Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle)

by Honor Raconteur

  Vonlorisen didn’t even pause to think about it before nodding in agreement. “That will suffice. Go.”

  I started us moving again, this time angling a bit more northward for the nearest way-station. When we rose above ground, I checked the two-story house from stem to stern, but didn’t feel anyone in there. Apparently it had been abandoned when Guin had released us from our mission. Just as well. I didn’t want to explain to anyone who this was.

  Vonlorisen watched me expectantly. “I’ll be back for you as soon as it’s safe,” I assured him. “If that doesn’t happen by the end of the day, I’ll find a way to send word to you.”

  “Thank you, Magus,” Vonlorisen replied.

  I took it as a dismissal and raced back to the palace at top speed.

  ~*~

  Shad heard Xiaolang’s order to Garth but didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. His eyes were trained on the area around them. They were right on the edge of the Palace grounds, which meant they had a very tall iron fence at their backs and nothing but elaborate administration buildings in front of them. With the convoluted, crisscrossing walkways between the buildings, and the side doors that seemed to lead in and out of the palace at random, the place was like a very elaborate maze. Trying to find all of the Priests in this section would be a tall order for just one team. No matter how well led or trained the team.

  He turned to Xiaolang only to find the other man already watching him. “We need to split into two teams.”

  Xiaolang nodded before he could even get the full sentence out. “You can take Eagle and Aletha and any magician you wish. Take the east side. I’ll take the west. Make sure that you have someone staying in contact with my team. I don’t want anyone slipping through the net.”

  Shad threw him a very sloppy salute, waved to Eagle and Aletha to follow him, and then went to the nearest group of magicians that were just now arriving on scene. He called out to the ones he recognized as he moved forward at a half-jog. “Janae, Bornemeier, Loewen, Bos, with me! Grab anyone you’re comfortable working with! Everyone else, go with Captain Xiaolang!”

  His team formed up quickly around him, as they had for the past several months. Only three new faces joined up, but Shad recognized them easily enough as he’d seen them come and go. The stodgy looking man with the straggling beard and bushy grey hair was an Elemental Mage by the name of Bylund. The gangly, tall young man that looked as if he never ate was a Wizard, Samant, and according to rumor was a savant at offensive fighting. The last one was Tara, a Fire Mage that Shad knew from experience you didn’t want to irritate. She looked like calm person, almost bookish, really. She had an average build to her with straight black hair and wire thin glasses perched on the tip of her nose. But this was the same woman that had burned clean the sigil only hours ago because of sheer frustration. Behind that stoic expression was a short temper on an even shorter leash.

  This was good group to have. He knew enough of their personalities and abilities to guess how they’d react and be able to deploy them. He turned to Loewen. “Loewy, keep in contact with Xiaolang’s team. We’re going hunting and we don’t want any of our lovely prey to escape.”

  She dug out a Caller from her shirt pocket in response and started talking into it with rapid speed.

  “Eagle, watch our backs. Samant and Aletha, take anything you see coming from our right side. Bylund and Janae, you’ve got the left. Bos, you’re with Eagle. The rest of you, with me,” Shad ordered. “Listen, we’re not here to take prisoners. These men are pure evil. If you see ‘em, take them down as quickly as possible. Tara, you keep an eye on everyone. If anyone seems to be having trouble, you fry their opponent. I don’t want casualties. We’re taking this place piece by piece, working out way toward the center. Crystal? Alright, let’s go.”

  As they started off for the nearest main walkway, Shad hauled in Bornemeier close. “You use that triangle of yours to search inside the buildings. I don’t want to breach a building unless we have to.” Not that breaching wasn’t fun in its own way, but it would take too much time.

  “Because doors are not our friends?” Bornemeier asked quite seriously.

  Shad shot him a wicked grin. “That’s part of it.” He just loved the younger generation. They were so impressionable. “But searching buildings takes up time, time we don’t have. We’ll only go in if we have to.”

