Warlords Rising (22 page)

As Becca followed him, she truly felt like she was reliving
an echo of the past. It felt eerily similar to walking through Rurick’s
streets. Why were the cities so similar? Even Sol, which had a set pattern for
their cities, had more variety than this. Was it a matter of lack of building
supplies, perhaps? They had precious little wood to work with in this desert
landscape after all. And where was the Rikkana? Were they sheltering her from
the evil conquerors? Likely so.

Sosa took them into a building that had the earmarks for a
slaver’s pen all over it. Becca’s skin crawled at the first look of it and the
thought of having to walk into that building made her stomach turn over in a
hard lurch. Steeling herself, she forced her shoulders back and went in after
the men.

For whatever reason, Tiergan didn’t have as many slaves.
Less need for them, perhaps? Becca scanned, doing a quick headcount, and came
up with a little over one hundred slaves. Most of them seemed to be young, few
elderly mixed in with them, and quite a number of children. Odd, Rurick had a
complete mix of people of all ages. Why was this place different?

“I’ve got the door,” Trev’nor stated simply and turned to
face the doorway, feet planted shoulder length apart. “Master Sosa, you stay
with me.”

The tension riding in Becca’s body eased knowing that he had
a watchful eye on their backs. In this warring country, conquering a city did
not mean the inhabitants would blindly follow whoever had defeated their
government. They were used to war, and used to being fought over. Becca did not
think them cowed and she had been afraid that someone would try to pounce from
behind and take them unawares.

With her worries set aside, she paid better attention to the
people. Not all of them were magicians, but the majority certainly was. She
could clearly see their magic underneath the magical amulets subduing them.
Actually, the amulets were distorting her vision enough that her eyes nearly
missed the obvious entirely.

“Nolan,” she breathed, jerking back around, convinced her
eyes were playing tricks on her. “Is that…?”

“We have mages,” he confirmed, equally hoarse. He took a
step forward as if he wanted to make a beeline straight for them, but all of
the magicians were standing up now and creeping cautiously closer.

Becca thought this was a different reaction from the usual.
Why were they looking so awed, so hopeful? Realization kicked in and she felt
like smacking herself. Of course they would react so. Three powerful mages just
waltzed in without amulets or guards. Free magicians must be an awe-inspiring
sight, like watching unicorns walk past. Clearing her throat, she tried to be
as clear and distinct as possible. “My name is Riicbeccaan. I am a Weather Mage
from Chahir. With me is Vonnolanen, a Life Mage, and Rhebentrev’noren, an Earth
Mage.” Using the Chahiran names helped as the surnames of the boys rang a bell
with everyone in the room and they looked more interested than before. “We are
here to free you.” At that point, her limited grasp on the language rather
failed and she looked to Nolan to cue him.

Nolan picked up the explanation of why they were there, what
they hoped to accomplish, and so forth. As he talked, Becca found the key ring
and started with the people nearest to her, unlocking shackles and ripping off
amulets before crushing them under her heel. She made it almost halfway around
the room before he stopped talking and waited for a reaction.

A young woman with a heart shaped face and pretty dark eyes
sitting in front of Becca tentatively reached out to take her arm. “Free?”

“Free,” Becca responded firmly. “You can go. Or stay. Will
help you train magic.” Frustrated by her lack of vocabulary to explain all of
this, she turned to Nolan and requested, “Explain to them what their options
are.”

The woman tugged at her arm. “Will you fight all of
Khobunter? Take back all of the slaves?”

Grateful she’d understood those questions, Becca met her
eyes and said, “Yes. All of them.”

Tears brimmed in her eyes. “My husband, children, you will
help me find them?”

 Wait, what? “Were they taken?”

“Yes. They were sold four days ago and sent up north.” The
woman’s grip on her became so tight it threatened to leave bruises. “You will
go that far?”

She felt Nolan come to stand behind her and she looked up. Nolan’s
mouth twisted as if he had bitten into something rotten. “Busted buckets, I
didn’t think of that. Of course they would have no regard for families and
would sell people anywhere and everywhere. We’re going to have a fun time
later, trying to reunite people.”

Becca felt her stomach, already upset, twist a little more.
Had they really paid no regard to families whatsoever?

To the woman, Nolan smiled and reassured her gently,
“Everyone. We’ll free everyone and make sure that families see each other
again.”

A sob escaped her mouth before she burst into tears. Becca
felt like she’d been thrown into the past in that moment, reliving when she had
been forced to say goodbye to her family. Even to this day, she had not been
able to see them again, as it was still dangerous in southern Chahir. Feeling
perfect empathy, she reached out and hugged the woman tight, rocking her
slightly as if comforting a child. “We’ll find them. My oath as a Riic.”

