Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling (48 page)

It hadn’t taken much to figure out the location of the Artefact. The resources of Yasmin's Coven, the Dark Knights, were vast. The confrontation in Paris between the Inquisitors and Raven wasn’t very subtle, and from there it had been all too easy to track where the Artefact went.

He knew she would be making her attack on the end carriage soon enough, but she had wanted to enjoy the hospitality of the first class restaurant car first. So she sipped quietly on her drink and enjoyed the views, ignoring Nate.

Nate suddenly sensed the bloom of Essentia halfway between them and the Inquisitors car.

Nate looked up, and Yasmin smiled to herself.

He wasn’t surprised or worried, he had expected them to come. The Legacy could never have just let the Artefact and the boy be taken by the Disciples of the Cross, and it also occurred to him that this could be another reason that Yasmin had chosen to wait before making her move, to see who else would turn up.

Nate couldn't help but have a quick look around behind him briefly, just in case there happened to be a Legacy Magi sneaking up on him at that moment. He felt a little jumpy since returning empty handed, for which he knew there would consequences.

Still she sat there though, in no rush to confront the Inquisitors yet it seemed. She would let the Arcadians make the first move.

A few cars back from Yasmin, closer to the Inquisitors car but still within first class, Angel also felt the Essentia burst, and realised she had company on this train. She looked out the window, the train wasn’t as far along as she wanted it to be before she tried for the Artefact, her arrangements would need to be changed it seemed.

She didn’t know why she felt a little annoyed by this, to those with the resources; the Inquisition wasn’t difficult to track. She had half expected company on this ride from some of the other parties interested in the book anyway.

Gentle Water looked down through the centre of the carriages and concentrated. Amanda could see the Essentia swirl about him and followed suit, sending out her senses to see if she could pick anything up. She surprised herself by sensing three nexuses of Essentia moving up through the train. These were Magi, and she could feel the Essentia rippling about them as they tried to pick out Magi from the people about them. The strength of the Magic they used seemed quite weak, they weren’t very competent Magi by her guess, but three apprentices could be difficult to deal with.

‘There are three of them coming this way, they are few carriages away still, but they are Magi.’

‘I sensed them too,’ Amanda said.

‘Well done,’ he smiled. ‘I suggest you take girls to the next carriage,’ he said to Raven, ‘You can go too Amanda.’

‘God love ye, but no way, I’m not letting you do this alone. Raven can look after the girls by himself so he can, I’m staying with you.’

‘But there are three of them…’

‘My point exactly, there’s three of them, so you’ll need my help.’

Gentle Water looked at her for a moment, and no doubt saw that she wasn’t going to change her mind about this. ‘All right then, you three go through there and sit down, the train looks fairly empty, so you find seat.’

Raven took the twins into the next carriage away from the Inquisitors and sat them down, disappearing from view behind the chairs as Amanda watched.

‘So, what’s the plan?’ Amanda asked.

‘I go through into there,’ he indicated the carriage going the other way, towards the incoming Inquisitors, ‘sit down and try to hide my Magical nature. You hide in here.'

'We flank them.' Amanda said excitedly.

'Yes, we subdue them in here. We hide them in toilet.’

‘Won’t anyone see us attacking these men?’ she asked.

‘I make illusion around doors to hide what we do. Remember, this must be quick, nothing fancy, just knock them out.’

Amanda nodded, feeling a little nervous about this plan now. Sparing was one thing, at least you knew you weren’t going to be seriously hurt when you pretended to fight with someone. This was very different.

She knew she could do it, she knew she could fight, but this fight would be real, and would be the first test of her new skills. It had felt like the right thing to do when she had offered to assist Gentle Water with these three guys, but now, although she wouldn’t chicken out, she didn’t feel quite so confident of her choice.

‘You are sure you can do this?’

Amanda took a calming breath and centred herself, ‘I can, I’m ready.’

‘Then hide behind there and try to mask your Magical signature as best you can.’

