Once placed, the wizard changed his magic once more letting his strength build more than the previous spells. As he seemed to draw from the upper corner to the opposite lower ball in a quick slash of his hands, glowing orange lines leaped from one ball to the other. More lines connected them vertically and horizontally forming the outer boundary of the old gate before the crossed magic started pulling in towards the center.
While the old magic seemed to fight against what Darterian was doing, it was no match for the new power exerted on it. Collapsing in on itself with a little flash of light, the dust, lines and gate were all gone save for a small trail that seemed coerced back into the pouch the wizard held in his right hand.
“That should do it,” the brown haired wizard stated wiping at his forehead to remove the perspiration formed there before bringing out the compass once more.
Adding some magic to the device, Sebastian was close enough to notice two lesser glowing points formed behind the man.
“Strange,” Darterian stated as he turned with the compass. He stepped towards his left and in an instant a point was behind him. He retreated and it popped in front of him. Moving side to side the glowing dot seemed centered on a single point.
“Vision,” Bas stated calling up a spell designed to gain focus on fine details that normal human vision couldn’t accomplish. Looking at the area, the mage moved closer before bending down. A stone, smoothed and holding a slight sheen which reflected light if one were to see from the proper angle, caught his attention. He raised it in front of the compass before moving it to the left and then the right. The compass followed the movement with the glowing dot.
They quickly found the second stone.
“Do you have any idea what these stones might be?” Sebastian asked the wizard who seemed a bit perplexed as well.
After a moment’s thought, the man mused, “I can only hypothesize, but it holds a similar magic to that of what was used to make the gate. Perhaps the owner of the stones uses them to help guide a portal to a certain point.”
No one spoke though many a mind was spinning at the thought. Darterian added, “When the emperor first entered our world, my grandfather said that there never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to the locations and the armies never passed through in the same place. Maybe using these stones has helped focus the path to return to the same place every time?”
Sebastian held onto the stones, but placed them directly beneath the compass as Darterian made another search for the magic. With them underneath the compass, their magic was canceled out for the next reading.
A faint glow pointed towards the mountains and Sebastian frowned slightly. “Another one. Is it still on the island?” he asked Darterian as he held the compass.
“Aside from Litsarin, nothing else would be close enough to show the strength of this gate. It hasn’t been used in awhile it appears. The next closest piece of land in that direction would be Taltan and the compass wouldn’t show any points that far away,” Darterian confirmed his suspicions.
The young island appeared to be, as he feared, an extension of Ensolus and the emperor.
Chapter 11- Portal Trap
The smell of burned wood and flesh lingered in the room even after a few weeks and the servants’ best attempts at washing the scene of the attack; or at least that’s what the young woman’s senses told her. A group of assassins had been backed by at least one wizard, as far as Rilena had seen. According to Elzen, a woman of incredible power incinerated everything that couldn’t get out of the way of her magic; but, just as important, the other mage had witnessed seeing Palose, the Betrayer, with her.
Though the half dozen assassins had been without magic, their clothing had been specially treated to absorb elemental magic making them dangerous to the wizards who had been there to help guard the giant. Rilena and Elzen were battle mages and able to rely on their skills in combat letting that advantage be minimal in the fight.
Rilena had barely seen the onrushing fire which had consumed men and most of the furniture in the room. Garosh had pulled her after him into a gateway just as the witch had used her magic. She had seen the glow of the portal and felt his power, but it hadn’t been a trick of the man to deceive or harm Windmeer. He had been afraid and ran, but not alone.
The mage looked at Darius and the three assistants helping him. All carried one thing or another. Green gems in two settings of metal held glowing points, while others had pouches of dust and devices that seemed akin to the simple ones. The second kind was held vertically with a clear globe that looked like glass. When viewed from opposite the user, all she could see was a distorted view of the wizard behind it; but when viewed from the other side, lines and dots glowed revealing both the glowing rectangles of the portals when pointed at them and dots which pointed towards similarities in the magic nearby.
“So this would be the gate used by you and Garosh when he tried to escape,” Darius stated as much as asked as he faced the rectangle glowing with dust and magic. The wizard had revealed the remnants of the previous doorway with his magic that could now be seen with a human’s eyes.
The young woman nodded stepping away from the wizard working with his globe device. “Assassins killed the guards outside the room and broke in stabbing one of the men checking the door. When I tried to help him, Garosh used Jerrick’s blood to create a gate. I tried to pull my sword, but he picked me up like a child throwing me through it as the witch outside sent flame into here burning up the room and anything in her way.
“If he hadn’t pulled me with him, I probably would have been dead from the blast.”
“And where did it lead?”
“We came through into a storeroom inside of his fortress,” she replied glancing towards the other men as two of them wandered into the hallway.
“No, where did he take you between here and the fortress,” the high wizard shook his head knowing that she hadn’t fully understood his question. “From my research, the points are accessed by going through a second world. Where were you between those points that time?”
