Gun Mage 2: Surviving a Post Apocalyptic Magic Earth Read online

  Chapter 1

  Dragons are wonderful distractions. Sorcha and I learned that first-hand after I’d released a dragon by killing the mage that controlled it. As the dragon skimmed past the edge of the bluffs and the nearby town, it roared to announce its presence to any humans and animals that might be nearby. In response, most of the townspeople ran toward the river’s edge to watch the beast fly by, and it was a perfect opportunity to slip through the wooden palisades and into the town unnoticed.

  We stood near the edge of the woods for a moment at the crest of a hill and studied the town. There were no stately buildings with long rows of columns, or even much in the way of brick or stone. There was one wide main street, a central green, and a collection of one and two story wooden buildings with pointed roofs and picket fences. Everything looked freshly painted and well-maintained, including the palisade that protected the town. There was even a sign by the gate that welcomed us to New Rose. It was, in essence, the very picture of the type of town that had sprung up after the meteorite had destroyed the Old Earth.

  There was no one on guard duty by the open gate as we hobbled toward the wood barrier, though I wasn’t sure if that was the policy of the town, or if the guard had gone to watch the dragon as well. Whatever the reason, it meant we could slip inside unnoticed, despite the fact that we were covered in blood, both ours and that of the mages we’d just destroyed.

  We spotted the sign for the healer near the town green and limped toward the blue house as quickly as we could manage. The healer had just stepped outside to see what all the commotion was about when Sorcha and I stumbled through the gate and started up the walk.

  “Oh, look at you!” the woman exclaimed as she took in our appearances.

  The healer was close to our age, with a tidy bun of dark brown hair and a pair of large cat-green eyes. She scurried toward us and then stopped when she couldn’t decide who to help inside first. We made it easy for her and limped inside under our own strength.

  The healer guided us through the first door on the right and into what was clearly the room she used to examine her patients. There was a long flat table that I recognized from my own visits to various doctors and healers over the years as well as three chairs. The healer hesitated again as she tried to decide where to place us. Sorcha dropped into one of the chairs while I stepped into the hall and piled our bags on the floor. I removed my jacket and wrapped it around the twenty-two Ruger rifle before standing it next to our bags, then tucked the snub nose into one of the satchels.

  “What happened?” the healer asked as I stepped back into the room and took the chair next to Sorcha. She gathered up several vials, then fluttered around us as she looked over what she could see of our wounds.

  “We were attacked in the forest,” Sorcha offered.

  “By what?” the healer asked in disbelief.

  But Sorcha’s voice seemed to prompt the healer into action, and she didn’t wait for an answer. She laid both hands on Sorcha’s shoulders, then closed her eyes. A glow moved from the healer’s hands to Sorcha’s shoulders, then spread out slowly from there. The healer frowned in concentration, and I saw Sorcha wince a couple of times.

  After several minutes, the healer opened her eyes and stepped back. For a moment, she looked like she would topple over, and both Sorcha and I started to stand up, but then the healer held up her hand and moved over to the table. She took a deep breath, which seemed to steady her, but then she leaned against the table and closed her eyes again. I looked over at Sorcha as she quietly checked her wounds. She nodded to let me know that she was healed, but I could see a concerned look on the blonde mage’s face as she watched the healer.

  “Sorry,” the healer apologized as she opened her eyes and took another deep breath. “I was up all night delivering a pair of twins who were born about a month too soon.”

  “Are they alright?” Sorcha asked.

  “Oh, they’ll be fine,” the healer assured her. “But it took a bit out of me. I’ll be okay in a minute.”

  We both nodded and waited for a moment.

  “I’ll get you some water,” Sorcha offered as she stood up.

  “Oh, thank you,” the healer replied as she fanned herself with her hand. “There should be some fresh lemonade on the counter in the kitchen. That would be wonderful.”

  Sorcha smiled at the healer and then shrugged at me. My lover left the room, and I was tempted to follow. After all the attacks we had just survived, I wasn’t in the most trusting of moods, especially around a mage.

  “Now, would you care to explain why you have dragon blood all over you?” the healer asked in a pleasant voice when Sorcha had left. “You and your friend weren’t attacked by some bear in the forest, that’s for sure.”

  “It was a dragon,” I agreed as I felt myself tense up. I wondered if she had her own communication link to the Magesterium and if she would report us as soon as the opportunity arose.

  “Which means a mage,” the healer pointed out. “Well, I don’t suppose it’s any of my business, and I never discuss my patients with anyone, not even the Magesterium. But if the mage that you fought was powerful enough to have a dragon, then I would guess more will be on the way. Now, I’ll help you two because you need my skills, and I never turn anyone away who needs my help, but then you two have to leave. This town doesn’t need the kind of trouble you’ll bring.”

  “That was the plan,” I assured her. “We have no interest in staying.”

  The healer watched me for a moment, nodded, moved behind me, and placed her hands on my shoulders. I closed my eyes as the warmth of her magic started to flow through me. I could hear Sorcha return to the room and the sound of glasses being placed on a surface. When the healer released my shoulders, I opened my eyes and rolled by neck from side to side.

