Chapter 23. A MAGE LEFT BEHIND

  “Where’s Ehren?” I asked, standing there in the smoking hole that used to be the door to the small room. Each of them suddenly looked around, confused.

  “Master?” Greer replied, not meeting my eyes.

  I realized that they couldn’t see me. I dropped my visual bounce spell and their eyes all quickly focused on mine.

  “There you are. What was that?” Willow asked.

  “Later,” I said. “We gotta get out of here. Where’s Ehren?”

  “They took him,” Briar said. “They tried to grab Greer too, but he was quick with a spell—but before we knew what was happening Ehren was gone. Greer saved us.”

  “Which way did they go?” I asked.

  “It happened so fast,” Briar said. “I didn’t see where.”

  We heard shouts coming toward us just outside the former doorway.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said, pointing to the back door.

  As I soon spoke, half a dozen soldiers skidded to a stop behind me, right at the entrance to the room, each bearing mean, blunt-nosed looking weapons.

  “Willow, invisibility please!” I shouted, turning to meet the charge.

  I drew matter from the head of my staff, and threw up a wall of air where the door used to be. It was invisible but solid enough to hold off attacks, at least for a few moments. The first thug ran face-first into the wall, falling back to the ground with a nose bleed.

  The others discharged their weapons into the wall of air, creating explosions that made the shield wall shudder but forced the resulting explosions to detonate on the other side of the wall. This disoriented the Motorized, all of whom fell to the ground, some unconscious, some holding their faces or their ears.

  “It’s in place, we’re invisible,” Willow called out. I looked back, and it was true, they were all gone.

  I dropped the wall of air and moved out into the hallway. I looked in both directions seeking any sign of Ehren. To the right, I saw a dozen guards heading our way, each bearing mean-looking steam-powered weapons. To the left, another dozen guards headed our way. Above me I spied another group of men moving toward us, clanging down the metallic walkways with pounding steps.

  None of them could see me, but I knew I couldn’t survive another blast from one of those weapons. And I didn’t want to test myself or the young mages against a battle-hardened Vale army used to subduing mages.

  Blast it, Ehren, I thought. Where are you?

  “Get out,” I shouted to the rest behind me. “I’ll meet you outside on top of the bluff!”

  Hearing my voice, volleys of arrows launched in my direction, some lodging in the wall behind me, off target. One of the soldiers on the catwalk stopped and fired in my direction, and I threw up a quick shield of air just in time, deterring the majority of a large explosion, though the shockwave still knocked me back onto my knees.

  In ten seconds I would be overwhelmed and they would find me, invisible or not.

  I looked out to The Factory floor and saw more mages chained to machines nearby. Gritting my teeth, I got to my feet.

  I drained the matter of a couple of mops in a corner, and wove another spell, loosening the bonds of one mage, then two. I felt a thrill wash over me. With rapid-fire spells, I freed five more mages in quick succession and saw each of them spring up and begin to cast their own spells, free others, and fight back against The Motorized assault. My body buzzed with the feeling of casting spell after spell—it felt so good, strangely, it almost hurt.

  Some of the soldiers running towards me turned to engage the battle with the freed mages. But then, just like that, I had no more time and the Motorized were everywhere. I needed to get out now.

  I turned and sprinted through the small room and back outside into the sun. Practically an entire regiment of soldiers charged out behind me, as we left The Factory behind.

  “Every thug in Uof’s army is after us,” I yelled to the others, wherever they were. Using matter from the head of my staff, I cast a quick spell allowing me to see the others—though they remained invisible.

  “Alright, there you all are,” I said, taking stock of the situation. None of them had made it back to the bluff. They were all hudding near the storage shed.

  I looked over to the stairs back up to the top of the bluff, which were now crawling with soldiers. I could also see more men pouring through the gates of the keep, and more heading our way from the barracks. This was going from bad to impossible.

  “We have to move fast,” I called out to the others. “Even though they can’t see us, these soldiers know how to fight mages. The stairs back up won’t work. Let’s move toward the cliffs?—?now! Follow my voice.”

