The Journeyman for Zdrell

by David K Bennett

  The image spell also failed, and all he ended up with was a splatter of ink blotches on the paper. He had managed to hold on to the ink jar when he fell so that it did not fall and break, but a large portion of the ink ended up on the floor and coating his hand.

  “That looked like you nearly had it,” Turek said with a tone of respect. “I’ll wager that if you worked at it for another few days, you’d be able to pull it off. But I don’t think we have that time.”

  “How about,” Turek continued, now up and pacing. “If you fly above the city here, look down, and then come back here and see what kind of picture you can produce. That should give us an idea if you can do this from memory. If you can keep an image in your mind long enough, that should simplify matters.”

  § § §

  Two hours and three attempts later, Eril had completed a map of the city that Turek said would actually make the Marshall happy. It also proved that Eril could keep an image in his memory clear enough to then use the spell to record it on paper.

  By this time, it was early evening, and they took time to eat and plan Eril’s scouting trip the next day. They went to an inn that had been commandeered to serve military officers for the duration of the crisis. Turek decided to bring along Eril’s last map and get reactions to it.

  While they sat at the table waiting for their food, Turek passed the map to a table of high-ranking officers to get their reactions. They were all impressed and asked who had drawn the map, and how had it been done from the perspective it showed and how the level of detail had been accomplished.

  “My new journeyman wizard, here, did it,” Turek told the officers, pointing at Eril.

  All the officers asked how they could get copies for themselves. Several commented on how it would help their particular duties.

  Eril flushed with the pleasure of someone finally appreciating his efforts, spoke without thinking. “If you get me paper and a bottle of ink, I’ll make a copy for each of you right now.”

  Turek looked at him sharply, but Eril barely noticed as the officers shouted their enthusiastic approval and immediately sent a subordinate for paper and ink.

  Their food had just arrived when the subordinate returned with a pot of ink and a sheaf of paper. Turek smirked at Eril, “You’d better not keep them waiting. You’ve set the expectation. They want a show, and you’re it.”

  Eril grabbed a couple more bites. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the food arrived. Now he’d just have to wait a bit longer to satisfy his hunger.

  They had set up a table with his original map, the pot of ink, a stack of paper, and a single sheet with a pen sitting by it. Someone hadn’t believed he was serious about not needing the pen.

  The officers, who had had the chance to finish their meal, arranged themselves in a semi-circle around the table to watch the process. The sight at first gave Eril pause, but he reminded himself that this was his show and he’d been the one to instigate it. If he was going to put on a demonstration to convince them of his power and usefulness, he decided to make it memorable.

  He walked up to the table, made a show of putting on his power ring, which he’d gotten in the habit of removing when he ate so as to not forget and leave it on all the time, and then used it to draw in energy from the nearby hearth. The light of the fire dimmed dramatically, and Eril began moving his hands about in solemn gesticulations that were vast exaggerations of the ones normally used in the spell. Meanwhile, he intoned the words of the incantation, in klathar, loudly. Behind him, he thought he might have heard a snicker from Turek.

  Taking at least twice as long as he usually did to cast the spell, Eril finally focused on the original drawing. As he stared at it, he remembered additional details from his flight earlier in the day, so that when he finished, and there was the usual flash of light and cloud of ink as it formed the new picture on the page, the new map was even more clearly formed and greater in detail than the original.

  There were shouts and applause from the assembled officers as they each jockeyed for position to get a better look at the new map.

  “Astounding.”

  “The copy is much better than the original.”

  “Shocking.”

  “Can you do it again?”

  “Yes, here, here. Let us see if the next is superior to this one.” This last was said by the senior officer in the group.

  Eril took the copy and placed it on top of the map he’d come in with. He looked around at the expectant faces and once again began to chant.

  § § §

  In the end, Eril created nine copies of the original map. All were actually copies of his first ‘copy.’ The officers were all very congratulatory and pleased with Eril and their maps. He nearly said that they would soon have as detailed a picture of the enemy forces, but Turek stopped him.

  “You have no idea how many people in that place are spies for Espilona, or Nitholia, for that matter,” Turek complained as they walked back to his work area.

  “Spies in the officer’s mess?” Eril asked incredulous.

  “What better place for them to be?” Turek countered. “Look, Eril, you really are naive in this whole war thing. Both sides are always trying to get any advanced intelligence they can lay their hands on. I’m afraid that at least one of those copies you made tonight will find its way to the attacking generals. They would pay huge sums for a map that detailed of the city they wish to conquer.”

  Eril felt a little ashamed that he hadn’t thought of the implications of his stunt. At the time, he had just wanted to prove that he could be valuable to the war effort. Now he only hoped that he hadn’t made things worse.

  “Don’t feel too bad, Eril,” Turek said. “When you come back to the Marshall with a detailed picture of the enemy forces, and if you manage to slow them a bit in the process, I’m sure he’ll forgive any lapse you might have created in local security.”

  Eril still felt the sting, and, once again, vowed to think before he acted.

