He was tall and rail-thin with a beak-like nose that made him look like a vulture when he smirked. He extended his hand and opened his mouth to utter aspell.
A horse-length from him, Angelique dropped to her legs and skid the rest of the distance. The gritty ground bruised her legs, but she rammed her left foot into the mage’s shin, and he dropped like aragdoll.
He tried to wheeze out his spell, but with the air knocked out of him, he had no breath tospeak.
Angelique rolled to her feet and slammed her heel into the mage’sneck.
He gurgled, and his arms twitched like the legs of abug.
Grabbing him by the collar of his hideous robes, she dragged him to his feet. She spun him around and slammed him face-first into the wall. The mage shrieked, then sagged in her grasp. When she peeled him off the wall, he would have fallen if not for her grip on his clothes, as he was unconscious, and his nose was nowcrooked.
Well. That was unexpectedly easy.At a loss of what to do, Angelique looked around the street, the unconscious black mage still dangling from her grasp.I guess other magic users don’t have the constitution or training we war mages get. Maybe our reliance on magic is detrimental? Because I think even a basket weaver would have put up more fight thanthat.
She studied the fainted mage as she pressed her lips together.Maybe I ought to tie himup…
There was an explosion, and the ground beneath her feetshook.
Angelique dropped the mage—who limply hit the ground with a painful-sounding crunch—then dashed out into the street, squinting up at theroof.
Evariste and the other black mage, a scrappy-looking woman, were facing off on the top of a one story, flat-roofedbuilding.
Web-like magic the color of bug guts leaked from the black mage’s hands, and a smoky gray wall protected her from Evariste’sattacks.
Why hasn’t he crushed the mage?Angelique wondered. Her eyes were drawn to a shimmering mass of magic. The inner spell belonged to the black mage—even this far from it, Angelique could feel the slippery quality to it. But the spell was held back by Evariste’s glittery bluemagic.
While the mages struggled, the spells did as well—Evariste’s was fighting to hold back whatever the black mage wanted to unleash on theoasis.
The bystanders were no longer oblivious but frantic. They fled the area, ramming into each other in theirfear.
Angelique scrambled for the building, speeding up when she saw the staircase that led to the building next door. She snatched a small board of wood from a shop—shouting apologies to the owner, pounded up the steps, then slunk across the roof, hoping the black mage—with her back turned to her—was unaware of herpresence.
When she reached the edge of the rooftop, she paused to unwind just enough of her magic to use for alterationspells.
Carefully, she twisted her magic as she set the edge of her small board of wood on the roof. The wood glowed silver and grew, turning into a plank wide and long enough to walkacross.
Angelique had slid it into position when Evaristeshouted.
The black mage had advanced on him—her yellow magic slithering aroundEvariste.
Evariste, however, was focusing on the war between the spells, and was funneling more power into his as the black magic tried to break free. His face was twisted in pain, but he ignored the spell surroundinghim.
Angelique sprinted across her plank and rammed the black mage from behind, sending hersprawling.
“Angelique,” Evariste shouted. “Crush that spell!” He pointed to the dark mage’s spell that had almost completely shaken off Evariste’smagic.
“How?” Angelique asked. She reached down to grab the mage by her cloak, but yellow magic snapped at her fingers, sending a searing pain up herarm.
“Don’t touch the mage!” Evariste yelled, his voice harsh andangry.
“Yeah, I figured that out,” Angelique sourly said as she skulked across the rooftop to joinEvariste.
“She’s a healer who has twisted her magic,” Evariste explained. “She can do immeasurable damage to you. I’ll handleher.”
“That’s fine with me, but you never said what to do with the spell.” Angelique narrowed her eyes as she studied it, trying to pick apart exactly what Evariste was doing to prevent it fromcasting.
“Smother it with your magic,” Evaristeinstructed.
“What?”
