The Emperor's Mage

by Clark Bolton

  __________________________

  Ignoring Narween’s weeping sounds, Yi-La worked to chase everyone out of the Chey library. This involved only three people: two Seechen librarians and one browser. Returning to Narween, she found the girl had again pulled her hood up fully. Her veil, however, looked ripped beyond repair. Yi-La told herself that she could easily fix it with a mend cantrip – she had picked one up lately from her master’s collection – but figured it would only be encouraging Narween into thinking she was still a Seechen.

  “Where is the seal?” she asked the tearful Narween, who only shook her head.

  Having no other recourse but to wander the library, she then thought of casting a location or a detection spell. To her knowledge, Owesek seals always radiated some magic, and she had become dependent as of late on such spells in order to locate things her master desired; the myriad of alchemy instruments, scrolls, and other text she was responsible for required such ingenuity from her.

  Seemingly countless texts lit up after she cast several such cantrips, making her doubt the feasibility of finding the seal this way. Undaunted, she searched until she found what she was looking for. A section of an inner wall was marked with an Owesek seal that looked to have been whitewashed over many times, but this didn’t conceal it from her detection spells.

  Searching the grooved surface of the wall under the seal revealed nothing. Blindly casting the open cantrip she knew at the wall also yielded nothing. Frustrated, she called Narween over to help her. Together they searched the area around the seal.

  “Someone tried to dig through here, Fu-Sa,” Narween announced.

  Sure enough, when Yi-La came to look between the wall and a bookshelf, she too could see the wall had been heavily damaged. Together they struggled to move the shelf out enough to get a better look, and found some shocking signs.

  “Looks like claws,” Yi-La said before she could stop herself. “Sorry…” she said to a very worried Narween, “…I mean it could be claws.”

  “When will it come for me?” Narween asked in a panic as she stared at the deep scars in the wall.

  “Stop it!” Yi-La snapped, then cradled her frightened friend for a minute. “You haven’t learned anything yet. They’re not coming for you!”

  After a short time, Narween calmed down enough to ask, “Do you think they were after someone behind the wall?”

  “Yes,” Yi-La admitted.

  Getting frustrated now, Yi-La went out onto the steps of the building to find the head librarian; he must know something, she figured. Waving him back in when she got his attention, she got the Seechen to hurry back to his post. She made sure he followed her back to the scarred wall.

  “How do you open this, sir?” she demanded to know as she motioned toward the seal.

  The man fidgeted before saying, “I’m sorry, Fu-Sa, I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “You do, I think,” she told him as she glared at him until she saw signs of sweat.

  “Truly, Fu-Sa, I do not know,” he claimed as he knelt with head bowed.

  “Open it!” she commanded boldly. “The Lord Chancellor has granted me permission to enter.”

  “I cannot, Fu-Sa!” the man said with a hint of defiance in his voice. “Only the Mage-Chancellor may do such a thing.”

  “No one else knows how to open this?” she asked skeptically.

  “I do not know, Fu-Sa,” he said as he pressed his forehead to the floor. “Forgive me.”

  “Gods!” she muttered under her breath. Now she had a kneeling bull-headed man and a terrified girl.

  “There must be something to open it, Fu-Sa,” Narween suggested quietly.

  Yi-La nodded her head in agreement. “Master Librarian, is there a key?” she asked the man, who remained unmoving, and now silent, before her.

  She could see that Narween was starting to look a little peeved at the man as well. Thinking for a few moments as she paced slowly about the man, she noticed more glowing texts. That got her thinking that if there was a key that it was likely enchanted as well.

  “Master Librarian…please stand up…and empty your pockets.” She commanded this with as stern a voice as she could muster.

  The man complied, but nothing resembling a key turned up – nor anything that radiated magic. With determination she demanded he take her to his bureau, or whatever it was that he worked from. When the man hesitated a little, she thought perhaps she was onto something.

  “This bell is magic,” she called out to inform Narween. She had found it among the librarian’s writing implements.

