Techromancy Scrolls: Soras (22 page)

I couldn't sleep much, the rest of the vision had solidified in my mind. The power lashing out at me and the searing pain as I fled. I could feel Goliath's powerful strides as his hooves thundered on the ground. I could feel the wind in my hair. I was searching for something I knew should be there. I heard myself ask, “Where is she?” Then I was awake with Udele's hand covering my mouth to stop my screams. The vision was so clear I knew it to be the immediate future. One possible future if different choices from all involved were not made.

Roman silently left camp just before twilight. The look on his face spoke volumes, he did not wish to leave, he felt as if he were abandoning us. But he also knew that the People needed to know what had transpired and what was learned. I knew that the man could make it back to Heaven's Gate. He had demonstrated that fact once before.

At twilight, we ate what little supplies we had left to keep up our energy. It didn't matter since we would be close to the safety of Solomon Keep by the end of the day. I nodded to myself, knowing now what was truly going on here in the Hinterland, it would be safety. At least one of our fears had been alleviated.

We saddled up. Goliath looked strong, well rested. I patted the sides of his neck and whispered, “It is going to be a long day boy, I know you won't let me down.”

Udele handed my cloak up to me and I donned it then reached down as Sarafine helped her up into the saddle in front of me.

I had noted that Rain had just the barest hint of the taste of power to her. She was starting to recover, slowly, from that titanic display of power the prior night.

We looked to the east as the sky was beginning to take on an orangish tint of impending sunrise and we took off down the beach at a gallop. We rode up front with Ranelle and Sara and Penelope taking up the rear guard. We kept looking nervously back as Father Sol washed over us, his rays of sunshine warming the day and chasing away the chill of the rainy summer night.

We had rode for over two hours before we spotted them as we crested a rise on the seashore. It looked like about twenty horses were in pursuit, no more than two miles back. I urged Goliath to go faster with my legs as I looked back. The remains of our Greva moving as one unit as our horses started stretching out. We passed through a fishing village, about the size of Wexbury Minor, hoping to come across a Solomon patrol with no luck. We couldn't endanger the local people so we charged on down the coast.

Within an hour the enemy had closed the gap to about a mile, I dropped the reins and Udele tried to grab them then relaxed when Goliath didn't slow while I dug my spyglass out of my tool pouch. I looked and saw Kennick and the Duchess at the center of the oncoming dark knights. I hissed and turned back around, stowing the spyglass before retrieving the reins.

Goliath was foaming up with sweat and frothing at the bit. He couldn't keep this up much longer without rest. The other horses were faring worse as their speed started faltering. We went over another rise and I moved to Pen's side and yelled over the pounding of our horse's hooves on the ground and their labored breathing. “Take Mother Udele into the forest before our pursuers see, we'll draw them off. Our horses are done.” She had only two arrows left and would be at a disadvantage in a sword fight so she was the best choice, the rest of our blades would be needed.

She looked at me like I had just slapped her but nodded once in grim determination and yelled back, “Yes, Laney.”

I smiled sadly at her. Now she calls me Laney.

We transferred Udele to her horse on the move, and they veered off and immediately vanished into the cover of the forest. I patted Goliath's side and said, “Ok my beautiful boy, let's go.” The rest of us led the chase. I kept glancing back and was relieved that none of them had split off. They hadn't noticed we were a horse shy yet.

I felt the earth tremor slightly under Goliath and my body burst out in amber light. Someone was pulling in huge amounts of elemental earth magic to them. I thought of the copperish color of Kennick's magic and I yelled to the others. “Scatter!”

I slowed as Ranelle and Sarafine split off, fanning out just as great stalagmites of stone came jutting up out of the ground where we all would have been. I heard a shout of frustration and looked back. Barely a hundred yards separated us now.

I noted they all stayed in a tight group. Seemingly ignoring the Great Mother and Sara. A toothy predatory smile spread on my face. They still believed Udele rode with me on Goliath and were concentrating on me. I slowed more, giving the others a chance to escape. I yelled out, “Find Celeste!”

The look the two women gave me was one of mixed horror, defiance, then acceptance. Rain nodded solidly once and I watched them pull away from me as the enemy gained. I knew in my heart that Celeste was near. It was who she was. The moment the messenger reached her in Solomon, she would have been on the move to come to my side.

I screamed out in agony as whips of copper energy struck out at me from behind, lashing my back in a pantomime of the flogging I had been subjected to when I was but a child. Goliath sped up and whinnied in pain as they struck him too. I whispered to the air, “Sorry boy.”

I took blow after blow of that burning energy, I could endure it. I had suffered worse at the hands of Poe and Raneth. I could not ground the magics while saddled. So I started taking the energy into me so my poor horse did not have to suffer the pain because of me.

