A Sorcerer's Fist

by Guy Antibes

  “Which you should do?” Pira looked at Minnie and then at Ricky. “I should stay here.” She sighed. “At least I’m among friends.”

  Ricky smiled. “Mattia and Zaria don’t expect another attack for a month or more. I’m not sure I agree with them, but one of my conditions will be to have a Gruntalian unit guarding Hessilia’s border close to Sealio when we converge on the capital.”

  “All the more reason to go. Even if the Gruntalians are all bluster, they are impressive to look at,” Minnie said. “Even my Tobia.”

  Ricky nodded. “We will leave today.”

  Pira looked at him. “I’ll fly with you as far as Firali,” she said.

  “It is your decision,” Ricky said.

  ~

  Ricky looked at Pira flying by his side.

  “There is Firali,” he said, looking off to his right.

  “It is pretty, isn’t it? Perhaps I’ll fly a little farther,” Pira said.

  “So far that you might even use some of what is in that big bag you are carrying?”

  “Maybe,” she said, with a coy smile. “What is Gruntal like this time of year?”

  “Like any other time, filled with people who live and breathe soldiering, but have never fought anything more than a duel. You would be impressed by the regimented nature of the place since you are so hidebound in tradition.”

  “Hidebound, eh? Maybe I won’t fit in.”

  “I don’t fit in,” Ricky said smiling. “Why don’t you just come along? I know I’ll have to twist your arm.”

  “Twist away. But I will have to return to Samira,” she said.

  Zaria came up beside them. “Lover’s quarrel?”

  Ricky shook his head. “We have an ill-trained battle sorcerer who has just declined to join our group.”

  “Make sure everyone keeps up. We will have to sleep out in the open for two nights.”

  “I will,” Zaria said. “I’ll check on my little chicks right now.”

  He slowed up and disappeared from view. Ricky turned his head and saw him slipping to the back of the flyers. Pira looked down at the ground. “Sleeping on the ground? Perhaps, I will leave you to your battle sorcerers.”

  She flew close to Ricky for a kiss and turned around in the air and quickly flew away. Now that King Leon had attacked them, there was little need to hide their ability to fly, and that included Pira as she disappeared from view.

  Applia was too far east to stop there for the night, but as the sun began to set, he saw a modest town up ahead. Zaria flew on to see if royal troops were in evidence, but they weren’t, so the battle sorcerer commander took five of his men and women and headed into the town from their overnight camp to get supplies.

  An hour later, a cart driven by a local came into view. Ricky walked up.

  The man in the cart said, “I can see you would drive out all my regular customers. I appreciate the business and the fact that you allowed me to serve you out here. You are a rebel unit? I don’t mind the rebels, mind you.”

  “We are passing through, heading to Hessilia.”

  The man’s eyebrows shot up. “You certainly are taking an indirect route. I don’t know of any roads that will take you directly to the border anywhere near here.”

  Ricky smiled. “Don’t worry about us. Did anyone pay?”

  The man gave him a price and Ricky paid it. The sorcerers helped unload the food and the man quickly left. While everyone ate, Zaria returned from the town.

  “They sure charged a lot for what they delivered.”

  Ricky stared at Zaria. “You paid?”

  “Of course. The man wouldn’t deliver the food until I did.”

  “And I paid him again,” Ricky said, shaking his head. “No wonder he left so quickly.”

  “Shall we go after him?”

  Ricky shook his head. “A price we will have to pay for a bit of anonymity.” He smiled at Zaria, but Ricky didn’t like the fact he had been so easily duped. At least the men appreciated the meal, which was tasty, and it should have been for the price.

  The next day, they flew across the border and stayed at another out-of-the-way village. Ricky made sure they only paid once. Early the next morning they arrived at Gruntal. Ricky had them set down on a large practice field, where they were quickly surrounded by Gruntalian troops.

  One of the uniformed men spoke to an officer.

  “Ricky?” the uniformed man said. “Sorcerer Valian?”

  “That’s me. I remember you from the Rings, Cissle.”

