by Curtis, Greg
Yet that was a problem for another day, and as he knelt there all but exhausted and stared at the remains of the castle he’d destroyed, he couldn’t help but know the sense of victory, and let it wash through him again and again. For the moment the Guild was a million leagues away as was the shame of his bitter past and all that mattered to him was residue of the unbelievable magic still coursing through him, and the knowledge of what he’d achieved. That and the relief as he knew the battle was won and he would live, they all would. For some reason he couldn’t help but let a small laugh escape his lips, and he could feel many more surging up from the centre of his soul just behind it.
“Are you alright?” Essaline was suddenly behind him, concern in her voice and when he didn’t answer her immediately, her hands were under his armpits as she somehow started hoisting him back up to his feet. Despite her elven thinness and injured arm she was surprisingly strong.
“I’m fine my lady. In fact I feel wonderful.” Which was only the truth, and as he turned in her supportive embrace to face her, he felt almost as though he was flying, soaring with the eagles. He wanted to laugh for joy and sing with delirium, and yet he could feel tears wetting his cheeks. His face ached from how hard the muscles were working just to fix a wide enough smile on it, and deep down inside there was hysterical laughter bubbling up, raw and un-containable. Then without warning she was there immediately in front of him, beautiful beyond his ability to describe, warm and most important of all, within arms reach, and he forgot everything else.
He grabbed her around the waist, marvelling at how warm her skin was, and how soft under his calloused hands, as he pulled her tight to him and she somehow seemed to melt into him, enveloping him in pure luxury. Unable to neither help himself nor able to even want to, he kissed her full on the lips, enjoying the sensation as nothing he had ever known. Then, giddy with glee he lifted her up high in his arms and started spinning around as though he was a dancer instead of a woodsman, kissing her again and again, while all around him he could hear people cheering. He could hear children applauding wildly and laughing. He could hear that same laughter billowing out of his own throat as well.
For some reason he was so full of excitement and joy that he simply couldn’t stop and no more did Essaline try to hold him off or get away. Instead she just kissed him back, hard, her lips soft against his, yielding and yet so hungry, her breath sweet in his own, her hair a golden waterfall that fell all around him, bathing him in the sweet scent of flowers and the touch of silk. She opened his mouth with hers and he felt her tongue, warm and sensuous, exploring his, playing with him, tasting him and he had to respond. He wanted to respond. And yet he somehow couldn’t.
Even as he was trying to answer her passion as a man should, his newly returned sight was starting to disappear again, and things were going dark all around him. He had time enough to wonder about it, briefly, though it didn’t seem particularly important in Essaline’s arms, and then without warning he started falling into the darkness.
He never felt the ground as it came up and hit him. But he wouldn’t have cared if he had.
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The morning dawned bright and cheery, and for the first time in many years Marjan did not rise with it. He felt it, knew the joy of the morning sun even in his sleep, let it embrace him, comfort him like a lover, but he slept on regardless. He was tired, exhausted all the way through, even his bones were tired, and for some reason he knew he would be safe as he slept.
He let the world drift away from him again, and it wasn’t until something loud and painful smacked his cheek that he returned to it.
“Ow!” Someone had slapped him, he knew that much, but he didn’t know who or why they’d had to do it so hard, though it did get his attention and made him open his eyes.
He discovered that he was surrounded by people, most of them soldiers, but also the two other mages and Essaline, all of them staring down at him as if he was some sort of sick child while he was apparently lying on the grass, and he didn’t like that. As quickly as he could he got to his feet, though he was surprisingly giddy at first and weak as a newborn kitten.
“Are you alright wizard? Can you walk?” It was the captain who asked him the questions though he was speaking for all of them, and behind him he could see a couple of soldiers holding a stretcher between them. Apparently they thought he was sicker than he was. Yet he wasn’t sick at all. If anything he felt better than he had in years, just a little tired, and maybe still a little drunk.
“I’m fine captain, just a little tired.” It was about then that he remembered why he was so drained, and he let his eyes wander over to the bridge and the scene of the battle.
“Ephesus be praised!” By the light of the day it looked even more impressive than it had before. The castle was gone, vanished without a trace, and the land under where it had been was mirror of polished, blackened glass extending almost the whole way across. More of the glass extended down the sides, or at least the one he could see, and he knew or guessed that for a good hundred paces down, the entire land bridge had melted into a single solid piece of glass. It was an impressive transformation, and best of all he knew the queen was locked up somewhere inside it, imprisoned in a way she had never known. Of course that didn’t mean it was safe, especially when she finally freed herself.
“Has anyone checked out the bridge? Made sure there’s no more spiders.”
