Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (21 page)

Listening to them debate the pros and cons of each location opened my mind to a perspective I’d never had before. I learned more just listening to them than I would have by asking questions.

So I zipped all over Chahir and back with three tacticians, kept my ears and mind open, and waited for all of our targets to be found. Half a dozen magicians lived next to a scrying pool for three days. They hardly rested until every major city in Chahir had been searched and they were positive that every sigil had been found. Between all of them, we had a very detailed map of where every sigil stood.

With all of the research, searching, and planning that we did in those days, one would think that I would’ve been mentally prepared to execute those plans. I didn’t feel that way at all.

The Star Order had been in power longer than the Jaunten existed. Removing their authority in Chahir had been a huge accomplishment on Vonlorisen’s part. Still, knowing that I would face some of their most crafty and ancient magic, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had the easier task. I knew from experience what breaking a 200 year old spell felt like. When we’d found the first hidden library in the cave, I hadn’t even been the one to break the glamour hiding it. Night had done the work, and the backlash had still set my head ringing. I couldn’t imagine what those sigils would do.

And that wasn’t even considering the very real possibility that the Star Order might detect what we were trying to do and attack us!

I woke up fuzzy headed and dry eyed after tossing and turning all night. Worries and spinning conjecture had kept my mind active, allowing little room for rest. Even splashing cold water on my face didn’t help.

I finally gave up at dawn and crawled out of bed, threw on the first set of clothes on hand, and went downstairs. Sallah’s and Aral’s house had a stillness to it, so I knew that no one else was awake yet. Of course, only an insomniac would be awake at this unholy hour.

I went to the front porch, not wanting to wake anyone up. If they’d managed to find rest, all the better. I leaned against the front railing and stared sightlessly outward.

The cool morning air gradually warmed as the sun rose, gentle rays tinting everything gold. I lifted my face to it, eyes closed, and tried not to think for a little while. The warmth against my skin soothed me and time seemed to slip away.

The front door opened and closed behind me with a soft scrape.

“You’d make a lousy field commander,” Shad said as he joined me at the rail. “You’re too much of a worrywart.”

“No arguments there.” I turned to look at him. He looked perky and rested. Maybe I should have woken him up after all. “We’re ready?”

“That we are,” Shad agreed as if my tone hadn’t been questioning. “Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do, our targets are decided on, and all we need to do now is go break things. I don’t know why you’re worrying.”

I didn’t either. “I don’t know, Shad. I just feel like we’ve missed something, or overlooked something. I just can’t put my finger on what.”

“Well, if you’re right,” Shad put a comforting hand on my shoulder, “then it will happen at the worst possible time and do a horrific amount of damage.”

I eyed him sideways. “Was that supposed to be comforting?”

“Oh, you wanted to be comforted?”

No way was I letting that slide. I grabbed him around the neck and started ruffling his hair. Laughing, he fought his way free and retaliated. We had each other in a mutual lock when Chatta poked her head out the door. She took us in from head to toe before shaking her head slowly from side to side. “And here I was worrying that you two might be on edge about today.”

“It’s impossible around this guy,” I objected to Chatta.

“So I see. Well, I hate to interrupt this lovely male bonding, but breakfast is on the table.”

Shad dropped me at the magic word ‘food,’ giving me nothing more than a parting tug of the hair before darting inside. Reassured despite myself, I followed him.

Chapter
Fourteen: Surprises

Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about transporting everyone to their target. In fact, I only had one core group that I needed to bring to Chahir—to Alvacon, to be precise. Everyone else had been assigned times and routes and went in by different means. Even Coven Ordan didn’t have enough Earth Mages to travel by earth path, but every type of Mage has their own method of travel, some more circumspect than others. Some groups left much earlier in order to land outside of a city’s limits and then walk in, avoiding a showy entrance.

Each team had either a caller or a mirror broach on them in order to coordinate the attack.

