"What do you expect?" Mattie asked. "You threw her out of a plane."

He sighed and our little group all laughed. In his defense, he did just push her because she was having a bit of trouble making herself jump. She was at the door with every intention of jumping. She was just having trouble actually doing the deed.

But she couldn't give up the opportunity to give Ric a hard time.

There was a good sized crowd out where the football field had been for the college. It was now a training ground for our newest Guards. Except for today. Today it was where we intended to make twenty new Mages. There were twenty new volunteers who wished to do as Jacobs had already done.

I wouldn't risk it with anyone with less than twenty years of experience in the Soulguard. Anyone with trouble at focusing was excluded automatically, but there weren't many Guards who couldn't focus. It is the prime skill needed to become a Guard at all.

As we reached the center where our volunteers awaited, Kharl walked up. He looked at Ric and Prada.

"She still pissed cause you threw her out of the plane?"

The look of utter dejection on Ric's face was priceless, and the laughter once again made the rounds.

"It was just a nudge," he muttered.

"Sure it was," Kharl said and turned toward me. "You doin' this one at a time or gonna do the whole group? How many supports you want?"

"I think I'll try five at a time," I said, "Lyrica can help keep an eye on things, while I'm Pulling. You, Ric, and Prada should be enough support."

"Good enough," he said and turned back toward the group of volunteers, "Five at a time. First five line up right here."

He was pointing directly in front of us. As they lined up, I lit my Stream up, and showed them the tendril I wanted them to form to channel the power.

"You all know what I want here. Steer the power out the tendril. All of it," I said, "Anyone wants to back out now's the time to do it."

"We're good, Sir," returned Malcolm Hendrix.

He was one of the Guards who had come in from Denver with the Kid. He was also one of the few black men I had met who had been in the Guard long enough to be a veteran of twenty years. There were quite a few black men and women in the Guard, and there were more now as trainees than there had ever been before. It wasn't as if they had been unwelcome in the old days. It was just that the African Academy was the place they mostly served to blend in with the population.

Malcolm was one of the best Guards I knew with a sword, and he had created his personal shield with a lot greater ease than many others. I didn't expect much trouble with his ascension.

I nodded back to him and watched the tendrils form from the five volunteers, three men and two women. I had met all five of them over the years. Actually, I had met all twenty as they cycled through Knoxville over the years.

"Ready?" I asked and received nods from all.

I Pulled gently and felt hands from my supports land on my back and shoulders. The Source flowed up five Streams and all five turned it aside into the tendril.

I could see the amazement rolling through auras as they felt the Source flowing up toward them for the first time but none of them lost any focus.

"All right," I said, "Here it comes."

I Pulled hard on their Streams and fire shot heavenward in great gouts. The spectators were stepping back and the emotions were running from excitement to fear. There was always the fear.

After a few moments, I stopped Pulling through Selina DeReus' Stream. Lyrica was nodding as I did so. Some people can take more stress to their stream than others, and I was getting the sense that hers was as far as it was safe to go.

I continued for a few seconds more and stopped on Allen Rhode's as well for the same reason.

It went on like this for a time until the only one still going was Malcolm, who's stream was showing no stress whatsoever.

When I finally stopped, his stream was as big as Gregor's, which was bigger than the previous Archmage's stream had been.

"Careful, Malcolm," I said, "When I stop, you're gonna get a hell of a jolt. Don't even think of Pulling it."

"Yes sir," he answered.

I stopped and the enormous stream began to feed his body. He gasped and his hands shook. I could see the whites of his eyes as they widened when the power of his new stream entered his body.

"Just be still a few minutes and get used to the feel before you try to move, Mal."

"Jesus Christ!" he said, "You feel this all the time?"

"I don't," I answered and pointed toward Gregor, who was standing out in the circle of spectators, "He does."

"How friggin big is it?"

"About two feet in diameter," I answered and held my hands in approximately that big a circle.

"Don't even think of Pulling till you get in some classes. Just a tiny nudge on that thing will burn you to a crisp."

He nodded quickly, "Yes Sir, fried to a crisp. Definitely not the outcome I want."

He followed his fellow volunteers toward the edge of the crowd where several Mages were waiting to start giving them the introductory lesson. The next five stepped forward and we continued. There were no incidents, and we ended up welcoming our twenty new Mages. None of them were as powerful as Malcolm but there were none that were less than ten inch streams.

I think I could probably take support Mages and turn them into powerhouses like Greg and Paige if we tried, but I can only do so much at a time and Lyrica has a pretty full schedule already with her Infirmary. They were setting up schedules to bring people from all over to see her. Plus her classes with Pickney as he taught her everything he could think of about his field.

As we finished the last one, I turned around with fire dancing across my skin from the Source rolling through me. It felt awesome as it rolled around inside me, but I knew I had to release it before it hurt me. So I channeled a great gout of fire into the sky.

As my eyes settled back to the level of the crowd, I found myself looking at the largest man I have ever seen.

He stepped forward with astonishment rolling through his aura, and what an aura it was. He had a Soulguard knot that was enormous. His Soulstream was at least eight inches and it had the look of iron cable. This was the first time I had ever seen a Soulguard so old his hair was grey. How many friggin' years would that actually take?

"Merlin?" he asked in astonishment.

"Merlin?" I asked in return.

He shook his head as he heard my voice, "Nope, not Merlin."

Then something seemed to run through him as he realized something important, sadness to begin with, then a burgeoning excitement.

His laughter rumbled across the clearing for a moment. Then his eyes crossed the crowd behind me and grew wide as he saw someone.

"Dad?" I heard from behind me. I could swear it had been Kharl's voice.

I saw the whole cycle of emotions flood the big man's aura. He strode past me as if I wasn't there, and I turned to see him meet Kharl with an embrace that would have broken anything less than steel.

