The Great Hero is a Schoolteacher

“You know you can’t contain me in this! Attacking this barrier consumes less energy than maintaining it, so you’ll have to let go eventually!” shouted Uturi.

The sorcerer formerly known as Sir Pernel was standing in the middle of the forcefield, shooting all sorts of spells around him in an impressive lightshow. I was mesmerized by the variety of shapes and colors, like a kid watching fireworks. Malin, helped by the other Senior Magi, grimaced but managed to keep all the magic inside.

Amazing display of power from both sides. Will Catalin be able to do all this when she graduates?

Reinforcements came to relieve the wounded soldiers and help the others keep the crowd away from the scene, but most people had enough sense to keep a distance. General Lassentia kept an eye on me as I ambled my way closer to the struggling Senior Magi. There was a question I needed to ask.

“Pardon my ignorance, but why aren’t you attacking Uturi as he’s attacking you?”

Naenar’s eyes narrowed.

“Didn’t you say he was involved in a Seal of Magic?”

“Yes. I saw it when I examined the mark the spell left on Kossi’s skin.”

“How can you identify a specific magic seal, and yet not know anything about its characteristics?”

I sighed. “I’ll be glad to comply with all kinds of tests when this is all over. Right now, please just accept that it’s the way things are, and tell me why you’re not trying to bring the enemy down.”

I didn’t want Uturi to die. If anything, I wanted him to tell how he’d managed to hide in plain sight for twenty years, secretly working on a spell that would help his brother secure a claim on the Brealian kingdom. But if killing him was the only way to free Kossi and spare many more lives, I’d accept it.

Naenar shook his head.

“Sir Pernel, I mean, Uturi is the one who cast the spell, but he’s not the person who controls the dragon’s will, is he?”

“No. He gave that power over to his brother Saegorg.”

“Think about it!” He sounded as annoyed as if he had to explain something obvious. “The caster is the only person who can lift a Seal of Magic. Nothing happens if he dies. Saegorg keeps his power over the dragon, and we’re left having to kill one, or the other, to get rid of the link.”

Malin looked over her shoulder, a drop of sweat visible above her eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, Great Hero Al. We can’t risk killing Sir Pernel.”

And even if they could, they’d do so with extreme reluctancy, given their common past with the traitor.

A cart was brought, and with additional efforts, the four Senior Magi lifted the forcefield onto it, for their prisoner to be wheeled back where he started. Uturi watched the whole operation with a smug smile.

“You’ll be tired before I am.”

I looked at him as we walked behind the cart, a living picture of an evil wizard, his round face somehow looking more defined and more like his brother’s, under the rose gold hair that flew around his head. Vilo’s dagger was still at his feet, but he ignored it. He was probably much stronger with magic than with any kind of weapon.

You pretend you’re better than everyone in this street, and yet you tried to run away. You’re not as sure of yourself as you’d like us to think.

“Did you send someone to the Green Inn?” I asked General Lassentia in a low voice.

He gave me a surprised look. “Why would I?”

“Because he was heading there. It must be his secret headquarters, or at least a familiar place where he knew he’d find allies. I know you still don’t trust me, but I’d look into it, if I were you.”

General Lassentia pretended not to pay attention to my advice, but while I looked at the glowing bubble with the enemy inside, I noticed him, out of the corner of my eye, giving instructions to a soldier who swiftly left in the direction of the river.

Uturi is desperate, I guess. He’s giving it all because he’s cornered, but it also means he’s beyond reasoning. Will we ever convince him to lift the seal? Now that he’s caught, he might want the world to burn with him.

The square between the palace and the Royal Sword Academy was now empty, guarded by a cordon of cadets in the same blue tabard I’d seen Chess wear, the first time I met them. How long had it been? A week, maybe. Why did it feel like ages? Anyway, any remaining protesters were now kept out of the square.

King Esthar and Princess Nigella stood in the circle, shielded by soldiers. The cordon opened to allow the cart near them, the other Senior Magi, General Lassentia’s squad and I following a couple of steps behind. Then the circle closed again behind us.

Malin lifted her forcefield out of the cart and down to the cobblestones. Once his feet touched the ground, Uturi had a smirk.

“If this isn’t the usurper! How kind of you to spend your last day as a king looking after me!”

Lightning punctuated his speech. The bubble shook, and I began to fear it’d roll away like a hamster ball.

Almost everyone flinched. King Esthar didn’t. He looked Uturi in the eye, a bit of sadness ruining his otherwise convincing poker face.

“Sir Pernel, did you really spend the past twenty years under a false identity, only to help your brother claim my throne?”

“It was never yours!”

Uturi’s sneer didn’t survive Esthar’s gaze for more than a second. The two men locked eyes, then the sorcerer talked again, in a slightly less assured voice.

“Carastra’s University of Magic Arts allowed me to learn the best spells with the best masters.”

