Free Summer's Cauldron by G. L. Breedon Page A

upward into the black sky above. There was a reason mages did not try to fly. It was too hard to control the variables of flight with an ever-changing chant of rune-words. But Alex did not need to fly. He only needed to get away. Away from the owner of that knife blade.
    Alex landed five tents away in a part of the carnival grounds where the mechanical rides were staged and constructed before being hauled to their final place of assembly. Most of the rides were in wagons of one sort or another, with long metal arms and various cages and cars for passengers to sit in. No one else was around. Alex heard feet behind him and looked around for a place to hide or an avenue of escape. Running a few paces, he picked up a rock and threw it with all his strength to the far side of the clearing. It bounced off the steel sign of a ride, The Pirate’s Revenge , with a clattering echo.
    Alex dodged between two girder-like metal legs of one of the rides and stopped. He crouched down in the middle the metal framework of the ride and hid in the shadows. He heard the feet of three pursuers cross the grounds and head to where the rock had struck the sign. They stopped. Then moved again. Closer. Alex could see nothing. The bulk of the mechanical apparatus around him blocked his view. He thought he heard them getting closer. Then they stopped again.
    The metal around him creaked. Alex looked around frantically, afraid the sound would draw the Shadow Wraith’s minions to him.
    The metal around him creaked again. Then groaned. Then squealed.
    Alex looked up to see the metal legs of the contraption he sat in begin to collapse down upon him. There was no way to escape. No time to crawl between the steal arms of the ride. No time to even to call for help. He flattened himself back into the ground and said aloud the first rune-words that came to mind as he focused on the magical energy of the land. The metal machinery of the ride broke apart in unnatural ways, becoming sharp-edged talons plummeting toward Alex’s chest.
    “ Jenu-Ka! ”
    A wall of air, hard as iron, erupted around Alex as he repeated the rune-words. The metal shards and truss crashed into his protective bubble of air with a clangorous boom. Alex yelled the rune-words as the heavy parts of the machine continued to fall down around him, metal shrieking as it pressed down upon his shield of magical protection, bringing a spear-like shaft of metal closer and closer to his face.
    Alex continued to chant the rune-words keeping him from being impaled as the metal mass around him finally settled and ceased its collapse. Alex fell silent and listened. Although the metal pressed down upon him was now more likely to crush than skewer him, it held him as tightly as if he had fallen into a bear trap. That didn’t seem like a simple accident. It seemed intentional. It seemed like someone had tried to kill him. If the three minions of the Shadow Wraith were still present, they would finish their work.
    He heard one set of footsteps. Or were they feet? He struggled to move and see which direction they were approaching from, but only succeeded in banging his head against a hard steel gear shaft. The feet stopped and Alex thought about the most dangerous and powerful rune-words he knew.
    “Are you okay?” a soft female voice said. “Are you hurt?”
    The heart-shaped face of a girl with deep green eyes and short cropped brown hair slid into view above his face. She didn’t look like an agent of the Shadow Wraith. She actually looked rather concerned. And quite cute. Alex noticed her pointed ears and something about the moment felt altogether too familiar.
    “I have a giant mass of crushed metal on top of me,” Alex said to the girl, “but other than that, I’m fine.” He realized he was being flippant, but it was true. If the girl was there, others would come soon, as well. She looked over her shoulder. Alex could hear other footsteps now. People running toward him. Whatever the identity of