It was excruciating holding it in, I could feel myself burning from the inside. The man was relentless and tireless, lashing out with power meant to protect, twisting its purpose. That alone was enough for me to despise the man. Those with power should use it to protect and nurture, not for selfish or destructive ends.

He had stepped away from all of the ideals that all Techromancers stood for. He was no better than the Rogues he had pitted against Far Reach and Treth. If I fell here, I took consolation in the knowledge that Celeste would bring about his end.

I rode on, Goliath was pushing himself beyond his limit, stretching out and pouring on the speed as I drew Anadele and turned around, my entire being was on fire. Just moving added to that pain. Then I redirected all of Kennick's power I stored through my blade re-crafting it into something I could use.

A lance of amber lightning shot out toward the riders, the Prime Techromancer expended a huge amount of energy to deflect it. The crackling power pulverized the sandy loam in front of the riders, sending up a cloud of dirt and shrapnel. It spooked their horses and they slowed.

I grinned and turned to lay closer to Goliath's neck. Then screamed again as fresh lashes of copper fire slammed into me. I started pulling it inside again as Goliath began to falter. I glanced back again. I had gained some distance with my attack.

I thought of what Ranelle had done the previous night as I took another lash across the scars on my face. The sting brought tears to my eyes. I had never mixed my Techromancer magic with the magik of the spirit element very successfully, for the most part, they canceled each other out.

But all my lessons told me that energy was energy, whether magic or electricity. The same would hold true for the spirit magic wouldn't it. I could change the nature of Kennick's attacks inside me to feed the strength of the magik of the People couldn't I?

I let my power fade as the world became duller in my normal vision. I reached deep inside and willed the spirit element forward as I started blurring in the very air we passed through, leaving multiple doppelganger afterimages and white wisps of mist. It was so very hard to do with all the pain and the foreign copper magic building inside with every searing attack from the other Techromancer.

I didn't know how to craft the runes in the air as she had done, but they said they were just focuses that the spells were the manifestation of the intent of the caster. I took everything I had and pushed out with my intent.

I felt a rushing sensation like the ground was coming up to meet me. It reversed and I felt like I was flying as all of that pent up energy mixed with mine, changing its nature. An explosion of white mist shot out from me, coating the ground behind me in a thin sheet of ice as the moisture in the ground from the rainstorm and the moisture in the air all froze, leaving a sheet of ice on the ground, almost two hundred yards wide. It was a tiny fraction of the feat that Ranelle had performed by freezing the very sea in an area twice the size and orders of magnitude thicker. I smiled at my use of the word I had recently learned.

I collapsed in the saddle, looking back as the horses in pursuit lost their footing, some sliding to a halt and others falling to spin along the quickly melting sheen of unnatural ice.

Goliath was slowing, even more, his lungs heaving mightily. I exhaled and slowed him a bit more so that his heart didn't burst. I had gained us just a little time as they men remounted and they crossed my improvised obstacle.

I was panting and gasping, beyond exhausted, I could barely feel my own magic inside, I had almost exhausted it all.

Then the pain began again, as Kennick renewed his assault on me. I could barely see through the pain as I rode on. I could take the pain. Kiennick didn't understand pain like I did. I could be strong, I could take it. And he was weakening. He had been throwing around so much power, I don't think the man knew his own limits.

I searched the shoreline in front of me, I couldn't hold on much longer. I winced from another attack and then whispered to myself, “Where is she?” My eyes widened, that was just like like in my vision.

I thought I heard my heart about to explode from the effort of taking in the energy from the attacks when I realized the thrumming that was growing louder wasn't my heart, nor Goliath's pounding hooves.

Like a wave of thunder, no less that a hundred knights came charging toward me from over the rise ahead, shaking the very ground. And in their middle were the Knights of Wexbury! Bowyn, Bex, Verna, and Kristof. My Celeste and Alexandru lead the charge! My heart leapt and my tears started flowing. She was blazing like an emerald sun as her power rose inside of her.

I saw Duke Liam himself beside my Lady. The big man's long flowing red hair streamed behind him like a wave of flame, just like the paintings of the Dukes I have seen in Castle Wexbury. He was huge, like Sir Tennison.

They closed and made a hole as they streamed past me, bellowing their battle cries. Alexandru was actually standing on top of his saddle shooting arrows as they passed. I could see the relief on Celeste's face. And there in her eyes, and the eyes of my kin, I saw the fire of Wexbury burning inside. They passed me like wraiths going to collect the souls of those who would oppose them. It was the promise of violence, and finality.

