Free Sentinel: A Light Mage Wars Novella (The Light Mage Wars) by Nancy Northcott Page B

fucking kidding me, he thought again. The reeves refused to let him carry his sword, the traditional mage weapon, because they hadn't checked his skill with it. Compared to the sword, this cudgel required very little skill. It also wasn't highly versatile.
    At least he could channel magic through the wood.
    Around them, the blues, greens and silvers of mage energy bolts crashed and sizzled against the dirty yellow blasts and shields of their mortal enemies, the ghouls.
    Human in appearance except for their jaundiced skin tone and the muddy brown in the whites of their eyes, the ghouls fought to defend the half-dozen buildings that made up their nest.
    Rick tugged Jason backward, toward a big oak where no one was currently battling. In tacit agreement, they crouched to take stock.
    Like the deputy shire reeves, both Rick and Jason wore camo fatigues and combat helmets that magically reflected the surrounding forest. The gear wouldn't deflect a blast of ghoul magic, though. The shielding cocoon of magic Rick spun around the two of them would have to do that, just as the magical screen Jason maintained would keep them from being seen–and targeted–by anyone not inside its area.
    " The deputies are through the fence." Pointing, Rick directed his partner's attention to the hand-to-hand combat spilling into the compound through melted chain link and barbed wire. Mages had already freed a dozen captives. Now they had to destroy this nest so it never again posed a threat.
    The ghouls were not only physically strong and magically gifted but able to siphon magic or even life energy from their foes. Mages who fell in battle could become dinner or, if not mortally wounded, breeding stock.
    Next to the drama of that, the bandaging and magical treatment of wounded deputy reeves paled. Rick could write a good story about that, but he knew damned well it wouldn't help Stan fight for a bigger slice of the budget pie.
    " They said this was a small nest," Rick reminded Jason, "no more than about twenty ghouls. There're a lot more than that out here. I'm ramping up the shield."
    The mages were fortunate that ghoul temperament was too volatile for them to stick to a plan or work together efficiently.
    Jason replied, "I'll beef up the screen. Getting seen would be almost worse than getting blasted."
    " Only in your universe," Rick muttered.
    Having the mage forces catch them in the battle zone would lead to an ass-chewing and maybe cost Rick his chance to develop some deputy reeve sources for his story on Dare. It was survivable, though. So was a partly deflected blast of ghoul magic. Ghoul talons to the throat, not so much.
    " I can smell that raise I'm bucking for," Jason shouted in Rick's ear, his fingers moving on the camera's controls.
    Rick nodded, watching a knot of mages and ghouls struggle. So far the mages were winning, if the number of ghoul corpses turning green and stinking of ammonia around the area was any indication.
    A sudden inrush of ghouls–six–no, nine–shit, even more–scattered a knot of five mages. Separated, double-and-triple-teamed, the mages fell back. The two nearest him staggered. One fell.
    Under attack, the fallen mage 's companion retreated, battling. That left three ghouls on the guy who was down. He'd shielded but was pinned by a blaze of energy blasts.
    Fuck. Get up , Rick thought.
    The mage 's sword blazed with silver energy, but he couldn't get clearance to find his feet.
    Rick tightened his grip on the cudgel. Exposure would blow his shot at gaining some sources, but abandoning a fellow mage would mean a lifetime of guilt.
    He squeezed Jason 's shoulder. When the photographer looked up from his viewfinder, Rick shouted, "Go back. I'm lending a hand here."
    Jason nodded. Translocation within a battle zone was dangerous because shielding didn't survive the location shift, but Jason should be safe flashing back to the staging area.
    Rick turned to the fight. The outnumbered mage was enclosed in a defensive