Master of the five Magics m-1

by Lyndon Hardy

  The square filled, pressing in on them. "The fair lady," someone cried out. "She has come to deliver us at last."

  "It cannot be she," another yelled. "This handful of men matters for little. It is more like another witch sent to torment us further."

  "My fair lady, set free my daughter. Possessed she is not." An old woman in coarse tatters pressed against Duncan with arms outstretched to the queen. The magician pushed her back and the crowd responded with a buzz of anger.

  "They are demons. Deal with them now before they can infest our townfolk further." More shouts hurled upward and the agitation grew. Three figures in an alleyway struggled with a fourth. With a final shove, they pushed him to fall through the crowd to the horses' feet.

  "Another of your kind," a gruff voice called out as the group joined the rear of the throng. "Take him when you depart. Bardina is his home no more."

  The man staggered to his feet and absently ran one hand down the side of a tattered cloak, caked with mud and decay. He squinted through swollen eyes past a tangle of long black hair that streaked across a nearly bald crown. Bits of moldy food clotted a mangy beard. Slack jowls hung from what once must have been a full and fleshy face.

  Vendora leaned forward in her saddle, instinctively smoothing her own hair into place. "And what manner of visitation is this?" she asked in annoyance. "An official delegation to apologize for the treatment thus far accorded my presence? Speak ruffian, what message have you for us?"

  The man did not heed the queen but stood with hands stiffly at his sides and eyes staring straight ahead. "Sandacar," he mumbled at last. "Sandacar, my master Sandacar, will provide for me."

  "Periac!" Alodar exclaimed in sudden recognition. Handar dismounted, walked forward, and gently placed his palm under Periac's chin, looking him deeply in the eyes. "His will, his being, his essence, they are gone," he said. "This empty hulk is animate only when his demon master abides among us."

  Vendora watched as Periac spasmodically thrust a hand to his face and pulled free a tangle of mud and hair. The queen shuddered and turned in her saddle. "Tell them to take him away. Such display is most unfit for my presence."'

  The rumbling increased. Feston stood in his stirrups, arms outstretched and motioned for silence. "You speak most rashly," he shouted. "Know that it is the fair lady, indeed. Only her forgiving spirit stands between you and the swift vengeance of our swords. Do her the proper honor or suffer the just consequences."

  More shouts of anger hurled from the crowd. In a confusion of arms, they jostled one another for room in the crowded square. One man stumbled and fell. The others quickly trampled over him, raising clenched fists.

  "Honor to the fair lady," Feston blasted again as he tried to keep his balance while his mount banged against its skitterish comrades. Before he could say more, a rock whizzed overhead and the tumult increased.

  Alodar looked again at the swaying thaumaturge. He scanned the crowd that was slowly creeping closer to Aeriel and the queen. He grimaced and made his decision.

  "Enough of this mob, Grengor. We will have to attend to Periac later. Let us move to safer ground," he commanded as he started his horse forward.

  Suddenly the townsmen exploded in hatred. Two more rocks hurled by and then a third crashed painfully into Alodar's shoulder. With a piercing shout, the mob converged, pushing the ones in front under the horses' hooves and scrambling upon their backs to pull the riders down.

  Arms from all sides reached up to grab at Alodar's reins. He heard Vendora scream behind him and turned to see Basil's horse rear and toss him to the ground. Grak pulled his sword and slashed at two who leaped upwards. Duncan jostled about on his saddle as he tried to activate his sphere. Grengor and Feston kneed their mounts forward into the crowd, making room to draw and defend themselves.

  Alodar turned his horse to the side, out of the clutches of the men on the left; immediately three from the right surged forward to attack with bare hands. The tallest sprang upwards and grabbed Alodar about the waist. As he grappled to disengage, he felt his leg pulled free from the stirrup and painfully wrenched by another. With a crash, he fell to the street, barely ducking his head to avoid the nervous stomp of Aeriel's riderless horse.

