Free Mage Hunter Omnibus (Complete 5 Book Series) by Ty Johnston Page B

larger and larger as he neared the wizard.
    Eventually the horse would go no further, coming to a standstill and snorting a dozen yards from the dark mage. All the while, Guthrie had been expecting an attack, but it had not come. He glanced over his shoulders and found Tomlin and Hammer had not ridden forward but were busy loading arrows into their bows once again.
    “ I did not expect us to meet again,” spoke a high, familiar voice.
    Guthrie’s head snapped around. The image of the wizard in black was now gone, replaced by a vision of the ice witch, her hair black, her flesh azure, her garb a thin garment one could almost see through. If not for her obvious nonhuman traits, the pointed ears and the skin, she might have been beautiful.
    “You!” Guthrie cried out. He tossed his crossbow to one side, the weapon landing in the snow, then lifted his right leg from its stirrup and over the saddle, dropping to the other side.
    The ice witch watched with a thin smile of amusement as he marched forward, the sergeant’s hands bunched into fists at his sides.
    “What did you do to me?” Guthrie asked as he approached, finally coming to a stop just out of her reach. His chest heaved and his eyes flashed. There was true anger in the Ursian. This woman had brought upon him a curse of magic, and somehow she was involved with the Dartague. It also seemed she had been the black wizard in disguise, a slayer of priests and a destroyer of a church.
    Before the witch could answer, pounding hooves sounded at the sergeant’s back. Guthrie turned to find Hammer and Tomlin galloping forward, their bows held high over the heads of their steeds.
    Guthrie waved them off. “Away! The witch is mine.”
    “ Witch?” Tomlin called, but he yanked on his reins, as did Hammer. Their horses slowed.
    “ She is mine!” Guthrie yelled.
    “ She?” Tomlin asked. He and Hammer brought their steeds to a halt.
    Guthrie looked back to the witch, his face showing he was more confused than ever.
    “They see me as a man, as the wizard in black,” the ice witch whispered to him. “They see me as I wish, much the same as you yourself did but moments ago.”
    The sergeant spun around again, facing the two riders. Frantic, he threw up his arms and shouted. “Get out of here! He will kill us all.”
    Hammer wasted no time spinning his horse about, but Tomlin remained for the moment, staring with curiosity at the sergeant and what he took for a robed wizard.
    Guthrie lowered his voice to less than a shout. “Tomlin, go! Our weapons will do nothing here!”
    “Then get out of there, man,” Tomlin said back.
    Guthrie looked to the witch once more. She still grinned. Then he turned toward the militiamen again. “Leave. If I fall, then the rest of you must avenge me.”
    Slowly, Tomlin tugged around his reins, his horse turning to face the direction Hammer had already fled. It was obvious the man did not like this situation.
    Guthrie could think of no excuse that sounded plausible, yet he had to get Tomlin to ride off. The rider was in danger, the sergeant was sure, and Guthrie wished to speak with the woman without others overhearing.
    “Enough of this nonsense!” the witch woman shouted.
    Guthrie turned to her again, but there was a flash of light from her now outstretched hands. Bolts of lightning shot forth, bypassing the sergeant despite the nearness of the electric heat and the thunder knocking him to the ground. His face buried in snow for the moment, Guthrie saw nothing, but he heard a terrible cracking noise and Tomlin crying out.
    When Guthrie looked up, he found the rider and his horse were no more. All that remained of them was a smoking pile of ash melting into the snow and a splatter of red in a circle around where the rider and steed had once stood. Guthrie’s own horse had been spooked and galloped away. In the distance Hammer was still riding as if a devil were on his tail, and beyond him Guthrie could spy the men at the burnt church