Soulguard (13 page)

“The point of this demonstration,” I said after the applause ended and before Gregor could say anything, “Is that no matter how good you are there is always someone better.”

I nodded in respect to Len Yueh, who, from the moment we had started, held back to match my skills to make this a performance. Then I returned my practice swords to the rack and returned to where Paige, Trent and Mattie stood.

“I hope everyone enjoyed the exhibition and I would love to have more of these in the future. If anyone has any questions about any of the new techniques Colin demonstrated earlier, feel free to come to us and we will either answer the question or send you to the one who can.”

Chapter 28

“So, how many of you actually asked any of the Guards about Demons yesterday?” Nora asked us after we had gathered together once more. “My guess is, not many. But any of you who did, can share what you’ve learned.”

“Demons are partial to caves and most of their attacks are at night,” Darrel offered, “They seem to try to cultivate secrecy as much as we do. This shows that they aren’t just monsters, but they have a plan in place to deal with Humans.”

“Yes this seems to be so,” Nora said, “We haven’t been able to ascertain this plan, yet, but we keep trying. Kurt?”

“I was told that they’ve left children alone for the most part and that they’ve left pregnant women alive even when they witnessed the entire attack,” Kurt Yarden said, “There are very few incidents where pregnant women have actually been attacked by Demons.”

“This is true. But there are a few of these attacks we know of,” She looked at me, “Such as the attack on Rhayne Rourke. Maybe someday we can find out the reasons behind the few attacks that have happened on pregnant women.”

I had a sneaky suspicion I knew why those particular women had been attacked. Perhaps they had all been children who would have been Soullords. How the Demons could have known this, I don’t know. Maybe it was a just chance and bad luck, I doubt it.

“All right everyone,” Nora said, “That will be all for today. Colin, Paige can you both stay for a moment?”

After everyone had left, Nora turned to me, “You said you wanted anyone with a special skill to add to your manual?”

“Anything you think may be useful, we’ll gladly add to it.”

“A few years back,” she paused and chuckled, “Quite a few years back, I saw a Mage use something he called a Soul lance. It was a concentrated shaft of Soulfire that shot straight into a Wraith. It took a strong Pull to use it but I thought you might like to try it out.”

As she was telling me what it was I was getting an idea for it. Almost like a flame thrower but more power, maybe. I was already crafting a tube that was about three inches in diameter with a feeder tendril to supply power.

“Ok, let’s see if it works,” I said and turned toward the remaining practice targets. I pulled and channeled into the tube, which shot a shaft of Soulfire straight at the target. The shield held fine until I Pulled hard and power pulsed into the lance, ripping through shields and incinerating yet another target.

“Do you realize how hard it is to build those shields?” Nora asked, “You’ve destroyed almost half of them already. We’ll have to dismantle the shields to replace the targets and build them all over again.”

“Exactly how does the shield work?” I asked, “There are two feeder tendrils to it. Why two?”

“That’s something only Senior Mages learn,” She said and looked at me for a moment, “But if I don’t tell you, you’ll start poking at it, won’t you?”

I grinned and she sighed, “To tie a construct to the Source you need two tendrils to, basically, create a circuit. If there is something alive at the end of the tendril, you only need one, like the Soulstreams.”

I saw what she was talking about in the shield I was looking at.

I reached out with a tendril like I had seen the Mage do when he tied off Grimes from the Source and wrapped the tendril on the left without touching it. Then I extended it to wrap the other, making a jumper around the shield. Then I squeezed the tendrils from the Source almost closed, while cutting the connection to myself immediately after the squeeze. None of the power had a chance to flow up my tendril into me. The shield flickered and almost disappeared.

“What did you just do?” Nora looked at me intently.

“I was just testing something,” I said as I reached back out and loosened both knots to let the Source flow back into the shield. I left the jumper in place for an easy way to take down the shields when they needed me to. “I can help with the shields when you want to replace the target dummies.”

Nora shook her head, “Sometimes I just want to pick you up and shake you. You do things we spent years learning in seconds. It makes us look inept and ignorant. The worst part is you don’t even realize you’re doing it.”

“I just try to do what you want me to,” I returned. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone.”

“I know, Colin,” she said, “It’s just hard on us old-timers when you come in here at eighteen years old and continually show us up.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for being who you are, Colin,” Nora placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed softly, “Maybe this is exactly what the Mages need. A little shaking up won’t hurt us. It’s just hard to sit and watch sometimes. I think the Lance can be added to the manual, though, don’t you?”

I watched all the emotions flow across her aura as she talked to me, I gained a new respect for Nora Kestril. Not only was she fighting the jealousy and frustration of dealing with me but her last question was asked in truth. She really wanted to know my thoughts on it. It felt good to earn the respect of people like Nora and Gregor or Tien. It meant that I was doing something right.

“I think it’s good to add but it takes a strong Pull to really put the power in it. The shield itself is as simple as it gets, though. We may be able to come up with some finishing touches before we put it in the Manual. But we can definitely use this.”

“It’s powerful enough,” Paige agreed, “But that was a strong Pull. Someone like me probably couldn’t Pull enough to stop a Wraith with it but a powerful Mage will probably like it.”

