Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (23 page)

“
Garth, look sharp!”
Raile’s voice had an edge of something akin to panic. “
The Star Order is moving throughout the Old Gates, and I’m not referring to the young whelps. These are the seasoned members.”

For a split second, the world slowed and seemed to spiral in a different, dizzying direction.
What
did he just say?!

“Give us more information than that, Raile!” Chatta ordered, lifting the mirror closer to her mouth. “Where are they heading?”

“
I don’t know. I wish I did. They seem to be heading in the same general direction as the sigils, only they aren’t trying to get outside of the inner walls. Don’s looking, but—”

“Raile,”
Don’s voice cut him off, tone almost shrill in rising anxiety, “
we missed a set! There’s—”

I lost whatever he said next as a wave of the most malignant, horrendous feeling came over me. I’d never felt the like in my life. Some part of my mind tried to categorize it, to associate it with other experiences. It felt like something rotting, like an earth plate being drained of energy, or like a storm with winds so strong that it stole the air from your lungs. And yet, it was none of those. I gasped under the sensations, starting to buckle as my magical core drained.

“
Shield!”
Dassan’s voice cracked out.

As soon as he said so, I understood the order and reflexively obeyed. I put another barrier up, this time taking on the form of a ward, anchoring it to the buildings on either side of us. As soon as it snapped into place, the drain disappeared completely. I jerked forward, relieved of the sinister pressure, and caught myself against Night’s shoulder.

Turning, I looked over the group. Everyone had slumped to the ground, but the magicians seemed to be worse off. I reached out to put a steadying hand on Chatta’s shoulder. “Chatta?”

“Give me a moment,” she panted out, drawing a vial of something from her pocket. With shaking fingers, she took out the stopper and downed it with one quick toss of the head. “Dassan?”

He held out a hand to accept another vial she offered. “Thanks.”

I grabbed the broach from where Chatta had dropped it on the street and demanded, “Don,
what was that?”

“We missed a set of sigils. It seems like they had two sets in the capitol, one around the older section of the city, and the one that you destroyed that’s on the outskirts.”

I didn’t need more of an explanation than that. It finally dawned why something about the sigil we’d destroyed looked strange to me. The building hadn’t looked very old—perhaps fifty years or so. But Alvacon was ancient, one of the first cities ever built in Chahir. Why would the Star Order not put up sigils in the capitol city first? Why wait until the city had expanded this much before putting up sigils?

The answer being they hadn’t, of course. They
had
put up sigils when they first came into power. And then, as the city expanded beyond its original walls, they’d put up another set of sigils to incorporate the whole city. We’d carelessly assumed that every city only had
one
set of sigils.

An assumption that just might get us killed.

“Garth, that’s not your only problem. It looks like the inner set of sigils are dual-purpose. They just created a huge dome-shaped shield over the inner section of the city. It’s blocking anyone from getting in.”

Could the day get any worse? “Don, do you know if there are any magicians with Vonlorisen?”

“
There must be. Another, different barrier just rose up to cover the palace. It’s glowing blue and gold, so I’m assuming that a Wizard and Air Mage is in there.”

That was the first piece of good news I’d heard since the sigil went down.
Great good magic.
I whirled to look at Xiaolang. I didn’t know which problem to tackle first. If we didn’t take those sigils down
now
, the Priests would be insanely powerful and might very well be able to get to Vonlorisen and assassinate him. Not to mention the amount of people they’d kill in the draining process. Who knew how many had already passed away in the initial onslaught? On the other hand, I did not dare leave him unprotected. We only knew of two magicians in there with him. His guards wouldn’t stand a chance against those Priests. I was not even sure how effectively
I
could hold them off.

Xiaolang in turn looked at Dassan. “Can we break through that barrier?”

“It will take a lot of power and concentrated effort to do that,” Dassan answered, rubbing at his face with both hands. “We’d need every magician we could call upon just to stand a chance. But Xiaolang, right now every magician in Chahir is tired after dealing with the sigils. None of us are at full strength.”

