Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) Read online

  My words came too late.

  He was already filled to the brim with power, nearly glowing from it. With a wordless shriek, he slammed his hands into the ground again.

  A cold, sick premonition dropped my heart straight into my stomach. Great good gods, but this wasn’t going to be good—I poured all of my magic into the ground as well, throwing up a wall between us as quickly as I could, and with as much density as I could manage. In my half-panicked state, I picked the first hard stone that I could think of, not really considering anything other than my safety, and the safety of the people behind me.

  In seconds, the attack hit the clear wall in front of me, slamming into it with enough impact to shatter bones to a fine powder. I thought the air charged with power before—I had been very wrong. I almost choked on it now. And with each attack, the world shook a little, making my nerves vibrate.

  As quickly as the attack started, it abruptly ended. There was so much dust swirling about that I couldn’t really see my opponent any longer. I waited, eyes peeled, for the dust to settle enough to allow me to see again. A minute or two at the most crawled by before the air had cleared enough. Through my mostly transparent wall, I could make out the shattered remains of boulders and the walls the priest had taken the stones from.

  A part of my mind noticed with interest that in my semi-panicked moment, I had made my wall of pure diamond. Well, that was a very strong mineral, granted…although I was glad no one from the Magical Regulations Department was around just then. Explaining away a diamond wall the size of a large building would have been a mite difficult.

  There were some rather interesting craters in my wall, mute testament of how hard the big boulders had been thrown at me. Maybe the diamond had been a good choice after all.

  Blinking, and peering my way past the wall, I finally spotted the Priest. He was lying crumpled on the ground not ten feet away, inert and completely unconscious. I shook my head, half-pitying the fool. This then was the high price to pay for reaching for power beyond your means to control. He’d never be able to work magic again. I could sense that even from here—there wasn’t a trace of magic left in his body.

  With him defeated, I turned to see how my teammates had fared, absently dismantling my shimmering wall as I turned. Everyone was still up and moving, which was an immense relief. There were a few cuts and bruises, but no serious injuries this time. Better still, the Priests were either out cold or being tied up by Eagle and Hazard. Chatta conjured rope in aid of this endeavor. Dassan was checking in with the other teams to see if they had been attacked as well.

  Xiaolang caught my eye and nodded in reassurance. “We’re all fine. The Priest?”

  “Out cold and burned out,” I responded with a sad shake of the head. “He won’t work magic again in his lifetime.”

  With a long look at our surroundings, Xiaolang snorted. “I’m relieved to hear that, considering how much damage he did. Garth, is that ley line still open?”

  “Partially,” I affirmed with an uneasy glance in its direction. “I’m going to try to seal it now.”

  “Do so.”

  The ley line had been forced open—one might say ripped open, actually—by the incantation. I was hoping that simply closing or erasing the incantation would close it off again. Holding my breath, I smoothed the engraved incantation away with a swift brush of my foot.

  It worked like a charm. The hole closed immediately under my eyes, folding in upon itself so neatly that I almost couldn’t tell it had ever been opened. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned my attention to our surroundings. I didn’t feel the need to put the building back in order, but I could start smoothing the ground back out, and work on the damage the open ley line had caused. But the wild storm of energy released from the ley line still lingered in the air, making me noticeably lightheaded and giddy. There wasn’t much I could do about that. Hopefully, it would dissipate in time. It didn’t take much concentration on my part, so half of me listened to everyone talk as they went about interrogating Priests and treating any minor injuries sustained during the fight.

  “—if you could help, I’d appreciate it,” Night was saying to someone. “It really stings.”

  “Of course, just hold still, you big baby,” Shad’s voice responded calmly. “It’s not that bad, Night. Just a scratch.”

  “Then why do I feel like I’m bleeding?”

  “Well, you are, but it’s not anything serious.”

  “So you can bandage it up, right?”

  “Sure. I’ll just clean out the debris and let Chatta put a healing charm on it. That’ll be easier than trying to get a bandage wrapped around your chest.”