  “What about property damage?” Aletha asked from behind him. “No offense, Mages, but working with Garth has taught us that when magicians fight, stuff gets clobbered.”

  Good point. Shad pretended to think about it for a moment. “Well, Xiaolang didn’t say anything about that one way or another. So, try not to set anything on fire or knock buildings over. But if it happens…it happens.”

  Tara let out a snort of amusement. “I now understand why Bos likes to work with you.”

  Shad shot her a wink over his shoulder. “I’m more fun than the other captain. Alright people, don’t stay in this tight group, but keep within sight of each other!” So saying, he sped up his pace a little to help put some distance between the team.

  The main problem with the layout in front of them—aside from it having absolutely no rhyme or reason—was that it confined their possible routes. Most of the time, the walkways were in between two buildings, or walled of courtyards. It only allowed a person one of two options—forward or backward. In Shad’s line of business, they called it a fatal funnel.

  “Captain?” Bornemeier’s face was drawn together in an expression of worry. “Is something wrong? You’re frowning.”

  “This whole path is a fatal funnel,” Aletha answered, her eyes still searching the area in front of her. “Even our crazy captain doesn’t like those.”

  “They take the fun out of things,” Shad agreed. “Bornemeier, I’ll explain, but keep those eyes of yours on that triangle. I don’t want people sneaking up on us.” He glanced over to make sure the kid had obeyed the order before his eyes started searching the narrow path ahead. “Alright, have you noticed how close these buildings are? And the walls that block you from taking anything other than this path?”

  “Yes sir?”

  “When anything blocks you like this, and only gives you two directions to move in, we call it a fatal funnel. Doorways are fatal funnels too.” He added that last bit just to see how Bornemeier would react.

  The kid hesitated a moment in his tracks before continuing, expression now thoughtful. “So fatal funnels are not our friends.”

  “Right.”

  Apparently the people following behind had been listening in on this conversation, as Bylund asked, “And how do you avoid these fatal funnels?”

  “You create another path,” Bos answered in amusement. “He had me knock a hole in the wall the last time we had this problem.”

  “And if we get stuck in a tight spot, that’s what I expect all of you to do!” Shad called back to them. Although he personally hoped that it didn’t come down to that. “Bornemeier, anything?”

  “N—wait, someone is coming. But it’s not a Priest. It’s an Air Mage and another person she’s carrying.”

  “She?” This was the first he’d heard that a triangle could tell gender.

  “I recognize the power signature,” Bornemeier admitted, his eyes going up to the sky, as if he were looking for someone. “It’s Rinza. Ah, there she is!”

  Shad would have known it was an Air Mage coming their direction even without Bornemeier pointing it out. He could hear the wind whizzing at high speeds. He’d only encountered one thing that made that sound—an Air Mage traveling. She came in with surprising speed, a man that Shad knew well standing at her side.

  He took little notice of the Air Mage as Prince Audax dropped lightly to his feet. Shad’s toe started tapping an impatient rhythm. Wasn’t Garth supposed to have grabbed both royal hides and carted them off to a safe place?

  “Audax, what by the guardians do you think you’re doing?”

  The Prince arched an eyebrow at him i
n an arrogant manner. “I can go where I wish in my own palace, Shad.”

  “Not when it’s overrun with Priests, you can’t!” Shad snapped back, itching to knock that expression of his face. Seriously, what was it about royalty that made them ditch common sense at every turn? For the love of— “Oh, forget it. You park your royal carcass right next to me and don’t budge an inch.”

  Audax was not pleased at this instruction and a dark frown swept over his face like a growing storm. “You know good and well I can fight.”

  “And you know good and well that if anything happens to you, your father will have my hide,” Shad retorted acidly. “Move, Princeling. I’m not taking chances with you. If you or your father falls, that’s one less ally we have.”

  He clearly didn’t like being ordered about—Princes had issues with that sort of thing—but he must have recognized the truth of Shad’s argument for he obeyed promptly. Without another word, he came to stand at Shad’s left side.