The girl frowned trying to give words to something that she didn’t exactly understand. “There was a flash of silver light the first time that I barely saw. When he sent me back, I think I got stuck for a moment there in some void. Well, it wasn’t exactly a void since I noticed some dark, floating islands or something like that in the distance like I told you before. I could feel air around me like a breeze though the wind seemed directionless.
“Anyway, Garosh had told me I needed to lock onto someone I knew well and could visualize to find my way back to Windmeer. I thought of my friend and my body felt like it moved towards something before I popped out of there onto my friend.”
She avoided mentioning that she had landed on Elzen while he was taking a bath, but Rilena had a feeling that at some point it would come up since Elzen had reported the fact to embarrass her during their review. Still the woman managed not to blush at the mortifying situation they had wound up in that night. She didn’t have to admit her attraction for Elzen had been what had helped deposit her on top of him and had never said it to anyone no matter how many times she was questioned. It wasn’t her fault that he had been bathing at the time of her reappearance, but it was still embarrassing.
“In the bathhouse if I remember your colleague’s recitation of facts,” Darius clarified making the girl cringe. He had spoken with everyone who had been near the three portals that she knew of so far. Elzen was one of those who had been a witness for every one she had been near or a part of and had actually seen the Betrayer use his portal to escape with some dark haired girl of immense power.
“Yes,” Rilena answered neutrally. The wizard didn’t ask anything more for a moment as he set a series of spells. When he was done, the gate began to glow; but a red X of magic looked like it would cut a man should he walk through the mark.
“What are you doing?” she asked in spite of the fact that such magic was probably supposed to be secret. Still Ri
lena was just a battle mage and creating portals wasn’t something she was even remotely capable of doing. Perhaps if her friend Sebastian could see the high wizard at work, he might be able to decipher the spells for a mage to use; but he was off on some confidential mission and nowhere near Windmeer for now.
Giving the girl a self deprecating smile, Darius replied, “Preparing to see if all my research has been in vain or not.”
He clarified as he walked out into the hall where his two assistants appeared to be measuring air, at least to Rilena’s eyes, “A gate closes but like a door to a room, it can be opened again. All you need is the right key and a shove to open the door.
“For now, my magic is holding the first gate in stasis while binding it against unwanted visitors. We certainly don’t want to give our enemies an opportunity to return the way they left now, do we?”
“But that one was cast by Garosh, who is basically an ally. He surrendered and was working against the emperor, so why would we guard against him?” Rilena questioned as she realized that she hoped maybe Garosh was still alive despite the attack by the assassins in the fortress. The overwhelming power of the ones coming for him dwarfed the giant’s magical strength, so the odds were certainly stacked against him; but if he survived weren’t they setting a deadly trap for him as well?
Seeming to be on the same line of thought, Darius replied, “From what you have said, there isn’t as much chance that he will return. If the enemy finds his gate, however, Windmeer might find a new enemy force inside it in a blink.
“It is better to be safe than sorry, falcon, and this next one we certainly don’t wish to open. Your friend, Elzen, said that this Betrayer of yours went through with a girl of incredible power. If her skill matches her strength, we certainly don’t want the sorceress returning without a trap set for her as well.”
“So you will set traps in each spot and then what? Just wait?”
Darius grinned at her and stated, “You will see, my dear, you will see.”
Palose walked through the corridors of the emperor’s castle escorted by one of his many servants. Four guards accompanied him in spite of the regularity of his visits. Kolban had been having the mage visit often since even before he had been used for his portals. There was a connection between them that instilled confidence in him, if not actual trust.
Believing that the emperor could ever fully trust someone was a stretch. But even before he had birthed the siblings and transferred his essence to the new body of Kolban; the ancient being had looked at him as if he were more than just a resurrection man.
Palose had been reborn after being called back from death by Atrouseon. He had been used to betray Windmeer as well, and found that he liked Ensolus. His loyalty to Southwall had been severed first with magic and then with his renewed heart and mind. It wasn’t just a spell that kept Palose working with the emperor, however. He had gained new power, both magical and political, in Ensolus.
He had discovered that Atrouseon’s hold on him was tenuous. His spell had been cast with too many loop holes for the mage not to use to escape the binding runes used to resurrect him. Using the knowledge of Ensolus’s library, Palose had also discovered new magic that he was very skilled at and which was unknown or outlawed in Southwall.
Atrouseon had also inadvertently passed on some of his magical strength to his pawn and Palose’s power nearly equaled a weak wizard or warlock in the beginning. He researched how to build his strength and eventually took Atrouseon’s magic from the warlock for his own. If the warlock hadn’t grown half crazed from seeing his pawn and student surpass him in both strength and ability to gain the emperor’s ear; the mage wouldn’t have had to kill him, but that had been the case. Their bond had led the warlock to attack him within Palose’s sphere of strength and Atrouseon had discovered too late that his student had learned to raise more wizards to join him after their deaths as well.
