The Archmage Unbound

by Michael G. Manning

  I put my hand on his shoulder, “Don’t move Walter, we’re trying to hold a line, not rout them. These things don’t rout anyway.”

  He stopped and nodded, biting his lip as he looked forward.

  “Now look behind you quickly, these things have a tendency to sneak up on you and you can’t always trust your magesight,” I added. He glanced backward but the area behind us was still clear. “Now you burn the next ones that come at us. Just don’t lose your head and go looking for them, and remember to check behind us after every other blast.”

  I watched him for a minute or so, until I was sure he had control of himself and the area around us, and then I reached into my special pouch, the one I had enchanted to open up inside a chest full of dangerous objects. Reaching in I pulled out a handful of dark iron spheres. They gleamed with a dull black luster under the stark light of the artificial sun above us.

  I raised the first one to my lips and then blew softly upon it. “Tielen striltos,” I said sharply and it went streaking away into the distance. Before it reached its destination I had already brought another to my lips and had sent it following on a slightly different path.

  Within seconds the western side of our lines was shaken by a string of powerful explosions as the spheres detonated one after another. I put as much distance as I could between the explosions and the men desperately trying to hold off the undead but it wasn’t easy and I was sure that in some cases I had probably killed some of our own men. Again I felt the familiar guilt, though I tried to convince myself that most of those that died would have been killed anyway.

  I ran out of iron spheres and reached in to pull out another handful. This time I had more breathing room and I was able to space the explosions further from our own lines. Fire and thunder lit the battlefield as I methodically destroyed everything to the west of our camp out to a distance of two hundred yards. When I stopped at last I could see nothing moving there.

  Walter was leaning heavily on my staff when I looked over at him. I took the staff from his hands and pulled one of his arms over my shoulder. “Here lean on me,” I said quietly. “We need to go help the other side of the camp.”

  His gaze was full of weariness as he answered, “I’m starting to think you aren’t human.”

  I half walked and half carried him along with me as I headed toward the area where Harold was still fighting. “Is your leg bothering you?” I asked.

  “My leg is fine,” he said. “It’s my magic, I think I used too much. How is it that you aren’t exhausted yet?”

  I laughed darkly. “I gave you the hard job. My iron spheres do all the work for me. You had to use a lot more power keeping them away from us.” Walter didn’t respond but I could tell he didn’t entirely believe me.

  The other side of the camp was in much better shape but it was beginning to fall apart. Sir Harold stalked up and down the line, stepping in to dismember the undead wherever they overwhelmed the human defenders. Unfortunately the defenders were being overrun in more locations than Harold could be at one time. Looking out beyond the line I could see at least a thousand shiggreth pressing forward.

  Since the line on this side was still intact Walter was spared from having to repeat his part with the staff again. Drawing forth more of my iron spheres; I began systematically destroying everything on the eastern side of the camp.

  Within a few minutes it was over and I found myself standing alone except for Walter. The soldiers around us were watching me silently, eyes blank from shock and fear. An onslaught of undead monsters followed by an awful lot of fire and explosions seemed to have that effect on most people I had learned.

  I glanced around and stared back at the men staring at me. After a moment I grinned and yelled, “And that’s what happens when you wake me up in the middle of the gods-be-damned night!”

  Silence reigned for awkward seconds around me before finally men began chuckling. Once they started it was infectious and soon most of those that could, were laughing. I headed back to my tent. Harold found me there several minutes later.

  “What do we do now?” he asked simply.

  “Clear out any bodies inside the camp, ours and theirs. Make sure the men are careful not to touch them directly. They’re still dangerous. Set new watches and reform the picket. Once that is done put everyone not on duty back in their bedrolls,” I told him.

  “Shouldn’t we burn the bodies?” he asked worriedly.

  I sighed wearily, “Yes, in the morning, not tonight in the dark. That light up there won’t burn for more than twenty minutes or so.” I pointed upward at the brightly glowing light I had created. I had placed it extremely high to keep the undead from nullifying it, but now that I considered it I realized it was a good idea for any nighttime battle.

  “But what about the ones that turn…,” he started to ask.

  “The men on watch can keep an eye on them. If any of the corpses get up and start walking have them cut them into pieces. We’ll burn them in the daytime. The men need sleep.” I was already climbing into my bedroll as I relayed my instructions. I was exhausted from my own use of magic, though Walter seemed to be much worse off.

  “But…” he protested.

  I closed my eyes, “Ask James. Don’t wake me up unless we get attacked again.” He left after that and I was asleep not long after he had gone.

  Chapter 35

  I rose early the next morning but I had pity on Walter and let him sleep longer. The poor man seemed to have been truly exhausted by his efforts the night before.

  I found James and Harold supervising the collection of bodies and body parts. It appeared that neither of them had slept at all after the attack. They both appeared worn and weary.

  “How many did we lose?” I asked James.

