Certain comments from Acheri had revealed the princess’s possible influence on where Sylvaine’s squad had been sent and when. If Acheri was jealous of his relationship with the other girl, then revealing that she still lived might only bring her another death. No one had brought back someone killed twice as far as he knew. Most resurrection men were killed for a reason and no one would miss them, but he would miss Sylvaine.
“I am sorry that you need to hide, though Dorgred and Wendle have to train in secret as well. We could just go somewhere through one of my gates. I have a couple scenic points I left just for enjoyment on my travels that would be quiet.”
Sylvaine’s smile turned into a wicked grin as she asked, “And would we be alone?”
Feeling his skin heat slightly, the mage had to swallow as he wondered if Sylvaine meant more than he had said. It wasn’t like he was a virgin, but as far as he knew, she was. “I do enjoy our trips to the cities alone, though maybe taking the others from Ensolus isn’t such a bad idea either. Perhaps when the emperor’s demands lessen in the future we will have to think of where to go?”
She nodded as her grin lessened to just the warm smile she seemed to reserve just for him. “You had better get going. The emperor doesn’t like to wait, I am sure.”
“True, but he doesn’t know when I discovered the message, so rushing isn’t necessary. We could spend a little more time together, if you want.”
Pulling his head closer, the girl disappointed him intentionally by kissing him on the cheek. “You had better go. There will be just as much time after as you can take before hand. While you’re gone, maybe I will read over portal magic again, just so you can feel better about me being lazy about my magic training since you saved me.”
Palose sighed even as she pulled away from his hands holding her waist lightly. “Fine, I will see what he wants this time. While I admit his plan to try and sow seeds of discontent might distract King Alain if it gets far enough out of hand, I hardly think that it will destroy his enemies.
“Then there are these portals being destroyed by some other wizards. It’s not like it has never happened before, but it has an odd timing to it with the black ships’ defeat.”
Waving him towards the door, Sylvaine added, “While those points may be true, you know that he has never run into someone as difficult as that mizard you complain about from time to time. If he is the one destroying the gates, doesn’t that make it a bit more important to stop him?”
Stopping with the door pulled open, Palose looked at the girl wishing that he could stay, but he answered her question, “Bas doesn’t really matter. In fact, I don’t really care who wins anymore. If the emperor and King Alain were smart, they would lead the two countries to peace and just learn to get along. It’s been two hundred years. The emperor made his point with the Cataclysm and Southwall proved they deserve to live by the time they built the wall. His fight is with men and women from the past. It is time to move on, but then again I am just as unimportant as Sebastian, so my opinion probably doesn’t matter.”
Whether she had a reply or not the mage closed the door and left.
“Palose, I am glad that you could make it!” Kolban greeted, though he was cloaked in shadows when he entered a midsize meeting room. While it was nowhere near as large as his public rooms like his entertainment hall, the ceilings were high and the walls were about thirty feet apart while from the entry door to the table the emperor sat behind was closer to forty.
Giving the proper bow when he neared, the dark mage informed the emperor, “I was checking the new gate to New Harbor to make sure that the men set the points in a safe place and just returned your highness.”
“Hmm, New Harbor is open as well. We’ll have to assemble a team for the new city then, but that can wait.” He gestured towards three men with magical power standing in cloaks and the special clothing of the wizard hunters. Two orcs with cracks in their armor knelt off to the side with four guardsmen near them as if the creatures were either a threat or perhaps on the verge of being put to death instead.
“These warlocks were part of the team sent to Sardon to investigate our holdings there and to search for the portal wizard who closed the gate near Banosh. We had to assume that if one was closed the wizard would probably find the one in Parik and Sardon was the most likely town they would pass through if they used a ship.”
Pointing at the warlocks, who looked fearfully at the shadows masking the boy’s appearance from them, Kolban ordered, “Tell him what you told me.”
The man in the center looked to be twice Palose’s age and still in the prime of his life. His magic was very good, though not exceptional as expected of someone who had been sent to test the rival wizard. Swallowing hard, the warlock started to recant what he knew, “We entered Sardon to go speak to the mayor and guard captain to make sure that they kept an eye out for enemy wizards. Instead, we were only halfway to the mayor’s when a small team of wizards stumbled into us.
“They looked as surprised as we were to just run into each other, but when our orcs moved to attack, they competently met the assault even with our new armor and magic to try to destroy them. Two men fought similarly to battle mages, but they used magic far more powerfully than a mage should be able to use. They also used light and darkness magic making shields and weapons as they countered or attacked. Their wizards had full mastery of those spells and countered anything we threw at them, while the two men destroyed the orcs in our team.
“When it was obvious that we could not win, we withdrew to warn the emperor and to bring back more men.”
His eyes flicked to the shadows surrounding Kolban as nervous sweat formed on his forehead. Brushing the sweat away before it could drip into his eyes, the warlock dropped his eyes to the floor finished with his story.
“Mages using light and dark with more power than they should... that sounds like Sebastian has moved on to Litsarin as we thought,” Palose nodded towards the emperor.
