A Wizard by Any Other Name

Chapter Thirteen

Rescue of a Friend

The next day, Hero and Mallecyne met Chief of Police Apollo Ballin at the wharf. His men had been concealed around the causeway and in the small temple to Neptune on the Choma. Near the entrance to the harbor was another temple, empty, guarded by an enormous stone obelisk called a Tophet. The chapel had once, thousands of years ago, been used to sacrifice new-born babies. Since the world court outlawed human sacrifice (though there was still question whether some practitioners of Voodoo practiced it in secret) the chapel had remained unused. Today, however, it housed some of Ballin's men.

Ballin, Hero and Mallecyne were on an island in the second, military harbor. They had taken over the Admiral's headquarters, which was now used mainly as a tourist center, since neither Carthage nor any other country had been at war since the establishment of the World Council. There had been some small skirmishes, but in the main peace was something taken for granted these days. Mallecyne wondered if their fragile, precious peacetime was about to be shattered by the overwhelming ambitions of her ex-lover.

"How much longer until the ship is due in?"

"My scouts said it should be any minute now. As soon as the bells start to ring, the ship will be inside the merchant harbor and my people will have closed off the harbor. They can't get back out by circling the harbor. Don't worry, Mallecyne -- we'll have them trapped."

"How many powerful sorcerers do you have on your team?"

"I'm the only one in your class, but everyone here is at least a level five. Except for our friend, here. What's your story, Hero?"

"Let's hope you don't have to find out. But I'm going down to the merchant harbor just in case -- Tynedale provided those crazies on the other side with some kind of a weapon that nulls power; either that or our people lose their power by crossing through the portal. If there's a weapon, it won't work against me, not even if it's magically-controlled. Do you believe this?" he asked no one in particular, "all these years I've kept my power a secret, and two weeks of working with you means everyone in the world knows about it."

He turned and walked out of the room. "Does that mean he's actually a 'Damper'? Not many of those around."

"He's more of a selective Damper; he can actually allow magic to work on him if he chooses. Good skill huh?"

The bells started to ring, and Apollo turned on the communicator. This linked him to all the people he'd placed in the harbor. "You follow Hero, Mallecyne. Check in with me every few minutes or so, all right?"

"Absolutely. Wish us luck, Apollo."

"I have a feeling Hero is our luck. I never thought I'd have to say that, with two level nines on one team, but he might be the person we need today."

Mallecyne could see Hero, about a hundred feet in front of her. They were both playing the part of tourists, and few other people could be seen in either of the harbors, since all the real tourists had been spirited away for the duration of the stake-out. In fact, even the dock-workers on the merchant ships had been replaced by Apollo's men -- he wasn't taking any

chances on losing The Black Flag. She thought, however, that there was a lot more going on here than just the rescue of Guin and her people; for Apollo, this was personal.

The ship had now entered the merchant harbor. As the heavy gates swung shut behind it, the men onboard realized they were trapped. Just as Hero, who had started to run toward through the passageway that connected the military and merchant harbors, arrived inside the basin of the merchant, four men carried something onto the deck of the ship. Mallecyne couldn't see what it was from where she was standing, but she could feel something. It looked like a modern sculpture made out of green and blue glass, and it radiated strong beams of color in every direction. When the beams reached Mallecyne, she felt curiously light and somehow weakened. She quickened her pace to come up with Hero, but every step she took towards the ship was harder.

Everyone in the merchant harbor was experiencing the same problem. They could only get a certain distance from the ship, then lost strength to go further. The men onboard the ship ignored them, even though they had surely realized by now that they were the Carthage police. Only Hero was apparently unaffected by the beam, and the men onboard the ship hadn't realized that yet. They were too busy hooking up to the dock and preparing to come ashore.

Hero stopped a little way from the boat, and waited. Now he didn't appear much different from the rest of the men, who had been incapacitated by the sculpture's beam. Mallecyne realized it was the magic-breaker they had speculated on earlier, and thought she could detect the fine hand of Tynedale at work once again.

She darted behind some stacked boxes, not close enough to the ship to be rendered immobile. Just as

she had been thinking of Tynedale, he appeared onboard the ship, and walked to the ramp to disembark. He was arguing with someone. Mallecyne turned up the volume on her com-link and prayed that Hero had his turned on, otherwise the two men were too far away for her to hear them.

She blessed Hero with the favors of the Goddess when that familiar voice came crackling out at her. "I told you, I specifically wanted her. How could you make such a stupid mistake?"

"Our information was faulty, Lord Tynedale. We were told she would be assigned to the Sand Dweller case. Instead, she was sent to the high school to investigate the portal. Our spies in Carthage tell us she came here and has discovered the principal portal."

