Battle Mage Broken Empire (Tales of Alus Book 14)

by Donald Wigboldy

  The fighting spread out and as a couple fights moved into her view, the girl put her back to the inner wall trying to avoid being caught by swinging steel. It wasn't enough and one of the men in dark red missed wide of his opponent. His sword struck the wall as Megan ducked down narrowly avoiding getting hit. The laundry dropped onto the floor again when the soldier grabbed the girl by the top of her dress. Again the seams popped and gave in the side, but her sleeve held enough to let the orc draw her to him. His rough, muscular arm held her in front of him as a shield with his free hand while his right took hold of his sword once more to wrench it from the wall.

  The human soldier from Amelyer's contingent stayed his attack even as he paced from side to side looking for an opening without having to harm the helpless maid.

  Eyes narrowed on both sides and the orc snarled, "Try an't'ing an' I keel gurl."

  Refusing to be a pawn in this fight, Megan surprised herself and her captor when she balled up her fist before stomping onto his foot. Her slippers gave her less bite on the top of his leather boots, but it caught the orc off guard before the wizard slammed her fist into the monster's crotch.

  His grip slipped and Megan threw her body to the floor next to Velden. The opponent leapt in striking with his sword. Dark, orc blood splattered the girl and the wall as the sword's blade slashed through the side of the creature's neck. Falling back as the orc reached for his wound, he turned and the soldier drove his sword point first into the center of its back. Lightly armored since they weren't technically at war here, the orc's back was only covered by leather. Steel split leather backing making a clean attack on its heart dropping the enemy soldier onto the stone floor.

  "Are you alright, Miss?" the soldier started and noticed Velden under her. "Sergeant Velden?"

  Megan had to act quickly and the woman slapped at his face as if to revive him. When Velden didn't react to her actions, she pressed her right hand to the side of his neck while her left went beneath his nose to check the dead man's breathing.

  She shook her head and replied with wide eyes pretending to be surprised, "He's dead! Someone must have killed him while the rest of you were arguing by the general's door."

  The soldier's tongue made a sound of disgust and he signaled for her to remain where she was. "Stay down, Miss. If you move, you might get killed."

  While Megan huddled low against the wall, the soldier acted as her protector moving forward to put himself between her and the remainder of the fighting. It settled quickly and Megan gathered the linens once more. The orc's blood had stained most of the pieces making her frown. She would have to return to the laundry again, but it wouldn't do to appear more concerned about the linens than the men bleeding and dying in the hallway.

  Amelyer's men appeared to have won. The soldiers in dark red had retreated back down the hall and disappeared. Megan wondered if they would dare gather more troops and come back. If so, the wizard hoped that she wouldn't need to be here to find out what would happen next.

  Her protector announced to the others that Velden was dead further down the hall. The dead soldier was the only one out of view as he lay in the alcove sheltered from their eyes. No one questioned Megan's presence. A few eyes went to her disheveled dress and the girl let her fingers run along the broken seam along her left side.

  "You should head inside, Megan," one of the men cautioned the girl. He was one of the men who had been on guard with Velden as he had searched her earlier. Her cheek hurt and felt warm where she had been struck. Her left shoulder was scratched from the orc's grasp of her dress as well and the sleeve was torn nearly free. Even the collar was stretched out and weakened from the powerful creature. "It may not stay safe out here."

  Another of the men said, "General Corven finally did it."

  Others agreed, but as the men checked on the fallen and discussed sending for reinforcements as well, Megan slipped into the general's suite.

  When Niadene saw the doors open and the banged up girl entering, her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "You were out there when the fighting started?"

  "And until it ended," the girl with the strawberry blonde hair added as she tried to brush strands of her disheveled hair from her face.

  "How did you survive?"

  "I hid, trying to stay back out of the way, and used an alcove to remain out of sight of the soldiers. An orc still found me and tried to use me as a shield."

  "Your dress and your poor, beautiful face."

  "Is it that bad?" the wizard asked fearing that she would be black and blue. Could she go get healed by one of the wizards in the school? If she had to return to her role as a maid for Amelyer, Megan wasn't sure if a servant being healed would be believable.

  "The side of your face and ear are red. I am afraid that you will be bruised for a week or more. Your dress is a shambles too."

  Niadene prodded some holes in the side of her dress. Bare flesh could be seen, but the breaks in the seam weren't too large and for the most part the cloth had held together. Only her left sleeve had ripped, but the stretched out collar exposed most of her scratched shoulder because of it.

  They waited for a little while to make sure that it was safe to leave. Niadene made Megan go home to care for herself. She needed to change and the wizard was told to find some raw meat to put on her face or perhaps she should try to place some ice on her throbbing cheek.

  When Megan exited the room, the soldiers didn't question her leaving for the day. More men were there and the injured and dead had been taken away; but there was still blood on the floor.

  The first battle of the war had occurred and the wizard wondered how quickly it would snowball drawing in the rest of the city. Sanctuary needed to be built and she feared that they had little time before it would be required.

  She considered stopping by the spire laundry. There were menders available and her servant dress could be fixed there. It would also need to be cleaned of the orc blood that had splattered the cloth.

