Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) by Honor Raconteur Page A

Shad pointed directly ahead of himself.
    Bos lifted his wand and spoke two short commands that were so choppy Shad couldn’t decipher what he said. Whatever spells they were, it cleared the path with a spectacular shower of wood splinters spraying in every direction. In fact, the power of the spell had been such that he smashed through both walls and part way into the granite staircase behind them. The stone cracked in a circular pattern as if someone had smashed a giant fist into it.
    Even from this distance, the sound of people yelling in surprise at the attack were clearly audible.
    With the path clear, Shad waved at Tyvendor. “Your turn.”
    Tyvendor raised his eyes to the roofline of the mansion and the archers lined up and waiting for them. Even though the gesture clearly wasn’t necessary, he raised a hand in a sweeping gesture. As he did so, the men on the roof moved sideways, as if a giant hand really were just brushing them off to the side. The men screamed and thrashed as they headed at full speed for the edge of the roof, but nothing stopped their momentum. Once away from the building, they abruptly stopped, hovering.
    Tyvendor gave a satisfied smile to no one in particular. “They’ll stay there until I come get them.”
    That took care of the two long-range obstacles. Shad waved a hand at everyone before motioning them forward. “Alright, let’s move!”
    The team took off at a fast clip, spreading out as they did so to avoid tangling up with each other. No one wanted to enter through the only opening through the wall, as that would be tactically stupid, so Bos created two more openings as he ran. Shad noticed in approval that both holes were nice and large, leaving enough room for three people abreast to enter. Very nice. He needed to take Bos with him the next time he laid siege to a Dom. The man proved to be handy.
    They reached the blasted remains of the wall at a dead run. Shad almost skidded to a stop, slowing his pace, when he realized that there was nothing between the walls except grass. No caltrops…no explosives…no trip wires…absolutely nothing. What, had the walls been there just to slow them down for the archers? How terribly disappointing. Where was these people’s creativity?
    He would have to give the Dom here a stern talking to when he finally caught up with the man. Defenders had a certain standard to adhere to, after all. This lack of traps, well, that was just shoddy.
    It took mere seconds to pass the remains of the wall and reach the door. Shad knew better than to actually stand in front of the door, but he had to grab both Bornemeier and Audax to keep them from doing so. He managed to haul them back by their necks just in the nick of time to save them from being drenched in boiling hot oil.
    Audax stumbled as he was yanked back, but when the oil splashed down in the exact spot he had just been in, he didn’t regain his feet immediately. He stared at the popping oil and slowly stood. “How did you…?”
    “That’s what the boiling pots are for ,” Shad explained with mock patience. “To dump on people who are careless enough to stand in front of doors and windows. Now, repeat after me: Doors are not our friends.”
    “Doors are not our friends,” Bornemeier parroted obediently.
    Shad gave him an approving clap on the shoulder. “We’ll make a sieger out of you yet.”
    Audax frowned upwards. “So how do we get inside if we can’t enter through the doors or windows?”
    “We make our own door,” Shad responded simply. Turning his head, he called to the Wizard standing behind him, “Bos! Do your magic!”
    With perhaps a tad more glee than was truly necessary, Bos turned and waved his wand in a sharp gesture at the wall in front of him. Shad approved of the location—a wide window ledge, created for decorative plants, would give them quite a bit of cover as they cleared the new doorway.
    “Go, go, go!” Shad ordered as he went through. Bits of plaster and dust