Magician In Captivity: Power of Poses - Book Three

by Guy Antibes

  Kulara’s crying had turned into sobs. “She would still be alive…” She lost control again.

  “She would still be alive if she were a good wife and loyal subject to your King,” Derit said. “The only reason she took her own life was to protect those in the conspiracy to take over Warish.” She knelt beside Rumanna’s broken body and began to go through her clothes. “You realize that if Marom dies, your husband will very likely join him in death?”

  Valanna couldn’t believe the callousness of the Vashtan. She thought she had seen humanity in the woman, and now this. She took Derit's hand to stop her.

  “No, Valanna.” Kulara said, her hands on the railing of the flyer. “We must protect Asem and his cousin. Derit is doing what needs to be done, then we can wrap her body up and take it close to the village.”

  “What about her children—now, your children? Will you leave them without a mother?” Valanna could feel her emotions swirl up and cloud her mind. “What will you do?” She held her arms out towards her friend.

  “Death happens enough in the Arid Lands,” Kulara said, through diminishing sobs. “The village will take care of them until Asem decides what is best. The boys are old enough to go on their own, as well as the oldest daughter. The fourteen-year-old girl will be taken care of, well enough. It is the Ferezan way. Asem might even bring her to Balbaam.”

  Valanna fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands. What would Asem say? The expected tears did not come. She took a deep, shuddering breath and stood up, her emotions spent in a way she had never experienced. Valanna filled her lungs again with the cool night air. Derit stood. “Did you find anything?”

  Derit held up a crumpled paper and an amulet of some kind. “We must leave! The Vashtan magicians can hone in on this. Quickly, up in the air!" She tucked the token back into Rumanna’s dress and then jumped to her feet. Valanna stood rooted to the ground until Derit grabbed Valanna’s arm and half dragged her to the flyer. Kulara posed, and they soon hovered above the scene, thirty stories up.

  Valanna collapsed, and finally tears began to stream down her face. “I’ve seen death before, but…” She shook her head and surrendered to her emotions. “What is happening to me?”

  Kulara knelt by her side. “It’s everything, Valanna. Just take your time. I am feeling much the same as you. It’s nearly more than I can bear. I never ever really hated Rumanna or the children she bore for Asem.” She put her arms around Valanna and began to cry as well. “I didn’t want her to end this way, despite my hatred.”

  “Quiet!” Derit said. Valanna jerked at the harshness in her command. “They have appeared.”

  The shock of others at the scene of Rumanna’s death shook Valanna out of her shell. She peered over the edge of the flyer, hand over her mouth, and could see black Vashtan cloaks below. Only Vashtans could have found Rumanna so quickly and teleported to her side.

  Fear prompted Valanna to act, and she stood in the middle of the flyer and whisked them to the west, away from Rumanna and away from the village she would never dare set foot in again.

  Valanna took the flyer back down to two stories in height. “Can Vashtans teleport to a moving platform?” They nearly had during Valanna’s flight from Pestle.

  Derit shook her head. “Only if it is in sight. Once we were out of view and moving, they wouldn’t be able to match our pace unless they could hone in on the amulet.”

  “She could have been under a compulsion spell!” Valanna put her hand to her mouth. “I should know better!” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “You do have compulsion spells, Derit?”

  The Vashtan nodded. “We were so anxious to get away that we let our emotions take over good thinking.”

  “Perhaps that is why I am so sad,” Kulara said. She looked at Derit. “I’ve never felt so badly. That was too hard of a lesson to learn,” Kulara still sat on the floor of the flyer, shaking her head. “Too expensive.”

  ~

  Kulara took them towards another Ferezan village. The villages constantly moved from spot to spot. They lowered the flyer and magically replenished their water supply walking distance away from the camp. They spread out the sheet they used to camouflage the flyer and used it to create a canopy over a portion of the bare ground around them.

