Silver Mage (Book 2) (4 page)

“See what he is doing…” Turneal nearly yelled. “Just as I said he would. Holding the gold over us as some kind of leash. The common people should be responsible for their own well-being.”

“What do you suggest Master Turneal?” Bren asked, keeping his voice calm, even though he had the urge to grab the elder mage by his robes and throw him against the far wall. “Let whole families freeze over the long winter. If I did that, then the next year there would be even less taxes. I am hoping that giving to those of a less fortunate life will help show the people of this land the goodwill of my house. I came today to offer you the same chance, though I see that it has been in vain.”

Turneal began to speak again, but was silenced by a cold stare from Sae-Thae. “We understand your request, but it will take time for us to reach a decision on this matter. If you would King Torin, allow us a few days. We shall respond to you as timely a manner as possible.”

“Then I await your response with eager anticipation,” Bren said, bowing his head slightly. The rest would be up to Sae-Thae and Master Carnear. Bren hoped that the two masters could talk some sense into the others so they could see the wisdom in his request, but he held out no real hopes as the wounds between both sides were still raw.

“That went better than I had expected,” Cass said, making Bren jump, having forgotten that his friend had been beside him the whole time.

“In all honesty, it didn’t go as bad as it could have,” Bren admitted, his voice slightly disheartened.

“It is a good idea and I am sure that the others will come around,” Cass offered with a thin smile.

“I think it's past time that we made our way back home,” Bren said, trying to shake the dark thoughts that started running through his mind.

CHAPTER IV

It was four days before Bren heard back from the tower, and he was surprised to learn that they had agreed to his proposal.

While he had waited for the reply of the mage’s council, Bren had thought about drafting a letter to Monique about the merchant guild, but he had decided against it. He loved his aunt dearly, but he knew better than to give her a whole season to think of how to get the best deal out of him. She was family, but in her mind, she would always be a merchant before anything.

Thinking back to Monique’s visits when he was just a child, a small smile flashed across Bren’s face. She would always bring gifts, but they were never free. At first he would have to bargain kisses with her, as he grew older, it became work. The older he got, the fiercer Monique would get with her negotiations for the gifts. It had become a game that both of them loved, but when it came to what was best for his people, it was one he didn’t want to chance. He had to prepare himself for his meeting with the guild, and that meant that through most of the winter he would be stuck hunched over ledgers and books about the current market trends and taxes of the lands already in business with the guild. It wouldn’t make for a fun time, but it would offer him the best hope of getting as close to a fair deal as anyone could get out of Monique.

“Still hard at work?” Lillian asked, setting her tray heavily down beside him.

Jumping slightly from the unexpected noise, Bren looked over to the elven maiden. No matter how much time passed, Bren couldn’t get over how lovely she looked, though he didn’t find himself with any romantic feelings toward her. Most of that might have been due to growing up in a place where women lorded over the men, or to the fact that he knew that if he looked at the elf in that way, Faye would cut his throat in the middle of the night.

“Is something wrong?” Bren asked the young elf. Having grown up in a house full of women, Bren could tell when something was bothering them. Though most of the time, why, seemed to slip past his grasp.

“When was the last time you went into the town proper my lord?” She asked, her voice raising slightly.

“I can’t remember,” Bren admitted. “Other than my morning and evening practices, I have been trying to catch up on this god forsaken paperwork.”

“I would suggest that my lord walk around the people and hear what is being whispered among the people,” Lillian offered, her voice still raised in annoyance.

“You could save me the trouble and tell me yourself,” Bren offered. That was one thing that annoyed him about Lillian, she never offered much in the way of an opinion. She simply tried to lead him in the direction for him to find the answer on his own. He understood that she did that in hopes that he would learn on his own, but with everything piling up around him, just this once, he wished that she would skip the roundabout lecture.

“They are saying that Sae-Thae was behind the taxes and the unfair treatment in the non-human district,” She said, her voice dripping with venom. “The mages working on the houses are telling everyone how Sae-Thae was the reason for their unfair treatment over the past years, and many of them are believing the drivel.”

“Why would they believe that?” Bren asked, more than a little surprised. “Sae-Thae is the only reason that it wasn’t worse than it was.”

“You must understand that the vathari are what most the magical creatures used to scare their children at night. Had it not been for the Brotherhood wiping your history clean of everything dealing with the magical races, the humans would view them in much the same light. It is this fear of the vathari that has made it so easy for Sae-Thae to take the blame for the towers misdeeds.”

“I will see what I can do about the rumors,” Bren told the elf, easing the anger in her voice, though it still clearly showed in her trembling eyes.

As soon as Lillian left, Bren sat back in his chair and thought about what the rumors meant. The council was trying to shift the blame to one man. It was a brilliant move by Turneal. Not only would it mean that it would help give the tower a fresh start in the eyes of the majority of the magical races, but now that they didn’t have full control they could use it to replace Sae-Thae as the head master of the tower. Bren didn’t mind them changing the views of the people into positive ones. In all honesty, it would solve a lot of problems, but losing Sae-Thae on the council would hurt him greatly in the future. He was one of the few mages that he could count on to act in the best interest of all involved. The real question was how to dispute the rumors without making the tower look worse for it.

Bren sat back and rubbed the temple of his head. Why couldn’t politics ever be simple?

Because humans desire power and they don’t care about how they come by it. I would suggest that you simply denounce the council and take control of the mages in truth, instead of trying to lead them around like a rabid dog. The longer you keep up this game, the larger chance that you will get bitten.

