The Emperor's Mage

by Clark Bolton

  “That row along the bottom there is for apprentices,” Master Gang told her. “Those seven or eight spell-scrolls…I expect you to master them in as many days. Now, start with the one that dries up tea, then work on poison identification.”

  Thoughts of silk bedsheets, heavenly gowns, sweet perfumes, and garden parties were instantly and forever driven from her mind.

  Chapter 14

  Ich-Mek waited half a moon before doing anything else risky. This was enough time, he hoped, for Rish to get far away from Key-Tar-Om. He occupied his time by finishing up his spell-book, and by teaching those few instructors who dared to come to his class. He continued to make notes on what little more they discovered about the Owesek.

  With Rish gone there was no one he could trust to carry messages to Bose and Tang, but for some reason he thought this best. Letting Bose know that he was thinking on fleeing Key-Tar-Om seemed cruel to him. If Bose really was safe only here, then how could he tempt Bose into following him, he asked himself.

  The Regent called him occasionally, usually to berate him for wasting his time on teaching. Several more times the Regent hinted at the cost to Ich-Mek for mastering anything else of an arcane nature. The man hated him, Ich-Mek was sure of that now. What’s more, the Regent somehow knew the feeling was mutual. Ich-Mek had tried his best not to let this show, but had obviously failed somehow.

  It wasn’t at any particular moment that he decided for sure that he would flee the school. Being separated for a while from Rish and Bose helped him make this hard decision, he admitted to himself. That and the tests he had performed on his mother’s hair, which included tests of alchemy and a few spells. It wasn’t hers – this he was sure of now. He’d gone so far as to examine the record books, which he found easy access to. They showed nothing unusual, not for him, or for Bose and Rish.

  He suspected now that the administrators had started forging the letters from his mother at some point; not only his, but for any student whose parents had fallen out of contact with the school. It would keep the students motivated, he knew; cruel but effective.

  He gathered what maps he could find of Key-Tar-Om. This he did in secret to prevent anyone from thinking he planned to leave. The tenth province wasn’t round, he came to learn, which surprised him a little. It was narrow and long, and he found only two border crossings marked on the maps; both looked many days travel away.

  Finally, after weeks of what seemed like fruitless planning, he decided to consult with Tang and Bose one last time. He would use the same strategy as before to reach the cave. Nothing had changed with respect to his access to the library, or that of Ont and his men.

  Ich-Mek found Tang in a similar state as in his last visit. Tang was sober enough this time to answer his calls from below, and so allowed Bose to lower down the ladder.

  “What do you have that’s new?” Tang asked disparagingly as he read the notes Ich-Mek had brought him.

  “I’m leaving,” Ich-Mek declared in a near whisper.

  “Ahhh…tell no one!” Tang exclaimed angrily. “Don’t be a stupid boy.”

  “You two are the only ones left to tell.”

  Bose shook his sadly. “Ich, you can’t let anyone know where you’re going or when.” Bose then looked for Tang to say more. “Not even me.”

  Tears filled Ich-Mek’s eyes as he looked at his sad friend for perhaps the last time. Bose was closer to him in some ways than even Rish. He and Bose had been so close in skill until perhaps that fateful day when they had been separated into different forms. Since then, Bose had approached a level of mastery almost equal to his own, and with Tang’s help it seemed entirely possibly to Ich-Mek that someday Bose would be knowledgeable enough to earn his own ring.

  Tang continued to look over the notes until finally he shook his head before asking Ich-Mek, “You think the ring will guide you?”

  “Yes,” Ich-Mek replied. “I just need to get out of Key-Tar-Om first.”

  “They will chase you…right to the border,” Tang announced as he stared off into the darkness.

  “I assume so,” Ich-Mek replied sadly.

  “Don’t assume so!” Tang barked. “Because this is what will happen…Fu-Si.” Tang practically spat out Ich-Mek’s title. “Ober-Toss will send word to the palace-mages once he fails to find you. Now, this he won’t do until he is sure you have escaped Key-Tar-Om entirely.”

