Empire Builder 2

by Dante King

  “Is that a chandelier?” he asked.

  Vinata nodded with a smile.

  “But I thought you didn’t like having fire in a garden,” he asked.

  “It can be dangerous,” Vinata said. “That’s why I prepared this wreath specially, and imbued it with magic that will protect it from catching fire where it’s not supposed to.”

  “And I can always douse the flames if they do get out of control,” Lulu added.

  “That’s very kind of you, Vinata,” Ben said. “I’m sure it will look splendid once the sun goes down.”

  “We can always test it now,” Melody said.

  “How will you light it?” Imogen craned her head back to look up at the chandelier. It was several yards above them, far too high even for Sir Gallant the Younger standing on Sir Gallant the Elder’s head to reach.

  “I assume you will be able to find a way, Ben,” Vinata said.

  “You assume correctly.” Ben held up a hand and channeled his mana, activating the Fireball spell he had drained from Uzax the Pyromancer.

  A ball of crackling flame appeared on Ben’s palm, radiating heat, but not harming him. It was only the size of a marble, but it was hot enough to set a house on fire.

  He thrust his hand up into the air, hurling the fireball. It whizzed through the air and exploded against the nearest stump on the chandelier. The wooden wick burst into flame, and began crackling away.

  “Let me help,” Melody volunteered. She picked up her wand from where it sat beside her plate, and pointed it at another wick on the chandelier.

  With a dull boom, a tendril of lightning shot out from her wand and struck the wick. Sparks flew, and the wick crackled into life.

  Soon, they had the whole chandelier lit with bright orange flames. They didn’t cast any light in the middle of the day, but the gentle crackling they made was a pleasant ambient noise. Once twilight came, they would be able to appreciate the light it would shed on the garden.

  Ben admired the firelight above them, remembering how he had used the fireballs he’d acquired from Uzax to fry Adremor, the Force Mage.

  “My only regret from that battle is that I couldn’t drain Telekinesis from Adremor,” Ben commented.

  “Please, we’re eating,” Vinata protested. “Can’t talk about work wait until after we’ve finished?”

  But Melody had no such qualms. “I’m sure you’ll find another mage from whom you can drain the spell. It is only a matter of time before you encounter more mages from the Xurian Realm. They have a great many at their disposal, some of which will be Force Mages like Adremor.”

  “Or I can acquire it in the dungeons,” Ben said. “If I happened to save that spell in one of the ancient relics like I did with Drain.”

  “That’s possible too,” Melody agreed.

  “We don’t seem to have found many of those relics,” Vinata said, a forkful of salad halfway to her mouth. Obviously her protests were no more than a show.

  “That’s what I thought too,” Ben said. “I’m not sure how many of those to expect, and from my limited time here, I’m thinking they’re quite rare. Do you know anything about that, Melody?”

  “I’m a bit surprised myself,” Melody said. “We’ve found nothing but buildings so far. A watchtower and some gates are useful of course, but without a wall to connect them to, they’re not much help.”

  “Is that something you can help us with, Imogen?” Ben asked.

  The shy mountain nymph looked up, her white eyes thoughtful. “A wall? I’m sure I could manage something. I would need more stone though.”

  “I’ll ask Sir Gallant the Elder about it,” Ben said. “He knows this area better than we do. Perhaps he knows where we can find more stone.”

  “In the meantime, we will have to keep fighting our way through those dungeons,” Melody said. “You have to get stronger.”

  “That’s true,” Ben said. “We’ve gotten through five levels so far, I would have thought we’d find something by now.”

  “That last door is tougher than the others,” Lulu said. “Perhaps it is hiding something important?”

  They’d been diving a lot in the last week, but they couldn’t proceed further because of that damned door. Sir Gallant the Younger had no idea how to open it, so they were at a stalemate until they could figure out how to get past it.

  “I hope you’re right,” Ben said. “But how are we going to get that door open? Even Imogen couldn’t batter it down.”

  “I don’t see any siege weapons lying around here,” Melody said. “Without a battering ram, I don’t know how we can open that door. None of your attempts to use spells have worked.”

