Having warmed to his guests, the lord peeked out his door telling his secretary to bring Mecklin and Collin in as well. The woman frowned not appearing to appreciate the lord disturbing her yet again, but she complied. While they waited, Sumpterhall noted Yara appreciatively, “Are all your young wizards as lovely as this one?”
Yara blushed and replied bashfully, “I am sure that I am common enough in my looks, my lord.”
Noting Sebastian’s furtive glance at her words, he replied with a chuckle, “If you are common, he wouldn’t look at you like that, my dear.”
Caught in the act, Yara giggled as Sebastian looked away with some color in his cheeks. “Well, I think he has to look at me that way, my lord. One day we’ll be married, so I would hope that he wouldn’t think me hideous.”
The lord chuckled at her words. “You have a decent sense of humor as well. That will be very helpful in dealing with a man in a marriage, but aren’t you two a little young to be thinking of such things? There is so much to see in this world and you two seem like adventurous types.”
Shrugging, Yara replied, “Maybe Sebastian is, but I am a simple healer. We lead with our hearts and prefer quiet over adventure.”
“And yet you are here. I guess that your heart made you follow on this adventure? Very interesting where the heart will take you, isn’t it?”
“I am lucky to have her along,” the mage replied trying to look less interested in the pretty girl beside him, even after being caught. “Having a healer along on my team has been very helpful. I can heal as well, but I can’t heal myself.”
A calculating look came to the old lord’s eyes, as he mused, “Your own personal healer, well that might explain things a little. Now I wonder if you fell in love because she healed you or if you were in love before that. I have heard my wife tell stories of wounded sailors that become infatuated with those who nurse them back to health. Now this might be a story I might want to hear sometime as well.”
Collin and Mecklin arrived with the map distracting Lord Sumpterhall and Sebastian was thankful to have his love life take a back seat to anything else. After perusing the map and the point they believed they were being led, the lord rubbed his chin with a slight frown. “It goes beyond the islands all right, but if you head in a straight line between Talc and Baltu be careful. I must warn you that the sea between those four islands has become rather notorious the last few decades. Ships seem to disappear without a trace. Many sailors refuse to take that path and sail closer to Talos or Famir to avoid the risk.
“I know that you are wizards and can handle yourselves, but listen to an old man. Be very careful if you go through the Four Ways area.”
“Four Ways?” Collin asked perplexed.
The mayor nodded. “Since it’s between the four major islands and no one knows which way to travel with it in the way. Locals just began to call it the Four Ways area.”
Sebastian took in the warning and remembered another problem. “Lord Sumpterhall, I should also warn you to be on watch as well. We think that the Dark Emperor may have sent some of his ships to the last island we visited. If there was some warning or trap that we set off that brought them, I am not sure, but if you see one of the black ships they may not be friendly.”
The man frowned and his look reminded Bas of a pirate determined to protect his treasure. “It has been awhile since anyone has seen one of them. The black ships have always been our enemy. If they are near, then be doubly cautious. We have lost ships and occasionally a survivor tells of a black ship being the cause.”
They all nodded. The people of Southwall were always on guard when the Dark One’s armies were around.
With little more to tell, Sebastian’s team stayed for a light lunch provided by the lord and returned to the Sea Dragon.
Chapter 25- Captive
Ashleen awoke in near darkness feeling the sway of waves moving beneath the ship. A mere crack of light coming from beneath a door was all the illumination for the room and it wasn’t enough to light more than the closest inches of wood flooring. She coughed listening to the sound as it bounced in the dark and thought that it was probably a fairly large room. Perhaps a food storage or cargo hold.
No wizard needed to be in the dark, she half thought as the wilder started to begin a spell. Two things she noted as her chanting paused in confusion. First, her wrists and thumbs were bound together and without the ability to gesture her spell for light could not be completed. Second, something constricted her neck as Ashleen tried to speak or more accurately use her magic.
“It won’t work,” a familiar voice stated quietly.
“Hyren?” she questioned not completely trusting her ears.
“Yes, are you all right?” the voice asked in the darkness.
Trying to notice any injuries as her mind began to refocus once more, the girl could feel nothing out of place aside from the fuzziness she felt in her head. It was as if her head held a cloud of gnats buzzing around inside of her skull to annoy the wilder. “I think I am fine, but my head feels funny.”
“It is probably from the sleeping powder they hit you with to stop you. Those warlocks seemed prepared for any kind of wizard, even a wilder like you.”
Feeling the constriction around her neck, Ashleen found a metal collar or what felt like metal anyway. In the dark, it could be made of almost anything if magic was involved, but she still thought that it was metal. There was no chain attached, but the girl still felt like it was there to make her a prisoner.
“How long have I been asleep?” she asked as her mind tried to catch up to what had happened to her.
“I’m not sure. Quite awhile I’d say. They carried Themenor, Fedwin and you down the stairs to the shore. After they put you in the longboat with me and Themenor, I lost sight of the others.”
“They separated us?”
