She smiled at me and said, eyes twinkling with mischief, “Sorry we kept it a secret, my father is Duke Emory, brother to King Tristan of Lethia. I am a princess of Lethia and second in line for the throne behind my father.”
I stumbled but caught myself. I wasn’t expecting that, not at all. I looked at her horrified, “How did you get captured,” then in an acid tone, “your highness.”
She looked at me regretfully, making me feel guilty about my tone, but I was still feeling sullen.
Maria sighed and said, “We were travelling home from treaty negotiations with the kingdom of Sandoval when we were attacked. Most died, even more died on the way to Zual. We…,” her voice choked up and I saw her eyes moisten. I squeezed her hand in what I hoped was a comforting gesture and let it drop. I didn’t really need to hear the rest, I had lived it for two and a half decades.
Yes, I knew I was still young and naïve in some, even a lot of respects. But I was very well versed in the horrors of life. I would not force her to relive those moments.
My stomach twisted when I sensed the knights as we maneuvered around the barricades. My life was now in the hands of those I had once counted as enemies. I didn’t have a choice then, as a slave, but would that truly matter to them? Maybe blue robes? I couldn’t help but think that everyone that looked at me and saw black robes would reach for their swords. I snorted, how did my mind get back on robe colors? Damn nerves.
I whispered to Maria, “I need new clothes, you know, before someone stabs me out of hand.”
She smiled at me gratefully for the subject change and nodded, “We will have to do something about that.”
As we got closer I could see a middle aged man amidst the knights, by his looks he was obviously Maria’s father. I saw the joy on his face as he saw Maria, then he looked at me and his face hardened in hatred. I actually cringed, if looks could kill…
Emory barked, “Put that witch in chains now!”
I froze in shock, I expected questions and suspicion, not hatred and judgment. I was obviously a fool to rescue these two… but I couldn’t bring myself to regret that part of things. Leaving them to die just seemed wrong. Ironically compassion would get me killed, just not by who I thought.
Maria yelled at her father, which gave me a little hope, “No father, she saved us!”
Emory laughed without humor, “All part of their plan no doubt, she is a spy.”
Maria shook her head in denial, “No, she didn’t even know who we were outside of two captured people.”
Emory looked at his daughter as if she was stupid, “And you believe that? Convenient isn’t it, that she escaped being the slave of a master dark mage while you were there.”
I gasped in understanding, and felt unaccountably sad at the same time. The being of light set me free for another purpose. Looking around I saw an army, one that looked ready to invade. I was saddened by the thought the being would probably have just let me die despite my plea for help if the princess hadn’t been there. I was set free and used to stop a war. Used to save Maria.
Well, I probably wasn’t worth saving, I had been surprised after all.
I should have fled, but my mind was overwhelmed with contradicting emotions, I was so weak. I didn’t even resist when I felt hands clamp on my arms and they chained my hands and feet together.
I turned and whispered two words to Maria, “The being,” my voice cracking this time, but I would not cry. After all I had been through in my life, I wasn’t sure if it was possible for me to cry.
She looked confused for a moment, not getting the connection, but understanding finally filled her countenance and she nodded at me. I could only hope she would explain it to her father. Yes it was convenient, but it was also scripted and not by me. I was no spy. I looked in despair at my chains, so much, for being free…
Chapter 4
I spent three days in a hole in the ground. The chains dampened magic, but I was pretty sure I was more powerful than the mage that created them. I decided to wait. I would much rather make my way openly in Lethia, and until I lost all hope of that I was avoiding turning into a fugitive. The third day I was pulled out then pushed down onto my knees. Looking up I saw Emory staring down at me. There was still blind hatred on his face, but there was doubt as well.
Emory said, “My daughter tells quite a tale, apparently you rescued her and her knight twice. I cannot believe you without proof however, and no one but you saw that being of light. I will take you back with us to the capitol where I will have your mind scanned, if you’re a spy, you will die.”
I gasped and glared up at him, “No.”
He looked at me in surprise and I said with barely concealed contempt and anger in my voice, “It seems Lethia is not so different after all, your offhand manner about having my mind raped is quite impressive… master.”
His face turned into a thundercloud at my last word, but I continued to speak in softer tones before he could find his voice, “I will submit to an interrogation under truth spell, white magic to prevent me from lying. I will not submit to mind rape, I am shocked that your vaunted white mages would even consider using such a vile spell.”
I was truly shocked, was human sacrifice the only difference? Was Lethia just as evil as Zual in every other way? Mind control which I had used often was not invasive. Yes, it took away their free will, but it did not sift through their thoughts. In some ways the hole I stayed in was infinitely worse than the dungeons in my old home, at least there you could move around, and it wasn’t so cursed hot. Granted though, we were in a temporary camp, they didn’t have any jail cells.
I could see the anger in his eyes, but I also saw he was thinking over what I said. The Duke was an intelligent man. I wondered what my old countrymen did to him to cause such a black hatred.
He said in grudging anger, “Fine, I will accept the judgment of the truth spell. However if you refuse to answer a question I will take that as guilt and have you executed.”
