Broken Mage (23 page)

Sae-Thae had been right most of his
work had been rushed and not taken to its full potential. Once he
had found something that worked he never tried to improve it, he
just simply let it be set aside and moved onto the next project, he
had never noticed it before but it was the truth. This time he
promised to take the enchantments to their full value, even if it
meant taking a much longer period to make.

At first Thad had been worried that
Crusher would be anxious to leave and would lament the lost time.
The dwarf to Thad’s surprise had taken the news without complaining
and even offered his expertise in the design of his new bracelets.
He had even done beautiful etching on the gold overlay that looked
like dragons in flight.

Sitting back Thad looked at what he had
accomplished so far. He had tried to keep the work evenly spread
over all four parts of the bracelets so that the gems would be
fully charged at the same time but it hadn’t been easy. The
enchantments he knew well were much easier to place and the
difficulty of the linking the cores seemed to fluctuate for unknown
reasons. As it was all but one of them were almost a third of the
way done.

It had been hard work and today he had
already almost spent himself with varying results. The bracelet to
keep them cloaked was moving along but he had to add in two extra
gems to the base designed to make the magic distribution more even.
They hadn’t needed to be very big but having to rearrange the links
had been tiring work much more so than the original placement had
been.

He had also been working on other items
some of them at Crusher’s request including making a few shield
walls to slow down pursuers in a pinch. There were a myriad of
other items but they were mostly on the back burner when he needed
a break from his main project of the bracelets.

Leaning back to stretch his strained
muscles Thad looked at everything in front of him. It was slightly
overwhelming. Everything he had to finish before they could even
stand a chance of safely navigating through the throng of Vathari
warriors that awaited them in the tunnels beyond. It would be nice
if it was like most work and he could simply put in extra hours to
get it done sooner but no matter how he tried he ran out of magical
energy well before his body physically tired.

Thad decided to take a break to let his
mind rest a bit before he started in on the next set of links.
Moving into the main chamber he sat down across from Crusher who
was busy at his own preparations. He was only doing simple things
such as smoking enough meat to feed them in the event they couldn’t
get to a fresh source of food for a long period of time.

Avalanche was curled up in a ball
against the far wall. Out of the three companions she hated being
shut in the most and had whined whenever she was in the mood to
romp around. Thad wished he could let her out, but the chances that
she would lead the Vathari to their door were too great to chance.
Once she realized she was stuck in the small space she had resorted
to pouting in the corner like a spoiled child.

Looking at the sleeping creature Thad
began to wonder about Avalanche. There was little doubt she was an
oddity. She behaved much the way many of the young animals he had
seen on the surface. Most of the time there was just simply playful
innocence in the animal’s actions but every so often Avalanche
displayed intelligence far beyond what he expected.

It wasn’t as if she did anything
earthshattering. It was that she seemed to understand when they
wanted to fight and when they wanted to hide. When they had sent
her to scout she had done so with little prompting completing the
task expertly. Other times Avalanche didn’t even seem to understand
the most basic of instructions, though Thad had a feeling that it
was more of a choice on her part.

Crusher followed his gaze to where the
animal slept and shrugged his shoulders slightly. Crusher seemed to
know more about Avalanche than he did and seemed in awe of the
creature at times. Thad wasn’t sure what that truly meant but he
hoped that he would discovery the answer to that and many other
questions at Crusher’s home.

Pulling a piece of meat from the rack
Thad inspected it to make sure it had been fully cooked. It still
lacked hours before it was ready to be stowed away but it was more
than ready for eating. While he snacked on the dried meat Thad
looked at the small enchantment that he had made to create the
heat. It was a simple extension of a project he had started back at
the capital. Back then he had found the task almost impossible but
with Sae-Thae’s advice he had been able to figure out how to create
it.

In the end it had been fairly simple.
It didn’t have to be one single spell but could be a configuration
of spells working together to get the wanted outcome. For the heat
trapping device it simply started with a spell that heated up the
air slowly. To trap the heat in the enchanted field also created a
shield that held in the heat but allowed everything else to pass
through it. In the end it was a low energy costing and could run
for days before needing to rest and recharge.

He still didn’t understand why he
didn’t figure it out on his own. He liked to think that given
enough time he would have eventually came across the answer, but in
all honesty he had the answer in his hands more than once but
didn’t know it.

The worst part of everything was that
with every conversation he had with Sae-Thae the more he was
tempted to visit him in his own city. He wasn’t sure how he would
accomplish such a task considering the largest portion of the
Vathari seemed to want him dead. Maybe he could find a way to visit
his mage friend after he had made it to the dwarven village and
things had settled down a bit.

Thad had thought about discussing the
issue with Crusher but he was stopped by the language barrier
between them. Not only didn’t they speak the same language Crusher
couldn’t speak at all. More than once it had been a problem but for
most things the two could manage to get their point across. With
every day that passed it had gotten easier but there were some
things that couldn’t be explained in such manners.

His hunger quenched Thad patted his
friend on the shoulder getting a big tooth smile and a slight wink.
Thad had more than a small suspicion that the dwarf knew quite a
bit about the magical process of enchanting. It wasn’t anything
profound but the simple way the dwarf seemed to take everything he
did in stride. He also showed a fair amount of concern when Thad
pushed himself too hard as if he had seen another do it
before.