  I pulled out my last piece of gold, and drained it of its matter as we ran, holding it in my hands. As we reached the cliff wall, I began to weave a new spell.

  “To me,” I said aloud, so the mages find me.

  I felt a rush of anger move through me, along with a deep desire to destroy all of those who chased us. I felt angry at myself for not releasing all of the mages in The Factory, and I was even upset with Ehren for getting himself lost or taken?

  “Greer, ready a lightning spell,” I shouted angrily. Voices were moving our direction. I shouldn’t have shouted and alerted them to our position, but I didn’t care.

  “What for?” he asked, as he began to drain another piece of matter in preparation.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “If someone gets too close to us, drop some lightning on their heads,” I replied through gritted teeth as we ran. “When we reach the top of the bluff, we may have to fight our way clear. Gather around me, all of you.”

  Men darted past us now?—?they still couldn’t see us, but they could hear our disembodied voices.

  The three remaining mages, and Dirk’s fighters, stood next to me as I cast my spell. The spell took hold and all nine of us rose into the air. We grabbed onto each other as we floated upward?—?shrieks of fear escaping the lips of the resistance fighters with us. I thought I heard someone whispering prayers.

  “Don’t move,” I whispered. “I created a platform of air under us that we will ride up the cliff face.”

  We rose straight up the cliff walls, invisible to the enemy.

  However, I hadn’t accounted for the small rocks and patches of dirt that would rise along with us. I looked down and saw that a patch of the ground rose with us, gaining the attention of every soldier and thug in the valley.

  Motorized began to gather beneath us, shooting up at us, and bullets and arrows and shot lit the air around us, tearing past us, exploding nearby.

  “Briar, Willow, do you remember the basic shield spell?” I asked quickly.

  “Yes,” they both said, gasping as they looked all around. The patch of dirt rising into the air formed a kind of target and made us easy to fire upon, like fish in a barrel. We’d risen halfway up the cliff face and still had some ways to go. At the top of the bluff itself, a solider stood looking down toward us.

  “Briar, cast it below us! Willow, cast it on the cliffside of us!” I shouted as a small explosion ripped into the air below us.

  I felt the warmth of the explosion through my boots. This was getting far too close?—?the next explosion could destroy our platform entirely. Five or six men now gathered at the top of the cliff where I’d hoped to exit this little ride.

  “Shield in place,” Willow called out.

  “Mine too,” Briar shouted.

  “Also Mage, we’re not invisible anymore,” Willow called out. “They can see us clearly now.”

  “Greer, ready your lightning spell,” I said.

  “Ready master,” he said, his hands held out before him.

  We rose steadily, and though we had a shield below us now, I still felt scatters of shot firing up at us from below. As we approached the top of the cliff, we started getting pummeled from that side as well?—?from the men above us?—?but Willow’s shield held.

  We huddled together on our invisible platform, trying to make ourselves small. I turned around and looked down into the valley and saw the other mages, those I’d freed, starting to pour out the back door of the Factory.

  I couldn’t just leave them there.

  Soldiers moved in toward them now, dozens of them coming toward them all at once. I drew on the remaining matter in my staff and cast an explosion spell right into the middle of the Motorized, sending bodies flying, clearing a path for the mages.

  “Mages, if you have anything left, let’s clear a path for those mages below,” I said, our platform still moving up.

  I looked from the mages below to the stairs. Maybe there was a chance for them to get up here.

  Briar cast a spell, exploding the cliff face above the stairs—tossing rocks and earth down—knocking soldiers off the stairway, some crushed under the larger rocks. Greer threw another lightning blast into a group of soldiers at the bottom of the stairs, WHAM! The spell decimated the entire group, leaving a gouge in the earth. With a small gemstone, I launched a tornado of wind into another group of soldiers, further away, spinning them into chaos. I low buzz hummed in my mind, and I felt an intense thrill at the same time—again, I was doing more spellcasting today than I’d ever done before.

  The mages below could see what we were trying to do, and they started to move toward the stairs, casting their own spells of protection and defense.

  We took more fire from the top of the bluff, especially as we drew closer, and had to turn our attention in that direction.

