Kevin forced worry for the wolves and fear for himself and Lori and Shaine into the back of his mind, and activated his shields, gold and white and sunset-red. The world had narrowed considerably as the sun vanished and the sky darkened; he had the solid presence of the shields in the walls to orient himself against, but otherwise, everything was a grey and black blur. Except the three exhausted demon-wolves—moonsilver and shadow with hints of amethyst or sapphire or garnet, or slightly too-cool heat-images, depending on which sight he used—and Lori who was just raising her familiar summer-green and tawny-gold shields, clearly visible in their light, and the Lucian mage, who at some point had raised his own, crimson and saffron and demon-coloured.
At least he'd be able to see anything created by elven magic, when it came, and it helped to know that the Lucian mage—what was his name again? Patrick?—was probably no better able to see than he and Lori were.
“Will you die happy knowing that your pet wolves are safe?”
Kevin shrugged. “If I have to die, it may as well be for a good cause. They aren't, however, safe from you yet.” Lori moved closer to him, slid her hand into his, warm and steady. Shields shivered where they touched, then melded together into a single whole without difficulty.
“You're smarter than you look. Not that it will help you.”
Kevin smiled. “We'll do our best to make it interesting for you.” May your life be interesting... And it will be. If you only knew what's waiting just inside the walls...
Brigid, Lady, be with us... by Brigid and Lugh, by the Moonwolf and the Horned God, by... oh, Tiamat and Poseidon, maybe... let us get through this!
“Count on it,” Lori muttered. “So. Since we challenged you, that would give you the right to begin.”
The demon-mage gestured, and the stars fell.
It felt like it, anyway: countless tiny silvery lights rained down over them. They slid off the shields, but each left a dark streak in the shimmer, eating at it. One got through, began to burrow into his arm like a live thing; Kevin gritted his teeth, held very still, trying to ignore the increasing pain. It had to be an illusion, his shields would have put up more of a fight against anything directly dangerous. All he had to do was disbelieve it. Another made it through, hit his shoulder, and burrowed in as well, and he heard Lori's breath hiss between her teeth.
*Illusion,* she said.
*I think so.*
*I know so.* Her tone left no room at all for doubt.
This isn't real. It's only illusion. Don't believe it and it'll end and you can get on to the next round.
A sensation that made his stomach twist, of something inside his arm and crawling along the bone, both of them working their way towards his pounding heart.
Please, Brigid, let them be illusion...
Agony shuddered along every nerve... and the pain stopped, the crawling sensations fading away.
Patrick's eyebrows rose. “I was right. You do have an incredible amount of nerve.”
“I've heard that one before.” He had a brief exchange with Lori, too fast for either to bother formulating thoughts into words, and together they wove will and moonlight into a winged serpent of green and gold and white, and sent it at Patrick. It coiled around the other's shields, but could go no further.
Patrick gestured scornfully at it, plainly expecting it to dissipate.
It didn't; it grew.
Patrick paused, re-evaluating, and threw another attack at it. Again the serpent absorbed it.
“A pretty trick,” he commented. He cast something different, Kevin thought it was actually negative energy, probably drawn from his demons, and the winged serpent cancelled out.
Too bad; he was rather pleased with that particular invention, adapted from something Shaine had shown them.
Mage-fights are so civilized. Not like wolf-fights. You take turns and you can even chat in the middle...
I'd give a lot for something as straightforward as a wolf-fight right now!
Moonlight gathered, shaped itself into a massive saffron and crimson dragon, all horns and spikes. The whip-thin tail lashed towards them, slid off their shields, but left a darker streak where it had gouged them. Lori poured energy into fixing it, while Kevin created his phoenix, hovering in the air above him, all the colours of the sun at dawn and noon and dusk. He sent it spiralling higher, had it stoop towards the dragon's eyes, diamond talons extended. Sensory input doubled; he closed his eyes, concentrating purely on what the phoenix could see, rather than trying to analyse two different images.
The dragon turned its head upwards, orienting on the phoenix, and launched itself heavily into the air. The phoenix was less than half its size, but intensely brighter, dancing fast and agile around the dragon.
