed and moved forward. Toward Nissa.

  She had time to wonder what the woman meant by her kind, but not enough time to ask as the sound of battle fire balls streaking through the air grew greater.

  “Where are the keys?”

  “On my jailer,” Nissa said breathlessly. “At the front of the cart.”

  Sara cursed. “That won’t do. He’s probably dead or on fire a few dozen feet away from us by now. Could be in either direction, too.”

  “Well, battle mage, I suppose you need to use that ball of fire and get to work, then,” said Nissa drolly.

  Sara gave her a sharp look as she came to stand in front of her. She saw no other choice.

  “Yes, I know what you are. I said my magic was bound, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still sense another mage when I see one. Even if I wasn’t blind to the ball of battle fire in your hands. Nice work, by the way.”

  Sara didn’t respond to the praise. Although she was right. Very few battle mages could hold a combustible ball of fire in their hands for any length of time. Battle fire tended to go wonky if you did that.

  “To be clear,” Sara announced, “I will only remove the chains that bind you to this cart. The bands that lay close to your skin and bind your magic will stay. For eternity, if I had anything to say about it.”

  “Understood.”

  Sara nodded.

  “Scream if you want,” Sara muttered as the sun mage looked directly into her eyes with a twist of her lips.

  “I plan to.”

  With that Sara set to work as suggested. She pushed up the heat of the flame in her hand to a level so intense that she immediately started sweating and held it right on top of the chains shackling Nissa’s wrist to the wall.

  Nissa was a sun mage, gifted in using its fiery rays to for her own devices. She differed from an ordinary fire mage in fascinating ways, but right now the only difference that mattered was that she wasn’t immune to the burn of fire.

  The sun mage threw back her head and screamed as her wrists burned and her flesh bubbled under the teeth of the ball of battle fire on top of her wrist.

  The links chaining her began to weaken as they grew red hot with the intensity of the fire.

  “Almost there,” said Sara through gritted teeth as sweat poured down her face.

  Nissa screamed again as Sara hurriedly grabbed the chain’s cold metal links farther down and yanked with all the strength of a battle mage. Nissa’s wrist shackle came free as the chain snapped and Sara jerked her hand holding the orb away.

  The woman’s head came forward and her hair hid her face as sobs tore through the air.

  Then she looked up with her teeth set in a gritted line and fierce expression on her face. “One more.”

  Sara nodded and went to her other side.

  Chapter XXII

  SHE FREED NISSA WITH ONE final yank of the chain and quickly caught the tall woman before she could tumble to the floor. Lowering Nissa to stand on her own two feet, Sara watched carefully as the woman gathered herself together and stood on shaky legs.

  “Can you run?” Sara demanded.

  “Yes,” said a breathless Nissa leaning over her aching arms.

  She said that just a tad too quickly, Sara thought.

  Sara said sharply, “I didn’t ask if you could walk. Once we get out of this cart, we’ll need to run for the nearest shelter—a forest at least a few yards away. We’ll be dodging poisoned arrows and balls of battle fire the whole time. I also need to find my friend, so this isn’t going to be the straightest shot.”

  Nissa looked up at her with a hint of fire in her eyes at Sara’s abrasive tone.

  Sara said, “So I’ll ask again. Can you run?”

  “I’ll pass you by, battle mage.”

  “As long as you don’t get in my way,” Sara said.

  She walked to the front while pushing Nissa ahead of her. She still didn’t trust her.

  “How do you plan on finding your friend?” Nissa said as they faced the closed door.

  “I don’t know,” said Sara. “I had hoped to locate a finder here inside what I thought was a weapons cart. Instead I found you.”

  “Too bad,” said Nissa. She didn’t sound that dejected.

  Sara rolled her eyes and doused the ball of flame in her hands. She wouldn’t need it outside. The company mage lights that had glowed all along their route at night would still be hovering over their dead owner’s bodies until the power instilled in them faded. Which could be years away.

  “One more thing, sun mage,” Sara said in a dark tone.

  She felt Nissa shift in front of her.

  “You might want to stay close. Without your magic, you’re helpless, and there are probably nine people in all of Algardis that don’t want you dead. Seven of them being your friends amongst the other Kade mages, all of whom are miles away from here.”

  Nissa laughed coldly. “And who might the other two be?”

  Sara said simply, “The Empress of Algardis…and myself.”

  With that she stepped around her, kicked open the door to the outside, took stock of their surroundings, and dived out of the overturned wagon. She sensed Nissa following close behind. Unlike the time she had lost Ezekiel, it felt like it would be virtually impossible to do the same with Nissa. Sara felt her every move as Nissa tracked her movements perfectly, stepping where she stepped, diving where she dived, and even dodging when she did. It was almost as if it was coordinated.

  Despite her misgivings, Sara was impressed. She always had an appreciation for graceful footwork in a swordsman. She had no less of an appreciation for a woman able to dodge arrows and flying balls of fires with efficiency.

