Revenge of the Raven

Chapter 3 - The Only Survivors

I watched as Barth taunted the soldiers and couldn't help smiling myself. Barth was an extremely skilled sorcerer and, unfortunately for our attackers, his specialty was in destruction magic. I had a vague idea of what he'd cast and quickly cast a protection spell around myself.

The golden, shimmery bubble surrounded me and I moved closer watching carefully. I knew he'd want to handle this on his own, but I would be ready just in case he needed me. The soldiers moved in closer around him, their swords glinting and flickering in the candlelight.

None of the soldiers had noticed me yet, their focus was solely on Barth who's taunts were starting to anger some of them. I couldn't help worrying that he was letting them get a little too close when he surprised all of us as, in a split second, he released a massive shockwave.

His laugh echoed through the hall as waves of darkness spiraled out from his body, engulfing every soldier around him. As the force of it hit my shield, I stumbled backwards, nearly falling to the floor.

The inky blackness started to fade and I saw Barth standing with his hands planted firmly on his hips, clearly very satisfied with himself. The ground around him was covered with the bodies of the soldiers. Their faces now as pale as snow, with blood slowly beginning to drip from their eyes, ears, and noses.

The spell Barth had chosen to use was powerful, there was no question about that. Used correctly, it could wipe out entire armies in seconds. The downside was it required a huge amount of magic to perform. But, that had always been a problem for him. Instead of choosing to use his energy efficiently, he tended to use extremely powerful spells for everything, whether they were necessary or not.

Shaking my head I walked up to him tossing the bodies aside with a quick wave of my arms to leave an open path. I examined him quickly for injuries.

"Good to see you in one piece Barth."

He grinned and gestured at himself with a large flourish.

"Did you have any doubt Zea?"

I pursed my lips, choosing to let his arrogance slide for now. There were more important things to worry about.

"I think you can handle yourself here. I'm going to go see if I can find anyone else."

He nodded and I searched my mind again for the third of my remaining students and cursed myself as I realized there were now only five of us. I'd chosen Imani and Barth first, without putting any thought into which of my students might actually need my help.

I'd just picked one and teleported, and my rash decision had now cost the lives of two more of my members. Two I probably could have saved if I'd taken a second to think things through. I let out a soft sigh. No matter how powerful you get you can still make stupid mistakes.

I could regret my poor choices later. Right now there were still two other students besides Imani and Barth and there was no way I'd let them die too. Focusing on the last two I realized it was the twins, Asher and Aspen. I teleported instantly to their room and saw Asher standing over his sister's bleeding body.

His arm and chest were bleeding heavily and he was fighting desperately against a group of the king's men. I saw one of the bracelets wrapped around his bleeding forearm. In his other hand, he was holding one of the soldier's swords, and was using it surprisingly well.

But it was clear he was fighting a losing battle. There were just too many of them for him to fight off without his magic.

I lifted my arms as bright white lightning flew from my fingertips and danced from one soldier to the next. I made sure it didn't touch Asher or his sister, forcing the deadly energy to arc around them and only target the soldiers. As the last of the bodies fell to the ground, I let my arms drop and moved quickly to Asher's side. He smiled weakly at me and tossed the sword aside before kneeling down next to his sister. Wrapping his arms around her and cradled her in his arms.

"Thanks Zea, I don't think I could've lasted much longer. They got this damned bracelet on me while I was asleep. Aspen killed a few but... She got distracted when she realized I was defenseless. They got the bracelet on her while she was saving me, then one of the bastards stabbed her. I grabbed a sword and tried to fight them off, but there were just so many. It- It's my fault she's..."

He trailed off unable to say the word, but I shook my head firmly and pulled him back gently so I could get a look at Aspen's injury.

"Asher, it's not your fault. And Aspen will be fine, she's just unconscious. Just give me a second, I'm sure I can heal her."

I knelt down beside them and pulled the bracelet gently from Aspen's limp wrist. Where it had touched her, it had left a gray stain on her skin. I made a note to examine that side effect later, and placed my hands over the wound in her chest.

The familiar warmth flooded through my body into my palms. Her wound had bled a bit but it actually wasn't as bad as Asher had made it seem. In fact, I was surprised she was unconscious. I'd seen more injuries in my life than I could ever possibly count and there was no way this one could have caused her to pass out so quickly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Asher starting to sway slightly and looked up at him just as his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed next to his sister. I grit my teeth and watched as the last of Aspen's wounds closed before shifting and positioning my hands over Asher next. Asher's injuries were even less severe than his sisters but when I'd started healing her, her's had started to close almost instantly.

Asher's on the other hand weren't healing at all. I stopped my spell and looked him over quickly, my gaze almost instantly locking onto the bracelet around his arm. I took it off him and quickly resumed the healing spell, watching with satisfaction the cuts finally started to close. As the last of them healed, I lifted his arm and examined where the bracelet had been.

Just like his sister, there was a gray stain on his skin where it had been. But his mark was even darker than her's. Where her's had been a light gray, his was a few shades darker. I picked up one of the bracelets examining it closely. It looked almost identical to the one that the soldier had tried to put on me.

These two weren't quite as heavy, but that was the only difference that I could tell. I grabbed both and slipped both into my pocket to examine later. I turned my focus back to the twins as Aspen shifted slightly. She let out a groan before slowly opening her eyes. Her gaze landed on me and she squinted weakly.

"Zea? Where's Asher? Is he ok?"

"Yes, he's ok, just unconscious at the moment."

She smiled softly and pushed herself up to a sitting position raising her hand to cradle her head.

"My head's killing me. What the hell happened? The last thing I remember was some guy forcing a bracelet around my arm."

I nodded and was about to respond as Asher started to wake up as well. Aspen turned at the sound and moved quickly to kneel next to her brother, taking his hand gently. All thoughts of herself gone in an instant.

"Asher! Are you ok? What happened?"

He slowly sat up as well and I stood up and moved to sit on one of the nearby chairs. I tuned them out for a moment as I briefly looked to make sure both Imani and Barth's consciousnesses were still there and sighed in relief when they were.

Asher and Aspen both stood up and walked slowly over to me where I sat slumped in the chair. Aspen spoke first, her voice quiet and cautious.

"Zea, what was all this? Who attacked us?"

I gestured weakly to the soldiers on the floor.

"The king."