really are. The Stalker is already here at your request." She smiled at him. "You know I speak the truth."
His eyes widened for an instant as his stolen Owl ring, once she'd called his attention to it, told him she was right. Then he narrowed his eyes accusingly. "You just think you speak the truth, that's all it means. You are wrong."
"I can't give you proof of the Stalker," agreed Seraph mildly. "You'd have to be Hunter to see what you have done in your stupidity." He didn't like to hear the word stupid, especially as he knew that she meant it. But he wasn't going to lose his temper enough for her purposes; he was too buoyed up by his plans. She'd have to bring Jes into it.
"I can show you what Eagle is," she said.
The whole time they'd spent talking, Seraph had been sorting through the intricate work of the spell holding the barrier together. If he'd just used solsenti magic, she might not have been able to break it, but he'd woven Raven and solsenti magic together and the result was unstable.
"Jes," she said, "go get Rinnie and keep her safe. Lehr, when you can, take Bandor."
Volis frowned at her words. "Jes? Isn't that the name of your idiot son? He's not here." He shivered once.
"Yes," said Seraph, "he is. You just aren't looking. Jes, the priest wants to get a good look at you."
The Guardian was nothing if not dramatic, coalescing out of candle smoke into the oversized wolf he favored over other forms. He stood not two paces from Volis, frost shading his coat and moving from his paws to the hem of Volis's robes. Jes growled, a low rumbling sound. Seraph's pulse picked up until she could hear the sound of her heartbeat in her ears.
Volis, who had no warning or understanding of what Jes was, cried out in terror. That fear did for Volis's magic what anger had once done for Seraph's. His control of Raven magic failed, and Seraph ripped the barrier into pieces with a sweep of power.
"This is my eldest son, Jes," she said. "Who is Eagle and Guardian - and in no need of your summons."
She kicked aside the carefully placed candles, breaking the circles and removing any temptation he might have had to kill Rinnie.
As she walked she continued speaking, quoting from the book of Orders. " 'Thus is it said that when the Elder Wizards took upon themselves the need to fight the Shadow-Stalker, that they created them the Orders. Six Orders created they them, after the six who slept forever. First, Raven Mage, second, Cormorant Weather Witch to aid their travels, and third created was Healer who is Lark that they might survive to continue the fight. They rested and then made fourth, the Bard and Owl to ease their way among strangers, fifth, Falcon the Hunter to feed them at need, last created they Eagle who is Guardian for all to fear.' The Guardian, Volis, is an Order like any other, though, as you can see, more difficult to detect."
Jes took back his human form and gathered Rinnie into his arms. "The priest is wrong," he said, and the voice thundered in bass notes almost too deep to hear, as if he still held part-way to the wolfshape.
"He's been shadowed," agreed Seraph.
But Seraph had given the priest too long. He threw a blast of raw magic at her and she was forced to counter it - more than counter it, because she had to protect those around her. She held the magic for a moment then returned it to him. Because it was his magic, it did not harm him, just allowed him to reabsorb it. Not an ideal solution, because he retrieved the energy he'd sent at her, but no one else got hurt.
While she'd been trying to decide what to do with it, he'd had time to gather more power and he flung it at her, forcing her back several steps. She caught it and flung it back again, but it was more of an effort. She couldn't keep doing it indefinitely because she continued to lose power and he didn't.
He also learned quickly. The third shot was no less powerful, but he broadened his target to include everyone in the room. She had no choice but to absorb the full force of his hit, or let something escape where it might hurt one of her children.