Fallen Magician (The Magician Rebellion) Page 2

  Marian was determined to lead the ranger scouts in their expedition, but her advisers in Everec’s city council were in an uproar fearing that the mission would be too dangerous for their new Commanding Dame to lead the small force required for swift reconnaissance. To appease both sides, Sari volunteered to take the scouts and learn if there was any truth to the claim while Marian oversaw the emergency shelters and food stores for all of the refugees that would be on their way if her hunch was right. For more than a week the scouts headed south towards the Dread Marsh that stood between the orcs and humans searching for any sign of an orc horde. Every day they would search the nearby area and finding no sign of orc raiders moved farther south. They did this twice more and Sari secretly hoped to see Marian Lightfoot coming down the mountain behind her to take charge of the forces so recently placed under her command, but Marian never came. How could she? Sari’s former apprentice traded the freedom of the traveler for the luxuries and responsibilities of the nobility. How boring.

  “They should have been back by now,” Sari said, in an admission that was more to herself than a comment to Donovan.

  “Do you hear that?” Donovan asked suspiciously. He lied down with his belly flat on the boulder and began eyeing the tree line far below them where the soil was rich enough to grow vegetation in the low-lying areas.

  Sari perked up and listened intently. “I do not hear a thing,” she said and looked to Donovan who raised an eyebrow as if the very silence itself was a question. Then the silence bore down on her like a heavy weight and she understood what Donovan meant. The birds were no longer chirping. Something had spooked them.

  The elf took a laying position next to Donovan and they watched the tree line below for any sign of passage. Minutes passed without the pair seeing any sign of orcs coming and Sari was about to suggest they go down and investigate when a trio of humans emerged and began making their way toward Sari and Donovan. It was the southern squad leader, a young, but talented tracker by the name of Lechance Swiftstride, known as Chance to his friends. He struck Sari as a charming fellow, but a bit more confident in his abilities than he should have been. The men with him were members of the units under his command for this mission. Only the squad leaders were supposed to report to Sari’s position while their rangers established a perimeter. If some of his men were with him, then something must have gone wrong. Sari resisted the urge to run down the mountainside and compromise her position.

  “Reporting in, Captain,” Chance said when he reached Sari with a curt salute born of weariness rather than disrespect. They must have been running non-stop for some time. “We have spotted the orc raiders and they are more than just some bandits trying to exploit poorly protected settlements. There looked to be about four hundred orcs heading our way. Two of my men, Handy and Dagson, fell victim to their advance scouts as we withdrew. They drew the orc scouts away so we could escape unnoticed and deliver this message to you.”

  “Handy and Dagson were good lads,” Donovan said sympathetically, “They will be missed.”

  “And their sacrifice will not be in vain,” Sari added resolutely. Handy and Dagson were both sixteen years of age, barely old enough to be considered men. For ones so young to perish was truly dispiriting to the elf. She knew that her own people’s long lived nature was often envied by the other high races, because to humans, dwarves, and the other races this seemed like an advantage, but they never saw the sparsely populated lands of Raiden or the Red Tree Forest. They failed to understand that elves did not have children as often as other races and so they felt every premature death of their kinsman especially the young ones that much more deeply. “Chance, take your remaining men and head back to Everec. Tell Lady Lightfoot what you have told me so that she may prepare her men to march to battle. The city’s guards and the militia will be pressed to handle a force of that size and the smaller towns will have no choice except to retreat to Everec, so it will be paramount that she is ready for the refugees that are sure to come to Everec.

  “Donovan, return to your men positioned to the west and take them back to Everec as well. I will head east in search of the remaining scouts and will return with them.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” both squad leaders answered in near unison. Donovan looked as if he wished to add something, but instead began heading west as commanded.

  Chance and his remaining men were about to do the same, but Sari stopped them. “Chance, is it possible that Handy and Dagson could have eluded their pursuers?”

  “We did not see them cut down, Captain, but I think it unlikely that they survived,” Chance admitted, “Still they were headed east-”

  “Then I will watch for them as I travel east myself,” Sari concluded. The elf worked her way down the mountainside on an eastern path. It was as Marian feared; a small army of orcs was headed towards Everec, but why? If their goal were to raze the mountainside, then the humans would be unable to stop them without reinforcements, but if the orcs marched on Everec, then the city’s military stood a fair chance at victory. Deep down Sari had a feeling gnawing at her that something was very wrong about what was happening.

  Chapter 2

  “My deepest regrets, sir, but Sir Lightfoot has not been seen in three days,” the house butler apologized profusely. He was a young man with a full head of dark brown hair that made Sane more than a little jealous at his own bald scalp. The butler was dressed in fine clothes that denoted him as living in a more refined environment than the typical commoner, but not so nice as to outshine whatever garments his masters might wear. “No one knows where he has gone. Lady Marian has been beside herself with worry. She has barely left her manor since Byrn’s disappearance. The city’s council has been forced to act on her behalf to answer city concerns and Lady Marian… she acts like a woman in mourning.” The butler wrung his hands nervously and shifted his feet. His head hung low as if he was expecting a beating at the distressing news.