  “Why wait?” Ich-Mek asked somberly.

  “Because he knows there will be consequences…real consequences.” Tang then paused for a few moments. “In fact, there is a small…turdy little chance…that he will never tell the mages you fled. But don’t count on it!”

  “What will happen to him if he does?”

  Tang turned to look at him. “You mean if you don’t kill him?”

  Ich-Mek dropped his eyes, before reaching into his robes to retrieve the scroll he had hidden there. “This is for you,” he said to Tang with a hint of disgust in his voice. He gave Bose a glance of apology afterwards.

  Tang studied the scroll for a minute before starting to smile. “You have your own copy?”

  “No!” Ich-Mek lied. “And don’t tell me what you’ll do with it.”

  Tang went back to looking over the scroll. “Poison can be a slow, painful death,” he mused aloud.

  “I don’t want to know anything about it…and don’t care if you…don’t use it!” Ich-Mek declared as he looked to Bose for support.

  Bose came over to Tang to look closely at the scroll as well. Ich-Mek was happy to see that Bose seemed to understand what he was looking at.

  Tang gave Ich-Mek a tight smile before handing off the scroll to Bose. “He’ll send everything he has after you. No telling what that will be.”

  “The Pus-Don, right?” Ich-Mek asked as his heart began to race.

  “Yes,” Tang said decisively, “but they won’t cross into any other provinces. That is part of the deal with the governors.”

  “You sure?”

  Tang scoffed. “Doesn’t matter if you don’t make it that far.”

  “That’s why I came! Which way should I run?”

  “You are not to tell me which way you run…nor anyone else, boy!” Tang yelled as he pointed accusingly at Bose.

  “I won’t,” Ich-Mek promised.

  “I won’t ask,” Bose added defensively.

  There was a long silence as they all sat thinking; finally Tang broke it by saying, “He may be able to call a dragon.” Tang then looked at Ich-Mek sternly. “He can possibly do that…just like any governor can.”

  Ich-Mek slid off the rock he was sitting on to then sit on the ground in despair. “I thought only the Emperor could do that!” he whined loudly.

  “No, governors can also,” Tang assured them. “Like the Pus-Don, it won’t follow you across any borders.”

  “How long would I have?” Ich-Mek pleaded to know.

  Tang rolled his eyes and then looked to be getting angry. “How fast is a dragon…boy?” he yelled. He then calmed himself before adding, “Best make straight for the border.”

  Their discussion ended at that point. It became a silent agreement between them not to share more.

  “I don’t think I’ll see you again before I go,” Ich-Mek said to Bose as he walked to the ladder.

  The two of them hugged for a few moments before Bose stepped back and nodded his head with tears welling up in his eyes. “I know you can’t,” Bose told him.

  “I won’t leave you here forever!” Ich-Mek declared with a slight sob. “I promise.”

  Bose smiled through his own tears to say, “I know…but I’ll need a ring to leave…and so will Tang.”

  Ich-Mek forced a chuckle at his friend’s apparent attempt at humor. “Then I’ll find at least two…and maybe one for Rish!”

  “Maybe when I’m Regent you’ll come back!” Tang yelled out boastfully from his seat as Ich-Mek began descending the ladder.

  “No! I’m never coming back…except to ring you both!”
r />   __________________________

  He timed his escape from the library as close as he dared, so he would have the most time before Ont would realize he was gone. This meant sneaking out minutes after he arrived. He had packed what he planned to take with him the previous day, and had stashed it among the texts in the classroom he’d been using. It was a single bag with a few cloths, scrolls, and some leftover food in it.

  It was snowing, which it had been doing on and off for a moon now. Key-Tar-Om was notoriously high up in the mountains, and so the season shifted from summer to winter rapidly. Ich-Mek wasn’t sure if the snow worked in his favor or not. What he did hope was that the river he planned to cross would be frozen by now.

