My attention was drawn to a screaming man with a bloodied nose, and it was only when I saw his strange hairstyle that I recognized him as Mohawk. He brandished what looked like a broken chair leg, its tip spiked, and charged toward me. I ducked beneath his clumsy swipe and swung my arm for his face as his broken chair leg whistled past my head. He reared back a little, so my hand didn’t connect with his face. Instead, my fingers grasped the wiry threads of his mohawk.
Almost instinctively, I channeled Mana through my Fire rune. I only sent a little Mana into the tattoo, so only tiny embers shot through my fingers. My spell set Mohawk’s hair alight, and I released him. He screamed as the flames consumed his terrible haircut. In a wild attempt to put out the blaze, he scurried from one table to the next, searching for a beer mug that wasn’t empty to douse the conflagration.
“That’s a new trick,” Jacques said to me. “Why don’t I try it?”
I was expecting my old friend to reveal that he also possessed magic, but he simply grabbed the sapper he’d stabbed earlier, dragged him across the tavern floor, and threw him headfirst into the hearth.
Jacques grinned at me from the other side of the room as the sapper did his best impression of Mohawk only moments ago, screaming as he futilely searched for something to extinguish the flames.
A sapper came at me from my right, and I twisted to avoid his charge. He pivoted on his foot and rushed for me again. This time, I grabbed him by the hips, hauled him backward, and drove him through a table. The wood snapped beneath his back as he landed heavily on the flood and cried out in pain at the impact. I delivered a solid kick to his midriff, driving the air out of him, and he curled up into a ball.
The steam dissipated, revealing three sappers lying on the ground, groaning and nursing their wounds. The man I’d just felled was struggling to rise from the wreck of the table. Mohawk and the other burned man were dunking their heads in buckets. I wasn’t sure where they’d found the buckets, but the stench coming from them gave me a few ideas about what they contained. The remaining three, including Patch and Red Nose, had scuttled backward. The tavern was a mess of smashed chairs and tables, shattered mugs, and a smattering of broken teeth, splattered blood, and spilled beer.
Applause and cheering broke out from the bar, and I looked up to see the barmaids grinning while the Mistress wore an impressed smile.
“You assholes used magic,” Red Nose said as he gripped a broken arm.
“And you threatened my friends,” I said as Jacques, Veronica, and Amelia came to stand beside me. “Were you expecting to get away with that?”
Patch motioned to the other sappers, and they started toward the tavern’s exit. It seemed like they had realized that they were outmatched and were going to leave. Fleeing was the smart thing to do.
But these guys weren’t very smart at all.
Instead of fleeing, they snatched their weapons from the rack beside the door and turned toward us.
“We’ve faced monsters before,” Red Nose said as he slapped a hammer in his palm. “Couple of Mages can’t be much harder to take down.”
“You’re really out of your league here,” I said.
I hadn’t fought any regular people since acquiring magic—just trollmen and Beasts—but this brief brawl had shown me just how powerful I had become. In a fight against regular humans, they would never stand a chance against me. If these sappers hadn’t threatened my friends, I would almost have felt sorry for them.
“William, ever the level-headed one,” Jacques said. “I was just getting warmed up.”
“I think you boys have had enough punishment for one evening,” the Mistress said as she walked out from behind the bar. I hadn’t noticed before because the bar had been hiding it, but she had a beautiful pair of long, graceful legs encased in purple lace stockings.
“You going to let Mages use magic in your tavern?” Red Nose asked the Mistress. “Look what they did to Gerry here.” He motioned to Mohawk. “He’s been growing that ’hawk for months now. Might never grow back.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “Take your companions to the infirmary. I’ll tend to your wounds shortly.”
The conscious sappers dragged the bodies of their unconscious comrades through an exit door beside the bar.
The Mistress turned to face Amelia, Veronica, and me. “As for you, did you not see the sign forbidding use of weapons in my tavern? Even if they’re Mage weapons, they’re still weapons.”
I considered telling the Mistress that Amelia and I weren’t Mages, nor did we have any weapons with which we’d used to cast spells.
“Apologies for the mess we’ve caused in here.” I indicated the smashed furniture with a sweep of my arm. “But I can assure you we used no weapons, Mistress...”
“William,” said Jacques, “allow me to introduce Mistress Blossom, Supreme Ruler of the Sticks and Stones Tavern.”
“A pleasure.” I extended my hand. “My name is William. These ladies are my companions, Amelia and Veronica.”
“Veronica, I know,” Mistress Blossom said with a smile, “but it’s wonderful to meet you, Amelia. Mages are always welcome in my tavern. In fact, I welcome most anyone, so long as they purchase alcohol and don’t pester my barmaids too much.”
“Thank you very much,” I said to the Mistress. “We’re glad to be in a place with such excellent beer!I haven’t come across the last name Blossom before,”
“It’s an honorable name for a family with a close bond to nature.” Mistress Blossom took my hand. “And now,” she continued. “Don’t think
