I rose to my feet. ‘You’re a liar, Tennat. Your family knew what was going on and you –’
I was interrupted by a groaning sound and turned to see Shalla, still draped across the horse’s back, her body shivering and convulsing. I started towards her. ‘I’ve got to get her home to—’
I was knocked off my feet by a blast of force. ‘You stay away from her!’ Pan’erath shouted. When I looked up at him his face was full of righteous anger. He thinks he’s protecting her. From me.
I finally understood what was going through Pan’s mind. He wasn’t ganging up against his friend. He was facing off against the classic villains of all our childhood stories: the foreigner spy, come to tear apart the clan; the nekhek monster, foul teeth hungry to pierce the flesh of Jan’Tep mages and destroy their magic. And the most nefarious of all: the traitor Sha’Tep, who would deliver his own sister to his clan’s enemies out of bitterness and envy. Pan’erath was the hero – the young mage who’d assembled a coven to save the helpless princess. It all had such perfect symmetry. ‘You’re an idiot,’ I told him.
Ra’fan uttered a word and my arms pinned themselves against my sides, crushing my own ribs.
‘Don’t,’ Pan’erath said. ‘Save the spell for the nekhek.’
I don’t think Ra’fan liked being ordered around by someone who’d only been made adept a few hours before, but he complied and I felt the crushing grip fade away. ‘The monster’s probably already fled back to its lair,’ he said dismissively. ‘We should just—’
‘We do this my way,’ Pan’erath said, taking a step towards me. ‘Surrender, Kellen. I promise I’ll speak for you to the council. I don’t want to see you hurt.’ Winding tendrils of light, red this time, formed around his hands as his fingers traced tiny symbols at his sides in preparation. ‘Or we can duel, and I’ll do my best not to kill you.’
He’s so proud of his lightshaping spells, I thought. He won’t be able to resist the urge to show them off. But Pan hadn’t seen me use the powders and he didn’t know what I could do with them. Fire could burn through his lightshapes. If I was fast enough, I could end the fight in one shot. Our people’s most ancient laws would demand that the others let us go.
Of course, one look at the way Tennat, Ra’fan and Ra’dir were glancing at each other told me they had no intention of honouring the terms of any duel. So there’s no way my one spell is going to get me out of this alive.
‘That’s a really tempting offer, Pan,’ I said as I walked very slowly to kneel beside Ferius. I closed her waistcoat against the cool night air. ‘But you shouldn’t have attacked my friends.’
‘Kid, this is a terrible plan,’ she whispered.
‘Quit calling me kid,’ I said, palming the deck of steel cards I’d taken from her.
I stood back up and turned to face the four of them. ‘No more duels, Pan. No more rules. No more games. I’m giving you one chance, because …’ Because we were friends once. Because you waited a whole year to take your tests just so I wouldn’t be alone with people like Tennat. It seemed hard to believe that he’d once valued my friendship so highly. All that was gone now. ‘Get these three morons out of here and help me clean up the mess Tennat’s father made before our whole clan really is in danger.’
The early crest of Pan’s lightshaper magic slithered and grew around his hands. ‘I’d rather see our people disappear from the world than take orders from a Sha’Tep weakling.’
For a moment I tried to think of something to say, some way to break down the wall between us, but there wasn’t one. Pan’erath was a Jan’Tep mage. I was a Sha’Tep traitor. That was all there was to it. I looked out into the tops of the trees, still not seeing Reichis but having no choice but to hope he was somewhere up there. Wonder what he’ll charge me for this. ‘In that case, gentlemen, I rescind my offer. I’m going to kick all your asses and then I’m going to save our people myself.’
When you’ve only got one good spell it’s hard to resist the urge to use it. After all, the powder magic was the most powerful weapon I had, and neither Pan nor the others had seen it before. With any luck, I could take them by surprise and maybe even knock one or two of them out of the fight at the outset. Even more though, I so badly wanted to show them that I had my own magic, that I was as good as they were. And then what? There was no way I could hit them all fast enough. Ra’dir’s war-mage training meant he’d be prepared for surprises, and Ra’fan would use one of his chaincaster spells to bind me the second I fired off the spell. Fine, I thought. Card tricks it is.
‘Don’t do this,’ Pan said, a look of genuine concern on his face for the first time.
I guess it’s one thing to make threats against an enemy and another to realise you’re about five seconds away from killing your childhood friend. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I’ll try to be gentle.’
The way I had it figured, my one chance was to stop thinking like a Jan’Tep and start thinking like an Argosi, the way Ferius did when she kept tricking them. All Pan and the others understood was magic – who had what spells and when to use them. They didn’t notice the uneven terrain and the shifting darkness around us. They didn’t consider how close together the four of them were standing, or that I might not be alone in this. All they saw was a good old-fashioned Jan’Tep tale of good versus evil, where good always wins. What I saw was a card game with a half-dozen different decks in play. Ancestors save me, I thought. I really am turning into an Argosi.
‘Come on,’ Tennat urged. ‘Make your move, coward.’
I almost laughed. Even now, after everything that had happened, with us ready to maim or even kill each other, Tennat was still using the same old taunts he’d tossed at me our whole lives. I ignored him and turned my mind to solving the first of my very real problems: Ra’dir. If he hit me with the flames or lightning from a war spell, I’d be dead before the fight even started. Then again, if Ra’fan got one of his chain spells around me, I’d be helpless. I needed a way to get both of them off balance at the outset. I glanced up at Tennat and smiled. ‘Hey, remember that time I nearly got you to crush your intestines with your own spell? How much do you want to bet I can make you blind yourself?’
He took a step forward. ‘I can’t wait to get you in a small room away from prying eyes, weakling.’ He spread his arms wide apart – the opening of the strongest of the blinding spells. Once he set his intention and uttered the words, he’d bring them together and it’d be like a curtain closing over me. The second he opened his mouth, I flung one of Ferius’s steel cards straight for him.