Empire Builder 2

by Dante King

  “It doesn’t seem likely to me that she would harm us,” Vinata said. “And she has no magic anymore.”

  “Actually, I was thinking of giving her magic back to her,” Ben said. “She showed dedication to our cause. She could be a valuable asset in our war on the slavers.”

  “I don’t know,” Lulu said, shaking her head slightly. “She did enslave monsterkin herself before.”

  Ben went to speak, but hesitated. He didn’t know if he should share the woman’s story without her permission. But he trusted the people present in his council chamber to be discrete, and they deserved to know.

  “Lexi has herself suffered much at the hands of slavers,” Ben said. “Her own family was killed by them, then she was offered the choice of working with them or dying. She told me the other slavers all treated monsterkin far worse than her. She did all she could to alleviate their suffereing.”

  There was a snap next to him. Melody looked down at the broken quill in her fingers, ink dripping down her slender fingers. “Oh dear. I’ll have to find another quill.” Her voice was weak—the story had clearly affected her deeply.

  “If I may, my lord,” Sybil spoke. “Sometimes we have to do terrible things in order to survive. Give Lexi the chance to make her misdeeds right again. It is only fair after all she did to help our people.”

  “Is that something you can both accept, Lulu and Vinata?” Ben asked. “I am prepared to pardon her, but I wouldn’t want to do it against your wishes, after everything you have suffered at the hands of the slavers.”

  “If Sybil can accept pardon for a slaver, I suppose I can too,” Lulu said.

  “Perhaps she just needs to be shown what it is like to have a family again,” Vinata said.

  “That is a kind sentiment, Vinata,” Ben said. “And do you think Imogen would agree?”

  “I think she would,” Vinata said. “She’s never been one to hold a grudge.”

  “And if she betrays, I’ll finally get to taste beastkin flesh.” Lulu let out a wild laugh.

  Melody shrieked. “You wouldn’t dare!”

  Ben laughed. “Now, now, I don’t think cannibalism is an appropriate solution.”

  “Cannibalism?” Lulu asked. “I’m a nymph, she’s a hawkwoman, this would be perfectly acceptable.”

  “Well, not under my roof,” was all Ben could say to that. He shook his head.

  “I’ll bring her the good news,” he said, getting up from his chair.

  Melody rose. “The council meeting is adjourned. You all know what you have to do.”

  The others got to their feet and left the council room.

  Once they were gone, Ben considered everything they’d discussed. Many small—but important—tasks lay before them. But the more Ben mulled it over, the more he realized they were all in service of one greater task. One that would determine whether he would rule this strange land in which he’d found himself.

  War. Before long, armies would be at his gate.

  All he could do was prepare to meet them.

  Chapter 14

  Lexi was on her knees when Ben approached her cell door. Her eyes were closed, but she seemed to sense him approaching, her lips curling into a small smile. She opened her eyes and rose to her feet.

  Ben opened the door. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you, Lexi.”

  “Not at all. The gods will wait for me.” Lexi gestured upward.

  “You pray to many gods?” Ben asked.

  “Only one,” the hawkwoman said. “But the others listen too.”

  “You really think so?” Ben asked.

  “I do,” Lexi replied calmly.

  “How come they’ve left you locked in my cell then?” Ben countered.

  “You’re about to let me out though, aren’t you?” Lexi smiled confidently.

  “That’s what you’re waiting for, isn’t it? For me to grant you your freedom. There is only one god in the north.” Ben’s mouth twitched, hinting at a smile.

  Lexi laughed—a clear, wholesome laugh. “My, you do have ambitions.”

  “I certainly do,” Ben agreed. “My role in this world is growing on me.”

  “Your role right now is to dispense justice.” Lexi’s face sobered. “Whatever it is you deem to be justice in my case. I have prayed that the gods would guide you in making the right decision.”

  Ben snorted. “And which god do you pray to, Lexi?”

  “I pray to the God of Light, who revealed himself to us in his sunstone, the great orb that shines on us without fail every day.” Lexi stiffened and looked defiant.

  “Uh, you mean the sun?” Ben asked.

  “Where did the sun come from if not from the gods?” Lexi asked.

  “It’s a ball of gas,” Ben stated. To tell the truth, he wasn’t certain that scientific knowledge from his world still applied in this one, but he didn’t see any reason to suddenly become superstitious.

  “A ‘ball of gas’… what a funny notion,” Lexi said, dismissing the thought with a quick shake of her head. “But you haven’t answered where it comes from, only what you believe it is.”

  “I know too little of your world,” Ben relented. “But I do know I get guidance from my council, not from some being in the sky who never says anything back.”

  “Perhaps the gods inspire your council with words of wisdom,” Lexi insisted. “Perhaps they speak through your council. It is all a matter of perspective.”

  “You may be right,” Ben said. “But until I have evidence, I’m not going to believe that my wives are puppets, being used as mouthpieces by some invisible spirits.”

  “As you choose, my lord.” Lexi surrendered the argument, but her body tensed before she spoke again. “And what has your council decided?”

  “We are grateful to you for your role in rescuing the monsterkin,” Ben said. “We have decided to trust you.”

