Hey people. None of these characters cept for the Rayth belong to me...all the others belong to Mrs. Tamora Pierce...
Read this and tell me what you think by REVIEWING!
A thin man stood on the tiny hillock, concealed partially by the darkening shadows created by the falling sun. He directed his gaze towards the thick stone walls and impressive battlements that surrounded the Winding Circle Temple. Closing his eyes, he moved his hands to form a series of symbols and muttered an incantation. A black burst of fire emanating from a strange talisman arched up, bathing his eyes in shadows. Opening his eyes, he scanned the battlements again, although this time, the spell he had cast made his vision similar to an eagle's, and he noted the movements of the guards on top of the wall. The dark fire vanished, and the man stepped back into the shadows of the tree. The darkness drew itself up and around him, forming a black cloak. The man turned around, and looked at the tree he stood under. Closing his eyes again, he felt the tree's Life magic pulse. Draw a cord of magic from himself, he connected it to the tree, and absorbed its Life, letting the magic run through his veins and replenish his strength. He glanced at the tree again, and strode off silently towards the wall, his shadow cloak hiding him from the sights of watchers. The tree was the only one who bore witness to his leaving, although it was Dead, its life drained by the cloaked man.
Briar Moss sat in the Hub, eating one of Dedicate Gorse's best pies. Across from him, his friends Trisana Chandler, or Tris, and Daja Kisubo the Trader sat. Tris was absorbed in her book, and Daja was polishing a bright metal shield with a rose emblem in the middle she had crafted at the forge.
"Look Briar," said Daja. "It's a briar. You want it?"
"Do I ever not want anything?" Briar asked.
"No," admitted Daja. "But you can't have this. It's for Rosethorn's birthday."
Briar laughed. Rosethorn, a plant mage, had the bad luck of a birthday on Midwinter.
"Oh well, in THAT case," Briar said. "Do you want a piece of my pie?"
Daja inspected the pie, and grinned.
"Sure, I'll take some," she said.
"Well you can't have any," Briar grinned evilly. "It's for me."
Daja made a face.
"How could I have not seen that coming?"
Briar drew a brown leather bag out of his pockets.
"Look what I got, Daja. New seeds from a Trader caravan at Summersea! They're a rare plant specimen, and Rosethorn doesn't have one of these yet!"
Daja knew how attached Rosethorn and Briar were to plants. She could not understand how they liked the scratchy vines and sneeze-giving flowers, and how they disliked the comforting, cool touch of metal. Daja sighed. Each to their own, she thought.
"Briar, I think Rosethorn is in the cottage," voiced Tris.
Briar and Daja looked up, surprised. Tris never stopped reading books unless someone really needed her.
"I thought you were reading, Coppercurls," said Briar, using his nickname for her.
"I was," answered Tris. "But I'm not going to forgot Rosethorn's birthday. So go give her your present. Oh, and you can give her mine too."
Briar stood up from the table.
"Four years, and all I am to you is a delivery boy," he complained.
Taking his bag, and Tris's gift of a book about plants, Briar set off towards Discipline, the cottage in which they lived in.
Briar slowly opened the door to Discipline cottage. He walked quietly, as he had practiced many times before when he was Roach, and when he was in service to the Thief Lord. He listened for the sounds of Rosethorn's trowel sifting through dirt, or the pounding of feet on the stairs. But there was only a faint murmuring, as if a person was talking. He edged closer to the stairwell, careful not to bump into anything. He could now hear Rosethorn's distinct voice, and another voice. It was a man's voice, as far as he could make out. Then there was silence. Briar looked up the stairway, puzzled.
He made to walk up the stairs, but as he started for them, a horrible scream sounded from upstairs. One thought pulsed through Briar's mind. Rosethorn! Briar remembered the blue pox, in which hundreds of Summersea citizens had died and how close Rosethorn had been to death. He dashed up the stairs and flung open the door of Rosethorn's workshop. Rosethorn lay on the ground, her normally bronze and shining skin a pallid gray. Over her stood a thin man, his cloak wriggling and blending with the shadows of the room. The man whirled around, and pointed at Briar. A long, snake-like cord of black shadow arched outwards from the man's cloak. Briar managed to dodge to one side, and the shadow-whip punched a sizable hole through the door.
