The Archmage Unbound

by Michael G. Manning

  I ignored his questions and sought privacy in my room, locking the door behind me. Then I stared at the ceiling for a long time.

  Chapter 23

  The next day started much as I had anticipated. Rose and Marc were both in good moods and feeling entirely too chatty. I ignored them through most of breakfast. Eventually of course they tired of my reticence and started asking more direct questions. I suspect Marc would have waited, he knew me well enough to recognize my moods, but Rose was having none of it.

  “Are you going to tell us what’s wrong or spend the entire day brooding?” Rose said finally.

  My first impulse was to lash out at her. I badly wanted to hurt someone, to give vent to my emotion, but I didn’t. Instead I reminded her of that night, when we raided the warehouse, and the man I had killed. The one she had suggested hiding afterward.

  “You’re still beating yourself up over something that happened over a year ago?” she interrupted.

  “No, if you’ll let me finish, I’ll tell you,” I ground out with some irritation. “I doubt you recall, but the man I killed that night was named Jonathan Tucker.”

  She started to argue about my use of the term, ‘killed’, I could see it in her face as she opened her mouth. Luckily Marc stopped her, putting a finger to her lips. As smart as Rose was she still hadn’t picked up on the heart of the problem.

  “I met his grandchildren yesterday,” I said at last, and then I stopped. They both stared at me in astonishment. Rose had put her hand over her mouth in an expression of more shock than I could ever recall her showing before. “Their names are Peter and Lily Tucker and they hate me with a passion. Peter came to look for a chance to stick a knife in me during the ceremony yesterday, but his sister forced him to go home.”

  “How did you learn their names?” asked Rose.

  “I took on another man’s appearance and followed them home,” I answered her, and then I described the conversation I had had with them.

  Marc whistled admiringly, “That was quick thinking my friend.”

  “It still doesn’t help me help them,” I replied. “From the looks of things they were desperate for money and I don’t think either of them have an income.”

  Rose stood up and took my hands. “Stand up,” she said sternly. I humored her, not sure what she had in mind, but after I had risen she put her arms around me and embraced me. Then she leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. “You are a sweet man Mordecai, I can see why Penny loves you, but you cannot take the weight of the world upon your shoulders.”

  I returned her hug, and then I replied, “What would you have me do? Ignore them?”

  She didn’t let go of me. “No, let me take care of it. I know the city and my father has the resources here to help them. I’ll make sure their fortunes change for the better and they need never know you were the cause.” I felt another pair of arms around me as she finished. Marc had joined the hug.

  “I second the lady’s idea,” he said.

  “Fine!” I answered with some exasperation, shaking myself loose from the two of them. It was impossible to fall into despair with friends such as these. “I want to know everything you discover, as well as how you help them,” I told Rose.

  “Naturally,” she said. “You can trust my discretion.”

  The sound of a knock came from the hallway. The door to the dining room was open but Harold had knocked on the doorframe to let us know he was entering, since we appeared to be in a personal conversation. I had to give him credit, for all his brawn Harold was as considerate as anyone I had ever met. “Sorry,” he said as he entered. “Hope I didn’t interrupt, but I’m terribly hungry.”

  Marc answered, “No, come in and eat. You should hear all this as well.” Marc pointed at a chair and slid a plate of sausages in that direction. Rose and I sat down as well and after a few minutes she and Marc had brought Harold up to date on our conversation.

  “So that’s why you ran off and left me yesterday,” Harold said after they had finished.

  “That about sums it up, yes,” I told him. I could see he was still upset. He was probably having trouble figuring out how to express his anger toward his liege-lord. Honesty, integrity, and respect for my station were waging a hard fought battle in his mind.

  “I really wish you had told me what you intended to do,” he said at last. “My job here is to protect you and if you don’t trust me I can’t possibly succeed.”

  His wording impressed me; obviously he had a brain between his ears. “That makes sense Harold. I do trust you by the way, but when you told me that you couldn’t obey my order you effectively ended our conversation. Do you understand why?”

  He shook his head, “But Lord Dorian told me…”

  “Lord Dorian nothing!” I interrupted. “I understand why he told you that but when it comes down to the line you have to know who makes the final decisions, even if they conflict with your assigned task.”

  “Yes your Lordship,” he answered a bit sullenly.

  “You may think I’m being heavy handed here but nothing that occurs around me is normal. I frequently learn things long before anyone else is aware of them. Therefore if you are to serve me you must accept that sometimes I will give an order that may not make sense. Can you accept that?”

  “Yes sir,” he replied.

  I let my expression soften. “I’m sorry for putting you in that situation Harold. I will try to avoid doing that in the future. I will also try to give you more information whenever possible.”

  The tension between Harold and me was much better after that. Eventually Rose got up and headed for the door. Marc spoke up then, “What’s your plan for today Rose?”

  “I still haven’t found a blacksmith that wants to move to Washbrook yet so I thought I would get an early start,” she announced.

  “I don’t plan to return for a couple of days,” I said to reassure her.