  Disguised as a low-level official again, he slipped by Ont and his men, then hurried down the hill and across the two squares. At the classroom he stopped to carefully peek in the door to see if any instructors had shown up yet. None had, so he unlocked a cabinet with a cantrip, then slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the north gate.

  “I look odd,” he muttered to himself as he walked through the Pus-Don quarter.

  He was worried that the bag he carried would look suspicious, but no one called out to him, or even gave him a second look. Nearing the gate, he slowed down to watch for a few moments. He’d never been this close to it before; Ont had forbidden it.

  There were only a few people coming and going, who all looked to be Pus-Don. He wasn’t sure if the man standing near the gate was a guard or not. The man didn’t seem to have any weapons, nor was there anything about the man’s clothes that set him apart.

  He closed his eyes and ran through the litany of spells in his head. He had memorized nearly every spell in his spell-book before dawn. The restrain spell was the only thing he could think to cast if he was discovered. Whether or not the man would be hurt by it he didn’t know.

  He was sweating now in the chill air as he started for the gate, and his heart was starting to race faster than it had been already. He tried not to make eye contact with the man, who glanced his way calmly for a moment. Ich-Mek then tried his best to walk straight, but suddenly found himself walking much closer to the man than expected.

  “Good morning, sir,” the man said with a slight bow.

  “Yes,” Ich-Mek replied as he stepped around him. He realized then that he didn’t know quite what to say in this situation.

  It was another minute before he realized he was walking without thinking. He had been so worried about the guard, that he had been staring at the cobblestones and just walking. Now he was in the village, and there were many ways to go.

  Worried that the guard might still be watching him, he resisted looking back, and so decided to continue walking downhill. After all, the river had to be downhill, he reasoned. It wasn’t until the lane he was following ended in a field that he came to a halt. Snow covered most of the many rows of stubble, but enough poked through to make it obvious it was a farmer’s field; it was one of the few things he could remember about the village he had been born in.

  He decided to walk into the field, but after several steps he found it very uncomfortable. His sandals now had a mixture of dirt and snow in them. The cold snow he could tolerate as he was used to that, but the dirt was something new.

  Deciding to walk around the field instead of through it, he soon found himself at the edge of the village. Looking up the mountain to where the walls of the school could be seen, he saw that the village was much larger then had expected. Made sense, he told himself. There were countless Pus-Don employed at the school, and most left for home every evening.

  The fields below the village seemed to go in all directions, and there was no sign of a road. He knew he needed to go west to find the river, and had to get there before dark. They would be after him by then, he knew. And he didn’t want to think about what the Regent might send.

  When he saw a woman and a small child walking not far away, he moved to intercept them. “Where is the river?” he asked the woman.

  She stopped to look at him, as did the little girl. “What are you looking for?” she asked in confusion.

  “A river.”

  “Not here,” she replied with a shake of her head.

  “Yes there is!” he insisted, believing she wasn’t thinking clearly. “It borders Key-Tar-Om, and runs down to Qua-Jin. It’s called the Shu River!”

  She smiled widely at him like he was being silly. “I don’t know that name. You need to tell me where you want to go that is near here.”

  “The river is where I need to go!” he said urgently.

  “Aren’t you from the school? They can find that river for you, maybe.”

  Panic began to seize his mind as he looked around frantically. Glancing up at the sky he saw the sun was still rising, which meant he had time yet, he assured himself.

  “Is there a river here, anywhere?” he demanded to know. “You must know…don’t you live here?”

  She looked startled by him now, and said dismissively, “If you want a river you need to go up into the village to the road.” The woman then waved her arm about in the direction behind him before pulling on the little girl’s arm to get her moving.

  “Tell me where the river is!” he yelled at her in frustration.

  The woman refused to even look back at him and began walking faster, forcing the little girl to have to run to keep up. Exasperated, he threw up his arms as he looked around him. Finally, he decided to go back the way he had come.

