Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set 2

by BJ Hanlon

  “I did!” Icari screamed. “Let Sinndilo know—” the he paused, cutting himself off. “Never mind, I will take them in myself.”

  Berka, who had taken off his back scabbard and his greatsword looked at the man as if he’d gone mad. He handed it to the guard and shrugged.

  “Fine,” the guard said. “On with the necklace.” He looked at Edin who slipped it over his head and let it rest on his chest. He felt the damping of the talent even further, though he could still feel it. Something few guessed at but none truly knew.

  “After you Icari,” Berka said not using his lord title. Berka wasn’t a soldier and now not a Por Fen either though it was against the law to not use proper titles.

  Icari, red-faced and still trying to catch his breath glared. “In a moment.”

  Edin stepped past the guards and walked through the arched doorway into what he guessed was the grandest house in Intelians.

  There was a giant open-air courtyard before them with a tiled mosaic floor surrounding a large fountain. The place was two stories with open balconies surrounding them. Edin saw guards on the roof of the second story and others peaking around from behind wide columns. A few more statues stood in corners; he could see a bird, a white crane and it reminded him of the one Jassir had built in Yaultan.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Berka said. “Are you just going to ask?”

  “Never hurts,” Edin said. Though he’d asked just a few days ago, he pleaded and told the council how urgent it was that he be released to save the world. They weren’t buying it. Even Rihkar was a bit uneasy and that was his father. Now, hopefully with Rihkar and the general both not in the actual room, he could convince the boy duke.

  Icari led them around the fountain and up a set of open-air stairs in the back-right corner of the courtyard. At the top, they headed down a walkway with doors to the right and a thin metal balustrade to the left overlooking the courtyard. The last door had more sentinels standing before it as if they were saying, ‘yes, here is where our duke is. No need to look any further.’

  They stopped before the guards and Icari, in his high-pitched babble voice told them he’d arrested the fugitive and an accomplice.

  The guards moved to Edin and Berka and began patting them down. The one who patted Edin down seemed a bit uneasy. His jaw quaked and every pat was barely a tap. Edin probably could’ve carried an arsenal into the duke’s room and the guard would have no idea. That was the fear they had of him. The fear of his kind.

  Could that ever change? Edin wondered. Would people ever believe that magi weren’t abominations?

  “He has no weapons,” the one patting down Berka said. The one patting Edin nodded and they both stepped back and they went to the closed door.

  Icari was in first and Edin was suddenly taken with the thought that maybe Icari had something to do with the attack on him that morning.

  “Duke Sinndilo,” Icari said bowing low as soon as the door opened. But only an old and hunched scribe stood before him and looked rather bemused. Edin looked over the captain’s shoulder and into a small antechamber with no one else.

  “I have been trying to exercise a bit more, regain some youthful energy and what not. Some people say it’s good for vitality,” the scribe said grinning. “I guess it worked well.”

  “Out of my way old man,” Icari barked and pressed past him through a door on the right. It was closed and he threw it open as if he were raiding a brothel on the order of the king.

  He wasn’t and the young duke was drinking from a goblet when the door slammed open. Edin watched as the liquid, wine by the look of it, spilt over his white tunic and chest.

  Sinndilo gasped and pulled the goblet from his mouth and held it out as drops crashed to the white rug beneath him. A moment later he wiped his mouth.

  “What in the name of Losilin are you doing bursting in here?” Sinndilo gasped. “Are you an idiot?” Sinndilo set down the goblet on a table and tore off his tunic. The old scribe came rushing in, though ‘rushing’ might have been overstating it, and began toward the duke. The duke held up his hand to stop him and Edin had to stifle a laugh. It wasn’t the best way to begin a meeting with royalty, though it wouldn’t be the worst either as he remembered his first meeting with Arianne after he’d awoken.

  He glanced around the room. There were long, flowing curtains of royal blue inlaid with gold flowers. The bed was tall and wide and covered with a see-through white fabric that hung from the canopy. Edin thought he could see the lump in the shape of a person in there but he said nothing about it.