She nodded and slipped round the corner next to the door, out of sight from anyone looking down the central isle. Gentle Water stepped into the next seating area of the car, the sliding door opening and closing for him with a hiss.

Amanda leant with her back to the wall and focussed herself, she reached out with her will and calmed the Essentia around her, smoothing out the ripples and eddies her presence created. She also concentrated on strengthening her Aegis, enhancing her Force shield and absorbing some of the local Essentia into herself, storing it to use in her attacks.

She did each of these things slowly and carefully, taking care not to create too much disturbance within the local Essentia, and when it was done, she calmed herself once more and made the energy about her as still as she could.

Now she listened, waiting for the Inquisitors to come into the carriage. As she waited, the door hissed open suddenly, and she tensed up. She looked right, waiting to see if it was her quarry, when a middle aged woman walked past her and through to the next car.

Amanda relaxed and thought she best take a peek to see if she could see the Inquisitors, she didn’t want to attack any old aged pensioners.  She could use her Magic, but thought it less risky to just look round the edge of the wall she stood behind.

Moving to take a look, she inched her head outwards, careful to reveal as little as possible of herself as she did so. She looked through the clear Perspex panel on the door and down the aisle, where she could clearly see three guys, wearing black combats, tee shirts and jackets, walking slowly up the car, looking about them as they did so. Amanda could see the Essentia rippling out from them as they came, scanning for a tell-tale sign of a Magi. Right next to the door nearest herself, sitting in an aisle seat, sat Gentle Water, and as she looked, she saw there were no disturbances within the Essentia around him. He looked like a Mundane.

She watched for a little while longer, until the three of them were getting quite close to the door and she knew they would be the next ones through it, and then she ducked back.

Seconds later the sliding door opened and she could hear the sure footed steady steps of the Inquisitors boots on cheap carpet.

‘No one in that one, right, next car,’ one of them muttered to himself.

It was them, and they had missed Gentle Water. As she heard the door hiss closed and the first of them came into view beside her, she knew it was time.

The next few seconds were a blur to her, they passed so quickly that it finished before she knew what it was she was doing..

She had turned her head to look at the leading guy, he had looked back at her and that’s when she had moved. She went purely for a subduing hit, wanting to knock him out and nothing else. Her strike smashed through his weak Aegis and hit home hard on his temple, some of the Essentia in her body flooding out through the strike to disrupt his thoughts, and it worked. The man can’t have known what had hit him as he fell to the floor like a dead weight, out cold.

Amanda caught a glimpse of a similar quick series of movements where Gentle Water, who had followed the inquisitors through the door, hit the man at the rear of the group while the middle one looked on at Amanda in bewilderment.

‘What the…’ he said, before Amanda moved to repeat her attack, doing the same to the second as she’d done to the first, ready for her he parried her attack, his arm up and blocking her attack to his head, but her punch still broke through his Aegis, shattering it, and her Essentia still delivering a stinging blow to his arm.

He yelped while Amanda, unphased by his block, went for his groin with her foot, the kick doubling him over and giving her all the time in the world and a wide open space to slam her powerful fist hard into the side of his skull. The final man hit the ground with a thud, and the entrance area went quite again.

Gentle Water stood near her, the rear most man subdued at his feet. ‘Quickly, we hide them in here?’ He said, indicating the cubical next to them.

Amanda had long since used her Magic to permanently enhance her strength and speed, making her quicker and stronger, although she looked no different than she did normally. Her muscles weren’t bigger or more defined as the extra strength had been created Magically. This enhanced physicality made moving these bodies much easier, and within moments, they had hidden the bodies and locked the doors with a quick Magical telekinetic pull on the lock.

The excitement over with for the time being, Raven and the girls came back through. Raven had no doubt been scrying the fight they had just had and seen everything.

‘Nicely handled you two, but that’s only scratching the surface I think.’

‘Agreed, we need to move quickly, these three men will be missed,’ said Gentle Water.

