Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (47 page)

The six men walked down the hall finding the prison he had spotted on the way in and Palose was escorted to a cell.

“Chain him or he might use a spell to break free,” the warlock Verian ordered the wraiths.

With no resistance, the mage let them bind him and his eyes looked at the lead warlock unblinkingly. The second warlock looked a mixture of arrogance and surprise at the ease with which they had taken the emperor’s messenger in hand.

“You are a bit of a disappointment,” Hereseth stated his face showing his words echoed the sentiment. “If you truly serve the emperor, then I would have thought that you would have at least gone down with a fight.”

Shrugging, he made the chains clink with the movement, but Palose didn’t say a word.

“Leave us,” Verian ordered the others as the cell closed and was locked by the wraith. “I want a word with him a moment.”

Hereseth started to protest, but the older man cut him off saying, “I am in charge until Lord Garosh returns. Now go and close the doors behind you so that I am not disturbed. He might become rather loud while we talk anyway.”

Starting to smile, the blond haired wizard realized that Verian meant to torture some information out of the messenger and not wanting to be disturbed meant that he would use magical means to extract that information. Like Lord Garosh, Verian knew how to create pain to make someone talk.

“Enjoy your talk, Verian,” he said with a laugh. “You too, messenger.”

His laughter could be heard until the doors closed.

Once the doors were closed the bald warlock hurried to the ring of keys placed on a table by the wraith after locking the cell. His hands fumbled to find the right key among a dozen, but quickly opened the iron barred door before unlocking the mage’s shackles. In moment’s, the two had exchanged places in fact.

Locked in place, the warlock suddenly blinked groggily as Palose looked on the man. “Did you destroy the portal to help join Southwall or did they find the portal room and do it for you?”

Like he was in a daze and not quite awake, Verian replied, “Lord Garosh ordered us to send those not from the original fortress army back to Ensolus and then destroy the second gate.”

“Why?”

“Lord Garosh fears that the emperor will no longer need him now that he has a new body and his new family. He fears that the emperor will destroy him. It is why he volunteered to be the one to take the risk of creating the fortress in Southwall’s lands. Once it was completed, he would have destroyed the altar and we would have sued for peace with Southwall.”

Palose nodded hearing that the emperor’s unvoiced worries were merited. “Do those remaining share Garosh’s wish to be free of the emperor?”

Trying to resist his mind lock spell for a moment, the warlock finally confessed, “Yes, those who remain follow Lord Garosh and do not wish to follow the emperor any longer. His power has become weak. Even with the new body, most can not see themselves serving a child. He is no longer the god we once served.”

“He was never a god,” Palose rebuked quietly. “Kolban is the emperor and more powerful than anyone I have ever met however. You are fools to try and escape only this far, but we will see what Kolban decides when I tell him of your betrayal.

“Now you promised Hereseth the sounds of pain. Start screaming like you are being tortured, but give time between each cry to try and make me talk.”

Verian suddenly screamed as if his arm were being cut from his body with a dull knife. As he began to scream every few seconds to take a breath and give the illusion that the mage was being asked a
question, Palose quickly chanted his portal spell. The glow of the gate formed and the mage stepped from the fortress to the safety of his house in Ensolus. A pair of touchstones clattered on the stone floor as they rolled into the corners in case the emperor wanted to return.

Blinking as the glow of a gateway faded before the warlock’s eyes, Verian found his mind freed from the mage’s power. As his mind slowly awoke, the warlock looked down at his iron shackles and from them to the iron bars around him. The mind lock spell had let the mage dominate and share his thoughts. The messenger had steered his body and put words in his mouth. Even his thoughts had been tapped to pull Hereseth’s name to order his second as if Verian had control of what he said.

With a last shake of his head, the warlock began to get angry. The mage was more powerful than he had guessed and talented at mind magic besides. He had slipped in and gotten the information the emperor needed. If Kolban decided to act, Verian feared what punishment they would receive. They were traitors, all of them. The emperor had always treated those who betrayed him harshly. They would certainly suffer before they died.

“Help!” he called out loudly. “The prisoner has escaped! Help!”

How would they survive? Was it time to run and leave this place, even if it was in chains to be taken to a prison in one of Southwall’s cities? They would certainly treat him better than the emperor or his torturers.

“Help!”

The room was dimly lit by the curtained window as Palose stepped through the gate formed above the touchstones. His back was stiff with nerves until it winked completely out of sight. If someone with Acheri’s skill had found his gate, they could have pushed through in an attempt to silence him.

Releasing a breath and much of his tension as it winked closed, the mage moved to sit on a chair beside the table as his legs felt ready to collapse. He hadn’t known if his spell would work or if they would fall for it even then. Mind magic was subtle if practiced properly, but hijacking another man’s mind and controlling him from his steps to the words he spoke was harder than he had thought. If he was still just a battle mage, his power would have faltered well before he could have executed his escape. A fight would have been the end of him with the odds so far against him. To run from the fight through a gate, if he could have cast one fast enough, would have risked finding that the warlocks or wraiths knew the portal spells well enough to pursue him.

All those worries and thoughts of failure had been forced back in the heat of the moment as he had focused on the task at hand. He had needed a calm mind to figure out a means of escape and then to actually execute a plan that required he be both wizard and mage. Not even the mizard, Sebastian Trillon could have done better. In fact, that battle mage couldn’t have executed such a plan with his limited power. He was skilled, but he was still just a mage, Palose almost gloated with the thought. A battle mage with a warlock’s power, he could use either level of spells and he continued to learn more while even being able to adjust some of the magic to suit a battle mage’s speed.