“Scouts crossed it first thing this morning when there was enough light. They found nothing dangerous. It seems you killed all the spiders and the main danger is its slipperiness. It’s very easy to lose your footing with the morning dew on it, but a small price to pay for such a great deed. I thought nothing could kill that evil monster.” The captain was almost smiling as he said it, his rough face almost in pain from the unusual contortions he was trying to make it perform, and Will didn’t want to destroy his happiness, but he had to know the truth.
“I didn’t kill her. The queen’s not dead captain, just her army. It would take a lot more than that to kill her, a lot more magic than a mere maverick wizard like me could find. But she’s entombed for the moment, trapped like a bug in amber, unable to move or wriggle or even to breathe, her servants are gone, the eggs too, and it will be a while before she digs her way clear and starts rebuilding her nest, hopefully many tendays or months, or maybe even many years or centuries. Besides, as long as her army’s gone we should be safe.” The others stared at him, clearly wondering if he was fooling them, even Dimeter.
“But -.”
“She’s an ancient evil, surely as old as the dragon’s themselves, and probably just as tough. No minor wizard is going to kill her. I knew that before I even began the battle, long before. Trapping her was always the plan. I just hoped to have a master here before then to do the job. That’s why I melted so much of the rock around her, hoping not to kill her, just to entomb her properly. We will have the time we need to cross the bridge if we’re quick and quiet and leave before she frees herself, and she will not chase us. That is not her way.” But neither was her way being trapped, and he couldn’t truly be sure of her intentions once she escaped. Even as he thought of her, as he let his thoughts stray a little, he could feel her somewhere down beneath that massive lake of fused rock, trapped and desperate, nearly unconscious from lack of air, but still trying to get free, pushing one leg backwards and forwards impossibly slowly, maybe moving it a few scant hair widths and slowly wearing away at the rock, and hating him with every beat of her dozen evil hearts.
The sheer anger she knew for him was overpowering, terrifying, and he knew she would destroy him if she could. Not for destroying her deadly offspring, she cared no more for them than she did for her food, nor for even destroying her home, but only for trapping her. She hated that and above all else she wanted her vengeance on the one who had done this to her. In thousands of years he doubted that anyone had ever attacked her as he had, and she would have her vengeance if she possibly could. But if and
when she was able to strike back, that was another matter. She didn’t know who he was, her armies had not survived the battle to return to her with his scent, and so all she had to go on was his magic, and that would pass as he put distance between them, and time.
It would be wise he knew, to never go near her again, never to let her feel his presence again. It might be a day, a tenday or millennia before she escaped her prison, and he had no idea whether she could or would hunt once she was free, it wasn’t her nature, but there was no point in taking chances. First though, when she escaped, she would want a new home, a lair to hide in, lay her eggs and raise her armies, and send them forth to feed, and there weren’t a lot of ancient black castles available nearby. He had time. He hoped.
Silence greeted him as the others continued staring at him, still not sure they believed him, but he couldn’t let that hold him back. They had their chance to cross over the chasm, out of the Allyssian forest and into the extensive grasslands on the other side.
“Captain, I am still tired and I will need some food and drink before I can travel, but leave we must. If you can organise the people here into a proper march, soldiers to guard them and keep lookout, the slowest riding the strongest walking, we should cross the bridge within the hour. Ferris with your ability in the magics of nature you will stay with the forward scouts, looking for anything unusual, Dimeter you will stand beside him to grant them all your protection of ice and light, and give me warning. I will take the rear, leaving a trail for other refugees to find us by, and giving anyone or anything else following us good reason not to.”
It was strange giving them orders, but he had to and surprisingly it was his place as of the previous night. Though he was a maverick, in this company he was the strongest wizard, that much at least had been established to everyone’s satisfaction, and as such much of the responsibility for their safety automatically fell to him because of it. It wasn’t a fair system nor always a wise one, but wizards were always held in high regard, their opinions listened to whether there was wisdom behind them or not.
He watched unsurprised, as the captain and his soldiers hurried off to do as he asked, and slightly more slowly Ferris and Dimeter did the same. Dimeter he noticed, seemed less than enthusiastic about his task, or more likely, about who had given it to him, and the anger and hatred he felt towards him was almost a palpable force, but he knew better than to say anything.
“From a maverick wizard, to a warrior and a leader in just a tenday. You have talents you had not mentioned.” Suddenly Essaline was there, smiling gaily as she accused him of something, though he didn’t quite know what. But he didn’t really care as he let her smile warm him through. She was even more comforting than the sun.
“But then you showed me that last night. You showed us all.”