‘Okay, let’s get to the Inquisition’s Car shall we?’ Amanda asked.

‘Indeed,’ Raven said, so they started to make their way down the carriages towards the end of the train where Amanda could sense the Aegis hiding the Magical essence of the end car.

‘GW, do you have a plan at all?’ Amanda asked Gentle Water who was leading the way.

‘No, I am just making this up as I go.’

Amanda smiled, ‘How very Indiana Jones of you,’ she said.

Gentle Water looked back at her with a confused expression on his face, he clearly didn’t get the reference.

Amanda giggled and rolled her eyes, ‘Never mind.’

I don’t know if I agree with sending Amanda out like this, it’s going to be a dangerous mission, it should not be her first. But what do I know,
she
says it has to be this way and that young Amanda must go. So there we go, decision made. End of story.

I’m sure she’ll be fine, everyone says I worry too much.

They’re probably right.

- Diary of Royston Kendrick

Siege

The French Countryside

Moments later

They were one more carriage away now, one more car with a few passengers in it and then it and then came the Inquisitors Carriage. They’d stopped in the vestibule just before this final carriage to discuss what they were going to do.

‘That Aegis is not strong, can you see it?’ Gentle Water asked.

Amanda was having a good look at it herself, she could see it as a layer of solidified Essentia surrounding the final car, and as she concentrated, she thought she could feel its strength and how much punishment it would take to disable it. She’d created a few Aegises’ in her time now, and she was starting to get to know just how powerful they were, and this one seemed almost like a token effect, put in place to stop casual scrying, to act as an alarm, but little else.

‘Yeah, I think we could force that thing down pretty easily, so what’s the plan?‘

‘We head to next carriage, Raven, you stay here with girls, I want you close, but your first priority is the girls. Once it safe we call for you.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ said Raven.

‘You’ll save Stephan, won’t you?’ Fran said to Amanda and Gentle Water.’

‘We will do our very best, I promise you that,’ Amanda replied with a reassuring smile.

They moved out of the vestibule and through this final carriage, towards the far end, close to the Inquisitors Car, Raven found a table seat and sat down with the girls.

‘Good luck you two, we’re right here if you need help,’ Raven said.

Gentle Water nodded before following Amanda out of the seating area.

This area was much like the other Vestibules, two end sections of two cars linked by an open flexible join which snaked and flexed as the train moved. The pair moved through the flexible join towards the door into the main part of the final carriage. Amanda felt tense, the Essentia stored inside her roiled about and it almost felt like it might start sparking off her fists any moment now.

As they approached this final door, a swing door rather than a sliding one, they noticed a sign on it saying 'No Entry, closed for refurbishment, also the window of the door had been blacked out and as Magi, they could both feel the barrier that barred their Magic from the next car. It felt like being stood close to an electrical substation and the feeling of energy and power you got from that.

Gentle Water came up beside Amanda and the two looked at one another. ‘Ready?’ Amanda said quietly, in case their voices carried into the Inquisitors car.

He nodded in reply and held out his hand.

Amanda took hold of it and together they started to draw in as much Essentia as they could on top of her reserves she kept ready for the fight to come. Drawing it in like a sponge and feeling the rush of energy that thrummed inside her body in a similar way that incredibly loud music vibrates and resonate inside your rib cage felt exhilarating.

She could feel Gentle Water doing the same, and within a few moments, she felt like she was about pop from the pressure.

‘On three,’ Gentle Water said. ‘One, two three!’

Amanda pulled the cork on the pent up energy, but funnelled it and channelled it, blasting it out at the Aegis before them. As she watched, she could feel the Aegis being overloaded, forced beyond its capabilities, when suddenly, there was a snap in their air, a feeling more than a sound, and the Aegis fell.

Gentle Water let go of Amanda’s hand and kicked the door before them, slamming it open, breaking the lock. The door swung wide and her mentor bolted through the entrance into the next car.

