Chapter 31

As his crumpled body lay wounded in the darkness, bleeding from several wounds he did not have time to concern himself with, his mind lay over the town like a blanket. He could no longer sense Lynna and Stott at all, although he had not thought Stott was so badly wounded as to fall unconscious. He feared he'd lost the girl entirely. He'd felt Avern in great pain and suspected the man had lost a limb before passing out. Even Syred had left off on trying to keep some level of order, and had drawn his sword on his neighbors to stand with his son-in-law and defend his daughter and grandchild. The man was bleeding from a couple of deep wounds, and Agmar suspected he might not last the day unless they were bandaged.

He was impressed with Margaret. She'd been conscious when someone had untied her, and she was holding triage outside the Surf and Sleep, bandaging them as they came to her. A few stood bravely at her defense, and there were many who tried to stop her from helping save people.

He could feel it. The evil was here. The peak of it's power was at full force over the center of town.

And it was angry. It was tired of playing games. If it couldn't gain its freedom through them, it wanted death instead. And, despite everything Agmar was trying to do, it was getting its wish.

Only once before had Agmar taken his power to this level. He wasn't sure what would happen if he took it a step further. He was aware of every movement within five miles radius of his physical body. He could see them all. His magical presence encountered physical items that the evil was trying to manipulate and destroyed them or made them incapable of doing harm. He twisted long pieces of metal around trees, and closed hooks or tightened bolts. If he could not secure it - make it too hard for the evil to use - he drew heavily upon the energy around it and dissolved its structure, shattering it entirely back into its base elements.

Fires burned throughout the town. Small ones he was able to snuff by basically converting the air immediately around them so that they couldn't burn. Others were too large for him to do that to, and he moved more columns of water.

What he couldn't stop, was the people. No matter how hard he pressed, how much he strained his mind and body, he couldn't stop every person in town. Syred wasn't controlled by the evil, but was defending himself lethally. He wasn't the only one. The evil pushed some and controlled others, but the remaining people were afraid and on the defensive. Like wounded animals, they lashed out at their attackers. Short of just killing them all in one painful stroke, Agmar couldn't stop them. He'd come here to save them, not slaughter them. He hoped to never have to resort to such measures as that again.

Instead, he took what little was left of him and applied it to pushing them away from each other. He concentrated on those who had weapons of some kind, pushing they and those around them away with sudden bursts of energy centered between them. He felt as if he was at the edge of how much he could possibly do all at once. His mind felt ready to break. His body was convulsing with the effort, and he knew that it couldn't be good for the wound in his back. He had already jumped three times now. He wasn't sure he could stand to do it again. To shift himself physically from one location in town to another was terrifyingly painful, and something he tried not to do more than once a year, much less three times within the course of a couple of hours. A part of him wanted to give up. He felt as if he'd made so many mistakes here already.

The people outside had nearly broken through his improvised barricade. There were six of them. He prepared himself for another jump. He knew it would probably be the last he'd be able to make. He doubted he would survive another one after that. Short of just killing them, he had run out of ways to stop them.

And then he felt that there were only five just outside. He looked with his mind's eyes and saw Yilmack. Yilmack grabbed one man and threw him down the street. The man landed tumbling, and was only able to crawl to try and work back. The man slumped as the evil let go of him. Agmar looked at the distance and knew that no one could throw an adult that far. That could only mean one thing...

"Agmar, 'tis me, Yilmack. I'm nearly to ye, jes wait a momen' more!"

Yilmack grabbed another one, a woman, and threw her. She went through an upstairs window on a building across the street. Then another one was thrown. Agmar checked them all, and they were all injured by their landings but remained alive. It did not appear that any of them were sustaining life-threatening injuries.

Agmar scrambled back some in the dark space under the porch. He was confused, and beginning to be afraid.

"Don' worry, Agmar, the evil doesn' got me, an' I think ye know that. Ye've prob'ly figured out that the people control'd by the evil cannae talk."

Yilmack finished thwarting the people outside. "I have a safe place ta bring ye to. Lynna could use some help, and ye could use ta be in a protected place."

