Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
About the Author
Sample of Scriber
THE MAGE WAR
By Ben S. Dobson
Copyright © 2021 Ben S. Dobson
Cover by OrangeSavannah
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations used for the purpose of articles or reviews.
For more information, visit bensdobson.com.
Magebreakers Novels
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The Flaw in All Magic
The Emperor’s Mask
The Dragon Machine
The Spirit Siphon
The Mage War
Other Works by Ben S. Dobson
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Scriber
The Swampling King
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Chapter One
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TANE CARVER HELD his breath as the ancryst cutter picked its way between the jagged sea-crags of the Audish coast in near-complete darkness.
Potentially boat-sinking rocks on all sides served double duty as both dangerous obstacles and protective cover, hiding the craft from the foreign blockade surrounding Thaless. Ander Cleftchain—the dwarven smuggler sent by Bastian Dewglen to bring them home—must have done this a thousand times before, because despite the moonless night and the treacherous waters, he guided the little cutter along at what Tane considered a rather alarming speed with no light to navigate by.
He’s either very good, or incredibly reckless. Tane had to assume Bastian wouldn’t have sent the man if it wasn’t the former. And we haven’t hit anything yet. I suppose that’s a good sign.
He glanced at the others, all stuffed alongside him in the cramped cabin. Ander had insisted on that. Even with muffling artifacts in place to mask the noise of engines or voices from travelling over the water, movement on deck increased the chance of being seen. Better to keep everyone contained, even if there was barely enough room.
Kadka, Indree, and Tinga were all staring through the windows toward the blockade around the harbor, straining for a glimpse whenever the ships came into view between the crags. If he’d been on solid ground, Tane would have been doing the same, but their passage through the rocks kept drawing his attention away. Travel by ancryst machine always made him nervous.
The blockade was a sight to see, though, if an unwelcome one. There hadn’t been a real conflict between Audland and the nations of the Continent in his lifetime, and now two dozen ships flying flags of Belgrian red and gold or Estian black and white sat in a wide half-circle around the main port of Thaless, their decks limned in magelight against the night sky. Further in, a dozen Audish ships outfitted for battle filled the enclosed harbor. A single misstep from either force, a slip of a hand on a cannon or a wheel, and both sides would start firing. And in the sky overhead, Audland’s fledgling fleet of airships swept spotlights across the dark water, on constant watch against that first move. Tane recognized the flagship, even retrofitted with ancryst cannons all around the deck: the Hesliar. First and largest of them all, named for a friend he would never see again.
“Allaea wouldn’t have wanted her name attached to that,” Indree said softly, her eyes fixed on the Hesliar. “She didn’t mean to build a weapon.” Allaea had been her best friend, before the Knights of the Emperor had murdered her in an attempt to derail the airship project and the alliances it had been meant to create.
Tane took her hand in his. “She’d have cussed them across the Channel and back. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” He hung his head. “But… I can’t blame them for doing it. Audland has to defend itself. If nothing changes, it’s going to be war. A war I helped start.”
A formal declaration of war hadn’t actually been made yet, but tensions had grown over the past three months, and the blockade was the most overt sign of aggression yet. Rhienni diplomats had arranged a final attempt at peace talks with their ship as a neutral ground, but it was expected to be the last unless Lady Abena Jasani could prove that the Audish government had played no role in the attack on Kaiser Gerrolt of Belgrier, or the assassination of Chancellor Wilnam Urnt.
An assassination Tane had carried out with his own hand, if unwillingly.
Indree squeezed his hand and shook her head. “We’ve been over this. You didn’t start anything. Endo did. Killing Urnt was the only way to save thousands of lives.”
“But maybe if I turned myself in…”
“Endo does not let his war end so easy,” Kadka said, her lip curling to reveal her fangs. “His plan does not end if you are in jail. Just leaves one less person who knows to stop him.”
Tane sighed. “I know you’re right.” They’d made the same case to him more than once, and he’d come to accept it, even if Urnt’s blood had rather literally been on his hands. “It’s just hard to look at all those ships and not wish for an easier way.”
But there wasn’t one. They’d spent long enough looking to be sure of that.
In the months since they’d fled Belgrier as wanted fugitives, he and the others had followed Endo’s trail from port to port, working with limited resources and evading the authorities everywhere they went. There was always a suggestion of a plot to lead them on, a vague outline of secret contacts and covert meetings, of illicit goods changing hands. Most recently, the would-be-emperor had stopped in Rhien, where the Stooke family had a number of trade contacts, but Tane and the others couldn’t pin down who he’d met with or why. They’d yet to find any hard evidence of his hand in kindling the growing wildfire—and if they didn’t uncover something soon, the flames would spread beyond any hope of control.
