Before getting in the carriage I casted both a ward and a protection spell on it. I would need to renew the protection spell every few hours, the ward should last a lot longer. The ward simply kept us private and made sure no one that didn’t belong could enter. The protection spell would stop an attack. I felt weird being inside the carriage, instead of outside where I could respond quickly to a threat. But then, I should feel any approaching magical auras as long as they weren’t being actively hidden.
At first I was very uncomfortable, it was the morning, I should be studying. I felt lazy just sitting there as we made our way west. Maria, bless the woman, drew me out of my funk.
Maria said, “Thank god you’re here, you have no idea. If you hadn’t agreed to come with me I would have been stuck with one of those empty headed vapid ladies from the court as my lady in waiting.”
I snickered. “It’s not too late. Do you think one of them would like to come with us?”
She shook her head in faux sadness, “It must have been too much magic, broke your mind.”
Airily I replied, “But my dear, you look so ravishing, you should have many insipid admirers along for the trip.”
Pretty soon we were giggling like teens, thank god for the privacy ward. It probably had to do with being on the road away from home and how nervous Maria was. After all, if things went well she wouldn’t see her father very often anymore. Not when it took two weeks of travel just to get there. I pondered that for a second, thinking about the gate ritual I was reading yesterday morning right before the craziness started.
Most of the ritual was for stability of the gate, defining the process of how a gate opens. So many symbols and concepts that it took a couple of hours to get through. The intent of the last three symbols were the only ones that would change from cast to cast. One for size, one for duration, and one for the terminus location. No one had ever tried to enchant an object with a ritual before. At least, they hadn’t to my knowledge. I wondered if it was possible.
The staff, and it would have to be a staff to hold so many glyphs with attached intent. It could be powered by the magic of a mage only, who would then have to cast the three final glyphs and intent on their own. It may be possible, and that would only take seconds that way. I decided I would give it a try, maybe spend an hour a night on it, I didn’t want to flake out on Maria. Plus, I also didn’t want to try it during the trip, what if I couldn’t get back?
I also needed to know where I was going for the ritual to succeed, so we had to get there the hard way first since I’d never been to Sandoval. We had no issues travelling the first day and made it to a small village. I went ahead and bought an oak staff, and a fine carving tool. Since I was enchanting while slowly carving the glyphs, instead of just in my mind, I knew this would take many hours, not just a couple. It would be worth it though if it worked, and I just might have it done in two weeks if I spent at least an hour a night.
The food at the inn was decent, not what I had gotten used to, but still much better than a tent and trail rations. When we finished we went up to our rooms. Maria and I were in the same room with a double bed. I warded the room. I realized I wasn’t even sure what a lady in waiting does and asked.
Maria laughed, “So you don’t know your job, why did you come then?”
I snorted and said facetiously, “Oh, you know, I was out of a job and bored, thought I would take it until something better comes along.”
She arched an eyebrow at me.
I said questioningly, “You don’t know?” I thought it was obvious.
She waved her hand for me to continue.
I was embarrassed and said, “You’re my first and best friend, I would have missed you. How do you not know that?”
She blushed but looked pleased, “Your job is three fold. Make sure I have what I need, you don’t need to do it yourself though, just make sure it’s done. Two, keep me company. Three, ensure my fiancé, the prince, doesn’t get a hold of the goods before the wedding night. In other words be my chaperone, he doesn’t get to be alone with me and take liberties.”
I nodded. “Sounds easy enough. Maybe I should spell you in case we get separated. You know, to kill anyone that touches you…”
She looked up at me sharply, then giggled when she saw my face.
She said, “I am truly glad you came. I don’t have any friends outside of you that I can really trust. Oh, I like and am friendly with plenty of people, but they all seem to want something from me,” she shook her head, “You only ever wanted my company.”
She looked sad as she said, “You know, lady in waiting means waiting for betrothal, once I am married…”
I didn’t want to think about that but asked anyway, “How long?”
She shrugged, “It depends, if we can stand the sight of each other, and probably even if we can’t, the two Lethian knights and whoever Sandoval has will work on a treaty surrounding the marriage. Then of course whatever they come up with will need to be ratified by both kings. So… a few months maybe? At most.”
I heard a knock at the door and went to open it, “Can I come in?” asked Jason. I let him and he took a seat in one of the chairs.
He said, “I don’t know if you are aware Silvia, but there is a second pass through the mountains into Zual. You were on the Eastern most part of the kingdom, so I wasn’t sure if you knew. Anyway, raiders come across there, so tomorrow we will probably have the most potential for problems during our trip. There is a garrison stationed there, as well as a dozen knights. The council usually has a couple of mages there as well. But as I’m sure you know, they can sometimes sneak past even the most vigilant guards.”
I sighed and nodded.
He continued, “Just wanted to let you know to be on your toes tomorrow. Sleep well Silvia, Princess.” He stood and left the room.
We were both quiet after that, I grabbed the staff I bought and started carving. As I carved each glyph I embedded the intent within the glyph. It took a little longer than I thought, almost an hour and a half to get where I needed to be to finish in fourteen days. Perhaps I will get faster as I progress, but even a small mistake would ruin it, I needed to get it done right, not quickly.