Agmar reached out with his mind, heedless of manners for the moment as the need to know for sure outweighed propriety. He came up against a wall, unable to penetrate the man's mind for details or even a confirmation that the evil wasn't somehow in control of him. He tried pushing against it, but was only able to determine that the barrier around Yilmack's mind was more solid than anything he'd ever encountered. He could tell that it was permanent, but not magically created. He realized, however, that he could feel the man's presence easily when looking at the area magically. It was almost as if the man glowed when Agmar tried to specifically look for him.

Agmar's heart raced as he heard Yilmack moving the stones away to get to him.

What if this is a new trick. What if there aren't always signs and the evil was holding onto that as a trump card? If he gets to me... I... Exhaustion was washing over him and his focus was slipping. He lost control of the water columns that he'd been moving through town, and they splashed down at whatever point they'd gotten to, knocking some people in the streets over as torrents of water crashed down upon them. He knew his body was shaking with the pain he was in, both physically and mentally at this point. He could feel the evil stabbing at his mind magically, trying to burn him as it had done with Lynna. His sense of self-preservation made him draw himself inward more, leaving the townsfolk to fend for themselves. He wept silently in the darkness, knowing he hadn't much more left.

Yilmack was wedging his large frame in under the porch, through the opening he'd made in the rock barrier. Agmar readied himself for another jump, fear washing over him as he searched in the darkness to get a glimpse of the man's face.

"I need ye ta trust me now, Agmar. I know some of what yer likely think'n, but I'm here ta help. I got answers fer the quest'ns, but ther'll be time fer that later." Yilmack reached out and grabbed hold of Agmar's arm, and Agmar flinched, only barely managing to keep himself from initiating the jump to another area of town. He could see the man's face, though, and Yilmack's eyes were both clear of the evil and seemingly sincere in nature. He reminded himself to breathe as he nodded at the man.

"Good," Yilmack said, reaching forward and starting to gently pull Agmar out, his hands under Agmar's shoulders and back. "This may jostle ye a bit."

Whether on purpose or by fortunate accident, Yilmack pulled him out without stressing his back. The street was clear for the moment. The sky was still dark and angry. Agmar knew the sunlight was still quite some time away.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Yilmack, as I've said. The rest can come later. You, on the oth'r 'and, are more than I 'xpected ta find 'ere. But that'll come later, too."

Yilmack carried him effortlessly, and jogged through the streets in a loping jog that managed to not jostle Agmar too badly. It looked as though Yilmack was bringing him back to the Surf and Sleep. Agmar focused his mind around it a little more.

He broke up fights there where he could, picking up assailants and placing them a block away. Some of the came back, some wandered off in other directions. He tried to keep track of the wanderers to make sure they didn't end up causing too much trouble elsewhere. He knew he could not protect everyone, so he had to protect the groups.

Yilmack skirted around the inn, about a block away. "The people there don' need ta see ye bein' carried." He came at the back of the inn, racing toward a tool shed. Agmar blinked in confusion as he realized that he could see the shed with his physical eyes, but not with his floating mental one.

Yilmack stopped in front of the door and spoke in a language that Agmar didn't recognize, despite the fact that he'd studied cultures and languages in some detail over the course of his travels. He pushed the door open, and Agmar was suddenly preoccupied with being cut off, magically, from the rest of the world as they entered the small shed. Panic washed over him again as Yilmack pushed the door shut and moved a heavy wooden bar back into place to keep it closed. There was a dim light, and Agmar saw that it was coming from a series of runes that ran along the floor at the base of each wall. Yilmack set him gently down on the floor, and Agmar saw that Lynna and Stott were already lying there, one of Stott's arms wrapped protectively around the girl. A quick check proved to him that they were both just quietly sleeping although Lynna was seriously wounded. Stott was still wounded as well, but his weren't life-threatening.

Agmar couldn't help but feel trapped, however, a feeling of claustrophobia coming on for the first time in his life. He couldn't feel anything beyond the walls of the shed. The barrier around him was a solid box that proved impenetrable no matter how hard he tried. He looked at Yilmack, feeling his chest tighten and the space around him close in.

"What is this? What have you done?"

