Rising of a Mage (20 page)

“HA, me father neither. I am Grizzle Thizzle. I was once Grizzle Goldbeard. I like to be under the sun and the moon and the stars, ya see. Me Da said I was soft like an elf so I was to no longer wear his name. When I left me home I took the name Thizzle—sounds more fun what think, ye warrior wizard.”

“Sounds like a good name to me, Grizzle. If I may be so bold, what brought you to our aid here today?”

“Ah yes, I been following ye. I knew of the danger a this road, and thought I might find some fun, if I followed your group, wizard Anwar. And ye companions… they would be?”

“This is Mariah, and this is Jabaal. We are traveling to Ambar with Mister Luda. This is his caravan.”

“Oh Ho, well met, warrior, priest and sword breaker Jabaal.”

Mariah smiled and nodded at the dwarf and Jabaal lifted his sword in a salute.

“Were does your path take you, Grizzle?”

“I just been looking for a bit a fun, some heads to crack, ya see, but If you would have me, wizard Anwar, I would travel with ye. I think I could find as much fun with your lot as any.”

Anwar looked at his companions they both just shrugged. “Grizzle Thizzle, bring your axe; we’ll have a little fun with you watching our backs.” “Ho Ho, good wizard, I think we will. A long road to Ambar. We may get to crack some heads yet.”

With that, the group of three became four. Mariah gathered her daggers, they seated the bodies and were back on the road. Luda offered Grizzle a seat next to him on his wagon but the dwarf insisted on walking. Anwar hoped that would not slow them, but the dwarf had no problem keeping pace with the slow-moving wagon train. He walked next to Anwar’s horse in the front, and Mariah was happy to see Anwar laughing with the curious dwarf.

The sun set soon after and they stopped for the night. Anwar sat with Mariah at his side, and Jabaal and Grizzle sat across the fire from them. “Ye don’t look much like one a the wizards.”

“I used to be a farmer.”

“Ah, not so arrogant as a human wizard either. I think we will be good friends. Even if you are a wizard.”

“I hope so Grizzle.”

“Ah, and your lady, she’s poison, she is.” Mariah gave Grizzle a dirty look. He threw his hands up in defence. “I meant ye no offence, me lady. You’re a pretty little thing, that is all. I think others would not see ye as a threat until one a your nasty daggers was in them, is all. Like poison, you see. By the time they realize it, they be dead already.” Mariah smiled at Grizzle then, accepting his compliment.

“Ho Ho,” they all four laughed.

“Ah, and I think me and sword breaker here will have some fun yet, ’fore our journey is done.”

“Sword breaker, huh. I think that would be a good name for the blade Master Anwar has made for me.”

“Ho Ho, I knew it was magic. A good name indeed.” He smacked Jabaal on the back and nearly knocked him off the stump he was sitting on. The four joked and laughed well into the night. Anwar realized it was the most fun he had had in a long time.

The next morning they set off again. The day was uneventful. Mariah and Anwar rode in the front and Grizzle walked in the back next to Jabaal’s horse. Mariah and Anwar smiled at each other every time they heard a “Ho Ho” or “Oh Ho” from the back. They stopped midday in a clearing like the one they had camped at the first night. It was a spot often used by travellers. There was a single man sitting in the clearing. He got up and approached the first wagon as everyone was getting down. Grizzle and Jabaal came up to the front to hear what the man had to say. “Thank the gods. I was robbed and my horse was taken from me. You wouldn’t be traveling to Ambar, would you.”

Luda was next to Anwar. He whispered something none of the others heard. “This is one of the men who robbed me on my way to Kampar. I will never forget that face.”

Anwar turned back to the lone man. “Call out your men and have them lay down their weapons or you will all die here today.”

“HO HO, or we can have a little fun.”

Mariah shook her head but Jabaal laughed. “Maybe more than a little.”

“Ho Ho,” Grizzle replied.

The man became obviously angry as his ruse unravelled. He waved a hand forward as if motioning his men to attack. Before any of his men could appear, Grizzle was after him, Jabaal on his heels.

“Should a listen what the wizard said; now Grizzle gonna have ye head.” The man’s sword was out and he was swinging it at Grizzle. Grizzle rolled, and, as he came up, his big axe slammed into the man’s chest. Twelve other men came running out from behind a huge boulder at the edge of the clearing. Jabaal jumped up and then leaped off Grizzle’s shoulder. “Oh Ho, wait for Grizzle.” Jabaal was coming down on the first man only a few paces in front of Grizzle; the man swung a wild block overhead, but the block missed. Jabaal brought Sword-breaker down and nearly cleaved the man in half. Pulling the blade free of the man’s ribcage. he had to duck as a sword came in at his head. Grizzle leapt off his back and brought his axe down, cleaving the man in a similar manner. “Grizzle got ya, yes he did.” Grizzles big axe was stuck in the man and he abandoned it, pulling his two smaller hand axes from his belt. Jabaal ran past him and then past Mariah. Both had their enchanted swords. Mariah spun around the thrust aimed at her chest, and dropped down, spinning on a knee as she sliced the tendons at the back of the man’s knee. She did not look behind her as she stood. She swung her sword behind her, felt it make contact, and kept moving forward. She had cut through the spine at the base of the man’s neck. He was alive for the moment, but paralyzed and bleeding out. Mariah Jabaal and Grizzle pushed forward, laying down those in front of them. Lightning and ice shot around them, killing men before they reached Anwar’s companions. Grizzle was running forward at one of the last men standing. As he swung his hand axe, a bolt of ice flew over his head. It hit the man in front of him and knocked him back out of the path of Grizzle’s swing. Grizzle looked back accusingly at Anwar, but he wasn’t there. When he turned around, Anwar was standing behind the frozen man. Anwar smiled and winked at Grizzle. He brought his staff down, breaking the frozen man into a dozen pieces.

