The Archon's Apprentice (5 page)

Perim moved most of the pieces until they were lined up along the northern border and arrayed them facing east, towards Enhurst. “Generals, ride out now and move the regiments south. I will ride out soon and lead the army to stop this incursion and secure our lands.” The generals bowed and left. Perim looked over the maps for a long moment before waving over a servant and giving him orders.

“Brothers, let us speak with the Preceptor Warden. I need to know how I will be leaving the city.”

The walk to the Preceptor’s office turned in to an ordeal. Since Perim had given orders to his generals it seemed every servant had somewhere to go. After nearly colliding with many of the runners, Perim had one of his men lead the way, bellowing down the halls to move. Omoni sat behind his desk poring over another tome from the large bookcases that lined his walls. Mikol did not see the title before Omoni closed it and put it away.
 

“Your Highnesses,” said Omoni, “how may I help you today?”

“What is the status of your Wardens?”

“We have quite enough Wardens right now, I don’t think we need four more.”

“We are not here for a social visit, Preceptor. Arceri has taken the Paragons to Highbarrow. They are usually the primary defense of the city if it is needed. Since they are not here it leaves Valefort in a less than desirable position. How many Wardens do you have in the city?”

“Oh, I see. That is not good. Let me check my assignments.” Omoni grabbed several stacks of papers and began shuffling through them. Grabbing a blank parchment, Omoni picked up a quill and started making marks on it. Omoni wrote quickly and made many marks on the parchment. Eventhough Mikol did not know what Omoni was noting, he grew more apprehensive the more marks Omoni made. When he finished with the last stack of assignments, the parchment was covered in marks.

“It seems there are only twelve wardens in the city right now.”

“What!?” said Perim. “How you could let so many wardens leave? That is not enough for a complete patrol, let alone to defend against any attacks against the city itself.”

“Well, after the incident in Highbarrow, I decided it was necessary to track down all blood mages, as they were the only thing I could think of that would have prevented Arceri from coming back.”

“Have any been found?”

“I haven’t had many reports come back yet. But they have covered almost all of what was once Milodona and I can say there are no blood mages there.”

“That is unacceptable. There have never been blood mages in that part of the savage kingdoms. Why would you even ...” Perim flung his hands up. “How long will it take to get all of the Wardens home?”
 

“All of them? Hmm.” Omoni started flipping through the papers again.

“Stop wasting time! Preceptor Warden, do not tell me you don’t know the answer. How long will it take to get the Wardens home?”

“It will take two months to get all of the Wardens home.”

“Two months!?”

“I should be able to get at least five of the squads back within the week. But the rest are too far out from any of the travel stones placed throughout Sibilova.”

“I am not happy with this at all. You should not have let so many leave the city at once. Especially with the Paragons gone. Proceed with bringing all of the wardens home as quickly as possible.”

Perim left Omoni’s study in a hurry, leaving Mikol, Turos, and Bayle rushing to keep up. None of them knew where Perim was heading and were not sure if they should ask him. Mikol and Bayle gave each other a puzzled glance as they ended up outside of the king’s chambers. Perim knocked once and entered. The large room seemed smaller every time Mikol entered, but he attributed it to all of the hanging carpets that seemed to spawn all over the walls. Mikol motioned for Bayle to stay outside. Raifaran lay in his bed, wine glass in hand. His shift seemed to be clean, but that did not give Mikol any clue how much the king had drunk. Voletain was seated next to the bed. They looked up simultaneously at the king’s three sons.
 

“Father. Archon.” Perim bowed quickly and proceeded to the side of the bed. “I have urgent matters to discuss.”

“It takes all of the king’s sons to discuss this?” said Voletain.

“For this they should bear witness. I have come to ask for the rights of the heir.”

“You are not the chosen heir of the realm,” said Voletain.

“I am not, but Arceri is dead.”

“We do not have confirmation that Arceri is dead. There is no body and no one has seen him dead.”

