The Missing Mage (22 page)

Balthazar rushed pasted Nathan and, with a flick of his hand, sent a magical wall of water rushing over the fallen ranger. The water crashed into his body and put out the flames. Corey lay still on the ground.

Balthazar moved quickly towards the downed man, calling for Nathan to cover him. Nathan pulled his bow off his shoulder and quickly cocked an arrow. He scanned the woods looking for a target, but could see nothing.

Another bolt of flame came from the woods, aimed at Balthazar. Nathan fired an arrow from the direction he had seen the projectile come from. He readied another arrow. Suddenly, there was a barrage of fire bolts flying from three different spots in the woods. As fast as he could, Nathan fired arrows at all three spots.

Balthazar surrounded himself with a magical shield. As his shield absorbed and deflected the magical fire attacks; Balthazar returned fire with lightening bolts that shot from his hand.

Between Nathan’s arrows and Balthazar’s lightening, the fire bolt attacks had ceased. Slowly Nathan and Balthazar made their way towards the woods where the attacks had originated from. On the ground, Nathan could see one of his arrows had hit one of the attackers in the chest. Two more were on the ground from Balthazar’s attacks. As they drew closer, Nathan got a better look at the men. The dusky-skinned mages were dressed not in robes, but in thin strapped leather like tribal warriors. Despite being clad like simple warriors, Nathan couldn’t see any weapons, these were mages.

Nathan watched as Balthazar turned the body of one of the fallen mages, Nathan realized in horror that the mage was not dead, he was hiding the fact he was casting a spell. “Watch out! He is casti—“

Boom, an explosion rocked Nathan back. The last thing Nathan saw before the world went dark was Balthazar’s body flying through the air.

…

Ava was in her room, practicing making her ball of magical energy bigger. She had the ball up to the size of a turkey egg, a vast improvement over the marble-sized ball she had first produced two days ago. Soon she would have a respectable sized energy shield, a moment she looked forward too. Her arm was getting sore from hefting the wooden shield to bloc Sharon’s attacks.

The image hit her brain hard. She was watching Balthazar lean over a strange-looking man, turning him over when a glow from underneath the man turned into an explosion and Balthazar was sent flying, then the world went black. Ava popped out of bed, sending a memory to Nathan and waiting for him to respond. But she already knew the response was unlikely to come. Nathan was in trouble and Balthazar was likely hurt or dead.

Ava ran to find Quinton and Sharon, who had taken Rose down to the beach to play. The three were prancing around, playing in the surf when Ava got to them.

Quinton saw the look on Ava’s face as she approached the beach. He knew something was wrong. Stepping out of the water, Quinton came to her. “What’s wrong Ava?”

“Something terrible happened. I received a mental image from Nathan. He and Balthazar are hurt or worse. We have to go find them.”

Quinton was just about to say that was a job for a ranger, but they were all out searching for survivors already. Ava was right. The fastest way to get help to Nathan would be to go themselves. “Okay, you are right, we do need to go find him, but how?”

Ava knew exactly how to find Nathan. “Thorn! Thorn could find Nathan anywhere.”

Quinton had forgotten about Nathan’s magical connection with the horse. She was right, Thorn could lead them to Nathan.

Sharon had just come out of the water and had missed the first part of the conversation. “What is going on?”

“Nathan and Balthazar are in trouble,” said Quinton. “We are going to go find them. Sharon go put on your armor and grab your weapons. Ava get your healing supplies ready. I will go to the stables and get the horses ready,” said Quinton. He then turned to Rose who was just now coming out of the water. “Rose, something important has come up. Nathan needs our help, I need you to run into the house and find Aunt Avera. Tell her to meet me in the stables as quick as possible.”

Rose said nothing, just shook her head in acknowledgement then sprinted towards the house. Sharon and Ava were already ahead of her. Rose’s heart was pounding. Fear made her feet faster.

Rose found Avera in her study reading. “Aunty Avera, come quick. Something happened with Nathan. Quinton needs you at the stables right away.”

With a calm born from managing many a crisis, Avera put her book down and looked at Rose. “Thank you my dear, now quick as a bunny go find Maggie and ask her to put together some supplies. Tell her a week’s supplies for half dozen should be sufficient.”