I let Shad, Dassan and Xiaolang worry about coordinating everyone. I didn’t have the head to keep track of details like that. My main task was to bring my team to Alvacon and guard Chatta and Dassan’s backs as they destroyed the sigil. Night, I think, just came along to keep an eye on me.

We arrived in Alvacon by mid-morning, a good hour before the designated time. The sigil that we wanted to destroy stood in the center courtyard of a now abandoned Star Order temple. I brought us up in a clear patch of ground, looking around as I did so. All around us were the highly cultivated flower beds and shrubberies that only the very wealthy could afford to tend. This highly structured look has never been to my taste, and I took a little perverse satisfaction that since no one was around to frantically prune everything, the shrubs were starting to grow in whatever direction they pleased.

This sigil had been cleverly disguised as part of a water fountain in the center of the garden. The fountain itself stood at a little over seven feet, spewing water from three sides into a shallow pool. Inscribed into the main pillar was the sigil, an elaborate and complicated design that made absolutely no sense to me.

Chatta had spent three days learning everything she could about sigils and blood magic so that she could assist Dassan with the incantation. No surprise to me, she slipped her shoes off, rolled up the hem of her pants, hiked up her robe to bare her ankles, and stepped into the pool to get a closer look. Dassan joined her, also shedding his shoes before stepping into the water.

One moment everything was normal, even peaceful, for such an early summer day. The next I felt an insane explosion of power. I could literally feel a ley line becoming exposed and power rapidly filled the air, becoming so thick that I could almost taste it.

Chatta and I whirled at the same time, facing the direction it was coming from.

“Garth, what—” she exclaimed in growing horror.

“It’s a ley line,” I answered, cutting her off. “Some idiot has tapped into a ley line!”

From the building, a dozen or so young men spilled out of the doors, a variety of weapons in their hands. I ignored most of them, eyes frantically searching for the one that had recklessly attempted this insanity. I didn’t even need a magical sense to know which one was messing with that ley line. He’d kneeled, a complex engraving drawn into the ground, his hand in the center of it. A drawn incantation, then? It certainly looked that way.

I wasn’t going to give him time to complete whatever he was attempting. Yanking my bon’a’lon from my belt, I snapped it open and charged.

The Priest—he couldn’t have been in more than his mid-twenties—jerked his head up, saw an armed man bearing down on him, and panicked. His other hand slammed down onto the ground, and rocks from every direction shot toward me.

Snarling, I threw up a barrier, deflecting this primitive weaponry. We were close enough to strike at this point, and I took a swipe at him. The Priest was more agile than expected and ducked, rolling away. As soon as he was up again, he hurled more stone in my direction.

This time, I couldn’t just ignore that stone so easily. Those rocks were at least partially covered in Star Order magic, and when they hit my shields, it
hurt
. I couldn’t help but wince in reaction. Busted buckets, but it was like that battle around the pool all over again. I couldn’t keep my shields up fighting this Priest; it would simply be too distracting and cumbersome.

Without hesitation I dropped the shields. I could hear my team mates engaging the other Priests around me. I called mentally to Night,
Guard my back!

He gave me a mental acknowledgement in return.

The Priest tried to take advantage of this momentary pause to do more serious damage. He hurled even more stone at me, some of which were in chunks larger than my head. I bared my teeth in a feral smile. If that idiot thought I was defenseless against stone, he was
sadly
mistaken.

I caught the stones and stopped them in their tracks, letting them drop heavily back to the earth. A few, very small pieces got past me, which was unavoidable considering the sheer volume of stones whizzing through the air. I didn’t worry about them too much. Even if they did hit someone, it wouldn’t cause more than a bruise.

More importantly, my little trick had given the Priest-Mage serious pause. He hadn’t expected for me to be able to stop him. He froze, staring at me uncertainly, his face gathered into a frown. “Who are you?” he demanded, a hint of fear in his voice.