From the other side of the room, a tall man that looked to
be in his forties stood and made his way to them. He looked rough, long hair
pulled back in a ponytail, beard scraggly and un-kept, skin dark from long
exposure to the suns. He caught Becca’s undivided attention as this was one of
the mages, a Water Mage, by the looks of it. “I am Ehsan. I have questions.”

“Ask,” Nolan encouraged.

“Only three of you fight?”

“Three of us,” Nolan admitted openly, mouth twisting up in
amusement, “and about a hundred dragons.”

That shocked the room back into stillness.

“
Dragons?
” Ehsan parroted incredulously.

“The dragons are friends of magicians,” Nolan explained
simply. “Always. They have agreed to help fight Khobunter and free magicians.”

Ehsan searched their expressions, then turned to Sosa. “He
speaks truth?”

“He does,” Sosa answered although he had a strange
expression on his face, as if he had just bitten down the impulse to say
something nasty to a former slave for speaking out of turn. Wise man not to do
that, as Becca was in such a mood that she would have gladly jumped down his
throat for it.

Thinking this over for a long moment, Ehsan finally concluded
aloud, “With dragons, you might win. I am tired of being a slave. I will fight
with you.”

Nolan reached out, taking off the amulets, and crushing them
under his boot. “You are a Water Mage, and powerful. We welcome your help.”

A fierce light came into the man’s dark eyes. “I am
powerful? Like you?”

“Like me. Like Becca. You and the Elemental Mage over
there.” Nolan turned to look at the woman that had still not moved. “What is
your name?”

“Azin.” The woman slowly rose, revealing her full figure for
the first time. She was a slender little thing, small enough to make Becca look
large, dark hair in a matted braid over one shoulder, skin paler than most of
the people around her. “I am not powerful. I can work with metal, a little.”

“And water, and earth, and air, and fire,” Nolan corrected,
walking to her. “But your best element is metal. Isn’t that right?”

Stunned, she nodded dumbly. “You can see that?”

“Part of that was a guess,” he denied cheerfully. “But most
Elemental Mages are very strong in metal, perhaps one or two other elements,
and then can sort of work with the rest. That’s normal. Once we get these
amulets off of you, and I have time to do some proper training, you’re going to
be a powerhouse of a fighter.” Nolan happily flung off the amulets as he spoke,
destroying them with a smirk on his face. “I know that all of you have a lot of
questions. But let’s get these chains off, and the amulets, and get out of this
hole first. Then we can talk.”

The slaves didn’t know what to do with themselves. Becca
realized that before they had even left the building and took charge of them.
With Sosa’s reluctant help, she found three inns and commandeered them, getting
people into bathing chambers and finding clean clothes for them to wear. Once
they were properly bathed and fed, then it seemed to sink in that they truly
were free.

Some of the braver ones went out in the streets, walking
about and testing their new freedom. Of course the dragons noticed them, and a
few came down into the streets to talk. Becca caught one exchange in between
bustling from inn to the other. The two magicians in the street looked ready to
bolt but the dragon was careful in its approach, slow, showing no aggression.
Becca thought she recognized the dragon in question, a young male that had been
one of her better students, and he tried out his language skills in a low
rumbling voice.

Hearing human words out of a dragon’s mouth surprised them,
but put them at ease, and they cautiously responded. Becca smiled as she
watched them grow more comfortable in the exchange. It did not escape her
notice, either, that the other inhabitants of Tiergan were also watching and
taking special note of this. “That’s right,” she muttered to them under her
breath, “the dragons like your former slaves. Keep that in mind.”

Her dragon had been lounging along the roof of the inn but
dipped her head down to talk to Becca. “Guards now in hole.”

“Hole? Oh, you mean where the slaves were?” Becca had
referred to it as a ‘hole’ several times, that was probably where she’d picked
up the term.

“Yes.” Her golden eyes flared with a spark of anger. “Bad
men?” she asked, tone relaying that she was perfectly amiable to frying them
for Becca if needed.

“Don’t know,” Becca admitted. “Some probably are. Some were
probably just defending the city. We’ll have to see.”

Satisfied, her dragon sat back again, stretching out in her
new sunny perch.

“You’re seriously like a cat, you know that?” Becca felt,
watching her, that she had another feline familiar.

“Cat?” the dragon repeated, interested.

“Right, cat. You sunbathe, you chase things that move, your
mannerisms are all like a cat.”

With a feline rumble of pleasure, she repeated, “Cat.”

Becca’s forehead compressed into a quick frown. “Wait, you
like that word?”

