by Jason Kenyon
…which meant he was stuck.
He slid to one side of the doorway and prepared the Staff of Antagules. One last plan remained to him. This would sort out Sen Delarian once and for all.
Sen Delarian strode out onto the platform.
‘Forse…’
The Staff of Antagules struck out with legendary force!
For several seconds, only the eerie hum of the dome magic could be heard.
‘Ow, what on earth?’ Sen asked, rubbing his head. ‘What was that supposed to achieve?’
Archimegadon looked at the staff miserably. ‘I don’t know…’
‘You had all the chances I’ll give you, Forseld,’ Sen said. Five guards followed him out onto the tower, eager to prove their boss right. ‘Now let’s discuss this like gentlemen.’
‘Discuss what?’ Archimegadon asked. ‘Killing me?’
‘If that is the subject that will entertain you,’ Sen replied, smirking.
‘When I was in the old Mage Academy, I saw you, you know,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Is that right?’ Sen asked, looking a little surprised.
‘Whatever power gave me visions in there, it sent you at me,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘I think you were being used as an example of how not to be.’
‘Your own personal delusion, then,’ Sen said. ‘Guards, hold him.’
‘Hold me?’ Archimegadon asked with a snort as the soldiers grabbed hold of his arms and twisted them behind his back. ‘Whatever do you need to capture me for, sir? Not going to just kill me?’
‘In case you’d not noticed, we have some vigilante would-be heroes and an army of paladins in our city,’ Sen replied.
‘Oh, I hadn’t, actually,’ Archimegadon said. ‘I did hear a bit of noise.’
‘Ah, right,’ Sen said. ‘Well, Commander Grand has seen fit to attempt an overthrow of our regime. It may very well succeed, too, but I’m afraid that I’m not interested in letting that happen. Grand is a dark and deceitful man, not at all the type of man who should be a soldier of the Light. That being said, he needs to present a face of heroism to the people. And no hero allows an innocent to die through his own inaction.’
‘You’re going to use me as a hostage?’ Archimegadon asked. ‘You may wish to think that one through – you already told everyone I was an arch-villain and responsible for creating some sort of threat that Lord Bartell is working to stop.’
‘That hardly matters,’ Sen said. ‘What matters is Grand will still be forced to decide between the life of a person and his own arrogance, and in public no less. His dreams of being beloved by all would never suffer such a stain to his reputation.’
‘Fair enough,’ Archimegadon said. ‘Seems odd, though, for one who claims to be a hero himself.’
Sen shrugged. ‘As explained before, we’re working to do what no other hero ever bothered to do. And that’s clean up the whole mess left after they killed the “Big Evil”.’
‘How many of your troops know you wish to kill everyone in the world?’ Archimegadon asked. ‘Hardly seems a long-term vision for them.’
‘He’s talking nonsense,’ Sen said to the guards, shaking his head. ‘What are you trying to achieve, Forseld? Nobody’s going to believe a worthless, sub-par, would-be mercenary. Your efforts here are meaningless anyway, as are Grand’s. Bartell is riding away as we speak, to Mount Arranoth, where he will finish off Vortagenses’s legacy and bring an end to all evil.’
‘You mean an age-old necromancer will kill him,’ Archimegadon said.
‘Such a sense of humour you have, Forseld,’ Sen said. ‘It will aid you nothing. Just look down at the city below, at the rabble that swarms and fights this pointless battle. What are they fighting for?’
‘Well, at a huge, fairly daring guess, I would estimate they’re trying to boot out that ass Bartell since he seized power in a bloody coup,’ Archimegadon replied.
‘Don’t get smart with me,’ Sen said. ‘Their cause, such as they believe it to be, is utterly meaningless. Half those paladins don’t even know who Bartell is. Causes can be given to people without them caring.’
Archimegadon inwardly sighed. Somehow, his fear of death at Sen’s hands was pushed aside at the extreme boredom Sen was surely about to launch into. He needed something to save him, or some plan to thwart the deluded mage. But fighting Sen was a useless effort. The mage knew every spell backwards, and while he had been temporarily fooled, he was no longer taking the risk of a direct confrontation just in case. Archimegadon needed help… he needed someone…
Oh, so now you need old Antagules, eh?
