Delver Magic III: Balance of Fate - Jeff Inlo (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

During the last few moments of transport, Holli felt the waves of magical energy that guided them over the land being ripped from her control. Just as she sensed the path becoming distorted before they reached their destination, she found it more difficult to maintain a link to her two companions. She doubled and redoubled her efforts to maintain a path of travel and to keep Ryson and Lief enveloped in her spell. Despite her focus, the disruption increased in intensity as they closed in on Tabris’ oasis. The pain was agonizing and before they hit the sandy rock ground of the desert, she felt her own spell rupture.

Holli hit the ground heavily, her legs absorbing a great force as if she fell from the heights of a tall tree. She bit back a scream of pain as she crumpled to her knees. She had reached her target, the very edge of Tabris’ oasis, but Lief and Ryson were not at her side. She quickly felt her legs for breaks and was greatly relieved to find both were sound. When she tried to rise up, she felt only slight pain in her left knee, but a wave of exhaustion kept her from standing. She looked to her left and immediately spied Ryson a short distance away. She peered deeper into the dark desert night and realized that Lief was much further off in that same direction.

Ryson ran at top speed to Holli’s side. He bent his head low to get a look in her face. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know what happened. I lost control of the spell at the very end. I don’t think I’m injured, but I feel weak, empty.”

Ryson explained his own experience. “I could feel your presence when you cast the spell and the energy surrounded us. I could actually feel you carrying me and pressing me over Dark Spruce and the rocky hills at the edge of the desert. In that last moment, though, I felt something else, something that was pulling me away from you. Eventually, both forces just stopped and I landed on the ground.”

An angry, bitter voice called from beyond the cold, dry air of the desert. It came from within the oasis and it chilled Ryson much more than the pressing emptiness of the Lacobian. “Is that Ryson Acumen? Is this the one I see? It is! The delver that brought me to Sanctum now tries to invade my home with this pathetic elf witch as his guide. How fitting! If you and your little witch are wondering what happened, let me make it clear. I am what happened. The elf witch came here once before without my permission, did you think I would allow that to happen again without taking precautions?”

Tabris halted her words after remembering the last time she saw Holli it was at the side of Enin. A great moment of apprehension concerned her being as she spotted another figure off to the side. She worried that Enin had somehow past her notice, that he shrouded his great magical energy in order to catch her unaware. That concern ended when she saw the shadowy figure raise a bow and fire an arrow at her with deadly intentions. Enin would never have to resort to such a wretched attempt on her life. He had the power to obliterate her with the wave of his hand. This new invader was almost not worth her notice.

Lief had dashed further off into the darkness when he heard the voice of the sorceress. He took a curved path to the very edge of the oasis away from Ryson and Holli in hopes of being overlooked. When he raised his bow, he believed he had the chance to end this conflict before it truly began. As he fired his arrow, he realized Tabris was now aware of his presence, but he believed it was too late for her. She did not have the time to cast a defensive spell in the instant it would take for the arrow to find its mark. To his astonishment, the arrow flew off its intended path and disappeared into the night air.

“Did you also think I would place myself out in the open without taking a few precautions?” Tabris scoffed toward Lief. “I cast a wind gust shield to deal with your projectiles before you arrived. Anything you send toward me will be redirected harmlessly away. You may fire all the arrows you wish at me, but unless you are standing right in front of me, don’t expect them to hit their target.”

“Then I will stand right before you,” Lief shouted. He leapt forward, and though he could never match the speed of the delver, his elf legs carried him with nimble quickness. Not knowing if the sorceress might cast a spell, he darted to his left and right as he endeavored to make himself a difficult target. He found it more than unusual that Tabris made no attempt to raise her hands to cast a spell of any kind, until his body ran hard into a powerful barrier he could not see. His own speed forward was matched by a nearly identical force pressing outward from the oasis. The impact nearly hammered him into unconsciousness. It certainly succeeded in knocking him off his feet as he fought back the sting of pain that sucked away his breath.

“I recognize that voice as well,” Tabris hummed in amusement. “Isn’t that Lief Woodson? This is too grand for me to believe. I have before me the delver and the two elves that joined me in Sanctum Mountain. And just so you know, there is one more that is with us tonight. He too was at Sanctum, though he did not enter the mountain.”

Lifting her arms in an arc above her head, Tabris focused her power into a crisp diamond of crackling violet energy. She pressed her hands outward and a swirling wave of wind danced through the plants and trees of her oasis. For a brief moment, no one could see the target of her spell until the cradle of wind returned back to Tabris carrying the body of a one-legged man. The spell evaporated just off to the sorceress’ right side and the man dropped to the ground in an unbalanced shambles.

Ryson knew immediately that the form on the ground was that of the Reader Matthew. He watched as the reader grappled with the hard rock to turn over on one side. When Matthew finally raised himself on his lone knee and steadied himself with two hands flat on the ground, the delver called out in concern.

“Matthew, it’s me, Ryson! Are you alright?”

“I’ve been better,” the reader muttered with a weak cough.

“His health will not be a concern in a matter of moments. I can sense through my own spells that Sazar’s forces have been greatly reduced, almost completely eliminated. I imagine you have something to do with that, don’t you delver?”

“We’ve taken Connel back from the serp,” Ryson answered sharply. “You won’t be getting anymore helpless victims to practice on, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Shame,” Tabris sighed. “But if that’s the case, then I also no longer need to keep this reader alive. I did so only so he might witness what I have become. I do not think he is happy about it. I don’t know if I’m happy about it either, but I know who is to blame. The truth is you are all responsible for what I am. Thus, you should all share in the understanding of what that means.”

It was Lief who answered, and he did so with a raging fury from the center of his being. “It is you that will understand that I will not allow you to continue.”

Tabris almost laughed, but she found anger as she looked to Lief. “You have no say at all in what will be allowed. Have you learned nothing by being knocked to the ground? Be aware that my wind gust shield that is so effective against your arrows was not the only spell I prepared in advance. There is a storm barrier that protects my oasis. None of you can enter, but my power can reach out to you.”

Lief jumped to his feet and then twirled about with his bow in hand. He pulled another arrow and fired it at the sorceress. Again, though the arrow pierced the storm barrier, it was easily blown wide of its target by the wind gust.

“You don’t learn, do you?” Tabris asked in slight amazement. “The arrow can enter the oasis because of its very narrow form. It may be able to penetrate the storm barrier, but that same shape allows it to be easily redirected by the power of the wind. As I said, you can not reach me.”

“I can not reach you now sorceress, but I have patience. Your energy is not limitless. Even now I can tell these two spells draw on your magical essence. You can not keep these shields up indefinitely. They will eventually fall, and when they do, so shall you.”

“As I said before, you can not get to me but I can reach out to you,” Tabris growled. “My energy does not need to be limitless. It only needs to last as long as it takes me to dispose of you. As you are nothing but an insignificant insect, believe me I have far more energy than I need for these shields to last.”

Lief said nothing. He leapt back several paces and then darted to his left. He grasped another arrow and let it fly. Again, the projectile was pressed harmlessly away from Tabris. The failure did not seem to frustrate him at all.

“I have dozens of arrows,” Lief finally shouted. “Each one that I fire weakens you slightly. Each moment that passes drains you even more. I will remain here as long as it takes. Your energy will fade and you will die.”

Tabris scowled. “You only have as long as I wish you to have!” She pressed her hands together in front of her chest and mouthed several words. She then flung her hands forward toward the elf and a bolt of deep purple lightning flew from