Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) Read online

  My magical sense perked up and informed me that dozens of magicians of all types were rapidly approaching the city. I looked up to see some of them coming down from the sky, being carried by an Air Mage. It looked like it was time for me to go back to the problems that I could solve.

  Time to bust through a barrier.

  Chapter Sixteen: Barrier

  What I really wanted was to surround the barrier and take it completely down. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to hammer at it until the thing caved. Chatta reported that the Priests had abandoned the device—whatever it was—and that the Priests were now headed directly for the Palace. I knew from experience that it wouldn’t take more than ten seconds for them to get through the barrier the Remnant magicians had put up.

  We had to get in there now.

  Dassan coordinated us into formation along one street, pointing toward the inner gates. It reminded me of a spearhead in shape. He took a minute to give some of us a crash course on the incantation necessary to link all of our power and focus it. To my complete lack of surprise, the incantation needed to be sung, it was that old of a spell.

  We’d managed to call in forty-six magicians on short notice, and all of them looked a little ragged around the edges. I prayed they had enough strength. We didn’t have a back-up plan if they didn’t.

  My cousin Aral had been chosen as the incantar for this, as he’d led group spellwork before and, as a Mage, he could handle Mage power flowing through him. So he faced all of us with a raised hand, signaling his readiness, and then gave a low, steady hum. We matched pitch with him, words flowing into low, musical tones.

  What stands before us

  We cannot let remain

  The power rose with each word out of our mouths. The song itself had an intensity even without the magical power imbued in it. It had the solemn tone of a hymn and a part of my heart ached with its resonance. But that feeling was almost buried by the magical power that flared to life all around me. It was so overwhelming that I hovered between pleasure and pain.

  How was Aral going to channel all of this?!

  We gather now before it

  Our power we give to one

  Let him cast the fatal blow

  I stood half-way in the crowd, and with the close quarters, I couldn’t begin to see Aral where I stood. But I certainly felt it when he drew upon the power we were sending to him and struck out against the barrier.

  I had my eyes glued to the deep, crimson red barrier even as I continued to sing the incantation over and over. Aral hit the thing with sheer, raw power without any finesse whatsoever. Every time he landed a strike, the barrier flinched, a ripple spread across it as if someone had dropped something into a pond. At first, I thought the ripples were a sign of progress. I’d hit the thing with boulders for three hours, after all, and never got any sort of reaction.

  Then I realized that the ripple effect was actually a bad sign.

  Aral hit it over and over, drawing upon all of our strength to do so. But each time there was a ripple in the barrier as it accepted the power that struck at it, and reset itself.

  Evening had started to descend, the heat of the day fading with it, but my back and forehead beaded with sweat at the exertion of keeping my magical core this open for this long. I hadn’t even been the one destroying sigils earlier, either! I couldn’t imagine what everyone else was feeling.

  This wasn’t working.

  The magical drain abruptly stopped. Aral waved both hands over his head and called out, “STOP!”

  We all thankfully did. Some people sagged, bracing themselves against their knees, drawing breath in quick pants. I felt a little tired, but not exhausted. I pushed and slid my way to the very front so that I could talk with Dassan and Aral. It took several moments to reach them.

  Aral had sank onto his haunches, head hanging, a fine tremor in his arms. I recognized power over-use when I saw it. I dug out my mirror broach and murmured, “Chatta, Aral needs one of those power-restore potions of yours.”

  “Understood. I’m coming.”

  I sank down to lay a hand on his shoulder. “Chatta’s coming with a potion for you. Just wait a moment.”

  He gave a thankful nod but didn’t pause in gulping air.

  I looked up at Dassan. The Wizard stared at the barrier with unfathomable eyes. It felt like lead churned in my gut, but I forced myself to ask, “That didn’t have any affect, did it?”

  “None,” Dassan gritted out.

  Dark magic, that wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear.

  If sheer power from this many magicians couldn’t break through the barrier, what by the four winds could?

  ~*~

  As frustrating as it was, we had to step back and think for a moment. Most of the magicians were dropping like flies, so even if we thought of some brilliant strategy, we wouldn’t be able to draw upon them. I requisitioned food and water from the nearby restaurants, using the authority Vonlorisen had given me, and helped people into the various buildings along this street so they could refuel and rest.

  When I returned to the outdoor café where the team still gathered, Chatta hovered over her scrying bowl with a worried crease between her eyes. I slipped in beside her and bent over the table to get my own look.

  As I watched, the barrier around the Palace faltered then disappeared completely. In the next instant, another barrier appeared, slightly smaller than the previous one, and held steady for several long seconds. I blinked. The Priests were obviously able to crack through these barriers—although I found it interesting that they had a little trouble with a Mage’s and Wizard’s combined barrier. So why rebuild an obviously fallible barrier… “Are they casting successive barriers to slow down the advance?”

  “It’s an interesting delaying tactic,” Shad observed. He put his forearms on the table to lean closer to the bowl. “You have to admit, it’s buying at least ten seconds each time. I’m sure they’ll eventually run out of room, at which point they’ll have to do something else, but at the rate they’re going they could buy us another thirty minutes or so to get to them. Someone in there is using their head.”

