"I am a messenger for General Amelyer sent to give this to General Corven and to relay a message," Megan stated sounding more trained than a maid should be, the girl feared. She added, "I am just a maid, but he sent me just the same. Please open the door so I can get this over with, please."
The second part was added with what she felt sounded like a regular woman's concern. Even as a wizard, Megan was a bit frightened; but for some reason she wasn't as terrified as she probably should be especially since restoring her magic to fight would take several seconds from the time she reversed the ritual signs. It was as if cutting off her magic had also deadened some of her fears in the process. Megan even wondered if some of that idea was true. Perhaps her emotions were partly tied to her magic as well making her calmer in this moment than she had a right to be.
A soldier who appeared at least partly human stepped forward. He had more markings than the usual soldier, but Megan didn't know what any of it meant. The wizards' school didn't use anything like them to distinguish between the different levels of achievement, and the wizard didn't usually have a lot of contact with the soldiers in their armies when she was teaching in the school.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded looking at the soldiers.
Megan spoke up drawing the man's attention to the smallest person in the hall aside from a handful of goblins hanging back behind the orcs which had escorted the three of them here. "They are here to make sure that I do my part. He is also carrying that for me, since it is heavy."
"What is that?" the man queried once more sounding no less confrontational.
Sighing, Megan replied, "I am not sure. General Amelyer said that it is for General Corven. He also said that he was returning his gift, whatever that means."
The girl played the role of a maid being inconvenienced by the general, which wasn't far from the truth of course. She hoped to use her looks and personality to enforce that she wasn't a threat. While Megan didn't truly care if they let her through, she did hope to escape back to safety with all of them alive; even if she might harbor a little resentment towards Lukash for his part in her usual day.
The officer didn't look willing to open the door even so and Megan added, "I don't think there is anything harmful inside. I am just a maid. This job isn't worth getting killed over, so I assure you I wouldn't be here if I thought it was something to fear."
Though the man didn't appear completely convinced, he decided, "Just you. They wait here."
Turning to the men, she nodded and took the platter from Lukash. The weight would have been too much for her to want to try carrying it across the spire, but for the short walk the wizard knew that it wouldn't be too much of a burden to carry for her.
Megan walked with the covered platter before her through the doors into the next room. Similar in shape and size to that of Amelyer's sitting room, the decorations were far from the same. Where Megan might consider Amelyer's rooms simple and tasteful with a few more artistic pieces to make them feel like they belonged to a great man with refined tastes and perhaps an education that involved more than just fighting and tactics for war, Corven's outer room looked more like the briefing area that it was.
There were a lot of weapons stored along the walls. It looked like a weapons cache to resupply a company of soldiers, Megan thought as she looked at walls covered in various kinds of weaponry. Some of the swords looked to be richly crafted and perhaps were more for display than use, but there were many on the racks which had likely been used before and were there in case the general or his men needed them.
Tables with paperwork littered across them seemed barely organized, but she had known men like that before while serving as an apprentice in the field. Somehow they had made the chaos work, but Megan preferred things to be clean and precise. It was so messy that the girl wondered after serving Amelyer if his counterpart actually had any maids to clean up after him.
It was bad enough that it took a moment for her to find a place clear enough to place the platter with its cover.
"Roklik, who is this?" an angry looking, graying orc in fine armor asked of the men escorting the girl. "What is this elf doing in my room?"
The soldier answered with a salute as he also replied with his voice, "This maid says she is a messenger from General Amelyer. She has two soldiers with her, but I made them stay in the hall."
"A messenger from Amelyer, what does that pompous ass want now? He sends a pretty girl to distract me? Well it won't work. Say your piece quickly and get out before I send you and your guards back to him in pieces."
Megan thought that she should have felt fear from his words, but she sensed that in this regard the general was likely not as bad as his bark. Giving him a small smile, the girl replied, "I am just his temporary maid. I think he sent me because I wouldn't be missed. It looks like you are missing yours though," she added gesturing at the mess on the tables around her, not that Amelyer would let his maids straighten his papers either Megan had to admit.
Giving a brief grunt was like a laugh to the orc, and he countered, "Well, wars are fought in dirt. Why not embrace it here as well? So, girl, what is this message and why is there a covered dish in my room? If it is a weapon, your death will be quick."
The general waved his hands forward and a handful of men seemed to appear from nowhere. Invisibility magic, Megan thought quickly. Even with her magic unchained, the wizard doubted that she would have seen them until they released their spells. Invisibility and stealth magic were intended to deceive even the most gifted of wizards and warlocks. Wizard hunters were among the most perceptive and often they could only hope to wait out the duration of the spell to catch someone trying to hide from them. The spell required magic to keep on feeding it, so unlike her balling up of her magic to keep from being discovered, it would eventually exhaust a wizard forcing them to become visible once more.
"If there is a weapon of some sort under that cover, you will die. Perhaps it will be my turn to bring him your dead body as a warning then."
