The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) (39 page)

I knew I should be sad, but I couldn’t feel anything but glee. With my darkness already having attacked and Lisanda resting against me, the slumber I could feel myself slipping into was the most comforting in years.

Even with the danger that awaited tomorrow, I’d never felt more safe than I did then.

Chapter 31: Allegiance

I rode Bam while Lisanda sat with her legs dangling off the back of the wagon. We didn’t know if Bam could hold both of us and pull the wagon, and we knew better than to force it. We couldn’t talk like this, but I wasn’t sure what I would tell her anyway.

Though, it would’ve been nice to have her arms around my stomach once more, even if they pressed against my fresh wound.

The sun was overhead when we arrived at the farm. A gentle breeze rustled the grass, but it wasn’t strong enough to sway the trees that encircled us. I looked closely to see if I could find anyone in or behind them, but there were too many to investigate.

The King was waiting with his arms folded, standing on the only hill within our farm’s property. Roughly ten guards were behind him, most with swords but some with bows and staffs as well. I tied Bam to the nearest tree, helped Lisanda off the wagon, and walked toward the hill, holding her in front of me like a shield—as much as it emasculated me, it was the best idea.

She knew the plan. No archers or mages would shoot at us as long as we remained close. Her father had no reason to keep the cure. This should be a simple exchange.

King Danvell Takary and his guards came down the hill to meet us at its base. The archers and mages started to circle around us, but I held my wand out at them and demanded they stop. I noticed then that every mage was female with a green robe. It made me uneasy. They were clearly Sartious mages. If they were good enough, they could interfere with my use of the heavy energy, shattering any shields I made.

They glanced at the King. He nodded, and they returned to an orderly clump, a few of them standing in front of the monarch.

“Where’s the cure?” I asked, trying to use a threatening tone—not something I’d practiced and it didn’t come out quite right.

Lisanda’s father twitched his head at a guard behind him. “Give it to him.”

One of the men in steel emerged holding a potion—a milky-looking substance of uneven color—in a thin glass vial. It was sealed with a cork. With his other hand near the sword on his belt, he offered it to me with an expressionless face.

“Have a sip,” I instructed the guard, looking for clues…a tightening of his lips, a squint of his eyes. But he showed nothing but indifference before turning to look at Danvell behind him.

The King answered for him, “All of it must be consumed for it to work.”

I didn’t like that, didn’t trust it at all. I had a few other tests ready, though. “What’s in it?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” the King replied. If he was feigning anger, he did it well. “I told my chemists to make it, so they did.”

I tried my next question. “How do you know it’ll work?”

“Because my chemists said it will.” His answer was quick, rehearsed. I was feeling more skeptical in each passing moment. Vague answers, quick to be angered…it felt as if I was being lied to.

Lisanda surprised me with something we hadn’t planned. “I can tell when my father is lying.” She gently took the potion from me and wiggled off the cork. “Father, if I drink this, what will happen?”

Lisanda brought it under her nose and took an audible sniff. She had no reaction. I figured it had no smell.

“Then you’ll waste the cure.” The King folded his arms, his white and gold robe dancing in the light breeze. “And you’ll probably be sick.”

Lisanda had her head tilted to the side. I couldn’t see her eyes, but by the way she leaned toward her father, it seemed as if she was studying him. She brought the potion to her lips and began to tilt her head back but stopped before consuming any. Her father let his arms drop and opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped himself when she did. He clumsily folded his arms once again.

“Lisanda, why are you doing this?” I saw the anger this time, making it clear he
was
pretending before. This was real frustration. I could hear his desperation. “Give the cure to Jek so we can be done with this.”

Lisanda moved the potion to her mouth again. This time she tilted back, closed her lips around it, and let some flow in.

“Don’t swallow it!” her father yelled, his body taken over by panic. “It’s poison!”

Lisanda spewed the milky liquid from her mouth.