Amanda felt more than a little shocked by the energy her mentor displayed, but before she had time to ruminate on it, two men dressed in clothing similar to the three Inquisitors they had dealt with earlier, jumped out the carriage, each with a large and keen looking sword held in their grasp.

Amanda stepped back into the vestibule and dropped into a fighting stance, OK, she thought, here we go!

The two men didn’t hesitate; they rushed in, brandishing their swords at her as they came. Amanda ducked and weaved, the first man swinging wide, the second reaching in with a stabbing action which she dodged easily. She moved quickly, quicker than they were moving, managing to dodge the swords with a mix of skill and her force shield. But this was a deadly game, the vestibules were very cramped and the swords kept slamming into the fixtures and fittings of the train with clangs and loud bangs. Luckily for her, these two fighters we’re clearly not well trained on how to fight together in such a tight space.

Amanda knew it was only a matter of time until they got her though; the tight confines gave her very few options for dodging so unless she could swing the fight in her favour, she would end up skewered like a kebab.

Drawing on her Magic, Amanda used a magical effect taught to her by Gentle Water known as Multi-Tasking. Shaping the Essentia around her, Amanda divided her mental capacity into two equal parts, each one working independently and able to complete tasks parallel to the other but neither of them weaker or less capable then a unified whole, and only one of them having control over Amanda's actual body.

Dodging and parrying the swords of the Inquisitors, her second mind gathered more magical energy and smashed the nearby window with it, the glass scattering out into the screaming winds.

The noise barely registered on Amanda’s attackers and they pressed on, trying in vain to land a swipe on their foe, but Amanda was just too quick for them, and while she dodged again she released her next magical effect upon the knights with a grunt of effort. An invisible force picked the two attackers up and threw them against the far wall in a crunch of armoured bodies. Amanda caught her breath, smiled at her small victory before turning and charging towards the smashed window as the two inquisitors wasted no time in jumping to their feet.

Amanda had no idea if this would work, but she knew she needed space to fight these two men before they managed to corner her. She leapt at the window, she grabbed the bar above the window that train passengers used to steady themselves and brought her feet up and thrust them out and up, swinging through the window, up and onto the roof using a little magical assistance to accomplish the feat.

She landed on the train’s roof and dropped to all fours as the powerful wind nearly ripped her from the roof top. She concentrated and used her magic to lessen the wind tunnel effect around her to a mild breeze which allowed her to loosen her grip on the carriage roof. Suddenly two holes were blasted into the roof just in front of her, the force of energy coming from within.

Amanda rose to her feet and backed up, watching the holes as nearby trees whipped past her as the train continued to barrel southwards.

Seconds later the two men jumped up through the holes and onto the roof, her two attackers immediately dropped into fighting stances, and advanced upon her.

But Amanda knew they were coming and had readied an effect when the holes had appeared and now she let it rip into the nearest knight. The energy slammed into him and knocked him head over heels down the length of the final carriage, past his partner who watched him go with disinterest.

‘Ah crap,’ Amanda cursed, she should have knocked him sideways and off the train. But she didn’t have time to dwell on it as the man left standing attacked.

Nate watched as Yasmin sat back in her chair, sipping at the remains of her glass of champagne, as he felt the magical ripples coming from the fight in the Inquisitor’s car.

He fidgeted and shifted position in his chair. He wanted to be there and to join in, to make up for his earlier failure.

He did have to admit, that the inability to send out his senses and actually see what was happening down at the end of the train was very frustrating. The artefact stopped any kind of scrying like that, so all he had to go on where the ripples of Essentia that reached him here.

‘Do you think they’re all right?’ Fran asked Raven.

‘Gentle Water and Amanda will be fine. If it’s one thing I know about those two it’s that they can handle themselves. If anyone can deal with this, Gentle Water can.’

‘Are you sure, I mean, we could have a look, see if they need any help.’

‘If they need help they’ll ask for it, try to be patient, you’ll see your friend soon enough.’ Raven said.

Next to Fran he could see Liz was little more than a bag of nerves. Her leg twitched and she constantly kept ringing out her hands and glancing at the door to the next car.

