The Archmage Unbound (61 page)

Eventually her curiosity won out and she spoke
before I did. “How did I get here?” she asked.

“I tricked you into making a mistake and then I
threw you against a stone wall. I’m surprised you’re awake already,” I
answered mildly. “Do you remember the fight?”

She shook her head negatively and after some
questioning I discovered that she had no memory of the events that had occurred
since she had summoned the shining god, something that had apparently happened
the day before. Ironically, she had been praying to Celior to kill the King
when he had offered to do more for her if she would help him cross the world
bridge.

I ended our conversation as quickly as I could. “I
need to find my wife and help a friend. I want you to stay here and keep Lady
Rose warm until I send someone for you. Will you do that?” I asked.

She readily agreed and I went back to the throne
room, or what was left of it. When I arrived I found Dorian conscious but
unable to dig his way free of the rubble. I couldn’t examine his body through
the enchanted armor that encased him but I suspected he had some serious
injuries.

Struggling with fatigue I began carefully moving the
large stones and granite blocks that had him trapped. It would have been
easier to ‘listen’ to the stones and extract him in the same way I had carried
Rose through the ground once before but I had no desire to risk any further use
of those abilities that day. I was still feeling rather strange after my
experiences within the bosom of the earth.

Dorian gritted his teeth when I finally pulled him
free. “Damn that hurts!” he declared through clenched teeth.

“How badly are you injured?” I asked him.

“I feel like everything is broken but somehow
everything still seems to work,” he replied.

“Let me get the armor off so I can examine you,” I
said quickly.

He pushed my hands aside with surprising strength,
“I can walk. Once you take this armor off I’m not sure how bad it will be but
it won’t be pretty and I probably won’t be able to move around much after
that. Let me help while I can. Have you found Penny?”

I shook my head, “She’s safe but I’m not sure
where. I need to find her.” I didn’t bother explaining that she was with
Moira.

“Then why are you here?!” he exclaimed.

I almost laughed at his reaction. It was typical of
him. “Let me show you where Rose is before I abandon you. She’s badly
wounded.”

That got his attention and it was several minutes
before I could explain well enough to reassure him that she wasn’t about to
expire instantly. I led him to where Cyhan had left her and explained why she
had a teenager bundled up with her. Someday I felt sure Dorian would eventually
come to expect weird things to occur around me, but it didn’t seem to have
happened yet.

“Stay here with them,” I said, to which he rolled
his eyes. Obviously I didn’t need to tell him that. “Cyhan is nearby and I’ll
have him come help you later when he’s done,” I said and surprisingly he simply
nodded. I couldn’t help but wonder what had transpired between the two
warriors before Dorian had appeared in the throne room armed and armored.

Walking out I turned my thoughts outward and called
to Moira again.
I need to see Penny. Where are you?

After a long pause I heard her reply,
she is with
me beside the great stone.

What stone?

The stone I created before my final
battle against Balinthor. It is near the palace on the east side,
she
replied.

I remembered the place.
Why there?

When she answered I could detect a poignant feeling
to her thoughts,
I sought to protect your child. There is no safer place in
Lothion.

Obviously she wasn’t remembering my house. The
enchantments there made it by far the most impregnable location in the
capital. As I considered those things I hadn’t meant to broadcast my thoughts
but Moira heard me anyway.

No,
she countered,
there
is no place safer than this. Even the gods could not enter here against my
wishes.
There was a note of pride in her reply and a hint of something
else, a feeling that seemed almost maternal.

My curiosity was fully engaged now and despite my
bone weary state I hurried to reach the place she had named. I found them
both, as she had said, standing beside the great stone that thrust up from the
bedrock beside the palace. There was no sign of any door or entrance and I had
never considered that there might be anything inside the colossal monolith
before, but now I wondered.

Ignoring my inner questions I headed straight for
Penelope. Considering my last words to her, she had a look of some
apprehension on her face as I walked steadily toward her. “I did the best I
could…” she began but I put a hand over her mouth and pulled her into a fierce
embrace.

Her belly was larger than I remembered and before I
knew what had happened I found myself sobbing as I held her. My emotions were
so great that it took a short while before I realized that our awkward embrace
was being shaken by Penelope’s cries as well. It was the sort of moment that
normally would only occur behind closed doors, but both of us had been through
too much to worry about such things today.

Eventually we both calmed down and began to collect
our thoughts. Looking around I realized Moira Centyr was gone already. “Did
she take you inside the stone?” I asked. Despite my emotions I was curious
what she had seen there. My magesight showed nothing but a solid rock with no
hollows or inner chambers.

Penny nodded and then kissed me, which effectively
ended our conversation for a minute or so. Holding her now, I felt fresh tears
forming. “I thought I’d never see you again,” I said softly, when I was able
to break away from her lips at last.

“About the note,” she replied, “I didn’t think I could
put anything more there…”

“Let’s worry about that later,” I interrupted.
“What was inside the stone?”

“You have too much to deal with. We can talk about
that in a day or two,” she said with an odd look in her eyes.

I found the lack of details maddening. “Look Penny,
I’ve had about all I can take of cryptic messages and hidden meanings. If you
discovered something strange or important in there I need to know what it is!”
Stress and weariness led me to raise my voice more than I might have normally.

“Mort, stop,” she said calmly. “This isn’t anything
like that. Nothing bad, nothing serious or dangerous, we just talked, woman to
woman.”

“And what did you say?”

“Tomorrow,” she insisted. “I can see Lord Hightower
leading the city guard up the streets. You need to deal with him and explain
what happened. We can discuss family matters later.” She ran her hand over
her belly and I was even more mystified than before.

