Blades of Sorcery Page 11

  Steeling herself, Sara said to the five who would be going with her into another mage’s mind, “Ready?”

  “We’d better be,” Isabelle muttered from beside her.

  No one else said anything—Sara just felt them also raise their right palms through the mind link they had forged.

  Sara smiled. “Let’s go, then,” she said, and they stepped into emptiness.

  * * *

  It was like breathing cold winter air. Sara sucked the chill in her mouth as she opened her eyes and found herself floating like a swimmer in a pool. She looked around to find that the other mages were floating with her.

  She moved with difficultly until she saw them all—floating just like her in the weightless ether.

  Isabelle was farthest off in the distance. She shone like a night star.

  Sara turned. A few feet off to Isabelle’s right and down a bit floated Arcnus. His magic was closely aligned to his body, so smooth it was like a second skin.

  In the northwest corner on the opposite end, Reben was darting around like a bunny rabbit that just couldn’t stay still. Though Sara didn’t think that was voluntary.

  Below Reben and off to the left stood one of the mages from the imperial army—a weather warden, Sara believed, and judging by the sparks of lightning erupting around him, followed by bursts of rain, she was right. His name was Tomas.

  Far up above them all floated Linus, the second mage of the original group of thirteen—and, unbeknownst to everyone but Sara previously, quite the powerful one. Now he sat with his legs crossed under him and his power echoing with the sounds of ringing bells throughout the ether. There was no mistaking the strength of the gifts he bore now.

  And Sara, the final mage, floated as well, but she wasn’t alone anymore. Around and beside her, mirage images of Sara floated as well. All armed with different weapons. One carried a bow and arrow. Another a glaive. The third an axe. And the fourth, one of Sara’s personal favorites—the swallow, a double-bladed staff with beautiful symmetry.

  As for the original Sara Fairchild, standing in the center of them all, she carried her two swords. Once done studying her copies, all of which stared forward with no emotion on their faces, Sara turned to Arcnus.

  “Well, line mage,” Sara said, “this is a surprise.”

  “These are your mental constructs,” he announced. “Representations of you and your magic in what is known as the Aether Realm.”

  Tomas said, “I’ve never seen a visual representation of my powers in this realm before, and I’ve certainly never floated in the air like a bird.”

  Reben laughed. “This is amazing.”

  “It’s not intended to be fun,” Arcnus said, shaking his head. “I’d ask that you pay attention, Reben, as you will be leaving us soonest of all.”

  She stopped darting back and forth faster than the eye could see, and waited as Arcnus floated so that he was more or less lined up in the center of all of their constructs.

  Arcnus nodded in thanks to her then turned to the weather warden. “You are right in that you would normally not see your own constructs.”

  “It’s more than that,” said Isabelle. “This is rather…unorthodox. The Aether Realm is a visual recreation of our own realm usually, used to travel between points of origin when necessary, and with great uses of power.”

  Arcnus held up a hand, warding off more interruptions. “You’ve also never traveled through this realm with me. Line mages are taught to strip this realm of all distractions so that we can get our systems to the target faster. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to do what we came here to do?”

  It was almost as if Isabelle didn’t hear him, as she spouted out more information on the realm, and Sara had the feeling that she was more than just a practicing mage. Perhaps she held a certificate in instructing as well.

  Arcnus tried to speak again, but he was cut off abruptly.

  “Could this also be how the Kades are creating their portals past our own protective spells?” Linus asked Isabelle, and she practically gasped in excitement.

  “It’s a good theory,” she said.

  Arcnus was practically fuming now. “That is true, but we have a target to get to. Unless anyone else would like to hold a class on magical theorems?”

  There was silence, and then Sara asked, “How long do you think this will take?”

  Arcnus smiled. “A lot less than you think, once I begin.”

  Sara nodded, and he began.

  Arcnus raised his hands from within the center of the circle, and Sara felt a tug on the links Isabelle had forged to bind them all together. And then it was more than a tug—it was a pull, a pull that morphed into a yank on the metaphysical power that they all possessed. As he yanked, the representations of their power—their constructs—drifted over to him like puppets on a string. Reben’s speed and ability to phase through shields floated toward his head. Isabelle’s theoretical phasing powers and the ability to forge unions came down like a sheet. Sara’s manifestation of her fighting skills floated over docilely.

  Every single one of them went, and the mages they represented watched anxiously.

  When he had them all floating around him in a ring, Arcnus opened his eyes. “This is what I needed. The power to not only seek out the target, one mage upon dozens, but to reach him and reach past his own personal shields from such a great distance.”

  “Are we ready?” asked Tomas.

  “We’re ready,” Arcnus said before he turned to look at Reben. “You’ve given what you can. It’s time for you to go—inform the others that we’re moving ahead with our mission.”

  Reben’s gaze flicked to Sara for permission.

  She gave it.

  And with a wave of the line mage’s hand, the young woman was gone. But her construct, her power, remained.

  “We’re ready,” Arcnus said again as the remaining mages waited for him to begin.