  Instead the sorcerer put his hand reassuringly on the butler’s shoulder and told him, “Be calm. You are too young for such heavy worry. If you cannot take me to Byrn Lightfoot, then can you at least take me to see Lady Marian? It is of the utmost importance that I find her son.”

  “Very good,” the butler nodded and ventured a slight smile that barely held from lips that were much more accustomed to grimaces, “Please follow me, sir.” The butler led Sane away from Byrn’s tower and across the grounds to the main manor where Marian, Sari, and most of the house servants and guests resided. This man was Byrn’s personal servant assigned to his tower to take care of the mundane tasks involved with the upkeep of his master’s home and as such most likely lived in the tower.

  “It must be unnerving working for a magician. How are you holding up?” Sane asked casually as they walked.

  The butler looked at Sane’s dark green cloak and his short staff underneath that doubled as a cane. It was clear that he guessed something of Sane’s true nature, but had the good sense not to say anything. “Master Byrn is… distant. He is not unkind or even uncaring, but he is distrustful around most people.”

  “He is paranoid?” Sane asked in surprise stopping in his tracks about halfway between the tower and the main house.

  “No, sir,” the butler had that worried look on his face again and he began to unconsciously wring his hands once more, “My former master was a paranoid man. He thought that everyone around him was conspiring to take his title, his throne, even his life. Master Byrn is more guarded than truly paranoid. He keeps mostly to himself unless he is visiting with his mother or Lady Sarianna. In the weeks that he has been here, Master Byrn has only ventured into Everec proper twice and then only on official business.”

  Sane grinned what he hoped was a friendly grin that would put the butler at ease and gestured that they should continue to the main house. “Byrn has spent most of the last few years hiding away from most of society. In time he will relax his guard and come to think of Everec as home. He may even be the ruler here one day.” Tha
t would be something to see- a magician in a seat of power in Aurelia.

  The butler led Sane into the house and after asking around found that Lady Marian had not left her room all morning as he had predicted. The sorcerer was impressed by the manor house. It was large for a home belonging to a low ranking noble especially one newly risen from a commoner, but would be well earned if Marian Lightfoot could put an end to the orc skirmishes that were plaguing the mining towns and the surrounding mountain villages.

  When they reached the door to Marian’s bed chamber the butler knocked on the door politely. After a few moments passed and there was no answer, he knocked again. “Lady Lightfoot, are you well?” the butler asked cautiously.

  “We should check if she is in there,” Sane suggested.

  The butler’s eyes grew wide and he shook his head briskly. “Sir, I could never do such a thing! That would be a complete breach of etiquette- not to mention common decency!”

  “You may leave and I will investigate,” the sorcerer suggested, “If anyone asks tell them I turned you into a mouse.”

  Taking a step back, the butler’s voice quivered as he asked, “You can do that?”

  Sane turned from the man without giving an answer and banged on the door. The sound seemed very loud as it bounced off of the walls in the otherwise quiet hall causing the butler to jump back, and no doubt expended a great deal of his bravery reserve to keep himself from running away. Was this man always so high strung or was his fear the result of serving his previous master as he seemed to suggest? Sane banged on the door a second time and the butler made up a reason to scurry off.

  “Marian, it is Sane. Can I come in?” There was a faint sound like a gasp, but the Lady made no further noise. “I need to find Byrn… I have grave news.”

  The ranger-turned-noblewoman opened the door and Sane could see that her eyes and nose were both red. She had been crying perhaps all morning… perhaps longer than that.

  “What is wrong?” Sane asked with concern. They shared a common friend in the elf, Sari, but Sane and Marian were not close and rarely spoke to one another. However, he never did like to see a woman cry.

  Marian retreated back to her room and took a letter off her desk. She flung it to Sane and returned to sit on her bed, not caring if he caught it or not. The letter flitted to the floor at the sorcerer’s feet. He picked it up and counseled himself to keep his annoyance at the woman’s rudeness in check. She clearly feared that Byrn had abandoned her, or worse.

  “Dearest Mother,” Sane said aloud as he started to read the letter and then continued reading to himself as Marian started to cry again. “This is shocking to say the least…” Sane mumbled halfway through the letter.

  “Is it true?” Marian asked. Her voice carried sadness, but was tinged with a small hint of anger. “Did he kill Tannys?”

  “Yes, Byrn was responsible for his death; however, it was an accident.”

  Marian clenched her fists and pursed her lips. Torn between despair and anger; she was unsure of how to react. “And what about the rest? Byrn wrote that Ashura cursed him. Is that even possible?”

  “He never said anything to me about this,” Sane shook his head, “but I have no reason to suspect that he would lie- at least not to you. There have been stories of such a thing happening from time to time throughout history, but I have never known anyone to claim that they were cursed in my lifetime. However, the rest of this,” Sane waved the letter in his hand, “about his friends being attacked. I know that is true and it is already over. I came hear to tell Byrn about the attack on the school, but it seems he was ahead of me. I was about to go there to see the damage for myself and thought he would want to come with me to pay his respects.” Sane absently clutched the letter so that it wrinkled and creased in his grip. “They all died.”

