Without Magic

by Tye Tivillus

  Chapter 13: Reunited

  Alexander and Bo sat silently for a long time. At first Bo had many questions he wanted to ask – what had happened on the night of the fire? Where had Alexander been since then? But Alexander demanded silence. In the silence the brasser sat and his thoughts stewed. He felt illogically upset that Alexander had allowed him to believe his mentor dead, and the more he thought this, the more agitated and annoyed he became. Soon, however, the burn on his hand took up most of his attention - that and his fatigue. After an almost unbearably long wait, Alexander cautiously moved the stone that blocked the entryway. He leaned out of the doorway and peered into the darkness beyond in both directions. All commotion had died down a long time ago, and now the corridors were as silent and cold as a long forgotten catacomb. Alexander moved abominably slowly through the corridors. Sometimes they were so narrow that the portly weapons master had to squeeze through sideways, his rather large belly scraping quietly against the damp stone walls. He was taking extra care, however, to make sure they were not followed or spotted.

  Eventually they came to a well lit room. Bo could see no obvious method of defence for it, nor even a lock on the door, but it was unlikely that Alexander had stayed hidden for so long without at least a cloaking spell. There was a simple bedroll on the ground, a chamberpot in the corner furthest from the door, and a few barrels that sat next to the door. At the foot of the bedroll there was a sturdy looking chest. Against the wall nearest the bedroll leaned an impressively large and well loved two handed battle axe that gleamed dimly in the light. Around the roof there hovered a number of globes that gave off light and heat, keeping the room at a more tolerable temperature than the outside corridors. Alexander sat down heavily on the chest, and proved just how sturdy it was as it took his weight without complaint. Bo followed Alexander's lead, sitting on the floor and resting his back against the barrels by the door. He cradled his burned hand in his lap, and was finally able to give it some attention. The palm of his hand was burned raw, and in places small beads of a yellowish, not-quite-clear liquid had formed. Despite the severity of the burn, however, the wound hurt only vaguely, so that the gentle ache seemed to seep halfway up the teen's arm. With a grunt of surprise Alexander got up again and grabbed the hand in question.

  'Vhy not say anythink? Iz silly to leave,' he growled. Bo resisted complaining that it was Alexander who had demanded silence. The weapons master sighed and dug out a number of first aid items from the chest, including the gel that Bo was becoming quite familiar with. Alexander sat Bo on the chest and proceeded to treat the burn.

  'You knew that I was immune to magic, didn't you?' Bo asked finally. It was a suspicion that had been burning in his mind since he found out about his peculiar birth defect. Alexander snorted humourlessly.

  'Yez. Vhen first meet, I think – here is ass-as-sin. Collar not vork, and iz ztrange age for slave, yez? I know old stories about ze killers who not touch by magic. Not believe, but ztill remember,' Alexander tapped his head knowingly. 'But you fight like leetle gurl. No keeping self safe. I vatch, and I convince that no ass-as-sin. Iz confusing, but I accept. All strange things are happenink in vorld.' The man shrugged, keeping his eyes on his work. Bo thought about this quietly. It made enough sense, so he accepted it, simply glad Alexander hadn't immediately acted on his first assumptions that Bo was an assassin and cut him into little pieces.

  'Is this where you have been living since the armoury burned down?' Bo asked after a sufficiently long lull in conversation. Alexander grunted but didn't reply immediately.

  'Not vish to sayink ztory two timez. Vait until talk to all group.' After Bo's hand was treated, Alexander got him to stand up, and packed the supplies away in the chest. 'Muzt being careful now. Iz people come after you, so ztay hidden, yez?' Bo agreed half-heartedly. He wouldn't have been so reluctant half an hour ago to hide himself, but the immediate danger had passed and the edge of his fear had dulled. He didn't want to be taken captive and sent before the artefact monster, but he hated the idea that he was to be hidden away. Alexander dug a long cloak out of his trunk, handing it to Bo who quickly slipped it on. The cloak covered Bo completely, although it was a little large, and dragged along the ground as well, making it important for the boy to take care not to let it trip him up. Satisfied with the disguise, the former weapon master nodded thoughtfully, before leading the way out of the door.

  With a still sore, but treated hand, Bo followed Alexander, who moved more quickly through the passageways than he had when they were escaping the chosen ones, clearly confident that Bo was rested enough to keep up. Soon they emerged from a wall covering not far from where Erasmus' room was. Alexander had obviously acquainted himself with the secret passageways in and about the castle. Somehow Bo wasn't surprised that the weapons master had used his time this way, and wouldn't be surprised if Alexander had also been training non-stop in his battle exercises. Alexander lead the way to Erasmus' door, and the teen didn't ask how he knew which one it was. From inside there came the sound of arguing.

