Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (56 page)

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. I can see some of what you say, but it is like he spread himself over the three. All can be cold and cruel, but then they pull back giving smiles and warmth. The emperor may simply be looking at the world differently now that he is no longer on the verge of dying. He is young again and perhaps that brings new perspective.”

Breathing out revealing a bit of relief, Atrouseon agreed, “Perhaps that is it. Being younger you probably see things in him that I do not. He still keeps the same council and that is a positive statement of his thinking. He is young now and can bide his time where he may have attacked more impetuously fearing his own mortality.”

“This body you believe will be immortal?” Palose asked having always wondered if, when the emperor decided to pull the experiment from the lab to the breeding pits, Kolban had believed the answer was just this one body or knowing how to make more like it that made the experiment worthwhile.

Shrugging, the warlock replied, “In the end, he requested having the body able to hold his full power, and then he shared it with the other two. The emperor often seems to tell us one thing before sending us on another divergent path.

“If the pits can make a new body when he needs or wants it, the emperor can transfer his psyche indefinitely making him immortal in another way. His sister and Lanquer could be remade indefinitely as well, though I have a feeling that he won’t share his power forever.” The man shrugged.

“I will be running more errands to get ready for the move, if I am not here as you planned by the way,” Palose stated as they entered the apartment.

Again Atrouseon shrugged at his information, and he replied, “You have been emancipated. I barely controlled your coming and going before. You certainly don’t have to get my permission anymore.”

The mage nodded and walked to his room. He needed to get his sleep tonight if the portal task was as taxing as he had a feeling it would be.

The stone arch rose up for over fifty feet into the air, yet it didn’t make it into the dark of the cavern’s heights. Lake End covered the back third of the cave holding Ensolus making any obvious exit unlikely, yet three black ships sat waiting with sails furled as if in preparation for catching a wind that could only take them from one end of the lake and back; if not for the mysterious stone archway. Standing in the water only fifty feet from the eastern wall, the arch stood as more than a symbol to the men and beasts serving the emperor. Runes laced each stone making up the archway. Two wide stone bases extended to either side of the arch and held a stone altar beside each. A little trough reached from the tables to the thick stone base of the arch.

Palose stood with Atrouseon on one platform uniting their magic with ten others on their side. A matching dozen stood doing the same on the far base, but Palose wasn’t watching them. The young woman screaming and pulling at the men binding her to the altar knew what was coming.

Most likely a virgin, the dark haired woman was laid on the table bare and chained in place. Tired of her screaming, the thirteenth wizard in charge of their circle placed a spell upon the girl putting her into a daze. The screaming stopped as a softer, quieter moaning took over. She needed to be awake, but the spell didn’t require her to be in her right mind. Across the way a second sacrifice was placed on the opposing altar.

Magic seemed to hum in the air as the twenty four warlocks and mage brought their part of the spell to fruition. The thirteenth warlock and his counterpart plunged daggers gleaming with runes on the blades just for this ritual into their victims. New screams of pain rose into the air. This time they wouldn’t be silenced. The spirits required blood and their screams announced the pain of the sacrifice.

As the blood pooled, it quickly followed the trough as if the stones drank the liquid. The blood met the stones and the runes began to light from the base lifting quickly to the point in the heights. A louder buzzing filled the cavern over the sounds of warlocks and screaming women and a light began near the center of the archway in midair.

The black ships began to move forward as orcs and trolls pulled at their oars. It was a slow movement while the archway continued to build its power. The crack like that of a thousand whips in the air heralded the opening of the portal. From lake to sea, the distance had become as nothing to the portal and the ships increased their speed.

When the prow of the first ship entered the light, it simply pushed through disappearing into the glowing archway. In seconds, the entire ship passed through the light and was gone from sight. One after the other, the three warships moved through the archway and disappeared into the light.

With the need for the ritual over, the warlocks released their power. Their jobs done, the men went away leaving Palose to wonder just where the ships were now. He knew that someone was supposedly interfering with the emperor’s special lands far away. These were lands which he had never known existed, nor had he known of the emperor’s reach beyond his empire in the mountains.

Palose didn’t follow the others or Atrouseon. He no longer needed to follow the warlock anywhere and had already warned him of other draws on his time. Turning his feet to the crematorium knowing for once that he had what he needed for his experiment, the mage found the one he was looking for as usual.

“Hello, Wakaraq,” he greeted the brown skinned orc. His contact looked grumpy as normal, though Palose often had to remember that he had never met an orc who wasn’t at least slightly cantankerous in their dealings with men. Still the muscular foreman of the crematorium was someone best dealt with as delicately as possible looking at his tusks that looked ready to gore him like some wild boar.

“Mage,” he replied gruffly. Palose wondered if the noise of the archway magic helped to keep the orc angry today. He had heard some of the creatures had sensitive hearing that picked up on the sounds of magic in an uncomfortable way.

Holding out a purse, the mage jingled it three times letting the orc see the weight inside of the soft leather. “You know our deal,” the man reminded Wakaraq.

Snorting at him, the orc swiped at the bag fast enough to make the mage wonder if his reflex spell would be fast enough to dodge the nasty creature. Pulling the strings, Wakaraq opened the bag fumbling with gold and silver coins that would take the orc most of his life to ever accumulate in his current position. Even in Ensolus, commerce ruled what the emperor did not.

Before the orc could make the bag disappear, Palose laid his hand on the bark hard skin halting him. “Do you mind if I check the merchandise first, my friend?”

Grunting, Wakaraq replied more brusquely, “You saw them for yourself, mage, but suit yourself. Just don’t take too long. We can’t stand here all day without questions.”

