Deadly Wands, 2014 edition
by Brent Reilly
Completely rewritten for 2014, this action-packed epic fantasy tells the remarkable adventures of an orphan boy with incredible powers who grows up in the Dark Ages during a brutal world war fought with non-magical wands that shoot fireballs and enable flight, resulting in massive air battles. The first in a trilogy, this book is free to entice you to buy the sequels. Mature content makes it unsuitable for little kids. It’s more Game of Thrones than Harry Potter.
DEDICATION: I dedicate this novel to my wonderful sons, Brian and Lucas.
Copyright © 2011 by the author, Brent Reilly.
This story is fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental. All rights are reserved. Except for book reviews, no more than four paragraphs can be reproduced without written permission from the author.
“A man’s greatest joy is to defeat his enemies, take their possessions, and enjoy their women.” -- Genghis Khan
CHAPTER 1
Worst. Birthday. Ever.
A wand bristling with power in each hand, Lady Elizabeth finished putting her body armor, battle helmet, and game face on. A birthday present from her father, her new wands blew away anything she had ever used, and must have cost a bloody fortune. Certainly she never would have attempted her plans for the day without them. Savoring the raw energy flowing up her arms, she forced herself to put aside all doubt, regret, and mercy. She could not afford mercy.
Not today.
The beautiful blond placed her old wands in slots in her boots and used them to propel her a meter into the air. She flew around the room, careful not to impale herself on the assortment of weapons hung on the walls. Never had she felt so powerful. Hovering in the center of the room, she arched her back. Yelling, she flung her arms wide as angry flames erupted five meters out of each wand, which made them twice as strong as her old ones. She felt strangely comforted by the terribleness of her primal scream.
Her innocence taken away by the kiss of the most horrible man she knew, she could now barely relate to the naive girl she was the day before. She had heard that there are worst fates than death; Liz just never knew that marriage could be one of them. If she could just smash the guy waiting for her in the dueling arena, then maybe she could escape her arranged marriage after all. If not, she preferred a quick death to a long marriage. Either way, she vowed never to marry. Never!
With a flick of her wand the thick oak doors flung open. She flew down the hall, letting her fury feed a newfound aggressiveness. Wearing expensive armor, Prince George waited for her in the arena.
"Happy birthday, niece. Now that you’re of age, the queen can finally marry you off to the Mongol ambassador."
Nothing could have infuriated her more. Eager to surprise him with her new death sticks, she flew at him at a 45 degree angle, firing a series of fireballs that forced him to flight. Instead of flying in a straight line -- suicide in battle -- she alternated between her left and right boot wands to zigzag unpredictably, like she was climbing stairs made for giants.
A combat veteran, he knew from the sound of her blasts that she upgraded her sticks -- the louder the wand, the larger and faster the fireball, which made it harder to deflect or avoid.
He went for height, using all four wands to pop straight up. As she shot the path ahead of him, he zagged diagonally using one hand wand while firing back with the other. She chased him up, out into the bright sunlight, and they went at it like two street cats.
Unlike a real dueling arena, no stadium seating surrounded the high circular walls. Aside from his castle on a nearby hill, they were all alone as their blasts echoed over the empty English hillside. Strong winds from a coming storm roughly pushed them around like leaves as they traded shots.
She projected a steel shield to fly through the edge of a fireball and gain a positional advantage, shooting with both wands in a controlled freefall. He dived to avoid the two fires, then rose in an arc to blast her. Fired from too far away, the fire expanded too much to burn but, to minimize the heat, she passed through it as fast as possible, closing her eyes and mouth.
His fireballs were larger, faster, and hotter, so she closed the distance to minimize his advantage. One hundred meters above ground, they used their wands to extend swords. She spun as she fell towards him, forcing him to project a metal shield that she whacked with her blade.
The steel weighed literally nothing, so speed mattered more than strength. It was impossible to avoid glancing blows struck at lightning speed -- a disadvantage to the fighter with inferior armor. Unlike sword fights on the ground, each sought to surge above or below their opponent.
