by D. R. Rosier
I started to sweat, as I focused on one thread at a time, while keeping the others in hand. The first one I modified was the hardest, but then I could ignore the permanently changed one, and only hold two others while I changed the second. The last two went a lot faster, and easier.
Relatively easier. It still took me almost twenty minutes to get all four.
I turned to the captain, “We should be good, I’m going to have to change it back when we’re finished, or they’ll figure out what happened, and that there’s a diviner on our side when one of theirs returns to the island. I had to permanently change the ward to make this work. It extends over the whole cove, so it’ll be detecting us the whole time we’re here.”
Melinda stared at me for a moment, and then nodded. She turned and looked at her navigator.
“Alright, get this ship in the cove and under cover from patrols.”
Several of the crew reacted, and the ship moved forward again slowly, just under the power of magic.
My mind wandered a bit, and Sharon asked, “What are you thinking?”
I grinned, “On several ways to improve this ward. It was self-healing, and could defend itself against spells. I have several ideas to make it diviner proof. I’m sure they could have, if they ever thought someone like me was a possibility.”
She frowned, “How?”
“Compartmentalization. I’d make it into several separate wards, all which both support the nearby wards, but can report back if any of the wards were changed. I doubt a diviner would be able to change all of them, since he’d only be able to come into range of four of them at a time inside the grid. The ones out of his range would sense the change, and then report on the incursion.”
I kind of got the idea from a sensor net, like the one that protects the shores of the united states from subs. A string of wards that could pass communications, repair the spells on their neighbors and report on it when detecting changes. A ward network. I also realized that it would overcome the distance issue, kind of like a magic cable or grid. I figured even magical communications would work that way, but it would require a ward for lack of a better term, every two hundred yards, like cell towers.
Something like that wouldn’t really be feasible for moving ships out on the ocean, I couldn’t even imagine how many of them would be required to cover the earth, but for a small island, fast communications and a powerful sensor net would be more than possible with magic. Of course, for ships that wanted to report back information, there could be a spell that would move an enchanted object to predefined coordinates to pass the message. Kind of like a magical homing pigeon.
It wouldn’t be able to find the ship again, since the ship would move, but one-way communication would still come in handy, especially if disaster struck.
I shook my head, I wasn’t here to advance magic, although I might take a look at it someday, I was here to help liberate sorceresses, and perhaps take down a kingdom.
Though, for the latter part I’d no idea where to start.
The goddess had told me to be who I was, and I’d do her will. It was fairly obvious what she’d expected, it was part of who I am. Still, magical research sounded like a good hobby. I could see ways to build magical scouts as well. I didn’t have time now, to develop them, but in the future it would help. I’d make it a priority during our next two-month layover before a mission.
Sharon nodded thoughtfully, “So instead of one solid ring of metal around the island to hold the ward, it would be separate? That sounds like a lot of effort.”
I frowned in thought. Spells were rather difficult, and took preparation and time to cast. On the scale I was thinking it would take a lot of spell work to enchant all those objects. I’d have to think on it, perhaps there was a way to enchant multiple objects at once?
“You’re right, but it’s worth looking into, and would be far more efficient and resistant to tampering.”
The captain cleared her throat interrupting us and took the five of us in, gazing at each of us for a moment. Sharon, Lia, Jenna, Marie, and I waited for her to talk.
She was really good at that authoritative presence thing, better than my sergeant back at the police station.
“You should get to sleep early. You leave at first light.”
We all nodded, shared a quick glance, and then headed for our cabins. While Sharon, Lia, and I didn’t quite go to bed right away, it wasn’t all that long before I was sandwiched between their soft supple bodies, and we let sleep take us.
Chapter Twenty-One
I frowned at the overgrown wagon track. The cove was rocky, and isolated both from casual inspection at sea, and from land. Through a cave and out the other side was an old wagon track that led through the forest, presumably out the other side to meet with a well-travelled road.
The problem was, it looked rather impassable now.
I looked back over to the ladies, who looked almost strange dressed in simply country dresses, and soft brown dear skin boots. They looked good of course, I was just so used to seeing them in the skin tight armor. Of course, the armor would be a dead giveaway of who we really were.
“How long?”
Lia bit her lip, “The cove hadn’t been used in at least fifty years, not since the whole island ward went up.”
I nodded slowly. It was now overgrown by brush, bushes, and even young trees. Nature had reclaimed the trail, which looked to have been only just wide enough for a wagon to begin with.
Marie cleared her throat, “I can get us through.”
The earth rumbled, as the ground moved the bushes, high grass, and even the small trees to the side for the first hundred feet of trail or so.
It was kind of cool, but I frowned, “That’s going to be awfully loud.”
I wasn’t sure that anyone would hear it, or even be close enough to feel the ground shake. But it also was about the furthest from stealthy that was possible. We might as well take a brass band with us. The closer we got to the other side and the main road through this area, the larger the chance the wrong person would take notice.
