The Archmage Unbound

by Michael G. Manning

  “Let’s sit down first lad,” he said in an informal tone, I could tell he was trying to calm me down but it only served to drive me to anger.

  I jerked back from his hand, “Where is Penny damnitt!? I’m not taking another step until you explain yourself!”

  His face showed little, but knowing his self-control it told me a lot anyway. “She’s missing Mordecai. Now come, sit down so we can explain what we do know.”

  I started walking rapidly, my strides eating up the ground between me and the great hall. I wanted to know everything, and I wanted to know it immediately. I burst through the doors into the dining hall with James still ten paces behind. The room had been cleared and the only people in the room sat at the high table. I noted the faces of those present instantly, my mother, Lady Thornbear, Genevieve, William Doyle, who was the duke’s master huntsman, as well as Sir Andrew, the new seneschal for Lancaster Castle. Most notable to me were the absences, neither Penny nor Dorian was present, nor were any of the guards I had sent with them.

  No one looked particularly happy to see me. Most of them were trying not to meet my eyes, and they all seemed torn by painful emotions. Only my mother met my gaze squarely. “What happened? Where is Penny?” I asked as soon as I was less than ten feet from the table.

  Genevieve spoke first, “She was abducted Mordecai. Almost immediately after their arrival she and your mother were abducted from the guest room where I had placed them.”

  I looked at my mother, “Obviously they weren’t successful. Where is Penny, and why isn’t Dorian here to explain?”

  My mother rose and walked over to me. “I was badly wounded son, and Dorian managed to rescue me, but things did not go well after that.”

  I shrugged her attempt at a hug off and stepped away. I was far too wound up with tension to accept an embrace. “How did they get inside? How did they know you would be here?” A thousand questions were rushing up in my mind.

  James spoke then, from behind me, “They had a magical assistance, a wizard of some sort. He was able to hide their presence. They walked in without a soul seeing them, and if it had not been for Dorian they might have walked out just as easily.”

  I could almost see the walls moving around me, as if the keep itself were breathing. My emotions were spiraling out of control, yet still hidden behind the backdrop of my superficially calm mind. Deep down I could hear a voice screaming and I knew I had to keep it from reaching the surface or I would never get answers. I could not afford to panic… not yet. “Why isn’t Dorian here explaining this? Where is he?”

  My mother took another step toward me but avoided reaching out this time. “We aren’t sure Mordecai. Let me explain from the beginning…” And so she did. I held my tongue while she spoke though I wanted to jump up and shout as she told her tale. With each passing moment the story grew worse. Penny had been abducted and my mother stabbed by some madwoman. Their guards were slain and Dorian had fought like a berserker to stop their enemies.

  A dragon had appeared, sending the Duke’s men into hiding, though it turned out to be illusory once all was said and done. Dorian hadn’t faltered though; he had somehow forced his way past a closed portcullis, wounded the enemy wizard and chased down several men on horseback. They had found corpses and a few dead horses along the path he had taken. He had also somehow saved Miriam. She had gone unconscious after being stabbed but had been found in the forest, alive and safely nestled in the bushes beside an ill-traveled path. Her wound had been healed, but no one knew how or when that had happened.

  Of Dorian and Penny, no trace had been found. No, that wasn’t true; there had been a lot of traces found. There were bodies and parts of bodies hacked and mangled in the forest, all of them still moving. The shiggreth had somehow ambushed the kidnappers. According to William, the duke’s huntsman and chief tracker, there had been several hundred shiggreth there. Yet the bodies of only a few dozen were found, those that Dorian had cut into too many pieces to move effectively anymore.

  More telling, the bodies of Penny and Dorian had not been found, nor had the body of the woman who had apparently been in charge of the abduction. There was but one probable explanation for that. We all knew what happened to the victims of the shiggreth.

  “Mordecai! Look at me!” that was my mother’s voice. She was standing in front of me now, and I got the impression she had been trying to get my attention for more than a few seconds. I focused on her and blinked a few times.

  “What?” I said and I noted that my voice sounded very dry, as if I hadn’t had any water in a long time.

  A look of relief crossed her face, “Don’t scare us like that. You closed your eyes and everything started shaking. I thought you might bring the castle down on top of our heads.”

  “Really?” I said in a daze. I sounded calm but my heart was a churning turmoil of emotions. I had no memory of making anything shake.

  I tried to draw my thoughts together. Addressing James I finally verbalized a question, “You said the wizard was wounded. Do you still have him? Alive?”

  “Yes, he’s in the dungeon, same place we kept Cyhan,” he replied.

  “How are you keeping him?” I was curious since I couldn’t imagine how they would prevent such a person from escaping.

  “We tended to his wounds and then we drugged him. We’ve kept him bound and gagged. Whenever he regains enough consciousness to wake we feed him, give him water and drug him again. He’s barely been conscious for more than a few hours since he was captured,” he told me.

  I was surprised. Drugging someone into unconsciousness was a tricky business. You might just as easily kill them as render them insensible. “Who had the skill and art to manage that?” I asked.

  Lady Thornbear spoke up, “That would be me.” I stared at her in astonishment. I had never known her to have such skills.

