A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) 📕

Brother Yvan nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

Trevor nodded and reached out. Brother Yvan grabbed Trevor’s wrist, and suddenly they stood on the main floor of the manor. Win had his back to them.

“Is everything under control?” Trevor said. Win jumped and turned around.

“It is,” Volst said, walking up to them. “I am guessing that Lissa stayed behind wherever you went. Seeing that Brother Yvan is with you, Ginster was your destination?”

“I trust the medical help,” Trevor said. “Lissa was badly injured in the explosion and, despite her condition, took care of the magician in the room upstairs with a silver Viksaran lightning bolt.”

“Good girl,” Volst said. “Let’s go upstairs, and you can tell me what to make of the woman’s rooms.”

Trevor had to take the stairs more slowly than he would have liked, but he could feel his body gradually recovering. The middle-aged woman appeared to have died where she had fallen. The room was more library than living quarters. Trevor walked through the stacks.

Something drew him to a set of bookshelves. “There must be something behind here,” Trevor said to Brother Yvan. “Can you find a few other soldiers to help me move this bookcase aside?”

“I don’t feel anything,” Brother Yvan said, “but I do not doubt that you do.”

Trevor tried but couldn’t do much with the bookshelf on his own.

“It would be easier to remove the books,” Volst said as he appeared with three soldiers.

Trevor shook his head. “It’s all that teleporting that has made me weak.”

“Right,” Volst said with half a smile. He rummaged through the dead woman’s pockets and found a key ring with three keys. “Won’t these be helpful?”

“They might,” Trevor said.

The bookcase was easy to remove once the books were piled elsewhere. Inset in the wall was another door less than six-feet high. Trevor had to use all three keys, but the last one produced a satisfying grinding sound as it moved the lock’s movement.

“I’ll open the door in case there is a ward.”

“That won’t be necessary,” one of the soldiers said, reaching past Trevor to push the door open. A stream of arrows flew from the opening and bounced against Trevor’s chest, but some of the arrows struck down the soldier behind him.

Volst looked at Trevor and Brother Yvan and nodded. “Necessary. I’ll stay out here while you rummage around inside.”

Brother Yvan let Trevor enter, but he stayed in the middle of the doorway, magically lighting up the tiny room. Trevor had to push aside the plight of the unfortunate soldier as he examined the books lining the shelves. He wished Lissa was with him to evaluate the titles, but he hoped Brother Yvan might provide a little guidance.

“There,” Brother Yvan said, pointing to a shelf of old books, portfolios, and scrolls. “That is the old language.”

Trevor looked at the shelf and nodded as he continued to scan the room, looking for more manuscripts in the ancient tongue. He thought he found another, but it only had some script on the spine. The book was four hundred years old, and by then, the script was mostly lost to the world.

“Can you see anything that might indicate an invisibility spell?” Trevor asked. “It might be better if we could come up with a counterspell instead of charms.”

“Both would be better,” Brother Yvan said. He chanced another step into the middle of the room and examined more titles, but he found that most of the books were histories of the Eagle cabal and its financial records. “You might want to glance at the latest of these for evidence.”

Trevor took the last five years and had a soldier locate a few boxes to remove the volumes from the room. He wished he could spend the next few days going through the information, but the war wouldn’t wait. The rest of the soldiers looked for enemy orders or other communications throughout the manor. Still, there wasn’t anything other than a message saying that Jarkanese forces were roaming in the hills and to be on guard. Trevor considered it good news that no one had identified them as Brachian. The enclave information was incomplete, at the least.

~

Trevor and his small group finally caught up to the rest of the troops, including Glynna Bostik and Gorian Custik.

“Did you catch any of the magicians?” Trevor asked Potur Lott.

“Eight on horseback. They all fought to the death,” Lott said. “We lost two Brachians, but your two elderly people saved three others.”

“I wouldn’t call them elderly,” Brother Yvan said. “A little gray hair can conceal a younger person.”

Custik walked up. “Did I hear someone say elderly? Were they referring to me?” The former owner of the Blue Tower looked around. “Eldest, I agree with that,” Custik admitted.

“Did you search the bodies?” Trevor asked.

Gorian nodded. “Nothing of note except for the charms in this bag. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Certainly, nothing that would allow a magician to come in and out of invisibility.”

Trevor would have liked Lissa to examine the charms, but that would have to wait until the column settled down for the night, and he could take Brother Yvan back to Collet.

The scouts were back out seeking the enemy. Trevor made sure everyone had prepared for unexpected attacks, and that included magical wards. He could feel the tension level increase after the mansion. Although their attack was easily victorious, everyone knew they might have been lucky, catching the manor of magicians unawares.

Night fell. Tomorrow they would head west and then go south before they turned east to position themselves for the final push into Khartoo. Trevor gathered his friends into his tent. The Maskumite magicians’ charms lay on a simple plank camp table.

“I want you to help me with these. I