Iron Mage by Rob Nolan

Author:Rob Nolan [Nolan, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-15T22:00:00+00:00

18

A bark of laughter escaped Zar’s perpetually open mouth, and I poured all the focus I could afford into drawing every spare scrap of metal through the earth around our cottage and toward this little discussion on the riverbank. I needed the rest of it to sound at least somewhat convincing.

I glanced at Shaw, whose dark eyes widened. His mustache twitched over his grimace, and though he didn’t say a word, I imagined quite clearly what he might have said in this moment. ‘See what getting involved in this has come to? I told you, Nephew.’ Sure, but he didn’t know what I was planning.

“I’ll make whatever weapons you want,” I said, turning back to lock onto Zar’s sickly yellow eyes. “Weapons I promise you’ve never seen before. And whatever armor you need.” The warlord moved slowly toward me, grinning still, and those eyes narrowed as I spoke. “I’ll do it willingly, for as long as it takes. And you can take me with you now. On one condition.” The half-breed let out a throaty chuckle and stopped. “Let this man and the lightning mage go. Walk away without touching them, and I’ll walk with you.” I wasn’t about to give this bastard their names, assuming he hadn’t already heard them whispered on the wind.

“Oh…” Zar let out a low growl. “You’ll already be making me the weapons I need. That decision was made quite some time ago, iron mage. This”—he flicked the point of his wicked blade toward Shaw and Ayana—“is merely a demonstration. I want to be sure you understand what happens when someone crosses me.”

I felt them now—all the tiny pieces I’d been working slowly toward me underground, trembling just below the surface. It was almost time, but I had to at least give Shaw a warning, or he’d never make it out of this alive. Zar turned from me to head toward my uncle, and I shouted, “Let me at least offer my uncle a few parting words.”

The warlord looked at me over his shoulder and widened his eyes slightly. “Your uncle?” Another chuckle clawed its way out of his throat. “As you wish.”

Slowly, I turned my head to look at Shaw. His narrow gray eyes steadily held my gaze, and I dipped my head. “When a man throws himself in the river, he best know how to swim.”

Shaw’s eyes widened, and in the next moment, I called to every single sliver of metal beneath the soil begging for my next command. Something moved behind Zar, and I saw the woman—the earth mage—find me with wide, startled eyes. She opened her mouth to shout something. I imagined she meant it to be a warning, that she’d felt something not quite right stirring beneath the ground’s surface. If the reach of her powers even worked that way. But I never gave her enough time to make a sound.

I brought all those slivers of iron shooting up through the earth in a flash of metal and spray of dirt.

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