I lit up the new shield so they could see it too, “So can you see anything I can do to make it work better?”

They both began to examine the Lance. “Maybe if you make this part a little smaller it will focus more power in a small area...”

***

“3…2…” the world slowed, “1…Go!”

I met Kharl head on. There wasn’t much technique involved at first. We just whaled on each other. He used several moves after a bit to try and throw me, but I was prepared for them.

“Much better, Son,” He said as he fainted left and I went right. I don’t know where he came from but the next minute I was flying through the air to slam into the new “Mat” that had my face print in it too.

“If you let me get ahold of you, you’re gone,” he chuckled.

I heard laughter from the side of the Dome where the new trainee Guards were watching the bout.

“Hardee har,” I mumbled and charged back in at Kharl, using more speed than before.

“That’s more like it,” Kharl said, “Make me work for it.”

I hit him five or six times before he connected again, but when he did I flew backwards into the Mat again.

“Halt!” came Tien’s voice. We stopped and made our way out of the ring. Several of the Trainees entered and took their places in the ring for a practice. I smiled as I saw that one of them was Trent.

We both turned and watched as Tien counted down for the Trainees. At “Go!” they charged each other and began swinging. Both of them were pretty good at boxing but Trent had the reach to hold the other guy back far enough not to get as much of a pounding as his opponent.

When Kharl and I spar it looks like we just whale on each other, but really, that’s what we do as we look for the opening to do more. That’s why the Mat is there. When he does “more” I end up face first in the mat. It happens less and less as I get better though and I’d only hit the Mat three times in our match.

Trent and his opponent were just whaling on each other, there wasn’t “more” but that would come later. Trent is strong as an ox, He’s stronger than many Guards. But it has to do with the way I taught him to alter his Knot so that it didn’t leave the body to distribute the power as much. He knotted his quite a bit more than the regular knot is twisted.

Instead of one loop of the knot feeding his right leg, there were three separate loops. The body doesn’t have to distribute the power as far so the body was stronger.

“Halt!” Tien stopped the match.

“Andrew, when facing a stronger opponent, don’t just swap hits with him,” Tien said, “You have to push your speed and focus on not getting hit. If he can’t hit you he won’t beat you. For example, Mattie?”

“Oh no,” Trent muttered, then said loudly, “Somebody make sure she doesn’t have one of those knives, please.”

“I’m not frisking her,” a voice from the group of trainees said, “Friggin suicide.”

Several of the trainees laughed until Mattie looked around at them with one eyebrow raised. It got quiet very quick.

“She’s damn good with those knives, Son,” Kharl said quietly, “and almost as good with short swords. Jack’s one of the best and he pushed her all her life. Scares the shit out of most of the Trainees and some of the Vets as well, Heh heh.”

“I bet he doesn’t get one hit in while she takes him apart,” I said, “She’s wicked fast, you should have seen her fight at Morndel.”

“That ought to keep his head from swelling up too much,” Kharl laughed, “Speaking of swelled heads, can you look at my shield without yours swelling up too much? They should be paying you instructors pay, too. Gregor says you’ve taught a lot more than you learned since you’ve been here.”

I laughed, “Sure, I can look at it, and if my head gets too big, you can always throw me into the Mat again.”

Over the last month, since the Exhibition, Guards had been coming to me on a pretty regular basis with the new shields. Most of them were fine, and the few who weren’t, I lit up their streams so they could actually see as they fixed the problems.

About that time, the match started and we watched Mattie run circles around Trent. He would swing but she was never there when it reached its destination. She landed about twenty powerful blows before Tien called a halt.

“Speed trumps power under most circumstances,” Tien said, “Power is very useful in a nest of Demons, though. Numbers can counter speed easier than it can counter power.”

Mattie was smiling evilly at Trent who was looking a bit worried. I laughed at my friends. Speed doesn’t always trump power, if the powerful one has close to two hundred years of experience, speed just makes you able to last a little longer.

Kharl and I made our way across the Dome toward the showers. We stopped, away from the others and I turned to him. I opened my Inner eye.

“Ok let a trickle charge into it.”

Kharl opened the portal just a tiny amount. It looked good all the way around.

“Looks good, Dad,” I said, “Open it up.”

He opened it up and I said, “See if it interferes with the Soulblade you make.”

He flipped his wrists and his Soulblades burst into being. They seemed as powerful as they always were.

“I don’t see any problems with it.”

“Great,” He said and the swords disappeared, “Ky has hers done too but she figured she’d get you to look tomorrow after dinner. Man, I’m glad we can eat somewhere else now. I think she was trying to kill us all those years.”

“If it doesn’t kill you it’ll make you stronger,” I laughed.

“I guess you could put it that way,” he said, “I’m heading out to the trail, see you later.”

“See you.”

Chapter 29

The last few days had been rather peaceful, I’d worked on the Soul lance a little and I’d checked five Guards’ shields.

I’d only seen Gavin once and he was still radiating hate, but there was something else there too. He was anticipating something, maybe he would be getting his first assignment soon and we’d be rid of his arrogant ass.