"I doubt that it is as dangerous as that," Megan replied. "General Amelyer was attacked by a kiriak assassin in the night. It failed, but he blames you. My guess is he has sent part of it as an insult to you along with the message I am supposed to give to you.
"Would you prefer that I tell you that first or should I lift the cover?" the girl asked calmly.
Again Corven chuckled in that grunting way he had. "Well, you are a surprise for a maid. I would have expected most of those women to be half way to fainting by now. Of course, you look like an elf, so maybe you are one of those who kill all of their emotions for most of their lives.
"I've seen them break. I've even broken a few myself. When the emotions return after all those years, they cry like babies and will tell you everything just to make the emotions stop. It's pretty pathetic."
"I am not one of those elves, but I think I am still numb after being forced into doing this for the other general," the wizard said blaming it on Amelyer, though she could probably have declined without having the general harm her because of it. Still it was easier to blame him to create empathy between them. Corven would believe it and she could see it in his eyes already that he did believe her words. The warlocks surrounding him didn't see through her anymore than their general did.
"Tell me his message first," the orc ordered crossing his arms waiting to hate whatever his rival had to say.
"He said that he is returning your gift and that you can pick up the rest later, if you wish."
"What gift?" The orc's eyes narrowed warily.
"As I said, he was attacked by an assassin last night. It was a kiriak so he thinks that it was you."
"And you, a maid, don't agree with him even though he is a general?" Corven asked looking a bit curious.
"It seems to me that you aren't the kind for such deceit. It is a tactic beneath you or perhaps it just isn't something you have a mind for."
"Did you just call me stupid, girl?" he questioned sounding like he was
angry again.
"The emperor made you his general. I hardly think that he would put a stupid man in a position of power like that. No, I am just saying that you prefer something more honorable. You would rather crush your enemy in the field and prove that you are better than him, and not be sending some sneak blade to poison your enemy or stab him in his sleep.
"It wouldn't be any fun either," she summed up her thoughts on the half orc with another smile.
Again he chortled his odd laughter. "Well, you are amusing for a pretty girl. So he blames me and you bring me his message and gift, yet you disagree with Amelyer. If I am not the one, and I am not, then who is?"
"I can't be certain who, but I was pretty certain that it wasn't you. Not only isn't it your style, I have a feeling you know it wasn't necessary."
This made Corven's brow furrow in confusion. "How was an attack on my rival not necessary? He stands against me. The wizards and hunters refuse to decide on which of us to back also."
"You both feel trapped in this spire," Megan began. "Neither of you feels secure enough to take the crown and more importantly I think you both know that it is unlikely that you will be able to control the whole empire anyway."
"If I was emperor, the rest of the cities would follow me."
"Would they? The emperor had power that no one could resist. He was nearly a god, but he died. Since he did die, there will be those who will believe that they can carve out a sizable chunk of the empire for their selves. You could take Ensolus, but you will have to fight for each city and fortress beyond it.
"Which is why I said that killing Amelyer isn't necessary, well it wasn't anyway. He was already considering leaving Ensolus. The western part of the city around the Breeding Pits is too likely to follow you, if you were to declare that you wanted to lead Ensolus. There are many orc military families that will likely follow you too and they are more powerful than the humans in the east.
"Amelyer can likely get support from places like Aetelier and maybe then he could return to take the city; but once he leaves, it will be much harder to retake it. If you men could be content with a single city, perhaps there could be peace. You could make a federation or become allies, but I fear the time of the empire might be over. It's broken and only someone powerful like Lord Devolus might be able to draw it back together."
She paused letting her eyes slowly glance between the hooded assassin wizards and Megan realized something rather strange. All of the men had the appearance of orcs. There had been a few notable orcs who had magic which had become wizards, warlocks or hunters; but Corven was able to pull together six just to be his guards. With an army of thousands, did that mean that the general had more?
Megan had always thought that magic was stronger in humans and elves than orcs; but maybe it was just that they were ignored by the wizard hunters. How many had been taught the magic arts secretly since she had never heard of any acts of wild magic among their kind? It made her also wonder if Corven might have a significant power base that Amelyer could never hope to match here.
Elves prefer the outdoors. A small percentage lived inside of Ensolus because the feeling of the stone enclosing around them and the weight of the mountain above was too much for many. She had heard of humans with claustrophobia caused by the cave city also. Those tended to stay outside or left to live in one of the other cities or the smaller fortresses littering the mountains.
"You said that sending an assassin wouldn't have been necessary. With time, Amelyer might simply give up and leave without much of a fight," Corven spoke up sounding thoughtful. His words had nearly startled the girl as her thoughts were on the warlocks nearby who could not tell that she was a wizard.
"Yes, he told me that Aetelier might be a better place for him and his army."
"Why is it that you make it sound like that is no longer the case?"
Megan's lips parted in a sad smile as she replied; "Now he is angry and his pride is at stake. Someone tried to kill him. He won't be able to let that go easily."
