Kingdom of Magicians

by Timothy L. Cerepaka

  Chapter Seventeen

  The woman—who said that her name was Takan of the Snow—led Keo, Dlaine, and Jola through the ruins of Castarious without looking back to make sure they were following. That was probably because the four Warriors surrounded Keo, Dlaine, and Jola on all sides, so if those three tried anything, then they would be swiftly put to death by the Warriors. Or so Keo believed, because all of the Warriors looked rather annoyed at being denied their chance to kill Keo and Dlaine.

  The path they took through the ruins of Castarious was winding and confusing, taking them through several backstreets and even a few empty houses and buildings. Keo was pretty sure that he would never have been able to find the Fallsman on his own if he had tried and likely would have spent weeks or even months searching the city's ruins for him. Thus, he was glad that they had found Takan and the Warriors, even though he still didn't trust any of them one bit.

  It was about half an hour later that they emerged onto a street somewhere deep in the ruins and stood in front of the most magnificent house that Keo had ever seen in his life. It was tall and wide, its front made of white brick that looked good even despite its age. It had a couple of stories, making it one of the smaller buildings in Castarious, but it made up for size in appearance, with four windows on each floor shaped like crystals. A tall iron fence surrounded it on all sides and the large front steps ended at a tall door that appeared to be made of oak. Two large dragon statues stood on either side of the door. This house had clearly belonged to someone important back in Castarious's heyday, but who, Keo did not know. All he knew was that it must have looked even better in the old days, prior to the fall of the Kingdom.

  Takan led them through the gate, which creaked open rather loudly, and across the path with overgrown grass on either side. They walked up the steps to the front door, which Takan pushed open with little trouble, and then they entered the house itself.

  The house's lobby was fairly wide open and even well-lit due to the sun roof, which allowed light from outside to stream in. Two sets of stairs with elaborate gold railings went up to the second floors, while an entryway in between them seemed to lead to another room, but Keo could not tell what that room was (although he saw a sofa and several chairs in it). The collective footsteps of Keo, Dlaine, Jola, Takan, and the Warriors clicked loudly off the marble flooring, which was a lot cleaner than it should have been, which made Keo realize that the Fallsman must care a great deal about his house if he apparently had someone to scrub the floor for him.

  Then Takan stopped and gestured for the others to do the same. She turned around and said, “I am going to get the Fallsman and inform him of your arrival and your purpose for being here. Please be patient.”

  With that, Takan turned around again and walked up the left flight of stairs to the second floor. Soon she was out of sight, leaving Keo, Dlaine, and Jola surrounded by the four Warriors. Keo rested a hand on the hilt of Gildshine, although he was uncertain if he would be able to draw it quickly enough to defend them in the event that this turned out to be a trap and the Warriors attacked.

  A couple of minutes later, Takan appeared at the top of the stairs again and said, “The Fallsman is coming.”

  Before Keo or Dlaine could say anything in response to that, a man stepped into view at the top of the stairs. He was a tall man, much taller than Keo or Dlaine or anyone else in the room. He wore a practical gray jacket and a white tunic underneath, which made him look somewhat ghostly in appearance. He had a harpoon, of all things, slung over his right shoulder and his face was long and pointed, his black eyes glaring down at them. The man's age was difficult to tell, although if Keo had to guess, he would have placed the man's age somewhere just below Dlaine, but he would not have bet money on that.

  “The Fallsman,” said Takan, gesturing at the man. She pointed at Keo and Dlaine. “Fallsman, those are the two men I told you of, who have the letter from Sadia.”

  The Fallsman's eyes focused on the letter in Keo's hand. “Then get the letter and deliver it to me.”

  Takan moved to do so, but then Keo said, “No. You come down here and get it yourself.”

  The Fallsman looked surprised at Keo's words, as did Takan and the Warriors. While Keo did not want to offend the Fallsman, he still didn't trust that the Warriors were not going to slaughter Dlaine and him as soon as they got a chance. He believed that the Warriors would be far less likely to attack them if the Fallsman was right in their midst, although he had no idea if the Fallsman would actually go with his demands or not.

  Then the Fallsman laughed and said, “A strong one, you are. Very well. I prefer to do things myself anyway.”

  With that, the Fallsman walked down the stairs, Takan following silently behind. Once he reached the bottom, the Fallsman strode across the marble floor toward Keo and Dlaine, a confident smirk on his face, like he wasn't afraid of Keo or Dlaine at all. Of course, with four large, well-armed men to defend him, the Fallsman certainly had reason enough to believe that he was safe from a couple of strange men he didn't know.

  Up close, the Fallsman was even taller than Keo had first estimated. He held out his hand—large and wide—for Keo to put the letter in. Reluctantly, Keo placed the letter in the Fallsman's hand, which the Fallsman then took without another word.