  Two of Alodar's assailants fell on top, pinning him to the pavement. A third raked his nails across Alodar's cheek. Alodar arched his back, freeing his left arm, and drove an elbow sharply into the groin of the one astride his chest. The man rolled off and Alodar brought his knees suddenly upward, lifting the second from the ground. As the townsman fought for balance on one leg, Alodar kicked savagely and propelled him into the forest of horse legs tromping whatever was underfoot,

  Alodar rolled aside, missing a kick by the third attacker. Grabbing at an empty stirrup, he pulled himself to his feet. He glanced about quickly, just barely able to see over the rise and fall of the horses' backs as they reared. Everyone was down in the confusion of the square.

  "Handar," he called, "assist the fair lady." He danced aside from his antagonists as they stumbled forward, pushed from behind by others trying to join the fray. He ducked beneath a horse's neck and stepped over a body which lay sprawled in his way.

  Alodar shouldered past a knot of intertwined men, each trying to bring the others to the ground. He elbowed a man with an upraised rock on the left and drove a hard blow into the face of another. He vaulted up onto a horse's back and then down on the other side, stumbling over a black-robed figure as he landed.

  "Handar!" he shouted as he struggled to turn the wizard over. "We need a devil to aid our cause. Suggest one I should seek."

  The wizard's eyes rolled in his head but then locked on Alodar's face. "No, you must not," he said thickly. "You must deal with the townsmen instead. In my sleeve?the small candles. Toss them skyward one at a time but do not look as you do so."

  Alodar puzzled at the commands but did as he was instructed. He groped in Handar's clothing and retrieved a flint and three small tapers, dimly glistening in the sunlight and strangely heavy to the touch. The first instantly ignited from a small spark. Alodar hurled it high in the air.

  He ducked his head and shut his eyes. Suddenly, even through closed lids, everything flashed painfully white. The random hubbub of the mob ceased, replaced by shrieks of surprise. Alodar felt the crowd give way around him. He lofted the second candle, this time burying his head in his arms. A yell more piercing than the first accompanied the flash, and Alodar could hear footfalls stumbling away from the periphery of the square. He threw the third candle. The retreat turned into a stampede. More rapidly than they had rushed forward, the townsmen trampled one another as they sped away, yelling about demons who tormented them still.

  "It is what we call sunfire," Handar yelled over the screams of the departing mob. "We use it to summon certain fire sprites when simpler flames will not do. Your sight will return in a moment. Rest patiently and all will be well."

  Alodar stood up slowly and soothed one of the horses. He saw Aeriel staggering to her feet. She bore a few scratches and some torn clothing but was apparently unhurt. Vendora and the rest were either sitting or struggling upwards. Except for the party of the queen, the square was deserted. Even Periac was not to be seen.

  "The townsmen were quite startled by the fireworks," Handar said. "It probably will be some while before they gather sufficient courage to try us again."

  "But what caused them to act so?" Duncan asked. "It is no less than treason against the queen."

  "And Periac, a master thaumaturge," Alodar wondered. "He would know better than to traffic with such great risks."

  "No less is to be expected when demons freely walk the land," Handar said. "When only will-o'-the-wisps could come of their own volition and wizards sought the rest, there was some measure of control. But with a sprite in every bush, the perils and temptations are too great. Either the common craftsman is possessed by his encounter or, if he achieves domination, he cannot resist using the power for his own petty ends. And if the concentration
of demons is as strong as I now fear, then we have little enough time to prevent the complete disaster." He stopped and looked into one of the alleyways. "With what Grengor has caught, we will get the confirmation."

  Alodar turned in the direction Handar indicated and saw the marine dragging a screaming youth by the scruff of his neck back to the feet of the wizard.

  "I never doubted the identity of the fair lady," the boy sobbed. "I never doubted it. Let me go to join my brothers. Let me go. I hurl no rocks into your midst."

  "Control yourself so that you speak properly to a wizard," Handar ordered. "We seek information about what has transpired in Bardina and the rest of Procolon."

  As Grengor released his grip, the youth nodded and shifted to one knee to bow to the queen. "My fair lady," he stammered. Aeriel nodded encouragement and the boy started again with a rush.