He hoped that the emperor had yet to learn of his coven of raised men and women. Not all were wizards, but they all served him as friends and loved ones. Unlike his former master, the dark mage had learned from his mistakes and built the bonds much stronger than the ones they had shared.
The double door opened and Palose spotted not only the emperor, but several warlocks gathered before his throne. Used to the more informal rooms and gatherings of the emperor, the mage was surprised and unsure of the protocol for this visit. He bowed from the waist to his ruler once he was near the warlocks and was greeted by Kolban.
“Thank you for coming, Palose. We have a new situation that has been brought to my attention that I was hoping to get your opinion on before it has time to go too far,” the youthful looking young man sitting on the throne informed him. With brown hair and eyes, the emperor had a fair face and appeared no more than a fourteen year old boy in truth, but he had defied death more than once and this new body held much of the power of the original. It was a vessel designed to take on the emperor’s full power and memories without breaking down from the assault on its form from the vast power it held.
“I am always willing to serve, my emperor,” he replied more formally than he ever had before since it felt like the situation required it. His previous visits had been war councils and briefings, but this seemed to be different from those.
A smile tickled the boy’s lips at the greeting and he nodded. “Warlocks Semael and Hearweth are portal guardians and keepers of all points that we have used. If there is a portal gate that we have used, they can access it and they are the ones in charge of maintaining the links to our gates.”
Again the boy emperor nodded which started the middle aged man in his dark blue robe talking, “You used the gate above Banosh recently, did you not?”
Palose nodded to the warlock before inclining his head towards the emperor saying, “I was an escort for a mission to the port for the emperor. It was about two weeks ago.”
The warlock nodded and asked, “The emperor has told us of your unauthorized use of personal gates, which were approved by him. We were told that you have seeded lode stones in many cities and towns south of the enemy’s wall.
“Now we need to know if you might have done the same for Banosh because someone has destroyed the gate.”
The news was surprising even as it was wrapped in the question of his use of magic. “I dropped lodestones near the gate just in case the emperor might have need of my talents there again.”
“Do they still work?” the older man demanded with a frown as he grew annoyed with Palose’s touching the truth without conviction.
Pausing a moment as the two men waged a quiet war of wills with their eyes, Palose turned to look at Kolban who nodded. The mage closed his eyes searching for the points in his mind. There were so many now, that Palose worried that he couldn’t keep track of them much longer; but these were fresh and the markers stood out for him still.
He could feel the stones used aboard the Clipper as well. They were still moving to the east, but like those markers Palose felt the set on Litsarin moving as well.
“Someone has picked them up, though they are near the town.”
The warlocks looked at one another and the same warlock asked, “Are they still near the town or inside it?”
Palose realized that it was time to use another skill related to portals and the lodestones he had figured out. “I need a map of the north, including Litsarin to be sure.”
The warlocks were surprised at his request, though they too knew of the magic related to maps. Relocating the group and making the young emperor rise to find a room with maps rolled up and kept in special cubby holes, Palose found the map that looked similar to the ones written about in his book. Unlike his former life of being a battle mage in Southwall, the young man had become an avid reader of magic books. The warlocks’ writings led him down their paths of spell casting many times, but like the mizard Sebastian, Palose had come to learn to adapt warlock magic into simpler versions a battle mage might cast as well.
With his
power, Palose could now cast and perform powerful spells like most warlocks, but sometimes he would rather use a battle mage cheat and save time.
“Focus,” he stated locking his mind on the map. Closing his eyes, the mage settled his mind to match the lines scrawled upon the large piece of paper. His finger was placed on the map designated as Ensolus. He found the stones seeded in the gathering chambers and the ones placed in his homes. Expanding his thoughts, he found those near Garosh’s fortress and inside of it. Then he moved his mind to the cities he had worked to seed.
When he searched Windmeer, the mage frowned. Someone had found a way to tamper with his portal spells there. Quickly searching for the ones on the island, Palose was forced to shake his head.
Opening his eyes, Palose looked at where his finger rested now. It was next to Banosh, but not west of it. The stones had been moved to the east as if someone carried them away from his seeding point into the ocean.
“Someone found them,” he reported as everyone could see where his finger rested on the map.
It was Kolban who mused aloud, “Could these smaller gates have attracted the gate closing wizards or whatever these people call them?”
The fact that more than just the portals on Banosh had been found led Palose to warn, “Most of my access points to Windmeer have been tampered with as well. There are gatekeepers with unusual skill behind this though to have found something as small as my portal stones in both places.”
Giving a frown, the emperor played it off as more of a joke as he stated, “Then we will just have to make sure to create more gates than they can effectively close.”
The boy looked at Palose with a calculating look that made the mage realize that he had just become the focal point of this new mission.
Battle Mage: A Hero's Welcome (A Tale of Alus Book 8) Page 16
