The Castrofax (18 page)

He selected a pattern not seen in an Age and
split the largest trees up the center. Every time he bent a finger,
a massive tree fell forward, opening the split like a cavernous
maw, and slammed down onto the soldiers. The trees closed their
mouths and straightened, or threw their tops high and flung the men
into the darkness. The crunch of bones and pop of joints filled the
air for a moment. The soldiers scurried around, trying to avoid the
flailing trees, only to be caught up in an absent Fire pattern and
light-shards. Gabriel called lightning down again, feeling it drain
his stamina.

‘
This or the Castrofax. Murder hundreds
for my freedom. How can I honestly justify that?’
He stopped
for a moment, keeping his ring of protective fire high.
‘I must.
My power in the hands of a man like Nolen would be
disastrous.’

He sent a creeping-choke pattern to his left
where the soldiers were thickest, pulling men to the ground with
wild vines. He gathered Water energy and threw balls of icy water
that wrapped around a man and froze. The air was nearly parched of
water, but Gabriel knew how to draw it from the earth or people.
Hurling the last of the wrapping-balls, he expended the water close
by.

One of Nolen’s patterns suddenly formed
around him in a dome, blocking sound and heat. It constricted and
forced him to crouch lower. Forming a green pattern, he blew the
bottom of the dome off and broke its connection, frizzling it back
to nothing. A solid object hit him in the small of his back, and he
realized Nolen was mustering his strength again.

Gabriel did not bother rising but instead
threw balls of blue fire in Nolen’s direction. By now many trees
were alight, and branches snapped and crashed to the floor. The air
was filled with crackling flames, neighing horses, and dying
men.

A section of his fire barrier suddenly died
from an Air pattern, and a moment later a rider pushed a stout
charger through. Gabriel wasted no time seizing a rock and
launching it at the rider with an Earth pattern. It struck the man
in the chest and pierced through, and as the man screamed and fell,
Gabriel realized the scream was too high-pitched to be male.

He somehow stumbled three paces before his
leg could bear his weight no longer, and he crumpled by the side of
the woman. Her helm had fallen, revealing shorter brown hair tied
back messily. While she was not the fairest of maidens, he could
see the femininity in her eyes. He looked into them with
uncertainty, knowing he could heal her but would cost him stamina.
Blood came to her mouth as she coughed violently, her chest filling
with fluid.

“Hold on,” he commanded and flicked together
a white delve-pattern to feel for the damage. “Inhale and hold the
breath.” She sucked in, gurgling while trying to keep the air in.
He sent a healing patterns through her chest, mending skin,
repairing bone, and attaching nerves. It took only a moment before
she began coughing again; her lungs alleviated.

The wideness of her eyes lessened, and she
put a hand on his shoulder and gripped his shirt. “I’m so sorry,”
she whispered.

He felt something cold wrap around his left
wrist as her warm fingers brushed him.

He wrenched away from her grasp and fell back
on his free arm to look at his wrist. A copper band that glowed a
faint yellow in the center secured around it, and as he turned his
arm, he saw it bore no seam. He grabbed at it with his free hand to
yank it lose, pry it open, or slip it over his hand to no avail.
Panic flooded through him, and he grabbed the soldier’s boot knife
before he knew what he was doing. He put the blade’s edge against
the side of his wrist, prepared to cut the damned thing off,
starting with his hand.

“Stop!” the woman yelled a moment before a
crossbow quarrel drove into his upper ribs. The force threw him
back so hard it shoved the air from his lungs and shot pain through
his torso. The knife made a sharp line across his thumb before it
fell from his hand.

‘
Are…are they trying to kill me?’
he
wondered, gasping. It was now not just a battle for his freedom,
but for his life. Gabriel tried to rise, but the woman put a hand
in the center of his chest and held him down, forcing the arrow
through his shoulder into the soil.

“It’s better if you don’t struggle,” she
said. As her hand went to the quarrel Gabriel saw another two
riders break through the fire barrier.

