Winter Mage

by Tim Niederriter

  Spells of the Curtain: Winter Mage

  Copyright © 2018 Tim Niederriter

  http://mentalcellarpublications.com

  https://dwellerofthedeep.wordpress.com/

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written consent of the author. Unauthorized duplication in any media is a violation of international copyright laws and will be prosecuted.

  Published by Mental Cellar Publications

  This is a work of fiction People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any similarity to actual people, places, and events is purely coincidental.

  Also by Tim Niederriter

  Spells of the Curtain Series

  Court Mage

  Battle Mage

  Winter Mage

  Garden Mage (September 1st)

  Traveler Mage (September 19th)

  Fire Mage (October 7th)

  Protector Mage (October 25th)

  …and more to come!

  Tenlyres Series

  Ilsa and Blue

  The Gray Lector

  The Lyre War

  The Root Conspiracy Series

  Memory Lost

  Mind Chase

  Image Storm

  Cell Cycle (August 21st)

  …and more to come!

  Other Books

  Rem’s Dream

  Find out more at http://mentalcellarpublications.com

  This series is for the friends who made it possible.

  And also for Zig Zag Claybourne, a fellow author who encouraged me to dust off this tale.

  Thank you all.

  The night had never held much fear for Edmath, but a tomb was dark even when the sky above was bright. He woke from the catatonia of the trance he had slipped into to cope with the pain of killing his foe. The world was cold. He was alone, lying on his back under layers of wood and stone, unable to move much beyond his head and hands. His arms were pinned and he felt with his forefinger that his striker was broken. Only in the absolute darkness, he couldn’t imagine what had happened. The pain of the killing with magic had gone but he still ached all over, his body pinioned beneath a heavy weight, but spared complete crushing doom by unseen supports still intact above him.

  The battle was over, he guessed from the silence, but here he would die nonetheless. He hated himself for how Chelka must feel, hated himself for the stupid risk he had taken out of anger, hated himself, even for slaying the mirache, such an amazing creature. Dozing hopelessly, he heard his stomach growl, empty. Despite the air filtering through cracks in the rubble, he would die soon enough. Then he thought of Chelka who he would be leaving him behind, of Sampheli Mierzon and the monks who had raised him. All those people who had helped him live were going to miss him when he was gone, and he knew with tears in his eyes that he would miss them too.

  No way could he make a sign, no way to escape. Here he was. He screamed as loud as he could as often as his lungs would allow him. After hours with no response, he shifted his head to gaze up at a tiny point of blue light that appeared in front of him. The light grew wider with a groan as more rubble shifted over him. Orpus Lengbyoi’s silvery roots reached through the shards of broken roof tiles and bared Edmath to the light of the newly waxing moon. He groaned as pale light appeared before his eyes. His hands were free, then his legs and Orpus Lengbyoi’s voice sang out, high and clear.

  “Edmath you were here all along. Edmath, friend, and maker, I knew you wouldn’t leave me. I knew you wouldn’t go and let me live alone. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” The ghosted roots slipped around Edmath’s sore body and lifted him onto the lowest branch.

  The blue glow of the seal-eye cut through the night. Edmath managed a smile when he saw it this time. He massaged his stiff neck and brushed dust from his face with his other hand.

  “Lengbyoi, how?”

  “I think an Orpus can hear better than a human, but I didn’t hear you for such a long time. I have nowhere to go without you, or I might have given up.” Lengbyoi’s eye dimmed for a moment. “Your wife is safe, but I haven’t seen her since the battle ended. But I did find your glasses. They’re dusty, but not broken.” The tree held them out on the end of a root. Edmath retrieved his glasses and put them on.

  Edmath breathed with ragged relief and adjusted his sitting position with his hands as more feeling returned to them. They had been almost numb since he had been unburied. He wanted water and food and wondered if he might be starving to death sitting on the branch.

