The Rise of a Dark Mage

by D. L. Harrison

  That almost made the fight even against the twenty-two enemies, until they cast elementals and made it thirty-three to twenty. The people in the caravan pulled out weapons, and tried to hold back the demons and elementals with half the knights long enough for the other half of the knights to close with the mages.

  I understood the tactic, if a mage died, both their demon and elemental would be banished.

  I pulled my own dagger and stayed near the back. I knew I could help, a lot actually. None of the mages even came close to the power I already held except the one. And even he was weaker.

  I considered they wouldn’t even know who casted the spells. I could cast glyphs casually with my mind. The problem was everyone in the caravan would know someone there was a hidden mage. I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to help, the knights wouldn’t have trouble with these guys anyway.

  Except the powerful one, who casted an elemental fire attack against the charging knights.

  One of them lit up like a pile of dried out grass and screamed in pain.

  It was something I’d seen a million times in Zual. Death was cheap, and common. Yet, it bothered me. I hardly knew him. We’d barely exchanged a few words the last two days. But he wasn’t just another dark mage out for himself, he’d defended the caravan, and me, as his duty.

  I simply sat there, and held back my power. Just because it hadn’t been time to reveal who I truly was. I needed more power first, and if I’d jumped in I would have betrayed my chance to infiltrate Lethia’s society and learn the truth of the greatest magic the world has seen.

  That magic wouldn’t make me invulnerable, but it would be a good start.

  I frowned as a second knight died before three knights attacked the stronger mage in concert. Their swords finally breached his protections and sunk into his flesh. The fight ended quickly after that as the weaker mages were put down brutally fast.

  Only two had died, but many in the caravan were wounded from the demon and elemental attack. The defending knights had done a good job warding the creatures off with the swords.

  I shouldn’t have cared that those two men died. I shouldn’t have cared at all about the injuries I had the ability to heal, but couldn’t. Daniel had made it through fine, and that shouldn’t have made me feel so relieved. I was haunted by my thoughts for the rest of the day, and second guessed myself as I saw the grief and anger on the other knights’ faces at the loss of their brothers.

  I shouldn’t have cared. But I did.

  What had everything even more confused in my head, is I knew either of those men would have tried to gut me if they knew what I was, even if I didn’t attack them first. I certainly didn’t owe them anything. Yet, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

  I worried that this place was changing me, that my friendship with Daniel was making me soft.

  Daniel asked with concern, “Are you alright? You’ve been quiet all afternoon.”

  I sighed, “I’ll be fine. The battle upset me.”

  It was true, just not in the way he’d interpret my words.

  He growled, “Mages are a menace.”

  I flinched, and then sighed, glad he’d been turned away from me. I’d never heard that much anger in his voice before.

  “Mages are people. Those were just the bad ones.”

  He asked, “How could you say that?”

  We’d never talked about this before, for obvious reasons.

  “In my kingdom there are good and bad mages. The good ones far outnumber the bad.”

  Well, in my theoretical kingdom of Mendell. Of course in Zual, most mages were bad.

  He shook his head, “It’s different. Mages have too much power. It isn’t worth the risk.”

  I frowned, “Soldiers have power too, in sword and weapon training, tactics, and combat. Some of those soldiers are abusive, every army has them, the ones that enjoy power over life and death. Does that mean we should hunt down all soldiers and kill them to the last man? Mages are powerful, but a good one or two would have helped you all back there, and maybe even healed the wounded.”

  I’d no idea why I made that argument. Surely I wouldn’t qualify to be included in the numbers of the good mages. I wasn’t sure I believed it anyway, good and evil were two sides of the same coin. There was only power.

  Plus, I seemed to be annoying him with my opinion. Honestly though, it appeared like the royal family had completely overreacted to a close call many years ago. One day the enchantments would finally fail, nothing lasted forever, and Lethia would be truly screwed then, without any mages to defend them from my former kingdom.

  I shrugged, “Different views. Mendell doesn’t hold every mage as evil. Only the ones who act so.”

  At least, I didn’t think they did.

  “Do you truly think all mages are evil?” I asked softly, and then hated myself for it.

  He grunted, “We’ll never agree on this, let’s drop it.”

  These people were truly indoctrinated, or perhaps brain washed if he couldn’t even hold a civil discussion about it. That didn’t say much about our chances did it? He was interested in me now, but that would change very quickly if he found out the truth.

  “Fine, so what will you do when you get back to the city and get released from duty?”

  He smirked, “I’ll go into the family business.”

