The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) (28 page)

The commander’s voice replied in the same aggressive tone. “You don’t get to know who it is until you tell us how to get in contact with the King of Waywen.”

“I’m not wasting my time with this!” the first man shouted. “Move aside.”

There was a chaos of grunts, screams, and other vague sounds. It didn’t exactly sound like fighting, as the noise level was still below what I’d expect to hear from men killing each other, but it was growing louder.

I realized then that they were coming closer to our storage room, nearly outside the door now.

“Let me through before this gets ugly,” a voice said.

“No. You’ll put me in contact with the King so we can transport them ourselves,” the commander replied.

Kory stepped away from the door and drew his wand. He didn’t look nervous but something else, maybe hesitant? He held his weapon proudly, but his face already showed remorse. It became clear to me that he didn’t want anyone to be hurt, but he knew that some injuries may be inevitable unless the conversation took a turn for the better, and quickly.

“There’s been a development,” one said firmly. “The Takarys have the Prince of Zav in their palace. We’re making new plans. You and your men need to stay here with the desmarls.”

“No. No more waiting for plans,” the commander answered. “And we won’t need the desmarls anymore with who we have. They are a far greater advantage in the war. The King will agree.”

Everyone went quiet.

My eyes stayed on Kory for some sort of clue as to why, but he was bewildered about the strange silence as well. Lisanda and I shared a glance.

She mouthed the question
what?
to me, worry creasing her brow.

I don’t know
, I mouthed back.

Someone finally blurted something outside the door. “Shit on a grave, who are you and what happened?”

“Do you have the Princess and the Sartious mage?” a familiar voice replied. I knew I recognized it, but I couldn’t tell who it was. It was as if my body knew, though, for chills ran through me.

Lisanda gasped and covered her mouth. A mix between devastation and fear twisted her eyes.

“It’s Exo,” she whispered.

“Who are you?” the commander demanded. “How’d you find this place?”

“I followed them,” Exo replied coldly. I imagined him pointing at the messengers. “Who I am doesn’t matter. What you need to know is that you’ll all die unless you tell me where Lisanda Takary and her bastard boyfriend are. I’m going to kill them both just as I will all of you.”

“Lisanda Takary?” someone else shouted. “That’s who you have?”

“Yes,” the commander replied. “And that’s who we’re keeping with us until
we
can take her out of here
ourselves
. Now, I don’t know who you are, mage, but you look an inch away from death yourself. Your flesh is burned more than I figured it could be for a man to still survive. I think you might not be right in the head. There’s more than fifteen of us and one of you. We’re going to let you go if you walk out of here right now, but this is your only chance.”

“Don’t let him go!” Barad shouted. “He knows about Lisanda Takary.”

I heard metal singing. I figured Barad drew his sword.

“I gave you your chance,” Exo grumbled.

I felt a gust of Bastial Energy being pulled past me, zipping through the tight crevices of the door.

“Kory, get back!” I shouted.

He jumped toward us right as the explosion happened. Fire scraped against the stone walls, flinging the door open as if a hurricane had passed through.

From my angle I saw two men farther down the stairs engulfed in flames. Screams of anguish and surprise came together in a terrifying chorus. One of the two men had gotten a shield up as the fire struck. He still stood when the wave of orange and yellow passed, although the other man was crumpled on the floor, writhing in pain.

There was another gush of Bastial Energy pulled out of our room. Exo was so powerful with it I even felt some come from my own body.

Another wave of fire flooded down the staircase, wrapping into our room through the open door like a forked tongue.

The man with the shield still stood when it passed, although he seemed dazed by then. He staggered a step backward, his head waving. There was a flash of light as a fireball slammed into him, throwing him tumbling down the stairs and out of view.

The screams continued as more fireballs were unleashed. I could hear them striking flesh, an explosion of light with each one, then the sound of a falling body.

I’d cut myself free by then and was working on Lisanda.

