‘Just do it,’ I said, and started running, heading straight for the wall of fire. The instant my right foot hit the ground, I tossed the powders into the air two feet in front of me. As my second step landed and the first spark ignited between the grains of powder, I formed the somatic shape with my hands and spoke the word. ‘Carath!’
The blast shook the ground in front of us, at the edge of the wall of flames, just as Reichis and I leaped in the air. For one brief instant, the explosion drove back the fire and we passed through unscathed. We landed awkwardly on the other side and I found myself rolling head over heels until I finally landed hard on my back. The squirrel cat looked down at me. ‘Not bad. Now get up and help me kill that mage.’
I staggered to my feet to witness the wreckage of burnt trees all around us. Pockets of fire rose from the underbrush as though a mad priest had lit dozens of braziers around a fallen temple. Bodies littered the ground, human and squirrel cat. A bloody fight had been fought here between tooth and blade, between claw and spell. Only one figure still stood, his arms outstretched as if he were dancing alone among the flames. Ra’meth.
I didn’t wait for him to notice me. I didn’t make threats or demands. I didn’t even think twice. Instead I dug deep into my pockets and tossed enough powder into the air to shatter stone. With the word and the gesture, I unleashed the explosion straight at his heart. The blast cracked the night sky and the resulting flames engulfed him. A moment later they faded away as if they’d been nothing more than a faint spark of a worn-out piece of flint.
Ra’meth turned to me. ‘Hello, Kellen.’
45
The Voice of Fire
The next thing that happened was that Reichis went berserk. The sight of his fellow squirrel cats dead all around the clearing tipped his crazy-but-controlled ferocity into a heedless rage that swept over him so completely that I swear I nearly got caught up in it too.
‘Reichis …’ I warned, seeing the muscles bunching in his haunches as he prepared to attack. ‘Wait. We need to—’
Whatever he growled at me then was too primal. It didn’t have any human equivalent so I couldn’t understand it. I tried to grab at him but he was too fast, kicking up dirt and brush behind him as he raced towards Ra’meth. There was a moment when I thought he might have a chance – his speed and rage propelled him at his enemy like a spell. If he just got his teeth into the mage’s neck before he could raise his arms, he could – but no. Even as the squirrel cat leaped into the air, Ra’meth turned and uttered a single word. Reichis froze, his body swaying in the air as if he were hanging from a rope. ‘They really are fierce little vermin, aren’t they?’ Ra’meth flicked his fingers and the squirrel cat flew through the air before his body crashed into a tree. I heard the sounds of bones snapping.
I should have run. I should have taken off and hidden and tried to come up with some plan to survive this. I simply couldn’t. The sound of Reichis’s broken growls of pain echoed over and over in my ears, deafening me to the sound of the flames, of the trees creaking as they fell, of everything but his pain and my heart beating faster and faster and faster. Finally another sound broke through – a growl that came from my own lips. I dug my hands into my pockets and pulled out more powders than I’d used the other times I’d cast the carath spell. I flung them into the air and made the somatic forms and spoke the word. The explosion lit up the night sky, surrounding Ra’meth in a perfect sphere of fire. It raged on for a second, then another, but finally it faded away. The mage was unharmed. ‘Fascinating,’ he said, taking a step towards me. ‘Do it again.’
There was no fear in him, only in me. There was also no point in holding anything back. I used even more powder this time – so much that I felt it burn the skin on my fingers even before I spoke the word. The explosion followed the line of my index and forefingers right for Ra’meth’s heart. Again my spell struck true, again he shrugged it off.
‘Remarkable,’ he said, as the last trickle of flame faded. ‘And you escaped the thirstfire in the barn. Impressive all round. I take it since you’re here that you also dealt with my sons. Did you kill Tennat?’
‘I figured having you for a father was punishment enough.’
He gave a good-natured laugh. I took advantage of the moment’s distraction to fire the spell again. Even with only a tiny shred of his focus, he could keep the shield up. I wondered for the first time whether maybe Ra’meth had been wrong all these years. Maybe he was more powerful than my father, he’d just never had the courage to challenge him to a duel.
‘That little spell of yours, Kellen,’ he said, head tilted as he looked across the fire-strewn ground at me, ‘it’s just the first-form breath spell channelling the explosion from some sort of chemical powders, isn’t it? Truly ingenious. It reminds me of those old spellslingers who wandered around, combining a few little spells with other tricks to make their way through the world. Quite a romantic notion, don’t you think?’ He cast his own spell then – a minor pain cantrip that ought to do little more than cause an itch.
It felt as if my insides had turned to ice and I screamed.
‘The problem is, however, that there’s a difference between a boy with a spell and a real mage. The true Jan’Tep is complete. He can attack but also defend. He knows how to weaken his opponent’s power while enhancing his own.’ He cast another spell, and this time I was thrown backwards through the air until my back struck the same tree as Reichis had and I found myself on the ground next to him.
I gasped for air, tasting blood in my mouth. Ra’meth ignored my moans. ‘I don’t hate you,’ he said, turning to survey his handiwork. ‘In fact, I admire your daring. You’re a better man than your father, I’ll give you that. All he’s ever done is treat magic like a little castle he builds around himself, brick by brick, hoping to climb its pathetic walls to become clan prince. And for what purpose? None. He would sit back and have us live here like frightened animals, hoping the real predators pass us by in search of better prey.’ He turned, pointing south. ‘I would see us be a great power again, Kellen. I would see the Daroman king begging at our feet.’
I don’t know if he was waiting for some sort of clever retort from me, but given I could barely breathe, he was going to be waiting a long time.
Finally he turned away again. ‘We were meant to be the rulers of this world, Kellen.’