Marie’s usual smile didn’t falter, but she did raise an eyebrow in challenge.
“Got a better idea?”
I didn’t, not really. Luckily, the mission commander did.
Lia said, “Levitate the wagon about six feet up, and that will put it above the bushes and grass. I can steer and propel it around the smaller trees with air. Sharon and Jenna can ride or lead the horses, and we can wait to hitch up to the wagon when we get passed this portion of forest.”
That would work well. The axles were metal, and the wagon wouldn’t know the difference, they supported all the weight of the wagon whether on the ground or in the air.
“I can help?” I asked. With either actually.
Lia looked at me, “I know, but I want you to keep watch, the forest is pretty thick, and if we run into any wielders you should feel them long before they see us, or before we see them.”
I nodded in agreement, she was in charge of the mission after all. She was also right, the woods were thick, and I couldn’t see two hundred feet through the brush and trees, much less two hundred yards.
I also found it hard to believe they’ve never heard of murphy’s law, so far nothing had gone as we’d planned. The ships we ran into, the difficulty with the ward, and now this. I didn’t expect our luck to change once we reached the city either. Hopefully, I’d be pleasantly surprised.
Perhaps this world had a lack of superstition because magic and gods were clearly real.
Jenna and Sharon wound up walking the horses, if they lost control and the horse spooked, there were too many branches and obstacles to safely ride normally, much less if the horse took off. While Lia and Marie handled the wagon I walked out front, maybe twenty feet ahead. It was slow going on foot with all the natural barricades we had to get passed, and it took us close to an hour and a half to cover just the two or so miles to the main road.
Luckily, we didn’t run into a
nyone, or any other issues.
I knew from the briefing, that to the south were a couple of towns surrounded by farmland. We hitched up the horses, and then headed north at a slow, but a much quicker pace than in the forest. I figured we were going fast enough to make it to the city before lunchtime, which would be plenty of time to sell our wares, and discover exactly where the sorceresses were being held pending the suppression of their magic.
I steeled myself to not react to whatever I might see. It went against the grain, but I knew if I started trying to right wrongs, I’d most likely just make the situation worse. Not to mention it would increase the risk to my mates, as well as Jenna and Marie.
It didn’t turn out that way though, it was a bit farther than we expected. I was hardly surprised by the new wrinkle in our plans, since it was clearly just that kind of mission.
Lia halted us at midday.
“Let’s eat lunch. We don’t have Pheles coin, better not to risk using it.”
All the islands had similar coin weight, but the casting was slightly different. The original plan was to use the coin we gained from selling the produce to get lunch. It was a bit late for that, or rather would be by the time we got to the city, so we wound up eating a vegetable and fruit lunch from the back of the wagon.
I hoped all our setbacks would continue to be easily dealt with. We were all a little nervous and on edge, there were a lot of places for the plan to go tits up. The good news was we’d seen several travelers on the road, and none of them gave us a second look.
Well, outside of a normal second look as men checked out the four women I travelled with.
Jenna made a disgusted face as she bit into a turnip and swallowed.
“Next time we pack lunch.”
Lia nodded in agreement, raw veggies wasn’t the best meal after all. The fruit wasn’t so bad of course.
Marie grumbled, “With a fire and twenty minutes I could make something.”
Lia shook her head a little regretfully, “No magic this close to the city, too risky, and none of us have a flint and steel. Plus, we’re running behind as it is.”
Sharon took a deep drink of water to wash her last bite down.
“At least we packed water.”
Jenna shrugged, “Could be worse. But I’m done.”
We all cleaned up, and then continued toward the city. It wasn’t long at all before the next problem cropped up.
As we approached the gate to the city, and reached magical range, I felt several spells on the gates.
“Umm, the gates are spelled,” I said softly.
Lia looked at me sharply, “With what?”
I frowned, “It’s not as intricate as the wards, but it explains why they feel safe without a diviner here. The spell just detects and identifies wielders.”
Sharon frowned, “So did it detect us?”
I shook my head, “It’s only active right around the gate, I imagine there are a lot of wielders within two hundred yards of the gate.”
That only stood to reason, if approximately a quarter of the population had magic.
Lia looked relieved, “Can you get us through it?”
I nodded slowly, “Easily. I also feel the spells on the walls, to stop and report tunneling or magic use. I can get around those as well, tonight I mean.”
Jenna shook her head, “You’re kind of scary Tony.”
Sharon frowned, “But he’s ours.”
Jenna nodded easily in agreement.
Like the island ward, on both I’d just need to disrupt the part that communicated with the guards. These didn’t have self-correcting magic on them, although that kind of worried me, what if there was another spell somewhere else monitoring it?
If there was, it would be within two hundred yards of it. As a result, I waited until the very last second to disable it, hoping a secondary backup would come in range before we did. Fortunately, for once luck was with us, and my paranoia didn’t pay off. There was no secondary spell.