  Valanna had never been so emotionally exhausted before. She thought about her breakdown the previous night and realized that Rumanna’s sudden death had triggered emotions that had been stifled in her for a long time. She thought of Trak and her escape from Pestle. She shook her head as her eyes began to water. She took a lot of deep breaths and regained control after a sob or two. Kulara hadn’t seemed to recover from before. What was wrong with them? Valanna wondered. She looked at Kulara and said, “Worry.”

  ‘What?” Kulara looked up at Valanna.

  “Use worry on me, if you seem to recover quickly.” Valanna sat back against the edge of the flyer and closed her eyes.

  In a few moments, she heard Kulara say, “Worry." She popped her eyes open and looked around for Derit.

  “I was under a spell, and you were, too.” Valanna looked out at the bushes that surrounded them. “Derit must have made us feel worse than we should have.”

  The Vashtan had taken her time getting back, but the bushes began to move at Valanna’s left, signaling Derit's return. “I feel remarkably better at controlling my emotions. I’m going to take a little walk myself.” Valanna nodded to Kulara and left them.

  Once out of sight, she found Derit's tracks and followed them behind a small hill. The tracks of three others joined Derit’s. The Vashtan’s companions had teleported in and teleported out. Valanna verified that there were four different sets of prints. But Derit could have put her to sleep when Rumanna and Kulara were tied up. Could Derit be one of the Vashtans who had ensorcelled Rumanna? It didn’t make any sense.

  On her way back to camp, Valanna still felt badly about Rumanna’s death, but the depths of despair that had caused her to break down had disappeared. Valanna realized how delicately Derit had administered some kind of a depression spell. She still didn’t understand why the woman would do such a thing if she were an ally. Kulara and she might have to put Derit out in order to bind and interrogate her. This time they would certainly employ the worry spell on Derit.

  She returned to camp. Derit watched while Kulara drew water up from the desert soil. Valanna stood at the back of Derit and said, “Worry.” She had to rush forward to catch Derit as she fell forward.

  Kulara looked up with a crooked smile. “You beat me to it,” she said. “I’ve never seen a sorrow spell before and have no idea why Derit would administer such a thing on us.”

  Valanna put Derit gently on the ground. “She must be right about the Vashtan’s having factions. She met three of her friends while out in what passes for bushes around here,” Valanna said. “I can’t see Derit allied with those who controlled Rumanna. Her actions…” Valanna shook her head. “We didn’t even read the note that you took from her.”

  Kulara’s eyebrows shot up. “I forgot about that.”

  “In your grief,” Valanna said.

  “Our grief.” Kulara pulled the crumpled note from her dress and then looked at Derit. “We should look for an amulet like Rumanna had.”

  Valanna searched the Vashtan and found a coin purse that contained a similar location device. “Perhaps we should be aloft and do something with this,” she said holding up the amulet.

  Kulara nodded. “Water first, and then you help me with Derit.”

  ~

  “What have you done?” Derit said with alarm, struggling with her bonds when she finally woke up.

  Valanna and Kulara sat underneath the canopy not far from where they first set the flyer down. The amulet had been tossed out of the flyer leagues to the north from where they currently made camp.

  “How do you feel?” Valanna said. “I know I feel a lot better, and so does Kulara.”

  Derit’s sallow skin colored with the revelation
that her victims had caught her out. “You don’t understand.”

  “Indeed we don’t. I think that is why you’re tied up, and we’re not,” Kulara said. “I nearly wanted to throw myself out of the flyer after we left Rumanna to your countrymen.”

  “I wouldn’t have let you,” Derit said. Valanna detected a bit of a pout in her voice.

  “A small favor from the gods,” Kulara said. “You were under some kind of compulsion spell as well. I’m afraid you tell us the truth, or we will have to put you under a truth spell.”

  “I will try to kill myself like Rumanna did, if you do.”

  Valanna felt her expression harden. “You don’t have anywhere to fall. The spell that stripped you of your compulsion would have taken care of that spell, too.”

  “It would?”

  “You don’t have to ‘worry’ about it,” Kulara said.

