There was no… passion in it, like he felt in Lia and his personal life, it was at best a distraction and necessary.
He could be passionate about magic, he’d be lying if he said that wasn’t an attractive alternative, but to make it his ambition he’d need to reveal the truth of himself.
He also knew he wasn’t unique in that way, not everyone even liked their jobs, much less held ambitions toward them. He imagined every mage at one time or another struggled with their lot in life, even if it was a much better life than most ever got on their world, it wasn’t one that they’d chosen. They were born into it, and they were trapped in it.
Didn’t everyone wonder, that there had to be more to life, a bigger impact, a challenge to throw themselves into, at some point in their lives. That, was living life.
He also wondered if his problem was simply built up in his head. The past week he hadn’t done much more than pay attention to the world around him for threats. He had a lot of time to think, perhaps too much time. He wasn’t learning about magic anymore and had far too much time to fritter away in idle thoughts, without even the input of his peers to ponder over as they weren’t supposed to talk.
Perhaps he could throw his ambition into the joint library, into knowledge itself, something separate from his daily job. It certainly couldn’t hurt to become more familiar with the available knowledge of history and the sciences, as well as magical theories that were unproven. He’d already learned a few things from that library, and it was rather fascinating. It’d be something to do, and it’d also help him to keep up with Lia in their conversations, when they discussed things such as genetics. Whatever a genetic was.
Chapter Six
The heat of the sun was sweltering that morning, the air denied them any comfort and was completely still and humid as they went out into the courtyard after breakfast. Summertime was finally there to stay it seemed, and it didn’t help being dressed in leathers with robes over it.
Unlike the last seven days, there was a break in routine that morning as the princess headed out to witness the portal and greet the returning soldiers who had been maimed, while her mother the queen headed to hold court. It was more than obvious to him the princess actually cared about the sacrifice Reton’s soldiers made, and that they and their families would be taken care of until the children were old enough to work for themselves. Even then, the soldiers and their wives would receive a stipend for life if they couldn’t work at all.
He had to admit to himself, the more he learned about the royal family, outside the rules and traditions that set them higher in society, the more impressed he became by their rule. The royal family and Reton was worth fighting for, the commoners in the Vemor empire weren’t nearly so prosperous. Alternatively, it was also the more he despised Tanner, nothing was perfect, but he couldn’t imagine the mages doing any better.
Sure, he’d like more choices in his life to be his own, but that was complicated as well, and the solution for it didn’t have to be rebellion. No, that was pure ambition born from a need for personal power, and it had nothing to do with their plight of forced service. Not to his mind.
At first, he was surprised when the council itself showed up. Cassandra gave him and Lia a brief smile of greeting while his mind turned on that fact. He concluded gates were usually opened by master mages, and the council itself were the only master mages left in the city. It took about twelve average mages working in concert to open a portal without exhausting themselves completely, half that would work too but the mages would be all but helpless afterward, but the seven on the council were all extremely powerful like Lia, plus with a whole lot more years to grow that power even further.
The seven of them should be able to power a portal easily enough, though it would make them weak for a time, for several hours, before their magic recovered fully.
The courtyard itself was stuffed with two companies of relief troops, as well as close to twenty royal guards. As well as the council and about thirty other mages, presumably the ones that would be relieving the mages returning along with the maimed soldiers. Once the portal was open things would move quickly, it’d only be open for a few minutes, and there were a lot of people to move both ways.
Princess Vida said, “We welcome the council to the castle, and this opportunity to send relief supplies and troops to the war front.”
The mage guild council bowed, or curtseyed as the case may be, four of the seven guild towers were run by mistresses after all.
Tanner replied, “Thank you, highness,” he looked around, “We might need a little more room, we’ll be receiving before sending.”
At Vida’s nod of approval, the companies tightened up a little bit, and they moved closer to the barracks behind the castle. That freed up some more of the space in the center of the courtyard.
Tanner nodded, and he glanced at the other council members. The gate spell was another spell that was common to all affinities and magic disciplines. The seven of them moved into a circle, and at Tanner’s signal they all started to chant and move their arms in the same pattern, except for Cassandra of course, who used runes. He could feel them being activated slowly, and her magic blending perfectly with the others. The gate spell was extremely complicated, with a great number of runes to define the end product of the spell.
Cassandra could’ve powered it quicker, rune casting was much faster, but he realized it took skill for a rune mage to work a gate with the other disciplines. She had to carefully match the activation of runes to coincide with the longer casting of the others for it to blend properly into one spell.
He frowned as he realized Tanner was putting much less magic into his end of things. Just enough magic to keep his part of the spell active and in tune with the rest, to keep the joint spell-form stable as it built up. It would keep him from being exhausted, and it’d exhaust the others even further. They had no choice at that point, they had to make up the difference, or the spell would destabilize and likely explode.
Cassandra, Aubrey, Elisha, and Jace looked annoyed as they obviously noticed that too, but they didn’t look alarmed. Perhaps they thought he was just being a selfish bastard. They were very powerful, and six with a little help from Tanner would still be more than enough to power the spell.