  Opening the envelope, the Fallsman pulled out a folded up sheet of paper and a small, silver ring. He glanced at the ring before depositing it into the pocket of his jacket and then he unfolded the letter and started reading. It was impossible to tell what was written in the letter, but the Fallsman seemed so focused on reading the letter's contents that Keo believed he could draw Gildshine and stab him in the chest there and then and the Fallsman would not notice until he finished reading the letter.

  After a couple of tense moments, the Fallsman looked up from the letter. He didn't look angry, but Keo kept his hand on Gildshine's hilt anyway, just to be safe.

  “Well,” said the Fallsman, drawing out the word as long as he could, probably just to make Keo and Dlaine anxious. “I thank you, strangers, for delivering this letter to me from an old friend of mine. I was skeptical that it was actually from Sadia at first, but there is no mistaking her handwriting or writing style for anyone else's. Unless one of you happens to be a master forger, although I doubt it, because neither of you look clever enough for the job.”

  “Uh, you are welcome, Fallsman,” said Dlaine. He scratched the back of his head and looked around. “Now, er, will you please let us go? We have places to be and we can't really spend a lot of time here talking with you.”

  The Fallsman handed the letter to Takan, who took it, folded it up, and placed it in her breast pocket without another word. “No.”

  “No?” said Dlaine. “Listen, Fallsman, you aren't our boss. You—”

  The sound of swords unsheathing was followed by all of the Warriors pointing the tips of their blades at Keo and Dlaine's necks, immediately making Dlaine shut up. Keo's fingers wrapped firmly around the handle of Gildshine, but there was no way he could draw it out to defend them, not when in such close proximity to these Warriors.

  The Fallsman's expression had not changed. “Takan told me that you two have a guardian spirit following you. She said that it twisted her arm and was the main reason she brought you two here. Is that true?”

  Dlaine bit his lower lip, clearly thinking about what he should say, and then nodded and said, “Yes. Though she's not exactly a guardian spirit. More like a very talented Magician.”

  “Hmm,” said the Fallsman. “Well, in either case, I think I could use some of your help.”

  “Why should we help you?” said Dlaine.

  “Because my men would be more than happy to remove your heads from your shoulders if you say no,” said the Fallsman. “I mean, I'm not much of a bloodthirsty warmonger myself, but I wouldn't stop my men from killing you, which is what you deserve for invading my territory.”

  “Invading?” Dlaine repeated. “Okay, now that's bull, and you kn
ow it. We didn't even know it was your territory.”

  “I don't care,” said the Fallsman. “I will tell my men to spare you only if you agree to help me with a particular problem of mine that only magic can solve.”

  Dlaine looked like he was about to tell the Fallsman where he could stick that harpoon of his, but Keo quickly said, “Well, Fallsman, why don't you tell us a little bit about your problem first? We can't really help you if you don't tell us what your problem even is, after all.”

  The Fallsman looked like he was considering Keo's words, and then he nodded and said, “You make a good point. You see, there is a ghost in my city and I need you to slay it.”

  “A ghost?” Dlaine said. “Impossible. Ghosts don't exist.”

  “Tell that to the six men I've already lost to it,” said the Fallsman in annoyance. “I'm sure they'd love to hear that they weren't actually viciously murdered by a ghost.”

  Dlaine looked ready to argue the point, but Keo said, “Fallsman, why don't you start from the beginning and explain to us what you mean; how it started, for example?”

  The Fallsman folded his arms across his chest. “All right. Well, I moved into the ruins of Castarious about a year and a half ago, bringing my men with me. While I did not intend to turn these ruins into a bustling metropolis, I did intend to make this city my territory by taking advantage of all of the rumors and myths about it that scared off everyone else. Ever heard of the myth of the black ghosts?”

  Keo shook his head, but Dlaine said, “You mean the story about the ghosts, said to be made of shadow, that slash intruders to death with their swords?”

  “Exactly,” said the Fallsman, nodding. He gestured at the four Warriors standing around them. “My Warriors' appearance is based on those myths, even though I have not seen any actual black ghosts in all of the time that I've been here. In any case, I like to send my Warriors out every now and then to appear before the superstitious idiots who sometimes come here, which causes them to flee and warn everyone else to avoid Castarious like the plague, which in turn helps cement my own control over the ruins. It's a brilliant plan, if I do say so myself.”

  “Yeah, sure,” said Dlaine. “Are you getting to the point or not?”

  “About a week ago now, one of my men reported seeing a large gray wolf wandering through the streets,” said the Fallsman. “I thought it was nothing more than a lost animal, as sometimes wild beasts from the countryside will come in here to make it their home or in search of prey. But I knew how dangerous wolves could be, so I sent three of my men to kill it so it would not pose a future threat to me or my men.”

  “What happened?” said Keo, though he found it hard to pay attention to the story with the Warriors' swords still at his neck.

  “The wolf slaughtered them all,” said the Fallsman simply. “Quite brutally, I might add. We still haven't found all of their body parts. So I sent three more men to hunt down the creature and kill it, but they also ended up getting killed, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and hunt the beast for myself.”

