The Rise of a Dark Mage
Author: D. L. Harrison
Copyright 2016. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Afterword:
About the Author
Other books by D. L. Harrison:
Book Description
Chapter 1
The dark keep was quiet and it was the middle of the night. The wind blew fiercely outside, and I could feel there was a storm coming. I looked at my shelves of books, all of them familiar. I knew every spell in them, and could probably read aloud the book from cover to cover without touching it. They held the most basic of the magic spells, and not just dark magic, but light, and neutral magic as well.
Enchanting, necromancy, spell craft, healing, protection, detection, wards, demon summoning, elemental magic, mind control, and even human sacrifice was known to me, at least the basics.
I was bored.
My… master, such as he was, told me I’m a natural talent. A genius, or prodigy. It was empty flattery of course, but I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t also the truth. I was second in power after all, and I’d been so since I was fourteen. I had gotten a look at the more advanced ritual books a couple of times, but they were secured in the master’s quarters.
I thought I might even be more powerful than he was, but I hadn’t seriously considered killing him to take over. I didn’t want the demesne at all. In fact, Zual was a cesspit, I didn’t want any of it. I’d read histories where we used to be powerful and feared. Zual used to raid the other kingdoms for slaves and food, but it had been centuries since the passes were closed to us, by overwhelming powerful magic.
Now that, I was interested in. That was true power.
Not at all like ruling over twenty backstabbing mages and fifty whining slaves while I worried about another demesne attacking. Why would I want that, when I could have so much more?
The only problem was, that I can’t leave Zual, not without breaking the master-apprentice slave link my master has with me. I might be able to kill him, but that’s far from certain. With that link he could disable me easily, even if I was more powerful. It would take complete surprise, and a very quick battle to do it. He’s too old and canny…
“She’s only eighteen. She can’t possibly beat us in a straight fight. How the hell did she become the second anyway, and she gets all those extra lessons from the master?” Terry complained in a whispered voice filled with both disgust and envy.
Terry’s words had interrupted my thoughts. I had several enchantments around the demesne designed to pass on any words spoken about me. It could be a pain in the ass, I had to charge them all with magic at least once a week, but it had been worth the trouble. The enchantments had also been disguised with hidden magic, which prevented the other apprentices from figuring out where I got my information.
So far it has kept me safe from five different rape attempts, and one murder attempt. I supposed I should take that as a compliment to my appearance, most mages in Zual wanted to kill the one above them to move up in rank, not forcefully bed them.
Elliot snorted, “How did she become second? That’s a stupid question Terry. Have you looked at her? I can just imagine what her extra lessons with the master are all about.”
Then nervously he added, “You really think we can take her? I know she’s… desirable, but you’ve seen her demon, she has to have some skills to summon that monster.”
That was true. My demon was very strong. Thing was though, I could summon a stronger one if I’d wanted to. I was too smart for that though, if I did do that, my master would feel threatened.
Terry cleared his throat, “I think we can… just imagine pulling that long dark hair of hers, while her face twists in pain as we use her. Her body is…”
Elliot interrupted with a snort, “Yes, and imagine her cold emerald green eyes staring into yours from that pretty face as she rips your guts out. Forget it, I don’t have a death wish. If you want to think with your other head, go for it. As for me, I’m going to go find some safe and helpless farm girl.”
Terry cursed, “Coward.”
I shook my head in disgust, and they’re the third and fourth in the hierarchy? I created a glyph in my mind and channeled my power into it, along with the shape I wanted it to assume, and the intent of what I wanted from the creature. A large stone elemental appeared, and then immediately sunk into the floor to find my target.
I smiled in satisfaction as I heard Terry’s loud and pained scream. He thought to match me? He wasn’t even a match for my elemental. I wouldn’t kill him, my elemental would last for several hours however, and I imagined Elliot would either give up his fantasies by the time he went hoarse, or he’d plot to kill me. That second one I wouldn’t let pass, but just lusting after me wasn’t a good reason to kill the idiot. He couldn’t help it, most men couldn’t as far as I could tell.
But of course, not all of those men had fantasized about and threatened to rape me.
A few moments later a loud sound went off in the keep. Unexpected guests must’ve crossed the ward barrier for the demesne. Talk about bad timing. I casted a release spell for the elemental, and the screaming stopped. He’d be fine. Any dark mage of his power would be able to heal themselves. I opened my door and headed down to the courtyard.
I wasn’t needlessly cruel, I just handled those below me firmly, and kept a wary eye above on our master. Some mages in Zual were cruel for cruelties sake, they just enjoyed inflicting pain and feeling power over others. Most often mages like that were the weaker sort, those with no chances to attain the rank of master. Perhaps it was just a way to vent their frustrations, but I found the idea distasteful. It was such a waste to ruin a work resource like that.