Raising an appraising eyebrow at the orc, Palose remembered that Wakaraq was smarter than he looked. Perhaps if he needed an ally, this creature might do, but that was in the future. For now he needed to check on his test subjects. The dark haired girl was tall and slender. Her body appeared unharmed aside from the knife wound delivered just below her breast bone. Her face was even comely in her sleep, he thought, before looking at the second girl. Young women perhaps better described them, for they looked to be nearly his age. Blond and pretty, the second girl was shorter and petite, but her features were more curvaceous. Lifting her hands, the mage noted that these weren’t the hands of a peasant girl. He wondered if the girl had been the daughter of some noble requiring a new incentive to serve the master properly.

If his experiment went well, Palose would have to ask her.

Snorting, the orc asked sarcastically, “Do I need to find you a room, mage? I wouldn’t think a former Southwaller would be into this kind of kinky stuff.”

Palose glared at the orc, but simply answered, “I need bodies that aren’t too damaged, but they also need to be something that won’t have people coming back to me when they are missing.”

Frowning in confusion, Wakaraq asked, “Who goes looking for a dead woman? They were sacrificed, so no one will be looking for them.”

Waving the orc to cover them up and follow, the man replied, “I’m not afraid of someone looking for them, but looking at them.”

Continuing to look confused, the powerful orc followed the mage to his hideout away from Atrouseon and the other warlocks of the city. Acheri hadn’t even found this place as far as he knew yet. He frowned thinking that if he were to continue working for the emperor as often as he had, that they would want to know where he lived to call for him in the future. Men with money and power purchased homes in towers or in the light near the outer wall. Those with hope might live outside the city hoping to make a living farming or trading. Nestled near the east wall, this area was left to those who just tried to survive and stay out of the sight of those with power. Now he would be bringing that which they hid from to their part of the city.

Lifting up the door for the cart to enter the garage, Palose closed it again to hide the remainder of the transaction. The mage lifted the smaller girl over his shoulder and pushed through a door revealing a stairway leading into the basement from this entry. Wakaraq carried the second girl in an effort to earn his money as quickly as was still possible.

Lighting the way with his magic, Palose deposited the first girl on a wooden table in the middle of a dingy stonewalled room with a few storage cabinets. Wood beams supported the main floor above him, but there were no windows and only four magically lit lanterns provided any light here. The orc grunted at him and the man gestured to a pile of sheets and linens left by Master Poultus or one of his former tenants. Nearly dropping the girl onto the pile, Palose admonished the orc, “If you break her, I’m taking back some of the money or you’ll owe me a larger favor than this.”

Grunting his annoyance, the orc stated, “I’d rather owe you.”

Smiling to himself, the mage looked at the girl long enough to hide his enjoyment of thinking he could make the orc owe him more. Palose walked the creature back up and opened the door for the cart to leave. He watched the orc for only a moment longer before hurrying down to the bodies awaiting him.

He had found and studied books about the spell for months that had been used to raise him from the dead or partially dead as the text had made mention. A body couldn’t be too far gone from its spirit or into rot, unless they were to be made merely into puppets or wraiths. His goal was to create these women as resurrection men, or women as was the case, so he wanted to hurry to make the conditions for their rebirth optimal.

Taking a knife, the mage cut each of his hands. He drew the runes with his blood that he had spent months memorizing for this chance. Runes instilled the power of the wielder on the target and placed any restrictions that he had in mind on his future servant. Atrouseon had either failed to place the right restrictions on the mage in his return or had failed to do them right as he had found loop holes in the magic, Palose thought briefly before he gathered up his power.

He placed his right hand between the girl’s breasts directly above her heart and the left still dripping his blood opened her mouth to take on a portion of his life force from that blood. Chanting the words of power needed, the mage transcended his meager beginnings. Using the power garnered from Atrouseon and the new skills he had trained to become an acknowledged warlock, Palose worked to bring the girl to life against the laws of nature.

Long minutes passed as he worked the spell, Palose was beginning to wonder if it was going to work when he felt her tongue and lips sucking more of his blood. Her heart began to beat as well. Pale green eyes opened without fear as she looked at the man above her. Moving his hand from her lips, the girl reached for his hand not wanting him to release her apparently.

“Master, you have saved me,” the pretty girl stated adoringly. Palose moved his right hand from her chest wiping his blood on her wound. The blood was pulled into the wound and made it seal up seamlessly. To look at her, one would never know that she had been dead.

He had made sure to place runes that would make them love and want to protect him. Apparently he had done that part of the spell too well, but it was his first attempt and he was pretty sure that they would never want to turn on him willingly. One thing this test had affirmed for him was that he was alive. As alive as anyone in fact, because the spell said that only a living sacrifice of blood could return someone to life. He had seen other signs of that fact, but this magic unequivocally proved it.

The pretty blond placed her right hand on his shoulder pulling him closer to kiss his lips in her gratitude. Removing her hand gently, Palose smiled, “There will be time for that later... uh, what is your name?”

“Stasia,” the petite blond said looking at him coyly. It was cute, but the mage had work to do.

“Stasia, I need you to get down so that I can save our friend here,” he said pointing to the other body lying in the linens.

“Oh, what happened to her?” the girl asked appearing to genuinely care about the other girl.

She helped Palose place the second girl on the table as he explained as if talking to a child, “They used her as a sacrifice like you, Stasia. Once I bring her back that will make you two like sisters.”

Thinking about the word, Stasia frowned, “Did I have a sister before? I can’t remember anything right now.”