  Huh? I turned to see what was going on. Night stood next to Shad, head turned at an odd angle, as if he were trying to look at his right shoulder. Shad leaned against him a little sideways, a white handkerchief in one hand, the other on Night’s hide. Had Night been hurt? I couldn’t see it from this vantage point.

  Taking two steps to the right, I could finally see that Night had a long score mark from a sharp stone along his neck and shoulder. It looked to be about six or so inches long. It didn’t look that deep, fortunately. It was bleeding however, most shallow flesh wounds do…

  Bleeding. Blood. NO!

  And Shad was about to come into direct contact with that blood.

  Shrieking hinges! “Wait!” I called to Shad desperately, running toward him as fast as I could. “Shad, if you have any cuts on your hands—”

  “Huh?” he turned to look at me, and in that unguarded moment, his hand brushed against the uneven line of blood trickling down Night’s coat. In the next moment, his eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped toward the ground like one of the boulders in the courtyard.

  I was just close enough to dive forward, catching him before his head smacked into a waiting rock. I stared into his unconscious face, and felt this unholy urge to laugh.

  “Oops.”

  Night twisted his head around, looking over my shoulder. He regarded Shad with alarm. “Garth…”

  “Yes, Night?” All of the power in this super charged air must have been getting to me because I found this unbelievably funny. I could just feel a goofy grin spreading across my face.

  “Did I just turn him into a Jaunten?” he asked with some trepidation.

  “You most certainly did,” I assured him cheerfully, feeling more cockeyed by the moment.

  My nreesce lowered his head and looked a little guilty. “Oops.”

  “That’s what I said.” I was holding my breath, trying to control my power binge.

  Xiaolang, apparently noticing our behavior, scurried around the other side of Night in concern. “What’s wrong? Why’s Shad unconscious? Has he sustained an injury?!”

  “He accidentally mixed his blood with Night’s,” I slurred the words, trying not to giggle like a drunken school boy. My facial muscles were beginning to hurt from the effort of containing the merriment that threatened to break loose at any moment.

  “Accidentally mixed blood,” Xiaolang repeated with dawning enlightenment. “But…that would make him a Jaunten, wouldn’t it?”

  “A-yup!” I gave him a sloppy leer in response to his question.

  Xiaolang gave me a strange look. “Well, that’s going to make things interesting. Um, Garth, are you alright? You’re looking a little…insanely cheerful.”

  Chatta appeared before I could explain, took one look at my expression, and sighed. “Oh dear, I was afraid of this. Garth, you need to get out of this area. The air is too charged—” she finally came close enough to see past Xiaolang and saw the unconscious soldier in my arms. “—wait, what happened to Shad?”

  “He mixed his blood with Night’s,” I prattled, with an exaggerated waggle of my fingers, “and poof! Instant Jaunten.” At that, my efforts to control the building laughter utterly failed, and I threw back my head and let it go. My ribs were going to hurt in the morning, but that massive power buzz was in full tilt now. I laughed unt
il the tears were rolling down my face in a steady stream.

  “Shad and I are going to have some interesting things to talk about in the morning!” If I laughed much longer, I was sure I was going to get a nose bleed. Nose bleed! I wondered what would happen with a double dose?! That somehow seemed funny too, and I laughed all the harder.

  Chatta just rolled her eyes and sighed. “I see. Yes, well, we’ll deal with Shad later. Right now, we need to somehow filter this air before you get completely drunk on it.”

  Xiaolang jerked a thumb in my direction. “Is that ley line what is causing him to act like this?”

  “No, the line has been sealed. It’s the release of all the earth magic concentrated in this area,” Chatta explained with a resigned shrug. “Absorbing in that much earth magic, in such a short amount of time, is making him a little giddy. Rather like an alcoholic falling into a vat of some really high grade alcohol. As soon as he gets out of here and breathes normal air, he’ll be fine. But he will probably have a real beauty of a hangover.”

