Soulguard (11 page)

Chapter 24

              “So what were you experimenting on?” Paige asked.

              “Oh, I was trying to make a fireball that wouldn’t bleed off any of the actual fireball’s energy to fire,” I shrugged and took another bite of the fried chicken leg in my hand, “I think I may have it figured out but I need to try it later in the Dome. You want to come see me get blown up again?”

              “What do you mean, again?” she asked with her fork paused inches from her mouth.

              “Oh, I’m sure you’ll hear about it soon enough,” I returned.

              I heard several Guards come into the Mess hall and I kept my head down. I could hear them plainly.

              “He flew all the way across the Dome flipping about four or five times to slam into the Dome. Then he fell right on Jake’s dice right after his roll.”

              “Bullshit.”

              “I’m not kidding! I swear it looked like something out of a freaking cartoon.”

              A third voice joined in, “You know what he said?”

              “What?”

              “He just said ‘Ouch’ and he got up and walked back over where he started and scratched his head.”

              There was good humored laughter from that side of the room, “Oh, shit there he is.” the first voice said quietly and the voices dropped a bit.

              Paige was staring at me with her mouth hanging open, “Really?! You really blew yourself up, today? Why? Why do you do things like that to yourself?”

              Her voice was higher than before, I was pretty sure everyone in the room heard her.

              “Well, no one’s gonna let me do it to
them
.”

              She sighed and I heard more laughter from the Guards.

***

              Once again, I was at the end of the Dome where the test dummies were and as soon as I’d gotten there, everyone who had been in the area found some reason to be somewhere else. I looked around at Paige.

              “What? What’d I do?”

              She let out a long slow sigh and shook her head. Then she turned and headed for the other side of the Dome, where a bunch of Guards had suddenly crowded. I saw money change hands several times.

              “Hardy freaking har,” I mumbled.

              I opened my portal all the way and anchored to the floor this time. They better not be betting on my trajectory, I thought, I wasn’t going anywhere.

              I shook my hands and popped my neck, “Ok, here goes,” I muttered.

              Once again I formed the shield and channeled power into it from the Source. This time I left the tendril that had powered it up attached. Then I Pulled again and filled the shield with power.

              I cringed as I threw the ball toward the test dummies. It didn’t blow me up this time, though. It rolled about forty feet away from me, next to a group of dummies and I snipped the tendril. The shield weakened and there was a large explosion that made my ears ring. Three targets were splintered through the shields, before the shield soaked up the rest of the power and it dissipated.

              “He shoots! He scores!” I yelled with both hands pumping in the air.

              “What is it with you and blowing things up?” I heard a familiar voice and turned to see Trent Deacons walking toward me. Alongside of him was Mattie Riordan.

              “It must just be a guy thing,” she added, “It’s good to see you again Colin.”

              “I don’t know if it’s a guy thing or a Colin thing,” I heard Paige comment as she walked up as well, “You just disappointed a lot of Guards, Hon, I think they wanted to see the flying act again.”

              “Once was enough,” I grumbled.

              “Flying act?” Mattie asked, “What’s he done now?”

              “Oh, according to the Guard, earlier he decided to blow himself up,” Paige reached her hand out to Mattie, “By the way, I’m Paige Turner, you must be Mattie and Trent. I’ve heard a little about what happened at Morndel, but this one won't say a whole lot.”

              Mattie shook Paige’s hand and said, “Let me tell you all about it...”

              The two of them headed back across the Dome talking back and forth with many hand motions that looked like possible examples of explosions.

              “I haven’t really blown that many things up,” I started, until I looked at the shielded targets. Eight of the twenty targets were destroyed. Three with the sword arc, two with the triple shielded powerball, and three from the Soulfire grenade. “Well...”

              “You broke all those? Aren’t they supposed to be shielded so they won’t get broke?” Trent asked.

              “Umm, Yeah.”

              “Did you really blow yourself up? Some of the Guards are talking about you.”

              “Sort of, yeah.”

              He chuckled, “God this place is gonna be fun.”

Chapter 25

              I was lying beside Paige as she snuggled up beside me. She looked intently into my eyes, “I’m a little worried about you,” She said softly, “Why do you have to keep pushing things? If your shields hadn’t held up, you’d be a greasy spot in the Dome. They say you’ll be another Kelvin Demonkiller.”

              I smiled and she leaned up on one elbow with a small frown, “That was
not
a compliment. The Demonkiller ran off on some one-man war against a clan of Demons after his wife and child were killed. He demonstrated what a Mage can do but he also showed us that we need each other to survive. He died because he went alone. That’s not what you want to do, is it?”

              I looked intently at Paige, “Can you keep a secret?”

              “By now you know I can. What are you hiding from me?”

              I lay there, quiet, for a moment, “My real name is Colin Rourke.”

              Paige gasped, “Oh my God, He was your father?”

              I nodded, “He didn’t run off for vengeance, and I believed he had for many years. He went out to die and make everyone believe it was vengeance.”

              “But why would he do that?”

              “So that I could live without the Demons hunting me. They thought I was dead. He died for me and the reason I do what I do is to repay the sacrifice my father made.”

              “They found me at Morndel and another one hundred and twenty two people died because the Demons want me dead. They’ll try again, but I’m going to be ready for them. No one else is going to die for me.”

              “If I can show half the courage and dedication Kelvin Rourke did, then I can hold my head up proudly.”

