The Emperor's Mage

by Clark Bolton

  With a scrunched face, she shook her head until Narween backed off enough for her to sit up. “Aghhh…what happened?”

  “You almost died,” Narween told her. “We gave you the restorative potion.”

  She was sitting on the little bamboo mat the brothers had placed here, and now had a pounding headache. A concerned Bua-Nap was sitting nearby, which made her wonder what had happened to his brother.

  “Where is Rau?” she asked as she leaned against the wall.

  “Here, Fu-Sa” came a voice she took to be back toward the common room. “Working on a possible solution since the last one failed.”

  She furrowed her brow, and tried to think what he could possibly have in mind. The notes she gave him mentioned no other technique, she was sure. Now she could hear splashing sounds, and curses, coming from him, which only confused her more. Bua-Nap soon went to join him.

  Eventually, Narween had her lay down to rest, while the brothers went about their secretive task. After a time, she heard one of them approach, so she sat back up and found her head much clearer now.

  “This is…speculative,” Rau-Nap told her as he set down a large bag of what she guessed to be flopping fish. “How much time it will buy, I don’t know.”

  She glared at the squirming bag for a while, and so started piecing together his possible solution. “You want me to put them in the ward’s path.”

  “It will end the red and black thread for a time, I’m sure.”

  She couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it. “How long? I mean…you can’t know…right?”

  “I can’t, Fu-Sa,” he admitted somberly, “and I can think of no way to test it without you holding the threads.”

  She closed her eyes to block out the terror that was creeping in. Guessing she’d almost died a short time ago, she thought of how that could have been disastrous for Ich-Mek. She also found herself imagining a distraught Lu-Pok, which made her heart race and her stomach churn at the same time.

  “Ughhhh,” she moaned as she let Narween help her up. “Okay, let’s get ready.”

  “Fu-Sa!” Narween objected loudly,“we don’t have another potion.”

  “It didn’t bring her back to life, if that is what you think,” Rau-Nap insisted.

  Waving everyone into silence, Yi-La then stared at the wards for a very long time before starting to lay out precise instructions to Narween, who would have to shove her through at the right moment, which would be just after the red and black thread dissipated.

  Casting the pocket cantrip again, Yi-La had Narween hug her tightly from behind, with instructions to shove hard on her command. With bag in hand, Narween did as instructed. Hoping now that all the fish were still alive, Yi-La reached out with her ring hand to once again grasp a set of threads.

  This time she bound the emerald and the azure thread, and so left the red and black thread separate. Once the two were thoroughly braided, she gently pushed them toward the distortion created by the cantrip. She held her breath until she was sure they weren’t going to suddenly snap like last time.

  “Okay, get ready!” she told Narween. “Now push the bag into the red thread…can you see it?”

  “Yessss!” Narween hissed as she slowly pushed out the bag in front of them.

  Snap!

  Chapter 30 – Yi-La

  The sound of the arcane-thread snapping was slightly quieter than last time, though Yi-La really wasn’t sure she remembered the sound at all. The red and black thread was certainly gone now from the small section of space just in front of them.

  “Now!” she cried as she slammed her eyes shut.

  With a grunt, both of them fell to the floor just past the ward. Fearful, they both quickly scooted and rolled further from it.

  “I thought you were going to push me through!” an angry Yi-La hissed as she climbed slowly to her feet.

  “You grabbed me, Fu-Sa,” Narween exclaimed.

  The two then calmed down a little, and finally hugged each other tentatively as they eyed their surroundings suspiciously. Oddly, there was no sign of the ward from this side, and the only light was from a glow cantrip on the bag of fish.

  “Are they dead?” Yi-La asked as Narween lifted up the bag a little to make better use of the light.

  Deciding it really didn’t matter if the fish were dead or not, she turned slowly around to figure out what to do next. Fearful now of being discovered by the yellow-guard, Yi-La could only bring herself to cast another glow cantrip.