Like I said, I wasn’t needlessly cruel. For instance, I’d never torture a common slave that worked the fields, there’d be no point, they already knew their place, and I knew mine.
Whereas Elliot had not known his place was beneath me, and that’d made it a different story.
This would be the fifth attack we had to face this year. My master could be cruel, but he was smarter than most and didn’t allow gratuitous torture of our slaves. He only allowed what was required to keep them in line. Which meant we actually had food to eat, and more slaves than most. It also meant lazier and stupider demesnes liked to try and raid us, never mind the fact they never successfully did so.
I really hated this place.
I walked out and nodded to my master as I cast several glyphs in preparation for battle. I didn’t know what his real name was, he’d been master here as far back as I could remember. Names had power, and he hadn’t shared his with
anyone. There was also no one that knew his name from before he was master, the man was very old.
I caught Elliot’s eye and winked flirtatiously just to put him off balance, as an angry Terry stumbled out into the courtyard. It was unfortunate my punishment of Terry was interrupted, it would probably be impossible to prevent a duel of some kind between us now. Men’s egos were so fragile, and the lesson hadn’t nearly been long enough to sink in.
My master said, “Prepare to defend the keep,” and his mind reached out for ours.
I really hated this part, but he took control of our minds and our power, and pulled it all toward himself. He stood in front of us, ready to destroy the enemy with our combined power. The master-apprentice bond was nothing more than a slave bond, but I tried not to think about it too much. If he read one of my stray thoughts of complaint, he might decide that it was too much of a risk to keep me alive.
Those of us that had no demons summoned yet, were forced to summon them. My mind was a puppet as I formed the glyph and pictured my demon along with her name.
Demon magic could be dangerous. The summoned demons loved getting out of hell for a while. They also enjoyed torturing and killing humans. In return for summoning them, they would channel their magic to the mage that summoned them, which doubled the strength of their spellcasting, that assumed of course, that the mage summoned a demon of equivalent power.
So, something for both parties.
The problem was, they didn’t see it that way. They didn’t like being chained to the will of a mage. Their desire was to kill everything they could, not just what the mage wanted them to kill, so the mage needed to hold them back. If they ever lost control or summoned a demon beyond their skills, the mage would die when the demon escaped. I wasn’t too worried though, the demon I summoned didn’t possess much more than two thirds of my own power.
It was actually fairly rare that a demon escaped, but it was always a constant threat in dealing with their treacherous natures. Such were the pitfalls of being a dark mage, and this one was minor compared to others.
A moment later, our master had us all summon an elemental. Elementals, like demons, could be summoned at an equivalent power of the mage. But they didn’t channel magic to the mage, they used their magic to accomplish the purpose of the summoning. They also didn’t try to escape. Elemental magic was fairly neutral, neither light nor dark magic.
Elementals were also amoral. An elemental didn’t care if it was summoned to carry a bucket of water, brush their mage’s hair, dig a tunnel, protect someone or something, or even torture someone. It was all the same to them, they just did what they were told without judgement. Though they were alive in an alien way, they had no concept of good or evil.
Mine was summoned, a fire elemental in the shape of a wolf. Its assignment was to protect the demesne from the invaders, preferably by killing them.
That was it, a demon and elemental. Now he held all our power merely to enhance his own spells.
He didn’t bother ordering us to cast protection spells on ourselves. If a mage was too stupid to do so before they were pulled into the master’s mind control link, then they would most likely die. Luckily, I’d taken care of that on the way to the courtyard. If anyone hadn’t, they didn’t deserve to survive.
It wasn’t too much longer before the enemy broke through the initial defenses, and rushed into the courtyard…
Demons, Elementals, and mages in robes as black as mine ran at us. I really hated this part, being an observer, depending on my master to use my magic, as well as the other mages, to destroy the threat. It wasn’t that my master wasn’t competent, I just hated not being in control. There was also a small part of me that thought I could do better.
Ironically perhaps, our dark mage master’s first spell was a banishment, which was light magic. The attacking master mage would do the same of course, before the groups came together. It was a quick and dirty way to take out most of the elementals and demons of the opposing side.
Both sides were about halved right there, and then we came together with a clash. We were outnumbered, but not by much, and the courtyard would enhance our power as well, defending had its perks, since we could prepare ahead of time.
Several more black-robed mages ran into the courtyard as the first set cast spells at us. Something tickled my mind, as my master ordered our demons and elementals forward to clash with what remained of theirs, while he casted a mind control spell.