  'You said you'd look after him!' shouted Erasmus, despair clear in his tone. Alexander knocked heavily on the door, cutting off further conversation. There was a momentary pause before the door was opened a crack by Erasmus, who peered out with one suspicious eye. What he saw was an angry, bushy bearded, fat man, who had a no nonsense glare to his beady blue eyes and overhanging bushy eyebrows. At an uncharacteristic loss for words, it was clear the usually voluble man was expecting someone, or something else. Taking advantage of this, Alexander pushed his way inside. The rude intrusion quickly galvanised Erasmus' mouth, and the outraged scholar proceeded to let forth a verbal volley of reproof that could have stripped bone from flesh. Despite the cries of protest Alexander continued to barrel his way forcefully into the room, and Bo followed quietly in his wake. Erasmus was too busy trying to repel the unstoppable weapon master with an equally unstoppable flow of talking to see Bo immediately. When the boy had finally managed to gain entry to the room, and was standing in the middle of the rug, he pulled back his hood. Erasmus turned, exasperated and defeated, and caught sight of his younger friend. The desert mage gasped in surprise, before grabbing the teen up in an embrace. 'Bo! Hayes and Arty said they had lost you! Who is this man? Another friend of yours?' Erasmus' somewhat over enthusiastic hug was restricting Bo's breathing and he squirmed uncomfortably until he was released. The verbose mage blushed, muttering apologies for his exuberance, while Bo took the time to explain that Alexander had saved him rather at the last second.

  After everyone had settled somewhat, Erasmus, Arty and Hayes explained that a number of 'castle guards' had come and investigated their rooms, but that none of the so called guards had been equipped with the appropriate armour, or indication of their ranks, making her suspicious that they were above-ground allies of the demons. Luckily the two warrior women had gotten back to their rooms in advance of the search, and thus had some merit to their story that they had been in their room all night. They assumed the search had been an effort to discover Bo, but the guards hadn't been forthcoming in what they were looking for.

  Alexander then explained that he had been investigating the problem for some time. He had tried following the slave takers, only to fall prey to the same misdirection spells as Hayes and Arty. Suspecting Jayne (Master Sir) was in on the operation, he had accused Master Sir on the day that the slave master accosted Bo in the armoury, only to have his suspicions confirmed by the reaction he received. That night he had grilled Master Sir, but the man had been unwilling or unable to speak out against his business partners. Alexander didn't credit him with the guts to stay quiet while under pressure so he quickly realised Jayne must have been under a spell to keep him quiet. In any case word of the weapon master's investigations must have spread quickly, as Alexander soon received a call from an unwelcome visitor – a badly trained assassin. Realising that if this assassin was bested, then more would be sent, Alexander had killed his foe, saved a few barrels of pickles an
d a trunk of important goods, and faked his own death by setting the armoury on fire. Since then he had been living in the secret passages, trying to work on a way to break the misdirection spells to further investigate the mystery. The weapons master grumbled that he might have been able to break the spells if they were in his own native tongue, but that it was difficult to counteract the spells that were all in another language, even with a long time to study them. He hadn't wanted to leave the castle, feeling that the safety of his King might be in jeopardy, and so instead was working under cover. Finally it was Arty and Hayes' turn to talk about what they had seen. Alexander stayed quiet, his arms folded across his chest. He would occasionally snort in disbelief or amusement at some of the points in the tale, but he did not interrupt. Erasmus had clearly already heard the report and paid more attention to Alexander than to the story, keeping a distrustful eye on the weapon master. Bo was surprised to hear the warriors' history of what had occurred. They described the conversion of the slave with no mention of monsters, or eyes, or anything as descriptive as mentioning how horrible the artefact looked. It only served to prove to him that it had been cloaked by magic.