  “Thanks, my good and faithful Lengbyoi.” Edmath looked through the breach in the wooden wall and saw no fires burning on the hill. “How long was I buried?”

  “Twelve days.” Orpus Lengbyoi carried Edmath toward the hole in the walls and onto the battlefield that had been partly cleaned up already. Broken weapons and crab shells lay scattered around the opening. On the slope of the hill, the body of a crab king stood motionless, towering like a rounded mountain.

  Lesser birds had begun to pick away at the massive creature’s remains. Despite his disgust at the felling of the giant crab, Edmath’s mind returned to the same thought as the tiny birds who now fed off of it spoke.

  “Tender,” murmured one.

  “Juicy!” cried another.

  Edmath massaged his aching stomach with one hand.

  “I need to eat.” Edmath squeezed leaned close and put his head against Lengyboi’s trunk. “Please, take me into the city.”

  “Yes, of course. The city fell to the attack. We should be able to go in.”

  The tree turned and crept through the remains of the crab legion warriors and to the walls of the city where the flags of the War Empress’s regency flew.

  “Stop here,” Edmath said. “The two of us can’t simply invade a city like Niniar, though it belongs to our side once again. They will need to know I am alive, and a friend.” Edmath took a deep breath and waited. Orpus Lengbyoi kept its silence and Edmath watched as guards came and went above the wall carrying spears and torches.

  He called to the soldiers on the wall with what remained of his hoarse voice. The guard passing by turned and looked down at him and returned his yell with a wave to come closer. Orpus Lengbyoi approached the wall at a slow slither. Edmath waved his arm to the man on the battlements.

  “Guard,” he called. “I am Imperial Saale Edmath Benisar. Will you allow my tree and I to climb the wall here? We will cause no damage.”

  The guard leaned over the wall and answered him with surprised assent. Edmath couldn’t quite make him out. Orpus Lengbyoi must have understood the man better. The tree carried him to the wall and then up the side, roots sinking into solid stone and emerging without a trace of their presence left behind. The guard let out a gasp as Edmath and the tree appeared over the battlements.

  “You’re that Saale, the one who fought the fox-beast. We thought you dead.”

  Edmath winced as Orpus Lengbyoi set him down on the wall with a gentle tilt of its long trunk.

  “Sense would tell you the same thing,” he said. “But fortune is on my side.”

  He climbed to his feet and felt something cold and metallic touch his back. He looked over his shoulder and saw his stethian, held in one of Orpus Lengbyoi’s roots.

  “I found this earlier as well, Edmath.” The tree’s seal pulsed with nervous light. “In case of danger.”

  The guard backed away from them. Edmath took the stethian from the tree’s coiled grip.

  “Thank you, Orpus. Don’t panic, good sentry. This tree is my friend, Orpus Lengbyoi. It won’t hurt you. So have no fear.”

  The guard swept off his moth-leg
ion helmet and bowed his head.

  “Lord Benisar, I can scarcely believe you’re alive. Everyone was told you had fallen in battle.”

  Edmath chuckled, leaning against Orpus Lengbyoi’s trunk. Guilt rushed through him for causing his friends pain, especially Chelka, but his survival now seemed entirely too lucky for him not to laugh a little. He could go home.

  “I owe this big tree my life.” Edmath patted Orpus Lengbyoi’s bark. “He dug me out of the rubble of Fort Ash’s armory earlier this night. Of course, I could do with some food and drink now. After all, it’s been almost two weeks.” Edmath felt light-headed all of a sudden. The guard took a step toward him, looking concerned as he fell into a crouch. “About your business, sir,” Edmath said as Orpus Lengbyoi picked him back up with a cluster of tentacles and set him back on a branch. “I will be fine with my tree friend to look after me.”

  “If you say so.” The guard threw up a salute. “I heard you Imperial Saales were summoned by the High Emperor.”