‘
I’ve not lost yet.’
He threw his hand
in their direction, but before he could release a pattern, an arrow
took one out in the temple.
‘Happy coincidence,’
he thought
a moment before the other rider fell with an arrow to the back of
the skull.
‘Robyn’s joined the fight.’

He pushed the woman off him and tried to sit
as more riders filtered through his barrier. They dismounted
quicker than the fired arrows, and only two more soldiers fell. The
women descended on him, some going for a leg as he kicked. Others
toppled onto his torso, and somewhere in the fray, a second cold
band slipped around his right wrist. Adrenaline poured through him
as he fought back, striking one in the nose and feeling it break.
He called Earth to him and drew a creeping-choke pattern to wrap
around three women, pulling them back and off him, but more
soldiers were coming.

He reached skyward and called lightning down,
feeling its hot crackle strike beside him to split a man in twain
and throw a woman back passed the fire barrier. In the crashing he
heard someone yell to grab his hands, and two strikes later both
hands hit the ground spread-eagle. One woman sat on a hand while a
man knelt on the other, stopping his mobility completely. Two more
soldiers knelt over his calves to keep him from kicking. A man fell
to his right with an arrow notched in his eye.

Through the flames Nolen strode triumphantly,
his coat blown out behind him. An arrow streaked for his skull but
bounced off an air shield he held. He stepped up between Gabriel’s
legs and stood above him, his feet on either side of Gabriel’s
ribs. Gabriel must have been a sight for Nolen, bleeding from his
face and sides with a quarrel and an arrow shaft stuck in him,
muddied and sweaty, and in the most vulnerable position he could
think of.

Another arrow bounced off Nolen’s shield.

“And so it was the Class Ten who caused the
stars to fall fell to a Mage half his Class,” Nolen whispered.

“Don’t,” Gabriel spat, bordering on pleading.
“What do you want of me? I will come with you but please—”

Nolen held up a finger. “Let us not say the
Class Ten begged for his life in the end.” He bent and took a knee
as he pulled the neckpiece Castrofax from his coat. It glimmered in
the firelight as though alive. A soldier grabbed Gabriel’s hair
while another put a hand under his jaw and pulled his head back
exposing his neck. Gabriel strained at his limbs to no avail; the
soldiers were too heavy. His body tensed as his breath rasped in
his throat.

“Please,” he whispered as Nolen stretched his
hands forward. The last thing he heard was the click of the
Castrofax as it closed around his neck.

Councilman Dagan had been asked not to leave
Castle Jaden, but he left anyway, bent for the small city of
Brisbane Dale. It was just within the border of Jaden. In the
outskirts of town, he sat comfortably in the house of Councilman
Kieran. His friend had vanished suddenly in the middle of one
afternoon. A moment with his children, and the next he was simply
gone with no trail. Councilman Kieran’s young wife was beside
herself with grief.

Lilly sat across from him, a handkerchief in
one hand as she dabbed at her eyes. Kieran married a much younger
woman and fathered three children by her. By all looks they were a
happy family. There was no reason for Kieran to leave. Despite
being urged to move to Castle Jaden, Lilly remained in her home in
case Kieran returned.

Their youngest son Liam, a babe no older than
two, sat by the little hearth playing with a doll. The other two
children screamed outside playing a chasing game.

“Dagan, tell me truthfully, was he involved
in something the Head Mage would no’ let him speak of?” Lilly
asked, her eyes red and her lips pert from crying. She was a pretty
little thing, though a tad frail of health. An Earth Mage as well,
she came from the southern horse country Aidenmar.

“No, Lilly. His status as a Councilman makes
him a target. That is all I can offer.”

She nodded and dabbed at her eyes again.
“Liam, don’ play with tha’,” she said halfheartedly in her thick
Aidenmarian accent and waved a hand in the child’s direction. “What
will I do if he does no’ return?”

“Let us not think on that. I have faith he is
well and—” He was cut off suddenly by the children’s screaming in
the yard turning sharply from playful to terror. With three
children himself, he had the protective instincts of a father, and
he launched out of his chair in unison with Lilly and ran to the
nearest window. The children were nowhere to be seen, but a shriek
came from the other side of the house. Lilly tore down the stairs
screaming “Jamie! Addley!”

