“I’m sure your father is still fighting below. Once he’s finished there, he will come and get rid of these as well, never fear,” Rose answered calmly, hiding her own fear that something must have gone terribly wrong with the defense of Cameron Castle. “For now we have to take care of ourselves ‘till he can get here. Do you understand?”
Gram nodded, and Matthew and Moira nodded along with him. They were all listening closely with a seriousness that made it clear that they understood the gravity of the situation.
“When a Prathion doesn’t want to be found, a Prathion isn’t found,” said Elaine softly to herself, repeating one of her father’s old sayings. Raising her voice, she spoke to the others, “Everyone move up against the wall. I’m going to shield you from all sight, magical and otherwise, just to be safe.”
“Will we be blind again?” asked Lilly worriedly.
“Yes, there’s no way around that, but you’ll still be able to hear… and be heard, so stay as quiet as possible,” Elaine explained carefully.
Rose was already lining the children up against the wall. Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “You sound as if you don’t intend to be with us. Don’t we have to be in physical contact for you to make us invisible?”
“Not as long as you stay in one place,” answered Elaine, “This spell will be stationary; if you move more than a foot in any direction, you will become visible again.”
“What will you do?” prodded Rose.
“Teach them why it is never wise to hunt wizards, or their friends,” Elaine replied, with a show of bravado that she hoped she could live up to. That’s probably something like what Mordecai would have said, she told herself. She intended to make her mentor proud.
Only a minute later the two men who had climbed through the window made their approach from the southern end of the corridor, spotting her as soon as they rounded the corner. They stopped some fifty feet away and smiled at the lone woman standing there before them. A moment later, the three that had been in front of the Illeniel family rooms appeared at the northern end of the corridor.
They’re coordinating somehow, noted Elaine mentally, as the five began to approach from both ends of the corridor. “Stop,” she told them calmly.
“Where are the children?” The words came from all five of them simultaneously. Eerily, they spoke in utter synchrony.
That answers one question, thought Elaine. They’re being controlled by one entity. “Here is my answer,” she replied and followed it with the words, “Bradek Tyrestrin!” The hallway erupted with lightning; flashing from her hands, it forked and split multiple times to arc in both directions. Unlike natural lightning however, it did not vanish quickly; instead it remained for long seconds, forming a giant web of small bolts that engulfed and transfixed the five trespassers.
After what seemed an eternity, the lightning abruptly vanished, leaving a dark silence in its wake. The five men were still standing, though their bodies twitched and smoked. Black marks covered them where the electricity had burned holes in their skins. As one, they smiled at the woman standing between them, “You’ll have to do better than that.”
Four of them charged at her, two from either direction, while the fifth turned and swung his massive iron weapon at a nondescript and otherwise empty section of wall. There was no visible reason for his action, other than the fact that that area was guarded by a shield of magic. Like most such shields this one was not visible… not unless one possessed the ability to see magic.
“No!” shouted Elaine, as the iron struck her shield with incredible force. She gasped in pain as the shield collapsed under the impact of the blow, and the wall sent forth a shower of stone shards as it was struck. As she reeled from the shock of her shield failing, the warriors around her attacked. Her arms went up instinctively to protect her head from the lethal violence of their swings.
Elaine’s illusory double vanished, and their weapons found nothing where she had been only moments before. She reappeared forty feet further down the hall. Clearly they can see magic, since they easily spotted my shield decoy. They also won’t be easy to kill, and if I try to shield myself from the force of those weapons, I might go unconscious from the strength of the blow. Speaking again, she tried one of the simplest of spells, “Shibal.”
There was no visible effect.
“I expected better,” said the five men as one. Three of them headed for her new location, while two began systematically working their way along the walls, their hands feeling for things unseen.
Three more copies of the young wizardess appeared at various places along the hall. “I’ll make it more interesting for you then,” Elaine replied, her voice emanating from all four mouths, making it impossible to tell which was really her. Reaching into her sleeve, she withdrew a pair of identically engraved wooden wands, taking one in each hand. Each wand was made of willow and painstakingly carved with runes. Mordecai had favored using a larger staff to channel power when he needed it, but Elaine had always preferred the smaller wands. They suited her better in terms of precision and style. Plus, two is usually better than one, she added mentally.
The two searching the walls ignored her, while the three advancing upon her each separated to attack a different image, in the hope that one would be the real one. There was no hesitation or discussion among her opponents; they continued to move in unspoken coordination.
“Pyrren sills thylen,” said Elaine, and fire snaked out from the ends of each of her wands, forming long ropy lines five foot in length. Each of her images mirrored her actions, as she lifted her arms and began swinging the fiery whips into blurring arcs of flame around her.
“Flame will do you no good against the iron will of Doron!” shouted the fighters, as three of them brought their terrible iron mauls to bear on separate images of the slender woman.
Two of them met no resistance as their illusory opponents vanished. The third met a far different fate, as lines of incandescent fire cut through his weapon, his arms, and finally his chest. In seconds, the blazing whips sliced him into neatly cauterized pieces of smoking flesh, as first his arms, and then his head and torso fell in different directions.
Having discovered her true position, the other two attacked without hesitation, coming at her from two directions. Without flinching she stood between them and spread her arms wide, swinging her whips in brilliant arcs, to intercept each of them, but she could not focus her attention perfectly on both sides.
With inhuman speed and perfect, selfless coordination, the one to her right threw himself bodily at her, allowing her magical whip to bisect him from one shoulder to his waist. Even so, the momentum of his lunge made it impossible for her to avoid being struck by the upper portion of his body, knocking her off balance, as his companion to her left dove under her fiery attack on that side.
Stumbling Elaine was engulfed in blinding agony, as her left leg was struck by an iron mace. As she collapsed, she knew without looking, that her femur had been shattered, while her thigh was probably a red nightmare of bloody flesh. Unable to see from the pain of her injury, she heard a scream of terror as one of the enemy’s searching hands touched an invisible child.
Her right hand still gripped one of her wands, the other she had lost in the fall. Blinking, she was unable to clear the tears of pain that blurred her vision, but her magesight was more than sufficient. Above, her closest assailant raised his iron weapon for a blow that would certainly finish her. She had no time to think, raising the wand, she pointed it past her immediate opponent and uttered her last words, “Borok Ingak.” The head of the man, who had just found the children broke like an overripe melon, as the force of her spell slammed him against the stone wall. She had no time to repeat her spell, before a heavy weight crushed her to the floor painfully, and a warm and welcome darkness swept her away from the agony that engulfed her consciousness. She had no time, even for regret, as oblivion took her.