“Rhebengarthen, Earth Mage,” I introduced myself with a mocking bow. “And you are a dead man if you don’t close that ley line,
now!
”

In hindsight, it probably hadn’t been wise to tell him what I was. It panicked him, being faced with a full-fledged Earth Mage. Rather than scaring him into giving up, it obtained just the opposite effect. I felt it as he yanked more power from the ley line, probably in an effort to become immediately more powerful than me.

I slammed my own magic into the ground, trying to shut his connection off. It was impossible—I’m only human. And a human doesn’t have the ability to handle that amount of sheer raw power. “No, don’t, you’ll burn out!” I yelled at him.

My words came too late.

He was already filled to the brim with power, nearly glowing from it. With a wordless shriek, he slammed his hands into the ground again.

A cold, sick premonition dropped my heart straight into my stomach. Great good gods, but this wasn’t going to be good—I poured all of my magic into the ground as well, throwing up a wall between us as quickly as I could, and with as much density as I could manage. In my half-panicked state, I picked the first hard stone that I could think of, not really considering anything other than my safety, and the safety of the people behind me.

In seconds, the attack hit the clear wall in front of me, slamming into it with enough impact to shatter bones to a fine powder. I thought the air charged with power before—I had been very wrong. I almost choked on it now. And with each attack, the world shook a little, making my nerves vibrate.

As quickly as the attack started, it abruptly ended. There was so much dust swirling about that I couldn’t really see my opponent any longer. I waited, eyes peeled, for the dust to settle enough to allow me to see again. A minute or two at the most crawled by before the air had cleared enough. Through my mostly transparent wall, I could make out the shattered remains of boulders and the walls the priest had taken the stones from.

A part of my mind noticed with interest that in my semi-panicked moment, I had made my wall of pure diamond. Well, that
was
a very strong mineral, granted…although I was glad no one from the Magical Regulations Department was around just then. Explaining away a diamond wall the size of a large building would have been a mite difficult.

There were some rather interesting craters in my wall, mute testament of how hard the big boulders had been thrown at me. Maybe the diamond had been a good choice after all.

Blinking, and peering my way past the wall, I finally spotted the Priest. He was lying crumpled on the ground not ten feet away, inert and completely unconscious. I shook my head, half-pitying the fool. This then was the high price to pay for reaching for power beyond your means to control. He’d never be able to work magic again. I could sense that even from here—there wasn’t a trace of magic left in his body.

With him defeated, I turned to see how my teammates had fared, absently dismantling my shimmering wall as I turned. Everyone was still up and moving, which was an immense relief. There were a few cuts and bruises, but no serious injuries this time. Better still, the Priests were either out cold or being tied up by Eagle and Hazard. Chatta conjured rope in aid of this endeavor. Dassan was checking in with the other teams to see if they had been attacked as well.

Xiaolang caught my eye and nodded in reassurance. “We’re all fine. The Priest?”

“Out cold and burned out,” I responded with a sad shake of the head. “He won’t work magic again in his lifetime.”

With a long look at our surroundings, Xiaolang snorted. “I’m relieved to hear that, considering how much damage he did. Garth, is that ley line still open?”

“Partially,” I affirmed with an uneasy glance in its direction. “I’m going to try to seal it now.”

“Do so.”

The ley line had been forced open—one might say ripped open, actually—by the incantation. I was hoping that simply closing or erasing the incantation would close it off again. Holding my breath, I smoothed the engraved incantation away with a swift brush of my foot.

It worked like a charm. The hole closed immediately under my eyes, folding in upon itself so neatly that I almost couldn’t tell it had ever been opened. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned my attention to our surroundings. I didn’t feel the need to put the building back in order, but I could start smoothing the ground back out, and work on the damage the open ley line had caused. But the wild storm of energy released from the ley line still lingered in the air, making me noticeably lightheaded and giddy. There wasn’t much I could do about that. Hopefully, it would dissipate in time. It didn’t take much concentration on my part, so half of me listened to everyone talk as they went about interrogating Priests and treating any minor injuries sustained during the fight.