  It felt like that was an inside joke somehow, one I didn’t get at all.

  “What business?”

  “Oh, management types. You’ll find out when we get there, I really can’t talk about it. I’d like you to be my guest though, at least until you find a place to live and do business in the city.”

  I thanked him and told him I would.

  I was a little annoyed he wouldn’t just tell me, but also relieved he was in a better mood again. It might have been doomed to failure, but whatever happened between us until I was finished in the Lethian capitol would be interesting, and possibly a great deal of fun. Fun was rather new to me, and I found it agreed with me.

  Chapter 7

  The Lethian capitol stunned me as we went over the ridge and I saw it for the first time.

  A demesne in Zual was on average fifty to a hundred people. The village Rockbend hadn’t been all that shocking with a population of a couple thousand. The city I looked had must have had many thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people in the sprawling streets. I tried not to gape, assuming that Mendell had something similar I couldn’t afford to act so surprised.

  But I was.

  I couldn’t even imagine trying to rule this city with force, the way it was done in Zual. There were too many. It became obvious why they used economic forces to control the masses and put them in their place, because that would happen almost automatically. The illusion of freedom to keep them happy and ignorant.

  As a system went, it was more complicated, and perhaps even more dishonest than what Zual had, but then I’d left Zual because I hated it, at least as much as I had left to find more power, and to find a place and a station in life that I could gain via that power. The city seemed miles wide and long from here, and I could see the behemoth of a castle in the center.

  More of a palace really, it was huge, and dwarfed any structure I’d ever laid eyes on before now.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Daniel asked.

  I sniffed and put my nose up, “It’s a quaint little city you have here,” I said in a faux haughty voice.

  He laughed, “Come on, I’ll take you home and introduce you to my mother.”

  I sighed, “What are we doing exactly? Besides flirting I mean.”

  The man had me confused. Introduce me to his mother?

  He winked, “You’ll have to bear with me. I can’t state any intentions until I’m dismissed from service. You understand? For instance, I couldn’t tell you how very much I’ve wanted to kiss you the last few weeks, or how I love your laugh and dry sense of humor. Or that your beauty takes my very breath away. Not that I’m saying any of that you under
stand, just giving you some examples of what I can’t do. So you’ll have to wait to hear it.”

  I nodded sagely and pretended indifference as my heart raced in my chest.

  “I get it now, you’re crazy.”

  He just grinned wider and pointed as we rode down the hill.

  “Over there is the merchants quarter and up front almost to the palace you can see the large government building where you’ll need to get a permit….”

  He went on and pointed out all the districts for me. Nobles, merchant, and upper class housing, commoner’s housing, a market district for the cheaper clothes and foodstuffs, warehouse district, and the port district where the fishing boats came in. It was a lot to take in.

  We rode through the city and I felt suddenly uncomfortable as the caravan split, the merchants heading towards their district, all except me. I was suddenly surrounded by eighteen knights, and riding through the inner walls that led to the palace as well as the support buildings and barracks for the knights.

  “Are you sure I can be in here?”

  He smiled and winked, “Trust me.”

  I pondered that. I kind of did a little, but the day I fully trusted someone else would be when hell froze over. But I found myself smiling as I looked into his eyes, and I nodded.

  We circled the large palace and went through a secondary portcullis and over to some barracks. There was an old grizzled man there with a wide smile on his face, although it faltered for a moment when he saw me.

  “About time Daniel, your mother is driving the palace insane.”

  Daniel laughed, “Yes sir, she does that on occasion.”

  I started to get a bad feeling about this, who was his mother? I dismounted when he did.

  The old man asked, “Who’s this?”

  Daniel smiled and said, “This is Cassandra, a merchant that ran into some bad luck on the road into Lethia. She’ll be my guest when I’m released, if you wouldn’t mind.”

  The old man grinned, “I’m tempted to drag it out, but your mother might kill me if I make you muck out the stables. Very well, you are released from duty as a knight of Lethia. It wasn’t that bad was it?”

  Daniel shook his head, “No Michael, it really wasn’t. Although we lost a couple of more this trip.”

  Michael frowned, “Sorry to hear that. That’s never easy.”

  Daniel nodded to Michael and we led the horses over to a stable.

  “You going to tell me what’s going on? Who’s your mother that she can terrorize the palace?”

  Daniel chuckled and said amusedly, “Terrorize? I believe he said drive insane. Listen, I didn’t mean to mislead you, I was under oath not to use or even reveal my station when a part of the knights. It’s a kind of tradition in my family, all the sons join the knights to finish out their education. It’s said to give us a real life view of the kingdom.”

