The Archmage Unbound (33 page)

A trap for example, or perhaps a timed
event that should happen on a regular basis… my mind was full of possibilities.
The more I learned the more ways I could imagine recombining the various
elements to achieve different effects.

I spent most of the day working on ideas
and jotting down notes. I didn’t want to forget anything. Rose and Marc were
both gone on their individual tasks for most of that time so I suffered few
interruptions.

That evening I made a half-hearted
attempt at understanding the schemata that detailed how to create the effect
that shielded the secret room from my mage-sight. I soon realized that a
half-hearted effort would not be successful and decided to save it for another
day. I had already used up my quota of ‘clever’ for the day it seemed.

After dinner with Rose, Marc, and Harold,
I retired early. I was looking forward to returning home the next morning. I
had considered extending my stay another two days, to make it a full week but I
missed Penny. I could still work on things back in Castle Cameron anyway;
there would just be more distractions.

I went to sleep while thinking about
whether I should make our doors ‘self-locking’. It made me laugh to think of
people’s reactions when the doors closed without aid behind them. What can I
say? I’m a man of small amusements.

***

The next morning I rose early,
anticipating the return home. The night before Rose had told me she was still
searching for a suitable smith so I would be going back without her. I told
her I’d check back in a week and see if she was ready to return.

Harold had his men ready shortly after
breakfast and I could see that I wasn’t the only one glad to be returning.
Certainly many of them had families they wanted to get back to just as I did.
I made my goodbyes with Marc and Rose and soon enough I had Harold and the
guards back in Castle Cameron.

A guard was posted, as usual, in the
building where the teleport circles were housed. He got my attention as soon
as I brought the first group of guardsmen across. “Excuse me your Lordship!”
he said nervously.

“Just a minute,” I told him. “Let me
get the rest of these men home.” It took a couple of minutes to finish that
and dismiss the men and then I turned back to him. “Alright, you look like you
have something to tell me…”

“Yes your Excellency, Joe McDaniel
wanted me to tell you to see him as soon as you returned, before doing anything
else,” the man answered, dutifully reciting his message.

“Tell Joe I’ll see him as soon as I get
back from Lancaster. I have a lady waiting on me there,” I gave him one of my
disarming smiles.

“Your pardon sir, but Joe said I should
tell you he needs to see you first. He said it was very important,” he
replied. I could tell he felt uncomfortable telling me that.

“Well Joe shouldn’t really be expecting
me for another day or two, so I doubt a few minutes will make a difference.
I’ll see him as soon as I return…,” and so saying I ducked into the room
holding the circle that led to Lancaster. Before the poor fellow could muster
the courage to restate his message I had transported myself.

I hastily unlocked the door that
protected the circle in Lancaster and stepped outside. Today there were no
fewer than three men guarding the building, something I knew to be unusual. As
soon as I stepped out two of them snapped to attention while the third drew his
horn to his lips and blew a loud note.

“There’s no need for that!” I said
immediately.

The man with the horn finished and put
it down. “Your pardon sir, the duke’s orders were that we sound the horn the
moment you appeared.”

I frowned, “What’s going on?” The
tension in these men had already set my hackles to rising.

“The duke will explain sir,” he replied
apologetically.

“Fine,” I said and began walking toward
the main door of the keep. Before I could reach it the door flew open and
Ariadne darted out, running as quickly as a young woman can in full skirts,
which was surprisingly fast. Before I could utter a greeting she flung herself
into my chest, and buried her face against my shoulder.

“I’m so sorry Mordecai!” she cried into
my tunic. My apprehensiveness went up several notches and transformed into
true anxiety. I hadn’t seen Ariadne cry like this since she was a child, and
that had been over a dead puppy. Something told me this had nothing to do with
furry animals.

“Where is Penny?” I asked suddenly. A
cold feeling was running down my spine now. Ariadne said something but I
couldn’t hear her clearly, most likely because my shirt was muffling her voice,
that and the tears. The door opened again and I saw James approaching with an
angry expression.

“Ariadne! I told you to stay inside.
You’re only making this worse,” James spoke loudly, and I could tell by his
voice he was close to snapping.

She turned to him, face red with tears.
“I had to see him Father. I had to tell him how sorry I am.”

His next words were spoken with such a
tone of controlled anger they made even me flinch. “Get… to… your… room…”

“But Father!”

“Now!” he barked.

She broke and ran for the keep and I
gave James a questioning look. It was unusual for him to be so stern with his
family. “Where is Penny?”

His face changed, switching from anger
to tired sorrow in a heartbeat. “Come inside Mordecai. Let’s talk at the
table so everyone can hear. Your mother is anxious to see you as well.”

I followed him into the entry hall, my
anxiety only becoming greater. “Where is Penny?” I asked again.

“Let’s sit down first lad,” he said in
an informal tone, I could tell he was trying to calm me down but it only served
to drive me to anger.

I jerked back from his hand, “Where is
Penny damnitt!? I’m not taking another step until you explain yourself!”

His face showed little, but knowing his
self-control it told me a lot anyway. “She’s missing Mordecai. Now come, sit
down so we can explain what we do know.”

I started walking rapidly, my strides
eating up the ground between me and the great hall. I wanted to know
everything, and I wanted to know it immediately. I burst through the doors
into the dining hall with James still ten paces behind. The room had been
cleared and the only people in the room sat at the high table. I noted the
faces of those present instantly, my mother, Lady Thornbear, Genevieve, William
Doyle, who was the duke’s master huntsman, as well as Sir Andrew, the new
seneschal for Lancaster Castle. Most notable to me were the absences, neither
Penny nor Dorian was present, nor were any of the guards I had sent with them.

