Sally’s ire rose. What nerve to attack me under Wolfgang’s protection!
He started to turn. In a flash, Sally brought the poker down across Seth’s wrist to shatter bones and tear sinew. The knife clattered to the stone floor.
Seth didn’t scream; instead, he grunted and staggered away from her.
“How dare you come in here like this?” She brandished the poker.
“You are an impostor,” he spat. “You’d harm my master. You’d kill him.”
“I love him!” She didn’t care if she woke the entire world with the admission.
“You only think that. He makes you love him.”
“No, that’s impossible!”
“He won’t look past your beauty, but I know better. You’re a traitor somehow, and I won’t let you hurt him.”
“I’d never hurt him. I love him!”
“You are only a toy to him, but he’s like a son to me. I raised him from birth. You don’t know him like I do!” In spite of his badly-damaged hand, Seth leaped at her.
Sally sidestepped his awkward headlong rush. He crashed into a table which shattered into splinters. Sally swung the poker hard across his back and he fell to the floor to writhe in agony.
“Stay down,” she said, “or I will kill you.”
He glared back over his shoulder. Blood leaked from his mouth and hatred ran rampant across his face. “Fucking traitorous bitch.”
“What is going on here?” thundered a voice. The Archmage appeared out of thin air in the middle of the room.
“Your manservant—” Sally spat the word with vitriol “—came to kill me in my sleep. I was forced to defend myself.” Her eyes became cold slits. “With your permission, my love, I’ll finish what I began.”
The Archmage spoke a single ancient word, and Sally was frozen in place. “You will do no such thing. Seth, is this true?”
Sally strained to argue her case, but even her tongue and jaws were paralyzed. Her eyes began to burn as they dried out.
“Yes it’s true!” cried Seth. “She’s dangerous, my Lord! You said so yourself that you couldn’t see into her mind. Doesn’t that suggest she’s hiding something?”
“Ridiculous,” countered Wolfgang. “Her mind is weak. Her personality fragmented when I took control of her. I couldn’t see into it because there was nothing left to see. All she is now is what I have made her.”
“She is a spy, sent to you by our enemies. Mark my words, if you keep her alive and near you it will be your downfall.” Seth struggled to his feet.
Energy flowed from the Archmage’s hands to envelop Seth’s injuries. “We talked about this, Seth. Don’t make me repeat myself.” His voice hardened. “You know I don’t like that.”
“Thank you, my Lord.” Seth massaged his hand as if it still ached. “I apologize. It won’t happen again.”
Wolfgang smiled. “Oh, Seth. My oldest friend… what would I do without you and your counsel?” He circled Sally as he spoke. “I’ve been watching this one. She is incredibly powerful in her own way, truly one of the Great Powers of this age. Even she hardly begins to suspect the range of her capabilities.” He crossed in front of her again. “She has it within her to defeat each and every one of the defenders that fool Stratocaster can bring to bear. She will be the key to our victory.”
“And afterward? She’s too dangerous to keep around.”
“Perhaps. But she’s very beautiful.” Wolfgang stopped before her. Sally felt a growing horror inside her; something was going wrong. She couldn’t breathe.
“There are many beautiful women, my Lord. And you’ll have your pick of them once this battle is ended.”
“You’re right, Seth. Indeed… I would be lost without you.” Wolfgang waved a hand and Sally collapsed and gasped for air. She was too stunned to immediately bolt for safety. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “Well, we can’t have you remembering that, can we?” He smiled at her, and as his eyes bored into hers, all her fears and doubts vanished and once more she found herself gazing up into the face of the man whom she loved.
“Wolfgang? I’m… I don’t… what are you doing in here?”
He held out a hand to her, which she gratefully accepted. “You had a nightmare, my dear. Seth and I came to make sure you were all right. Are you?”
“I… I think so.” Sally looked around the room. It seemed unfamiliar, even though she knew she’d spent her entire life in it.
