Perhaps there were survivors? It wasn't Torva's mission to check for wounded or unconscious survivors. He just hoped that the grand masters would be able to send healers before the worst of the injured died from their wounds. Megan would probably be more upset than he, since the young woman had taught many of the apprentices that had been sent into battle looking unprepared for a true fight. Of course, Torva couldn't say that he was ready for that fight either. The enemy had been surprisingly strong.
"We'll make better time on the street," he stated before using his magic to slow his fall as the warlock leaped over the side of the building.
Using magic to muffle their footfalls just in case, the four warlocks hurried along even as they remained alert for the enemy. The sound of explosions had faded long ago. Torva no longer sensed the spikes in magic usage within the cave city and continued to believe that Southwall had left as they had come, silently and swiftly. Only portal magic could be so thorough and quick, but did Southwall have such magic. Rumors from the battle at their North Wall said that reinforcements had arrived too quickly for it to be anything else. Some of the survivors of that battle had also been sent south of the wall by the resurrection man, Palose. He was a warlock now and as strong in portal magic as any adept, but no one had ever accused him of selling them out in that brief conflict.
Word had it that the emperor trusted him. It was he who had commissioned the resurrection man to use his devious placement of lodestones behind the wall to bring a force to attack from the south while another army attacked from the north distracting them. It should have worked and even did to a point. They broke the wall, but the reinforcements had come from the east, west and south catching their forces in turn. Torva hadn't been there for that attack, but he had heard enough from those who had.
Turning the final corner, Torva thought of the enemy's tactics here. Had they distracted the empire by intensifying the battle in distant Litsarin just to weaken the city? The war had changed only a few days earlier and drawn out soldiers and warlocks alike to make sure that they didn't lose more ground. Many of the men he knew and trusted had gone to stop the push. Now left with a veritable skeleton crew manning the two barracks and with the magic users in the school reduced by half leaving some teachers and apprentices; Southwall, or someone with battle mages in their army had attacked the emperor head on while distracting their forces around the city.
With the warning bells still ringing, making his head pound as well, the men came to the door of the emperor's fortress. Two massive trolls in gilded armor holding ten foot long spears looked confused about what to do until the hunters loped up to the door.
"Halt!" one of the trolls commanded moving his spear between them as he pulled it to the ready. His comrade was slower to respond but joined him in facing the hunters.
"Idiots, we're here to help. The bells are coming from the spire, so obviously standing out here hasn't done the emperor any good at all. You will likely lose your heads for this," he finished threatening the massive creatures. Trolls weren't the largest of the beasts created in the pits, but they were big enough to give most men pause. Torva wasn't most men. He knew ways to kill even such formidable soldiers, so the hunter was commanding in authority in spite of giving up hundreds of pounds to the larger monsters.
Not even letting the less intelligent monsters try to decide if they should let the team through, Torva tapped into his magic enough to push past the two trolls. His men followed, though they were probably a little less certain of ignoring the powerful beasts.
Hurrying inside of the castle, the team leader used his tracking skills once more. He looked for magic, even though the emperor's signature strength had faded, there should be other warlocks of power somewhere inside. More importantly, the emperor's sister, newly announced to the city, should have been felt in his absence unless the girl had been killed as well. No one had seen the emperor's brother since he had gone to Litsarin. That meant only the two most powerful magic users had been in the spire during this attack.
A maid saw the men approaching from behind too late, but she scurried into an open doorway before cautiously watching them pass. It was obvious that she had no idea what was happening and was simply hiding as she believed that there could still be more of a threat in the fortress. Torva's senses told him otherwise. The feeling of magic inside the spire was spotty at best. That meant that many of the emperor's personal guard, who were warlocks, had likely been killed as well.
Torva didn't know the spire well, but he could follow the residue of magic leading him up to a large audience chamber. His group wasn't the first to arrive. Soldiers stood in shock looking at the fallout from a great battle. Walls were scorched from wizard's fire. There were a few places remaining white, which meant all the charred black paint stood out starkly and covered more than half of the walls.
Bodies stuck out from the floor. All were dead and Torva thought many had never been alive or at least hadn't started the battle alive anyway. A necromancer of some skill, or a few of lesser ability perhaps, had joined the battle throwing his toys at the attackers. The dead were broken, burned and half buried in the stone floor as if it had been liquid long enough to swallow them to mid thigh if they hadn't fallen over first. Hands, legs and heads were intermittently discovered as if someone had fallen only to become mired in liquid stone.
Torva recognized one of the men as a half orc turned with several of his men to see the newest observers of the carnage.
Nodding his head and making a belated salute to the man, Torva asked, "What has happened here, General Corven?"
The man with an orcish look to his features frowned at the elven hunter and replied, "Southwall and its allies came up through the dungeon to attack the emperor. He fought alongside his warlocks and soldiers, but somehow they proved to be too much for our forces here." He gestured at the devastation and bodies, none of which appeared to be foreign to Ensolus, and added, "It looks like they either suffered no casualties or took their dead with them. I can't imagine any force capable of defeating our emperor, especially backed by some of the most powerful warlocks in the city, and I certainly would expect to see more of their dead. It is a humiliating defeat to say the least and devastating that we have lost our leader... at least for now."