  “I’m needed elsewhere,” Rinza announced before taking off in a quick spurt of air that whipped everyone’s hair back for a moment.

  Shad caught Aletha’s eye and inclined his head ever so slightly toward Audax. She gave a minute nod of understanding. If for whatever reason, Shad was distracted or cut off from the prince, she would step in. It probably wouldn’t happen. He couldn’t fight like he normally could, as if there were no real consequences, not with someone he needed to protect. He’d have to fight with more caution.

  And the day had started with such promise, too.

  “Sir, I’ve got a pocket of Priests up ahead and a little to the right,” Bornemeier pointed a finger in the general direction. A building blocked the path he indicated, but it was clear he meant somewhere beyond the obvious.

  Shad loosened his sword in its sheath, blood starting to pump faster as his adrenaline rose. “Alright. Engage at first sight, but don’t become separated from the group. Roger?”

  When he got nothing but affirmations back, he nodded in approval, a hungry smile curling the corners of his mouth up. “Good. Let’s move.”

  ~*~

  Aside from avoiding ley lines, underground lakes, and large bedrock formations, I paid very little heed to my surroundings as I moved along the earth path. All of my concentration was upon Alvacon. I needed to find my team mates. It wasn’t the first time that I was grateful that magic followed intent—my magic moved me safely along to the palace grounds even though my mind was not as properly focused on it as it should have been.

  As it turned out, such concentration wasn’t necessary. Once I slowed down long enough to extend my magical sense, I could feel them clearly. They left such a strong aura behind with every footstep, the earth registered their passing like the aftershocks of an earthquake. That was quite the magical fight over my head.

  It was never wise to just rise out of the ground when people are close by. It was even more foolish to do so when those people were swinging swords around. I rose up several feet away from the main bulk of the fighting instead, in a narrow garden pass that divided two of the administration buildings from each other.

  I stopped several feet inside the garden, closed my eyes, and focused on the ground underneath my feet. It appeared that this soil hadn’t been imported to make a garden, but rather the walls had been built around this patch of soil. I had a direct connection with the earth where I stood. Good.

  For the second time that morning, time slowed to a crawl. A hint of a breeze shifted my hair and passed over my skin. I could hear every footstep and breath made by the men in the courtyard. The smell of the earth and plants invaded my lungs with every breath. The noise of metal striking metal, men and women crying out in anger or pain, the quick thuds of impact, all of it washed over me.

  My feet moved of their own accord, going forward. Where were they? Somewhere in this bedlam, my team was fighting. I could feel them. So where were they?

  The two doors on either side of the garden toppled inward, bouncing onto the ground and skittering a bit sideways. Several men, dressed in the silver robes of the Star Order, poured out into the open, swords and staffs in their hands. Knowing what they’d do once they got inside, I grabbed any hunk of dirt within reach of me and threw it. Not expecting an attack, the first Priests took the hit directly in the stomach and collapsed backwards. It did nothing to stop the next wave.

  Their power was so intricately woven together that I couldn’t begin to unravel it. Some of them were armed with the long body-shields that spearmen were famous for using. They had that eerie feel to them that told me the shields were linked as well.

  And now that they knew I could manipulate the earth, they hid behind the shields, so my usual attacks wouldn’t work.

  Well. That’s what this was for, isn’t it? I rotated the bon’a’lon in my hands once, turning it to a lunge position, and went straight for one of those shields.

  The Priest behind the shield quickly shifted it a little to the side, bringing a sword up, which I expected him to do. He thought that since I attacked as if I had a spear in my hands, I was limited to spear techniques.

  He thought wrong.

  Mid-lunge, I shifted the bon’a’lon to catch his sword near the hilt, rotated both weapons in a short circle, and broke his hold on the weapon. The sword dropped with a dull thud from his hand, and with him disarmed, I found it ridiculously easy to snap the staff up and smack him hard on the temple, rendering him unconscious.

