The Archmage unbound

Chapter 33

The next morning I returned to Lancaster. We had talked long into the night but in the end we didn’t have any better solutions than what we had started with.

Stepping out of the teleportation circle I spotted two men standing guard within the building that held them. They had already taken note of my appearance and were opening their mouths to speak. I was too quick for them however. “You!” I said sharply. “Where is the Duke presently?”

The man looked quite anxious, probably due to my aggressive demeanor. “He should be in the keep your Lordship, taking breakfast, given the hour.” I had arrived fairly early.

“Excellent,” I replied and turned to head that way.

The man called after me, “He said to tell you that he would like to speak with you as soon as you arrived.”

I laughed and kept walking. Entering the keep I headed straight for the great hall. A number of people pointed and began talking as they saw me pass, which gave me the impression I had been the topic of discussion lately, but I didn’t bother trying to listen in. When I entered the great hall the effect was entirely the opposite. All conversation died as I made my way to the high table, and silence fell over the room.

James stood as I got close and greeted me with an embrace. As his head came close to mine he spoke quietly, “Where the hell have you been these past two days?”

“I had a wizard to interrogate, people to inform, and information to gather. I take it things have been exciting in my absence?” I didn’t bother to keep my voice quiet. The crowd needed something to talk about after all.

The duke sat down again. “Do you think a band of armed men could infiltrate my castle, assault and murder my guests, and then escape without any repercussions?”

“They’re already dead,” I replied. “Except for the wizard,” I added.

James leaned toward me, “And what did you learn from your new guest?”

“That his situation is more complicated than it at first appeared, and our enemies are more powerful than we knew,” I said wittily. I had probably spent too much time in Lady Rose’s company.

The duke’s eyes narrowed, “That is ever the case, but what of the particulars?”

I shook my head negatively, “Not here your Grace, the matter requires as much tact as dealing with royalty.”

James’ eyes widened momentarily but he showed no other sign of having understood my meaning. Instead he rapidly switched to his own news and delivered it with his usual enthusiasm, “The news that shiggreth in the hundreds could be roaming my lands with impunity did not sit well with me, nor did it please Master William or my other foresters. Despite the great lengths the enemy went to in order to disguise their trail we believe we have run them aground.”

I showed my teeth in an expression that only resembled a smile in the most superficial of ways. “Marc told me you’d find them,” I replied.

A shadow crossed James’ face so quickly I doubt many would have noticed it, “How is my son?”

“Doing well,” I told him. “He has taken to intrigue and subterfuge like a duck to water. At the moment he is engaged in Albamarl, ferreting out secrets for me. More importantly, I think he is recovering from what happened to him.”

He nodded, “I want you to tell me in more detail later.” I knew he meant his words.

“I will.”

“William and I had a devil of a time finding the shiggreth,” he said returning to the subject at hand.

“My husband spent more time in the woods than at home after what happened,” came the voice of Genevieve from behind me. She had walked up while we talked. I glanced up with an expression of mock surprise. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Nephew,” she said simply.

“Your Grace,” I replied. “I hope you can forgive my rudeness the other day.”

She raised a hand as if she were shooing a fly away, “Nonsense, I recall no fault on your part.”

“Thank you,” I told her.

James interrupted, “As I was saying, we searched high and low, but the tracks of so many going in so many directions made it impossible to find them at first.”

“So how did you do it?” I asked.

“If it were a cunning beast you would circle the area more widely, until at last you find where the trail emerges, but these were no animals. They are intelligent, and each one took a separate path, even after traveling miles from where they converged. William and I had to divide my lands into sections and assign men to search each of them. Even so nothing was found, until we reached the foothills,” he answered.

“I might have thought you would start there, rather than in the forests,” I commented.

James sighed, “I had thought it would turn out this way, but I could not leave the forests unexamined. Otherwise we might have left a viper near our bosom while we were searching further afield.”

I had to admit he had a point.

“When we started searching the foothills to the east we lost several men,” he went on. “I had to increase the size of the search parties to groups of five men each. The next day I lost an entire patrol group and I knew we were getting close.”

“They seem pretty bold. Surely they realized that would give away their location,” I pondered aloud.

James snorted, “They’re desperate and they knew we were drawing close. It was only a matter of time. I mobilized all my armsmen at that point. We swept through the hills leaving no stone unturned in that region.”

“When was this?”

“Yesterday,” he said with a smile. “We found their hole. There’s a cave out there, and they’ve gone underground. My men have them bottled up now.”

“What if they have another exit?” I worried the enemy might circle around and attack Lancaster while he was focused on their ‘lair’.

“That thought occurred to me,” he said. “I sent a message to you yesterday, asking for men and assistance.”

I frowned, “I haven’t been home yet, but I’m sure Sir Harold will respond in my stead.”

“I received a reply late last night. He promised to be here before noon with as many men as he thought he could safely muster without endangering the defense of Washbrook and Castle Cameron,” said the duke.

“Then he is on the road as we speak,” I observed. “How soon do you plan to leave?”

“As soon as he arrives.”

I rose abruptly, “Then I have some preparations to make.”

James chuckled grimly, “You always do… heaven protect us. Best hurry, I won’t hold the men up if you haven’t returned by the time he gets here.”

Walter looked up as I entered the room where I was keeping him under, ‘house’ arrest. “How are you feeling?” I asked. He looked tired and he had dark circles under his eyes, but somehow I could tell he was starting to recover.

“Now that the fever is gone much better,” he said plainly. “Though I have to admit this necklace makes me feel blind and helpless.” He held up the necklace I had used to block his magesight as well as his power.

I had spoken to the guards as well as those in charge of keeping his wound clean while I was gone and they had informed me regarding his condition already. Yesterday the fever from his wound had broken at last, signaling that he would most likely survive. He was still quite weak though. “Think you can ride?”

