Brink Mage

by Gideon Mills

  Soon, not only was there the sound of feet on the cobblestone roads, but the clang of the armor the King’s Guard wore. Not many of the people on their side had much on for protection. The spells that Wyatt and Francis cast were all many would have. It was just too short a notice and too costly to get any type of protection. Some thought chainmail was simple and cheap; they would be wrong.

  “Get ready,” Christian said. The funnel they created had to be working. All the sounds were coming from the direction they wanted. It hadn’t been easy to block the roads that led into the district, but they managed. It would be a long time before the debris they placed there would be removed. That part, Victor wasn’t happy about, and neither was Wyatt, but it had to be done.

  The first phase of the plan was funneling them in, then to use that to harm and thin the herd of the soldiers. Screams and shouts sounded from the soldiers that the king sent at them.

  Phase two had started. From the roofs of the buildings that lined the path the soldiers were on, many of the elves had lain in wait, with vats of oil, gas, and other flammable liquids. Once most of the force had passed them, they all dumped the fluids on them, and then another tossed a torch down to engulf them in flames.

  It wouldn’t take them all out, but it sure would help reduce the number of men and women they would have to deal with. Wyatt didn’t like having to hurt these people, as they were just following orders of the men in charge.

  But it had to be done to save the others. That was always the cost of war and a very steep one. Wyatt reached out to his mana again. He had let it go, to rest and to not do anything stupid. The last thing he wanted to do was to pull too much into himself and burn out.

  Taking a deep breath in, he asked, “You ready?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Octavia said. She had a small crossbow in her hands. Her brother had given it to her. She told a story of how she used to have one as a child and was really good with it. Wyatt hoped she still was.

  On his other side, Cat had two blades out and ready. She knew how to use them for certain, Wyatt had already seen that. They were sharp and able to slice through most materials, being dwarf-made. It had been a pleasant surprise to learn she had such excellent weapons.

  Wyatt had in his own hands a staff. That was something that he and other mages didn’t take with them often. It wasn’t required in order to do magic or draw on one's mana, but it allowed them to focus the mana better and to cast more intricate spells. In also let many mages pull a little more mana, and that was the case with Wyatt.

  All of that was a closely guarded secret among the mages. The only reason he even knew of any of that information was Francis, and he went against the Brotherhood when he told Wyatt.

  The mana flowed through Wyatt, making him feel alive and in control of everything. He could smell the burning flesh of the King’s Guard. Hear the screams in crystal clarity from several blocks away. The march toward them continued and barely slowed. The sheer number they must have sent to remove the elves was insane.

  Moments later, the force poured into the central court of the elven districts. The Wyvern Boys remained in place, as did all the others there to combat the force.

  “Ready,” Wyatt said, using a very simple spell to project his voice to all the forces. The ones with bows or other projectile weapons would have them raised and waiting for the command to fire.

  Wyatt might be the one to send the order to the people, but it was Christian that would tell him when to send it. This was a delicate operation, and nothing could go wrong, each move needed to be precise and cause the most damage.

  “Wait,” the leader of the Wyvern Boys said.

  Wyatt remained silent and watched as the guard slowly filled the area. Many of the enemies were covered in the oil and gas, with burns on them. It was a horrific sight to see. The armor they wore protected them to a creating degree, but not enough.

  If they didn’t start the next phase soon, too many would be in the court to fight. Neither side would be able to maneuver at all. That might just be what Christian was waiting for. That would be the benefit of the good guys if they could keep a distance and use the bows. But if they had to move slowly and fight hand to hand, they would be screwed, especially if the wards didn’t work.

  “Now!” Christion ordered.

  Wyatt relayed the commanded, and the force around him opened fire. Arrows flew with force against the king’s guard, and many other objects ranging from throwing stars to javelins and spears. It was a sight to see around them.

  Octavia was firing her crossbow with speed and precision. Wyatt watched her intently, and she was just as good as promised, hitting target after target. Sometimes dropping them, and other times slowing the progression of the person.

  “Ready.”

  Around Wyatt, the people with blades, staffs, and other hand-to-hand weapons held them up. Waiting for the soldiers to get into range, and they would. Yet they would be drastically reduced in numbers.

  Today the city would be home to more corpses than ever before, and it was all because of the king and the Mage Amon.

  “Now!” Christian commanded.

  The clash of the forces begun. Metal on metal. Wood smashing into skin and bones. Iron filled the air, along with other foul orders of feces and vomit. The scents of war weren't pleasant. Wyatt hoped to never smell this again but feared he would. There was no way around it, and he knew it.

  Amon appeared at the opening that the others marched through. He was the very last one to arrive and appeared to be completely unscathed from the ambushes they had set for the rest. He had given himself a ward to protect himself but sent none for his men and women. What a vile man.

  The wards that Wyatt had placed were doing the trick. None of the elves or Wyvern Boys had been hurt. The blades and arrows that hit them glanced off of them, but Wyatt could feel the spell being depleted, and soon they would be injured.