  Icari grew red again and a frightened look came over his face. “My duke…” he stammered, “I’m sorry, I’m just a bit…”

  “Shut it,” the duke said as he wiped his face and arms with the now shed tunic. “I am alright,” he licked wine from his hand and after a few moments, turned to Edin.

  “Edin de Yaultan. Why, why, why?” He sighed. “I have heard reports that are unsettling. Where have you been and what happened to the lighthouse?” Sinndilo shook his head.

  “My lord, he was the one who tried to murder you, he tried to burn down the—”

  “The stone building I was in by setting fire to a few crates outside the walls?” The duke shook his head. “Master Edin, you’re not that stupid, are you? Because if you are, I don’t think there is any use for you in my army.”

  Was he giving Edin a way out? A way to leave without losing face. Edin raised an eyebrow glanced around the room and saw it was empty save Berka, the scribe, and the foolish captain here. At that moment, he doubted that line of reasoning very much.

  “No sir,” Edin said and paused. “I don’t think even I can make rock burn.”

  Icari shrieked, “Witnesses have placed him lurking around like a cutthroat from Neeplinie.”

  “I was at the lighthouse and awoken by the bells when this fire was started.”

  “Then why were you seen fleeing to the lighthouse and chased by four of the duke’s own guard, Arsholnol included and three Por Fen?”

  “Where is Arsholnol?” said the duke.

  “Dead, sir,” Edin said flatly. “They did attack me and they died. A bottle of whiskey broke and the lighthouse was caught aflame and it burnt down.”

  “All of them are dead?”

  “There was one who survived. A soldier in Arsholnol’s command would be my guess.”

  “And the Por Fen?”

  “Dead,” Edin said. “When the lighthouse collapsed at least two were still inside.”

  “And the third?”

  “He was half in and half out,” Berka said. “He looked to have been hit in the chest by a sledgehammer.” Berka looked at Edin.

  “I don’t carry a sledgehammer,” Edin said then asked. “What is a sledgehammer?”

  “A hammer for breaking up rocks. Miners use it,” Sinndilo said. “It doesn’t matter. Are you saying a posse came and attacked you?”

  Edin nodded.

  “He’s lying. They were attempting to arrest him, to thwart him for making another attempt on your life—”

  “Shut up Icari. If you speak again I will have you on the wall covering the waste pits.” Sinndilo sighed. “What can we do? It makes more sense to me that you’d be attacked by one of my men, than you attacking me.”

  “My lord,” Edin bowed. “You know I must leave sir. It is my destiny.”

  “Find the elves, do you really think you can? Even so, do you think they’d even offer us aid after what we, our ancestors have done to them?”

  Edin thought of the she elf, she would help, but what of the other elves? The way the she-elf had spoken, that was most certainly a no.

  Then he thought of Arianne and hesitated for just a moment. He saw Berka raise an eyebrow. “I know they would. They may not like us but they like their cousins less.” Edin glanced to the right and through a window, he saw the forest and peaking up beyond it, far in the distance, he saw mountains.

  “Right.” The duke sighed and rested his head in
his hands. “And you wish for my leave to do so?”

  “I’m not doing anything here,” Edin said. “I may not be a citizen of yours; nor am I a person who would be allowed to live if your church had their way. I’m under assault and it will continue.”

  A moment later the door creaked open and Merik entered, he moved slowly and methodically like a panther on the prowl.

  Perfect timing, Edin though.

  Edin then continued, “I believe, no, I know this is what I must do, what I have to do.”

  “You want to be the savior of the world.”

  Merik strolled over to a side cupboard and grabbed a carafe of wine and a goblet.

  “Sure, just waltz in and drink my wine, Inquisitor,” the duke said. “If people do not start listening to me I don’t know that we’ll be able to survive this even if you get the elves on our side.”

  “He killed three of my men,” Merik said. “You cannot be thinking about letting him run off and—”

  “They attacked me!” Edin said.

