Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) Page 7

  “Do keep in mind that the rest of us don’t,” Audax requested in a brittle, dry tone.

  Shad paid no attention to this instruction, his mind already focusing on how to handle the situation at hand.

  “Rossie, Bohme and Sloves—we’re going first. We know what to look for. Janae, Lowey, you follow close in behind us and help us deactivate these things. Bos, you watch our tail. I don’t want anything sneaking up behind us. Tyvendor, you be ready to lift us off the ground in a moment’s notice, got that?”

  When Shad got only affirmatives or firm nods, he rubbed his hands together in glee. “Now, let the fun begin!”

  Only a chorus of groans answered him.

  Shad shot them all a mock-frown. “Where’s your sense of adventure, people?! Fine, fine, I’ll go first. Tyvendor, set us down very slowly, good, just like that. Now, people, follow in my footsteps.”

  Despite his jovial words he did not rush forward headlong but cautiously, one step at a time. He did unsheathe the sword at his back and let it hover a few inches from the ground. If they had caltrops, then they might very well have hidden some traps as well, and Shad had no desire to personally spring any of them. His eyes were wide open, looking for any sign of the earth being recently disturbed.

  The grounds around a Dom’s manor were typically very well landscaped and kept in immaculate condition. These were no exception. Every blade of grass was cut at exactly the same height, the trees were perfectly pruned and every hedge of flower bed they passed had been carefully tended. That level of perfection actually made it easier for the invading team—Shad had no problem identifying where the landscaping had been recently altered. After spying the fourth trap, all he had to do was point to the right area and one of the magicians following him would either disintegrate it with a hot flash of fire or simply levitate it from the ground and toss it to the side.

  What should have been a ten minute walk to the house took over an hour to cross. Shad knew that most of the people behind him were frustrated at the slow progress. He could hear their sighs, and their muted groans, and feel the weight of their impatient stares. Personally, he enjoyed springing every trap. Thwarting an enemy’s plan held immense satisfaction, to his mind.

  Once they were within a stone’s throw from the house, he switched point with Bohme and had him focus on the traps underfoot. He had to focus now on the mansion itself.

  What he saw made tears of joy spring to his eyes.

  Fortifications.

  All around the manor there were walls, hastily constructed out of rough-hewn planks of wood. They had been arranged in two levels, although it looked like only the first had been completed. The second had odd gaps here and there, so Shad assumed that they’d run out of time to complete the second wall. He couldn’t see everything, but along with the walls blocking their way, archers stood on the rooftop, just waiting for them to step out from the canopy of trees and into full view.

  Audax came to stand at his side. For a long moment he didn’t say a word, just looked, and then he looked at the captain who was bouncing on his toes in delight. “Well, it seems that your wish has been granted. You have your traps.”

  “They did well, too, considering how little time they had,” Shad praised with an exuberant nod of the head. “See the walls? Those would slow us down quite a bit, as it would take some time to scale them. The archers could pick us off easily. And the second level of the wall would slow us down too, even with those gaps, because we’d have to maneuver in between the sections to get to the open areas. And I’d bet that in between the walls are more caltrops or something similar. Ha! Oh, and look, look! There’s boiling pots up there in the upper windows near the roof. Is it boiling oil or water? I wish I could tell from here.”

  Audax regarded him through narrowed eyes. “This all looks familiar to you, doesn’t it?”

  “Of course!” Shad responded in surprise, turning to look up at him. “Siege warfare was common in my time. Are you saying that you haven’t had any wars during your lifetime?”

  “We haven’t had any wars since the Magic War ended,” Audax corrected patiently.

  “Huh.” Shad turned to regard the fortifications with a new eye. “In that case, someone over there has certainly done their homework. But, sadly for them, I know the weaknesses for all of those defenses and I brought along some pretty amazing firepower.” Shad gave another brisk rub of the hands in sheer anticipation. “Alright my Wizards and lovely Witch, here’s the plan. I’m going to run straight for the first wall. When I do, I should draw the attention of every archer on that rooftop. That’s your chance to take them down.”