  Instead of that, Megan put on her coat drawing looks from the other servants on her way to the cloak room. Her cheek and ear still hurt, but the wizard avoided looking at herself in any mirrors along her path. With a torn dress and the splattering of blood that stood out from the light color of the material, she wondered how obvious it was that she had been near the fighting. Did the rest of the spire know of the clash between the generals' men yet? It was a small world at times and word of the infighting between the generals was the talk of the servants from what she could tell from her time pretending to serve Amelyer.

  Once the wizard had found a secluded alleyway and was certain that she wasn't followed, Megan began to cast a spell bringing her back to her room once again. Torva wasn't around this time. It was still early in the day and the squad leader had other things to do than wait around for her to show up when she wasn't even expect back for several hours.

  She wasn't scheduled to report back to Grand Master Echolus yet either; but rather than changing or finding a healer, the young woman made the trek to the man's offices. He would want to know of anything as important as a conflict between the generals. Though their men had been flirting with such actions for weeks, no one had officially done anything that could be proven. The small battle had been rather public even if it was in a hall. Even the cleanup of the dead and blood would have required others to come. Soldiers weren't janitors and such work was typically viewed as beneath them. Then there were those who dealt with the dead in the city.

  Ensolus was a cave made out of stone. Burying the dead was impossible. Casting them in the lake wouldn't remove the bodies either since it was spring fed from within the mountain. Lake End was also the city's source of drinking water meaning they had to be diligent in avoiding contaminating the lake for that reason as well, plus the water entered from one source disappearing back into the earth on the other side through small channels. Megan didn't know where it went, but it was controlled by magic to make sure that it never overflowed the stone banks or was emptied too
quickly to maintain the store of water for those living inside the cave.

  Once more the wizard drew looks. Her coat covered the damaged parts of her dress, which let her know that her face must have been more bruised than she had hoped. Megan wasn't overly vain, but the young woman didn't want to look disfigured either. She was known as pretty, but the wizard only listened to Torva when compliments were thrown her way and did her best to ignore the men who looked at her in ways she wished that they wouldn't.

  "I need to see the grand master," she stated to the wizards acting in service to Echolus. Megan winced feeling the pain from her jaw to ear and even behind her eye. As time went on, she was noticing more pain from her injuries. Maybe a trip to the infirmary could be overlooked if the healers only removed the pain. She didn't want to be bruised, but Niadene and the soldiers serving Amelyer might question if the girl returned healed of the attack too quickly.

  A woman wearing typical warlock clothing had little to mark her level. Ensolus didn't accentuate the levels of success among wizards and warlocks too much. When others coveted your power, it was best to lie low if you weren't exceptional or didn't have strong enough allies to defend yourself from those who meant you ill.

  "The grand master doesn't just see anyone," she reported without even standing up from her chair's seat.

  "I am working for him. I have a report to give him that he will want to hear as soon as I can bring it to him. Any delay will likely get us both in trouble," Megan replied darkly. Rubbing the wounded cheek attempting to reduce the pain probably helped emphasize what she was trying to get across to the grand master's aide, she realized as the other woman's eyes followed her hand curiously.

  "Name?" the warlock asked as she decided to stand and bring the news to Echolus.

  "Wizard Megannah."

  Taking the risk that Megan was correct, the woman slipped into the office behind her. The door had been closed and she could hear voices speaking during the moment that it opened to admit the aide. A male wizard sat at his desk looking at her with a face that was forcibly rid of emotion, she thought. His eyes weren't perfect as she held his gaze. Guessing that she looked a mess, Megan tried to ignore him as she waited to be let into the master's office.

  It wasn't too long before the other wizard returned and she gestured towards the open door. No one was speaking as far as she could hear now. The aide must have said enough to interrupt whatever discussion or meeting that might have been going on behind that door.

  Megan followed the wizard's hand and walked past her. The door closed behind the girl and she looked at a handful of wizards watching her including Echolus.

  At the sight of her, the grand master moved towards her. "You are injured?"

  "I'll live," she replied wincing again as her jaw moved making the bruising send signals of pain from her cheek and ear. "Not everyone else did," the girl quipped darkly.

  "Did you use your magic?"

  "Not in a way anyone was able to see," Megan answered and her eyes went to the other people in the room.

  The grand master noticed her look and after turning slightly in their direction; Echolus told her, "It's alright. These are my advisors. Your mission isn't secret from their ears.

  "What happened?"

  "I am not certain how it started, but some of General Corven's men came to Amelyer's hallway. They were loudly name calling and close to fighting when I returned from the laundry."

  Echolus was clever, she realized, and the wizard noted as she stopped uncertain of how to tell what had happened. "This magic you say no one noticed. Was this how the argument grew violent?"

  "One of General Amelyer's men had gotten in trouble for being overly aggressive in his searching for weapons." She paused reddening more, though Megan guessed that only meant the right cheek tried to equal the color of her bruise. "He touched me inappropriately and was verbally warned for his misconduct by the general. The man used the distraction in the hall to accost me out of view of the rest.