“Yes, we three here, then Fedwin, Zenfar and Wendle in another, with Deiclonus and Dorgred sent to the last ship. I think they didn’t want to risk any of us breaking the others free, at least in larger numbers. I’m not even sure why they worried. They took us down easily enough,” she could hear the bitterness in the man’s voice. For a Southwall wizard to give in to the enemy was a humiliation. Kardorians were almost as prideful or perhaps it was just a wizard thing. Ashleen was still an apprentice trying to tame her wilder abilities and sometimes they still got away from her. For that reason, the girl might have less pride to worry over in a defeat and, of course, she didn’t have a man’s pride to add to the ignominy.
“Is Themenor here? I don’t hear him or anyone sleeping.”
“They took him away earlier. He awoke before you. I don’t know how long ago it was, but it was awhile ago,” he stated sounding worried.
The two lapsed into silence only speaking occasionally as they were wrapped in their own thoughts and worries. Ashleen had a few extra worries being a young girl. In the darkness, she felt with her hands and found that they had removed her wizard robes. A mere shift, light like a night dress, had been left to her. Her legs were bared to above the knee and it had no sleeves. The cold of the dark room began to make her shiver slightly or perhaps it was simply shock and fear that made her quake in the darkness.
When the door was finally thrown open spilling light into the store room, she was able to see the many shelves filled with supplies amidst which they had been deposited. That moment ended quickly as a pair of orcs entered pulling both wizards roughly to their feet. The girl managed to keep her protests limited to a simple squeak of fear as her creature’s powerful, hands picked her up by the shoulders before pushing her through the doorway.
The next room was a communal room probably used for eating with a pair of tables bolted to the floor. Barrels and boxes were roped off with netting. Most likely these were supplies sent with the black ships since they were unsure of the length of their voyage. Having little time to take the room in before she was shoved up a wood staircase leading to the deck, Ashleen noted a bar and place to cook the f
ood as well as chairs bound in stacks in a couple places along the wall.
Sunlight nearly blinded her even after her eyes had the chance to see torchlight in the eating room. Blinking at the light, it took Ashleen a moment before she could take in the sight of the black sails billowing above and a crew of mostly orcs and goblins moving around keeping the ship moving. Men roamed the deck as well. Many wore black uniforms as did several of the orcs that seemed to be killing time waiting for the next fight. Unlike them, the sailors mostly wore brown pants and sometimes shirts. Their green and brown torsos were often bared in the heat of working on the deck.
Sighting Themenor sitting on the ground before the forward mast of the ship, she also noted more men and these bore the scent of magic. Wizard hunters. The men noted the arrival of the new wizards looking defeated. Ashleen was in the white, underlying frock she had worn beneath her robes and Hyren was reduced to undershorts and a shirt. The man was also sporting a cheek and eye blackened and swollen from a blow that he had taken. Ashleen knew that they were definitely defeated if not completely broken in spirit. Hoping that she would survive and not become a slave, Ashleen felt the breeze coming over the deck and shivered though it wasn’t with the cold.
Pushed to sit on either side of Themenor, the warlocks looked down on the three wizards appraisingly. The appraisal must have found them wanting as more than a few snickered at their humbled forms.
“Your companion seems to know very little of those you follow. I brought you here to see if you could be a little more useful. He did take a dose of the sleeping powder, but I think our questions and magic have woken him sufficiently. Still he only tells us that you followed the others out of curiosity.
“Perhaps you two can fill us in more accurately before we find them,” the leader brought electricity to his fingers like the spell she had once taught to Sebastian. It would be painful for the others, but Ashleen lived with lightning trying to break from her body constantly as a wilder. It was her natural talent and defense. It had also made her lose control in the battle in front of the castle.
“We know as little as our friend,” Hyren stated trying to use his charm. Even with a damaged face, the man seemed friendly and as obliging as he could be. “I am afraid that we just served Lord Romonus. It was he who decided that our ship should follow them and see what they were up to.”
The lead warlock moved closer to Hyren still playing the electricity across his fingers. A small tendril flicked free catching the water wizard on the cheek eliciting a hiss of pain. It probably hurt a little, but the current was low unlike something Ashleen could throw in battle.
“Do tell. So you who are these people you follow? You obviously must know at least something about them,” the dark haired warlock inquired with his dark brown eyes that almost looked black. A tightly trimmed beard and mustache managed to make him look more like darkness despite its careful grooming. The warlocks still wore their enchanted armor despite having defeated and captured the wizards. Ashleen feared that they might believe Sebastian’s ship was close enough to need their armor ready.
“It’s just a Malaiy frigate,” Hyren answered quickly. “They brought their wizards here and seemed to have very good connections inside Hala. We found out that they were planning to explore the islands and hoped to find treasure or take it from them if we had to,” the water wizard managed to hide the truth quickly as he acted broken. Hyren’s talent to be convincing and a charmer were one thing, but his ability to act and hide the truth were on another level entirely, Ashleen thought lowering her head as if disappointed in the man for giving in so quickly.
“A Kardorian ship with Southwall wizards is chasing a Malaiy frigate, you say?” the warlock look less than convinced. “Why would your two countries that live in the North believe that the Malaiy could cross the ocean and find treasure in your own sea? That would seem a little far fetched, don’t you think?”