  “It’s true, Inquisitor,” Berka said in a reverent tone. “I watched them.”

  “They were trying to arrest him for attempted murder on you!” Merik said pointing the goblet toward the duke.

  “He’s right!” Icari said. Edin had nearly forgotten the man was there.

  “We’ve been over this already,” Sinndilo said. “I do not believe that for a moment. I do not think Edin is that stupid. Nor are you that stupid to think that Inquisitor de Demar.”

  Merik began to protest but Sinndilo raised a hand again. “No, we’re in my lands and I am the ruler. I give you much leeway and until this morning you were with me on this.”

  “That was before—”

  Sinndilo cut him off again, “Master Edin, where would you go?”

  “The mountains,” Edin said. “West of here.”

  “He’s going to the mountain keep. He has a backway into it and he’ll go and hide. I know the stairway was destroyed but what of the actual keep?” Merik gasped. “We cannot access it and many Por Fen and warriors died attacking it.”

  Sinndilo ignored this. “And you know where the elves are?”

  Edin nodded. “I want to be of service.” Berka gave him a sidelong glance. “I want to help stop these monsters and I know this is the only way.”

  “And what of the wall?” said Sinndilo. “If we’re attacked and you’re more than a pair of hours away we lose our best weapon. That’s why we let you stay in the city, to get rest.”

  “You may lose it anyway if more soldiers of yours…” Edin turned to Merik, “or more monks of yours, decide to follow the Vestion’s lies despite orders.”

  Sinndilo nodded. “And what of Rihkar and Dorset. It seems they have yet to find a ship.”

  “Send them to Carrow where your fleet is. Give them a missive that lets them commandeer one of your naval vessels.”

  “After what you did to the last fleet that sailed toward the Isle of Mists, what makes you think any captain would willingly go?” Said Merik clearly tired of his complaints being ignored.

  “The duke is their sovereign,” Edin said. “I will go with them to Carrow and then head west through Jont’s Pass. From there, I will not say.”

  The duke sighed. “You may leave this afternoon.”

  “Sinndilo!” Merik cried. “They murdered your men and mine.”

  So much for a working relationship with the Por Fen, Edin thought.

  “I may believe that not all magi are evil,” the captain gasped, though Edin could tell the lie, “but this cannot go unpunished. It will make you look weak.”

  “Inquisitor, you call me by my right title or you do not get an audience with me again.” Then he moved toward the inquisitor and took the goblet from his hand. “And you do not get any of my wine.” Then he turned to the scribe. “What proof do any of you have that he started the fire? What proof that he attacked our men? I believe he’s innocent until proven guilty. We do not just live on assumptions; what do you think we are, Resholtian nobility who lie and murder for political points?” Then he glanced at Edin. “Well not all of us are; Baron de Yaultan.”

  “Do not worry,” Edin said. “I’m sure I was stripped of my lands and am not welcome in Resholt either.”

  “It’s settled. Edin, take your people to Carrow, get them a ship, and you continue on to find the elves. I will have other letters for you to deliver as well. The Vestion wishes to have my crowning ceremony soon,” the duke said shaking his head. “We’re at war and the church wants to plan a party.”

  “It is tradition,” Merik said.

  “We do not need that type of tradition right now,” he said, not looking at Merik. “Will you deliver the letters for me?”

  Edin nodded.

  “Good, now get packed,” Sinndilo then looked at Merik. “Oporius isn’t going to be happy, is he?”

  “I’m not happy.” Merik growled.

  “But you never are.”

  “Sometimes.” There was a look of longing on his face.

  Edin looked at Berka and then at Icari. Both of them looked as uncomfortable as Edin felt. He raised a hand and pointed toward the door. “So, can we go?”

  “Yes.”

  4

  The Second Time Around Is Easier

  It only took an attempt on his life for Edin to be able to leave the army and try to save the world. Or so they all thought.

  After the guards at the front entrance returned Edin’s weapon and they were on their way back to the home they were supposed to stay in, Berka nudged him with a hardy elbow.

  A little too hardy, Edin thought.

