Delver Magic III: Balance of Fate, Jeff Inlo [most popular ebook readers .txt] 📗

“I do not think so, Baannat. Although I am not gifted enough to see my own destiny, I do not feel that it is yet my time. If anything, I feel more alive then I have in a very long time. For too long I have constrained myself, not daring to truly test my powers.”

“This will be no test,” Baannat growled with bitter hate. “No simple game this time as we have played in the past.”

“Indeed, all the games are over, even the one I’ve played with myself,” Enin admitted freely. “I’ve lived much too carefully and not taken my own advice. I have a choice just like the others in this existence. I choose not simply to be a bystander. I will not allow you to get away with what you have done. Many have suffered needlessly just so you could obtain the power you craved. I choose not to be afraid. The power that has been gifted to me is great and I have been hesitant to use it. I’ve worried about becoming too involved and excused my inaction by convincing myself it would only be interference in the lives of others. I know now that was only weakness on my part. Most of all, I choose to use my gift to help others. Right now I can think of nothing I could do more to help this land than to rid it of you.”

Baannat was about to laugh, but he turned his head and snuck another glance toward Linda. “You seem almost confident you can beat me. At the same time, you know I am now more powerful than you. Why is that?”

“The elf that I am training once told me that the battle doesn’t always go to the strongest,” Enin replied.

“That is true.” Baannat admitted while continuing to glare at Linda’s form in the swirling mist. “Some times it goes to the better prepared. How have you prepared for me in such a short time, and what does this woman have to do with it?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure that out eventually,” Enin offered without giving further details. “Until then there are some spells of my own that I’ve always wanted to try. I wouldn’t dare back at my home as I might obliterate the town I live in. But I’m not really too concerned if that happens here, so I guess I’m free to give them a try.”

Baannat heard Enin’s words but his attention was now fully on Linda. Enin took advantage of the opportunity. He placed his hands far apart, extending both arms across their full width. He mouthed a few words and two snow white rings appeared near his hands, one at each palm. He quickly threw his arms together, clapping his hands and the rings together with great force directly in front of him. The white magic exploded into thousands of tiny jagged stars all about the size of a fingernail. They shot toward Baannat with great velocity, so fast in fact, they appeared like small lightning bolts darting through the space between them.

Baannat did not have time to cast a counter spell and the vast majority of the shrapnel imbedded itself into his body. He growled in pain, but then shouted a spell of his own. Two white hot circles dropped about his body and began to swirl around him. The jagged pieces of magic shards began to melt into his body. He quickly turned his own hands toward Enin. The circles of magic then rode down his extended arms and unfurled into two long spears. The pulsating javelins flew toward the wizard but they made no impact. They passed right through him as if he was not there. Baannat understood almost immediately.

“You are a coward and a fool!” Baannat screamed. “You chose to split your being and hide behind this woman in the walkway of existence as she exposes herself. But you can only use her to reach me as long as she lives, and that ends now.”

Baannat cast another spell and the two white circles that encircled his arms erupted into cascading flames that burst over Linda’s entire body. He let the flames roar into an inferno until Linda’s body was no longer visible through the white plasma that now surrounded her. When he ended the spell, this time Baannat could not fathom what he saw.

“She lives? What games are you playing, brother? Are you wasting your energy shielding her against my power? You could not hope to continue such folly for long.”

Throwing his arms in the air, Baannat called for another spell and this time a wave of energy exploded from over his head. It rushed toward Linda like a tidal wave of immense proportions. It flooded his intended target with such fury that the very mist that made up this realm shook with violence. Once more, Baannat was left gaping in disbelief at what he saw.

Enin took advantage of Baannat’s dismay and hurled his own magical spell at the demon. He waved a single hand in a ring over his head and a large circular blade appeared with hundreds of razor sharp teeth at its edges. It spun with near unfathomable speed and Enin hurled it at the slink ghoul with all his power. The blade sunk deep into Baannat and exploded at his core just as the ghoul roared with anger and frustration.

“This can not be!” Baannat screamed. “You should not have the energy to defend this woman and still attack me with such power. Unless…”

Baannat waved his hands and called for a force barrier to protect him from further onslaughts from Enin. He then turned to Linda and whispered a simple spell of light. A small beam of yellow broke through the misty fog, but it would not shine upon Linda.

Baannat started to laugh again which quickly turned to an angry bellow. “You found one that is immune! That explains it all. She has agreed to assist you and so you can use her as both a shield and an anchor.”

