Free All Spell Breaks Loose by Lisa Shearin Page B

blocked the passageway ahead, it just might be.
    A Magh’Sceadu.
    It was tall, almost hobgoblin in shape—if hobgoblins were made of black ink. They were blink-of-an-eye fast,with bodies warm and pulsing, like living quicksand. Any part of you that a Magh’Sceadu pulled inside its body stayed there. I’d seen one of them just flow right over a Khrynsani black mage trying to contain it. One glide, one gulp, one gone mage. Magic attracted them and magic fed them, and mages were meals. The more magic you threw at them to defend yourself, the tastier a morsel you became. Khrynsani black mages created Magh’Sceadu to absorb and store magic. They then harvested the power for other purposes.
    Like fueling the creation of a giant Gate.
    Or feeding a certain starving rock.
    Piaras and I had once faced six Magh’Sceadu in an abandoned section of Mermeia appropriately named The Ruins. The only reason we’d survived had been the Saghred. It’d used me as a conduit to force-feed all six more power than they could hold.
    I didn’t have the Saghred now.
    “That’s new,” Nath commented, without moving anything, including his lips.
    “And that’s why there aren’t any guards down here,” Mychael murmured.
    I swallowed hard. “Maybe it ate them.”
    “Why is it just standing there?” Piaras asked.
    Talon’s eyes bulged in disbelief. “Why are
we
?”
    Tam slowly maneuvered toward the front. “It’s not attacking, so it’s probably full.”
    My stomach did a slow roll. “Full?”
    “Though if we ran, it would chase us down.” Imala said. “Do you have sentries in these tunnels?” she asked Jash.
    “Not in this section.”
    “It’s standing there as a beacon to other Magh’Sceadu,” Tam said. “I can feel it.”
    “Ringing the dinner bell?” I asked.
    “Jash, is there a way around that thing?” Mychael asked. “A quick way?”
    As if by some silent signal, the Magh’Sceadu turned and flowed quickly down a side tunnel.
    As a second one rose up right behind Talon.
    The only thing between Talon and that Magh’Sceadu was about ten feet of space.
    And me.
    Talon just stood there, frozen in terror and disbelief. The sound that tore its way out of his throat tried to be a shriek, but the kid choked on it.
    It moved. I didn’t have time to.
    The Magh’Sceadu passed me by, ignored me completely.
    I didn’t have magic. Talon did.
    And now everyone knew that I didn’t.
    Including Carnades.
    Piaras’s dark eyes met mine for a split second. He’d seen me not use magic in the mirror room or in the cave against the Khrynsani, and that the sensors in the city walls set for the Saghred hadn’t detected a thing when I’d passed through.
    There’d been nothing to detect.
    Piaras knew.
    Disbelief and terror flashed across his face and hardened into determination. I couldn’t save Talon, so Piaras would. He wouldn’t fare any better than Talon. He knew that, but he was going to try anyway.
    I wanted to scream in frustration, but I couldn’t even get the thing’s attention. To the Magh’Sceadu, I might as well not even exist.
    It shot straight at Talon.

Chapter 6
     
    Talon knew defensive magic, but none of it was going to work.
    Everything slowed down to the speed that meant it was all over except the cleanup. Talon’s lips formed the first word of a shielding spell. All it’d do for the Magh’Sceadu was coat Talon in a magical powdered sugar topping.
    And I couldn’t do a damned thing to stop him from being dragged inside of a nightmare.
    I’d seen it before on the streets of Mermeia. I’d been trying to locate a missing elderly street magician. I’d found him through a seeker link, but a Magh’Sceadu had found him first. The old man had tried to fight back, his fists sinking into the Magh’Sceadu’s towering mass like black quicksand. The rest of him followed. The thing hadn’t taken him quickly. No one had been on that dark street corner that night. As the Magh’Sceadu had wrapped itself around