  Valanna looked for any changes in the Vashtan’s demeanor, but couldn’t find a change. It looked like Derit had been relieved of magical influence. “Will you tell us the truth? What compulsions have you been put under, and for whom do you act?”

  Derit looked from Valanna to Kulara. “You have something that eradicates compulsion spells?”

  “All spells are deactivated,” Valanna said. She smiled and pointed at Derit. “You are now deactivated.”

  The Vashtan looked relieved. “I hope it is true.”

  “Try to say something that you think a spell would prohibit.” Kulara took Derit’s hand. “We really do want to be your friends.”

  Looking away from them both, Derit said, “I, too, carry a location amulet.”

  “False,” Valanna said. “You used to, but it is no longer in your coin purse. We are leagues away from where I dumped it in the desert.”

  “Arid Lands,” Kulara corrected.

  Valanna nodded. “Are you really a Blue Swan?”

  “I spoke the truth. What you don’t know is that when you said ‘your countrymen’, you mean all Vashtans. We are not a united people. It is true that my people are against the Yellow Fox clan taking over the rest of the world. If they do that, we will be subjugated along with everyone else. We have rival spies.”

  “Who worked with Riotro, the Black Master in Santasia?”

  “Santasia? The Blue Swans don’t have spies in Cokasan, just the Pestlan and Bennin continents, that I know of.”

  Kulara glared at the woman. “Why did you cloud our minds?”

  “It was a mild compulsion to make you both more malleable to my suggestions.”

  “And your friends?” Valanna said.

  “Friends?” Derit colored even more.

  “I tracked your walk in the bushes and found four sets of footprints. Only yours came in and out from where you met them. You have others with you. Why?”

  Derit took a deep breath. “There are over twenty Vashtan magicians, mostly Yellow Fox, subverting the desert people. We are four, trying to stop them. We know who both of you are and know Prince Asem is loyal to the King, so we thought—“

  “You thought right,” Kulara said. “Rather than working against each other towards the same end, we should join forces. Don’t you think that would be more effective? I’m a proficient magician, and Valanna is very strong. Why not use us without the force? Your spell probably cost my husband his first wife.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “I really don’t want it to cost him his second." Kulara sat back and looked at Valanna.

  “I know we dropped your amulet far away, but do you have another way of fetching your friends? I think the six of us need to talk about what you know and how we should proceed.”

  Derit’s eyes betrayed her surprise. “I can’t bring them here, but I can go to them. You would follow us?”

  “I didn’t say that. Following and working together are different things,” Valanna said. “We must promise each other not to use any compulsion spells. I think you and your people know more compulsion spells than we do.”

  “There are pose and word variations between all societies. You’ve probably already found that out,” Derit said.

  Valanna nodded. “Can we get an agreement?”

  “We can, if you let me go. I know where they are.”

  “Then take us with you,” Kulara said.

  Derit looked a bit distressed. “I can’t do that. I don’t have the strength.”

  “We can lend you ours, or do you forget that you’ve already told us that if we join together, we can go farther?”

  “Very well. I will take you to a place close to where they are staying and will come and get you once I have warned them of your presence.”

  That suited Valanna well enough. Kulara and she could shield themselves against magic after Derit left them. Valanna wondered if Derit would take the opportunity to flee, but the woman had already had plenty of chances.

  After a hasty meal, the three women joined hands and Derit took four jumps to get to a clump of trees. Valanna had no idea where they were.

  “Stay here. I won’t be long.”

  Valanna looked at Kulara. “Do you know where we are?”

  “I know exactly where we are, not more than five hundred paces from our flyer. Derit took us around in a circle.”

  “We should be prepared with shields,” Valanna said. Now they were prepared to meet Derit’s friends.

  They waited longer than Valanna expected, but eventually four Vashtans appeared in front of them. She flinched when they arrived, not having seen anyone actually appear before.

  “You can lower your shields,” a tall Vashtan man said.

  Valanna noticed that none of these had the flat noses she had seen in Santasia. The Blue Swan clan must have different racial characteristics than their northern brothers and sisters. She relaxed, and then Kulara did the same.

