I gazed up at her innocently and said, “What is it?”
Her mouth closed as she frowned, then she opened her mouth again, then closed it.
I snickered, “What?”
She just shook her head and sat down. Apparently speechless.
After a minute she said, “How could this mage be so stupid, he had a gold mine and just used it for this one communication enchantment? Ooh, you enchanted the ritual didn’t you?”
I shrugged. “I thought the same when I found it, about the author being stupid that is. Then, after time passed I reconsidered. Perhaps like me, he didn’t want to suppress the knowledge if someone was clever enough to find and apply it, but he didn’t want to make it easy to find either so any half trained idiot could try and take over the world. I hope you give it as much thought before considering sharing the information.”
I added with a smile, “As far as enchanting the ritual… of course. Otherwise it would take way too long to keep up with things.”
She said, “It will take me a couple of days to understand enough to enchant, I am going to go study.”
I looked up at her thoughtfully as she rose from the chair and said, “You might also consider how you will apply the knowledge”
She asked, “What do you mean?”
I replied, “Well, if you are using this for only personal stuff, or if you want to sell them. I thought you should know I would entertain the idea of taking on a business partner.”
She grinned and quipped, “Afraid of some competition?”
I snorted, “No, not really, but if something happens to me my business is just gone and many people depending on me, such as Helen, would find times much harder again. It would also avoid a price war for both of us and avoid making the businesses more complicated to run. We would have each other to pick up the slack if we ever wanted time off without a daily responsibility to connect enchantments. There would be advantages for you as well, it took me over a year to get established and running smoothly, you wouldn’t have that issue at all, as my contacts would be yours as well. I can also share with you what will and won’t work and show you how to automate charging which is not part of that spell. Not that you wouldn’t figure that out of course, it’s not that difficult but would take you time and experimentation.”
I left off the part that I was also clingy with the important people in my life, and as my partner I would still get to see her often. I would hate to be in competition with Anna and have that between us. I loved her too much for that. Despite that, I wouldn’t try and control her life because I felt that way.
I added softly, “Anna, I would understand if you wanted to make a go of something on your own. I just wanted to make you aware of the option. I’ve had time to think about it, you haven’t. Either way it won’t affect our friendship or the master and apprentice relationship. In short, don’t feel pressured about it, make the best decision for yourself.”
She smiled at me and nodded, then headed for her room…
Chapter 20
Over the next few weeks Anna didn’t mention it, and I didn’t either. I knew she had the ritual enchanted and was experimenting but past that? I assumed she put off the decision to remain focused on achieving master mage status. Or at least, I hoped that was the case.
Rina was doing well for her age, she just didn’t have the focus or clarity to double spells yet, but that was normal. She did have a rather extensive knowledge of basic spells however.
When I walked in the dining room for breakfast Maria waved me over and I grinned. She was getting big. I had been doing weekly checks with her and the baby was fine. Varian seemed to be doing well too, it was obvious he would rather she stay in bed all the time but he wasn’t too overbearing about doting on his wife.
Maria said, “Sit, tell me the wait is almost over. I feel like a balloon.”
I snorted with laughter. “At least a couple of months yet.”
She sighed deeply. Sounding disgusted she muttered, “I probably won’t be able to move by then, much less waddle.”
I tried not to laugh, but it slipped out. Luckily her hormones had her in a decent mood, at least, for this moment in time.
She frowned and in mock severity said, “Bitch, some friend you are, be nice, or else.”
I laughed harder…
A guard walked over to the table looking tentative, “Lady Silvia, could you come with me? There is a… mage. He is inside the city and what he is doing,” the guard shook his head, as if loathe to say what it was.
I stood up and asked urgently, “Where in the city?” It was a big place…
He replied, “In the shop district.”
I opened a portal on the edge of the shop district and dragged the guard through with me. “Which way?” I barked in question.
He started running down the street and I followed. When we finally stopped three blocks in and five blocks over I was completely out of breath. I so needed to start working out.
He whispered, “Around this building.”
When my breathing calmed I started to hear the sound of a fire. I peaked around the corner of the building and there was a man there. He looked to be about forty although with mages aging slower than normal humans it was hard to say. He was not dressed in robes but normal clothes. He was shooting fire into one of the buildings, every once in a while he would shoot a fireball toward where a group of guards were taking cover.
He didn’t feel all that strong so I cast an air elemental supported by water to put out the fires and contain both him and his magic. It didn’t take long and I stepped out and called to the guards.
“Anyone hurt over there?”
He said, “Just a few burns.”
I cast some detect spells but I couldn’t find anything radiating magic on the guy, of course it could be hidden so I said to the guards, “Come and search him, thoroughly please.”
I healed the few minor burns before casting detect life. I didn’t feel anyone in the partially burnt buildings. I hoped that meant no one was there. The spell would not detect a corpse. I left it for the guards to search. When they were done searching the prisoner they handed me a couple of rings and a few coins. I took my prisoner to the dungeon in the palace to the secure room for mages. Once he was safely inside I dismissed my elemental, no magic could be cast from inside there.
