His eyes widened in horror as he realized he couldn’t move. I cast a dispel over both the mage and then the prince. Unfortunately having their minds freed knocked them out.
The red faced king roared, “What is the meaning of this!”
I cringed, yes, in a way I was saving his kingdom, however I doubted he would appreciate it, as I was a foreign mage. He would be humiliated at what had been done here, but I had no choice. Although, perhaps I should have waited for a more private venue, and not done this in front of the whole court.
I said softly, “Please forgive me your majesty, but your apprentice court mage tried to poison Princess Maria and myself. He is under truth spell if you want to question him. The reason your court mage and son are knocked out is because I released them from his mind control. They should awaken very shortly.”
I cringed, the king looked really unhappy. “If this is a trick you will regret it.”
King Leland turned and asked Ollie what was going on and to reveal all his plots.
I watched as my elemental flashed blue and smiled. I wasn’t sure it would work. It was holding his magic hostage, he could only cast internally, just like those chains I had worn. Defeated he had no choice but to answer the question as the spell required.
Ollie said contemptuously, “What’s going on? We are slowly taking over your kingdom, that’s what. As to how and why, that is a long story.”
I couldn’t hear a pin drop as Ollie laid it all out, although I cringed every time a comment of derision came from his mouth. I was in so much trouble.
“My master, my true master back in Zual, was tired of the damn interfering Lethians. We have been trying to infiltrate them for a long time, but our spies are always caught. They are fools, but they are at least wise enough to test people with a truth spell before accepting an apprentice.”
Mage Darnell was waking up and had a look of pained embarrassment on his face as he heard that.
Ollie continued, “The ultimate plan of course was to get Sandoval to declare war on Lethia, surrounded by enemies on all sides they wouldn’t have stood a chance. It took time of course, but eventually I had the full confidence of Darnell. About six months ago I finally got him to teach me a ritual, one that required all protections be dropped. That was the only way. As soon as he started I snuck a spell glyph in and tied his mind in knots.
“I had decided you see, to leave you alone. I knew if the king started acting not himself there would be more suspicion, but for the court mage, well, it’s just a sickness he hasn’t found a cure for yet. I nicked the prince after that, then as subtly as I could, had both of them advise you to change things. Give you false reports so you thought Lethia may be turning treacherous. Of course, this completely backfired, you brought that stupid slut here to try and ensure peace instead of invading.
“At least I got you to go harder on your subjects, I can’t believe how much you people coddle each other up here, it’s disgusting. So, that’s when I decided to poison them, I don’t know how that white robed bitch figured it out. I guess I gave myself away when I got confused at them not dying so she hit me with a spell and freed your useless son and that trusting fool Darnell.
“If I was successful I would have given it a short time for a war to start at the insult. It really didn’t matter who attacked who, as long as Sandoval and Lethia were at war. If that still failed, I would have just killed you next, I was starting to doubt I could get you to invade, but I controlled your son, so it would have been easy at that point.”
It was a dead silence, it took a minute but everyone realized he was done speaking of his treacherous acts.
The king, ashen faced, said, “Take him away, make sure he is secured. The people deserve a public execution for what he has done here.”
He stood and said, “This meal is over, I must ensure my son is well and how to respond to this information.”
With dazed looks, the royal family walked out followed by Darnell, who shot me a grateful if nervous look over his shoulder. Dinner broke up and we headed back to our rooms.
When we got in, Jason followed us in our room. Maria turned to me and said, “That was stepping cautiously?”
I blushed and said, “Well, I wasn’t expecting a poison attempt tonight. He must have been panicking to risk it. So how much trouble am I in?”
She laughed and said, “From me? None at all. We will have to see about our hosts.”
Jason said, “I doubt there will be war as that was the reason a Zual agent was manipulating and controlling people here. As to what will happen we will have to wait for tomorrow.”
We chatted about the possibilities for a bit, before we turned to other subjects, wondering how things were back at home. Strange, that I still considered my room at the palace as home, when I no longer had it. I wondered what I would be doing next, what disturbed me most was, whatever it was it would most likely be without Maria.
It didn’t take long for the king to decide, Maria and I were summoned to a private audience before breakfast the next morning in his private outer chamber of the royal suite. When we got there he was alone in the room. He turned to Maria first.
The king said, “If I may be informal?”
Maria said, “Of course majesty.”
The king shook his head then said, “I am ashamed of the deception that happened right under my own nose. In fear of those lies I practically threatened war if Tristan did not send you. Ironically thinking that making you co-ruler when you succeeded me with my son, would prevent war. I remember when you visited seven years back, you and my son were like oil and water. You’re both good people that just rubbed each other the wrong way.
“If you wish it, we will still have a treaty without the marriage. That is not to say I will not keep my word if you want, but I will not have it forced on you or my son since it was based on lies. That would be folly, a political marriage between two friendly nations just doesn’t make sense.”
I almost choked, when he said informal he meant it.
Maria answered, “I would be pleased to be good neighbors under an open treaty if such is possible without binding our blood together. I would not wish to force your son either.”