“You seem to view the tower the same way you do women,” Bren said with a slight chuckle. “Though in this case, I think that you might have the truth of it. The council is like a rabid dog, but I can’t simply remove them. I have to find a way to work with them or around them.”

Don’t come crying to me when they bite then.

“I am sure, that should that ever happen, I won’t have to come to you since you will rush to me to tell me that you were right.”

True

Laughing, Bren went back to thinking about the rumors. Thuraman might get on his nerves, but sometimes the staff’s interruptions gave him a much needed break.

After more than an hour of thinking, Bren still couldn’t find an answer to his problem. He could easily spread around the news that the mages were lying, but that would only compound the real problem. Right now, his only option was to allow the rumor to continue to spread, and hope that he could lessen some of the damage that it would do to his friend. He hated knowing that he was willing to let his friend take the fall, but in the end he knew that it was currently the best option he had available. His stomach clenched at the decision. Bren decided it was time that he got a bit of fresh air.

“Sir, everything ok?” Cass asked as soon as he descended the stairs.

“Should there be anything amiss?” Bren asked, eyeing his friend closely.

“Dammit!” Cass said, stomping his foot. “I hoped that we could hold off you learning about the rumors until after the mages finished repairing the roofs,” Cass admitted.

“How could you tell?” Bren asked, more intrigued than angry at his friend.

“Your face,” Cass replied, shrugging his shoulders. “You look like you just took a big drink of Lillian’s green tea, and I know you haven’t been drinking. The only reason left for you to have such a sour expression is that you learned something that left a bad taste in your mouth.”

“Well, you don’t have much to worry about,” Bren said, kicking the ground. “Until I can figure out a way to dispute the rumors without further damaging the tower’s reputation, there is little that I can do.”

“What have you done with Bren?” Cass asked, stepping back and looking at him as if he had grown a second head.

“What are you blabbering about?” Bren asked, trying to hold back a smile.

“I thought that you would march off with Flynn and the army behind you to bring the tower to the ground when you learned about what was happening. Why such the lackluster attitude?”

“I won’t lie,” Bren said, clenching his fist. “I am angry about them using Sae-Thae as their scapegoat, but there is little I can do about it without causing further harm. I don’t plan to simply let it go the way they want, but right now I don’t have much choice…Unless I want to risk another war. I need to do what’s best for the people, and sometimes that isn’t easy.”

“That’s the reason I would rather be a soldier taking orders, than a king giving them,” Cass said,
patting Bren consolingly on the back. “Why don’t we head over to Crusher’s? He always has the best tasting brew in the town.”

“I hate to think about drinking more of that rancid tea in the morning, but right now a drink sounds too good to pass up,” Bren admitted.

Bren spent the entire walk to Crusher’s shop listening to the people around him. As Lillian had said, he could hear the whispers about Sae-Thae, though most of the time the words were too soft for him to hear what exactly being said. Between trying to listen to the whispers and watching Avalanche as she bounded about, the walk seemed incredibly short.

They found Crusher working in his outside forge. Bren watched as the dwarf pulled a long thin strip of metal about four foot long from the fire and laid it on the anvil. Each strike that hit the metal didn’t cause a flurry of sparks as Bren had expected, but instead only a few tiny flakes of metal bounced into the air.

Time passed by quickly as Bren watched the dwarf at work. It was amazingly mesmerizing, watching the hammer strike the metal over and over. When Crusher lifted up the sword for the fifth time and looked at it, a smile crept over his face and he stuck the glowing metal in a tall thin vat of liquid. When he pulled the sword out, flames licked at the metal, but it had lost its red hue. After a few hardy shakes, the flames extinguished and Crusher laid the blade on a large stone table.

“If you’re here about the sword then ya are way too soon. That’s the blade right there and I still got plenty left to do before it ready fer use.”

Bren laughed and gave the dwarf a warm smile that seemed to calm his gruff demeanor. “We came to see how much ale we can put away between the seven of us.”

“Aye, then what are we waiting around in the cold fer?” Crusher asked, limping toward the door. “I just got in a nice batch of dwarven spirits that will cause a wee toddler ta grow hair on its chest.”

“I think we are going to regret this decision,” Bren said with a worried look, getting a laugh from Cass as well as his other guards.  

“Regret is for the morning,” Cass said, following the dwarf inside the house. “The night before is for doing things that need to be regretted. Otherwise, what fun is life?”

Thad couldn’t help but laugh as he watched his son stumble about. Having been in that same situation before, thanks to Crusher, Thad had some sympathy. He also knew that in the future, Bren would look back on these days and find them comforting.

“It would seem that your son has not forgotten about you,” Humanius offered, sitting down beside the mage.

“It would seem not, but I doubt that he will have the time to find the entrance to the veil anytime soon. With my luck, he will be an old man before he even catches a real glimpse of its location,” Thad replied without a hint of displeasure in his voice.

“You don’t sound disappointed?”

“Why should I be?” Thad asked, smiling. “My son has become a far better man than I. He might still have a few rough edges, but those will smooth in time. What right do I have to demand that he spend the entirely of his life devoted to returning me to the world of men. I would be happy, should he forget about me completely and simply enjoy his life.”

“I wish the same, but I doubt that he will forget about you. Things always have a way of coming back to one’s father,” Humanius said with a knowing look.