On the String

Stephen Hayes

Description

The sixth instalment in the Magic Crystals series, following the climactic events of 'The Cloak of Steel'.

Fresh off their victory over the evil Arnold Hammerson, John and his friends are left to rest and recuperate from their labours while the Sorcerers set about healing the world of its many war wounds.

However their victory is short-lived, as a new threat quickly arises and strikes back, stealing all their magic, destroying their sanctuaries, and magically warping the minds of many to fall in line.

Through nothing but luck, John and five of his friends are the only survivors, and must now resist their foe with no allies, no shelter, and no magic of any kind.

Their only good fortune is that the new enemy does not wish for their deaths, but intends to manipulate them into joining them of their own free will.

As the small band of rebels is left to dangle on the string of fate, the odds stack up wildly against them, and discord is sown among them in an attempt to loosen their resolve.

Yet in spite of all of this, they are able to cause serious problems for the adversary, and ultimately to find that the key to victory may lie in the not too distant past.

Sujets

• Fiction
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 12 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780994459077
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Magic Crystals
On the String
 
by
 
Stephen Hayes
On the String
Book 6 in the Magic Crystals series
 
Written by Stephen Hayes
 
Published 2020 by Stephen Hayes, Australia
 
Formatted by www.eBookIt.com
 
www.StephenHayesOnline.com
 
Copyright © Stephen Hayes 2020
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon, Facebook or similar organisations) in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
 
Disclaimer: All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
 
ISBN-13: 978-0-9944-5907-7
Contents
Prologue
Part 1: The Last Resistance
Chapter 1: You Could Be a Diabolical Evil Genius
Chapter 2: Thanks for One of the Weirdest Conversations of My Life
Chapter 3: Less About the War and More About the Bling
Chapter 4: Exploding is What These Things Do Best
Chapter 5: I'm Your Boss, Not Your King
Chapter 6: A Five-Foot Stick of Wood Between Your Legs
Chapter 7: We're the Thomas Brothers
Chapter 8: Excuse Me, Tiberius
Part 2: Struggle of Wills
Chapter 9: He Was an Utter Moron in Many Ways
Chapter 10: A Nice, Cold Glass of Orange Juice on the Side
Chapter 11: I Demand Use of the Bed
Chapter 12: I Was Always Against Nutcases
Chapter 13: Not Exactly Real Happiness
Chapter 14: Out-of-Control is Exactly What I'm Hoping For
Chapter 15: Already So Conflicted
Chapter 16: Eating a Meat Pie
Chapter 17: I Can't See! I've Gone Blind!
Part 3: In the Not Too Distant Past…
Chapter 18: Typhoid Marys with Crystal Chips
Chapter 19: I Guess That's a Yes
Chapter 20: That Usually Results in Someone Falling Down
Chapter 21: Tapping Morse Code on Each Other's Fingers
Chapter 22: I Started Counting at 804
Chapter 23: A Nice Big Smacker
Chapter 24: Through the Portal 3.0
Part 4: Preparations for Battle
Chapter 25: Shot Down by the Brainiac
Chapter 26: Sometimes We Get Lucky
Chapter 27: I Don't See How That Justifies Totalling My Car
Chapter 28: This is Gonna Be Fun
Chapter 29: It's Hard to Know What's Real
Chapter 30: We're Really Gonna Do This Again
Part 5: The Greatest Struggle of All Begins…
Chapter 31: Some Sort of Slave Labour Camp
Chapter 32: We Wouldn't Wanna Be Safe, That's Way Too Boring
Chapter 33: So Much for the Vote
Chapter 34: Do As You're Told, Grasshopper
Chapter 35: A Certain Biological Brother of Mine
Chapter 36: The Opening Shot
Epilogue
The Magic Crystals Series
 
