“He’s shadow-touched, the Weather Mage is shadow-touched!” she said with a touch of hysteria.
“Are you sure?”
“How can you not see the black depths in his eyes?”
“Brother,” said Darius authoritatively, “what are you doing here? Why are you not at watch over the farm in Borden?”
The man in question sneered, “You. I’m here because of you. You never considered me worthy...”
Dread shifted down Ciardis’s spine. She’d heard that before.
“You went off to that school of mages and left me to rot in Borden,” said the man.
“Timmoris, don’t—” said Darius, holding up a placating hand.
“Don’t call me that!” shouted Timmoris. “How dare you call me that. Belittling me.” Spittle was flying from the incensed man’s face and Darius had finally halted, seeing that something was wrong, very wrong with his brother.
“Let’s talk about this,” Darius said firmly. Waving his hand to encompass the people behind Timmoris, he said, “You’ve certainly made some powerful friends.”
“Them?” said Timmoris with derision.
“The time for talking is over,” said Prince Heir Sebastian. “Incapacitate him. Now, Ashlord!”
Ciardis swore, not because she’d just learned that the tall, gangly man was the one and only Ashlord, a necromancer with dark powers, but because dark clouds were gathering on the horizon.
The necromancer paused and turned back to Prince Heir Sebastian with uncharacteristically pleading eyes. “Please, Milord. He’s all I have. Let me speak to him. I assure you, he means—”
“Watch out!” shouted Ciardis, pointing frantically at the sky.
Before the necromancer could finish his sentence, a bolt of lightning arced down from the gathering storm. It hit the Ashlord straight on and he slumped to the ground unconscious with grave wounds.
“I guess that’s where those burn marks on the bodies came from,” said Meres grimly.
Before Vana could lose an arrow into the Weather Mage, Ciardis shouted hoarsely, “Wait, it’s not him. It’s the Shadow Mage—he’s controlling them.”
“How?” asked Alexandra. “He’s not wearing a control bracelet.”
“It’s the eyes,” Ciardis said. “The shadows are in his eyes just like Barren before Vana released him.”
Timmoris sucked his teeth and smiled. “Well, well, such a smart girl.”
Then he turned to Prince Heir Sebastian and said, “You are right, Milord. The time for talk is over
Prince Heir Sebastian’s men had engaged with the Shadow Mage’s followers, but with their sight limited to a few feet in front of them, they couldn’t extend their defensive perimeter very far.
Maree Amber stepped up with Meres Kinsight to take on a group of the Shadow Mage’s followers, including the Weather Mage. They were all shadow-touched and they were all mages by the look of it. They didn’t speak; they just fought.
Anxiously, Ciardis looked for her brother. He had to be nearby to enhance the Shadow Mage’s powers. But she couldn’t see him. Where was he?
Meanwhile Maree Amber grabbed two trees with her mind. She uprooted those, roots and all, and flung them directly at the mages. The trees took out two of the mages. One of the four shadow-touched cohorts lifted his hands and fire flowed from his fingers directly toward them. The Weather Mage called in lightning and they merged their two natural elements to push a deadly mixture of their elemental powers at everyone in their paths.
Maree didn’t pause. She threw up a mage shield and kept going.
Behind her, Vana said, “If I can get close enough, I can break their feed to their master.”
“How close?” Maree said calmly.
“Touching,” Vana said. “And I’ll need a minute with each.”
“Not going to happen—not now. We don’t have enough trained people here to hold off fully-trained mages while you break the holds on their minds.”
“Suggestions, then?” Vana called out as the shield went down and they rushed the shadow-touched.
“Knock them out if possible,” said Maree Amber with a grunt as she kicked the Fire Mage in the throat swiftly. “Incapacitate them if not.”
A different mage had spotted Ciardis and was bearing down on her with the grim intensity of one preparing to kill. She pulled out a knife and glanced around for another weapon. There was nothing in reach, and the glow of the protective barrier from Maree Amber had failed.
Ciardis’s opponent called on the plants in the ground to capture her, and suddenly the earth beneath Ciardis’s feet was sinking and roots were dragging her hands down.
Scrambling, she pushed up with her hands and feet as much as she could, but her face was already being pulled into the soft soil.
He was struggling, but she had him at a disadvantage with his face pulled back in her grip and on his knees as he desperately tried to stop her from strangling him. She did stop, but only when he fell unconscious.
Ciardis looked over to thank her while spitting out dirt, but Maree Amber beat her to it.
“Get behind Lady Vana now,” she said in disgust. “If you’re not going to be useful, at least try not to get in the way.”
As Vana dodged opponents, she shouted, “We need a sun mage.”
“What do you want to me to do about that?” Ciardis asked as she desperately dodged a sword aimed at her head and came up face to face with the Weather Mage.
Hefting the rock in her hand, she quickly apologized and walloped the Weather Mage on the head. He slumped onto the ground, out cold. The darkened skies immediately opened as clouds disappeared and the sun shone through.
“That’ll do!” shouted Lady Vana with a grin.
Ciardis was tempted to say something snarky, and then she saw a long staff weapon discarded by a soldier on the ground. She needed a weapon and that would serve perfectly. Scrambling over with quick feet, she grabbed it off of the ground and turned around to face the person she heard coming up behind her.
Unfortunately it was the Shadow Mage.
He wasted no time having his shadow creatures pin her to the ground and relieve her of her weapon. They began to twist her arms in unnatural directions as she screamed in pain. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Sebastian came from behind him. Wielding a sword, he tried to cut off the Shadow Mage’s head. Hearing Sebastian coming up behind him, the Shadow Mage had enough time to duck and knock Sebastian’s legs out from under him. The sword swiped the side of his face, but only enough to create a shallow cut through the edge of his nose. A shadow creature turned itself into black vines and wrapped thick ropes around Prince Heir Sebastian’s legs, dragging him away.
Lady Vana took his place while Meres Kinsight went after Prince Heir Sebastian.
“What happened?” Ciardis screamed from where she lay pinned on the ground. “What happened to make you like this?”
She looked over at Vana, hoping the unknown mage could come to her rescue, but she was a bit busy battling shadow creatures on all sides.
Looking back at the Shadow Mage, she couldn’t help but see a bitter brother, jealous of his sibling and hating what he had become.
“It has to end,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” he crooned as he reached down to caress her dirty face. “You’ll be seeing your maker soon.”
“Ciardis,” shouted Vana from her battle across the field. “Remember your lessons. What you can stabilize, you can destabilize.”
The Shadow Mage turned to Vana with a roar and had a shadow creature lift her up in a dark tunnel of
