Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

SIXTEEN

Every direction they turned, the Anti-magicians were there. Somehow, they had known the group was coming; their preparation was much too meticulous for it not to be premeditated. They had made the group believe they were the hunters whereas it wasn’t so. They were the preys; they always had been.

All of a sudden, Kyra, who was previously on the ground and nursing her shot thigh, lunged at Isidora. "I knew you were up to something, you conniving backstabber!" she grabbed the dark witch by the throat and squeezed. "You led us all here to die!" The Soul of magic would have inflicted a lot of damage but Richard intervened. He pulled her kicking and screaming away from the other woman who surprisingly didn’t do much to defend herself.

"I had no knowledge of this," Isidora said as her face took on an angry expression; apparently the dark witch wasn’t one to settle for being accused when she didn't want to be. "I've said it time and time again, all I want is to take you to meet the coven leader. That's all I still want."

"And why in the name of the spirits should I believe anything you say?" Kyra returned at her but all Isidora did was turn and walk away. She was done talking.

Just then, a tall, young-looking muscled man with brown hair strode to the front. “Engerd,” said Richard who immediately recognized who he really was. “King of the Anti-magicians.”

"Lord of the Anti-magicians," Engerd corrected, smiling. "And you must be Richard, King of the great Kingdom of Cyrian. I’ve heard a lot about you, especially from my men whose Bloodstone weapons you confiscated in exchange for passage into the Barren lands and out of my employ."

“Well, what can I say? Your men obviously saw the wisdom in not joining the fallen enemies of Cyrian," Richard replied, stepping forward as he sensed that the other man was obviously in the mood to chat; for whatever reason that may be. "I’m hoping you’re as wise as your men and let my friends and I leave here without a hair hurt on our heads. You’re already considered an outlaw in the realm, hurt me or the Soul of magic and you’ll become a very dead, very forgotten one."

Engerd laughed, as if Richard had just told the funniest he’d heard in a very long time. "You make a really interesting case, your Majesty, one I might have considered on another day," he said, still laughing. "But unfortunately for us all, our fates today have been sealed." And as if a command, the Anti-magicians charged into battle.

"Take this," Richard said to Kyra, passing her his dagger before going to face the charging men head-on. Lucian, in turn, also gave Isidora his dagger; although Kyra looked for a second like she would rather he didn't.

Richard cut through the first Anti-magician without even looking, taking down the second with the same expertise. But just as he was about to go for the third, he suddenly heard a scream; Lucian had been cut in the thigh with a spear. The blonde-haired warrior tried to be brave and stand again but his assailants were too much and surrounded him before he could.

Seeing that there was obviously trouble, the king turned to help but no sooner had he done so that he came up face to face with Engerd who immediately put his sword to his throat. “Drop it,” said the Anti-magician and his men immediately surrounded Kyra and Isidora who were never good with a weapon to begin with. The king had no choice but to comply.

"I must say that even I am impressed at your capacity for battle," Engerd said as they were brought to kneel before him. "But like I said before, fate has already dictated what today will be for us all."

"And what did it dictate for you, Lord?" Richard returned pointedly at him. Engerd looked like he might dignify the king’s question with a response; but then, he didn’t. Instead, he ordered his men to restrain and separate them. Kyra and Isidora were put side by side on one side while Richard and Lucian were forced to kneel on the other side.

Engerd’s eyes seemed to fully take in Kyra’s presence and he smiled as one might in the face of a prized relic. “The Soul of magic,” he said, awe in his tone. "Power in the flesh."

He ran a finger down her cheek but she reacted and snapped with her teeth; almost biting his finger off if not for his fast reflex. "Next time, I won't miss," she warned, looking up to give him a look full of anger and disdain; but that only served to amuse the Anti-magician more.

“Fierce," he commended with a smile, as if he had been looking for the quality for a long time. "Good, that will make watching you break all the more fun."

With the flick of his fingers, Engerd ordered a Bloodstone vial to brought forward. Kyra's knowledge of Anti-magic wasn’t much but even she knew exactly what was about to be done; they were planning to take her magic.

“No!” she struggled against her restraints as they gave the vial to Engerd and he had to order a few of his men to hold her still; but the Soul of magic wasn’t going down easy as she struggled still. "I'd rather die than let you do this to me!" she shouted at them.

As she struggled, one of the Anti-magicians suddenly removed a Bloodstone-encrusted dagger and stabbed Kyra in the shoulder. Immediately, the searing pain rushed through her wound and she screamed. But a surge of energy came with it too. Against the norm, Kyra’s eyes turned all-white and she began to hear the whispers of the sacred language in her head; the Bloodstone was becoming ineffective against her.

"Stop her!" Engerd shouted when he realised what was about to happen. But he was too late and Kyra struck the ground with her palms.

Immediately, a green energy rushed through the earth, creating a force so powerful that it resulted in an earthquake. But the Soul of magic wasn't done yet as she willed a blinding white light out of her to incinerate the arrow embedded in Isidora's shoulder to cinders and freeing the restraints holding Richard and Lucian captive. Kyra wanted it to do more but she couldn’t hold the power anymore and it stopped; the Soul of magic falling to the ground and fainting in exhaustion. Her face was so pale that she looked devoid of life.

Just as the Anti-magicians saw Kyra fall, they saw their opportunity to end her there and then and charged to kill her. But Richard wasn’t to have that happen as he jabbed the man next to him in the face, yanking his sword which the latter held out of his head and using to finish him off. He came up behind the charging assailants and cut them all down to the last man before they even had the chance to react to his presence or get to Kyra.

But the king wasn’t to find rest yet as another set of the Anti-magicians came forward again. However, before they could clash with Richard, Isidora suddenly sent a wave of grey energy all around the camp, all the Anti-magicians falling immediately to the ground the moment the energy hit them all. It was a paralysis spell and even Engerd was affected.

"We have to go now," said the dark witch to them and took off; Richard, with Kyra in his arms, and Lucian following closely behind.

Unfortunately, Isidora’s spell didn't hold for very long as the dark witch was still getting her magic back up after the Bloodstone attack and the Anti-magicians were soon recovered and chasing them. But the time they had gained was just enough to outrun their pursuers and lose them in a mountain ridge.

But their pursuers relented or not, the group kept running downwards; heading away from the mountains and the Anti-magicians towards the valley below.

They had finally descended into the valley and had been running in it for a while before Lucian suddenly skidded to a stop as he saw the statue of a crow covered in moss. The crow has its wings spread out like it was about to fly and its mouth was wide open as if in the middle of a call. "Guys, I think we may have just left the frying pan only to land smack into the fire," he said as he began to understand what was in front of him. Richard and Isidora caught up just in time to hear him say it.

"What in the Creator’s name is that?" said the king when he saw the statue too.

But the crow’s statue wasn’t the only thing in the area that was strange. In fact, the entire vicinity filled him with a sense of weirdness, almost as if even the very air wasn’t right. "Where are we?" he asked again, looking about him in a mixture of puzzlement and dread.

"I believe we’re where all living souls fear to tread, your Majesty," Isidora replied as it all began to make sense to her, a note of fear creeping into her voice as she added, "We’re in the Valley of Shadows."