Engaging Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 2)

by Cary J Lenehan

  He had gone through the gate and was about to climb the track up to the lookout when Basil came flying down it. “Quick, get up there and get your bow strung. I think the carpet is coming. I have to get back and tell them. He is coming from the north, not from the mountains.” He pushed past. He is off before I can say anything. Basil can certainly run fast. I might be a quick runner, but Basil could give me a good start and still beat me.

  Stefan moved up the path as quickly as he could and peered north. I can just make out a dot in the sky. It is moving. He picked up the magic detection device from the ground and pointed it. Yep. It gives an indication. It could be the mage, or it could just be a carpet from the Caliphate straying down from the mountains looking for something. Still, I had better be prepared…an archer against a—no doubt powerful—mage on a carpet. What preparations can I make?

  ~~~

  Theodora

  Theodora heard the spider chirp for the return. Rani-my-love must have as well as she reaches into her pouch and does something absent-mindedly before going back to what she is doing. I’ll keep working on the pentagram. It is ready now. Why am I still playing with it and showing Fear what I am doing? Why do I seem to have this effect on children? We cannot have children…Why hadn’t that struck me before? You got married, or not, and you had children. Will my love mind not having offspring with me? Why do I suddenly want to carry her kaf-hued child?

  She was only half concentrating when Hulagu interrupted everyone’s thoughts. “Basil is running here—fast. He wouldn’t be that eager to get back for his wedding, he will be exhausted. It must be trouble. No sign of Stefan.” He called down to the street. “Make it look normal. There may be something happening. Bianca…get to the wall with your sling and bullets…on the way see if my köle are in the stables and get them up there with their bows, but tell them to keep down until I call.”

  Theodora shooed Fear away and told her to go down the stairs into the building while she moved to the centre of the fresh-painted pattern. I won’t start my incantation until I know what is happening. If I start and miss with this spell I will have wasted our only chance and we have no idea how powerful he is, nor what he has with him. For all I know he might be able to destroy us all with one spell or one device.

  Basil is calling something as he ran. Bianca, with her superb hearing, has heard him from the gate. She waved at him and turned. “He said carpet,” she called aloft, “from the north.” She then went up the wall, followed by the two Khitan girls.

  Still not time to start chanting, but it is time to mentally prepare myself. If it comes from the north I won’t have much time to cast the spell and he would be much closer than I have allowed for in the casting. No time to change now. At least I feel stronger now. I think that I feel like I have more mana inside me than I did before we attacked this village. Perhaps I have gained back what I lost from the undead as we left Darkreach. After this is over, I will have to find out how much more. She mentally flexed her in-build senses on her capacity and nodded. I can feel it. I have enough in me to cast this spell without any help from either my girlfriend or my store. Good, drawing over your limit was always risky. I think that I will risk having an empty store.

  I will let my store device charge the diagram at my feet. I’ll have time for that and I will need every bit of help I can get. This is a new spell and while I have thought long and hard about it and written it down and practiced each phrase and gesture…a new spell is always harder than one you know well…and I am casting against a mage of unknown power. It is a long spell, and so harder still. I have to take action and stop worrying. Worry will only destroy my focus. At least I have his clothes here and some of his hair from a brush.

  “Stand clear,” she called. “I am charging the pentagram.” I can feel the flood of power flow through me to the diagram beneath. My entire store of mana is draining into the pattern to aid my casting. It is done. I have never used that much before just in charging a diagram. It is a heady experience. I hope no-one disrupts it. That would be disastrous.

  As she started to lay out his shoes, turban and the hair she looked down and could see that Basil had reached the wall and was now coming through the gate. He is strolling and regaining his breath now that his news has been passed on…concentrate.

  We need to find a way to communicate with the lookout…one of these devices must do that; if not we have to build one. We should have asked Dharmal. Basil is a fast runner. I can hardly imagine Thord trying to run back like that. She looked around. The street looks deserted. No-one is visible up on the cliff. Only Bianca is visible on the wall, the Khitan are crouched down behind its crenellations. She was about to say something to her lover, when she noticed her grab Hulagu’s arm.

  “Come, Hulagu,” she heard Rani say. “The way she is dressed Theodora looks like a man from a distance and one person on the roof could be understood, but we need to disappear. Let us get on the stairs and not be seen. Theodora can call us if she needs to.” When they were at the stairs she called back, “Good luck, my love.”

  It is nice to hear that, but I am now concentrating. Theodora waved a hand vaguely in acknowledgement and started scanning the sky to the north.

  All is quiet, the quiet before a battle, the quiet that tells you everything is in place and you are hoping that your planning is right and everything will take place as you want it to. The time when you pray and hope.

  ~~~

  Stefan

  He is coming close. Do I stay upright or try and hide? No, he might have detected me already. They were expecting more men to arrive and I could be one of them. If he sees me I will just have to bluff. I am glad Bryony is not here, I couldn’t have explained it to her.

  The carpet is coming straight to me and moving lower. Is he going to talk to me? Why isn’t he just flying straight in? He waved at the figure and the seated figure waved back and kept coming in. Great, I have a spear in my hand and that is a mage. At least I had some company last night, if only that. I may understand the Cat better now.