  Lexi sighed with relief, her body relaxing. “Your judgement is just.”

  “You will be given your freedom, but only within the confines of the tower and its surroundings for the time being.”

  If that’s even possible, Ben thought. The tower was shrouded in mystery, so he didn’t know if he could confine someone physically. He’d have to rely on her fearing his wrath—until he could find another way to confine someone.

  “So, I’m not to be given true freedom—house arrest instead. But may I ask why? You are afraid I will run away?” Lexi asked.

  “I can’t risk you taking word back to our enemies,” Ben said. “You know too much.”

  “And what would it take for me to prove my loyalty?” she asked. “While I can understand your mistrust, surely you must realize that you can’t always be looking over your shoulder at me, worried that I might betray you at any moment. For me to serve you, you’re going to have to trust me.”

  She was right. Ben paused to think. He needed to see that she would not hesitate to support his cause, even when it involved taking up arms against those she used to work for. And he still hadn’t decided what he was going to do with Uzax.

  But it was too soon to reveal these thoughts to Lexi. “I will find a suitable test for you.”

  “But for now, I must remain inside the tower?” she said. “And read books?”

  “I will also give you back your magic,” Ben promised. “Not the spells, but at least some mana.”

  “That is good of you,” Lexi said. “And could accompany the reading of books quite well, actually.”

  “You wish to learn more spells?” Ben asked.

  “As long as that does not go against the terms of my freedom,” Lexi said.

  “Not at all,” Ben assured her. “In fact, that is part of the new plans we have made. The other women with magical ability are going to learn spells that I can use too.”

  Lexi raised her eyebrows. “Ah, then you intend to take those spells from me as well?”

  “Think of it as a trade,” Ben said. “I will be giving your old spells back to you soon, once I have finished with
them. In the meantime, you can learn new spells that will be useful to me. I am increasing the power of your current spells after all.”

  “You think I will benefit from this increased power when you give the spells back to me?”

  “I can’t be certain,” Ben said. “But it seems likely. We will see what happens when I return the spells. You couldn’t do more with the Transform spell than sprouting feathers on your body before, could you?”

  Lexi shook her head.

  “When you receive the spell again, you will be able to fly.”

  “So your power allows you to improve all the spells you Drain from others?” Lexi asked.

  “I’m not sure if that’s how it works.” Ben scratched his chin. “It certainly worked that way on this occasion. Perhaps I could upgrade the skills of the others in my army as well.”

  “That would be a valuable skill indeed. The acquisition and development of spells is an exhausting process for us mages,” Lexi said.

  “It is?” Ben asked. “What does it involve?”

  “You do not know much about spells, do you?” the hawkwoman asked.

  “No. I haven’t studied them at all,” Ben said.

  “You wouldn’t have,” Lexi remarked. “Not when you can simply take them from others as if picking a ripe apple from a tree. Incredible that mages devote their lives to spells, learning them inside and out, while you can simply close your eyes and take them. In a way, it’s as if you’re stealing their hard work.”

  Ben saw her point. But he had a feeling that retaking his empire would be far, far more work than learning any spell the hard way.

  “You resent this power of mine?” Ben asked.

  “I don’t resent it,” Lexi said. “I admire it, in fact. But it will help you if you can better understand how they work.”

  “Tell me,” Ben said. Like a true programmer, he had to understand what was going on underneath the surface when he learned a new system.

  “There is much to learn,” Lexi said. “But I can tell you a little.”

  “What is a spell?” Ben asked.

  “A spell is knowledge made real.” Lexi straightened and pushed her golden hair out of the way. She almost started to look like a teacher.

  “And what does that mean?”

  “It means you must learn the nature of the thing you are trying to create before you can cast a spell to create it,” the cleric explained.

  “So, you have to understand the nature of fire before you can cast a firespell?”

  “Exactly.” Lexi smiled. “But that is only the beginning. You must also learn the nature of a sphere before you can create a fireball. To take another example, there were several things I had to learn before I could master the Transform spell.”

  “Let me guess.” Ben was enjoying learning in this manner. “You had to learn the nature of a hawk.”

  “Well yes, but that was only the beginning. I had to learn about flight as well. But the hardest part was also the most important of all.”

  “What else could there be to learn? A hawk is the target of this spell. But I suppose you weren’t casting a spell to create a hawk. This was a transformation spell.”

  Lexi smiled. “You are getting there.”

  “You had to learn the nature of your own body,” Ben suggested.

  “That is precisely it. And that is what was holding me back.”

  “Why do you think I could cast the spell straight away when you couldn’t?” Ben asked.

  “I have learned much since you locked me in this cell,” Lexi said. “The thing that was holding me back was in my own nature. I was not in harmony with myself.”

  “Because you were fighting as a slaver?”

  Lexi looked off to the side, as if ashamed to be reminded of her past. She gave a slight, pained nod. “My body was fighting against what I forced it to do. I could never have come to a true understanding of myself.”

  “But you think I was already in touch with my purpose?” Ben asked.

  “I do. You are doing what you were meant to do. What you were born to do, if you could call it that.”

