Conjunction

She pushed him back against the rocks, Caden dodging out of the path of her axe as she brought it down, its head smashing the corals like they were made of chalk. Shattered pieces of rock flew through the air, Caden feeling the sharp fragments graze his cheek. He whirled around to her right, commanding the wind to kick up another obscuring cloud of sand, the reptile covering her eyes reflexively.

He hadn't even needed to recite the spell that time. It had just...happened, as though the staff could sense his intent. Was this what the Master had meant when he had talked of magicians not needing to speak incantations to use their spells?

He darted in to take advantage of her disorientation, wood cracking against scale, the force of his blow sending her reeling. Something was wrong, however. He could sense filaments of magic bending to her will, as though she was casting a spell of her own. The airborne sand suddenly cleared as another gust of wind tore at Caden's clothes, this one coming from the opposite direction. He scurried back as she advanced, whirling her axe, her jaws open to expose her sharp fangs in a battle cry.

The next blow knocked him off-balance, the reptile moving ever faster, hitting harder. Her muscles bulged beneath her scaly, painted skin as she pressed the attack, her swiftness at odds with her immense size. It might have confused him, had he not been able to sense those magical strands flowing through her, seemingly drawn from the very world around her. The plants that clung to rocks and corals bloomed as she passed by them, their buds sprouting colorful flowers, their green leaves spreading. Carpets of colorful mosses and lichens coated the naked stone in her wake, small lizards and crawling insects emerging from their hiding places as though drawn to her.

She fought so ferociously, putting him on the defensive, her audience cheering her on as they watched from their vantage points on the reefs above. She lunged, but rather than hitting him with her axe this time, she swung her hips with all the finesse of a dancer. Her thick, powerful tail cracked like a whip as it caught him in the chest, packed with enough muscle that it felt as hard as iron. It was like being kicked by a horse, the strike lifting Caden into the air, depositing him on the sand a good ten feet away. He landed hard, the impact knocking the wind out of him, stars dancing before his eyes as he lay there dazed.

As his vision came back into focus, he saw that his adversary was stalking towards him, the ivory handle of her axe clutched tightly in her hand. His pang of fear was chased by a fresh rush of determination, and he reached for his staff, feeling his fingers magnetize to its wood. He leaned his weight on it as he climbed to his feet, the rush of energy dulling his pain, Caden taking a gulp of air.

The bronze falcon on the tip of his weapon began to glow with heat as he whispered, his lips moving rapidly, the grains of sand around his feet starting to vibrate. His opponent noticed, the reptile glancing down at the ground, her yellow eyes narrowing.

Caden pointed the red-hot figurehead at her, the sand becoming hazy as it heated, the warm air rising to make his cape flutter. His voice rose as he finished his incantation, Caden yelling the final verse, a cloud of projectiles flying at his target. He had melted the sand, turning it into wickedly sharp shards of black glass, sending them speeding towards her like a volley of arrows.

The reptile spun her axe, using it as a shield to deflecting them, shattered fragments impacting the sand all around her. Some of them found their mark, smashing into her scales, the reptile shuddering under the impacts. As the dust cleared, Caden saw her standing there, breathing heavily as she lowered her weapon. Her hide was remarkably strong, and most of them had scarcely scuffed her scales, but one of them had embedded itself deep in her shoulder. Dark blood seeped forth, the female reaching up to grip it in her hand. With a snarl, she pulled it free, tossing it to the ground.

The injury barely gave her pause, the beast loosing a cry of challenge as she charged back into the fray, Caden grunting as he struggled to ward off another strike from her axe that could have shattered granite. His figurehead sparked with electricity as he uttered another spell, scarcely needing to speak the words, imbuing his staff with its crackling energies. The next time that his stave met the blade of her axe, a loud thunderclap echoed across the desert, a bright flash of lightning throwing her back. Her weapon seemed to absorb most of it, electricity arcing across the obsidian blade, the familiar smell that preceded a rainstorm carrying on the air.

Her frill fluttered as she glared at him, snarling something in a language that he had no hope of understanding, raising her axe to point it at him. He waited, not sure what she was doing, his extra-sensory perception alerting him of the arcane energies roiling within the ivory handle.

