God of Magic 6

by Logan Jacobs

  “Hey, Martell,” I said as we approached the head of the line. I recognized Martell from a few of our other late night returns to the city. He always seemed to be out here on the night shift, although the others all rotated on a regular basis.

  “Shadow Foxes,” Martell greeted roughly. “Any bounties today?”

  “Working on it,” I replied. “So, what are you guys watching for?”

  “Orcs,” came the succinct answer. I saw Lavinia roll her eyes.

  “Out here?” I asked in feigned surprise.

  “Been stealing cows all over the place,” Martell explained. “Even this far inland. Don’t know what they’re planning, but the city decided it might be part of some new attack strategy. We’ve been told to be on alert.”

  “It seems really quiet out there,” I observed. “We didn’t see any orcs.”

  “Could be part of the plan,” Martell replied with a shrug. He waved us through without any further inspection, and we made our way back to the stables.

  Once the horses had been brushed and fed, we walked back to the guildhall. We were met just inside the door by a grinning Aerin.

  “Oh no,” Yvaine said. “What’s happened?”

  “Not much,” Aerin replied. “Though Lena, you might want to hide in your lab for a while.”

  “Why?” Lena asked in genuine puzzlement.

  “Well, let me ask this,” Aerin said. “Did you make any changes to any of that make-up you found?”

  “Oh, well, just to get the right color,” Lena replied.

  “Oh no,” I and Yvaine echoed.

  “Oh, yes,” Aerin replied.

  “What happened?” Emeline asked impatiently.

  “Well, let’s just say that hiding Imogen has just become a lot more difficult,” Aerin declared.

  “Just tell us already,” Lavinia snapped.

  “She’s feeling a bit... blue,” Aerin laughed.

  “Oh no,” I repeated.

  “What do you mean?” Yvaine asked. “What part is now blue?”

  “Her skin and her horns,” Aerin finally managed to explain when she stopped laughing.

  “I should go to her,” Lena said. “I think I know something that might work.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Aerin warned. “Maruk has Imogen holed up in his room while he tests out his various skin cleansers, but once she knows you’re back, she’s probably going to run you through with a sword.”

  “I can relate to that,” Lavinia observed.

  “I’ll go talk to her,” Yvaine offered. “I might be able to provide some assistance.”

  “Lena and I will go to the lab,” Emeline said as she grabbed the elf by the arm and started to drag her away. “We’ll see if we can come up with anything.”

  “I would like to see this,” Lavinia admitted as she followed Yvaine up the stairs. There was a gleeful glint in her eye, and I had a feeling Maruk was about to go from skin care consultant to fight referee. Aerin gave me a wink and followed Lavinia and Yvaine.

  That just left me and Merlin. Merlin looked at me with his two golden eyes, then chirped.

  “You can’t be hungry,” I replied. “You almost ate an entire basket of food on your own.”

  Merlin chirped again, then trotted off in the direction of the kitchen. I heard Lavinia’s loud laugh from upstairs, followed by a not so kind comment from Imogen about her parentage. Maruk’s soothing voice broke in, suggesting that some of the astringent water he kept might be just the thing. I heard muttering, and a door slam, and decided that saving our food supplies from a hungry puca was a just and noble cause.

  Chapter 13

  I knew that Maderel’s weekly lectures for the senior class usually started late in the morning, but since today’s mission would take them out to the estates, I guessed they would be getting an earlier start than usual. I arrived at the Tower just before the clock struck ten and ambled inside with a pack of students. I hoped Lain would be on the desk, since he would probably wave me upstairs without a second thought.

  My luck wasn’t quite that good today. Purple Polly manned the desk, and I knew she wouldn’t just let me walk straight to the stairs. She may not be as much of a stickler for the rules as Marv the troll-killer, but I still had to have her permission to venture beyond the lobby.

  “Good morning, Polly,” I said as I stepped up to the desk.

  “Oh, good morning,” she replied as she blinked at me a few times. I gave her my most charming smile, and her blinking picked up speed.

  “I know I’m not on Maderel’s schedule today,” I continued. “But I wanted to return a book and ask him some questions.”

  “Oh,” she said again. “He’s not here.”

  “Not here?” I asked with a frown. “But he gives the senior lecture later.”

  “They already left,” she explained. “They went out to the estate for some field work.”

  “Oh,” I replied in a disappointed voice. I heaved a sigh and stared vaguely out the window. “Well, I guess I could leave a note.”

  “That would be okay,” Polly agreed.

  “I’ll just let him know that I’m back in the city and ready to meet again,” I added as I started to walk towards the stairs.

  “Wait,” Polly called out. “Where are you going?”

  “To leave him a note,” I said as I walked back towards the desk.

  “You can just leave it here at the desk,” she replied.

  “But I can’t be sure he’ll get it if I do that,” I sighed as I shook my head sadly.

  “I’ll make sure he gets it,” Polly sniffed indignantly.

  “I’m sure you would,” I reassured her. “But they’ll be gone all day, and you probably won’t be here when they get back. So how do I know whoever is on the desk when he gets back will know to give him my note?”

  “I’ll tell them,” Polly replied after a few more blinks.

