The Mages' Winter of Death: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume Two (7 page)

Chapter 8

Because of the crowding and limited dry land at Swamp Ford, John Neville decided it would not be practical to take all of the wagons into town. After discussing their options, only one wagon at a time would be taken into town to unload. The apothecary wagon would be parked in the Temple courtyard to provide free healing to anyone with the white pneumonia or other medical needs.

The nine wagons going to Oxbow Narrows and Azure Falls stayed on the main road. They headed north rather than trying to use the narrow causeway to Swamp Ford. Michael, Jim, and the Oxbow brothers said goodbye to John Neville and High Priest Carson and continued with the wagons. By noon, they were descending the steep north slope of the Blacksmith Hills on the switchbacks of the stone-paved road with the small village of Oxbow Narrows across a long thin lake in the distance. The small town was made visible by the gray smoke from cooking fires mixed with the pitch-black smoke of its iron smelter, the main industry of the small village.

Oxbow Narrows was too small to even have a Perry Shrine, so they expected to find no priests or knight protectors in the area. The four Oxbow brothers were known to and related to almost everyone in town, and they planned to make no attempt to hide their identities from their former neighbors and relatives. They were confident that their friends and family would keep their secret.

It took more than an hour to descend the switchbacks and cross the causeway at a narrow section of Oxbow Lake. All the townspeople turned out surprised to see nine wagons approaching. Almost all wagon traffic had been halted since the King’s roadblocks were established sixty days earlier. While it was easy for an individual to travel through the forest or fields to avoid roadblocks, for wagons it was impossible.

The Oxbow brothers noticed that refugees from the city to the north and west had swollen the town’s population. There were at least twice as many people as when they had been taken prisoner in the summer and sent to Broken Arrow for execution. There were dozens of new tents and lean-tos along the road into town with a bedraggled set of refugees forming up to follow the wagons through the gates and into the town square.

The most surprising comment came from Michael. “I detect three manna signs from fire mages in the village. There are either priests or knight protectors in town.”

Roger said, “We’ll all leave our helmets on, but many of our friends will know us anyway.”

As the wagon caravan moved slowly toward the town square, Michael noticed that the manna signs were coming from three men dressed as merchants rather than traditional priests’ robes. He wondered if the reputation of the priesthood had fallen so low that these refugees were afraid to reveal that they were priests of Perry Ascendant.

As the wagons entered the town square, a huge man, the largest that Michael had ever met stood on a platform in front of the market. He wore the chain of office of a mayor. Michael removed his helmet and rode forward. “Well met honorable mayor. I am Michael Son-of-William. By the generosity of the people of Southport Province and as a gift of Governor Talton and High Priest Simon, we have brought five wagons of food to help feed you and the refugees who have sheltered here from the chaos of the cities. We hope this gift will get you through this bitter winter of death as the white pneumonia ravages our homeland. Four of the wagons we will take to Azure Falls tomorrow.”

The mayor eyed the four Oxbow brothers. Michael had the impression that he suspected who they were, but he merely replied. “Greetings good sir; I am Henry Ironmaster. It is extremely grateful we all are. We had nearly despaired of keeping everyone alive until the spring lambing season. We make our living by trading iron ingots for food and supplies, and with the King’s roadblocks, we have no market for our only product. May Father God bless you and Governor Talton and High Priest Simon for these auspicious gifts. Michael Son-of-William, you have saved many lives. Please come with me into the inn to discuss distribution, and bring your five armored friends.”

As soon as they all entered the empty common room of the Forge of Iron Inn, the Oxbow brothers removed their helmets, and the mayor embraced each of them in turn. Gregory said, “Michael, this is our uncle Henry.”

“When those bastards killed your parents and took you in chains to Broken Arrow, I followed and remained in Broken Arrow for two months trying to discover your fate. I was despondent and weeping to see you hanging from the flaying racks before the temple on that terrible day. I had my sword hidden under my cloak, and I was determined to kill at least one of those temple monsters before you died. When the transparent wall was created, you all disappeared like in some story of the Legends Times. It was the happiest event of my life, but even in my joy, the magic of it scared me witless. How in the name of the Father God did you manage that?”

All four of them looked to Michael to allow him to explain if he wanted. “Henry Ironmaster, I hope you will keep my secret. I discovered an ancient tome that explained the magic of the dwarfs. It was their archaic spells you saw in the temple square.”