  “What does it do, my lord?” Narween asked the librarian in a quiet voice as Yi-La examined the bell.

  “It does not open the door,” the man claimed.

  “Hmm,” Yi-La said skeptically.

  Walking back to where she was sure the door was, she vigorously rang the bell, only to discover it made no noise at all. Though its clapper was intact and swinging freely, the bell refused to ring.

  She could see the man was sweating more with each passing moment, and keeping a close watch on the door. “Sir, is someone coming?” she asked.

  The man looked guiltily at her, and in apparent defeat nodded his head slightly several times. “Forgive me, Fu-Sa,” he pleaded before dropping to his knees again.

  “Stand over there, sir,” she told him irritably as she and Narween stood back from the wall and watched.

  It took many minutes, during which the librarian insisted adamantly that someone would come. Eventually Yi-La got tired of standing, and so sat cross-legged on the floor ten paces from the wall. Finally, a dark speck appeared on the wall at eye-level, and she was sure she would have missed it if not for the fact arcane-energies were pouring out from the spot.

  “We’re being watched,” she whispered to Narween as she nodded toward the wall. “A spyhole, I think, like the lady has in her palace.”

  Yi-La slowly rose to her feet and gave the Librarian a glare before walking over to inspect the wall again. The suspected spyhole was undetectable even from half a pace away, but the arcane-energies it was letting through gave away its exact location.

  “I am Fu-Sa Yi-La, please open the door.” Her command, however, had no effect. Turning to the librarian, she told him, “Master Librarian, tell them who I am.”

  Not even the librarian’s pleas got the door to open, and so both Yi-La and Narween started with the threats. They claimed the Chancellor would be furious if the door wasn’t opened immediately, which they suspected was true. That didn’t work, so they warned they would have Master Gang come do it, but that still didn’t work.

  Finally, with a sense of purpose, Narween walked up to the door, and had Yi-La show her exactly where the spyhole lay. Then Narween cupped her hands over the hole and whispered into it for a few moments. After stepping back, Narween called the librarian over and whispered something in the man’s ear, which caused the rather anxious man to slowly drop to his knees with head bowed.

  Shortly after that, the door opened a small amount to reveal a very determined man, who now had his foot and knee firmly wedged in the crack of the open door to prevent them from entering. “What do you wish, Fu-Sa?” the man asked with no hint of capitulation in his voice.

  “You’re one of the brothers?” Yi-La asked.

  “I am.”

  “The Mage-Chancellor has told us of you and your brother,” Yi-La said with a respectful bow. “Narween is here...” She then cut her statement short as she recalled who was kneeling beside her; the less who heard the better. In a near whisper she told the man, “She will soon require protection.”

  Narween looked away from the door and shook her head almost imperceptibly before muttering, “No, Fu-Sa.”

  “Yes!” Yi-La affirmed loudly for both the man and Narween to hear. “I am a dragon-mage…” she warned the man behind the door. “If you do not let us enter I will summon Master Gang.”

  There was a long pause as the man glared out at them. Then he asked, “You w
ill not hurt the librarian?”

  “Nooo!” Yi-La replied with disgust.

  The man then nodded his head before stepping back to reveal a single lit torch behind him. It illuminated a circular stairwell that the man then motioned for them to step down into.

  “What is your name, sir?” Yi-La asked the man who was now going through the trouble of sliding a huge bolt of what looked to be stone into place to secure the door, which looked to be made of a thick stone as well. Then, to her astonishment, he cast a significant locking spell on it.

  “I am Bua-Nap,” the man replied somberly as he took up the torch to get a better look at her. “May I see the ring, Fu-Sa?”

  Not wishing to argue about etiquette in, of all places, a dark stairwell, she obligingly held up her hand for him to gaze at. His eyes widened at the sight of the ring, and seemed disappointed when she lowered her hand again.

  As the man began leading them down the wide stairs, Yi-La turned to Narween to ask softly, “What did you whisper to him?”

  Narween winced a little in the receding torchlight. “I told him you were a dragon-mage,” she admitted.

