Tibs straightened, trying to make out what the increased illumination at the back of Sebastian’s camp was about. There had been activity all night long, with distant sounds of hammering and large objects being dragged about. Unfortunately, no matter what roof he stood on, he couldn’t see anything that told him what was happening.
Now, in the pre-dawn lightning of the sky, it looked like Sebastian’s people had lit a bonfire.
There was a distant clunk and Tibs stood, stunned, as a large ball of fire arched over the town and fell onto a building somewhere deeper, splashing and sending flames flying on the surrounding ones. The tar like smell that trail the ball snapped him back and he ran toward the fire, jumping roofs using air, uncaring who might see him. He had to go put the fire out before it could spread.
Runners were already fighting it as he dropped from the closest roof. They kept the fire from spreading and pulled the air away in an ineffectual attempt to smother the flames. A couple of Earth users were trying to do the same, but they didn’t have the training to affect only small patches of the ground and they damaged a building attempting to save it.
With all of them there, Tibs had no choice but limit himself to water, and he pulled essence out, ready to unleash a torrent on—
An explosion sent rubble and a badly burnt Runner flying, and Tibs redirected the water to catch them. Trying to process what had happened.
“Don’t use water!” someone yelled. Cross tackled a Runner concentrating on a ball of water before them, breaking their concentration. “Water’s only going to make things worse!”
Two other Water users looked in her direction and dismissed her.
“Do what she says!” Tibs ordered. The Runner he was laying on the ground was also a water user. “Cross, what is going on?” The other runners looked in his direction before letting go of the water essence they’d been collecting.
“You’re dealing with Everburn,” she told him, pulling the runner to her feet. “Water just makes the stuff burn hotter.”
“Magic?” he asked, even if he didn’t feel any sort of weave under the fire. How else could water help fire?
“Alchemy,” she replied. “Which I guess is a sort of magic, but it doesn’t need people to have an element.
People without elements could do magic? “Why hasn’t the guild told us that’s a thing?”
“You’re going to have to ask them,” she replied, letting go of the now steady, if still confused, runner. “I know about it because one of the caravan I was a guard on, years ago, had an alchemist traveling with them. Her ‘act’ was based around Everburn, challenging anyone to put out a small fire with it at its base. She also made stuff that would keep infections from setting in and speed up healing, but the Everburn trick was how she attracted the attention.”
“How do we stop it?” one of the Water user asked, joining them.
“You don’t,” she replied. “That’s why it’s called Everburn. The only thing you can do is make sure the fire doesn’t spread while it consumes itself.”
Tibs cursed as Runners ran off, calling others to themselves and combining elements to control the flames. If the fire consumed the Everburn, then there was a way to put it out quickly, but Tibs didn’t have the time to figure out how right now. “It came flying from Sebastian’s camp. Is that something an alchemist can also do, or does it mean we’re sure he has adventurers now?”
“He has a catapult,” Quigly said, running. “I’ve never seen one used to send Everburn, but if they have a way to put it in its bowl before lighting it, it’ll work.”
Something else Tibs would have to ask about once this was done.
“It’s going to cost him the catapult,” Cross said. “Everburn doesn’t care what it’s in. Once lit, it’ll burn it, and the stuff sticks like tar.”
“Smells like it too,” Tibs muttered, watching the others work, feeling powerless to help since he couldn’t use his other elements.
“From what Jackal told me, if his father’s using something, he has a way to control it. And essence has to be stronger than the stuff, so he could have adventurers keeping it from causing him problems.”
“Which means he does have adventurers,” Tibs said.
“Or he had the wood for the catapult enchanted before leaving,” Quigly countered. And Tibs groaned. “Sorry, war never comes with certainties.”
“I hate this,” he muttered.
“You and everyone who’s been caught in one,” Quigly replied.
“I’m going to destroy that thing,” Tibs said, and started marching.
“Tibs, you can’t just march in there,” the warrior said.
“I can’t let Sebastian burn down my town!”
“Get a team together,” Quigly told him, running to catch up. “You know this is exactly what Sebastian’s after, you, pissed off and marching into his trap.”
“He won’t know I’m there.” He couldn’t do what Bardik or Khumdar could, but when he suffused himself with Darkness, he became difficult to see. All he’d need were shadows, and he’d be unseen.
Quigly grabbed his shoulder. “I’m not letting you commit suicide.”
“I’m not letting him burn my town!”
“Think, Tibs. You don’t have to rush. The fact he hadn’t sent a second one means he only has one catapult. He can’t put Everburn into its bowl until what’s already there stops burning. Cross, do you know of anything that can stop Everburn?”
“No, the alchemist had to let it burn through the metal bowl she put it in and eventually, the fire consumed it all. There was nothing left once that happened.”
“She put it on a table?”
“The ground.”