Fighting while flying is inherently exhausting -- like boxing while running -- so those with greater endurance could defeat better opponents simply by out-lasting them. On the ground, the larger fighter has the advantage by delivering stronger blows and having more mass to absorb hits; in the air, in contrast, the lighter fighter lasts longer because wands propel lighter objects more than heavier ones. Hence, given equal wand strength, the most common strategy of the lighter fighter was to exhaust his opponent.
A blow knocked the girl back far enough for him to shoot her. She use one hand wand to propel her down while extending flame to torch his left boot wand. She liked hearing him scream so much that she briefly cooked the rest of him. Burning flesh made him unable to concentrate, sending him into an uncontrolled fall. Elizabeth flew head-first after him to end this, once and for all.
He fought through the pain to slow his descent, but it’s hard to fly with just three wands, so he tumbled head over heels a few times before he stabilized his fall. Now he could land safely.
But not dogfight. Elizabeth dove out of the sun and smacked him with a steel bat, sending him sprawling in the arena dirt. She blasted craters on either side of him to smother him in a dust cloud.
George frantically beat the flames burning the clothes under his body armor. Dueling without armor plates is suicidal, but that didn't make taking it off fast, easy, or simple. With the smell of roasted flesh making her nauseous, she used a wand to lift and dump his burning body into a bathtub-size container of water that every arena kept for just this purpose. The burning stopped with an audible sizzle sound that made her spine tingle. Her teacher's relief proved short-lived as he attacked her verbally.
"Are you trying to kill me?"
An ironic accusation since he often criticized her for lacking the killer instinct. He’d taunt her with lines like, “you shoot like a girl.” Not anymore, she told herself.
Burning up herself, she took a minute to take her helmet and body armor off while he did the same to inspect his burns.
"Uncle George, that monster actually kissed me this morning. On the lips!"
"The ambassador? Mother probably suggested it. We just got word Genghis Khan finally approved the treaty, on the condition that you produce a heir to the English throne. I imagine Ambassador Tamerlane is eager to start. Remember how furious he was when the queen moved the legal age to 18 to gain leverage over the Mongols? That’s the highest in the world. You should be happy she didn’t marry you two years ago when she changed the minimum age.”
Queen Margaret had three sons: Richard, John, and George. Lady Elizabeth was the only legitimate child of the oldest son, Prince Richard, the Royal Heir. The Queen desperately needed the leverage that an alliance with the Mongol Empire would bring to complete the conquest of Ireland, her lifelong dream. And to protect England from the Empire itself. No small consideration.
The discovery of wands in China in the 12th century completely transformed human civilization. That is, armed with wands, Genghis Khan's Mongol horde completely
transformed human civilization. Handcrafted from sacred trees thousands of years old, the more powerful wands made flight possible, allowing the Mongol Air Force to pound defenseless ground troops armed with swords, spears, and arrows. Genghis Khan conquered China and Korea in his first century, India and Persia the second century, and most of Europe the third. Only volunteers from the Americas prevented the Mongol conquest of Europe.
As it was, the Mongols controlled all of Europe except the Scandinavian kingdoms, the islands of England, Ireland, and Iceland, the westernmost quarter of France, and the sliver of Spain that locals called Portugal. A million Mongols enslaved millions of Africans to mine precious minerals. Aside from the Americas, only Asian islands like Japan, Taiwan, and its neighbors remained outside of the Empire.
Genghis Khan literally controlled half the world, and waged war for the rest.
General Tamerlane, in particular, repulsed Lady Elizabeth for his history of building pyramids out of skulls. Delhi alone contributed 100,000 heads to one giant pile. Historians claimed Tamerlane killed seventeen million people. Being a two hundred year old condescending jerk did not add to his personal charm. Just the thought of him touching her made Liz sick. Her first thought was to blast her own head off. Her second was to flee.
Her decision would change everything.