              She reached out and touched my face gently, “I’m sorry.”

              I kissed her softly, “It’s ok, no one knows about him, except a very few, but one day they
all
will.”

***

              “What we know about the Demons is sadly not what we would like,” Nora began her lecture, “We know they are from some other dimension or just a different planet. They come here through portals.”

              She looked at me, “Colin, you’ve seen one of these portals, as have some of the new recruits in the Guard. Most of the veteran Guards have seen these portals. The portals stay open as long as the Demons are here. You’ll see plenty of these as you hunt them after you are posted to your station.”

              “It is theorized that the portals have to be open for the Demons to survive here. Possibly as an opening for their Soulstreams to flow from their planet to this one.”

              She paced across the area in front of us, “There are three kinds of Demons that we are familiar with. One, the Lesser Demons seem to act much like attack dogs. They come across and just slaughter anyone they come across. They’re vicious and they have no fear. Soulguards can handle them in great numbers.”

              “The second type is the Wrathguard, or Soldier Demon. These are fast, strong and smart Demons. They also control the Lesser Demons, making them more dangerous than before.” She paused looking at Yarden who was yawning, “I know most of you already know these things but some of this information may not be known by everyone, and it’s important to know your enemy as well as you can.”

              “The third type is not as well-known as the first two. The Wraith is not a Demon we really see a lot of, but when there is one of them, serious problems follow. They can control Soldiers and Lesser Demons making them much more deadly. They are extremely fast and strong. They can destroy a Soulguard in seconds and it takes the concentrated power of a strong Mage or combined might of multiple weaker Mages to kill them, usually.”

              She stopped in front of us and looked intently at each one of us. Her gaze stopped at me last, “Everyone knows what happened when Kelvin Rourke became the Demonkiller. One Mage can do amazing things, but you will need the Guards around you and the help of other Mages to survive. Rourke showed us what a strong Mage can accomplish alone but he paid a dear price for his success.”

              I knew at that moment that Nora knew who I really was and she worried that I would do the same thing as my father. I could see the worry in her aura and I saw memories of my father flashing across it as well.

              I felt almost ashamed for watching as I saw the emotions associated with my father flashed through her aura. Nora Kestril had been in love with him all those years ago, and I saw the loss and pain that his death had wrought in the Senior Mage.

              “If you really want to know about your enemy, talk to some of the Elite Guards posted here. They have been fighting them for over a hundred years and they will know much that a new Mage would find useful as they take up their duties.”

              “There will be a prime time to learn from them tonight,” she continued with a smile, “There will be an exhibition of martial skills, from 4 O’clock until 9 O’clock this evening. Anyone who wants to participate is welcome, Mages as well as Guards. I understand Colin is participating in a few exhibitions. I believe he is going to show some of his innovations to any who want to attend.”

              She smiled and nodded to me and I stood up, “I’ll be showing any who attend how to build the Streamshields a few of us have developed and a few other things we’ve come up with. Anyone who wants to learn any of these skills is welcome to come to me. I’ll teach them to anyone who wants to learn them.” I looked directly at Gavin as I said this. I wanted to offer my own olive branch. Maybe we could move past all this bullshit that need not be there.

              He just looked at me with hate in his aura.

***

              Paige was as excited about the Exhibition as I was. We would actually get to distribute the illustrations to every Mage and Guard there. We had worked for a week straight getting all of the illustrations put together into booklets to give to each person who attended the event.

              We were eating in the Guard Mess when a group of Guards I had never met came into the room. They were rotating through as they were being transferred to different posts. There were a lot of Guards being transferred this week and it was actually part of the reason we were doing the Exhibition today.

              One of the new guys looked intently at me, “They say you’re something else with a sword,” he commented. I could see the disbelief rolling through his aura.

              “I’m fair,” I said between bites of the rib eye steak I was demolishing.

              Simms, the Guard sitting a few seats down the table snorted. Paige laughed softly.

              The new guy looked around suspiciously, “I knew it, they played me,” He returned. “I put my name in to challenge you with a sword cause some people kept saying you were obnoxious and thought you needed taken down a notch.”

              He looked at me for a moment, “I think someone lied to me. I’ve heard rumors since then that you scored hits on the Weapon master in a bout.”

              Simms snorted again.

              He looked at Simms, “How bad is it really?”

              “Well, look at it this way, who are the best three Guards you’ve ever heard of with the sword?”

              He ran his hand through his hair, “Yueh, Nightwing, and probably Jack Riordan.”

              Simms motioned toward me with his fork, “He scored on all three at the same time,” he said and ate another bite of his steak, “My suggestion is to withdraw or get about ten or fifteen Elites to join you.”

              My face was red and Paige was laughing at me, “You just can’t stand it when people compliment you,” she turned to the Guard, “They already have a demonstration set up for the Guards. You might join in that if you want.”

              “What demonstration?” I asked.

              “Oh, you’ll see,” she said with a smile, “It’s gonna be so fun.”

              Simms perked up, “Funnier than seeing him blown across the Dome?”

              “Maybe, that’s hard to beat,” She answered, “Have you seen the video, yet?”

              I jerked in surprise, “Video?!”

              “Oh, yes,” She laughed, “They installed cameras in the Dome a long time ago. It even got a good angle. Sadly, there wasn’t any sound but the video is excellent.”

              The new guy shook his head, “What’ve I gotten myself into?”