The hemp ties around Briar's wrist knives loosened, and Briar felt the knives slip into his hands. He hurled one at the man's head, and the other at his stomach, hoping to catch him off guard. But the man moved with an unnatural quickness, dodging one blade and flicking his hand at the next, so a shadow-whip swung out and knocked it away. Briar cursed, then delved deep into his magic. Reaching out, he found an ivy plant hanging off the wall, just outside of the window. That will do. Briar drew a cord of magic, and placed it within the plant. He forced a good amount of magic into the vines, and collapsed the growth of ten years into seconds. A huge vine crashed through the window, slamming the thin man in the back and catapulting him to the other side of the room. But almost immediately, the black shadows that surrounded the man streaked up in the shape of swords, slicing and hacking away at the vines.
Briar redoubled his efforts, and more vines shot through the windows, scattering glass and wrapping around the thin man. Suddenly, all the shadow-swords shrank back into the pool of darkness on the floor. Thinking he had won, Briar relaxed his grip on the man, and he sank to the floor. The think man laughed. And then he spoke, his voice piercing Briar's thoughts.
"Fool! Do you really think to break my power with...plants? Observe the power of the Rayth!"
The Rayth closed his eyes, and suddenly the edges of the vines holding him turned brown, as if they were dead. Briar looked at the spectacle in confusion. Impossible! He's...draining the life out of the ivy! Briar watched as all of the vines turned brown, and the whole plant's get sucked away. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and he realized the Rayth was absorbing his magic too, because he was connected to the plant. He gasped, breaking his connection, but the pain was still great and his knees buckled. The Rayth opened his eyes and smiled. He made for the boy, but then glanced at the prone body of Rosethorn. It would give the boy more pain if he killed the teacher first. A shadow-sword rose up out of the frothing pool of darkness at the Rayth's feet. It swung downwards towards Rosethorn's neck. Briar cried out, but he couldn't move in time. No!
Briar saw a flash of light; one that burned him eyes to watch, and then blacked out from the pain.
Tris stood in the doorway of Rosethorn's workroom, surveying the seen. She and Daja had wondered what was taking so long, and Daja had gone to find Frostpine while Tris went to the cottage. When she had reached Rosethorn's workroom, she had seen Briar fall in pain. Angry, she reached up and pulled off two of her pins in her "lightning braids" in her hair, and released a good-sized bolt at the man standing next to Rosethorn. The bolt caught the man squarely in the chest, the impact throwing him against a large shelf and knocking several bottles of vile smelling fluid down on his head.
"Another one of you brats?" he shrieked. "I'll kill you all!"
Tris grabbed another pin off her hair, and pooled together her lightning energy. But before she could throw a bolt at him, a dark shadow in the shape of a lightning bolt raced at her head from the dark black pool at the man's feet. But the shadow-bolt hit halfway, blocked by a shining shield with spell marks along a rose emblem in the center engraved in it. The shield was held by Daja, who had dove past Tris through the open doorway. The Rayth screamed in rage, and multiple shadow-arms materialized out of the floor, streaking towards Tris and Daja.
The arms hit Daja first, bowling the big girl over and twisting around. Tris glanced at her friend, and then grabbed all the "cyclone pins" put of her hair. A tremendous power welled up inside of her, and bottles and papers took to the air. The cyclone grew bigger, swirling around and blowing the shadow-arms off of Daja and away from her and Briar's body. The Rayth shouted, then took a step into the cyclone, and was picked up by the strong winds. He slammed into an airborne table, and fell out of the window.
Daja dashed over to the window, and watched the Rayth stand up. He gazed up at the window, and then raised a talisman above his head. Black fire engulfed his body, and then he was gone. Daja sighed, and looked around the room. Tris was bent over Rosethorn's body, and Briar was slumped in the corner. There were bottles and different substances strewn throughout the room, and there were large holes in the walls where various objects had been hurled at the walls in Tris's cyclone. They would have a lot of explaining to do.
Review please, I'm open to criticism, because I personally think I suck at writing...this is to improve my skills.