Magicless Read online

  Its flesh gave and Magicless fell heavily to the ground, grunting as he rolled and then ran for cover.

  Both creatures were hacking at the shield surrounding Jobin, sparks flying with each strike. Magicless looked for the source and saw Elisa focused intently on Jobin, her face pale with strain. The shield held, but Magicless wondered how long she could hold it under such an assault.

  Magicless heard the sound of something winging through the air and fell back several steps as he saw it settle into the mud in front of Jobin. The creature was massive; far larger than the others, and its eyes held a sick green glow flickering within. Its ears were enormous and stood high on its head like a crown. Like a king, he thought, a bit madly. A bat king.

  In less than the blink of an eye, a jet of flame shot from out of the darkness and engulfed the bat king. Magicless whipped his head around to see Elisa’s eyes blazing bright, the flame bursting from her fingers. She maintained the shield over Jobin while launching this new attack, but the flames barely seemed to touch the creature. It glared at her, and then narrowed its eyes at Jobin. It screeched across the clearing, and the creatures hacking at Jobin redoubled their attack. The bat king wrenched up a large tree from its roots and launched it toward Elisa. She’d never be able to maintain the shield over Jobin and deflect that tree, and Magicless could see that knowledge writ clearly on her features. She dove, trying to clear the tree, but didn’t dive far enough. Her body was caught up in the grasping branches and she tumbled out of sight. The green shield around Jobin dimmed, but held. She was alive. For now.

  “Micah!” came Alekka’s voice from beside him. “Are you alright?” He turned to face her, letting out a sigh of relief that she was unharmed—filthy with mud and her clothes torn to shreds, but not hurt.

  “Fine, I’m fine,” Magicless answered. “How are we going to kill that thing?”

  She didn’t answer. He glanced at her, and then turned to face her in alarm. Her face was slack, her eyes open wide and nearly black, pupils blown. She stared at the bat king, and in horror Magicless realized it was staring right back at her. The sick green glow of the creature’s eyes flashed, and it moved toward them, entirely focused on Alekka. Magicless saw a slight glow of answering green unfurl in her eyes. The hair on his arms stood up and his stomach plummeted to the ground.

  “Alekka!” Magicless shouted, grasping her arms and shaking her. Her head lolled on her neck, her eyes never leaving the bat king’s face.

  He took a steadying breath, trying to quell the panic roiling in his chest, and slapped her hard across the face. Red blossomed on her cheek and her eyes shifted into focus, but she still stared into his face without recognition. A spasm shot across her features, as if some great battle was taking place beneath the surface.

  Her hands rose toward him, and he could see the dance of the blue fire that she suddenly held aloft in each fist reflected in her eyes, mingling with the curl of sickly green. He released her in sudden fear, seeing her intent clear on her face. In desperation, he spun and hurtled toward the bat king. He was going to plant his remaining knife right between that thing’s eyes, even if it killed him. He launched into the air, knife raised and ready for the strike, but the bat king’s hand darted out and snatched him from the air before he got close enough to impale it. Magicless had time to see it had five fingers and neat, perfectly shaped fingernails before the breath was squeezed out of his body. The knife fell from his grasp and the creature leveled its own giant sword at his neck.

  This is it.

  I’ll never face Amentis after all.

  My parents will never know what happened to me.

  I’ll never kiss Alekka.

  That last thought brought despair bubbling up through his throat, choking off his breath further.

  Corpses of the creatures lay scattered around them, but more were stepping up to take their place.

  We failed. The others were right. This was a fool’s mission.

  [ 11 ]

  Her mind was filled with green, and she could not find her way out. It was denser than any fog she had ever seen and pulsed with an odd rhythm. Almost like a heartbeat. But not her own.

  In that pulsing rhythm lurked a dark, fleeting shape. She saw black, and flashing white teeth, blotchy pale flesh and patches of white hair, emerald eyes. But always when she turned it was gone, and in its place nothing but green. It didn’t matter; she didn’t need to see it. She could feel it. A seething mass of rage rampaging through her mind. It spoke to her, unstoppable and all consuming.