  'To be honest I don't know how they could have suddenly realised Bo was of any interest, or even if he was. It was sort of uncanny how one moment we were going relatively unnoticed, and the next every damn one of them was coming after us,' finished Arty, giving Bo a confused glance. Bo cleared his throat. He wanted to ask if perhaps he had been seeing things differently, as he was almost certain that no one else had recognised the artefact for what it truly was. He didn't, however, want to appear foolish in front of Alexander, and the desert mages by presuming to know things that they did not, only to be proved wrong later. Erasmus turned a quizzical gaze on Bo, hearing the small cough and assuming the teen had something to say. Embarrassed, Bo spoke about what he had experienced. At first the desert mages seemed shocked by the revelation that the ancient artefact was actually a monster of some sort, and then they were fascinated - at least Erasmus was fascinated. Arty and Hayes, once over their surprise, merely accepted the fact. Erasmus pestered Bo to draw a picture of the creature as best he could and despite protests forced a piece of paper and an ink pen into Bo's hands. Being no great artist the picture was less than perfect. The teen also drew in a human for a size comparison.

  'This makes no sense! Surely someone would have noticed over all those hundreds of years?' murmured Erasmus, staring at the hastily scrawled picture as though it could give him answers. Absently he wandered over to his books. Picking out a hefty tome, the mage began to flick through the pages, absorbed in his own world of research.

  'I am knowink thiz name of new chosen one. Naberius. He iz demon, yez? Sealed away lonk time ago, but eef leetle boy and gurl is bad, Naberius coming and eating them in their bed, yez? Not much eating of children, but many bad boy and gurl, make me think Naberius iz joke.' Growled Alexander through his beard. Arty frowned.

  'Maybe so, but he seemed real enough tonight.' talk devolved into a guessing game until Erasmus finally piped up.

  'I couldn't find anything on this,' he said, as he waved the poorly drawn picture around, 'that might suggest anyone was aware it was a monster of sorts. I do, however, know a little about Naberius. It is said he was to be sealed away, but there was a footnote in the book stating that there was also a legend about him being eaten by a more powerful, unnamed demon, in an attempt to gain enough power to destroy humanity.' There was silence for a while as everyone digested this information. The easy conclusion to draw was that Naberius had been eaten by the artefact. Whether that was the correct conclusion was something else entirely. 'I only say this,' Erasmus anxiously added, 'because you are all the kinds of people I trust not to overreact, or work on assumptions and hastily drawn conclusions. History is not solid fact, you know. There is a lot of hearsay and the actual existence of demons is highly disputed, especially with the new reclassification of the animal and dragon hierarchy, because you see demons-' The lanky mage yelped as Arty gave him a friendly kick to remind him not to ramble.

  'Well whatever they are doing with the artefact – the issue remains that it was stolen. They have no right to be using it at all,' Arty said firmly. Alexander got up and started walking casually toward the door, arms still crossed and a look of irritation rapidly spreading across his ruddy features. He yanked the wooden portal open, and Will, who had been leaning up against the keyhole was quickly dragged into the room. He grinned sheepishly,

  'Hey Mister Alexander! It's good to see you aren't dead.' Alexander cuffed the boy around the back of the head

  'Ztupid boy. Getting caught and you being in big trouble. Make trouble for everyone vith prying nose.' growled the weapons master. Erasmus glared, boggle eyed at the intruder that even he had not been aware of, despite his cautionary spells.

  'You! What do you think you're doing?' Will grinned cheekily, clearly not at all daunted when faced with a room full of powerful mages, skilled warriors, and one grumpy old weapons master, who were all glaring daggers at him.

  'I heard there was trouble in my castle, and trouble without Will is like a group of men without any women – not very productive.' Alexander slapped Will up the side of the head for his impudence while Erasmus frowned, grumbling that what Will had said didn't even make sense. The white eyed boy paused his absurdities, rubbing ruefully at the spot Alexander kept hitting. 'Look you be careful with this head. You don't want to slap out all my thoughts before I even get the chance to say them, right?' Alexander hit Will in the head again, for good measure.

  'Eef haff thoughts, say them, not babble on vith nonsense, yez?' Will moved away from Alexander and closer to Bo, grinning and winking at his friend.

  'Well you have a bunch of people looking for Bo, right? Well they're looking for a slave. Just give him a new look. Get rid of the collar, maybe dye his hair.' Alexander frowned angrily,

  'Iz not get rid of collar. Bo belonk to King now. Iz paid for vith King's money.'

  'Listen here, I had to pay much more than The King did to secure Bo's services,' Erasmus burst out, finally satisfying his natural dislike of Alexander with a valid confrontation. 'If you ask me, Bo's mine now, and I say he can go without a collar. It isn't doing anything anyway.' Alexander and Erasmus continued arguing passionately for some time over the matter. Erasmus claimed that he'd paid for Bo fair and upfront, and that it wasn't his fault if the man he'd paid the money to was dishonestly robbing the King. Alexander was of the opinion that Erasmus had just done a poor deal on a rental. Neither could convince the other side of the legitimacy of their argument, and it looked like the whole thing was going to end in a fight. Bo was surprised to hear Alexander's views on the matter. The man had been so kind to him, but clearly he thought that Bo should accept his lot. It was a mind set that Bo just couldn't agree with and one that it seemed Alexander wasn't about to change.

