Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 (13 page)

They were close, so they dismounted and led their horses
into a copse of trees and she got her first look at them, and couldn’t help the
smile that came to her face.  The dragon wasn’t hard to pick out, she
looked more human than the elves as far as facial structure, and was more…
filled out, excepting of course the silver hair and bright golden eyes that
marked her as a silver dragon.  There was nothing human about those two
things.

As a result, Brianthenia was exotically beautiful, and she
felt a twinge of jealousy at the appraising look the dragoness was sending
John’s way.  Karma was a bitch, still, it wasn’t enough to make her lose
her smile, just enough of a twinge to poke fun at herself in her own mind.

The other two were obviously elves, with their slightly
pointed larger ears, thin faces, high cheekbones, and deep vivid blue eyes
she’d never seen in a human save contact lenses.  In a human the thin
faces would have looked gaunt, but somehow for them, it was very attractive,
strikingly so.  They both had blonde hair as well, though the male’s,
Kurien’s, was a darker golden blonde, whereas Arielle’s was an attractive ash
blonde color not seen on human woman excepting a dye job by Clairol.  All
three of them were… very attractive.

The initial introductions were a little stilted, as they
greeted each other.  She should have known, but Nim knew them already,
personally.  She supposed that made sense, the goddess had been in that
other realm with them.  She picked up quickly that the two elves were
newly in love with each other, and Brianthenia, who insisted she should call
Bria, had a thing for Kurien, who was apparently clueless.  Of course, she
kept those insights to herself.

Finally, after some awkward small talk, they got down to
business.

Kurien said rather formally, “The council wanted us to help
with your task, we are committed to the balance as well, for us it is life
itself, even though we can’t see it as clearly as the bearer of the mantle. 
We have always been allied so, and hope that can continue.  What can we do
to help?”

She gathered her thoughts a moment before she said, “We are
heading toward your village, whatever is going to happen to disturb the balance
will happen near there,” she turned to Arielle, “Could you ask the council if
anything strange or different has gone on there since you left?”

Arielle’s eyes widened a little and the elven woman nodded
slightly before closing her eyes.  

She watched the magic with fascination, as they all waited
for the Arielle to finish.  It was true she could do a lot more with her
magic, but at the same time she was very limited in the amount of magic she
could safely channel before it started to degrade and age her body.  She
wasn’t looking forward to a sleep of restoration, she knew once that happened
John would be long dead by the time she woke up.

As a result, she’d be very careful.  The less she used
now, the more she could use in large spurts when she truly needed it. 
Yet, she had to balance that against learning new things, and the more she did
the more she would learn to conserve her magic and be effective with
less.  It was… a juggling act.

Nim had intimated she could safely fill her staff once every
day, but that would keep her at her very limit, constantly.  So far she’d
been doing it every couple of days.  Theoretically if the crap hit the
fan, she should be able to draw enough to fill the staff twice before she
risked aging right now.

Arielle’s magic was limited to her goddess’s sphere of
influence, but she could use it constantly, she was part of the magic itself,
and had no limits on how much she could safely channel. 

Katie’s range of abilities might have been far more, but at
the cost of be able to do far less overall magic.  There were so many
questions she would have asked if Merlin wasn’t gone, she’d just have to learn
as she went, and hope she didn’t do anything too stupid.  Luckily she had
Nim to advise her, otherwise she’d have been screwed.

Arielle came back, and started to explain immediately about
the strange race with four arms, and the sprites and dryad they had faced.

Arielle concluded, “But they left yesterday, the council
isn’t sure where.”

She sighed, “That has to be the aliens, maybe one of the
ships made it down, or they abandoned ship.  I don’t know where they went
either, but I bet they plan to come back, and much better prepared to face you
now that they know about magic and the balance.”

Bria grunted, “How can you be sure?”

She shrugged, “It is just speculation, but something will
happen in that location, it makes more sense for it to be related, than
something completely different.”

John nodded, “I agree, coincidence is possible, but all
things being equal…”

Kurien nodded, “Regardless, we should probably start back.”

Katie looked up, she could still hear the rain against the
canopy, she wasn’t looking forward to more, but he was right.

As they packed up the camp, Arielle told them about the
soldiers that passed yesterday, that they would surely come across them. 
Katie explained what soldiers were, and that they worked for the governing body
of the country, which made her have to explain what a republic was.  By
the time she got through that long explanation, they were packed up and ready
go.

