The Pogrom of Mages: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume One

by Charles Williamson

  They landed on an empty beach about two thousand paces from the southern causeway. It was about an hour before dawn. The men slid off his back while cursing with a skill that only sailors knew. Michael transformed back to normal and put the harness in his pack.

  Martin said, “That was the craziest and scariest damn experience of my young life, never again!”

  Jack said, “I can’t believe we really did that. Humans are not meant to fly.”

  David said, “Michael what spell did you use to warm us. My hands were so numb I would have fallen off within minutes if you hadn’t used that magic.”

  “I’m sorry for waiting. When I’m a dragon, I can’t feel the cold. When I noticed your distress, I cast a fire mage spell to warm you. This was my first time as a dragon with people on my back.”

  “Now you tell us,” Jake said.

  “I need to get back to my bedroom without being noticed.” He tossed a small purse of silver coins to Jake, and said, “I’ll meet you at the Horizontal Lady Pub in the warehouse district in about four hours. Try to avoid anyone in town who might recognize you.” Michael transformed into a Giant Ki Eagle and took off. He heard all three men cursing again about the weirdest healer in Glastamear.

  Howard Stonemaster joined Michael, Timothy and Carolyn that morning with drawings of his proposal for the demonstration apartment. It seemed elegant without being ostentatious to Michael, and he asked that it be reproduced on his tenth floor. “I’ll also need separate small bedrooms for my five personal guards, and rooms for two chambermaids and a lady’s maid.”

  “A lady’s maid. Is there something you haven’t told us Michael? Are you married?” Carolyn asked.

  “I’m engaged. I hope she’ll be willing to make Southport our principal home, but that’s not decided yet.”

  The builder explained, “I can use the central part of the floor for the guards with their own common room and bath. For the other servants, I suggest bedrooms near the banquet room or family dining room. That leaves the whole backside for a grand salon for entertaining and the west side for future expansion. Your apartment using a whole floor will be one of the largest in the city.”

  “We’ll use that layout for now. Diana can change things around to her liking if she decides to live here full time while I’m on the road.”

  Carolyn said, “I hope she does move to Southport. I’d love to introduce her and help her adjust in any way I can.”

  “Well, she’s from a small town; I’m not sure if Southport will seem intimidating.”

  They continued the discussion for another hour until Michael explained, “I have a lot of shopping to do today. I hope to sail in my little merchant ship The Silver Trident tomorrow. I’ll need to stable my horses someplace until I return.”

  “Of course, you must leave them here. There’s no need to leave that magnificent stallion with a stranger. Do you need to draw on your letter of credit for your cargo?” Timothy asked.

  “No, I have gold enough for that. Use whatever you need for our apartment project. I’ll deposit more if we need it when I’m back in town in about a month, two at the outside.”

  Timothy patted him on the shoulder and said, “Ah, I was a young traveling merchant like you at your age. It’s a hard life, but most of us get started that way. You’re prosperous enough not to travel anymore, but I understand the need to find the next big deal.”

  Michael went to the Horizontal Lady Pub and found the three sailors having a drink on the first floor. He didn’t ask if earlier they had taken any of the ladies upstairs, but the purse he’d tossed to Jake had plenty of money for that if they had been so inclined.

  They used the rest of the day to fill all of Lady Barbara’s requests. The three sailors would spend the evening and most of the night seeing that the stevedores stowed everything properly. Michael explained that he wanted to sail out of the harbor with them tomorrow before noon, but he would not stay on the Silver Trident after they were out of sight of land.

  Michael had not yet investigated the throbbing heart of the Church of Perry Ascendant, the great city of Min Hollow. It was the location of greatest power for both the church and king. Five cohorts of knight protectors served as guards for the holy enclave around the Great Mother Temple of Min Hollow, and protecting the Royal Palace of the Anointed Kings was the largest unit of the royal army, more than five thousand professional soldiers.

  Michael had often heard that the city was crowded with the poor of the whole kingdom because of the free rooms and free food provided by the king’s indigents’ stipend, which was only available to resident of the capital. Nevertheless, the city was still disturbed by regular food riots among the poor, and its streets at night were never safe without an armed escort. The kingdom’s gentry avoided it except for important tournaments in the spring and the annual Perry Night celebration in the summer. The whole city was usually inaccessible in the winter because of the heavy snows in the Mountain of Min.

  Chapter 43

  Michael slept poorly; a pleasant dream of Diana was followed by a nightmare of conflict between a red dragon and a black one. He dressed in his simple black travel clothing. He left all his other belongings in the storage room in his hosts’ house with a request that it be moved to his apartment when it was available.

  At breakfast with Carolyn and Timothy, they had the final discussion of the hospital apartment project. Michael asked Carolyn to select furniture and decorations for his tenth floor apartment, choosing things that were suitable to a successful merchant, not furniture in the ornate gold-laden style loved by the southern gentry. He said goodbye to his hosts and went to the stable to say farewell to Black Dash and Stalwart using mage thought-talk to reassure both horses that he would return.

