Smart Alec in the Dark Lands

by Donald Wigboldy

  Her feet led the pretty young woman to a gate, which opened on a well kept courtyard. Beyond the trees and flowers, which still bloomed seasonally in spite of the year round warm weather, a manor house loomed. It was her home, at least until the wizard could manage to afford something of her own.

  The girl sighed and walked the path to the front doors thinking of the last preparations for her trip north.

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  Slaves to Magic: A Tale of Alus

  Chapter 1- Hunting Magic

  While the sun shone bright and warm above the city of Walliston, a shadow seemed to move through the streets between the light colored buildings. Houses and small businesses kept a steady flow of foot traffic most days, but as a score of soldiers moved with purpose along the street people began to scatter in fear. It wasn't for fear of the golden armored soldiers carrying their golden shields with the strange patterns embossed on them, but for what they represented.

  None of the men marching in their lines three across were likely to cause them harm, but the two leading them were the true threat.

  Their leader differentiated by the black, feathered plume on his helmet kept a close eye on the man only two steps ahead of him. The source of his attention might appear normal enough in his gray tunic and brown pants, but the metal collar around his neck served warning of the magical nature of the one who followed some unseen trail. His eyes glanced side to side as they moved as if making sure that no one remained close enough to attack him, but his focus would always return to the way before them. He led the soldiers in a search that only one of his kind could perform easily.

  For those with any magical ability, they might see the mystical gleam in his eyes as the man looked for his quarry. This wasn't a mere march to remind the men and women of the city of the king's power after all, they were here for a purpose.

  Wizard hunters, hunters of wilders with their unpredictable magical talents, these men hunted down those who could be a real danger to their fellow men and often even to their selves. To see the soldiers in their armor meant the slave at the head of their platoon had sniffed out new danger and they would use their specialized gear to capture the rogue magic user.

  "This way," the bound wizard said glancing to the leader. His eyes glanced towards the man's left arm hidden behind his shield as if he could look through the protector to see the band encircling his wrist, a band that was a match to his collar. "There is more than one ahead from their scent."

  The leader frowned and asked, "How many, Gullan?"

  With a shrug, the smaller man responded, "I am not sure, but more than one, captain."

  The frown never ended and the captain's eyes narrowed looking angrily at his hound making the wizard cringe and look away hoping to avoid being caught looking worried. A skeptical look crept into the leader's eyes. He appeared to question the validity of the wizard's words. While his hound led them in search of their quarry faithfully enough, he wondered if the wizard knew more than he was saying. Trust between those who hunted magic and those who had it was hard to keep. His band ensured that the wizard would submit, however, even if his training failed; but it wouldn't be the first time that a hound had managed to betray his master.

  "Are we close at least?" the commander asked with a strong release of breath betraying his annoyance.

  "Yes, captain, I believe that they are in that building over there," the hound replied with a weak smile trying to buy into the man's good graces.

  He pointed to the fourth building on their left. It was three stories tall with a storefront facing the street. Just a general store to the eye, it appeared quite unassuming, but that was often the best hiding place.

  "Ready your weapons, men," the captain ordered with a glance over his shoulder to his soldiers. Most appeared ready even before the order, though the youngest of his team had a nervous look to his eyes, the only windows to any of their emotions while the face plates of their golden helmets remained pulled down. Like the shields, a delicate design was etched into the soldier's helmet. All the metal pieces of their armor had similar decorations worked into them, but the figures marring the smooth metal were for more than just appearance.

  As the men moved towards the building targeted by the hound, six of them disappeared down the gap between the second and third building before using the alleyway to guard the rear of the store. The other soldiers moved to the front spreading out so that the outer members could watch the space between the target and the structures only about ten feet away on either side.

  The door was closed. Draperies were pulled across the windows in the front though it was still early enough for more business. The captain doubted that it was a coincidence that their target appeared closed off and believed that it would have been the building he could have chosen just on a hunch. While the hound was likely telling him everything, and it would be the truth; there were also his instincts which told him all that he needed to know to do the job he had been doing for the better part of a decade.

  Walking up to the door, he waved for the youngest soldier to follow on the right while a veteran backed him on the left.

  He stepped up the pair of wood steps and knocked on the door. It was solid and would have hurt to strike if not for his leather gloves, the soldier thought.

  "Open for the king's army!" the man ordered crisply and noted that everything seemed to have gone eerily still around them. There were no longer any pedestrians in sight of his team, and that made the hairs on the back of his neck and along his arms stand up sensing danger.

  There was a long wait and the youngest man beside him shifted his feet nervously for a third time before the captain struck the wood frame again trying to rouse the people inside. If they were harboring magic users, the shop owner would find himself in a jail by the end of day along with any others the captain found. It was the king's law to cooperate with his soldiers, especially where magic was concerned.

  He repeated his call, but added, "If you don't open up, we will break the door down and take you all to jail! We know that you have wizards inside."