***

I assumed the face of King Edward and spent the rest
of the afternoon giving orders and generally making an ass of myself. Under my
direction I had some of the rubble cleared away and Lord Hightower took charge
of his daughter and Elaine. He moved them to his own residence to have them
looked after. Dorian steadfastly refused to be separated from Lady Rose so in
the end Lord Hightower allowed him to ‘guest’ in the Hightower residence as
well.

Cyhan was nowhere to be found and he had taken the
King’s body with him, or hidden it somewhere. I was grateful for his quick
thinking, for once Hightower arrived the palace was swarming with activity and
I had no further chances to sneak away from my new role as King of Lothion.

It looked as though I would be unable to meet James
at the carriage house but luckily I still had the wooden message box, so I sent
him a short note detailing the recent events and requesting they meet me at the
palace.

My official story was that the Count di’Cameron had
been summoned for an audience when the dragon attacked and partially destroyed
the palace. I had no particular explanation for the shining god but I
discovered quickly enough that few people questioned the king. I told a
harrowing tale involving magic and the timely intervention of one very heroic
wizard, Mordecai Illeniel. By the time I had finished my tale I was quite
impressed and almost wished I could meet this amazing hero, for certainly I
bore no resemblance to him.

When James and the others arrived that evening I had
them brought in to one of the private guest suites (the royal chambers were partly
demolished and unsuitable for visitors). Once I was sure that there were no
eavesdroppers I dropped my disguise and addressed them as myself.

Because of his magesight my change in appearance was
no surprise to Walter, but the others were still a bit shocked. “Damn
Mordecai! Give us some warning next time!” said James.

I wanted to laugh but I was too tired to find the
energy. “I did warn you as I recall.”

He snorted, “I mean, right before, that was hours
ago. A man needs a chance to prepare himself.”

I wondered at the quirks of a man who had been
unfazed by an evil wizard possessed by one of the dark gods assaulting his
home, yet who found my sudden change of appearance unsettling. I passed over
his remark and went on, “I am about as bone weary as a man can get. If you
don’t mind I’ll get to the details before I collapse.”

After my transformation my physical body had emerged
unharmed, but my mind was beyond tired. The sensation was similar to having
stayed up three or four days without sleep and I was beginning to see double.
“Let me tell you what occurred on our end first then,” replied James and he
began to describe their raid on the Doronite compound.

It had started well, as they had easily gotten
inside with the aid of Walter’s invisibility. When they reached the area where
the hostages were being held things got a bit out of hand. Harold had tripped
and alerted one of the door guards, partly because he couldn’t see while
invisible. Fearing the worst he had slain the guard and an alarm went up.

The Duke’s men outside were waiting for a problem
such as that and had been given orders. When the cries rang out they stormed
the small collection of buildings and the fighting turned bloody. Meanwhile Walter
and Harold had secured Walter’s wife and son, but they found no sign of his
daughter. The older wizard’s wife was named Jessica, and some of the guards
had played a cruel prank upon her, telling her that her daughter had been
slain.

Neither she nor Walter had known the truth of the
matter, and her husband reacted rather badly. Despite James’ efforts to calm
his men they had taken no prisoners, or more precisely, Walter had not. He had
even gone after the few that escaped into the forest, though he wouldn’t say what
he had done to them.

I had a very good idea what the other man had been
feeling. “I have excellent news for you Walter. Your daughter was here,
though she gave me a bit of a hard time about being rescued.”

“What?!” he managed to say, before he lost the use
of his voice. The news overwhelmed him to such a degree that it was some time
before I could finish my story and we all got a bit misty eyed.

Then I explained what had happened in the palace,
though I abbreviated the story as much as possible. Still, much of the tale
was outlandish so I had to repeat some parts several times. Near the end I
pulled out the glowing stone that held Celior, “Here, this is it. Now do you
see?” Harold had asked me one too many times what the stone looked like.

As I drew the stone out it filled the room with a
soft golden light that pulsed gently. Its presence in the room left no doubt
in anyone’s mind that it was indeed a living thing, even if it did appear to be
just a glowing rock. “What are you going to do with it?” Harold asked.

I rubbed my short beard, “I have no earthly idea. I
will have to find some use for it though; otherwise it will eventually destroy
itself and free Celior. We can worry about that later. First on my list of
priorities is getting some rest.”

I had already shown Walter the spell for imitating
the King’s voice, as well as demonstrating it for him. He had known how to
disguise his appearance beforehand so that wasn’t a problem. I could see he
was reluctant now when I mentioned him taking my place as Edward. After a
moment I realized why. “You haven’t seen your daughter yet!” I exclaimed, “…or
spent any time with your wife and son. I’m sorry Walter! I didn’t think.”

He shook his head, “No Mordecai, you’ve done enough
for me today. I don’t mind this duty if it will help keep the kingdom in one
piece.”

I started to argue with him, for I couldn’t stand
the thought of him being separated from them any longer. It had been four
years for him already. “Let me handle today and you can take over for a week
or so after that,” I replied. “I’ll just sit down and rest my eyes for a few
minutes and I’ll be right as rain.”

Needless to say… I didn’t wake up again anytime
soon.

I woke in bed several days later. I might have
slept longer but for the loud snoring in my ear. Penny lay beside me and her
pregnancy had done nothing to diminish her nighttime noise, quite the opposite
actually. I smiled and watched her for a while. Finding her beside me was the
best thing to have happened to me since she had been kidnapped.