Mentored in Fire by K.F. Breene

Twenty-Two

“There it is,”I said, squinting through the air at the river passing below us.

It wasn’t a fog bank this time. On the other side of the river, beyond the boats but before the Edges, stood a solid black wall. Power pounded from it, even from this distance. I knew the magic would be complex and dangerous, making it so no mages or demons could break it. Lucifer was the master of this world for a reason, and I knew he’d poured his everything into that wall.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it…” I leaned back on Archion, and he slowed as we glided forward.

Climb to the top of that thing where it connects with the ceiling, I thought, and give me a look from there to the ground. I want to take its measure.

Archion did so, and I motioned for Saphira to follow. Penny and Emery needed to see this.

It stretched on for miles. Miles and miles. But that was just an illusion, of course. All of this was an illusion, and this wall was bedrocked into it.

I looked back the way we’d come. That spot of black had slowed at the sect, perhaps touching down, perhaps not, but it didn’t matter. Lucifer was on our tail again.

Thankfully, we only had one dragon to contend with. He hadn’t called in any backup. Not yet, anyway.

Land, I thought, having seen my fill. I needed to talk with Penny and Emery.

“That dragon is amazing,” Penny said, her hair windswept. She blinked at me, starstruck, then pointed at her head. “She was speaking to me. In my head!”

“Yes, yes, good, good. Come on.” I pointed at the huge wall. “We need to get through this, or you will die and that dragon will be riderless again.”

Emery pushed toward the wall, looking up to the top and then out to the sides. He leaned in, scanning the magic in front of him. “It’s a stroke of genius.”

“No, it’s the work of a master,” I said, running magic over it to see if I felt anything more.

Penny released the spell that usually unraveled my magic—the same one that had likely taken down the fog. The crisp layer over the wall shone and then fizzled, burning away, exposing another finely wrought layer underneath.

“He knows our magic,” I whispered. “He clearly built this to withstand it. His yin to your yang. He obviously knows best how to thwart me.” My eyes scanned, my magic washing across it, pulling and tweaking and digging, trying to find access. Every time I did, though, I was met with another layer of intricately woven air and fire magic, in a different style. Holy crap.

I started laughing. I couldn’t help it.

“He taught me a lot, but he certainly didn’t teach me how to do this. That bastard. Those illusions in the castle were nothing. Child’s play. Training wheels.”

Cahal strode over, his dragon standing with the others.

“What’s the story? We don’t have a lot of time,” he said, stopping beside me.

I explained the issue.

His brow furrowed, and he looked over his shoulder at those black dots, growing bigger as the moments twisted by. “I don’t think he meant them as training wheels. His last heir had trouble with tearing down his illusions. It took the last heir a long time to learn how to put them up. But I agree, this is…highly advanced. I can actually feel the power thrumming from it.”

“We can do this,” Emery said, nodding as he looked it over. “We can do this. Between Reagan and Penny and me, we’re powerful enough, and we have all of the necessary elements. We can get through this.”

“It was never a question of if, it is a question of whether we have enough time.” I ran my fingers through my hair.

“We can get through this in enough time.” Penny pushed at the tattered sleeves of her shirt. “I am getting out of this place, do you hear me? I am getting out and”—she jabbed Emery’s chest, making him flinch—“you are getting out and”—she stepped forward and jabbed her finger into my arm—“you are getting out and”—she jabbed the air at Darius and Cahal—“you two are getting out. We’re all getting out, and I am taking my dragon with me. She can’t leave without magical aid. I have magical aid, apparently, though I don’t know what that means. So she’s coming. Try to argue with me. Go ahead.”

We all stared at her—her wider-than-normal eyes, her tense shoulders, her balled fists.

She nodded. “That’s what I thought. C’mon, pyramid, let’s get to work.”

Penny has been on the edge of breaking since she was forced to leave you behind, Darius thought.

“Yes, I can see that,” I murmured.

“That rat is talking about me, isn’t he?” Penny snorted. “I don’t even care.”

She pushed Emery at me and then stepped up to my other side, facing the wall.

I took a deep breath and focused. Yes, we could do this. He’d obviously put a lot of time and effort into this wall. He’d correctly interpreted what Penny had done with the fog and put up this blockade to prevent it from happening again. I was sure he’d put some safeguards for me in there, too. He was incredibly intelligent and clever.

The magic was too layered and thick, too intricate a combination of Glaciem and Incendium for me to simply rip it down the way I had with the castle illusions. I’d have to weasel through it and create weaknesses throughout, and then Penny and Emery could apply their magic and break it off in pieces. Only then, once it was as full of holes as Swiss cheese, could I tear it down in one magical rip. It was the fastest strategy for getting through it. It had to be.

After I’d explained my strategy, Penny and Emery both nodded, determination on their faces. Their magic rose, and with it, electricity ran through us, tingling the ends of my hair and shocking down my back.

