Fallen Magician (The Magician Rebellion) (30 page)

The Kenzai struck at Byrn as one, but he held them back with a magical shield. They stabbed at the shield forcing Byrn to behave defensively while they attempted to drain his magic. Their swords would be no real threat to him. They would need a master like Kellen to drain the magician quickly or wield the blue fire that could cancel his spell, but the knight only stood there watching unsure of which side he was supposed to be on.

In such close quarters Byrn could not use the full extent of his powers without endangering his friends, but the collared sorcerer had no such reservation about using his own power. Shards of ice shot from his bone staff and impaled Byrn in his right arm with multiple puncture wounds causing him to cry out from the icy sting.

Sari grabbed at Sane’s staff and tried to wrestle it away from him, but Sane was channeling physical magic into his aging body now, preventing her from taking the staff, but still distracting him so that he could cast no more spells.

Marian lunged for the nearest Kenzai’s throat with her dagger in hand. She buried it in the side of the man’s neck to the hilt before yanking it out fluidly.

“
Kellen, help us!” demanded the one with the rod and the master warrior moved as if the command was all he needed to galvanize him into action. His fists wailed on Byrn’s barrier causing it tremor with each attack. A gust of wind flew from Byrn’s hand and threw all of his attackers off of their feet except for Sane who was off to one side.

“
Out the door,” Byrn ordered and the women followed. The rangers did not have time to collect their armor, but each managed to grab their bows, quivers, and knife belts. No sooner had Sari let go of the staff and ran out the door behind Byrn and Marian than a spray of ice sailed out behind her narrowly missing the fleeing elf.

In the common room they were greeted by another dozen of the Kenzai and just as many of the warlord’s men. These men posed little threat to Byrn, but with Sane and Kellen hot on their heels, the rest of their group needed to escape quickly.

The rangers loosed an arrow each into the surrounding guards between them and the door. Byrn raised a wall of flame between his companions and the soldiers.

“
Through the kitchen,” Marian told them. Luck was on their side and they did not encounter any more guardsmen in the kitchen so that they could quickly make their way out the back door, but their luck did not last as they exited the inn and found it surrounded by a mix of Kenzai and regular guardsmen.

“
There must be two hundred guards out here,” Marian said; her tone was a mixture of awe and fear.

“
Stay behind me,” Byrn told the others. He was already weaving a spell in his mind, one that was powerful enough to kill all of these men. He failed to protect his friends in Lion’s Landing, he would not fail again even at the expense of his life. He spread his hands out in a wave generating a blast of hot air to prepare the way for what he intended. Another wave of his hands whipped a ring of fire outward towards the soldiers as he continued his preparation.

A hail of arrows flew from the rear guard of soldiers, while the front line advanced with spears and shields raised.

“
Now would be an excellent time to do something,” Sari pleaded. She readied an arrow in her bow even as the enemies’ own soared ever closer.

The third round of flames rose up from the ground at Byrn’s feet and rushed for the soldiers like a tidal wave of red and orange dancing flame. They consumed the incoming arrows and towered over the front line of soldiers.

Seeing the death he was about to reap that would also be his undoing, Marian shouted, “No!”

The wave turned into a sheet and spread over Silvering’s army, but did not crash down on them as Byrn altered the spell at the last moment. Instead the soldiers were trapped in a colossal flame shell. The Kenzai warriors absorbed the spell as best they could, but they could barely make a ripple in the cascading flame wall. A few foolish fighters tried to press their hands through the walls and writhed in pain from the burns they received.

“
We need to get out of here,” Byrn shouted, “before that dome collapses. I can’t hold it up for long if Sane catches us.”

As if in answer Kenzai poured out of the inn’s backdoor followed by Kellen and Sane. The look on the sorcerer’s face was one of pain, but it was no physical pain he felt. It was the pain of being forced to watch helplessly while another controlled his body and forced him to harm his comrades. He knew the most dangerous spell to kill the others; one that was practically impossible to defend against and Sane immediately began casting it to his own horror.

“
Run!” Byrn shouted.

Marian began, “What-“ but Byrn cut her off.

“
Go!” he shouted, “No time to argue!” It was unclear what Sane was intending to cast, but Byrn could see the magic as it pulled and began to swirl around him and knew it would be deadly. If it came to a showdown with Sane, Byrn thought he could win, but not without being willing to kill the old sorcerer and certainly not with a legion of Kenzai out for his blood.

The three fugitives ran as the new group of Kenzai chased them. The air grew heavy around them and a certainty that they would not have enough time to outdistance Sane’s spell overcame each of them. Sari turned and readied an arrow. “Forgive me,” she whispered to the man who could not possibly hear her from that distance and loosed the arrow. It slashed through the wind heading toward Sane. The elf watched just long enough to know that her aim was true before turning away. She could not watch him die.

The arrow bounced off of one of the Kenzai warriors’ shields as he raised it to protect the magician just before it would have struck him in the head.

“
You’ll not take my toy,” the Kenzai with the rod bellowed.

The air was charged with energy and a pulse of raw magical force came from overhead. Byrn erected a barrier above him that was large enough to defend Marian and Sari as well just before the lightning struck at them from the heavens. This was no simple spell thrown about by apprentices. This was a lightning strike called down from the hands of the gods meant to do the sorcerer’s bidding. To wield the elements using one’s own energy was the work of lesser magicians, but to wield the very elementals in their raw and natural fury was the act of a master. Sane’s lightning struck Byrn’s shield with the full force of nature behind it. It danced along the edges for nearly a full minute as its intensity only grew and formed into a giant ball of living energy.