  The Duchess spoke then, “Elise learned much of the healing arts from her mother, and she practiced them often on our behalf. Gram himself benefited from her skills on more than one occasion when he was wounded.” Gram was the first name of the late-Lord Thornbear, Dorian’s father, and Elise was Lady Thornbear’s given name, though I had never heard anyone use it before.

  I pushed my surprise aside. “I want to talk to this wizard.” I could see concern on James’ face when I mentioned it.

  Lady Thornbear broke in, “He’s unconscious at the moment. He probably won’t wake up for a few more hours. That should give you a little time to get your bearings as well.”

  Her face plainly told me that she feared I might commit murder if I met him now. I doubted a few hours would change that risk though. I turned to William Doyle, “Did you search the area where they disappeared?”

  “Of course my Lord,” he said promptly.

  “You could not follow their trail?” I said questioningly.

  “After their battle the shiggreth dispersed, taking many paths through the forest. I had no way of knowing which way they took Dorian and the Countess,” he answered.

  “Did you find any personal items?” I asked hopefully.

  “Not personal items your Lordship, I found a few torn bits of cloth from her dress, and a dagger, nothing else,” he replied.

  “No jewelry? The Countess wore a necklace I made for her,” I told him.

  “No your Lordship,” he said.

  I felt a tiny spark of hope. One thing we had learned in our few encounters with the shiggreth since I had made the enchanted necklaces to protect our people was that the undead did not like the enchantment. A few of our men had been taken since Dorian’s famous battle with them and in every case we found each man’s necklace not far from where he had been ‘turned’. Apparently once they had gone over to the other side they found the necklace to be unbearable and removed it. If Penny still had hers it meant she had not been ‘turned’, it meant she might still be alive.

  Dorian of course did not wear one, his natural ability as a stoic had made the enchantment unnecessary for him. I wondered wh
at that would mean if he was taken by the shiggreth. Would he go mad? He had no necklace that could be removed. I was still uncertain why the mind protecting enchantment bothered them so much after they had become undead.

  I looked at the people around me. “I will go and see where they were ambushed. I’d rather do something while I wait for this wizard to wake up. I don’t think I can sit still.” I glanced at William Doyle and without waiting I indicated the door that led out. “Let’s go.” I started walking toward the door before he had even risen from his chair.

  With my mage-sight I could see him look toward the Duke, who merely nodded, and then he ran after me.

  Chapter 25

  I walked through the courtyard from the keep to the main gate, scanning the ground as I went. William walked beside me silently. He obviously had a good sense of my mood. We passed the stables on the way to the gate, but I never even spared them a glance. I didn’t intend to ride. I wanted to examine the ground carefully from here until the trail went cold, and possibly beyond.

  “Tell me what you know of what happened here,” I said. William was a smart fellow and he did as I asked, giving me only the information pertinent to where we stood. Once we got beyond the gate he showed me the area where they had mounted horses and ridden away.

  “And Dorian was on foot here?” I asked.

  He nodded affirmatively. I walked on without commenting. William led me to the trail where they had turned off the main road to follow a small forest trail. I watched the ground along the path with both my eyes and my other senses. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I didn’t want to miss anything. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything that William hadn’t already noticed.

  “What was this? The ground is all churned up here,” I pointed at a place where the earth had been disturbed.

  “I didn’t see with my own eyes but some of the men on the walls were watching. According to their reports the enemy sent one of their riders back to stop Dorian’s pursuit. The rider charged him with weapon drawn and if the witnesses are to be believed Lord Dorian threw him over his shoulder.” William hesitated as he spoke, unsure if I would believe such fantastic details.

  “What the man dismounted first?”

  “No your Lordship, according to the people watching Dorian picked the horse and rider up and threw them both over his shoulder,” he clarified.

  I stopped and put my hand on the ground. I couldn’t imagine what my friend had been going through at that moment, but I knew he had done his best. I might have laughed at the image of him throwing a horse, but the fact that he was probably dead now stole the humor from the thought. I straightened up and resumed walking. Despite the emotions within I still had not had the urge to cry. I was somewhat numb, though I felt a cold fire burning inside my stomach.

  William led me along the path, showing me where they had found Miriam before leading me on to the place where their last stand had occurred. I surveyed the area carefully. “What happened to the body parts that were found?” I asked.

  “The Duke had them collected and burned,” William replied.

  I nodded approvingly. “Give me a moment alone William,” I told him.

  Without a word the huntsman retreated back down the path and waited at a distance. For being a man of few words William was remarkably adept at discerning my intentions from a few words. I imagined his perceptiveness must come in handy when tracking and understanding game.

  I closed my eyes so that I could better focus on my mage-sight, then I took a deep breath and began to search the area carefully with my mind. I hoped to find some indication of which way they might have gone but I knew that it was a long shot. After a quarter of an hour I had nearly given up when I detected a faint gleam of magic, something that had fallen to the ground.

  It was a few hundred yards to the north of where we were now and I had a sickening feeling I knew what it was. I pulled my mind back rather than examine it more closely. I didn’t want to know, not yet, not till I could see it with my own eyes.

