by Taki Drake
Fleet of the Mage
by Kat Lind
Book Two of
The Unfettered Mage Series
Table of Contents
Title Page
Legal Stuff
Dedications
Chapter 1 - Ruminations
Chapter 2 - Waiting for the Shoes
Chapter 3 – Memories Intrude
Chapter 4 – Trading the Traders
Chapter 5 – Interlude
Chapter 6 – Preparation Day
Chapter 7 – To the Hot Barrens
Chapter 8 – Spaceship Shopping
Chapter 9 – Chumming the Water
Chapter 10 - Inspection
Chapter 11 – Plans and Surprises
Chapter 12 – Positioning
Chapter 13 – Dickering
Chapter 14 – Bidding Time
Chapter 15 – After Effects
Chapter 16 – Survival Strategies
Chapter 17 – No Place Like Home
Chapter 18 – Phone Home
Chapter 19 – Consequences
Chapter 20 – From the Abyss
Chapter 21 - Recovery
Chapter 22 – Vulnerabilities Addressed
Chapter 23 – Rules and Opportunities
Chapter 24 – Power Shopping
Chapter 25 – Forge and Artifice
Chapter 26 – Testing the Temper
Author Notes
Author Introduction – Taki Drake
Keep Connected
Legal Stuff
Copyright © Taki Drake, All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction of any kind is strictly prohibited unless written permission granted by the editor of the anthology and the individual author.
Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Published by All Chaos Press.
Dedications
First and foremost, this book is dedicated to my husband. His support and devotion have created an environment in which I have been able to dare to extend myself into new areas with the absolute certainty that someone will always have my back. Thank you, John. Thank you for your love and support, and being there in my life.
This book is also dedicated to the great group of crazy writers at Phoenix Prime. Those supportive, encouraging, and crazy indie authors have provided guidance, encouragement, and participation in my growth as writer of fiction.
None of this would be possible without the uncomparable Ds, Dorene and Diane. Editors, beta readers, cheerleaders, and a bright spot in my life.
My loving thanks to you all!
Chapter 1 - Ruminations
Planet – Borachland Castle – Reverie
The crackling fire filled the room with flickering light and sparkles long after the flame itself had changed shape. The rest of the study was shadowed, silent in the dark of the night, laden with thoughts and words unfinished. A woman was sitting silently in a chair by the fire, her feet up, a partially-filled glass in her cupped hands. She appeared to be deep in thought. It was the Mage, Ruth.
It had been a long week, one filled with tedious and interesting things in equal measure. It seemed strange that it was just a week ago that they had been at a dinner with the village mayor and others notable in the community.
The evening itself had been much anticipated, creating frantic activity. It had been so long since Ruth had gotten ready for a party that she had forgotten about the amount of work accompanied one. There have been critical decisions on dress choices, hurried preparations for new or refurbished garments, and the nervous feeling in the pit of the stomach that she had always gotten when facing a new social engagement.
The village had not been what she expected. It had a well-established look and provided a strange mixture between the high-technology of this civilization and the peculiarly Borachland character that would utilize locally available stone to pave the roads. It was an attitude that she could easily understand. Why pay for something fancy when what you had already could be used? An interesting and sympathetic people, these new people that somehow she had become connected with.
As she thought a bit more, she realized that she was still angry about that night though. That part of her nature had not appreciably changed. She still was very protective of those she cared about, those that she loved. The ex-slave, Mary, was a friend.
The four-legged woman had been a slave on the same ship on which Ruth had been held. All without saying a word, Mary had helped Ruth manage her grandson and her newly-adopted granddaughter. Whether it was amusing the children by playing games or by providing a backup arm when Ruth needed it, Mary had been there for Ruth, and Ruth felt the same was owed to Mary in return.
When the cardplaying, drunken lout in the barroom had insulted Mary, Ruth’s first tendency was to fry the bastard! Knowing that the response, that desire, was inappropriate did not change the intensity of the emotion. However, before Ruth could act, another person had stepped in.
The legal representative for all judicial components in her mate’s domain took care of the problem. Asking Mary to save him a seat next to her, the man had gone over and joined the card game as the rest the party had scurried into the private dining room.
A-fire with curiosity on what was going on outside, Ruth had found it very difficult to stay in her chair. She was almost at the point of asking her son Cal to go out and determine what was going on when Jack, the lawyer type, had come back into the room. But he didn’t come empty-handed.
With a flourish suitable for a Spanish conquistador from Ruth’s homeworld, Jack presented Mary with an unbuttoned man’s shirt. Mary’s confusion had quickly turned to amusement when she saw that several of the buttons had been cut from the front. The lack of fraying made pretty sure that whatever had cut it had been extremely sharp. There were even a few flecks of fresh blood that had somehow sprayed on the chest.
“An unusual present for an unusual and lovely lady,” stated Jack, bowing low over her hand. He straightened and smiled gently at her, before seating himself at her side.