  Tyvendor raised a hand. “Might I point out that I can go up there myself and deal with them without you running headlong into danger?”

  Oh. Good point. Shad thought that through for a moment before pouting. Dang it, no fun for him. He nodded permission to Tyvendor. “Alright, go. The rest of us will breach the front door. Bornemeier, how are you doing at finding the renegades?”

  “This is quite the gathering for them,” the young Wizard responded with a silent whistle. “I count twenty-five.”

  “And do we have a map of the interior of the house?” Shad inquired.

  “Not yet,” Loewen denied with an irritated shake of the head. “The tracer spell just barely finished the grounds. I need more time to do the house.”

  “In that case, we’ll do it the fun way.” Shad turned and pointed to the soldiers waiting patiently. “Pair off with a magician. They’ll deal with the traps and whatever Priests you find, but you deal with the weapons. Clear?”

  “Yes, sir!” they acknowledged in unison.

  “Alright. Bornemeier, stay with me. I want to keep track of who’s where. That’s your job.” Shad fixed a beady eye on the prince. “You stay with me too. If I bust through that door and find the Dom screeching legalities, I don’t want to argue with him.”

  Audax gave him a mock salute. The tension seemed to be sinking in at this point, as his eyes were razor sharp and he had a feral look to him. Shad had seen that expression often enough to recognize it. Excellent. Any man that went in cold blooded to a fight wasn’t a man that Shad wanted at his side.

  “Alright, someone carve me a path through that wall.” Shad pointed directly ahead of himself.

  Bos lifted his wand and spoke two short commands that were so choppy Shad couldn’t decipher what he said. Whatever spells they were, it cleared the path with a spectacular shower of wood splinters spraying in every direction. In fact, the power of the spell had been such that he smashed through both walls and part way into the granite staircase behind them. The stone cracked in a circular pattern as if someone had smashed a giant fist into it.

  Even from this distance, the sound of people yelling in surprise at the attack were clearly audible.

  With the path clear, Shad waved at Tyvendor. “Your turn.”

  Tyvendor raised his eyes to the roofline of the mansion and the archers lined up and waiting for them. Even though the gesture clearly wasn’t necessary, he raised a hand in a sweeping gesture. As he did so, the men on the roof moved sideways, as if a giant hand really were just brushing them off to the side. The men screamed and thrashed as they headed at full speed for the edge of the roof, but nothing stopped their momentum. Once away from the building, they abruptly stopped, hovering.

  Tyvendor gave a satisfied smile to no one in particular. “They’ll stay there until I come get them.”

  That took care of the two long-range obstacles. Shad waved a hand at everyone before motioning them forward. “Alright, let’s move!”

  The team took off at a fast clip, spreading out as they did so to avoid tangling up with each other. No one wanted to enter through the only opening through the wall, as that would be tactically stupid, so Bos created two more openings as he ran. Shad noticed in approval that both holes were nice and large, leaving enough room for three people abreast to enter. Very nice. He needed to take Bos with him the next time he laid sieg
e to a Dom. The man proved to be handy.

  They reached the blasted remains of the wall at a dead run. Shad almost skidded to a stop, slowing his pace, when he realized that there was nothing between the walls except grass. No caltrops…no explosives…no trip wires…absolutely nothing. What, had the walls been there just to slow them down for the archers? How terribly disappointing. Where was these people’s creativity?

  He would have to give the Dom here a stern talking to when he finally caught up with the man. Defenders had a certain standard to adhere to, after all. This lack of traps, well, that was just shoddy.

  It took mere seconds to pass the remains of the wall and reach the door. Shad knew better than to actually stand in front of the door, but he had to grab both Bornemeier and Audax to keep them from doing so. He managed to haul them back by their necks just in the nick of time to save them from being drenched in boiling hot oil.

  Audax stumbled as he was yanked back, but when the oil splashed down in the exact spot he had just been in, he didn’t regain his feet immediately. He stared at the popping oil and slowly stood. “How did you…?”

