“That is what I intend to find out,” he chuckled.
Knowing that she was pressing her luck, the girl asked, “Could I come with you?”
Palose shook his head and explained why, “Moving you here at least tripled the difficulty of jumping a mile within the city. Trying to move hundreds of miles together would require a blood sacrifice, I think. I may be stronger than I was, but I am not strong enough to do it otherwise.”
Looking disappointed, Sylvaine asked, “Do you want me to leave? Are you going to blindfold and lead me out of here again?”
“If you were any good at portal magic, you could make a touchstone and join me if I took one with me.”
Wincing at the unintentional slight, the girl replied, “But I can barely make a touchstone and can’t make a portal to save my life.” She finished with a sigh knowing that he hadn’t meant to insult her, and that the deficiency was hers alone to bear.
Palose looked around the room as if seeing something else as he thought aloud, “You could stay here or walk back, but I don’t have any food if it gets much later. All I have is what I have left from my lunch.”
Shrugging, Sylvaine asked, “How long do you think it will take you? I can just sit on the couch and study or something. If it gets too late and I start to get hungry I can leave as long as you don’t mind my knowing where your house is and can tell me which way to go?”
He laughed realizing that she must be thoroughly lost. “We’re at the east wall south of the lake. You can go north and follow the lake back home or west to a tavern in the human district if you’re hungry.”
“The human district, I guess I knew that already,” the girl nodded. “Well, if you are going to try then I guess I should wish you luck. If a farmer has control of a group of Ensolus’s soldiers, he may be more than meets the eye, so be careful.”
Nodding to the curly haired apprentice, Palose called up a portal and stepped through to lightly falling snow.
The mage looked around noting the dark, gray skies even subdued the white of the fresh snowfall. Even so, Palose knew that the lighter gray of the ground could give him away to any eyes looking out of a window.
Fishing in his pocket for a touchstone, he flung the charm as close to the barnyard area as he could. A quick portal jumped the mage to within a few hundred feet of the barn and his target. His hand dug the stone out of the snow and he cast it one more time to step through only a dozen or so feet from the structure.
“Stealth,” he breathed quietly calling on a mainstay spell of the battle mages. His world darkened as light was bent around him, but cut off his sight as well. Using his magically enhanced senses, Palose crept forward through the snow. The patter of snowflakes on the snow pack and wooden buildings nearby nearly drowned out each footstep to his ears, so he knew that few could have heard his approach.
A light came from the few windows on the barn as evening crept over the land far to the south of Ensolus. The dark gray clouds above drowned out whatever remained of the sun’s rays as it faded into the west and night came early. Palose could see more lights from the farmhouse and wondered at what kind of people they might be if they held what he thought rested inside of the barn.
Creeping to a window, Palose found that it was mounted too high on the wall for him to manage to see inside. He was of average height, but these had been meant to give light only. They weren’t for watching the world passing slowly outside of the barn. Most animals would be let out by day and those that remained, like dairy cows for the family, didn’t require a view while being milked.
The mage wasn’t defeated so easily. “Earth move,” he muttered a spell modifying it for his purpose as the ground rose in a mound for him to stand on and see through the window.
To his surprise he heard movement that seemed to be reacting to the light tremor in the ground used to create the raised earth. Still holding his stealth spell, the mage started to look through the window when a shadow passed across the glass. Stopping short of the portal eight feet up the wall, Palose spied a strange eye peering through the glass. A brown scaled brow and long animal like nose turned in profile to the window let the mage know that his glimpse of the figure slipping into the barn was an armored vile as he had thought.
Giving the inquisitive creature a moment to get its curiosity at the ground tremor out of its system, Palose wanted to scold himself for forgetting the creature’s natural affinity for the earth. Though they weren’t known for being magical, viles were great diggers and had been one of the driving forces for opening up the great cavern of Ensolus to the size it was today. While orcs and goblins worked the stone, the sharp, nearly indestructible claws of the large beasts tore through faster than any pick axe or even magic could hope to do.
The shadow cast onto the snow retreated seeming to be satisfied that it had nothing to fear. Palose stood up to look inside and had to use the stealth vision created within the cloak of the spell. The lumbering back of the armored vile moved to an open pen to sit down looking quite bored. A second armor shelled creature lay in the straw in the next corral and seemed to be sleeping despite the early hour, though he had heard viles preferred to be nocturnal, so maybe it was just too early for the beast.
Movement from the storage area above the pens drew his attention next. Orcs and a pair of goblins appeared to be playing a game with dice or whatever they had found in place of dice. They were fairly loud with each roll and he wondered if they were betting as well.
He could see no more and hoped that his blind spots didn’t hide more trouble, and continued to wonder if he should dare to break them free of their cage. They seemed free to do as they pleased, but he had seen men locked up in the castle dungeon before and they had a similar look while their freedom had been removed. Trying to decide if these creatures deserved help or would want it was the hardest part of this mission.
