The Weapon Bearer (Book 1) (52 page)

Kilen ripped a piece of the meat off in his teeth and started chewing. It was like salted leather in taste, but felt like he had swallowed a branding iron. His instincts immediately went to drinking from the pitcher of water, but when he finally came back to himself he realized it wasn’t working. Dumping the bag onto the desk he snatched up a tart and started to eat. He repeated the same experience without the water with the next bite, and then started to put the meat between two pieces of tart. The taste was indescribable, but he could fight vomiting better than he could the spice. He managed to get three slices down before he was too full of tart and water to eat anymore. Hoping it was enough, he called Ted down to help him put on his armor. With quick practiced hands Ted put on the armor and tightened the straps. “Thanks, Ted. I hope you bet that crown like I told you to.”

“I did sir. Good luck. May the Brights aid you.”

“I may need them.”

“Sir, I saw the last match. I think she will be a bit smarter this time around, but she already tried to fight you with an elemental. So what more can she use?” Kilen hadn’t thought of that before. He had beaten her without much knowledge of magic either. Feeling very confident now, they left his room. Ted walked beside him out to the training grounds. Kilen felt a little overwhelmed by the mass of people that had gathered at its edges. He looked around and noticed that most of them wore long robes much like Brent and Brandon’s. Most of them were green in color, spotted with a couple yellow, and blue. As he walked through a small group that had lined the middle of the grounds he noticed some of the workers from the kitchen piling logs on the far side. The stack was about as tall as Kilen and Mary stood beside it. She smiled when she saw him and started to make her way to meet Kilen. From the side came many familiar faces, Brent, Jace, and Gortus. They all met in the center of the large open grounds. Mary wore a mischievous smile.

“Kilen, I’m glad you made it. You’re sister says hello.”

“Hello, Mary. Thank you for checking in on her now and then.”

Mary giggled a little, “Kilen, I’ve started training Kyra. Well, at least teaching her to control her anger as well as I can. Hopefully by the time you are finished with your training you will be able to visit her.” He was glad to know that Kyra had someone to help her like he did. Even more importantly, she wasn’t alone.

“Thank you very much.”

“Don’t thank me yet, we still have to fight. If you still feel like thanking me afterwards I will accept.” He nodded and she walked back towards her pile of wood. When she did, Kilen saw Brent step away from their small group and head towards a very upset Twilix coming through the line of watchers. The dirt swirled around her feet as she stomped up to the small group and walked past Brent on her way. He struggled to keep up and talk to her as he did.

“There is no reason for you to be here, Twilix. I told you that I could handle it.”

“NO REASON! He is my student I will determine if I should be at his training or not. I have not prepared him to fight her with a pyre, and yet she builds one anyway. The bad part is, you let her!” She arrived at the small group and looked Gortus up and down before he met Kilen’s eye and walked away. “All of you leave. I have to prepare my student.” Everyone left except for Brent, who stood his ground behind her. She fixed a glare on him and he soon slipped away also. “I told you I would be here and here I am. Now, you see that mound of wood they are still assembling.” He nodded his head. “I imagine she will soon light that on fire. When she does she will step into it, absorbing the fire’s heat, just like I asked you to make it rain so I would have the strength to help you summon an elemental. She will pull energy and heat from the flames to fight you with, so you must be very careful. As long as that fire burns she will become more powerful. The down side is, the hotter she burns the wood around her the faster it will consume itself. If the fire goes out she will be reduced to her normal wizard self, which is still a difficult challenge. Kilen I fear that you will lose this fight.” Kilen thought back to what Ted had said about what more could Mary do, he felt like he had cursed himself when he agreed.

“I am sorry to ask, Twilix, but I am not sure I can win unless I can summon an elemental. So regrettably, I am asking if I have permission.”

“Don’t start asking for my permission now, you have already burned that bridge. If you can use it I’d say you had better. I don’t see how you would stand a chance otherwise. Just be careful not to hit her with a shield this time, huh?” Kilen smiled at the remembrance of hitting Mary with his shield. He was afraid that it would take something just as bold in this fight. Twilix made her way toward the now mob-sized group of onlookers. He noticed that Captain Lorusk was the one in the crowd that she stood next to. Then he focused back to Mary who waved from the other side of the training grounds.