“I understand that, but we have to try. If Vonlorisen and Vonaudaxen fall, then Chahir is lost.” Xiaolang turned back to me. “We need to call all teams to Alvacon, now. Garth, the barrier around the palace—can it hold the Priests off?”

“Not if they have those personal shields of theirs.”

“Then we can’t assume that the royal family is safe.”

I shook my head grimly.

“How long will it take to recall all of the magicians here?” Xiaolang asked Dassan and I.

Not quite sure of the answer, I looked at Dassan as I responded. “A few hours, at minimum?” When he gave a bleak nod of confirmation, I continued, “And that’s with just the Mages. The Witches and Wizards aren’t as quick. If we can coordinate some of them being picked up on the way by the Mages, we’d have more to people to work with.”

“Do it,” he ordered. “Right now, we’ve got to find some way of keeping those Priests inside distracted. They can’t feel free to follow through on whatever plans they’ve made.”

I thought about it for a moment. “I can try pounding against the barrier. It might not do anything, but if they’re tied to it, it should set them on edge.”

Dassan studied what we could see of the barrier and nodded thoughtfully. “They should be connected to it somehow, since they’re both linked to the same power source. It couldn’t hurt.”

“Wait, wouldn’t they draw more power from the people if there’s an attack against the barrier?” Xiaolang objected.

Dassan immediately waved this objection away. “They have no way of dictating how much power is being drawn. There’s limits to the sigils ability to be manipulated. The draining effects of it depend on the
duration
more than the usage. No matter how many Priests they have in there, a person can only use a certain amount of power at a time or be burnt out. For the next several hours, we have little to worry about.” Xiaolang sank back, reassured. Dassan turned to me and added, “I’d suggest not touching it directly, though. Use a really big boulder or something along those lines.”

He didn’t have to tell me. The one time I’d directly touched blood magic, it had felt like my nerves were seared with a red hot poker. I’d never willingly repeat
that
experience again. “Let’s get closer so that I can see what I’m doing.”

~*~

We set up a temporary base at an outdoor café right across from the street from the gate to the inner city. I borrowed two huge chunks of stone from an obliging wall nearby and for almost three hours, just lugged them at the barrier. It was rather like a young boy bouncing a ball against a wall to amuse himself. I’d throw the crafted boulder at the barrier, it’d bounce off, I’d catch it, and throw it again. Repeat. The simple motion wasn’t difficult, but after three hours of exercising my magical muscles, I was starting to feel a little tired.

Dassan and Chatta did a scrying to see what was going on inside. The barrier might keep us out, but it didn’t have any glamour to it, so we had a perfect view. They both assured me that every time one of the boulders hit, every Priest inside flinched as if I were hitting them upside the head. They couldn’t focus on anything that way. Some of them were focusing around some sort of doohickey—either to attack the palace itself or to stop me from playing against their barrier—but it apparently wasn’t working right yet, as they hadn’t done anything with it.

From the way they were scrambling, I had a feeling that they’d launched into this prematurely. Maybe my finding the sigil in Movac had forced their hand. Or it could have been the destruction of the sigils this morning. Whatever the case, they weren’t as effective as I’d feared they be.

Between being exposed to the magically enriched air earlier and my constant use of magic over the past three hours, I had a whopper of a headache building. Xiaolang must have sensed that, as he came over to where I was sitting and bent enough to peer at my face closely. “I think you’d better take a break.”

I blinked up at him. “Can I afford to?”

“Dassan tells me that we should have magicians arriving in a few minutes. They’re not going to achieve anything in that amount of time, not from what I’ve seen. Take a break.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I retrieved my boulders and put them back into the wall where I’d borrowed them. Only then did I relax into my seat.

Everyone else, having nothing to do, had settled Shad on a nearby bench and watched over him. Since he was due to wake up any second, I moved closer myself and sank into a chair right next to him. Chatta, sitting almost directly behind me, handed me a headache potion as I sat down. I gave her a thankful smile as I knocked it back.

I sat still with the heels of my hands pressed into my eye sockets, waiting for my atrocious headache to wear off, when Shad groaned and raised a hand to his own eyes.