I’d rather someone other than you, Archimegadon thought back at her. Sen’s lips were still moving, which presumably meant the mage was still discussing the exciting issue of causes. Look, boring as he is, Sen is going to kill me. That won’t be terribly convenient.
I don’t know any weaknesses for Sen, Antagules replied. He’s the best of the best.
I froze him, Archimegadon told her with pride.
That’s because he assumed you were a total failure, Antagules said. Be glad you’re not quite that bad. But he won’t make that assumption twice. You can’t play on it or fool him that way again.
So how do I stop him? Archimegadon asked. The ass has got five guards as well as being himself, which isn’t terribly good in terms of odds.
Well, let’s buy time, if he’s enjoying his chatter, Antagules said. Try telling him that I have sent other agents through while he was tracking you.
‘Erm, Sen, old bean,’ Archimegadon said out loud.
‘…Which would be the reason such decisions are… what, Forseld?’ Sen glowered at this interruption.
‘I have just received a gloating message I need to relay to you,’ Archimegadon said.
‘A… a what?’
‘Antagules says that her agents send their thanks for tracking me down and letting them head for Arranoth without your interruption,’ Archimegadon replied.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, there are no “agents”,’ Sen said. ‘I mean, I would have noticed.’
‘How? You have ways of tracking everyone who travels from her world?’
‘Well, perhaps not, but even still, why send agents without the staff?’
Archimegadon grinned stupidly, inwardly despising himself for this jester act. ‘Because she knew you’d go for the staff, even if an… an… an idiot like me had it.’
‘I don’t care about the staff anyway,’ Sen said.
‘Then why send your Cleric fellow after me?’
‘Why does anyone do anything?’ Sen returned. ‘It’s irrelevant.’
‘So, you’re saying you don’t really think at all?’ Archimegadon asked with mild puzzlement, which was more annoying to Sen than if he’d said it mockingly, and started Sen off on a rant.
Right, I’ve irritated him, what’s next? Archimegadon asked, pleased that Antagules’s plan was working.
Er, yes I didn’t quite come up with that bit yet, Antagules replied.
Didn’t you tell me you are a powerful and great mage?
Mages… say a lot of things.
So I have noticed.
You are one to talk!
‘Are you even listening to me?’ Sen asked, almost shouting with frustration. ‘What on earth is so interesting that you’d ignore your own death?!’
‘I’m dead?’ Archimegadon asked in surprise, looking down for a gaping wound or something he’d not noticed.
‘Well, not yet,’ Sen replied. ‘Argh, what is wrong with you? You are the most infuriating idiot I think I have ever encountered. You’re just an old, senile goat with no talents at all. Where do you get this chip on your shoulder?’
‘I think it was my father’s side,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘Marius Forseld, a rather grumpy old fellow, certainly. Quite a rich landowner at one point, you know. Until he sold it all off and moved to Elgebra or something, for all we knew.’
‘I’m not interested in your life story!’ Sen said. ‘It was enti
rely rhetorical!’
‘Um, sir?’ one of the guards spoke up.
‘What?’
‘Why don’t we just kill him now? There’s others we can use who are less annoying.’
Sen opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. He pursed his lips. ‘Yes, let’s. Your sword.’
The guard handed it over dutifully, leaving Archimegadon staring at the shining edge of his life’s bitter end. Sen allowed himself a smirk.
‘Suppose that’s it, then, Mage for Hire,’ he said. ‘You managed to beat a necromancer and even sneak through Bartell’s city to this place, but luck is a bad friend to rely on, and he’s probably gone for tea at this late hour. Any last gloats, rude comments or otherwise?’
Anything? Archimegadon asked hurriedly.
I don’t know! Let me find something!
Find? There’s no time for that!
But Antagules had broken the link.
‘I would like to make a last speech,’ Archimegadon replied.
‘A speech.’
‘Yes. A last speech.’
‘Look, Forseld, I was being sarcastic,’ Sen said. ‘I didn’t actually want you to say anything, and if you did, my intention was purely to cut you down with a snide remark, then cut you down with this sword.’