  "He struck me a few times and threatened to kill me with his knife. I killed him in self defense by stopping his heart with a tremor. To cover his death, I gave one of the soldiers a shove with a spell. Corven's man considered it an attack which escalated into a fight using their weapons. Several men on both sides were killed, but Amelyer's men drove them off bringing peace to the hall. No one suspected that the soldier was killed by magic since the fighting had spilled over to where I was pretending to hide from them."

  Her coat was open enough for the meticulous vision of the master to notice blood on her dress. His hands opened the coat further seeing more blood and the stretched out collar. He helped her off with her coat. While she had been too warm with it on inside of the wizards' school, Megan had used it to hide her dress even if she couldn't hide her bruised face.

  The other wizards' faces showed surprise as well as other emotions ranging from concern for her health to perhaps even the beginnings of anger. Echolus lifted and released the torn sleeve before turning her to see the broken seam on the left side. The master proved quicker than the soldiers as he noted, "Your sleeve and collar were pulled from the left, yet your dress was nearly ripped apart along the same side. You were attacked more than once and this blood looks to be from an orc. Was the man you killed an orc working for the elven general?"

  Shaking her head, the woman reported, "The first man was human. When the fighting spread down the hall towards me, I was grabbed by an orc fighting another of Amelyer's men. I hit him hard enough to pull free so the soldier was able to kill him with his sword. He noticed Velden and I pretended to try to revive him. After I pronounced him dead, the soldier remained to protect me until the rest of the fighting was over."

  When she paused, Echolus noted her eyes grow distant a moment in thought and she asked, "If you have decided whether to back one general or the other, perhaps a wizard like myself could instigate more fights between them. If you on the other hand, plan to take the throne as your own; such tactics could easily make the generals waste their power fighting each other. Even if neither was true, I have a feeling this is just the first blow struck that will turn into a war between them, grand master."

  Megan was trying not to sound invested in any of the options. She wasn't in his inner circle. The young wizard was just a useful tool for him to watch over the general. Her looks were the distraction while her wizard brain continued looking out for the general's plans.

  "Is that all the information you have for me so far?" the elven wizard asked sounding less impressed than she had expected. It was just a fight between soldiers, Megan supposed, but she had to be the first to bring this news to his attention. Like she had said, this was just the first altercation in the start of an inevitable war. Corven wasn't likely to take the deaths of his men for granted; and Amelyer might be a little harder to incite to anger, but Megan doubted that the elven general would let such an insult slide either. The attack had happened before his door, which meant that it was his territory.

  "The spire appears to already be divided," Megan stated thinking of what she had been seeing with each visit. "If Amelyer feels this was a direct attack on him, things will become much worse very quickly. He had already tripled his guards the last few days. The rumors I have heard say that whatever negotiations they have tried have been breaking down as well.

  "The battle for the spire will likely spill out into the city soon enough."

  Echolus once again appeared less affected by this news. "That is to be expected," he replied calmly.

  Pushing her luck, Megan asked, "Will you back one of the generals, Grand Master?"

  A frown made its way to his lips for only a brief moment before it disappeared behind a facade of calm. "Corven and Amelyer seem like two sides of the same coin. Either option leaves me frightened for the empire's future."

  "If someone strong doesn't step in soon, there might not be an empire left to lead," the girl reminded him without thinking. She spoke to Echolus like he was Torva, or maybe Master
Lesolas, not like the powerful leader of the school.

  Surprising her, the man nodded. "I fear the ones who were supposed to lead with the loss of the emperor appear unwilling to take the throne leaving men who were once Kolban's puppets. These generals might be able to lead soldiers, but I fear that they will reduce the empire to a burned out husk if left to try their hand as emperor.

  "Go to the healers and tell them to heal your bruises. Leave the scratches if they aren't too painful and then use an illusion to create a similar mark when you go back to work for the general. Makeup might work alternately, but could be seen through if you aren't careful enough. If you haven't learned of his plan to defeat his successor, then your mission isn't done. You will need to go back and still look convincingly bruised.

  "I'll have someone come for the dress to fix it later today after you have had time to go to the healers and change clothes. You have other dresses to wear in the meanwhile.

  "Thank you for your report, Wizard Megannah. Continue the good work," he finished dismissing her already. There was nothing more she knew for certain and guessing at what Amelyer would do could be done by these wizards and warlocks anyway. Her job was to remain his eyes and ears, no more than that.

  Megan turned replacing her jacket to avoid undo notice as she walked to the infirmary next. An old friend from her classes was there to heal her. Under her attention, Megan was soon healed of the pain of the bruised cheek and ear. Her eye no longer throbbed when she moved her jaw also, but Megannah would have to remember to cast an illusion spell before going back to work for the general again.

  She wasn't through with her mission, but the woman would do what she could until Sanctuary was ready for her to lead her students to safety.

  Chapter 21- The Southern Training

  Holdy entered the classroom waiting for the teacher, which was now just Fordenna. Though he needed less teaching than the others perhaps, the boy still missed the pretty woman. Her personality had always been bright and cheerful. Megannah's presence had balanced out her often somber partner.