They went out into the rain, it was dreary, but at least the
thunder and lightning, and the heart of the storm, was far to the north.

Cassie scowled said insistently, “I’m going.”

Sean studied her for a moment, not really thrilled with the
idea.  He’d asked her to stay back because he was worried about her, but
he knew she had the right to face her tormentor.  Nathaniel needed to die,
possibly painfully, and Cassie was determined to be a part of it.

They were ready to move, they had thirty-five of the
zombies, plus Cynthia, Cassie, and himself.

He nodded, “I understand, but I want you to stay in the back
with us, let the zombies take the brunt of the work.  They are easily
replaced and hard to destroy.”

Cassie’s scowl faded when she got her way, and she nodded
reluctantly in agreement, “I promise,” and kissed his cheek.

They set off west toward town, he knew this had to be done,
but that didn’t mean he liked the idea.  He could still direct his zombies
from a distance, and he’d left thirty-seven back at the school for defense, but
he hoped nothing happened while he was gone regardless.  It shouldn’t take
long, maybe a couple of hours at a walk each way.  Nathaniel wasn’t that
far away, he was holed up in one of the large mansions, or at least had been a
day ago, when they were attacked.

They encountered a few people on their way there, but all of
them ran at the sight of them.  No one wanted to risk the unknown with a
group of thirty-eight people, so he couldn’t really blame them. 

Cassie took his hand as they entered one of the nicer
neighborhoods, and he squeezed her hand.  She was obviously nervous, but
her determination to be there and help was greater.  Cynthia took his arm,
she wasn’t nervous at all, and simply wanted to be near him.  Her loving
smile when he looked over at her brightened his grim demeanor and lightened his
heart, despite what they were planning to do.

When they arrived at the estate, the gates were locked with
a simple chain and padlock, he could also sense two life forces beyond the gate
standing guard.  He could have his zombies rip the gate down, they were
strong and many, but he thought a little stealth wouldn’t hurt, and reached out
with his power.

He ripped the first life force out fast and hard, the man
only had a couple of moments to gasp.

He heard the other man say, “Gene?  You okay?”

Even as Gene collapsed to the ground, he reached out and did
the same to guard number two before he realized it was an attack and screamed a
warning, and ripped his life force out as well.  After, he raised them and
he felt a little high on the power.  He wondered if he’d ever get used to
the rush, the feeling of invincibility when he was filled with life.

He also wondered at the changes in him.  He hadn’t
noticed, but Cynthia told him this morning he looked… younger.  When he
examined himself in the mirror, he looked more like he was thirty, instead of
thirty-five.  It was subtle, but the small lines that had grown around his
eyes were missing, and the few gray hairs that had grown in were gone.

It was as if taking the life of others… regressed his.

Gene, and Tony, he got the name from their memories, walked
out from their concealed position, and unlocked the gate.  Now they were
forty strong for the attack, seventy-five zombies now, including the ones back
at the school and Cynthia.

The driveway was long, and he didn’t start feeling life
forces until they were halfway down it.  There were two men outside the
door, who ran inside as soon as they were in sight.  So much for
surprise.  When they went another twenty feet, he got another surprise and
stopped.

He said warningly, “Cassie, Nathaniel is like you, his life
force I mean.  I think he might be a sorcerer, no matter what he calls
himself.”

Cassie’s face hardened, and Cynthia looked thoughtful as she
said, “We’ll be careful.”

They continued, and when they were forty feet away, his
zombies rushed the house, and he reached out from there and tried to pull
Nathaniel’s life force.  He couldn’t, something was blocking him. 
They followed the zombies in through the destroyed front door, he’d already
taken six of the life forces, and stopped for now.

He wasn’t sure what would happen if he pulled too much life
and tried to hold it all, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way. 
They fought their way into a large ballroom with double doors.  When the
three of them walked in there was a general melee.  He looked right at
Nathaniel, and tried to take his life force again.  There was a blue
nimbus coruscating around his body, and it sparked blocking him when he
tried.  Two of his zombies had been dismembered, but he quickly raised six
more from Nathaniel’s followers that lay dead on the floor.

Nathaniel screamed, “Stop!” and even he felt the explosive
wave of strong magic break over them all.

He froze, he couldn’t move, he could barely think. 
Even his zombies were quiescent, and started to lose to the armored nut
cases.  Nathaniel smiled coldly at him.  The man was in his fifties,
and had graying hair, although he looked to be in good shape.  He carried
a sword that glowed white and stepped forward.