  “Just cantrips for now…okay?” Yi-La asked.

  “Yes, Fu-Sa.”

  “Don’t call me that here,” Yi-La suggested. “Someone might hear and…” She didn’t want to think about what would happen if Master Gang, or worse yet Master Sey-Laht, had to come rescue her again should someone discover them. Turning to the blank wall, which both of them suspected was the direction they had come from, they began searching with their hands.

  “I give up,” Yi-La declared after a time. “This has got to be the way.” Looking to where the bag of fish had left a wet trail confirmed this. “We’re alright!” she called out as loudly as she dared.

  “Do you think he can hear us?” Narween asked.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think we went more than a few steps…and I can’t see any arcane-energy at all coming through this wall.”

  “An arcane-gate?” Narween suggested.

  “Maybe,” Yi-La replied as she approached the wall again and this time attempted to write a glow-rune on it with a piece of chalk from her pocket.

  She found she couldn’t get the chalk to stick to the wall. Frustrated, she tried different runes, then handed the chalk to Narween to let her try. All attempts failed.

  “Why does this work?” Narween then asked when she successfully drew on a side wall of the corridor.

  Yi-La stared perplexed at the wall until she realized suddenly what it likely was. “It’s an illusion,” she told her friend as she closed her eyes then reached out slowly to confirm this.

  Her hands still had no effect on the wall, so deciding it was a substantially powerful illusion they began preparing to move on. The only real decision was the bag of fish, which they quickly decided they didn’t want to carry.

  “I think it is not going to be here long,” Yi-La said after taking half a step down the tunnel and spotting a rat that was tasting the air at the edge of their light.

  “Fu-Sa, we are in the Forbidden-Gardens, aren’t we?” Narween asked just above a whisper as she too realized the significance of the animal.

  Nothing ever came into the lower-library that wasn’t hauled in from above, the brothers had informed them; not even a spider or a rat. Rau-Nap thought it was due to the wards being unforgiving toward any living thing. But Yi-La was now thinking it was the illusionary wall.

  With distaste she scooted by the rat, trying hard to convince herself it was a positive sign. The tiled walls of the tunnel were in great disrepair, they soon discovered, and other than signs of small vermin there was nothing to make them believe anyone had been down here in ages. Rubble was common on the floor of the tunnel, forcing them at times to scramble over great mounds of it.

  When the tunnel constricted to the point where they had to turn sideways in order to squeeze through, they became concerned it would end. But instead of ending, the tunnel’s ceiling began to extend ever upward. Soon they felt like they were at the bottom of a well as the ceiling was beyond the reach of their glow cantrips. The occasional sound of dripping water didn’t help dispel the notion.

  “Should we climb up?” Yi-La asked as she came to a halt. She was getting filthy now from contact with the walls, and upward seemed ever more appealing.

  Narween thought it best to keep going. “It’s too high to climb,” she insisted.

  “I can help with that,” Yi-La replied with a little guilt in her voice.

  Reaching into her pocket, she produced a small book. It was the first in a set of three of Master Gang’s spell-books.
She knew what they meant to her master and had told herself she would be extra careful with it. This book contained dozens of spells, arranged by difficulty.

  “Can recall the levitate spell, I think,” she told Narween as she handed her the book, “and this has it if I can’t.”

  Narween looked truly sick when she saw what it was. “You deserved Lu-Pok, Fu-Sa,” she scolded. “Master Gang will send you away.”

  “Not if I return it without mud on it,” Yi-La replied shamefully. “And don’t remind me about Lu-Pok…at least, not down here.”

  The thrill of this adventure must be making her heady, Yi-La decided as thoughts of Lu-Pok sent her mind wandering strangely. It warmed her for just a moment to think of his handsome form, until suddenly the chill of this place came flooding back in.

  “There are open spells,” Narween informed her as the girl went on paging through the book. “Fire too!”

  “Shhhhh!” Yi-La told her as she took the book back. “There are people above us, remember!”

