The Magelands Box Set

by Christopher Mitchell

  Bridget leaned forward and embraced him as he began to weep.

  ‘It’s alright, ya auld lizard,’ she said, patting him on the back.

  ‘It’s not though, is it?’ said Dyam, her pale blonde hair blowing in the breeze. ‘Our folk might survive, if we defeat the Emperor, but we’ll never be the same.’

  ‘None of us will,’ said Shella. ‘Let’s face it, even if the Emperor hadn’t gained all his new powers, we were probably going to kill each other anyway.’

  ‘I wonder what he’s been doing?’ said Agang. ‘It’s been nearly a year since I fled the imperial capital with Keira. We know he attacked Rainsby, but what else has he done in our absence?’

  ‘Gathering more mages, I’d guess,’ Shella said. ‘That’s what Kalayne said he’d be doing. So he could try again.’

  ‘Then he could be anywhere,’ Bridget said. ‘Pyre’s arsecrack, we’re unprepared.’

  Laodoc frowned. ‘Maybe we should go to the imperial city first,’ he said, ‘and learn what’s been going on in the empire before we do anything else.’

  ‘We have to find Daphne Holdfast’s daughter,’ Agang said. ‘The most obvious place to start looking is in the Holdings. Besides, we’re bound to hear word on the road about what’s been going on, once we get down to the Plateau at any rate.’

  ‘Traveller’s gossip?’ Laodoc said. ‘Damn it, how I wish we had a vision mage with us.’ He glanced around, his frown turning into a crooked smile. ‘It’s the only one we’re missing. We’re one mage short of a ritual.’

  Shella shook her head at him. ‘I keep forgetting that you’re one too.’

  ‘A poorer specimen you’d be hard put to find,’ he said. ‘I can make sand quiver, well I could, it’s been forty years since I tried that particular party trick.’

  Dyam ruffled Dean’s hair, and glanced up to Shella. She pulled on the reins, and the wagon moved off again. They continued along the path as it descended the side of the hills. After a mile, the view of the Plateau was lost as they entered a narrow gorge.

  It grew dark in the shadows of the steep cliffs, and the path became wet and slippery from water running down the rocks. Ahead, Laodoc noticed the opening of a cave.

  ‘Are we going through there?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Shella. ‘This is the reason I couldn’t find the pass when I came south from the Plateau. The cave goes through a spur of the mountain, and emerges under a waterfall. You could walk right up to it from the other side, and never know there was a tunnel there.’

  She took a lamp from under the driver’s bench and lit it as they entered the cave. The walls were smooth, as if the tunnel had been formed by flowing water many years before. The way was narrow, and the others on foot had to go ahead of the wagon. Shella attached the lamp to a short post by her side, and they travelled on, the only sound coming from the clipping of the stones under the gaiens’ clawed feet. The tunnel descended at a gradual pace, and after twenty minutes, they began to hear the roar of water. Shella extinguished the lamp as a circle of shimmering grey appeared.

  ‘The waterfall,’ she said. ‘Through there’s the Plateau.’

  Agang looked up at them. ‘We should scout the way first.’

  ‘I’ll go,’ said Lola.

  ‘Alright,’ said Bridget. ‘We’ll wait for ye.’

  The Lach woman took her longbow from the wagon, and pulled it free from its covering. She picked up a quiver of arrows, nodded to Bridget, and set off for the waterfall without a word. She squeezed to the left of the tunnel, where the falling torrent was lighter, and disappeared through the curtain of water.

  ‘Four mages sat here,’ said Shella, ‘and we send someone without powers.’

  ‘Lola’s a good scout,’ Bridget said. ‘It’s her job, it’s why we brought her.’

  ‘I hope you’re paying her well.’

  Bridget laughed. She stopped, as she noticed the look on Dean’s face.

  ‘Sorry about Lilyann,’ she said. She climbed down from the wagon. ‘Here. It’s your turn anyway.’

  Dean clambered up, and huddled down among the crates and sacks of supplies, as Bridget stretched her limbs.

  ‘So are there farms and shit in this part of the Plateau?’ she said.

  ‘I passed a couple,’ said Shella, ‘though I gave them a wide berth.’

  ‘Our half of the Plateau has been sparsely populated since the old wars with the Holdings ended,’ Laodoc said. ‘The opening of the Great Tunnel through the Grey Mountains was meant to herald a new wave of settlement. Instead, it merely allowed the alliance army to reach Rahain quicker.’

