The Archmage Unbound (42 page)

“More specifically, I’m a visiting priest
from Verningham,” he corrected me.

“My pardon, a visiting priest… what name
did you give them by the way?”

“Marc.”

“And you don’t think anyone is going to
make the connection between your features and that name? You made quite a
splash last year as the new channeler for
Millicenth,”
I reminded him.

“That’s why I chose Doron’s temple as
opposed to that of Millicenth’s. Besides, I prefer using my own name, it
simplifies all the lying.”

“How so?”

He made a serious face as if he were
beginning a lecture. “First, it means I don’t have to worry about not
responding when someone calls me from a distance using my assumed name and
second, it makes the cut by satisfying my third rule of lying.”

We had had a few conversations like this
one before, but I struggled to remember which rule was the third one. After a
minute he took pity on me and explained without waiting for me to ask. “The
third rule is that if a lie cannot follow rules one or two, it should be so
preposterous or unbelievable that no one will doubt it. Using my own name is
so silly that anyone hearing it will discount the possibility right away, since
I would never use my own name to impersonate a priest, especially given my
rather famous past.” He crossed his arms smugly as he finished.

“Remind me what the first two rules
were,” I said blandly. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of
laughing.

“Rule one was do not lie, or if you do,
do so by omission. Rule two states if you must lie, always do so by including
as much of the truth as possible,” he rattled off immediately.

“It worries me that you have these rules
memorized.”

“You yourself are reaping the benefits
even now. Since I disinherited myself you might consider hiring me as your
spymaster general. I think I have a talent for it,” he said modestly.

“I won’t disagree with that,” said Rose
from the doorway behind him. She appeared much more herself now that she had
returned.

Marc bowed in her direction, “Thank you
milady.”

“Back to what you discovered,” I
prodded.

“Oh yes, that! Well after I showed my
credentials from the chapter in Verningham the brothers were kind enough to put
me up at the temple here in Albamarl and from there it…”

“Credentials?” I interrupted.

“A letter of introduction from Abbot
Simon in Verningham,” he clarified.

“How did you get that?” I questioned.

He sighed audibly, “I forged it Mort.
Are you going to keep interrupting every time I get going? It really drags the
story out.”

“Sorry,” I apologized. I also made a
note that Marc still had talents I had yet to discover after all our years as
friends.

He glared at me for a second, then
opened his mouth as if he were about to speak. When I said nothing he finally
went on, “So from there I went to the temple of Karenth and presented myself as
an itinerant scholar and gained permission to search the archives.”

I marveled at his brazen
accomplishments, but I had come to expect surprises from Marc over the years.
Before I could ask another question he went on, “So I began my search and I
quickly discovered that the damned place is a maze of books and moldy scrolls.
It would take most of my lifetime to search that place and I still might miss
the information we’re looking for, so I sought out expert advice.”

Rose swallowed the piece of burnt
sausage she had been idly nibbling at and broke in, “You mean you began
sleeping with people.”

Marc gave her an indignant look,
“Marissa is not people. She is a promising ‘light’ in the church of Celior,
not to mention an accomplished scholar of history.”

Rose rolled her eyes but said nothing.

“Anyway, I met Marissa in the stacks,
and it turns out that not many men share her interest in ancient church
history. She was very pleased to share her knowledge and to help answer my
questions as they arose,” he said somberly.

“If you were in the Karenthian archives,
what was a priestess of Celior doing there?” I asked.

He pointed at me, “See! Now you show
your ignorance. The archives are a resource shared by all four temples. The
Karenthians are simply the ones in charge of managing it.”

“So what did you find out?” I asked
impatiently.

Marc frowned. Obviously I was ruining
his hard won tale. “Well if you want me to shorten things up, Marissa helped
me do some research on the city’s early days, before and immediately after the
events of the Sundering. Unfortunately there was very little of practical use
recorded about Moira’s battle against Balinthor, other than the usual, she
summoned a colossal giant of earth and stone that battled and eventually
overcame Balinthor. Although she won there is no mention of her afterward, so
I’m assuming she died during or shortly after the battle.”

I nodded, “That’s essentially true.”

He looked at me oddly. I hadn’t gotten
around to telling anyone about my ongoing conversation with Moira Centyr, not
even him. As it was I didn’t want to spoil his efforts, it had been hard
enough for him to find a purpose after his depression. “Do you know something
about that?” he asked me.

“Not much, but what you found agrees
with what I’ve read,” I told him.
Now there’s a perfect example of the
subtle use of rule number two in lying,
I thought to myself.

After a moment he continued, “What I did
discover of importance, was that during the chaos of Balinthor’s war against
humanity the Illeniel family moved something here of great importance.
Something they didn’t want falling into the hands of strangers, or malevolent
gods.”

I leaned forward. I was all ears now,
“Go on…”

Marc smiled, “Apparently the early
churches were all watching the remaining wizards carefully, particularly after
the war was over. There are several missives detailing their activities,
especially those regarding the Illeniel family. From what they could piece
together it was suspected that something called ‘Illeniel’s Doom’ was moved to
Albamarl.”

“If that were true then the most likely
location for it today… would be here, in this house,” I noted.

“Assuming they didn’t have a secret
storehouse somewhere,” Rose pointed out.

“True,” I agreed, though I personally
doubted they would let something that important be kept away from this house. Usually
the best protection a wizard can provide is his own presence. “What else did
you discover?”