  “Hope so,” Narween replied meekly.

  Careful what you wish for, Yi-La thought as she stared upwards. Tired of not seeing what was up there, she cast a glow cantrip up as far as she could. This revealed some odd-looking structures that seemed to be hanging down above them. Next she cast a light spell, which flooded the scene above them.

  “Ahhh!” they both squealed when they caught sight of a warrior-like statue, which for a moment seemed real.

  The statue was wedged far above them and was facing down at them with an angry face. They could see now that other discarded objects were up there, including a lot of stone rubble. Guessing the whole mess formed a new floor above them, they began searching for a hole to climb up into. Seeing nothing, they moved on.

  “There’s nowhere to go,” Yi-La said in a near panic when a mound of rubble as high as the ceiling blocked their path.

  “We can’t go back!” Narween complained when Yi-La attempted to push her back the way they had come. “The wall won’t let us by!”

  “I haven’t forgotten the wall!” Yi-La replied irritably. “Now, back up some.”

  She tried to convince herself that if there were rats down here, then there must be a way up. But with Narween blocking her retreat so easily it was difficult to see how they could make use of any rat-hole.

  “We should eat the fish,” Narween suggested sadly again.

  They had been down here for countless hours now, they were sure, and still hadn’t found a way to progress forward. Just sitting in the tunnel with stomachs rumbling worked to bring up the subject of fish frequently. Thoughts of rats munching alongside them was keeping them from going back.

  Finally, Yi-La relented. “Let’s go back to the fish.”

  Narween needed no encouragement, asking while they walked, “Can you cook them?”

  “I think so,” Yi-La muttered as she thought about the spells in the spell-book. “There is a flaming-hands spell…and a fire-wall spell.”

  “We don’t have any pots,” Narween reminded her.

  Yi-La rolled her eyes in the darkness as she led on. Sure enough, when they got to where the bag of fish lay, they found it swarming with rats. They watched enviously for a while, then walked far enough away so they didn’t have to watch, before sitting down again.

  “Compel.” Yi-La muttered the name of the spell as she paged through the small book.

  Each spell had a small preamble that described its applications and limitations. “…For the weak-minded,” she told Narween then glanced toward the direction of the rats.

  “You should try it on them,” Narween suggested as she sat hugging her knees.

  Yi-La was thinking the same thing, so began making herself as comfortable as possible in order to memorize the spell. It took many minutes, and when she thought she had the hang of it she stood and went to stand over the rats.

  “Find sunlight!” she commanded after casting the spell on the whole group of eight or nine rats.

  The effect was startling: four of the rats quickly leaped away from the fish to run past her down the tunnel into the darkness. Caught on the back foot, it took the girls a few moments to realize they should be running after them. With glow cantrips lighting their palms they ran to catch up.

  “I knew it!” Yi-La growled when she caught up with the rats just as they began scurrying up the high wall to then disappear around the statue.

  The rats hardly slowed at all as they climbed, making it look trivial to them. The girls, however, looked at one another in defeat. Knowing what needed to be done next, Yi-La took out the book again to refresh her memory of the levitation spell.

  “You want to try it?” Yi-La asked of Narween, who she knew had been studying other copies of this very spell.

  “I’ve never cast it,” Narween admitted.

  It was a stall tactic, anyway, Yi-La admitted to herself as she began to cast. The rush of arcane-energy made her feel invincible for a tiny moment. Repeating the spell on Narween, Yi-La then rose up slowly with her hands easily running along both walls simultaneously.

  Narween soon joined her near the top, and here they began searching for rat-holes. Finding some good candidates, they probed and prodded with their hands and arms until they concluded they would never fit through any of them.

  “Keep trying,” Yi-La told her friend as she floated back down.