  Chapter 61

  The next morning Eril went through his customary preparations for a flight. He put on his warm clothes, and this time put paper and ink in his backpack. They had determined that his best bet was to fly and get a good look at the entire army, then move off a distance and use the spell to capture the image while it was fresh. He should repeat the cycle at least three times so that he would have as detailed and accurate a picture of the forces as possible. It would also give him time to figure out where he might best interfere with the army’s progress.

  Eril made a point of putting on both the Master ring as well as his power ring. He carried the line cutter in its shielded amulet and had his enchanted sword belted to his waist. He didn’t think there would be a confrontation, but he did not want to be unprepared.

  He bid a farewell to both Carge and Turek as they stood on the roof of the tower over Turek’s work area. Invoking the shield and invisibility amulets, he then flew straight up a few thousand feet.

  Once he was high enough he headed rapidly west, following the main road. He traveled up into the mountains that formed the western border of Jull. Crossing the mountain pass that marked the border into Espilona he found a long, wide valley brimming with troops. He had never seen, nor even imagined an army so massive. He didn’t initially try to estimate or count the enormous body of men at arms.

  He deliberately stayed very high, trying, and failing, to find an angle where he could see the entire assemblage. After several minutes, he concluded he would simply have to make several different images, as he could see no way to get the whole group into a single one with any detail at all.

  It seemed to him that if he took the group in quarters, it would give him the best balance of view versus detail. It helped that the way the army was encamped also lent itself to this way of capturing it. Each quadrant seemed to be somewhat self-contained with, support wagons, infantry, horse, and command tents.

  In the very center was a group of three large ornate tents next to four
slightly smaller, but still very ornate, tents. Eril guessed that those were the tents for either the heads of the expedition, the wizards, or charzen accompanying the army.

  Eril stayed high as he worked to capture as detailed a mental image of the armies as he could. Each time he felt he had an image, he flew back to the peak where he had his supplies ready and cast the spell to create the maps.

  By the time he was working on the third map, he really wished he had taken the time to figure out how to cast the spell while flying. The time and effort to fly back and forth was very tiring. He spent nearly the whole day getting the image maps completed to the point where he felt they were sufficiently accurate.

  As he was tired from the ordeal and knew the army was still at least a week away, even if they left the next day, he decided it would be better to return rather than risk an encounter this late in the day, so far from Jull.

  During his efforts, he had seen what he was pretty sure were two different charzen walking around. His previous suspicions were further confirmed by seeing what appeared to be senior military officials, wizards, and charzen milling around the central tents.

  More than once, he had seen one of the charzen and another of the wizards looking up at the sky. None had been looking directly at him, but he knew that the invisibility spell would not conceal him from someone using the right magic. He relied even more on the fact that he was so high that even if they were to look directly at him, all they’d be able to discern would be a speck in the sky.

  The sun sinking towards the horizon reminded him both that he had been working for hours without a break and that he needed to head back to be there before dark. Eril gathered all his supplies and flew very high and fast and was soon descending to the tower roof. Once there, he dropped his invisibility spell and walked back down into the work area.

  “You look wrung out, Eril,” Turek greeted him. “Let’s see what your day’s labor has wrought.”

  Eril pulled off his backpack and extracted the rolled-up sheaf of paper and handed it to Turek, who took it and unrolled it on a table and soon let out a low whistle.

  “My oh my,” Turek said, shaking his head in wonder. “The Marshall is going to be overjoyed to see these images, and he is also going to be mightily depressed. Look at the size of this army!”

  “By my rough count, it is between twenty-eight and thirty-two thousand in total,” Eril said. “I couldn’t believe how huge it was. Like a whole town, and probably two-thirds of them are actual fighting men. The rest are for supplies. Not only that, there has to be at least twelve thousand horse.”

  Both Carge and Turek continued to look through the pages.

  “So where exactly are they?” Turek asked.

  “They’re in a valley just the other side of the pass separating Jull and Espilona,” Eril said, sitting down heavily.

  “Well,” Turek said, grunting, “No surprise there. It’s the only logical place to marshal a group that large. It will take them days to get all that group through the pass.”

  “Why isn’t there an army guarding the pass? That seems like the logical place to stop them,” Eril asked.

  “Up until recently, a large part of the army was stationed there,” Turek said, looking up from the maps. “Unfortunately, the army here isn’t big enough to guard the city against three major threats at once, so they pulled them back to the city.”

  “Three?”

  “Yes,” Turek said, holding up three fingers. “First, the army coming from Espilona,” he folded down one finger. “Second, the army coming from Nitholia,” he folded down a second finger. “And last the naval attack on the city from both Nitholian and Espilonian navies, which you arrived just in time to miss.” He folded down the final finger.

  This explained why the city had looked under siege to Eril from the time he’d arrived, even though the attacking armies were days or weeks away.

  “How bad was it?” Eril asked.

  “Oh, not too bad, for the city at least,” Turek replied. “But they did manage to burn almost a quarter of the trading fleet then in harbor. A tremendous loss. Jull’s lifeblood is trade. Even without these armies coming, they’ve dealt a serious blow to the kingdom.”