Creeping back around the corner of the wall, Palose noted the closed doors with an external lock that hadn’t been turned. If they were captured slaves of some wizard turned farmer, they were conditioned enough not to test the doors. As the mage thought on how he should approach the obstruction, light shown from a door opened at the farmhouse. Three figures moved in and out of the doorway loading a wheelbarrow. One of the boys he had seen in the field earlier in the day picked up the handles and began to push the cart towards the barn. There was food of various types in the wheelbarrow and its destination was the creatures inside the second shelter.
Moving quickly, yet quietly, Palose moved to stand beside the doors before the boy could reach for the handles. The first door opened less than halfway trying to keep much of the colder air outside, but the movement brought more noise from within the barn.
“Dinner time!” the boy called cheerfully giving Palose the impression that he held no fear of the creatures inside. Chatter from several voices in both common and the languages of the creatures filled the barn while he heard the orcs and goblins hurrying down a ladder or simply jumping down from the storage attic.
Slipping in behind the boy, Palose understood at least one voice from inside, “Thank you, Corrin.” It was a deep voice that seemed uncomfortable with the words as an accent came through to the mage’s ears.
“Father said you all did good work today,” the boy’s childish voice replied. He was apparently young enough to not have his voice change; Palose thought as he moved just inside the door and took in the menagerie that the barn held.
Three orcs and the pair of goblins looked at the food in the cart greedily, but held back as if waiting for permission. The two armored viles seemed less interested until the boy added, “I brought a half dozen prapples for Cecil and Beebee too. Mom thought they never get anything other than hay and corn, so they might like a treat.”
The sound of their treats brought the two giant creatures in what looked like casual ambling steps, but for the naturally calm beasts it was nearly like an eager run. In his effort to take in what was just before him, Palose almost dropped his stealth spell in surpris
e when the deep voice came from his right revealing a large troll. Clad in leather pants and a simple white shirt as if he were a human farmer, the eight foot troll’s similarity to a man ended there. Gray skin, thick black hair pulled back in a pony tail, and with sharp teeth, the eight foot monster had the strength of several men and often had ill tempers.
Stopping to sniff the air as it came from another stall, the troll suddenly looked at the door beside the boy.
“Magic!” he exclaimed swinging for the invisible mage.
Palose narrowly ducked the blow which struck the closed door knocking it back so hard that the door broke a hinge to hang on an angle against the barn wall outside. The mage rolled out the door breathing his next spell, “Reflex.”
His cover blown, Palose came to his feet starting a spell.
Knives appeared in the goblins hands from seemingly nowhere as they darted outside around the troll’s legs. The orcs grabbed clubs and a pitchfork as the armored viles stood looking confused.
“Cecil, Beebee, get it!” the troll growled as the boy ducked beneath the cart.
Palose gave ground trying to cast a darkness spell that he had read about and only tried in practice a few times. The troll threw a saddle at him as the large creature trailed the faster goblins in pursuit of the mage. It was enough to disrupt the spell and Palose cursed before trying something he had only seen the mizard Sebastian do. “Shadow snare,” he called on his battle magic translating the longer darkness spell into life in a tenth of the time.
Shadows leaped up like clinging vines to pull the two goblins down to the ground as their arms and legs were wrapped in night. If he had time to cast the full spell, the shadows would have snared them all in theory, but speed had its limitations. The strange mage spell slowed the pursuit enough for Palose to try more, full warlock magic.
Seconds passed as the mage backed up casting his spell and the orcs were the recipients as shadows lashed out from the man’s hands like webbing flung to snare a fly. Driven back by the power of his spell, the three orcs were either stuck to the wall of the barn or the ground leaving the troll and two armored viles to deal with until he heard noises from the farmhouse. The farmer appeared looking unsure of what to do. If men from Windmeer had come to capture the creatures, he could go to prison for harboring them. If hunters from Ensolus had come for what was theirs, he could pay with his life or get a reward depending on the perspective of the ones reclaiming the emperor’s soldiers.
“Air spear,” Palose called on one of Sebastian’s creations and used the shimmering weapon to drive the troll back. The first armored vile swung at his head with six inch claws that could rip through stone, but the mage was too fast using his reflex spell. Ducking the deadly blow, he reached out with his left hand touching the creature before casting, “Stone skin.”
Localized on its leg, the vile could no longer bend its left leg. In seconds, the stone spell froze both hips spreading from toes to chest. To Palose’s surprise, the stone skin magic didn’t finish the vile off completely. The beast was too large for a single touch, but it served its purpose in immobilizing the powerful creature. He could still move his arms, but panic only made the vile fight to break free as his skin betrayed him and bones locked up.
The second armored vile was much more timid and rolled herself into a ball retreating into the barn hoping that the mage would ignore her while her armored shell protected her from his magic. With all but the troll remaining, Palose stood facing the creature one on one. Looking to its allies either immobilized by magic or fear, it stood looking ready to fight, but refused to rush in to face the mage.
“What is your name?” the young man asked.
“Rorlesk, great wizard,” he replied with a tremor of fear in his deep, gravelly voice.
“How is it that you seem to be living here with these humans from Southwall? If I don’t misunderstand, you appear to be helping them while they hide you.”