“Quick, get her the antidote!” The King frantically gestured at the guards behind him.

“Poison?” I yelled in disgust.

“How could you try to poison him?” Lisanda’s voice was soft, heavy with shame. A guard ran toward her with another potion. She waved her hands at him. “I spit it out. I don’t need the antidote.”

“Take it, Lisanda! A small amount can kill you!”

Lisanda shared a glance with me, showing me her revulsion. “I can’t believe my father,” she muttered.

“It’s not your fault. Take the antidote.”

An explosion of light startled me. Heat burst against my face, and I tumbled backward, pulling Lisanda down with me on reflex.

We untangled our limbs as I tried to figure out what had happened. The guard with the antidote was no longer in front of us. Panicked murmurs flooded my ears from what seemed like all directions.

Then I found the guard’s body. It was ten yards from where it had been, charred like an overcooked piece of meat. My mind pieced the clues together—some massive fireball must’ve hit him. The bottle carrying the antidote was gone, no doubt shattered by the blow.

“Now you can watch your daughter die at your own doing,
my king
.” The voice came from atop the hill…Exo.

“Who in Bastial hell are you?” Danvell Takary screamed.

“Don’t recognize my face?” Exo turned to wave his wand at Lisanda and me. “That’s their fault. All of this is their fault.”

“It’s Exo, Father. He’s gone mad!” Lisanda yelled.

“Exo!” Recognition hit the King’s face. “Drop your wand and let Lisanda come to me. We need to rush her back to the palace for an antidote.”

Exo hummed, mimicking deliberation. “No, I think not,” he answered playfully.

“You feel anything?” I whispered to Lisanda, moving my body between her and Exo.

“No, I think I’m fine,” she whispered back.

“Exo,” I called to him. “It’s not our fault you burned yourself out of the chains. Why didn’t you just wait for the guards to come release you?” I knew reasoning with him most likely was futile, but I figured it was worth a try.

“Because this was his last chance,” the King answered for him. “After all his mistakes—as we’ve
generously
been calling them—he was about to be replaced by you, Jek, if you’d cooperated. Now look at this mess.”

The King turned his focus to his daughter. “Are you feeling anything, Lisanda? We really must get you to the palace.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Exo interrupted, the teasing playfulness gone completely.

“Dammit, Exo. We don’t have time for this.” Danvell spun around to his guards.

Raising his voice so Exo could hear him, he yelled, “Take Exo in! If he aims his wand at you, kill him.”

Exo lifted his hands toward the sky. “I’ll cooperate. Just let me say one thing and this can end peacefully.”

“Hold.” The King stopped the guards and then glanced at his daughter. “Dear, are you well?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

The King gave one shake of his finger at Exo. Gritting his teeth, Danvell said, “You have one minute. Go.”

Exo looked embarrassed for the first time I’d seen. His head hung low, and he seemed overtaken by exhaustion. “I just wanted to make you proud.” His voice was weak, like a sick child’s. “I always get the job done. I know you appreciate what I do, even though you don’t show it. I know you do. I trained my whole life to be the Bastial mage I am today, to serve you, my king.”

Exo lifted his eyes to show they held great pain.

The King took a step toward Exo, coming through the cordon of guards. “You’ve done good work, but you’ve also done terrible things at
no one’s
order but your own.”

“They were done at your request!” The anger returned to Exo’s eyes, sharp as a knife.

I found myself readying Sartious Energy.

“People lie to me. People
always
lie to me. Their lies prevent me from following your orders. They hide people I need to find. So I make them stop lying.”

Exo lowered his head with a proud smile. “I’m your best mage, my king.”
He nearly jumped as he jabbed his finger toward me. “And now you want to replace me with him, some kid!” His scream was manic, void of sanity. “Some bastard mage who doesn’t even appreciate the gift of magic that he has! He wants to be cured of it. He’s an idiot, a child.