Prologue
I would later learn the horrifying details from two people who survived the hostile takeover. Well, perhaps ‘survived’ would be the wrong word; one of them escaped, while the other, who saw so much more, would be only physically unhurt. Sometimes, saying a person is physically unhurt is the only positive statement to be made for their condition.
It all happened very suddenly at some point just after eight o'clock on the evening of August 27, 2010, at which point the stabilisation of the world was running according to plan. The Sorcerers had canvassed the United States and Canada, removing the mental influence of the Hammerhearts on all those who were still running their agenda, and now the mission had crossed the Atlantic and had entered Great Britain.
“This really would be a lot simpler if we had a way of just vanishing every Hammerheart device on the planet,” Brian said as he cast yet another spell, causing a cluster of agonators, bludginators, and other assorted creations of ill intention to disappear off the display screen. The base, which they no longer needed to leave, was equipped with mobile cameras, and the great part about it was the Sorcerers had the ability to cast magic on those objects visible on the screen.
“We don't yet know for sure that there isn't,” said Frederic sadly. He was performing much the same operation on another display screen. “All we know for sure is that nothing we have done so far has worked. It may be that we're not casting the right spell, or more likely our own magic just isn't powerful enough to pull that off.”
“Which is why I think we ought to revisit the idea of calling Marc into action,” said Lillian for the tenth or eleventh time in the last three days. “He may not have enough power either, but—”
“But nothing,” said Frederic, vaguely but firmly (a paradox of sorts, yet he somehow pulled it off). “While I'm sure the Beast of Magic could wield such power, we just don't know what unseen consequences might arise from it.”
“You could say the same for your own magic, though,” Charlie Thomas argued. “I mean, scientifically speaking—”
“There's nothing scientific about this, mate,” Chester laughed. “You're probably right about one thing though: The greater the spell, the greater risk you're taking of causing some sort of unpredictable chain reaction.”
“While all that may be true, the risk is far greater with the Beast of Magic, even with small spells,” said Frederic, “because unlike our Sorcerous chips, it has the ability to think for itself and use its best judgement.”
“Isn't it required to obey Marc's orders?” asked Alice.
“Yes, but the problem still exists if Marc is no wiser as to what the consequences of his magic may be,” Frederic said, as though he hadn't said the same thing several times already. “I really don't think we need to discuss this anymore.”
Brian checked his watch and then stood up from his workstation. “Okay, Lillian, time for you to take over.”
The workroom was really quite small, with only two workstations (because there were only supposed to be two people working at a time), so the six people present had to do a bit of wriggling around each other so that Brian could get out of his seat and Lillian could get into it. Chester and Charlie, bystanders at this stage (they didn't normally do this sort of work, but the order of things in recent days had left their usual jobs redundant) had to flatten themselves against the back wall to manage it.
“What time is it anyway?” Chester now asked.
“Just after five in the morning,” Charlie said immediately, checking his own watch, which, for whatever reason, he hadn't changed since leaving Australia.
“Eight in the evening,” said Brian, and he yawned, “although I'm not sure what time my body thinks it is. Honestly, I'll be glad when this is—”
He stopped dead, not just in speech but all motion. This made him look rather peculiar for a moment as he had half turned to leave the room. The others in the room could only see his face in profile but while Chester and Charlie exchanged a confused look, Frederic, Lillian and Alice all widened their eyes in alarm.
“What—” Lillian began, and that was when Brian Fletcher collapsed, crumpling into a heap in the doorway.
“Holy—” Chester and Charlie began in freakish unison, but they too were interrupted, this time by Frederic Woodward toppling out of his seat and onto the floor, hitting his head on a desk leg on his way down. Neither man moved or responded in any way to the shocks to their bodies.
And it didn't stop there. Less than two seconds later, and almost at exactly the same moment, both their mothers went the same way. Lillian only slumped back in her seat, her head rolling to the side but fortunately not enough to affect her centre of gravity. Alice fell forward, catching Charlie and almost bringing him down with her, but she was a fairly small old lady and he was strong enough to catch her and lower her gently to the floor before looking, stricken, up at Chester.
“What just happened?” Chester asked, but he already knew—both of them knew. There was only one remote source that could bring Sorcerers down in this way, and it was clear that all four of them had fainted cold. But how could it be? The Sorcerous Crystals were all safely in Marc Moran's possession, defended by him, Natalie and most impressively, Fewul. Moreover, who was left who could possibly want to take the Sorcerers' power? Sure, there was still one living Hammerson, but surely—surely—
“Let's get out of here,” said Charlie, cutting off Chester's train of thought. “We need to check on Amelia. Surely, whoever's doing this won't take all six of them—nobody in their right mind would put the world through that again.”
So far as the two of them knew, Amelia was presently sleeping in the bedroom she shared with that woman, the freakishly good-looking one who could do all that weird stuff with her mind. Amelia had been through an awful ordeal earlier in the week, one from which she would never entirely recover, not with all the magic in the world on their side, but she had been put back together only hours earlier and the result, though slightly different according to both the woman and Frederic, was close enough to the original Amelia to pass for a member of their family. She wouldn't be made to work, though; after what she and the other kids had done, she deserved a break.
Unfortunately, Chester and Charlie didn't get to find out whether or not Amelia was still with them. The base in which they had operated from for the last couple of months (since the old one had been infiltrated and destroyed from the inside) was heavily protected with all sorts of magic. It was safer than the old base, and supposedly harder to get into than the Hammerheart network, but none of that stopped a large group of people suddenly teleporting straight into their midst.
Lucien Moran was at the centre of the group, and as they were confronted with him, Chester and Charlie forgot all about Amelia. In point of fact, they no longer cared about anything except for the fact that Lucien, the one true ruler of the world, was going to take care of everything, and that very soon, all would be well. As