  Kill them. Kill them. Kill them all! It was an alien voice—the dulcet tones of the man from her dreams mingled with the high-pitched whistle of a bat on the wing. It made her think of the sweet smell of the air after a spring rain and the stench of the rotted flesh of a long-dead deer in summer. It made her knees weak with euphoria and her stomach knot with nausea.

  She fought against the rising tide—tried pushing the viscous green fog out of her mind, chasing the rage out, blockading it into a corner so she could incinerate it. A part of her knew it didn’t belong there, but that part was locked away in a small, dark corner, embattled on all sides from the seething green terror.

  She felt her body being shaken, her head rolling about on her neck painfully, and she pulled back enough to stare out of eyes that didn’t feel like her own. A face stared back, filthy, disheveled black hair falling into its eyes. Wide eyes. And blue. Filled with concern. Alekka felt nothing. That incessant pulsing rhythm pushed harder and deeper into her.

  Kill them. Kill them. KILL THEM! She could feel the presence of the Dark Wizard behind the presence of the creature itself, forcing those words from the creature’s lips, driving it to an uncontrollable rage.

  She felt her magic respond. No longer in her control, her hands raised, her lips moved and mouthed the necessary words, and her hands flashed into blue flames. Her eyes narrowed as the figure before her shoved her aside and vaulted toward the King. He jumped into the air with his little knife raised for attack, but was snatched out of the air before he reached his goal. Alekka felt humor bubbling in her chest. Such a pathetic little creature. How could he even conceive of attacking the powerful servant of the Dark One? The man’s head lolled back, and she could see the whites of his eyes before they fell closed. She could no longer see their color.

  The little box hidden deep within her pulsed, and she felt pain rock through her chest. For an instant the green haze cleared from her vision and she remembered who she was, what she was doing, and who that man clasped in the creature’s fist was.

  The greenness surrounding the box pulled into itself, wriggling ever tighter and tighter, creating a denseness heavier than stone. The box strained against the attack, but it gave a painful throb again. And again. It had its own rhythm. In throbbed in time with her heartbeat and with each painful pulse, the greenness dimmed.

  She turned her focus inward onto that little box and willed life into it. Willed it to be stronger, to open and release whatever was hidden inside. She desperately wanted to know what was hidden there. She needed to know what nestled in its protective hold. She was dimly aware that she was sweating, and that her knees felt weak.

  She saw her hands rise up in front of her eyes, saw the power dancing there, and felt it flare brighter as she prepared to launch into the fray.

  Micah has blue eyes.

  The hair on her arms stood up, and the box gave a brilliant pulse of bluish-white light that bent her in half and dropped her to her knees. Tears spurted from her eyes and her vision blackened in agony, but through that darkness a small, bright light shone through. Enough-it was enough. She knew the man in the creature’s grasp was Micah, that he was in trouble, that the force of the bat king’s rage was overcoming her, and that she was close to unleashing her power upon her companions. She knew, too, that the sickening green force was Amentis himself, and that his presence in the creature’s mind was what had driven the beast crazy. These creatures were not evil—they were prisoners, held
captive and compelled to do Amentis’ bidding.

  She saw Micah lifted high in the air, his head lolling, mouth open wide and face slack. The sounds around her faded away as she reached deep inside herself once more, pulling her power from out of that blue-white light and thrusting it toward the bat king.

  Die…ki-kill them…kill…the words shivered through her with each pulse of green light, threatening to destroy whatever sanity remained to her, but they were quieter now, less certain. Alekka felt panic tear through her. Micah was going to die. She could not allow that to happen. He must survive; the certainty of that rang through her like a clarion call. He was a part of this—he must survive at any cost or they would surely fail.

  “No.” The word was not shouted, but still it rang clearly through the din of battle. She pulled every shred of magic inside of her to her core, and her magefire flared brilliant in her hands.