Rose ran off to find Maggie. Avera quickly headed to the stables to find Quinton. That he was having her meet him at the stables and the fact that he had Rose come find her instead of one of the older girls was very telling. Avera knew that it was likely Quinton and the girls intended to go find Nathan. When Avera got to the stables, Quinton had three horses almost ready to go. Wasting no words, Avera asked Quinton what was happening. “Fill me in,” she simply said.

“Ava got a mental image of Balthazar and Nathan being hurt. All the rangers are gone, so we are going to use Thorn to track Nathan down,” replied Quinton.

“Don’t tell anyone else you are going. There is a spy in the royal court and I fear it may be a family member. Nathan and Balthazar were on a secret mission to find Cyrnic Warnack. There are powerful mages also looking for Cyrnic, the same ones who captured and tortured rangers. Be very careful, if Balthazar and Nathan can’t defeat them—“

“Then we would have no chance. Got it, once we find them we will be careful,” Quinton finished the thought for Avera.

“Get your gear ready, and then stop in the kitchen. Maggie is getting some supplies ready for you. I will hold the horses until you and the girls are ready to go.”

When Quinton and the girls returned to the stables, Ava jumped on Thorn while the others mounted two of Avera’s horses. Avera gave them a parting warning. “Be very careful, don’t trust anyone other than Nathan and Balthazar. Between the enemy’ mages and the spies in our court you are on your own. Keep calm at all times and think things through. You have all been through worse, you can do this.”

“Thank you Avera, we will bring them back,” said Ava as she urged Thorn forward.

“Go find Nathan,” she urged the powerful stallion.

Thorn took off at a run. He knew what was expected.

…

It was close to dark when Quinton and the girls found the cabin. Thorn led them right to Nathan. Ava jumped off and ran to him. She knelt down beside him, checking on his condition. He was unconscious, but alive. It was a small measure of relief. She let out the breath that she had been unconsciously holding.

While Ava carefully and quickly examined Nathan, Quinton looked around for Balthazar. At first, he could not find the mage. But then, as he scanned the forest something caught his eye. Up in a tree, there was Balthazar, draped over a branch. The explosion had sent him flying a good twenty feet. “Sharon, help me get Balthazar down out of the tree.”

Sharon leapt up the tree like a cat and made her way onto the branch holding Balthazar. Carefully, she lowered the mage down to Quinton. It wasn’t easy, but with all the physical training she had been doing lately, her strength and muscle tone and increased significantly. And with the adrenaline rush she had, Sharon was amazed at her own strength.

While the others were getting Balthazar out of the tree, Ava was tending to Nathan. She took some smelling salts out of her supplies and put them under his nose, waving them back and forth to get the scent into his nostrils.

With a small jerk, Nathan regained consciousness. His eyes opened and he looked up at Ava. “Am I dead?”

“Not yet,” replied Ava. “How do you feel?” Relief flooded every part of her body.

Nathan wiggled all his extremities. “I am okay, my head hurts and I could use some water but I am fine.”

“Sit and drink this, I will be right back,” said Ava as she handed Nathan a flask of water before going to check on Balthazar.

Quinton and Sharon had Balthazar on the ground when Ava got to them. “Is he alive?” she asked.

“Barely. It looks like he got his shield up just in time but the explosion rocked him pretty hard. It looks like he has some internal bleeding and a broken leg,” replied Quinton. He was not unfamiliar with combat and had some experience with war wounds.

“Quinton, make a splint for his leg. Sharon, grab some blankets from the supplies,” ordered Ava, as she took charge of helping Balthazar. The wounds were ones she would be able to fix, or at least get him well enough to return to Balta, where Helena would be able to provide better care. However, she would not be able to put just a salve on his wounded leg or ribs. She would have to use magic.

Ava put her hand over Balthazar’s ribs. She focused her mind, thinking only of making Balthazar healthy again. She could feel the energy leave her as it flowed into Balthazar. Once she was satisfied that the internal bleeding was stopped, she moved on the broken leg, repeating the process of sending healing energy into Balthazar’s wounds, telling his body to fix itself. As the bone slid back into place, she used the splints Quinton gave her to set the wound. As long as Balthazar didn’t move much he would be fine. Now he needed to rest. “Lift him up and bring him to the cabin. He needs rest now.”