“Kory, give me my wand!” I shouted.

His eyes darted to me, falling to the Sartious blade I was using to cut Lisanda’s ropes. Understanding widened his eyes. He nodded and took my wand from his pocket, tossing it with a flick of the wrist.

Now free from ropes, Lisanda stood partially behind me, cautiously grabbing my hip.

The screams outside were no longer constant. In the gaps of silence I heard a different noise, a distant roar of a wild beast. The desmarls, I realized. I didn’t know why they beckoned, though. Perhaps they were hungry, or maybe the heat had reached them, or maybe the screams had startled them. Either way, they were below us while Exo was clearly above us. There was nowhere to go.

“Oh look, one of these nice men has a wand for me.” Exo spoke emphatically, like he was an actor in a play. It was clearly meant for our ears.

Kory must’ve recognized that Exo was up the stairs, for he hid in the corner opposite of us. He raised a finger to his lips and nodded, showing us he wanted the element of surprise. I nodded back, moving closer from the corner to make sure Exo would see me first when he entered.

“Stay a few feet behind me,” I told Lisanda.

She moved without answering.

“Lisandaaaaaaaaaa,” Exo called playfully. “Lisanda Takareeeeeeeeeee. It’s time to pay for your stupiditeeeeeeee.” He slowly stomped down one step at a time. “I hope your boyfriend is with you.” Another step. “Your…” Another step. “Sweet…” Another step. “Sartious…” Another step. “Boyfriend.”

He leapt into the doorway. “There you are,” he said politely, almost childlike.

It was painfully tough to look at him. Burned flesh, burned clothes, burned hair, burned everything. One eye was welded shut at its corner from a grotesque flap of his brow that folded over and stuck to his cheek below. His large nose was badly morphed. One nostril was rigid and square, while the other was caved in and oddly curved, like the way paper folds in on itself when scorched. Nearly all of his lips were gone, with just one bit of pink remaining in the corner. The rest of his mouth was pressed into his face, giving him the appearance of a mummy.

Though, unlike a mummy, he had no wrappings, no bandages. His skin had gone white in some places, however, and black in others, making it seem like he was wearing something around his arms at first. But no, he still wore the same red robe as before even though it was shredded and barely hanging on his decrepit body. The blue soaring wings that were across his chest before had no color left and were barely distinguishable.

“I never got a chance to ask why you did it.” Exo’s voice was ice cold. “Why you told him I was coming back.” He let his wand rest at his side, twirling it between two fingers.

I held up my wand, Bastial and Sartious Energy at the ready. Kory still stood in the corner with his wand ready. His eyes were on me, and I could feel his eagerness to jump out.

“I trust him more than I trust you,” Lisanda answered confidently, though I heard her take a step back behind me. “My father should’ve thrown you in prison years ago.”

“Your father is a coward,” Exo said quickly and aggressively. “Too much so to stand up to me. When you were kidnapped by this fool,” he lazily lifted a finger at me, “your father’s messengers told me this was my last chance. His messengers! He sent other men because he was too afraid to tell me himself. I was told to leave the palace and only come back if I found you. That’s it! No information about where you might be, where guards had been sent to look already. Nothing. Only that you were taken by ‘the Sartious mage.’ He didn’t expect me to find you. It was his cowardly way of getting rid of me. So I became even more determined to come back with you.” Exo coughed wildly into his sleeve.

I let my wand lower slightly. I still knew in the pit of my stomach that I would need to use it, but how and when was still to be decided.

Exo cleared his throat. “I apologize for that. My lungs haven’t been working too well since
my little incident
.” He spoke sinisterly.

“Did you hurt Drent?” I asked with caution, unsure I wanted to know.

“Who the hell is that?”

“The blacksmith you threatened to find the farm.”

Exo’s mouth twisted into what seemed to be a smile. Without lips it was hard to tell.