  “That’s what the boiling pots are for,” Shad explained with mock patience. “To dump on people who are careless enough to stand in front of doors and windows. Now, repeat after me: Doors are not our friends.”

  “Doors are not our friends,” Bornemeier parroted obediently.

  Shad gave him an approving clap on the shoulder. “We’ll make a sieger out of you yet.”

  Audax frowned upwards. “So how do we get inside if we can’t enter through the doors or windows?”

  “We make our own door,” Shad responded simply. Turning his head, he called to the Wizard standing behind him, “Bos! Do your magic!”

  With perhaps a tad more glee than was truly necessary, Bos turned and waved his wand in a sharp gesture at the wall in front of him. Shad approved of the location—a wide window ledge, created for decorative plants, would give them quite a bit of cover as they cleared the new doorway.

  “Go, go, go!” Shad ordered as he went through. Bits of plaster and dust still hung about in the air, coating his skin and hair as he moved, but he ignored it. Instead, all of his attention was focused on the interior of the mansion.

  While he could hear a great many running footsteps thumping around, and voices calling out panicked orders to each other, no one was within immediately sight. Shad didn’t pause but went straight ahead and to the first corner, sword at the ready. Nothing but white walls, tiled floors and expensive furniture was around. Even some of the furniture had been overturned in the haste to deal with the invaders. His ears tracked the sound of footsteps as people followed him inside at a dead run.

  “Bornemeier, location?”

  “I count three renegades on this floor in the south section,” he rattled off promptly, eyes still on the triangle in his hands, “five below in the basement, and the rest on the very top floor in the northeast corner.”

  “Alright.” Shad made some rapid decisions, mostly based on people’s experience and fighting ability. “Loewy, you deal with the ones in the basement. Bos, Rossi, Tyvendor and Janae, you deal with the ones on the top floor. We’ll deal with the ones on this level. Oh, Sloves—stay with me, I’ll need you to keep track of Bornemeier.”

  At this, the young Wizard lifted his head and protested with a pout, “Captain!”

  “You’re too busy reading that thing to pay attention to where you’re going,” Shad shot back acerbically. “You need a keeper. Alright, people, move!”

  They pelted out, going in different directions. Shad trusted them to not make any stupid mistakes and went for the renegades on his floor. Oh, and the Dom. He mustn’t forget the Dom. Audax would be quite upset with him if they didn’t handle the Dom.

  The main foyer, which they had to cross to get to the renegades, had a massive staircase that flowed down into it. From the balcony above it, several young maids and footmen were tossing anything that came to hand. Pots, vases, walking canes, and even one person had a whole drawer of cutlery they were letting fly as if they were daggers. Shad had to dive behind another corner to avoid being stabbed by a spoon.

  Audax, panting a little from the mad scramble, flattened against the wall behind Shad. “You can’t tell me this is normal for sieges.”

  “Once the invaders actually breach the interior walls, anything is fair game,” Shad assured him with a maniac smile. “Actually, I approve. This is highly creative.”

  The prince didn’t quite roll his eyes, but it was a near thing. In a terribly dry voice, he drawled, “You’re bleeding.”

  Shad barely spared a glance at the nice, long rip in his shirt sleeve. “I know. You owe me a shirt. Bornemeier, anything you can do about our armed gallery upstairs?”

  He clearly had no idea, just judging from the wide-eyed look he gave Shad. “Um…”

  This was the other reason why Shad kept the kid with him—thinking quickly on his feet was not his strong point. “Can you make anything in their hands stick?”

  “Oh!” Bornemeier gave a rapid shake of the head. “I can do that, sure.”

  “Then do it.” Shad covered him long enough for the Wizard to step out and fire off the spell. Once he did, of course, the attacks abruptly stopped as no one could get the “weapons” in their hands to leave their grips. While they tugged in frustration and tried to scrape their hands free, Shad led his trio straight back under the stairs and to the right.