After a little thought I realized I could hardly carry a staff everywhere I went. Plus, I may not want every mage I meet aware of what I could do with it. There would be more than enough room for more enchantments when I finished, so I carved a glyph all the way on the bottom of the staff, enchanting it to change size and shape per my intent.
When I activated the glyph it shrunk drastically in size, then curved itself into a circle, with a small gap. The swirling designs on it were attractive, I slipped it onto my wrist and thought it looked good. I could still feel the aura of magic from it, but to be sure I took it off and returned it to its normal shape. All the glyphs appeared to be perfect, and I could feel the magic there. I considered enchanting a hidden magic glyph, but decided to wait. Changing it back to a bracelet I put it back on my arm.
Without thinking I stripped off my robes and put on my night clothes, as I slipped into my bed I saw Maria staring.
With a joking smirk I said, “See something you like?”
She snorted and said with a wink, “You wish, depraved mage.”
I laughed and said goodnight, I needed to be alert tomorrow. As I fell asleep, I couldn’t help but remember the look on her face as I doubted I had actually seen it.
The next day we got an early start, a quick breakfast and we were out on the road. I renewed my protection spell on the carriage and checked the wards, everything looked good. I was a little tense but it wasn’t too bad. I was a lot more powerful now than I was when we escaped Zual, perhaps not in terms of raw power except for the combination spells, but knowledge. I needed to be careful though, more powerful than most is certainly not the same as unbeatable.
I was confident, but not overconfident. I had prepared a number of escape plans as well, that included Maria, I would never leave my friends beh
ind again. Despite the threat of the pass through the mountains, the day was peaceful. We arrived at another small village in the late afternoon. This town actually had a barracks built for just this type of thing, and probably to support the garrison, so the soldiers got to rest indoors tonight.
We had some time before dinner so we went shopping. Maria informed me that perhaps with some accessorizing the white robes wouldn’t make me look so severe. Amused she wanted to dress me, I let her lead me around to the tailor shop and somewhere we could pick out jewelry. Despite my reservations I had to admit she was right. A light blue silk scarf, some dangling Sapphire earrings and sapphire bracelets helped with the pale effect I was getting in the white robes.
By the time we made it back to the inn dinner was in full swing. Jason led us both to the table two other knights were already sitting at. I checked the food as always then dug in. The dinner was comfortably silent, I guess with travelling the only new thing to talk about was how many cows or clouds we saw on the trip. Maria turned in early which gave me some extra time to work on the staff, two hours later I stopped, exhausted. It took a lot of concentration to do this and I didn’t want to get sloppy.
I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, it seems like seconds later when I heard the first scream. I glanced at the candle and realized I had actually slept a couple of hours. I cast refresh to wake up fast, then looked out the window in the direction I thought it had come from. When I saw the fire, and the fire elemental I cursed and woke Maria.
Tersely I said, “The town is being raided.”
She looked up at me confused, I hit her with a refresh spell and repeated what I said. Her eyes widened a bit, then narrowed. I wasn’t sure if I should get her out of here, protect the inn or try and protect the town. I brought up my protections with a thought, then cast protection on Maria as well, a modified one. Then I cast hidden magic on both of us.
Jason knocked on the door, presumably to wake us since he banged pretty hard and practically screamed, “Open up.”
I cautiously opened the door and he said, “The top floor is a bad place to be, let’s get down to the common room. We headed downstairs, so far, whatever was going on hadn’t reached the inn. I made sure I was standing between Maria and the front door. I was itching to run out there to help, but I had my priorities and they certainly didn’t involve leaving Maria alone.
Using the window to see I cast a double elemental spell, air supporting water. An impressive whirlwind of water appeared out in the street, my intent caused it to head down the street to both stop the fire elemental and put out the fires. I hadn’t seen or felt a mage yet, or a demon, and didn’t detect any close by, so I couldn’t address that yet.
I heard a scream behind me as well as a loud crash and whipped around. I saw a man crushed into the wall, dead, and Maria was a few feet away from where she had been. She looked a little freaked and Jason was as white as a sheet. I still didn’t sense any spells or magical auras. I opened the window and peaked out, the fires were out and my elemental was just sitting there.
I cast a light glyph that lit up the entire street, and didn’t see anything and I sighed. I turned to Jason and frowned, “What happened?”
He said hollowly, “We were all watching the street, waiting for what we thought was coming. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that man coming up behind Maria, but I didn’t get to him in time.”
I nodded. “I think this was an assassination attempt, what happened outside was just a distraction. I imagine the mage that summoned that fire elemental just set him loose and then ran for it. He or she isn’t in this town right now. I think the whole point was a distraction, to get everyone panicked it was a Zual raid. I don’t think it was. Luckily I had Maria shielded with protections before we left the room.”
Maria whispered, “How did I move?”
I smiled and said, “I was worried about a more powerful caster, your shield is mobile. If someone attacks it will both counter attack and move you to a safer position at the same time. I’m sorry I didn’t explain it sooner. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
I frowned at the dead man, “I’m just sorry he is dead, I was thinking attacking demons or apprentice mages from Zual when I chose that one. I would have done it differently and caught an assassin alive. No way to question him now.”