  I waved at William and pointed north so that he would understand my intention, then I started trudging through the brush. It took me almost twenty minutes to reach the spot where it lay and the closer I got the more I shuttered my mind, to keep from seeing it before I could pick it up. Now I stood over it and I could not avoid looking at it any longer. Lying at my feet was a silver necklace with an enchanted pendant, the first of its kind I had ever made. The necklace I had given to Penny for her protection.

  Kneeling, I gently picked it from the leaves and draped it across my left hand. The chain had snapped, as if its wearer couldn’t be bothered with the clasp. In my mind I could see her eyes glazing over as the life was drawn from her, till at last her dead hand had reached up to pull the last remaining annoyance from her prior life away. The creature she had become had ripped the pendant from her neck and tossed it as far away as possible.

  There were tears on my face now, but I paid them no heed. Standing I tried to think of a course of action, but all my paths seemed dark and meaningless without her. I will have to hunt them down, all of them, I thought to myself. The shiggreth were a scourge meant to destroy humanity. Too long I had waited to act, and now my wife and unborn child had paid the price. Eventually I would find her too. And I’ll have to burn her as well, came the unbidden thought to my mind. With it came a torrent of rage as the floodgates of my soul opened up.

  The air turned red as my anger boiled up, like blood from the earth, filling my mind and erasing my doubt. My heart beat like thunder and my body swelled as adrenaline filled my muscles with energy. A small voice in my mind warned me, I was losing control, but I didn’t care, not any longer. Power filled me with exhilarating potential to match the rage that had consumed my mind. I could see the world below me for miles; I could feel the earth’s blood deep below, crying out in anger and pain to match my own.

  Around me the world grew smaller with each passing heartbeat and soon I could see all the way to Albamarl and further, beyond even that. Below it all the earth boiled and seethed in anger. The world of men was built upon a thin skin of crusted rock that barely covered the hot reality underneath it. It would take very little to unleash the fury below and wipe the surface clean with fire and magma. The thought had just occurred to me when I knew I must do it. Too long I had lain dormant, too long I had slumbered while the world grew cold and strange around me. I would wipe it clean.

  I felt a hand resting atop mine now, a woman’s hand, long and slender. I looked down to see whose it was and I was surprised to see that my arm was red and swollen. It appeared to be made of molten rock. Resting atop it was a dark brown arm and following it I found its owner, Moira Centyr. “Stop Mordecai, this is not the way,” she rebuked me softly.

  I gazed at her with tears in my eyes, tears that fell to the earth and set the dry leaves there aflame. Moira was tiny now; she had never looked so small to me before. “Who is Mordecai?” I asked her. The name felt familiar but it held little meaning for me.

  “Mordecai is the man you were, the man you must remain,” she answered sadly. “Do not let your anger destroy everything you have worked to build.”

  Her words brought my memories back and I suddenly understood my anger. “They must be punished,” I told her.

  “No,” she said. “Not all of them, if you do this everyone will die. Does your mother deserve to suffer?”

  A face appeared in my mind when she said those words and I remembered Miriam. I didn’t want to hurt her, yet my anger was beyond restraint. “I cannot stop now,” I told her.

  “You must Mordecai, let go of your anger. You must not give up your humanity, not yet. Let the fires cool. Remember how your father banked the hearth at night? Relax… the fire will not die, just let it slumber, it does not need to burn so hotly.” As she spoke I grew calmer and I began to breathe again, though it seemed an unfamiliar practice.

  After an unknowable period I finally regained myself. Moira talked to me through it all,
soothing me and reminding me of things from my mortal life, helping me to regain my perspective. When I had finally recovered my sanity I was astonished at the change in my physical body.

  I seemed to be made of molten rock; I was so hot I glowed like an iron pulled from a furnace. Now that I had calmed down though I was cooling off and my color had changed to a dull orange. I was also a lot bigger than normal. I stood at least fifteen feet in height and everything else had increased proportionally. Now that my mind was back to normal I felt close to panic at the changes in my body. I had no idea how to return to being flesh and blood again.

  I looked down at Moira, desperate, “What do I do now?”

  “I’m just relieved you’ve finally recovered your senses,” she replied.

  “What about this?!” I said in a panicked tone, holding up my enormous stony hand.

  “Now that you are yourself again I would think that part should be simple for you,” she said. “In case you don’t remember you just nearly wiped the face of the earth clean of all life. I think the rest of us deserve a minute to collect our wits.”

  “Perhaps if you could just explain how I got this way,” I offered.

  “I’m not sure how you did any of what you just did,” she said in an odd tone. “Normally when someone melds with the earth the way you did their mind is completely absorbed and they lose all conception of their prior emotions, yet somehow you projected your emotions onto everything else in the process. I even felt angry. You didn’t just become part of the earth, you made the earth become part of you.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. Her voice held an almost petulant tone. “Except that you shouldn’t still be yourself. You went too far, and that’s an understatement. You should be like me now.”

  I glanced at my body, “I think we do share certain features.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” she snapped. “I’m not real; I’m a shadow of a person that once existed. You are still yourself.”