The Mages' Winter of Death: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume Two (6 page)

Diana knew he was correct about the ancient magic locks that could be attuned to a specific hand, but she thought that Michael had too many of the traits of an adventurer for comfort. “You’re important to the future of Glastamear. Please be cautious.” She kissed him and said, “I want you back here in one piece. Promise me.”

It was difficult to hurry off well before midnight, but Michael had arranged for a very early start for the caravan to Swamp Ford. After a lingering kiss, he flew back to the Safehold Saga Inn.

Chapter 6

The caravan left for Swamp Ford early that morning. They would need to camp for at least one night on the way, and Michael preferred that it be in the forested area before they entered the Great Swamp because of the bite-flies and snakes that were common in that quagmire. The group had fifteen wagon drivers, ten professional soldiers, the Oxbow brothers, and Michael. He assumed that was too many for any band of brigands to attack, but to be safe, they would post five guards around their camp at night.

They made good time as they traveled east along a stone-paved road, and made camp an hour before dark, forming their wagons into a circle. The camp was in the middle of a clearing below the first ranks of the Blacksmith Hills. A pine forest surrounded the clearing and gave the air a pleasant aroma. A small stream flowed over black granite pebbles through the clearing, and there was plenty of dried grass for the horses. They built a large fire to roast a deer one of the soldiers had killed along the way while they sat around the campfire and enjoyed a colorful crimson sunset and a pleasantly cool evening.

Both Father Moon and Cousin Moon would illuminate that winter night so they couldn’t be taken easily by surprise in the darkness. It was a jovial camp with soldiers and drivers telling stories of their past and joking about their lives. They sung the old songs including the oldest epic of all,
The Journey of the Elves
. It told the ancient story of the journey of the restless elves through the great star cloud until they reached the planet Home under the star Blue Haven. It was part of the shared culture of all the men of the seven kingdoms of the planet Home and sung around hearths and campfires by all.

Michael had made a point of getting to know each of the soldiers and drivers by name, and he joined in the joke telling. They sang several old travelers’ ballads and finally turned in for the night about three hours after sunset with full stomachs and pleasant memories.

Michael heard the sound that he thought was from a dream of his terrifying flight through the Great Black Thicket. Four knight protectors in full armor and casting fireballs had pursued him through the deadly swamp. He heard the sound again and smelled burning. Screams pierced the night. He suddenly roused, realizing this was no dream. The Oxbow brothers were already putting on their armor, and he did the same. More blinding fireballs struck the camp, and he saw guards and wagon drivers on fire and heard their screams. Chaos and death flowed through the night as three steel-plate armored knight protectors let a rabble of thirty deserters and brigands into the camp.

Michael quickly cast his most powerful version of
quench fire magic
and the fireballs stopped immediately but not the attack. Michael drew his elf-sword and stood back to back with the Oxbow brothers. All five of them swung their two handed swords at any attacker who approached. Most of the guards and wagon drivers were already down and out of the fight.

When Michael noticed that two of the knight protectors were moving from man to man killing the injured, he attacked in a fury. He cast
dwarfish strength
and charged. In an explosion of blood, his first strike clove a knight protector in two at the waist before the villain could cut the throat of a wounded guard. Michael parried the blow from a second knight. They fought, blow for blow, Perry for Perry, until one of Michael’s strikes got past the knight’s Perry and decapitated him cutting right through his steel plate helmet. It was something only an elf-sword driven with the magical strength of a dwarf could have done.

He turned and charged a third who was standing over a wagon driver to deliver a killing blow, but the Oxbow brothers were already there. Even with steel plate armor, the knight protector, without his fire magic, was not able to overpower four armored and well-armed men. He turned to run, but Peter Oxbow’s long sword found the opening between the back of his helmet and his cuirass, driving a fatal blow up into his skull. Most of the other attackers, seeing the three knight protectors were dead, began to run. The Oxbow brothers grabbed their bows and brought down four of those while at least fifteen brigands and deserters escaped the carnage of the camp.

Peter and Gregory jumped onto the tops of the wagons and loosed arrow after arrow into the fleeing brigands, bringing down five more. Michael, Jacob, and Roger were healers; they saw to the injured, while Peter and Gregory stayed on guard.

Michael knew that some of the injured would realize that the men who helped the survivors were proscribed healer mages, for only a true master healer could knit bones and seal deep wounds. Only one of the wagon drivers survived uninjured because the drivers had no armor and carried only knives. The lone uninjured survivor had crawled under a wagon and not been noticed. Three more of the wagon drivers were alive but gravely injured. Four of the soldiers were alive but seriously injured.