  Shad had made it all of two steps into the hallway behind the stairs when he spied three Priests heading his direction. Unlike the first mission where the Priests had only cowered, these were armed with a bo staff and short swords. They were still young, only in their early twenties, but had the robes of full Priests on. To attain that rank at their young age, they had be somewhat skilled at least.

  When they saw Shad, they instantly drew their weapons and assumed a guard position. Shad positively beamed at them. “Are you going to fight?”

  “You’re not taking us,” one of them snarled between clenched teeth, eyebrows slammed together in an expression of outright fury.

  “Excellent,” Shad approved. Finally, he could let go a little. With a chuckle he rotated the sword in his hands once and charged forward.

  The staff user met him first, coming to meet him with a sharp swing on the lower end of the staff, using the top part to guard his chest area. He gave a sharp “Ha!” sound as he struck.

  Shad parried this blow neatly, then swung his sword up and around toward the head. This was blocked, but in doing so the Priest had to lift his staff in both hands above his waistline to keep the sword from striking. It left him too open. Shad dropped to his heels and swung again, tilting his grip so that the flat of the sword hit the Priest squarely along his ribs.

  There was a distinct and sickening crack as ribs broke under the blow. With a gasp of pain, the Priest staggered off to one side, fetching up against a wall. Shad spared him no more attention as his two comrades came at him with swords swinging.

  Swords were deadly weapons that could cut anything if kept sharp enough. But they were only effective at a certain range. Shad knew from experience that if got inside of that range, it thwarted the swordsman just as well as being outside of it. So he parried the first sword strike against him with the hissing glide of metal on metal, using the proximity of that move to put himself almost nose to nose with the other Priest.

  The man had no chance to truly react. His eyes widened, an expression of horrified realization spreading across his angular face, but he could not dodge. Shad bypassed using the sword and simply lifted his elbow up and hit him squarely on the temple. His eyes rolled up in his head and he dropped backwards onto the ground, like a felled tree.

  That left just one opponent. Shad pivoted on his heels, coming around and falling automatically into a guard position with his sword up. The Priest had turned at the same time, facing him with an almost identical position. The look on this one’s face was one of ou
trage, eyebrows nearly climbing up into his fair hair. “You—you’re not a magician!” he spluttered in angry realization.

  “Don’t need to be,” Shad responded cheerfully. With a half-lunge, he went straight for the Priest.

  This one had been taught by a fairly good teacher, as he didn’t falter under this quick attack. He parried it and made his own approach. In his anger, however, he tightened his grip too much upon the hilt and locked his wrists in the process.

  Shad took advantage of that locked grip and slid his sword toward the base of the Priest’s sword. Then he executed a small, circular rotation. Because of the grip the Priest had, he was forced to either drop the sword or break his wrists trying to hang onto it. Either out of desperation or inexperience, he chose to try and just drop one hand from the grip so that he could keep the sword in his hands. Shad had been waiting for just that moment. With the strength of the grip cut in half, he easily shoved it aside. With no finesse at all, he cold-clocked the Priest hard on the edge of the jaw with his fist.

  Like his compatriots, the Priest slowly fell to the floor.

  Audax, Bornemeier and Sloves stood several feet away, safely out of striking distance. Sloves and Bornemeier were wide-eyed, seemingly impressed by Shad’s show of arms. Audax had the faintest of smiles on his face, standing with both arms crossed over his chest.

  “Feel better now?” the prince asked cordially.

  “Much, thank you.” Shad heaved a mock-sigh of satisfaction. With a wave of the finger at the prone bodies around him, he ordered, “Bornemeier, restrain these three. Then I want you to call up everyone and see how we’re doing.”

  Bornemeier obediently put some sort of paralyzing spell on the unconscious Priests before pulling the mirror broach from around his neck and speaking into it. Shad listened in pleasure as reports of success came to them.

  “Good, order them to bring everyone down,” Shad requested. “We’ll do another circle and strip these louts before we transport them back. Let’s see.” He started ticking points off on his fingers. “I got to play with booby traps, renegades are captured, I don’t have to think of an explanation for why the Prince got hurt…what am I missing?”