And now they’d tracked him back to Audland. Which, Tane guessed, meant time was short. Endo Stooke had too much pride to flee again from the place that was supposed to be the heart of his empire—he wouldn’t have come back unless it was intended to be a permanent stay.
Unless he believed the crown he dreamed of was as good as his.
Indree set her jaw. “Easy or not, we will stop him.”
“I have easy way,” Kadka said. “We find him, and I kill him.” Her tone was deceptively light, but her big, furry fists were balled tight at her sides, and Tane knew she wasn’t joking. She’d abandoned the idea of mercy when Endo had escaped on the back of the reanimated dragon he’d stolen from her and Iskar’s little family.
“Maybe wait until we get some evidence first,” said Indree. “Remember, we’re fugitives here, too. It’s not only the Belgrians or the Estians we have to worry about if we can’t prove Endo is behind all this. We could just a
s easily end up in an Audish prison.” A practical appeal, rather than the stern opposition she’d have raised just a few months ago at the suggestion of killing Endo without trial. Tane knew Indree Lovial better than most, and he knew that the constable in her hated the idea—but she’d been through enough with them now to know that pragmatism was the best approach with Kadka.
Kadka shrugged. “Fine. First he talks. Then I kill him. If he gives choice.” And that was the catch—if Endo etched the same siphon spell on himself that he had on Urnt, there might not be a way to stop it without killing him.
Even if it left them without any way to prove their innocence.
“Well, at least your priorities are in order,” Tane said. He didn’t think she’d ruin their chance at getting the proof they needed unless she had to, but then, Kadka did love her dragons. “Let’s just hope we find something we can use before it comes to that.”
“If proof even makes a difference,” Tinga said, without a trace of her usual mischief. “A lot of the people on those boats are looking for an excuse to do something they’ve wanted to do since the Mage War. They want to wipe Audland off the map. They might not want to stop, evidence or no. Belgrier at least thinks they have a reason for all this, but the Estians just jumped on board at the chance to kill mages, and as far as they’re concerned, we’re all mages.” A grim scowl turned her lips. “The one time having no magic might have come in handy, and no one’s going to care.”
No one had an answer for that.
She was right, of course. They all knew what was at stake, but Tinga had to feel the risk more sharply than the rest of them, save perhaps Kadka. Goblins were seen as magicless peasants by a great many in Audland, and as creatures of insidious magic by the nations of the Continent—to say nothing of their reputation as sneaks and thieves and criminals on both sides. If Audland fell, it was the goblins and the kobolds and the orcs who would suffer most, whether from Endo and his knights or from foreign invaders.
Tane was opening his mouth to say something—although he couldn’t think of anything particularly comforting—when a brilliant light washed over the aft deck, half-blocked by the rock outcropping Ander was easing them behind for cover. It swept quickly past, but the brightness of it left spots in his eyes, adjusted as they were to the dark.
Tane froze where he stood, and saw the others do the same. “Spellfire,” he swore.
He twisted his neck to look in the direction the beam had come from. Toward the harbor and high overhead; a searchlight from one of the Audish airships. Which, with things as they were, was no better than the Belgrians or the Estians. Maybe worse. Audland can still send people after us once we’re on land—if anyone in the blockade tries, it’s an act of war. They were already mostly hidden by the crag jutting from the water in front of them, and only a few feet of deck had been caught in the light, but if someone had been looking closely just then, a few feet would be enough.
Tane turned to Ander at the wheel. “Did they see us?”
The dwarven smuggler just shrugged his broad shoulders. “Might be they did, might be they didn’t.” As he spoke, he eased the boat fully into the shadow of the crag and pulled a series of levers to cut the ancryst engines and engage the anchoring spells. The boat came to an immediate halt.
Tane’s balance nearly failed him at the sudden stop—it was only his grip on Indree that let him keep his feet. “You don’t seem very concerned,” he said. He hoped that was a good thing.
Ander scratched at his thick black beard and grunted in acknowledgement. “Been here before. Nature of the job. Light passed quick, only caught a bit of ‘er, and we ain’t too close. Just depends how keen their eyes are. And luck, much as anything. Nothin’ to do now but wait. We’ll know soon enough.”
Tane clasped Indree’s hand tighter and held his breath, waiting for an alarm to sound from the harbor.
After a long moment, Kadka said, “Quiet still. They don’t see us.”
Ander gave a short nod. “Sea guard would be bearing down on us by now.” With a flip of a lever, he released the anchoring spells and then started up the engines once more. Tane flinched at the sound of the propellers stirring the water, even though he knew the muffling artifacts would keep it from travelling.
There were no more close calls, but Tane didn’t feel secure until they reached their destination a short time later—a small inlet up the coast on the outskirts of Porthaven. Hidden by a high outcropping and surrounded in jagged rocks, it was the sort of landing that only a smuggler would use. Ander skillfully eased them in, though, and somehow managed to avoid tearing the hull open.