I went back up to the dining room and quickly ate a late breakfast before tracking down Rina. It used to be easy, her mage aura had so much potential. But lately she had been emulating me and that meant she took the time to cast hidden magic on herself all the time.
I finally found her in the practice room and said, “Show me what you’re working on.”
She showed me all the new spells she could do this week and asked me if it was good.
I said, “You’re doing great, don’t worry about doubling spells, that, and much more, will come in time.”
I spent the rest of the morning improving her focus through various games we had made up to make it fun too. For our latest favorite I had four plates that would randomly light up in different order. We sat on air cushions that we had to concentrate to control and raced each other to the light to get a point. If we lost concentration the cushion would disappear and we’d lose a point if we had to recast it.
She was wiped when we had to quit, I was needed for the audience…
The morning went fine if a little slowly. After lunch, and making it through the noble issues the guards brought in the mage from this morning. He was suppressed by cuffs I had made but I added a powerful reverse protection on him. It was designed to keep energy in instead of out.
The king asked, “What are the charges?”
I told him what happened this morning as I slipped a truth spell on the guy.
The king asked the prisoner, “Who are you, and why did you attack my city?”
He answered, “I am my master’s servant, and I attacked your city to be arrested.”
I felt goose bumps at his answer, it didn’t make se
nse.
The king looking just as confused said, “Why did you want to be arrested?”
He answered, “My master and his friends, who enchanted a false tooth with multiple fire spells, said it was the best way to get close enough to kill you. Goodbye your majesty.”
Four fire enchantments from powerful mages was bad news. None of our shields would be strong enough. I activated my bracelet at the same time the man disappeared in an explosion of fire. I heard the cuffs snap and despite my reverse protection being two and a half times my full power the fire cut through it like a blade through butter. The last thing I remember is the fire coming at us all. My shields flared blue and I heard a sickening crack…
I woke up slowly, the first thing I saw was Rina’s face with tears running down her cheeks.
I said, “What happened?”
Rina said tremulously, “I don’t know, a guard got me and brought me here. You were all twisted and broken lying against the wall. The king, duke and Anna were burnt bad but alive. I healed all of you, the guards said to stay away but I knew the white things wouldn’t hurt me.”
I glanced and saw my elementals did come, just not in time.
I said softly, “Thank you Rina, I’m okay, thanks to you.”
I looked around and the blast pattern was small. I guessed to concentrate the power to one small area to kill the royal family. As a result, the nobles that had no protection at all were fine. Maybe a flash burn or two, but they sat far enough back to be out of the kill zone.
I realized then, what almost killed me. When my enchantment was failing it went into run mode which is supposed to take me from danger very quickly then stop. The shields must have failed before the stop part, which explains how I hit the wall and broke bones. I almost got killed by my own enchantment.
But how the hell did Emory, Tristan and Anna survive? Thank god Maria wasn’t here, she had been skipping a lot of the audiences as the pregnancy developed. I looked down and noticed the front of my robes were, well, completely gone. I opened a small portal to my room and just reached in to grab a spare robe.
Anna walked over and said sorrowfully and tinged with guilt, “I’m sorry, when he said fire I panicked and cast a water spell enhanced by air. A water curtain to block the fire. I knew the fire wouldn’t have been as effective in power against its opposite. Problem is I went to fast and didn’t… I didn’t make it big enough to cover you. I thought… thought you were closer to the dais.”
I snorted. “You did better than me, my cover spell was worthless. Important thing is no one died, except that asshole of course.”
She shook her head in denial, “Not true, without your spells mine wouldn’t have had a chance to stop it at all.”
I felt it and couldn’t believe it, then realized the truth, “Your majesty, this was just a distraction. Although I am sure they meant it to be more successful.”
Tristan said, “Why do you say that.”
I sighed. “Because your majesty, they are attacking right now, through both passes.”
As soon as I stopped talking the commander of the knights ran in to report.
I asked Anna to take care of Rina as we walked to a side room. She was still really upset. In the room it was the king, Emory, the commander and myself. I pulled out a small box and put it on the table and activated the enchantment. A scale size replica of the passes appeared with groups of colored dots and labels.
The king asked, “How are you doing that?”
I said turning a bit red, “Remember when I said I was going to set up some stuff in the passes? Well one of those things is a series of plates attached to this device. They have detect spells on them for magic, life, undead, and demonic energy. Red is demon, black is dark mage, dark blue are knights, light blue are our soldiers, gray for undead.”
The king’s face fell as he saw hundreds of black dots in groupings of ten to fifteen.
I continued, “I was planning to go join and leaving this with you when I went, but since they are attacking both passes at once, maybe I should stay until I am needed at one?”