  “We come in peace,” Kulara said.

  “So Derit told us,” the man said. “I am Henrig of the Fourth Blue Swan Clan. This is Bestik and Canwog, also of the Fourth. Derit is of the First, if she hasn’t told you.”

  “I am Valanna Almond from Balbaam, a Pestlan by birth. This is Kulara, Asem Ferez’s second wife.”

  Henrig nodded his head. “So we know. Thank you for giving us your names. That is the polite thing to do in our society. Derit has told us of your desire to work together. We have discussed the matter and have come to agree with your conclusion. Come with us to our camp.”

  Derit grabbed Kulara’s arm and Henrig took Valanna’s arm as they assumed the teleportation pose. After another breath, Valanna looked at a collection of tents cobbled together, leaning precariously this way and that.

  “You aren’t of the Arid Lands, that is for sure,” Kulara said..

  Henrig shrugged. “They serve their purpose, but I can easily see your point.” The man smiled for the first time. “Sit around our fire and let us talk.”

  ~~~

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ~

  TRAK RETURNED TO THE DESERTED CORRIDOR he visited on his first jump to the castle. He decided to go up rather than down, hoping the guards would know more about the whereabouts of the princess. His soft leather boots made no sound on stone floors or on the carpet as he crept up the wide central stairway.

  He passed a mirror and couldn’t help but look at himself, using a spelled mage’s light to check his face. Tembul had said his darkened skin would pass a nighttime inspection, and indeed, it did to Trak. He pressed himself to the wall as a set of four guards walked past on another crossing corridor. The guards definitely didn’t wear soft boots, so he heard them long before they were close to him.

  He teleported to the base of another smaller set of stairs, and then crept up to the next floor. He hoped he could find a single guard, so he could put him to sleep after interrogation. He turned a corner and found a guard standing in front of a door. Trak scoured his brain, trying to remember what the plan said about the door, but then he shook his head when he realized that this door did not exist in the plans. Perhaps Nashi’s maps were pure fabrica
tion. He would just ask the guard.

  Trak didn’t bother with a pose and visualized throwing the spell at the guard. He walked up.

  “Don’t worry! I am a friend.”

  The guard nodded, but still looked a bit wary.

  “What is behind the door?”

  “The Emperor’s pantry,” the guard said.

  That made sense to Trak, since the kitchens were three levels below. “Is there anyone inside?”

  The guard merely shook his head.

  “I heard there were Vashtan magicians held in the castle. Are there? And where might they be?”

  After furrowing his brow, the guard nodded. “There are Vashtans on the next floor.”

  “Have you guarded their quarters?”

  “No one guards them. They have promised to stay in their suite, or they will be sent to the dungeons.”

  “Where is the Toryan woman?”

  “There is one in the dungeons, I hear.”

  Trak had listened to enough. “You may go to sleep now, but doze standing up,” he said, as he sent a sleeping spell at him.

  The guard’s eyes closed as Trak leaned him against the wall. Trak tried the door, but found it locked. He visualized the door unlocking and to his surprise, he heard the clicks of the lock turning. He could get used to poseless magic. Trak opened the door and stepped inside.

  After creating a mage light, Trak inspected the larger-than-expected room. One side held wine and spirit bottles. A few ale kegs were set up on racks with spigots. The other side held shelves filled with bread, cheese, fruit, salted meat, and various ceramic containers. Trak opened a jar and found sweets. A sideboard held fine china, golden plates, goblets, and mugs ready to be served on a stack of silver and gold trays.

  He looked back and discovered a key hanging by the inside of the door. Upon quick investigation, Trak found that someone designed the lock to be opened on both sides. Trak took the key and re-locked the door. He could now teleport out of the room.

  Towards the back, Trak found a narrow archway that led to a set of narrow stairs leading upward. He slowly crept up the steps, and while he did, his sword kept silently banging against the wall, and that made Trak glad about the wrapping. A locked door halted his progress. It seemed the Emperor had a defensive mind, even when it came to his snacks.