His mind lock had been part luck and part skill. Casting like a mage under such conditions had been lucky, but it was skill and practice that had meant he could achieve it. If he had even more power and time to learn more of Ensolus’s magic, there was no limit to what he could become.

The thoughts led the dark mage to one of his other projects. He needed test subjects. Perhaps a stop to see Wakaraq near the shipyard could be fit in before returning to the palace to report.

Reaching into his travel pack, Palose pulled out his canteen and the wrapped sandwich he had made the day before. The bread was drying out, but he was hungry after the use of his magic. Using powerful magic was new to him still, but his new power level since being resurrected meant that he could have continued to use even more spells before he would have run out of magic.

His mind wandered and before he knew it the sandwich was gone. The mage stood to remove his white, winter camouflage, replaced his pack and sword making a metal note to pack more food before the next trip and left the house heading north. A short walk led him to the burn site that Wakaraq oversaw. He spotted the orc and approached him as casually as he could, though anyone outside of the dead and his crew would be uncommon here.

“What is it, boy?” the often rude orc questioned before he fully crossed the distance between them.

Barking a short laugh, Palose replied, “Good to see you as ever, Wakaraq. I come on the usual business, of course.”

With a scrutinizing eye, the orc commented, “You seem like you’re in a bigger hurry than usual. You aren’t about to do something stupid are you? I don’t need trouble, wizard, if it’s bad then forget our deal.”

Shaking his head, Palose rebutted, “On the contrary, I have been on a...” He stopped thinking of words that wouldn’t reveal the secret nature of his work for the emperor. “Let’s just say that I have people that can look out for me. What I need them for doesn’t have a penalty. It is just business related to magic.”

Wakaraq grunted as he folded his muscular arms across his chest. “If that is true then I don’t want to know anything about it.
If I don’t know nothin’, then I can’t be in trouble.”

Not bothering to say otherwise with his business partner, the young mage asked, “Has anything promising come through lately?”

“If there had, I would o’ sent someone to tell you,” he grunted looking put out in his usual orc way. “A few oldies and sicklies, but you said you wanted young and strong if possible.”

“Young or strong, or if they’re women and they’re still good looking but not too good looking to draw an over amount of attention; I’m being a bit picky, but there’s a reason for it,” the mage said basically repeating what they had discussed before and knowing Wakaraq understood.

Sniffing disdainfully, the orc retorted, “Like I would know what looked too good to a human. You all look weird to me.”

“If they come too well known or with too much reputation for you to have heard of them, then they are probably too good looking,” the mage chuckled thinking that it was probably true. Powerful and attractive people tended to be well known even to those on the docks, he would guess.

Giving a big sigh and refusing to uncross his thick arms as if to ward him off, Wakaraq stated, “I will continue to send word when something other then sickly, scrawny, old men come through my crematorium. Is that all, mage? I got work to do.”

“You have someone new?” the mage asked and quickly realized the morbidity of his question. He had become a ghoul waiting for the dead to reveal their treasures to him which made him wonder what he was truly becoming.

Waving him off with a flick of his hand before replacing it again, the orc replied brusquely, “Just a couple old ones, an orc and a couple goblins. Nothing that would make your list since you only want human or elf. We don’t see many elves so you might be holdin’ your breath on that one though.”

Disappointed, Palose nodded and started to back away. “Well, keep me informed. If something halfway interesting comes through, I may have to settle. It is looking like I may need to try this experiment soon, whether I like it or not.”

Only receiving a grunt from the orc that had no idea of his future experiment and, as he had said, he didn’t desire to know; Palose parted with a wave of his hand. As his eyes looked along the lake to the spires of the emperor’s citadel, the mage took in a deep breath steeling himself less for the walk than the destination. At least he had the shipyard and its strange ocean going size ships to distract him for awhile, he thought.

Their existence in the land locked lake inside of the massive cave still perplexed him, but as a child he half remembered stories of the black sailed ships of the emperor that had once plagued the seas. Whether he still had any forces at sea, Palose was unsure, but the mage wouldn’t put anything past warlocks that could use portals to cross between worlds. The docks were quiet as usual. A few men guarded the ships against the lesser creatures that might be desperate for a home. Other workers visited to perform maintenance, especially during the warmer months, but the warmth of late spring and summer was still a month or more away.

His distraction ended as he faced the surrounding citadel wall. To his surprise, the guards sent him through at his word and at the castle entrance he was provided with a guide. It wasn’t the breakfast room that he found as a pair of guards opened a gilded double door, but a large room that was a combination bedroom and office for the emperor. Once more he found Acheri and Lanquer with Kolban, but the emperor had other guests as well. Warlocks and generals, the head of the merchants and the major domo of the castle were all in need of his approval or guidance for the day.

Noticing the doors opening and Palose’s arrival, Acheri grinned and nudged the emperor from where she stood beside him. Kolban glanced to the mage, even as his sister broke from the gathering to greet him properly.

“Welcome back,” the girl acknowledged his return warmly. Lanquer remained near Kolban guarding his emperor, though Palose highly doubted these men would dare anything against him in the heart of the castle. “Did your trip go well?”

Trying not to frown as the mage had no idea if Kolban wanted his visit to the fortress to be broadcast to the others, Palose answered simply and vaguely, “It was eventful, though not favorable.”

In contrast, Acheri did frown as she cut through the vagaries catching his meaning easily as she was a very bright girl. She turned her head and the emperor looked at her as if on cue. A quick shake of her head told her brother what he had feared, but Kolban continued to discuss the matters brought to him as if nothing had happened.