  Through a blue-green haze, Alekka saw Micah look up at her, his eyes widening in surprise. She lifted both hands and spun them around one another until they were thick with raging fire, and thrust both of them at the beast. I’m sorry, she thought toward it as a tentacle of fire wrapped itself around the creature’s neck. She yanked her hands back, pulling the creature backwards off its feet, and it dropped Micah as it fell. Alekka’s face twisted in fury as she sent the full force of her magefire into the beast. It burst into flame, writhing on the ground in a bizarre dance as chunks of burning flesh fell all around them. A sound burst out of the creature as it burned, and the sound grew and grew until Alekka was sure her eardrums would burst and her brain would bleed. She expected agony, but what she felt instead was exultation at the burning of the binds that had held it so tight. It gave a final wrenching spasm and exploded. Flaming skin and muscle flew in every direction. The green haze vanished from her mind completely, leaving her disoriented and feeling oddly empty.

  All fighting ceased around them. There were a dozen corpses scattered around. Her companions were crouched, ready, but all the remaining creatures stood with their hands at their sides, staring at the pieces of their king smoking in the wet mud. Without a sound, they all leapt into the air and flew into the fog from which they had so recently emerged.

  Gasping breaths were the only sound. Alekka could smell cooking meat and the singed tang of electrical discharge and blood. She stared at the ground as waves of guilt threatened to drown her. She had gotten lost in that creature’s rage and had almost killed her friends. Anguish and fear pulsed through her with every breath. She struggled to push it aside as she ran to Micah, helping him to his feet.

  “Are you alright?” She demanded.

  “Yes. But Elisa…go to Elisa.” His arms were wrapped protectively around his middle and he was hunched over, but he was standing. She nodded, and ran to where Micah had motioned Elisa had landed. She found Elisa alive but badly wounded. Both her legs had gotten tangled in the branches and as the tree had rolled to a stop it had snapped them like so many tiny branches.

  “Elisa?” she said gently, but the other woman didn’t respond. She probed Elisa’s body for any further damage. Shockingly, her only injuries were her legs as far as Alekka could tell. Leali dropped down beside her, eyes wide with concern. “She’s alright, Leali, just her legs. They’re bad, though. I can’t heal them, I’m drained.”

  Leali didn’t respond, but Alekka felt the magic streaming out of her, wrapping Elisa’s legs in healing power. Elisa went even paler and cried out in agony as Leali’s magic realigned bones and stitched muscle. Alekka held one of her hands tightly, and Jobin, stumbling over to them, grasped the other as he collapsed at her side.

  “Is she—?”

  “She’s fine, Jobin. It’s only her legs,” Alekka answered him.

  He leaned forward over Elisa, stroked her hair back from her forehead, and looked into her eyes. “Look at me,” he said gently. “Look at me, Elisa. It’s alright. It will be over soon.”

  She looked up into his eyes, and the pain in her expression eased as her legs twisted and twitched back into place. After many minutes, color flushed back into Elisa’s cheeks and Leali sat back in exhaustion.

  “Alekka, are you alright?” Micah had been beside her through the healing, and now he reached for her arm. She let him grasp her, but kept her gaze cast towards the ground. “Look at me,” he whispered as he pulled her gently around to face him.

  She looked up into his blue eyes—the same eyes that had helped to pull her from Amentis’ grasp only moments before—certain she would see her own weakness reflected back at her from his gaze. She looked down again at her mud-smeared feet. She had beat the beast this time, barely, and only because of him. He must realize, now, the hopelessness of them standing up to Amentis, and all because of her. Why am I like this? She thought with a sudden burst of anger. Why was her mind so vulnerable? Why could Amentis reach into her body, into the very depths of her being, and control her? She risked looking back at Micah and was surprised to see not judgment, but concern there. Concern, and something deeper that had a life of its own showing furtively and only at the edges.

  “It’s gone,” he sighed, his relief tangible.

  “What’s gone?”

  “The greenish glow. You were under a spell, Alekka. I could see it in your eyes, before, when you…but it’s gone now. You broke through it somehow.”