  'Look,' interrupted Will, 'even if he is the King's property – if he gets caught then won't he get stolen anyway? Getting his collar off would be a good way of protecting the King's property, doncha think?' The white haired boy grinned, knowing he had a good argument. Alexander frowned, not liking where the conversation was headed. Arty and Hayes finally joined in, throwing their weight on the 'no collar' side, until finally Alexander had no one but Bo to look at for back up. Feeling bad about disappointing Alexander, the teen looked at his feet.

  'I think no collar would be best.' He didn't want to see Alexander's expression, and so continued to look at the ground as though fixated. Erasmus let out a smug 'see?' placing a hand on Bo's shoulder that the teen had to try hard not to shrug off. Alexander flung his hands up into the air,

  'Fine, eef you vish to take off collar, do it vithout help, but I not ztop you. I go before anyvun elz come in here. Iz dangerous, yez?' with that Alexander turned and left, clearly in a bad mood. No one made to follow him. Soon enough Bo was given some tea, and Will begged leave to get some 'beauty sleep.' Arty and Hayes made him promise not to
breathe a word of what he knew to anyone, and the white haired teen had winked roguishly, claiming his lips were sealed. This did not seem to allay the warriors' anxiety but neither Bo nor Erasmus would let them cast spells on Will to keep him silent on the matter.

  'If what you saw is correct Bo, and I don't doubt you at all, then something terrible is going on. I know Alexander thinks that this has nothing to do with the King, but we're on the brink of war with this kingdom, so it seems unlikely to be a coincidence that they have stolen an ancient artefact and are doing I-don't-know-what with it. Reviving demons perhaps? I really haven't a clue. Hopefully we can find out more when the peace talks start up again – but we'll have to be careful.' There was more discussion and speculation, but finally Arty and Hayes left, saying that they would be back tomorrow in order to help remove Bo's collar.

  The rest of the night passed quickly for Bo, who fell asleep at the table due to the tea he'd been given for his hand, even though the thought of getting his collar off tomorrow should have kept him awake all night with excitement. He barely even woke when Erasmus hauled him onto the bed. Although he slept in late, the rest of the day passed horribly slowly. Every time there were footsteps in the corridor, Bo was forced to hide until they passed, fearing that another search party might come through and find him. Erasmus spent some of the time dying Bo's hair black with some sort of herbal product that Hayes and Arty had given him. It smelled bad, like overcooked cabbage, but Bo had to endure it, and came out with a head full of dark brown hair. Erasmus used magic to clear up the smell and with a certain amount of distaste, incinerated the muddy mess of dye product as though it were the contents of a chamberpot. As dusk spread across the sky, Arty and Hayes arrived, just as casually as they always did. When Bo finally came out of hiding they playfully teased him about his new hair colour until it was time to sneak out. Bo wore a scarf to cover his collar, and Erasmus insisted on coming with them, much to Arty's dismay (she asked several times if Erasmus would be able to go so long without speaking). The small group moved quickly through the corridors, avoiding areas with a lot of traffic and sticking to the shadows where possible. Once or twice they turned and hurried in a new direction when they could see a pair of guards on casual patrol, not wishing to chance an encounter.

  By the time they reached the forge, no one was walking around outside, and many of the lights had been put out, leaving Middlefortress castle like a gloomy ghost town. One or two of the windows showed dim lights, but there was no sound of movement from within. Swiftly, Arty cast a spell on the building called the 'Hand of Glory' spell. It required her to set a few candles burning outside the house, but she explained to Bo in a whisper that it was a standard military spell. Everyone in the desert military was trained in a few standard spells in three categories, communications, espionage and counter-espionage, and battle.

  'I've never been very good with spells though,' Arty admitted, lighting a candle with a match, which she snubbed out in the dirt. 'I make up for it with fighting skill, you see? Now this spell will keep those inside the building asleep until the candles are blown out, or it should if I have done it right.' Arty grinned devilishly. 'There are better ways to do it of course, but there wasn't the time to use them.' Erasmus looked like he wanted to start talking about the topic of better spells, but he quickly remembered that he was sulking childishly, and not speaking, to prove to Arty once and for all that he could keep his mouth shut if the situation called for it. The warrior woman grinned, seeing her friend's irritation at his self enforced silence.