  The carpet is getting much closer now. I can see the mage clearly. He is from the Caliphate. He must be the one from the bandit band. Should I speak first? What if they have a password? I know:

  “You be late,” he called. “We be gotten in yesterday an’ Dharmal been expectin’ you t’en. He be angry.”

  “The Masters wanted me to do something in the far north. I am here now. Who are you?” was the reply. He looks angry at being questioned by a mere armsman and one he doesn’t even know.

  “I be Stefan—I been a workin’ in t’ south. You had better be a hurryin’ in.”

  The mage snorted and turned the carpet into the ravine and flew along the river towards the gate. He flies but he still uses the gate. Because we see birds doing it all the time, that must mean that there is something in the valley or at least over it that stops a person just flying in. I wonder if Rani knows that.

  ~~~

  Rani

  Suddenly the spider chirped. The gate? Why would Stefan want to come in? Should I open it? Asvayujau, goddess of luck, please be with me. She opened it. I wish I could see what is happening. Should I tell my Princess, or will that distract her? She will not have much time and she needs to see the carpet as soon as she can.

  “He is coming from the gate” she could hear Bianca calling from the gate below.

  ~~~

  Theodora

  Theodora heard Bianca call out and changed her position. She started chanting before she saw her target. There he is. She looked back to her book and then, before the final phrase, she looked up at the target. He is not looking at me, but he is a bit over ten times two hands of paces away and will soon realise that I am not someone he knows. She said her last word and pointed at her target. I can feel the spell flow along my arm and out along my finger. I can feel it strike home. I can feel him resist the compulsion. You are mine. I am far stronger than you and I have surprised you. Despite the unfamiliarity of the new spell, and all th
at means, I own you. “Come to me now” she said softly. For the charm to work he didn’t have to physically hear her. I can feel the words resounding in his head as if it were a struck bell. He is screaming silently. The carpet started heading towards her. She risked a quick break in her total concentration. “Come out. I have him.” She returned to her focus. He is no fool and he is fighting back. He has practiced this. He nearly slipped out there. With her gaze fixed on the approaching carpet she only just noticed Hulagu emerge onto the roof, bow in hand, followed by Rani. “Set down on the roof and then get off.” Not only can I feel it, but now I can see the strain on his face as he fights my control. I can feel his hate, his rage, his impotence, his evil.

  Hulagu approached him.

  “Stand still,” she said.

  “What do I do to him?” he asked.

  My love looks from me to the Caliphate mage and back again. I can feel the strain and I am sure it shows on my face. He has a strong will to fight this hard. I want to scream out to kill the man, but even using my may be too much and allow him to slip free. Surely my lover knows that it is hard to hold on to someone like this, especially a strong mage. At any time he can break free. It would have been easier if he were bound and already helpless, but he isn’t. It would be good to have Bianca talk to him…but that would give him a chance to break free. Oh relief.

  “Kill him,” said Rani.

  I thought he was fighting hard before. Now it is like fighting a storm with your bare hands.

  Hulagu is nodding and has gone behind him, taking out his own dagger. My victim is making an effort to keep track of Hulagu…to break free. It isn’t working. For now I have his muscles under control. He will do almost anything I say at present…but for how long? Hulagu is in place behind the mage and has the tip of the knife under his chin. Above his hand the mage’s face is covered in sweat. Inside he is snarling, but nothing can be heard.

  Hulagu is looking at me.

  Theodora nodded.

  Hulagu drove the blade home and into the mage’s brain and the top of his spine. I can feel his screaming, his death. I must pull out and let go. Luckily she caught herself and did not disturb the lines of her pentagram. I have not been inside someone’s mind as they died before. That is not an experience I want to quickly repeat.

  She saw Hulagu withdraw his dagger and lower the body to the roof. It is moving again. A contingent cure has come into play. Hulagu is waiting and has thrust again with the blade as the eyes brighten and move again. The man’s hands are coming up to grasp Hulagu’s hand as he thrusts the blade in again. The mage’s mouth is opening and closing and again he dies. Hulagu removed the blade from where it was stirring around inside the skull, paused to see if he revived again and, when he didn’t, wiped the blade on the mage’s clothes and stood up.

  Fear is running onto the roof. I can do little. She has dodged Rani-my-love’s outstretched arm and run up to the dead mage. She has her sandal in her hand and is hitting the still slightly stirring body on the head with it. Why? She is turning towards me.

  “Roxanna told me she wanted to do that to him. I don’t know why. He used to do things to me, things that hurt.” Her voice is too old for one so young. “I am so glad I got to watch him die. It was so good. The other girls will be so jealous.” She said to Hulagu, “Thank you,” and gave her little bob at him and then rushed over and hugged him around the legs.