  “Greer, on a count of three, hit the men at the top of the cliff,” I said, as explosions continued to light the air around us, with bullets and arrows zinging past.

  “Ready,” he grumbled, waiting to trigger his spell.

  “One,” I said as we continued to rise. More bullets and explosions found the air all around us. The shields held. “Two.” Men raced up the stairs toward the bluff. We were going to have to sprint the moment we hit the ground.

  “Three,” I called out. “Now Greer!”

  A brilliant flash of light HAMMERED the air, the concussion exploding in the midst of the soldiers on the cliff top.

  All five men exploded in the flash as Greer’s jagged rail of lightning detonated, but along with them, a chunk of the top of the cliff shook violently and tumbled down to the valley floor, carving a giant hole out of the bluff. Willow’s shield wall held, and the explosion bounced around us, though we felt dirt and debris raining around us, heard the explosion, and saw the blinding light.

  I moved our invisible platform to the top of the bluff into a place we could get off quickly without coming under too much fire. I helped the others up onto the top of the bluff.

  I was about to leap off the platform, when an arrow buzzed close and exploded behind me, knocking me off my feet. As I got to my knees, my head felt hazy for a moment, my ears rang, but I managed to get to my feet and stagger off the platform and onto the bluff.

  I looked down and saw the soldiers now engaged in a fight with eight to ten of the mages as they moved up the stairway. More explosions rocked the valley and smoke rose from The Factory itself.

  Willow, who’d be first off the platform, moved toward the top of the stairway and then cast a focused blast of fire toward two Motorized thugs waiting for the mages at the top of the stairs. Their path was clear now.

  We gathered with the three fighters we’d left on the bluff, and moved to the top of the stairs. Eight mages of varying ages, all of them looking exhausted, a couple were wounded, ran up to the top of the stairs, and joined us. Before we could exchange any pleasantries, an explosion hit the stairway below, and we turned and ran.

  Running through the bare forest moments later, everything around me was muffled and my vision cloudy. I grabbed onto Greer’s shoulder just to keep upright. After twenty minutes of muffled sounds, my hearing slowly returned.

  First, I heard the sounds of the soldiers shouting behind us, but we moved quickly making our way down the mountain toward the southwest. I glanced around as ran, and saw the other mages, especially those who’d been slaves only minutes before, weren’t doing well either.

  After another half an hour, the sounds of the chase faded even more. We continued running down the mountain, and exhaustion settle into me, as I felt aches settle into my bones, and worse, a feverish heat burning up my head.

  I agonized over events from the day as we ran. I couldn’t stop thinking about poor, young Ehren and wondering what they would do to him. There were too many of Uof’s men at The Factory to go in and rescue him directly. We would have to somehow draw them out. I pondered how we might set up a large distraction in the city to draw the eyes of The Motorized. While they were distracted we could swoop into The Factory again and grab him. Even then, we didn’t know if he would be held there, or in one of the other keeps in Vale.

  It was reckless and stupid, I thought. Over and over I cursed my lack of care. Uof would torture him to get as much information about the resistance as he could, then chain him up to one of his machines and use him to make more of his weapons.

  With that in mind, however, there was good news. We now had a new piece of information that could help us.

  Uof wasn’t actually killing mages in every village and town where I’d seen his thugs taking mages of The Way. Though The Motorized had killed thousands of mages, his armies also captured mages they found and brought them here to be slaves.

  So I wasn't the last mage after all.

  While this gave me hope for Ehren, it was simultaneously worrying. What was the spell the slave mage had performed? What did it do? Most importantly, how could we stop them?

  With my head pounding, my side throbbing, and my fever growing, we ran. I lost myself in taking step after step.

  All the while, I rehearsed the spell I’d watched the mage perform as he sat chained to the machine. I went over the movements again and again as we ran down the mountain. I didn’t see him saying any words. Did I have the whole thing? I wasn’t sure. I would have to work on this further. Perhaps I could discover one of the keys to creating the hybrid weapons in discovering the workings of this very spell. Perhaps not.

  As we jogged through the dead forest, still many miles from our desert outpost, the answer suddenly occurred to me. I knew how we could defeat Uof.