Lori's green-eyed tawny lioness lunged upwards at the dragon from beneath, claws and fangs of emerald tearing gaping wounds in the dragon's belly, wounds that bled moonlight.
Patrick snarled something Kevin couldn't make out, and the dragon folded its wings; the lioness barely got out from under it before it landed. The ruby talons of the rear feet dug themselves deep into the ground, and the tail slashed at the lioness, even as the gaping jaws snapped at the phoenix. Kevin pulled it back out of reach, losing only a few fiery feathers in the process; the lioness crouched, and leaped over the tail just before it reached her, going straight for the dragon's throat. Through phoenix eyes, he caught a glimpse of himself and Lori, hands still linked, his own eyes closed, but Lori's green eyes were open, watching both ways at once, her expression alert and fiercely focused.
Maybe we should've warned him that Lori's beaten almost every mage in Haven and some from elsewhere at this game. Me included. And we've won as partners before.
Usually, though, it was only a game, a way of refining one's skills and using one's wits and imagination.
The lioness' emerald fangs tore a long gash down the dragon's throat, though she failed to get a grip on it. More moonlight bled away, the dragon's colours beginning to dim.
Kevin sent the phoenix down again, into a dive directly at the dragon's eyes, while it was clawing and lashing and snapping at the lioness. Diamond talons struck, raked across one eye, and it looped up and over the dragon's wide forehead and spiky crest to drive its talons deep into the other eye.
Patrick let out a cry of rage; Kevin wondered briefly who Irina was and why Patrick was cursing her, but getting distracted would be bad. For example, Patrick had just gotten distracted, and the lioness had caught the tail-whip in her teeth and chewed it off.
Phoenix and lioness tore ruthlessly into the dragon, making more and more wounds to bleed light away, but Patrick dissolved it back into nothing.
Lioness and phoenix melted away, as well.
* * *
Hidden by shadows, Shaine ghosted out the gate, intent on the mage-battle in front of him. Kevin and Lori appeared to be doing well, but that would only last for so long.
The thought flitted through his mind that he could stand back and wait, let the demon-mage exhaust himself on the two elvenmages, then Shaine could step in... He banished that idea. In the last few days, despite his best efforts, he'd learned far too much respect for the pair, and not solely in magic. He couldn't do that. Besides, Jess would never forgive him.
Now would be a good time, he decided, and threw darkness over the entire area, singing as softly as he could.
He was unhindered, used to the perpetual night at the bottom of the lake; he used other senses to make his way to the cousins and slip himself between them, holding one hand of each—they'd be better able to protect him from the fire-based attacks to which he had little resistance. Kevin's hand tightened, told him gratitude more clearly than words; Lori, always the calmer of the two, was shaking just a little, and gripped his hand with enough force for discomfort.
The demon-mage was drawing power from elsewhere, calling light, cancelled by the darkness; elves being what they were, Kevin had told him wryly, little except extreme cold was more uncomfortable than absence of light, and not even a demon-mage was going to be able to ignore that. The other mage's light began to brighten the blackness towards grey. Kevin's power surged, and Lori's right behind it, backing Shaine's, and the darkness steadied again.
Slowly, the demon-mage won, even against all three of them, and the blackness dissolved. Shaine let go of the song, not wasting effort on it any further.
The mage did not look impressed. He glared at them, then took a closer look at Shaine and the frown deepened. “You again.”
Shaine gave him a charming smile. “Me again. Just thought maybe I could even up the odds a little.”
“Just as well. You're as much of an annoyance as this other whelp.”
“Oh, come on, now. I'm much more annoying than Kevin.”
The mage flung pure fire at them, and it wrapped itself in a spiral around them, drawing ever tighter; he could feel the scorching heat, and cringed inwardly. The fire reached the boundaries of the glowing shields, and could go no farther. He gathered himself to throw the cold of the depths of the lake at it.
“It's illusion,” Kevin murmured. “Don't counter it. Ignore it.”
“Like you can ignore total darkness?” Shaine retorted, but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. All he could do was believe Kevin, that the heat couldn't really hurt him, that the grass around them wasn't burning.
“Try,” Lori said softly. “We wouldn't let it touch you even if it were real, I promise.”
* * *