Michael was not a true master healer; he had never taken the master’s test that the guild required. However, he knew spells far beyond his official rank. With the help of Jacob and Roger, he was able to save all of the survivors, but it would leave no doubt that he was a disguised healer rather than a merchant. He did it anyway while hoping the men from Southport would keep his secret. Once the injured from the caravan were stable, he had a strong reaction to the combat. He had directly killed two knight protectors. He had never deliberately killed anyone, and his anguish was obvious to the Oxbow brothers.

Jacob came over to him and said, “Michael, you are crying and I understand why.” There were tears in his eyes too. “One of my arrows killed a fleeing man who was no longer a danger to me. The two knights you killed were murdering the injured, and healers have always protected their patients. I wonder at what a terrible time we live in. Healers never kill, but we both did. But for me, it was not in defense; maybe I should never have joined the guild. I didn’t live up to its tradition.”

Michael put his hand on his friend’s shoulder and said, “We are only human. There is much ahead that will test our guild rules, but it is important that we do the best we can. Jacob, I had the bloodlust; it’s a dangerous thing for reason and virtue to be consumed by fury and hatred. We’ll both do the best we can, my friend. That’s all Father God can expect from us. You are still a true guild mate to me and I to you.”

Gregory came over to them and said, “Michael, thank Father God that you enchanted this armor. It deflected several killing blows, but I think the fact that it’s magic will be obvious to some of those who got away. That may be a problem if they spread the story of magic armor and especially of your sword that can cut through a man in steel plate at the waist in a single blow.”

“We should hope that no one would believe such impossible tall tales. Clearly such men are only trying to cover their cravenness.” They both smiled at the lie. “However, even from such men, we may need reinforcements to guard our supplies. We don’t even have enough uninjured men to drive the wagons. I may need to ask John and Jim Neville and some wagon drivers from Swamp Ford to join us.”

“If you need someone to take three horses and gallop to Swamp Ford, I’ll be off within seconds,” Gregory said.

Michael could have used mage-thought to reach his best friend Jim in Swamp Ford, but that would be impossible to explain to the survivors. “Yes please go for help, but first did any of the attackers live?”

“Yes there are four still living. Two of them may need a master healer; their cuts are too deep for Roger to stop the bleeding. One is well enough for us to have tied him up to keep the viper from slinking away.”

“Well, Gregory, make haste for Swamp Ford. Keep on the move to avoid an ambush from the survivors, and take Black Dash, Jim’s horse, and your own mount. My stallion is extremely fast and has a lot of stamina; he can outrun most pursuers. Your horse and Jim’s are warhorses, strong but slow.”

Michael walked over to the three injured brigands. Two were dressed in the armor of Hearthshire guards, and the third was a crown soldier who had probably deserted the roadblock he was assigned to guard. The fourth man was the least injured. Michael decided he could wait. He worked on the two with the deepest wounds. It took half an hour, but both would live. He checked the third and found he had been well healed by Roger. The fourth man wore a mismatched set of leather armor, which did not betray his origin.

Michael cast the healer spells
surgery sleep
and
amnesia release
on the first three. The spells would cause them to sleep for at least eight hours and to forget everything that happened to them for the past ten to twelve hours. The fourth man Michael propped up against a wagon wheel and asked him to tell the story of how he came to this clearing for the attack on the wagon caravan.

“I was a good man once; I never imagined that I would end up hung as a brigand.”

He started to weep, and Michael waited.

“I’m Arthur the wheelwright, and I’m from Hearthshire Town too. I recognize that you are actually Michael the apprentice of William the master healer. You were well known in town. I saw you heal these injured men, and I’m certain of who you actually are.”

Michael said, “You’re right. I escaped from the pogrom because I was out in the forest when the knight protectors came for us.”

Arthur explained, “I watched as all the healers of the province were executed. Even your teacher William was flayed and burned although already dead at the time. I think the church and the king did great evil in those executions, and that terrible sin by both the church and crown, brought the plague upon us. I had the disease and survived but my wife and three children all died. The three knight protectors who were with us were also from Hearthshire Town, and they also had the white pneumonia and survived. It killed most of the priests and knight protectors who sheltered in the Great Temple, and every family like mine who got the contaminated grain came down with it.”

“If they had the pneumonia and survived, why did these knight protectors leave the Temple and city? Why become brigands and outlaws? They couldn’t contract the disease a second time.”

“They always treated the rest of us with contempt. I would never have dared to ask them why they fled, but I think they had lost all faith in divine Perry. All three of them were evil men who killed, often slowly, anyone who questioned their authority. They organized all of the rootless desperate men who wandered into this area. They claimed that we would eventually take over the town of Swamp Ford or Marigold Meadows and rule it like barons.”