  “Slightly more than a hundred and fifty men,” he answered immediately. “They wiped out the men guarding the cave last night before they assaulted the camp.”

  I grimaced. We couldn’t afford to lose men that quickly. The shiggreth could replace their numbers much more easily than we could. “At least there’s one bright side,” I noted.

  “What’s that?” asked Harold.

  “If they wiped out the detail guarding the cave first then it means they’re desperate and that opening is their only means of ingress or egress. If we assume that the ones remaining last night didn’t skulk off somewhere then we have most of them cornered,” I explained.

  “They might have wiped the guard detail out to give us that impression falsely,” suggested James.

  I sighed, “If they’re that clever then we may be in trouble. Let’s hope they aren’t.”

  James nodded, but spoke up anyway, “Hoping and wishing are good ways to get men killed.”

  “You sound a lot like Dorian,” I said with a sour grin.

  “It’s more likely that he sounds like Gram Thornbear, which is where I heard that originally,” he corrected me.

  Sir Harold spoke up, “Alright, let’s assume that they want us to think it is the only entrance. Why would they do it? What are the advantages to them?”

  James responded first, “The obvious conclusion would be that all or part of their forces would take us from the rear. Then they could either bring the caverns down and trap us, or slaughter us between them.”

  “The real question is how many of them are left down there,” I pointed out.

  “We accounted for over a thousand of the bastards last night,” said Harold. “Well Mordecai did anyway,” he amended.

  “Let’s not start counting notches, Harold,” I admonished him.

  “We can’t do anything until tomorrow at least, no matter what we decide,” James said, drawing us back to the proper reason for our discussion. “It will take the rest of the day just to collect all of the bodies.”

  “They need to be burned,” I added.

  “I agree,” he said, “but that will take even more time. Collecting the wood necessary to burn that mountain of flesh will take a lot of men and labor.”<
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  “I’m not entirely certain how useful an army will be once we get past the entrance to those caverns,” I said at last.

  “It isn’t as if we can starve them out,” James answered bitterly.

  That set me to thinking and I put my hand out to forestall further discussion for a moment. “We don’t actually know that. In fact we know next to nothing about them. Those bodies may decay and become useless after a certain period of time, or they may require some form of sustenance.”

  Harold snorted, “You mean us.”

  “That might be true, or not. We don’t really know,” I clarified. “James I’d like you to keep one of the cut up shiggreth bodies quarantined, rather than burning it with the others. We can take it back to Lancaster when we’re done. I’d be very curious to know if it will eventually lose its animation, or whether it will decay.”

  James looked thoughtful. “We need one that hasn’t been cut to pieces as well then. They might last longer if they haven’t been cut up, if indeed they can starve at all.”

  Sir Harold spoke up, “This might be beside the point, but how do you plan on capturing a creature whose very touch is anathema to us?”

  James smiled, “Ha! We use nets. Once we have one trapped we bind it carefully with ropes. After that we can put it on a litter and drag it back to Lancaster, the dungeon and a couple of guards should be sufficient then.”

  “Actually I’d like to construct a special holding cell for it James, but we can keep it in your dungeon for a while at least,” I added.

  “So back to the point, what are we going to do today?” asked Harold.

  We all fell silent for a moment, and even the normally decisive duke looked to me first to see what I might say. “Keep most of the men at clean up and burn duty. I’ll take Harold and a small contingent into the entrance. If we can clear out whatever defenses they have in there we’ll scout a bit further in. If we can’t we’ll pull back and wait until the clean-up is finished.”

  Surprisingly they both agreed with me. “How many men?” asked Harold.

  “About fifty I think. Make sure they are among the better armored of our men. No one in anything less than full chain, the less exposed skin the better,” I told him.

  ***

  Two hours later we were ready and we were staring into the yawning mouth of the cavern. The entrance was fully fifteen feet in height and more than twice that in width. The morning sun illuminated the first twenty feet or so, but beyond that it was shadowed in darkness. From outside it was impossible to see more than that, if you were relying on normal eyesight.

  Thankfully I was not. The contingent assigned with guarding the entrance had pulled back to allow us to enter. They would resume their duty after we were inside. I made note that James had supplied them with onagers and barrels of oil. If the shiggreth tried to break free of the caverns again they were prepared to set fire to the entire cave entrance. I just hoped they didn’t panic when we made our exit later.

  Harold nudged me, “What do you see?”

  I glared at him, “I see a lot more when I’m left undisturbed. Let me finish.” Closing my eyes again I resumed my search of the caves. I had already discovered that the main tunnel went back for over a hundred yards, and it was mostly straight from that point. I had difficulty locating the shiggreth along the way, but I could tell that there were quite a few about fifty yards back. They were standing next to some wooden contraptions that looked suspiciously like…

  “Ballistae!” I exclaimed.

  “They are called ‘onagers’ your Lordship,” Harold corrected me, thinking I was referring to the Duke’s catapults.