“The early clergy believed that
Balinthor was primarily after Illeniel’s Doom, and that his attempt to wipe out
humanity was merely a secondary goal of revenge.”

That was news to me. Moira had barely
known of its existence, much less thinking it could be the dark god’s primary
motivation. I would have to question her more closely later, for it appeared
the priests of that ancient time had known more about the doings of the
Illeniels than their fellow wizards had. “That will deserve a lot of
consideration later, anything else?” I asked.

“Well I’m not sure if this is important,
but it is certainly interesting. It seems the Iron Brothers keep a secret
compound in the woodlands to the northwest,” he replied.

Rose spoke up, “How secret?”

“So secret that they’re hiding its
existence even from the other churches,” he answered with a roguish smile.

“How did you find out about it?” I said.

“Purely by accident,” he replied. “If I
hadn’t decided to stay with the Doronites I never would have known a thing. As
it was I just happened to hear someone complaining in the dining hall one day
and it piqued my interest, after that it was mainly a matter of paying
attention.”

“Any idea what they use it for?”

“Not a clue,” he admitted. “They send a
small load of supplies and sundries every few weeks and apparently those chosen
for duty there find it exceedingly boring.”

I took a deep breath, “Well if that’s
all your news I suppose I should bring you up to date on matters back in
Lancaster.”

“Good, I’m tired of wondering what you
and Rose have been so tense about,” he said mildly.

I glanced at Rose for support but her
expression told me that this would be my tale to tell. I took another breath
and jumped in headfirst, “Things went badly after I left Penny and Dorian in
Lancaster last week. They were ambushed in the guest room they were given.
Miriam was stabbed and she and Penny were both abducted.” Marc’s eyes grew
round as I spoke, but he made no move to interrupt.

“Dorian gave chase and saved Miriam. I
believe he nearly saved Penny as well, but they were surrounded in the forest
by a large group of shiggreth and overwhelmed. He and Penny, along with almost
all of the kidnappers are now dead, or worse than dead,” I finished.

True to his upbringing my friend kept
his calm after I had finished. When he finally spoke it was to ask questions,
which I answered as best I could. Over the space of a half an hour I related
what had happened after I had found out, omitting my near destruction of
everything and focusing on my rage and near murder of the surviving witness
instead. I told him about Walter and my thoughts about his possible future
usefulness.

When he had run out of questions and I
had run out of things to add we both sat silent for a long while. Rose watched
us from a short distance away. She had remained quiet the entire time. My
guess was that she didn’t trust herself to speak on the topic yet.

After some time had passed Marc leaned
back in his chair and looked at me, “You know what this means?”

I had some inkling what he would say
next, but I simply nodded.

“There is a certain king that needs
killing,” he supplied.

Rose leaned in, “Yes!” It was the first
time she had shown any enthusiasm in the conversation.

I stood up and my nervous energy set me
to pacing. “I agree with you, though he isn’t the only one, nor should he be
the first.”

“The shiggreth?” he said questioningly.

I nodded, “They were already on the list
but now they will be first. I want to save Edward for last.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because someone is talking to them,”
Rose interrupted. “They should not have known that the King’s operatives would
be escaping with fugitives on that particular day, and in that particular
place. That means either they have spies in high places or someone has
established some sort of alliance with them and is feeding them information,
someone close to the King.”

“Exactly,” I affirmed. “What was a
simple war of humanity against the creatures of darkness has now been
complicated. Very likely someone on our side has thrown in with the forces of
evil. We need to know who before we remove the King from power.”

I could see Marc’s mind had already
caught up with us and he was working ahead to try and figure out the best
course of action. “We need someone inside the palace,” he said finally.

“What were you saying about being a
‘spymaster general’?” I reminded him.

He shook his head, “In this case I’m the
wrong choice, even more so than with the clergy I am too well known among the nobility.”

Rose agreed with him, “No offence, but
even given Marcus’ exalted social standing; he was raised as country gentry.
This will require someone with an intimate knowledge of the city and the people
that call it home, particularly those in the palace.”

The two of them exchanged glances. As
usual when it came to intrigue they agreed with one another. “You’re
suggesting that you can find the information we need?” I said looking at Rose.

She smiled in a fashion that reminded me
of her usual confidence, “Of course I am. Marcus needs to finish ferretting
out the secrets of the priests. I suspect that he may be close to something
that may be important.”

“Aren’t you too well known to sneak into
the palace?” I said, bringing up one of the arguments Marc had used to rule
himself out.

She raised her eyebrow again, “Why
Mordecai, who said anything about sneaking in? Do you have such a low opinion
of me? I will discover what we need to know through various contacts. I think
it is not too far from the truth if I say that I know absolutely everyone
important in this city, and if I don’t… I know someone else who does.”

A cold shiver went up my spine. Rose
could be rather intimidating when she put a little effort into it. Then I
realized I was the only one left without an assigned task. “What will I do to
keep myself busy in the meantime?” I wondered idly.

Marc gave me a wicked grin, “You should
check with my father. It’s been a few days; I suspect he’s got news by now.”

“What makes you say that?” I inquired.

“My father loves to hunt. I dare say he
is nearly as knowledgeable in the forest as his master huntsman, William, and
William is far from the only hunter in his employ. If he has not managed to
trace at least some of them by now I’ll eat my hat,” he informed me with a
certain amount of pride.