The king smiled and said, “Very well, you are free to remain here as your knights work out the treaty, in the meantime I will send word to your uncle that the wedding is off, but the treaty still on.”
He frowned and turned to me, “As for you young lady, you have a lot to learn about politics, I was made to look a fool before my whole court yesterday. You will see no gratitude beyond those doors for saving my kingdom. Do you understand me?”
I said softly, “Yes your majesty, I understand.”
He smiled, “Good. However, you are not beyond those doors right now. So as a father, not a king, let me say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for saving my son and my good friend Darnell.”
I blushed, still not taking compliments well, not even back handed ones.
I was relieved when he dismissed us, and we headed off to breakfast. I could already feel a difference in Maria, she was more like her old self. I could tell she was relieved to get out of the betrothal, but did it really change anything? I couldn’t see that it did.
After breakfast we got back to our rooms and I asked, “So did you want to head back, or stick around?”
She winked at me and said, “Well, if we go home you’ll be out of a job again, so in the interest of your job security perhaps we should stay and visit while the treaty gets worked out.”
I grinned and said, “Sounds good. Thank you for being so considerate about my… job security.”
We both saw through the banter of course, neither of us wanted to leave the other, even though to move forward would mean disaster. Wouldn’t it? The king and her father would kill us both.
There was a knock on the door, it was Elaine. She was young but didn’t look bored this time. I could imagine court would be boring as hell when you were a teenager.
/> Elaine said conspiratorially, “Hi, since you’re not going to be courting with my brother, how about we sneak down to the city and go shopping?”
I grinned, “Your father would execute us if we don’t ask. But the rest of it sounds good. Maria?”
She smiled, “Shopping sounds good, if it’s safe?”
Elaine nodded, “We will have guards with us,” she frowned, “I know the people aren’t very happy with us right now but I don’t think they would hurt us.”
The king gave us permission, so we went down into the town with ten guards. I also added protections around Elaine after asking. The last thing we needed was an incident. Another one I mean. We got a few dirty looks, but with the guards present and my white robes, no one tried to approach us. Maria and Elaine were having fun in the tailor shop, for me pretty clothes were something other people wore, though I enjoyed it vicariously.
The next shop we stopped at was for jewelry. While I was looking around I saw a medallion with the four elemental glyphs on it.
I asked, “What is this maam?”
She smiled and said, “You must be a mage, they all ask about it you know. It’s a very old piece, it has no power in itself of course, but there is a story behind it.”
Curiously I asked, “Story?”
She shook her head, “Well when the kingdom was founded a thousand or so years ago, there was said to be a mage who cast all four glyphs at once to create some kind of powerful creature to defeat the king’s enemies,” she chuckled, “Of course the mages all tell me that’s crap. It’s impossible, they say, to keep twelve separate thoughts at once, not that I understand that part. They also tell me it’s ridiculous because the opposites would all cancel each other out until nothing was left.”
I nodded, that sounded about right, to cast it I would need to have air support fire, fire support earth, earth support water, and water support air. Those four intents, plus the four glyphs, plus four more thoughts for them to combine into one creature. Actually its more, you would need to add two more intents, what the final creature would be shaped as, and what you actually wanted it to do.
Fourteen… The most I have done is nine and I was stretching things then.
Still, it might be fun to play with, even if it fails miserably it will stretch my abilities even further from combining three effects to four. Just because this might fail, I might come up with other ideas. Plus, if I got it working under meditation conditions I could create a glyph shortcut to get it all done at once. As I was planning it out in my head Maria poked me.
Maria said, “Your hopeless, stop working on your magic and shop.”
I blushed and said, “Yes oh mighty princess, your will is my command.”
She snorted and showed me a pair of earrings against her head.
I nodded and said, “No doubt, get those.”
Since I was getting tired of always wearing my blue accessories with my white robes I decided dark green might work as well. I spent some money on a pair of emerald earrings and a nice bracelet inset with emeralds. I insisted we go back to the tailor after this. I needed a green neck scarf too!
The first night I tried the spell idea, I couldn’t get past nine thoughts. Once I added another glyph I just couldn’t hold it in my mind anymore. Giving up for now, I decided to focus on meditation. I was trying to get deeper in my mind where perhaps I would have more success. Block out everything, every internal thought I had and every external distraction so I could focus on the spell and it alone.
By the end of the week I was up to twelve, but I needed two more, shape and intent of actions. A couple of nights later I was so excited when I cast the spell and opened my eyes. What I saw however, was four elements wrangling with each other, trying to join and failing. It took a minute, but they fizzled out. Disappointed I went to bed.
Over the next two days I thought about what went wrong, I knew I was obsessed with it, but I couldn’t let it go. Then another idea occurred to me.
Instead of fire only supporting one of its supporting elements, why not both? So fire supports air and earth, air supports water and fire, water supports earth and air, and earth supports fire and water. The amount of intents were the same, even if a little more complicated but by the next night I was able to hold it all. When I came out of my meditative state I gasped at what I saw.