“I was thinking perhaps that you might want to have it stuffed.”
Mary smiled, and replied, “Thank you very much. I think stuffing it is an absolutely fabulous idea!”
Every member of the Borachland party was frozen in speechless surprise. The beautiful and melodic contralto voice that issued from Mary’s throat had not been heard before buying any of them. All of the slaves had been convinced that Mary was speechless. Whether by trauma or by biological defect, they had never heard her speak, nor they had expected her to make any sound.
Apparently, she would speak to Jack. In fact, she and Jack had engaged in a wonderful conversation that ran the full three hours of the rest of the evening. The musical tones of her laugh rang out frequently as Jack set himself to amuse and entertain her. The rest of the background hum of conversation had even occasionally been interrupted by the full-throated laugh of Jack. The confusion that was apparent of Ruth’s groups when they heard Mary laugh was equally shared by the village people when they heard Jack laugh. Turning to the mayor, who was seated to her left, Ruth asked, “I take it that Jack does not normally laugh a lot.”
The mayor, who had been staring at Jack in open-jawed amazement, snapped his mouth shut. His eyes still containing a flash of leftover surprise at the exchange between Jack and Mary, he responded directly to the Mage, “No. Actually, Jack is a very serious person, and I can’t remember ever hearing him laugh before.”
“Obviously, they are enjoying each other’s company and finding some common base for humor.”
The mayor
had just shrugged in confusion and helplessness before turning to speak to the gentleman on his other side.
That had been an impressive and well-planned meal. It was something that was enjoyable and still let them interact with other people. It had been a very pleasant vacation from her dreams of fire and ash.
The quiet reverie of the Mage was abruptly interrupted by the eruption into the room of a woman dressed in light battle armor and carrying two swords and some form of a gun. It was her bodyguard, Jenna, who was the liaison this evening with the outside security people.
“Ruth! You had better put on your fancy clothing, we have a very unusual group coming to talk to you.
“What sort of people, Jenna? It would help to have a little more information since I don’t know the people in this area and Pawlik is often doing something about spaceships.”
“I don’t actually know, but all of the local guards are acting highly spooked. They either don’t know or are trying to not give us the information. And I’m not sure which one I am more concerned about!”
“Okay… I’m moving, I’m moving.”
“Not fast enough. We need to get down there before whoever these people arrive. So get your impressive robes on and let’s get going!”
Ruth came to her feet and moved over to the desk chair. Concealed by the dim light of the room, her mage robes trailed over the back of the chair, forming a soft curtain of fabric. It effectively concealed the mundane weapons the Ruth normally carried, even if she was a mage. She had found out the hard way that using magic for simple things was just as draining as using magic for large things. Seeing no purpose in wasting magical energy needlessly, she tried to be wary of the overly casual use of magic.
Her robe settled around her, the diadem of the Archmage at her brow, Ruth was ready to go.
Walking quickly and confidently down the hallway with Jenna trailing in close attendance, Ruth smiled at the servants that she saw along the way. She was feeling more at home in this castle. She now knew every corner, every closet, every stairway. The imprint of her personality and her view on decorating and organization had started to become expressed in the way that the domicile looked and felt.
It would never feel like her home back on Earth. She knew that, had grieved at that loss, and decided to move on. This was the closest she would have for a home for the rest of her life. The breaking of her mind had forever changed her ability to live harmoniously on the planet of her birth.
It had been a small price to pay for the lives of her son and grandson. While she grieved for the loss of place and memory, every moment of the day that had followed afterward had still contained her son, Cal, and her grandson, Troyer. The sheer fact that she could still hug them, feeling their bodies and beating hearts meant that no matter what the sacrifice had been, the alternative would have been unendurable.
Her introspection had effectively masked the passage time through the hallway and into the front door entry area. At first glance, the room appeared to be extremely full, but in fact was sparsely populated. It was just that soldiers and armor always managed to take up every available square inch of breathing space, whether there was one of them or 100.
Standing in a loose clump close to the door, were three of her household staff members, ranging from the head gardener to the new housekeeper. Of course, the inner security chief was there too since in Borachland, the household control and governance was the purview of the lady of the castle. This included the internal workings for the inner keep, like security, and were all Ruth’s responsibility. Her three senior staff members were key to how she interacted with whoever was approaching Borachland.
A couple of armed and armored security officers were also present, watching the front door with readied weapons and an alert manner. Everyone was waiting for the new arrivals. Everything was in place, they were just waiting.
Chapter 2 - Waiting for the Shoes
Planet – Borachland Castle
Something felt wrong to Ruth. There was a sense of strangeness that didn’t seem to have a settled point, sort of like one of the infamous stomach-dwelling butterflies had suddenly escaped and was flying around the room. While everyone else stared at the front door, Ruth slowly pivoted around, allowing her sense of order and her sense of ‘me and mine’ to expand outward. When she had turned three-quarters of a circle, the hair on the back of her neck stirred and flames started running up and down her arms. There was a strangeness close by.