“Perhaps we are living in our own Legends Times. Glastamear has never seen the horror of what has happened in the cities, the Great Temples locked and barred to the starving faithful while the priests feast and fornicate. In some cases, nearly half the population has died or fled. Even in Oxbow Narrows, we have lost nearly one in five.”

Jacob explained, “We will see that no one is sick before we leave tomorrow. There is a woman with an apothecary wagon at Swamp Ford with the skill to heal the white pneumonia. She plans to travel to Oxbow Narrows and Azure Falls at regular intervals to heal your sick.”

“Thank Father God that the worst is over. My boys, tell me how you fare since your narrow brush with death.”

They spent that night at the inn. Henry secretly invited good friends and relatives of the Oxbow brothers to celebrate their survival while he kept all strangers away. It was a joyous evening, which left the inn almost empty of ale and wine. Michael noticed that the Oxbow brothers story of survival got more fantastic with each telling. Instant travel through an ancient magic amulet mere seconds before they faced a terrible death, blue-skinned and beautiful naiad maidens who lusted after human men, a giant fire-breathing black dragon fighting two hundred knight protectors, a secret hideout on a distant volcanic island where the guild was rebuilding, an enormous battle with vicious brigands and three rogue knight protectors on the road to Swamp Ford, and even a palatial home among the clouds in fabled sun-drenched Southport’s most magnificent marble apartment tower. Michael was certain by the final telling, not a person in the inn believed a word of it, but they all loved the tale. He thought it would become part of the folklore of Oxbow Narrows. Maybe all epic stories were a result of drunken friends joining in celebration.

During that evening in the inn, Michael learned something of interest from Henry Ironmaster. No one other than the highest church officials knew how the steel armor of knight protectors was made. It was all manufactured in Min Hollow in a secret process within the walls of the temple compound. Henry Ironmaster believed steel was made by adding some other substance to the iron and by using extremely high temperatures, which were augmented by casting Perry’s Fire. Michael suspected that it was a master fire mage who made those temperatures possible. Sometime in the early days of the Church of Perry Ascendant, a powerful fire mage had learned to create the almost impenetrable steel armor.

The next morning about three hours after sunrise, the hung-over adventurers got underway for the tiny settlement of Azure Falls. Michael knew almost nothing about the small town except that he had rescued two young girls with the early signs of healing magic who had been from there. Knight protectors had abducted Isabelle and Anna and killed their parents when they resisted. The church was rounding up every child born with healing magic to train for a new order of healer priests. The town was too small to have a temple or shrine and they expected no problems, but when they approached, Michael noted six signs of fire manna from either priests or knight protectors.

He had the wagon drivers hide their vehicles in a dense stand of pine on a narrow track that led to an abandoned farm. The small house at the farm had been burned within the last few months, and Michael wondered if it had been the home of Isabelle and Anna. He walked through the ruins but found no bodies. The Oxbow brothers and Jim Neville would stand guard with the wagons while he went to investigate the town. Michael had enchanted their armor when he bought it at Broken Arrow in the autumn. He had done the same to the armor he’d recently purchased in Broken Arrow. The spell would render them immune to fire magic. Michael cast the naiad spell
transparency
on himself and walked toward the village.

In the whole history of Glastamear, actual slavery had been prohibited although it was a common practice in some of the other kingdoms of men on the planet Home. What he saw was clearly slavery or something so close to it he could tell no difference. Every man and woman in the village had chains on their ankles. Whip-bearing knights supervised the project that seemed to involve every villager. The whole town was busy at every aspect of building a stone fortification around the small village. The sections that were completed were four paces high and had catwalks on the inside and crenellations for archers.

Michael watched the whips fall on the backs of the slow, weak, or sick, and his fury grew. He found children of eight or more working alongside their parents, and all of the younger children had been herded into an enclosure where they served as hostages to the good behavior of their parents. Piled into the small village cemetery were the bodies of the murdered, still unburied. They showed signs of fireballs or torture by fire magic.

As Michael snuck through the brutalized village to the main square, a final sight of the flaying rack was in use on a young man by a laughing knight protector, caused Michael to remove his helmet to vomit and choke. Instantly, his invisibility was compromised by the sound and the sight of the vomit falling to the ground. Fireballs shot in his direction from the three nearest knight protectors.

