Battle Mage Visions (A Tale of Alus Book 12) (17 page)

Chapter 9- Giants

Darkness was suddenly alight with the golden glow of a gateway. Two forms stepped from the light. Rilena spotted a waiting lantern on a shelf and called out, "Light."

A variation on a fire spell, the magic used was much weaker and of no real use to a battle mage in battle; but it had never been considered battle magic, though it was something taught in the earliest classes to the battle mage cadets. Light dispelling the darkness, the lamp continued to glow as Elias let the doorway go.

A heavy wood door bound with iron stood before them while shelving held numerous items on either side of the new arrivals. There were no windows, but that was to be assumed once one realized that they stood deep within a mountain. Trying not to feel the weight of a stone above and around them, Rilena moved to the door and pushed.

It resisted. There was no lock inside the room and the hinges had been set outside. This was a storeroom, but it had become the portal chamber entry for western fortress after Darius had followed the path set by Garosh as he fled from Windmeer. The giant had been forced to run from assassins sent by the Dark One and taken Rilena with him here.

He had said that it had been to save her life too. When Garosh had grabbed her to toss the woman through a portal, fire was rushing towards them. She had criticized the giant for his actions saying that she would have been fine. The assassins had worn the special armor that absorbed magic. Rilena was pretty sure that hiding behind a dying man in the armor would have protected her, but eventually the mage had confessed that she was glad that she hadn't had to find out if her theory was correct.

There was a doorknob on the door, but it was locked. With no key, Rilena knew that her magic could technically break down the door, but it had been reinforced to resist magic also. While she and Elias could probably bully their way through it with some effort, the door had been designed to keep an enemy from infiltrating through the portal chamber. Guards were supposed to be guarding this door day and night on the other side as well.

A rope stuck through the stone and the woman pulled it. A bell could be heard faintly through the door. Giving it a second ring after counting to five, Rilena waited for someone to open the door.

It remained sealed for awhile longer before a glowing eye suddenly popped into life making Rilena jump. While it had been a bit of a surprise in its timing, the mage thought that the eye was more creepy and disgusting than anything else.

The knob turned as the eye winked out of sight. When she saw a warlock between a handful of orcs and goblins, Rilena was slightly surprised.

Last time the mage had visited the fortress, only soldiers had been waiting. Setting an actual warlock there was unexpected since she had thought that Garosh wouldn't have been able to spare the few warlocks still living after the attack from the emperor. It had been a blood bath as his assassins worked their way through the mountain fortress killing everything between their entry and Garosh's living chamber.

The warlock looked familiar to the mage, who had spent a few weeks living inside the mountain waiting for a chance to return to Windmeer.

"You're Gon, aren't you?" she asked the man. He was thin with thinning hair and a scraggly beard. His skin seemed unusually pale in the lamp light as if the man hadn't left the inside of the mountain for years.

"Yes, miss, I am surprised that you remembered me," the warlock said sounding genuine. "I didn't join Garosh very often for you to have seen me and we never were formally introduced."

"I try to commit names to memory whenever I hear them," she said speaking of a skill few knew the young woman had. It was something that one might expect to hear about from a diplomacy wizard instead of a battle mage.

The man nodded glancing over her shoulder at Elias. Several inches taller than either of the new arrivals, the thin man led the way uphill. In the tunnels, Rilena had only known where she was going roughly from the incline leading up or down. Few levels remained even except for the living areas higher up inside the warren of tunnels created by the goblin diggers.

"You don't look well, Gon," the mage stated as they walked. It was a blunt statement proving that she was definitely more mage than diplomacy wizard. "You look thin. Have you run out of supplies here? I am sure the king would authorize food for you if your stores are getting low."

Chuckling at her worry, the warlock replied, "Our supplies are fine. It is more likely the strain of using my magic to help clean up the damage to the tunnels. We don't have as many goblins as we once did, so everyone must help out with the work. I also haven't had time to get outside much lately. It all leads to becoming tired, but I'm not complaining.

"Lord Garosh actually has me covering the portal room because he worried that I was overdoing it as well. Apparently, I am worse for wear than I thought," he finished with a quiet laugh once more.

"Did the assassins kill many of the goblins? I thought they ignored many of the creatures unless they were in the way."

"When the siege of the fortress ended, many of the original forces who Garosh believed wouldn't side with us against the emperor were sent out of the fortress and back to Ensolus or one of the emperor's other cities. Goblins and orcs tend to follow the ones with the most strength. Expecting large groups of them to follow Garosh was unlikely, but some stayed.

"Some were killed by the assassins afterwards, of course, but most of the losses came from shipping them back to the Dragon's Spine."

To think that Garosh, who had both great magical power and massive physical strength, could be considered too weak to follow would have been preposterous to the young woman; if she hadn't felt the power of the emperor for herself. Rilena wasn't necessarily the best at feeling auras; but she had felt his power from the moment that the Dark One had entered the mountain. Coming through a portal, it was like a slap to the face as the mage had felt the tingling of his aura as it popped into nearby existence. He hadn't been the only powerful one either.

It was a frightening thought to know that the Dark One had so much power behind him as well.

While the three spoke occasionally as Rilena made small talk with the warlock she barely knew, they climbed the inclines from one level to another until the newest one felt very familiar to her. She had been at the fortress for a few weeks after Garosh had escaped to the mountain. A few more visits since then had made the path from the store room with the portal entrance inside it feel slightly familiar, though she doubted that she could easily find her way from there to the lord's room.

Rilena was actually more amazed at the number of warlocks she saw along the way. In spite of the assassins sent through the fortress to kill Garosh, an amazing number of them remained.

