“That is a powerful idea if I can really do it. I’d like to try, but I have nothing of value, just enough copper coins for a flagon of ale at an inexpensive inn.”
“I noticed that the guild master wore a silver ring with a ruby, and the Bursar had a simple gold medallion hung around his neck. Before we sail, you could try to enchant those.”
The enchantments worked, and before they sailed, Michael was able to bind the spell to hide manna to a ring or amulet for each of the healers remaining in Rock Point.
They sailed three hours after sunrise, and Obert was the one who cast the still water spell to ease their passage because they didn’t want the captain or crew to know of Michael’s water magic.
Two days later, as they approached Black Sand Beach, Michael asked Obert, “Can we trust this captain and his crew to keep Rock Point a secret?”
“If the Church takes any human to those cells under the temple, he will tell everything he knows. Good intentions will not stop the pain of Perry’s Fire.”
“It’s highly unethical to use except in guild approved circumstances, but all healers know a spell to help those who have undergone an incredible trauma. Amnesia release will cause someone to forget the past week or two. It’s use for people who have experienced terrible events that traumatize their minds, not for this kind of thing.”
“I think in this case your Guild Master would permit it if your spell will not hurt them permanently.”
Because of the reef, the sloop could not approach close to the beach. Obert and Michael would need to swim to shore. As they prepared to leave, Michael shook each crewmember’s hand, and each man forgot their recent trip. As Michael jumped into the sea for the swim, he noticed the puzzled looks on the crews’ faces; they didn’t remember who he was or why they were sailing near Black Sand Beach.
Michael immediately cast water breath. He followed Obert as they swam underwater through a hole in the reef that was five paces below the sea. Once through the opening, Michael saw the town of the naiads. It was built right into the reef and colorful fish swam everywhere entering the naiads’ rooms and swimming all around them. Obert took him to a small room deep in the reef. With shock, Michael realized that it was filled with the treasure of a hundred shipwrecks mixed with tens of thousands of pearls. It was treasure greater than the king’s.
Obert led Michael to the shore and spoke for the first time once they were on the beach. “We have no shortage of rings and necklaces with jewels for you to enchant. When you travel to Northport, you can go as a pearl merchant. You’ll need human money for horses and ships and such things, and we’ll supply your inventory of pearls. I’ll have some things put in your room in the tower.
In two or three days, you’ll have learned all the useful spells I can teach you, and you can head for Northport to begin your great quest. Someday, you’ll confront the red dragon and ask her to withdraw her curse, but that is for the future. For now, you must save the humans who can do healing magic lest that skill be lost forever from humankind.”
Chapter 12
The next morning, Michael woke in his tower room to find a waist-high chest. It was worm-eaten from being recovered from a shipwreck. The metal parts were rusty, but the lid opened with a squeak when Michael tried it. It contained a treasure like that from some ancient myth. Its contents were worth more than a great castle and all its lands, worth more than the Great Guild Hospital in Briarton or a dozen trading clippers. There was no way Michael could spend a fraction of it without attracting the attention of both the crown and the church.
He selected one exceptionally fine ruby amulet for himself. He then chose ten of the least impressive gold rings and ten simple gold chains. The ruby amulet he intended as a present for Diana when he returned to Rock Port. He chose the least impressive rings to enchant because no one but a noble or the richest merchant would be seen with the finest pieces in the chest, and he didn’t want the enchanted rings to attract undue attention to their wearer.
Michael enchanted the gold chains with transparency and the rings with submerge manna. He also took thirty of the finest pearls and twenty-five gold coins. The pearls would be his inventory while he posed as a merchant. The gold crown coins were enough to buy several small ships or a dozen fast horses to use in helping healers escape.
He spent the following two days studying with Obert until he could cast every spell they thought useful. On his final evening before heading to Northport, Obert presented him with a chest of clothes recovered from a shipwreck. He explained that they had found the chest still floating near the north edge of the reef many years earlier. It contained clothes appropriate for a successful merchant, which could replace the rags of his apprentice healer robe. The clothes smelled of cinnamon and by luck fit quite well.
That night, he collected his chest of clothes, his inventory of pearls, his gold coins, and his enchanted items. He dressed in his fine merchant clothing, and after casting float; he headed to shore and met Obert on the beach near the barge that they had used to catch the sloop.
The narwhales pulled the barge until they reached a beach about six thousand paces from Northport. It was near dawn, but Obert had cast transparency so they would not be spotted when he went ashore. Obert agreed to return in one week to wait for Michael and any healers he’d rescued.
Michael walked the five hundred paces to an inn he had visited on a previous trip to the city. He ate a substantial breakfast at the Inn of Quiet Rest. The innkeeper was surprised when he paid with a gold coin, but made change only shorting him a few silvers for his trouble. Michael knew he couldn’t spend gold for his ride on the stage into town without raising questions. Likewise, the son of a prosperous merchant family would never be seen walking into town. He had gone to the inn both because he was tired of eating raw fish and oysters and because he wanted to catch the morning stage and arrive as someone of his supposed station would.