  She frowned, “I didn’t think you had anything left to do in Albamarl.”

  “Well I don’t, but I plan to use my time productively. I have a lot of distractions at home, but here things are relatively quiet. I thought I’d use a couple of days to make use of the library and work on some things I’ve learned recently,” I said. More specifically I wanted to try and understand some of the unfamiliar enchanting schemata I had found in the book I had recovered.

  “I see,” she answered. “Perhaps if I’m lucky I will find your smith for you before you finish.”

  “If not I’ll come back for you in a week,” I told her. “It really isn’t a bother for me.”

  She left after that and I retired to the library. Marc had some sort of plan to approach the church of Celior. He was hoping to gain access to their archives somehow. I had already asked him if he wanted my help but he was being very tight-lipped about his plan so I gave him some space. I had faith in him, if he needed my help he would ask.

  That left me and Harold on our own. Let me clarify… that left me to my own devices, while poor Harold was stuck trying to figure out how to keep the guards we had brought with us from Washbrook from becoming too bored. I felt a great deal of sympathy for him, and then I put it out of my mind entirely.

  ***

  I had been trying to understand the ‘trans-spatial storage device’ design for hours. It seemed maddeningly familiar, since many of the runes involved were used in teleportation circles, yet the rationale behind it still eluded me. A large part of the problem was probably the fact that I didn’t really know what it was meant to do, so the design confused me.

  The enchantment seemed to be broken into two parts, much like teleportation circles were, but both halves were kept perpetually activated. That was the simple part, what really bothered me was that one half seemed to be designed to constantly alter itself according to a mathematical algorithm. Even worse, that algorithm was dependent upon the exact location of the first half of the enchantment.

  “This makes no sense,” I said running my hands through my hair for the hun
dredth time. “It’s as if they intend for one side of this thing to be permanently affixed while the other moves constantly.” There is something to be said for talking to yourself aloud. Sometimes it enables you to see what should have been patently obvious to you all along.

  “I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid,” I told myself. I had let the mathematics obscure my vision of how it was meant to work. One end would be designed around some sort of collapsible opening, such as a hinged ring for example, but any circular opening would work. Whenever that end was opened and took its full shape, the enchantment would be activated, forming an open link between two spaces. A simple design would be a bag or suitcase, that when opened would create a perpetual portal, between the bag and a permanent storage space somewhere else.

  Now that I understood what it was for I could see a lot of immediate uses. I reached down and felt the small leather pouch at my waist. Inside it I carried a collection of small iron spheres, each loaded with energy and ready to explode when activated. I had found them so useful during the recent war that I had made sure to keep a supply of them ready at all times, yet the danger of carrying them still worried me. Using something like this enchantment I could store them in a safely remote location, yet still access them easily when I needed them.

  I thought about the implications for a few minutes. A portable storage container that could hold heavy or dangerous items was only one possibility. Another would be connecting the portable ‘mouth’ to a place other than box or closet. If the immobile end were underwater, say positioned on a river bottom then the other end could be opened to provide a seemingly endless stream of fresh water. I was no expert on agriculture but I could immediately see that it might easily solve many of the difficulties involved in digging canals for irrigating crops.

  The enchantment could also be easily modified to create something more like a permanent portal, or gateway between two places. Then my magically disadvantaged friends could travel between locations without needing me to activate a circle for them. My imagination ran rampant as I thought about the possibilities. I dreamed of building a house in which each room was in a different place. I could look out of a window in the kitchen and see the beach, or walk into the bedroom and gaze out upon a sylvan forest scene. My mind was whirling with ideas.

  I spent hours studying the design before I finally began working on my own ‘portable storage device’. I had Harold send one of the guards out to buy a durable leather pouch and a heavy duty strongbox for me and once I had them I spent the evening connecting them via enchantment. I found the process much easier using the stylus that I had discovered. It made creating precision runes a snap and allowed me to work much more quickly than usual.

  Even so it was late that night before I finished my first project. Looking at the plain leather pouch on the table I felt a sense of pride. It didn’t look like much, but I knew what skill had gone into it. I immediately wished Penny were around for me to show it to her. “No matter,” I said to myself, “I’ll see her in another day or two and she’ll be just as excited then.”

  I imagined her in my mind’s eye, smiling with her hand resting upon her swollen belly. That thought got me to thinking about our baby and that eventually led me to yet another use for my new favorite toy.

  “Waste disposal!” I said out loud. That idea made me laugh and then I realized I was getting a bit silly with sleep deprivation. It was probably past midnight already. I decided to put myself to bed but I was still chuckling as I walked down the hallway to my room.

  The guard Harold had stationed outside my room gave me an odd look, for I was still chuckling as I wished him good night and shut the bedroom door.

  Chapter 24

  The next day I tackled the ‘self-locking door’ schemata, which turned out to be a lot simpler than I had imagined. It was also about as exciting as it sounded. Essentially it was a method for making sure a door or similar closure would close itself and automatically lock after being left unattended for a period of time.

