The Archon's Apprentice (25 page)

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s too far to try right now. Given some time I could probably incinerate all of them down there. But there’s a good chance I would also burn our horses and everything else too.”
 

“Any other magical thing you can do? I can’t believe we have come all this way and now that you have all this power, you can’t do squat.”

Mikol was only half listening to Bayle as he thought through his catalog of runes. He remembered several that could kill from this distance, but since he had never used them, or trained with them, he was still afraid of miscasting them. He laughed to himself as he imagined miscasting the rune and having it kill both of them. Then this misadventure would be over and he would not have to worry about it anymore. He resigned himself to try something stupid. Suddenly, he remembered something from long ago.

“Ok, I thought of a way can get down to the camp unnoticed. But once we’re down there we will need to be quick about dispatching them.”

“You have a plan for getting us down the rocky path with out being seen or heard?”

“Yes.”

Mikol walked back to the edge where the path led down. There was still nothing to be seen on the path itself. He had half hoped for his foes to make this easier. It had taken them several hours to safely climb to the top. They would have to be careful, but going down would be much easier. He motioned for Bayle to stand next to him. After Bayle came near, Mikol began creating many runes. With every rune he created he felt more alive and invigorated. He had to calm himself before he incorrectly drew a rune. There were multiple layers of runes that he created and interwove with each other. Having never down this before he was nervous, but he had helped to create this runic spell. He finished off the spell with another orb of light. Bayle looked at him with a concerned, raised eyebrow.

“Won’t that defeat the purpose?”

“Not with the other spells I put up. Walk away and look, but be quick. I wrapped the spells around you too, but if you stay out too long they might fall off.”

Bayle walked away several steps and turned. Mikol could see the look of shock on his face.

“I don’t see anything!”

Bayle hurried back to Mikol. The air wavered as he stepped through the bubble. Bayle waved his hand through the edge of the bubble. The surface of the bubble moved like water and he giggled.
 

“What did you do?”

“I cloaked us in shadows, deadened any sounds escaping the bubble, and made it so light will not be seen by anyone outside the bubble.”

“That is amazing. Who taught you that?”

“Arceri and I thought of it a long time ago, when I first became apprentice. He wanted to see if we could think of something no one had thought of before. It took awhile to figure out. Once I had it all worked out he tried it out and told me it worked. That was when he told me he knew I was going to be a great Archon and was glad that I had accepted.”

After climbing down to the flatter part of the path they carefully made their way down. Mikol knew he had been exhausted but did not realize how much. He did not remember the ascent up the path and relied on Bayle to lead down. When the large rock cleft loomed in the distance, it did spark a moment of recognition and he knew they were close to the bottom. Mikol grabbed Bayle’s shoulder to stop him. When he turned around, Mikol pointed to the side of one of the large rocks. Bayle shrugged his shoulders. Mikol picked up a small pebble and tossed it down the path. It bounced a couple of times, causing a few more rocks to move. The side of the rock cleft seemed to grow larger until the shadow of a man could be seen standing near it.
 

“How did you see him?”

“You don’t need to whisper,” Mikol grinned as Bayle rolled his eyes, “And I’m not entirely sure. I have several runic tattoos that are for my health, but no one mentioned I would be able to see in the dark.”

“So what do we do? Can you kill them with magic now?”

“No, the bubble will only protect us as long as magic does not pierce it.”

Bayle slowly nodded his head. He took aim at the shadow and waited.

“I don’t know where to shoot exactly. All I can see is his shadow. Or I think that is his shadow.”

“I’ll throw a rock at the shadow. If it makes a noise, fire.”

Mikol picked up another rock. When he was certain Bayle was ready, he threw the rock at the shadow. They were close enough that when the man made a noise Bayle’s bolt was only a second behind. The man fell backward out of sight. They waited for an alarm to be called or any reaction. After a few minutes they were confident none would be raised.