  “That means we have ten minutes to think of a way inside.” Xiaolang sat down heavily, eyes blind to his surroundings. “Dassan, walk me through how blood magic works and how that barrier is operating. Step by step.”

  Dassan stopped frowning at the barrier, finally, but only transferred the frown to Xiaolang. “I thought you understood my explanation earlier.”

  “I did. But I’ve discovered that if you explain something to someone else, covering even the basic fundamentals, that you’ll often discover you overlooked something vitally important,” Xiaolang explained patiently. “So walk me through this again.”

  Dassan let his head drop back and blew out a breath. “It can’t hurt. Alright. A blood magician is unlike every other magician in that they don’t draw power from something else. They only rely on the magic within their own bodies. The sole exception to this is that they can take power from other people. This is why most blood magicians have to link with other people to perform any kind of significant magic. Over the years, they have learned how to imbue objects with their power, which you’ve all experienced with their shields and weapons.

  “Barriers are actually one of their more intricate pieces of spellwork.” Dassan jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the barrier behind him. “This is more impressive than most I’ve seen. The sigils in place are in quad-directional alignment, like all of the others, but this one is in dual layers. The first layer of sigil draws upon the life force of everyone inside, which powers the Priests and the barrier. The second layer holds all of the information for the barrier construction itself. In mathematical terms, this is very complicated. Whoever built this thing had to have been a genius to get everything so perfectly right.” Dassan shot a grimace over his shoulder at the barrier. “I personally wish his mother had dropped him a few times as a baby so he wouldn’t have the wits to create s
omething like this.”

  Unfortunately, the whole explanation was something I already knew and didn’t get any insight from. Xiaolang didn’t appear to have gained any brilliant flash of inspiration either. I looked around the table to see if anyone else had an idea. Chatta frowned into her scrying bowl, as did Shield, Shad stared at the barrier through narrowed eyes, and Hazard glumly stared at the table top. Aletha wasn’t looking at anything, just rubbing the bridge of her nose with one hand.

  Eagle…Eagle had the oddest look on his face, as if someone had just smacked him on the back of the head. “Eagle?”

  “Both of you said before,” he started slowly, “that just destroying one sigil would terminate the resonance. Because in a quad-directional alignment, all four sigils have to be in direct line of sight with each other to work.”

  “Right,” Dassan agreed with a tad of impatience. “But we can’t very well destroy one of the sigils with that benighted barrier protecting it. We’d have to break through the barrier to reach the sigil to break the barrier—it’s a complete conundrum.”

  Eagle held up a restraining hand. “Bear with me, I’m thinking out loud, here. Forget about destroying the sigil or making it inert or whatever. Focus on just this part: if one sigil is removed from the directional alignment, then the rest of the sigils are useless, right?”

  Dassan was obviously forcing himself to be patient. “Right.”

  “How far does that barrier go? Does it stop on the ground level?”

  I blinked at this question. I’d never once questioned how far it extended. Every barrier or ward I’d ever put up surrounded the entire area, including the foundation. That was just good sense, in my opinion. But then, I was thinking like a person that tunneled underground on a regular basis. For someone who didn’t have that capability and hadn’t known anyone that could, would they have thought of it?

  Without waiting for anyone to respond to Eagle’s question, I turned sharply toward the barrier and checked with my magical sense. My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. “I don’t believe it! The barrier does stop at ground level!”

  Everyone abruptly sat up, looking at me in excitement. “Then you can take us all directly inside?” Xiaolang demanded.

  “No, Captain, think bigger,” Eagle chided with a crooked smile. “If he can manipulate the ground under that barrier, then what’s to stop him from just moving one of the sigils out of place? That would send the whole barrier crashing down and we can maneuver how we want to.”

  How do I keep missing the obvious solutions? “Eagle,” I choked out, “that’s brilliant!”

  “I do have my moments,” he answered with false modesty.

  Xiaolang pivoted abruptly to Dassan and ordered, “Gather everyone who’s in fighting shape and get them moving.” He turned back to me with another sharp spin on his heels. “Garth, take that thing down!”

  “My pleasure.” I closed my eyes and did my own scrying to determine where the nearest sigil stood. I was in the south corner of the city, so I expected to find one not too far from where I stood. It took only seconds to locate it—only a few hundred marks ahead and to the left of where I stood.

  With no finesse at all, I grabbed hold of the ground the sigil sat on and yanked. The sigil tore to the side, actually toppling because of the forceful wrench. I jerked back to my immediate surroundings to see the barrier splinter and dissipate like shattering glass.

  From inside the inner city, wails of dismay and panic carried on the wind. Hearing the Priests’ reaction filled my heart with predatory joy.

  “Garth,” Xiaolang waved a hand to catch my attention, “take everyone straight to the Palace. I don’t trust desperate men.”

  With a nod, I gathered up the team and every magician that was able to fight—and that turned out to be a good two dozen people. Wrapping us all up in a cocoon of magic, I headed straight to the palace at high speed.