  'Of course I'm sure Erasmus knows plenty of good spells for this kind of thing, right Erasmus?' she paused, still grinning ghoulishly while Erasmus merely glared at her. Pretending she was waiting for a reply, the warrior woman cocked her head to one side, feigning confusion, 'no? Well I guess he doesn't then. That's a surprise – I thought he was supposed to be a magic prodigy.' Bo couldn't help chuckling as Erasmus struggled not to rise to her bait, making muffled noises of irritation, but ultimately managing to hold his tongue. The glare he was giving Arty, however, suggested that she would be in trouble as soon as they returned to a place safe enough to speak freely.

  A few terse words here and there in the main forge area from Arty and Hayes quickly had the fires burning hot. It was a delicate procedure. Not having the keywords for the collar, there was nothing they could do to it via magic, so they were required to manually remove it, which still required them to break a number of spells designed to protect the collar from damage. Suddenly Bo was glad Erasmus had insisted on coming, as the mage managed to break these spells in two minutes, rather smugly doing so without uttering a single word, although a sheen of sweat on his forehead suggested it had been a difficult task. Despite Arty's care, Bo managed to gain a few burns – none as severe as the one on his hand from the previous night. It was due to the worry for Bo's safety that the procedure took so long, but the brass was surprisingly easy to melt. Finally, after a couple of hours, and with the candles outside burning dangerously low, the collar came off. The miasma of tense anxiety lifted, as Bo felt his naked neck. It was good to be free. He grinned widely at Erasmus, Arty, and Hayes, who mirrored the expression, both Hayes and Erasmus gave him powerful hugs, sharing Bo's euphoria at being free, but it was clear that Arty already wished to leave. After cleaning up and setting the forge to rights, the small group headed back to Erasmus' room where they celebrated with good food, and wine that Erasmus had smuggled in. Bo had never drunk quite so much and ended up very tipsy. To a greater or lesser extent so did Arty and Hayes. Erasmus, it seemed, couldn't hold his drink, and after the second glass he was completely incoherent, babbling about various magical methods to make a soup out of good will, boiling water, and a nail (much to everyone else's amusement). It was good to relax among a set of friends, especially after the past two nights of stress, and the frivolity seemed to suggest to Bo that the bulk of his worries were over. Surely now that he had friends, and freedom he would have no trouble accomplishing his goals for adventure. Eventually everyone retired to bed as the soporific effect of the alcohol came into play. Bo took the bed, as was customary, only to be surprised as Erasmus flopped down beside him, thankfully still fully dressed.

  'I'm tired g'niiiight,' mumbled Erasmus into the pillow. Bo's mind churned, but in the end he didn't feel like sleeping in an armchair, and fell asleep with his good hand curled around the back of his bare neck.

  The next morning Bo woke groggily to a thunderous banging on the door. He sat up in bed sleepily rubbing at his eyes, and was shocked when the door crashed open. It even managed to rouse Erasmus who glared sleepily at the cause of the disturbance, still mildly intoxicated. A broad shouldered fighter stood awkwardly in the doorway, his hand was on the sword at his hip.

  'I uh- I was ordered to search this room for a runaway slave.' He said, quickly moving his eyes up to stare at the opposing wall. There was a pause as Erasmus thought about what the man had said.

  'Try not to be too noisy while you're at it' grumbled the mage, looping his arm around Bo's shoulders and pulling the teen back down into bed and under the covers. 'I don't think he's going to search the bed,' whispered Erasmus, grinning slyly, although still half asleep. Bo frowned feeling that the mage was enjoying the situation far too much, but he was unable to complain of it until the guard had gone. For his part the guard was very thorough, although he avoided the bed somewhat fastidiously keeping his gaze away from what he presumed was the couple inhabiting it. Once he was done, and with a quick apology, the man left hurriedly, closing the door after him. Bo leapt out of bed as though he'd been sitting on hot coals. He was about to say something when Arty and Hayes entered, complaining loudly at the early wake up. They waved at Bo, clearly relieved that he hadn't been caught. Erasmus remained in bed, and Bo suspected the man had fallen asleep again, possibly even while the guard had still been in the room, which was not at all reassuring. The teen joined Arty and Hayes in breakfast and some morning exercises, trying not to yawn too ofte
n while he was still waking up. Everything felt fresh and new without his collar on, and Bo couldn't help but smile every time a cool breeze brushed past his throat.