Sworn To Transfer

it around the core and proceeded to squeeze it magically with all the power she had. Just when she thought it wouldn’t break it – it burst with a sudden gale force. The Shadow Mage’s power dispersed like a dark cloud in all directions and dissipated in the core.

She heard a startled shout from the other side of the barrier. It hadn’t been a warning or a cry of pain, just surprise, so she ignored it for the moment. Sending out feelers she checked to make sure it wouldn’t adversely affect the boy, but it looked like his core was merely absorbing everything that was left. She disappeared the whip and made sure none of her own magic was leaking before she left. Walking out to the other side of the barrier she saw the girl flat on her back looking dazed.

Smiling in amusement she reached down to give her a hand. Pulling her up as the girl rubbed her head she said, “That was some burst of the bubble aye?”

Ciardis thought back over the moment before – The barrier had disappeared abruptly and she’d been left drawing on the power and stabilizing nothing. Hence the fall.

“You defeated the Shadow Mage,” she said with some reproach.

Vana waved a hand, “I defeated the mage’s creature. Not the person himself.”

“You could have warned me.”

“Lesson number two – always be prepared.”

“What was lesson number one?”

“How to stabilize another mage’s power feed under duress.”

“What ever happened to Barren?”

“He’s around us. It’ll take him a minute or so fully absorb all of the extra magic in his system and reassert himself in his core.”

“You mean all of that magic is his now?”

“Every last drop. Kid’s going to feel like he’s on a high for at least a week.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Ciardis said while rubbing a sore shoulder. Could a shoulder be sore magically? She didn’t know but it certainly felt like it.

They rose up their forms and prepared to leave Barren’s mage core.

When they opened their eyes physically Ciardis groaned and managed to inhale mud. Spluttering she sat up coughing as she tried to dislodge the thick, wet earth from her mouth. With horror she realized that she’d been sitting face first in mud and her body felt like a wildebeest had stomped on it. With one last effort to spit out the dirt from her mouth she glared at Terris, “Why didn’t you catch me?”

“Why did you fall?”

“And why in the seven hells do I feel like a horse has run over me?” Ciardis complained while reaching for an aching shoulder.

“Mage wounds,” said Vana cheerfully as she sat up.

“Every wound you receive against yourself in a mind mage battle is a wound you feel on your physical self,” Vana continued after Ciardis’s clueless look.

“Every one?” she asked in disbelief.

“As long as you don’t have a proper shielding,” Vana said, “Most advanced mages do, which is why younglings like yourself aren’t allowed to do the kind of magic you just did.”

Ciardis sighed in irritation. She had helped hadn’t she? So what was with the censure?

“You look right as rain,” Ciardis said sourly, “I guess your shielding worked.”

“Didn’t have any,” Vana said with a smirk, “That Shadow Creature couldn’t touch me.”

At that moment a loud groan can from the boy laying at their feet. He opened his eyes and said groggily, “What happened?

“Long story,” Meres said ruefully, “Just know that thanks to Lady Vana and the efforts of Ciardis Weathervane, the Shadow Mage has been removed from your mage core and your conscience.”

“Again,” chimed Ciardis and Terris at identical moments.

As they began to walk back towards the village Ciardis asked, “Terris what in the world is on your hands?”

“Trust me. You don’t want to know.”

Chapter 31

The next few days passed slowly as Julius dispatched bands of roving Panen warriors to search the woods around Ameles for the shadow mage. Each returned with no luck. More bodies began to pile up. This time they weren’t in the small forest clearing of death. They appeared everywhere, like bloody presents that wouldn’t stop coming. One morning Ciardis woke up and stumbled to the baths. Her screams woke up half the village, and half- dressed warriors raced toward the sound of her voice.

She stared at the still water in pain and fury - there was nothing else to do. A griffin—Terris’s griffin—lay floating in the water with dozens of cuts lining its side. Blood spurted from its floating body out into the blue water, the red mixing quickly in the underwater currents and turning the pool red.

As she watched the warriors pull the body out with stiff headshakes at the healers who’d come racing in to aid, she felt her heart break. It didn’t help that at that moment Helen stumbled in with Terris on her heels. As the sun dawned on a new day, her keening wails broke the still, somber air.

Ciardis felt shame well up in her. Shame that another human would cause such pain to such a kind soul. Shame that a beautiful griffin had lost its life before its kits had even opened their eyes. A fire began to burn inside her. She’d been invested in finding the Shadow Mage before, but now it amounted to more than that. She seen the deaths of many who’d not deserved to leave this life; it had saddened her. But this felt like a knife to the heart, and she couldn’t stand it anymore. Pulling apart from the crowd of people surrounding the heartbroken healer, Ciardis walked off determined to do something. What, she didn’t know.

She ignored the man following behind her and shrugged on a new pair of clothes. Sheathing her knives and grabbing her glaive, she prepared to move out. If this shadow man thought she’d lose one more friend, one more ally, then he had another thing coming. Stepping out of her guesthouse, she almost rammed Meres Kinsight through with her glaive.

She glared at him for getting in her way and proceeded on. Calling out from behind her he said, “The regiment is in the other direction, Ciardis Weathervane.”

“What can they do? They don’t know these woods and they aren’t mages.”

“No,” he said in reply. “But the mages with them know where to search.”

Halting with her back stiff, Ciardis turned around slowly as she fought not to scream.

“They’re here? Now?”

“They’re here. Now.”

“Vana and Alexandra are already mounted up to ride out to meet them,” he said calmly. “We’re waiting on you and Terris.”

Ciardis eyed him proudly and ignored the slight reprimand in his tone.

“She’s probably with the kits,” she admitted quietly.

“After you,” he said, extending a polite hand toward the healer’s center.

She turned, her glaive held in one hand and sheathed knife at her waist. She left the weapons outside the hall, not sure what kind of mood the kits were in. They were blind, but even as young as they were they could sense danger and the presence of weapons. Which made it just that much more confusing as to how the Shadow Mage had managed to sneak up on their mother.

What was she doing out before dawn anyway?

“Feeding her kits,” Terris said softly, as if Ciardis had asked the question aloud. “They’ve started on real meat and needed live prey.”

Ciardis grimaced.

Meres said quietly as he knelt by Terris on the ground and gently took one of the litter in his hands. “We’ll not let her die in vain. Her kits will prosper. But only after we find that mage.”