Children of Prophecy (21 page)

The Mage looked at Brea gently. “I do not know, milady,” he told her softly. He paused. “I
do
know that if it had been remotely possible for Tal’raen to return to you before he left, he would have. Keep your trust with him and he will keep his with you.” The man bowed. “Be well, Wolf Adept.”

Brea acknowledged the bow with a curtsy, just before the man vanished into the night. She stood just outside the brightly-lit grand hall, alone in the dark.

“I love you, Tal’raen,” she said to the midnight winds.

Stret stood in front of the carriage, staring at the immense natural pillars of stone that marked the pass. The sheer immensity of the mountains impressed even him.

Each of the two pillars that gave the Pass of Pillars its name stretched over a hundred meters into the air, the gray granite carved by wind and rain.

“Aren’t we going to go any further?” Kor asked from behind him.

“No,” Stret responded, not bothering to turn around. “Mau’reek will meet us here, as will the others.”

“The others?” the other Mage asked hesitantly.

“The rest of the Four,” Stret explained absently.

“The Four are coming
here
?!” Kor gasped. Stret caught a tinge of panic in the man’s voice. The Four were far more feared than beloved as leaders.

“Indeed. We will wait,” Stret told the other Mage as he looked around at the area. “Set up camp behind that pillar,” a short gesture pointed out the one he meant. “The pursuit hasn’t shown itself yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t around. Let’s not make ourselves obvious.”

As the carriage began to bounce over to the immense rock, Stret pulled his robes around himself and contemplated the Pass. Once he passed through, there was no turning back. Ever.

The two hawks fluttered to the ground and Shifted. Tal stood, brushing dust off his formal white robes. He glanced to the north, at the immense stone pillars rising above the pine trees.

“Are you sure he hasn’t entered the pass yet?” he asked.

“He hasn’t,” Car said assuredly. “They seem to have stopped at the Pillars. It’s as though they’re waiting for someone.”

“Well, in that case, we’d better beat whoever it is they’re waiting for to them,” Tal said calmly. He turned toward the Pillars and began to walk.

The trees thinned out rapidly as the pair of Magi approached the entrance to the pass. Car raised a hand as they reached the edge of the forest. Obediently, Tal stopped, waiting to see what his teacher and father wanted.

As Tal watched, Car nodded, as if listening to someone Tal couldn’t see, and closed his eyes. Tal felt the magic spread out from his master, searching for their prey.

Tal looked around, using his magic to enhance his eyesight. He swept his gaze across the pass, then swept back when he saw it. A purple-robed figure stood unmoving in the center of the pass, looking up it toward the Waste.

“Car,” Tal said quietly.

“I see him,” the older Mage replied. “I think that’s Stret’sar.”

Tal focused and used Form Sight. The shape was suddenly overlain with the vicious lizard-like form of a Drake. “Drake Mage,” he stated.

“Aye,” Car agreed. “That’s Stret’sar for sure, unless one of the Four is here.”

“Are they?” Tal asked.

Car hesitated. “I don’t think so,” he said finally. “I can feel
something
, but they aren’t right here.”

“All right,” Tal told his father quietly, mentally steeling himself for his second battle ever. “Let’s do it.”

Stret didn’t know what made him turn around, but he did it barely in time. As he turned, two fireballs burst from the woods, arching towards him. His shields barely snapped into place in time to stop them.

“Kor, Jia!
Here!
” he shouted, using magic to make his voice boom off the cliffs. An instant later chaos fire flashed from his hands, setting the edge of the forest on fire.

An immense gust of wind put out the flame, and two figures strode out of the smoke, dressed in formal Battlemage black and white.

Kor and Jia arrived moments later, in time to lend their strength to the shield Stret raised against the Battlemagi’s next attack, a swirling storm of lightning.

They’re powerful. Very powerful
. His eyes were sharp as the two Battlemagi closed. “Car’raen,” he recognized the elder quietly. “Who is the other?”

