Tauri acted as anyone would have, under the circumstances… provided they were a hired assassin and the circumstances were that they wouldn’t be paid a thing if the target were to be killed by the authorities of a foreign power in the course of their duty.
He shoved Iskondra out of the way, flattening himself on the ground as a gout of flame lashed out from the mage’s wand. Waves of heat washed over his back. Agony flared in his tail. His cloak smoldered.
But even flat to the ground before the blast of fire had died away, he was moving. The nimble assassin’s arms and legs were quite flexible, and he was able to pull himself along the uneven cobblestones with alarming speed. As the flames flickered away into nothing, he rose up in front of the mage, spinning around and batting at the wand with his singed tail.
The wand sparked with the energy of the mage’s next spell as Tauri’s tail impacted with it, but it went flying from his hand before it could be completed. He slammed his forehead into the man’s face, sending him reeling with blood gushing from his nose.
With the mage no longer a threat, Tauri turned his attention back to the melee that was erupting around Iskondra as the guards tried to regroup. The flame blast had widened the gap for the space of seconds, but now that the mage was not an immediate factor the guardsmen were rushing back in.
Iskondra was surrounded, Amazingly, she seemed able to fend off attacks from all sides, spinning to parry them or even just throwing her sword arm out behind her. It was very impressive… and if there were only a small number of guards armed with sabers for her to worry about, Tauri believed she could have overcome them eventually, even with her inability to slash or stab them in a way that might be fatal.
But they were right at a three-way intersection between two major streets, in front of a very respectable-looking silver shop. There would be more guards coming, and worse, more mages. Nobody was paying Tauri to fight them, much less be arrested or killed by them.
As much as he hated to abandon his prey, Tauri’s father had often quoted a saying that applied to situations such as this one: “run”. Tauri believed it to be as true that day as it had been the first time he’d heard it, and so he put it into practice.
Several sharp pops were the first indication he received that his thinking had been essentially sound, as more members of Montport’s famous mage guild teleported into place around the scene of the disturbance… three of them blocking the street directly in front of him.
He threw himself down into a low crouch again, but the three mages fired not nice and mostly horizontal lines of flame but cones of sticky white tendrils that caught him full in the face and chest, solidifying around his upper body. His arms pinned, he was unable to catch himself and he landed hard.
Footsteps came closer. He heard Iskondra speaking, telling someone to back off, as she was “a veritable wizard with…”, and then there was a flash of light and Tauri heard nothing more.
Discuss this story on the Livejournal feed.
Ongoing support is especially appreciated.
Note: I'm trying out a new comment system. It's new and subject to jiggerypokery. It's moderated. Detailed guidelines to come but follow the general rule: be excellent to each other.
If you enjoy reading, please consider a financial contribution.
« « 64: In A Word 66: Policy Revision » »