  “Perhaps we’ve been thinking too narrowly about the problem,” Ben said.

  “You mean we shouldn’t force the door open?” Vinata asked.

  “I mean, maybe we have a way of using force that I haven’t accounted for.” Ben paused a moment as the others stared, waiting. “I’ve been thinking too much like an adventurer, and not enough like a dungeon master,” Ben continued. “I have my own monsters, some of which pack a powerful punch.”

  “I don’t think Nipper and Pearl can break those doors down,” Melody said, doubtfully.

  “I’m not talking about our children,” Ben said.

  Melody’s eyes lit up. “The gravel ghouls.”

  “Exactly,” Ben said. “I mean to test that idea as soon as possible. We’ll take the gravel ghoul totem back to the control room of the dungeon and try summoning the ghouls on the fifth floor. I should be able to command them from that room, with a little help from Sir Gallant the Younger.”

  Before any of the women could respond, the elevator doors hissed behind Ben. He turned to see Sir Gallant the Elder, his golden armor now polished to a shine. That was something they’d taken care of while putting him back together after Adremor had blown him up.

  If Sir Gallant the Elder was absent from his post at the tower entrance, it must be something important.

  “What is it, Sir Gallant?” Ben asked.

  “Sire, I’m terribly sorry to disturb you at your meal.” The animated suit of armor hesitated.

  “I take it this is something important,” Ben said. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s Sir Gallant the Younger, sire. As you know, he has been delivering food to the prisoners and showering them and so forth.”

  “Yes, I remember,” Ben said. Uzax and Lexi were still locked up in cells at the bottom of the tower, wearing null locks to ensure that they wouldn’t try anything.

  “Well, sire, he has been…” The knight faltered and looked like he wanted to scratch his neck, but that would have been a pointless gesture for an empty suit of armor.

  “To be frank, sire, he’s been a little spiteful to the prisoners. You see, when our soul was split into two beings, the Younger got all the nastiness. He found a way inside the cells when I wasn’t looking, and—”

  Ben cut him off. “He’s harming the prisoners?”

  “Indeed. He’s just begun using methods of interrogation on Uzax, sire.”

  Ben sighed with relief. For some reason, he felt glad that Lexi wasn’t being harmed. He still wasn’t sure about that woman’s true loyalties. If she was innocent of Uzax and Adremor’s crimes, as it seemed she might be, he didn’t want to see her get hurt.

  “I’d better stop Sir Gallant the Younger before he kills Uzax,” Ben said as he got to his feet. “Thank you, ladies, for the meal. It was excellent. I suppose I might as well question the prisoners after I’ve stopped the Younger from plucking out anyone’s eyeballs.” It was difficult to tear himself away from the meal. Ben tore off a small piece of bread and popped it into his mouth.

  “Question? Or interrogate?” Melody said, her eyebrow raised.

  “Or torture?” said Lulu, a gleam in her eye.

  “Just question, for now,” Ben said. “It’s time I did at least that much. We can’t afford to waste more time when they might have answers that could help me rebu
ild my Empire. Not to mention any information they might have on what those other towers are doing here. I’ll see what they have to say for themselves.”

  “Having the mages answer your questions could prove difficult,” Vinata said.

  “I imagine it’ll be more than difficult without a little convincing,” Lulu said through a mouthful of food. “It will be nothing short of impossible. You are the Forgotten Ruler, Benzahmeen. You must do whatever it takes to enforce your will upon the land. A tightlipped prisoner should only remain that way for so long.”

  “I cannot help but agree,” Melody said. “You may have been born in a different world, but you belong in this one, Ben.”

  As much as it made him uncomfortable to admit it, these women were right. He was born in another world, but he belonged here. And he was set on taking his rightful place as the Forgotten Ruler. If that meant discarding the moral and ethical beliefs of his homeworld Earth, then he might have to do just that. It wouldn’t be easy, and one not without its growing pains, but he couldn’t help but think that his Earthly self would have to give way to a self that was ancient—one that once ruled this world and protected the downtrodden monsterkin and beastkin races.