‘That was a good one,’ Archimegadon said. ‘Almost as good as… vala andrilus.’
‘Hah, you won’t get me with that…’ Sen paused. ‘No, you didn’t cast it. An idiot like you wouldn’t know how.’
‘Give me a moment, let me come up with something else,’ Archimegadon said. ‘I’m sure I can outwit you somehow. Or hopefully Obdo and Neurion will catch up… or Mortimyr and company.’
Sen started laughing. ‘Amazing, you really are stuck, aren’t you? You’re throwing every bluff possible at me.’
‘Ah, but what if one is true?’ Archimegadon asked.
‘Forseld, I faced down the demon Galederoth, defeated the Sorcerer Kings of Mellidium and let’s not forget the great cataclysmic battle to defeat the Bone Dragon, Tel Ariel,’ Sen replied. ‘What chance does a half-wit idiot like you really have? I’m only bothering with you because you irritated me so much.’
‘Sir, can we kill him and get back to the paladins?’ one of the soldiers suddenly spoke up. ‘This guy’s probably just been sent to distract you from the real enemy.’
‘Hmm, you’re actually right,’ Sen said, looking surprised. ‘A guard with a brain, what is this? Very well, Forseld, death is yours.’
Archimegadon threw around in a panic for the spell he’d cast back when captured by Belias and faced by the demons, but he couldn’t remember how he’d done it, and the fact that he was thinking about it so actively probably didn’t help. What choices were left to him now? An interruption from Obdo and Neurion? The assistance of the paladins below? Antagules returning with some amazing just-in-time solution? He wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t supposed to be here facing Sen Delarian at all! His stupid bravado had brought him instead to a pathetic end, skewered on the end of some nameless soldier’s sword at the scene of his shaming.
‘Vortagenses will kill you too, you know,’ Archimegadon said, deciding randomly on something to comment about. ‘Why should he want some dead-weight fellow like yourself once your purpose is done? He’ll just discard you like you want to discard Bartell.’
‘Turning me against my allies is so typically “evil”,’ Sen said. ‘I’m not open to this sort of paranoia-play. Try it on Auber, not that you’ll meet him again.’
‘But what if I escape?’ Archimegadon asked.
Sen smiled disdainfully. ‘A bit slow, Forseld? Even if you did make it out of here, he won’t be around much longer.’
One of the guards drew his sword and threw a particularly hostile look at his current employer. ‘What’s that about Lord Bartell?’
It wasn’t much of a slip, really, and Sen probably could have smoothed it over, under normal circumstances. As it was, he was a bit preoccupied by the impending assault on the castle by Grand’s paladins, concern that Bartell might not actually make it out of the city alive, and flustered irritation over Archimegadon’s ridiculous manner. Caught off-balance as he tried to juggle all the above, he managed to achieve the most blatantly guilty pause seen in the kingdom for centuries. He glanced between Archimegadon and the soldiers a couple of times, then pursed his lips as the soldiers interpreted his silence accurately and drew their attention away from the captive Mage for Hire.
‘Oh, Forseld, how tedious you must be,’ Sen said, sighing. ‘Pretences over then.’ He dropped the soldier’s sword and instantly the guards released Archimegadon, who scrabbled out of the way just in time to avoid a deadly blast of fire take out two of the guards straight away.
From the sounds behind, Sen was slightly occupied, so Archimegadon pulled up his robes a bit and ran for it down the stairs. It was time for a swift exit from the castle entire, preferably in the direction of Grand and company. It hurt his pride to actually seek help from the paladins, but then again he’d found very definitely that he wasn’t about to outwit or defeat Sen, despite his best efforts so far. He was quite out of bluffs and tricks.
Stuck in the middle of thinking, he managed to blunder into Obdo, who stared at him as though beholding a ghost.
‘Sir Mage!’ Obdo said. ‘You killed him?’
‘He’s occupied,’ Archimegadon replied. ‘I seem to have turned his guards against him. Now let us get out of here with all due haste.’
‘Not gonna finish him off then?’
‘What do you think?’ Archimegadon asked, not interested in discussing his retreat at all with this donkey.