  "It was barely a month ago that all this began. Kellic's daughter had a spat with another lass down the road and woke the next morning with her comely face covered with pox blisters that would not heal. The cows in the herds nearest the east went dry and the hens would lay no longer. The peddlers who trudged from Bardina to Graymill and back would disappear for weeks. When they returned, they had eyes of madmen and tongues that none could understand. And then in this very square, one of the merchant wives ripped the shawl from another to expose a little imp riding near the base of the neck and working his mischief on whomever he passed.

  " 'You witch!' the first exclaimed. 'So this is how my Hentor's eye is made to wander. Well it is only just that you are dealt with in kind.' And the next morning the second was struck dumb within the confines of her own well-guarded house. It did not take long for the curse to be full upon us after that. The smallest slight was dealt with in most cruel fashion; revenge answered revenge as more and more trafficked with demonkind.

  "And those who did not lash out, those in fear of what was happening around them, they became unreasoning avengers seeing evil wherever they looked. On the slightest pretext, many were trapped and slain, some protesting their innocence to the end. All commerce stopped and we became no more than roving bands, suspicious of one another and always tempted to use demonpower to protect us from each other. And we have no news from the south. No one ventures anymore from Bardina and no one dares step foot within the city walls.

  "My mother, even she…" The boy shuddered and then shut his eyes. His voice trailed off and he said no more.

  "It will be the same in every town and hamlet of the kingdom," Handar told the queen. "Part of the citizenry possessed, part temporarily dominating sprites until their wills falter as well, and the rest guided only by suspicion and terror. As more and more are coerced in the battles with Bandor, far wider does the influence of demonkind spread throughout the land."

  The wizard shook his head. "It is even worse than I feared, although our first efforts must be the same. First to the south to defeat the forces of the petty kingdoms and exorcise those demons that we can. And then to the west to add to the forces trying to route Bandor from his strongholds. But from what I have seen and can infer, even ten times our number may not be enough."

  Alodar released the cinch and removed the saddle from the horse's back. He looked into Aeriel's eyes and read the same weary resignation. For the last two days the meaning of Bardina had slowly sunk in and weighed them down.

  At the very least, they had all looked forward to a rest from the trail, a return to familiar and comfortable surroundings, decent food after a month of rabbit meat.

  But Handar had said that all of the towns would be the same. Wherever there was a concentration of mankind, the demons would also be. The queen's party had to continue as before, foraging from the countryside, taking all livestock from each farm they chanced upon, trying to ignore the sullen faces, driving like exiles rather than the royal party of a queen in her own realm.

  And behind the loss of comforts, the depressing isolation, the hostility of the plundered subjects, the bickering of the free-spirited nomads, was the true meaning of what they had seen. A quarter of the population was demon-possessed; the rest had turned into snarling mobs. Periac, a master thaumaturge, rotted away in some hidden hole, undiscovered despite Alodar's careful search. And with each day, more demons poured across the bridge between the two worlds.

  A sudden commotion behind Alodar spun him around and he looked up the slope. They were encamping on a gentle rise, with the nomads scattered into rough groups of fifty. The ridgeline to the south cut off their view. Now over the crest appeared two of the marines, whipping their flagging ponies.

  They raced across the inclines, splattering foam from their mounts. With a swirl of dust, they savagely reined to halt in the middle of the camp and called for the queen.

  Alodar crowded around with the rest and heard the gasping report, "Banners of Procolon, no more than an hour's march away. But hotly pursued by a far larger force. They are in retreat and sundown will find them in our midst."

  Alodar ran to the ridge and looked across the broad valley on the other side. The land dipped to the bed of a small, meandering stream and then rose to a crestline slightly higher than the one on which he stood. Long-stemmed grass rippled in a gentle breeze. Here and there domes of bare rock poked through the cover. An occasional glint of sunlight reflected off the stream as it sluggishly trickled to the east.

  The opposing ridgeline was silent and bare. Except for the stubble of grass nothing moved. Alodar sank to the ground as Vendora and her followers arrived and clustered about. Her crude banner was thrust into the soft earth and fluttered in the quickening afternoon breeze.