Marian and Sari fell to their knees and involuntarily screamed in pain as steam rose from their bodies, triggered by the lightning’s intense heat. Only Byrn was unaffected by the lightning’s temperature and he tried to push additional power into his shield to block out more of the heat.

Byrn began to feel the pressure of maintaining constant protection against the primal onslaught until it finally culminated in an explosive force unknown to the kingdom in decades. A lesser magician, perhaps even another master, would have been torn apart by the sorcerer’s spell, but Byrn survived and managed to protect his companions as well, but that did not stop all three of them from being thrown into the ground by the concussive force of the blast leaving them stunned in its final bid to penetrate the shield.

Sane fell to his knees fore the energy required to wield such a powerful spell at his advancing age left him weary beyond belief. It was Kellen who helped Sane to his feet as the rest of the Kenzai hurried to use the advantage that Sane had given them.

The soldiers trapped in the flame dome were freed as Byrn lost his concentration. He willed himself to get up and fight back, but he had trouble getting his stunned body to obey despite the danger.

Marian aimed an arrow and let it fly. Byrn wanted to tell her to run again, but his head was too dizzy. He tried to focus his mind. The cobwebs were clearing away, but not fast enough. More arrows came at them and Sari grabbed him, jerking him out of the way. They did not move more than a few feet, but it was enough to evade most of the bolts. Byrn felt one bite him in the calf, but that was far more preferable to getting stuck like a wild boar.

He saw Marian standing in the moon’s light so that he could see the look of shock on her face and an arrow protruding from her neck. She fell back and Byrn caught her in his arms. His own pain was forgotten as he tried desperately to pull the arrow from her rapidly cooling body. It can’t end like this. He summoned healing energy and pushed it toward her. The Kenzai were advancing on him now, but Byrn did not care. He had to save her.

Byrn’s own words echoed in his head.
I need your help. My mother is here somewhere and I cannot find her on my own. I would not even know how to begin,
he had begged.

If I help you, then will you agree to come back with me willingly to Baj to answer for your crimes?
Kellen had asked him in answer.

You’re asking me to trade my life for my mother’s?

I am.

“
Fine, then take my life!” Byrn cried pushing more energy at her, unwilling to accept the truth before him. No amount of healing could restore a life once it was lost. Sari held him then as they mourned the loss of the woman who was a beloved mother to one and a cherished friend to the other.

They were surrounded and Sari held Byrn just a little tighter. She placed her hand in his. To those around them it may have seemed like a simple act of kindness, but Byrn felt the familiar shape of a wooden disk being placed in his hand.

“
Put that collar on him,” commanded the Kenzai who controlled Sane to Kellen. The knight refused and another among the crowd took the collar from him. The soldier was almost within arm’s reach of Byrn when he cast the transportation spell that ripped him along with Sari and Marian’s body from this realm of existence.

Sari pulled the arrow from Byrn’s leg and tossed it into the dense foliage. “This is the Red Tree Forest- home to my people,” she told him though he had not asked.

When they transported it was late in the night, but here the sun was just beginning to rise. They had traveled far, indeed. Sari continued, she seemed eager to talk, but was not ready to face what had just happened, “It was probably forty years ago when Sane made me this rune. I was eager to leave the forest and see what the world had to offer, but being a youngling of only twenty years, I was scared as well.

“
The forest was my only home, my only world up to then. He made me this rune so that if I ever got homesick or the world of man became too much for me to handle I could return here. We stood at this very spot and he vowed to protect me.” Tears welled up in her eyes and one or two began to stream down her cheeks, glistening in the morning’s gentle light.

“
It wasn’t him,” Byrn told her firmly, “It was the collar. He could not control himself. You do not blame the sword for the death it causes. You blame the man who wields it.” He set about restoring his wounded leg. His hand hovered over the scarred tissue and he channeled healing bliss into it. “We will free him soon enough, but first we have to take care of my mother.”

“
We should return her to the earth,” Sari suggested, “so that even in death she will spring new life.”

“
You misunderstand,” Byrn told her, “I can bring her back to life!”

The elf looked shocked, “The walkers are not the same as being alive! They are all but mindless creatures- abominations!” Birds flew from the trees at Sari’s rising voice.

“
It is not like that! I can summon her true spirit from the underworld and bind it to her body. She would be back, but better because she could not die again. If I had understood how to do this before I could have saved so many others.” Byrn placed his hands on his mother so that his right hand covered her heart and the left rested upon her head. He began to chant strange words meant to focus his mind and beseech Kassani, the goddess of death, as he had learned under Avelice’s tutelage.

A grey shape began to form before his eyes appearing first as an amorphous cloud, but slowly it began to coalesce into the shape of a woman. Marian’s face grew more defined as the summoning took hold of her soul. Sari cried out for Byrn to stop, but he scarcely heard her. He felt far away as the magic flowed through him.

Then there was the cold touch of steel against his throat. The blade shook visibly in the elf’s hand causing her to knick Byrn’s neck and draw a thin line of blood. “Stop it!” she commanded. She meant her tone to sound resolute, but her voice shook with even greater effect than her weapon.