He made a face, “It won’t be pleasant, but yes.”

“How do you feel about the shiggreth?”

“As any decent man would feel, they are an abomination and a threat to all of us,” he responded promptly. After a pause he added, “They also scare the living daylights out of me.”

“A reasonable response, though I have to say… most decent men don’t even know they exist,” I sat down next to him so I could see his face more closely as we talked.

He looked at me with anxiety in his face, “You’ve found them haven’t you?”

“James Lancaster has,” I informed him. “We ride from his keep in a few hours to burn them out of their nest.”

“You know they eat magic as easily as men’s souls don’t you?” he said nervously.

“I’ve fought them before,” I told him. “I’d like you to see what happens today, and it is entirely possible I might need your help.”

He gestured at his wounded leg, “I’ve just returned from death’s door. I’m not sure how much help I will be, especially with this.” His hand touched the pendant at his neck.

“My father was friends with your older brother, did you know that?”

He nodded.

“Why didn’t you say anything about it?” I said curiously.

“I’m a prisoner. Anything I say will just make it seem as if I’m trying to curry favor. Besides you never knew your father, so there was no way to verify the claim,” he answered rationally.

I liked his answer. “If I take that necklace off will you give me your word on something?”

He looked at me suspiciously, “Perhaps, it depends upon what it is. More importantly, of what value is my word to you?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that, but I trusted what Penny had told me. I also found that the more I talked to Walter the less I hated him. He definitely wasn’t a man given to violence or aggression. If anything he might even be something of a coward, though I had no way to judge that yet. But I got the impression he was at the very least a man of compassion, a man who had been badly used. “Its value will depend upon how you honor it. Betray me and you will never get another chance,” I responded somberly.

“If it conflicts with my need to protect my family I won’t give it. If I give it and discover later that my family is jeopardized by my keeping it, I will break it without a moment’s thought. Is that the sort of honor you would trust?”

I thought of Cyhan and his unbending oaths. If I had not known him I might have had a different answer, but now I had a wiser view on the matter. “It sounds exactly like the sort of honor I would trust. Help me with this Walter, and if it is possible I will do all I can to help recover your family safely.”

He sighed, “Fine. Tell me what you want me to swear to.”

“Swear you will not seek to escape or use your power to oppose me. Swear you will follow my orders, except and until they endanger your family. Swear that, and I will remove the necklace.”

Walter watched me carefully as I spoke and when I finished he answered, “I so swear.” A moment later he added, “I see why the king fears you now.”

“What do you mean?”

“If he had been like you he would never have taken my family hostage, nor would he have needed to do so,” he explained.

“You don’t know me Walter,” I replied.

He laughed, “On the contrary I was watching your every move for almost two months. I think I know you fairly well. Your people trust you and your armsmen would walk through fire if you asked them to do so.”

His praise was honest but it made me uncomfortable. And what about my wife? I thought to myself. The last part of the fairy tale should have been that my wife was the most beautiful woman in the land and that every man was jealous of our happiness. I swallowed as a bitter knot rose in my throat.

I ignored his comments and reached over to gently grasp the necklace. With hardly any effort I picked out its voice and in an instant it became a part of me. I pulled it apart as though it were made of soft cheese instead of metal. Once I had it off I put the ends back together and watched the silver chain reform as if it had never parted.

Walter watched with keen interest, “How are you doing that? I can’t sense any power being used at all.”

“I just listen,” I said patiently.

He snorted, “If my wife were here she would say that rules me out as far as being able to do whatever it is you just did.”

I laughed politely, but thinking about his wife didn’t make me feel any better. Glancing down at the necklace I decided I had better remove the iron sphere just to be safe. The last thing I wanted was an accidental explosion. Repeating my action of a moment ago I separated the iron ball from the silver clasp.

Now that his magesight was restored Walter could sense the power stored within it. “That’s what you had set in case I broke the necklace? I doubt there would have been anything left of me. How did you manage to store so much energy in there?”

“That’s a conversation for another day,” I told him, not wanting to get into the details of how I had rediscovered the art of enchanting. “I’d better get rid of this.” I had a chest full of similar explosive iron balls, tucked away, and the pouch at my belt allowed me to safely store and access them without actually carrying them around with me, but I wanted to make one further point while I had Walter’s full attention.

With a word I formed a shield around the iron ball and then I redoubled it. Once I felt sure it was strong enough I pulled the glass ball that matched it from my purse and swiftly broke it with a second word. The iron ball exploded silently.

The force of the explosion in my hand was incredible and it came very near to exceeding my ability to contain it in the fist-sized shield I held around it. I was careful to keep my face calm and my features smooth the entire time, but I needn’t have worried. Walter’s attention was entirely focused upon the roiling sphere of light and flame I held before me. He had leapt back several feet and erected his own shields reflexively. “Sweet Lady protect us!” he yelled and I worried he might hurt himself further trying to move so quickly on his injured leg.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” I lied. I had definitely meant to startle him. I walked nonchalantly over to the window and then carefully created a small opening on one side of the shield I had around the tightly compressed ball of pure energy and iron fragments. The force vented violently into the air beside the castle and if I hadn’t already braced myself the reactionary force might have thrown me back into the room. As it was, I hoped my demonstration had made the desired impression on Walter.

He didn’t say anything else, but I could see the wheels turning in his head. I hoped he had gotten my message, which if I had put it into words would have been something like this: don’t even think of crossing me, because if I decide I need to do something about you it won’t be any more difficult than it would be for an ordinary person to swat a fly. Of course the other possibility was that I had just convinced him I was a few cards shy of a full deck. Either way it would serve the same purpose.