"So you think that he will stay out of spite or as a means to maintain his self-importance," the half orc said in conclusion.
Megan moved her hand and lifted the cover revealing the platter she had brought to the general. A large, black haired hand with claws sat on the large plate sitting in blood. Bone and severed flesh had been roughly cut from the body of the kiriak. It wasn't the clean work of a practiced butcher.
"I would say that is correct. Now even if you convinced him that you aren't the enemy who did this; General Amelyer will be unlikely to budge until his anger cools, if then."
Corven looked at the platter and the clawed hand with a frown. "You seem unusually astute for a maid. I find few pretty women capable of such intelligence also, and I have been with a few."
Smiling at the general, the young woman replied, "Women use guile the most when they are trying to make you believe that they don't have a thought in their heads. The only power some women can find is that of controlling their mate and many don't even know that it is happening."
Again he chortled at the idea before he crossed his arms in silent thought. "Well, I guess I will let you live and even those men you brought with you. Tell Amelyer that I didn't send the assassin and clearly there is at least one other in the game trying to set us against each other. They likely expect us to wage war and weaken each other. I will fight him to become ruler of this land, if he wants; but he will regret it quickly."
"You want me to say all of that?" Megan asked to clarify and the orc nodded.
"I think it is clear enough."
The girl returned the nod and added, "Whether he chooses to fight you instead, you may want to look out for the one behind the assassination attempt or you might find one of them in your room as well, general."
Inclining her head slightly to Corven, the girl replaced the cover and turned to walk back to the double doors. Megan didn't even look back as she pulled the door open by herself. If the general was sending her back with a message, then she would be safe.
"Your general is sending us back with an answer," she announced to the assembled orcs, goblins and trolls. "I was offered free passage for all three of us."
Corven's officer, Roklik, had followed the girl and nodded to the assembled soldiers around them. "Let them go in peace this time," the man ordered the others. Frowns accompanied the news, but no one stopped her or the two men from leaving.
A small group followed them, however, among them were those who had escorted them to Corven. They stayed with the three until they were in halls that were neutral to the men following the two generals.
Amelyer had received Corven's answer about the way she expected. The general remained wary of his chief rival, but as he doubted the orc with his words; Megan had a feeling that he realized that it was true. Another enemy for the throne was likely behind this maneuver. She doubted that the attack even needed to have succeeded. Killing Amelyer would have cut the head from one snake, but Corven was still there and would be likely to win over part of his rival's army as well if he could convince them that he was innocent.
Would the sender of the assassin want Corven to become stronger or had they hoped to pit the generals against each other just to make them wear the two out fighting for blood.
The girl didn't release the bond on her magic until she was well away from the spire later in the afternoon. There had been less work to do, though she had helped in cleaning up the mess left by the kiriak assassin. Men had come to remove the body and some of Amelyer's soldiers had helped clean up the blood, but Megan had been left to mop the floor.
Niadene remained shaky, but the general had hovered around her alternately discussing new measures to protect his rooms with his men and doting on the other maid. If he had wanted to keep the others from knowing of his attraction to the young woman before he wasn't doing a good job of it today.
Following her usual path, Megan was surprised when a man moved out of the shadows. Her heart beat again discoverin
g that it was Torva.
"What are you doing here?" she asked breathlessly as the wizard tried to recover the calm that had been upon her since binding her magic.
He looked at her with a frown. "I heard about the attempt on General Amelyer's life. I would have thought that he would have sent you away earlier after such an incident."
"I had to stay and clean up after the mess as well as doing much of what Niadene usually does. She remained upset all day and Amelyer let her rest. They are having an affair by the way."
The frown continued and he shook his head. "Why can't I see your aura? Did something happen to you? I've heard of spells that can steal magic from a wizard, but..."
"Oh, that," Megan answered and moved her hands in a different way. Pressing her abdomen in three places, the wizard finished with her fingers on her temples to focus as her magic released into her body once more. Like water held back by a damn, there was a rush that tingled as it spread. Her vision became enhanced as well until the wizard could see the aura around Torva. She could feel the magic of other wizards and warlocks in the city also.
It was like a person who was blindfolded suddenly having the cloth removed to look on a bright summer day.
"What was that?" Torva asked in surprise.
"A secret technique I read about and trained myself on awhile ago. It was a good thing too. The generals each had wizards and warlocks around them today."
"You went to Corven?"
"As Amelyer's messenger, yes," the girl answered as she felt a breeze across her legs. Like all the feeling had returned after a wizard's spell to numb pain had ended, Megan noticed the cold and shivered. "Can we talk after I change into something that will cover my legs? It is still winter and this coat isn't long enough to make up for my skirt."
The man's eyes slid down her coat to her exposed lower legs. Her slippers did little to warm the young woman's legs, but gave him a better view than the boots she usually wore outside.
"I kind of prefer the look, but it is a little cold out here," he chuckled.
Battle Mage Broken Empire (Tales of Alus Book 14) Page 31