  “The worst part,” Carge said, finally speaking up, “is that most of the raiding ships got away and are not far off. They’re terrorizing the settlements on the coast, and nothing is stopping them from coming back. The navy repelled them, but at great cost. Most don’t think they can do it again.”

  “Yes,” Turek said. “The Marshall will not be happy to find that a force of over thirty thousand is poised to come at him from the west when he already knows of the sixteen thousand Nitholians from the north, and then the naval attackers could return as well. Things are not looking good for the defending force here. They’ve less than thirty thousand total. And no more than half of those are experienced fighting men.”

  They all stood in silence for several moments, then Turek rolled up the pages and said, “Come on. The Marshall will want this information tonight, even if it only confirms our greatest fears.”

  § § §

  The Marshall’s reaction to the maps surprised Eril. When he saw the images and heard Eril’s preliminary estimates, he praised Eril over and over again for the quality of the images. He didn’t seem to be overly upset at the very depressing numbers, which flabbergasted Eril.

  “Sir, you don’t seem too upset by the size of the army,” Eril questioned.

  “Oh, young master wizard, I am most upset by this immense army, but you see, these excellent images only confirm what I already suspected. I’ve had scouts out for a long time. Many have not returned, but those that did gave me numbers similar to yours. So, I’ve had time to grow accustomed to my doom,” he said grimly.

  “I only hope that you wizards will be able to do something to cut those numbers down before they reach my city.”

  Turek spoke up. “I believe we will be able to do something to help even the odds, Marshall.”

  “I do truly hope you are right. There is no way we can stand against these numbers unless you find a way to stop them or convince them to return to their own lands.

  “Tomorrow, I have a meeting with all my commanders. I’ll expect you and your journeymen’s attendance, Turek. My staff will carefully analyze these images; then we’ll have the basis to plan our strategy to defeat these incoming armies. Thank you.”

  The three got up and left the Marshall. Eril was so tired he could hardly stay awake. Then he remembered he was wearing the Master ring and deliberately channeled some of its stored energy into him. The magical energy flowed, erasing his fatigue and aches. By the time they had returned to the work area, he was revitalised.

  “What did you do?” Turek asked suspiciously. “Ten minutes ago, you were asleep on your feet. Now you look like you’ve just returned from a ten-day vacation.”

  “I just remembered to use some of the stored power in my ring,” Eril answered cheerily. “I try not to do it very often, but now seemed like a good time to make an exception.”

  “How much of your power is tied to those rings?” Turek said, suspicion in his tone.

  “Oh, I could do everything you’ve seen without them, if I needed to,” Eril said, sensing where the question might be coming from. “The rings each make things easier in its own way.”

  Eril had deliberately not said anything about his rings or any of his other magical artifacts to this point. He had been looking for an opportunity to get Turek’s cooperation and hopefully learn from him before letting him know that he’d brought a power ring specifically to cement their relationship.

  Master Silurian had made it clear that Turek would value a power ring greatly, and other than Eril’s abilities, it was the biggest bargaining chip he would have with the war mage. He decided now was the time to use his ring as bait.

  “This first ring,” Eril said, taking off the Master ring. “Is a zdrell artifact. It mostly lets me focus my power more clearly. It helps m
e see and also stores power for later use. I just now drew upon it to get rid of my fatigue.

  “Master Silurian has warned me that doing that can become highly habit-forming, so I make practice of only doing it rarely. Oh, and since this ring is tied to my zdrell, it really would be useless to anyone who can’t master zdrell.”

  He handed the ring to Turek, who examined it, closed his eyes and reached into his shirt to grab one or more amulets, but then grunted in frustration. “You’re right. I can’t sense anything from it. If you hadn’t said otherwise, I would think it is only a typical ornamental ring, though a very pretty one.”

  He handed the ring to Carge, who also examined it closely and then returned it to Eril.

  “This ring,” Eril said, holding up his power ring, “is another matter entirely. It draws and focuses energy from the surrounding area. Any person with ‘the spark’ should be able to use it.”

  Eril saw both of the wizards perk up at this pronouncement. He knew he had their interest, but made a point of not immediately handing over the ring.

  “Both Zeldar and Master Dorull,” Eril said, holding the ring between thumb and forefinger and twisting it in the light as he spoke, “were very interested in it and wanted to have one for their own.” He glanced up casually and saw that both wizards were now looking at the ring like dogs staring at a proffered treat.

  Eril slipped the ring back on his finger and said, “It lets me do things like this.” Eril drew hard on the heat coming from the hearth in the corner of the room. The light from the flames diminished as he channeled the energy into a blue, glowing sphere of the type that had been used to attack Dorull’s castle, but nearly double the size.

  “Stop that, you fool!” Turek screeched. “If that blows, it is big enough to level this whole tower.” He held up a hand to shield himself from the light as though that would have any hope of saving him.

  Eril reacted by performing the switch he’d perfected back with Dorull and modified the containment on the globe to turn it into a very large lantern.