“And Lisanda is the same way. This would’ve been over if it weren’t for her. She protected him, stopped me from killing him. I should’ve known the stupid bitch didn’t want to see the pretty farm boy hurt.”

“That’s enough,” the King said, surprising me with a calm tone. “You can talk to me more later. I’ll listen to everything you want to say. Put down your wand, keep your hands behind your back, and let us take you in.”

“I’m not done!” I could feel Exo’s aggression ready to burst.

I looked back at Lisanda. Her eyes seemed unfocused, looking past me absently. “Lisanda, are you feeling alright?”

“I’ve always thought of you as a father, my king.” Exo was on his knees, holding his hands out as if pleading. “Don’t throw away what we have after I’ve spent my whole life training and serving you. No mage can replace me.” He sounded as if he was about to weep as he continued. “This child is a Sartious mage. His skill with Bastial Energy is nowhere near mine. Heat is far more effective! You must understand that?”

“Not for what we need in the King’s Mage,” Danvell answered with a quiet and soothing voice, reminding me of Sannil’s fatherly tone. “I’m sorry, Exo. I can’t have you serving on my staff any longer.”

I kept my eyes on Lisanda. She didn’t seem to be aware of me, and terror was beginning to take hold of my heart. “Lisanda?” I took her hand. Her face fell to it, but she said nothing. Her head wavered, and then she looked up at me.

“Something’s wrong,” she managed to get out.

I turned and screamed, “Lisanda’s not well!”

“Bring her over here!” Her father motioned for the guards. They swarmed toward me, and I gladly held Lisanda for them. She seemed to be having trouble staying on her feet.

My heart dropped when I felt a surge of Bastial Energy gusting past me toward Exo—he was pulling it in to cast a spell.

“Watch out!” I yelled.

The guards turned to the hill. Exo had his wand aimed down at them.

“Let her die!” he yelled. And with that, a fireball the size of a boulder took shape before him and hurled toward us with frightening speed. I created a Sartious shell around Lisanda and me, but I didn’t have enough energy to protect the others.

The two female mages created their own shells, but they were too thin to stop such a force. The boulder of fire exploded into the cluster of guards, creating a terrible mixture of sizzling flesh and yelps of death. I focused to keep my Sartious shell intact as the snarling fire scraped against it like a mad dog.

The heat was almost too much to bear, singeing the hairs on my hand as I held my wand steady. I screamed to keep focus as I dealt with the pain.

Lisanda crumpled to the ground behind me…but I knew it couldn’t have been the fire. She had been too far from it.

I spun around and her wavering head found my eyes. “I’m sorry for blue…for you.”

I heard battle cries behind me—the rest of the guards charging up the hill toward Exo. I was too worried about Lisanda to look. I knelt down, holding her cheeks. “Lisanda, stay strong. I’ll get you back to the palace.”

“You stay…” Her voice became a whisper. “Horse.”

She was deteriorating fast. Tears burst from my eyes. It pained me so much to see her losing her mind and dying before me. I nudged my shoulder under her stomach, ready to hoist her up, but she screamed and pushed me away.

“Stomach!” she yelled, grabbing hold of it. “Hurts!”

The King was shouting orders. Exo was screaming. Fire was exploding. I could feel the heat against my back. But I saw none of it.

I picked up Lisanda like a bride and turned to see if I could move her safely to one of the King’s carriages. My hope was shattered when I found there were only two guards left, both warriors with a sword and a shield, standing in front of Danvell. Scattered around the base of the hill were blackened bodies.

I knew better than to try running to the King and his carriage with Lisanda. Exo had an eye on us. The other was on the warriors protectively pushing Danvell away from the hill, pushing him farther from us as well.

One of the warriors spun and ran for the bow of a fallen archer, but Exo unleashed a man-sized fireball that soared downward at blinding speed, striking the man in the chest. Because of the angle, the warrior’s body was flung to the ground so hard it was as if a tree had fallen on him. He didn’t get up.