  “Ow.”

  “What are you doing?” Berka said. “You are up to something. You’re not really going after the elves.”

  Edin rubbed his arm. “Yes, of course I am.” But it sounded like a lie even to him. That wasn’t in his plan. He needed to find her. Until this morning, he hadn’t heard from her in almost a week and then she appeared in his vision. Or at least he hoped she did. He didn’t exactly have a mirror when he looked through her eyes, nor did he look down for breasts.

  Before him, I mean her, Edin thought, there was that great lake, who knew how large and how deep, but it made sense. She was on a river. Eventually it should’ve come to a lake and hopefully above ground and not some aquafer below it. But how would she have gotten up the mountain?

  Berka didn’t continue to question him on it, and for that, Edin was grateful.

  They rounded the corner to find the building they had been staying in perfectly safe and sound. No one had burnt it, well any more than it had been burnt, despite what Edin originally been told. It was a false flag operation those morons had tried. And they didn’t do a great job. He could picture Icari, Arsholnol, and the justicar all scheming in some back room thinking about how great this would be. How many others were part of the scheme to discredit or kill him?

  As they entered, they found a dozen guards standing watch over Rihkar, Dorset, and Henny. They drew their weapons, Edin held up the letter Sinndilo had given him for just this reason. Edin handed the sealed envelope to the guard that approached.

  He quickly read it. Worry and confusion came over his face, then he looked at Edin and rubbed his tongue over his lips as if trying to pick a very stubborn piece of steak from it.

  “Men, we’re leaving. They are all free to go,” he said and sheathed his dagger. “I’m watching you,” he said to Edin with squinting eyes.

  Edin wanted to reply but a look from Berka told him don’t. Edin complied. They stepped aside as the soldiers filed past them and out the door into the sun.

  Rihkar rubbed his face with his one hand. “Well that was a fun morning. How’d the burning of the duke’s place go?”

  “I didn’t—” Edin started but Rihkar was smiling.

  “We know you didn’t,” Dorset said. “It was clearly something someone else set up.”

  “The duke thinks so too, the inquisitor doesn’t.” Berka said going t
o his things.

  Edin then went to his own, a bedroll he wouldn’t sleep in and his pack with little in it. “We’re heading to Carrow. You three are getting on a boat to the Isle.”

  Rihkar asked “And you?”

  “I’m headed to find the elves.” Edin said though seemingly with little conviction.

  “Me too,” said Berka stepping forward.

  Edin raised an eyebrow at his friend.

  “The duke is finally letting you leave?” Rihkar asked.

  Edin nodded. “I may be a distraction in the army, you know, with everyone wanting me dead.”

  “Believe me, I do,” Rihkar said. “What are we waiting for, let’s go.”

  They packed and grabbed a little grub from the inn. Most of the soldiers ate from the stores the army provided but Edin wasn’t going to share any more food with them and he certainly would not be eating with them. They sat in the open-air courtyard near the back wall where Edin had knocked out the last guard that thought it’d be a good idea to question Edin.

  “So, are we walking?” Rihkar said.

  “We don’t have a choice, unless you’ve got horses somewhere up your bum.”

  “Not normally where I stable them but I can check,” Rihkar said crunching on a chicken leg. “What about that sail–cart thing you did in the tunnels?”

  Edin shook his head. “The road twists and turns too much,” he said. “We go on foot. It’s at least four days south.”

  “Supplies?”

  “Henny and Berka will get them from the quartermaster while I go see the duke to pick up his missives,” Edin said. “Two non-magi have a better chance not to be harassed.”

  “You’d think that wouldn’t you,” Berka said. “But I quit the Por Fen… and Henny here has mage blood.”

  “Take the other two if you wish, I’m going to see Sinndilo,” Edin said while standing up. He finished his meal and drank a glass of water. No need for whiskey or ale this morning. After waking up to another battle, at that moment, he thought he wouldn’t have another drink for weeks or maybe until this was over or he was dead. Though he guessed that thought would be out the window soon.