Knowing he was out of earshot he whispered, “Ok Joahna, remember our agreement. You are to fight the elemental only. I will take Mary by myself, if I can manage.” He saw the size of the wood pile and altered his agreement, “You might have to help protect me if you can.”

Agreed
, was all Joahna said. Kilen started to focus on the water in the air and gathered it from as far away as he could. Rain started to sprinkle then pour over the training grounds, darkening the earth as it did. He held out his hand in a cup and gathered a palm full of water. Forming a small liquid man in his hand, he was ready to unleash Joahna.

Mary saw that he was ready to begin the fight and pointed to the wood, which caught aflame. She walked up to the pile of wood and sat leisurely at its peak, as if it wasn’t on fire. Soon the flames leapt unnaturally from log to log until she was swallowed by the fire itself. Soon a giant arch of fire landed on the grounds between Kilen and the pyre. It took on the naked form of a woman with two outstretched wings of flame. The elemental again brought out a long molten whip dripping flames as it cracked over the earth. In elemental form, Mary stood still while waiting for Kilen to come to her.

Kilen whispered, “We can do this.” He was trying to instill confidence in himself as well as Joahna. He focused his mind as Twilix had taught him and heard the familiar concussion with Joahna leaping out of his mind. He looked down to see the tiny elemental melt into a puddle then form itself into the shape of a boar with two sets of long tusks. Max shot the image of a desert boar chasing him on to a pile of rocks as a kid. Then the boar spoke in the guttural voice of Joahna.

“Throw me!” Kilen did, and as the tiny boar commanded, it flew through the air and grew in size to stand the same height as Mary’s winged demonic creature. Seeing Joahna taking such a strong creature as an elemental, Kilen drew his sword and formed a shield of ice. Mary and Joahna charged at each other and ice was met with molten flame in a wall of smoke and steam. Tusks ripped through flame to be reduced to puddles on the ground. Mary filled the holes left by the tusks, healing her elemental. The tusks reformed of the head of the boar. Kilen knew that most weapon bearers and wizards couldn’t use their physical body when assuming an elemental without lots of practice. Kilen had never fully entered into an elemental, but he needed to pretend that he was using both the elemental and his body. He walked slowly across the training field now littered with small flames. He was headed where he could do the most damage, Mary’s pyre.

Joahna moved from side to side to keep himself in between Mary and Kilen. The flames on the pyre burned brighter and taller as Mary struck out with her molten whip. It coiled around Joahna’s midsection and caught him in its grasp. Joahna was steaming and the flame whip held taut, pulling Mary’s elemental as he tried to free himself. If a flame could smile, Kilen was sure that Mary would have made her demon smile-one fit for the attack she was about to give Joahna. She yanked on the whip, pulling it tighter. The coils constricted and sawed Joahna’s midsection in half, creating a cloud of steam. Then she turned on Kilen, walking slowly and confidently in after him. Kilen braced himself for an attack as Max spoke.

Joahna is still out there. He didn’t return.
Kilen started to panic, but just as he did he saw the water gathering itself in the air with the water vision. A desert hawk made of ice formed from the cloud and dropped from the sky.
GO! You have to get to Mary, or we will never win this fight
! Kilen, standing still and acting as a spectator in the fight started walking again, persistently getting closer to Mary. The molten whip cracked and swirled around his head as he did his best to deflect it with his shield. Kilen heard a crash saw Joahna with icy feet sizzling and melting as he pinned Mary’s elemental to the ground. In one fast movement Joahna clasped his beak around the flame demon’s head and pulled it free from its body. Then he swallowed it whole. The hawk steamed and melted and reformed with such grace that Kilen was in awe of Joahna’s skill. He knew that Joahna couldn’t last forever though. He turned and ran, ignoring the battle behind him. Kilen ventured a look at the groups of people watching in the distance and saw Twilix standing with arms crossed and a look of confusion on her face. He knew he shouldn’t have looked, but the damage was done. He continued to walk as the heat and smoke from the littered fires on the training field assailed his body. He worked magic to protect his eyes and his body to protect them from the heat. Then he heard silence behind him. Mary’s elemental was gone. Joahna was still a giant desert hawk standing on the field behind him. Kilen slowly closed the gap between him and the pyre which Mary had set ablaze.