“Your evil magic cannot stand against the light of god’s
grace!” he declared in a booming voice.

He… couldn’t even talk.  He really wanted to call him a
crazy bastard, but it just wasn’t going to happen.

Cassie said in a strained voice, “Freedom,” and the bonds
holding him fell away.

His zombies immediately started to kick ass again.

Nathaniel screamed in rage, and raced at him with the
glowing sword, he was fast, very fast for an old man.  He tried to grab
his life force again, and couldn’t penetrate Nathaniel’s shield, he should have
run, or dodged, but his power had become his go to move, it had never failed
him so badly before.

As she had before, Cynthia stepped in front of him to
protect him, and with a fiercely fast strike disarmed Nathaniel with her
weapon, by impacting the man’s inner forearm.  Then she kicked him in the
chest and there was a flash of blue light as the shield reacted to her direct contact. 
Cynthia collapsed to the ground, as Nathaniel flew twenty feet away and landed
on his back.

He was relieved, for a very brief moment, until he realized
he could no longer feel Cynthia.  She was lying on the floor, with empty
glassy eyes staring up at him.  He sent life force her way, maybe
Nathaniel’s shield had simply cut their connection, but he quickly discovered
the empty spot he could connect with… was gone.

His heart squeezed in his chest painfully.  Cynthia
was… gone.

Nathaniel stood up with an angry growl.

Rage built, Sean’s love was gone.

Nathaniel’s white sword rose from the ground and shot across
the room to his hand.  He saw a stream of white fire leave Cassie’s hand,
and slam into Nathaniel’s shield, which simply absorbed it.

His rage, and grief, exploded.

There were over twenty men left fighting his zombies
desperately.  He reached out… to all of them.  He’d never tried more
than one at a time, but then he’d never been in an insane rage before, he felt
like his heart had been torn out.

He ripped and pulled, and as his body absorbed all that life
energy he felt like he might explode with it, like his heart may burst, but he
didn’t hold it.  He used all that life as fuel and sent his power out not
like a probe, but like a battering ram straight at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel started to rush him again, but his shield flashed
to a blindingly bright blue.  It held for two seconds, and then popped.

Sean growled like a wounded animal, beyond words as his
power, fueled by the life force of twenty others, encased Nathaniel’s life
force.  He didn’t take it, he didn’t pull it, he crushed it, ground it,
tore it, ripped it, and tortured it with a dark malice that bordered on insane.

Cynthia was gone, he would never see her smile, feel her
touch, or kiss her precious lips again.  His rage burnt his heart to ash.

Nathaniel dropped his sword as he fell to the floor,
screaming and writhing in horrific pain.

All he could think was it wasn’t enough, could never be
enough and squeezed his enemy’s life force harder.

He screamed in rage as Nathaniel’s memories streamed in his
head.  The man had done many horrible things, had been controlling all
these others, brainwashing them with his power.  Killing innocent people
with his godlike delusions.  But all of that paled in comparison to his
horror when he felt the joy Nathaniel had felt, when the light had left
Cynthia’s eyes.  He growled like an animal, and tore at Nathaniel’s life
force, he tore it to shreds.

Nathaniel’s screams of torturous pain were music to his
ears, and he felt oddly empty when they stopped, and Nathaniel’s body was
finally still.

He felt empty, except for the dull anger he felt that
Nathaniel was now beyond his reach, he couldn’t hurt him anymore.

He raised all the dead as an afterthought, the ones he could
which were most.  Just not… Cynthia, and a few others that had been
decapitated.  His love was dead.  Gone, and his mind quailed from it,
shut down his emotions.  She had been his world.

He turned to Cassie, who looked at him not with disgust, but
with utter sadness and tears in her eyes, and ordered in a cold voice devoid of
emotion, “Burn it,” and walked out the front door.  He’d left Nathaniel’s
cooling corpse on the ground, there was no way he was raising that asshole.

He heard the fire crackle and smelled the smoke, but didn’t
look back.  He waited for Cassie to join him and then walked away without
a word.  He now had a hundred and eight zombies including what was back at
the school, but he didn’t really care about that, all that mattered was the one
he had lost.

Cassie took his hand, but didn’t try to talk to him, or
comfort him.  He would have felt grateful for that, except he couldn’t
feel anything at all.

He was empty, because Cynthia was gone…