“Then back to bed with you. You have a busy day tomorrow.”
Sally let him lead her back to her bed where he tucked her in. She smiled at him as he bent down and kissed her forehead. “Thank you, my love.”
She fell into a deep sleep, punctuated by dreams of red balloons.
When Sally opened her eyes, she saw Wolfgang standing over her with anticipation and eagerness plain on his face. “Good morning, Salena.”
Sally smiled up at him and shyly pulled the blankets up to her chin. “Good morning, my love.”
“There’s time for a quick breakfast before the battle is joined.” He turned his back while Sally left her bed to take refuge behind a dressing screen. She wrapped herself in a heavy cottony robe. She hurriedly braided her hair into a thick rope which hung down the center of her back, and then splashed some water from the jug on her face. Feeling suitably refreshed, she emerged from behind the screen.
Wolfgang beamed at her. “Today we shall take the battle to the enemy. Today the Musician shall fall before us.”
“I can’t wait!” Sally skipped along beside Wolfgang as they made their way from the south tower to the dining hall.
There was no sign of Seth at breakfast, only the Archmage’s ghostly servants which drifted in with food and drink and left as silently as they had come.
After awhile, Wolfgang pushed his plate away. A servant slipped it from the table and vanished. “I’ve done everything in my power to tilt the balance of the battle in our favor,” he began. “Your objective is simple, Salena. You are to spearhead a phalanx of my strongest warriors, leading them directly upon the Musician. The warriors accompanying you will keep opponents away from you while you battle the Musician’s guardians. I have cast a spell that will prevent him from teleporting away. He will have to physically travel away from the region before he can disappear. You will reach him before he can get to that point, and when you do, you will touch him with this.”
A gorgeous, finely-wrought silver bracelet with a large green stone appeared in midair before Sally. She reached up and took it in wonderment. It snapped itself around her wrist with a clack. “What will happen when I do?”
“The two of you will be instantly transported back here. Once he is inside this castle, I can overcome him and bring this conflict to an end.”
“And then we can be together forever,” breathed Sally.
“Yes, of course. Now, it’s time to go. Your armor is waiting for you in your chambers.”
Sally jumped up and dashed over to him to buss his cheek, and then ran like the wind back to her bedchamber to find her armor floating in the middle of the room. She peeled her robe off and tossed it away. A cold breeze from her window made her shiver. She looked out to see dark yellowish storm clouds swirling low over the surrounding plains. Circling winds were kicking up a great cloud of dust. She could see the vehicles and soldiers of the enemy as darker shadows marked by their unnatural lighting. Overhead, the morning sun was a faint, tarnished coin whose glow could barely penetrate the thick overcast cloud cover.
She wiggled into her armor. It wrapped around her like a living thing and fastened its buckles and catches even before she found them with her fingers. She saved the helmet for last, and savored the moment as she placed it over her head. It made her feel powerful and invincible. The spear Wolfgang had made for her floated upright by her bed and called to her with a voice she couldn’t quite hear. Energy crackled around her hands as they closed around the haft. She took a deep breath and turned to face herself in the mirror. She stared at
herself as she tried to understand why the reflection didn’t match her self-image at all. But when she tried to feel for that self-image, to bring it forward from the murky depths of her befuddled memory, it danced tantalizingly out of reach.
No matter, she thought, it is time to go to war.
She made her way through the castle down to the front gate, where she met an honor guard of captured and turned troops. Wolfgang had opted to watch the proceedings from the battlements above. Sally waved up to him. He nodded imperiously at her before turning his attention to the various cantrips he was casting that would enable him to closely monitor the coming battle.
Sally could have sprinted down the path from the castle gate in a few seconds, but it didn’t feel right to her to leave the company of troops behind. Instead, she opted for a quick march. The soldiers fell in behind her and followed her pace exactly. The sound of a hundred feet striking the ground in unison with each step gave her chills.