I frowned.

“Turoch Garnet?” I asked in a low voice.

Next to me, Naenar nodded. “Pernel was his last apprentice.”

Of course he was. And he spent the next years elaborating on his teacher’s works, to create the spell we’re all trying to undo.

“Twenty years?” asked Princess Nigella.

Uturi nodded frantically.

“It was worth every minute! I couldn’t dream of learning so much in Inabar, of gaining so much power, of fooling so many people. What you trusted me with, I always used in the best interest of Inabar. Which is the best interest of Brealia, although you’re too blind to see it.”

Most inhabitants of the kingdom wouldn’t notice much of a difference if Saegorg became king, I guess.

King Esthar sighed.

“Uturi, your brother used you all along. I thought you would be clever enough to understand that. You spent all your adult life in exile…”

“No! I spent it where I was supposed to be! A stone’s throw from the palace where I ought to have been brought up!”

“Did you cast a spell on the Gold Dragon Kossi, for Lord Saegorg to control him?”

“I did! It took me years of work. Everyone praised me, you know, how dedicated I was to my art, and none of you ever suspected that I was experimenting on how to apply mind control to a Gold Dragon. No one imagined such a spell could be possible, but I did it! I alone! For my family to get back the throne that was taken from us!”

“But we still captured you, Uturi.” Esthar joined his hands in front of his face. “You have known me since I was crown prince. No matter how rightful you think I am, I am king today, and I make you this solemn promise: if you give up and break the seal, you will live. If your brother conquers this kingdom, he might not show such leniency.”

The lightshow faded. The sorcerer looked deep in thought for a moment. He pensively prodded Vilo’s dagger with his foot.

“You’d let me get away with what I did?”

“I said I would let you live. I cannot promise anything else.”

They stared at each other for a moment, in silence. We were so tense that when someone sneezed in the distance, everyone startled, including me.

It must have been a clue for Uturi, who raised his head and gave the king a contemptuous smile.

“A true king would never pardon a traitor!”

He put his hand before his mouth, in the same posture he’d used on my first day in this world, to project my voice across the moat.

“People of Carastra, did you hear how weak your ruler is?”

Malin’s forcefield let some sound through, but it blocked the spell, so the crowd around the square didn’t react. Uturi, however, winced hard, perhaps deafened by the amplification of his own voice.

The sound bounced. That must hurt.

Then he shook his head, and with a cruel smile, he cupped both hands in front of his face.

Oh no, I know what you’re doing and I don’t like it!

I’d never been a fighter, but I knew tennis.

If you wait for the ball to go over the net, you’ve already lost. You must bounce as soon as your opponent strikes, and rush in the same direction as the ball, before you even know its speed and spin.

I jumped when Uturi opened his mouth and began to shout. In the corner of my eye, Malin grimaced in pain, and the other Senior Magi rushed in too late to help. The soundwave collided with the forcefield, made it vibrate, and eventually pierced it in an explosion of sound. Uturi’s amplified voice filled the square.

I was deafened, just like everyone else. But I was prepared for that, and I dived to catch Vilo’s dagger on the cobblestones. My broken rib made me gasp and darkened my vision, but I clenched my teeth.

Come on, I’m the Great Hero Al and I’m here to save Brealia!

I certainly couldn’t kill Uturi with a thrust blade I didn’t know how to use, unless I went for the femoral artery. However, if I could just hurt him enough… I slid behind the panting sorcerer and stabbed his back before he could recover from his effort.

“Don’t!” shouted General Lassentia.

Too late. I’d struck. It will cut.

Blood stained the back of Uturi’s shirt. He turned to me. My brain pictured the lightning spell he’d used against Vilo, but he shot a much simpler fireball at me. Just one, like Catalin’s, but so fast that I couldn’t dodge it fully. I saw it leave a burn on my left sleeve, and in the heat of the moment, I had time to think “This is going to hurt” before the pain went up to my brain.

Broken rib. Burn on the arm. Pain. Pain. I kept a precarious balance on weak legs, feeling that a gust of wind could topple me. My shaking hand could hardly hold Vilo’s dagger.

They’re not attacking. Twenty minutes ago, they didn’t believe me, but now, no one will make a move against Uturi, lest he dies and all hope of breaking the final seal is gone.

Wasn’t there something else to do? Some spell that could disable him? But the Senior Magi had exhausted most of their magic simply keeping the sorcerer contained and unable to hurt the people around him.

I snapped out of my thoughts when a bleeding, panting Uturi slipped an arm around me, shot a new fireball into the air and looked around us with a triumphant smile.

“Try anything and she’s dead! I’m sure you don’t want your precious Great Hero Al killed in front of so many witnesses. She deserves a better end, doesn’t she?”

He added another sentence just for me, in a whisper, almost softly.

“Thank you for having the kindness to provide me with a hostage.”