Dagan followed closely behind, darting
through the dark house and glancing through every window for signs
of distress. They rushed through a salon, and Dagan stopped dead
with a gasp as Lilly kept running. Outside the window was Kieran,
but it was
not
Kieran.

The shadowy outline of his friend’s features
was held together by a faint blue light that emanated from the
man’s body. But Dagan could also see
through
the man to the
road behind him. There was no flesh, no life, only the image of the
man.
‘A specter,’
Dagan knew, and felt his skin prickle.
Specters were only seen when there was a tear in the veil that held
back the spirit world, and it was nearly as rare as a blue
moon.

Dagan looked harder and saw the man was
wounded, missing an ear and a finger, weeping dark blue blood from
a dozen wounds. His clothes were tattered and his hair mussed. A
blank expression plastered his face. The specter seemed to be after
something, and Dagan heard a little girl scream. He made for the
door, and it occurred to him he had not heard the older boy cry
recently.

He raced to the back door and nearly collided
with Lilly who stood clutching her skirts. He looked around her and
saw the little boy standing still, a blank expression on his face,
with skin as gray as rock. Dagan skirted around Lilly and grabbed
the boy’s shoulders to find they were solid. His body had no give
to it; his skin was hard and cold as stone. “Oh stars, Jamie?
Jamie!” he yelled, shaking the statue. If there was life left in
the boy, he did not show it.

Lilly started running again yelling for her
daughter, and Dagan lost her around the house. He followed quickly
after and heard the little girl scream again. He skidded around the
corner and saw the specter put a kiss on the child’s head. The girl
opened her mouth to scream, but rapidly her skin changed from pale
pink to gray starting with her thrown-up arms. Before the child had
a chance to take a breath, the transformation was complete, and
what was once a little girl was now a cold stone statue.

The specter turned towards his wife walking
smoothly as though his feet did not actually touch the ground. He
extended his arms to her, and she wept uncontrollably, muttering
nonsense as she looked at him and back to her daughter.

“Do not let him touch you!” Dagan yelled. The
woman made no effort to move as the specter reached for her. “Lilly
move!” Before he could lay an Earth pattern to push her away, the
specter wrapped her up and kissed her tenderly on the lips. The
tears on her cheeks turned to stone as her screwed-up face froze.
She had no time to break away as the transformation spread to her
torso and down her legs. The Earth pattern Dagan laid fell from his
fingers as terror and grief swelled in his chest.

The specter broke away from her and turned
towards the house. Dagan quickly dashed back inside. Liam was still
playing by the hearth, griming his fingers in the ashes. Dagan
snatched him up and held him closely as he pounded back down the
stairs and out the front door. His horse was in the stable, and he
had just enough time to throw a bridle on the mare when the specter
glided through the doors. Dagan dragged the horse out at a trot and
clambered atop, still holding the little boy. Kicking her hard, he
bolted through the doors before the specter could reach Liam. He
steered her towards Jaden, a half-day ride at a canter, and did his
best to stay on without a saddle.

That settled it. Kieran was not only lost to
them, but Ryker Slade’s unmistakable fingerprint was on this death.
Legends said the Mage had an unnatural hold on the spirit world. He
could channel it to bring horrors into reality. Dagan had his
suspicions on how the man was capable of such things, but if anyone
knew, no one said. The revelation of the specter proved Slade was
up to his old games. The Councilman suddenly felt very
vulnerable.

For a moment everything slowed. Sound faded
to a dull hum, pain ceased, and the lights of the fires blurred to
indiscriminant bobbles. Gabriel could hear only his breath in his
chest as he inhaled sharply and promptly forgot what to do
next.

His Elements, once powerfully coursing
through his veins, reduced to a faint prickle in his chest. His
eyes remained wide open as his body and mind fought to find the
Elements. The energies of the world ever present were now but a
faint trickle through his skin. He extended his conscious to grasp
hold of the energies only to feel them slip away like smoke. His
held breath began to fight for release, reddening his face as his
body tensed every muscle. He remembered to exhale.