The last part made Torva frown in confusion. "What do you mean 'for now', general?"
Corven stared at him with his brown orc eyes and the warlock could see the intelligence there, though most of his elven race looked down on the orcs as being less intelligent as a whole. Perhaps being partly human made the difference in the general, Torva considered.
"Our history says that Kolban, our emperor, died in the distant past only to return and rule for more than eight hundred years. He ruled as a shadow in a new body, but it was the same being that had been killed a century or so before.
"If our lord could defy death once, he could return again someday," the general surmised. It showed the man's scholarly acumen that he had likely read at least some of the history of Kolban's empire. The orc knew enough that he could have told Torva that the emperor had in fact conquered death twice after switching to a new body. It was when he had created a sister and lesser brother with his power also, but few knew of this fact and Corven wouldn't share the information with a mere officer of the elf's rank. He too had a dislike of the other man's race, even if they had been forced into an empire where they had to get along.
"If it takes him another century, what do we do in the meantime?" Torva asked with a sigh. Since the general didn't comment right away, he asked another important question, "Where is the princess? Will she or the brother continue to rule the empire?"
"No one has seen the princess. My warlocks tell me that they can't sense her in the castle or elsewhere in the city.
"They are still searching for her here, but they haven't found a body either, so maybe the princess still lives. As to his brother..." The general frowned again at the thought, "He was only supposed to guard his brother and preve
nt something like this from happening. I don't know if anyone would willingly follow a boy his age, even though his power rivals Lord Devolus.
"We will have to try and reach him on the front even so," Corven decided without much thought on the matter.
Torva said, "I can track with my magic. Should my team join in the search for the princess, general?"
Giving him a shrug, Corven replied, "Search if you want, squad leader, my men are spread thin. There aren't a lot of you warlocks left in the spire, so maybe you can speed the search.
"Where were the rest of you when the emperor could have used you anyway? I was expecting reinforcements. The bells have been ringing forever," he finished exaggerating the time. Torva guessed that less than two hours had passed since he had first heard the warning bells. When the enemy had first penetrated their defenses was harder to say for the hunter.
"The enemy had a powerful force waiting a couple blocks from the school. With over half of the school's forces being apprentices, it was a bloodbath. Our wizard hunters have been thinned out by the war and couldn't push through either.
"They seem to have withdrawn their forces already though. Apparently the stories of Southwall having begun to use portal magic are true. How they found their way inside is a bigger question. How could they enter the emperor's spire from the dungeon to circumvent the outer walls and guards is troubling."
Corven sighed, "There was a jailbreak recently. Worry that Southwall had discovered a way into the spire was addressed by placing an entire company of elite soldiers between the dungeon and the rest of the fortress. My men found them all dead."
"Our preparation wasn't enough apparently," Torva concluded simply. The statement made the general frown again and the elf had a feeling that the defenses had been partly of his design. Losing the emperor's fortress would have been damning enough, but the loss of the emperor as well, didn't leave the general's chances of holding his power very favorable.
Turning away from the general, the squad leader gave an order to Silas and Effelo, "You two run back and tell the masters what happened. Yelon and I will see what we can find. We will try and figure out where the princess has gone while we wait for more reinforcements. I would tell Grand Master Echolus that they will likely not have to worry about the enemy anymore at least."
The two men hurried away leaving Torva and his cousin to suffer asking Corven for a guide to the princess's room. He would try to find where she had disappeared to from there.
Evening came and Torva found Megan for dinner once more. The wizard had been busy all day as well. Not every warlock followed him to the emperor's spire after all. It wasn't necessary now. They were too late to help since only the clean up and search for the princess remained.
While soldiers and wizards did what they could to restore the emperor's fortress to normal, less the emperor; Megan and nearly half of the remaining wizards set out to discover if they could save any of their fallen forces. With the enemy withdrawn apparently, they could return to the scene of their defeat to try and help the apprentices and warlocks.
To their surprise, the fatalities taken were almost exclusively kept to the veteran wizards and the hunters who had pressed the enemy hardest. Many of the apprentices were little more than children really and Southwall must have taken pity on them, unlike the attitude she had seen from the grand masters. While dozens had fallen in the fight, many had been victims of spells that had put them to sleep almost completely unharmed. Some suffered from bumps and bruises, but headaches were a small price to pay to still be alive.
The state of the younger wizards should have brightened Megan's mood, but as Torva sat with her trying to eat, the woman's mind seemed to have focused on several matters that continued to upset her.
"I would ask what is wrong," Torva began as they ate in an uncomfortable silence, "but it would be easy enough to make a list as long as my arm. I guess I should ask, what is eating away at you still? Did you lose many of your students?"