The shadows shifted and Kolban pointed towards the five who had fled and ordered, “One week in the prisons with only water. Maybe a little time without food will make them think before they fail us again.”
Waiting for the warlocks and orcs to be led off with their heads low, Palose watched as the shadows disappeared. His cloak gone, the boy was revealed. Light brown hair and gray eyes drew him to his face. The body was not fully grown, but he was nearing his full height even so.
A slight smile crossed his lips and Kolban stated, “I can hardly behead all the warlocks who have come up against the mizard and have failed. I would have too few left by now and it isn’t like he doesn’t kill his share along the way.”
Nodding slightly, Palose was unsure of what to say. Sebastian had become the benchmark he must surpass in his mind. The mage was somehow developing wizard like strength in magic, while remaining the deadly combatant that a battle mage was. While his own power had grown, Palose wondered who would win now. One day he hoped that they would find out, because he believed that the winner would be him.
“You’re thinking of going to fight him, aren’t you?” the emperor questioned, but seemed to already know the answer. Since the question was a bit off topic, it was like he was reading the mage’s mind.
“I follow your orders, sire,” Palose returned faithfully.
“Stop with the ‘sire’ and ‘your highness’ garbage, Palose. You know that you don’t have to use titles when we are alone.”
Palose could feel twenty sets of eyes around them and wondered how this could be considered alone. “You are the emperor, so I never know what I should call you.”
Laughing at the remark, the boy replied, “Just call me Kolban like my sister does. We’re nearly family, you and I. Reborn again and discovering new power every day. We have defeated death and are kindred spirits if nothing else.”
A small door was thrown open causing the guards closest to jump to defensive positions. The light footsteps of a girl’s slippers hurrying across the st
one brought Acheri into sight quickly and the armored guards all settled back against the walls.
“What did I miss?” the dark haired beauty asked loudly as she hurried towards her brother’s side. Noting that only Kolban and Palose remained in the room aside from the guards she all but ignored, the girl sighed in disappointment answering her own question, “Aw, I missed everything. Did they look all scared when you made them tell Palose how badly they were beaten?”
Her face smile wickedly and Kolban returned the grin with a lesser one that required more patience. “Guerin was sweating bullets, but didn’t bother to embellish this time.”
Acheri looked at Palose without losing the wickedness as she told him, “They tried saying that it was an ambush and they were outnumbered by wizards and battle mages. The orcs they tried to abandon sold them out and I nearly died! Guerin and the other two were saying that it was two or three to one and that orc just interrupted without a care and said, ‘It was five’,” the girl finished trying to make her voice deep like an orc. “I couldn’t believe it. That orc must have been angry to defy a warlock without a care for his life like that!”
“He was angry that Guerin had ordered his brothers to hold out while they fled into the gate.”
“They fled too,” the girl reprimanded her brother.
Kolban looked at her as if he was evaluating the brunette who looked just fourteen, but already was beginning to reveal the attributes of a young woman. Her figure could already draw a man’s eyes, but Acheri only seemed to want Palose to look at her and never worried about anyone else who might be looking. With magical power second only to Kolban, she probably feared no man as well.
“I am almost inclined to believe that they would have fought to the last death, but didn’t want the warlocks to get away with their story,” he said as his gray eyes looked grave. Palose wondered if the emperor had debated on stronger sentences for the warlocks than the orcs before relenting and just giving them the same sentencing.
His attention wrested from his sister back to Palose and he rendered a new judgment, “I assume that you managed to slip another lodestone gate through the one we opened to Parik.” At a nod from the mage, who hadn’t realized that he had been noticed tossing the two stones through the portal; Kolban stated, “We will send more warlocks and men to hold the gate, but I want you to move your stones to a different place tonight. I don’t want to lose Parik. Perhaps if you bury them in one of the mines, it will prevent the wizard from finding them again.
“Have the sea orcs returned your other lodestones to Banosh?”
“They have, though I don’t think they are where the old gate had been.”
“Tomorrow you will go to Banosh and bring a pair of warlocks who will meet you in the gate chamber. They can set up a new gate that won’t draw as much power, so maybe the enemy won’t notice so quickly.”
Acheri smiled and replied, “If they have only one wizard with them capable of destroying a gate, you could keep opening and closing the gates forcing him to return. Eventually you should be able to kill him.”
Looking at his sister with a sigh, Kolban retorted, “I don’t wish to play games with this thorn in my side. The sooner he is dead, without the games, the better.”
Waving her hand as she looked away as if bored, the girl said, “You’re no fun anymore. Mother would be so disappointed that her little boy has become such a stick in the mud.”
“We don’t have a mother,” Kolban complained rolling his eyes at the girl. “Anyway, if you could slip off to Parik and take care of the first gate, I would appreciate it, Palose.”
“As you ask, your highness,” he said with a slight bow and a smug smile before turning to create a gate slipping away from the hall in a blink.
Kolban noticed Acheri looking at the gate as it faded away as she leaned her elbows onto the table. “I am surprised that you didn’t chase after him again. You could have held the gate as before.”
A look of surprise crossed the girl’s face as she turned to her brother with start. “You knew?”