I’d also checked Kyra’s shield and she’d woven a tighter shield than I did. It was quite good. She’s always had a lot of focus, and you could tell with the shield. Most of the Elites had come through over the last month and a half. They’d all gotten the shield right. I guess focus comes with age.

Almost everyone at the Academy had a personal shield by then. I’d even seen Gavin sporting the new and improved privacy screen. I felt good about that, he was such a prick, I was afraid he wouldn’t even try because I had been the source of it.

I passed Darrel as I headed to my quarters, “Darrel.”

“Hey Colin,” He said, “I got that Soullance thing crafted. If you don’t care, will you take a look at it tomorrow?”

“No problem.”

“Thanks man.”

I found a note pinned to my door. It was from Paige.

It said: Colin, meet me on the Guard trail, near the top of the mountain. I have a surprise for you. It was signed with a capitol P.

I smiled and went into my room to change into clean clothes and I put my twin swords on the rack.

I should oil them, I thought, but I can do that after I meet Paige.

I left my quarters and headed to the elevator. I ran into Daphne Cavanaugh in the elevator.

“Hey, Daffy”

“Colon.”

We had been calling each other names like this since Trent and Mattie had gotten here and Trent dropped his favorite name for me in the Mess. Thanks a lot, Buddy.

“You find out where you’re going, next month?” I asked.

“Yeah, they’re sending me to New Mexico.”

New Mexico was the station where my real father and mother had been posted back when the attack occurred. After the Demonkiller legend, it had become the cherry of postings. Only the best got stationed there.

“Good, you deserve that post. You seen Rictor around?” I asked, “He was supposed to get his new post too.”

“I haven’t seen him, but he must have pissed someone off, I heard he got Knoxville, Tennessee.”

“Why is that a bad thing?”

“Oh they had to pick somewhere to send the troublemakers and the rebels. So someone picked the Knoxville post to be the one. The Guards there aren’t that bad but they are Characters with a capitol C,” she said, “The problem is they send the worst Mages there and the Guard doesn’t mesh very well with them.”

“Ahh, I guess I’ll have to give him my condolences next time I see him.”

She chuckled, “I’d give him a bottle of whiskey, he might get some use out of that.”

“I might just do that.”

The elevator hit the bottom floor and we exited. She headed into the Dome and I headed outside. It was late September and all the trees were changing colors. I like this time of year, the cold weather doesn’t bother me much. Soulguards aren’t prone to be bothered by temperature. Cold is still uncomfortable to us but not like it is to a normal person.

I saw several Guards beginning a run up the trail and I followed along. I didn’t recognize any of them, they must have been some of the others transferring through to other postings.

I reached the top of the trail just behind the Guards who suddenly stopped. I looked past them to see someone slumped under a tree. I saw the flaming red hair and leaped to Paige’s side. Something was wrong so I opened my Inner eye.

Her Soul was dim, and I looked down to see a tendril from the Source, wrapped around her stream.

“Paige!” I knelt beside her and felt someone Pull on the Source. I looked down to see a tendril clamp onto my Stream about a foot from where my stream entered my solar plexus and squeezed. My stream almost closed off and I fell beside Paige.

Son of a Bitch was blocking me from the Source! Rage clawed its way out of the pit where I keep it trapped. I clawed at the knot, around my stream and actually untied it. I threw it aside as power surged back into me. I turned toward the source of the tendril and flipped my wrists, calling forth two Soulblades. The fire was a dark red just as my rage was in my aura.

I looked to the tendril that had just sank into the Source to tie me off and smiled as the Source, with nowhere else to go, surged back through that tendril into the cluster of Mages back in the trees. Then the screams began. The Source is not forgiving, It will rip your body apart and burn you to the ground. This is just what it was doing to Gavin Price and four of his followers who had connected to him as supports. I felt a savage joy but it felt wrong and I beat my rage back down and pushed it back in its cage.

I looked down at Paige to see her looking at me in horror. She’d seen my reaction and it horrified her. I felt shame course through me and I turned back to the tendril. Maybe I could cut it with the Soulblade.

I swung one of the blades and severed the tendril. The Source stopped surging into the group of Mages, but it was too late. I watched as Gavin Price flamed out along with Dahlia Morgan, Steve Corum, and Donald Sheldon. Only one of the four didn’t flame, Kurt Yarden was screaming in agony.

“Release it!” I screamed at him.

He looked at me with bloodshot eyes and released the power out of him. In the blinding light, I saw the horror-stricken face of Regina Worthington. The blast washed over her and she screamed as she was burnt by the raw energy that had exploded out of Kurt.

I winced and turned back to Paige who had watched in horror as four Mages died in that inferno. She looked at me with accusation and I knew in my heart that Paige would never feel the same about me. This was all my fault, they wouldn’t have targeted her if I hadn’t stepped in those long months ago.

Now she was blocked from the Source. The one thing she truly loved was being a Mage, and because of me it was gone.

I reached down to her, “I’m so sorry.”

She flinched as I touched her and I felt a pit open in my chest. I saw fear roll across her dim aura. She was afraid of me. Oh my God, she was
afraid
of me.