  ‘It’s the same in the Holdings half,’ Agang said. ‘My information said that there would be farms and towns, but it was mostly deserted.’

  ‘Such a fucking waste,’ Shella said. ‘It’s all good land. If we’d been allowed to settle there, then the Migration would have succeeded. The Holdings and the Rahain were just too greedy though. Neither side wanted us anywhere near them.’

  Bridget nodded, then glanced up at Laodoc. ‘I’m starting to feel a bit bad about inventing all that stuff for yer book.’

  ‘I understand why you did it,’ he sighed. ‘I can see why you wouldn’t want your secrets read out in every school and academy in Rahain, but I admit it does hurt a little. Simiona spent many days working on it, and I know how much it meant to her.’

  ‘When this is all over,’ she said. ‘We’ll get a few bottles of whisky, sit down together and do it properly. For Simiona. We’ll dedicate it to her memory.’

  ‘I would like that.’

  Dyam snorted. ‘If ye want it done properly, then don’t listen to anything she tells ye. I taught Kellach history and culture in Slateford’s schoolhouse. I’ll help.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘She’ll just tell ye about how great she thinks the Domm are,’ Bridget said. ‘Those conceited arseholes are always forgetting about the rest of us.’

  ‘Aye?’ smirked Dyam. ‘And what is there to know about Brig except that they reek of sheep shit and their ale’s crap?’

  Laodoc smiled. ‘I’ll need to ask Lola about the Lach, then. And later, someone with the Kell point of view.’

  ‘Ye’ll have Killop for that,’ Bridget said, ‘when we finally meet up with him. Though watch out, the Kell are up their own arses almost as much as the Domm.’ She shook her head. ‘They think they’re fucking special. Keira’s a prime example, and Kylon wasn’t far behind.’

  Shella raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re all just barbarian giants who live in caves and eat dung as far as I’m concerned. Kylon was alright, though. I even fancied him a tiny bit.’

  ‘That moody bastard?’ laughed Bridget.

  ‘I did say a tiny bit, I wasn’t infatuated or anything. But unlike the rest of you at least he had some dress sense. And washed occasionally. And, you know, brushed his hair more than once a third.’

  Bridget and Dyam frowned at her.

  ‘Yer a right cheeky wee cow,’ Dyam said, ‘for a shortarse.’

  ‘She’s just jealous,’ Bridget said. ‘She wishes she was Kellach.’

  ‘Yeah right,’ Shella sneered. ‘Great lumbering oafs that stink of alcohol whose every second word is fuck?’

  ‘Better than maggot-eating swamp frogs,’ Bridget said. ‘Can yer tongue catch flies?’

  ‘Got a problem with flies, have you? Maybe you should take a bath.’

  ‘Bloody women,’ muttered Agang. ‘Always bickering.’

  ‘Shut it, ya monkey-arsed reject,’ said Bridget.

  ‘Yeah,’ smirked Shella, ‘when we want your opinion we’ll ask for it, ape-boy.’

  ‘I wouldn’t interfere,’ said Laodoc, glancing at Agang as he seethed. ‘I seem to recall that the Kellach Brigdomin use insults as a form of endearment. The worse the epithet, the more they like you, or so I believe.’

  ‘Yer arse,’ said Dyam.

  ‘As for Shella,’ Laodoc went on, ‘she derives a curious pleasure from seeing how far she can push p
eople. If you rise to her bait, then she’ll come back again and again for more.’

  ‘You’re a wise old lizard sometimes.’ Shella said, ‘though mostly, like now, you’re just a pain in the ass.’

  A wry smile settled on his lips as Shella, Bridget and Dyam laughed.

  ‘I hope Lola’s back soon,’ muttered Agang.

  Two hours later, the bottom-left corner of the waterfall shimmered and Lola walked through, her clothes and hair drenched.

  ‘How’d it go?’ asked Bridget.

  ‘Not great.’

  She reached into a sack on the back of the wagon, and took out a wrapped chunk of ryebread. She tore off a piece and shoved it in her mouth.

  ‘Well?’ said Agang.

  She turned to him.

  ‘They’re waiting for us.’

  ‘Who?’ said Laodoc.

  ‘Imperials. About a company or so of Holdings troopers. They’ve been up here, scouting round the waterfall, but they didn’t see the tunnel. I saw tracks outside and followed them down the hill. They’re camped about three miles from here.’