“Like. Name.”

“You want Cat to be your name?” Seriously? Of all the ones
for her to choose. Not that it wasn’t accurate, but still….

“Name,” her dragon stated firmly.

“Well, alright, Cat it is.” Watching her dragon’s tail
twitch happily, she shook her head. Strange, strange creature. “So, Cat, can
you see everything up there?”

“Yes. Trev’nor—” her mouth tripped a little over the ‘n’
sound “—have guards locked up. Nolan talk with people.”

“Which people? Magic people?”

“No. City people.”

It was very interesting to Becca that the dragons could tell
a difference between the two. And it wasn’t like they were asking to verify,
they just knew in a glance. Were dragons sensitive to magic? There was so
little really known about them, yet somehow Becca had no doubt that they could.
“Can you hear what he’s saying?”

“Yes. People confused. Don’t know what want.”

Didn’t know what Nolan wanted? True, they had rather divided
up duties here, with Nolan taking the lead in establishing a temporary
government. It worked rather like Chahir’s martial law, as that was one they
were all familiar with, and knew well enough to implement here. Besides, any
government was better than the one here. “Does he need help?”

“Will ask.” Cat’s head lifted, eyes intent for a long
moment. “Says no.”

Nolan was more up to the task than she was.

Trev’nor came around the bend, spotted her, and made a
beeline directly for her. “Bec. You know what just hit me?”

“What?”

“Our mages have no limiters on their powers.”

It took a second to click, but when it did, she groaned.
“And they only have a basic grasp of how to use their magic. We’re sure to have
magical accidents at this rate.”

“It’s seriously a problem. Not just with them but the
witches and wizards. I think we better have some quick lessons on magic.”

Becca whole-heartedly agreed. After all, the three trained
mages in this city might or might not have the right skills to fix whatever
broke. “How much should we teach them?”

“Even the basics will help right now.”

Mentally, she held a debate with herself. “Which one takes
higher priority, teaching our magicians some basics or making sure this city
doesn’t revolt on us?”

“Magicians,” Trev’nor responded promptly. “Nolan has
enlisted the dragons to make sure that people obey the martial laws.”

That was not something they had discussed beforehand, but
Becca had to admit that was brilliant. Nothing escaped a dragon’s hearing,
after all, and they might not have all of the vocabulary to understand human
speech, but they could certainly communicate to Nolan when people were
misbehaving. “The dragons don’t have a problem with this?”

“Actually, I think they volunteered. Nolan said their duty
was to protect the city, from both inside and outside. It helps us
tremendously.”

It truly did. Becca had been plagued by nightmares when she
thought of trying to move on to the next city without properly governing
Tiergan first. “Well, if we’re going to do magic lessons, I vote we do it
outside of the city.”

“Where there’s less breakables around?” Trev’nor grinned at
her in complete understanding. “Sounds good to me. Garth and I will go out and
build some wards, if you want to gather people up and meet me out there?”

“Alright. I’ll be out there shortly.”

Gathering up the magicians didn’t take much time at all, and
most were glad for an excuse to be outside of the city for once, so Becca
didn’t need to do much more than call them. The hard part was explaining the
fundamentals of magic. Becca had extensive training as a mage, mostly in
weather patterns, but even with all of that knowledge, she didn’t know
everything. In fact, most of the basics that she was trying to teach were
things she had studied as an eight year old. To say that her memory was a
little rusty was putting it mildly.

Their saving grace came from Trev’nor’s teaching abilities.
He didn’t try to explain when he could demonstrate, or physically and magically
walk a person through step by step. People crowded around him, intently
watching his every move as he demonstrated how to properly activate magic, use
it, then release it to let it idle again.

Someone had broken into a storage room that contained
magical items, and they’d brought them along. Mirror broaches, small scrying
bowls, a few triangles, and one bon’a’lon, which took Becca by surprise.
Trev’nor used all of them to demonstrate how to properly use magic.

The lesson took three hours. Becca called a halt after that
point before people could make any stupid and dangerous mistakes due to
fatigue. It was a good breaking point anyway, as everyone understood the basic
concepts and were no longer a danger to themselves or the populace in general.

Trev’nor regrouped with her as people trudged the short
distance back into the city, talking animatedly amongst themselves. “I think
that went well.”

“Extremely well. They were like sponges, soaking up
everything you had to say. I didn’t know you were good at teaching like this.”

“Ah, that?” Trev’nor’s sight turned inward. “In the early
days, before Strae Academy had a full roster of professors, I would often act
like a teacher’s aide for Night.”

