Way of The Wand

Jira knew she’d found Arron’s henchmen when she noticed a convoy of three carriages speeding along the road with five wizard escorts in the air.

The five flying wizards were wearing masks with intricate geometry and drawings, the type often worn at festivals.

It was good the convoy had taken this direction. She’d flown over the arena on her way, and it would take her a little over an hour to fly back after she rescued Tomi. If Arron didn’t have soup for brains, he would have had his henchmen take her Eko which was in the other direction. There would have been no hope of rescuing Tomi and making it back to the arena in time for the match.

Before she even got close, one escort screamed out to alert the others of her presence.

The five wizard escorts pulled away from the convoy and faced Jira.

They made streaks of lightning flash down from the sky to hit Jira but she meandered past each bolt. She leaned right on her broom to escape when lightning struck on her left and left when lightning struck on her right, all the while not slowing down a beat.

Beating their attack, she drew her wand and whispered, “My turn”, followed by a spell to summon her own flashes of lightning.

Twelves streaks of lightning rained down at once, lighting up the night sky like a crazy storm at sea. She fried three of her five assailants with one attack and sent them hurtling from the sky to the ground.

She was just warming up.

The bald headed of the two henchmen left sped at Jira and unleashed a stream of fire from his hands.

“Ice,” Jira said, countering with her own jet of ice. The two elements clashed in the distance between the two fighters and in the end, Jira’s ice overpowered her opponent’s fire, snuffing out the flames and turning him into a popsicle.

He careened from the sky to the ground in a block of ice.

Jira turned her attention to the last escort, a woman.

Though her mask was clad tight onto her face Jira could tell from the shape of her body. She tried to sneak up on Jira from behind, but Jira dived away on her broom then turned around, saying “Tornado”, calling a wind vortex that pulled the flying wizard into its centre and spat her out in the distance.

With all five escorts neutralized, Jira turned her sights on the convoy down below. The three carriages were getting to an intersection. Jira pressed down after them but couldn’t reach them before they separated, the first carriage going straight and the other two taking the left and right roads respectively.

Jira cursed under her breath as she followed the carriage that went straight. She jumped off her broom as she got close and smacked the coachman off the box seat with the flaming end of her broom as she landed on her feet.

With her still burning broom in one hand, Jira pulled out her wand in the other and said “Snap” pointing to the horse reins. The reins snapped off, freeing the horses and leaving the carriage motionless.

Jira walked over to the door carefully, ready for anything. It could be Tomi in there, but it might as well be something else.

She opened the door and was shot at with a full blast of flames.

Jira leaned backwards hard, watching as a jet of flames flashed above her. She straightened up and pointed to the woman in the carriage who was definitely not Tomi and mumbled out the word “blast.”

A force of energy burst out of her wand and sent the woman pretending to be Tomi flying out the door on the other side of the carriage.

She climbed on her broom and flew after the second carriage, catching up in no time.

Right from the air, she pointed her wand at the road and said “Lava,” turning the road into hot steaming lava that melted the wheels of the carriage and stopped it.

The coachman jumped down from the box seat to face Jira the moment she landed on the ground.

He manifested two swords in his hands and rushed at Jira.

“I’m not even going to use magic to beat you,” she said, putting her wand away and dropping her broomstick to the ground.

She ducked as the coachman swiped at her head and slid behind him.

He sent out an elbow to hit Jira, but she ducked again and slid back to his front then kicked him in his gut, wrestled the sword in his right hand away from him and used its hilt to smash him in the face.

She hastened to the carriage and this time, instead of opening the door, she climbed on top of the roof and used magic to rip it off, shocking the occupant who had her attention focused on the door.

“You’re not her either,” Jira said before jumping off the roof back to the ground.

“Wind,” she said pointing her wand at the carriage. A gale of wind surged out of the darkness and swept up the carriage, throwing it down several metres away.

Jira got on her broomstick and sped after the last carriage. Surely, Tomi had to be in that one.

Jira cut off the last carriage by landing directly in front of it with her wand pointing straight ahead.

The coachman pulled the carriage to a halt and raised his hands in surrender.

“Look I’m not even going to try to fight you. I saw what you did to the others and Mr Tartian doesn’t pay me enough to cover the medical cost of the injuries you’re going to inflict on me.”

“Smart choice,” Jira commended the coachman. “Is she in the back?”

“Yeah,” the coachman answered. “Go get her, I’m not stopping you.”

Jira opened the carriage door and to her shock found Tomi sleeping peacefully on the plump leather seat.

“Tomi!” Jira called, startling Tomi.

Tomi yawned, stretched and sat up, while Jira watched with utmost incredulousness.

“You were asleep,” Jira said in the manner an officer accuses a suspect of a crime.

Tomi shrugged. “I knew you’d come get me. Decided it would be great to get some sleep in the meantime. I could have fought these guys, but I wanted to save my strength for Daila.”

Jira’s jaw hanged open at first, then she burst into laughter.

Tomi pointed to the burning broom in Jira’s hand. “You’re using boost, but your broom isn’t destroyed like Lila’s.”

“I know a few tricks she doesn’t,” Jira replied and made the fire go off. She got on the broom and turned her neck to Tomi. “You coming?”

Tomi hopped on and wound her arms around her teacher’s waist.

“Hang on tight,” Jira instructed. “It’s almost dawn and we have ways to go.”