  “And Shad?” Xiaolang pressed with a worried glance at the unconscious troublemaker.

  “Right as rain in three hours,” I assured him jovially, rocking sideways. “Or at least, when this happened to me, I was unconscious for three hours. Anyone want to take bets out how long it takes for him to wake up?” That sent me off into another fit of laughter, with accompanying snorts from my nose.

  “No,” Chatta told me firmly. “Now, behave, Garth. Sit right there with Shad. I’m going to put up a special barrier around you both.”

  I gave her a casual salute. “You’re the boss, boss.”

  She rolled her eyes again, as if praying for patience.

  I sat perfectly still as ordered while Chatta put the barrier up around me. She looked particularly attractive with that little wrinkle between her eyes as she concentrated. Her hands flowed as she worked, the words of the spell spoken in a soft, sing-song manner that I found to be soothing.

  “Garth, why are you smiling at me like that?”

  Had I been smiling at her? “You’re beautiful,” I told her seriously, still loopy and not completely with it.

  She blinked rapidly, hands faltering. “…I think I need to get you punch drunk more often.”

  “Don’t I tell you that you’re beautiful often enough?”

  Chatta shot a look at the—laughing–team mates listening in on this conversation. “We’ll discuss that later, darling. When you’re sober. Night, make sure he stays put.”

  Night gave a serious nod of the head.

  “What?!” I pouted up at her. “I’ll behave.”

  She just rolled her eyes at that and went back to the fountain.

  Shield and Hazard took it upon themselves to contact Saroya to come and get the priests. Within minutes a squad showed up to take the renegades off our hands. I wasn’t even sure if Dassan or Chatta noticed their arrival or departure, so powerful was their concentration.

  After several silent moments of them staring intently at the engravings, Chatta threw up her hands. “This is impossible!” she exclaimed. “The glamour is so strong that it keeps shifting the sigils to my eyes. I can’t focus on anything.”

  “We’re going to have to break the glamour first,” Dassan agreed grimly. He didn’t look surprised. “Captain, how long before everyone is in place?”

  “Roughly fifteen minutes or so,” Xiaolang answered promptly.

  “As soon as we start, I think we better put up a barrier just in case.” Chatta shot me a look. “I don’t think we want to repeat a sneak attack like the last one.”

  “Good idea,” Dassan approved. “We’ll do so.”

  Fifteen minutes seemed to crawl by. Even though the glamour frustrated their efforts, Chatta and Dassan spent the entire time trying to see past it. As time passed, my head started to clear. The barrier was doing an excellent job at filtering out the earth magic lingering in the air. My head felt almost completely clear now.

  Aletha entered the barrier and knelt down next to me, peering intently into my eyes. “You look sane again. How do you feel?”

  “Better,” I admitted sheepishly.

  Good friend that she was, she didn’t start teasing me but instead asked, “So can we trust you to operate the mirror?”

  “Of course,” I assured her. “But I better stay in here, just in case. I don’t think the air outside is clear enough for me just yet.”

  “Probably wise.” Aletha turned to look at her captain. When Xiaolang nodded, I lifted the mirror broach in my hand to her level and activated it. She leaned in closer to speak in crisp tones, “All teams, go. I repeat, all teams are to engage.”

  Dassan put up a strong barrier all around us, like a glowing dome of golden fire. I was impressed by the strength of it. At the same time, Chatta and Dassan hit the glamour spell with a coordinated attack. The glamour’s power wavered, and dimmed, but did not dispel completely.

  Dassan started breathing hard, hunching in a little on himself. Chatta propped herself up by putting both hands on her knees, also breathing hard. “That,” she panted out, “is a ridiculously tough spell.”

  “Want me to try?” Night offered.

  Chatta perked up. “Yes, please.”

  Night picked his away around a flower bed to the fountains edge. “Where should I hit it?”

  She pointed to a spot just above the sigil. “This is the strongest point.”