“Voletain, do not be coy with me. It does not take three months to return from Highbarrow, even if he had to walk the entire way. At least not for an heir of Ioyan. There are no reports of anything that should be preventing his return. I know he was apprehensive about marrying so quickly before he was king, but that is not a reason he would not come home.”

“And what if he has been captured?” asked Voletain.

“No heir of Ioyan deserves to be king after they have been captured. Especially if it was by savages that we put down centuries ago.”

“The king has not decided what to do about his heir. Barging in and demanding to be heir is bad form.”

“This has nothing to do with form or posturing or what I want. The reason I need to be the heir is that the Kingdom of Ternia should never be without an heir. Never be without a protector. Neither of my two brothers are worthy of being heir. You have inclinations for Mikol, and Turos ...” Perim looked over Turos and gestured. Mikol had to turn away quickly and covered his laughter with a cough.

“Voletain,” said Raifaran, “give him what he wants so we can continue talking in peace. I haven’t even finished my first drink yet.”

“My lord, we are talking about your heir. You have already chosen your heir and he is not in this room. I don’t think you should be so unconcerned about your heir,” said Voletian.

“I know who was my heir and which heir I am talking about. I have thought about it every day since he left. Arceri is no longer my heir. By Ioyan’s edict grant Perim all rights and magics associated with the heir.”

“Yes, my lord,” said Voletain.

“And Voletain.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“Don’t ever question me again.”

Voletain stiffened slightly before bowing to Raifaran. He turned to Perim and motioned for him to come near. When Perim came close, Voletain drew several intricate runes in the air and recited several more runes that Mikol had never heard before. When Voletain finished, the air around him pulsed, and he placed his hand flat on Perim’s chest. Perim inhaled sharply and looked like he would fall before he caught himself and smiled. Mikol and Turos took a step back. Neither of them had seen a transformation like what happened before them. The runes all over Perim’s body began to glow. When the runes finally stopped glowing Perim stood as a new man. His greying hair had turned once again to brown, and his face, while still fierce and confident, had softened. If Mikol had not seen the transformation he would not have believed it. He looked as young as Mikol now. Jealously, Mikol thought Perim might look younger than himself. Perim looked over his runes and made a quick gesture with his right hand. The rune on his right forearm flashed and coalesced into a shimmering blue sword in his hand. He gave a hearty laugh and released the blade. It disappeared instantly.

“Would it not be prudent to grant magic to all of us?” said Turos. “In defense of the kingdom?”

“Did I miss the army at our gates? The swords at our throats?” said Voletain. “No. Neither of you shall be given any magic today. Do you not remember the edict of Ioyan? It is unprecedented to have granted Perim magic without the body of Arceri present, and I did so because the king renounced Arceri as heir.”

Mikol could hear Turos’s gloved hands tightening on his cane. Mikol could feel Turos would not leave it, but Perim stepped next to them both and placed his hands on their shoulders. Turos looked away.
 

“Thank you, Father,” said Perim. “I have asked Omoni to call back the Wardens from the savage kingdoms to protect Valefort should I fail. There is an unknown enemy that is threatening this kingdom. I will lead the army east and destroy the blight that is invading. Afterwards, I will lead a crusade to hunt down all of the blood mages in the world and destroy the plague that has befallen our ancient magic and avenge Arceri.”

Chapter 4

Perim

Perim stopped his horse at the outskirts of another deserted town. His forward scouts had found no signs of life. He scanned the countryside and could see nothing but fields and hills on all sides. They had not found any signs of an army anywhere, but all of the villages outside of the immediate protection of Valefort were deserted. Yet none of the villages were in any way destroyed or showed signs of a battle.

He sent soldiers to inspect all of the buildings, as he had done with every previous village. Perim pulled out his map and unfurled it. Locating the current village on the map, he placed a small X over it. There were fourteen other Xs on the map, all of them with similar deserted villages. Perim and his generals had tried to decipher a reason for the abandoned villages but could find none except fear. He could not be certain if the number of refugees pouring into Valefort had all come from these villages. There were too many villages and too few refugees. He wondered where the rest of the villagers had gone.
 