Whoever the other was, they were strong. The Chaos Flare the three Chaos Magi unleashed next would have incinerated one of the stone pillars they fought between. It hit the combined shields of the two Battlemagi and slid away like water off a slanted roof.

Stret’s eyes narrowed as he concentrated, and a lance of chaos flashed from his hand, splitting the shields apart. “Kor, Jia, hold the other,” he snapped. “I’ll take Car’raen.”

The Kingdom’s Magi had stood by while his first life was destroyed. They
wouldn’t
stop him building another.

Moments after the combined shield was broken apart, Tal came under attack from the two weaker Chaos Magi. His shields wavered under the combined attack.

He concentrated, raising a second layer of stronger shields under the first, and then allowing the first to drop. The result for the two Chaos Magi was similar to throwing a punch that didn’t impact; they went off their mental balance.

Tal lowered his hands, facing his palms out. Lighting slashed out from them, hitting the shields of the two Raven Magi. The two Magi had interlaced their shields, and their combined power managed to stop his attack. Barely.

He continued to hold the lightning on them, forcing them to use all their strength to just hold off that one attack. He increased its strength, adding a third and fourth swirling line of electric fire to the attack. The two Chaos Magi still managed to hold him off.

Tal grunted with effort, impressed in spite of himself. He shrugged, and a moment later, fire surged up from the ground under his opponents’ feet. They tried to dodge, their attention flickered, and lightning flared through the shields to hit the younger Mage.

A single scream ripped through the pass, to be cut off with a sickening suddenness as the lightning turned the man to ashes.

“Kor!” the other Mage screamed. He turned back to Tal and tears were streaming down his face. “You murdering
bastard
!” he screamed, and attacked.

Tal took a step backward as the fire slammed home, powered by the fury of the man’s rage. It drove through his shield, and Tal instinctively threw his hand up in front of his face.

It was the hand holding Kove’tar’s old sword, and the flame hit it like a hammer. Even the finely-wrought hard-forged steel of the Islander blade could only resist that flame for a moment before it vaporized in the heat.

A moment was enough for him to adjust his shields, stopping both flame and the fragments of the sword from reaching him. He waited to be sure he’d stopped the flame, and then raised his hand. The multicolored chaos fire redirected itself to his hand, gathering just in front of his palm.

The fire stopped coming, and the Chaos Mage backed away, his eyes fixed on the ball of flame. Tal looked at the flame and shook his head.

The shifting colors of the chaos fire slowed and stopped. A moment later, the fire turned pure white, and Tal sent the ball of flame hurtling back at the Chaos Mage. Burning with the Mage’s own power, it cut through his shields like they were paper and sent the Mage tumbling backwards. This time, the dead man didn’t scream. His lungs had been destroyed in the impact.

Then a sound, half scream, half… something else… sounded, echoing through the Pass of the Pillars.

Stret
felt
Kor die, even before the Mage started to scream. He cursed silently, but couldn’t afford the time to mourn the loss of the older Mage. His eyes turned cold as he faced the Hawk Car’raen.

They’d pounded each other with every trick they both knew, and Stret knew he was winning again. Not only that, but it was almost easier this time. It seemed he’d grown in power, and Car’raen had stayed the same.

He had to finish it. Finish it before the other Battlemage intervened. That Mage was
incredibly
powerful, certainly more powerful than Car’raen.

Stret paused a moment, taking Car’s attack on his shield while gathering his power. He deflected the Hawk’s attack with ease, and unleashed a Chaos storm. Chaos fire, chaos lighting and simple pure chaos flashed across the evening sky.

The Hawk’s shields held. Stret began to move, even as the Hawk sent out a furious lightning storm in retaliation. In the light of the battle and the setting sun, the crystals mounted in the amulet around the old Mage’s neck glowed with the blood-red that gave them their name.

Stret lunged forwards. Chaos flared from his hands, hammering into the Hawk’s shields, but it was only a distraction. He crossed the distance between him and the Hawk in seconds, the power of Chaos filling his limbs, allowing him to move far faster than any normal man could.

