The (sort of) Dark Mage (Waldo Rabbit)

by Nelson Chereta

  I don’t have any waterskins so I can’t bring any water with me. He also didn’t have a blanket if the night was cold. He didn’t have any spare clothes. Not to mention he felt almost naked without his robes.

  When he came back to the fire he and Alice sat down together and began to eat.

  “We need supplies.” Waldo told her. “If we’re going to travel we are going to need more than just the clothes on our backs.”

  “That’s true enough. There are plenty of stores back in Stratford, but by now I’m sure everyone is talking about me.” She gave a slight shudder. “I don’t think we should go back there.”

  “No, that wouldn’t be wise. Where would be the next closest place?”

  “There’s a small village about five miles up the road from Stratford called Fall River. We may be able to buy what we need there.”

  “Buy or steal.”

  “Steal?” Alice said scandalized.

  Waldo nodded.

  “Do you really want to do that sort of thing?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a Dark Mage, of course I steal. In a sense that’s the whole point of going out on quests; to take all that you can and bring it back with you.”

  “I always thought quests were about facing danger in order to perform noble deeds. Slaying dragons, rescuing princesses, recovering holy relics, you know, that sort of thing.”

  “Knights may have those sorts of quests, though I’m willing to bet they’re not as altruistic as they pretend. For us the quests have nothing to do with noble deeds. They are about proving your strength and bringing back treasure.”

  “Then why did you give Elsa all that gold to save me?”

  “It seemed simpler than trying to overpower her and steal you away. I was bringing you with me no matter what. In any case, you are much more precious to me than a hundred pieces of gold.”

  Alice’s cheeks blushed slightly. “I think that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  She began twisting from side to side.

  Waldo saw her reaction and felt a sense of pleasure through their bond. If she was happy he was glad, though for the life of him he couldn’t guess why.

  “We should set out to find the road.” He glanced about. “So which direction should we go?”

  “West.”

  He paused and looked around again. “Which way is west?”

  “Can’t you tell just by looking at the morning sun?”

  “No.”

  Alice snorted a laugh.

  “This is not funny.”

  “I’m sorry darling; I’m just surprised that someone so smart wouldn’t know something so obvious.”

  “I can tell you about monsters of all types and about various forms of magical theory. I am well versed in history, math, and the sciences. I can explain to you why the sun circles the earth. I can make a love potion guaranteed to steal away any heart or make a ward strong enough to hold back an army of the undead.”

  “You just can’t figure out which way is west.”

  “Navigating through the wilderness was not a part of my education.” He said with as much dignity as he could muster.

  “Might have been good to learn before going off on a quest. It might help with not getting lost in the woods.”

  “I had a map.”

  Even a map needs you to know which way is north. Not wanting to hurt his feelings she decided not to say that aloud and pointed. “West is this way.”

  Together the two of them started to make their way through the wood.

  “Darling, there’s something I’m wondering about, though I’m almost afraid to ask.”

  “What?”

  Alice began pulling on her hair. “Ah, the other day, when you compared a part of my body to your mother’s. You’ve, ah, never actually, I mean except when you were a baby of course, you haven’t really…”

  “Alice what are you trying to ask me?”

  “You’ve never actually seen your mother’s breasts, right? I mean not directly, right?”

  “Well that’s a silly question.”

  She breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “Of course I’ve seen them.”

  Waldo went another seven steps before realizing he was on his own. Turning around he saw Alice standing there with her jaw open and a look of horror on her face. “WHAT?”

  He sighed. “You’re not going to run away again are you? I only saw them during the holidays.”

  Her lips twisted. “Holidays?”

  “What? Don’t your people celebrate the Solstices?”

  She just stared at him. “What do the summer and winter solstice have to do with you seeing your mother’s breasts?”

  “How do you celebrate them?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Please just humor me.”

  “For the summer solstice we have an outdoor festival with feasting and games and we have a special dance around a pole with long strips of ribbon attached to it.”

  “Do you dance naked?”

  “Who dances naked in public?! Even soiled doves only do that sort of thing behind closed doors.”

  “I see, so your culture has a prohibition on nudity; very close minded. What do you do for the Winter Solstice?”

  “We build a bonfire and sing to the Earth Mother Terrasa, beseeching her to return and bring life back to the land. We also bring offerings to the graves to remember the dead. Well most folk do, I don’t have any family so I never had any graves to visit.”