I nodded in agreement; relieved I would not have to go on the run. At least, not yet. I was hoping though, that they stuck to relevant questions, I didn’t want to have to talk about certain things.
The next day we left, over a hundred soldiers and maybe a dozen knights. I felt lonely and almost laughed at myself. I was alone for twenty years, but still, I missed the companionship of Maria. In the beginning of the march the soldiers made crude remarks. I almost replied to their crudity but held my peace. It didn’t last long anyway, Jason put a stop to it quickly when he noticed.
He was posted by the carriage the Duke and Maria were travelling in, I would guess because he is her personal knight and protector. Still, he made the time to look back on me every once in a while. I wasn’t sure if it was his idea, or by order of the princess, but either way I was grateful for it. At least I had two people that believed I was not a spy, or at least, they weren’t assuming I was.
The walk was not so easy for me, usually I could refresh myself with magic. Defeating the spell on the chains for some energy though, would have been stupid, and I would probably get a sword in my entrails for my trouble. At least they were feeding me well enough to keep up my strength.
For two days we were on that mind numbing walk while I pondered clothing choices, wondered if this was all worth it to try and be accepted here, and feeling sorry for myself about the lack of conversation. I felt dirty and tired and endured the nasty looks from the other knights and guards. I was so pathetic. But I endured for the hope of something better if I got through it. Which kind of amused me, hope? Really? Foolishness.
It was early the third day while we were breaking camp at sunrise. We were attacked by demons. I didn’t feel any arch-demons in the group, but there were at least thirty of them, which meant fifteen to thirty apprentices as well. I couldn’t feel where they were though, practically helpless in the chains. I heard the dying start, saw a demon disembowel one of the guards.
I barked at one of my escorts, “Release me, now. I can h
elp.”
He snorted at me in disbelief, “You think I would let you join them?”
I rolled my eyes in frustration as I saw elementals joining the fight. They were burning, drowning, suffocating and bludgeoning guards all over the camp. I saw the demons converging in on the carriage, apparently they were here to steal the princess back again. Or maybe just to kill her and her father, I couldn’t really think of a reason why they wanted her so bad, alive I mean.
The dozen knights were doing a good job and actually killing some demons, but the guard was almost worthless, their swords couldn’t directly harm a demon, just hamper them. I saw some of the apprentices now, moving in from the flank directly toward the carriage. The defenders were in a frenzy, taken completely by surprise. I sighed wondering if I was about to die. Both sides would be trying to kill me if I joined the battle, which gave me an idea.
I cast a protection glyph, the strongest one I knew with all the power I could channel behind it. The spelled cuffs glowed blue briefly before exploding outward in small melting pieces. The guards, startled, but didn’t react fast enough to stop what I did next. I turned into a hawk and launched myself into the air. I was clumsy as hell but it didn’t take me long to get some altitude. I was annoyed but had to take the time to learn how to circle automatically while people died below me. I could not cast if I had to focus on not falling from the sky.
What felt like forever but was actually less than a minute after I destroyed the metal cuffs, I cast the glyph of banishment over the entire camp. About ten of them were forced out of our plane. The knights had killed about half so that left five more of them, and they were all screaming in pain as they ran for the camp border to get out of the range of the spell.
I frowned, at least, in my mind I did. My beak wouldn’t actually do that. That meant five of the apprentices down there were very close in power to my own. Although that included sharing power with their summoned demons, and it was a close thing, since they didn’t break my spell it was close to even.
It finally hit me, why was I defending the Lethians? They were nothing but judgmental and cruel in my treatment. Then I realized, I was doing it for my friend, for Maria. I had acted when I saw she was in danger.
The rest could go to hell for all I cared, except maybe Jason. I felt a spell hit my protections and traced it back to one of the apprentices. There were about twelve left, the knights, some of them at least, shifting to them since most of the demons were gone.
I used an earth glyph while picturing five foot sharpened stakes made of stone rising out of the earth and impaling all twelve remaining apprentices. Three of them were impaled immediately, the spears barely slowing for the protections. Four more died slowly, I cringed at that, too slowly. The last five, who I suspected were the ones that still had demons defeated my spears. Their shields glowed with a bright blue and the spears shattered.
I tried to growl in frustration and a loud angry caw flew from my beak. I summoned a salamander from the plane of fire and sent it at one of the dark apprentices. Maybe I would be powerful enough if I focused on just one of them. It took a while, my fire elemental and the shield fought, each to break the other, but one of the knights finally moved to strike. The additional enchantment on his sword broke through the protections and skewered the mage through his heart.
I redirected the elemental to the next apprentice and another knight followed suit. Working together with the knights we defeated the last four handily. With the apprentices dead the last demons disappeared as well, returned to their own plane of existence. I was considering what I just did and if I should just fly away. Yes I helped, but they were suspicious of me. Now they knew they never really had me helpless.
“Sylvia!” I heard Maria call out to me. I was fifty feet up, but with these eyes I could see the expression on her face. She wanted me to stay, she was worried I would run now. She was my friend. As I cursed the foolishness of my actions I landed close to the carriage and shifted back to human form clothes and all. I appeased myself by thinking about my spell books; I didn’t want to lose them. Staying had nothing to do with my yearning for friendship and acceptance, something foreign that I didn’t truly understand.