Thad had shrugged off everything at
first assured in the fact that he was the only mage until he saw
the magical tattoos that were on Crusher’s back. He had gotten even
more suspicious once he had met the Vathari mage Sae-Thae. Now he
was not only aware that other mages were present, he had even met
one. It filled him with hope that he wouldn’t have to continue to
muddle through his magic as he learned.

Back in his makeshift workroom Thad sat
down in front of the magical bracelets. Using his magical sight he
looked over their progress. All the new links were strong and
working as expected. Thad let out a sigh of relief; he had half
expected to have to add more cores again. It wasn’t that they
wouldn’t work with what he had but the idea was to make them not
only work longer but last the test of time.

Sae-Thae had said that most of his
previous work wouldn’t last more than a few years. Thad had been
skeptical at first but after looking closely at the other items he
had made he could notice a slight diminishing in its use of magic.
It wasn’t fast by any means but it would be inconvenient if they
failed at the wrong time.

Sure that everything was working as it
should Thad moved onto the next stage. It was slow and tedious work
but Thad enjoyed it in a simple way. The feel of the magic as it
coursed through his body and implanted itself on the items in front
of him was much akin to the enjoyment one might get from a well
done massage.

Thrusting his mind forward Thad started
building the interconnecting links between the different cores.
Like the tunnels in the vast subterranean network, the paths to the
different cores could go in many directions but some were better
than others. It wasn’t as simple as the most direct route but what
allowed the best flow of magic. There were times that a core only
needed to be linked to one or two others and others times when the
core had to be linked to the every other core and sometimes more
than once. Thad wasn’t sure why it was but every time he made a new
connection he watched the change carefully to help him understand.
It was enough to know that it needed to be linked but it would be
nice to know why. If he did then planning out a project would be
much easier in the future.

Thad shook his head as his mind began
to surface from his working trance. It was always hard to tell how
much time had passed while he had been working but in the end the
amount of time didn’t matter, only how much he was able to
complete. His mind drained Thad didn’t have the strength left to
look over his work. He hardly ever got to check his work after he
finished as he was usually too tired to do anything more than
sleep.

With a satisfied grin on his face Thad
rolled over to where his bedroll lay in the corner of the room. The
bedroll he had picked up back in the Ablaian prison had been in bad
shape when he had taken it and had worn it down even more with
constant use. There wasn’t much area left that didn’t have at least
one tear or rip from a sharp rock but it was still much better than
sleeping on the bare ground.

Closing his eyes Thad envisioned
himself in the darkness of his own mind. Letting sleep take him bit
by bit but leaving a small portion of his mind awake. Over the past
few days he had only failed at entering a lucid dream state once.
It wasn’t easy and in many ways took more concentration than
enchanting but the rewards were enormous. To simply be able to feel
the sun on his face and wind in his hair even in a dream soothed
his soul and made the darkness that crept in on him every day more
sufferable.

CHAPTER XX

Thad took one last look at the main
room of the small complex of caves that he had called home, even if
for a short time. He was slightly nervous to set out, not because
he feared that his new enchanted items wouldn’t work but more
because leaving signified the end of his wandering through the
endless darkness. It had been a rough time filled with hardships
but in a way it had been good for him. He had not only increased
his skill and knowledge of magic but had been given numerous
chances to use them in ways he would have never thought of had he
not been in such a situation. Not to mention his meeting of Crusher
and Sae-Thae who had been invaluable in their own
rights.

With a nod to Crusher Thad activated
the new camouflage shield and took down the wall that had protected
them from the Vathari. Thanks to some of his magical eyes placed
around the outside of their home he had known the coast was clear
before they started out. In fact over the past few days the number
of roving Vathari troops had diminished by half. He wasn’t sure if
that meant they were widening their search or had given up
searching for them altogether.

Crusher took the lead, moving slowly
easily allowing the three to move while staying inside the
bracelets protective ring. It was easy to tell that the dwarf knew
where he was going as there was no hesitation when he chose his
route. A few times they did have to back out of a tight tunnel to
let a group of Vathari warriors pass by but other than that
everything was going smoothly.

The only real problem Thad could see
was when it came time to stop. If they couldn’t find a good place
then they might well find themselves surrounded when they dropped
their protective walls in the morning. The thought nagged at him a
little as they moved through the tunnels but not having any real
control over the situation Thad tried to let it go and enjoy the
simple walk.

Avalanche walked next to Crusher
bouncing around enjoying being in the open tunnels again even if
she wasn’t allowed to roam far. She was quite handy too as she
alerted him to the presence of the Vathari long before Thad could
see them. Sometimes Thad could tell that she wanted to run off and
play with the Vathari but a stern look from Crusher was all it took
to make her quiet back down with a slight whimper. Watching the two
of them reminded Thad much of how Joan and her grandkids carried on
with each other sometimes.

The further they moved, the more
obvious of a presence the Vathari made. There were plenty of
soldiers but mostly what they saw were workers mining ore from what
appeared to be a very rich mine. Every time they passed one of the
carts loaded down Thad could see Crusher’s shoulders tense. A few
times Thad even feared the dwarf would kill a stray Vathari worker
for daring to steal from the dwarven mines. Luckily the dwarf had
been able to hold his temper but Thad could tell that it was harder
each time easy prey showed up.

His feet aching and nerves shot Thad
was more than happy when Crusher led them to a small tunnel that
dead ended and signaled for him to put up their protective wall.
The tunnel wasn’t very wide so Thad had to place the wall almost
near the entrance to allow enough space for all of them to be able
to lie down.