  “Offerings,” Waldo nodded. “We do that too. So you brought criminals to be offered up in sacrifice.”

  “Criminals? What are you talking about? We bring offerings; bread, cakes, nuts things like that.”

  “I see, well it’s a good idea to feed the undead, however they prefer flesh. Especially if it’s still living. If you’re not going to give them any criminals you should bring pigs or goats.”

  “There are no undead! Ick! It’s symbolic! It’s a way to show the spirits that they have not been forgotten.”

  “It just sounds like a huge waste of food to me.”

  Alice didn’t appreciate his mocking the customs she had grown up with. “Well what do you do?”

  “Well for the Summer Solstice our traditions are a bit similar. Each of the Seven Families gathers together and has a feast that includes special ginger cakes with ground wolfsbane mushrooms.”

  “Wait a minute! Wolfsbane is poisonous!”

  “Only if consumed raw. If you boil them the mushrooms give you a powerful mind altering effect. They will take you to places you never imagined. The very first time I ate the ginger cakes I imagined I was a raven flying free high above the castle. It was amazing.”

  Alice did not know what to say.

  “After the feast we would go into the courtyard and light a bonfire. We would then undress and have the slaves cover us in oil and paint ceremonial images on our skin. Then they would play drums and chant as we danced about the fire crying out like savages to the night. Our minds and souls completely free and one with nature and the darkness. You cannot begin to imagine how liberating it is! Casting away the civilized mask and returning to the primal. That’s when I saw my mother naked, as we all danced about the fire howling like wild beasts.”

  “You danced around naked?! Where people could see you?” Alice was scandalized. Not even Elsa and the women who worked for her would ever go that far. Even soiled doves had their limits.

  “It’s very liberating. Especially when you’ve had the ginger cakes and your mind has been opened.”

  “It sounds absolutely barbaric.”

  “Which is what makes it so much fun.”

  Alice closed her eyes and shook her head. “What would you do for the Winter Solstice?”

  “Again, our custom is a bit similar to yours. We would make an offering to the Dark Powers to renew he land. We would force any criminals or prisoners we had to fight each other to the death until only one remain
ed.”

  “You made men kill each other?” Alice asked horrified.

  “They were only criminals and would have been executed anyway. This way their deaths had some meaning.”

  “I suppose you at least let the last one go free right?”

  “Go free? Don’t be ridiculous. Who would set a criminal free? The survivor we fed to the zombies, they deserved a treat too. It was a holiday after all.”

  Alice just stared at him.

  “So I hope everything is cleared up now.”

  “I think I’ll stop asking questions for a while.”

  XXX

  They again set off in search of the road.

  As they went Alice spotted something from the corner of her eye. It was a color that did not belong in a summer landscape.

  She saw a tree whose bark and leaves were white as snow.

  Instinctively she stopped and drew a circle above her heart.

  “What is it?”

  Alice pointed out the solitary tree. “A soulwood.”

  Following her finger he immediately noticed it. Waldo’s reaction was he opposite of Alice’s. “How interesting.”

  To her utter consternation he headed straight towards it.

  Chapter 16

  A Question Of Trust

  Waldo walked right up to the soulwood as Alice held back.

  “You shouldn’t go near it.” Alice told him and again drew a circle over her heart.

  Waldo stopped right in front of the soulwood and got a close look at it.

  The bark was white as bleached bone, as were the drooping tear shaped leaves. Except for the color the tree was anything but impressive. Its trunk was slender enough that he could have wrapped his arms around it and easily clasped his hands together. Only five branches stretched out like frail fingers from a withered hand. From each branch the large flat leaves hung limply. There were too few leaves, and so the tree had a bare look to it even in the summer. From the ground to the highest tip of the tallest branch was only about fifteen feet.

  The soulwood’s trunk was twisted like a man trying to stoop though a mine shaft. Rather than growing straight it twisted to the right with one of the branches growing parallel to the ground, the other four reaching to the sky.

  There were many knots and divots in the bark that resembled faces. Seeing a soulwood up close for the very first time it was easy to understand why the uninitiated believed the stories that they did.

  He took out one of his two slim knives from a boot. He began hacking off some of the bark.

  “What are you doing?!” Alice cried aghast.

  “Soulwood bark can be used in a number of mind control potions. Outside of Avalon these trees are exceedingly rare. There’s no way I’m missing the chance to collect such a precious ingredient.”