  The crew of the Silver Trident was ready to sail. Every item on Lady Barbara’s list was onboard and properly stowed. After they were out of sight of land, Michael put his black traveling outfit into his pack, converted into a Giant Ki Eagle and flew north along the coast looking for healer manna and enjoying the view as the land changed from tropical plantations to fallow field and small villages celebrating their harvest festivals. He rested twice on trees before flying on to his destination at Min Hollow.

  He turned inland and flew on through the night until he could see the fabled snowcapped Mountains of Min in the extreme distance. He stopped at the village of Crow Crossroads at sunset the following day. He was only an hour’s flight from the huge capital city, but he wanted to fly over Min Hollow in daylight. He had not seen a single healer manna sign on his two-day flight.

  Since Michael was walking and dressed in simple black clothing, he decided to play the role of a pilgrim headed to the Most Holy Shrine, the cave in which Perry had been born two thousand years earlier. A visit to the shrine was said to be required for a fortunate reincarnation, so that most believers wanted to pray there at least once. It cost two golden crowns to be admitted to the Most Holy Shrine; the sum was so great that most farmers and working people would save money for many years just to be admitted. Michael fashioned an iron Perry Symbol by pulling the iron from the soil and pinned it to his shirt. It was the symbol of pilgrimage.

  When he entered the Crow’s Nest Inn, Michael was surprised to find that the common room was almost empty. Two other pilgrims occupied a table by the only window and a couple of locals were busy getting drunk at the bar.

  The innkeeper greeted him. “Good pilgrim, you’re most welcome at the Crow’s Nest. You’re fortunate that we have a private room available for only sixteen silver. It’s a slow time for travel because the snows are so near. The mountain pass to Min Hollow may close at any time. My wife is a wonderful cook and the room comes with both dinner and breakfast.”

  Michael agreed to pay thirteen silver coins and found a table to test the quality of the inn’s dinner. Michael cast hear the heart mummer to listen to the conversation of the couple who were also pilgrims. He wanted to learn what they’d seen in their travels.

  The wo
man said to her husband, “Your cough is getting worse. We should stay here for a few days until you’re better. Drink some more of the medicine we bought.”

  The man coughed and replied, “We’re almost out of medicine. We need to ride on to Min Hollow tomorrow morning where we can get more.”

  “My love, you heard the same story as I at our last stop. The city guards are not letting anyone into Min Hollow who has any sign of a cough. We’ll be turned back at the city gates and have to return here in any case.”

  “I’ll save my last dose for just before we reach the gates. Then I’ll show no sign of the cough, and we can enter. We should at least try. I think a visit to the Most Holy Shrine will cure me.”

  The couple had the accents of the north, perhaps Snowport or the White Mountains. He wondered how many others already had the cough. That night he waited until everyone was asleep and entered the room of the pilgrims. He cast clear lungs on both the man and his wife. She was already beginning to suffer from the same contagion. Once someone was cured of the disease, they usually could not catch the same version of the disease again. He hoped they were both immune now.

  It would be a terrible winter if the disease spread. Min Hollow was the largest city on the continent, five times the size of Southport. Most people lived packed into small apartments and shared public baths and ate at the common dining rooms in their apartment blocks. One case would become ten on the first day and a hundred on the second day and a thousand on the third day. He had cured these travelers, but how many others might avoid the city guards.

  The next morning at breakfast he overheard the wife say, “See my love; we only needed faith and prayers to Perry Ascendant and now you’re as well as ever.”

  “We’ll be in the holy city by noon; thanks be to Perry,” he replied.

  Michael enjoyed a delicious breakfast and walked until he found a rock outcrop to hide his transformation into an eagle. He flew high above the main road seeing only travelers and occasional fire mage manna signs along the road.

  As approached the greatest city of mankind, he saw the huge black volcanic walls and the crowed stone buildings clustered inside for protection. The whole city was covered in a yellow cloud from the thousands of coal and wood fires. He could detect a foul odor carried on the wind even high above the city. The city was surrounded on three sides by snow-topped mountains, and the suffocating smoke and odors were trapped above the city most of the year.

  In the distance he could see the massive bulk of the king’s castle, whose fortifications had withstood attacks without ever falling in the thousand years since King Vlad the First constructed it. In that long history, scores of battles between the three eastern kingdoms of men and Glastamear had raged over the city and the Mountains of Min, but no army had ever penetrated that vast fortification, and king’s castle had never fallen to a conqueror.

  Even higher into the mountain pass, Michael saw the Great Mother Temple which was even older. A fifteen paces high black ebony wall that had also never fallen to an attacker also surrounded the whole religious compound, which included the Great Mother Temple, the palace of the Holy Sons, and housing for thousands of church officials and support people and their families. It was a fortified city within a fortified city.

  The fire mage manna from the temple area was so intense that Michael could not identify single priests or knight protectors, but he saw one single healer manna sign next to the brightest fire mage manna he’d ever seen. He was certain it was the healer priest Toby standing with Most Holy Son of Perry Ascendant. He knew that Toby would be here to provide healing to the most important leaders of the church during the coming winter. He saw no sign of the sixteen young healers who had been abducted from their families to train as healer priests. They were not being trained in Min Hollow.