At the base of the mountain more troops joined her company, and yet more, and within a few minutes she led a full battalion of the seemingly endless hordes of the Archmage’s creations. Human soldiers gave way to goblins with wickedly-barbed short swords and the larger orcs with their maces and scimitars. Spaced evenly around the edges of the group were trolls wielding heavy clubs. A flight of dragons and gryphons circled overhead. Sally felt completely protected.
Something in the helmet she wore pointed her unerringly in the direction of the Musician. She could feel him out there as he prepared magics of his own to use against her and her army. She smiled at the thought of him trying to stop her and Wolfgang with his puny power. It would be like a single stem of grass trying to turn the course of a mighty river.
“Your orders, milady?” asked a spectral figure beside her. He would relay her commands to his minions, who would in turn pass them along to the army at large.
“Send a wing ahead to either side. Trolls in the front with orcs and goblins supporting. Force a corridor to the Musician’s personal guard. Use dragons and gryphons to clear enemy vehicles. I want enemy combatants subdued, not killed. Bring them back to the castle where they will be re-educated. All human troops are to stay with me because the enemy will be less likely to fire upon their own. A sizable portion of the main force must remain within the phalanx as we move further into enemy territory. We cannot allow ourselves to be cut off from the castle.”
“And what of the Musician’s personal guard?” asked the specter.
“I will deal with them myself. Return to my side when you have passed along my orders.”
The figure bowed to her and dissipated into nothingness. Moments later, two wedges of her army pushed forward against the enemy lines. She heard the guns roar and saw orcs and goblins fall. The trolls’ heavy armor and thick skins were proof against the bullets of the opposing force, but she couldn’t afford to take too many losses of her line soldiers.
“Air support,” she said. “Clear those lines.”
Dragons and gryphons wheeled overhead, then streaked for the distant points. Enemy soldiers ducked and dove for cover as the airborne monsters rushed in upon them. The dragons spewed flame and the gryphons slashed with claws and fangs.
The enemy broke ranks in disarray from the swift air attack, and Sally’s troops rushed in. They overwhelmed the soldiers and relieved them of their unnatural firearms. Trolls crushed the rifles and pistols into unrecognizable shapes, while orcs and goblins subdued their opponents and passed them back to the rear guard where they would be taken to the castle.
The offensive strike moved forward rapidly, and Sally was pleased. Her troops formed a protective shell around her and she stayed untouched as they pressed forward and headed toward the shining figure of the Musician in the distance. His personal guard surrounded him as her own force drew closer. She felt her heart pound in anticipation of combat. The noise of battle around her deepened in intensity and she could feel the Archmage’s magic in the air.
She saw the opening for which she’d been waiting. The world seemed to stop around her, and she moved.
Sally ran through the break in the enemy soldiers and swung her spear left and right. Every time it touched an opponent, that person fell, stunned from the powerful magic. She could see the Musician as he stood on the back of a vehicle, unafraid of the arrows and spears of the Archmage’s army; they flashed into nothingness within a few yards of him. He played his nefarious instrument and used it to blast her troops into columns of ash. Beside him, a petite woman with dark hair fired a rifle, and each time she did one of her soldiers would drop. Overhead fought two more of his protectors. With guns and blasts of electricity, they carved a path through the army. Two more stood their ground below, a smaller man with a rifle and a giant boy with only his fists. The boy fought like a wild dog and seemed oddly familiar to her. Somehow she knew that she had faced him before, and that he was exceptionally dangerous.
Sally didn’t hesitate to engage the guardians. She ducked underneath the gunfire of the man dressed in blue and brought her spear soundly across his temple. His feet flew out from under him and he crashed to the ground, unconscious. Before he had fully settled, she was already flanking the boy in gray who frightened her. He swung a leg at her. She leaped lightly over it as her spear whistled around in a tight arc. The flat of the head connected with the boy’s ribs and flared brightly with the impact. He staggered and dropped to his knees.
