If I were a better thief, I wouldn't be leaping to my death from the top of
a tower.
My desert tan cloak, stolen from a guard, billowed as I plummeted
through the air. Behind me, the stark white tower reached skyward above
the smokesage and junipers of the badlands beyond. If only I'd been
wearing my signature turquoise bandana, I'd have looked even more epic.
Asher, what are you doing? Kai's voice sounded in my head. Kai's mirror
gecko, Glint, was hiding in my boot, one of her scaly little feet touching my
shin in order to form a mindlink between my best friend and me. I felt the
gecko grip tighter as I fell—she hated heights.
What? I thought back. You wanted a distraction.
Instead of words, Kai's mind replied with a muffled mix of frustration
and amusement.
Do I at least look cool? I asked in my mind.
No answer from Kai.
That was fair. Something else must've been taking the bulk of his
attention—probably whatever great treasure he was trying to get away with.
As I fell, I looked over my shoulder at the guards crowding the top of
Whitestone Hall's tower. An entire squad and a half stood together, looking
down at me. I was honored to have so many on my tail.
I mean, I hadn't stolen three whole skystones for nothing.
The guards watched anxiously, as if deciding whether or not to waste any
crossbow bolts on me. It looked like one of their squad captains had given
the order to wait, figuring the fall would finish me.
They were wrong.
I breathed in deeply through my nose, ignoring the black strands of hair
that had come free of my warrior's fangknot to whip me in the face. As I
focused on my breath, I felt an exhilarating surge of energy. My eyes blazed
gold as I accessed the ether within me.
The sun-baked town square below was rising fast. I let my breath out.
All at once, my descent slowed. I used just enough of my levitation
power to keep myself from splattering against the square.
I hit the ground and rolled, nailing the landing completely unscathed and
only a little dusty.
I wished I had time to enjoy the stunned faces of the guards above as I
ducked for cover behind a stack of barrels.
"Three... two... one," I muttered.
Thump, thump, thump.
And there were the crossbow bolts.
Some thudded harmlessly into the ground, while others stuck into the
barrels behind me.
"Magi!" I heard a guard shout from high atop the tower.
"Archon," another confirmed.
Soot.
Maybe they'd seen my eyes glow. Of course, no other kind of magi could
survive a fall like that.
Asher, you okay? Kai's voice sounded inside my head.
Of course, I sent back. Glint the mirror gecko was practically squeezing
the life out of my leg. Did that get you the opening you needed?
I think so, he answered. They're sending everyone after you. I just need a
few more minutes.
Sounds like fun.
The thunder of guards' boots approached behind me, along with some
mild cursing. They were fast.
But I was faster.
Leaping up from behind the cover of the barrels, I sprinted down the
street.
The faded white adobe longhouses formed tight alleys, and before long, I
came up against a dead end.
Behind me, I saw the quickest guards closing in.
Time for more etherarchy.
My eyes blazed gold as I used my archonic levitation to hover-run up the
side of the wall. When I looked back, I could just make out a fading trail of
gold light warping the air directly behind me. My feet skidded over the
siding and up onto the roof of the longhouse, then right back over the other
side and onto the street again.
I could hear the guards protesting as they searched for a way around.
I kept hover-running, levitating myself just enough to dash up and over
more adobe longhouses. I dodged sporadic tumbleweeds as I darted around,
over, and through alleyways and dead ends, leaving the guards scrambling
to follow.
Perfect. Assuming this shabby frontier town didn't have any silver-tipped
mageslayer bolts, my armor would last at least until the end of the day. Not
that I planned to need it for that long.
Right on cue, a guard stepped out from behind a stack of crates. He took
aim with his crossbow, firing at me as I hover-hurtled an apothecary.
The bolt grazed my newly formed starglass armor and skittered
harmlessly away.
"Good shot," I shouted to him as I ducked into the next alley.
You clear yet? I thought to Kai through our mindlink.
Almost, but I need Glint, he replied, his mental voice sounding distracted.
Sending her now, I thought back. I ducked to the side of a building and
knelt down to let the dreambeast out of my boot.
Thanks, Asher. Stall just a little longer.
Glint the mirror gecko hopped to the ground, severing the mindlink as
soon as we stopped touching. The rune-speckled gecko blinked her
mirrored eyes at me in farewell, then disappeared into thin air, leaving little
puffs of dust as the only evidence that she was ever there. She'd gone back
to Kai through the dream realm.
Now I was on my own.
The sound of approaching guards was coming closer. I looked around,
spotting a star-topped spire a street or two down from where I stood.
That'd do.
I hover-ran down the streets, then dashed up the side of an adobe chapel
of Streya, the mind goddess. I channeled more ether to amplify my wild
leap so I could catch hold of the spire.
I said a brief prayer to Streya, just in case there really was a mind
goddess out there. Making sure every guard in Whitestone Hall would have time to see me, I theatrically scanned my surroundings as if deciding on an
escape route.
"Three... two..." I murmured.
Before I got to 'one,' a crossbow bolt hit me in the shoulder, bouncing off
my starglass pauldron.
"You're getting faster!" I called out.
The nearest wall was to the east. Once I was in the badlands' scrub brush,
I could hide easily.
I jumped off of the star-topped spire just in time. Another couple of
crossbow bolts buzzed past me. One hit the church spire, and I wondered if
Streya would give that guard some kind of curse.
I slowed my fall before I hit the ground, rolling to soften the landing.
