The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (45 page)

After a few minutes, Hydan stuck his
grinning head out the hole in the back of the golem, “Care for a
ride?”

We all climbed in. It was a tight
squeeze, but we manage to fit and then Toji sealed the opening.
Hydan was standing toward the front, with his head up in an opening
he had made in the beast’s neck, below its chin. There was a new
rectangular petroglyph carved into the stone in front of him. Hydan
was using this hole to watch where we were going and guide the
creature.

Soon we were underway, rocking back
and forth in our little stone cocoon as the golem smashed his way
through the forest, and whatever nasty traps Morgain had
created.

As we waited to arrive at Morgain’s
fortress, I went over the next part of the plan, as laid out by my
mother. We were to work our way to the center of the fortress,
that’s where she believed Morgain would have placed the
StarWard.

These were a magical construct which
prevented the creation of a Traveling Star, in essence blocking a
mage from using one to travel to or from an area. The area of
effect would be in a globe around the StarWard, so it made sense
that it would be located near the center of the fortress so that it
gave equal protection in all directions.

The radius it could block had to do
with the amount of power initially used in the creation. The larger
it was, the more area it protected. However, there was a side
effect, the larger it was, the faster it used up the power the mage
put in to create it. This meant a larger area StarWard would have
to have the power replenished regularly, and that also meant it had
to be accessible.

Our goal was to reach the StarWard and
take it down, and then we could proceed to release my father, the
Archimage of Abal, and with his help, find and free Ziny. Morgain
wouldn’t want my father to be rescued, so it made sense that the
Archimage would be somewhere well protected. Finnabair had guessed
his prison would be somewhere near Morgain’s personal apartments,
in some kind of protected location.

Of course, the plan was for the
counter attacks at Ivory Castle and Ouroboros to draw Morgain and
Medrod away, so we shouldn’t have to deal with either of them at
this stage, just their automated defenses, or any necromages they
had left here as guards. In fact, the two leaders should already be
gone by now, since the attacks would have started a few hours
ago.

“
Hey, Hydan,” I called up
to our golem driver.

Hydan didn’t look down, but he said,
“Yes, Nick?”

“
Are we getting close to
Morgain’s crib?”

Myrka scowled at me, “I am positive
the Island Witch is an adult.”

I ignored her and waited for
Hydan.

“
If you mean her fortress,
it is about a half mile ahead now… uh oh.”

“
I don’t want to hear any
‘uh ohs’! What is the issue?” I demanded.

“
Well, there is some kind
of platform to the side of the main gates, and I’m thinking this is
where they recharge the golems.”

“
What, they don’t go
inside?”

Hydan answered, “No, they must stop
outside.”

“
Go in any way!” I
stated.

Hydan replied apologetically, “I’m
afraid that’s not really possible, you see, the gate isn’t big
enough for us to fit through.”

“
Crap on a stick, we’ll be
sitting ducks if we eject right beneath that wall!”

To which Hydan said, “What are
ducks?”

“
They are a kind of flying
waterfowl, which quacks.”

“
Waterfowl which quacks!
How delightful! However, I do not wish to sit like a duck beneath
those walls, no doubt there are several mages or necromages, there
to recharge these golems.”

“
Right,” I noted, thinking
hard.

After a moment Hydan spoke
conversationally, “Not to hurry you, but what would you like to do?
We are nearly there.”

"And we absolutely cannot fit through
the gate?” I demanded.

“
No, but if you don’t mind
a ruckus, I might be able to get past the walls and into the inner
courtyard, but no promises. However, we have arrived, so a decision
is needed.”

“
Do it,” I said, since I
had no other plan in mind, and time was up.

That’s when I felt the golem picking
up speed. This was extremely jarring inside the small stone hole,
and we started bouncing around and into each other. Hydan was
holding onto two stone handles he must have imagined, so he could
stay in place, damn him.

Then we were thrown to the floor as
the golem took a mighty leap, which was followed very quickly by us
slamming into something solid. This threw all of us against the
front curve of our small round hole.

“
We’re getting pretty
bruised down here!” I called to Hydan.

To that Hydan replied, “Here, these
should be soft.” Almost instantly we were waist deep in plucked
white chicken feathers.

Outside we heard, and could feel,
massive impacts of stone against stone.

We were jostled around, which threw up
chicken feathers into the air. I sneezed and then yelled, “Sweet
mother of god, what ARE you doing!”

“
Climbing the wall; which
requires a lot of hand and foot hold making by gouging our way up!”
Hydan called back in a beaming voice of amusement.

I spit out a feather, ready to yell
something back when I heard Hydan exclaimed.

“
Oh no!”

“
What!” I bellowed, getting
a mouthful of feathers for my trouble.

That’s when the tar hit us, poured
from the top of the wall. It was there to pour on ladder bearers or
attackers with a battering ram, but in this case, they used it to
try to stop the stone golem which was climbing up the massive
wall.

Fortunately, they had not been
expecting an attack, since there was no army, so the tar was only
heated enough to stay pliable. It hit our golem and managed to
splash in through the hole which Hydan had created to watch out the
golem’s head.

Now we all had tar stuck to our
bodies, and white feathers glued to us by the tar.

Then we crested over the top of the
wall. I knew this because I was tossed like cement in one of those
barrel mixers, except instead of stone, water, cement, and sand, I
was being tumbled with, Toji, Myrka, tar, and feathers. Then I felt
the golem leap, and we must have been falling down the other side
of the wall.

The golem’s feet hit the ground with
jarring force, and even Hydan fell back into the pile of tar and
feathers with the rest of us.