  Chapter Seventeen: A Fallen Order

  Xiaolang had me bring everyone up at the edge of the Palace grounds. As soon as we were above ground, the earth firming again under out feet, he grabbed me by the arm, eyes and voice intense. “Go find Vonlorisen and Vonaudaxen and get them out of here. Take them to a safe location. We can’t risk them.”

  I understood what he was saying, and I knew he was right, but “What if they try tapping into ley lines again? You said it yourself, they’re desperate men!”

  “We have six Mages with us,” Xiaolang pointed out impatiently. “I think we can handle it. Go, Garth!”

  Chatta darted in, throwing her arms around my neck for a quick, hard embrace. “Be careful.”

  “You too.” My arms ached at the loss as she stepped back, but I made myself turn and focus. Where were the king and prince? With so many magical signatures distracting me, it took long seconds for me to pinpoint Vonlorisen’s location. I’d never searched for Prince Audax before, so he eluded me. He could’ve been off the palace grounds for all I knew.

  Regardless, I could at least lay immediate hands on Vonlorisen. I took off in a dead run for the nearest door. Even after my dozens of trips here, I quickly became lost. I realized that the original palace was simply added onto as they needed the extra room, and no one really planned the additions, but couldn’t someone have at least attempted to make the renovations logical? I quickly gave up trying to remember the multitude of turns and hallways I took.

  I kept half of my attention on Vonlorisen’s location, switching hallways at random as I felt I needed to. The other half of my attention stayed on my surroundings, as I in no way wanted to be caught unawares by a renegade Priest or some other Star Order fanatic.

  I finally came to a hallway that I recognized. This was where Vonlorisen’s private study was. I’d been here often enough to know it well. A Wizard stood guard just outside the door. He had to be from Coven Ordan, as he looked Chahiran even with the black robes he was wearing, but I didn’t recognize him. That didn’t hold true for him—his blue eyes lit up with recognition when he saw me. “Magus!”

  “The King?” I demanded.

  “Safe inside,” he assured me. “Prince Audax is in a different location, guarded by my friend Mian.”

  “Air Mage?” I verified.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  So these two were the ones responsible for the barriers, eh? “I’m taking the King out of here to a safer location. Contact your friend and have her take the Prince away as well.”

  The Wizard nodded in understanding and pushed the door open, only sticking his head in long enough to say, “Magus Rhebengarthen is here for you, Your Majesty.”

  I stepped quickly into the room, pausing just inside the doorway. Vonlorisen stood behind his desk, which lay buried under a thick stack of maps, parchments, and books precariously stacked one upon another. The king himself looked even more haggard and sleep deprived than the last time I’d seen him, and that was saying something. But when he saw me, his eyes lit up with hope. “You’re through! The barrier?”

  “Destroyed,” I assured with a feral smile. “I’m here to take you to a safe location until we’re sure the Priests are all rounded up. An Air Mage will see to your son.” I wanted to yank him into action, and stopped my hand before I could actually do so.

  Vonlorisen lost no time coming around his desk and sprinting for the door. He slapped the door aside, snapping out orders to his Wizard guard to follow as he ran. I stayed on his heels with no real effort, as I was more physically fit than he was.

  We changed hallways three times in quick succession. Vonlorisen turned another corner, reaching a door made of elaborately carved wood. He yanked it open, stepping out into an open courtyard.

  I cleared the door and got my first look at the private garden. This garden didn’t have the meticulously kept look that so many in Alvacon did, but rather had a more natural feel to it. If I didn’t have the imminent descent of powerful Priests hanging over my head, I might have spent a few moments enjoying the peaceful feel of the place. As it stoo
d, I ignored the trees, flowers and shrubbery and started scanning the area for possible breach points.

  The King turned to me and asked, “Is this a strong enough connection to the earth for you to work you magic?”

  “Yes. We’ll take the earth path.” He gave me a confused look, and it was only then that I realized I’d never really explained my ability to travel in the earth. He’d seen me pop out of the ground at various times, but I’m not sure how much information they had about that particular method of mine. I crossed mental fingers and hoped he wouldn’t panic on me, wrapped us up in a cocoon of magic and went down.

  He didn’t panic, which was a blessing as I was going far too fast to pause and issue any reassurances. I could feel the earth crack and groan in protest as I forced my way through. Even though I hadn’t made any conscious decision, I instinctively headed toward Del’Hain. But I couldn’t go that far—it would take too much time. It would take a half a day for me to go to Del’Hain and back. As it stood, I was nervous about leaving everyone to battle the Star Priests for more than ten minutes.

  I paused right where I was, hovering somewhere near the Hain-Chahir border, and turned to him. “Forgive me, I instinctively went towards Hain but in truth I don’t know a good place to leave you. I don’t want to stray too far from Alvacon. I need to get back there as quickly as possible.”

  “So taking us to Guin is out of the question,” Vonlorisen stated while thoughtfully rubbing at his jaw.

  “It would take a half a day to go there and back.” Even with me going at an insane speed.

  “Is there no place closer to that?” Vonlorisen pressed.

  “Well, Guin had houses built along the border, like way-stations. I’ve dropped off magicians there several times. Would you be willing to stay there for a few hours?”