  “I will leave for Diar tomorrow.” Edmath lay back on the branch. “Don’t worry about that.” With those words, Orpus Lengbyoi carried him down the wall and into the city streets.

  They searched for an hour or so before finding an open tavern, where luminous worms glowed in the lantern over the door. Edmath climbed off Orpus Lengbyoi.

  “Wait here.” He walked over to the door and looked back at the seal on the tree’s trunk. “I’ll need food and drink and proper rest, you understand. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Orpus Lengbyoi’s roots sank into the dirt on one side of the road beside the tavern.

  “I will wait, Edmath. I’m simply glad you’re alive.”

  Edmath made his way inside, touching his glasses with a finger. They were dusty, and a thin crack ran along the top of one lens, but that was all, even after the collapse of the roof and Tamina’s blows during the battle. Inside the tavern, the lights were low flickers of candle flame, but the bar still remained open. He walked over to it, unsure of drinking the alcohol on the wall behind the counter. He needed something though. The drowsy, slender barman raised an eyebrow at him, blinking in the dim light.

  “What’ll it be, my lord?”

  Reaching to his side, Edmath felt his money pouch and found it still full, as he’d hoped. “Please, a glass of wine, my good man, and what do you have to eat?”

  “All I can offer is a few scraps of bread and elk cheese at this hour.”

  “That will be plenty. Thank you.”

  Edmath fished in the pouch and pulled out a handful of coins. He was grateful barman did not ask questions. He needed to clear his head. Without checking the coins he set them on the table and slumped onto a stool nearby, back aching from his long time unable to move. The trance state his body entered had most likely saved his limbs as intended. He had continued to study Hesiatic trances at Lexine Park and the action had been reflexive apparently. Lacking a monk’s torite bundles, the body still grew weak over time.

  The barman took his money and brought him wine, bread, and cheese. He ate in silence for a few moments and then looked up from his food. The reflection in his wine was not pleasant, spotted with dried blood and covered in dust. The barman sat down across from him.

  “Is everything alright?” The barman yawned and covered his mouth with his hand. “You look like hell.”

  “This is excellent fare. But you’re right, I’m in poor condition.” Edmath brushed dust from his hair. “I will need a room as well.”

  “I can offer you the last room at the end of the hall on the second floor. How long will you need it?” The barman’s tone betrayed a hint of knowledge that he had not yet shared.

  “Just for the night, I need some rest before I move on.” Edmath got to his feet and wiped his mouth with a clean rag sitting on the table. “Are you aware of who I am?”

  “A worm lord in Niniar? There are still plenty like you.”

  “My good man, I am not of the local tribe.”

  A dog barked outside the door, answered by another. As far as Edmath could determine from their guttural voices they were excited by Orpus Lengbyoi’s presence.

  “Trees! Come see the tree!”

  “Smell this tree!”

  The barman looked over his shoulder as the barking continued.

  “What’s that about?”

  There was no dog tribe in Zel, or anywhere else as far as Edmath knew. A few old texts spoke of a Wolf Tribe, but their like had not been seen in Zel for many generations. Edmath might be the only human capable of understanding canine speech.

  “Nothing to fear. The animals have only noticed my steed.”

  “Steed? I heard neither hoof nor paw.”

  “As I was saying. I am an Imperial Saale. Edmath Benisar is my name.”

  “Benisar? You were with the War Empress’s army. They thought you dead.”

  “Only a slight exaggeration, my good man. I must leave for Diar tomorrow to set things right. Now, about that room key.”

  “Right.” The barman lifted a key from behind the counter and handed it to Edmath. “Return it in the morning.”

  He yawned again and lit a candle with a match. He handed the candle’s burnished metal grip to Edmath and sat down again.

  Edmath raised the candle a little and smiled at the barman. He had such luck that he could find a room immediately. He might have been able to survive a night on the streets, but no need to risk that now.

  “Thank you.”

  “You and yours liberated this city from the Roshi once they betrayed our former king. It’s the least I can do.”