The impact broke our golem, and
cracked open our cocoon, and all four of us tumbled out onto the
courtyard of Morgain’s fortress, covered head to toe in tar and
feathers.

“
We’re in!” Hydan exclaimed
jubilantly.

I took a swing in his direction, but
missed, there were too many feathers in my eyes for me to get an
accurate punch at that grinning bastard.

Chapter
Seventeen

We’re off to the
witch

We may never never never
come home

But the magic that we’ll
feel is worth a lifetime.

-Dio

Toji yelled, “Run for the doors, we’re
too exposed out here!”

So, without time to do anything about
our current state of tar and feathers, me and my other three white
and black crusaders for justice ran toward the doors ahead of us,
streaming little white feathers in a cloud behind us. I think that
must have saved us because no one on the walls thought to use any
kind of magic to stop us at that point, I think they were all
dumbfounded by the hatching of four human shaped chickens from the
belly of a stone golem.

We ran through the open doors into the
entry hall. Two guards stationed here tried to use their weapons on
the strange apparitions suddenly sullying the clean area, but Hydan
waved a hand and two chickens were suddenly adding more feathers to
the mix.

“
Which way?” Hydan called
to me.

I pointed ahead, down the main wide
hallway, and we all dashed on, leaving the two chicken guards
running around on their spindly legs.

As we ran Hydan suddenly shed his
feathers and tar, and was now dressed in a uniform just like the
two guards we had just seen, prior to their chicken
transformation.

Toji and Myrka followed his lead a
moment later, but I was still outfitted in my tar and feather
ensemble.

It took me a few more seconds, and
then I had it as well.

Hydan grinned at me, and said, “Good
show, now where?”

“
Just keep taking passages
which seem to lead toward the center.”

He nodded, and we all slowed to a
walk. It wouldn’t do to be running if we were trying to blend in as
some of Morgain’s guards.

Soon we passed several squads of men,
marching toward the front, no doubt to go see what the commotion
was about in the courtyard. One was an officer, and as soon as he
was out of sight, Hydan’s uniform changed to match his
markings.

Hydan finally stopped two men and
barked, “You there, where is the commander?”

The man gaped at him for a moment but
then noticed his officer’s uniform, and said, “I think she left the
fortress earlier!”

“
Where did she leave from?”
Hydan demanded.

He looked at Hydan in a dumbfounded
way, and then said, “She flew out on a Delcron!”

I had no idea what that was, but Hydan
seemed to know, or pretended to know, so he said, “We were ordered
to guard the StarWard if she is away, but I haven’t been there
before. You will take us there immediately! Is it far?”

“
No, it’s not far,
but…”

“
No ‘butts’, this is about
feet, so get yours moving! This is top priority! Lead on, soldier,
and hurry or your next duty will be polishing the gonads of a stone
golem!”

The guard swallowed, and then headed
off in a hurry, and we trotted along after him like good
soldiers.

He took us down a few hallways, and
when we made another turn I could see a large iron bound door
ahead, which was currently closed. There were two guards stationed
outside. As we got a little closer I noticed the cloudy eyes and
whispered to Hydan, “Necromages!”

Hydan immediately stopped and spoke to
our guide, “That will be all, don’t you have some duty which we
took you away from? Well, get going before you are reprimanded by
your commander!”

The guard dashed off, double timing it
away, and quite happy to be rid of the strange officer.

Hydan spoke softly to us, “Walk
normally, I will distract them. Myrka, take the one on the right,
Toji, can you deal with the necromage on the left?”

Toji nodded. No one even asked Myrka
if she was ready.

Hydan turned his back to block the
necromage’s view, and then produced a short spear suddenly, and
handed it to me.

At which point Hydan bellowed, “Ouch,
confound it, soldier, watch where you poke your spear!” He then
grasped at his left eye, his wrist blocking his Glyph and hurried
toward the guards, we followed at a slower pace. Blue saeran blood
ran down his cheek, produced, no doubt, by Hydan.

“
Hey, are you mages? That
idiot just stabbed me with his spear; can you do anything to
help?”

He was nearly upon them now, and one
of the necromages stepped forward, “You cannot be here, move along,
soldier!”

“
But my eye!” Hydan
bellowed, stepping past the necromage so he had to turn, putting
his back to our approach. The other necromage was also watching
Hydan closely.

“
We are not healers, now
move away from this door!” the necromage snarled, and lifted a hand
to do, well, I don’t know what, because that’s when Toji and Myrka
accelerated the last ten feet and attacked.

Their surprise was complete, and the
necromages didn’t even pull weapons, they tried to do some kind of
magic against their attackers, but the attack went off of Toji’s
and Myrka’s subconscious protections. Then their daggers took both
of the necromages out of the picture.

Hydan stepped up to the doors and
tried to pull them open, “Locked,” he said,
unnecessarily.

Then he stepped back and studied the
door for a moment before saying, “This door is warded against mage
entry.”

“
Can you break it?” Toji
asked.

Hydan nodded and concentrated, and
suddenly the doors blasted inwards, flying off their hinges and
tumbling into the round chamber beyond.

Toji raised a fin eyebrow and said,
“Was that entirely necessary?”

“
Not at all, but it felt
very good!” Hydan exclaimed, striding into the round chamber, which
had a dome roof above, like Richard the Lionheart come home from
the crusades.

Rotating in the center of the room was
a three-dimensional, five-pointed star. It was about ten feet tall
and translucent. It glowed with golden power, and there was almost
a hum in the room, more felt by my senses than by my ears. It was
spinning very slowly around, hovering about a foot off the stone
floor.