  ‘Can we go round them?’ said Bridget.

  ‘Not if we want to keep the wagon,’ Lola said, chewing the bread. ‘We could climb, and take a detour to the west, but there’s no way the gaien will be going up those slopes.’

  ‘So we lose the wagon and walk to the Holdings,’ said Agang, ‘or we fight.’

  ‘We can’t fight a whole company of troopers,’ said Laodoc.

  ‘You know,’ said Shella, ‘I suppose I could go down there and kill them all.’

  The others quietened.

  ‘If you want,’ she said.

  ‘Alone?’ said Bridget.

  ‘Well, I’d want a couple of you with me, to give me cover,’ Shella said, ‘but you can leave the killing to me.’

  ‘I’ll go,’ said Agang. ‘I’ll need to borrow one of the Kellach’s shields.’

  ‘Take Dean’s,’ said Dyam. ‘It’s not like he knows how to use it.’

  Laodoc glanced at the boy, but he said nothing, his gaze on the floor of the wagon.

  ‘I’ll come as well,’ said Lola. ‘I know the way.’

  ‘Alright then,’ said Shella, sighing. ‘Holdings, eh? I hope they have some cigarettes on them. I’ll be needing one later.’

  ‘Wait,’ said Laodoc. ‘Is this the right thing to do? These soldiers have probably been conscripted, and sent out far from their homes and families. It’s not their fault the Emperor is evil.’ He bowed his head. ‘If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t even need a wagon. I’m the one who’ll slow us down if we have to walk, and so I cannot help but feel responsible if you slaughter these Holdings youths.’

  ‘Don’t worry, old man,’ said Shella, touching his arm, ‘there’s no way I’m walking to the Holdings.’

  She jumped down to the ground and strode forwards. Agang took a shield from the back of the wagon, and he and Lola followed the Rakanese mage.

  Shella turned.

  ‘We’ll be back in a couple of hours,’ she shouted over the roar of the waterfall.

  Laodoc nodded, and Shella went through the curtain of water, followed by Agang and Lola.

  Bridget and Dyam glanced at each other, while Dean remained silent in the back of the wagon.

  ‘That’s fucked up,’ said Bridget.

  ‘No shit,’ said Dyam.

  Two hours passed, and Shella had not returned.

  Dyam had kicked Dean out of the wagon, and was sleeping in the back, while Bridget sat up on the driver’s bench next to Laodoc. Dean had disappeared, though Laodoc suspected the boy was sulking in some dark corner of the cavern.

  ‘I hope he’s all right,’ Laodoc said. ‘The boy.’

  ‘What, Dean?’ Bridget said. ‘He shouldn’t have come. It’s my fault, I should’ve been firmer at the start, and said no.’

  ‘Don’t blame yourself, Bridget,’ he said. ‘I was there too, and I didn’t object to him coming along either. You and Dyam, you’ve tried your best for him, but the boy’s not suited to magehood.’

  ‘He’s too sensitive,’ Bridget said. ‘Needs to find a nice lassie and settle down.’

  They heard a noise from the waterfall, and turned to see Lola emerge into the cavern.

  ‘It’s done,’ she said.

  Bridget and Laodoc glanced at each other.

  ‘Shella…?’

  ‘She fucking killed them all, just like she said she would,’ Lola said, shaking her head. ‘It was quite a sight.’

  Bridget nudged Dyam awake.

  ‘We’re going,’ she said, then gazed around the cavern. ‘Dean?’

  Dyam rubbed her head and sat up. ‘Where is that boy?’

  ‘He’s down at the Holdings camp,’ said Lola. ‘I thought you’d sent him.’

  ‘No,’ said Bridget frowning, ‘we didn’t.’

  Dyam clambered down from the wagon, and pulled a tarpaulin over the crates and sacks.

  ‘That should keep it dry,’ she said.

  Bridget yanked on the reins, and the two gaien began to lumber towards the waterfall. Lola and Dyam slipped through first on foot, then Laodoc and Bridget closed their eyes and went through. The roar of the water was deafening, and the torrent soaked them as they passed out of the cavern. The wheels of the wagon climbed up a bank, and Laodoc looked around.

  The waterfall fed a sparkling stream that flowed to their right, while around was a forest of tall conifers mixed with spruce. The ground was sloping away in front of them, and a track wound its way down the mountainside. Above them, the sky was blue with patches of white clouds. Bridget shook her head, spraying water over Laodoc as she laughed.

