Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) (61 page)

He had a feeling that she already knew the answer, but played along replying, “Not that I have heard. I was never told where they were supposed be riding. One moment, I heard they went southeast to drive away nomads who had raided some of the farms towards the end of winter. Another time someone said they needed to ride west to deal with Kardor for whatever reason.

“Anyway, with all the snow that has fallen since they left, even though spring is supposed to be here, I am sure that travel is slower than normal.”

“I am sure that you are right,” the princess agreed, “but just remember if you are looking for companionship I am still around. Unlike Sylvaine, I don’t have to ride off with patrols that my mistress assigns to me. Not only can I go where I want, I can even have people assigned to patrol, not that I leave the castle enough to know where to send horsemen, of course, but I could.”

Trying not to register any suspicion, Palose thought that Acheri, more or less, just admitted that she had been able to send Sylvaine away. If that was the case, had the princess been jealous enough to have sent his friend away? He wouldn’t doubt such a thing could happen when it involved a girl newly brought to life by the emperor. Knowing Kolban’s reputation as the Dark One from before his new lease on life, if Acheri had taken some of his darker drives, then she might be that petty.

“Maybe once the weather turns nicer, you will get a chance to explore more of the countryside outside of the walls of Ensolus.”

“Or maybe some time you could take me to one of the cities that you have seeded with your touchstones? Didn’t you take Sylvaine to one of the southern cities to feel spring early? That might be fun to do together sometime,” the girl hinted like a bat to his head.

Smiling politely, he nodded and replied, “Some time soon perhaps, but I do have matters to attend to this morning. Maybe another day we can travel if Kolban doesn’t mind. He might want Lanquer to join us for your protection as well.”

The dark haired girl frowned retorting disappointedly, “You should be all the protection I need. Now that Lanquer is a hero and blooded warrior, Kolban has been keeping him close anyway.”

Turning to face the princess and taking her hands in his, Palose bowed over them touching his lips lightly to the backs of her hands and begging her forgiveness, “I am sorry, princess. I really do have to go. This meeting has caused me some delays in my morning duties. We really must talk soon and decide when to go traveling again.”

Acheri looked far from forgiving, but refused to call him a liar. As a warlock, he did have duties to perform for the empire and studies to continue. Learning magic was a way of life for a warlock. No one ever knew everything and knowledge bred more spells to add to the pool of magic.

“Very soon,” the dark haired girl acknowledged with a nod before letting him go.

Palose retreated glad that he truly had work to do to avoid the situation with the girl for now. After leaving the North Hall, the mage turned south to get to his work, but his mind returned to the reason for his initial distraction. Wondering what could have sent a black ship home broken and continued to interfere with the emperor’s interests, Palose hoped that Lord Devolus dealt with the enemy harshly for Ensolus and the emperor’s sake.

Alarm bells, they had begun to happen so regularly that one could almost grow immune to their true meaning. In the case of the bells of Ensolus, however, the recent call of the bells had led to a black ship felled and sent back broken. For Palose, their warning song had begun to bring different implications with their sound.

With the successful recreation of the resurrection spell on the two girls, he was ready to begin a new experiment entailing bringing back a warlock under his power. The books had never mentioned anyone bringing back more wizards in the circle beneath the originating warlock who had cast the spell. Since the girls weren’t wizards or even mages, Palose didn’t know what they brought to the circle first created by Atrouseon. The mage had certainly benefited by being tied to the more powerful man making his shared power that of a warlock. Stealing the extra power as he broke off his other ties with Atrouseon had boosted his magical ability even more.

Still that was only the sharing of two men with magic.

His attempt to bring more shame to Warlock Werinas after the return of the broken black ship hadn’t yielded any fruits. The warlock had been exonerated being seen as a follower of his captain. Warlock Karfon had led the ship, not the lesser warlock. It had been Karfon, not Werinas, who had been defeated and humiliated, but he was dead and could only pay as fodder for creating a wraith thanks to decay and damage to the man’s body.

Still, there were two more ships chasing an unknown formidable enemy. Even if they won the next battle, there would likely be casualties to both sides. Once returned, the other two ships could bring prisoners or failures back to Ensolus. Either might hold a worthy corpse for the necromancer in training to use in his next experiment.

When the glow of the giant gate brought through a single ship looking like it had been in a violent battle and its sister vessel noticeably missing, Palose wondered if his chance had come at the expense of the third black ship. The battered ship that coasted to the pier, looked like it had been on the wrong end of the fight as ropes were thrown to moor it in place. Leading the way off of the ship was the leader of the wizard hunters, Lord Devolus, and Palose was close enough to see that the man looked worse than his ship. Someone had cracked or broken his armor and he looked like he had been beaten and burned. His brother, Lord Liev, looked concerned, but not for the look of his brother.

A warlock from the council of warlocks that Atrouseon had been called to help serve recently smirked and said jokingly, “Lord Devolus, didn’t the mission go well?”

Whether the man had more to say didn’t matter as the man in black armor punched the warlock in the throat. Dropping to his knees gasping for air, he was kicked aside by the lord whose anger rode so close to the surface that it should have warned the warlock to remain quiet and keep his jokes to himself. Admittedly, Palose had to smile at the treatment of the obnoxious man.

Giving him a little more space, Atrouseon and the other members of the committee followed trying to find out what had happened on his mission.

Palose let them go and remained nearby as he watched over the clean up of the ship. For a ship to travel through the gate, he knew that either there had to be a great use of several warlocks’ power or a blood sacrifice was made. After having fought a vicious battle that still clung to their leader, the mage assumed that someone had died a bloody death for the portal.