Having sat through Night’s class on History of Magic, Becca
nodded understanding. “I remember liking his class. He’s a fun teacher.”

“He is. I don’t think I ever helped out with your class,
though.”

“No, you must have had a class at the same time. In fact, I
think the only class we ever had together was Weapons.”

“Huh.” Trev’nor pondered that for a moment. “I think you’re
right. Anyway, I basically adopted his teaching methods, and Shad’s, as those
seem to work the best. I don’t think there’s much more that I can teach the
wizards and witches, not with what I know.”

“Even if you knew more, you wouldn’t be able to teach them
much past this anyway,” she observed pragmatically. “You don’t have all of the
potions and tools you need.”

“That’s a good point.” Trev’nor watched the last of his
students enter the city and asked softly, “Is it safe to leave them here?”

“More than safety, I think it’s necessary to leave them
here.”

Garth, trailing along at Trev’nor’s other side, gave a deep
hum of agreement.

“You see what I mean?” she asked him.

“Do,” Garth stated with a slight nod of the head. “Tradition
deep. Must change.”

Trev’nor cottoned on at that point. “True, the people of
Tiergan aren’t going to learn to change their minds about magicians if we don’t
leave magicians here to influence them, but Bec…that’s a really rough position
to put them in. I mean, our magicians still have a lifetime of habit to
overcome. They’re going to be deferential automatically.”

“Then they, too, need to learn better.”

“We help,” Garth assured them both. “All young need
raising.”

Trev’nor tilted is head around to look Garth in the eye,
tone suspicious. “Just how young do I look to you, anyway?”

“Baby chick,” the dragon rumbled, amusement rumbling in his
chest.

Somehow this answer didn’t surprise Becca and she giggled.
“Compared to him, I think most of the world are baby chicks. But I think we can
trust the dragons to herd people in the right direction while we focus on the
rest of the country.”

“Probably right.”

“Besides, Trev, look at this objectively: can we really take
half-trained magicians in with us to the next battle?”

He winced. “Nooo, that’s a bad idea.”

“Right? Especially when they’re unarmed. They don’t have the
tools they need to do magic with. It’ll be suicide.”

“But that doesn’t apply to our two mages,” he objected. “In
fact, I think we should take them with us. They’ve got a half-grasp on their
magic already. With some more training, some practical experience in doing
something outside of their norm, they’ll become formidable.”

True. Becca did have some doubts about them, but mage powers
were more volatile than a witch’s or wizard’s because they didn’t require a
focusing tool to release. A few hours of training wouldn’t teach them
everything they’d need to know. “It would be nice having some additional
fighters.”

“Wouldn’t it?”

“But are you sure we can train them well enough in the next
few days that they’ll be battle-ready?”

“I actually spoke with them a little earlier. Our Elemental
Mage worked directly with the artillery in building and maintaining siege
weapons as well as defenses. She’s been doing it for nearly four years.”

“Then she already has the experience she needs.” Becca felt
hope rise up. “And the Water Mage?”

“He’s been at this for about fifteen years. Mostly they used
him to find water in the desert but he said he’s fought in a few battles too.
On the rare occasion they had a navy come in from the coast, he was the one
that fought them off.”

That poor navy. When Becca imagined what a Water Mage could
do with an entire ocean to work with…normal ships wouldn’t stand a chance. “So
really, what we’re doing is fine tuning their control and teaching them what
they’re really capable of.”

“Yup.” Trev’nor could read her reaction well enough to grin.
“See? We need to take them with us.”

Becca was half-sold on this idea but still had reservations.
“Let’s put it to the test first, then. I had a thought this morning as we were
flying in. You know how we changed part of Rurick’s landscape, put in a garden,
etc?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“Well, after we conquer everything, I don’t think we’re
going to have a lot of spare time on our hands. Like, ruling a country is going
to be really demanding. Do you think we’ll be able to roam around the country
fixing the landscape later?”

Trev’nor shook his head. “I really doubt that. So what are
you suggesting? That we fix the land as we go, take time after we win each city
to work on the land?”

“Like we did in Rurick, yes. You have a better solution?”
she challenged.

“Naw, not really. In that case, you want to spend a few days
working here before we move on, and use our new mages to help do it.”

“Two birds, one stone.”

“I can’t disagree. Alright, let’s talk to Nolan. We need his
help after all.”

It really was going to take all three of them to put
Khobunter back to rights. That and about twenty years. Strangely, this thought
didn’t daunt Becca like it should have.

“One more thing we should do before leaving is get a full
list of everyone’s names.” Trev’nor glanced between both dragons. “Can the two
of you help with this? You have such amazing memories, can you remember every
person’s name?”