The man who’d come to kill me rode a pale horse and smiled as if we were old friends, though I was certain I’d never seen him before. He was tall, and his immaculately styled blond hair draped down over broad shoulders covered by a long red cloak that defied all the dirt and dust of the road. He was ridiculously handsome.
That probably shouldn’t have bothered me so much. You would think that impending death would lessen a person’s vanity, but truth be told, if I had to die, I’d rather be killed by an ugly person.
The mage dismounted smoothly, as though he’d spent a life in the saddle, which was odd because my people aren’t usually very good riders. When his feet hit the ground, they made no sound at all. ‘The ancestors must be smiling on me,’ he said. ‘The trail had gone cold on my original quarry and I feared I’d travelled all this way for nothing. Now who should drop in my lap but Kellen, son of the House of Ke.’
‘He makes a good entrance,’ Reichis said, clambering up to sit on my shoulder. ‘You should learn to make an entrance like that.’
‘I’ll get right on it.’ My stomach clenched uncomfortably, not just out of fear from what was about to happen but because it was my fault. The hextracker hadn’t even been looking for me until I’d stupidly used my magic trying to fight off a scrawny thirteen-year-old in a street brawl. If I’d listened to Ferius, the mage never would have known we were here. Instead I’d brought him right to us.
‘Reckon you’ve got the wrong kid,’ Ferius said, offering the bounty hunter an easy smile, relaxing her stance as if this was all a misunderstanding. ‘My nephew here is called Mutt and he’s no more Jan’Tep than I am.’
Reichis gave a quiet chortle in my ear. ‘Mutt. Heh.’
The mage stopped about fifty feet away from us, still too far for me to use my powder magic on him but close enough that he could cast any number of unpleasant spells on me. ‘A misunderstanding, you say? How odd.’ He bent over to pick up a handful of sand from the ground and whispered a few syllables before tossing it in the air. Instead of falling back down, the tiny particles drifted there, suspended, and began to rearrange themselves until they formed a floating likeness of my face. Two sigils appeared beneath the image, written in the elaborate court script of my people. The first one meant ‘shadowblack’, the second, ‘death’.
I’d never seen a spell warrant before, though every Jan’Tep initiate is taught to recognise them: transient curses that, once cast, could be reinvoked by any sufficiently trained mage to identify the fugitive they were pursuing. It’s not an easy spell, and to work this far from my city it would have to have been cast by one of my clan’s lords magi. Apparently my people hated me even more than I thought.
‘You should be flattered by the bounty on your head,’ the mage said. ‘It’s almost three times what I would have got for apprehending my original prey.’
‘Well now, if you ask me,’ Ferius began, letting the deadly sharp steel cards in her hand shift and turn around her fingers with practised ease, ‘that fancy sand picture don’t look a thing like old Mutt here. Best you look elsewhere for your bounty so we don’t come to any further misunderstandings.’
The flicker of a smile drifted over the mage’s face as he let the sand fall back to the ground. I shouldn’t have been able to see him so clearly in the darkness, but the magic swirling around the tattooed bands on his forearms cast six colours of light on his features.
‘Hey, Kellen?’ Reichis asked.
‘Yeah?’
‘The last guy who tried to kill us – how many bands had he sparked?’
‘Three,’ I replied. Every Jan’Tep initiate is banded using special metallic inks that connect them to the primal forces of the different forms of magic: iron, ember, breath, blood, sand and silk. Most mages will spark two or three of their bands, using those to choose the particular paths they study. Iron and ember might lead to a life as a war mage, for example, whereas iron and silk were the perfect combination for a chaincaster. I couldn’t tell what sort of mage this man had become, because all six of his bands were sparking with ghostly light.
‘So … six is worse, right?’ Reichis asked.
‘Yeah.’ Six bands meant we were screwed.
I glanced over at Ferius, hoping to discern her plan. Ferius always has a plan. Right now she was just staring at our enemy, waiting for him to make his move.
‘You set traps around your campsite,’ the mage said, beginning a slow, circuitous path towards us, his steps utterly silent, casually evading snares and sharpened spikes that I couldn’t spot even now.
‘Now what would give you that idea?’ Ferius asked.
