The Dotard

by Greg Curtis

  “Still, it could be worth exploring. We should speak later. And about your manner of dress too. You are noble born. A lord of the realm. You're holding a meeting with another noble and officials present. Yet you're dressed like a commoner! Your father will not be pleased!” And with that Lord Ironbelly kneed his horse and headed off to the paddock where the other horses were already grazing, while the rest of his party followed. The Lord didn't need to be given directions! Not from him!

  That left Edrick standing there for some minutes after the lord had left, wondering how his life had come to this? He should have said something. Stood up for himself. And yet at that moment he couldn't. Not just because the Lord was the King's Right Hand. But because in a heartbeat he had become once again the eighteen-year-old boy who had never refused an order his father gave – until he'd run away. He had been such a spineless child – and somewhere deep down he feared he still was.

  Would his life change now that he had been found? Edrick suspected it would though he didn’t want it to. These last ten years had been peaceful. Free and easy. He could wear clothes that were comfortable and serviceable. He didn't need to wear that damned collar and starched shirts his parents had always insisted on. He could build things and get his hands dirty. Speak with the people in the street about anything and nothing.

  But now everyone knew his name and where he could be found. They knew he was noble born. And his life would never be the same again, all thanks to that accursed wizard! By the gods he hated the senile old man. And just at that moment he wasn't happy with the Guild either. Clearly they'd told Wilberton his name. The Guild had no secrets from their members after all. So, they'd told the miserable old goat and he had then proceeded to tell everyone.

  Now he had to wonder; was it time to leave? To pack up his bags and go? That just wasn't fair. After ten long years, when he'd built his home and got everything just how he liked it. Made a life for himself. Become comfortable.

  He was still thinking on that when the Mayor arrived along with his Council, and he directed them to the paddock and the refreshments. All of them seemed happy to call him Edrick, but even if they didn't yet know his full name, they now knew he was a wizard. The rest would surely follow. Suddenly he could feel the shackles of his former life descending on him. And not just the starched shirts and high collars. The entire life of a noble born brat. The way that people could never look him in the eye. Never speak freely with him. The fact that he would always address him as “Sir”. He hated that. Maybe he hadn't hated it that much when he'd been a lord. But in the years since then, he'd discovered a new life for himself. A better life. Most of all a freer life. One without all the expected strictures placed on him. Suddenly he could feel that life disappearing before his eyes.

  Mayor Flint gave him a look that spoke of annoyance, but at least said nothing. Helmond wasn't so restrained.

  “I liked you better when you were just a miner!” The blacksmith shook his head. “Now we have another damned wizard to deal with!” Obviously he hadn't yet heard about Edrick's background – or he would have been more circumspect.

  “And I liked you better when you just ran a smithy!” he retorted without thinking. It was rude to say it to the Mayor's aide perhaps, but Edrick wasn't quite sure how to respond to the comment. They'd never had to “deal with him” before. He was a good citizen. Law abiding and quiet. He wasn’t known to be a trouble maker. Moreover, his silver was welcome in the town too.

  Fortunately, he didn't have to say anything else just then as the blacksmith followed the Mayor and the rest of the town Council to the paddock.

  “Knave!”

  Edrick heard the insult long before he saw the man and sighed. Wilberton, it seemed, had arrived with the last of the guests. And then he asked for a little help with his temper from the Goddess of Light. A bad day had just become a worse one.

  With an effort Edrick held his tongue. He wanted to respond in kind but really, what was the point? The man was mad and all he would do was make him angrier and that would upset Carrie. So, he ignored the senile old wizard sitting in his buggy as best he could, and spoke to the two wizards on the horses beside him. He guessed that they were a couple of senior wizards from the Guild, who were there solely to keep an eye on Wilberton.

  But even as he was telling them about the paddock and the refreshments, Wilberton was already working himself up into another tirade.

  “You horrid little guttersnipe! You thought you could hide from me? Never! I found you! And I know who you are now!” Then the wizard suddenly stood up in his buggy and really started screaming. And while his mind might be all but gone, his lungs clearly weren't. Soon he had launched into an all-out tantrum.

  Edrick stared at him in disbelief while the other wizards tried to calm Wilberton down. He'd never seen the wizard this bad before. Neither so furious nor so lost in his madness. He'd found him? Wilberton had always known where to find him. But now apparently, in the wizard's mind he had been hiding from him. Carrie, who was riding just behind the buggy, tried to calm him too, and then quickly dismounted to rush to her grandfather's side. But he wasn't listening to her or to the others. And when Carrie tried to stop him he pushed her away, his voice growing even louder.

  It was then that Edrick realised that Wilberton’s voice wasn't just growing louder because he was shouting. It was getting louder because he was using magic to project his voice – and he was doing it right next to the gate! That was crazy! It was insane to cast spells so near a gate. It could destabilise the ancient gate spell.

  “Crap!” Edrick's blood ran cold as he realised the madness of what the wizard was doing. And then he realised what he had to do.

