Death Comes To All (Book 1) (65 page)

“
Do
you believe you can control
them
long enough for
them
to defeat the battle mage?” Wolfere
asked. “
They
have been unpredictable in the past.”

“
Even
if this Raiste Goldstone truly is a battle mage,
they
will succeed in destroying him,” he
replied confidently, voicing the very thoughts he had had only
moments before.

A
high pitched cackle irrupted from one of the council seats. Mordock,
one of the weaker mages on the council, was shaking under his cloak
in uncontrolled laughter. Such actions didn’t surprise
Bloodheart, he had grown used to them during the years that he had
taken a seat of power. The man was completely insane, and often
started laughing like that whenever he thought he had information
that the rest of them did not.

Unfortunately,
that was far more often than Bloodheart would have liked. While the
mad mage's magic was weak, and the lands he controlled were little
more than uninhabitable swamps with few towns and not a single major
city, Mordock headed one of the greatest spy networks in the world.
Little happened, anywhere, that his spies did not learn. All of that
information eventually filtered its way back down to Mordock's ear.

As
insane as the man had proven himself time after time to be, he had
also proven himself to have a brilliant mind, when it was working. He
was a great man to have as an ally, during those times when he was
lucid anyway. The rest of the time Bloodheart felt like sending him
on a long journey, off a very steep cliff.

“
What
do you know, Mordock?” Wolfere asked irritably. Mordock had a
habit of holding back his knowledge, for no other reason than his own
amusement as far as Bloodheart had been able to discern. On most
occasions, Bloodheart could ignore the man. He even found him amusing
sometimes, on those occasions when the information he had wasn’t
being kept from Bloodheart himself. Bloodheart enjoyed watching the
other mages squirm. Wolfere, on the other hand, had little patience
with the madman most of the time. On this occasion, Bloodheart
mirrored his ire.

“
I
know nothing at all about the battle mage,” Mordock stated in a
high, cracking voice, the whiskers at either end of his thin
mustache, the only feature on the mage that was plainly visible,
twitching as he spoke. Mordock may be crazy, but he wasn’t
stupid. He knew how dangerous it was to toy with Wolfere, and had no
intentions of doing so. “I don’t know anything about the
dragon that this battle mage has supposedly defeated, either.
However, I may know something of this Raiste Goldstone that you
seek.”

“
Then
tell us what you know, Mordock, and do not waste our time. I have
other things that require my attention as well. I have no time for
your games.”

“
Very
well,” Mordock replied, clearly disappointed. He would have
preferred to let the anticipation linger for a little longer,
especially when he wasn’t getting paid for the information he
was giving. “Since I learned of the attack on Bloodheart's man,
Sloan, I’ve had my people looking into the man who had called
himself Raiste Goldstone. He may not be who he claimed to be. My
spies have told me that someone fitting that description has been
known by many names, and many faces. It is unclear who this man truly
is. He may be a mercenary of some sort, a smuggler, or an assassin
for hire. Whatever he is, there was no indication before the incident
at Port Tam that he might also have been Goldstone's long lost son.
Either he had hidden that fact before, or he simply made it all up,
perhaps to gain access to Sloan's offices.”

“
How
is that supposed to help me defeat him?” Bloodheart asked
hotly. Like Wolfere, he had no time for this man’s games. He
had, in fact, already known that Goldstone had been going by several
aliases; he already had his guards looking for quite a few of them.
He also knew about his companions, the large, red haired man and the
feral woman. He had not been planning on telling the council that
information, however. He had to be the one to find Goldstone and his
companions. Should Slyvax find them instead, for instance, it could
cement his claims to Bloodheart's lands.

Perhaps
I’ll have to reveal that little tidbit after all,
he
considered, though he hoped it wasn’t necessary.

“
I
am simply pointing out that we have no real evidence that this man is
really Raiste Goldstone at all. The entire thing could have been a
fabrication, that has taken on a life of its own. Whether he is
Goldstone or not, it is unlikely that he planned on that name going
any further than Sloan's offices. It has caused him nothing but
trouble after all, regardless of its authenticity.”

“
Your
information is useless, as usual,” Melina said from across the
table. As the only female in the mage's council, as well as one of
its younger members, it was unknown what the full extent of her power
might truly be. What was known, however, was that two years before
her husband, the previous council member and ruler of the lands she
now controlled, suddenly disappeared. Everything he had, his lands,
his position, and his wealth, all went to her.

Bloodheart
had not known him well, though the same really could be said about
any of the mages that sat at the table around him, but he had thought
that the man seemed powerful enough in his own right. Not powerful
enough to give him a strong position in the council, but certainly
worthy of being on it. If she had somehow been responsible for his
mysterious disappearance, she was not someone to be underestimated.
One man may already have done so, much to his folly.

Perhaps
she was some fetching beauty, worthy of taking such a risk, but if so
Bloodheart had no way of judging that. Like the other mages, her
features were obscured under the black robes she wore. Melina,
however, took it a step further than that. The small amount of her
face that was visible, nothing more than her mouth and chin really,
had been glamoured to appear a dark, vibrant blue.

Smooth
skin and a slim figure was all that Bloodheart could glean of what
she might look like underneath that cloak, and even that might have
been nothing more than another aspect of her glamour. It was
impossible to know what illusions the mages might use to cloud
themselves before appearing at the council. What was here in the
chambers, after all, was nothing more than an image sent to appear
before the rest of them.