The mage tapped a finger to his temple. ‘Silk magic. I’ve been scrying you for hours, waiting for your thoughts to turn to your preparations.’ His eyes narrowed as he stared at her. ‘It’s quite remarkable, really, the way you manage to keep yourself from thinking about your tricks and traps. Makes it almost impossible to perceive your plans. You have an incredibly disciplined mind.’
‘Nah,’ she said. ‘I’m just forgetful is all. Clumsy too.’ She sent one of her steel cards whisking through the air, flying fast as any throwing knife right for the mage’s neck. Just before it reached its target, the card fell harmlessly to the ground.
‘Impressive,’ he said, his hands still at his sides.
This made no sense. Shield spells require specific somatic shapes; you can’t just wish one into existence. How had he done it?
‘Hey, wake up,’ Reichis said, his front claws digging into my shoulder. ‘Time to blast this guy.’
Despite my creeping doubts, I slid my half-deck of steel cards into my pocket, then dug my hands into the pouches attached to my belt and sent pinches of red and black powder into the air as my fingers formed the somatic shapes. ‘Carath,’ I said, invoking the spell.
Fire from the blast tore through the darkness, a roar erupting from it that echoed through the open countryside even as the flames faded to nothingness inches away from their target.
It wasn’t possible. There’s only one way to maintain a shield without the somatic forms: stand inside a circle of spelled copper sigil wire. Problem was, the mage was walking towards us.
‘Something’s not right with this guy,’ Reichis growled.
‘Any idea what it might be?’ Sometimes Reichis can perceive things I can’t.
‘Yeah. He’s way too good-looking for a human.’
Okay, maybe a squirrel cat’s insights aren’t always that useful.
The mage watched us, clearly amused. ‘So it’s true? The nekhek speaks to you in the way his kind did with the Mahdek centuries ago? What does the little fellow say, I wonder?’
I considered my response carefully. Ferius says that when faced with certain death it’s important to project confidence. ‘He says you smell bad and wants to know if you’ve been eating rotten meat.’
The mage shook his head, looking rather disappointed in me. Evidently he didn’t appreciate my sense of humour, because the next thing I knew I was doubled over in pain. My internal organs were being crushed.
Several observations came to me at once. The first was that I should really be running away right now. Of course that wasn’t possible, because running isn’t something you can do when your stomach, kidneys, heart and liver feel like they’re being squeezed for juice. The second observation was that I should stop listening to Ferius when she talks about acting confidently. Third was really a question: how could this guy keep casting spells without having to make the somatic forms or say the words?
Reichis growled and leaped off my shoulder to race across the sand. When he was within leaping distance of the mage he sprang off his hind legs, only to fall back to the ground as if he’d slammed into a wall. The mage nodded – not even gestured, mind you, just nodded – and Reichis went flying through the air, landing on his side just a few feet away from me. I tried to reach out to him, but the pain was such that I couldn’t so much as move my arm.
Ferius began creeping slowly towards the mage, stalking him as though he were a skittish animal. ‘Best you stop tormenting the boy. I’d hate to have to muss that pretty hair of yours.’
The mage laughed at the empty threat, but nonetheless the pain in my guts suddenly disappeared. ‘You amuse me, woman, and frankly I’ve no interest in making an enemy of the Argosi. Your kind are fond of bartering, are they not?’
‘I’ve been known to make a trade now and then.’
‘Then allow me to offer you the bargain of your life: walk away from this place. In exchange I will put the boy to sleep before committing his soul to the depths to which he is destined.’ He looked over at Reichis. ‘The nekhek must be destroyed as well. After that, this unpleasant business will be done.’
Ferius took another step towards the mage. ‘Afraid I can’t accept your generous offer, friend.’
He looked at her quizzically. ‘The child is Jan’Tep. He’s nothing to you, and yet you’d throw your own life away in a hopeless bid to protect him?’
‘Nah, the kid’s annoying,’ she replied, ‘but the squirrel cat’s starting to grow on me.’ I barely saw her hand move and all of a sudden half a dozen steel cards were tearing through the air towards the mage. Even before they’d bounced off his shield, she’d already leaped after them, diving into a shoulder roll and coming up behind him. Her hand came up and I could see the rest of the cards fanned out like the edge of an axe. She swept them in a horizontal arc that should have sliced right through the flesh on the backs of his legs, only … nothing happened.