  As he slowly slumped to the ground, two of his compatriots came at me from either side. I lashed out at one, forcing him back for a moment, and then spun abruptly to avoid the attack of the other. I couldn’t do more than block one’s attack before the other was upon me, giving me no room to form a good offense.

  Snarling, I launched myself into the air with a hard thrust from the earth. Just because I couldn’t use my magic against them didn’t mean that I couldn’t use it entirely. The thrust shot me up a good five feet, well out of their range.

  But not out of mine.

  I sent the bon’a’lon whistling around and against the enemy on the right, cutting through his shield, which sent him staggering for a moment. If he’d only been linked to his weapon, that would actually have taken him down, but with the inner city’s population fueling him… My attack only bought me a few moments. While that one staggered back, I used my downward momentum to reinforce my strike as I hit the other Priest. He predictably put his shield up to defend himself, but when I struck with that much force, it knocked him off balance and down onto one knee. The shield, being so long, jerked him sideways when it hit the ground, throwing him even more off balance. I used his open side without compunction and struck him squarely across the shoulders. He screamed as the blade scored his skin.

  Pivoting on my toes, I brought the bon’a’lon up and around, whistling through the air, then angled the attack to where I avoided both sword and shield, instead catching right behind the knee. Neatly hamstrung, the Priest gasped in pain and toppled.

  Seeing how efficiently their fellows were cut down, the other Priests hesitated before engaging me. The others didn’t have staffs, just swords or ceremonial daggers. They’d banked on their shields being impenetrable to a normal soldier, allowing them to simply muscle their way through. But I could get through or around their shields. With all of the immense power at their disposal, the Priests should have been winning, but they didn’t know how to effectively use it.

  The hesitation lasted only a few seconds, and then their determination propelled them forward once again. I no longer only had one or two opponents to contend with. They came all in a rush, presenting me with five different enemies that I had to defeat, whatever the cost.

  I fell into a place where I did not try to judge anything with my senses, but rather simply reacted on a visceral level. I’d been fighting for years, and sparred with some amazing men and women. All of that experience gave me instinctual reactions that no amount of planning or strategy could keep up with, and it was tha
t I relied upon. I felt each impact as my bon’a’lon struck out, the vibrations carrying up the muscles in my arms and chest. I did not focus on any one opponent, or the hot air in my lungs, or the sweat beading on my skin and starting to seep into my eyes.

  Clang, cling, shing, thud—the sounds of the weapons striking against each other, or the shields, or against human flesh blended into each other like a mixed up symphony of instruments. With each strike, the blood magic vibrated in the air and pricked against my magical sense. I could fight for hours before fatigue drew me down, but fighting on a physical level and a magical one took quite the toll. I did not know how long I could keep this up.

  On some level, a part of my mind had been keeping track of the battle raging behind me. It occurred to me that the din of noise had faded, to where there was only pocket areas of resistance.

  We were either winning or losing, and I didn’t dare turn to look to see which it was.

  Instead, I went into a full out attack on the Priest in front of me. He was more skilled than the others had been, and more desperate. It took every ounce of skill I possessed to keep from losing my head while I exchanged blocks and parries with him.

  In the end, stamina determined the match. His muscles trembled from the exertion, sweat blinded him, and he reacted a second too slow. My bon’a’lon connected with the side of his head. With a sickening crunch, he slid slowly to his knees and collapsed on the ground.

  I took two steps back, clearing room for me to fight, braced for the half a dozen men still standing to come at me. They jerked as if a taut line had been cut, the most astonished looks on their faces. I felt it at the same time they did—that hum of barely leashed power dissipated abruptly into thin air.

  A feral smile stole over my mouth. So, the Priest I’d just defeated was their focal point, eh?

  The shields’ power slithered and faded away, leaving only ordinary shields behind. Heavy shields, at that. Several of the Priests struggled under their weight without power amplifying their strength. Without those powered shields, they had no trump card to use against us, and no possible chance of victory.