"I’ll not give the English crown to Genghis Khan," Liz vowed fiercely. "The treaty will give the Mongols military bases in England to launch a second front on France. For me to marry a Mongol means the destruction of Free Europe!”
Prince George dropped his chest plate, took off what remained of his shirt, and got out of the dumping pool. Water pooling at his feet, he inspected his wands for water damage, cursing softly.
“Genghis Khan has another division ready to assault Paris. Why do you think I'm recruiting another English battalion? We're even risking our lives without pay.”
A squad consists of ten fliers, a company one hundred, a battalion one thousand, a division ten thousand, and an armada at least one hundred thousand.
“If Paris falls, France falls. Then England has a hostile air force at its doorstep. If you make this treaty impossible, then mother will have to deploy her quads from Ireland to our coastline to deter the Mongols. And if you anger them enough, then even that won’t stop them.”
But the girl had made up her mind. “If we let them conquer France, then England is lost anyways. I hope to have a child before they kill me. I'll pray for a warrior so powerful that he’ll scare even Genghis Khan."
George laughed at the thought. The Great Immortal was the universal boogeyman. That someone could scare him was laughable.
"The treaty guarantees that mother remains queen for life, but it does not guarantee that your father will succeed her. The Mongols will insist that my Mongol-loving brother John succeed her. He's the force behind this odious treaty. He has always been jealous that he never became a quad like us."
When wands were discovered, only 10% could use wands to light fires or move furniture. Only 10% of those were powerful enough to project steel. Of those, only 10% could use two hand wands at once, and only 10% of them could also use foot wands to fly. Since only 1 out of 10,000 people could use four wands at once (i.e., quads), everyone wanted to mate with them. Three centuries of self-selective breeding multiplied the quad population. Arranged marriages gave way to “strategic reproduction.” While isolated tribes still didn’t have access to wands, Mongols boasted a quad out of every one hundred -- the highest per capita in the world.
Genghis Khan himself, the most powerful quad in human history, able to project a flame 12 meters long, took strategic reproduction to an extreme by impregnating hundreds of quad women every year for over three centuries. His offspring formed the elite troops that enabled the Empire to keep expanding. Legend said the Great Immortal already produced a million descendents.
When Prince Richard’s powers bloomed at puberty, Queen Margaret offered a generous stipend to any English quad who reproduced with him. The irony of Elizabeth being the Royal Heir's only legitimate heir is that she had a few hundred half-siblings -- some old enough to be her father.
But mating with a fellow quad only increased the odds of producing quad children. It did not guarantee it. The power so generously given Prince Richard skipped Prince John to bless the third son, George, who turned out to be gay, and thus ineligible to wear the crown. Bitter with envy, John treated his brothers as enemies ever since his quad powers failed to appear.
John tried to get the Mongols to marry one of his sons, with their offspring becoming king, but the oldest, Aidian, had already married a powerful Scottish quad, and John's only other quad son was still a child. The ambassador scoured the royal family, and concluded that Lady Elizabeth would produce the most acceptable heirs to the throne.
"Let me see your wands," George insisted, holding up her hands. "Richie gave you grandfather's sticks! No wonder your blasts are so strong. These make you more powerful than Aidian. Mother will demand them back once she finds out. Regardless that grandfather gave them to Richie after he won the national dueling championship."
She flashed her uncle big puppy eyes. "Let me fly with you to France. I'd rather die fighting there than live dropping Mongol babies here."
George groaned. And not because of his burns. A great side effect of wands were their ability to heal. Quads rarely became sick, and recovered quickly when wounded. The burns covering his body were already changing color as he sucked juice from his wands and directed them to his injuries. Wands also extend a natural lifespan, and the more powerful the wands, the longer they extended life. Genghis Khan was three and a half centuries old and boasted that he’d live forever.
The catch -- and there’s always a catch -- is that wand use is literally addictive, and the better the wand, the stronger the addiction. Part of the reason the Mongol Empire kept expanding is that its millions of quads needed someone to fight. A powerful quad who stops using wands ages quickly and turns sickly. Hence, immortality requires lots of death. For one to live forever, many more must die.