A wealthy young merchant was the perfect cover because it was normal for them to travel. Most nobles knew each other from tournaments and their annual appearances at the king’s court at Perry’s Day, but a merchant could be both wealthy and unknown.
When the stage rode through the main southern gate, a fine city was revealed. Northport, like every city in Glastamear was built only with stone buildings with tile or slate roofs for fire protection. In the case of Northport, although the city walls were fifteen paces high and made of dull black granite, the buildings were two or three stories high and were constructed of fine tan limestone. Almost every roof was made of glazed apple-red or azure-blue tiles, giving the city a festive feel. Each intersection held a fountain of different design. They were always topped with a statue of Perry Ascendant or one of his Holy Sons because fresh water in all large cities was a gift of the church. Colorful banners hung from the doors of each shop to indicate what they sold, and a large central market square was crowded with farmers offering their produce and cured meats.
It was near midday when Michael got down from the stage near the market square. The finest inn in town was only two blocks away. He carried his chest to the Inn of Splendid Dreams and paid for one of their finest rooms for a week. He chatted with the innkeeper explaining that he had visited Black Sand Beach and wanted to know who in town was a dealer in pearls. The innkeeper named three men with good reputations in dealing in jewels.
The accommodation had a sitting room, a bath with running water, and a bedroom with an ornately carved and gilded four-poster bed. The carving was a little creepy for Michael since it was a representation of Perry Ascendant confronting a dragon. A balcony overlooked a quiet inner courtyard with a fountain and many flowerbeds and a lilac hedge to freshen the courtyard odor. Michael thought it would be easy getting used to living like a rich merchant.
He stood on the balcony and cast detect all manna with all the power he had developed since he began to study with Obert. The manna of the whole city was revealed as well as many miles beyond. He could detect scores of fire mages, but only f
our healers. The healers were all together two stories underground below the Great Temple of Northport. His first task must be to free them because they might soon be given to the flame of Perry in Temple Square where so many of his other guild brothers and sisters had already died horrible deaths. He would be free them tonight or die trying.
To complete his cover story, Michael visited the first of the jewel dealers that the innkeeper had mentioned, Arthur of Stone Lane. Arthur was both a jewel merchant and part of the largest banking syndicate in Glastamear, a useful man to know. Michael immediately liked the merchant’s warm and welcoming personality.
“My father explained that you had the finest reputation in Northport for honest dealing. I’ve come here after a trading trip to Black Sand Beach where I bartered with Obert the naiad’s chief shaman.” Michael withdrew one of the perfect pearls he had selected from the great chest.
The merchant looked at it through his glass and made somewhat disparaging sounds. “It seems not quite true round,” he said.
Michael smiled. “We both know it perfect and I have others. If we’re to do business, give me your best offer now. I plan to also see Roderick, and Homer and get their offers also.” Michael opened the pouch, which contained the other pearls and gave Arthur a quick glance. “There will be more business for the best bidder.”
Arthur replied, “I will give you four gold and three silver. If you get a better offer, I’ll be surprised, but come back and I can probably beat it.”
“So clearly four and three is not your best offer.”
Arthur at first looked annoyed, but then he smiled and said, “Ok maybe I could pay four and ten, but that’s only because of a chance for more business, and because I was once a young merchant who traveled Glastamear as you do. You know the value of your merchandise, and I respect that.”
By the end of the day Michael had sold twelve of his pearls and had a purse heavy with gold and silver. That afternoon, he went back to Arthur of Stone Lane and asked him to be his banker. He deposited fifty gold coins for a letter of credit that would be honored at any major town in Glastamear. Michael had never owned more than a single gold coin at a time, and he was worried about carrying so much that he might attract a whole band of thieves.
It was late afternoon when he went to Temple Square. Tears flowed as he saw the flaying rack, crusted with blood, and the metal post where his guild mates were burned. Four sets of manacles were welded to the top of the eight-foot iron pole so that four healers could be killed at once.
A passing carter saw his tears and walked over to him. “I pray to Perry that there’s no epidemic this winter. No one is left to help us. Did you know one of them?”
Michael couldn’t speak; he nodded yes.
“Sorry mate. There were some good people killed here, four and eighty burned I heard. I only saw one. I couldn’t stomach coming again. By the end, the square was empty except for priests. Not a soul in Northport wanted to see it again.”
Michael sat on a bench in the empty square and watched the movement of the manna of the fire mages inside the temple. After half an hour, he knew how to get to the lower levels and where the guards with manna were stationed. He had a plan, but it wasn’t foolproof because he couldn’t silence the sound of his breathing or movement. He thought it would be enough. He could get in using transparency. He also knew the spell to open any lock. The difficult part would be getting four people out alive.
Chapter 13
Michael bought some things to use that night in his risky attempt to free the four healers trapped below the temple. Northport had been a major center of training for healers and contained the second largest healer-operated hospitals in Glastamear yet he could detect only four healers in a city that would have once held at least four score and twelve.
