"I know" Mary replied. "But diplomacy is what I am employing, the best way to get rid of an enemy is to make him a friend."
"He is not wrong" Mage Davina replied. "I have heard stories about how nobles used to treat people. The only reason I did not join him is because I am curious about what magic you two have between you."
"No one is going to give you a match girl" Mage Tritus replied.
"You want to fight me?" Allen asked surprised.
"Not every mage has what it takes to become a battlemage" Mage Davina began. "Only the top five mages can claim the title per year. Those that fail can retest their final year of study with another class as many times as they like until they make top five. I was number four in my class, what I lack in power I made up in guile."
"Well good for you" Allen replied.
"You have your own little tricks, you are good at earth magic but you have never fought me" Mage Davina began. "The fact you are so strong in earth magic means you are weaker in the other elements, I could beat you. I want to test myself against one of the old king's mages."
"Allen can only use earth magic so your contest wouldn't be fair" Mary replied. "If you want someone to duel then duel the others you have with you."
"You are an elemental?" Mage Davina said in shock then an evil smile crossed her face. "Now we have to fight, most think Elementals are a fairytale made up by the king. But I know better, some of my instructors were there to fight the King's magic users and they spoke of a great battle. Battle mages used accounts of that battle to teach different tactics. A mage strong in water should have fought your fire mage, your water mage should have been fought by a mage strong in wind use. You are the earth elemental, my water or fire magic would destroy you within seconds."
"Pray you never have to find out" Allen replied. "Now let's get on with this meeting. Mary I will have a model of this place for you tomorrow along with placement of the enemy. It will make it easier for you to plan."
CHAPTER 3
"Mr. Smith, we need you!" Phillip said as he burst into the room.
Allen was a little annoyed at the intrusion, ever since the Atropians had gotten there two weeks ago Allen's confidence had been shaken and he had practiced his fighting and magic with renewed vigor. Their mage had brought up a point that Allen himself wondered about when it came to fighting another magic user. Add to the fact that Major Welch had began getting even nastier and quippier with his actions and remarks made Allen train to top form. Allen thought it was weird he was more frightened of his allies instead of the enemy army at his gate.
"What do you want?" Allen said as he noticed Phillip looked like he had been roughed up.
"The soldiers, they have my sister Beatrice" Phillip replied. "They are too strong for me and Frank to stop."
"What do you mean they have Beatrice" Allen replied as his eyes went wide, the situation dawning on him. Before Phillip could reply Allen was already moving past him silently cursing Phillip wasn’t twenty minutes earlier, if he was Allen would have still been in full armor practicing the sword. Allen had put everything away and thought about running back to grab his sword at least but abandoned the idea, any second he spent getting prepared was a second Beatrice could be harmed.
"They have her in the armory" Phillip called from behind him.
Allen knew the man was out of shape and probably killed himself trying to find him, Allen only hoped he wasn't too late. Allen ran at full speed, opening up doorways in the walls using his magic until he reached the hallway with the armory. Allen could hear the clash of steel and saw two dead soldiers in the hallway near the entrance. Allen stepped over them and entered the armory, what he saw made his blood run cold. Mary was there and had her sword out, a man already lay dead inside with his pants around his ankles, a victim of a backstab. Currently Mary was trying to fend off three angry soldiers that were ready for her, they all had weapons they took off the wall and looked like they wanted to kill her.
"Hey" Allen screamed.
Mary was trained enough not to take her attention off of her opponent, two of the soldiers did and Mary dashed forward and sliced one across the abdomen, opening him up and spilling his intestines. The other distracted soldier turned around in time to catch a swipe across the throat, Mary was already moving past him to her last opponent. The man was big but carried his weapon like a club, he swung at Mary but soon found it was hard to keep the tall woman off of him. In a fist fight the big soldier could ignore Mary's blows, in a sword fight it was impossible as Mary sliced into his flesh with a ferocity Allen had never seen. Despite her age Allen knew she was better with the blade than he was, now that she wasn't holding back Allen got to see how deadly she truly was when she wasn't just sparring with him. The final blow came quickly, Mary took him in the chest and left her sword buried inside of him as she went over to a barely clothed figure in the corner. Allen saw it was Beatrice and turned to give the girl some privacy.
"These soldiers leave this house tonight" Allen replied.
"Yes" Mary replied as Allen could hear the anger in her voice. Before Allen could step out of the armory Major Welch came through the door with two other soldiers and Phillip's older brother Frank.
"Who killed my men" Major Welch said angrily.
"You and the rest are out of my home" Allen said as he looked at the major.
"You killed good soldiers over a fat woman" Major Welch said angrily. "It was her duty to at least improve morale, now we are five men short. I should have you killed."
Allen was about to reply when Frank punched the Major hard in the side of the head. The Major's head rocked to the side as Frank did not relinquish his element of surprise and threw another blow followed by another. The Major went down and Allen gave the soldiers with him a look daring them to react. Major Welch was at least a foot taller than Frank and was built like a soldier, yet he was being dominated. Major Welch eventually got his wits and tossed Frank off of him and drew his blade.