A sudden buzzing sound distracted him, Caden glancing around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Something cast him into shadow, and he shielded his eyes, looking up at the sky as a dark cloud amassed. It was a swarm of insects, dense enough to blot out the blazing sun. They descended behind the reptile, flooding past her like one coordinated organism, their uncountable numbers forming curling tendrils as they raced towards him. Caden raised his arms to cover his face as they surrounded him, flying into him at full-tilt, hitting him hard enough that it hurt. They were large, fat locusts, the sound of their fluttering wings drowning out his cries of alarm. There was no end to them, they just kept coming, harrying him with surprising force. He couldn't even open his mouth without the insects trying to fill it.

In a panic, he clutched his staff, willing a ball of flame to engulf him. Its heat singed his clothes, surrounding him in a roiling storm of fire, Caden throwing his arms wide as he pushed it outwards. Scorched locusts rained to the sand all around him, the flames dissipating into the air. More of the bugs rushed to replace the fallen, but he was ready for them this time, a jet of fire spewing from the end of his staff as he waved it back and forth like a standard-bearer.

The reptile lunged at him through the haze of acrid smoke, the way that her red war paint framed her wild eyes mimicking the coloration of the eyespots on her frill, Caden reacting with only a moment to spare. The flames petered out as he used the haft of his stave to block her, his feet skidding in the sand as he weathered the blow, his knees buckling.

She never seemed to tire, it was like she was drawing her energy from the earth itself. With a yell, he pushed back, the two exchanging another flurry of violent blows, dueling amongst the sand and dead insects.

She was a force of nature, more akin to a hurricane than a woman. Her sinewy body moved with such grace, like she was dancing as much as fighting, her muscles flowing beneath her painted hide like liquid. For all his tricks, she was ten times the fighter that he was. He had to find a way to end this bout soon, or she would overpower him simply by virtue of her boundless stamina. He could not prevail by hitting her with a stick.

Concentrating on spells was next to impossible while she was trying to beat him into the ground like a tent peg, but Caden tried to focus his mind, deflecting another blow as he began to chant. Just like when he wanted to refill his waterskin, he summoned water vapor from the air around him, feeling droplets of it start to collect on his skin like dew.

The reptile swung at him again, missing him by a hair's breadth, Caden sidestepping the blow to send it smashing into the coral behind him. With a wave of his staff, he began to heat the vapor, combining the elements of fire and water. The reptile seemed to sense that something was amiss, abandoning her ruthless attack to leap backwards, a cloud of boiling steam suddenly filling the air. Caden heard a hiss of alarm and pain as she retreated, and he took the opportunity to catch his breath, preparing his next attack.

As the cloud of boiling vapor cleared, he aimed his staff at his enemy, but a sudden rumble of thunder interrupted him. She had raised her axe above her head, pointing it towards the sky, which was now full of roiling storm clouds. Impossible, there had been no rain for so many long months. He glanced up, seeing the dark mass shifting, bright rays of sunlight piercing it here and there. It was localized directly above them, the sky was still a deep azure beyond its bounds.

A fork of lightning burned itself into his retinas as it jumped down to the reptile's axe, the creature moving as if to throw the weapon at him, but keeping her fist closed tightly around its ivory handle. A bolt of electricity leapt towards him like a spear, far too fast for him to stand any chance of avoiding it. Not knowing what else to do, he planted his staff in the ground, the lightning drawn to its bronze figurehead. It coursed through the wood, pain like he had never felt burning through his hands as the electricity jumped to them, a white-hot knife piercing his every nerve. He smelled charred flesh as he dropped to his knees, his bleary eyes opening to see that his hands were blackened and blistered, wisps of smoke rising from his stiff fingers as they cooked.

The skies opened up, cool rain beginning to pour, dampening the sand around him. He felt it on his skin, hearing its gentle patter against the rocks, the droplets washing away the sweat and grime. It might have been pleasant under different circumstances, but he could only focus on the blinding pain in his hands.

The reptile lowered her axe, striding towards him as her long tail dragged behind her, the cheering from her audience growing riotous. He saw her clawed feet come to a halt in front of him, lifting his eyes to see her raising her axe like an executioner, intending to cleave his head from his shoulders.