  “It took that long to say that?” Yi-La asked as she thought about how long Narween had whispered through the spyhole.

  “…And that you would execute the librarian in your master’s name,” Narween added with a pleading look for forgiveness.

  “Oh…” Yi-La said as she felt her stomach churn. “That’s why he was worried about the librarian.”

  Her two eunuch friends had once confided to her that quick executions were not unheard of in the inner-city. She shook her head sadly at the thought, and couldn’t imagine anyone carrying out an order from her to do so, nor of her ever giving such an order.

  After a long, slow descent, they stood at one end of a dark tunnel. It was rounded, yet wide enough for two to walk abreast. Bua-Nap had waited until they got a short look around before heading into the tunnel. They hadn’t gotten far before both her and Narween began silently pointing out to each other great gouges in the wall, very similar to those in the library.

  With some confidence, Yi-La asked their guide, “The Scarm have made it this far?”

  Bua-Nap paused for a moment, then lit up the remaining length of the tunnel with a light spell. “At least once,” he admitted before starting to walk again, “but this door they cannot breach.”

  One of the larger Owesek seals Yi-La had seen marked this roundish door as special. She took it as a good sign that there were no marks upon it. Meeting his gaze, she then waited for him to open it.

  “The ring can open this door,” Bua-Nap said as he appeared to admire it.

  Yi-La wasn’t sure if that was a statement or a question. “I think you need to do it, sir,” she told him apprehensively. Then she felt the need to reaffirm with him, so told him again, “The Chancellor sent us here.”

  Bua-Nap nodded knowingly. “The Chancellor sent me here as well.”

  She wanted to ask him about that fact, but he had already started to cast yet another spell. Trying to be alert for betrayal in this dark and unknown place, she did her best to follow the arcane-script that rolled so well off his tongue.

  “Admittance,” she said to a wide-eyed Narween as she followed the man through the door. “That’s what he cast.” She could guess Narween was thinking such things could be taught to her now.

  Beyond the door was a small chamber barely large enough for the three of them to stand in. Bua-Nap then wasted no time in closing the door behind them. This left a rather plain-looking wooden door as their only option.

  Opening the door slowly, Bua-Nap called out, “Brother, we have visitors.”

  The man on the other side was obviously caught off guard, for he had a hand full of what Yi-La took to be rice-paper. After a worried glance, the man quickly set his load down.

  “This is Rau-Nap, Fu-Sa,” their guide declared a little reluctantly.

  “Fu-Sa?” the man exclaimed in surprise, then appeared to turn whiter than his already pale complexion.

  When his brother nodded his head in guarded affirmation, and then gestured toward Yi-La’s ring hand, Rau-Nap took a moment to look before bowing respectfully to her. Then the two men stared unwelcomingly at the two girls. A long uncomfortable silence ensued until Narween asked to sit at one of the tables.

  “Of course,” Rau-Nap replied as he gave them a strained smile.

  The brothers then put their heads together in order to whisper back and forth. Yi-La let them be, but kept a watchful eye on them. Narween, on the other hand, was looking about the room with wide eyes.

  The smell of mold and other damp things struck Yi-La’s nose as she looked around the low room with its collection of furniture. There were tables, several chairs, cabinets and shelves, all forming a great clutter that required anyone wishing to walk across it to twist and turn to squeeze through.

  Both the men had the same disheveled look as the room, and looked remarkably similar in nearly all respects, which seemed to confirm that they were brothers. Yi-La quickly found other facts to draw her attention when she realized much of the room was glowing from the detection spells she still had active.

  Compared to her master’s residence there were few glowing texts, but still there were a considerable number. Clearly some were spell-scrolls, and others were enchanted tomes. If the place wasn’t so cluttered she would have been more impressed, she told herself.

  “We thought you might be the Mage-Chancellor,” Rau-Nap admitted after a time.

  “No…” Yi-La replied. “He is away from the mage-quarter right now. I swore I would take Narween here before he left.”