  “But everyone knows that the souls of the condemned are trapped inside of them!”

  “That is superstitious nonsense,”

  “You don’t believe the souls of the dead can be called back to Earth?”

  “No, as a matter of fact I know that can be done. However it requires a special ritual, a sacrifice, and the assistance of a Greater Power. It also requires a container for the soul such as the original body, a doll, a suit of armor, or a mirror. Souls have to be forced back to this Earth; they do not return naturally or by choice. This tree has some magical properties, but so does wolfsbane or mandrake; it has nothing to do with human souls.”

  To Alice everything touching a soulwood or the subject he was discussing was the blackest of blackest things. That he not only knew about such things but found them mundane made her worry. “Darling when you talk like that you scare me.”

  He stopped and looked back at her over his shoulder.

  “Thank you! It makes me happy to hear that!”

  He went back to carving off some more bark and stuffing the strips into his pockets.

  “By the way, when I get my hands on a vial or glass container with a stopper I am going to need to make you cry.” His pockets were filled to bulging. He carefully began to exam the stunted branch that was near the ground.

  “Why would you want to make me cry?”

  “The tears of a succubus are the core ingredient to making an incredibly powerful love potion.”

  “…”

  Satisfied, Waldo took his knife and began sawing through the branch.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “I am going to make myself a new wand.”

  XXX

  In Castle Corpselover

  Walter carefully inspected the runes he had chalked into the floor. It was a complex enchantment, but not one that required a large amount of mana. When he’d been alive this had been child’s play. Now it represented the absolute limit of his magical abilities.

  If Walter had allowed himself to just stop and consider the situation honestly, he would have to admit that everything his mother had said to him was true. She had done the best for him that she could. As a zombie, still having most of his memories and the ability to work any magic at all was verging on the miraculous. After his death, being granted any sort of existence was a mercy he certainly did not deserve.

  If he could have admitted this to himself, he might have tried to find satisfaction in the small pleasures his situation granted him.

  But Walter had never been one for introspection even when he was alive. Now that he was mostly dead he didn’t want to see things rationally. He wanted to hate, and to blame, and to pretend he could still get the thing he wanted most.

  “Grandfather, will you come and talk to me?”

  The chalked runes gave off the slightest glow.

  Walter felt strength drain from his body. Even this minor spell was demanding for him.

  The runes were drawn around a circle. The air a couple feet above the floor shimmied and warped. The barest outline of a skull took form. Its shape was made of shadow and was just visible. If you looked away and looked back you might not see anything there at all.

  “Is that you Walter?” The skull’s jaw moved and a rasping voice could be heard.

  “Yes, it’s me grandfather.”

  “Well this is a surprise. I haven’t seen you since I ripped out your heart and ate it.”

  “I remember.”

  “How are you?”

  “I’m a zombie.”

  The shadowy skull nodded. “Yes, I’d heard that. How is your mother?”

  “Same as always I suppose; clever, powerful, and ruthless.”

  “Ah, it makes a father proud, though I still do have hopes of eating her someday.”

  “If you tried she would destroy you.”

  “Yes, likely she would.”

  Walter glared hatefully. “I should curse you for what you did to me.”

  “The dead cannot cast or be effected by curses.”

  “I hate you.”

  “I’m not surprised; I did eat you after all.”

  “Why did you betray me? We had an agreement. I gave you access to the castle so that you could kill mother for me.”

  “That plan was never going to work. Unlike you, my daughter was never a fool; the castle certainly has other defenses against me. I could never have taken her by surprise.”

  Walter stared hard at the mocking skull. “Then… from the start? You were planning to betray me from the very start?”

  “Why are you so surprised? You were planning to betray your mother. Did you think you were the first in the family to ever do something like that? Do not complain. We all deceive and betray to get the things we want. I was just far better at it than you.”

  “I trusted you!”

  “For that alone you deserved your fate.”

  Despite his anger Walter knew that was true.

  ‘Trust is a dagger pointed at your own heart.’ One of the many sayings he had learned growing up. He had never been one to trust others, but Walter had also never had much patience. He’d been forced to wait as all those in front of him had died and he was h
eir.

  Being heir though was not enough. His mother was at the height of her powers and looked to have many, many more years ahead of her. He had been impatient and unwilling to bide his time. Walter had also been too aware that he was not powerful enough or devious enough to remover her on his own.