  The young man nodded. “Come speak with my commander.”

  Ricky told the officer that Kened Gostok had asked him to bring a few battle sorcerers. The battle sorcerers sat while Ricky and Zaria followed the officer through Gruntal. Ricky took the opportunity to link with Kened.

  We are here. An officer stopped us when we landed. I suppose we are headed your way.

  Scouts estimate the Duterians will arrive with their army mid-afternoon. Kened said. I will get our sorcerers headed in your direction. Right now they are mixed in with the other troops. There isn’t much time.

  I suppose we are being taken to you?

  Not me, Kened paused. I don’t have an official capacity in the city so you will be meeting with the city commander. She is our mayor. I’m heading there right now.

  Ricky and Zaria seemed to be attracting attention in the city, despite Gruntal being on a war footing. Everyone seemed to be wearing uniforms, which hadn’t been the case on his previous trips. At least they hadn’t taken his weapons. He loosened the sword that Tobia’s cousin had made for him in its scabbard as they turned down a parade route towards a large building at the end.

  A group of people had walked down the steps and seemed to be waiting to meet him. He spied Kened joining them. They finally reached the building. A tall woman stepped out of the group with Kened.

  “You are Sorcerer Valian?” The woman spoke in accented Parantian.

  “I am. I have arrived from Southern Paranty with ninety experienced battle sorcerers.”

  “Sorcerer Gostok said you flew all the way?”

  Ricky nodded. “Do you need a demonstration?”

  The woman looked at Kened out of the corner of her eye. “Yes. It’s not that I don’t trust Sorcerer Gostok, but we Gruntalians like to see things with our own eyes.”

  If Pira had said that, Ricky would have replied that it was difficult to see things with someone else’s eyes, but instead he rose into the air and flew around the square. Zaria joined him in the display, and they landed back in front of the woman.

  “You feel all right?” she said.

  “Perfectly fine,” Zaria said. “We flew in today, all ninety-one of us.”

  “You can teach us this?” she asked.

  “We will help you if you help us,” Ricky said.

  “How would we help you?”

  Ricky looked at Kened and back at the city commander. “We intend to invade Sealio with three Parantian armies. Botoyan sorcerers in the University have taken over the country. King Leon is, at this point, a pawn and nothing more. If we can secure the northern border at Hessilia, sealing off fleeing armies, we will be happy to participate in your fight with the Duterians.”

  “You seek allies?”

  Ricky nodded. “We do, and we will earn the right.”

  “Very well. Sorcerer Gostok shall act as liaison with me.” She looked at one of the officers behind her. “General Jackel will be your liaison with the army. That is all you need from me. General Jackel will take you inside to a meeting room to discuss the current situation.”

  Ricky looked at Kened. “But I understand the Duterians will be on your walls before the end of the day.”

  “So?” The commander raised an eyebrow.

  “We can bloody them before they arrive.”

  “And how do you propose doing that?”

  Zaria grinned. “Dropping rocks, carts, horses, cows, timbers,” he said shrugging. “We won’t use our power, although we could
also spell fire at them. Ricky has some spells that only he can manage.”

  The commander cleared her throat. “Then you can at the least have a short meeting, can’t you?”

  She gave Zaria an icy smile and walked up the stairs, waiting for no one.

  Ricky looked at Kened. “She didn’t agree to a deal,” Ricky said.

  “Show her that you are worth it, and she will. She’s a Gruntalian, Ricky. You know how we are.”

  “I do.” He looked at General Jackel and said in Hessilian, “Let’s go. I have lots of sorcerers sitting on the grass waiting for word.”

  The General motioned for one of his aides, and the man took a horse hitched to a rail among ten others and rode back through the streets. “What did you say when you talked to our leader?”

  Ricky smiled. “I’ll tell everyone in our meeting.” The man didn’t talk Parantian, which was understandable. When Ricky had first traveled through Gruntal, he spoke a handful of Hessilian words. The General nodded and led them up the steps into the Headquarters of Gruntal, so said the carving at the top of the building.