  “Run!” Edrick screamed with all the strength he had at the others. “He's casting! The fool's going to collapse the gate!”

  That was as far as he got before the wizard's voice suddenly boomed out like thunder.

  “Thief!”

  Edrick turned back to Wilberton, wondering what the wizard was accusing him of this time. But it didn't matter. What mattered was what the old fool was doing. And then he forgot his resolution not to engage with the man and he yelled at him, trying to get him to see the danger of his actions. Unfortunately, he discovered that Wilberton wasn't going to listen to him at exactly the same moment that the ground under his feet suddenly lifted up and punched him, hard. After that Edrick found himself flying.

  He hit the ground at least a dozen yards away and then continued tumbling along the grass, bumping and bruising himself as he went. But even though he was hurting, Edrick knew as soon as he stopped tumbling that he had to get up. He had to warn the others and get them out of here. So he started yelling at them again, trying to make them understand what the old fool was doing the instant he came to a halt. And he kept yelling even as he struggled to find his feet. Eventually a few of them seemed to realise that when the gate collapsed they would be trapped here if they weren't through to the other side. He saw a few of them take to their heels. But it wasn't enough and he kept trying to get the others to understand the danger.

  Suddenly some sort of lightning blast caught him in the side, and he cried out in pain even as he was hurled once again through the air.

  This time when he hit the ground, Edrick didn't get up. He couldn't. He didn't yell either. Things had stopped making a lot of sense. Instead he just lay there, smelling burning flesh that he suspected was his own, and tried to work out what was happening.

  It wasn't easy. From what he could see, chaos had descended on his once peaceful home. People were running and screaming, and the sky was filling with thunder. The griffins were roaring too, confused by what was happening, and he could hear horses snorting and whinnying in terror. Then the ground picked him up and hurled him around once more. Why couldn't it just stay still?!

  The long green grass was anything but soft when he hit it for the third time. In fact, it felt like rock. And this time he fell so hard that he was sure something inside him broke. Somethi
ng in his back he thought. But at least rain had started falling. Cold rain that stopped the burning in his side. Where had the rain come from he wondered? It had been a sunny day.

  The cold also brought a little order to his thoughts. Enough to see the old wizard still standing atop his carriage, struggling against his granddaughter and the two other wizards, while the world turned into a disaster all around them. Amidst the lightning and thunder Edrick thought he could see fish with mouths full of needles swimming through the air, while the sky itself had started flashing orange. He was sure it wasn't supposed to do that.

  Strangest of all though, when he looked at the ancient wizard through pain racked eyes, he thought he saw something else there. Something he didn't understand. In the eerie light Wilberton suddenly looked more like a creature than a man. And he realised he'd seen that before. Or at least he’d seen glimpses of it. Never before had he seen it so clearly though.

  Meanwhile people were running for the gate, screaming as they did so. Humans and Argani men, women and children. Some were running, some were riding, some were flying; all though were racing. As for the gate, he could actually see it, which was strange as normally it was invisible save for the two stones on either side. Now though the gate between the standing stones was clearly visible as it flashed in and out of existence. Blasts of red lightning were dancing off the stones.

  At least the gate was still working. For the moment. Edrick continued to watch as people ran through it and vanished. At least they wouldn’t be trapped on this side. But he doubted they had long to escape. Not when the red lightning on the rocks suddenly blasted up into the orange sky. Magical discharges of that size tore things apart. Even the Standing Stones.

  And through all of it he was left lying there. Forgotten.

  He needed to run for the gate too. The trouble was, he couldn't move. There was something heavy on top of him. Part of his shed he thought when he tried to look around. When had that happened he wondered? But it wasn't important. Even the pain that lanced through him when he tried to look around wasn't important. The only thing that mattered was that it was peaceful, lying there. It didn't hurt. Moving hurt. Staying still didn't.

  The end came sooner than he had imagined. The last of the people were disappearing through the flashing gate, the standing stones were blackening, and the ageing wizard was still struggling with the others, when someone reached out with a huge hand of force. It came through the gate and grabbed everyone within fifty yards of the gate, along with some of the horses, the grass and several trees, and simply pulled them all back through the gate. It didn't quite reach him though, He was simply too far away.

  Barely a heartbeat after they'd vanished, the gate exploded, and a huge ball of fire lifted to the heavens, spraying dirt and stone in all directions. Some of it landed on him, even as far away as he was. But whatever was on top of him, took the worst of the impact. He mostly just got a face full of dirt.

  After that things quietened down and peace returned. The sky slowly turned blue again. The thunder stopped and the lightning fizzled away. The air, which had been full of dust, began to clear. Even the flying fish with mouths full of needles fell to the ground. Best of all, silence returned to the world. Edrick liked that. He was tired of the yelling and screaming. Tired of the anger. All he wanted to do was sleep.

  But he knew even as he closed his eyes, that there was no going back to Riverlandia. There was no gate left. Only a crater where it had once been. And until he could find another gate, he was trapped here.