  “Can I be honest with you?” I asked and moved in closer conspiratorially.

  “Of course,” Polly insisted.

  “I really only trust you and Lain,” I said just above a whisper. “You two are the only ones who really know how to run the desk.”

  “Well,” Polly drawled, then paused for a moment to think. “I guess if you’re just leaving him a note.”

  “I’ll just slip it under his door,” I assured her.

  “Okay,” she agreed. “I mean, you’re practically a student here any way.”

  “Why, thank you,” I replied. “That’s a high compliment coming from a top student like you.”

  “It’s true,” Polly replied as her cheeks turned pink, and her fingers started to play with a small thread that dangled from the end of a sleeve.

  “That you’re a top student?” I teased. “Yes, absolutely.”

  Purple Polly’s entire face was now bright pink, and her blinks were so rapid that I was surprised that she could still see anything.

  “I’ll just go leave my note,” I declared with another giant smile, and Polly nodded in agreement.

  I strode across the lobby to the stairs and bounded up the steps before Polly could change her mind. I knew that the other professors who had offices near Maderel’s would either be in class or in the labs at this time, so I wasn’t surprised when I found the hallway empty. I walked quietly along and peeked casually inside offices as I went. The offices were all empty.

  I stopped in front of Maderel’s office and scrounged in my pack for a sheet of regular paper and a pencil stub. I scribbled a note that said I was back in Ovrista, and that I had been practicing some of Lackland’s exercises.

  I looked around again, then tested the door. Maderel’s door was locked, which was no surprise. I checked it with my mana and was surprised to discover it was just an ordinary lock. After another quick glance, I placed my hand over the keyhole, and sent a small burst of mana into the lock. I heard a snick and a small pop. I turned the knob, and the door opened without a sound.

  I stepped inside and closed the door be
hind me. I took a moment to draw in a deep breath, and then I looked around the room, this time using my mana to check for spells. There were tons of spells, many of them overlapping. They covered just about every surface in the place, including quite a few of the books, and even the small rubber ball we’d used during the air mage exercises.

  As I looked closer, I could see that many of the spells were faded, and others looked incomplete. I realized that the various tenants of this office had probably never bothered to remove any spells cast by their predecessors before enacting their own. It was a jumbled mess, and it made it harder to figure out which ones would set off some sort of alarm, or initiate some sort of protection, like zapping me with a bolt of lightning.

  I took another deep breath and started moving slowly around the room, careful not to touch anything until I determined it was safe to do so. I soon discovered that each spellcaster had his own unique style, just like every person has their own handwriting. I could start to pick out spells that had been cast by the same mage, even if I had no idea who that mage was. I could also recognize what type of mage had cast a spell, both by the type of spell, and the color it took on.

  Maderel’s spells were easy to detect, since they were the newest. Like the man himself, his spells came in all the elemental colors, and wove in and out in complex patterns and shapes. I could understand some of his spells, but others were a mystery. I needed more time to study them to be able to pull them apart. I decided I still had a few minutes before Polly would start to get concerned, and I quickly copied as many of Maderel’s spells as I could.

  I also needed to find the exact location of the hidden rooms as well. The sheer number of spells made it difficult to see much of anything else with my mana besides the spells. As I moved around the office, however, I came across a spot directly behind Maderel’s desk that bore what had to be several centuries’ worth of concealment spells. If I squinted at it long enough, I could just make out the faint line of what could be a door.

  The second one was harder to find. I went around the room twice more before I noticed something odd about the horse painting. As I looked at the horse, I suddenly realized that there was a spell embedded in the paint, but the color of the paint helped conceal its presence, even from my mana enhanced vision.

  The spell was definitely one of Maderel’s. It was tightly woven and layered in a way that made it difficult to pick apart. I wrote down everything I could see, as well as all of the nearby spells, no matter how old they were. I was positive that this was the place that held the Shodra, and I had no doubt that Maderel would reuse even some of these arcane spells to keep them hidden.

  The sound of another office door opening and closing served as a reminder that the hallway would soon be busy again. I took one last look at the painting, then quietly slipped back outside. I used my mana to relock the door, then slid my note underneath.

  Polly was busy with what looked like a group of potential students when I returned to the lobby. She barely spared me a glance when I waved in her direction, and I stepped out into the day’s gray light confident that my intrusion had escaped notice.

  I returned to the guildhall which was quiet once again. I heard Maruk in the kitchen, and spotted a pink vapor seeping out from under the door to Lena’s lab, but other than that, there wasn’t a sign of anyone else in the building, so I went straight back to my own room for a cram session.

  I lit every lamp in the room, then sat in the middle of the floor with my notes from Maderel’s office in front of me. Every book I had that carried any mention of spells and how to cast them lay scattered around me like islands in the sea.

  Merlin watched from his perch on top of the dresser for a while, but eventually he grew bored. He disappeared under the bed, and I could hear him rustling around among one of his stashes. Eventually, he returned with a string of pearls double-looped around his neck.

  “You look lovely,” I said as the puca settled into my lap.