Quigly frowned. “Did it burn the earth?”
“No, it just sat there.”
He nodded. “Then it can be smothered.” He looked around. “Do we have anyone at Rho or Lambda with Earth as their element? I think we’re going to need that level of control to not destroy the buildings while covering them in earth.”
“Jackal’s Lambda,” Tibs said, “but he never worked on being precise. Making himself harder and stronger is all he’s been practicing with.”
“Yeah,” Quigly said, “it’s the same with the two other Earth fighters I know. Rogues?”
Tibs shook his head. “Not really something that helps us. Water, air, metal, are what we seem to go for.”
“Darkness?” Quigly asked. “I saw your cleric do something that made fire burn weaker.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“No, Bardik told me it’s popular,” Tibs said, “but no one here chose it. I think we’re all too angry to consider something that subtle.”
“Then sorcerers,” the warrior said. “We can’t get them here in time to save these buildings, but if Sebastian can smother Everburn by filling the bowl with earth, the next one is coming soon.”
“Then I have to destroy—”
“No, you aren’t.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do!”
“Jackal ordered me to keep you from doing exactly this,” the warrior replied. “Carina asked me to look out for you. Mez said something about not acting like a child and Kroseph made it clear that if I let you get killed, I wasn’t going to be far behind you.” Quigly glared at Tibs. “Do you have any idea how scary that server can be?”
Tibs smiled in spite of himself, remembering the times Jackal came running down the stairs in terror after he’d said the wrong thing to his man. He forced it and the smile away. “So you’re just going to let Sebastian burn everything?”
“No. But I’m not going to let you walk in there and be killed while we have other options.”
“What other options?”
The warrior raised an eyebrow and motioned around them, at the Runners controlling how the flames moved, keeping them centered over the buildings already covered with Everburn. “For one thing, we have essence.”
* * * * *
Tibs fumed.
He hated that Quigly had been right. He’d been so focused on avenging the destruction he hadn’t thought beyond his need to act, to do anything that gave his anger an outlet. He hated that Don had inserted himself in the group of archers standing on the roof with him, and he hated even more that Amelia was diferring to the sorcerer, when it came to who gave the orders.
She’d assembled the group, three Wood archers, one of which was Rho, two Fire archers, her at Lambda and Mez at Rho. And the last two were Omega, but they’d still be able to return the favor to Sebastian.
Containing Everburn was how Don had made himself invaluable to this attack. He and three other sorcerers had smothered, and found a way to manipulate the tar-like substance with their combination of essence, and now he had a large bucket of the stuff with arrows stuck in them ready to be pulled out and lit before being sent back to their attackers.
The distant thunk made Tibs curse, and he was in the process of turning, to chase after it when—
“Stand firm,” Don instructed. “There is nothing any of us here can do for it. The sorcerers will contain the damage. We are here to make sure this is the last one they send.” The sorcerer purposely didn’t look at Tibs as he spoke, but there was no doubt who the order was for. Not that Don wanted him here.
Tibs had nothing to contribute. Not here, not with the fires. Don hadn’t gone so far as to say he was useless, but the implication had been there. No one had cared, not that Tibs would have let anyone stop him. If he couldn’t, shouldn’t, walk into Sebastian’s camp to destroy the catapult, he was going to watch it happen.
“I say we let it burn,” Richard said, watching the arc. He was one of the archer taken from a cell in the last group of arrival. He’d been in the process of being released, when the guild’s demand for more criminal came, and had been shipped here. He had even less love for the guild than Tibs had these days.
And the ball of burning Everburn was heading for the guild building.
Tibs couldn’t believe Sebastian had done that. The guild would have to respond to a direct attack, wouldn’t they? He could see people on the roof, a lot of them. He made out some in armor, or colorful clothing that adventurers seemed to favor, but most were bland at this distance. A sea of people who would do what?
Tibs had his answer when the ball of Everburn exploded, sending small globs of the stuff all over the town. Had Sebastian arranged for that? Was that something else alchemists could do? Then he noticed movements on the roof, and in response to those, the globs still heading for the building were flung in other directions.
Whatever hope Tibs had clung to about the guild burned away. They had exploded the Everburn over the town. They’d made it impossible for the few sorcerers able to smother it to concentrate their efforts. He watched as more buildings than he could count erupted. More buildings than they had runners able to control the flames for.
To save their precious building, the guild had sacrificed a large part of the town. “I’m going to fill that building with corruption,” Tibs growled through clenched teeth, “and laugh as they all melt in it.”
“No, you won’t,” Don said calmly, watching the guild’s effort to destroy their town. “But if you ice it over, I’ll be happy to do it for you.” He turned to face the encampment. “Wood archers, charge your arrows!”
Tibs felt essence shift. Raona was the Rho archer, and she’d spent the hour here instructing the other two on how to create one specific effect.