  The brothers looked at each other with concern. “Why swear such a thing, Fu-Sa?”

  Narween shook her head at them. “You are not being respectful,” she scolded.

  The two looked unashamed by the comment, and went back to waiting for Yi-La to answer the question. It was Yi-La’s second major encounter, since leaving Key-Tar-Om, with people who seemed unwilling to accept her. The first had been Pesnu-Jok, and that thought now made her wonder if he still lived.

  “Tell me if you serve the Mage-Chancellor first,” she replied. “If you do, then I will share what I can.”

  “We serve His Lordship,” Bua-Nap insisted.

  “And the dragon-mages?” Narween pressed.

  Yi-La could tell her friend was more at ease with these two than she was. Having been a member of the Seechen for a year made Narween a better judge of Seechen character, she hoped.

  “Of course,” Rau-Nap replied. “But there can be consequences for what we do.”

  Yi-La met his gaze for only a moment before admitting, “I cannot tell my master, if that is what worries you. He wouldn’t approve of all this.” She gestured around her to emphasize what she meant.

  “We are aware, Fu-Sa. But know we did not chose to be here,” Bua-Nap told her in a serious tone. “The Chancellor hid us here for protection.”

  “Against the Scarm?” Yi-La dared to ask as her heart skipped a beat.

  “Yes.”

  She felt the need to lower her voice as she asked, “Have you seen them?”

  “Briefly,” Bua-Nap admitted as his eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment.

  Yi-La wanted badly to drop the subject, but felt compelled to ask, “What did the Scarm look like?”

  At that moment Rua-Nap got up to serve them tea, leaving his brother to reply, “Ohhh…not much that we saw, Fu-Sa. About the size of a man…and quick.”

  “It killed a Seechen that got in the way…some palace guards as well,” Rua-Nap admitted sadly as he poured. “We thought it would be our end, but then that night the Chancellor…he brought us here.”

  They grudgingly gave her more details about their surroundings, eventually seeming to give up most of their resistance to her authority. It turned out they weren’t the first to occupy this place: others had been here, but it was vacant when the two had been sentenced here, or so they claimed. For six
teen or seventeen years now they had remained here in the dark, never once stepping past the door in the library.

  “We thought you might be the Mage-Councilor,” Bua-Nap reiterated after a time.

  “He was here recently?” she asked as she did her best to hide her great interest in the subject.

  “Yes just…well, recently. Can’t always tell the days, Fu-Sa,” he said apologetically.

  “Why did he come?”

  “A potion, Fu-Sa,” Bua-Nap replied without hesitation. “One un-makeable…up there. Least not by Seechen,” he quickly added. “Takes more skill than allowed.”

  “A restorative potion,” Rau-Nap volunteered as he watched her closely. Yi-La got the impression he was testing her knowledge of alchemy. She knew her master kept such potions for his person use. Master Gang never spoke of the health-magic she knew he practiced, and when she did witness its use, it made her ponder how old he truly was. More than a century, she was sure.

  Why Chancellor Pesnu-Jok wanted the potion they didn’t know, only that it was crucial for them to be able to provide it. Looking now at their limited set of alchemy tools, she was impressed they were able to do so.

  “You said you’d been here seventeen years?” she asked, to change the subject.

  “About that long, Fu-Sa.”

  She glanced over at their collection of spell-scrolls, then asked, “Who instructs you?”

  Rau-Nap perked up and then admitted with pride, “No one does, Fu-Sa. There are notes here from long ago, and other scrolls from which we glean what we can.”

  “Chancellor Pesnu-Jok doesn’t help?”

  “Not directly. The Chancellor before him helped us considerably. Since then we accept what task the Lord Chancellor commands of us.”

  Yi-La asked what tasks that might be, but could tell by their looks and their silence that she had overstepped her trust with them. They had obviously gotten caught up in the lure of magecraft, and the small part of the true-path they had glimpsed. It was sad to think they hadn’t known they would be forced to remain down here, perhaps forever. When a thought came to her she felt compelled to ask them about the former chancellor.