The Archon's Apprentice (26 page)

Instantly, the men were surrounded by a fire wall. Magical shackles appeared and raced forward, locking their legs together and binding their arms. Mikol spoke the binding for a silencing bubble and heard one of the men call out his name, pleading. His hand was on Raythrael but had yet to draw it. Even in the bright light of his magic, they stood empty like an abyss. He did not see any of them struggle, despite their bonds. He canceled some of the spells, still ready to draw Raythrael.
 

“Which of you called out my name?”

“I did, Your Highness.”

“And who are you?”

“My name is Dervo. I am a Warden, Your Highness.”

Curious, Mikol extinguished the flame wall and released the men from their bonds. None of them drew any weapons. Instead, all bowed to him. He did not know what to think of this turn of events.
 

“Who sent you?”

“Voletain sent us to find you and bring you home, Your Highness.”

“Enough with the ‘Your Highness’ right now. Do you have any proof you are wardens? Why are none of you magically active? No Warden I know would have been caught so easily.”

None of them said anything and they all avoided looking at Mikol. Dervo opened and closed his mouth several times, then reached inside his jacket, withdrew a letter, and handed it to Mikol. It was sealed much more elaborately than he had ever seen. With his rune still active he could see the bindings in place. No one would have been able to open the letter. If someone tried they would probably have been killed. As he opened the letter he saw the magic pop dissipating harmlessly away.
 

Mikol,

I hope this letter finds you in time. Do not seek Ioyan’s Legacy. It has been sealed away to protect world. I wish I had been able to teach you all about the world we live in, but more recent pressing matters have been at hand. I suspect there is more to this war than what we have been shown.
 

DO NOT destroy the obelisk!
 

All will be explained when you arrive home.
 

If it is too late and the Obelisk is destroyed, make haste home and protect your kingdom.
 

Voletain

“I don’t know what this means. Why were you sent after me?”

“Voletain told us to find you and give you this letter. Our mission would be explained in the letter,” said Dervo.

“The only thing it says to do now is go home. I don’t understand any of this. Tell me what you know.”

“Very well, Your Highness.” Mikol sighed but Dervo continued.

“When you left, Voletain was still at the Sanctuary. It was more than a week before he arrived back in Valefort with us. He inquired about your whereabouts, but no one could tell him. He was frustrated and went to his office. He became furious when he couldn’t find something. As Omoni was the only preceptor left, he was questioned. We were told to watch his office. Neither man left for two days. When Voletain came out of his office, he told us Omoni had given you a pendant. You were searching for Ioyan’s cache. He penned that letter and sent us to find you within the hour. He wanted us to find you and stop you. We were to make sure you read the letter first.”

“You were just told to stop me?”

Dervo nodded.

“That was you at the gate back in Silverhall?”

Dervo nodded.

“How did you get into Silverhall?”

“There’s a smugglers’ entrance near the base of the mountain. It actually took awhile to find it, as it hasn’t been used for several decades.”

“How did those scarmongers get past you?”

“What do you mean? They didn’t. We killed them all. We had to give chase to two of them, but they were dead before we left Silverhall.”

“Hmm. I guess there was a second group.”

“A second group?”

Mikol motioned for them to follow and walked back to the clearing. Bayle looked relieved to see Mikol but raised an eyebrow at the men following Mikol. His demeanor changed as Mikol mouthed the word Wardens to him. Dervo looked over the bodies of the dead men. When he looked back at Mikol there was no hiding the pride in his expression.

“We’re sorry we didn’t help, Sire.”

“I know you guys have some healing runes. Can someone help me with these?” asked Bayle. He stepped forward, indicating the wounds he had sustained.

“Not anymore. After we left Silverhall we were struck down by some force. When we got up we could no longer feel the flow of magic or use any runes.”

It was then Mikol noticed a speck of light in the void on all of the men. He walked over to Dervo and grabbed his arm. Dervo flinched but did not resist. Mikol rolled up Dervo’s sleeve, revealing the glowing attunement rune tattooed on his arm. He went to all of them and saw the same thing.
 