"You can’t come with us. My volunteers will work without pay or thanks, but not if the Queen forbids it."
"I'll just go alone. The French are desperate for quads and many women fight on the front lines."
"Then we can’t go. Mother will assume I’m helping you, and no one will risk going with me if I'm angering the queen."
In anguish she started punching blast-holes in the stone walls.
"Can you at least loan me money? I'll have to try Africa."
"Liz, I'm broke. I'm financing this operation out of my own pocket. If John takes my estates, then I’m literally sacrificing everything.”
"But you're earning tons of money making longbows!"
At ground level, most wands lose effectiveness beyond one hundred meters, while his two-meter-tall longbows offered twice the range.
"I was. This last year was very profitable. But then some longshoremen mistook William, my business partner, for a Mongol and tried to teach him a lesson. He killed one and injured several others who had no idea he was a quad."
"You never told me he was a quad!"
"I never knew he was a quad. He only used hand wands in my presence. But it gets worse. He fought in self-defense, so nothing should have come of it, but he projected blades six meters long. That makes him among the most powerful in the country. Everyone wants to know where he got his wands, and why he hid their power. Who the hell hides their power for three years? He must be a veteran to fight like that.
“Anyways, someone’s wand recorded the fight, and you know how these things spread from stick to stick. Pretty soon John got a copy and ordered Will's arrest just to put me out of business. That's why I'm free to return to France so soon. I’m taking several thousand longbows with me.”
"I remember you speaking highly of William," she nudged her uncle.
"Oh,
he's great. He’s an engineer by nature, but he thinks of himself as an innovator. Sure, he's secretive and paranoid, but he has enough fancy ideas to last a lifetime."
"Is he a good man?" she asked quietly.
Silence. No longer able to concentrate on healing himself, George opened his eyes and examined his favorite niece.
"Ah, crap. You want to fly off with him."
"Well, I can't live in the Mongol Empire, and the rest is a war zone. A lone girl will not survive long. Fleeing with him doubles my chances of survival. Will you at least introduce us?"
George held up his hands like she had influenza and physically backed away.
"And risk an opportunity to help France? No, if you do this, I must be seen elsewhere. However, you can bring him his money. He's hiding at my lake cabin, where I took you fishing when you were just a kid."
She laughed since they went fishing there just last week. Finally, she was no longer a kid. Liz already took everything she needed with her. Now she just had to get out of her grandmother's reach.
"Please tell me you haven't shagged him!" she suddenly demanded, since he often used the cabin for sex.
"Liz!" he shouted, properly scandalized. "How can you even think such a thing?"
"Because you’re handsome, charming, and persistent. So tell me the truth."
Chuckling, he shook his head. "No, we never had sex."
"But you tried."
Now he laughed loudly. "His paranoia doesn't let him drink enough. That guy never lets his guard down. I thought I had a chance since he never visited the local prostitutes, as far as the gossipy servants could tell. I've had more success with monks."
The strength of her relief surprised her. She didn't even realize she had been holding her breath.
"We're not gonna get far without money, though. I can hock my jewelry, but that takes time."
George suddenly got excited. "I know where you can get money. From your evil uncle. My dear brother John has been skimming off government revenues ever since he talked his way into mother's confidence. That's how he's been able to buy all those properties when the queen keeps raising taxes to fund the conquest of Ireland. I even know where: in that old vault in his castle keep."
"But how can I get it?"
"It was built before wands were discovered, so the vault is high in the keep tower where it could be easily defended from ground attack. Just hover near the top and loosen the mortared stones around the arrow slits."
The prospect of sticking it to that bastard John made up her mind. She blamed him for the treaty, and hence for her arranged marriage to that odious man. She looked at the position of the Sun.
"I've got to go!”
She hugged him hard, then flew to his castle. The forgotten uncle she left behind cried alone, somehow knowing he’d never see her again.