Ruth began to quietly walk toward the source of that strangeness. Jenna caught Ruth’s movement from the corner of her eye and began to follow her, equally silently. The two women moved quickly, a sense of urgency pushing at Ruth’s inner core, forcing her to move at just short of a run. The soft murmur of the Mage’s robes against the small pieces of furniture and draperies that hung in the hallways formed a backdrop to the otherwise silent journey of the two women into the depths of the house and out toward the back garden.
Ruth erupted from a door to the garden at a rapid walk. Her momentum carried her to the center of a grassy area, carefully architected to balance out the complex flowers and bushes that were arranged as its borders. Jenna had been forced to travel at a trot to keep up with the driven mage. Her head scanned back and forth looking for danger, and her weapons were drawn, held ready in her hands. Ruth’s abrupt stop in the center of the grass caught Jenna by surprise, almost causing a collision. Muttering a curse, the Mage’s bodyguard placed her back against Ruth and swept her gaze over the surrounding enclosure.
Without thinking, Ruth brought up her right hand, and a whirling ball of red light filled it. The mage said nothing, continuing to stand quietly in the center of the grass. Jenna’s eyes darted ceaselessly, trying to watch everything and anything for any threat to her mage.
The moment drew out the tension of silent expectation, like a piece of taffy that was stretched during candy making. The challenge of wills was answered when shimmer of light appeared around the Mage and guard, slowly lifting to reveal three groups of beings surrounding them.
Ruth and Jenna stood in the center of an area that could have been drawn as a large circle. Arranged in equidistant groups around the perimeter of that circle were three trios of beings. The ones directly in front of Ruth were winged and tall, slender and light-boned. The way that they watched Ruth with unblinking eyes reminded her of the hawks that she had known, wild and free.
Their wings were gorgeous, ranging from dappled patterns of gray to iridescent blues and purples. The slow movement of the wings confused the eyes, but neither Jenna nor Ruth were easily distracted. Ruth watched their faces, trusting to Jenna for protection. Without saying a word, the great winged being in the front of the trio extended and intricately carved bone cask toward Ruth. It bowed deeply to the Mage, placing the box on the ground and stepped back.
Movement at the corner of Ruth’s eye drew her a third of the circle to her left. The three beings standing there look like animated trees. The resemblance to Tolkien’s tree ents flashed briefly into Ruth’s mind before one of them moved forward a small distance. Silently, the bark-skinned entity with green leafy hair made a gesture that Ruth could loosely interpret as respect. A tendril of sinuous green lowered what appeared to be a burl of wood to the grass and the being returned to its original position.
Without visual prompting, Ruth turned another third of a circle to face the last group of beings squarely. She could smell these three, smell as well as feel the flickering heat that radiated from them. In appearance, they seemed to be fire-skinned lizard people. Flickers of fire raced up and down their bodies in little tongues of yellow, red, and gold. Their broad snout and prominent teeth made it obvious that they were predators and their calculating gaze reflected intelligence.
Unlike the other two representatives, this one made a sound. Hissing like a kettle at a full boil, the lizard to the front of the group of three stepped forward. Even though the others had moved toward her, they had not tried to invade Ruth’s space. This on
e did.
The lizardman stopped just short of colliding with Ruth. She could feel the heat rising off of its body, smell the stench of brimstone, the sharp smell and taste of ash. It hissed at her again, its open mouth producing a cloud of burning little flecks that would have damaged anyone but a mage.
Ruth was neither impressed nor amused.
Having strange visitors show up at her home was a bit like the church recruitment groups that would show up at her door back on Earth. She had never known how to deal with them since they were just trying to do a good thing for the people they talked to and for their own church, but she hadn’t been interested in changing her religion.
However, pushy door-to-door salesman were a different matter. Those she knew how to handle.
Never taking her eyes away from the staring gaze of the lizard man, Ruth grinned broadly at the confrontational being. Lifting her left hand to her mouth, she deliberately and slowly licked her forefinger before placing it squarely in the center of the lizard man’s chest. Protecting the moisture on her hand with a tiny, infinitesimal amount of magic, Ruth pulled her hand back after a few seconds. Looking down at the drop of water on her finger, the Mage laughed and shook it off onto the grass. The startled lizard stepped back.
With a disgusted movement of her head, Ruth turned her body and began to leave the garden. A distressed hiss stopped her in her tracks. Turning back, she arched an eyebrow at the lizard man that had thought to intimidate her. His two companions were gesturing and hissing in a low-toned conversation with him, even as he continued to stare at Ruth. Shrugging his shoulders in an all almost human gesture, the lizard man moved forward and took an elaborately decorated, and very beautiful glass box from his robes. Placing it on the ground, he took three steps backward and waited.
The box was covered in flames. It was beautiful. The light flames that danced around the box seemed to harmonize with the flames drawn on the box surface and were reflected in the iridescence of the glass. It looked beautiful and deadly.