Surely not…
There was a silence, as if they weren’t quite sure what to do with me. I took the decision out of their hands and walked a couple of steps to a soldier that was close, but not quite dead. His chest was partially caved in, he didn’t look good at all. I shuddered, my mind screaming at me not to do it. I took a deep breath and formed a glyph for healing despite my fear. I felt the warm energy flow down my hands and into his body. I watched as his body responded and mended before my eyes. Healing was something that would have earned a quick death in Zual, yet it felt… indescribably wonderful.
No other magic felt like this. All magic use conjured emotions in the user which has never been explained to my satisfaction. I knew many things had been hidden from me.
My sight became blurry, and I felt the wetness on my cheeks. I was overwhelmed with emotion. My first tears, or at least, the first I could remember. Yet, tears of Joy. Yes, healing life was joyful, something I was unfamiliar with… and yet… I couldn’t help but think I had felt it before. I gasped and fell, my eyes and mind locked in the past.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and I was playing in the woods. I was only five, I knew we were slaves but that idea was almost meaningless. My mother loved me and took care of me. That was all that was important. I felt a little guilty, she had told me not to play in the forest anymore, but it was fun.
I hardly knew any magic at all. My mom had taught me a couple of glyphs last week. One for infravision and a simple healing one. She had made me promise never to use glyphs on other people. It was forbidden, she said it would show weakness and the other slaves would kill me. I didn’t really understand, but I promised anyway.
I was playing by the creek, trying to catch a frog when I spied a bird lying on the ground. Curious to see one up close, they were usually hiding up in the trees, I walked over and knelt on the ground. The bird started to chirp in panic, but couldn’t fly because the wing looked wrong, broken. I thought about it for a minute and decided this would be good practice, it wasn’t another person after all, just a bird.
That should be okay shouldn’t it? It wouldn’t break my promise.
I reached out with a hand to touch the bird and built the sigil in my mind. I felt the warmth flow down my arm, directly from my chest. It was such an amazing good feeling I giggled and closed my eyes. I was confused, if this is how it felt inside to heal, how could that be wrong? Determined to get to the bottom of it I set the bird free and watched it fly away before heading home. Mom would explain, she knew everything. But doing this, healing, just could not be wrong.
When I got home I explained what I did, how good it felt, and asked why I couldn’t heal other people, I imagined it would be just as good with another person. When I finished talking my mother’s face was white, drained of all color. She also looked angry, I didn’t understand at all. I felt her anger when she touched my forehead, her mind forcing itself into mine. I screamed, confused and hurt I didn’t fight back. She blocked those memories, and set it up so I would fear healing others, then hid the evidence.
The older me, the one watching, understood that my mother was just protecting me, instilling it in my mind so I wouldn’t get killed showing compassion. It would have happened; I was a sweet kid, foolish. Soft. But then, why was I so angry. I felt violated. My fear and contempt of healing, of helping others, had been implanted when my own mother mind raped me when I was five years old.
She did it out of concern, and to protect me, but that thought didn’t help one bit right now. I got back up on my feet, a dark scowl on my face. The healed soldier looking up at me had a frightened look on his face. I shook it off, I would have to ponder this later, so I attempted a small smile for the soldier. After all, if I had mastered anything in this life it was suppressing my emotions
and showing indifference to the people around me.
“Bad memories,” I muttered and turned away.
Emory was behind me, with a scowl on his face. I smiled sheepishly and said, “You can spank me later, first, are there any others badly wounded and in risk of death?”
Emory said looking suspicious, “If the cuffs didn’t work, then why did you stay?”
I guess he thought the only reason I would put up with the abuse would be for infiltration, or at least, I gleaned that from his tone of voice and body language.
I told him the truth. I wanted a real home, a place to live. Friends and a job. “I wouldn’t get any of that if I was on the run all the time. My only hope is if I can earn your trust with an interrogation under the truth spell.”
He said, “I figured you would think we’d trust you now after you defending us.”
I shook my head. “Not a chance. I almost didn’t stay. You know Zual well. Apprentices are slaves and have no value outside of being a tool. If I was a spy from a master, that master wouldn’t hesitate to throw away twelve lives to get that spy close to the royal family. Plus, I also revealed I was withholding information by breaking out to help defend. I didn’t tell you the cuffs were not strong enough to hold me. So in all, I will wait for the interrogation and only expect trust after that.”
His eyes narrowed at my matter of fact explanation on how cheap life was in Zual. I sighed and said, “Lives are not cheap to me, whether you believe I mean that or not, you lose nothing letting me heal the serious wounded while you decide what to do with me. Oh, and can I have something else to wear, I hate these black robes.”
He nodded briskly and assigned two knights to watch me while I healed two other soldiers. It felt just as good as the first time for both. I started to wonder if I had a natural affinity for healing, it seemed, effortless. The rest of the wounded just needed some light first aid and refused my help, that stung a bit. After the dead were taken care of, we had close to sixty soldiers and nine knights. Over forty deaths, I wished I had broken out sooner despite how I was being treated…
The Formerly Dark Mage Page 3