"Put your blade away" Allen replied. "My hospitality has come to an end. Get out of my home or meet me in the main hall with whatever weapons or armor you need. The fight will be to the death, do anything to any of my guests and you will die a coward's death, slowly and with as much pain as possible."
Allen walked past Major Welch and wondered what the man would do, Allen was tired of threats and thought action would speak louder. The soldiers probably thought they could get away with anything, that would stop. Allen walked over to his main hall and took his shirt off, he couldn't chance any loose material hindering his movements. Allen stayed in the room for around ten minutes and decided maybe Welch backed out on the fight, Allen doubted Welch would attack Frank with Mary in the room, she could grab any random bow and end him right there. Welch finally appeared except he had Mage Davina alongside of his two leftenants and Governor WIlloughsby behind him.
"Welch your men defiled these people's home" Willoughsby said as he moved Davina out of his way and pleaded with Major Welch. "He is well within his right asking you and your men to leave his home, he has already did more than enough."
"Get out of my way" Major Welch replied. "This man has been talking like he runs the kingdom for far too long. I should have ended this a long time ago."
"Well then step forward" Allen said motioning Major Welch to come towards the center of the room.
"You are a fool" Major Welch replied. "My battlemage will take care of any magic you have, if she falls then I will run you through myself."
"Right now I have only kicked your men out" Allen began. "If Mage Davina wants to make my business hers then she can join them outside."
"After this I am taking control of this keep" Major Welch snarled. "Something I should have done in the beginning.”
"You can always leave if you are too scared to fight me" Mage Davina replied.
Allen looked up at the ceiling, he made a portion of it crumble and fall directly where Davina was standing. The battlemage looked up and saw the falling stone and bac
ked up, Allen had raised a small portion of the ground directly behind her to knee height, the mage tripped over it and fell on her backside. The stone ground moved like liquid and pinned her hands to the floor like stone shackles, Davina tried to get her feet underneath her but found out they were also fastened to stone she tripped over which was retreating to level ground. Allen stepped forward and the stone rose from the ground and slithered all over his body like living armor, Allen could control it with his mind which made walking in it easy, he was more like a passenger in a wagon instead of a man supporting armor with his own might. The armor slid over him quickly and only left his eyes and nose open, Allen was on Welch just as the man pulled his sword. The first blow rang off the armor and caused no damage, Major Welch twisted away from Allen's grasp and got off another ineffective blow. Allen waited for the next blow and reached out and grabbed the sword, Welch tried to pull the sword away but was too slow as Allen grabbed ahold of him. Allen could see the look in Welch's eyes when he realized Allen would kill him, the look stayed on his eyes as Allen willed one of the arms of his living armor into a stone spike and stabbed it through Major Welch's chest as a sword rang off his back. Allen turned around and grabbed his attacker by the shoulder, Leftenant Warrior dropped his sword.
"Leftenant Warrior" Allen growled. "I want you and all of your men outside of my home. Take all your dead filth with you and never disrespect my home again."
Allen let Leftenant Warrior go and made eye contact with Mage Davina who was still struggling against her bonds. Above her was Mary who was wielding a short dagger which she held close to the woman's neck.
"You can let her go Mary" Allen said as he released the stone's hold on her. "For all her power if she would have blown apart my shackles then her limbs would have been blown apart also. Mage Davina got her fight and she lost rather quickly, now she can sleep with the men outside."
"Y-you cheated" Mage Davina said looking at Major Welch's body. "I-I wasn't ready. You used trickery to beat me."
"If I thought you were an actual threat you would be dead" Allen replied. "Now get out."
"Allen I am angry at those men but they are dead" Mary replied. "They are still going to need a place outside of the weather, can you start working on a place?"
"They can sleep under the stars" Allen grumbled.
"Can you do it as a favor to me?" Mary asked.
Allen said nothing as he walked outside, he supposed he shouldn’t blame every soldier because they had an idiot leading them. But Welch was dead now and Leftenant Warrior would talk to Leftenant Blaine about everything that happened. None of the Leftenants would be that stupid to attack him Allen thought as he walked behind his home to the mountain behind him. Allen started using his magic, the rock started peeling away as Allen's mind shaped a door. The excess rock he forced to crawl outside and gather, it looked almost like a stream of water started slowly crawling towards Allen's outer gate. Allen wished he could focus on multiple things, his limit was two maybe three depending on the situation. In this situation though he had to give all of his attention to the mountain and the cave he was creating. Soldiers started shouting at first, moving rock tended to surprise people. Eventually many came over to see what was happening and started speaking excitedly. Allen felt the drain as he finally finished with moving all the rock he wanted, he would build a simple dwelling with one huge room for sleeping along with another room for preparing food. After what the Rolls had been through he wouldn't force them to cook for the men.
"Allen" Phillip said from behind him. "Thank you."
"You should be thanking Mary" Allen replied. "She did all of the real work. Your brother Frank got his licks in as well."
"Mary was amazing" Phillip replied. "I was too winded to see the fight, but Frank has told me some things. Mary is inside trying to wrap her head around what the soldiers would need for their new dwelling. I admit this is not what I was expecting."
"What were you expecting?" Allen asked.