  He looked a little nervous to Sara’s eye and as six mages were down to five, she hoped that whatever sacrifice they were making to get to this lone mage was worth it. They needed this to work. They needed to win.

  15

  As she watched and waited, Sara was tense.

  They all were, though they showed it in different ways.

  Tomas began pacing as the others watched Arcnus gather the power of the constructs by linking them to his own. Sara could feel him like a hand in her heart digging around for tools as he molded the metaphysical power into something he could use.

  She didn’t stop him, although it felt like being groped in places she wasn’t even aware of. She did understand then why Tomas paced. There was nothing more to do. That was until the constructs began to shine like the sun. All of them, not just Isabelle’s floating powers.

  They grew brighter and brighter until Sara had to squint and shield her eyes while she watched the outlined forms of the constructs waver until they weren’t rigid outlines anymore. Instead, the power became shapeless forms that smoothed out into one golden glow. The glow melded into a single unit that surrounded Arcnus in a solitary ring. It matched his power, beat for beat.

  He looked over at Sara and she looked back, heart beating fast.

  He had all of their power in his hands. He could do anything with it. Wiping them from existence here meant the same thing as attacking them in the mortal realm. She knew that much, and she knew that it was right to fear death in the Aether Realm. But she wanted to trust him. Besides, what else was she going to do? Throw a sword at the man who held all of their wills linked to his own?

  No.

  But the line mage didn’t let her down. He raised his left hand in a fist, and the glow of the ring around them pulsed. Once. Twice. On the third time, the power he had amassed began to swirl up from the ring, leaving it depleted, and went straight up until it floated above his fist in a pulsating hand-sized ball. It was getting bigger by the second.

  Over the loud throb of the pulse, Arcnus shouted, “Ready?”

  Sa
ra was sure he wouldn’t hear the answer over the loud throbs that the pulses were giving off. It didn’t matter. She was ready. Squinting as best she could in the bright light that was practically blinding, she hoped they all were.

  Then there were no pulses. Instead, the magical orb he’d formed shot off into the distance like an arrow released from a bow, and they followed it, held close to it by the fact that it was a single metaphysical projectile composed of their joint magic.

  As she was drawn close into the projectile’s wake, Sara was aware that the others were all mirroring her position in a loop. Like fish on a lure, as it sped up, so did they. As it dipped, so did they. Minutes passed into moments. Time was immaterial. They followed their metaphysical projectile, unable to break away, unable to slow down, just drawn farther and farther away from their origination point, with Arcnus in their center pointing at the target that drew nearer.

  Sara looked forward, but all she could see was the projectile, so she looked toward her compatriots, and all she saw was emptiness. Her heart beat fast as she thought about her part in this attack. She and Arcnus had discussed it at length, but it was different now. She had to be prepared to launch an attack she’d never done before. One that only worked in theory. But there was no time and no way to do a test run. It was do it now, or not at all.

  So she concentrated as the line mage gave her the signal.

  He had done his part. It was time to do hers.

  “Here!” she heard Arcnus shout over the roar of the projectile.

  She opened the eyes she had squeezed shut and extended her hand toward him.

  He stretched to reach her, straining to keep to his target. She leaned over to grab what he was giving her.

  The reins.

  The lead that would enable her to take over the projectile once his guidance was done. As she looked down at the badge in her hand, no bigger than an apple, she was bemused at how small it was. Though Sara guessed it didn’t matter—they were in the Aether Realm after all, and this was just a symbolic lead that would allow her to direct and, when necessary, initiate their combined attack.

  She swallowed and closed her fist around the little badge in her hand.

  Their ride in the wake of the projectile suddenly got bumpier, as if they were hitting turbulence.

  Trying to discern the problem, Sara shouted at Arcnus, “What’s wrong?”

  “The mages of the Kades—they’re putting up blockages to keep us from attacking them,” he shouted while trying not to waver from his steady path. “Hold on!”

  Sara gritted her teeth and ducked her head as he increased the speed of their projectile to the target. It yanked harder on the connection they all had, and she felt like her guts were going to spill out of her body.

  She guessed that was what he was referring to when he’d said to hold on.

  Sara tried to catch a glimpse of their target, because as Arcnus had sped up, their view of the Aether Realm had changed. She saw visions of the countryside in the mortal realm appear below them in jagged cracks in the countryside. Then she saw bodies, thousands of them, alongside war machines and tents and enveloped by magic—lots of it.

  It almost looked like the imperial encampment, but even from far up above, she knew it wasn’t.

  Then Arcnus shouted, “Here we go!”

  She didn’t have much more time to think. He dove toward one of those jagged cracks in the Aether Realm emptiness, and all of a sudden they were back in the mortal realm. Still immaterial and following a metaphysical projectile, but at least they were home.

  Arcnus sped over the camp, and suddenly Sara saw their target. The Kade mage was standing amidst a group of dozens of other mages. Each one was glowing red. They were all still, all casting magic, and as she followed their group casting, she saw the tangential threads leading off from their bodies in humongous arcs across the land directly to the western region…where the imperial armies were camped.