  The revelation that Lexi considered slaving to be contrary to her true purpose reassured Ben that it was the right decision to free her. If she believed that she was destined for a different purpose, it seemed unlikely that she would go back to the slavers.

  “Learning spells must be an arduous task then,” Ben said.

  “It is indeed, and fraught with peril,” Lexi agreed. “It can take as much as a year before a mage learns how to create a simple flame. And that flame can just as easily go inward instead of outward. The graveyards of the capital are filled with the corpses of young mages who didn’t heed the warnings of their masters, who tasted their first bit of power and thought it meant they were capable of more than they actually were. But they learned the extent of their powers the hard way. They...”

  “They burn themselves up?” Ben asked, a chill settling on his spine at the thought.

  Lexi nodded. “Or electrocute themselves, or freeze themselves to death. Or they complete half a transformation, and must live out the rest of their days as hideously deformed half-beasts.”

  Ben was taken aback. He remembered back when he was half-hawk, when the spell hadn’t fully transformed him. He could have been stuck that way for the rest of his life.

  “I am very lucky to have access to this Drain spell,” Ben said, his words sticking in his dry throat.

  “You are luckier than you know,” Lexi said. “Most mages can never study more than one school of magic, one elemental power. They don’t live long enough to learn more than that. The perils of casting new spells without years of study is simply too great.”

  “This is a harsh and unforgiving world,” Ben remarked. “All the more reason to think I will be able to rule it, with so much power in my hands.”

  Lexi curled her lips slyly. “This world perhaps. But if your ambition leads you to tread on the domain of the gods, you may quickly learn whether they are real or not.”

  “You think they are afraid of that happening?” Ben laughed. “But enough of that. Tell me, what do you do with this knowledge about the nature of things?”

  “The knowledge is used to manipulate matter,” Lexi explained. “The acquisition of knowledge is the primary task involved in learning a spell. Once that is done, all that remains is to practice moulding matter with mana, using the knowledge to establish the pattern.”

  “I suppose that is what I’m doing when I select a spell to manipulate my mana,” Ben said. “Though I didn’t really understand the process before. I was doing it instinctively.”

  “Be mindful next time,” Lexi said. “And I’m sure you will perceive the process as well as the result.”

  “I will,” Ben said. “And where do you find this knowledge? Surely you aren’t expected to simply contemplate a flame on your own for a year?” He thought of all the science textbooks in his own world, and how understanding various fields of science required years and years of study.

  “That is one way, but certainly not the quickest,” Lexi agreed. “Some spells are so complex that only contemplation will suffice. But for the simpler spells, knowledge is gathered in ancient tomes in the Realm’s Library.”

  “Closely guarded?” Ben surmised. He knew how hierarchies of knowledge worked in non-democratic societies. The poor would be illiterate and ignorant, while a chosen few would be deemed “worthy” of knowledge.

  “Very,” Lexi said. “The Librarians do not allow any tomes to leave the Library.”

  “Well, you are in luck then,” Ben said. “My own Library appears to be well stocked. We should see if you can find any spells there that you will be able to learn.”

  “That would be a real treasure,” Lexi said, her bright yellow eyes shining.

  “Well, let’s head on up and see what’s there,” Ben said. “I’ll give you back your mana.”

  Ben reached for the hawkwoman’s hand and gazed into her fierce eye
s. She took in a quick little breath as he gripped her soft fingers. He activated Drain and saw her physical, mental and emotional energy swirling in her body. Her dried up mana pool sat lifeless between her other organs.

  He summoned his own magical energy and pushed some of it out into his hands. An electric tingling sparked where their skin touched. Ben thrust the energy forward with his mana and overcame the resistance.

  His magical energy flowed out of him and into Lexi’s body, shooting for her mana pool. As the energy touched the organ, Ben could see it coming back to life.

  The flesh revivified, soaking up the magical energy like a sponge. Ben stopped when the pool was about half full. His mana had dipped, and he figured Lexi could regenerate the rest herself, since she now had a working mana pool again.

  “Thank you, Ben.” Lexi smiled warmly. Her cheeks were flushed, and she seemed to stand a little taller. She breathed deeply. “I feel more alive now.”

  “You look more alive too,” Ben said. “I know I have been slow to trust you, but if you fight with us loyally, I will be delighted to welcome you into our home.”

  “I look forward to joining your family, Benzhameen.” Lexi squeezed Ben’s fingers, before releasing his hands.

  “Come, let’s leave this place,” Ben said. “Don’t worry about the books, I’ll have Sir Gallant the Elder return them to the Library later.”

  “I’ll take just one with me to keep reading,” Lexi said, picking up the book and her sword, which Ben had left with her. She followed him out to the elevator.

  “There are plenty of bedrooms available in the crown of the tower,” Ben said as they traveled upward in the elevator. “I’ll have one assigned to you later. Oh, and I’ll add you to the security protocols so you can travel through the tower at will.”

  “That is very kind of you,” Lexi said.

  “We’ll see what the tower has to offer in the way of furnishings and decorations, too,” Ben said. “I want you to be comfortable.”

  Lexi smiled gratefully.

  “But keep in mind that you are still under house arrest. While I’m happy to count you among my followers, it’s important for you to remember that you’re still an unknown element.”