  Sorcha had poured us each a glass of lemonade, and she handed one to me and one to the healer when the mage stepped away from me. The healer accepted the glass gratefully and then dropped into the third chair in the room.

  “I may have to close the office for the rest of the day,” she commented after she drank about half the glass. “I don’t think I have enough energy left to do anything more than zap a pimple.”

  “Thank you for helping us,” Sorcha said quickly.

  “Maybe you could help us with one other thing,” I suggested as I stood up and returned to the hall. I pawed through the bags until I’d found the atlas that Evan had given us and returned to the room.

  The healer looked intrigued by the atlas, but I also caught the look she cast out the window. She was worried about how much time we had already spent here, and I didn’t want to stay any longer either. I flipped to the page Evan had shown us, then held it out toward the healer.

  “We need to get to this town,” I said as I pointed to Morristown. “I think it’s called Motown now.”

  The healer carefully took the atlas from my hand and studied the complex web of roads. She frowned as she tried to make sense of what was on the old map versus what she knew about the current layout of towns and roads.

  “Well, if I’m reading this correctly, you need to go north a bit,” the healer drawled. “Just past the town walls, you’ll see a road on the western edge of the town. That will take you toward some of these old cities and the place with the old flying machines. This road that’s labeled seventy-eight is probably the Hill Road. It’s nice and wide, and there’s always plenty of traffic. You can follow that toward this one that says two eighty-seven. That’s now the Outer Post Road, I think. Or most of it is. Then you just head north to Motown.”

  I took the atlas back from her and st
udied the path she’d described.

  “But what about this road?” I said as I handed her the map again and pointed toward a smaller road with the number one twenty-four that ran straight from a branch of seventy-eight to Morristown. It would save us days of travel if we could find it. “Isn’t there at least a trail or something there now?”

  “That?” the healer scoffed. “No, you don’t want to use that no matter how many mages are following you. That’s a mutant wasteland.”

  “I didn’t know there were any this close to the city,” Sorcha gulped. “I thought they were all deep in the interior of the continent.”

  “Oh, no,” the healer laughed. “There are small pockets here and there. Sometimes, it’s just easier to dump them nearby rather than rounding them up and moving them to a reservation in the middle of nowhere.”

  Sorcha and I exchanged uncertain looks.

  “I really have no desire to be eaten by mutants,” Sorcha noted wryly.

  “Neither do I,” I agreed. “So I guess we’re taking the long road.”

  “It’s a pretty walk,” the healer added. “And plenty of places to eat and sleep along the way.”

  “Sounds just like just what we need,” I replied. “Well, thank you for everything. We don’t have much, but we’re happy to repay you in some way.”

  “I think the best thing you could do is leave,” the healer replied with a sigh.

  She wasn’t mean or angry with her request, but there was definitely fear in her voice. She glanced toward the window again, and Sorcha and I took that as our cue.

  “Thanks again,” I said as I stood up and shook the healer’s hand.

  The healer nodded but didn’t move from the chair. She gave us a nod and tried to smile, but her eyes drifted back toward the window again, and concern flitted across her features before her gaze found us again.

  There didn’t seem to be anything else to say, so Sorcha and I returned to the hallway alone where we reclaimed our property, then stepped back outside. I saw that the crowd had moved away from the bluffs and toward the green where groups of people started to gather. It wasn’t hard to guess what the topic was, and I hoped the dragon distraction would last until we cleared the palisades and found the road.

  We hustled down the sidewalk and turned toward the west, away from the townsfolk who were still discussing the dragon. A few curious people glanced our way as we hurried by, but we made it past most of the businesses and homes before anyone really looked at us. Even then, I thought we would make it out of town before anyone else knew we had been there.

  We found the road the healer had mentioned just outside the palisade. It was wide enough for carts and flat and hard from all the traffic that used it. A passing coach kicked up a cloud of dust while a group of local women walked past, deep in conversation. We stepped onto the road, and then Sorcha grabbed my hand as she looked around.

  “There’s a mage near here,” she hissed. “I can feel his thoughts. I think he’s looking for us.”

  “Then let’s get out of here,” I replied as I started to jog along the road.

  “I’m really growing tired of this,” Sorcha growled. “I’d like to have one day when we don’t end up running somewhere.”

  “At least we found that healer,” I pointed out.

  “Maybe we should have invited her to come with us,” Sorcha replied. “At the rate we’re going, we’ll need her services at least twice a day by the time we reach the west coast.”

  I started to laugh, but was cut off by a rumbling sound behind us. I didn’t bother to turn around, I just pulled Sorcha into a stand of trees and behind a massive oak. When I peeked around the trunk, I could see that the other people on the road looked confused. A few moved onwards, but most had stopped and looked around. Another rumble vibrated through the air, and this time, people started to run in whatever direction looked good.

  “What do you see?” Sorcha whispered.

  “Nothing yet,” I replied. “Any ideas as to who or what this is?”

  “None,” Sorcha admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that sound before. It’s not thunder, exactly.”

  “It’s getting closer,” I remarked. “So I guess we’ll find out.”