“We have the godly magic in common,” Penny murmured as we worked, sweat quickly prickling my brow. “That’s why it feels like this when we connect, don’t you think?”

A large, familiar hand closed around my shoulder. Cahal, his magic zipping through us.

“Yes, that has to be it,” Penny said, answering herself.

My mind wandered, considering everything I’d learned here, trying to find a lesson that could be applied. A key that would loosen this spell and make it as easy to pull down as the fog must’ve been. As easy to pull down as the castle illusions. What had made them different…

“The dragon shape is clear now,” Cahal said, apparently our timekeeper.

“Lucifer is flying beside it, a separate entity,” Darius murmured.

“Super,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut, working and thinking, poring over everything. Plunging holes in the spell, working on its weaknesses, pointing the way for Penny and Emery to exploit any flaws, of which there were virtually none.

“Lucifer looks like he is rejoining the dragon,” Darius murmured.

I glanced back, heart speeding up. Lucifer changed shape mid-flight, turned, and lowered onto the dragon, the shift as seamless as a magnet clicking onto metal.

Beginner’s luck, my left foot. We’ve got work to do, Archion, I thought, not sure whether I was close enough to be heard. He didn’t answer.

“Shall I get on Coppelia and get in their way?” Cahal asked.

You are not enough, Archion said. Clearly he’d heard me just fine. I relayed what he’d said. I will go.

“Wait. Just wait a minute,” I said, working faster, pouring everything into it. “Wait, let’s see if we can—”

“Saphira wants to go with Archion to stall Lucifer and Tatsu,” Penny reported.

“We’re not making much headway.” Emery laid more spell. It barely ate away at the barrier. “We can’t work fast enough. We need more time. A lot more time.”

Let them go, Darius thought to me, clearly not wanting to usurp my authority here by saying it out loud. If you don’t, we have no chance.

“There must be a way,” I said, biting my lip, racing through every memory stored in my head. “There must be. How did he make it so strong and those other spells so…” I rolled over a thought, then backed up and analyzed it. The flower, hovering over my palm. The walls I’d created in the castle. The ice and fire magical blockades I’d put up at the doors of my chambers. I hadn’t anchored any of them. I’d done some pretty good, delicate weaves, but I hadn’t anchored a single one.

Mages’ spells, when not properly anchored, were weaker. They were much easier to tear down.

The illusions in the Realm were anchored to the ground, even in places that didn’t require it.

Anchoring gave strength.

I looked down at the base of the wall, way down into the very foundation of this place. Up at the top, it had been the same thing. He’d rooted this thing down into the floor and nailed it all around.

I spun, looking at the endless miles of desolate, sandy beach. Of the piers, only one in sight. The sky, covering the cave ceiling. None of those illusions were as finely wrought. They’d been slapped up, almost, just like many of the castle walls. They’d been good enough for the moment. He’d probably intended to repair everything once he came back to take down this wall.

“Tear it down.” I pulled at our surroundings—the bank, the docks—picking through the illusions easily, eroding them with holes and cracks and crevices. Destroying the base for the roots. “Take away the foundation, weaken the spell.”

Penny’s eyebrows pinched together, but Emery wasted no time. Magic flew from his hands immediately, helping me with the beach. Finally, Penny joined in with gusto, understanding what we were doing.

“Go get the ceiling,” Emery said, and he jerked his head at Archion.

I took a running leap onto Archion, my hovering ability kicking in, and up we went, climbing quickly. At the top, I yanked and tore at the spell, pulling it down. Roots hung down through the rock and dirt on the ceiling, little spiderwebs of life. Water pooled in areas. I watched a drop wobble on the end of a glistening rock and let go, falling to the ground far below.

I’d ponder how all of this was possible later.

Black wings beat at the sky, Tatsu so close. Lucifer on her back, looking straight at me.

“Oh crap, get to the ground, hurry!” I said, Archion diving immediately. I held on, willing him to go faster—willing myself to go faster. “Oh crap, oh crap.”

I landed in a rush and stumbled to the others, continuing to break through Lucifer’s magic work. The desolate ground pulled back to reveal weeds and dirt and sand, with clumps of clay holding moisture. The dying illusion raced toward the docks, and several emerged from the haze, and then all of them, the boats tied to their docks, the Boatmen looking our way. The turbulent sea was slowly exposed, rolling and racing past.

“Good, good. Hurry, guys, we have to hurry.” I cleared the rest of the illusion away and then refocused on the thick wall in front of us. “All you’ve got. The dragons can do the work after this. Fast as you can.”

We went after it like a starving man jumps on a steak. I punched holes and created nails of swirling fire and ice, breaking apart his design so Penny and Emery could exploit the damage.

“He’s right on us,” Cahal said.

“What do we do?” Darius asked urgently.

What could we do? Keep going and hope for the best.