Completely disregarding magic beyond his shields, he punched Car in the jaw. The Battlemage reeled backwards and Stret kicked him in the groin. Car snapped forward, exposing his neck.

With one swift motion Stret ripped the Hawk Amulet away. He lifted it in triumph, as an inhuman sound ripped itself from the Hawk’s throat. A snapkick sent Car sprawling backwards.

A wrench inside Stret told him Jia’har had been killed, but he concealed the pain as he faced the other Battlemage and held the Amulet up in triumph. He bowed mockingly, “I win, Battlemage.”

He reached out to where the boy was hiding behind the rocks and swept him up in a teleport spell, bearing them both to the nearby glow in his mind that was the Four.

Tal stared at where the Chaos Mage had stood for a moment. Then Car groaned, and Tal rushed to his side.

“Are you all right?” he demanded, his horror at the loss of his sword forgotten in his concern for his father.

“He took the Amulet,” Car said.

“Fuck the Amulet, are
you
all right?” Tal snapped.

“He took…” Car shook himself and looked up at Tal. “I’m fine. We have to follow him,” he told his apprentice.

Tal slid his arm around Car’s shoulders and helped the older Mage to his feet. “Not right away we don’t,” he said firmly. “You’re exhausted.”

Car’s shoulder jerked out from under Tal’s arm. “I’m fine, Tal,” he snapped. “We
have
to follow him.
Now
.”

Tal nodded. He reached out with weavings of air, seeking the specific mind of the Mage they’d fought. “He’s not far away, maybe halfway up the pass,” he said unwillingly.

“Good,” Car said, and Shifted.

Tal looked at the hawk as it circled up into the air. He growled at his master’s impulsiveness and Shifted himself, following Car into the air with a screech.

The two hawks paused for a moment, the younger glaring at the older, and then followed the Chaos Mage up the pass.

When Stret stepped out of the air, the boy was right in front of him, whimpering in fear. He glanced around quickly, taking in the pass in the fading light of the sunset. The ground was solid rock, as were the cliffs that marked the sides of the pass and directed what little light there was into this patch of ground.

In front of him, backlit by the setting sun, sat four figures astride drakes, immense lizard-like Swarmbeasts both more biologically stable and more intelligent that the normal Swarmbeasts.

One of the riders dismounted and stepped forwards. The fading sun showed Mau’reek’s sharp features to Stret’s gaze.

“My lady Mau’reek,” Stret greeted her with a bow. “We meet at last.” He paused. “I regret that both Kor’tal and Jia’har were killed when the Battlemagi caught up with us. However, I have a gift for you.”

Another rider dismounted and came forward. The fading sunlight showed almost nothing of his features, but the man was short, with golden hair that caught what little light there was. “The loss of two Magi is regrettable,” he said coldly. “Your future may depend on how much it was your fault.”

Stret grinned at the man. “No, I don’t think it will,” he told the four ancient Chaos Magi. “You see, I have something you want.”

The man’s voice was grim when he spoke again. “What do you think a stripling like yourself has to offer the Four?” he demanded.

“The Hawk Amulet,” Stret said softly, as he slowly removed the gold links, glittering with the blood crystals, from his pouch. He handed it to Mau’reek. “Consider this a pre-payment for the answers you have promised me, Lady.”

She inclined her head. “Yes, I believe you have indeed earned your place here,” she said softly.

Done with Stret for the moment, she turned to the boy Stret had brought at such a price. “Come here, child.”

The boy hesitated, looking at Stret. Stret nodded to him gently, and the child walked over to Mau’reek. She picked him up carefully, murmuring something in his ear, and placed him on her drake before mounting herself.

“Let’s go,” the man who’d spoken to Stret said.

The two hawks settled to the ground behind a rock. Tal extended a viewing around it. He stared in shock as the immense lizard-like beasts.