“He is a shiny new toy and interests you in a way that I can not see,” Kolban replied turning to face his sister. She was split from his original consciousness, but was definitely her own person and growing away from him every day. “It is hard to imagine how a girl formed so fully from the knowledge placed in that vessel.”
Frowning at her brother, Acheri retorted, “I have your knowledge and basic memories. You love this resurrection man as well. Perhaps it simply became a different kind of infatuation with me.”
He shrugged and decided, “Try not to become too attached to him. He isn’t for you, you know.”
Sighing, Acheri’s eyes narrowed before standing and walking back the way she had come. Stopping before the door, the girl turned creating a fan of black hair before it swirled to her back. “Whether he will be mine or not is none of your concern. You can use him as you want and I will use him how I like as well.”
As she stormed out of the room, Kolban looked at the shadow along the back wall. Lanquer stepped from his magically created stealth spell towards his brother. “Try to keep her from doing anything too stupid, Lanquer.”
The larger boy nodded. He had been considered the defective one, but Kolban no longer confided in his sister as he once had. Lanquer had proved himself and now held his brother’s favor. Glad to be elevated to his rightful place, the guardsman moved back to invisibility as he followed their sister once more.
Chapter 19- Under the Mountain
The lighting inside of the mountain had been suspect in places before the assassins had attacked, but more than two weeks later even Garosh’s room looked dark to her. Fires had burned the doors and left marks on the floor even after a suspected cleaning, though based on the remainder of the room cleaning had been lower on their list of worries. The bodies of the dead were at least gone and most of the evidence of their remains had been cleared from the floor.
Two cloaked forms moved to bar their way with swords drawn.
Rilena glanced at the reanimated men now called wraiths and thought that they looked a bit more decayed than before. “You’ve let yourself go, guys. Carianic, when did you get that scar across your face?”
Like a healed wound across the bridge of its nose that looked to have once been across his eyes, Carianic appeared to have been cut or even blinded since she had seen the wraith. Her eyes noticed another healed wound to his neck and even healing, or what passed for healing with an undead creature, couldn’t prevent a puckered look to the skin. The other wraith had a scar just above its armor on his neck as well. She wondered what could have happened to the wraiths to leave permanent damage.
Neither wraith spoke but stood threateningly before the girl and her team. Rilena had no weapon drawn and stepped forward fearlessly placing her bare hands against the flat of the swords pushing them aside as she parted the wraiths safely saying, “Down, boys, we’re friends here to help.”
“Carianic, Muertasc, stand down. These are friends,” Garosh ordered stepping from behind the remains of a once impressive bed.
Rilena’s eyes noted places on the hewn stone floor that appeared melted before the bed. Moving towards her left, she could see more of the strange damage and a pair of wizards looking both wary and tired. While the floor and bed revealed damage, his strategy table and chairs looked unharmed. Looking to the large iron tub positioned towards the rear of the room, the girl couldn’t help thinking of the days trapped in the fortress trying to feel civilized under the mountain of stone.
“What happened after you sent me through the portal? You all look worn out and even the stone is melted.”
“You stayed here?” Elzen questioned from just behind the young woman causing her to start. The wraiths had backed off still remaining before the bed and strategically close to protect their master, but the others were already following her lead and entering the large room.
Garosh answered, “It wasn’t exactly designed to be a palace, bu
t we manage.”
The two wizards looked between the girl and those who followed her before glancing to the giant just beginning to step forward to greet their new guests. Rilena’s keen eyes noticed blackened skin on a bald man known as Verian. His skin was marbled with scars on his hands making her wonder even more what had happened after she had left. If they all survived, had the emperor been the one to lose in spite of the surprise attack?
Verian noted her glance to his hands and volunteered, “When the emperor’s assassins entered Muertasc was beheaded by the Betrayer. The acid making up his blood was hurled at me by the resurrection man nearly killing me.” Gesturing to the other wizard beside him he added, “He left poor Hereseth without his hand and fingers nearly disemboweling him. Then the bastard brother of the emperor broke Carianic’s neck while the emperor drained Garosh of his magic.”
“Verian!” Garosh warned hearing most of their injuries unfolded in a matter of seconds.
It was only then that Rilena realized why the room seemed so dark. The bright light of the giant’s magic had been dimmed to nearly nothing. “He stripped you of your magic?”
Looking chagrined as he gave in and told her the last part of the story, Garosh revealed, “I would probably have died from having all my magic torn from me. Kolban took what was once his leaving me a drained husk. All my power was given me at my birth by the emperor, but it was his to take back as well. I couldn’t resist his power or the call of his magic from my body.
“Lanquer, the emperor’s other rejected vessel, pretended he was going to kill me to make the emperor leave the mercy killing to him.” His eyes softened as he added, “Kolban would have left me to survive or die, but Lanquer warned that leaving me alive could bring another enemy. When the emperor left, he forced some of his magic into me to replace some of what I had lost. It was enough to keep me alive and actually having less power feels better. I was always feeling like my body would burst in truth.”
Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8) Page 26