Megan shook her head disturbing her strawberry blonde hair in process. She turned to look at him and Torva saw what he could only conclude was worry in her gray eyes. "Even after this ridiculous loss, the grand masters seemed determined to throw more of these children into the field. It is obvious that even our trained wizards, warlocks and hunters were no match for this enemy; but I think that they would have sent these children out again at the head of our remaining forces to get slaughtered if the enemy hadn't already left.
"Our enemy had more compassion for children that are our responsibility to train and protect than the masters. Echolus didn't seem to feel anything for all those lost in battle. Even after we found that most had been left alive, though incapacitated, the grand masters didn't seem to care at all."
Though he wanted to say something positive, Torva was left to ask, "What would you have them do? Our forces were spread thin and they are still capable of using magic. The grand masters sent what we had, even if they are children."
Frowning at him, Megan scolded the hunter quietly, "You too? How can you be so callous? We could have kept the apprentices behind our walls at least once we knew that the enemy was inside. At least give them some defensive walls to place between the children and our enemies.
"But no, Echolus and the others were ready to throw them at the enemy again uselessly!"
Torva sighed and shook his head, "I agree that sending them out a second time would have been a waste, but I simply meant that they didn't have a lot of choices.
"Our enemy was clever and out thought our generals. They heightened the need for more soldiers and wizards in Litsarin drawing away our veteran wizards and warlocks. Even our hunters were thinned significantly, which left us fewer troops to use to keep your students safe.
"Our leaders got cocky and never thought that Southwall could pull off something like this." He lowered his voice so that only Megan could hear the next part, "They had a break in about a month ago in the emperor's dungeon. Someone used portal magic then and spies had been found even before that which likely came in a similar way.
"No one else was told. Maybe if we had known that much, we could have been better prepared."
Megan looked even angrier, but kept her voice restrained as well. "They knew and did nothing?"
"General Corven said that they brought in a company of troops to hold the floor above the dungeon just in case something else should happen. It was a significant change in forces. If the emperor was worried that even his castle might be in danger, I wonder why he allowed the rest of the city to remain oblivious."
The woman looked upward as if to receive divine knowledge before saying quietly, "Maybe even the emperor cares... cared little for those serving him."
"I think they had hoped to keep everyone from panicking, but it would have been good to spread the warning. We might have been ready that way."
Shaking her head, Megan complained, "They don't care! I've trained these children and the grand masters would rather protect their necks by putting their apprentices in danger than lead them or protect them. I wish that there was a place that I could take them where they would be safer until they were ready."
"You can't protect them forever," he reminded the young wizard. Megan was only a few years beyond those she was worrying over, but she wouldn't say the same about her safety after all.
"I didn't say forever," she replied with a severe frown for the man beside her. "Once a wizard is believed competent, there is a time where we have to let them go free and just hope that we have done enough."
Megan paused still focused on his face before saying, "I know that you sometimes think of me as a child."
"I wouldn't sleep with a child," he countered looking uncomfortable with her suggestion. "You are quite grown, I know."
Smirking at him, the pretty girl replied, "I wasn't saying that you were having sex with a child, and my measurements aside, you are older than me even if you don't look it. Treating me like I don't know how to defend myself is more what I
mean."
"You couldn't have fought those battle mages the way they fought though," Torva said shaking his head.
Sighing at him, Megan countered, "Could any of us? We aren't trained to fight like that."
"I watched one young mage defeat five veteran wizard hunters at once today. I didn't think that possible. We can take down their wizards easily enough and sometimes with lesser numbers besides, but this mage was demonstrating magic like I have never seen them use in battle. Something seems to have changed with them behind their wall."
Megan looked at him intently and said, "Maybe something needs to change on this side of the wall as well."
Chapter 9- Supervision Questioned
A couple days had passed. Neither Torva nor anyone else found the princess. He had discovered a decaying portal point that hadn't been locked with lodestones in her room, but the magic used wasn't Princess Acheri's either. Worse was the apparent loss of the princess's magic. While it was almost like she had died, Torva knew when a powerful warlock was killed there was usually some sign of their death. Her room had a residue of her power in it just from the girl living there for a year, but nothing seemed fresh which should have been improbable since the princess had been seen and her magic felt only hours before the attack.
Torva had reported to Hunt Master Zarl, the current officer in charge of the warlock hunters in the city, as well as to General Corven one of the remaining leaders who had been by the emperor's side as one of his key officers. The hunter had also told Megannah in her room.
Things had changed in an instant with the emperor's death, but returning to Megan remained a constant between the two even as the hunters and warlocks tried to assess where they stood. The grand masters had disappeared with Hunt Master Zarl to discuss their options; leaving Captain Rorsted to consult with his under officers none of which ranked above lieutenants in the hunters. The warlock hunters' highest ranks had gone to Litsarin hoping to turn the tide of battle in the distant land, so the Hunt Master and captain were left to hold the fort as best they could in their absence.
Battle Mage Broken Empire (Tales of Alus Book 14) Page 11