"Calm ye'self, wizard. Ye've done what you could for those poor folk outside. You look as if much more would kill you, and I can't allow that. There's other people, furth'r down the line who'll be needin' you too. This evil won't be stoppin' after this little town. Right now, Lynna's needin' healin' and then you ought to rest so yer own body will heal."

"But..." Agmar found himself staring at the man, his mouth gaping open in astonishment. He had never found himself so suddenly and easily stopped by anyone before. "Who in the five planes of demonic phasing are you?"

Yilmack sat down with a heavy sigh.

"Well, from the point yesterday when you near died and made a decis'n to make fightin' this evil off your highest priority - I reckon you meant well before but wern't near as serious about takin' the demonic bastard on yerself. But when you made that decis'n and let the lass pull you back from dyin' - from that point on I became your protect'r. 'Tis my sworn duty to protect those who'd fight the demon, and either kill it one day or return it to the plane it was summ'ned from, as the wizards of the Rahyzelt Order once tried to do. They didn't die alone ye know. There were men an' women who fought alongside 'em an' died tryin' to buy them time. The demon can't see inside us, yesee." He tapped a finger against the side of his head. "So the ones of us left after the bindin' kept our tradit'n goin', so's we'd be ready when t'was time to fight again."

Agmar managed to close his mouth, and the claustrophobia was beginning to feel better, but his astonishment was still overwhelming.

"If you knew how to make this shed safe, why didn't you tell me? We could have saved people!" He felt anger rising up in him at the realization.

"Now hold on right there!" Yilmack put a hand up to forestall any further argument. "I can't make a space bigger than this. And who would have chosen which few people got to live, eh? With the way this town has been arguin' over magic I don't suppose they would have been all polite an' held a lottery!" Yilmack frowned unhappily. "My job is to protect you. Nobody else. It's you that stands a chance of helpin' fight this thing, not them. You developed an attachment to the girl, and I got a soft spot for stuff like that so I pulled her out too. She might be able to help. An' her young man has enough courage that he might have it in him to protect her the way I'm to protect you. I could train him if he'd willin'. So I pulled him too. You did what you could for the others, but now they're just going ta have to fend for themselves. In the end, I think you'll be one of the ones to help stop this thing for good if it's possible. That means I'm not going to let you go back out there and die right now. I'm sorry for those folk that won't make it because of that, but I'm havin' to think of the greater good here."

He jabbed a large finger towards Lynna.

"She may look peaceful sleepin' like that, but she probably don't have a lot more time left if you don't heal her. You did promise her father and all, and I seemed to get the impress'n you thought the girl had potential, so you may as well give her some healin' as well as heal yerself up."

Lynna really was in bad shape. She was as much unconscious from injuries and blood loss as she was asleep from fatigue. Healing her was easier here, and her sleep changed immediately. With the pain and trauma to the body addressed, she slept normally--peacefully. She would feel worlds better when she woke. Agmar wondered what her feelings would be when she looked outside, though.

Everything was easier here. The resistance from the evil was not weighing against him. He was not trying to pay attention everywhere at once, and could focus on fewer things at once. He healed Stott and himself. Yilmack had no wounds to heal. That almost didn't seem fair.

"So what do we do about the others?" he asked, immediately finding it disturbing that he was deferring to Yilmack. He did have to admit to himself that his own plans were not all working, and that he was too exhausted to come up with more. Yilmack did not seem at all affected by the days without sleep.

"The worst of it be happ'nin' out thar now, but thar still be two more days that they'll be needin' ye after this. Ye should sleep fer a couple o' hours. Ye be needn' much more'n that, but a couple'll help ye bunches. After that we'll see what we can be doin' fer 'em."

"It does not seem right to be sleeping safely while they are dying out there."

"I s'pose it don't. An' while you sleep some more'll die. But if ye kill yerself savin' a few, the evil'll jest kill 'em all tomorrow when ye cannae stop it."

As much as it frustrated him to hear it, he had no counter argument for that. Yilmack was right. He instinctively tried to reach out to Avern, to wish him luck of reassurances, or even see if he was still alive--but Avern was outside where he could not reach. He fell asleep wishing he knew how the others were doing.