Another surge of electricity flicked out lashing the man’s nose. A little grunt of pain came from Hyren, but Ashleen had a feeling that it was just more dramatic for effect. The wizard was playing a weak willed man very well. If she didn’t know more of the truth and the wizard’s actual nature, the girl would have believed every word he said so far.
“The lord paid us to work for him. The gold promised to move to Kardor sounded worth it, but if working for him is going to cost my life please just drop me on some island. Kardor can be damned. Gold isn’t worth my life!”
Those dark eyes moved to Ashleen and he raised an eyebrow inquisitively, “And the girl serves Kardor and follows her master blindly as well?”
A taste of his power flicked several tendrils of electricity into her body. Ashleen cried out in surprise and pain. It actually hurt. Had they somehow bound her magic and walled it off to the point that such a weak spell could harm her? No protective lightning came to her aid as it always had when the girl had been frightened or needed protecting in the past. New fear of what they had done to her trickled into her mind like the flow of his magical torture.
“I’m just an apprentice serving my master. He works for the ambassador,” she quickly replied.
“Ambassador, that fat little fellow was an ambassador? How interesting. You wouldn’t think a man like him would be chasing treasure,” he retorted flicking the girl with another tendril.
“She’s speaking the truth,” Hyren hurried to try and draw the warlock’s attention away from the young woman. “He’s a lord in title, but he lives in Kardor. Personally I have come to believe that he isn’t as rich as he made us think. He could only afford five of us after all. Maybe he was just hoping to find some more gold to improve his position further?”
“Well, unfortunately for you,” the warlock said standing up and releasing his spell, “your little lord isn’t here to answer that and, now that we have you, it really doesn’t matter.
“Our hunters are on the trail of this Malaiy ship as well. If they are just hunting treasure then our sister ships may have gone on a wild goose chase, but we still use our magic to pursue them. Maybe when we take their ship and wizards, they will show us this treasure that you hunt.”
The warlocks were apparently bored with the three wizards and moved away to talk. Life went on around them ignoring the battered prisoners and Ashleen wondered how long their captors would keep them alive. Fedwin had been sure that they would be kept alive and would be brought back to the Dark One’s capitol to be brainwashed into working for the enemy. Perhaps being dead was preferable.
“How are you holding up?” Hyren directed his question at Themenor with his eyes.
The air wizard shrugged. Ashleen had noted a couple bruises on his face when they had been brought to him, but Themenor said, “They haven’t done anything that I won’t recover from in a few days. I don’t even think these men care what we say to them. They’re just bored and itching for their next fight. If we can bring a little amusement while they wait, then it will just help pass the time for them.
“You did well telling them what you did. I held out and said little enough, but what you said is close enough to my words, I believe. We really do know little enough of what they are searching for after all. Laying blame on the Malaiy was a good touch and true enough in a way. Are you sure that you aren’t trained as a diplomat wizard? If so, maybe you can entrance the crew and gain us our freedom as well.”
Hyren grunted and replied, “I wish it were that easy. I am just hoping that we gave them enough to keep them from doing too much torture.” His blue eyes glanced to Ashleen worriedly and was noted by Themenor between them. “If ever I hoped that your friends are powerful enough to defeat these wizard hunters, this is the time for them to prove it.”
“If they destroy our captors, they will destroy us also,” Ashleen sighed wishing that she had a better answer. Knowing how vulnerable they were and she as a woman being another possible diversion for the dark men, Ashleen actually hoped that they found Sebastian and ended her capture sooner than later. It was a
bitter piece of hope, but it was all she had.
Night came and another day while the three wizards remained on the deck receiving just some bread and water occasionally to keep them from dying, but that was all. Two more days passed before they adjusted course. The crew was becoming more excited and Ashleen had a feeling that for good or ill, the enemy had found Sebastian.
Less than a day had been spent in Trillian, but the Sea Dragon was fully provisioned once more and underway. They had hurried fearing that something had come looking for them from the Dark One. Sebastian and the others had no illusions that they could hide from whatever was coming for them forever, but they did hope that whatever came they could handle it.
Hurrying south in an attempt to make the passage between Talc and Baltu as quickly as possible, the Malaiy sailors were able to increase to full sails as the winds continued steadily from the northwest. Sebastian and his team began to practice and think of tactics to use for their magic in a sea battle, if it should happen. Early the following morning, Darterian came to Bas and asked to borrow the compass. It was his grandfather’s gift to them, so Sebastian could hardly say no.
After half an hour, the man returned drawing the mage aside, “I was checking the calibration of the compass and discovered something interesting.”
Looking askance for the man to continue, the wizard nodded saying, “These devices were originally set up to hold the position of opened gateways on the gem until a team of wizards could close them. If they closed on their own, there was a lingering light like these two,” he gestured at the two gray points that had replaced the bright yellow of four days before.
“Yellow lights mean they’re open and gray, as they are now, means they’ve been closed though we could use the compass to find those points if we tried.”
Pointing to two more white points east of the gray one, Darterian stated; “These two points are things that came through the closer portal and they are still moving.”
Battle Mage: The Lost King (Tales of Alus) Page 32