Glancing to the others with worry, Rorlesk grudgingly answered the question, “When the attack on Windmeer failed, Cecil and Beebee were able to dig through the outer wall so we could escape. There were others with us as we fled, but they were captured or killed. We came to this farm and hid. When Farmer Dielyus found us, he took us in and let us live here as long as we helped him with the farm.
“Are you going to take us back?” the creature asked looking regretful. They seemed to have enjoyed living on the farm being productive. Seeing the viles so docile, Palose wondered if the different environment was bringing something new out of the soldiers of Ensolus. Before the emperor had subdued and made these beasts serve him, their races must have lived much like humans do once upon a time. They didn’t originate as just soldiers after all, though many were natural warriors.
In the face of the question, the mage wondered what he should do. His curiosity was making him wonder if he should leave this experiment as it was. Also having creatures like these where he knew he could retrieve them might have its possibilities in the future.
Snapping his fingers for effective drama, the mage released the shadows holding the two goblins. Freed of his magic, the two little green creatures scrambled back into the barn forgetting their knives in their fear of the magician who had defeating all eight of their group in seconds alone. They did as he expected. Goblins were deadly in numbers, but alone they were often lacking courage. It was to be expected of beings half the size of a human or orc. When you were small and lacked the power to win a fight, hiding and running were the best strategies.
“Dielyus!” he shouted making the farmer start fearfully. The man had to be somewhat brave to have dealt with these creatures without fear, and he proved that by walking from the porch even as his wife and daughter tried to hold onto the man.
“Yes, great wizard,” the man said falling to his knees half a dozen paces from Palose. The mage wanted to smile at all these claims of his ascendance to the level of wizard. It had been his wish as a cadet to have that kind of power instead of being a weaker battle mage.
“Are you willing to hide these creatures as long as they continue to work and help until such a time that I or one of my wizards returns for them?”
Nodding vigorously, Dielyus answered, “They are good workers, my lord. My family has grown attached to them in this time and enjoys their presence here. Few men of Southwall will pass by here, so they will remain safe if you wish it.”
He turned to look at the troll keeping his distance and standing almost as still as a statue. “Rorlesk, you seem to be their leader now. Keep them in line and help the farmer. I will check in on you from time to time and call on you to return at a later date.”
The troll dropped to his knees and bowed his head, yielding to the mage like a faithful puppy. “Yes, lord wizard. We will obey.”
Palose released the orcs and vile from his magic watching those all bow to him similarly to their leader. Power ruled Ensolus and these creatures were still a product of that rule. It would be interesting to see how the simple life of farmers would affect them. Since he had no real reason to bring them back if they were fine where they were, he decided to see where things would go until he needed them someday.
“If it grows too dangerous, there is a fortress in the Dimple Mountains to the west of Windmeer. You would need to sneak past the city and follow the trail to find the mountain, but it might be safe by summer. There are many Southwall soldiers securing the road for now, so it would be dangerous, but if you are careful in a month or more it could work, otherwise wait until a portal wizard like myself returns for you,” the mage cautioned readying his portal spell back to Ensolus.
The light of the small gateway appeared and the mage was gone leaving eight soldiers of Ensolus behind as his personal experiment. If living apart from the emperor and his officers changed these creatures’ spirits, what did that mean for those who might wish to rebel and leave Ensolus behind forever?
His return to the common room of the rented house felt different from normal as he fel
t uncommon warmth for the space. The fireplace was still lit along with a fire in the stove. One of the lanterns had been moved to the back of the room changing the lighting, but as he looked towards the padded couch Palose found Sylvaine looking comfortable with her slippers on the floor and her legs curled up while she reclined reading a book by the light.
Her eyes searched him for wear and only found some dirt from tumbling through the snow that could be seen on his clothes. “You look a little dirty. Did you have a fight?”
Moving to sit on the other end of the sofa, Palose answered with a nod. “I found a troll, two armored viles, three orcs and a pair of goblins living in the barn of a farmer and his family. They were working together while earning their keep on the farm.
“Their leader was the troll and he must have thought I was from Southwall, since they attacked me at first. Once I pacified them, I decided that it wasn’t worth trying to portal them back to Ensolus.”
“You know, unless you have another portal spot into the city, they would have to come through your house,” the girl stated gesturing to the room. She slid her bare feet under his legs and he could feel that they were cold even through his pants. If she was that cold, he wondered why the girl had taken her shoes off in the first place. Her legs were bare to the knees and only her hand holding the hem in place kept the skirt from sliding back to reveal even more. Even so, it opened beneath her raised knees giving him a flash of skin. Finding her legs mesmerizing, the mage barely returned his gaze to her attractive face.
His attention came back to her statement and he nodded. “I think I could have gotten around that point, but you are right that I only have one set point in Ensolus. I’m not sure if it would be worth my time trying to create another or safe even.”
“You could create one in one of the portal chambers since you have been on those teams for months. Though you would need to be somewhat discreet in your placement, so maybe you could create a touchstone from one of the tiles in the floor?” she suggested not appearing concerned over the idea that would be considered a very dangerous gray area for those ruling Ensolus. A rogue warlock using portals for his own personal use and agenda might turn even Acheri and Lanquer against him should they find out about it. Worse he was a resurrection man and under the extra scrutiny that entailed.
Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) Page 26