The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #4)(114)

“They are going to collapse the whole place on us!” Jala snarled as she glanced up at Neph. “You ready? I’d much rather kill them before they have a chance to do the explosion thing again.”

“Let’s kills some Rivasans,” Neph agreed as he moved slightly ahead of her and glanced into the room. “A lot of Rivasans,” he amended as his eyes quickly scanned over the figures moving in the room. An arrow thudded into the door beside his head and he pulled back hastily. “You have your ward against missiles up, right?” he asked quickly.

“Of course. You taught me to sleep with that damned spell active,” Jala snapped back. Her eyes were on the arrow and she had paled a bit at the sight of it. “Is it all of them at once, Neph?” she asked in a quieter voice.

“Looks to be that and more, Sweety. We aren’t leaving them, though. I won’t budge from here anymore than you will,” he replied quickly as he leaned through the door once more and then back quickly. “We move in and we go right as fast as we can. There is a small group of swordsmen there waiting for us, but with the Bendazzi we should be able to kill them quickly enough to gain purchase in the room.” Jala nodded in response and Neph let out a sharp breath before nodding back to her. “Let’s kick these pigs,” he mumbled as he drew on his own magic and pushed forward into the room.

Arrows slammed into their shields the moment they passed through the doorway. Neph did his best to ignore the steady clatter off his shields and the wall behind him as he closed on the waiting swordsmen. The Rivasans had turned to face them and stood ready with their swords behind a make-shift barrier of crates. From what he had seen of the room as they entered the entire place had been staged with the scattered barriers. There was no way this was anything but an ambush, and that meant Merro had a spy. The plans had only been made this morning, and the room had been a private one. That meant the spy had to be in Jala’s inner circle. The thought settled in his mind as he unleashed his first spells on the Rivasans. Everyone that had been in that room was a friend of his with the exception of Vosha, and he highly doubted the young dragon was the spy.

Pushing the thoughts away, he focused again on the battle and drew on his magic once more. They needed to push farther into the room and find a position that offered them some kind of advantage. The options were limited, however. He could hear Jala unleashing spell after spell behind him and the stream of arrows seemed to have slowed. That at least helped. With the archers out of the picture he didn’t have to worry so much about his shield failing.

A blur of white moved past him and Neph paused his next spell as Marrow sprinted toward the Rivasans with Emily close behind him.

The Bendazzi slammed into the enemy with savage growls and rending claws. Just the sight of the attack would have sent most running, but to their credit, the Rivasans held their ground and moved in to attack.

With a quick flick of his fingers, Neph altered the spell he had been about to hurl to a smaller effect. His first few attacks had been larger spells designed to hit multiple enemies and do as much damage as possible. He could no longer risk that kind of magic with the Bendazzi so close to his enemies, though. A slender shard of ice formed at his command and hurtled toward the closest enemy. In the dim light it would be difficult to spot such a small projectile, but the effects would be deadly enough if it found its mark. So far, he had yet to do any real damage to the swordsmen because of their spell shields, but the shields had to be close to breaking by now. He had unleashed enough damage on them in the first moments of the fight to bring down the average shield on anyone.

“Magebreakers,” Jala hissed behind him. “They are siphoning my spells before they can hit,” she added in a savage growl. He felt her back press against his as she borrowed his shields for a time. “They are siphoning my shield, too,” Anger laced her every word and he couldn’t blame her for it at all. Considering what had happened at the battle in Arovan, Jala Merrodin had more right to hate Magebreakers than anyone else.

“Do you know where they are?” Neph asked quickly as he released a Windscythe at a man that had been closing on Marrow.

“I can’t pinpoint them. I think they are scattered in the room rather than together,” Jala answered, then pressed closer against him as a wave of fire washed over them. Heat tore at his shields, but his spells of protection held. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could count on that, though. With the amount of damage they were taking from arrows and occasional spells, combined with the Magebreakers draining, things did not look good.

“You good?” Neph called quickly without a glance back. He didn’t have time to glance back. More Rivasans were closing on them and they were about to be surrounded without much of a prayer of getting out of the mess. Magic roared from his hands as he sent his most destructive spells arcing toward the approaching enemies only to watch in bitter disappointment as the siphons drained the spell just before it reached its target.

“For now, but I’m not sure how much longer I can say that,” Jala replied in a pained voice. “Valor is still up, but Foster is down and I can’t see Vaze anywhere.”

The sound of fighting rose behind them as she spoke and he heard Jala inhale sharply. “What? Did things just get worse?” Neph snapped as he sent several spells in rapid succession at the closest Rivasans. With luck the Magebreakers wouldn’t be able to drain so many at once and a few of them would actually hit their mark.