  It took him nearly an hour to find the road the woman had mentioned. He was finally pointed the right way by some children, who seemed the only ones willing to talk to him much. Others just asked stupid questions when they didn’t know the answers he wanted.

  His disguise spell had worn off by this time, and though he could cast another, he thought it unwise. He might be watched, and besides that, the gray robes he wore now seemed normal enough for this village.

  He wasn’t paying attention again, he realized, as he had been worrying too much about all the things he needed to do. Looking back, he could see he had left the village behind and was now on an icy road. Several times now he had to step aside to avoid carts and packhorses, but for the most part the road looked empty. The road was taking him north, and when he came to a side road that led down into a valley, he decided he’d best take it, as it was heading west.

  “Where is the river?” he muttered to himself as he began to walk faster.

  The valley was wider than he had thought, and now he could see that it possibly stretched to the mountains he could see in the distance. Still he saw no river. When he passed several Pus-Don, he was tempted to ask them where it might be, but figured he wouldn’t get an answer.

  The men looked back at him strangely after he had passed. He just quickly looked away, and continued on with his head down. When the road suddenly ended, he found himself standing next to a high wall. It was a building of some kind, he realized, and he could now smell something delicious.

  He followed some men up some steps that led to the building, and was surprised to find himself among a small crowd of people. It was like an open-air dining hall, and most of the men here were sitting at small tables, eating bowls of noodles and drinking hot tea. Despite the cold air they all looked happy to be here.

  A door led into the building, and as he approached it he could see it led into a kitchen of some kind. Soon he was approached by a woman, who then stopped to look at him expectantly. He didn’t know what she wanted until she gestured toward the kitchen, where others were now bringing out trays laden with steaming bowls.

  “Yes,” he said with a nod, hoping that would get him something to eat.

  His nervous stomach rumbled from the smell of aromatic spices emerging from the kitchen. The woman gestured toward a small table, which he had to squeeze in among several men to sit at.

  Soon he was served the same fare as those around him, and then the woman looked expectantly at him again. Ich-Mek wasn’t sure if
this was a chance to order something more. He shook his head to indicate he had enough for now.

  “You have to pay, boy!” one of the men sitting near him said, before laughing with his friends.

  Ich-Mek tried to smile at the woman, but the men’s boisterous behavior seemed overly rude to him. They were making jokes now, though he wasn’t quite sure if they were about him. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the only type of coin he had: gold.

  As he held out the large coin to the woman, it became quiet around him for a moment. Thinking it was an end to the embarrassing situation, he placed the coin on the tray she was holding.

  “He’s paying with gold!” the same man who had laughed at him before declared loudly.

  This got waves of laughter rolling about the small dining area, as patrons stood to see the truth of it. Embarrassed now, Ich-Mek hesitantly took the coin back, as he tried to think of some other way to pay the woman.

  “That’s all I have,” he admitted.

  This admission sent more waves of laughter through the crowd. After a couple of humiliating minutes, several men offered up small, thin copper coins in payment, and soon he was able to start eating, though people continued to stare.

  He had eaten fast, and now wished he hadn't. People came and went around him, and those who had been there when he had first arrived were gone now. Some had patted him on the back on their way out, but he wasn’t sure how to interpret that. One had even called him “student”.

  The people who ran the kitchen had filled his tea cup many times by this point, and looking up at the sky he knew it was long since time to leave. He had been daydreaming about running back to the north gate and then sneaking back into the library. Come another day, he could sneak out again, he was sure.

  “Wouldn’t make it,” he muttered aloud to himself, as he could see dusk wasn’t that far away.

  He stood up to look around. There was only a low wall protecting the seating area from the west, and so he could easily see the mountains some leagues away. A flat plain started virtually at the foot of the building, and ran all the way to the base of the mountains. It made him wonder if the river had dried up.