Balestone by Toby Neighbors

Tiberius was determined not to fail.
    He moved the portal in the sky. It was tricky pushing the portal with his mind, trying to gauge the distance. The further the portal moved away from him, the harder it was to control, but he didn’t give up. Sweat poured from his head, and his legs felt weak, but he continued to chant the spell.
    “ Accendo ,” he said slowly, “ accendo. ”
    Then, when the small group of raiders were only a hundred yards away, Tiberius opened several small holes in the barrier between the magical realm and the physical world. Flaming balls fell like hailstones from Rastimus’ death forge. The fire burned through the air, leaving trails that marred the amber sky with oily black smoke.
    One of the first fiery balls landed just in front of the raiders. They stopped running, frozen with fear. Tiberius raised his arms so that the raiders could see that he was the source of the fire. Then the fire was dropping all around them. One of the raiders was hit squarely, and his whole body was consumed in flame. The screams were horrific, and for a moment Tiberius’ resolve wavered. But the raiders were racing back toward the camp, and the entire episode only lasted a minute. Several of the men were burned, but alive. Two had been consumed by the firestorm. Black smoke and small fires obliterated the open plain between Tiberius and the raiders.
    He turned back to his friends. Olyva looked horrified. Fire had become a fearful entity to her, and she was shocked to see it falling from the sky, even if she knew that Tiberius had conjured it. Rafe and Lexi both looked stunned. They had never seen Tiberius work such powerful magic and they were shaken by the sight.
    “Come on,” Tiberius said. “We haven’t got much time.”
    The others nodded and hurried back to the wagon. The poor horses were beginning to look weak after their hard journey, but Tiberius knew that Rafe couldn’t walk far, and the tribe needed the fresh water.
    “The smoke will hide our escape,” Tiberius explained.
    “What if they follow us?” Rafe asked.
    “I don’t think they will, not for a while anyway. We can move a few miles away, then circle around and drive them out of the camp.”
    “I wouldn’t follow that,” Lexi said. “I would run the other way.”
    “They might,” Tiberius said thoughtfully. “But the sick tribe members are their best defense. They know we won’t risk killing our own tribe, so they’ll feel safe in our camp.”
    “What if they kill the tribe members?” Rafe asked.
    “Then there’s nothing to stop me from raining fire down on their heads and killing all of them.”
    “Could you do that?” Lexi asked. “I mean, I know you can do the magic, but would you kill them all?”
    “They tried to kill us,” Rafe said.
    Rafe was sitting on the bench seat of the wagon, while Tiberius, Lexi, and Olyva walked beside it. The horses moved slowly, but they were moving, and Tiberius felt like his plan had at least a glimmer of hope.
    “I don’t know,” Tiberius said. “It’s hard to think about killing people.”
    “I killed the man who clubbed you last night,” Lexi said softly. “When I came into the camp, he didn’t see me. I stabbed him with my dagger from behind.”
    “They all deserve it if you ask me,” Rafe said. He was drinking from the pitcher of water that Olyva had concocted in the night and he seemed more himself every moment. Even his voice was growing stronger. “When a man picks up a weapon and attacks another man, he puts his life on the line. When those Rogu raided our camp, they forfeited the right to live. Every soldier knows he could die — it’s the cost of taking another man’s life. You have to put yours on the line, as well. Otherwise it’s just murder.”
    “But I was too far away from the raiders to be harmed,” Tiberius said. “My life wasn’t on the line. And Te’sumee says that killing other Hoskali isn’t their way.”
    “We’re not Hoskali, are we?”