  Edmath frowned.

  “Any news of Kassel Onoi, the Worm King?” He didn’t know how he’d feel if Kassel had been slain, given the Worm King’s betrayal of the empire, and his ties to Edmath’s family.

  “The traitor king escaped the city before the battle, though he tricked the War Empress into thinking he remained.”

  Edmath nodded.

  “I see.” Edmath sighed. “But the war is over?”

  “Indeed. The people here would not stand without reason, and few of us were eager to fight our countrymen.”

  “That shows good sense, if I may say.”

  “You may. Respectfully, Saale Benisar, may I ask you something,” said the barman. “I heard your eyes were blue, or maybe green.”

  “They are blue,” said Edmath.

  The barman frowned.

  “Perhaps its just the light,” he said. “Rest well, my good Saale.”

  Edmath walked along the bar and down the hallway up the stairs where the barman had directed and found the last room. He unlocked it and stepped inside. A large mirror on the opposite side of the room greeted him. He walked to the mirror and saw his face once again, more clearly this time.

  Setting the candle on the nightstand by the room’s tiny bed, he saw his eyes. He knew their irises must be blue, but darkness filled them now. In fact, he saw not even a flicker of his blue in them, rather a warm blackness. Edmath shook his head, unsure of what to think, but tired and in pain. He sat down on the bed, unlaced his boots and took off his glasses. Setting the cracked lenses on the night table, he laid down on his side and fell immediately into a true sleep.

  Only in his sleep, came dreams of black eyes and creeping red limbs.

  The journey to Diar took two days and a night lying among Orpus Lengbyoi’s branches as the young tree crawled north along the coast, indomitably scaling steep cliff-faces and fording even an inlet of the sea to avoid losing the straight path. The river-mouths they crossed were many as Lengbyoi carried him across the coastal plains of Ultor.

  They passed more than one vacant farm and village, still abandoned after the Roshi incursion during the Worm King’s uprising. Dismal shades drifted in broken windows. Edmath rested poorly on the way due to the motion of the tree, but his return would be worth it. His life could go back to a semblance of a plan, though being married remained a
surprise. Not to mention this war. Life did not serve plans without changes.

  He did his best to ignore the reflection of black eyes in the water. Something was wrong with him, something he could not place.

  Autumn smells already hung in the air when Edmath and Lengbyoi passed through the southwest gate of Diar. The tree’s movements surprised the guards taking the count of passing travelers. After all the travel, seeing the city filled Edmath with joy and he sat up on the branch. The war’s end had truly come. Roshi might still be on the doorstep, but the Worm King’s rebellion had fallen and the Empire of Zel could focus outward again.

  The nation of Roshi had instigated war in Zel. Even if the foreigners sought peace now, would the High Emperor allow it? His life had been in direct danger, probably for the first time in many years.

  “Lengbyoi, my good tree, head for the north garden, will you? I think Chelka will be relieved to see me.”

  “Surprised too.” Orpus Lengbyoi edged through the tall gates, leaves and branches brushing the doors. “She was furious that they could not find you after the battle. Perhaps we should have sent a letter ahead?”

  “No messenger would have preceded us by much, my good Orpus.”

  Edmath hoped Chelka and his family members both old and new would understand that. Lengbyoi kept on crawling, though a little slower through the busy streets. Chelka’s temper could be furious and her passions under little control.

  He hoped she had not done anything she would regret. They entered the palace at one gate, drawing wondering glances from some passersby. The tree stopped crawling with a sudden lurch, seal dimming.

  Brosk Naopaor stood before them, leaning on a crutch and wide-eyed.

  “Edmath, you monster! You’re still alive!” He threw up his free hand in disbelief. “I knew you were a great Saale, I mean one of the best in the class, but how could you?”

  Edmath grinned down at Brosk, putting a thumb behind his dirt-crusted rega and pulling it out so it would hang more prominently.