  ‘Welcome to the Plateau,’ smirked Lola from where she leant against a tree. ‘This way.’

  Lola set off down the track, as Dyam climbed back up onto the wagon, pouring the pools of water from the tarpaulin onto the ground. Bridget pulled on the reins, and they took off, following Lola down the hillside.

  Laodoc scanned the ground ahead, but the trees were too thickly spread for him to see much. The ground was piled in brown pine needles, and the wagon was gouging deep ruts in the mud. They carried on down the track for an hour, the gaien slow and awkward on the slope. As they reached an area of flatter ground, Lola turned to them.

  ‘I should warn ye,’ she said, ‘the camp’s just up ahead. It’s not too pretty in there. And there’s something else.’

  ‘What?’ said Bridget.

  ‘Shella and Agang, they took a prisoner,’ Lola said. ‘Some Holdings mage-priest that was with the troopers. They were… questioning him in his tent when I left.’

  ‘And Dean?’ said Dyam.

  ‘The lad was in there with them.’

  Bridget flicked the reins, and they carried on. At the base of a tree, Laodoc caught sight of the first bodies, a pair of Holdings sentries, streams of blood running from their eye sockets. They went another hundred yards, and passed a low embankment marking the edge of the square-shaped camp. On the other side of the bank the scale of the carnage became clear. Dozens of bodies littered the ground, men and women in imperial uniforms. Some were in full armour, while others were half-naked, lying dead at the entrances of their tents.

  Laodoc’s tongue flickered as the wagon stopped, the path ahead blocked by corpses. They climbed down, and made their way on foot towards the large command tent where Lola was leading them. They stepped over and around the bodies. Laodoc tried not to look at their faces, but his sight was drawn. Each had been killed in the same way as the sentries, their eyes gone, the hollow sockets raw, red holes in their faces. Blood streaked their uniforms and the sides of the tents pitched in rows, and had formed into pools on the ground.

  ‘Fucksake,’ he heard Bridget mutter, as they passed a low campfire. It was still burning, and around it lay the bodies of a dozen troopers, some still clutching bowls of food in their dead hands.

  They walked past two dead guards and into the command tent. Inside were tables and chairs, and a
row of low camp beds. Bodies lay scattered where they had fallen. At the end of the tent, Laodoc saw Shella and Agang. They were standing in front of a man who had been tied to a chair. His head was lolling forwards, a blindfold covering his eyes, his face a red pulp.

  ‘Shall I heal him again?’ said Agang.

  ‘Nah,’ said Shella. ‘He’s given us everything he’s got.’ She clicked her fingers, and the man in the chair made a choking noise, and his head fell forwards.

  Bridget walked up to the figure in the chair, as Shella and Agang turned.

  Dyam snarled as she spotted Dean, sitting in the corner, his eyes transfixed on the body.

  ‘Get the fuck out of here,’ she said. ‘This is no place for a bairn.’

  ‘What?’ he said, looking up. ‘And out there’s better?’

  Bridget frowned at Shella and Agang.

  ‘Yer a pair of sick wee fucks.’

  ‘Didn’t know you were so sensitive,’ said Shella.

  ‘We got a lot of information out of him,’ said Agang, ‘some good, some not so.’

  Laodoc said nothing.

  ‘I’m going to clear the road,’ said Bridget, ‘so we can get out of here as fast as fucking possible.’

  She left the tent.

  ‘We’ll help,’ said Dyam, grabbing Dean by the collar, and hauling him out after her.

  Shella lit a cigarette, her fingers red.

  ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she said.

  ‘I wasn’t aware I was looking at you in any particular fashion, madam mage,’ Laodoc said.

  ‘Yeah right,’ she said. ‘You think I’m a cold-blooded bitch.’

  ‘Why would he think that?’ said Agang. ‘We were only doing what was required. I don’t see the problem.’

  She glanced at him. ‘Maybe in Sanang the torturing of prisoners is routine, but Laodoc lives to a higher standard. It’s fine. Let him have his moment of moral superiority. He’ll still benefit from what we learned.’

  Agang frowned. ‘Say something, my friend.’

  Laodoc let out a long breath. ‘I don’t know what to say. My heart is burning with a fierce mixture of anger and disappointment, and guilt, at my part in this.’

  ‘Grow up,’ said Shella, heading for the entrance to the tent.