“Oh that? No that was just a minor battle good maiden. Any of the masters could have done much better and far more easily. Some could have taken on the queen directly.” And yet even as he said it and knew it for the truth, he looked anew at the land bridge and still knew a feeling of pride. It had been a good battle and he had done well as he’d wrested the earth’s fire and made it his own as never before. Best of all no one had been hurt though some he guessed would be complaining that their ears were still ringing, their vision still a little odd. On the other hand maybe he was starting to appreciate just what it was that the elves disliked about human wizards. There were less of them, few had the gift, but those that did were powerful, and unlike the other races their magic was free for them to use however they chose. Elf wizards, druids and mages as they were called, were mostly only capable in the natural magics of the land, and bound by strict oaths to their Goddess as well, at least so he had been taught. That did not make them harmless, but it did make them a much more trustworthy spellcaster than a wizard, let alone a maverick wizard.
“Actually I was referring to your dancing, that was some waltz you managed last night, lacking in technique perhaps but making up for it with sheer abandon.”
“Dancing? Waltz?” If he looked confused it was only because he was, for a moment. Then as she stared at him strangely, the rest of the memories from the night just gone came flooding back as did the colour to his cheeks.
“Oh praise the gods! I’m sorry Essaline, so very sorry. I truly am. I had forgotten. But I remember now, I embarrassed you, took advantage when I should not have, and in front of others too. I was raging drunk on the magic still coursing through my veins, far more than I had ever known before, though that is no excuse, and I lost all control. I apologise completely and without reservation.” He meant it too, stunned that he could have done something so shameful, so disrespectful, and of all things to a woman of station and great propriety, shamed that he had said what he had said as well.
“As well you should be. It was shameful, delinquent, and completely irresponsible, wooing me like that in public when you have not even spoken of your feelings to me in private. Neither have you spoken to my parents, and they will be shocked to hear of your cavalier treatment of me. You may rest assured that before you may try anything like that again, you will have asked for their permission and mine as well as our forgiveness.” She stood there in front of him, hands on her hips, pouting as she spoke, and suddenly looking like the most beautiful woman he had ever set eyes upon and a stern school teacher all in one delightful package, while stared at her, speechless.
“Oh, and my forgiveness will not be bought cheaply. There will be flowers, there will be sweets, and there will most definitely be contrition.” And yet even as she said it he noticed a tiny smile creeping up around the edges of her mouth, just as she turned away from him and started walking towards the rest of the camp and the children. Was she really angry, or just pretending it? And why he wondered as she walked away, were her hips swaying so enticingly, stretching the cotton of her dress in such pleasing ways? Did they always move like that? He didn’t know, but he did know he couldn’t look away.
Besides he suddenly realised, she had said he wouldn’t be allowed to do anything as crass and inappropriate as he had last night until he had apologised and sought permission, but that in itself implied there was a possibility he might be allowed to if he did. That she might welcome his advances, under the right circumstances. To a lonely wizard with next to no understanding of women or how to woo them, that was like food to a hungry shark. Yet for some reason he doubted he was the shark.
It was with such foolish thoughts circling through his tired brain, that he set about finding himself some breakfast and a hot drink, and when that was done and the group finally made their way across the bridge, a perilous journey if you didn’t watch your every step, he actually started looking for flowers.
It couldn’t hurt to apologise as she wanted, hourly.
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Chapter Four.
“What’s that?” The scout sounded somewhat alarmed but a lot more confused as he pointed to the sky behind them and Marjan twisted around in his saddle to look. It was nice to be able to ride Willow again, even if he had a milking goat for a constant companion. A goat that insisted on chewing the back of his leather jerkin as they rode, and Holly wasn’t good at understanding the word ‘no’. Not for more than a few seconds anyway. But he forgot all about such minor irritations as he laid eyes upon a sight he had never expected to see.
As gently as a leaf being carried on a restful summer’s breeze, a building was slowly wending its way across the heavens, supported by a slice of land that looked like it had simply been torn free of the earth, an impossibility in its own right. Yet it wasn’t really one building, more a series of buildings that interlinked inside a vast walled compound and together formed a castle of sorts. But more bizarre still was the fact that he knew that castle. It was the Wizard Guild from Gunder.
He recognised all of its impossibly tall towers, the main structure and adjoining accommodation blocks built of polished obsidian blocks with marble capping stones and of course the massive stone
walls complete with their ornate crenulations that enclosed them all as clearly as if he had only seen them the day before. He knew its strange and intricate castle like outline intimately. He even knew the vast redwood trees that stood proudly in its courtyard, breaking up its somewhat stern geometric lines with their own glorious arches of green and brown that towered over the walls. But then he had lived there for eight long years, and even before that he had known it as one of the most important buildings in the city, one of the landmarks that let strangers know they were in Gunder.