  “Right. Both of you back away.” Night waited until they’d climbed out of the fountain and retreated several feet before he rocked forward and lashed out with his back feet.

  I threw up a personal shield around myself, Shad and Aletha in sheer reflex to prevent being overwhelmed by a magical backlash. Good thing I did, too. The power that ricocheted our direction had enough force with it to crack the paving stones.

  Night’s hooves crashed back down and he shook his head in a daze. “Whew. My ears are ringing.”

  “You okay?”

  “I think so.” He turned his head to regard the fountain. With the glamour gone, the engravings seemed worn and still, not shifting as they had before. The core section of the fountain didn’t have any cracks or fissures in it, unlike everything else surrounding it. “Did that do it?”

  “Yes,” Dassan confirmed with a triumphant smile. “Now we can do the incantation. Thank you, Master Night.”

  “My pleasure.”

  While glad that the glamour was dispersed, I couldn’t help but wonder if the other teams were having the same problem getting past the glamour. “Aletha, I think we better contact the other teams. Some of them might need Night’s help as well.”

  “Good thought,” Aletha agreed.

  While Chatta and Dassan said the incantation to drain the sigil behind us, we contacted each team to see if they needed help. In most cases, they’d had to destroy the edifice that the sigil was attached to in order to get past the shielding, but they’d managed it. One group, frustrated, had simply set fire to it and burned the shielding clean.

  It was never wise to frustrate a Fire Mage.

  I poked my head out of Chatta’s barrier and couldn’t detect any loose earth magic, so assumed it was safe enough for me to move again.

  I went to Chatta and slid a supportive arm around her waist, giving her something to lean against as she sagged. “That was exhausting,” she sighed, leaning her weight against my chest. “Now I understand why you didn’t want to do it alone, Dassan.”

  Dassan slumped against the fountain’s edge, elbows on his knees, but he lifted his head long enough to shoot her a triumphant smile. “True enough, but it’s done.”

  I held out the hand that still held the mirror broach, letting Xiaolang check in with each team. Reports rolled in so quickly that I couldn’t keep track of them. Xiaolang apparently could, as he never asked anyone to repeat anything. He spent several minutes talking through the mirror before looking up at me with a satisfied smile. “We did it. Every sigil is destroyed.”

  Thank
all the guardians and saints. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “Good. Tell everyone to rest, then. I want to stop by and report to Vonlorisen.” We were not done with destroying sigils yet, after all.

  Xiaolang gave me an analyst’s salute before turning back to the mirror and ordering all teams to take a break.

  While he did that, I turned back to the woman situated comfortably against me. “Do you want to go with me to see Vonlorisen or go back to your room?”

  “I think I’ll go with you.”

  Fine by me. Even though everything had gone smoothly, I still had this nagging feeling that we’d missed something. Granted, I might be paranoid after dealing with the Star Order. They had a nasty habit of springing unwelcome surprises on me. Who knew? Perhaps destroying the sigils would be enough to drive them over the edge of desperation and they’d try tapping into ley lines again. If that happened, I’d rather have Chatta with me.

  I turned to the team. “What about the rest of you? I can drop you off at the building and let you watch over Shad, if you want.”

  Xiaolang gave me that piercing look that seems to see all the way to the back of my skull. “You don’t want us to head back without you.”

  “No,” I sighed with a wry smile at him, “I don’t.” I didn’t bother to explain my uneasy sense of foreboding. If he could pick up one emotion from me, he certainly could pick up on the others.

  “Then we won’t.” Xiaolang didn’t bother to look at anyone else before giving this casual command. “Hazard, get Shad.”

  “Right-o,” Hazard agreed amiably, slinging the unconscious captain like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder.

  Did Xiaolang have some precognitive hint? I eyed him sideways as I took down my barrier but he didn’t do anything more than give me an enigmatic smile. I’d never been able to figure out what he’s thinking when he has that expression on his face.

  Well, if it’s truly important, he’d tell me…right? Right.