  Wyatt used his staff more as a weapon then to actually do magic. The chaos around him was too intense for him to focus on the magic. He wanted to help, and right now, the best way was to fight. Once he had learned of the staff, he took the time to train with it, both in magic and in fighting, letting it be a twofold weapon for him.

  Cat was next to him, and she fought with a speed and force that Wyatt was amazed by. Wyatt cursed under his breath for not casting the spell to give him more speed and strength. He did so now, taking the few moments to do it and hoping the battle didn’t take him in the meantime.

  Octavia had placed her crossbow on her back and pulled out her own weapons to fight. She was slicing and dicing next to him, but just at a slower pace than Cat.

  With the spell cast, Wyatt was faster and doing more damage. With Cat at his side, they carved a path in the force. Laying waste to many of the soldiers. Wyatt didn’t want to kill any of them but also didn’t hold back on his blows.

  The battle raged on around him. Soon it was a blur of little more than blood, bodies, and weapons soaring around him.

  During it all, the Mage Amon stood at the opening and watched. Wyatt didn’t sense any magic from him. The ward he had cast to stop mind control hadn’t even been touched.

  With more bodies around Wyatt than he could even dare to count—from both sides as his wards were failing—a voice boomed over them all. One so menacing that it made Wyatt’s skin crawl. It was Amon using magic to project his voice around them, as if he was a god looking down on them.

  “I see you have found a mage and a powerful one. I speak to him. Move on. Leave. These are my people, if you fight against me again, I will make you pay. Force, pull back.”

  The King’s Guard retreated. Today they had a great victory, but at what cost?

  22

  Aftermath

  Wyatt studied the battlefield. It had been two hours since the King’s Guard and the mage had fled. All around Wyatt was nothing but death and destruction, it made his stomach sick.

  Cat and Octavia walked with him. All three of the
m were covered in blood and other bodily fluids. Not to mentions other parts of people from the fight. Those that hadn’t been lucky enough to survive the battle.

  “We need to make sure all the loved ones get the bodies,” Octavia said.

  “We will,” Wyatt said. The last thing he wanted to do was make it worse for those who’d lost someone today. They deserved a proper send-off, and he wouldn’t stop that from happening.

  They dodged the somber surroundings and found Christian to make sure that was taken care of. Many of the elves that remained stood in shocked silence. Wyatt didn’t blame them one bit. This was not something any regular person could see and not be affected by.

  “What are we going to do about the mage?” Cat asked. “He didn’t seem pleased that you helped.”

  Wyatt had expected that from the start. The fact that Amon didn’t even know that Wyatt was here was a good thing. For now, he had an edge on the mage. Though Wyatt doubted that would last for long. The king had to know Wyatt was the mage, and he would be bound to tell Amon.

  “We’ll deal with it,” Wyatt said. “But first take care of this. Then get the info we need from the palace. Then the mage.”

  None of those tasks were going to be easy, but that was what they had to do. Wyatt was sure that figuring out who was behind the mage was the way to stop him; then they could stop this from getting worse than it already was.

  Wyatt stood in his apartment later that night. He was drained and wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t. Too much had happened that day, and it had taken a toll on him. Instead, he paced back and forth in his place. Cat and Octavia sat at the tiny table he used to eat from. When he actually ate here in the apartment. Which wasn’t often.

  “Sit down,” Cat said. “Breathe.”

  That was easy to say, but Wyatt couldn’t. While he knew what he needed to do going forward, it was eating him up. The mage hated having to be the one to stop this, and worrying about both Cat and Octavia. Both had shown just how capable they were of holding their own, but that didn’t stop Wyatt from being scared they’d get hurt.

  “We won today.” Octavia had changed and bathed. They all had, but Wyatt still felt dirty, like he was no longer the man he used to be.

  “It doesn’t feel that way,” he said.

  “War never does,” Cat said. “You have fought. You know that, but we have to go forward. Finish this. You know just how bad it could be if we don’t.”

  He did, and that was the only reason he didn’t run out of the city and hide. Amon and the king were a significant threat to everyone, not just the obvious targets they had so far. Wyatt wished he had the ability to see what they were truly planning and why they were doing it. If Wyatt only knew the true master behind it all. There was a chance that it was Amon, and that he just didn’t like races other than humans or mages.

  “I need some sleep,” Wyatt said. “And to think.”

  “Me too,” Cat said. “My body aches from my hair to my toenails.”

  “Your hair doesn’t really ache, does it?” Octavia asked.

  Cat laughed. “No, just a saying.”

  “You lot have some strange sayings.”

  Wyatt agreed with Octavia on that one. Some of the things that people would say just made no sense whatsoever.

  “Very funny,” Cat replied. “I’ve heard some of the strange things that goblins say here in the city. Some of them make me cringe.”

  Octavia stuck her tongue out at the elf. It was damn adorable; the banter between the two had gotten more and more playful. Wyatt was really starting to enjoy the two of them being around. He hoped that when they figured this out, they would stay. Maybe for a long time. He just felt that they were special, unlike any of the others he had been with.

  He might be thinking with his little head, but who in the world could blame him for that. They were damn hot and fun as hell. Going to his bedroom to sleep, Wyatt knew that the next few days were going to be essential and vital to the success of the quest.