What clued him into the fact something was very wrong, was that Master Sun and Mistress Kaitlynn, of the death and air guilds, didn’t look annoyed or surprised by him holding back. As if they’d been expecting it. As if it was all part of the plan. Had he finally persuaded his reluctant allies to take alarming steps?
He struggled on how to react for a moment. Most mages needed detect magic running, to be able to detect such a fact, only mystics could detect magic, even if in a more limited way without a spell to do so. It was clear to him that Lia, Carolynn, and Karina had no idea what was going on, and didn’t have an active detect magic spell.
Of course, he had his wards, but they’d be worthless and unable to detect the bad intentions of a shielded mage. He wasn’t sure if it was worth waiting until they made a move, if indeed that’s what Tanner had planned.
His hesitation was about a lot of things. He wasn’t supposed to talk, and he could only act against a clear threat. The threat, if any, wasn’t all that clear at that moment. Although he’d gotten used to being around the royal family the last week, he was still a bit in awe of them in some ways, the rulers of Reton. In a lot of ways, he still thought of himself as a simple blacksmith at times.
What finally decided him was a mixture of the cat that got the cream look on Tanner’s face, along with the looks on the faces of some of the accompanying mages. The fire mages in the crowd specifically, of which compromised a full fifteen of the twenty gathered besides the council, had a look of anticipation on their faces that didn’t quite match the occasion. More the look they got right before a competition, than grave anticipation at the thought of receiving maimed men.
He still doubted, that look could have simply been an anticipation
of testing themselves on the front lines against the mages and soldiers of Vemor, and not about the moment they were in at all. But added to all the other oddities, Tanner himself, and him holding back his magic, he couldn’t not act. Even if he was wrong, and it made him look like a jackass in front of everyone. It was hard enough being taken seriously, at his young age, low power, and early promotion.
He said firmly, “Get the princess out of here, now.”
Lia looked surprised and froze, while Karina and Carolynn looked doubtful.
Fortunately, the royal guards didn’t even hesitate, wouldn’t hesitate, when it came to any question of the princess’s safety. No matter how young or inexperienced the mage that gave the warning was.
That seemed to snap the other three out of it, and the four of them quickly followed behind as they moved quickly for the castle entrance.
Lia asked, “What the hell is going on?”
He sighed, “Call your mother, ask her about the portal today, and its purpose.”
Lia gave him a questioning look, but he felt her activate the air communication spell rune.
He couldn’t hear Talia’s answers as Lia asked a few pointed questions, but he knew it wouldn’t be good based on the blood draining out of his love’s face. Fortunately, the spell was a long one, and they’d be halfway to the princess’s quarters before it was finished.
The princess herself looked confused, and more than a bit angry, but the anger dropped almost as soon as Lia started talking.
“My mother and father have no knowledge of a portal being opened today. I fear Tanner’s intentions, he’s obviously been playing everyone.”
He shook his head, “Not Sun and Kaitlyn, they’re in the know. I can’t say for certain, but he’s holding back his magic, which will further exhaust the others when the spell is finished. He’ll be the only one with magic present.”
The princess asked, “What does that prove?”
He shrugged, “Nothing directly, except for the fact one of the greatest checks on his ambitions is he knows Cassandra, Aubrey, Elisha, and Jace would kick his ass if he reaches too far for power. I believe the only purpose of the portal is to weaken all the other tower masters while he makes his move. Whatever that move will be. The portal might have a secondary purpose, if say a bunch of master mages of fire, death, or air just happened to be standing around where it opened up? All speculation, sorry. I’m just spitting out thoughts as they occur.”
The princess and the royal guards looked shell shocked for a moment.
Karina said, “You can’t be serious, he wouldn’t get away with it.”
He frowned, “The war gives him an opportunity he’s never had before. All the master mages, the ones with greater power that could challenge or stop him, will be at the pass defending the kingdom. They can’t abandon their posts, or Vemor could break through and get a foothold. The only mages left in the capital that can oppose him in power, experience, and ability, are about to be drained and helpless. I know I’m making a lot of assumptions, but as far as personal ambition he couldn’t have picked a better time to make his move against the royal family.
“We’ll know soon enough.”
Carolynn replied, “But after, he’d be stopped.”
He gave the princess an apologetic look, before turning to Carolynn, “By then, the royal family would be dead, all of our oaths would be nulled by their deaths, and the council would be in power, with him bringing back the title of chancellor as head of the council no doubt. I don’t know his plan to avoid eventual justice for regicide, but he’s not stupid, he must have a plan. We need to figure out how to keep the princess alive, we can’t face Tanner alone, much less if he does call in more master mages for the coup.”
Lia sighed, “Let’s hope you’re wrong, and his plan is something less startling. Though, I don’t think you are.”
He searched through his pockets, while focusing, and found the right one as they entered the princess’s outer room. He pulled it out, and powered the runes, the center of the room shimmered with light for a moment, then seemed to focus into a small-scale model of the center of the courtyard where the spell was just finishing up. They’d made good time.