  The wait was interminable, and even the animals in the woods had gone quiet. It felt like the whole world held its breath until the source of the low growl came into view.

  “W--what..?” Sorcha stuttered.

  Three mages walked down the center of the road with matching grim looks on their faces. But that wasn’t the scary part of their parade. One of the mages, a tall man with an enormous mustache, held a heavy chain in both hands. The other end of the chain was attached to a collar that wrapped around the neck of a long snouted creature with sharp teeth and stubby legs. A large tail swished through the dirt behind it as it marched down the road. It had to be eight feet long from the tip of its flat nose to the end of its tail.

  The creature stopped at the point where we had left the road some fifty yards away and raised its head. It sniffed the air, then let out another rumbling call. It wasn’t a roar exactly, maybe more like a very deep bellow. I could actually feel the sound in my bones, and some deep-seated instinct made me want to run. But, I reminded myself, I had the guns and the advantage, at least for a few more moments.

  “Gun mage!” a black-haired man called out as he scanned the surrounding area. Even from our spot behind the oak, I could see the ice blue of his eyes, and feel the anger that rippled through him.

  “Gun mage!” the black-haired man called again when I didn’t respond. “You cannot win this battle. If you surrender now, the Magesterium will help you. But if you insist on following the insurgent, then we have no choice but to kill both of you right here.”

  The beast on the end of the chain made another bellow, and I felt Sorcha shiver in response. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as I eased the Ruger rifle from beneath my coat. There was no way the small bullets would penetrate the thick hide of the dragon-beast, but they would cut through a human skull just fine, so I scanned the three mages and debated which one to take out first. The only one whose magic was obvious was the one holding the chain of the beast, though I couldn’t imagine the thing could move quickly with those stubby legs. Taking out one or two of the mages first seemed like the best plan.

  “How quickly do you think they can throw up a shield?” I asked quietly as I tried to determine which one would be in charge of creating the shield.

  “A Magesterium mage?” Sorcha whispered back. “Pretty quickly. But I’d say that one at the back with the curls and the nervous twitch is in charge of the shield. If you can get to him first, the others may not be able to protect themselves as quickly.”

  I nodded, then pointed the rifle toward the man Sorcha had pointed out. He stood the furthest away from the beast, and his fingers twirled in an endless circular motion. His left eye kept blinking as well, and he grimaced every time his glance fell on the creature.

  The whip crack sound of the rifle snapped as soon as I pulled the trigger, and I felt the surge of power from the gun as the bullet flew down the barrel and then across the field. I kept the stock steady, and I knew the bullet was straight and true, just like the Ruger that launched it.

  The sound of the rifle startled the mages for a moment, but no one moved until the twitchy mage gurgled and started to fall. His mage robe had a large black stain now, right about where his heart would be. His companions stared at him in surprise until the black-haired mage seemed to have a moment of clarity.

  “He still has a gun!” the man yelled out as he started to throw up a shield.

  The mustachioed man with the chain suddenly snapped his fingers. The collar around the beast’s neck dropped to the ground, and the man hissed at the beast.

  The beast bellowed once more as it trundled toward us. I fired a shot at a spot between the eyes, but as I expected, the creature didn’t stop. In fact, it picked up its pace, and I was surprised to see just how f
ast the cart-sized beast could move.

  “Hell,” I muttered as the warning bells started to sound inside my head.

  I had learned the hard way not to ignore that sound once it started to ring inside me. It meant I had one shot left in whatever firearm I was using at the moment, and then the gun would vanish from my hand. After twenty-four hours, I could reproduce the gun again, but that wasn’t much use to me when I had two mages and an angry creature to deal with right now.

  I fired the last shot from the rifle, this time further down the body. The gun vanished from my grip as soon as the bullet cleared the tip of the barrel, but I held the pose a fraction longer, as if I could keep the bullet on its trajectory.

  The creature paused at the sound of the rifle, and a moment later, I saw a trickle of blood along its hide. For a moment, I actually thought I’d managed to at least stop it.

  But it was nearly on us by then, and its massive jaws opened to reveal even more rows of long and pointy teeth. It made another bellowing noise and charged toward us. This time, I didn’t ignore the urge to run.

  “Go!” I yelled at Sorcha.

  The Irish mage didn’t need any more encouragement from me. She took off through the trees as fast as I had ever seen her move. I followed after her, and the strange mage beast nipped at my heels.

  I soon realized that the beast wasn’t very good at changing directions, especially when there were so many trees and other obstacles about, so I grabbed Sorcha’s hand and started to lead her on a winding path through the woods. Every time the beast would get close, we would veer off in another direction.

  It was a great strategy, and we managed to put some distance between us and our pursuer until we found ourselves standing on the edge of a gorge. A good thirty feet below, I could see boulders and sharp rocks, and the white froth of a fast-moving river. Just to the west, I could see a wooden bridge, no doubt the crossing point for the road we’d been on.

  “Shit,” Sorcha and I both declared at the same time.

  “You’re rubbing off on me,” the mage remarked as she looked into the rapids.