  They reached a meeting room just off the towering lobby. The architecture was stark and solid, just like the Gruntalians that Ricky knew. A handful of officers stood when they entered.

  Ricky turned to Zaria. “We will be speaking in Hessilian. Do you know any?”

  Zaria shook his head.

  “I’ll try to keep you current in the discussion.”

  General Jackel made introductions.

  Ricky talked about the recent attack of Samira by the royal troops and how the battle sorcerers had responded. “It is not just throwing flames at your enemy,” Ricky said. “Flying turns battle sorcery into something entirely new. Scouting is much more accurate, and communications are faster. Sorcerers can drop all kinds of things on the enemy troops while staying out of arrow range.”

  He admitted the problems the sorcerers had with the University sorcerers’ resonance-deadening spell. “Kened said that the Duterians aren’t using it. We will want to make sure that remains the case.”

  Zaria pulled at Ricky’s sleeve. “Do they have a defense against thrown fire?”

  Ricky repeated Zaria’s question.

  “We use shields. We discovered minerals that are light, yet can be attached to a conventional shield or any surface, that will minimize the effects.”

  “Can you give me some samples to take back to Samira? We were defenseless against the sorcerers.”

  General Jackel puffed out his chest. “It appears we have a better solution than you.”

  “That’s why we are here, General. You learn from us, and we learn from you,” Ricky said.

  ~~~

  Chapter Thirty-One

  ~

  T he Gruntalians provided food and access to their washrooms on the practice field, promising when they returned from their reconnaissance mission that tents would await them. Ricky made sure all the battle sorcerers knew how to sing a shield spell, since Duterians definitely knew how to levitate and might have figured out how to throw objects high into the air.

  The battle sorcerers already used hand signals that Zaria had taught them in Samira. Ricky missed out on the instruction and became a roving flyer. He flew farther ahead than the rest of the battle sorcerers and spotted the Duterian army’s ragged line. He had to smile. The Gruntalians would never allow such a thing.

  Ricky counted about twelve hundred fighters. He was up too high to see what kind of weapons they carried, but not all the soldiers were sorcerers. A spear of flame rose up from the ground, but it didn’t rise up far enough to hit the battle sorcerer on the other side of the column.

  He found mounted soldiers and spied the officers. General Jackel told him not to engage or enrage the enemy, but the general didn’t say anything about scaring them. He pulled out his wand and spelled a rope of flame and let it coalesce about twenty feet above the officers. The end of the flame sought out the growing ball at the end, and when it reached the glowing orb, the ball exploded, sending gobs of flame downward.

  Horses shied, but most of the flames had died before they reached the soldiers. The sound of the explosion halted the progress of the Duterians. Soldiers at the tail end came to a stop. Ricky flew to the rear and did the same.

  Zaria flew over to Ricky. “Look at the soldiers bunch up,” he said. “They can’t represent a challenge to the Gruntalians. Are the Duterians so feckless? I’ll have my sorcerers make a much wider sweep around the entire city. There might be some other units down there. Even with sorcery, the troops below wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “A feint? The direct approach is a decoy?” Ricky asked.

  Zaria nodded. “Could be. If these are all the Duterians have, they represent no threat, and the Gruntalians might as well take over Duteria to neutralize their exposure.”

  Ricky could see upturned faces likely looking at him flying far above. He threw down another fireball closer to the ground. Duterians scattered when they saw the ball begin to coalesce.

  A sorcerer flew to them. “There is a unit quite a ways to the east.”

  Ricky looked at Zaria. “I’ll bet there is another to the west.”

  “Converging on Gruntal from three directions.”

  Ricky nodded. “I can scare more than one army. They might think we have more than just me who can create exploding fireballs.” He looked at the other sorcerer trailing behind them. “Show me.”

  They flew east until Ricky could see the dust from the next unit rising into the air. This unit was a little bigger than the other, and more firebolts leaped into the air. These went a little higher. Better sorcerers to the east, he thought.