Using his body as a ladder, Sally put a foot on his shoulder and jumped high into the air, flipping over a burst of lightning from the warrior-woman in black and white. She brought the spear up in a rising arc, catching one foot with its tip. As the lightning-caster fell, Sally twisted her own body in midair and used the falling woman’s body to push herself even higher. She came down on the back of the winged woman. In a swift maneuver, she reached around the woman’s head and pressed the haft of the spear against her throat. The winged woman slipped from the air, unconscious, which allowed Sally to tumble forward and land upon the vehicle’s engine compartment. Her bracelet glowed with emerald light as she reached for the Musician.
“No!” cried the dark-haired woman next to him, and she grasped his arm. Sally felt a hand close around her ankle as she stretched out her hand and brushed the Musician’s leg with the bracelet.
With a swirling sensation of rapid movement, she materialized in Wolfgang’s Great Hall. Besides the Musician, the transporting magic had also brought the dark-haired woman and the boy in gray, who still held her ankle.
The heavy wooden shutters framing the windows of the hall slammed shut, and the ironclad doors at either end swung closed with a resounding boom. The torches in the wall sconces and the candelabra in the center of the large table jumped to life and filled the hall with flickering firelight.
Wolfgang’s voice spoke a single word of power and paralyzed everyone except Sally. The Archmage drifted out from behind a pillar. He floated several inches above the floor. Sally’s heart swelled with love for him and she moved beside him and wrapped her arms around one of his legs. He smiled down at her.
“You’ve done well, my dear. You shall be rewarded.” His eyes narrowed. “But first, these minor, trivial annoyances will be dealt with.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Hit the bastards where it hurts and then kick them while they’re down.”
-Lady Athena’s advice to Lionheart upon taking charge of Just Cause
August, 2004
Rugby, North Dakota
Wolfgang gestured and elevated the three prisoners to their feet. Sally smiled to see the three of them straining against the magic. Wolfgang motioned again and unlimbered their mouths. The three prisoners began yelling and cursing at him. “Silence,” he whispered and although their mouths moved, no sound issued forth.
“Quickly, my Lord.” Seth stepped from the shadows. “There is no time to waste. Kill Kramer, and take your rightful place as the Heir to All Magic.”
Wolfgang waved at him with serene indulgenc
e. “All in good time, my old friend. First we’ll have a bit of sport with them.” He gazed fondly down at Sally, her arms still wrapped around his leg. “What do you think, my dear? Shall we amuse ourselves with the others first?”
“Whatever you wish, my love.”
The large blond youth stopped straining against his unseen bonds upon hearing Sally’s quiet reply. A look of horror crossed his face.
“What’s this?” The boy’s reaction had not gone unnoticed by Wolfgang. “Can it be you have feelings for her? She has given herself completely over to me, boy.”
“C-completely?” the boy whispered, his voice audible once more with Wolfgang’s permission.
The Archmage only laughed at his discomfort. “He believes that you love him, and he still loves you in spite of whatever you may do. Salena, my dear, I think we’ll start with this poor, disillusioned youth.” His voice turned ugly, but not to Sally’s ears. “Take up your spear.”
Sally stepped over to where her spear hovered motionless and took tight hold of it.
“My Lord, what are you doing?” Seth’s voice was full of misgivings.
“Amusing myself, and you’ll mind your tongue, Seth.”
Seth drifted back into the shadows to grumble to himself.
“What would you have me do, my love?” Sally looked up at Wolfgang.
He waved his fingers toward the muscular blond youth. The boy staggered and nearly fell to the floor before regaining his balance. He flexed his fists uneasily, unsure of what to do now he had been freed from enchantment.
A smile devoid of humor crossed Wolfgang’s face. “Toy with him. Hurt him. It will please me.”
Sally glared at the nervous boy. “Anything for you.”
“Sally?” asked the boy uncertainly.
She charged at him with her spear whirling traceries of blue energy in its wake.
Just Cause Universe 2: The Archmage Page 23