  She knew the exact reason why she could feel Nissa’s every move, even if she couldn’t see her physically. It was because Nissa’s shackled powers resonated with Sara’s own. And that there was the primary reason she was starting to believe the woman’s story about being a sun mage. Battle mages could sense another’s gifts and intent, just like she had Cormar in what felt like a distant time but in reality was only a week ago. The more powerful the mage, the greater her ability to sync with them and assess their intent before it formed. As Nissa followed closely behind, Sara sensed her presence behind her. It was like an ever present threat looming in her shadow. One she couldn’t get rid of because she had told the woman to stay with her. It was both disturbing and comforting at the same time. Disturbing because her battle mage powers instinctively saw Nissa as a threat sneaking up on Sara. She had the itch to turn around and draw her knife across the woman’s throat every time she leapt behind her. Sara had never been good with partners.

  But she had been good with dependents. And like it or not, the sun mage was dependent on her to get her out of here alive. It felt good for a moment until Sara realized she was basically protecting a mass murderer. As they crouched in the shadow of a lumbering dead elephant, Sara took a breather.

  “What now?” Nissa whispered.

  “Keep an eye on everything going on behind me,” Sara said. “See if you can spot any balls of battle fire coming our way. If they do, we’re going to have to move fast.”

  Nissa nodded and put her back to her. Sara didn’t know if it was because Nissa was a sun mage or it was because her potential power was greater than her own, but she felt Nissa turn in her mind. She could tell the woman was staring outward without looking herself or listening to what her ears were telling her when she heard the shuffle of he
r feet. It was unsettling, to say the least.

  Letting a slow breath out, Sara cleared thoughts of Nissa out of her mind and turned a practiced and calculating eye on the surrounding landscape. All around them it looked like a battle of great proportions had been fought here. Fought and lost. But she knew that only one side had come away with not a single person dead. Only one side had deployed its mage gifts and not one single living creature and yet still won the day.

  Only one side has the Kade mages, Sara thought to herself bitterly.

  The Kade mages were eight—now seven as far as the rest of the world was concerned as the sun mage was supposed to be dead—of the most gifted mages Algardis had ever seen. They had joined together over a year ago and declared war on the Empress of Algardis. No one knew why. But from that time until now, Algardis had been in civil war. Several principalities, independent of the empress’s rule but taxed enough for her coffers to have her leave them alone, had declared themselves for the Kade mages. Most of those principalities were located in the northeast corner of Algardis. Almost six hundred miles inland from the coastal city of Sandrin, and before this, wholly unnoticed by the empress herself.

  After those principalities had declared themselves for the mages, the empress had taken the fight to them. So now the turbulent civil war, only eight months long so far, was fought in the flat pasturelands of the empire’s breadbasket. The empress had at first called up a minimal guard under Sara’s father’s leadership. They been roundly trounced and her father had sternly informed the empress that this was no laughing matter. She had taken his advice seriously. Now five military companies stood on the warfront, under the command of one lord general, a council of mages and the leader of the mercenary factions—Captain Simon, whenever he relieved Captain Kansid of the Red Lion Guard, that is. All told, she had heard that over five thousand of the empress’s men and women fought and died on the battlefield. Not to mention the dozen mages of all stripes she had released from her service at the imperial court and pressed into uniform on the warfront.

  But the sad thing was, the empire was still losing. Even now, as Sara looked around, the fields were awash in blood, putrefying body parts, and mage fire. It was the blood of imperial troops. Never of Kade soldiers. Sara wasn’t even sure they had soldiers. Aside from whatever small militia the Kade mages had pressed into service from the principality’s own guards. What then did the Kade mages have that made them so invulnerable?

  “Mobility,” Sara said. “Mobility and magic.”

  “What?” snapped Nissa from her other side.

  “I said,” Sara said with her eyes darkening, “I’ll be right back. Stay where you are.”

  Before Nissa could ask where she was going, Sara darted out among the dead and the dying. Going from body to body, she searched for the object that would aid in her mobility. She already had the tool to use her magic in the form of her sword.

  “Ah-ha!” she said, dodging a fireball that came too close for comfort.

  She came upon a man. Lying pristine. Untouched by arrows or fire.

  Kneeling beside him, Sara thought he was dead. He didn’t look like he was dying of putrefaction, but his still form didn’t look alive either.

  She grabbed what she came for.

  As she did, he took a harsh, gasping breath and his eyes opened.

  His hand grasped hers urgently. Not to stop her, but to warn her.

  “They’re here,” he said in a wheezing breath.

  Sara was disturbed to see white boils inside his mouth. What had happened to him? She’d never seen a disease like it before.

  “Who’s here?” she said cautiously.

  He looked at her with death in his eyes as his retinas began to melt. She arced back in horror.

  Before his last breath escaped his body, he whispered, “The Kades.”

  Sara stared at the dead body in silence and then she stood up and forced the shield straps down on her lower arm.

  She didn’t bother shrinking away from the arrows coming toward her. Instead Sara tested the straps on her shield arm. Making damned sure they were too tight for the shield to come off. Then she smiled. She was ready.