After moving Balthazar to Cyrnic’s bed Ava returned to Nathan, he was now sitting up against a tree. “What happened here?” she asked. “I got an image of a strange-looking mage getting blown up and Balthazar flying through the air, then your mind went blank. It must have been just before you went unconscious.”

“It was a trap. They either knew we were coming, or left a welcoming party just in case. Ranger Poole is dead, and we almost died too. I think those mages have Cyrnic now.” Nathan was frustrated, their rescue attempt had failed miserably, and things would only get worse if Cyrnic led Morthon’s mages to the legendary tomes. “How is Balthazar?” asked Nathan, dreading the answer.

“He will live, I am afraid he is done with your quest and will have to return to Balta though.”

Nathan was relieved; Balthazar living was a huge weight off his chest. “Let’s go inside, it’s starting to cool off and I need some food.”

Ava gave Nathan a hand up and they walked into the house. Quinton was starting a fire in the house’s small fireplace and Sharon was preparing supper. “Thank you for the rescue,” said Nathan to his friends.

“It’s not every day you get to rescue two of the most famous mages in Balta, especially when they are on a rescue mission of their own. We were glad to do it, strictly for the fame and accolades you know,” quipped Quinton.

Nathan smiled. “Yes, rescuing the rescuers. Some rescue party we turned out to be. We got our butts kicked.”

“Last time I looked there were three dead mages outside and two live ones in here. It is sad that the ranger died, but if you are going by body count and the fact you were ambushed, I would hardly call that getting your butt kicked,” said Sharon.

Nathan thought about it for a minute, she had a point. They had suffered, but not as badly as the enemy had. The enemy was not invincible. However, the search for Cyrnic certainly had taken a setback. “Tomorrow morning I have to keep going; I have to find Cyrnic.”

“No,
you
don’t,” said Quinton. “What you meant to say is that tomorrow morning
we
need to get going. We are going to help you find Cyrnic.”

“Who is going to look after Balthazar?” replied Nathan.

“I am injured, not dead. I can look after myself,” came the reply from the bedroom.

Balthazar had awoken. The three of them went into the room to check on him.

“Quinton is correct I am afraid. I will need to return to Balta. You four must continue on the quest. It is vital that you find Cyrnic before he leads the Darcarions to the tomes.”

“Darcarions?” asked Ava.

“The mages outside are Darcarions. They are from one of the western isles. They are a race of powerful magic users, assassins, and thugs. Morthon has spared no expense it seems. Darcarions are powerful mages, and have no qualms about using dark magic. You must be very careful. I fear rescuing Cyrnic is going to be quite a challenge and one I will not be able to assist you with.”

“How do we find Cyrnic?” asked Quinton.

“Don’t look at me,” replied Balthazar. “I am not a ranger.”

Everyone turned and looked at Nathan.

“Ranger Poole mentioned tracks. Tomorrow morning I will find them and we will follow the tracks until we find Cyrnic,” said Nathan.

“I will take the horses back to Balta, I am afraid you will not be able to use them in the jungle,” said Balthazar.

“Jungle?” asked Sharon.

“Yes, the jungle is only a few miles from here and that is where the tomes are supposed to be. They will be taking Cyrnic that way,” said Balthazar. “Everybody eat supper and get some rest, your journey starts again in the morning and it only gets more dangerous as you go.” Balthazar’s voice trailed off. It had taken effort to speak so soon. To breathe hurt. He looked at Ava. He mouthed the words, thank you.

Ava nodded her understanding. “Rest, Balthazar. Magic and salves can only do so much. You must sleep.” Ava handed him some dried berries. “Eat these.”

Balthazar obeyed the young healer willingly. The berries were bitter but the warm fuzzy feeling was almost immediate, and he welcomed it, drifting off into a pain-relieving sleep.

A short time later, Nathan and Ava were sitting together eating supper in one corner of the house, while Quinton and Sharon sat at the far side sharing their meal. Nathan found it strange how they had gotten to this point, where he had this close group of friends that were couples. It was only months ago that he was all alone. Never would he have imagined that he would have Ava, and that Sharon would end up with his cousin, who he did not even know existed. Time was changing things so much.

“Are you sure you want to come into the jungle?” Nathan asked Ava.