No one looked particularly happy to see
me. Most of them were trying not to meet my eyes, and they all seemed torn by
painful emotions. Only my mother met my gaze squarely. “What happened? Where
is Penny?” I asked as soon as I was less than ten feet from the table.

Genevieve spoke first, “She was abducted
Mordecai. Almost immediately after their arrival she and your mother were
abducted from the guest room where I had placed them.”

I looked at my mother, “Obviously they
weren’t successful. Where is Penny, and why isn’t Dorian here to explain?”

My mother rose and walked over to me.
“I was badly wounded son, and Dorian managed to rescue me, but things did not
go well after that.”

I shrugged her attempt at a hug off and
stepped away. I was far too wound up with tension to accept an embrace. “How
did they get inside? How did they know you would be here?” A thousand
questions were rushing up in my mind.

James spoke then, from behind me, “They
had a magical assistance, a wizard of some sort. He was able to hide their
presence. They walked in without a soul seeing them, and if it had not been
for Dorian they might have walked out just as easily.”

I could almost see the walls moving
around me, as if the keep itself were breathing. My emotions were spiraling
out of control, yet still hidden behind the backdrop of my superficially calm
mind. Deep down I could hear a voice screaming and I knew I had to keep it
from reaching the surface or I would never get answers. I could not afford to
panic… not yet. “Why isn’t Dorian here explaining this? Where is he?”

My mother took another step toward me
but avoided reaching out this time. “We aren’t sure Mordecai. Let me explain
from the beginning…” And so she did. I held my tongue while she spoke though
I wanted to jump up and shout as she told her tale. With each passing moment
the story grew worse. Penny had been abducted and my mother stabbed by some madwoman.
Their guards were slain and Dorian had fought like a berserker to stop their
enemies.

A dragon had appeared, sending the
Duke’s men into hiding, though it turned out to be illusory once all was said
and done. Dorian hadn’t faltered though; he had somehow forced his way past a
closed portcullis, wounded the enemy wizard and chased down several men on
horseback. They had found corpses and a few dead horses along the path he had
taken. He had also somehow saved Miriam. She had gone unconscious after being
stabbed but had been found in the forest, alive and safely nestled in the
bushes beside an ill-traveled path. Her wound had been healed, but no one knew
how or when that had happened.

Of Dorian and Penny, no trace had been
found. No, that wasn’t true; there had been a lot of traces found. There were
bodies and parts of bodies hacked and mangled in the forest, all of them still
moving. The shiggreth had somehow ambushed the kidnappers. According to
William, the duke’s huntsman and chief tracker, there had been several hundred
shiggreth there. Yet the bodies of only a few dozen were found, those that
Dorian had cut into too many pieces to move effectively anymore.

More telling, the bodies of Penny and
Dorian had not been found, nor had the body of the woman who had apparently
been in charge of the abduction. There was but one probable explanation for
that. We all knew what happened to the victims of the shiggreth.

“Mordecai! Look at me!” that was my
mother’s voice. She was standing in front of me now, and I got the impression
she had been trying to get my attention for more than a few seconds. I focused
on her and blinked a few times.

“What?” I said and I noted that my voice
sounded very dry, as if I hadn’t had any water in a long time.

A look of relief crossed her face,
“Don’t scare us like that. You closed your eyes and everything started
shaking. I thought you might bring the castle down on top of our heads.”

“Really?” I said in a daze. I sounded
calm but my heart was a churning turmoil of emotions. I had no memory of
making anything shake.

I tried to draw my thoughts together.
Addressing James I finally verbalized a question, “You said the wizard was
wounded. Do you still have him? Alive?”

“Yes, he’s in the dungeon, same place we
kept Cyhan,” he replied.

“How are you keeping him?” I was
curious since I couldn’t imagine how they would prevent such a person from
escaping.

“We tended to his wounds and then we
drugged him. We’ve kept him bound and gagged. Whenever he regains enough consciousness
to wake we feed him, give him water and drug him again. He’s barely been
conscious for more than a few hours since he was captured,” he told me.

I was surprised. Drugging someone into
unconsciousness was a tricky business. You might just as easily kill them as
render them insensible. “Who had the skill and art to manage that?” I asked.

Lady Thornbear spoke up, “That would be
me.” I stared at her in astonishment. I had never known her to have such
skills.

The Duchess spoke then, “Elise learned
much of the healing arts from her mother, and she practiced them often on our
behalf. Gram himself benefited from her skills on more than one occasion when
he was wounded.” Gram was the first name of the late-Lord Thornbear, Dorian’s
father, and Elise was Lady Thornbear’s given name, though I had never heard
anyone use it before.

I pushed my surprise aside. “I want to
talk to this wizard.” I could see concern on James’ face when I mentioned it.

Lady Thornbear broke in, “He’s
unconscious at the moment. He probably won’t wake up for a few more hours.
That should give you a little time to get your bearings as well.”

Her face plainly told me that she feared
I might commit murder if I met him now. I doubted a few hours would change
that risk though. I turned to William Doyle, “Did you search the area where
they disappeared?”

“Of course my Lord,” he said promptly.

“You could not follow their trail?” I
said questioningly.

“After their battle the shiggreth
dispersed, taking many paths through the forest. I had no way of knowing which
way they took Dorian and the Countess,” he answered.

“Did you find any personal items?” I
asked hopefully.

“Not personal items your Lordship, I
found a few torn bits of cloth from her dress, and a dagger, nothing else,” he
replied.