Three figures were waiting for them to disembark. Two Tane didn’t recognize: a surprisingly bulky goblin man and a broad-shouldered dwarven woman, both wearing light armor and carrying shortswords. But he knew the sprite in the green waistcoat and trousers hovering between the two bodyguards—or rather, between ‘his friends’, as the little man would surely call them. The emerald mask across his eyes was a dead giveaway.
“Welcome home, my friends!” Bastian Dewglen greeted them, fluttering nearer as they vaulted over the side of the boat into ankle-deep water. “Dire circumstances aside, it does my heart good to see you returned to Audland!”
Tane was the first off the boat, and he slogged the last few steps to shore through cold surf. “The dire circumstances are hard to put aside just now, but thanks for bringing us in, Bastian. People aren’t exactly knocking down the door to help us. We’d never have gotten through the blockade without Ander. I’m not what you’d call a seasoned smuggler.” He gestured at his water-logged shoes and trousers. “I didn’t even think to wear boots.”
Kadka surged up to shore in a few strides, with Indree and Tinga just behind. A wide, tooth-baring grin threatened to split her face in half. “Is good to see you, little man!”
“Ah, my dear Kadka!” Bastian exclaimed with a beaming smile. “It broke my heart to be parted from you for so long!”
The two of them might as well have been trying to one-up each other in an enthusiasm contest. Which Tane didn’t have the energy or patience for just then. “I hate to ruin the mood,” he said, “but we can all be happy to see each other once we’re some place out of sight.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Bastian bobbed his head, not particularly phased by the rebuke. “Now, about that. Of course my friends and I can help you sneak about to some degree, but…” He spread his little hands and sighed mournfully. “There are a great many people looking for you. It will be difficult to avoid attention if you mean to go out and about investigating. And I’m afraid I have no access to the honorable Lady Abena, if you mean to attempt contact with her. I suppose what I am asking is where precisely you wish to be taken.”
A question Tane had asked himself a hundred times already. They’d discussed it on the trip, but they had only vague ideas of where to begin. Endo hadn’t left much in the way of a trail. For the moment, a safe place to make further plans would have to suffice.
And they did know someone who could provide that.
But before Tane could say it, Kadka did.
“Iskar,” she said firmly. “Take me to my dragons.”
Chapter Two
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KADKA HESITATED ON the cavern’s threshold. From the moment she’d stepped off the boat, all she’d thought about was getting back to Iskar and the dragonlings; she’d run ahead of the others down the final stretch of the long underground passage that led to the lair. But as the entrance loomed, a thought came to her.
Dragons grew up fast, and she had been gone for months.
She wasn’t given to overthinking things, but that made her pause mid-step. Would they know her? Remember her name? Would they be happy to see her, or resent that she’d left? Or worse, would she be a stranger to them now, the way her father had been to her? And that thought came with another wave of conflicting emotions. Henred Klenn was probably very close by just then, in the bay with the Belgrian ships, preparing for the peac
e talks; she didn’t know how she felt about that. About him. But she did know that she didn’t ever want Syllesk and Nevka to feel so confused about her. Bad enough that she had to be the one to tell them about their sibling, the dragon Endo had stolen and twisted to his purpose—the very thing she’d promised she would prevent. How could they help but look at her differently when she told them the truth?
And then she heard a voice from inside. “Kadka?” A little bit nervous, a little bit hopeful. Different now, a bit older and deeper, but she recognized the timbre of Syllesk’s voice instantly.
That was enough. She stepped forward into the cavern.
They’d gotten bigger. A lot bigger. The cavern was enormous, but even so the two dragonlings—or maybe they were closer to full dragons now—made it seem tiny. When she’d left, their backs had only been as high as her shoulder; now they were well over twice her height, mountains of shimmering silver. Their wings were folded, but if they’d been spread they looked like they could have spanned the width of the cave. Nevka was still bigger and broader than Syllesk, whose body had a slender, sinuous quality, but when either one was the size of a small house, the difference seemed less pronounced than Kadka remembered.
Iskar stood between them, and at least he hadn’t changed. He was still beautiful, all bare-chested, silver-scaled muscle, though even his broad shoulders and great height looked small next to his enormous siblings. The relief was plain in his sapphire blue eyes when he saw her, and so was the eagerness in his step as he came to meet her.
She didn’t slow down, just crashed against him and swept him up in her arms, spinning him around with a cackle of delight. “My dragon man! Is too long since I see your pretty face!”
Iskar embraced her with a laugh, nuzzling his snout into her neck. “I missed you more than I can say, my love. We all did.” He glanced back at Syllesk and Nevka, who hadn’t moved, and lowered his voice. “They have been so excited to see you, but nervous too. They are worried they might have… changed too much. That you won’t recognize them.”
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