‘Are you quite done?’ he asked.
‘Told you there was something unnatural about this guy,’ Reichis said, back on his feet now, front paws clawing at the dirt as he prepared to attack a second time. ‘Nobody’s that good-looking.’
‘Really not helping,’ I said. Our attacker’s looks weren’t the problem; it was his … Wait a second … Here he was, standing in the middle of nowhere with all the dirt and dust of the borderlands swirling around him, and yet his clothes were as clean as if he’d just emerged from his private sanctum. That wasn’t the only weird thing either: the glow of his tattooed bands was way too bright even for a lord magus, never mind a bounty hunter who spent his life trudging through the borderlands looking for Jan’Tep fugitives. And then there was his boots, which made no sound when he walked. So of course this guy didn’t need somatic gestures or invocations to cast spells. He wasn’t really here.
‘He’s using illusions against us,’ I shouted. ‘He’s in our heads.’
‘Actually, it’s more that you are all inside mine,’ the mage said. ‘A rather clever contrivance, if I do say so—’
‘Oh, shut up,’ Ferius said, picking up the rest of the steel cards she’d tossed at him and running back towards me. She closed her eyes and spread part of her deck in each hand to form a pair of razor-sharp fans. They moved in a graceful, sinuous pattern like stalks of grass dancing in the breeze.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked, my own fingers in my pouches, ready to fire off another spell but having no idea where to aim.
‘He’s playing us,’ Ferius said, still keeping up the swift movements with her hands. ‘You don’t waste all that time with illusions just to show how clever you are: he didn’t come here alone.’
Two of them. I swore silently to myself. That was why this man wasn’t attacking us directly. He wasn’t some impossibly powerful lord magus who’d sparked all six of his bands – he was just using silk magic to mess with our heads while his partner got in close enough to strike.
Ferius stayed in constant motion, the sharp steel cards moving in unpredictable patterns, making it hard for anyone to strike at her directly. Except if the other guy is a war mage. Then he’ll just be getting into position to fire off a spell.
‘Spread out,’ Ferius said. ‘Don’t let him take more than one of us out with a single spell.’
Reichis growled at the apparition before us. ‘I can smell them both now. One is nearby, but the other one must be half a mile away.’
A sudden stab of pain in my stomach confirmed that our other opponent – the one the silk mage was making invisible to our eyes – was using simple iron magic. Which means he’s probably only sparked one band. That would be good news if I could actually see him. A scream tore itself from my lips.
‘Kid, duck!’ Ferius said.
It was easy enough to comply since I was already doubling over in agony. One of her cards flew past my head and a second later I heard a grunt from somewhere behind me. The pain in my guts faded away again.
‘Stay down, Kellen,’ Ferius said, sending several more of her cards flying through the air. None of them found their target. Iron magic is good for both attack and defence, and the heart shield is one of the few invocations that can be cast in combination with a second spell.
‘Argosi bitch,’ a voice called out. I looked around and saw nothing.
Ferius groaned and suddenly dropped to her knees, a tight grimace on her lips. She tried to throw another card but couldn’t; her muscles were spasming from the agony the iron mage was inflicting on her.
‘You should have taken our deal,’ the silk mage said, the apparition he’d created for himself fading now that the pretence was no longer needed. ‘I really would have let you live, Argosi.’
Ferius writhed on the ground, her features twisted in anguish, so unlike the cocky, swaggering woman who’d moments before launched herself into danger to protect me. ‘Stop it!’ I screamed into the darkness. ‘I accept your deal. I’m the one in the warrant, not the Argosi or the squirrel cat!’
The laughter that rang in my ears came from nowhere and everywhere at once. ‘I think not, Kellen of the House of Ke. It’s obvious now that she’s the one who’s been keeping you alive all these months, and that is a sin against our laws and our people. But don’t worry, we’ll get to you shortly.’
Reichis was racing around in frustration. ‘I can’t find him,’ he growled. ‘Gods-damned Jan’Tep magic!’