  Finally footsteps could be heard approaching. The captain's senses were good enough to feel the boards flex with the weight of the approaching person's steps as they neared the closed door.

  A short, round man wearing an apron opened the door only halfway concealing much of the room from the men outside. "I'm sorry, sir, but we are closed early for the day. There is a flu going around and I think that my wife and I have come down with it. We wouldn't want to pass it on to our customers. Perhaps if you come back tomorrow or the next day, it would be safer."

  The captain's eyes narrowed as his forehead furled with his frown. "I will take my chances and you know that we are not customers, sir. You know who we are. Now bring the ones you are covering for before I decide to haul you off for obstructing our search."

  While his words probably worried the shopkeeper, the target of his aggression didn't appear to lose any of his calm in the face of the captain even so.

  "Captain, it is just me and my wife in the store. You must have the wrong place. We live above the store, but there is no one up there but my wife," the older man tried to explain as the door closed a fraction while the merchant appeared to be pushing him away without being obvious.

  Snapping his fingers on the right hand, the wizard quickly stepped to his side. "Are the magic users below ground, Gullan?"

  The hound whispered something under his breath. A glow of magic would have been noticed by his leader had he bothered to look, but the other men lacked magic or the bond the wizard had with his keeper.

  He looked down and lifted his eyes slowly upwards scanning to the right and left as Gullan did. "They are beneath the floor huddling together to prevent me from sensing how many are here."

  "Rodrick." The larger soldier at his side stepped forward swiftly at the call of his name and lashed out with his hands to catch at the shopkeeper's collared shirt. Yanking him strongly through t
he door out into the street, even as the older man cried out in surprise, his sergeant removed the obstruction from the captain's path. Shoved against the wall beside the door, the soldier pinned the merchant with a single hand as he leaned some of his weight on the older man.

  Waving his soldiers past, the signal was relayed from the men looking through the gaps to those watching for the signal in back. His youngest hunter pushed through the newly opened door looking from side to side while trying to spy any danger. The captain let three more of his soldiers pass him before walking inside.

  He didn't appear concerned and ordered his men, "Look for the stairways. There might be more people above the store as well. Don't let your guard down even if they can't use magic."

  Spreading out, the soldiers found the way up to the second floor easily, but there was no obvious way to go beneath the flooring of the store.

  Four armored men including the captain moved around the large storefront. Each floorboard was tested by the hunters to check for a possible trap door. It wouldn't be the first time someone had gone to the effort of using a hidden door to try and fool his troops. For some reason, even after decades of laws prohibiting the harboring of wizards and wilders, some felt pity for the hunted people. In the king's laws, magic users were no longer classified as human or citizens but as weapons.

  Like most of his people, the king didn't trust these beings imbued with the power to kill with a gesture. Fear of them had filtered from the regular citizens of Argus to the royalty making it one of the first kingdoms to put a ban on unregulated wizards. Men like the captain were charged with hunting them down and bringing them to specialized military training facilities. Their power would be used to protect the country, but they no longer had any rights. They were considered weapons like cannon to be used in the field against Argus' enemies.

  Frowning at their lack of success, the captain was debating on his next move when his youngest man stepped on a board which creaked in an unusual way. The young man tested the board next to the questionable piece of wood finding it gave slightly to make a similar sound.

  "Gullan," the captain called upon his wizard standing just outside the door. His hunter had no armor and wasn't meant to fight. The collared man wasn't known for much beyond his talents of tracking and hunting other wizards anyway. "Can your magic find a lock for this door? We will need to pry the floor up otherwise."

  The bound wizard stepped into the room through the door and responded, "I can try, captain."

  As the man began to mumble a spell, his eyes widened as the words stuck in his mouth. Gullan dodged for the door alerting his master, "Look out!"

  Too late, the soldiers started to turn as the wood of the floor appeared to spray upward in dozens of shards. The captain dropped behind his shield but most of his men were too slow as daggers of wood bounced off of their gleaming armor. Where the black cloth of the design filled in the gaps, several shards caught the soldiers digging deep as they cried out in pain.

  The youngest soldier's eyes widened in shock as the floor seemed to disintegrate beneath his feet. Pulling his shield in to himself on instinct, the young man heard the wooden shrapnel bouncing off of it as he felt himself fall through an ever widening hole.

  As he disappeared from the room, another man dressed in plain clothes rushed up a hidden ladder. His eyes glowed with magic and the flooring began to change shape. The closest boards turned into vines that lashed at the soldiers driving them back.

  A second figure followed almost as swiftly.

  The captain recovered darting forward using his shield to barge through the vines. They didn't seem to be coordinated by the fleeing wizards who moved towards the rear of the room and another open door. It led to a backroom, which his soldiers had already searched, and to another door which led into the alley where more of his men waited.

  The first wizard pulled a boy through the inner doorway before using his magic to close the opening with more of the wood making the hole in the floor widen more to make the ladder fall away.