  The Fallsman spoke rather casually about losing six of his men, yet at the same time, Keo sensed an undercurrent of anger in his voice, like he was angry at the fact that this wolf had slain so many of his men.

  “I successfully tracked down the beast near the docks where the merchants used to come in through the Hanuf River to deliver their goods,” said the Fallsman. He gestured at his harpoon. “And I tried to stab it in the heart, only for my harpoon to pass harmlessly through its body. The wolf likely would have killed me there and then, if Takan hadn't distracted it with a bright light and saved me.”

  Takan looked quite proud of herself when the Fallsman mentioned that.

  “So I returned to my mansion here and have spent the last week trying to come up with a way to destroy a ghost,” said the Fallsman. “Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with any, because neither I nor my men have any experience in battling the supernatural. Right now, I've kept my men from patrolling the city as they usually do, because no one knows where the ghost wolf is and I don't want to lose more men to it. I have set up watchmen on the key parts of the city to make sure it doesn't get too close to the mansion, which is how Takan and the others found you two, because one of my watchmen saw you.”

  “And almost killed us,” Dlaine muttered.

  The Fallsman apparently either did not hear or was ignoring Dlaine, because he continued, saying, “So far, the ghost has not been seen again, but I know it is still out there somewhere. I don't know where it came from or why it is here, but I do know that it poses a threat to everything I've been building in this city over the last year and a half. If it's not stopped, I will be forced to leave Castarious for good.”

  “Do you want us to kill it?” said Keo.

  “More or less,” said the Fallsman, nodding. “Or send it back to the astral plane or wherever ghosts are supposed to be.”

  “And you are sure that it's a ghost?” said Keo. “Not, perhaps, a Magician using some kind of spell to make himself look like one?”

  “I am certain that it is a ghost,” said the Fallsman. “As I said, my harpoon passed harmlessly through its body when I attacked it, which is how ghosts are supposed to be. And believe me when I say that I was a firm disbeliever in the existence of ghosts before this week. I believed that all of the rumors and myths about the vengeful spirits of Castarious were nothing more than stories, yet I have seen for my eyes that there is definitely something not of this world in this city. And I cannot deal with it by myself.”

  The Fallsman sounded ashamed of that fact, like he did not like admitting that he could not handle this problem that was harming him and his followers. Though Keo still did not remove his hand from Gildshine's hilt, because he still did not trust the Fallsman.

  “And why do you think that we can kill it, if you cannot?” said Keo.

  The Fallsman smiled. “Because I know that the sword at your side is a magical sword, and magical weapons are said to be able to slay ghosts. Plus, you have a guardian spirit, which gives you another weapon to use against the ghost.”

  Keo had not expected the Fallsman to know that Gildshine was a magical sword. Nor did he know how the Fallsman could have identified it as such, as very few people could accurately identify a magical sword at first glance. That meant that the Fallsman was quite a bit more knowledgeable than he first appeared, which made Keo wonder what else the Fallsman knew that he could use against Keo and Dlaine.

  “Well, it's not like we have much of a choice whether to help or not,” said Dlaine with a shrug. “You said you would spare us if we agreed to help you, right?”

  “Correct,” said the Fallsman. “You see, the reason I have controlled these ruins for as long as I have is because I have always been one to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves to me, regardless of what they look like. And finding a couple of travelers with a magical weapon and a guardian spirit is one of those opportunities that I would be foolish to let slip by me like that.”

  Although Keo was no fan of the Fallsman, he had to admit that he saw the logic in the Fallsman's plan. This way, the Fallsman did not need to risk his own life or the lives of his men to destroy the danger to his rule. And the Fallsman knew there was no way that Keo or Dlaine would reject his offer, because they both still wanted to live.

  Despite that, Keo wanted to tell the Fallsman 'no' just the same. And indeed, the words almost escaped his lips before a sudden scream from outside of the mansion startled him and everyone else, making them look around in surprise for a moment before something large smashed through the front windows of the mansion.

  The large thing slammed into the ground and rolled for a couple of feet until it stopped a foot or two away from the Warriors of the Falls, who drew their weapons in case it was some kind of attack. Keo had drawn Gildshine and Dlaine raised his fists, while the Fallsman and Takan had taken a couple of steps backwards, though the Fallsman did grab his harpoon anyway
.

  Then Keo noticed that the thing that had been thrown through the window was a man, one of the Fallsman's Warriors based on his dark clothing. His body was cut and full of glass from being thrown through the window, but even worse was that his head was completely missing. It was nothing more than a bloody stump, like it had been completely torn off by some vicious beast.

  “What did that to him?” said Dlaine, staring at the corpse with horror. “It looks like he was mauled by a bear.”

  Before either the Fallsman or his servants could answer, a loud, demonic howl filled the air. And it was coming from just outside the window that the body had come from.

  ***