They climbed up the rock where the shadow had been and found the dead body. Bayle was either lucky or well-trained. The bolt had taken the man through the neck. Bayle went to retrieve the bolt, but it had been damaged. Mikol could see with a cursory glance the body was covered in scars.

“I don’t know who those other men were in Silverhall, but it seems they lost.”

Bayle spat on the body. They carefully made their way around the rock to the edge of the rest area clearing. A fire in the pit illuminated the area. They rounded the rock and could see someone standing nearby. Bayle tried to scramble backwards but was stopped by Mikol.
 

“Relax. They can’t see us yet. That one over there would have spotted us already.”

Bayle looked at Mikol and the camp. He reluctantly nodded as one of the men laughed at something.
 

“They would have taken action by now if they could see us.”

They watched the camp. Around the campfire sat three men talking. Three other men were close to the fire but appeared to be sleeping. A seventh man stood by the horses, presumably to keep watch over the horses, but Mikol could not tell.
 

“Ok, here’s the plan. You take that one out by the horses, and I will take out these.”

“What? All of them? What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see.”

Mikol made several duplicate runes. With each completed rune a small green orb appeared and then absorbed into his hand. Bayle raised an eyebrow at Mikol but aimed his crossbow at the man near the horses.
 

“Ok, when I go, you take him.”

Bayle nodded. “Ok.”

Mikol took a deep breath. He nodded his head a few times before leaping forward. As he moved forward, Mikol flung his arms wide and opened his hands. Six green, pulsing projectiles raced towards the men. Three of them hit the sleeping men with an explosion. Mikol could not stop to verify if they were dead. Two of the projectiles collided in a multihued explosion with a shield spell raised by two of the men. The sixth projectile flew wide over the last man and shattered a tree behind him. Mikol heard Bayle curse behind him and take off running. He did not have time to look back as he had to dodge away from two missiles that were fired back at him.

The third man bent down to pick up a stick before rushing at him. Mikol flung three more orbs at them. Two of the men yelped as they dodged out of the way, their half-prepared spells dissipating in a loud pop. The third man parried the missile with the stick. Mikol wondered why it had not exploded but soon saw the stick was actually a pock-marked hunk of metal with a jagged edge. He dodged away as the man brought the weapon down, whether to chop or to squash, Mikol could not say.
 

Despite the unwieldy nature of his weapon the man was able to move it with surprising speed. From the way he swung the metal, Mikol could tell it was supposed to be a sword. It took Mikol a moment before he was able to understand how this man fought. His initial read of the man had been wrong. The uncoordinated attacks were merely feints to get Mikol in to a compromising position. After he knew what the man was trying to do he was able to guess at the next attack. Mikol spun to the right under the attack, reaching his hand out towards the man. The man could not alter his course even with the sudden appearance of a sword in Mikol’s hand. The blade was driven through the man’s chest all the way to the crackling blue hilt. For a moment, the action came to a halt, and Mikol saw the surprise on the faces of the other two men. When he released the blade, the body of the man fell forward and Mikol spun around, flinging the last two projectiles.

One of the men yelled out “Paragon!” just before the explosion tore into him. He fell backward, while his comrade only opened his eyes wide, concentrating on preparing a spell. The other orb flew wide. Mikol dodged away from the mage as he completed the spell. Several projectiles flew over Mikol as he dodged. One of them hit him on the chest, forcing him to the ground. The spell exploded but did not harm Mikol because of his armor.
 

Mikol regained his feet. The mage had given up on complicated spells. As Mikol walked towards the mage it was all he could do to stop the spells with a quick shield. He was not sure what any of the spells that were coming at him did, but he did not want to find out the hard way. When the barrage of spells stopped, Mikol barely had time to prepare for the next attack. Mikol finished his runic spell as red, crackling energy poured out of the blood mage, rushing at him. The energy was stopped by Mikol’s spell and it split around him. As the energy flowed around him he felt it rip through his armor. His own spell held and eventually started to absorb the energy. He was able to walk towards the mage again slowly.
 