Liar my thoughts screamed at me. No… I would not, could not, use necromancy. My mind argued Maria was in danger but I ignored it. It was a slippery slope of good intentions. I would not use dark magic.
I dismissed my elemental and cancelled the light spell. It was only about midnight, but I couldn’t imagine sleeping right now. I left the shields up for now, just in case. There were too many people in here besides our group.
I suggested, “Jason, maybe search the assassin, it probably won’t help but you never know.”
He looked to be in shock, Maria was fine, but his failure was obviously hitting him hard. I said his name in a softer voice while touching his arm. He finally nodded and sent a knight over to take care of it.
After a few more minutes everyone took seats at the tables and the owner opened the bar back up. Apparently no one was going to sleep until the adrenaline wore off. The knight didn’t find anything at all to indicate who or why which was not surprising but didn’t help.
I knew Maria was more upset than she let on when she started her second tankard. I just had one as usual, the last thing any mage needed to do was get drunk, especially when we could still be in danger. Plus, I had that dangerous childhood, I was used to it. Except maybe, someone I care about being in danger. That did put a different flavor of worry on it.
An hour later when things were calmed down quite a bit, we headed back upstairs to get some sleep. I had to help Maria with the stairs. She wasn’t drunk but quite tipsy. I double checked the wards again when we reached the room, and took a deep breath after helping Maria into bed…
Chapter 9
Morning came and with it a day of travel. Everyone was being more vigilant, knowing that the only danger was not from Zual now. Every traveler we came across was examined more carefully if they came too close.
We didn’t have any more attacks over the next few days and my staff was coming along nicely. I was over half way done when we reached the river. I was a little concerned to see there were only twenty soldiers, and no mages or enchanted weapons to be found. But on consideration, perhaps Zandoval was safer to travel, since they didn’t border against Zual as Lethia did.
Still, one crazy apprentice could take them out in seconds, I asked Jason about it.
He shrugged and said, “A subtle sort of political insult. It implies that we need this marriage more than they do. They know there will be two knights along from Lethia, as well as twenty soldiers. Perhaps the number is to match our own.”
I asked, “Do we need them more than they need us?”
He said, “Sort of, we want them peaceful so we only have one hostile border. They don’t have any right now and know we won’t start anything since Zual is quite enough to be dealing with. Still, they kind of need us, they have much less arable land and trade heavily with us for food. Of course, they could always take a chance to invade and try to take it.”
I nodded thoughtfully as one of the soldiers walked across the bridge toward us.
His voice strong he said, “I am Captain Samuel, I invite you to cross into Sandoval on behalf of King Leland, and welcome.”
The twenty soldiers staying with us preceded the carriage across the bridge while Jason and the other knight flanked the carriage, walking alongside us. After a whispered conversation between the two captains, the Lethian guards split, ten on our left and ten on our right. The Sandoval guards split as well, ten about twenty feet ahead and ten twenty feet behind.
I checked the wards and protection on the carriage, then after some thought dismissed and casted a different protection spell, a non-lethal one. It should only attack people with the intent to attack us, but I didn’t want to
start an inter-kingdom incident either. Captain Samuel gave the order to move out and we did.
There was no village in range and we stopped to set up camp around four in the afternoon. That was when we had our first issue with Captain Samuel as it was the first time any of their men had seen me, when I left the carriage.
Captain Samuel looked at Jason suspiciously and said, “There was no agreement for a master mage of Lethia to be included as part of the princess’s protection in Sandoval. What is she doing here?”
Jason replied in an even voice, “She, is Lady Silvia. She is not here to guard except as her function as a lady in waiting.”
Captain Samuel’s face turned red, “You expect me to believe that?”
Jason nodded then said, “Do you see any other woman here besides her and the princess? Lady Silvia would not be sitting in the carriage if she was a guard.”
I started to wonder if this was the best idea, what if King Leland has a similar objection. But then I remembered if I wasn’t here Maria would be dead, no way was I leaving. Besides, I was sure King Tristan would have considered this angle. I cast protections, non-lethal, on both of us. I wouldn’t take any chances.
Captain Samuel nodded stiffly and said, “Very well, I will accept your word.”
The week went by, thankfully we weren’t attacked even though on edge. I didn’t like the looks some of the guards were giving me during the trip, but it never went beyond that. Other things were bothering me too. In Lethia people seemed happy we stopped, it meant coin and business inflow for the towns. Here in Sandoval, the people didn’t seem scared exactly, but we got a lot of wary looks, and just the faintest bit of surprise when a soldier paid for something.
It was subtle, I saw no actual proof that there was any oppression going on, but signs of it were everywhere. It was almost as if Samuel and his soldiers were putting on a show for our benefit. Perhaps, it was just me. I really didn’t like the looks I was getting. I became absolutely vigilant about Maria’s and my wards and protections. I had always jokingly thought I was paranoid back in Lethia, I think here I actually was.
The Formerly Dark Mage Page 7