  23

  An unexpected visitor

  The next morning, Wyatt woke with a start. Long ago, he had set up a magical alarm in the office to wake him if someone entered while he was sleeping. Or if Wyatt was away too. Wyatt made a mental note to set it up for if he was down in the office asleep as well, so what happened with Christian didn’t happen again.

  In the bed with him were both Cat and Octavia. He didn’t remember them getting in bed with him, he must have passed out fast the night before. “Wake up,” he said.

  Both rolled onto their sides. “One minute,” Cat moaned.

  “I need more sleep,” Octavia said.

  “There is someone below.”

  That got their attention. In less than a heartbeat, both were out of the bed and on high alert. Cat dashed to the stairs so quickly that Wyatt swore she was a blur. Never had he seen her move that fast.

  Wyatt and Octavia arrived behind her. Wyatt took the lead, reaching out to his mana and readying for whatever he might have to do. He had no clue who was down there, but it was early. So early that no one that was up to good would be up. The moon was still in the sky. They must have only slept a few hours.

  Today was going to be a long and tedious day again. Wyatt wasn’t looking forward to that. He really needed what Octavia talked about, his beauty sleep. He shook his head; he needed to focus. No matter how fatigued and worn out he was at the moment.

  Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Wyatt saw who was standing in his office. Never in his life had he expected this. Gareth Stone was standing there in all his centaur glory. He had his back to them, clearly not worried about what they might do to him. As far as Wyatt knew, centaurs weren’t immune to magic.

  “You can let your mana go, and relax,” Gareth said.

  Wyatt didn’t like how he had known that his mana was flowing in him. That was another thing Wyatt had to learn, and see if that was even possible. Could Gareth really sense the magic, or was he just guessing?

  Either way, Wyatt let it go. The centaur wasn’t going to harm them. They had sought him out, and he was a man of his word. There were zero stories of him backing out of a deal, and many horror stories of people being punished for not fulfilling their end of the bargain they made with the man.

  “You find what we need?” Cat asked. She had fully woken up and was being bold. She didn’t appear pleased to be up this early and to have it be Gareth Stone. She loathed the man and would love nothing more than to hurt him. But she was just as honorable as the centaur was reported to be.

  “I have.”

  That was good news. If only it hadn’t taken him much longer than Wyatt thought it would. They had done a lot since they talked to him, and some of it nearly killed them.

  “So?” Wyatt asked.

  “The goblin,” Gareth said. “She isn’t part of our deal.”

  Wyatt and Cat looked at Octavia. Neither of them sure what the centaur meant by it. “She’s working with us,” Wyatt said.

  “Be that as it may,” Gareth said. “My deal is with you and the elf. What you do with it after I tell you is your own business, but I will not talk until she is gone.”

  This was not something that Wyatt had expected. Even with all the rumors of how strange and demanding the centaur could be. This felt even stranger than what he had heard.

  “I’ll go back upstairs,” Octavia said. She didn’t appear to be pleased by being forced out, but this was too important for any of them to argue over the details.

  “See you in a few,” Cat said.

  Octavia slunk away with a dejected face. It hurt Wyatt to see her that hurt, but it was needed. The last thing they wanted was for Gareth Stone to be an enemy as they dealt with everything else.

  Once she was gone, the centaur turned to face them. “Magic can be used to hide oneself on the grounds of the palace,” he said. “However, only for so long. They seem to have not figured out how to make it instantly remove spells, but a ward was placed to remove all magical illusions. Howev
er, it’s got a few flaws. You can sneak in with a magical disguise, but it will only last one hour. Then it will fade away from the protective charm.”

  That wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. “I see.”

  “There is a ball happening tomorrow if you would like to use that to get in. I have arranged for a contact. A bard will be at the Monster Gem Tavern.”

  Wyatt didn’t want to go when so many people would be there. There would no doubt be an increased patrol of the grounds and who knew how many people. It would be a hard sell, and no amount of magic would allow Wyatt to cast a spell to make Octavia blend in. She wasn’t going to like that one bit.

  “What bard?” Cat asked.

  It would be worth looking into the bard. Even if Wyatt wanted another option. Though a prime time to get on the grounds would be during that ball, since they would be allowing more and more in. People that didn’t typically go.

  “Bard Matrim.”

  “Thank you,” Cat said.

  “Just remember, you both owe me a debt.”

  Cat grimaced at the mention of the fact they owed him. It was going to be something neither of them would like, but a deal was deal. The centaur had found them an opening to get on the grounds and that they could do it with a disguise.

  Gareth left. The two of them stood there in silence and waited for Octavia to return. The goblin bounced her way down the stairs just a few moments after the centaur was gone.

  “So?” she asked.

  Wyatt and Cat relayed the information to her. And Wyatt told her of the issues they might have.

  “I figured as much.”

  Wyatt had worried she would be angry that she wouldn’t be able to get on the grounds. “You two can play dress up, and I’ll be off the grounds making sure you have a quick getaway.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Cat appeared to be over her displeasure with Gareth and looking forward to the ball.