As I was sitting closest to him, I turned and drawled, “Good morning, Shad.”

“Is my hair white?” he whimpered.

“What hair?” I asked innocently. Okay, I admitted it; I was feeling hung-over and taking it out on Shad.

His hand flew up to his head in a panicked movement, feeling around. When he felt the hair still firmly attached to his head he gave me a dirty look.

I grinned back unrepentantly.

“Let’s try this again…” he turned his head ever so slightly to look up at Aletha, turning slightly green in the attempt. “Is my hair white?”

“As a geezer’s,” she confirmed easily.

He moaned.

Chatta rustled in her pocket for a moment before coming and kneeling next to Shad. “If you sit up, I’ll give you a headache potion.”

Shad creaked up onto one elbow, took the vial from her hand, and knocked it back in a single gulp. “Bless you,” he mouthed as he handed the empty vial back.

Hazard handed him a cold cloth to put over his eyes. “How do you feel?”

“Like someone just ran me through a grater backwards,” he mumbled as he took the cloth. “My brain hurts and my eyes feel like two spongy melons.”

“I understand.” My own head was giving empathic twinges just remembering what I’d gone through. Okay, maybe not just empathic. When was my headache potion going to kick in? “It won’t last past tonight.”

“That’s good to know…” he settled back onto his back, cloth on his eyes, “if I live that long.”

Xiaolang and Shield drifted up, regarding the prone man curiously. “So how are you?” Xiaolang asked.

“I’m feeling a little tenderized,” Shad responded dryly. “How long was I unconscious?”

“About three hours,” Aletha answered with a glance at me. “Apparently that’s normal, as it took Garth three hours to wake up after he was changed.”

Shad’s response wasn’t particularly articulate.

Night edged closer, just enough to where he could touch Shad’s arm with his nose.
“Sorry.
”

Lifting a corner of the cloth, Shad gave him a glare. “I’ll forgive you in this life, Night, eventually. So what happened while I was out?”

Aletha gave him a concise summary of events. I zoned out and just enjoyed the non-throbbing of my temples as the potion finally started working. I heard people moving about, leaving Shad alone as he just lay there like a bump on a log. Chatta said something about the magicians still being a few minutes away from the city, so I went back to letting my mind drift in a pleasantly blank manner.

Perhaps ten minutes had gone by when a quick indrawn breath issued from the prone man beside me.

Concerned, I ventured, “Shad?”

His head turned toward me, mouth tight with tension, eyes still hidden behind the cloth. When he spoke, he sounded reminiscent of a fretful child asking for reassurance. “Garth. Where are the Weather Mages?”

I blinked at him stupidly. “The what?”

“Weather Mages. Not once since I’ve left the crystal has anyone even mentioned them. Where are they?”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I’d never heard of a Weather Mage. I shook my head slowly, that alarm in the back of my still tender head growing louder. “Shad, there’s only six types of Mages—”

His hand slashed down at an angle, cutting me off. “No, there’s seven. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Life, Elemental, and Weather. I was never entirely clear what the different types of Mages do until just now, but I always knew how many there were. It was common knowledge. Garth, there should be Weather Mages appearing too. Why don’t you even know about them?”

That was a good question. “A lot of knowledge has been lost during the war,” I responded slowly, thinking it through. “But this much? How did we lose a whole category of Mage?”

“There were never very many of them,” Shad groaned, running a hand roughly through his hair. “Only one family produced Weather Mages, like the Earth Mage line. Still, I would have expected to hear
something
about those Mages. They were the only reason why Chahir had stable weather,” he snorted dryly, “Which could explain why Chahir’s weather is so lousy right now.”

A Weather Mage had controlled Chahir’s weather and regulated it? My mind spun with the possibilities Shad was presenting. “But surely the line didn’t just die out completely,” I protested. “Even a distant branch family member is capable of becoming a Mage, under the right conditions. Trev’nor proved that.”

“I was hoping you’d seen something in the Index that might help,” Shad admitted. “We could really use a Weather Mage right now. Chahir’s weather is far too extreme in its swings.”