"God, I thought you were dead, Boy."

"I thought you died a hundred and thirty years ago," I heard Kharl return.

Someone cleared their throat behind me, and I turned to see the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was a Nordic Goddess. She was six feet tall, and would reduce any man to a puddle of goo in seconds.

And she was furious.

"Father," she said, "Can you explain why this man just called you Dad, and I haven't a clue he even existed?"

Chapter 29.

"I wondered from the moment I saw the news reports," Dietrich Jaegher said, "just what it would take to cause the Demons to come in such force."

I was being pointed at by thirteen of the fifteen people sitting around the table at yet another Hooters. This one in Wichita.

The rumble of Dietrich's laughter rolled through the room.

"I figured as much as soon as I saw the boy. You may not be Merlin but you're damn sure a direct descendent. No one looks that much like someone without genetics," he said and turned to look at Lyrica, "And you, young lady are the spittin' image of Jillian Kent. What are the odds that both bloodlines would come into power again after the purge?"

"The purge?" Lyrica asked.

"Yes, after the death of Kent, The Demons went on a rampage. They hunted Kent's family down and destroyed them, or so they thought. And none of us even knew Merlin had any children. But I guess you can have many children in a nine hundred year lifetime. He never made it known that he had any children at all."

"I have to ask," I said, "The same Merlin that the legends are about? King Arthur and all?"

"That's him," Dietrich said. "He told us stories of his earlier attempts to fight the Demons only to fail. He was in China when the hordes came, and wiped out his 'Knights'. He came back to find everything lost. But if Merlin was anything, he was dedicated to fighting them. He later found Kent and showed him what he was. Kent began the Soulguard, and they fought the Demons for two hundred years."

I was stunned by the fact that there was an actual Merlin. But the fact that I was a descendent was amazing.

"What happened to them?"

His face went a bit somber and I saw the sadness in his aura.

"I was a new Guard at the time, and I was assigned to Merlin. We were in the south of France when the hordes came for Kent and the Soulguard. We felt the Pulls from hundreds of miles away and when we returned, we found everything destroyed. I've never seen any but one as powerful as Greyson Kent, but whatever they sent across destroyed everything that was there."

"And Merlin?" Lyrica asked.

"Something broke in him when yet another friend and ally died while he was away. He blamed himself for not being there when they came. About a year after that he told us he was going through the next portal that opened and take his vengeance. He charged the remaining Soulguards to continue Kent's mission and protect our world. Then he left us and never was seen again."

"The purges started soon after that, they killed whole villages where any of Kent's descendants lived. We thought that the Kent line was gone and I find, not only his, but the line of Merlin lives as well."

"And I have no doubt that you are the reason the whole world is about to see a war on a scale they have never dreamed of before. And since my daughter has decided to join this battle, I find that I have returned to the Soulguard, and I offer all the assistance I can."

"I had sworn to stay out of Soulguard business," he continued, "and then I heard of the death of Kelvin Rourke and the supposed death of my son. There was no reason to ever contact them again after that. Then there was an invasion, and all she could talk about was the duty of every human to take up arms and protect our world. Sounded like her mother, and I knew there wasn't any arguing about it so I came as well."

"Speaking of a certain angry woman," I said. "Are you still upset with him?"

"Of course," she answered, "Twenty years and he never even told me the Soulguard exists."

She had a thick Russian accent. I could guess where Dietrich had been for the last number of years.

"Women," Rictor said sadly, "they're grudge holders. I mean, you push a woman one time and ya hear about it for a month and a half."

"Out of a plane," Prada said with narrow eyes that would have sent chills down anyone with any sense's spine. But Rictor doesn't have any of that, so it didn't bother him too much.

"And it was a pretty hard shove, I'd say," Daphne added.

"Almost would be classed as throwin' her out of a plane, wouldn't it?" Kharl asked innocently.

Rictor was looking from one to the other with a completely hurt expression. His gaze finally turned toward me and he pointed straight at me.

"It was his fault," he said. "He said not to follow him, and I had to have someone to follow."

He pointed at Kharl and Daphne, "Both of them are too strong for me to throw out of the plane so that left Prada or a pilot."

"Told you he threw me out of the plane," Prada jumped on Rictor's choice of words.

Dietrich's laughter rumbled as he had turned to each one as they spoke, "One hundred and thirty years and still no one has taught a Mage any common sense. They were all crazy before and they haven't changed."

Kyra laughed, "Every one of them used to be such good, solid, average everyday Soulguards until he got ahold of them."

Once again the finger was pointed at me.

"You, too?" I whined, "Everybody wants to blame the Soullord."

I turned back to Dietrich, "Don't let em fool you, every one of them was nuts before I showed up. If I hadn't come along and displayed such a grand amount of skill with calm, calculated planning, it's hard to even think where they would be."

Musical laughter exploded from Lyrica, "Planning? Really?"

The laughter kept coming from all around the table.

"Humph," I said with a sad expression and reached down to my plate for another wing.

"Can anyone tell me," Irenia Nevara Jaegher interrupted, looking straight at Andrea Prada, "why you were thrown from an airplane? Parachuting isn't all that bad. I've jumped a couple of times."

"Honey," Prada said, "No one said anything about parachutes."

"Oddly enough," Jim Duke said, "We managed to stop three more attacks but there was one we weren't in time for I'm afraid. The odd part is that someone else stopped it. We found nine bodies at what we suspect would have been an attack in Scotland."

"Nine?" I asked, "I was thinking they used ten man squads."

"Maybe we've killed enough of the bastards to make them short-handed. I don't know what to think about it yet. All of them were killed at close range with blades. Everything points to two attackers with knives took out all nine in a very short time."