  Except the thought of rejecting his old beliefs about right and wrong didn’t fill him with trepidation. Instead, it filled him with. . . excitement.

  Something inside him, deep down, beneath even conscious thought, lurked the distant hope that Uzax might prove tight-lipped. That he might find a way to experiment upon the Pyromancer, to learn the extent to which the human body could endure pain. To know how to bring a man to the edge of death, only to pull him back to the brink of mortality at the last moment.

  Ben shook off the feeling, wondering just what that desire was and where it had come from.

  He’d been experiencing desires like that more frequently as the days passed. Was it something from his past life as the Forgotten Ruler? Was the darkness he had seen in his visions coming home to roost, despite Ben’s nobler intentions? He hadn’t asked any of the women about it because it still somehow felt a bit dirty.

  He didn’t know what to make of these feelings, but he pushed them away for now.

  “Come with me, Sir Gallant,” Ben said. “I have a feeling the Younger won’t prove much use as an assistant right now.”

  Nipper padded after them too. Ben didn’t know if he wanted his child coming to the dungeons at such a young age, but he was just going to question them. They got into the elevator and headed down to the lowest floor of the tower, where the dungeons were located.

  All the while, Ben continued to force those darker urges to the back of his mind. He feared what would happen if he truly gave into them, if he truly embraced what it meant to be the Forgotten Ruler reincarnated.

  Chapter 2

  Ben, Sir Gallant the Elder, and Nipper traveled down to the bottom of the tower in the elevator. There were four levels beneath the ground level.

  The first level contained the cellars, loaded with a the vast suppy of food. The second level was home to extensive training rooms. Ben hadn’t been able to see what those were like though. They were still closed off to him by the tower. Rooms that he didn’t have a need for remained locked by the tower, presumably to save energy. It remained to be seen what it would take for these rooms to unlock, so he planned on simply continuing to fight in the dungeons, grow stronger, and acquire relics. Sooner or later, he was sure something would turn up.

  The third level contained an enormous bath house. There were shower facilities already in Ben’s own master suite in the crown of the tower, so the bath house was presumably there for when more people lived in the tower. That too was locked off for now. Ben could see the descriptions of the rooms, but he hadn’t actually been able to see inside any of them.

  A so-called Augmentation Theater was also on the third level. That name got Ben’s curiosity going, but he wouldn’t be able to work out what it was meant for until it also unlocked.

  The fourth and final floor below ground was where the prison cells and the torture chambers were situated. The torture chambers were still closed to Ben, but the prison cells were open—and his two prisoners, Lexi and Uzax, were shackled there.

  Ben strode out of the elevator on the bottom floor with a swift and determined stride, Nipper and Sir Gallant the Elder keeping up behind him. He had only been down to this level a few times before, since Sir Gallant the Younger typically took care of the prisoners’ needs. But Ben knew his way around well enough.

  He paused as he passed Lexi’s cell. The cell was strong, with a thick glass door, ensuring that even without her magical powers, Lexi would not be able to break out. She was a Sunstone Cleric, whatever that meant, but without magic, she was only a beastkin. Physically strong, certainly, but not as strong as that door.

  Ben had seen no reason to treat the hawkwoman harshly. He had asked Melody to provide Lexi with any comforts she desired. The catgirl had been more than happy to do this for a fellow beastkin, especially one who’d also grown up in the Xurian Realm, where being a beastkin did not afford them full citizenship. Both Melody and Lexi had been fortunate enough to become mages, but this experience, from what Ben knew, had been a far cry from what non-beastkin aspirants had undergone.

  In Lexi’s cell, the bed against one wall contained a comfortable feather mattress. A small washbasin stood at the foot of the bed. In the corner of the cell, the surface of a small desk was strewn with writing utensils and books Lexi had requested from the library—various fictional works by authors Ben could hardly pronounce. She had been forbidden any alchemical or magical texts; while she had been sapped of her magical ability by Ben’s Drain spell, it wasn’t worth taking any chances by providing her texts with arcane knowledge. Even if she could still cast spells, the null lock clamped on her wrists prevented any mage from accessing their magic. Despite the comforts Ben had afforded her, that precaution would remain.