A pair of orc guards saw the trio and slowed them only a moment before letting the three past a pair of double doors. There was still flame damage on the wood from the attack.

Once inside, Rilena looked for the familiar form of the giant man. He was at least as large as Gerid Aramathea, she thought as her eyes caught sight of Garosh speaking with several men surrounding him. The immortal was a giant of a man, virtually unstoppable, and Garosh had been the one who had made Sebastian believe that the Grimnal might still be alive somewhere. It was even believed that Garosh might be Gerid's son, or whatever one might call someone grown from his flesh. Magic or alchemy had been used to make this man, but he didn't feel like a copy. He also didn't seem like a monster or fake, even if he hadn't been born like other humans.

Looking towards the door, Garosh smiled at the woman even as he quickly noted the two men with her.

"Rilena and Elias, what brings you two here?" the big man asked. He knew Elias from the visits made by Darius. After the high wizard had replicated the portal magic and followed him through the opposite doorway in Windmeer, the two had met several more times including the high wizard's grandson and other men.

"They've made progress with the portals, but the leaders of Hala sent me to request that you come visit for a time. There is some information that they believe you could supply concerning Ensolus, since you lived there," the woman said only concealing the barest amount of their need. While she could request his help with the information concerning the Dark One's city and his fortress within the cave, the woman had been told to keep the true nature of their need concealed from as many ears as she could.

The other men standing near the giant were probably safe enough, but Rilena thought that they didn't exactly need to know everything anyway. This information was for waging war on Ensolus, so if there was actually someone who could betray Garosh here; this would be something that must remain hidden from any potential spies.

Thinking that there might still be a spy left within the mountain fortress, shouldn't even cross her mind. Anyone still here had been left for dead. Why would the emperor have left anyone here as a spy, if the plan was to kill Garosh? The boy that the giant had called his brother had saved him. While she supposed that could have been some kind of ploy, Rilena couldn't figure out what that would have gained the Dark One.

Garosh glanced to his men a moment before concentrating on the mage again and said, "I suppose that there is nothing truly pressing for me here. There are enough who understand the remaining repairs to the tunnels which need to be handled.

"Were you planning on me just dropping everything to join you?"

Shrugging, Rilena replied, "It would make things easier for me, but I doubt anyone expected you to run at their beck and call. We can wait for whatever direction you need to give your men."

"Oh, well, thank you for your kind consideration of my time," the man chuckled.

One of the warlocks moved closer to ask, "Will you want anyone to join you, my lord?"

"I don't think it is necessary, Verian, but maybe it would be good to bring along a couple men as ambassadors for goodwill," the giant replied mulling over the idea as he answered. "Perhaps a couple of the warlocks can come with to see if Hala would like to share a bit of knowledge. If it is only to get to know each other a little more, it might help to assuage any doubt that we are here as friends."

Rilena noted a few men in the shadows of the large room. Red eyes looked on them, but the guardians remained at rest just watching. They knew her, and Gon had brought the visitors making this a safe meeting. If this had been another attack from the emperor's assassins, the wraiths would have been at the door forming a formidable wall with their blades drawn and night armor ready to absorb magic.

"I don't think Hala is ready for your wraith men though," she suggested remembering him having two bodyguard wraiths when she had been here. Now there were six scattered around the room.

Nodding at the woman, Garosh said, "Hereseth, could you gather a couple soldiers and maybe Qorin and Ioran could join us as well?"

"Me?" the warlock asked in surprise, but after a minor hesitation the man nodded replying, "Of course, my lord, I will hurry to get them ready. Will we be gone more than a few hours?"

The eyes in the room turned to Rilena and the woman shrugged, "It sounded like it would depend on how much information Garosh could supply. Maybe it will take more than a few hours then."

Realizing that perhaps she had been underprepared, Rilena really didn't know enough to answer this question.

"Figure on a couple of days then," Garosh stated sending the warlock on his way.

As the man went to exit through the double doors; a small figure with red hair streaming behind her came running through the entry.

"Rilena, you're back!" a girl's voice cried out happily as she threw herself at the mage.

Holding her attacker by the waist to be able to see the smaller girl's face, Rilena greeted her, "Hello, Evie, I didn't know that you were still here."

"Well, Sebastian was too busy to train me any longer and Ashleen was no fun, so I came back to be with Lord Garosh. It is kind of our new home after all," Evie replied with a smile on her face for her friend.

Noting the younger girl's simple outfit as she pulled back to about arm's length, Rilena saw it and knew that Bas would disapprove. Looking like she wore someone else's shirt; the garment was too big for her, but that length served to make it look like a dress on the petite, short girl. Evie was close to full grown, but remained several inches shorter than Rilena. On first glance, one might think she was even younger than she was. Her apparent naiveté masked that Evie was already fifteen and a fairly talented shape shifting warlock.

The girl was barefoot, the mage noted and guessed that Evie had regressed to just wearing a basic covering again. It was like she was a wild animal at times. Wearing civilized clothing, including shoes or boots, seemed to conflict with her nature. Sebastian had fought her enough to get Evie to dress properly in Hala, but here with Garosh the girl looked wild once more.

"Oh, Evie, it's good to see you again, but what happened to the dresses Sebastian bought for you?" the mage asked trying not to drag down the girl's happy greeting.

Grinning in spite of the question, the red head answered, "I was out scouting with the wereclans. It's pretty cold and snowing again. Most humans wouldn't want to set foot out there, but their kind doesn't mind it much. If the emperor sends more like them behind the wall, they'll spot them I'm sure."