11
The Deck
The red glow coming from Ra’dir’s hands reflected menacingly off the surface of the fanned-out deck Ferius was holding. ‘You think you can fight a war mage with a deck of cards?’ he scoffed. His fingers were bunched together, pressing against each thumb, the somatic form that would unleash a ball of wildfire once he spread them apart and said the spell.
‘For you I just need one,’ Ferius replied, and a single card slid up from the fanned deck, which she took and held between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand. ‘In case you’re wondering, this isn’t your lucky card.’
Ra’dir began the spell, but even as he spoke the first syllable, Ferius flung the card. It spun through the air like an arrow and lodged itself in his open mouth. He started choking and his spell came apart before he could even cast it.
‘That was the dull end I gave you there, boy. Next time you get the sharp.’
I prayed to our ancestors to put a stop to this – for Panahsi or the other initiates to realise this had gone too far and step in, but none of them moved. This was a duel now, and duels are sacred to my people. Even so, if it had just been Tennat facing us, or maybe even Tennat and Ra’fan, fear of facing an armed opponent might have put an end to the insanity then and there. But Ra’dir was a war mage and they’re trained for the chaos of battle. He spat out the card, a thin line of blood sliding from the edges of his mouth down his chin. ‘She can’t take us all. Attack together,’ he said. ‘Now!’
I heard both Tennat and Ra’fan uttering spells. I knew Tennat would go for the gut sword – the same spell he’d used on me the day before and one of the few forms of offensive magic an initiate learns. But it was Ra’fan I was worried about. A chain mage has all sorts of binding spells, and in seconds he could paralyse Ferius and that would be the end of the fight. As he spoke the first word, Kaneth, I threw the deck of regular cards into his face. The painted surfaces filled the air with colour for an instant, momentarily breaking his line of sight to Ferius. He swatted the cards out of the way and began forming the somatic shapes for the spell again.
I heard a grunt from Ferius. Tennat had chosen to attack her rather than me. Of course he did. He’s stupid but not that stupid. ‘It’s the gut sword!’ I shouted to Ferius. ‘His will is inside you.’
‘Just … a … little … sting …’ she said, doubled over in pain.
Tennat was grinning wildly, so excited at being able to exert his will over Ferius that he forgot she had no shield spell of her own. ‘She’s mine,’ he told the others. The idiot was going to rip out her intestines.
Instinctively I formed the somatic shapes for a spell to break Tennat’s concentration. Silk spells are hard to envision – you have to slither into the mind of your enemy. But I’ve always been good at the basic elements of magic, so my fingers were tracing the somatic forms even as I spoke the first syllables of the incantation and tried to channel my will into the tattooed band for silk magic on my left arm. I thought that maybe here, in a moment of crisis, a moment where I was trying to do the right thing and protect someone else, the magic would come to me.
It didn’t.
The only break in Tennat’s concentration was the giggle from watching me try. It wasn’t enough to weaken his gut sword.
‘Keep … smiling … you little rat …’ Ferius moaned. She flung another card from her deck and Tennat screamed as the sharp edge dug into the palm of his hand.
I knew Ra’dir was already preparing another fire conjuration, but I couldn’t think about that now. Ra’fan had a clear line of sight at Ferius and was readying a different kind of binding spell. Again I raised my hands to try another spell, but Ferius shouted, ‘Enough with the parlour tricks, kid.’
She’s right, I realised. No spell I attempted was going to help. I tried throwing the metal card she’d given me, spinning it through the air the way I’d learned to do with the paper ones, but these had a different weight and the surface was slippery. The card bit into the ground at Ra’fan’s feet. Having neither more cards nor spells and not knowing what else to do, I ran for him.
Something hot scorched the side of my shoulder and I realised distantly that I’d nearly run straight into a blast of flame from Ra’dir’s outstretched hand. The air was hot all around me. I ignored it, leaping the last few feet between me and Ra’fan. My burnt shoulder collided with his outstretched arms, breaking the somatic form. I nearly screamed from the agony and stumbled when Ra’fan’s elbow slammed into the side of my head, blurring my vision. At least it took my mind off the pain in my shoulder.
As I fell to the ground, I heard him uttering the spell a third time. I swung out my arm and hit his shin, but the blow lacked any force. Something shiny caught my eye and I saw my metal card, the four of clubs, sitting next to me. I grabbed it and slashed wildly at Ra’fan, catching his hands. A thin line of blood appeared in the air as the razor-sharp edge of the card sliced across both palms. He gave a terrified scream that was music to my ears. It’s possible that I’m not a very nice person.
‘Kid!’ Ferius shouted. I turned my head to see Ra’dir standing a few feet away, three separate metal cards stuck in his big chest, still firing blasts of fire from his hands. Ferius was limping and the side of her left calf was smouldering. I rolled towards Ra’dir and kicked out hard, smashing my foot into the side of his leg. His blast went high as he fell to his knees next to me. The next thing I saw was the heel of Ferius’s boot connecting with the underside of Ra’dir’s chin. His head went back and the rest of him followed. Even then, even as he grimaced in pain on his back, he began uttering the syllables of another fire spell, only to have his words end in a gurgle. Ferius Parfax had her boot on his throat.
Looking up at her was like staring into the face of an angry goddess. Her hat had come off and her red hair floated in the breeze like flames rising from a wildfire. In each of her hands she held several cards, sharp edges shining in the light of the nearby braziers. She was smiling, but not with her eyes. ‘You keep talking about magic, kid,’ she said to me. ‘You keep talking about power. You want to know what real power looks like?’
‘If you kill us you’ll start a war,’ Ra’fan said defiantly, though with his injured hands buried in his armpits he didn’t look very impressive. Tennat was on his knees, crawling towards his older brother.
With her boot still on Ra’dir’s neck, Ferius snapped both her wrists out and I watched in horror as the cards flew from her hands towards Ra’fan and Tennat. She’s killed them, I thought. They misjudged her. I misjudged her. She’s … I hadn’t realised that I’d closed my eyes until the sound of Tennat crying forced me to open them again. Five metal cards were stuck in the dirt just inches from each of the brothers.
‘Now that,’ Ferius said, removing her boot from Ra’dir’s neck and setting off towards the entrance to the square where the initiates were already scattering, ‘that’s magic.’