It clicked, there were way too many black robes compared to the demon and elemental count when they first arrived. I couldn’t reach out with my magic to check what was going on. And then the new black robes charged at the master in eerie silence, as opposed to setting up from a distance to cast as the other group did.
In their hands, they held knives.
“Master! Zombies!” I yelled in alarm.
Zombies weren’t normally used, because they were so easy to kill. A dispel magic, banishment, or fire would destroy them quickly. It didn’t matter how strong the mage was that summoned them, necromancy wasn’t often used to make zombies, at least not ones that attacked. Necromancy was used for grunt work, and of course, to speak to the dead.
The attacker’s deception worked well however, the assumed dark mages ran forward and stabbed at my master with swords before he even realized what was going on. Something that would have never worked as he was shielded, except the swords and knives wielded by the zombies were heavily enchanted.
No dark mage would ever trust a normal human with an enchanted weapon that could kill them, but with the undead under his control, it was a daring ploy with a lot less risk. Effective, but still stupid, if his apprentices got a hold of one…
A few stabs later, and my master’s personal protections fell. I heard my master gasp in surprise as a sword ran him through the chest, then a moment later a dagger slit his throat, while another sword took off his arm. Such a simple ploy, easily dealt with, if my master had caught on soon enough. I gasped as I felt the mage-apprentice bond snap.
I was free.
Then the master who led our enemy in the attack stepped forward…
Chapter 2
I was very angry in that moment.
Not that my master was dead, but that someone else had killed him. With his death, the conquering master would offer to bind all the apprentices present, or kill them if they refused. I wanted no part of that, the plan was to flee Zual after my master died. The trick was, I’d wanted to see the more advanced books in the master’s private study before leaving this shithole behind.
Specifically, the ones on the mage-apprentice bond. With that knowledge it would be virtually impossible for me to become enslaved again. Although, I wouldn’t have minded seeing the rest of the spells in the books either. I was frustrated.
The dark master said in a booming voice, “Dismiss your demons and elementals now! Surrender, and yield to your new master, or die.”
The other apprentices in the demesne started to follow orders and none attacked. I couldn’t really blame them, to attack would be suicide. We’d no experience at all fighting as a group or team, without a master to guide our magic with purpose we’d be slaughtered.
I banished my demon and elemental, and then I came up with a rather desperate plan. I stood near the back of the group, a privilege of rank and rather fortuitous. I brought up two glyphs in my mind, one was hidden magic which only had a second thought attached to it, the target. It didn’t need an intent because it only performed one function, hiding the presence of magic. The second glyph was an illusion, a fairly basic dark magic spell.
I casted both simultaneously, which created an illusion of me over top of me.
Then I brought up two more glyphs, hidden magic, and an earth elemental. As soon as I casted the spell, I slipped into the dark ground. Elemental magic was noisy, but not when hidden magic was cast on the spell itself. The tradeoff was it made the elemental only half the strength, however I had no plans to use it in battle, ste
alth was what I needed at that moment.
I could have fled, perhaps should have fled, but I wanted those damned books. I would have a little time. It would take the new master time to bind all of the apprentices, hopefully he would get to me last. I popped back up from the ground a few seconds later, on the bottom floor of the keep and then was taken into the wall and up to my room.
I grabbed my pack, which was heavily enchanted both to hold about a room full of stuff, and to be incredibly light. I dismissed the earth elemental and conjured an air elemental in the shape of a small human with six arms. I held the pack open as the elemental cleared my room in seconds, it filled the bag with my books, robes, and other personal items.
I didn’t have any staves or enchantments, most of my enchanting had been done on the keep itself. I knew the secret of enchanting complex rituals to make them faster to cast, but the truth was I didn’t know any. Those were reserved for the master. I could have enchanted spells, but I didn’t see the point, my mind would be just as fast for that, and it would be too dangerous if a fellow apprentice got a hold of it.
Enchantments work at the same power of the caster, so the last thing I’d want to do is put an offensive spell on an object that was powerful enough to kill me, even in the weakest apprentice’s hands. Not that I was that careless, but why take the chance?
When the elemental was done I ran into and down the hall. The top floor was reserved for the top four apprentices along with the master, so his private rooms weren’t far. I ordered my elemental to open the door in case it was trapped, and it opened. I stepped forward my senses sharp, but there was no protection magic guarding the master’s room.
There was a ward that would tell him if an apprentice entered his room, which would be a death sentence for that apprentice. I guessed he didn’t feel the need to do more than that. The fact no one ever went in there while he was alive kind of proved he was right. It also made things easier for me.
I smiled as the elemental loaded the master’s book collection into my pack. I was tempted to look at them now, but I knew that would be a death sentence. It wouldn’t be too much longer before the conquering master discovered my deception.
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