‘Kid …’ Ferius wheezed, ‘stop talking and listen.’
‘I’m listening. What do you want me to—’
‘No.’ She gasped for breath. ‘Not to me, stupid. Listen to him.’
All of a sudden I understood what she meant and why, even as the iron mage was slowly crushing her insides, Ferius was forcing herself not to scream. She was giving me the chance to find our adversary. ‘Reichis, don’t move,’ I said. I closed my eyes and focused my attention on the sounds around me the way I’d seen Ferius do. The iron mage might be invisible, but he still had to breathe. I just had to listen for him.
I let the desert noises wash over me. Buzzing insects. Burrowing animals. My own heartbeat. The breeze. No … not the breeze. With nothing more than a guess at his location, I pulled powder from both pouches, a lot this time.
There’s a second variation of my spell that I’d once used to break through a Jan’Tep shield. The red powder in my left pouch still carried some of Reichis’s mother’s blood mixed in it. ‘Carath Chitra,’ I said, and sent the spell screaming into the air before me.
The fiery blast broke through my enemy’s shield the way Reichis tears through rabbit flesh, but my guess at the iron mage’s position had been off by nearly a foot. His shield fell, but the man himself was unaffected. Before I could try again, he set his gut sword spell on me and the next instant I was in too much pain to recast. I turned my head and saw Ferius lying unconscious on the ground. The iron mage could focus all his attention on me now.
Five seconds, I thought. If I’d just been five seconds faster, if my spell was just a fraction stronger, if I were just a bit cleverer, my enemy would have been defeated. But I was too slow, too weak and, above all else, too dumb. Now Ferius and Reichis were going to die because of me.
‘It’s over,’ the silk mage said in my mind. ‘You’ve had a good run, Kellen, but no one escapes Jan’Tep justice for long. When you reach the grey passage, beg our ancestors for mercy that they don’t send your soul to the hell it so richly –’
His words disappeared, cut off somehow. My guts were still being twisted in knots, but my mind began to clear and the landscape all around me became sharper, the colours less muddled. I still couldn’t see the silk mage, but about twenty feet to my right stood a stoop-backed man in a long grey travelling coat, his right hand out in front of him holding the somatic shape for the gut sword. Whatever had caused his partner’s spell to fade hadn’t affected the iron mage. ‘Reichis …’ I moaned, struggling to stay on my feet.
‘He’s mine!’ the squirrel cat growled, racing across the dirt. At the last instant he leaped, the strength of his powerful back legs launching him over eight feet into the air. He spread his limbs wide and the thin fur-covered flaps between them billowed out, catching the breeze for just an instant before he descended onto the iron mage. If you’ve never had a squirrel cat fly at your face, the effect is more than a little disconcerting. The mage kept his shield up, but his focus on the gut sword spell wavered.
I took in a quick, desperate breath, my hands grabbing more powder from the pouches at my belt even as my mind reached for the calm and clarity I would need for the spell. ‘Reichis, get away now.’
The squirrel cat raced away into the darkness. ‘Light him up, Kellen!’
The mage turned his attention back to me, but before he could summon up his gut sword again, I had tossed the powders into the air, formed the somatic shapes with my hands and invoked the spell one last time. ‘Carath Chitra,’ I said.
The twin fires, black and red, ripped at the mage’s shield a second time, tearing it apart to get to him. The flames broke through, surrounding him, biting at him until he screamed in agony. The spell didn’t last long, but neither did the mage. What little had remained of his shield spell had been enough to keep him alive, but I could see the burns on him as he fell unconscious to the ground.
The sound of my lungs huffing and puffing for air as if I’d been running for miles filled my ears even as tracks of sweat began to drip down my forehead. I forced myself to breathe more slowly, willing my legs to shake off their paralysis so that I could go to make sure Ferius was still alive.
Reichis ambled over to me, his fur a dirty mess of reds and blacks like the colours of my spell. ‘Nice shot, for once.’
‘Thanks. For once.’
‘Only we have a problem.’
‘Just one?’
‘Yeah.’ He gestured with a paw towards the robed man I’d just taken out. ‘If that’s the guy who was casting the attack spells, where’s the one who was messing with our heads?’
Oh. Right.