No, he wasn't going to end up impaled on one of those spikes...

His stiff, unmoving fingers still had a death-grip on his staff, Caden raising it above his head as she brought her blade down. It bounced off the wood, another flood of pain making him wail, but he fought through it.

The reptile had filled the nearby reefs with verdant plants when she had called upon her magic, the corals overflowing with greenery, with life. Caden drew upon it, draining it, the scorched skin on the backs of his hands gradually regaining its pink hue. Blisters healed, burnt skin repairing itself, the stiffness abating as the garden wilted. By the time she had brought her axe around for another attack, his hands were almost healed, Caden calling upon one last burst of energy to power his aching muscles.

He swung his stave, forcing her to block it with the haft of her axe, his hand darting to his belt as she reeled from the powerful blow. His newly-healed fingers wrapped around the hilt of his enchanted dagger, sliding it out of its scabbard, Caden holding it blade-down as it whistled towards her. It cleaved through the engraved ivory with so little resistance that he overshot, almost as if it wasn't there at all, the ornate blade flashing as the axe was split in two. She stood there in disbelief for a split second, her eyes widening as the two halves parted in her grasp, the raindrops splashing against her scales. The two pieces suddenly shattered in her hands like a glass sculpture, even the obsidian axe head crumbled into dust. There was a blast like a black powder charge going off, knocking both her and Caden off their feet, the enchantment that had been placed on it violently dispelled.

She landed on her back in the sand, rising to her hands and knees, her chest heaving as she stared at what remained of her weapon. It was scarcely recognizable now, little more than scattered fragments on the wet sand. She scarcely reacted as her opponent climbed to his feet, stumbling his way back over to her.

Caden swiped her across the face with his staff, and this time, her scales hardly provided any more resistance than skin. She toppled onto her side, blood seeping from her split lip, her yellow eyes glaring up at him as he stood over her defiantly. Even as he raised his staff above his head, imbuing it with the weight of an anvil, he saw no fear in her expression.

Conflict wracked him, his hands trembling, Caden fighting back the rage that had carried him this far. His instincts demanded that he finish this duel, the staff growing ever heavier as though it were making a conscious attempt to fall, but his opponent was soundly defeated. Killing her now would serve no other purpose than to satisfy his bloodlust, she could not hurt him anymore, but the urge was overpowering...

With a yell, he brought it down, a thud shaking the ground as its impact threw up a cloud of sand. The reptile opened her eyes in confusion, blinking up at him, seeing that his staff had landed two inches from her head. Caden leaned down, gripping the pendant that she wore around her neck, his knuckles brushing the wet scales just above her cleavage. He tore it loose, certain that it was another enchanted artifact, the string snapping to scatter the colorful beads and shells. Her eyes tracked it as he tossed it aside, strands of his wet hair sticking to his face, soaked by the rain. Raising his staff again, he used it to crush the pendant, another small explosion confirming its destruction.

"I wield this staff," he panted, the reptile gazing up at him without understanding. "I will not allow it to rule me..."

He turned his back on her, the rain beating down on his shoulders as he walked away. The other reptiles remained hidden, too afraid to challenge him, the female propping herself up on an elbow as she watched him disappear from view around one of the reefs.

CHAPTER 5: FRIEND OR FOE

"Keep still," the Shaman complained, rubbing the ointment on Kadal's injured shoulder as she wriggled on her stool.

"I have failed," the hunter muttered, her eyes fixed on the ground dejectedly.

"You did," the Shaman replied with a nod, Kadal wincing as she pushed more of the white paste into her wound. "But failure is one step on the road to success, is it not? When we fall, we get back up, we don't lie in the sand and sulk."

"Why didn't he kill me?" Kadal wondered. "There was nothing stopping him, he could have smashed my head like a ripe fruit, but he didn't..."

"Who can say what goes through the minds of such creatures?" the Shaman replied, beginning to dress the wound with a cloth bandage.

Kadal did not want to argue with the Shaman, she had great respect for her, but her prediction had not come to pass. She had described the battlemage as cruel and bloodthirsty, yet when the opportunity to kill her had presented itself, he had stayed his hand. Why? What possible reason could the creature have for sparing her life? She had tried to kill him, she had shown him no quarter, so why would he show her any mercy in return?