  He bumped the top of his head against my hand, and I scratched him between the ears. We stayed like that for hours, and I didn’t realize how much time had passed until someone rapped on my door. I stretched to try to loosen the muscles that had become stiff and walked ungracefully to the door. I opened it to find Imogen standing in front of me. She still had a slight blue tinge, but otherwise looked like herself once again.

  “Maruk sent me,” she said. “You missed lunch, and he was worried you might miss dinner.”

  “What time is it?” I asked as I tried to work a kink out of my back.

  “To quote the orc, ‘time to replenish and restore,’” she replied.

  “Sounds good to me,” I sighed.

  “Any luck today at Maderel’s office?” the ladona asked as we started towards the dining hall. Merlin darted ahead, his pearl necklace gleaming against the black fur.

  “The place is covered in spells, but I think I found the two rooms,” I replied. “And I think I know which one is the staircase, and which one is the room with the Shodra.”

  “Can you get to them?” she queried.

  “I’m going over the spells,” I said. “The older ones I can disrupt easily enough without setting anything off. It’s Maderel’s that concern me.”

  “That’s no surprise,” she mused.

  “No,” I agreed. “His are extremely complex. Far more complex than any I’ve ever seen before. There’s only one way to safely disarm them, as far as I can tell. One wrong move and the whole thing will blow up in your face. Or worse.”

  “How soon will you be ready?” she asked.

  “I’ve nearly worked it out, but I’d like a day to test a few things,” I replied.

  “That might work,” she said.

  “How so?”

  “We’ve been working on distractions,” Imogen remarked. “Obviously, it has to be big in order to draw Maderel far enough away from the Shodra that we can slip in and get them.”

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “Yvaine learned from Raynald that the city council is holding an emergency meeting in three days to discuss the current state of affairs of the city’s defense,” Imogen explained. “What with orcs running about, my escape, and the dark mages kidnapping people.”

  “Ah,” I smiled. “Too much bad publicity.”

  “Exactly,” she agreed. “Raynald’s in a lather, insisting he can’t be blamed for what happened. He asked Yvaine to bring the Shadow Foxes so we could explain what a spectacular job he’s done.”

  “And, no doubt, this will all somehow end up being our guild’s fault,” I added.

  “No doubt,” she laughed. “Maderel has been invited as well, though he hasn’t sent word that he’ll be there.”

  “Usually he attends these things,” I replied, “but he may not if he thinks the council is simply going to blame him for the mage attack.”

  “So,” Imogen added. “We need to be sure that he does attend.”

  “And what devious plan have the Foxes concocted?” I asked with a smile.

  “The only thing we know that will get his attention,” she declared. “An attack using dark magic at the council meeting.”

  I stopped in my tracks and stared at the ladona.

  “Don’t worry,” she assured me. “It won’t be a real one. It will just look like one. At least, long enough to keep Maderel from the tower and let us recover the Shodra.”

  “And even once the mages discover it’s not black magic,” I mused as I started walking again, “the council will be so up in arms that Maderel won’t be able to simply walk away from the meeting.”

  “Exactly,” Imogen replied.

  “I like it,” I admitted. “But how do you simulate black magic?”

  “Very carefully,” Imogen said with a grimace. “But with some of the smells and such that Lena can produce, along with a few spells that Emeline has been practicing, I think they can pull it off.”

  “The only problem is that Maderel will notice if I’m not there with the rest of the g
uild,” I pointed out.

  “Don’t worry,” Imogen said. “Yvaine’s already planted the idea that the Shadow Foxes will be arriving from different locations so you won’t all arrive in one big group. No one will pay much attention, especially since the Foxes will make a point of scattering around the room.”

  We arrived at the dining hall, and I found the rest of the Shadow Foxes had already gathered around the table. Large serving bowls sat in the middle of the table, and my team was happily ladling food onto their plates. Loaves of warm, crusty bread were being passed around, as was a pitcher of fruit-flavored water.

  “Gabriel!” Lena cried out happily. “We haven’t seen you all day!”

  “I’ve been working through Maderel’s spells,” I replied as I took a seat. My stomach grumbled, and I suddenly realized just how hungry I was. The scents of oregano and basil filled the air, and I was reminded of my favorite Italian place in San Francisco. I took a sizable helping of everything and dove right in.

  It was delicious and worthy of the best kitchens in Tuscany, and while some of the ingredients may not have been familiar to Italians, or anyone else on Earth, it was certainly close enough in perfection to be worthy of a ‘bravo’ or two. I scooped up the last drop of sauce with a thick slice of buttery garlic bread and enjoyed a moment of sheer contentment.

  “So,” I began as I finally set my plate aside, “What’s this about simulating black magic?”

  “We’ve been reading about some of the spells they cast,” Emeline replied. “Lena and I think we can copy some of the results.”

  “It probably won’t fool any of the mages for very long,” Lena added, “But all we really want to do is keep everyone busy at the civil building.”

  “Which brings us to the second part,” Lavinia said.

  “There’s a second part?” I asked with a quick glance at Imogen, who shrugged.

  “This was Dehn’s idea, and it’s brilliant,” Lena replied.

  “Well, Alicia put me on to it,” Dehn admitted.

  “What is it?” I repeated.

  “Well,” Dehn started, then stopped as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.