The first patrol of soldiers reported back. None of them had found anything significant in the buildings they scoured. After so many empty villages he had given up hope of finding anything of value. The second patrol of soldiers came back to report the same. Perim waved his generals over to discuss their next move.

“Your Highness,” said a soldier, “there is nothing in the village, but we noticed we are being watched.”

“Where?”

“I do not want to point it out, lest I spook him. But there is a man on the hill east of the village. There is a copse of trees on top and he is underneath.”

Perim resisted looking at the copse and instead greeted his generals.

“It seems we may get some answers today,” said Perim. “Take several soldiers and swing wide around the eastern hill. Make sure he is not able to run away.” Without an obvious acknowledgement the soldier quickly backed into the waiting throng of soldiers. “Now, hopefully we can find out what we are chasing and what we can expect when we reach Enhurst.”

“If I remember correctly,” said Dryos, “there are three more villages that ring Enhurst itself.” He brought his horse closer to Perim and pointed on the map to the locations of the three villages. “We need to search these more thoroughly than the others. They would have become part of Enhurst, if it had stayed independent. As it stands, they are large enough to be able to hide a large contingent of soldiers to flank us if we head straight to Enhurst.”

“That seems—“ A scream coming from the interloper’s copse interrupted Perim. Every head turned to look at the hill, all pretense of ignorance vanished. They waited only a moment before seeing several other figures reach the copse. From this distance Perim could not confirm it was his soldiers on the hill, but when they picked up a body and headed straight for the army he knew they were his. Before they arrived it became obvious why the man had screamed. Even from a distance Perim could see the man was drenched with blood. The soldiers were trying not to get covered in the man’s blood and held the body out at arms length. This did not work as well as they hoped, as the body seemed to spurt blood with every step. The two soldiers carrying the body were drenched on one side each by the time they dropped the body in front of the generals.

“Hurry and clean yourselves quickly,” said Perim. “We don’t know what to expect, but this man was killed with blood magic.”
 

The soldiers ran to the village well to wash the blood off. Perim got down from his horse and examined the dead man. No visible signs of injury existed that would have caused the man’s death. Blood still oozed out of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Perim gestured for two other soldiers to help him. They delicately cut away the man’s clothing, keeping as much distance as they could, but still they found no cause of the man’s death.

“I suspect he was killed so he could not talk,” said Dryos.

“Yes,” said Perim, “but I want to know where the mage was who was controlling this man. Sunder Omoni for dispatching the wardens. We could use their knowledge of these mages. Burn this body and set up camp for the night.”

“Is that wise?” asked Dryos. “The enemy presumably knows where we are.”

“We have been ready for a battle. Better that we choose where to fight it.”

***

An alarm rang out in the middle of the night while Perim slept. He bolted out of his tent, activating the runes along his body. A shimmering glow emanated from the ethereal armor that now encased him. It did not take him long to reach the edge of the camp and see what had caused the alarm. His soldiers circled the bodies of five unknown men in foreign garb sprawled out on the ground. Several bolts stuck out of each them at odd angles. Each one had a thin curved blade clutched in his hands. He also noticed they were oozing blood like the spy earlier in the day.

“What happened?” asked Perim.

“Sire, we posted advanced guards out in the fields to give warning if someone approached.”

“Did you move the bodies? They are quite close to camp.”

“No sire. They actually walked past private Jobi without alerting him right away.”

“Were you asleep at your post? How did you not see them? How did they get past you?”

“No, sir! I was not asleep. I didn’t see anything, because there was nothing to see. I actually... I felt something,” said Jobi.

“What? You felt something? What do you mean?” asked Perim.

“I ... I felt something in the air. I don’t know how to describe it, sire. But I looked up and saw something walking towards camp.”

“So you saw the men?”

“No. No, I saw something. I could see right through it, but not very clearly. If it wasn’t for that lantern over there I wouldn’t have seen anything.” Jobi pointed to a lantern that hung on the outside of a building. “The light looked strange. It was like looking through a dirty window. I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming so I shot my crossbow at it. When the bolt struck true and a man appeared I hollered and readied another bolt.”