He shopped in the local market and bought a canvas knapsack and a rope ladder. He purchased a fine but gaudy knife such as a wealthy merchant might carry; and at another stand be bought four simple but serviceable knives of excellent steel for the healers he hoped to free. He also purchased enough bread, vegetables, apples, almond cakes, and salted fish for three days for five people. He finished his shopping with five good quality woolen blankets for sleeping in the rough, a mix of healing salves and bandages, and five black hooded capes that had been treated with wax to make them waterproof.
His final errand was to go to the waterfront and rent a small warehouse explaining that he was expecting a shipment from Southport within the week. He rented it for three months even though he might not use it but one night. He stored the food, blankets, medical supplies, and four of the hooded capes in the warehouse.
He ate an excellent dinner at the Inn of Splendid Dreams that included mutton stew, stuffed partridge, and leeks with autumn squash. After dinner he drank some south slope wine while he enjoyed the quartet of musicians who were the best he had ever heard. It was two hours after dark when he returned to his room. His first project was to enchant the rope ladder so that it was completely invisible. He hung it from his balcony so that the end fell into the protection of an evergreen bush that had been shaped to resemble a baby dragon.
He waited two more hours so that it was nearly midnight and then cast transparency on himself. The spell made him invisible as well as everything he was carrying. He put on his rucksack and climbed down the invisible rope ladder. He had no real experience at moving by stealth, and his main worry was that he would make a sound that would give his location away.
It was an hour past midnight when he followed a temple guard through an open door in the side of the temple and made his way behind the high altar in the enormous main prayer hall. Even in the middle of the night, Perry’s Fire still burned in the many sconces that illuminated the whole inside of the huge space. Twenty paces above the high altar a stained-glass window was dimly lit by Father Moon. Eight priests were still in the great temple space, but only one of them showed fire manna.
From his afternoon watch, he knew there was an entrance to the lower levels directly behind the back wall of the ornate altar enclosure. He used the spell Obert had taught him to unlock the iron door. It opened smoothly on well-oiled hinges, and he was soon sneaking down to the underworld of the interrogation rooms two stories below the great temple.
He moved down to the lowest level and was soon in a long corridor with heavy wooden doors on both sides at ten-pace intervals. He saw no sign of fire manna on the lower level, but three, burley, chain mail clad guards stood watch. One was at the far end of the hall and two stood by the door he would need to enter. Michael was a healer; he couldn’t kill these men in cold blood, no healer would. He moved silently between the two guards and used the spell surgery sleep using both hands to touch both men simultaneously. The third guard drew his sword and ran down the hall to see what had caused his fellows to collapse, and Michael touched him in turn. He had used enough manna to keep the three guards unconscious for eight to ten hours.
He found keys in at the guard’s belt, and carefully opened the door to the cell that held the manna signs of four healers. Near the door was a brazier glowing with sill-burning coals into which six metal torturers implement were thrust. At the far end of the room was an iron barred cage about two paces high and six paces deep. He recognized the gray-haired woman but not the two young apprentices. She was the Lady Agnes of Ice Castle, one of the most senior healers in the guild and a daughter one of the most important aristocratic families of the north.
He glanced to the right and gasped. Hanging from manacles bolted to the ceiling was the unconscious body of his best friend within the guild, Sir James Neville, fourth son of the baron of the Red Marshes.
Jim Neville had been an apprentice of William of Hearthshire Town when Michael began his studies. They had spent three year learning the healing arts together. Michael had helped Jim with his studies and Jim had taught Michael to use a sword and mace.
Jim was a formidable muscular man, a head taller and nearly twice the weight of Michael. He woul
d never be able to carry him to safety; he would need to wake him to get him out of this hell. His naked body showed hideous signs of torture; burns scarred him in two dozen places and whip marks scored his back and chest, other things had been done so horrible that Michael forced his mind to block them out.
“Who’s there?” the anxious voice of Lady Agnes said.
Michael moved to the cage and found none of the keys fit. He cast an open lock spell and all three shrunk to the back of the cage in fright.
He reversed his transparency spell. “It’s me, Michael, William’s apprentice.”
Lady Agnes moved forward and grasped his face in both of her hands. “Is that really you Michael? What are these spells you’ve used?”
“I learned some water magic from the naiads of Black Sand Beach. I have some rings and chains that will hide your manna and make you invisible. We’re getting out. I know a safe place. Lord Hampton, Bursar Childes, and Arthur of Westport Hospital are already there.”
“So you are the elf-blood of Gripton’s prophecy. What of William?”
“I was told he cast heart stop before they could carry him off. I was in the woods when they came for us.”
“I’m so sorry Michael; I know he loved you like a father. I couldn’t use heart stop because of Gail and Herb, my apprentices. I couldn’t let them face this alone. See the book on that table? It contains spells fire mages used on Jim. Perhaps you should take it with you. You might be the only healer who can understand their spells.”
Michael picked up the manuscript bound in ancient leather with gold writing in ancient Eleven and put it in his knapsack. “I’m going to help Jim. Put these rings on to hide your manna. Before we leave, put on these gold chains; they’ll make you invisible.”
Agnes nodded, “Michael, do you really have the power to enchant golden items like elves and dragons?” She looked at him with amazement, and he nodded.
The Pogrom of Mages: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume One Page 5