"Tents or something" Phillip replied. "You could make a lot of money with this talent, what are you going to do with that pile of rock you stacked by the wall?"
"Nothing today" Allen replied. "Moving this much stone is tiring me out. The only thing I am trying to do right now is make a sleeping area and a kitchen."
"It looks dark in there" Phillip replied. "They will need lights."
"That stupid battlemage will be inside" Allen replied. "She can fix the light situation."
"You can't put a woman in there" Phillip replied. "No matter how powerful she is she can be overwhelmed. Does Mary know about this? I know she wants people gone but I don’t think she wants to put them in a bad position."
"You sound just like her baker" Allen replied. "The woman can spend one more night inside, I am tired now though. The floors are smooth and there is a hearth complete with chimney that can serve as heat and a place to cook. I am going to lay down, find me if anyone is dumb enough to dissent about being kicked out of my home."
~
"This makes no sense, I am going to talk to them" Allen said looking over at Mary. "They are after people with royal blood, you have royal blood. We have no allegiance to the people inside of our walls, if the Gorgans were bloodthirsty then they would have stepped up their destruction of the thorn fields instead of the leisurely pace in which they have been going."
"They are just making sure they can bring their full force upon us” Mary replied.
“Regardless we owe them as much consideration as we do the traitors” Allen replied. “I will see what they want. According to the Governor, they want to restore the monarchy. If we have a chance to place you back on the throne then we should take it.”
“I am with Phillip, Allen” Mary replied.
“He is a boy and the first person I allowed in your life” Allen replied. “He has no bearing on this.”
“I am forbidding you to talk to them” Mary said angrily.
“I came to tell you where I was going, not to ask for permission” Allen replied. “If we sit here then eventually people will die anyway. The only person I will see to their safety is you, the rest will eventually be overran and you should know that.”
“I am the one with most of the training” Mary said as she started pacing around the room.
“Then you know whenever the fight starts that the traitors will inflict heavy losses on the invaders” Allen replied. “When they finally do gain entrance to this place they are going to be looking for payback. I don't expect any man other than Governor Willoughsby to survive, even the Rolls’ will be put to death.”
“The Gorgans are our enemy Allen” Mary replied.
“They are not OUR enemy” Allen replied emphasizing the word our. “The Governor ran because he has no wish to lead anything. You on the other hand should be Queen of Atropia, if these people can make that happen then we should be their allies.”
“We have our allies” Mary replied. “It would be evil to betray them.”
“Time for a hard choice Mary” Allen replied. “These people will eventually attack, when they do a lot of these men will die. If you can stop this entire thing from happening, do you do it? You choosing to help the Gorgans could lead to all of these people being set free, so what do you? You should go look into the eyes of these traitors who you love so much and let them know you are willing to see them die instead of bargaining with the Gorgans.”
“Allen this is too much to think about” Mary replied.
“I will give you some time then” Allen replied. “And make sure you tell Phillip, regardless of my thoughts of him if I find him in here alone with you it will not end well.”
Allen left Mary and already knew where he was heading, he needed to talk to the Gorgans just to see if Willoughsby was telling the truth. Allen soon found himself in the guard tower where he first talked to Willoughsby at, the Gorgas army were a lot more alert than the Atropians were and Allen soon found himself surrounded by three men and one woman wearing fancy armor tha
t was made of steel that was somehow colored black. Allen peered out at them and waited for them to speak, eventually the woman did.
“Atropian, tell your master we will eventually gain passage to you hideout” the woman said as she looked directly at Allen. “Your thorn field will last around another week or so and then we will begin assaulting the walls. After that we will kill everyone inside until we reach the daughter of the dead king or the man you call the Governor.”
“You can try and many of you will die” Allen began. “I didn’t come here to speak to some underling, I came to speak to whoever is in charge.”
“Your magic will not work on us” the woman replied. “We are the personal mage killers of the King, your boastfulness means nothing to us.”
“Whatever” Allen replied. “This King of yours, is he about?”
“I don’t think you realize the trouble you are in” the woman in the dark armor said as she drew her blade. “Now that we know there is a passage, we will take you out of whatever that is and infiltrate your keep.”
“Then you will die for nothing when all I wanted was an audience” Allen replied.
“And who are you to command such a thing?” said one of the mage killers.
“I am the protector of the Queen of Atropia” Allen replied.
“A mage is her protector?” the woman said shaking her head. “This is even easier than I thought.”
“Why do you keep calling me a mage?” Allen asked.
“Because only a mage would be stupid enough to try and face down an army alone” the woman replied. “You are most likely on a suicide mission, trying to kill whoever is in charge before you are either cut down or burned to ashes.”
“The King approaches” one of the dark armored men said as all the dark armored warriors took a knee.
“You do not have the blood of those I am looking for” an old man said as he walked up surrounded by four large heavily armored men. The King wore purple and looked around sixty summers, his long gray hair had began turning white in some places and he had a clean shaven face. Despite his age the man moved gracefully enough, this was impressive considering he was wearing plate armor complete with sword. The gray eyes the wrinkled face held never left Allen’s as he walked closer.
The Elemental Page 6