  “Byrn…?” Marian could not finish the question.

  “I don’t know yet. It never occurred to me that he might have been there. My purpose in coming here was to get him so that he could travel there with me. I knew he would want to be there- to see it for himself.

  “When Byrn escaped from Baj he headed south to Lion’s Landing. Maybe it was chance or fate, but whatever the cause he ended up in my estranged sister’s care before long. If what I have been told is true, then she and all of the magicians that she was harboring are now dead and if Byrn was with them-” the sorcerer let the words die on his lips. He pulled out a chair from the desk opposite where Marian sat and fell into it. His relationship with Byrn was easily as strained as that with Avelice, but with the loss of his sister and now Byrn, the sorcerer suddenly felt very alone in the world.

  For a time the magician and ranger sat in silence, each grieving their lost family member. Eventually Marian said, “I want to go with you to the site. I need to see Byrn’s body for myself.” Her pride would not allow her to look Sane in the eyes so that he could see the tears that were welling up in hers.

  “That is unwise,” Sane told her matter-of-factly, “I will go and report back to you in a few days.”

  The ranger-turned-noblewoman suddenly came to life. “You expect me to sit here and wait for you to come back as you please? My son could be dead or he could still be alive, hurt somewhere. If he is dead, then I want to see his body. I need to see it for myself or I won’t believe it.” Marian squeezed her hands into tight fists so that her knuckles were white. “And if he is alive and missing, then I can track him through the forest far better than you.”

  Marian’s words made sense, but Sane did not relish the thought of spending so much time with the woman. This was the longest conversation they had ever had together and it was clear from years of avoidance that Marian did not care to be around the man. Nevertheless, Sane found himself agreeing to her demand. “Very well. Get yourself ready.” Sane waved his hand at Marian’s frilly nightgown and for the first time she seemed to be aware of how she was dressed, because her face blushed a deep red color. “We will depart in the hour,” added Sane as he turned his back to her and excused himself from the bedchamber.

  ***

  It was afternoon when Marian and Sane reached the site of the Lion’s Landing conflict with an entourage of Kenzai hunters who were there to help put the bodies of magician and Kenzai alike to rest. The clearing was in disarray as the after effects of the battle were still everywhere. The trees and undergrowth circling the clearing were a mass of ash and blackened wood. Earth was upturned in long lines throughout the grounds indicating a powerful earth spell or perhaps a series of magical spells considering the level of upheaval. Pools of blood stained the grass and soil in various places where Kenzai or magicians met their end with the largest concentration being just outside the front of the cabin located near the center of the clearing.

  Its front door was destroyed with the splintered frame and wall pointing outward indicating a massive explosion or spell from within had occurred as well. Next to the cabin was a mass of dead bodies all laid out in a row where men, women, and children were set out in preparation for the funeral pyre.

  “Kassani take them in peace,” Marian whispered. She knelt down before one of them, a young girl of about fifteen or sixteen years, in her ornate leather armor that she had taken to wearing following her appointment as a noblewoman. The girl’s throat was cut and stained a light crimson from the blood that must have been there and dried. Mercifully the girl’s eyes were closed, because Marian did not think she could handle the lifeless stare of one so young.

  Beside the girl was an older woman in her sixties that Marian guessed was Sane’s sister, because she was the only one remotely near his age among the dead. Her body seemed unnaturally tense and her face was frozen in a mask of hatred and pain even in death.

  “This was my sister,” Sane pointed to the woman confirming Marian’s suspicion, “Her name was Avelice and she was a powerful necromancer. Magic ran strongly through our bloodline although neither of our parents had any magical talent. Avelice was the elder sibling and the first to be revea
led as a magician. Fortunately, the Kenzai were not the first ones to make that discovery.”

  A cold chill gripped Marian as Sane spoke and his breath could be seen as he continued. “The man who learned her secret was called Xander Necros. He was a necromancer too. He claimed to be a grandmaster, but they died out centuries ago. It did not matter if his claims were true or not, because Avelice loved him and they ran off together. Occasionally I would have visions- dreams of her and Xander living together happily.”

  The clouds began to swirl together and join above them. They grew pregnant with rain and the abnormally icy liquid for this time of year fell on her armor and skin. Sane continued, “It was not long after that when the Kenzai came for me. Decades later after I had earned my freedom I ran into them again, but they did not approve of my role as a kingdom sorcerer and we became estranged during that time, but I respected what she was trying to do. She wanted to help other magicians in her own way as I do in mine. That is why she turned this place into a sanctuary for our kind. It became a school for young magicians that had nowhere else to go and needed to be taught how to survive. She did not deserve this. None of these people did.”

  More of the ice-cold rain began to fall and Marian absently rubbed her arms in a failing attempt to keep them warm. “And Byrn was one of her students. That is why you thought to bring him here?” she guessed and smiled weakly, trying to put on a brave face in front of the sorcerer. Marian did not see Byrn’s body anywhere, but that did not mean that it would not turn up soon. “Did you know all along?”

  “Yes. Avelice came to me not long after Byrn entered her care to ask me to call off my search to which I agreed.”