“Free her. Now.”
If the wind Qe hadn’t been enough to convince Dwayne that his thieves were Mei’s murderers, then the brute’s stiletto would have done the trick.
“Who are you people?” After checking that Thadden was breathing, Dwayne got to his feet. “Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t answer questions from savages,” sneered “Ash”.
Dwayne ground his teeth. That was a bit much coming from an actual murderer. “Where’s my steward?”
“Dealt with.” The brute pointed at the thief. “Free her.”
A crack of thunder sounded in the distance. Mei’s rifle. If Rodion and Thadden were down and the Ma siblings were preoccupied with the brute and the thief’s alies, then Dwayne’s best bet was to free the thief and hope they didn’t hurt him when they left.
But then they’d have Na’cch. “Tell her to leave the book, and I’ll let you both go.”
“Ash,” the thief called out, “this book could advance our master’s plan.”
“Ash” stiffened. “No deal, savage.”
“All right, all right.” Dwayne put his hands up. “I’ll free her go.” Just imagine “Ash” as a hapless moth. “Qechireeut!”
The spell slammed the brute into Sanford’s outer wall, but he quickly recovered and charged Dwayne.
Another one then. “Qechireeut!”
“Ash” jumped right and made Dwayne’s spell tear off a sleeve, allowing him to closed the distance. Dwayne only had time for a quick “Qesuyit!” before the brute’s stiletto punched into his stomach.
“That’s that then.” The brute tossed Dwayne aside. “Now, let’s dig you out.”
“Is he dead?”
“He blocked it, but he won’t be getting up.”
“Where’s Sky?”
“Distracting his… you know who.”
His head pounding, Dwayne opened his eyes and looked around. If Qesuyit only prevented penetration, then the hard hit to Dwayne’s diaphragm probably would have put him down, but what the spell actually had done was turn his entire shirt into one stiff makeshift breastplate, which had turned the heavy blow into more of shove. As it was, he’d been thrown into the front yard.
Rodion lay slumped on Sanford’s threshold.
Dwayne scrambled over to the steward and held the back of his hand up to Rodion’s face. When he felt steward’s breath, Dwayne swallowed his relief. His friend wasn’t dead. Now, he just needed to get Na’cch back, and he’d be complete.
Cups, his head hurt.
Stifling a groan, Dwayne pulled himself to his feet and crept over to the sideyard, where “Ash” was having trouble digging the thief out.
“Can’t you free yourself with magic?”
“Do you want me to faint?” asked the thief. “I had practice all day today, and my capacity for high level spells is nearly spent.”
“Mine isn’t,” announced Dwayne. “All you have to do is give me back the book and I’ll free her.”
The brute spun to face him. “How did you- Ah, I knew that wasn’t canon. Do you use non-canon because you’re a savage who learned his magic from the beasts? Or is it that you just can’t do human magic?”
“Ri’mwe-” Dwayne bit down on the spell, which had tried to ride his fury out of his throat. “Remarkable. You’re very familiar with canon for a soldier.”
“I am not a soldier!” The somehow-taunted brute charged once again.
“Qethumlidug!” Dwayne’s spell caught the brute’s foot and made him face-planted into the yard.
“Cease with these primitive tricks.” The brute snapped the spell with a kick and got to his feet. “They are cowardly imitations of the warrior mages of old.”
The warriors mages of old probably didn’t have raging headaches after only casting eight Qe spells or have a Ri spell rattling around in their head.
Backing up further, Dwayne pointed at the ground. “Qesheffuf!”
“Nice try.” The brute vaulted over the bump in the ground. “Any more tricks?”
Dwayne’s back hit Sanford’s front wall. His only “trick” left was that Ri spell, but casting that would not only break his oath, it would also that was he a Ri mage, which a less than desired result. Of course, so was death, but there had to be a third option that wouldn’t result in Dwayne dying, or incinerating “Ash” to ash.
He did have matches, which everyone knew Qe mages needed to create fire.
When Dwayne pulled them out, the brute skidded to a halt. “What are you planning, savage?”
“Something not in the canon.” While Dwayne’s knowledge of Ri wasn’t nearly as expansive as his knowledge of Qe, he had learned both the spell his magic wanted to cast and the one he’d needed to keep the brute from dying at the same time. “You sure you don’t want to just give in?”
As the brute said “You’re bluffing,” Dwayne muttered “iki’iki’mwe’jie’mun” under his breath.
“What was that?” asked the brute.
Dwayne held up the matches. “Have you heard of Magdala Gallus?”
The brute’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”
“Catch.” Dwayne threw the box, shouted “NQeoum!” and right before the brute was swatted the box away, he whispered, “tha.”
The matches burst into a white-hot flame.
“Argh, my eyes!” The brute flailed to get away, but the flame stayed near his face. “What did you do?”
“Ash?” called out the thief. “What’s happening? Ash? Ash?”
“It burns! Get it off!”
Feeling oddly satisfied, Dwayne just waited. He’d combined the fire ball spell with the heat shield spell using spell preparation. One kept “Ash” blind. The other kept him from feeling the heat. What neither did was keep the flame from eating up the brute’s air.
“You… savage…” The brute had fallen to his knees. “What…”
“Ash? What’s happening? Ash?”
“I…” The brute went supine. “You…” He went still.
Finally.
“Ri’t.” When the flame went out, Dwayne walked over to check the brute for burns, but his spell had worked perfectly. He’d only almost killed a man, a fact he’d deal with later.
Now, there was only the thief. The spell would work on her too and then he’d have captured the magic thieves and gotten Na’cch back. All that in exchange for a broken oath. Another thing he’d deal with later.
“Ash? Ash?”
“He’s fine.” Dwayne started to approach the wind mage. “You can talk to him in jail.”
“No! NQerikwem!” As her magic melted her dirt prison, the thief flipped to her feet and crooked a finger at Dwayne. “lo!”
A line of drew itself across Dwayne’s chest.
As he reeled from the pain, the thief shouted “aku!” and rocketed past Dwayne. She grabbed her partner and dragged out Sanford’s front gate.
“Come back!” With blood streaming down his chest, Dwayne ran after her. She still had Na’cch. “That’s mine!”
He chased her through the crowd of people gathered in the street and into an alleyway, where both mages’ strength failed them and they dropped.
“For a savage,” the thief hauled herself to her feet, “you’re extremely persistent.”
“Give me back my book. Qe-”
Dwayne’s headache came roaring back with a vengeance and darkness closed around him.
Admaeus Speaks 