  Still, it was peaceful.

  Chapter Seven

  It was chaos on the Riverlandia side of the gate. Chaos, confusion and pain. People were screaming at one another, trying desperately to work out what had happened. Some were yelling for their loved ones, desperate to know that they had all got back unharmed. Some were crying out in pain. Parents were calling for their children. Friends for other friends. Soldiers for those they had been charged to protect. And those horses that had made it through with them, were simply panicking. They looked like they’d stampede at any moment. Worst of all, some of the people Carrie could see from where she lay, weren't moving. And there was blood. A lot of blood.

  Meanwhile Carrie was in pain. Something heavy had fallen on her as they had come through, and was now pinning her to the ground. The back of her legs had also been burnt as she'd been too close to the gate when it had exploded. So close that she was worried the burns would be serious. Her vision was blurry, partly because the air was filled with dirt but mostly because it was in her eyes and no matter how many tears flowed out of them or how many times she blinked, she couldn't seem to wash them clear.

  But at least she had survived, Carrie thought. She feared not everyone had. Not after this disaster. She wasn't even sure that everyone had made it through the gate. And now there was no gate left. She was sure that there would be people trapped on the other side. She knew for certain that Edrick hadn't made it through. but she feared it was worse than that. She wasn't sure if he had survived. Not after the lightning strike she'd seen him take. It had thrown him through the air trailing fire and smoke.

  That frightened her. It hurt. He was a good man. He had helped her. More than that she liked him. She wasn't blind to his failings, but she knew his virtues more than made up for them. Maybe one day she'd thought, there could have been more between them than just friendship. After all they were the only eligible wizards in the town. And her grandfather would surely have learned to stop hating him in time. But that dream was gone. As was Edrick. Whether he survived or not, he was never coming back.

  How could her grandfather have done that? To strike someone down for no reason? Edrick hadn’t attacked him. He hadn't hurt him in any way. It was wrong. In fact, her Grandfather actually owed Edrick for his help with the Argani. She had told her grandfather what Edrick had done for them, trying to make him see the wizard as a good man. She had hoped that it would make him realise that his anger was misplaced. Instead her grandfather had struck him down without warning or cause. He had tried to kill him. Quite probably he had succeeded.

  Wilberforce was a good man. Or at least, he had been. But murder was not the act of a decent human being. Could the madness that had beset her grandfather have changed him so much? She could understand it having robbed him of his wits. Making him do stupid things like cast a spell beside a gate. But could it have led him to become evil? Because what he had just done was something other than just mad.

  “Balls!” A man cried out from just behind her head moaning.

  Then he moved and Carrie discovered with surprise that he was the weight that was pinning her down.

  “Easy!” She called out discovering that he was wearing something hard with edges on it that pressed into her when he moved. Armour maybe? Could he be one of the soldiers? She couldn't turn her head far enough to see.

  He groaned again, but stopped moving for a few moments. Long enough for him to gather his strength. And for the edges of whatever he was wearing to stop digging into her flesh and grant her a moment’s respite. Then he lifted himself cleanly off her, giving her a reprieve from at least some of the pain. It was all the man could do however, because as soon as he pulled himself off her, she saw him tumble off to the side. Clearly he wasn't as steady on his feet as he'd thought.

  It came to her then that she couldn't hear her grandfather’s voice. He'd been yelling like a hysterical child having a tantrum just before they went back through the gate. Now he was silent. Did that mean he'd been badly hurt? Too badly to yell and scream? Or was he still on the other side? Worse, could he be dead?

  “Grandfather?” She called for him, starting to panic. Because he couldn't be dead! He was all the family she had left. Her parents had died when she was a child. Her older sister had left years ago. And it didn't matter how many stupid things he'd done, or how many mistakes he'd made, he had to be alive.

  Carrie called for him again, louder than before, the fear starting to grow. That had bee
n a terrible explosion. He had been right at the heart of it and he wasn't a young man anymore.

  “Grandfather!” She tried again, this time yelling with all the strength she had.

  “He's alive girl!” A gruff voice called out. “But he's not looking like he’ll be waking up any time soon.”

  “Praise the gods!” The relief flowed through her like a waterfall. “Praise Sirtis!”

  “Praise my over large belly Girl! It’s what he landed on!”

  A pair of feet appeared just in front of her. Feet wearing expensive, brightly polished, calf skin boots. It was enough to tell her who owned those feet.

  “Lord Ironbelly?”

  “In the flesh, but only just.” He all but growled at her. “Now, if you don’t mind, please tell me what's wrong with your grandfather? I was told he was losing his wits – not that he'd turned murderous!”

  “I don't know Lord Ironbelly. He's made mistakes, but he's never done anything like this before.” But even as she said it, she knew it wasn't completely true. His tirades against Edrick had been growing worse and worse of late, and though he hadn’t done anything until now, she'd feared that he might do so in time.