On Michael’s armor, like on those of his friends, his cuirass had a small crest of Ki Eagle of black painted gold that was enchanted with
asbestos robe
spell. The fireballs didn’t kill him as they would have any unprotected person, but they made his outline clearly visible within the flames to the attackers. He slammed his helmet back on and he quickly cast
quench fire magic
. The fireballs instantly stopped, but arrows from the crossbows of all six knight protectors soon followed before the knights ran toward him pulling out their two handed swords. The arrows rebounded from his enchanted armor, fortunately missing the unprotected area of joints and hands. He had to immediately decide on flight or fight.

He withdrew his elf-sword and reversed his transparency spell and stood waiting for the attacks of the six steel-plate armored knights with his two handed elf-sword raised high. His best friend, Sir James Neville, had trained Michael in swordsmanship, but Jim’s teaching was superficial compared to the constant training and practice of knight protectors. He was so overmatched by six of them that his efforts to make his own attacks were useless, and he made his every exertion for his own defense, jumping from place to place to avoid being surrounded while parrying as best he could.

Although he had enchanted his leather and chainmail armor with dwarfish spells to make it unusually strong, there were still many weak spots that could not be enchanted and still allow him mobility. His first lucky break occurred when he blocked an extremely powerful down stroke from a knight protector. The blow against his upraised sword caused the knight’s sword to break. Michael’s follow through severed the surprised knight’s head, which flew into the face of a second knight, surprising him for the instant it took for Michael’s elf-sword to remove his right arm right through his steel vambrace.

Many bruising blows struck home against Michael’s enchanted armor. His left arm grew too numb to hold his sword in the proper raised fighting posture. His whole body ached from powerful blows that could not cut through his armor, but left him staggering, bruised, and winded. His vision was narrowing as if he were looking through a tunnel when he heard the yell. Jim and the Oxbow brothers came charging into the battle on their warhorses just as he was slumping to the ground and losing consciousness.

Chapter 9

Michael woke on a pallet on the floor of a small private home. Roger and Gregory Oxbow were lying next to him, and Jacob Oxbow was busy casting healing spells on his brothers.

When Michael woke, Jacob said, “Thank Father God you’re awake now. I need your help with some master healing spells.”

“The knights?”

“All six are dead. You killed two, Jim one, and the other three had their throats cut by villagers after they were down and unconscious.”

Michael rose unsteadily to his knees and began to cast knit bones and other spells to repair deep wounds on Roger and Gregory. Jim was not in the small room, but Jacob went to tell him that Michael was awake.

As Michael worked, he thought of what they had discovered. A few rogue knights were able to completely take over a village and make everyone a virtual slave. He thought that must have been what happened when the sons of Perry began to spread out from the Mountains of Min to take over the seven kingdoms twenty centuries earlier. Ordinary men and women had no defense against a steel-armored knight who was also a fire mage, and steel armor could only be made in the augment fires where magic assisted the ordinary ironworker. The church would have had the only steel armor and no human had a defense against their fire magic at that time.

From the church’s accounts of great battle victories, it was clear that many had resisted the fire mages’ conquest, but it was the victors who had written the story of Glastamear’s past. History merely referred to the losers as the heathen horde. Like the three thousand who had been burned at Broken Arrow after the final victory of the Church of Perry Ascendant, almost nothing was known of these humans who lived before the church’s conquest. Not even the names of their ancient kings remained on fallen monuments; it had all been erased. Remote echoes from tales of the Legend times were all that remained.

Even without fire magic, the villagers of Azure Falls could not have repulsed six men in steel armor riding war horses, but men trained as soldiers might have been able to resist. If they completed their walls replacing their wooden stockade with stone, archers should be able to prevent even knights from getting into the town.

Michael decided he needed to stop as much fire magic as possible by placing items enchanted with
quench fire magic
in every town and city in the area. By doing that he would eliminate the power of ordinary priests to take over a community, but the plate-steel armored knights would still be a significant power in Glastamear. After the warning of last autumn from the red dragon Firebreath, he dared not approach the center of power in Min Hollow, but much of the rest of Glastamear could be made safe from fire magic.

Michael decided to not block the fire magic spells in Southport or Swamp Ford, since good men represented the church in those places. They would be able to continue the rituals of the church in their temples. These few good men might be the basis for rebuilding a better Glastamear. In the towns where he blocked fire magic, the temple leaders would be unable to perform the sacred sacrament, and that failure would loosen the hold of the church on these populations.