The guards looked us over, and I clenched my teeth when I caught one leering at Sharon, but I managed not to outwardly react to it. It wasn’t jealousy, the admiring looks of the other guards didn’t really bother me too much, except a twinge, it was a protective anger that rose within me. I could see the dark glint in his eyes, which told me his thoughts were much darker than mere attraction.
They didn’t question us though, or even stop us, as we moved through the gate. They just casually inspected the wagon full of food as it rolled by. I released the spell on the gate when we were through, and it snapped back into its normal configuration.
Almost immediately there was a second stroke of luck.
The guards’ barracks and jail was near to that entrance, and we passed by it on the way to the market. If it wasn’t part of our cover, we could have turned around and gone back immediately. The place was warded by spells, but nothing that I couldn’t get around.
The wards there were tighter, more restrictive, and set to allow only certain people through, like one of the wards around a ship. Otherwise it would let off an alarm, and even block magic access in that area. I’d subverted that type of ward more than once already, so it would be easy to tell it to ignore us, as we tunneled up into the holding cells.
I also felt twenty-six wielders along with their suppression bracelets, which meant three more were added since the last intelligence report. That was good news, we’d save even more than I’d thought.
Another thing I noticed as we started into the market, was I could feel all the sorceresses that had been permanently suppressed. They had a sort of empty magical echo. It also felt wrong, and I knew I could not only restore their access to magic, but that it would be simple.
A part of me considered doing just that. I could just reach out and free who knows how many sorceresses, but I restrained myself. The ship would be crowded with just twenty-six new arrivals, there would be no way to take that many ladies off the island.
Which meant, freeing them would be a death sentence. They would no doubt rebel and fight, but they’d also be new to magic, and untrained. Easily captured, and either killed or tortured. Not only that, but it would alert the city that we were here, and that a diviner fought for the rebel pirates. No, it would have to wait. One day I would come back, and be in a better position to stay and help. For now, it would be counterproductive, and just get people killed.
Their power had been stolen, but they were relatively safe now.
It would take a lot of planning, and forethought.
While we sold the produce as quickly as possible so we could leave the city, I tried to keep my anger off of my face. Things weren’t as bad as I’d imagined, and I’d been focused mostly on the magic around me, but I’d have to be blind not to notice what was very apparent.
The guards were feared, and given a lot of space by the populace, as with heads down they moved out of the way of patrols. I managed to copy the actions of the populace, but it was anger I hid, not fear, as several times during the afternoon we moved to the side of the street to give way to the guards.
As I looked around, it almost seemed as if the populace were treated as inmates in a prison, rather than citizens of a kingdom. The guards themselves walked with an arrogant swagger, and of course, most of them had magic.
There were also an inordinately large amount of guards, way too many to simply patrol the city for lawbreakers.
It was in the city when Marie finally lost her smile, and it was disheartening to see. All four of the ladies with me did a good job acting meek, and helpless. Honestly, they were much better at hiding the anger than I was, but I supposed they’d known what to expect, and what they’d see. Three out of the four of them had been rescued from similar circumstances, and I was sure Sharon had been told many stories, far more than I’d heard.
My instincts wanted me to lash out, and destroy the guards. It would be so easy. But the populace would pay for my righteous anger as soon as we’d left, or so I kept telling myself.
Regardless, seeing it in person only solidified my previous dedication to truly making a difference, and taking down this corrupt and evil kingdom.
Was evil too harsh a word? I didn’t think so, any kingdom that oppressed their populace, and not only accepted but encouraged rape of young women before stealing their birthright, was evil. No one and nothing would ever convince me otherwise.
That of course, was when good old Murphy threw the final, and largest wrench, into our well laid plans. The fact there was three more sorceresses wasn’t the only intelligence update we’d missed.
At first, I had no idea what I was feeling. It was magic, and it was vast and complicated. It had the flavor of all the elements, and at the same time, none of them.
My eyes finally widened in understanding, and I turned to the ladies, “Run, a diviner…”
That’s all I got out as the air around us solidified and I could no longer inhale or exhale. I also felt a crushing power trying to suppress my magic. I fought back, and managed to hold on to a very small part of it. As I’d suspected, it was impossible to fully suppress a wielder if they fought.
It was the real reason resisters were killed.
I could still feel the magic around me, but it was muted, as if I could look but not touch. Talk about bad timing, he’d probably just gotten back in the city. He couldn’t have been here long, or the sorceresses would have been dealt with by now.
I felt scared out of my mind. Not because I was likely about to meet my end, but because of the wide panicked eyes of the women with me. They too were caught. I was terrified, for the women I loved, and extremely angry as I fought to free myself.
Either because he was stronger and more experienced, or because he’d acted first, I was pretty much helpless. I couldn’t even see who was doing it either, they were at least two blocks away, and slowly moving this way. I saw guards run around the corner, and surround us at a distance. I felt a faint spark of hope, as I saw five of them pull out suppression bracelets. That’s when everything started to go dark, I couldn’t breathe, and I was out of oxygen…