“Ho Ho,” Anwar said to Grizzle. Mariah pulled her sword free of one man as Jabaal parried a downward slash from his opponent. A dragon-hilted dagger and a hand axe were buried in his side.

“Now who’s stealing all the fun?” Jabaal said.

Again the four gathered their weapons and stacked the bodies. They would burn them before they left. Mariah, Anwar, and Jabaal watched as Grizzle tried to free his axe from the man’s body.

“Ho, I killed ye fair and now ye try to steal me axe, eh.”

All three flinched as Grizzle finally freed the weapon, tearing bone away with a sickening ensemble of cracks.

Luda came up to the four. “I am truly indebted to you. We would have surely been taken on this journey if it hadn’t been for you.”

Anwar turned to him. “We are not there yet. You can give us your thanks when we reach Ambar and all your people are safe.”

Luda nodded. Before they left Anwar used his magic to light the stack of bodies. It was as close to a funeral as any highwayman could ask for.

The next three days they travelled uncontested. On the eve of that third day they were standing on a hill looking at a huge city. Mariah and Anwar stood in each other’s arms, staring at city ten times that of the only city they had ever known.

“We will camp here tonight, and ride in in the morning,” Luda told them. The four companions stood on the hill, staring at Ambar in the distance. Tomorrow they would reach the first destination of a long and heroic journey, which none of them could yet imagine.
This
concludes
Rising
of
a
Mage.

If you liked
The
Rising
of
a
Mage
, look out for the sequel
Gods
and
Magic

Delvidge.

The God of Chaos watches in anticipation as his creature Miskrull bores his way through the stone of the underdark, making his way toward the dwarven kingdom of Shinestone. With its wings and short little legs tucked against its powerful serpent body, it eats through the stone with its huge worm-like head, with teeth the size of a dwarven leg. Miskrull is a singleminded creature of destruction. After the last six thousand years trapped in the planes of hell, Delvidge has released him. He seeks only to feed his hunger for living flesh and to revel in the destruction of the mortal plane.

Gorgan Hammerhand was alone in the smith. After weeks of tedious work, the great war hammer was nearly complete. He had been hired by the High King Grindel Stoneheart of the dwarven kingdom of Evermount. To be the creator of the personal weapon of the High King of the dwarven kingdoms was verification to all dwarves that Gorgan was the greatest smith of his age. The head and shaft of the hammer were made of the highest quality steel. Shinestone proudly and unarguably boasted that their steel was the finest. The shaft was inlaid with finely cut and polished diamonds. Gorgan had only to finish the engraving of the head of the hammer and the magnificent weapon would be complete. As he stood over the weapon with his hammer and chisel, tediously perfecting every detail, the ground began to quake. A dozen paces away, rock crumbled and disappeared into the mountain. A huge scaled serpent-like head began to protrude from the hole. Gorgan, smith hammer in hand, charged the beast and brought his hammer down toward the beast’s head. The huge serpent’s mouth opened, showing four rows of teeth. Gorgan’s hammer smashed into one of these teeth and shattered. Gorgon fell away, arms throbbing in pain from the vibration of contact. Gorgon was no warrior, but he was a dwarf. He ran to his workstation as the huge monster continued to pour its long body out of the whole. Gorgon picked up his anvil. Straining to lift it over his head, he threw it at the monster. The anvil bounced off the beast’s head harmlessly. Gorgon picked up the High King’s hammer. As the monster opened its mouth to twice the height of Gorgon, he leapt into the air bringing the hammer down with all of his might. The hammer made contact just as the huge monster closed its eyes. The impact was followed with a cracking and squishing sound. Gorgon fell away to the ground as the huge head wrenched away in pain. The scaly eyelid had cracked and a yellowy fluid leaked from the huge orifice. The monster threw its head forward blindly, slamming into the small helpless Gorgon, sending him flying into a nearby wall.

In a rage Miskrull tore through the dwarven kingdom. He devoured every last creature. Miskrull had been to the mortal plane dozens of time over the millenia. Each time he had torn through the ground and across the surface. Each time the mortals had thrown at him their champions, and each time he left the world in chaos and destruction. Never had he been injured, and now this miniature mortal had made useless one of his eyes. This trip to the mortal plane had just become personal, and the rest of the world would pay for this puny dwarf’s actions.

Gorgon awoke buried under a pile of broken stone. He pushed the rocks away, gathered his breath and surveyed his surroundings. The smith was destroyed; nothing remained intact. Fear filled Gorgon’s heart when he saw the path of destruction leading to the heart of Shinestone. He found the axe he had made for the High King. He picked it up. Before he took off down the tunnel in the direction the monster had taken something caught his attention. Stone and gravel began to move, and stack on top of each other. Gorgon readied the axe in his hands. As he watched, the rock materialized into the form of a dwarf. No, not a dwarf, but the dwarf. Gorgon dropped to one knee and laid the mighty axe on the stone before him. He was kneeling before the materialized form of the Dwarven Father, the Dwarven God Bordin. “They are all gone. There is nothing up there for you to find. The monster who has destroyed your home is called Miskrull. You must go to the human city of Ambar. There you will find the dwarf who calls himself Grizzle. You must tell him what has happened here. The creature Miskrull will continue his destruction, destroying human and dwarven kingdoms alike. It is time the dwarf who calls himself Grizzle return to his kin. He has powerful companions. He and his companions are the only chance for saving the mortal realm. The kingdoms between here and Evermount are lost. You will lead them to intercept the creature there. Gorgon lifted the hammer and slammed it to his chest in a salute. Stone and gravel fell to the ground and his God was gone. He gathered what supplies he could, and began the long walk to the long leg’s city of Ambar.

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