‘Can’t say I disagree, mind,’ Obdo replied. ‘Nice one getting out of there, though.’
‘Yes, quite,’ Archimegadon said. ‘Onwards, Obdo! We have tarried too long!’
An explosion behind them decided to help underline Archimegadon’s point.
‘That was..?’ Obdo began.
‘FORSELD!’ howled Sen Delarian’s voice. ‘I am OUT of patience!’
‘Does that ass ever sod off?’ Archimegadon asked. ‘There were five guards for heaven’s sake! Incompetents!’ And he charged off down the next flight of stairs.
Obdo looked down the stairs after Archimegadon, and then behind him, at the corridor that trundled off to somewhere far away from the trouble-prone mage. He whistled and slipped off hastily along the safer route.
Archimegadon meanwhile found himself on a walkway around the top of one of the Castle Aldrack entry halls. Unfortunately, it appeared that there was no handy stairway to take him down to safety, but since he didn’t really have any time to stand around he stumbled off towards the nearest door. As he took hold of the door handle the stair he’d come from dissolved under a flow of molten hatred that poured from Sen Delarian’s hands. Archimegadon froze and stared as the mage turned on more of Bartell’s guards who had run to see what the commotion was. Then the dark mage saw Archimegadon himself.
‘I have you!’ Sen roared, and another molten flow filled the Mage for Hire’s sight.
It was a close escape but Archimegadon managed to slide through the door in time to escape a rather hot death, but he was stumbling so badly over his robes that it took Sen no time at all to kick the charred remains of the door out the way and follow Archimegadon into the corridor. Neurion chose that moment to round the corner.
‘Master Archimegadon!’ Neurion said. ‘Fear not, the Light is with us!’ He was surrounded by an aura of light, and he pointed his glowing sword at Sen. ‘Begone, being of darkness!’
The sword shook with the power that ran through it, and Neurion’s arms suddenly lost control. A beam of light burst out of the end and instead managed to strike Archimegadon himself, crashing him through another door and through a table, a chair and a couple of vases.
‘Sorry!’ Neurion’s cry came through the destroyed doorway.
‘Neurion you sodding ass, get out of here!’ Archimegadon snapped from beneath the rubble. This w
as the absolute last thing he needed while trying to escape the deranged Sen.
Sen seemingly wasn’t too bothered by the threat of Neurion since he followed Archimegadon into the room without even pausing to deal with the paladin. Archimegadon reached for the nearest handy implement, which turned out to in fact be a ceramic plate, and threw it at the mage of legend. Apparently it was a successful attempt, for Sen let out a surprised sound of pain and, at least for that moment, did not destroy everything within range. Archimegadon meanwhile made another timely escape out the only other door available, casting flamebolts all over the place to make it harder for Sen to decide which way the mage had gone, as suits of armour and tables now lay across most paths.
Now he just needed to find his way out of the wretched castle without getting himself killed. The corrupt knights of Valia’s old order were not particularly in evidence any longer. Presumably Grand’s assault had pulled them away from guarding the castle interior so much. That served Archimegadon well. But he still didn’t know where the exit was, and even if he was to find an exit, wouldn’t that be where the battle was at its greatest? So it was a choice between the deranged mage Sen Delarian and all-out battle between Bartell and Grand’s forces. However, if the paladins were distracting attention, that would be better than being the sole focus of the kingdom’s most powerful mage.
He spent another five minutes stumbling around the hallways, flinching at the sounds of explosions that came either from Sen’s anger or the battle to take the city outside. Frustrated and frankly a little tired, Archimegadon came to a brief halt by a balcony that overlooked a small courtyard with some quaint stables attached. As his eyes lingered on the scene he noticed three very familiar figures standing next to horses. Elsim, Felick, and Lord Bartell himself! Well now, it seemed the Lord of Aldrack was planning a quick escape rather than staying and fighting!
Arranoth… could it be the mountain he’d been told about? Was Bartell going to head straight there in search of the power left by Vortagenses? In search of completing the Clerics’ mad prophecy or Vortagenses’s dark plan? He wasn’t sure what force gave him the stupidity to call the attention of yet another enemy, but something seemed to push him to shout at his great foe.