  Time to scare them. He went to the back this time and created a large explosion behind the soldiers. The explosion created a great plume of dirt. The troops ran towards the front. Ricky flew over the officers in the front of the army and did the same thing. The horses reared and threw their riders off.

  He stayed around to look at the effects until he heard a discordant hum in the air and felt his power draw down. He flew higher, but two of Zaria’s sorcerers lost their spell and plummeted to the ground. Duterian soldiers surrounded them with pikes out and began to stab.

  Ricky tried to stay high and made a large explosion, but the line of flame wouldn’t extend down far enough to do any damage. He linked with Zaria and gave him the bad news. Ricky flew west and did the same. No strength-robbing spells on two of the units. Perhaps the eastern army had a sorcerers’ circle.

  They returned to Gruntal. The only good news they could relay was that the three columns wouldn’t arrive outside the city until midnight or later.

  “We can go out and harry them by dropping debris on them,” Zaria said to General Jackel.

  Ricky translated. He added that they could stay up high enough to discourage the Duterians. Kened arrived and received the same information.

  “Do you know of a spell that can block out sound?” Ricky asked.

  “Of course,” Kened said. “It’s not a particularly hard thing to master, but it is not taught in the Rings. I learned it as a Tower sorcerer to keep errant sounds out as I studied in the library. I would have thought Hemo would know.”

  “He didn’t remember if he learned it,” Ricky said. “Can you teach it to us?”

  “Certainly.”

  Zaria gathered the sorcerers around Kened until they had all mastered the spell.

  “This is as important as a shield,” Ricky said to the assembled group. “Two of our comrades died today because they were affected by the resonance-killing spell.”

  “But how do you know it will work?” General Jackel asked in Hessilian after Kened translated.

  “Because I am going to test it out. I will need a bag of large rocks.”

  ~

  Ricky found the eastern marchers and sang the spell that would protect him from sounds. He produced a large amount of will and began to throw rocks into the officer group far below. His aim was awful, but
Ricky waited to feel his power decline.

  Sounds were muffled due to the shield, and suddenly he heard the discordant hum, and he could feel power drain, but not as badly as it had the first time flying over the army. In his mind, he disregarded the sound, and he could ignore the hum, and the power drain stopped.

  Ricky took a rock out of the satchel and used his magic to steer the rock into an officer. The Duterian’s helmet was knocked off his head, and the man fell off his horse.

  The hum grew louder, but the spell held. Ricky spelled an explosion at the head of the column and flew back to Gruntal to report.

  Ricky couldn’t be happier. “The sound deadening works, and to think it was a simple spell.” He shook his head. “I will tell Hemo, and if I need to, I will link with Pira to teach her the song and how to apply her will.”

  Once Ricky linked with Hemo, he grinned and shook his head. He had to tell Kened and Zaria that Hemo had known of the spell all along, but he had never thought of it as a sound shield. Ricky had to encourage Him to continue to work on finding the right sounds for the resonance-killing spell. Hemo had progressed well enough that the sound shield could be tested.

  “Now we can be more aggressive,” General Jackel said.

  Kened looked at Ricky. “Of course, but I doubt if the Duterians will be deterred. I imagine they have more tricks,” Kened said. “Don’t underestimate Tower sorcerers.”

  Debris kept arriving on the practice field along with more satchels for the battle sorcerers to carry. All the battle sorcerers took to the air this time to soften up the enemy. The three armies had moved closer to Gruntal but weren’t yet in sight of the city walls.

  The sorcerers were told to dump their satchels throughout the entire length of each unit. Those who had emptied their loads were told to observe the lines.

  For this next test, Ricky returned to the eastern army, which had the highest concentration of sorcerers. He saved his load for last as the sorcerers lined up to make their run. As the debris began to drop, Ricky saw pockets of shields sprout up in front of the officer corps, but farther back, the soldiers began to run away from the falling objects.

  Ricky didn’t drop his load at the end, but returned to the front and removed each brick and stone separately and enhanced the speed and direction of his magic. Some of his tosses made it through the shields, although with substantially less force. He had learned enough, so they returned to the city.