They sat at a table, the girls opposite him but facing the door that Amanda and Gentle Water went through. Once they had passed through the door, Raven had used his magic to muffle the sound from beyond it, just in case things got messy in there. The passengers in this car had no idea what might be happening just a few meters from them.

Raven leant forward and caught Liz’s eye, ‘Try to relax, everything will be fine, you’ll see.’

Liz nodded, but continued to fidget.

Angel felt the whip snap in the Essentia about her as the Inquisitor cars Aegis broke down, no doubt caused by the Arcadians that had Ported onto the train not long ago. This probably meant they were fighting it out right now.

The time had come.

She rose from her seat, stepped into the aisle, and started to make her way back along the train towards the rear, it was time to put in an appearance.

Amanda waited as the Inquisitor charged the few steps towards her, his sword held high. She gritted her teeth, waiting until the last moment before she released the Essentia in a blast at his feet. Ducking the mad swing of the blade as he fell, she rolled back along the car and came to her feet. Extending her hand, she called on her magic to yank the sword from his grasp.

‘Come here,’ she growled, but the hold the knight had was too strong and the sword stayed put.

As she stopped trying to rip the weapon from her attacker, she noticed the gathering of Essentia about him as he raised himself up, and on instinct she poured energy into her shield. The fiery blast shot from the knight’s sword as he pointed it at her.

‘The power of Christ compels you!’ he shouted.

Striking her shield in a wave of yellow flames, the attack rippled harmlessly over and around her.

Realising her luck and momentarily enraged, Amanda stepped forward and spin kicked the knight’s forearm. The heavy sword flew from his grip and clattered off the train.

The knight didn’t let the lack of weapon hamper him though and shot forward on the offensive once again with his fists. Amanda dodged the knight’s attacks.

‘Come on,’ she muttered to the sword-less Inquisitor before her, goading him into attacking her again.

‘My pleasure,’ he answered and came in with another punch, but Amanda was ready and caught it easily in her hand and used the punches momentum to throw the man to the floor. The process of doing this twisted Amanda around putting her back to the first Knight so that she stood between them.

Amanda could feel the Essentia of the man behind her closing in, knowing he thought this must be his opportunity and charged in with his sword.

Normally she would just be watching him with a second set of magical senses, but the Golden book which must have been close by now, stopped that kind of scrying.

Her attacker wasn’t expecting the blast of electrical energy that emanated a foot from the back of Amanda and hit him with the force of a freight train, sending him flying from carriage roof.

Amanda winced at the thought of the figure falling through space like a rag doll, but knew her options were limited. Despite herself she hoped the man had survived as she turned her full attention back to the sword-less Inquisitor who had rolled back to his feet and now suddenly noticed that his friend had disappeared.

Amanda smiled at the look of shock on the man’s face.

Fran looked up at Raven and waited until he looked out through the window at the passing countryside before she tried to communicate with Liz. Once he had looked away, Fran tapped Liz on the leg discreetly under the table where Liz could see but Raven couldn’t.

Liz turned her head slightly and looked her sister in the eye. Fran then used her eyes to indicate to her to look down, where Fran held her mobile phone. Liz looked down and read the message on the screen that Fran had typed.

-I’m fed up of waiting, let’s make a break for it and get Stephan! After 3.-

Liz returned her gaze to Fran’s and nodded ever so slightly.
Fran then placed three of her fingers on Liz’s leg, then she took a finger away so that there was just two, then finally another so that there was one.

Liz suddenly shot from the chair and Fran followed, bouncing once along the seat to where Liz had sat, and then she was up on her feet and running after Liz along the central aisle, all before Raven really knew what was happening.

‘Hey, wait, come back, dammit,’ he called after them as he struggled out of his seat, the passengers around them looking on in confusion.

Fran saw Raven doing his best to keep up, but she and Liz had a big head start, and quickly made the door way through to the Vestibule and the next car.