Hopefully, my display had bought Kai enough time.
Within seconds, I hit another dead end. Here, two small, masked
draccoons were fighting over a bone. They stopped and blinked their beady
black eyes at me.
"Gentlemen," I nodded to them, then burned ether to hover-jump the next
building. The safety of the badlands was just a few more alleyways,
rooftops, and a wall away.
Almost free.
I checked my ether well. The source of my ether felt like a warm light in
my heart. I'd used about a third of my day's supply.
Weightlessly, I hover-ran up the side of another building and onto the
rooftop.
The distant guards cursed as they saw me.
I smiled and waved as I ran, tauntingly patting the skystone-filled satchel
at my side.
A series of twangs sounded behind me, and more crossbow bolts buzzed
past. Two bounced off my starglass armor, almost knocking me off balance.
The starglass didn't shatter, though. Still no silver-tipped mageslayer bolts.
The town wall was now only thirty feet away.
I ran along the ridge of the last longhouse, putting on a burst of speed
before making my final, ether-powered hover-jump.
I leaped.
It felt like time slowed as I neared the top of the wall. Freedom was
within reach. Just a few more feet...
Then I caught a silvery glimmer out of my right eye. Someone in a dusk
blue cloak and a gleaming, silver pauldron stepped out from within a tower
on the wall. She expertly lashed out at me with a chain whip made of silver.
My escape came crashing down.
Well, I came crashing down.
The silver chain felt frigid against my skin as it wrapped around me and
cut off my ether.
My exhilarating rush of power sputtered, and my glowing gold eyes
flickered like dying embers. My levitation faltered, and I smashed into the
wall before crashing onto the ground below, tugging the whip from her grip.
The contents of my satchel spilled across the packed earth street below.
My starglass armor shattered and faded into starry oblivion wherever the
silver had touched it. As I pulled the chain away, my fingers tingled
painfully with every touch from the icy silver.
Stars, that was a good hit. And a silver whip like this could only mean
one thing.
Mage Hunter.
Panic welled up inside me. Mage Hunters traveled in pairs, and if there
were two here, then escape had just gotten a lot harder. The guards were
closing in. If I was going to get out of here, I needed to make this next jump
count.
I scrambled to recover the skystones that had spilled from my pack.
Three chunks of pebble-sized, raw crystal. The crystals pulsed with glowing
white energy—pure, unchanneled ether.
It dawned on me that the extra boost I could get if I used one of these
would get me over the wall, regardless of the Mage Hunters.
I replaced two of the skystones in my satchel and cradled the other in my
hand. Already I could feel the energy from the power it contained.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kai.
He was a ways down the wall from me, a large sack slung over his
shoulder. He was trying to be subtle, but the wall guards were heading his
way, about to turn the corner and run straight into him.
Soot. If I didn't do something, they'd catch him for sure.
Without hesitation, I cried out and tossed the skystone back inside my
satchel. It clacked into place against the other two. Ignoring the rush of
freezing pain from the silver, I grabbed the whip and wrapped it back
around me. The silver cut off my etherflow, and I knew I wouldn't be able
to access my ether well while I was tangled up like this.
With a somewhat exaggerated yell, I clawed at the wall as if trying to
climb it.
"Silver... too... much! Can't... climb!"
I fell to the ground in a melodramatic heap, the silver chain still draped
over my shoulders.
My display did exactly what I'd hoped, grabbing the attention of every
guard in range. Relief flooded me as the two guards who'd been about to
notice Kai turned their gazes on me.
My relief quickly turned to panic when, within moments, several squads
of guards had me surrounded. They had crossbows, seaxes, and spears, all
trained on me. They'd finally caught up, and they'd sent everyone. Kai
could now saunter away with the wealth of Whitestone Hall in his pack,
whatever it was.
I braced myself for a skirmish. Most of the guards looked very sweaty
and extremely annoyed. Maybe I shouldn't have made them run around so
much.
I even spotted the town Keeper herself standing with the guard.
"Hold fire," came the Keeper's snide, snarling voice. Then she spat on the
ground.
"Ethercursed," she muttered.
"Well, that's not very nice," I said, pretending to be shocked. But I'd
been called the derogatory term for magi so many times before, it no longer
fazed me.
The Keeper narrowed her eyes as she strode my way with hands clasped
behind her back. She bent down to get a better look at me, her smug, oily
face coming within inches of mine.
"Ah, a half-born."
I sat up a little straighter. Technically, it was my mother who was the full
half-born, so I was three-quarters human. But nobody seemed to care about
that distinction. We were all half-borns to people like the Keeper.
I proudly regarded her with my dragonfire green eyes, then tossed my
hair back so she could get an even better look at the dark teal scales on the tips of my pointed ears. While I kept my hair long on top, I made sure to
always cut it short on the sides to prove I wasn't ashamed of my heritage.
The Keeper smirked. I'd been sure they'd execute me before for being an
unregistered magi, but now that she knew I was a half-born, I had no
doubts.
The Keeper of Whitestone Hall kneeled down, utter disdain on her face.
"No wonder you were so interested in my skystone," she said, low
enough that the guards couldn't hear. Then she added loudly, "We'll execute
him tomorrow morning. Death by dragon."
I knew it.
Then she straightened up, and the last thing I saw was a triumphant sneer
on her slick face before her heavy boot connected with my head and
everything went black.
At least she hadn't kicked me in the nose. I really liked my nose.