  Michael flew three complete circles around the immense city before spotting a massive red shape flying toward him. The red dragon Firebreath spoke with a voice of thunder directly into Michael’s mind.

  “Child of the elves, I do not recognize your kind, but be warned of the coming storm, and be gone from the skies of this odious city. Soon pestilence will strike. It will be followed by war as the three kingdoms of the east unite to lay waste to it. Once it is ravaged, it will no longer pollute the skies with its coal fires and the rivers with its shit. Already a schism divides the children of the smelly bagger Perry although the fools below us do not realize it yet. The buffoons of his church don’t know they sealed their own fate when they killed their healers; the armies who will cross the Mountains of Min in the spring have more than their share of healers, and won’t suffer from the pestilence that comes in this Winter of Death. Schism, war, famine, conquest, and death are approaching, and the time of the disgusting humans of the Mountain of Min nears its end. For your own welfare, be gone from these skies!”

  Michael followed Firebreath’s command and turned and headed for the coast and toward Diana in Rock Point.

  Chapter 44

  Michael had no desire to appear in the middle of Rock Point as an eagle and suddenly transform into a skinny, stark naked, nineteen-year-old lad. He landed in the snow of one of the highest terraces where he transformed and dressed in his black traveling outfit. As he descended the stone stairway, he was recognized by one of the mages he had rescued from the cave near Briarton who ran into town shouting his name to let everyone know he was back. Soon he was mobbed with locals and healers. Diana threw herself into his arms while the whole crowd cheered.

  After a long series of greetings including from his best friend Jim Neville and the Cooper brothers, he said, “Please my friends, we’ll have a reunion celebration tonight, but first I need to have a private discussion with Lord Guild Master Hampton to explain what’s happening on the mainland. Diana, please tell your father that I would like to call on him at your home in about two hours.” Everyone cheered again because they knew the purpose for that meeting.

  Lord Hampton and Michael entered one of the deep caves and found a room with some comfortable cushions. Michael explained everything he’d learned and done, including the admonition of the red dragon Firebreath.

  “My Lord, what are you feeling about sending a few healers to the mainland cities to try and curb the epidemic that is rushing upon us.”

  “There is no possibility that there are enough of us left to stave off disaster, and as you point out, we can’t lose anymore people with healing manna or healers might disappear from the land of Glastamear forever. If they volunteer, I would agree that healers past childbearing age can return to the mainland for the winter, but only if you know of places where they might be safe. Southport seems our best bet because of the sympathetic High Priest. However, even in Southport there will still be knight protectors who would betray us and many citizens who would turn us in for a reward. There are already four of us in danger in Snowport. Northport and Briarton seem much too dangerous, and there is no way that you or any other healer should go near Min Hollow after what Firebreath said. Clearly, he could detect you from a great distance in spite of your submerge manna spell.”

  Michael was not surprised at Lord Hampton’s decision. He agreed that they needed to protect young people with manna, but he wanted Diana, Jim Neville, and the Cooper brothers to be made exceptions. He replied, “I will ask Diana’s father for her hand unless you object to the marriage of two healers. I would like for us to live in Southport and continue to build my cover as a merchant. Someday we will need to start an insurrection against both the church and king. We can’t do that from Rock Point or Dragon Crag.”

  “I believe you can protect Diana in Southport, and you have my blessing to move there. I know you two are meant for each other, and no guild master would try and keep you apart. I would like most of our young people to stay in Rock Point and find mates from the locals. It’s the only way to create a younger generation who can bring healers back to the mainland if the Church at Min Hollow falls to the coming attack by the three kingdoms. Since Jim cannot
have children, he should go if you like. I will agree to the Cooper brothers as well since I’m sure they would ignore me if I objected. As for insurrection, that seems unlikely, we are too few in number.”

  “If insurrection comes, it will not be healers that lead, but furious commoners who survive the Winter of Death. If the army and knight protectors are called to defend Min Hollow in the spring, we may have a chance to take the coastal cites next summer starting with Southport.”

  They continued the discussion until it was time for Michael to ask for Diana’s hand. After that appointment, Diana’s father stood in front of the mayor’s house and proclaimed the bands of betrothal with a wedding to be performed in six days. The whole town was expecting the marriage, and the homecoming party that night was also a betrothal party celebrated by all of Rock Point.

  Every table was moved to the street and filled with the best food the homeowners could make or buy. Every lantern was lit, every musician was playing, and every singer singing. The street party lasted long into the night with the guests of honor, Diana and Michael, required to stop at every table and sample whatever was offered.

  Finally after midnight, Guild Master Hampton spoke to the crowd in the market square. “May Father God bless and keep safe these two extraordinary people for they are the guardians of our future. I hope to see the rest of you youngsters find the same happiness that I’m sure they will discover. Good night all.”