“Now I suppose you are deserving of congratulations,” Enin mocked the dark spell caster.

“And how long do you think I would allow this to continue?” Baannat challenged. “I can not harm her with magic, but I do not need magic to kill her. She is a human and easy prey for me. Once she is gone, you will have to face me on your own.”

Linda felt more than a twinge of fear as she saw Baannat’s eyes focus on her with evil intent. As he crouched down with spit cascading through angry snarls, she felt more vulnerable than she ever had before. Even when she saw the magic flame or the tidal wave rush toward her, instinctively she knew it could not harm her. Now, however, she was no longer certain if she was truly safe.

The claws sprung out of Baannat’s fingertips as he leapt toward Linda and she braced herself for searing hot pain. It never came. When Baannat got within reach of her, a burst of energy exploded between him and Linda and flung him backward like a rag doll tossed from a baby’s crib.

“Did you think I would actually take the chance of sending her here without physical protection?” Enin asked. “I told you I knew what you were. Of course I also knew it was only a matter of time before you tried that. She is well shielded against physical attacks.”

Baannat roared with anger. “You have not the power to shield her and attack me as you have! What trickery is this?!”

“Come now, Baannat,” Enin ridiculed his nemesis. “Think about it. Do I have to really spell it out for you? The shield does not require more than a fraction of energy. I only have to use enough of my magic to protect her from you physically, not magically. She is her own protection against magic. The truth of the matter is you are doomed.”

Flailing his arms in swinging motions at his sides, the wizard sent a spell of a windspin toward his opponent. A small tornado of fierce power struck at the ghoul, but it disintegrated in a blaze of cackling energy.

Spitting toward the wizard now, Baannat made his own proclamation of the situation. “You are still weaker than I am. Even if I can’t harm the woman, I can protect myself from your attacks. The shield I now wear will cancel any spell you cast and I can wait until she tires. She can not stay like this forever. Eventually she will need rest. I only need patience now.”

“Patience would work if I allowed you the time,” Enin countered. Utilizing his greatest effort, the wizard placed all of his focus on a spell of pure power. He threw his hands outward as he whispered words of a higher level of consciousness. He embraced the borders between existence, between light and dark, life and death, good and evil. He allowed the thin layer of separation between these concepts to grow into a greater magnitude of enlightenment. Black magic was that energy fueled of change and it could become a spell of ultimate power. Spinning his palms outward, he centered this bolt of pure force directly at Baannat’s being.

A thick shadow engulfed the ghoul and though it could not touch him through the slink ghoul’s own shield, it battered the very essence of his energy. Baannat could feel the very fabric of his power being decimated by the endless turmoil inherent in Enin’s spell. Such was the strength of this one spell that the demon quickly realized his own existence might actually be in peril.

“You insane fool!” the ghoul cried out. “I can deflect your spell, but not indefinitely. The cataclysm of our two powers absorbing each other will deteriorate us both.”

“Is this supposed to stop me?” Enin demanded. “I came here to weaken you, and I will succeed, even if it costs all that I am.”

“I will not allow this!”

“You have little choice. You can’t attack me as long as I remain out of your reach. I, however, can assault you as long as I use my friend as the conduit she has now become. She serves now as both a shield and the sword against you.”

“Then I will remove her at all costs!”

#

After what felt like an eternity to Ryson, he and Holli finally appeared at the front of the Borderline Inn. The streets were dark and empty, but a few lights burned within the tavern. He raced through the door hoping to find Linda behind the bar. He saw no one. No customers, no Enin, no Linda.

“Linda?!” the delver called out as he raced through the back rooms and kitchen. Again, he found no one.

“The door wasn’t locked, but no one’s here,” he said more to himself then to Holli who had now entered the main room of the establishment. “She usually locks up, so she should still be here.”

Holli took a long moment to make her own assessment of the room and realizing the inevitable, she reached out with her feelings to locate the wizard.

“She is gone. We are too late.”

Ryson turned with both dread and fury toward the elf. “What do you mean?!”

“Enin is no longer here, no longer in this plane of existence. He is with Baannat but not completely. He is somewhere between the two realms, but his consciousness is certainly focused on the evil creature, of that I’m sure. There’s only one way he could accomplish that. He would need an anchor point. Someone would have to be in Baannat’s realm that is allowing him to make contact with the creature. It has to be Linda. She is immune to the magic, so Baannat must be unable to attack her.”

“You have to