Free Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) by Honor Raconteur Page B

leaving them all hovering a few feet from the ground, and turned to look at Shad with a puzzled frown. “What?”
    “Don’t set us down just yet,” Shad cautioned with only a glance in his direction. “Something’s off. Rossi, you’re closest. Do you see that glint of metal over there?”
    Rossi had more than a decade in the Special Forces and his eyes caught what Shad had seen almost instantly. He gave a grim nod. “Caltrops.”
    “Cal-what?” Tyvendor peered in the same direction as they had, but judging from his growing confusion, didn’t see anything.
    “Caltrops,” Rossi repeated, mouth flattening into a grim line. “They’re metal spikes that you set into the ground. It’s an anti-infantry tactic. They can penetrate through most shoes and cut right to the bone. They’re usually used in doorways or windows, though, to prevent breach points into a building.”
    “Well, this certainly answers the question of whether or not they’re up to something. And if they’re out here, well away from the house…” Shad continued while taking a thoughtful look around him “…it means that someone has heard that we normally set down further away and walk in closer. Hmmm.”
    Audax’s eyes cut to him. “Captain, why are you smiling?”
    “If they have caltrops, then they’ll have other measures in place as well. They have the place booby-trapped.” Shad gave the prince a demented smile and heaved a happy sigh. “I adore booby-traps.”
    “ Do keep in mind that the rest of us don’t,” Audax requested in a brittle, dry tone.
    Shad paid no attention to this instruction, his mind already focusing on how to handle the situation at hand.
    “Rossie, Bohme and Sloves—we’re going first. We know what to look for. Janae, Lowey, you follow close in behind us and help us deactivate these things. Bos, you watch our tail. I don’t want anything sneaking up behind us. Tyvendor, you be ready to lift us off the ground in a moment’s notice, got that?”
    When Shad got only affirmatives or firm nods, he rubbed his hands together in glee. “Now, let the fun begin!”
    Only a chorus of groans answered him.
    Shad shot them all a mock-frown. “Where’s your sense of adventure, people?! Fine, fine, I’ll go first. Tyvendor, set us down very slowly, good, just like that. Now, people, follow in my footsteps.”
    Despite his jovial words he did not rush forward headlong but cautiously, one step at a time. He did unsheathe the sword at his back and let it hover a few inches from the ground. If they had caltrops, then they might very well have hidden some traps as well, and Shad had no desire to personally spring any of them. His eyes were wide open, looking for any sign of the earth being recently disturbed.
    The grounds around a Dom’s manor were typically very well landscaped and kept in immaculate condition. These were no exception. Every blade of grass was cut at exactly the same height, the trees were perfectly pruned and every hedge of flower bed they passed had been carefully tended. That level of perfection actually made it easier for the invading team—Shad had no problem identifying where the landscaping had been recently altered. After spying the fourth trap, all he had to do was point to the right area and one of the magicians following him would either disintegrate it with a hot flash of fire or simply levitate it from the ground and toss it to the side.
    What should have been a ten minute walk to the house took over an hour to cross. Shad knew that most of the people behind him were frustrated at the slow progress. He could hear their sighs, and their muted groans, and feel the weight of their impatient stares. Personally, he enjoyed springing every trap. Thwarting an enemy’s plan held immense satisfaction, to his mind.
    Once they were within a stone’s throw from the house, he switched point with Bohme and had him focus on the traps underfoot. He had to focus now on the mansion itself.
    What he saw