“How many did you kill personally, Arthur?”

“I could claim none, but you would not believe that. I killed two tonight; both were men without armor. I killed several other people that we waylaid in the past three weeks when they resisted.”

“Arthur, you will forget the past day and sleep for about eight hours.” Michael cast the spells and Arthur relaxed into sleep.

Chapter 7

Jacob, Roger, and Michael moved away from the injured men to talk.

Roger said to Michael, “You must cast
amnesia release
on all the survivors. They know we’re healers.”

“Guild guidelines don’t allow it to be used in that way, and I’ve already stretched the limits when I cast it on the brigands, but we need to trust our own men. They should be grateful that we healed them and drove off the brigands.”

Jacob said, “You can’t count on even good men to keep silent forever. One night in a pub with too much brandy would be all it would take to get us all condemned. Guild rules or no rules, we need them to forget our magic armor, your elf-sword, and the healing we’ve done. Michael, your scruples might be deadly in the future. Neither of us has the master skill of that spell. It has to be you Michael who casts amnesia.”

Michael walked over to the surviving drivers and guards. “My friends, we’ve come through battle together. We are comrades in arms, but I have a question for you. By now you know that Jacob, Roger, and I are healers. That knowledge could get us condemned to the fires of the executioners. I would like to take that knowledge from you with a light cast of a spell that master healers know. If I do it perfectly, you will forget everything since our dinner last night. You won’t remember the battle with the brigands and knight protectors. Guild rules require that I have your permission to cast this spell on you. Will you allow it?”

Several survivors said yes immediately, and the others followed their lead. Michael cast sleep spells on each of them and then made a very light cast of the amnesia spell so that they would only forget a few hours and not weeks. Michael himself didn’t know for certain how far back the memories would be lost. He had never tried the spell in such a weak form.

They busied themselves with clearing up the evidence of what Michael’s sword could do. Michael used a dwarfish spell to remove a four-square paces section of dirt at the edge of the clearing. After searching the bodies, they dropped the two knight protectors that Michael had slain into the pit, and Michael moved the block of soil and sod back to cover the evidence.

They had left the knight protector that Peter Oxbow had killed using an ordinary sword because they needed to explain how so many of the other bodies received serious burns. They lined up the drivers’ and guards’ bodies, and took out the canvas from one of the wagons. The three healers sat together and prepared shrouds for each of the dead from their caravan while Gregory stood as lookout. They didn’t put the bodies into the shrouds yet because they wanted the reinforcements coming from Swamp Ford to see the carnage the brigands had created. Because it was the closest town, it would be the authorities in Swamp Ford who had the legal right to decide the brigands’ fates, but it was almost always hanging in cases like these.

They searched all the brigands’ bodies and took their valuables to send to the victims of their attack. Michael had about two hundred gold crowns on his packhorse, and he added it to the family pile. There were twenty-six brigands’ bodies and one knight protector. Michael, Jacob, and Roger collected wood for a funeral pyre for the dead attackers. They planned to use one of the wagons, and the unhurt wagon driver to send the dead from the caravan back to Southport Province for burial in their family plots or cremation on a sanctified funeral pyre at their local shrines. By early afternoon, the survivors of the assault began to wake up. Those of the convoy of wagons only had memories of going to bed the previous night. The four surviving attackers had no memories of the past day. As the caravan drivers and guards awoke, Roger told them that the knight protector who had led assault had done something to them to make them sleep as the brigands attacked. The survivors began to help with gathering wood and making shrouds.

Two of the survivors cooked a meal of salt cod stew with carrots and turnips. They ate together in silence; it was an extreme contrast from the jovial evening they had enjoyed together the night before. All of the soldiers and most of the wagon drivers had known each other for years, and Michael had to insist that they wait for the authorities from Swamp Ford before taking any action against the four surviving brigands.

Around nightfall they heard singing of over twenty men from Swamp Ford as they walked along the nearby road, accompanied by Jim and John Neville and Gregory Oxbow on horseback. The men sung the famous Swamp Man’s Ballad known in every pub in Glastamear.

You may ask me why I live there, land of vipers and the bite-fly, you may ask me why I love this wetland, with its odor of the swamp gas, with its bog and quicksand danger. I can tell you, I can tell you, it’s the fog emerged at sunrise, it’s the hyacinth in still water, it’s the heron while it’s fishing in the evening twilight quiet. I can tell you, I can tell you, but you’ll never see the beauty, you’ll never see the beauty if you’re not a swamp man born. If you’re not born to this land of damp and splendor, you will never see its beauty. Let’s have a toast to Swamp Ford and the hardy souls who live there, then let’s have a second toast to bless those crazy fools who live there.