  Melody had even managed to wrangle a couple of pot plants out of Vinata. The room seemed somewhat pleasant—for a prison cell.

  As Ben stood looking in, Lexi raised her head and saw him. “Benzhameen,” she called out, using the archaic pronunciation of this world. Her voice was muffled by the glass.

  Ben put out a hand to identify himself to the tower, and the door slid open.

  “You have come to visit?” the hawkwoman asked.

  “Not you, unfortunately, Lexi,” Ben said. “I have to deal with Uzax.”

  “Deal with him?” she asked. Her voice trembled.

  “I’m not going to kill him. I’m going to stop Sir Gallant the Younger from doing so,” Ben explained. “I just wanted to check in and make sure you have everything you need.”

  “I do,” Lexi said. “I’ve been surprised with the kind treatment you have shown me. While I am a prisoner, I am not an unhappy one.”

  “That’s good,” Ben said. “I’m pleased that you’re pleased.” He said the words without thinking, and he almost wanted to palm his face at them. They weren’t the words of the Forgotten Ruler.

  Lexi gave him a small smile.

  “I should be going now,” Ben said. “I’d really prefer it if Sir Gallant the Younger didn’t kill Uzax. I’ll speak with you later.”

  Without waiting for a reply, Ben slid the door to Lexi’s cell shut again and strode off toward Uzax’s cell, only a few yards further down the hall.

  He could hear muffled cries coming through the glass door of Uzax’s room, so he quickened his steps. Nipper and Sir Gallant the Elder hurried after him.

  Uzax’s cell contrasted sharply with Lexi’s. The Pyromancer had stubbornly refused to accept any comforts. Whether he thought he was spiting Ben by refusing his hospitality, or simply proving how tough he was, Ben wasn’t sure. Either way, since it saved a bit of bother, Ben didn’t care much.

  This cell did not contain so much as a bed, simply a wool skin stretched out on the floor, filthy after nearly two weeks of being slept on. The only other furnishing was
a bucket. Sir Gallant the Elder had the distasteful task of emptying that.

  But now there was a new piece of furniture in the cell: a chair, though it certainly wasn’t for Uzax’s comfort.Uzax was bound to it, his arms, legs, and chest strapped to the wood with ropes. A rope was wound around his head as well, gagging his open mouth.

  Sir Gallant the Younger was madly dancing about on the Pyromancer’s thigh, stabbing the flesh with what looked like a pin. Looking closer, Ben saw that the pin was in fact a tiny sword.

  Uzax’s eyes blazed red with fury as he tried to slobber out some sort of complaint, but he couldn’t say anything intelligible through the gag.

  “Now, are you going to tell me where you’ve hidden the treasure?” Sir Gallant the Younger cried once more, his squeaky voice reaching a maniacal pitch. Clearly, the little animated figurine hadn’t noticed Ben’s arrival.

  Uzax hollered something back. It sounded like he was shouting, “There’s no treasure!”

  “Wrong answer, fleshbag,” Sir Gallant the Younger said as he slammed the pin-sized blade into Uzax’s leg.

  Uzax howled back an answer and thrashed against his bonds.

  Ben was tempted to just keep watching. Despicable as the prisoner might be, what Sir Gallant was doing was unfair, demanding questions of Uzax while his mouth was bound and couldn’t answer even if he wanted to.

  Satisfied that enough was enough, Ben slid the cell’s glass door open and coughed loudly.

  Sir Gallant spun around, his sword held high. When he saw Ben, Sir Gallant the Elder, and Nipper in the doorway, he faltered.

  “Ah, hello, sire. I was just doing a little interrogation on our prisoner here.”

  “I see that,” Ben said, his voice betraying no emotion. “What for? What’s this about treasure?”

  “Oh, that. Well, you see... there isn’t any treasure. At least not that I know of. I simply thought it an appropriate subject to interrogate someone over.”

  Ben shook his head. “Leave Uzax alone. If anyone’s going to interrogate him, it will be me. And about something important.” He glared meaningfully at Sir Gallant the Younger.