He had not had the attunement rune tattooed on his body because he was the fourth son. Ioyan’s edict was created to stop more civil wars and prevented any but the heir to the throne from being given full access to magic and its complement of runes. Ioyan’s Legacy had been the attunement rune. Mikol had never questioned it before, as it had always been that way. Now it made sense why Bayle had been able to use runes and magic. The obelisk had been the focal point for the attunement rune. Mikol drew his Raythrael.

“Dervo, this might hurt.”

Dervo looked Mikol in the eye. Fear in his eyes gave way to trust. He nodded to Mikol.

Mikol place the flat of the blade over the attunement rune and willed it away. They all heard a sizzling noise and Dervo cried out. When Mikol released him, Dervo dropped to the ground, panting. Mikol smiled. The four other wardens had reached for their swords, taking a step back, looking between Mikol and Dervo.

Dervo laughed.

“Calm yourselves,” said Dervo.
 

Dervo stood up, his runic armor manifesting and encasing his body. The flow of magic returned. He no longer appeared as a void, darkness replaced by the multihued light of all of his runes.
 

“I can see to your wounds now.” Dervo motioned for Bayle move closer.
 

Mikol smiled wide and looked at the remaining wardens.

“Who’s next?” asked Mikol.

Chapter 17

Alderden

While Mikol removed the other attunement runes Dervo mended the wounds Bayle had sustained. The Wardens sifted through the dead blood mages’ belongings to see if they carried anything of note. Other than a couple of weapons they did not find anything.
 

“You took out seven mages?” said one of the wardens.

“Three of them were sleeping when I attacked,” said Mikol.

“That’s still impressive. We haven’t seen a surge in blood mages this big in centuries. This warlord must have been training blood mages for years,” said another warden.

“Sorry, Sire. We can discuss this later. The letter stated we need to get back to Ternia,” said Dervo.

Mikol nodded.

“Where would the mountain pass take us?”

“Eventually, it would take us to Whitecliff. Though that will take too long and leads in the wrong direction. The fastest way is back through Silverhall. We’ll pass several small villages that are sympathetic to the Wardens, and we could get supplies and rest,” said Dervo.

“I don’t like it but don’t see any other options open to us yet.”

Mikol mounted his horse. The other horses did not seem to mind having new riders, and they rode back toward Silverhall in haste. Even though Mikol had come this way recently, he did not recognize anything they passed. He realized again how sick he had been and was glad he had made it to the obelisk. They arrived back at Silverhall in good time. The sunrise came upon them quickly. It would have been a beautiful sight to behold had it not been for the bodies of Silverhall guards lying dead in the road. The back gate had been damaged during the fight and was wide open.

“Your handiwork?” asked Mikol.
 

Dervo shook his head. They rode through the gate but dismounted in the inner courtyard. They heard a low rumble from across the city. Mikol looked at Dervo and the Wardens but only received a shrug. They all flinched as an explosion erupted in the southern part of the city. Someone rushed out of the shadows toward them. Mikol reached for Raythrael but Dervo moved to intercept.

“Nilo, what is happening?” asked Dervo.
 

Mikol relaxed but kept his hand on his sword.

“It seems our fight with the blooders sparked some sort of riot in the south of the city. The city guard have been trying to contain the damage but it looks pretty bad.”

“South? What happened to the guards out there?”

“Some how a group of squatters found the smugglers’ entrance. The guards didn’t stand a chance against the mob. After they killed all of them, the mob ran off in to the city,” said Nilo.

“Is there no way through the city?” asked Mikol.

“I’ve ventured a little way in to the city.” Nilo looked from Mikol to Dervo and back quickly. “There’s no way through, Your Highness. If we wanted to leave the city now we can try the smugglers’ cave. But it will lead us near the mass of people camped around the city. I don’t know how many of them would be friendly to civilized folk.”

“Are we stuck in this savage sundered city?” asked Bayle.

“There may be another way. But it hasn’t been used in centuries,” said Dervo.

“Travel stones? In the heart of the Savage Kingdoms?”