There was a bird perched on the headboard. A bird that appeared to be made up of pure energy. Not only that, I estimated its power at nearly four times my personal power, as if all four elements were using full instead of a quarter power. Excited, I dismissed it and created a shortcut with all the intents save the last two which I could add when casting. Which was the shape and the intent to either protect, attack, carry, disable etc…
To be honest I was a little frightened. I could be unstoppable but for the few rare individuals with a lot more power than me. It may have been a conceit, but I didn’t think there were very many. I smiled as I thought Hollis could still kick my ass, probably, and shivered when I added that master I ran into on the way out of Zual. Or at least I would be until others learned the same trick. Of course, an energy being doesn’t feel like any of the elements, so it would be hard to cotton on. Especially since most mages ignored the legend that old woman told me, if not all of them.
After all, we are taught doubling the power of our spells would make them weak except for the rare double elemental spell. And until now, I was sure that was true. Why go through so much trouble and effort when you can get one and a half times power out of a dual elemental spell.
I went to bed, shifting my thoughts a bit, the treaty would be done soon and we would be heading back to get it ratified by the king. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do next. Or much more likely, I simply didn’t want to leave Maria despite knowing how stupid it was. I supposed I could travel, offer services as a healer. I briefly thought of the mage council but the idea of that didn’t appeal at all. I don’t want to be on a council. I had enough money from being court apprentice where I could just study and build spells, but it didn’t appeal to me at all. I loved studying and experimenting with magic, but I liked having friends just as much. Perhaps set up a healing shop in the city, and I could do research in the back. I could probably still visit my friends in the palace, and make new ones, if the people weren’t too afraid that is.
I finally got my thoughts to settle and fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter 11
The next morning at breakfast I noticed Jason was pleased. Perhaps it wouldn’t take two more days after all.
I asked, “So why the good mood?”
His smile grew, “It’s coming along. Almost done I think. It includes tariff free trade and mutual support. There are a number of other things of course. But those are the big ones. I think the King wanted to lower food costs here in Sandoval and that should do it. For instance, we will be selling part of our food overage at low cost to the kingdom itself, so they can alleviate any starving areas during winter. I think this treaty is going to improve a lot for both kingdoms.”
It sounded like it would, I was glad to hear the king was trying to reverse some of the damage done to his kingdom. I was also thinking not yet. I wasn’t ready. I knew life was about change, but my life that started in Lethia had been the happiest I had ever been in life. Perhaps I was afraid. Reluctantly, I admitted to myself this probably had a lot to do with how I felt about Maria. I wanted what I couldn’t have and my mind was throwing a tantrum about it.
Despite my wishes, the treaty was buttoned up the next day and we made plans to leave the next morning. I had never told anyone what I was doing with the staff, and selfishly, instead of testing it for the trip home like I had planned. I decided instead I would be able to get two more weeks with Maria if we went the long way.
It would be a selfish decision that I would regret for the rest of my life.
The trip home started out well, we still got dirty looks, but we knew life would be improving for them soon enough so it didn�
�t bother us quite as much. Maria and I stayed in good spirits and even Captain Samuel didn’t annoy us, no doubt because we weren’t dreading the unknown anymore and being suspicious of everyone. Things had turned out better than we had a right to expect.
We were close to the river six days later when I felt an air elemental approaching. I was ready for a fight, Maria and I had protection spells going, but to my astonishment it passed right through the wards. Apparently the spell had no ill intent and it wasn’t an attack. When I saw an illusion form of Hollis I understood, this was a messenger spell by combining an air elemental with an illusion spell.
The illusion of Hollis said, “Be careful coming back. There is a lot of activity at the mid mountain pass and we fear an invasion. The king sent me to the pass to help. I imagine you will get this message when I am arriving there. The king’s orders Princess is for you to stay as far from the pass as you can.”
The illusion dissipated and I saw Maria’s face had paled.
I said softly, “I think I can get you home directly, then join Hollis at the pass.”
She asked, “How?”
I said, “My staff, it’s an experiment that I haven’t tried yet. But it should open a travel portal quickly.”
She sighed, “I wish I could go with you, but I can’t disobey my uncle.”
I on the other hand, was happy about that, I wanted to help Hollis but there was no way in hell I would allow Maria to come along, and I was glad I wouldn’t have to make that argument. I opened the door and said loudly, “Wait here, I will call you ahead if this works.”
I jogged ahead about fifty yards, thinking it safe to try here. Even catastrophic failure of some kind shouldn’t hurt them from so far. I was pretty confident it would work though, after all, that’s the main reason I hadn’t tried it. I just left it in bracelet form, I didn’t want anyone knowing how I did this besides Maria of course.
I connected to the item and activated the sequence of glyphs. They all flashed in my head with the attached intent one at a time, but instead of a slow manually process it did it at about twenty glyphs a second. I was a little dizzy when it finished in less than ten seconds. I manually cast the last three glyphs, specifying a size of fifteen by fifteen feet, so the carriage would fit. I also specified the duration at fifteen minutes, then specified the location as the edge of the field by the capitol.
The Formerly Dark Mage Page 9