In
reality she’s probably fat and ugly,
he surmised.

“
If
that was all the information that I had to offer, my dear, I would
have to agree with you. Fortunately, I know a bit more than that. I
know, for instance, that this man claiming to be Goldstone is not a
battle mage. Some of my spies have known of him for some time, and
there has never been any indication of a battle mage before now.
According to my spies, he has fought and killed many men during that
time. Never once has he used anything like the magic that a battle
mage would possess.

“
That
being the case, it would seem that this battle mage is the man that
reports say had been with him during that fight with Bloodheart's man
in Port Tam. It would also explain, Bloodheart, why your men saw him
running from your dragon into the swamps before he supposedly killed
it. He did not have the power to defeat your beast. Instead, he was
running to reach the man who did have such power.”

“
Those
I am sending to hunt him will not care what guise he puts himself
in,” Bloodheart remarked. “Your information is useless.
Unless you have something else to offer me, I have no use for you.”

“
I
do have one other little tidbit of information. This man that is
calling himself Goldstone does not travel alone often. If he is who
my spies believe him to be, and I’ve learned to trust their
judgment, he normally travels with a female companion, a feral woman.
He also has a dragonling that follows him. Ferals are rare enough in
these lands that it would be much easier for your hunters to find her
than it would be to look for a single human, regardless of what
method of tracking they employ.”

Damn.

It
seemed that keeping that information to himself wasn’t going to
happen after all. Still, the madman did have a point.
While
Bloodheart felt certain that those he planned to employ could find
the man, he was still a human in a sea of them. A feral, on the other
hand, would be like looking for a large gold brick in a haystack,
instead of a needle. Also, the news of the dragonling was new to him.
A human with a dragonling was a rare enough sight that even the most
slow-witted of his guards should still take note of it.

“
I
will keep your information in mind,” Bloodheart assured the
man. He didn’t want to commit to too much, lest the madman
decide that some sort of compensation might be in order for the
information he was being given. Bloodheart wasn’t even certain
if he would have a use for it. He certainly wasn’t about to
part with any of his gold for knowledge that he had no use for.

“
I
know you will find some way of using it,” Mordock replied.
“Perhaps in the future you might have information that I might
need, and I hope that you will be as open with it as I have been
now.”

Bloodheart
did not bother to disagree with him. After all, his suggestion had
left an opening as to the worth of the information, and could be
interpreted in different ways. Should Bloodheart have information to
offer, he could decide for himself if further compensation would be
needed. He would never have been so foolish in his dealings. He would
have agreed upon a price before the information was passed on.

Normally
Mordock would have done so as well, he knew. Perhaps it was because,
by giving it freely to Bloodheart now, it meant that Bloodheart could
take care of a dangerous adversary, one that could be dangerous to
all of them. If their situations were reversed Bloodheart might have
even done the same thing. It was more likely that the mage simply
wanted to avoid a dispute with Wolfere, who had already ordered him
to tell them what he knew. Bloodheart could understand that as well.

He
looked over at Mordock, noticing the sly smile on the mad mages face,
and immediately became cautious.

Was
he aware that my guards were already looking for the additional
people he had described?
he wondered.

He
suspected that it was likely. There was little that the mad mage
didn’t uncover. Why he decided to keep that information to
himself instead of passing it on to the rest of the council, however,
was a complete mystery. Mordock didn’t have any loyalties to
anyone. Something that painted Bloodheart in a bad light could only
further his own cause, whatever that might be.

More
likely he plans on exacting a price from me privately later on,
he decided.

“
Very
well,” Wolfere spoke up. “Unless someone else has
something else to add, I will bring this meeting to a close.
Bloodheart, I’m trusting you to deal with this situation for
now. We will meet again in three months, unless someone has
additional business that requires the council before that time. As
always, I will send word to everyone beforehand should we need to
meet again.”

With
nothing further to discuss, Bloodheart kept his mouth shut, looking
around the room to the other mages seated at the table, wondering if
anyone else had anything further to add. Slyvax opened his mouth as
if to say something, but a glance from Wolfere in his direction
caused him to promptly clamp it shut again. Apparently, whatever it
was he had thought to say he decided was not important enough to
mention, for now at least. Bloodheart was certain that he had not
heard the last of Slyvax. The man’s ambitions were far too bold
for his liking.

For
now, it was wiser to wait. If Slyvax moved too soon or too foolishly,
he would destroy himself, or Wolfere would do it for him. Either way,
it was not anything that Bloodheart needed to concern himself with
yet. He had more important things to worry about. He needed to find
this man, this unknown element who claimed to be the long lost son of
Fallon Goldstone, and put an end to him and whoever traveled with
him, including this battle mage.

This
time I will not fail,
he promised himself.

He
considered the hunters he would be sending. They
had never
failed him before, and would not do so now. They would track down
Goldstone and his companions. Once he had finished with that, perhaps
he would send them to deal with Slyvax as well. The thought brought a
smile to Bloodheart's lips, which stayed with him as one by one the
council members seated around him winked out.

As
the image of Bloodheart faded out as well, Wolfere stood up from his
chair. He had appeared as nothing more than an image to the others,
but the council had been held in the replica of his chamber hall that
evening, projecting its image into the empty halls of the other
council members. Tomorrow, he would have a few of his peasants remove
the cold, grey suits of steel armor that gleamed dully around him.

Perhaps
I’ll have them bring in a few ferns to decorate the room before
the next session,
he thought absently as he walked out of the
room.