Wakaraq, as Palose had hoped, was in charge of the clean up. Several other orcs and goblins made their way onto the black ship after being told to remove all the dead bodies. The mage watched as cart after cart wheeled away the dead.

When Wakaraq made eye contact with Palose, he nodded. Something or someone of interest was in this collection of dead. The orc knew what he was looking for and, shortly after the dead lay covered in their carts waiting for an incinerator to fire up for the disposal, the mage met with the orc beside a special loaded cart.

When the covering canvas was pulled back to reveal two men, their boots scavenged but wearing clothing of wizards, Palose knew that he had found the first pieces to the answer that he was still trying to discover. What they would tell him of the battle and the future use of their magic thrilled the mage even thinking about it.

Trying to look only mildly impressed by the luck of receiving two wizards into his hands, Palose nodded to Wakaraq and said, “Yes, these two will do. Are these the best you could find?”

With a snort of amusement, Wakaraq stated, “Just two wizards for you to play with in this bunch, though there are dozens of sailors stabbed and left for dead as well, if you want more.”

Even though he didn’t truly need them, Palose wandered through the rest checking for men of interest. Most of the dead sailors wore clothing that was foreign to Ensolus, especially sailors and soldiers serving the wizard hunters who should be wearing the special black armor. There were only men among the dead, but obviously he had no knowledge of whether this was part of the crew they had been chasing or some other men entirely, he could not say. The mage also couldn’t tell if they had been taken in battle before or after whatever happened to the ship that required their deaths.

Trying to appear a little disappointed to keep his price low, Palose stated with a wave of his hand. “I guess these two will do for now.”

Pulling a pouch similar in size to the one given for the women, Wakaraq shook his head at the weight, “These are worth more.”

“You still owe me,” the man countered from the conversation they had weeks before in the basement. While the orc hadn’t actually damaged Talia when he had brought her in, it was implied enough to make the orc cringe.

The orc grumbled, but took the pouch and lifted the handles of the two wheeled cart readying to follow Palose once more to his official home where he kept his first two experiments. As he led the orc, the dark mage thought of the fun he had been having with the two women and knew that there was nothing wrong with Talia indeed, but he wouldn’t tell his ally to avoid losing ground with the creature.

After Wakaraq had left and the two dead wizards were placed once more in the windowless room of his basement, Palose studied the men trying to organize the binding parts of his spell. While the love of the girls was enjoyable and certainly a good way to ensure their extra loyalty, it was also a bit beyond what he had originally expected.

Checking his book, which he had stowed in the room along with a few others Palose kept to study from time to time, the mage quickly drew out the runes he hoped would give the proper loyalty to him without the apparent holes in Atrouseon’s version. The mage readied to start the spell when he noticed a head peeping into the room. At his look, Stasia practically danced into the room looking more closely at the two dead men. Surprising him, the girl seemed completely unaffected by the sight of death. Less unexpected was Talia’s rolling her eyes at the girl’s childish prancing.

“What have you here, Palose?” the pretty blond asked leaning over to see the larger of the two wizards on the table. Wakaraq had helped him move the bearded fire wizard, who had proved to be very solid and heavy indeed. Even with the girls helping, Palose doubted he could have lifted the big man onto his table. “Hmmm, I think I like the one on the floor better. He’s certainly prettier than this one.”

Managing not to roll his eyes like Talia, the mage replied, “They were wizards in life, now we will see how they are in death. I am going to bring them back like with you two girls.”

“Interesting,” the blond replied, though she sounded far from impressed.

Talia proved more intelligent once again as the young woman clarified for Stasia, like she was talking to a young child rather than a grown woman, “If they are strong in magic, then the young master will have two more useful servants instead of one and a half.”

The blond stuck out her lip in a pout before turning the insult around on the dark haired girl, “You shouldn’t put yourself down, Talia. I am sure that Palose views you as at least three quarters useful.”

Before they could argue and escalate the argument cutting into his time, the mage ordered, “Be quiet, you two, and stand back. This spell takes a lot of concentration and I am trying a couple different runes on these men, so I need silence.”

Stepping back, Stasia did as he bade her and waited as Palose cut his hands to place the runes written in his blood. His palm on the center of the wizard’s chest, the second went over the wizard’s mouth. Part of the ritual was to give of one’s blood and magic, while the pretty girls were certainly more enjoyable to touch as they came to life; he was still willing to give of himself to achieve the answers for his experiment.

The large man breathed in and sucked on his blood until he opened his eyes starting at the mage standing over him. “Who are you? Where am I?”

Having a completely different reaction from either
his own raising or the girls, Palose worried that he had done something wrong. Still he answered the wizard truthfully saying, “I am Palose, the one who brought you back from the dead. You were taken to Ensolus after your death, though you might be able to tell me more of how you came here.”

After sitting up, the large, dark haired man placed his palm against his forehead closing his eyes to try and remember how he had died. “We had been following another ship from Malaiy after the
Winter’s Edge tournament and it had a group of wizards from Southwall aboard. We had investigated a few of the islands they stopped at beforehand, but then this one had a castle with traps. Some of our party was talked into checking out the basement where a trap sealed us behind a barrier. While I and another wizard were trapped with the lord leading our expedition, the Wizard Hunters attacked the others and their leader freed us from the trap only to put us into chains.

“They divided our people between the ships before we set sail to wait at a set of islands somewhere to the south. Then when the Malaiy fell into their trap, they used the deaths of sailors to create portals for the ship to outmaneuver the enemy. When some strange sea creatures joined the fray and destroyed the other ship, the cowards ran but stabbed me through. As I bled out, I could feel my strength being torn from me for those bastards to escape.”