  Trapped on the far side of the cavernous hole, the captain stopped his movement before he could fall into the darkness beneath the shop. He looked at the closed doorway angrily before looking down into the hole.

  "Peter, are you alright, boy?" he called to the young soldier who had disappeared without a trace in the chaos of the wizard's magic.

  There was more noise coming from the alley as the wizard and his young follower fought the handful of hunters for their freedom. He would find that they had managed to escape but only after injuring or snaring the soldiers with the man's magic. Armor meant to keep them safe from spells could be worked around by objects wielded by magic. The building was nearly pulled apart as it was wielded to smash aside the men meant to capture them.

  It was a failure that the captain would have to live with and they wouldn't stop searching until they found this rogue wizard, if he had any say in the matter.

  "Boy, call out if you're alive," he shouted once more into the darkness waving at the dust clogging the room in the aftermath of the wizard's magical destruction.

  The drop through the floor seemed to take forever though it was merely a dozen feet from the upper room to the hard clay floor of the hidden basement. Light was obscured by dust and the remaining flooring above him which covered the pit-like room.

  With a shock, his feet landed on the hard surface blindly, but his instincts let him take the fall by collapsing like a ragdoll. Even so, he was left breathless a moment and stunned from the surprise of it all. Peter managed to roll to the side lifting his shield still held in a death grip by the fingers of his left hand. He could see nothing, but hoped that if something dangerous remained he was positioned in the right way.

  His right hand felt for his staff with a noose at the end for only a moment, but couldn't find it in the dust and dark. It had been there before he fell. Even being made of wood, the soldier could assume that it was in one piece since it had been created to deal with magic users. Surely such a special weapon must be intact, but without sight of it, Peter moved his hand to draw the short sword belted to his side.

  Something shifted ahead of him.

  "Don't move!" he croaked trying to sound authoritative, but the coughed words proved the fall had left him breathless while his fear added to the weakness of his speech.

  His eyes registered someone pulling away from him quickly.

  "I said stop," Peter warned once more and tried to stand. His right ankle hurt a lot as did his feet. The soldier doubted that anything was broken, but he was likely to feel the pain from the fall for awhile. Dropping from a roof to the hard ground as a boy had felt similarly painful, but he and his friends had been foolhardy enough to do it more than once as if they believed that they could fly.

  Something flashed forward before striking his helmet with a thud. It sounded like wood. Perhaps it was a staff, but his metal helmet took the shot and merely tried to turn slightly to the left. The eye holes shifted, but returned to their place thanks to the strap holding it in place under his chin.

  While the attack wasn't magical in nature, the protection was more than adequate, but a second clang as the weapon reversed to strike him again started to anger the young soldier.

  "Hey, quit that! Put your weapon down now. I am a king's soldier!"

  A third strike was caught by his freshly raised shield and the soldier lunged forward.

  He heard the staff clatter to the floor, but the shadowy figure attempted to dodge his attack. A noise, perhaps a voice mumbled something and a breeze struck him. It wasn't enough to push him away, if it was meant to, but dust managed to get in his eyes enough to make him pull up blinking as his eyes began to tear up despite the protection of the helmet.

  A flicker of flame, weak like that used to startling the kindling for a real fire, came from his left and Peter managed to catch sight of the figure through the water in his eyes. It was still a blur and the fire winked out of sight quickly as the soldier turned to face the
magic user. He was pretty sure that it had to be a wizard or wilder, but apparently they were either inept or too frightened to use their magic well.

  His right hand had never finished drawing his sword, but went to his belt again. A metal tool of the trade was pulled free as he lunged in the direction of the magic user. The shield crashed into his target creating a surprisingly high pitched cry. His right hand slipped around the shield feeling the arm of his attacker and slid upward searching for the neck.

  The metal of the wizard band moved almost as if alive and wrapped around the figure's neck. A magical item, the band nullified a wilder's magic unless it was controlled by a master. Only a master with a corresponding bracelet could take control and release the containment of a wizard's power. Every man in the unit wore a bracelet while on a mission. The precaution meant that any hunter to successfully snare a wilder's neck had control of the target from the start.

  Only those who shared a proper bond would become the master of a magic user, but the bracelet would work for anyone until removed for a better match. Peter was a hunter and was only meant to stop wilders and rogue wizards. Even so, the soldier felt a strange feedback through the bracelet as the collar firmed around his attacker's neck.

  "Now you will stop and I will take you in, creature. Stop struggling and tell me if there are anymore of you here," he ordered lowering his voice. They were only separated by the shield and the air stirred between them as his target's breathing shuddered. His metal helmet likely fogged from the warm breath, but it was too dark for either of them to see.

  His target didn't answer and the soldier did his best to look around for any other hidden wilders. After a moment's silence, he pushed a little harder with his shield drawing a gasp of discomfort from his prey.