Waves of knights rode past, there were more in this one contingent than in all the realm of Wexbury, and they all wore the colors of Solomon, weapons were drawn. I slowed Goliath to a halt then took a deep breath, drawing Anadele again and turned around and joined my saviors in battle. I was a Techno Knight of Wexbury, and the fire burned inside of me as well!

The battle was swift. Wexbury had engaged the bulk of them as the Knights of Solomon just formed a ring around them, allowing Celeste and the others to fight the enemy. I couldn't get through the ring, so watched from behind it. I saw Ranelle and Sarafine mixed into the ring and we gave each other nods of relief.

Bowyn was taking on three at a time with his dual blades swirling around him like a deadly cyclone. A cocky grin on his face the whole time. Deflecting blows I didn't know how he knew was coming.

Verna had unhorsed and faced a man Tennison's size. She caught his blade in the slot of her massive Gertrude and she twisted violently snapping the man's blade in two. A strangely disconnected portion of my brain thought, “Oh, so that's what that damn slot is for.”

The dark knights were taken by surprise by Bex and Kristof, who had unhorsed as well, standing back to back with powered blades of Bex's design. They were slicing through blades and electrocuting their adversaries with ease. I had to smile in pride over the fact that Bex didn't look like he was about to pass out as he usually did in sparring matches. He looked like a man just then to me. A Knight of Wexbury.

My eyes were on my Lady as Celeste slid from her saddle, five enemies following suit and surrounding her. She had a vicious smile on her face as she stepped around in a circle, crossing leg over leg, extending her sword to touch the enemy blades as she turned. I have seen that so many times.

I have always been afraid for her but she always comes home to my arms. Emerald green energy arced down her arm and into her blade, green sparks dripping from her eyes as she smiled. Then her deadly dance began. She didn't hold back like she did in the sparring matches so that she didn't harm our fellow knights.

I have to admit that the men who faced her now were much more fluid and well trained than the Rouges we had faced together, but even their training was no match for my girl. It was almost frightening to watch her as she spun and danced through them. It was odd to watch as she stopped moving after a deadly pirouette, with her blade cocked over her head. A second later, all of her opponents fell to the ground.

She glanced around then sheathed her sword in her hip scabbard without looking. The field had been won and the Solomon Knights roared out a cheer. My eyes scanned the circle from my vantage point high up on Goliath and then they narrowed as I realized that Duchess Aelwen and Prime Techromancer Kennick were nowhere to be seen.

Celeste caught my eye and started to stride over to me with a huge, relieved smile as the knights parted for her. Then her eyes widened and she screamed, “Laney!” As the blade thrust through my chest from behind. I looked down at the bloody blade in confusion as my body started going cold.

I snapped out of the vision as Celeste's eyes began to widen. I started spinning in my saddle, raising Anadele as I heard her scream my name. Prime Techromancer Kennick's killing blow was deflected by Anadele's hilt. She went spinning out of my hand, along with most of one of my fingers as a blinding pain hit me.

The force of the blow sent me tumbling from my saddle onto the ground. The man dove off his horse to slam into me and we tumbled across the ground.

He started choking me as he attacked with what litle power he had left inside him, burning my throat. His eyes were wide with fury and madness as he shrieked, “You've ruined everything! You worthless Gypsy bitch!”

I was dimly aware of the Knights of Solomon rushing to my aid as I gasped for breath that wouldn't come. The Prime Techromancer was going to be my death, I knew it, it was fate that I had already cheated it by deflecting his first killing blow. He was going to balance that scale now.

I saw my hands grasping his, my white silk glove stained red with my own blood and I came to a realization. I didn't want to die, especially not at the hands of a man who would bring about a war to wipe out everyone just to have power. He already had more power than most, he was currently burning away layers of the skin of my throat with it now.

I croaked out as my vision started to darken, “I'm sorry.”

His eyes narrowed and I shot my bloodied hand out to the side and with the last spark of my power, and an amber tendril of power pulled Anadele through the air to me. He snarled and released my neck and knocked my blade aside with his waning power.

Then he froze and looked down at his belly. The confusion I had on my own face at my death in my vision was now apparent on his own face.

When he had looked away from me to deal with the diversion of the possible threat that Anadele posed, I had thrust the blade of Lord Cedric deep into his belly.

He looked from the weapon to me and I twisted it, causing him to gasp and cough up blood. I rolled to my knees, pushing him off of me with the blade. I stared into the man's eyes as the light left them, so he would know who had killed him. Something I'm not proud of to this day.

I collapsed, dropping the ancient blade as I looked at my mangled hand, blood gushing out where my index finger should have been. Consciousness abandoned me as I felt my head being put onto a soft lap and someone stroking my hair as they cradled me. I smiled. My Celeste was here... everything would be alright now.