The red and gray dots are charging through seemingly unopposed, the black dots were moving slowly forward, stopping every once in a while.
The king asked, “Why are they doing that?”
I asked, “Shall we see?” I opened a portal against the wall about four feet by eight feet. Through the portal we could see the pass down at an angle. Every once in a while a single glowing white energy dragon would appear and fly down the pass. The dark mages would stop and a group would attack in concert, destroying it. But a few seconds later another would appear.
The king said, “That doesn’t look very effective.”
I started to feel guilty, I should have been more specific as to what I was doing. I still had secretive issues.
I said, “That’s just the bait your majesty. I want them secure enough to move all those mages forward. I set some traps reminiscent of this morning’s attack on us.”
I smiled when I saw how fast the demons were falling, my added enchantment made a huge difference there. Things were proceeding about the same in both passes, but the dark mages were farther into the trap on the ocean pass than the other. I’d hoped to set off both traps at once but two groups in the first pass were about to go past the area I needed them in, yet half the groups at the other pass weren’t in far enough.
I would set off one and just hope the groups weren’t in communication and that the second group wouldn’t retreat. I said, “Turn your head and close your eyes.”
I took out another plate and activated it. This connected to thirty plates buried underground in intervals across the width of the pass and six rows that covered a hundred yards length. On each plate there were six glyphs to cause an explosion of elemental energy.
I may have over prepared…
I saw a bright light behind my eyelids, I supposed I could have closed the portal instead, but thought to look when it was done. Also on each plate there was one more enchantment for an energy elemental. An overkill cleanup crew so to speak, if anyone escapes the explosion. So when we opened our eyes and looked through the portal, there was nothing in sight but elementals. The pass itself in that location was a series of smoking craters.
The king gasped and looked at me, then said, “I had no idea…”
I cringed at the look of fear on his face. I said softly, “I think I over planned. I kind of panicked a bit when that master escaped in the last serious attack months ago. I was afraid it would lead to an invasion like this. I’m just sorry I didn’t anticipate an assassination attempt. But yes, this is why I do not share my enchanting secret around.”
When they kept moving forward in the second pass for the next minute, I thought the plan would work. But then suddenly they were moving quickly in the other direction. Without thinking about it, I pulled out the plate for the mountain pass trap and set it off. I moved the portal to the mountain pass at altitude for the window effect. There were still about a third of them in the zone when it went off, but there were still thirty elemental energy dragons, and they started to chase.
The seven groups of dark mages left, knowing they could not outrun the elementals turned and fought. But at that math, there were four elementals for each group and two to spare. The power of their attack meant only one elemental would need to get through per group. The dark mages didn’t have a chance…
Chapter 21
The king shook his head and said, “How is it they have so many damn mages. There were two hundred in this attack, I don’t think we have more than half that in Lethia.”
I replied, “Well, let’s just say they have an involuntary breeding program. That said it was probably close to all the mages they had. I imagine they won’t be much of a threat for at least a generation.”
Tristan said, “Oh, good job, but don’t keep stuff like that from me anymore. I need to know what you’re doing in our defense. When I first saw the numbers on that map I almost had a heart attack.
”
We broke off after that and I headed to my room first. I had a robe haphazardly thrown over a burnt one with no front and I needed a minute of alone time. I took care of my clothes and cast my spells to get clean and presentable, then chased down my apprentices, or tried to.
I couldn’t find them anywhere, so I contacted Anna through a spell. She had taken Rina to the orphanage. I opened a portal to join them. I was trying not to think to hard about the battle. I had killed before and would again in defense of my life and others. I knew I was justified, they wanted to enslave, rape, torture and kill us. They were the ones invading.
But I had never seen such slaughter before never mind been the cause of it. I had killed over two hundred mages effortlessly from the safety of the palace miles away from the actual battle. I felt justified, but not just a little freaked out about it.
When I stepped through I found myself being hugged by Anna. After a moment I hugged her back and whispered, “You okay? I’m sorry I had to run out like that after the explosion. It was a major invasion.”
She nodded against my shoulder and then stepped back, face reddening. “Sorry, I was just worried about you. I’m glad you’re okay.”
I thought she was probably embarrassed by the hug, although it’s within the bounds of our friendship, our master and apprentice relationship complicates those lines. Plus, being honest with myself, I probably enjoyed it more than I should. She was a beautiful young lady that I cared for, but those kind of thoughts were way out of bounds.
I shoved those thoughts down and bottled them up. Perhaps when she was older, and a master mage in her own right, I could examine them more closely.
I said gently, “Oh Anna, never be sorry for showing concern about me. How could I take exception to that?”
Looking around I found Rina playing with the other kids, she smiled and waved so I waved back.
I changed the subject, “Thanks for taking care of Rina, she seems better now?”
Anna replied, “Yeah, I think so. She was just really freaked out. Finding out the person you idolize isn’t quite invincible can be a shock.”
The Formerly Dark Mage Page 18