  Looking up, she saw three deadly arrows heading straight for her.

  If she had ever doubted the arrows were unnatural, she didn’t now.

  Any fool could dip an arrowhead in poison to spread sickness to the opposing forces. It would be a bit much to assume a fool could also manage to use a deadly disease that acted so fast that the poisoned foe was dead in minutes. But that was why relatively smart apothecaries-turned-poisoners were employed by the imperial army.

  But this? This was different. These arrows didn’t hit the ground. They never targeted the soil and they swerved around wagons to hit targets to the side. They were guided. Guided to hit targets with blood—human or animal, it made no difference.

  As she watched the three come down on her, she raised her shield arm calmly.

  With one internal command the shield bloomed from a small round object to a mighty transparent disc of orange fire that incinerated the arrow on impact. This is what Sara had been looking for. She had used to own one, and thanks to the benevolence of the mercenary who had died, she did again. An expanding shield fueled by magic.

  With a spring in her step, Sara headed back to Nissa. She needed to collect her and they needed to get to the woods. Once there, Sara had plans that involved tying the troublesome prisoner to a tree and finding her own way to the Kade mages. She was ready to lop off their heads. Running with the strength of her battle magic and dodging missiles with the dexterity of something unhuman, she came to an abrupt stop when she heard a sharp whistle.

  A whistle she recognized. It would be hard to forget after nearly bursting her eardrum.

  Sara searched as she turned looking for its source. She managed to blast two arrows coming directly at her with her mage fire before she could locate the direction.

  “Sara, over here!” came the cry of her one friend on this side of the world. Halfway between Sandrin and the annexed principalities, Sara stood on the ground as her eyes pierced the gloom. She knew where he was, but it was tough to pinpoint one body among so many. Then she spotted Ezekiel. Half-buried under a mound of bodies. She felt her heart flip. Not exactly terror, but close. What if the idiot had gotten himself hurt?

  She took off at a run.

  When she finally reached him, he popped up so fast that she nearly stabbed him in the chest before she swung her sword wide.

  “What were you doing under there Ezekiel?” she asked, exasperated. She noticed that he seemed to have lost his glasses somewhere, but otherwise no cuts or scrapes marked his body. Ezekiel Crane was a lucky bastard.

  He tutted. “You have noticed that the arrows are targeting living beings only, right? The horses, the elephants, people.”

  Sara heard the whistling warning of the thin missiles coming through the air. She whirled around and extended her arm to ward off an incoming blow. The arrows, ten of them, bounced harmlessly off of her extended shield like flimsy sticks.

  “I have noticed that, yes,” she said dryly.

  “Oh, well, good then,” Ezekiel said, peering over her shoulder. “Nice magical shield. Where’d you get it?”

  “Off a mercenary,” Sara said as she scanned the skies warily for more threats.

  “He was dead when you took it off him, right?”

  “Practically.”

  “You didn’t bother helping him?”

  “You have noticed that anyone dead or dying around here is doing so by poison, yes?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Good, then you know there wasn’t a dratted thing I could do to help out, then.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “I’m not a healer,” she said, exasperated.

  “No, you’re a battle mage.”

  Sara extended her shield until it formed an almost perfect sphere around them. The edges met the mound of bodies behind them.

  “Ex
actly. Now, if I can get you to safety, I can do my job.”

  Affronted, he said, “No one asked you to come after me.”

  “I was just supposed to leave you here?”

  “If that’s what you would have preferred.”

  “Don’t get snooty on me, Ezekiel. We’re in a battle, for god’s sake. You’re my friend. You needed my help. I came. End of story.”

  He softened. “You just called me your friend.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t eat a damned dragonfly for anyone less.”

  A smiled cracked his expression, then his weak eyes widened as he shouted, “Watch out!”

  Sara turned just as an enormous ball of battle fire exploded on the exterior of her shield. She fell to her knee on the force of the impact, but she didn’t falter. Her shield felt weaker, though, as she stood.

  “I’m not so sure we can stand much more of this,” she said.

  “I’m surprised we survived that one,” Ezekiel said frankly.

  She was too busy scoping the battlefield to pay attention as he stammered. “Not that I don’t have faith in your abilities. It’s just…I’ve never seen anything survive battle fire like that.”

  “First time for everything.”

  Ezekiel gripped her shoulder tightly from behind. “I don’t think you understand, Sara. Battle fire is supposed to be indestructible.”

  “I know. I’m a battle mage, remember? My father taught me.”

  “Did he teach you that only a war mage could command the shield that you’re holding in your hand as well?”

  Sara turned to him with a frown. “What are you muttering about, Ezekiel?”

  He glared at her through a squint. “Something important.”

  “More important than us sprinting for our lives before that second ball of enormous flames comes down on us?” she said while pointing up. She watched him turn to look at a ball the size of an elephant coming for them. The previous one had only spanned the width of the wagon. She didn’t think her shield would survive a direct hit of that magnitude.