The two spells warred with each other, sending sparks shooting off in all directions. When Mikol was within a few feet of the mage the crackling stopped. He wasted no time drawing Raythrael and leapt forward. The shield spell that mage had erected did not stop the path of Mikol’s sword as it bit into the man’s stomach and continued out through his neck. There was another still moment as Mikol made sure the man was dead before turning to help Bayle.

As he ran toward Bayle and his adversary, Mikol surveyed the battle. Luckily, it did not appear that the man Bayle fought was a full-fledged blood mage. He was bearing down on Bayle, who seemed to be holding out well enough, but the man gained more energy the longer his wounds bled. This man wielded his sword in what Mikol knew to be a well-practiced stance. Mikol guessed the man had not been able to see what happened to his comrades, or he would have finished off Bayle already.

Mikol was finishing a spell to take down the fighter, looking for his opening to not hit Bayle accidentally. The man instantly saw the danger coming at him and knocked Bayle down, turning immediately to face his new threat. Mikol faltered a moment and had to recreate the spell. The man rushed him, ran up a rock and leapt at Mikol, who stood his ground, finishing the spell. When Mikol released his spell, he had to dodge away from the man as he burst in to flames with a scream. He dropped his sword as he fell to the ground, flailing in pain. Bayle rushed over to the man, stabbing his sword into the man’s chest. Mikol watched until he stopped moving and then muttered the spell to put out the fire.
 

Bayle stood over the man, breathing heavily. He pulled up his sword with a groan. Mikol then noticed Bayle was bleeding from cuts on his body. He had not covered much of the healing arts yet. He knew a few spells that would help, but nothing would be good in the long term. The cuts did not look to be life threatening, but Mikol knew any wound in battle could kill. They both turned at the sounds of yelling coming from the road.
 

“This has got to stop. I am tired of running. Stay here. I’ll take care of this. I don’t want you getting killed.”

Mikol moved closer to the road, staying low and behind anything that would hide him. He prepared several spells and activated most of his offensive and defensive tattoos. His hearing became more sensitive; he heard the footsteps of five men. Slowing his own breath, he concentrated on the sounds coming toward him. After a tense moment of tuning out his heart, he was able to focus enough to hear them breathe. He peeked around the boulder he was hiding behind to see how far away they were. It took him a moment to find them in the dark and he was amazed at how far away he could hear.
 

He needed to formulate a plan to take all five men. He knew there were two groups following them, but surely it was not two groups of blood mages. If this was another group of blood mages he would have to end it quickly. He knew he had gotten lucky. He activated another tattoo reserved only for the Archon and those had deemed worthy. He silently gasped as the sudden appearance of light around him. The rune allowed him to see the flow of magic and its interaction with the world. His hands slowly pulsed purple with the magic in them. The rest of his body gave off a glow, and he watched the magic flow around and through him. He looked around the boulder at the approaching men. The flow of magic was strong on the mountain. He saw strong currents coming off of the plateau they had just been on. The flow of magic rushed down the road, but when it reached the men it parted around them. With his vision altered, the only way he knew there were living men coming at him were the black, moving voids in the sea of changing hues.
 

They were far enough away not to be an immediate threat. Mikol went back to check on Bayle. They nodded at each other. Bayle nudged his crossbow to show he was ready for action. The currents flowed here as well. Some went around Bayle and others through him without any sign the magic was even there. The cuts on Bayle’s body gave off another hue and slowly spread outward from his body. Mikol had no experience with this yet and did not know what it meant, but it did not look good. The bodies of the blood mages were black, but not as dark as the men coming up the road. The current passed through the dead bodies. With every moment Mikol thought he saw the bodies grow ever darker.
 

Mikol moved back into position. He thought he would understand what or whom he would be facing, but he only had more questions. He could hear that they were closer now. They were within fifty yards of the boulder. He cracked his knuckles. Forty yards. He cleared his throat. Thirty yards. He cracked his neck. Twenty yards. He breathed deeply. When they were ten yards away, Mikol rushed from around the boulder, casting his spells as he ran.