  Eventually a small cluster on horseback came into sight, followed by precisely formed, squares of men on foot. As they splashed across the stream, additional groups appeared, more ragged than the first?partially filled squares, wavering oblongs and chaotic clusters that seemed to stagger and lurch rather than hold to a definite direction. Finally in the rear, craftsmen whipped horses pulling overloaded wagons, and men with backs piled high with family possessions tugged at the gowns of women staggering under the load of small children. Isolated individuals zigzagged back and forth in a daze. In a ragged wave they tumbled down the slope, straining to keep up with the warriors in front.

  As the last stragglers forded the stream, the horsemen trotted up to where Alodar stood. With an arm dangling at his side, the leader slowly dismounted and threw back his casque. The face was gaunt and deeply lined, and the eyes glistened with pain, but Alodar recognized the bristly moustache and bulky frame.

  "Cedric!" he cried, "Cedric, what luck to see you here and in service to the fair lady!"

  The warmaster nodded back to Alodar and stiffly approached the queen. He grabbed the offered banner from the man behind and placed it at her feet.

  "The volunteers of Ambrosia," he announced. "And a few units of the army of the west as well."

  Alodar looked at the men who formed a line a respectable pace behind. His eyes widened as he saw white-haired men and spindly youths far younger than he was. Another two thousand?but they looked ready to drop.

  "Your fame is still remembered, warmaster," Vendora said. "And no doubt it aided you well in recruiting a militia to my cause." She paused and looked at the haggard faces staring back. "But why a forced march northwards? You could have aided in the siege or waited in Ambrosia until we arrived for our offensive to the south."

  "There is no longer a siege to conduct in the west," Cedric answered. "Bandor burst through the lines which tried to hold him."

  "Impossible!" Feston shouted above the sudden chorus of voices. "Bandor and his allies were in a vice-like grip. He was to be crushed for his impudent rebellion?not our efforts against him abandoned."

  "Abandoned they were not," Cedric replied. "But with each day, Bandor grew stronger, sending forth more sallies, wrecking the engines of war, capturing more of the disheartened besiegers. Whole companies of men, nobles and warriors alike, changed their allegiances, joining the force which
seemed to burst out of the west with demonic power. The three squares which marched with me are all that are left. Even those I had to persuade back into formation as they fled in panic before the very gates of Ambrosia."

  "And the kingdoms to the south?" Basil asked. "How deeply have they penetrated into our heartland? How many leagues between them and the royal palace?"

  "The armies have linked," Cedric answered. "Bandor and the others pursue us together."

  "But if you are so far north," Duncan asked, "what of the defense of Ambrosia?"

  "There is no Ambrosia to defend," Cedric said wearily. "Procolon has fallen, my fair lady. Your forces and mine are all that remain." He stopped and looked at the setting sun. "They are at our heels and we no longer have the strength to run. Tomorrow there will be a final battle and it will be here."

  With a wave of his good arm, Cedric pointed back across the valley. As if on a paymaster's cue, a line of men appeared on the other crest, their energetic step in ominous unison. The vanguard halted on the ridgeline and spread out into the distance on either side. As Alodar and the others watched, more and more climbed to join them, filling in the gaps and piling up behind. In the quickening darkness, they merged into a solid wall, shoulder to shoulder and many rows deep.

  In the very center of the line, huge stones were dropped from a wagon and shaped into a ring. A small fire sprang to life, and a dim, blue-green flame twinkled in the twilight. Drums began to sound, leading an unearthly chant. The warriors jabbed their swords into the sky. Mindlessly they gestured and roared, flaunting their freshness at the end of the day.

  Alodar looked up and down the line as it stretched before him, uniformly thick and extending farther than he cared to imagine. He looked back over the royal forces and tried to visualize them strung out thinly to meet the next day's charge.

  He and the others were silent with shock as they watched the scene fade into the night. The line of men dissolved into the darkness, but dancing lights marked where they stood. An occasional beat of luminescent wings fluttered in their midst, and soft but spine-tingling laughter wafted across the valley.