  Pulling out the book, she then wedged herself comfortably between the two walls to look for a possible solution. The only thing she could think to try was a dig spell; it was noted as being able to move dirt only, which was why she hadn’t tried it yet. The rubble blocking the far end of the tunnel was mainly decaying brick and stone, and above her now was the same.

  “Move over here,” she told Narween as she levitated back up, following another long spell memorization session.

  When they were both together along the ceiling, and as far away as the spell would allow, she cast the dig spell. She soon learned that she needed to jab the air in the direction she wanted to dig. As she did this, rubble began to slowly pelt down onto the floor of the tunnel below.

  CRASH!

  A thunderous roar followed the fall of the statue and massive amounts of rubble that had been wedged around it. Dust then billowed up from below to obscure everything. Coughing and spitting, the girls had to wait what felt like an eternity before they could inspect the hole they made. Glancing down, Yi-La was concerned they had blocked the tunnel in the direction of the fish, but thought perhaps maybe they could get through if need be.

  A minute passed as the two peeked into and around the gently crumbling shaft the spell had produced. “I don’t see any sunlight,” Narween said after a time.

  “That’s a good thing,” Yi-La said with confidence. “We don’t want anyone to find us.”

  With that said, she began floating up into the narrow shaft. Here she found herself in a different type of tunnel: it had occasional archways, and looked in much better shape than the one below. Calling Narween up, they began exploring what turned out to be four or five directions to go.

  “Let’s try the rats again,” Yi-La suggested when they caught sight of another one.

  Casting the compel spell again, she sent the rat to find sunlight. They had no idea if this was one of the former rats they had compelled, but guessed it would make no difference. Following it led, disappointingly, to a clay pipe that disappeared up into the ceiling.

  “It’s too small!” Yi-La complained after watching Narween levitate up to inspect where the pipe joined the ceiling.

  “No, it’s bigger up here, Fu-Sa.”

  “Shush! Don’t call me that.” surprisingly, Narween shushed her right back.

  After a few moments of silence, Narween whispered down to her, “I hear something up there!”

  Exhausted and beyond filthy, the two stared up through the large wooden grate above at what they were sure was sunlight. They had used the dig spell countless times, along with big rocks and lead pipes to systema
tically claw and force their way between tunnels, until the discovery of runny smelly sewage. Ignoring unidentifiable, and unmentionable, objects in the flow, they had found bits of cloth and even hair that led them to believe they were finally getting near the surface.

  “We should wait until dark,” Narween suggested in a hushed tone.

  “You wait until dark!” Yi-La hissed as she caught her breath and tried hard to bring the levitation spell to mind, finding it difficult.

  When she did get the spell cast on the grate she found it wouldn’t budge. In a panic the two pounded and pushed until their hands started to bleed.

  “It’s fastened down, I think,” Narween declared as they sat down in defeat.

  The thought gave Yi-La an idea. Open cantrips worked on many simple fastening mechanisms besides latches and locks. Her first attempt with the spell yielded nothing, but with some coaching she got Narween casting the cantrip as well. After many spells the grate seemed to be loosening, and then finally they were able to levitate it up enough to slide it out of the way.

  The two collapsed on the sides of the shaft with head and shoulders out now in the luxurious open air. Fortunately, they appeared to be surrounded by well-manicured bushes, and so no one noticed the two.

  “Not sure where we are,” Yi-La admitted as they started crawling on their hands and knees through the bushes.

  They could see several small palaces, but nothing to identify whose they might be. Lady Me-Ta’s was the largest, she knew, so they went about trying to locate that one. Seeing many pathways leading in and out of the garden they were in, Yi-La realized they couldn’t simply crawl around and expect to go unnoticed.

  Taking the time to clean themselves up with cleanse cantrips and mend cantrips, they found themselves ready enough, but hardly dressed appropriately. Yi-La looked the worst with her plain gray robes, and Narween looked little better with her partial Seechen outfit.

  Yi-La laid back in the dried leaves to rest her eyes for a moment, declaring, “I’m going to memorize a very difficult spell.”