“Fire and air spell, to create an illusion of what’s happening real time, and to carry their words to us.”
Vida frowned, “You can use that to spy?”
He shrugged, “I’d have to be very familiar with the place I wanted to look in on. If not for your sword practices every morning over the last week, this wouldn’t have worked.”
She still looked disturbed, for some reason he couldn’t discern, but they all went silent and watched as the portal formed and stabilized.
The six other mages looked exhausted, Tanner looked triumphant.
As he’d feared, twenty master fire mages came through the portal, as well as a handful of air and death master mages, two of the former, and three of the latter.
The two master air mages all barked a word of power as one, while waving their arms to complete the semantic part of the spell. A wave of power blew out from the center of the courtyard, and every soldier and royal guard within range fell to the ground. Only the shielded mages stayed awake and on their feet.
At the princess’s shocked and horrified gasp, Carolynn said softly, “They merely sleep, Princess. I’ve seen that spell before.”
He hated it of course, but at least Tanner was trying for a bloodless coup. Well, outside of the royal family that is.
Cassandra demanded, “What is the meaning of this, Tanner.”
Tanner smirked, “As if you don’t know, or haven’t already figured it out. You know my opinions, and it was time to move. Opportunities like this are once in a lifetime. Any mages that would dare oppose us are either down south, or they’re drained of magic power at the moment. The guardian mages on the royal family are all average mages, none will give us trouble when we take our rightful place as the rulers of Reton.”
Damn, he hated being right, but to be fair it wasn’t exactly a stroke of genius to figure out Tanner’s plan, once he’d realized there was a plan. It was all pretty obvious to him.
Cassandra shook her head, “It’s a mistake. The people fear and hate us. The soldiers fighting to the south will lose heart and morale if the queen and princess they love and fight for is killed. We could wind up being another annexed territory of the Vemor empire.”
Tanner snorted, “I don’t think so. While it’s true they have no special love for us, they will fight for their families, their children and spouses, fathers and mothers. We won’t make any changes that will affect them, but only to bring us freedom. The freedom of choice and to act as we see fit, that was stolen from us long ago. The empire is cruel to its commoners, and the worst of two options. The soldiers of Reton will not falter, even at the loss of their queen, and with an external enemy they won’t rebel either.”
Cassandra said, “You’re insane.”
Tanner sighed, “You will bend, or you will break, Cassandra.”
Cassandra replied, “I’ll never betray my oaths.”
Tanner smirked, “I know. But your oath will expire with the royal family’s deaths. There will no longer be an oath for you to uphold, and you will be free to choose. You’ll have two choices at that point, keep your vote on the council, and continue to challenge me and make sure we rule justly. I’ve quite enjoyed the challenge of our give and take over the years.
“Or, you can die with the royal family. I’d really rather see the former happen. I am not evil Cassandra, I’d not see one mage’s life taken this day, much less one of our precious few rune mages. I know we don’t always get along, almost never, but I’d never be responsible for the end of one of our disciplines as mages. Your proteges are safe as well, they won’t stand a chance against the masters I’ve brought in, and they will be spared.”
Cassandra shook her head, “I can’t agree to that.”
Aubrey said, “Nor I.”
Jace and Elisha just no
dded in agreement, but they did so definitively, leaving no doubt as to their true opinion. The other two looked entirely neutral to him, and he suspected Sun and Kaitlyn were hedging their bets, going along with Tanner’s plan, but leaving themselves an out in case he failed.
Tanner nodded knowingly, “I know, and I won’t ask you again, at least not until the royal family is dead and you’re freed from your oath. Then you can agree to it, with a clear conscience. Isn’t that wonderful of me, to protect your precious honor, and fully take on that stain by myself? You really should have seen this coming, but your honor has blinded you. I will not see our people enslaved for a moment longer. Now be still, we have work to do.”
Tanner waved a hand, and the twenty-five master mages moved toward the castle.
Vida gasped, “Mother.”
A voice from the door said, “Is already here, the guards sent me word.”
Delphine turned to the four of them.
“What are our options, I caught the end of that, are you truly helpless against the master mages?”
He nodded slowly, “We can’t defeat them. Even using their weaknesses against them as rune mages, they’re powerful enough to compensate for that advantage. Even with Lia’s power, taking one of them would be a gamble and could go either way, much less all twenty-five.”
Not even with the others present. Justin, Amanda, and Sienna had arrived with the queen, and they were in the corridor looking rather shell shocked, and no doubt worried for their mistress and master, as he was worried about Cassandra.
They had a mission though, and he couldn’t just abandon it to try and rescue his mistress, which would probably just backfire anyway. He had to hope that Tanner was being honest when he said he didn’t want to kill any of them, and that he wouldn’t do so out of spite if his plan fell apart. Really, it was his only choice, or the only one he could live with.
Rune Mage: The Rune Mystic: Book Two Page 5