  Harold really got on my nerves sometimes, though he did mean well. “I know that, I’m talking about in the caves.”

  “What?”

  Walter nodded in agreement, “You’re right. The shiggreth have ballistae back there. It looks like they are ready to give anyone that enters a greeting with four foot of wood and steel.”

  I was surprised for a moment. I had never had another wizard around before, but it was nice to have someone else that could share my unique perspective. “I count two of them,” I replied.

  “I agree,” said Walter, “and at least twenty of them hiding in the recesses behind the ballistae.”

  I could tell there were quite a few back there, but I wasn’t quite sure how many there were. It surprised me that he seemed to be able to pick them out more easily. “How far away can you see things with your magesight?” I asked him.

  He glanced at me in surprise but he answered readily, “About six hundred yards or so.”

  That was significantly less than my own range, and yet he was able to perceive the shiggreth more easily. “Interesting,” I replied. “I can see further than that, but I can’t pick them out well enough to count them in there.”

  He laughed easily, “It’s probably because I’m a Prathion. We’re known for being a little different than the other families.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “Well you have already seen me use my invisibility,” he answered. “Or rather you have ‘not’ seen me while using it.”

  “I was planning to get you to teach me that,” I said.

  He shook his head negatively, “I can try, but the odds are you won’t be able to manage it. Very few wizards have been able to do it outside of the Prathion family.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, the Prathions were famous for their ability to pass unseen, or so I was taught. It’s kind of like how the Illeniels were known for their devilish enchanting skills,” he explained, “that and their freakish strength.”

  His off-hand comments were providing me with a window onto a world of lore and common knowledge I had never been fortunate enough to witness. Not for the first time I lamented the fact that I had never known my birth father. I pushed those thoughts aside and returned to the present. “How does your ability to become invisible relate to sensing the shiggreth?”

  “Their magic drain ability renders them essentially ‘black’ to mage-sight, if you think of magic as a sort of ‘color’. My invisibility is different in that it redirects light, and sometimes even magic around me but still I can relate to what they are doing. I suppose I could use my ability to emulate what they are doing, or at least how they appear,” he replied.

  I was enthralled by his idea. “Show me,” I said.

  “Alright,” he said. “Here, this is what I look like when I become invisible.” His visible form vanished but I could still ‘see’ him in my magesight.

  “Shit!” Harold exclaimed. “Warn a fellow before you do that!” I had to laugh at Harold’s discomfiture.

  Walter’s disembodied voice answered, “We’ve been talking about it all this time. I thought you expected it.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I told him, “please continue.”

  “This is what it looks like when I become invisible to magesight,” he added and his body vanished even to my arcane vision.

  “That is why I could not find you when you were spying on me at my home. Why don’t you use it all the time?” I asked.

  “Because I am currently blind,” he said. “When I am invisible I cannot see, but I can still use my magesight. When I do this I can no longer see in any capacity. I am left stumbling along in the darkness with only my sense of touch and my hearing to guide me.”

  “Can you become visible but remain unseen to magesight?” I queried him.

  He paused for a moment. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “I never thought to try that. I haven’t ever really had a reason to do that before.”

  “Try,” I said. A moment later his body reappeared but I still couldn’t sense him with my magical vision. “I think you have it right,” I told him. “I wonder if they would think you were one of them like that.”

  He shook his head negatively, “Of course not, this isn’t what they look like. It would be more like this.”

  He did something and I could sense a change. I cou
ld still see him with my eyes but he registered differently to my magical senses. He had become more like them, a place that wasn’t there, before he hadn’t created an empty space. Now he was like a void. “You’re right, but I don’t understand why.”

  He released his spell. “Look at me with your eyes and I’ll show you why.”

  I did and nodded at him.

  “Ok this is what a normal person looks like,” he said, remaining perfectly visible. “Now pretend that visible light is magic, and you are seeing me with your magesight. This is what the shiggreth look like,” his face and body turned black.

  It wasn’t the normal sort of black you might encounter if someone used some dark paint. He was utterly black. No light reflected from him at all. It was as if a man shaped hole was standing before me.

  “That’s what the shiggreth look like to magesight,” he explained. “Now this is invisibility.” He vanished and now I could see objects behind him.

  “I think I understand now,” I said slowly. “When you are invisible it’s like you are transparent. But the shiggreth aren’t like that, magic doesn’t pass through them, it’s all absorbed.”

  “Exactly,” he agreed.

  I looked over the enemy again and now that I understood better what I was seeing with my magesight it was easier to pick them out. It still wasn’t easy to count them but I figured I could manage it. Harold broke my concentration with a nudge.

  “Excuse me. I know all of this is very interesting but how are we going to get past the ballistae?” he asked and then remembered belatedly to add, “your Lordship.”

  I smiled at him, “You can handle it for us.”

  “Pardon?”

  “There’s only twenty or so guarding the entrance. I’ve been wanting to see how you fight with the new earth bond and that armor I made for you,” I elaborated.