Jim entered the small room and embraced Michael. “We heard the clash of arms and rode our warhorses to your aid. That we were on horseback as we attacked, gave us the advantage in the first seconds of the battle. Although we all took injuries, the knights are all dead. I’ve been out casting the
ease of passing
spell on the poor fellow they were flaying in the square. He had slipped out of town trying to find help, and this hideous death was his punishment.”

“Thank you for the timely rescue, Jim. I was way overmatched in that fight. I should have run when they first noticed me.”

Jim nodded acknowledging that truth. “When you’re fully recovered and finished healing Roger and Gregory, I’d like you to meet some of the leaders of the village. They are grateful to us, but they fear others from the church will discover that six knight protectors died here. They know you as Michael Son-of-William an important merchant of Southport who is delivering aid.”

After Jim left to apply some healing spells to three of their horses, Michael pulled out ten gold crowns from his purse and used dwarfish magic to form them into a cylinder. He pulled enough iron from the soil under the hut to coat the cylinder in iron about the thickness of a thumbnail to hide its value in gold. He cast his most powerful version of
quench fire magic
on the cylinder. It would be enough to suppress all fire magic within about ten thousand paces, far beyond the limits of the small village of about a hundred people.

Michael put on his somewhat damaged armor, except for the helmet, and went out to meet the village leaders. Three men were standing in front of a large crowd as they took the unfortunate man down from the racks. There were many tears in the crowd. An elderly man using a walking stick approached Michael.

“Michael Son-of-William, I’m Walter Tallman, and the people of Azure Ford are grateful for the supplies and for getting rid of those rogue knights.”

“Well met, Walter Tallman. Jim has told me about your concerns. You are right to fear that other knights may follow. Already we have seen them lead other bands of brigands because the customary stability in this province has broken down completely.”

Michael handed him the unimpressive cylinder. “This is a gift of the naiads of Black Sand Beach. There will be no fire magic possible in Azure Ford as long as it’s here. I suggest you bury it below the shrine to Father God in the square. I promise that fire magic will never trouble you again as long as it is present. However, you will still need defenses. Laws are breaking down and brigandage is now widespread in Briarton and Hearthshire Provinces. I recommend that you finish your stout stone town walls. You should be able to finish construction within ten days if everyone continues to work at it. The travertine you’re using is soft. It will not stand against siege equipment, but it should be impervious against outlaws and rogue knights. You now have six stout crossbows from the fallen knights. I suggest you fashion new wooden stocks and file off anything that identifies them as being from knight protectors. Their quarrels will threaten even steel armor at close range. Do many of you have skill with a longbow?”

“To be sure. The elk come down from the Blacksmith Hills every autumn. They are our major source of winter meat, and every young man knows the longbow.”

“Any hunter who can kill an elk can also kill an outlaw. Order has broken down, and you must look to your own protection, wise Walter Tallman.”

“And what of these dead knights. What should we do with the evil offal?”

“I would like to send their armor to Henry Ironmaster in Oxbow Narrows. He may learn something from it, but in any case, he can either pound it into some other use or melt it if he can make a fire hot enough. The bodies you should bury someplace away from town, maybe in the burned farm we passed on the way to town.”

“That, good sir, would be fitting since it was some knight protectors who burned it and killed the owners.”

“My friends are injured; we would like to spend about a week here. That will provide some protection until that final section of wall is closed. You can finish the rest of the height and the other defenses after we leave. We’ll help with that too. I’ve read some old books that describe defensive walls, and I’d be happy to make suggestions. I’ll send the wagons back with the others in our caravan; most of them are from Swamp Ford and will be anxious to return to their families.”

Walter replied, “We welcome you and are pleased you’ll be here for many days. None of us knows anything about walls and defenses, and I’m sure we could use the help. The house of the smith is vacant because those vipers killed him and his son after they raped his wife to death. I pray those knight-fiends be reincarnated as fleas on sewer rats!”

Michael thought being in the smithy was good fortune. He wanted to do some magical metal work to strengthen both the main gate and postern gate. He also wanted to perform some dwarfish magic that would strengthen the travertine walls to make them as hard as granite.