  Sara sucked in a breath. “That’s how they’re doing it?”

  She wasn’t sure if anybody heard her, but then Isabelle responded, “Yes, those red lines are direct ties to the individual shield domes in our camp.”

  For the first time, Sara felt joy—the damned line mage had actually done it. He’d led them straight to the enemy’s camp and to the mages who were making their life hell.

  Time to return the favor, Sara thought triumphantly.

  Then she looked down and pointed as they got within half a mile of their chosen mage.

  “There’s only one mage whose magical red aura is outlined in our gold,” she shouted. “That’s him.”

  “Yes,” said Arcnus in a suspiciously weak voice.

  Sara’s gaze jumped over to him. To her surprise, she saw him wavering a bit.

  “What’s wrong?” she shouted. “We’re almost there. The projectile’s almost made it.”

  He bucked up a bit, though he was still pale. “Taking six mages along for the ride isn’t something I’m cut out for. But we’ll make it. Just be ready to do your part.”

  Sara pressed her lips together as they kept descending toward their target. They were a quarter mile away now but were slowing down. She could see it. She could feel it.

  She shook her head. She had no more residual power to give him. He’d taken what they had, and as the line mage wavered, she could see their plan faltering. If they couldn’t get to the Kade mage, they couldn’t target him.

  Then Tomas whooped and pushed himself closer to Arcnus in the center. How, Sara didn’t know. They were all running on fumes at the moment. But he did, getting closer and closer. Then he managed to grab Arcnus around the waist.

  “Take what you need,” the weather warden said as lightning began to flash all around them. As rain poured all across the enemy encampment and through their immaterial bodies, Sara gasped. It took great magic to affect the weather so far from your corporeal form, and the line mage had already drained them pretty much dry.

  Arcnus looked up with an approving grin on his face. “Just what I need—power.”

  Tomas kept holding Arcnus as he sucked the lightning down toward them. The raw power began to strike the two locked forms like they were metal rods, though it left the three other mages alone. Frazzled, but alone.

  As the power struck them, Arcnus was able to increase his speed in bursts, and they were back on track toward their target. With seconds left before they hit, Sara tore her gaze away from them and went to do her own duties, the little badge clasped tightly in her hand.

  She took a deep breath, even though she figured that she didn’t actually need to breathe in this scenario, and held up the badge that would give her control. As soon as she activated it with a short burst of her power, the projectile recognized her dominance. Sara was dragged from her place in the ring around the wake to the head of the projectile, and if she thought they’d been going fast before, sitting on top of it as it headed for its target was like riding lightning.

  But she didn’t concentrate on that.

  Instead, she concentrated on the mage outlined in red and the small, almost ethereal lines radiating off him, connecting him to his fellow shield mages.

  As she studied them, she smiled. It hadn’t taken her long to confirm it, but it was true—the connections were surprisingly weak, but just strong enough for her to do what she needed to get done.

  As Arcnus guided the projectile with the power boost from Tomas’s unnatural storms, Sara unsheathed her swords.

  “Five hundred feet down to go,” Sara said joyfully.

  Then she crowed, “Three hundred feet.”

  They were almost here.

  Some of the Kade mages began to look up. Sara didn’t know if her team was visible in the sky, but at the moment they were practically on top of the Kades, and it was clear as day that the mages could see that something was coming for them.

  But there was nothing to be done.

  “One hundred feet!” Sara screamed. Several of the Kade mages began shaking the
ir colleagues to gather their attention. Their fellow mages rounded on the rabble rousers in irritation before they realized they were looking up.

  By the time all of them were, all they saw was a blast of power heading straight for them and a woman riding on top of it with sword raised.

  As the projectile hit the mage they’d been aiming for, the physical blast threw every single person within a kilometer off their feet. And Sara got to work.

  She couldn’t see the domes these individual mages were attached to in the distance, but she could still see the lines feeding their magic via construct to the field. The field where her compatriots were alone—isolated and dying. So she did what she had come here to do. Sara raised her second sword until it danced in the air alongside the first like the wings of an avenging angel, and she cut.

  As she twisted off the back of the mage projectile and landed with ease on the ground, her right arm automatically rose to cut the nearest strand of magic that was powering a shield, any shield, that she could see. Her heart stopped for a second as her sword hovered a centimeter above that first string. As she brought the blade down, she had to wonder if this would work.

  She wasn’t physically here, after all. Nor were her swords. Nor was the magic, not in a tangible sense. So it was a risk. But as she remembered the feel of the projectile hitting their target mage, and not only destroying his connection to their shield wall but all his mental awareness as well, she thought it was worth a try.

  So she brought that blade down with all the force she could.

  And the string snapped with a twa-ang.

  When that string snapped, it didn’t just prove that Arcnus’s theory had been right all along. It also proved that their enemy was vulnerable. Because she watched the magic that had been pulsing through that string, like blood in a vein, recoil into its original mage, and that mage died the moment it did. It was instantaneous, and she already knew the ramifications were far-reaching. They had already killed the shield mage in the initial strike, but this meant that far more would die before she was done.