"And why exactly do you think I told you to get her, specifically? Fools, all of you! Mallecyne St. Merline is the one person who could stop me -- stop us. Is that what you want, after all our careful work and planning?"

"No, lord." The man didn't sound all too certain. Mallecyne heard Hero's sharp intake of breath when Tynedale spoke her name, and felt a frisson of fear rush up her spine and shatter her nervous system. She watched in stunned horror as Hero started to run toward the ship, in plain view of Tynedale and his men.

At first, Tynedale seemed as stunned as Mallecyne, to see a man running toward him under full power when everyone else in the merchant harbor was stumbling around in slow motion. Then he raised one arm, and a beam of light, pink this time, shot out and surrounded Hero. When this didn't even slow him down, Tynedale staggered back, as pale as his robe, and seemed at a loss. That was worth all the rest, Mallecyne thought, even though Tynedale had obviously been plotting to thrust her through the

portal to certain and agonizing death. She really did have bad taste where men were concerned...until now.

"Get him!" Tynedale shrieked. "He must be a damper -- I've never encountered one before. Grab him!"

But Tynedale's men stayed safely on the ship, because Hero pulled a gun out of his jacket. Such a gun as Mallecyne had never seen before; the police rarely needed guns, though each of them was issued a standard .38 pistol in case they should be required to use it sometime. Mallecyne had never fired her's except in practice, and she had to admit she wasn't a very good shot. That was usually the way it worked -- the better the sorcerer, the more likely they were to have little knowledge of conventional weapons. But Hero needed those weapons, and his gun wasn't anything like a .38 police special. It had an enormous barrel, and a large grip. None of the men onboard the ship wanted to be the first to face it.

Since none of them had gotten further than the end of the ramp, there was no one to circle around the back of Hero and overwhelm him. Mallecyne looked around -- surely someone was coming to meet the men from The Black Flag. She spotted them, just at the end of the military harbor, a group of about ten men, heading her way.

She summoned her admittedly weakened powers and threw up a shield to keep them out of the harbor. She wasn't close enough to the glass sculpture for it to have completely drained her magic, and she had enough power to overcome a little of its influence. Still, it took all her energy and forced her to sink down onto her knees to recover.

The approaching men ran against her shield and stopped in some confusion. They conversed among one another and were obviously looking for something; perhaps there were smaller versions of the

green glass sculpture. She hoped she had given Hero enough time to stop Tynedale.

Tynedale stepped toward Hero. His movement was unaffected by the glass sculpture, and Mallecyne wondered if he had some kind of a charm that nullified it, or if his power was such that he was able to do so himself. Hero didn't hesitate, but shot him just below the heart. Tynedale's look of shock was almost comical; obviously he was so certain of success he hadn't considered conventional weapons, and neglected to provide himself with a ward. Or perhaps the glass sculpture rendered them ineffective. Whatever the case, he slumped to the ramp of the ship.

Hero's next shot shattered the sculpture, which released all the men and women in the harbor from its' effects. Mallecyne, leaving her barrier in place, ran to help Hero. She came up next to Tynedale, wondering if he was dead yet.

Actually, she hoped he was. She had no desire to see him die, but knew there was no other way to end his plan to make himself the only powerful wizard in the world. But when she knelt beside him, watching the police lead his henchmen away, he grasped her hand feebly. Even dying, the jolt of personal power that went through her was considerable.

"Help me, dear girl...I fear I am dying. So stupid of me, not to realize your lover was a damper."

"I can't help you, Alain. Not after what you've done. Not after you tried to kill me." She started to cry, her tears dropping on their clenched hands.

"I would never kill you, beloved..." his voice was becoming strained, and he gasped for breath. "I just wanted you with me. Please, save me and I promise I'll make all right again."

"Don't do it, Mal." Hero stood over her, looking down at Tynedale. His voice was grim. "Remember all

those kids he murdered, and in such a gruesome manner. You have to let him go."

"I can't just let someone die. He promised..."

"And you're still in love with him. Let him go!"

"No! My powers are meant to be for healing." She moved her hands to Tynedale's chest, over the wound. Before Hero could stop her, she poured the most powerful healing she knew into him, and the bullet flew out, clattering to the wood. Hero reached for her to pull her back, but he was too late.

"She is mine, Hero Anglesey, and always will be!" Tynedale's voice was now strong and clear, and he wrapped his white and gold cloak around Mallecyne so she couldn't rise away from him. "This is not forgotten -- I will return for you!" And they were gone in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving Hero coughing and looking around frantically.