  What I did find fascinating was the method for creating a delay before the action of closing the door occurred. It could be adjusted, so while the standard door would close within seconds of being used, I could use the same technique to create a delay of minute, hours, or even longer. Although I might never want a door that waited that long to close itself, I could imagine any number of other enchants that might be useful if I could set them to activate after a delay.

  A trap for example, or perhaps a timed event that should happen on a regular basis… my mind was full of possibilities. The more I learned the more ways I could imagine recombining the various elements to achieve different effects.

  I spent most of the day working on ideas and jotting down notes. I didn’t want to forget anything. Rose and Marc were both gone on their individual tasks for most of that time so I suffered few interruptions.

  That evening I made a half-hearted attempt at understanding the schemata that detailed how to create the effect that shielded the secret room from my mage-sight. I soon realized that a half-hearted effort would not be successful and decided to save it for another day. I had already used up my quota of ‘clever’ for the day it seemed.

  After dinner with Rose, Marc, and Harold, I retired early. I was looking forward to returning home the next morning. I had considered extending my stay another two days, to make it a full week but I missed Penny. I could still work on things back in Castle Cameron anyway; there would just be more distractions.

  I went to sleep while thinking about whether I should make our doors ‘self-locking’. It made me laugh to think of people’s reactions when the doors closed without aid behind them. What can I say? I’m a man of small amusements.

  ***

  The next morning I rose early, anticipating the return home. The night before Rose had told me she was still searching for a suitable smith so I would be going back without her. I told her I’d check back in a week and see if she was ready to return.

  Harold had his men ready shortly after breakfast and I could see that I wasn’t the only one glad to be returning. Certainly many of them had families they wanted to get back to just as I did. I made my goodbyes with Marc and Rose and soon enough I had Harold and the guards back in Castle Cameron.

  A guard was posted, as usual, in the building where the teleport circles were housed. He got my attention as soon as I brought the first group of guardsmen across. “Excuse me your Lordship!” he said nervously.

  “Just a minute,” I told him. “Let me get the rest of these men home.” It took a couple of minutes to finish that and dismiss the men and then I turned back to him. “Alright, you look like you have something to tell me…”

  “Yes your Excellency, Joe McDaniel wanted me to tell you to see him as soon as you returned, before doing anything else,” the man answered, dutifully reciting his message.

  “Tell Joe I’ll see him as soon as I get back from Lancaster. I have a lady waiting on me there,” I gave him one of my disarming smiles.

  “Your pardon sir, but Joe said I should tell you he needs to see you first. He said it was very important,” he replied. I could tell he felt uncomfortable telling me that.

  “Well Joe shouldn’t really be expecting me for another day or two, so I doubt a few minutes will make a difference. I’ll see him as soon as I return…,” and so saying I ducked into the room holding the circle that led to Lancaster. Before the poor fellow could muster the courage to restate his message I had transported myself.

  I hastily unlocked the door that protected the circle in Lancaster and stepped outside. Today there were no fewer than three men guarding the building, something I knew to be unusual. As soon as I stepped out two of them snapped to attention while the third drew his horn to his lips and blew a loud note.

  “There’s no need for that!” I said immediately.

  The man with the horn finished and put it down. “Your pardon sir, the duke’s orders were that we sound the horn the moment you appeared.”
>
  I frowned, “What’s going on?” The tension in these men had already set my hackles to rising.

  “The duke will explain sir,” he replied apologetically.

  “Fine,” I said and began walking toward the main door of the keep. Before I could reach it the door flew open and Ariadne darted out, running as quickly as a young woman can in full skirts, which was surprisingly fast. Before I could utter a greeting she flung herself into my chest, and buried her face against my shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry Mordecai!” she cried into my tunic. My apprehensiveness went up several notches and transformed into true anxiety. I hadn’t seen Ariadne cry like this since she was a child, and that had been over a dead puppy. Something told me this had nothing to do with furry animals.

  “Where is Penny?” I asked suddenly. A cold feeling was running down my spine now. Ariadne said something but I couldn’t hear her clearly, most likely because my shirt was muffling her voice, that and the tears. The door opened again and I saw James approaching with an angry expression.

  “Ariadne! I told you to stay inside. You’re only making this worse,” James spoke loudly, and I could tell by his voice he was close to snapping.

  She turned to him, face red with tears. “I had to see him Father. I had to tell him how sorry I am.”

  His next words were spoken with such a tone of controlled anger they made even me flinch. “Get… to… your… room…”

  “But Father!”

  “Now!” he barked.

  She broke and ran for the keep and I gave James a questioning look. It was unusual for him to be so stern with his family. “Where is Penny?”

  His face changed, switching from anger to tired sorrow in a heartbeat. “Come inside Mordecai. Let’s talk at the table so everyone can hear. Your mother is anxious to see you as well.”

  I followed him into the entry hall, my anxiety only becoming greater. “Where is Penny?” I asked again.