  The thing that had been skulking around the edges of his expression asserted itself more strongly. Relief that she was alright, and something more—desire. She was sure of it. She felt an answering yearning from somewhere deep inside her, and for a moment she let herself be swept up by it, enjoying the warmth it brought with it, the sense of belonging, of being wanted. She let him brush a lock of stray hair behind her ear, and then she pulled her eyes away from his and looked for the others.

  That was not for her. She could not walk down that path with him. With anyone. She wasn’t sure what her destiny held, but she did know that she could not bring anyone else into it if she was this vulnerable to influence. Any more than I already have, she thought grimly as she scanned the immediate area for the rest of their party.

  Jobin stood, dripping and bedraggled and staring hard at Micah. He had his arms around Elisa who stood gingerly beside him, her clothes torn and her hair escaping from its braid. It was plastered to her skull with a mix of blood and mud and her left arm was scorched shoulder to wrist and hanging limply by her side, but her legs were whole and working. She was speaking to Jobin, but he was angled away from her and still staring at Micah. Alekka wondered why, and then realized that Micah must have jumped in to protect the mostly defenseless Jobin, and that Elisa had been grievously injured trying to protect Jobin, as well.

  Tredon and Ashier picked their way through the muck toward the others in the group, their faces bright despite the filth, chests thrust out and shoulders back, pride etched into their features. Elisa glared at them. “Oh, so now you decide to join the rest of us?” she spat. “Thanks for a whole lot of nothing.”

  “Nothing?” Ashier replied evenly. “Look to the far side there. You see that pile of bodies? I would hardly call that nothing.”

  “The three of you went gallivanting off to satisfy your own twisted thirst for vengeance and you left the rest of us here, on our own.” Alekka wondered at Elisa’s inclusion of Leali in her wrath. “We would have been far stronger together, as a team. But none of you seem all that interested in the team part of this journey,” Elisa said.

  Alekka was surprised at how angry Elisa was about it. She wasn’t exactly the epitome of teamwork either, or at least she hadn’t been before. But she’d been right in the thick of it and she’d held nothing back in helping Jobin and, by proxy, Micah and herself. She’d stood with the group. This time.

  “If you choose to protect those that are too weak to survive on their own then that is your choice, Elisa. But I choose the quest over any individual. I choose the strong over the weak. Some people should never even have come on this journey anyway,” Tredon said, lo
oking pointedly at Micah.

  “You are such an ass, Tredon,” Jobin said, speaking to the rest of them for the first time since the fighting had stopped. “You didn’t do that for the quest, you did it to slake your own bloodlust. Magicless killed several of those monsters. He and Elisa saved me, while you were over there relishing in your selfish desire for vengeance. Elisa broke both legs…” he stopped for a moment to look at her, “…which you’d know if you’d spared even one thought for the other half of this group.”

  “Who says I was talking about Magicless, Jobin?” Tredon retorted.

  Jobin’s face flushed deeply, but he stood his ground. “You think you are so strong and so perfect you can do this alone, do you? Well go for it. We’re better off without you, anyway. Your arrogance puts all of us at risk. Someday, Tredon, you’ll be forced to pay up for that attitude of yours, and I don’t want to be around when that payment comes due.”

  Tredon’s chest billowed out, his eyes flashing in anger. But before he could respond a hot wind burst through the clearing, picking up leaves and debris and flinging it around in small whirlwind patterns, sucking the breath out of all of them.

  Micah again seemed to be looking hard at something, just as he had been doing before the attack. He moved to the edge of the clearing, hunching down as if he were trying to see something low to the ground and far in the distance. Alekka looked but saw nothing. Only shrubs, twining vines, and trees.

  “What is that?” He asked, pointing.

  Another gust of hot wind swept into the clearing, whipping at their clothes and picking up everything in its path. Alekka thought of storms she had heard stories of as a child-of air that twirled around itself madly and became so strong it could pick up entire houses-and she shivered in fear.

  The wind gusted around them once more, picking up the fog and the stench of blood and death and sweeping it all away. The bright glow of the sun flooded the clearing and Alekka could feel it warming her skin. Her whole body tingled as the clearing transformed.