“Him? Now, that’s an interesting piece of this story.” Exo wagged his finger at Lisanda over my shoulder. “Your father’s idiot guards were sent to question him twice. The first time he scared them off.” A laugh sputtered out. “I don’t know how, but he did. They came back with more and he lied, lied, lied.”

Exo was speaking melodically now, really enjoying his own voice. “But then
I
found his forge and got the truth out. He told me about the other guards and about what he’d told them: that your farm was about ten miles north of Facian. But I’ve been lied to for so many years I can actually tell when it’s happening, unlike the King’s half-wits. Yes I threatened him, and I would’ve done a lot worse, but he’s smarter than he looks. He gave me the truth about your farm and I left.”

Exo shrugged. “He didn’t annoy me, so he got to live. But both of you…” He brushed his hand at us with a laugh. “You’re going to die.”

Sudden rage flushed into Exo’s face, and he aimed his wand at us.

“Lisanda, behind me!” I reached one hand back to make sure she was there and then snapped my wand to create a wide shell of SE wrapping around us.

To my surprise, Exo didn’t cast a fireball but a river of fire instead. It was so thick and hot I nearly lost my concentration as it surged toward us. Yet I managed to remain steadfast, keeping my Sartious shell up as well. The fire crashed into it, exploding against it and jetting into the air like ocean waves crashing into a rock. His river of fire was wider than my Sartious shell, passing by us and rolling up against the stone walls behind us.

Lisanda let out one quick scream and pressed against me tightly.

I wanted to make sure she hadn’t been burned when the fire stopped, as the heat from it was immense, but I couldn’t turn away from Exo. He was coming into the room, drawing in more Bastial Energy so that his wand began to glow.

The moment Exo entered, Kory’s wand started glowing as well, his face scrunching with concentration. But the deranged mage noticed him out of the corner of his eye and spun around, creating his own Sartious shell and successfully blocking the fireball.

Exo aimed his wand at Kory in retaliation, but Kory already was rushing toward Exo, uttering a battle cry.

Kory tackled him just before Exo let out the fireball from his wand. It missed Kory, going off to the side and crashing into a shelf of food instead. The shelf fell backward, crashing into the next, which fell into the one behind that, and so on.

“Run!” Kory screamed as he wrestled with Exo. But I didn’t want to flee. I wasn’t at home anymore. My family wasn’t tied up with Exo standing over them with a knife. I was confident I could beat him here, especially with all the SE at my disposal.

I aimed my wand at them on the ground, but they were rolling and fighting so vigorously my chances of hitting Exo without hitting Kory were slim.

Lisanda bolted into a dash, trying to squeeze between me and the fallen shelves blocking her path. She got caught on something. There was a loud ripping sound as she spun and fell to her knees. The shoulder on her light blue tunic was torn apart. It must’ve found an edge of the metal shelf beside me.

Kory and Exo were grunting, each trying to aim his wand at the other while keeping his opponent’s wand at bay. Kory got Exo pinned on his back, holding Exo’s outstretched arm against the ground, but it made the wand point right at Lisanda in front of me.

Exo’s eyes found her, and he let out a scream to focus while he wrestled. His wand glowed white.

I snapped my wand to create another shell, this one in front of Lisanda, who was quickly getting to her feet.

She spun around to me and crouched, her hands on her head.

Exo’s fireball wasn’t larger than my torso, so it easily was absorbed by the Sartious shell.

“Run! Get out of here!” Kory shouted again.

Lisanda grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door. I didn’t fight her, just followed, keeping an eye on Exo, who put all of his focus back on Kory on top of him.

The hall was dark. The torches on the wall had gone out or fallen, I didn’t know. I couldn’t see. Bright streaks and spots hung in front of my vision. I knew it was from Exo’s fire exploding a few feet from our faces.

Lisanda and I nearly tripped several times as we hurried up the stairs, holding on to each other for balance. I knew I was brushing against fallen bodies and felt thankful I couldn’t see the carnage around my feet.