  Ahmed’s body was disposed of and the carpet rolled up and taken below. It will be safe there until we can learn to use it. I have never flown one before, but I should easily learn how to. I am an air mage after all.

  ~~~

  After killing the mage, the rest of the day was an anticlimax. The Khitan and Bianca had joined them on the roof and Rani asked Hulagu to let Stefan know what had happened. He nodded and called Anahita over to tell her to go.

  “No disrespect to you,” Rani said to Anahita, and to Hulagu, “but how do we know we can trust her?”

  Oh dear. Rani-my-love…that was silly…you are getting identical flat stares from Hulagu, Anahita, the other girl…and Bianca. What had gone on where all the smoke was?…She has seen their looks.

  “Sorry,” she said, and sounded flustered. “I should have thought…it is obvious.”

  Anahita stuck her nose in the air and strode off to get her horse… she wasn’t walking that far. Before Rani could say anything else the other three had stalked off the roof as well.

  “I have a feeling you should not have said that,” said Theodora in an amused tone.

  “Whatever gives you that idea, my beloved? Now I have to work out a way to apologise…and Bianca is getting just as prickly as the Khitan are. What is going on? Are they all lovers? What is happening?”

  “No, I was told that Bianca slept alone until they went out to set their fire. The other three didn’t. Now, I have no mana left, so I am useless keeping watch as a mage. You have done nothing all day, so you can sit up here and look important and bored. I am going to have a dig around in the house and see if I can see anything interesting.”

  ~~~

  Theodora took Fear’s hand and, with the little girl chattering at her, went down to the ground floor. So far I haven’t even looked around down here. She wandered from room to room. Except for a room that is obviously where the former residents relaxed, it is all basically unused. I would say that the place was once a tavern. The bandit’s common room was the bar; it even has a small stage. There is a complete unused kitchen out the back and storage rooms for food. A trapdoor covered in dust leads down from one, presumably to a cellar. I will have to check that out later.

  Eventually she came to a door that was locked. There are some keys hanging on the wall in our room…Dharmal’s old room. I left them there for later. It is now later. She sent Fear up to get them. When the girl came back they started trying them in the lock. One clicked the lock open and Theodora pushed the door ajar and entered. There is a small room here with a table and a few chairs. This looks like the room under The Slain Enemy. Yes…it is very like the room under the tavern. It even has books on a set of shelves…quite a lot of them actually…maybe a hundred or more. They vary from huge volumes, such as are found in the library in Ardlark to small books that are of use to travellers. I wonder how many people have died to furnish this room.

  “Fear, go and get us some more light, dear. I am going to be here for a while I think, and when you have done that, please let Rani know that I have found their library.”

  Time to settle down, get comfortable, and start checking all the books.

  Chapter XVII

  Basil

  After Ahmed the mage had been dealt with Basil started wandering around looking for Astrid. How can Puss be lost? Whenever I ask one of the valley women they just smile and say they don’t know. Yeah, right. One even sniggered as I walked away. I am getting a bit fed up with this. The smithy is back in operation. If the women won’t tell me, maybe the men will.

  Everyone speaks some degree of Hindi, but the smith looks like someone from Freehold, so I’ll practice my poor Latin on him. “Hello, have you seen Astrid the Cat anywhere please?”

  The blacksmith paused in his work. “You’re the one she’ll be marrying tonight then,” he said, throwing a hot piece of metal into a small pot that then gave off a plume of smoke and gave off a very bad smell. It has to be some sort of fat in there.

  “That would be me. Do you know where she is?”

  “Yes. But if I tell you I will be in trouble with the women, and there are a lot more of them than there are of me. At any rate, you should be getting your best clothes ready.”

  Basil looked down at what he was wearing. What is wrong with padded black leather over hemp? It doesn’t show blood very well and it goes with everything…well everything that I normally have to do. Actually, it is showing signs of my recent encounter and it does smell a bit…“Umm,” was all that came out.

  “You don’t have anything else, do you?”

  “Ahh, no. I l
eft home in a bit of a hurry and paid more attention to weapons and food than to having something to get married in. It hadn’t actually crossed my mind when I left that this was something that I would do. I do have other clothes, but they are work wear as well.”

  The blacksmith laughed. “Come on, my name is Norbert Black. Let’s go and raid the rooms and see if we can find something for you that works better than that outfit. What do you wear at home to get married in?”

  “In my family usually uniforms…often on both sides. The Army has been our family career since before The Burning; well at least that is what we think. I haven’t actually been to a civilian wedding, except when I was working, and then I was usually paying attention to things other than clothing and I just wore what fitted in.”

  The smith shook his head and led him off. Along the way they found Bianca, Hulagu and the Khitan women.

  “Come on,” said Basil to Hulagu. “If I have to do this, you may as well join in.”

  “We can help,” one said. I think that is Kãhina. “We have been in most of the rooms after all and we can at least tell you if any have clothes we can adjust. I can sew a bit, so I might be able to help there as well.” The two girls stood beside Basil and began talking in Khitan. They are obviously sizing me up, with much shaking of heads. Eventually they grabbed him and dragged him into the barracks.

  They paused in front of Bianca. “Come on Bianca—you can help too—and we might find something for you if you want.”

  Bianca shook her head. “I am not comfortable in dresses. I haven’t worn one since I stopped serving in taverns. They tangle your legs when you try and run.”