As the group grew near, they grew quiet. There was more death in one place than they had ever seen. High Priest Carson was walking with the men dressed in the unpretentious clothing of a common laborer. He and the mounted men came forward.

High Priest Carson made Perry’s sign over the dead and looked at the four tied-up prisoners. He said, “Michael, this is a terrible scene. To see a knight protector leading this criminal band nearly breaks my heart. How far has the church fallen? It is up to John who is now our mayor to judge the brigands who survived this attack. It’s my job to pray for the dead of both the attackers and the victims. John, please question these men.”

John Neville came forward to where the four prisoners were standing. “Are you guilty of an attack on innocent travelers?”

All four men looked down.

“Do you have anything to say in your own defense?”

They continued to look down.

“You once may have been honest men, but now I find you guilty of the capital crime of brigandage and sentence you to the quicker of the deaths by hanging. Men, let’s get this over with. Help put the bodies from the caravan in shrouds and into this wagon and pile the brigands on the funeral pyre. My Lord, you may say the prayers for the dead before we light the fire. Giff, pick ten men and get to the hanging. I don’t want to spend the night in this polluted spot so make it quick with broken necks. You can use the horses.”

It was dark when the caravan of fourteen wagons headed toward Swamp Ford and a single wagon took the dead back towards Southport Province. No one wanted to spend the night in that bloody battleground where the funeral pyres still smoldered and the stink of death saturated the humid air.

Riding next to Michael, John Neville remarked, “There is more to this story than you’ve said so far. I saw one spot that was clearly from a decapitation from the blood spray, and another that was an instant massive loss like I’ve never seen before. There were no bodies injured in those ways.”

“There were actually three knight protectors leading this group of highwaymen. One I decapitated right through his helmet and the other I cut in two at the waist through his steel plate armor. My elf-sword can do impossible things. Since we couldn’t explain those wounds, we buried them before you arrived.”

John nodded. “Three knight protectors gone rogue. That is a scary concept; with their armor and their fire magic, they could rule this land of ours. How can ordinary knights and soldiers even battle against a fireball? No archer can easily penetrate their steel plate armor, and a handful of knight protectors could rule any town in Glastamear if they ignore their vows to the church leadership. The epidemic has caused dangers other than the disease itself.”

“I’ve examined their manna enough to know that every high priest is an extremely powerful fire mage, and that the Most Holy Son of Perry Ascendant is the most powerful of all. It is their superior magic that has ushered them into their leadership roles. In the case of High Priest Carson and Simon, they are good men, but still they are the most powerful fire mages in their province. That power is what keeps the priests and knight protectors to their vows. The Holy Son’s manna is many times as strong as Carson or Simon. He must have been chosen because, with their
detect manna
spells, all fire mages can see how powerful he is. He could destroy an army of ordinary men and may need to if the three kingdoms invade in the spring.”

John said, “If there’s war, will it be a battle of fire mages? If the Holy Son is really that powerful, why would they invade?”

Michael thought it over and remembered history books he’d read while studying with William. “The three kingdoms will certainly bring all their own fire mages. They have many descendants of Perry the Bagger chieftain, perhaps not as many as Glastamear but scores of them. The Holy Son has and his predecessors have always stopped previous invasions by casting walls of flames and firestorm spells, which only they have sufficient manna to cast. What is certain is that no ordinary men can survive in that hell of fire magic warfare. The citizens of the city of Min Hollow and all the ordinary soldiers will be in gravest danger even if the Holy Son carries the day and repels the invaders.”

John said, “I also worry about the ninety soldiers from Southport who are going to Broken Arrow. There must be a dozen priests and knight protectors at the Temple of Perry’s Final Victory. Those Southport men would have no chance against them. If the church wants to control all of the supplies, they can just take it all for themselves.”

“My friend, I also thought of that risk. The naiads taught me a spell that will stop all fire magic within a substantial area. Before the caravan left Southport, I enchanted the golden Perry’s hand above the temple entrance in Broken Arrow. There will be no fire spells within the city for the foreseeable future. In fact, the priests will already have discovered that they can’t even perform the ritual of Bringing Forth Perry’s Fire at their weekly services.”

“Michael Elf-Blood, you really are the one of Gripton’s promise. Glastamear will be a different place with you in it. That fire suppression spell itself may change everything.”

“I hope it’s a change for the better,” Michael replied, but he knew that there were worse conditions than the rule by Perry’s church and their anointed king. He feared anarchy even more.