He was like a walking contradiction. He had been so powerful in spite of his small stature, hitting with a strength that rivaled her own, able to weather blows that had toppled males twice his size in sparring matches. Where the Shaman had spoken of cruelty and malice, she had found sympathy, restraint. Kadal had seen the conflict in those strange, round eyes as he had raised his stave above his head. They had been such a strange color, as blue as the sky...

The Shaman finished dressing her wound, Kadal rising to her feet, the old woman batting away her hand as she began to fiddle with the bandage.

"Leave it alone, or it won't heal," she chided.

"What are we to do now?" Kadal asked. "The axe and the pendant were destroyed. Because of me, the ancient relics of our tribe are lost. How can we hope to challenge the mage now?"

"Do not think that the fate of our world rests upon your shoulders alone," the Shaman chuckled, returning her bundle of bandages to its place on a shelf. "There are other tribes, with other relics. The time has come to send word to the other settlements. Where one warrior-shaman failed, others may yet prevail."

"But...what am I to do?" Kadal asked, rubbing her shoulder.

"You have done more than enough. Rest, heal. You must recover your strength."

"Do you have no more tasks for me?" she protested. "What of the vision quest, the prophesy that I foresaw, the battlemage?"

"Enough, Kadal," the Shaman sighed as she turned to glance back at her. "You are not the village's sole protector. Being the most accomplished warrior in the tribe does not mean that you must solve every problem yourself, the other hunters can get along without you. Now, do as I ask, and rest up. Eat, bask, let your wounds mend."

Kadal hung her head, making her way through the coral tunnel that led to the village. She stepped through the curtain and into the harsh sunlight, feeling it warm her scales, watching as the old women tended the fire pit. There were still hatchlings screeching with glee as they chased one another through the sand, there were still males carrying pots of water that they had brought up from the nearest oasis, society had not ground to a halt because of her failure.

The problem was, Kadal's entire identity was wrapped up in her role as the village's protector, as their problem-solver. The Shaman had all but commanded her to sit out this fight, so what did that make of her? What good was a protector who could not be relied upon to protect?

Not knowing what else to do with herself, she made her way out through the palisades, heading to her favorite basking rock on the outskirts of the settlement. As she felt the sun's warmth energize her, and she closed her eyes, she couldn't stop her mind from wandering to thoughts of the strange battlemage. Her curiosity was even more of a preoccupation than the shame of her defeat.

Why was he not as the Shaman had described? Why had he spared her? Why would someone who could not bring himself to slay a subjugated foe be set on ending the world, and all of its inhabitants along with it? Nothing made sense, nothing was as she had been told.

Kadal sat up on the rock, some of her prior resolve returning to her. If her people no longer had need of her, then she was free to find the answers for herself. The only way to do that was to track down the mage, shadow him, learn more about him and his intentions in the sacred city. Without her relics, she could no longer stand against him if he decided to attack her, but it was a risk that she had to take. She could not sit idle, not after what she had seen in her vision.

The Shaman would never sanction her plan, she would have to slip away in secret. Kadal would wait until nightfall, when most of the village was asleep, then she would continue her pursuit of the mage.

***

Caden sat in the shade of one of the petrified table corals, his wet clothes drying in the sun as he took the opportunity to eat some of his rations. The fight was still fresh in his mind, even hours later, and he found himself mulling over the events as he ate a piece of jerked meat.

He had won, yes, but barely. Without the enchanted knife that the Master had given him, the outcome might have been very different. It was hard to feel pride in his victory. He looked at his hands, now as good as new, remembering the horrific burns that the lightning had caused them. It was amazing what his magic could repair, they had been charred to a crisp, the pain had been incredible. Caden had never gotten into a fight since setting out on this journey. He had never been one for scrapping as a boy, he had never been involved in a drunken tavern brawl. When he imagined knights in their shining armor engaging the enemies of the kingdom, he thought of chivalry, of bravery and glory. The reality was far less glamorous. It was terrifying, painful, dirty. He never wanted to do it again if it could be avoided.