With her elemental gone Mary lashed out with continuous fire balls. Kilen’s ice shield worked well enough when the fireballs were small in size, but soon she started launching some as big as the traitor bowls. Joahna swooped in and took one in the elemental’s chest. The injury sealed and Joahna walked on in front of Kilen. The attack seemed to stop, but Kilen could clearly see Mary in the fire. She held her hands in front of her and soon the flame from the pyre started to gather into her hands, forming a sphere of rotating fire. Joahna stopped moving and soon turned the elemental to ice. The fires surrounding Mary and even some from the battlefield died down low, almost to the point of extinguishing themselves. Kilen felt the concussion and wobbled at Joahna’s unexpected return into his head.
DON’T LET IT TOUCH YOU!
!, he screamed. He was almost too late as the sphere of fire had turned white hot and came screaming from Mary’s hands toward Kilen. He managed to duck and raise his shield. He felt nothing but a searing heat as the sphere passed by him. His entire body felt like he had lain out in the sun during a hot summer day. It reminded him of standing too close to the blacksmith’s furnace. When he managed to regain his composure, he opened his eyes to see the sphere had melted his shield and burned him through all his water protection and armor, and it hadn’t touched him at all.

Mary was now slumped on top of her fire. The flames still low to the logs, but Kilen knew that she was regaining her strength. He knew it was his chance to move quickly, she had put too much into the attack. Now was his chance to stop this battle. He ran with as much speed as he could and closed the distance to her fire. When he neared it the flames leapt up to their normal height. Fire balls started raining down again, this time much smaller only so rapid that Kilen couldn’t close the gap. He started to gather rain above Mary, but it was too hot for the moisture to gather. He threw one ice spear, but it melted before it reached the edge of the wood pile. Kilen knew that his only chance was to put out the fire, or at least reduce it in size. Kilen started forming a wall of ice in front of himself to protect from Mary’s bombardment of flames. When it was thick enough to withstand a couple of blasts he stopped using all magic to give himself time to think. He wasn’t close enough to attack her with water, she would turn up the heat when it was out of his control.
Bury her fire like you did her elemental last time. It will give you the opportunity to take her on one on one.
Max’s idea made so much sense Kilen didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it.

He immediately went to work hoping that his ice wall would hold out long enough. He concentrated on the ground and opened two cracks on either side of Mary’s burning pyre. The shaking of the ground sent logs tumbling into crevasses. Kilen made the cracks deeper, pushing the earth up from underneath the pyre like a mountain being born. Mary tumbled with her logs, but managed to stay out of the crevasses he made. When all of the logs rolled in, he slammed them shut, letting Mary freefall from her temporary mountain peak. Smoke rolled from small cracks still in the ground and Mary laid still in the center of the destruction. Kilen walked slowly, sword raised and ready to attack. He reformed his shield, then Mary stood. He was close enough now to engage in weapon combat, but she had nothing to fight with. She looked weary from the battle, her arms hung limp at her sides and black ash stained her skin, but her eyes were as furious as ever. She didn’t intend to lose.

She managed to raise her hands and unleashed a solid flame that Kilen deflected with his shield. The heat caused his already burnt skin to renew with pain. He crumpled and held his shield up in front of him until he felt the heat no more. Mary collapsed on the field, landing face first into the dirt. With a still steaming ice shield, Kilen stood and moved to Mary. He nudged her with his foot and felt the water in her body. She was as subdued as he had ever made Kara. He had defeated her again. Only he knew that it wasn’t a battle won by a single man.

Kilen sheathed his sword and bent to pick her up. In his magic infused muscles he lifted her as if she were a feather, then carried her to Twilix.