He had decided that his trading business needed a secure location farther north than Southport. Azure Falls had good stone-paved roads that led down to Southport and north to Hearthshire Town and Briarton. He decided that this small town might make an excellent hub for shipping relief goods to the desperate people of the northern cities. It was also one of the most beautiful locations that he had ever seen, with the dramatic cascade of pure blue water pouring down the glistening tan travertine cliffs and tumbling down through boulders to bring the mountain stream within forty paces of the small town. Although winter, the town was low enough not to be snowed in, but high enough to have pleasant summers. Michael had only the very beginning of an idea for massive change in Glastamear, but he would need a number of secure bases to work from. Although Swamp Falls had his friend John Neville as mayor, it was too inaccessible with its single narrow causeway through the swamp. Someday he might be shipping weapons to many parts of Glastamear for rebels fighting against the church and monarchy.

He spent an hour using dwarfish spells to pull gold from the soil and forming it into gold crown coins using the spell
copy metal shapes
. He found Walter Tallman and asked about purchasing land inside the new walls for a warehouse. “Follow me Michael. My parents had a house and big garden very near the main gate. The house is a wreck and has been vacant for fifteen years, but its garden is the biggest plot of land within the new walls. It’s next to the smithy where you’re staying.”

“Yes, I know that track. It would be the right size and close to the main gates. Lets go look at it.”

By that evening, Michael had purchased both the track of land near the gate and the smithy from the nephew of the slain blacksmith. After the stone walls were finished, he arranged for those who wanted winter employment to construct a stone building whose first floor would house up to ten wagons and their horses, and whose second floor would provide secure storage for goods and a place for drivers to sleep as they passed through town.

Each night during their week stay in Azure Falls, Michael transformed into his now familiar Great Ki Eagle shape. He flew to every village in central Glastamear to hide or bury a cylinder that would prevent fire mages from casting their spells. He hoped to reduce the threat of rogue knight protectors and priests, but also, to cast doubt on the validity of the Church of Perry Ascendant.

After he discussed their return trip with Jim and the Oxbow brothers, they agreed to travel through the area of Hearthshire Town on their way to Broken Arrow. Michael was curious about the fate of his former home and wanted to retrieve books from William’s library. Next they would ride to Broken Arrow. After learning the fate of the wagons and troops who went there, they would ride south through Marigold Meadows to Southport. If conditions were stable enough, their next wagon caravan would take food from the south to Hearthshire Town. The whole system of roadblocks had broken down. The king’s travel restrictions were no longer being enforced in central Glastamear, but the letter from Governor Talton had been sufficient for passage at the remaining roadblocks. If there were a problem now that they were no longer escorting wagons, Michael knew a few gold crowns would clear almost any obstacle in this time of turmoil.

On his final night in Azure Falls, Michael flew back to his apartment in Southport to visit Diana. They enjoyed each other’s company and discussed plans for additional relief supplies. Diana would soon dispatch the next caravan north towards Hearthshire Town, but it would wait in Broken Arrow for the final word from Michael before going to the city. They didn’t want to hand the goods to the church or to some bandit group.

Diana commented as they sat together in their bedroom, “This Azure Falls sound beautiful. I’d like to visit someday. It disturbs me that so few knights could hold a town in servitude. We need to find a way for ordinary people to defend themselves.”

“There are certain arrow points designed to penetrate armor. Each arrow would not do much damage, but enough of them will bring down even a knight protector. Maybe Henry Ironmaster will find a better solution in the future.”

“I’ll see that the next caravan’s guards will have armor piercing arrows. It will at least give our guards a chance against a knight, but they have no defense against fireballs unless they’re near one of your
quench fire magic
enchanted items.”

“My love, I need to go, but I’ll come back when I can.”

“Keep safe for me and the twin girls who have begun to grow inside me.”

“There was something I haven’t mentioned,” Michael said sheepishly.

“What’s that?’

“I was sneaking around Azure Falls and the knights figured out I was there. All six of them attacked.”

“But you were invisible. Why didn’t you just run away, hide in an outhouse or something.”

“I made a bad choice. I stood and fought.”

“Why are boys always so stupid? Every stick they pick up they transform into an imaginary sword. Why in Father God’s name would you stand and fight six armored knights?”

“I had killed two in the attack near Swamp Ford. I just reacted and was over confident. I should have run back to where Jim and the Oxbow brothers were waiting, but when I saw what they were doing to that young man, I …”