Page 81 of Twisted Magic

Just then, magic surged and crashed, accompanied by a roar from many throats. Water from the lake rose into a massive fist and pounded down onto the phalanx of hunters hounding Selly and Daisy, dragging the lot of them into the lake basin.

Gabriel.

~26~

Jadren punched a fist in the air at the advent of Gabriel Phel’s water magic taking possession of the returning lake and using it to batter the hunters going after Seliah and Daisy. He’d been poised to dash over there, but he’d too easily envisioned a scenario where he’d be too late. Seliah had wanted to remain in her fierce big cat form for these initial sallies, unless and until he needed her magic. But there were limits to what she could do.

He watched with relief as Seliah took advantage of the reprieve to herd her mother back to the safety of their own rear guard. The older woman was fit, jogging easily alongside Seliah, one hand trustingly on the cat’s back.

Turning his attention back to the manse, he assessed the current situation. They’d nullified the immediate threat to the arcanium, but all advantage of their surprise attack from the rear had been lost. It had lasted longer than he’d hoped for, frankly, which had preserved their fighting power. Now, however, they faced overwhelming odds, not remotely in their favor.

With the collapsing of his wards, Gabriel had emerged onto the wide, gracious front porch that wrapped around the main section of the manse, his tall, silver-haired form distinctive even from a distance. Nic, in human form, stuck beside him, and a small force of fighters ringed them protectively. Squinting, doing a rough count, Jadren determined that group represented less than a third of everyone who should have been in residence at the time of the attack. Were the rest hiding inside or…

A small falcon came shooting across the lake, backwinging to land on Alise’s shoulder. “This is Quinn Byssan!” she gasped in surprise. “She and Sage had just nailed putting her in alternate form when I left. What is she—oh, she’s carrying a note.”

Quinn chirped in authoritative agreement, folding her wings to her speckled back.

“Nic says they’d already mobilized the noncombatants, including a large number of patients—damn—to escape out the back of the manse with a suitable distraction. We need to do more to pull the bulk of the hunters to the front, just in case we don’t carry the day. He’s prepared to lay down devastating magic.” She looked to Quinn, wizard-black eyes cold. “Maman must be in the group they’re taking out the back.”

The falcon chirped an affirmative and Alise turned back to Jadren. “I want to go with that group and help.”

“Is that wise?” Cillian inserted.

“I can summon defensive spirits if necessary,” she said dismissively.

“Cillian is right,” Jadren put in, earning a grateful look from the Harahel wizard. “We need you here to deal with the spirits in the automatons. Look—more are coming our way.”

“This is my mother we’re talking about,” Alise spat, lifting her chin in that stubborn defiance that was all Elal. Or, all Phel, as it turned out.

Jadren hated to pull rank, but he had to. “You’re under my command Alise Phel, both in this operation and as your senior in the Phel family.” He pointed to Seliah, who came loping up just then, tongue lolling as she panted, Daisy Phel a few steps behind. Not far away—much too close—the hunters were massing. “Here’s a lesson for you, Baby Elal. Learn to delegate. Trust in other people to handle things for you.”

She fumed visibly, yanking her arm away when Cillian tried to take her elbow. “Baby Phel,” she spat. “If you’re going to condescend to me, Lord Jadren El-Adrel, then get it right.”

She handed Quinn to him and stalked stiffly away to the warded staging area where El-Adrel wizards were bringing deactivated, but still spirit-animated automatons, methodically working through ripping the spirits free and sending them into the ether.

“Tell them we understand the plan and will support,” he told Quinn, “but we’re going to need a lot of magic to deal with this horde.”

Experimentally, he grabbed a severed piece of hunter lying nearby, twitching and trying to crawl its way to rejoin another. Drawing Gabriel’s original dagger, given to him by Seliah for safekeeping, he stabbed the limb with it. Nothing happened. Looking up, he found a circle of people watching him in puzzlement—except for Seliah managed to make her cat’s face grimace—some seeming to think he might’ve lost his mind. Joke was on them—he had, but not related to this. He pocketed the dagger, knowing Gabriel would want it back. “Assume that every one of these hunters has been proofed against the moon magic that previously melted them. We’re going to have to chop, then incinerate. One by one.”

“We’ve got to be outnumbered ten to one,” GF said with disbelief.

“More like fifty to one,” Jadren replied.

“Correction,” Alise said, joining them, looking slightly chastened. “Maybe as much as a hundred to one. I just detected a group of cloaking spirits on some reserves lurking in the eastern marsh. Hunters are on the move this way. I cast about and there’s a group approaching from behind us, too. I can rip away the cloaking, but it will tip them off that we’re on to them.”

Jadren gave her a solemn nod of thanks. “Let’s wait until we’re in position then. I’m glad you’re with us.”

She shrugged, unwilling to be that gracious, and returned to her task.

“All right,” Jadren said, “let’s plan this diversion. Quinn, take the message.”

It wasn’t a brilliant diversion, as such things went. Since Jadren and his small army of magic workers were already sitting ducks with the temerity to threaten to nibble the vast horde of hunters to death, they presented a lovely target. The hunters converged on them from all directions, until they were entirely surrounded.

On the plus side, they did serve as an excellent diversion and Phel sure better be taking advantage and planning how to properly express his gratitude.

On the down side… Well, Phel might not need to award any bonuses as they looked unlikely to survive. Seemed kind of anticlimactic, but then, Jadren had always known being a hero was a fool’s game.

They’d retreated to a knot of concentric circles, with their weakest members in the center. Alise had summoned warrior spirits to guard them, though they weren’t any more self-directed than the hunters. They also didn’t tire, so that was something.

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