“Sire, Sibilova was once part of Ternia before the sundering. The Wardens have not used the travel stones in centuries because we didn’t want the scarmongers to find any and pervert them with blood magic,” said Dervo.

“We don’t time for subtlety. We must get back to Valefort as quickly as we can.”

Mikol drew Raythrael and motioned for Nilo to come to him. Nilo looked to Dervo, obviously confused. Dervo jerked his head towards Mikol and told him to pull up his sleeve. Mikol quickly eradicated another attunement rune. Nilo held back a yell and swore at the other Wardens. They laughed at him and rolled up their sleeves to show they had gone through it as well. Nilo was going to speak when Dervo cut him off.

“Do we know where the travel stones are located?” asked Mikol.

“That’s the hitch. We were told about their existence but never of their locations.”

“Who told you about them?”

“Omoni, of course.”

Mikol was not surprised at the lack of information Omoni had provided. It would take too long to go from building to building looking for something that no one should know existed. There had to be a way to locate them. After contemplating several runes he came up with a plan. He began drawing three complicated runes and then bound them together in another floating light orb.
 

“If I created this right, it should lead us to any strong magical source that flows out of the city. Let’s just hope there’s no such thing as a blood travel stone.”

“I see why the Archon chose you, Your Highness. It will be a pleasure to serve you.”

Mikol blushed slightly but nodded to Dervo.

“Let’s just hope it works.”

Mikol and Bayle retrieved their gear from the horses. When they walked into the city the orb flew off down a side street. Where it had been hard to find a straight path in the streets before, the city itself now seemed empty. Soon enough, they saw the aftermath of several battles that had raged in the streets. Not having seen anyone alive yet, Mikol felt they were being watched. The pendant hung around his neck still but it remained blank. After following the orb in what seemed a circuitous path, they finally found themselves at a sewer entrance. They hesitated only for a moment before heading down.

Mikol expected it to be horrible but was pleasantly surprised to see Ternian construction and design. The walkway was wide enough for three of them to walk abreast. The orb had changed from a crimson hue to a bluish one. Mikol knew they were getting closer. After several twists and turns that left Mikol feeling lost, they found themselves in a small chamber underneath the city. The chamber was unadorned, but nine stones stood in the center. Unless you knew what you were looking for you would have missed the chamber, so it surprised Mikol the room was not dusty.
 

Of the nine stones in the ring, only four were unmarred and remained complete. Mikol walked up to the remaining stones and inspected them. Only one of the stones became activated. It was anchored to a stone in Whitecliff. The other stones showed no signs of damage and still held power, but did not otherwise work.

“Well, I guess we go to Whitecliff after all,” said Bayle.

“The travel stones were set up to be a web of interconnecting portals throughout the land. There will probably be another one or two in Whitecliff. Hopefully ...”

“We don’t have much choice,” said Nilo. He had brought up the rear of the group. “Somehow we attracted some of the city guard. They are following us. I can hear them down the way.”

Mikol activated the travel stone again and a doorway opened in front of him. The landscape through the door was dark but he could see some sunlight streaming in the background. Mikol ushered them through the doorway. Mikol hesitated, looking back toward the sewer. He activated the other stones and created another rune linking them. He stepped through the doorway as the hum of power reached a crescendo. Mikol deactivated the stone in Whitecliff as the room exploded in Silverhall. Everyone dodged out of the way as dust and dirt flew from where the doorway had been. All eyes were on Mikol.

“We don’t want anyone following us.”

After a moment there was some muffled laughter and hushed curses, followed by groans.

They looked around the room they were in. The roof at the far end had a large hole and provided the only light. There were no windows and only one door. Mikol felt a magical tingle as he opened the door and cold air assaulted him. The door led directly outside. He peered around through the doorway. They were in some sort of ruins. Snow covered much of the building. Surprisingly, they were not actually in Whitecliff. Mikol could see the city itself a few miles down the mountain. He pulled his head back inside and shut the door. He felt another magical tingle as a rune somewhere activated and normalized the temperature. Someone had created a light rune and the others were inspecting the travel stones in the room. Of the three that remained intact, one lead to Highbarrow, another to Greymount, and the third to Alderden.