“Fire archers, ready your attacks!”
Mez and Amelia pulled on the string of their bows and essence coalesced into the form of an arrow. The Omega archers pulled an arrow out of the bucket each and notched them.
“Mez?” Don asked.
“Don’t worry, I’ll light them as soon as they release them.” Fire essence pooled at the tip of the arrows.
“As arranged, fire!”
Raona let her arrow fly, and the response from the encampment was immediate. Arrows came at them. Tibs smiled and took hold of the water vapor in the air. He hadn’t been able to justify his presence when Don had questioned it, but Tibs had come up with things he could do while they waited.
An arrow entered his range, and it was coated with water, then it stopped, held there by Tibs’s will so Don could see, before it dropped. A second and a third, and a—this one rotted and had nothing solid for the water to hold as it formed around it. Tibs caught Don’s smirk and pushed his ranged further with effort.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw fire arrows fly at Sebastian’s camp, some entirely of fire, others only the head, the Everburn igniting as it passed through the cloud of fire essence in front of the arrow.
He caught more arrows, not bothering displaying them, before they fell. When another rotted as he caught it, Tibs gritted his teeth and pushed further. He would show Don who was the—a scream came. The youngest of the Wood archers had an arrow in his shoulder and was falling back. Cursing himself for letting wanting to outdo Don distract him from protecting his people, Tibs send a mountain of snow on the inclined roof for them to land and slide in, as well as on the ground and to cushion their fall.
The curses from the fighters, there to guard them and the building, as the snow buried them was a small price to pay for the archer surviving the fall.
He and Don shared a look as they focused ahead again, and the sorcerer looked as sorry as Tibs felt for letting this happen.
“Will this be a problem?” Don asked, as they stopped more arrows.
The fire spread within the camp. Spreading quicker than it should in places, while exploding in small bursts in other.
“No, the work was in the arrows we sent,” Raona replied. “At this point, one less isn’t going to make a difference. And we should see it right about—” The cracking of wood overshadows every other sound. “—now.”
Then came the screams, and Tibs’s concentration faltered as he watched trees grow at the back of the encampment. A lot of them, and they were growing fast, and growing tall.
“I would love to see them untangle that thing out from that,” Raona said, beaming.
“Don’t let pride be your downfall,” Amelia said, continuing to fire. “You may have taken out their largest weapon, and congratulation on that, but there are still many more of them. We must continue to—”
“No,” Don said. “Our job was to destroy or incapacitate the catapult and do as much damage as you could in the process. Now it’s time to retreat. Me and Tibs will cover you as go down.”
The Omegas were lowered, then the wood archers. By the time Amelia started down, a pained scream came from below. Tibs exchanged a look of worry with Don before running down the roof. Thugs in green and black were mixed in with the runners. The few still alive fought hard, but even with essence, they weren’t as skilled as the men they fought against.
Tibs sent water below him and landed in it, creating a wave that sent everyone down.
The thugs were quicker to get up. “There he is,” one of them called.
“Tibs,” Mez called from where he was climbing down. Amelia right behind him. At the edge of the roof, Don looked down, eyes wide in fear, before vanishing up the slope.
Tibs forced the sorcerer out of his mind. He didn’t have the time to hope he was just looking for a better position to attack from. Two of the Runner stood and backed to his position. The Wood archer Tibs made the snow bank for, as well as Richard were the only archers still breathing, but they weren’t conscious. He pulled them to him on a sheet of water, then the three fighters he could see breathing.
“Mez,” he told his friend as he heard him land. “You and the others need to take the injured to the inn. I’ll keep them busy.”
“We’re not leaving you here alone,” one of the fighters said.
“Mez,” Tibs said, looking over his shoulder. “I need you and the others to take anyone alive to the inn. I will hold them back.”
“Are you sure?” the archer asked. “This sounds a lot like a Jackal thing to do.”
Tibs grinned. “I’m not Jackal.” He looked at the thugs. “And I have been wanting a chance to let loose.”
“You heard him,” Mez said. “Grab someone and start moving. No arguing.” The archer picked up the wood archer. “No dying,” he told Tibs, before leaving.
Tibs stood alone, facing one and five thugs in green and black. They’d come for him, and they’d come in force.
“You’re smart to send them away. Now they don’t have to see you surrender.”
“I’m not surrendering. I’m going to kill each and everyone of you.” He made a sword and shield from ice, both jagged and dangerous looking. He’d start with that, then he’d have fun with the other elements. But not fire, he decided. Fire would end this too quickly. The only thing he had to worry about was making sure the buildings were still standing by the time they were all dead, so this would be fun.
Well, he decided as the confusion on the thugs turned to determination, he should try to keep them standing. If he couldn’t, he could always claim one of them was the reason the building had been destroyed.