  I shook my head, “Okay, let me have it. I think I’m ready.”

  Daniel opened his mouth but nothing came out because he was tackled by a screeching young woman about my age. She was gorgeous too, with long curly brown hair, and I swear I only thought about torturing her a little bit merely for interrupting what Daniel was going to say. I certainly wasn’t jealousy, not at all.

  Certainly not.

  Daniel turned to me with an apologetic look, “Cassie, this is my little sister, Marie.”

  He coughed and looked nervous, “As I was saying, my mother is queen Maria the third, so that makes me…” he trailed off.

  Marie smiled, “Hi. Excuse my brother, I haven’t seen him this nervous in years. He’s second in line for the throne, behind our older brother Timothy.”

  I smiled through the panic, “It’s nice to meet you Marie. I… had no idea. Who he was I mean. What… how do I address you?”

  She grinned, “Marie will do. Unless it’s during an official ceremony or when holding court we tend not to use titles at all. Then it’s princess Marie, or just princess.”

  She turned to Daniel, “She’s gorgeous, but the court will eat her alive if you let them. All the single noble ladies have been panting all week at the idea of you getting back today.”

  Daniel glared, “Marie!”

  Marie snickered, “Bother that. I’m not a kid you know.”

  I laughed, “She has a point Danny.”

  Daniel frowned at me at the nickname, but Marie started giggling.

  Daniel finally chuckled and said, “So do you still want to be my guest? I wouldn’t blame you for running, but I’d really like the opportunity to court you.”

  I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes, “Are those two things tied together?”

  His eyes widened in shock at the thought, “No!”

  Got him, revenge was sweet.

  I winked, “Fine, I’ll stay then.”

  Actually this had turned out rather perfect. I grabbed my magical bag, not wanting anyone else to carry it. If they got too curious and looked inside… it wouldn’t be a good thing to say the least.

  I added in an offhand tone, “And you may court me as well.”

  Marie said, “I like this one, she’s feisty. You better go see mom, I’ll show her to one of the guest rooms.”

  Daniel frowned, but then nodded, “I’ll talk to you later.”

  I thought for a moment he’d finally go for a kiss, but to my disappointment, he awkwardly walked away instead. I was really curious, I’d been fending off animals for years, but Daniel was… different. Maybe he just hadn’t wanted to try in front of his sister, or were there dating rules for the nobles? I’d need to find out.

  Marie grabbed my arm, “Let’s go, the servants will get the rest of your bags.”

  Marie talked non-stop the whole walk. It wasn’t even girly talk either as I would have expected, it was all about the court. For some reason she liked me and had decided to help me out. She went over the few expectations there were, how to address all the different people and in what situation, and gave me a detailed run down on all the intrigue in the court and who was vying for Daniel’s attentions.

  Okay, probably not all the intrigue. I doubted even Marie could talk that fast, but I got a pretty comprehensive view of what I’d be getting myself into courting a prince. Strangely, the idea of gaining power that way didn’t appeal to me. It was shallow, and too easy. I wanted to earn what I gained. I was a powerful mage, not a gossiping brainless magpie who’d court Daniel to get close to the throne.

  Plus, I reminded myself firmly it would never work out in the long term. I was a mage, Daniel hated mages. I was just here to use him to get what I wanted. He was nice, and I’d have fun, but that was secondary.

  I also found out there was a court mage, and apprentice here. But they were constantly under guard, virtual prisoners who’d be stabbed with those enchanted swords if they got out of line.

  Ironically, not much different from the life of an apprentice in Zual.

  She led me through several halls and showed me common rooms such as the throne room, dining room, and other common areas in the castle. She eventually led me to a wing off the main building. I paid attention and focused so I could remember the way. She even showed me the hallway that led to the mage rooms, and that I shouldn’t ever go back there.

  I almost sighed. Just when I started to actually enjoy her company she showed the same prejudice as her brother, who I was now apparently courting. Of course, I was the one telling lies here about who I was, so who was I to judge?

  She eventually showed me the suite I was assigned. It actually had a small receiving room, and then a bedroom behind it that was rather large, with a very large canopy bed, oak dressers, an attached bathing room, and a few cedar wardrobes.

  “Thank you Marie. All that should help.”

  She smiled, “It’s going to drive them crazy. They’re all bitches, it’s my pleasure to help, trust me. Plus, I’ve never seen my brother look at another woman like he looked at you.”

  She turned as the servants filed in with the rest of my
bags and started to open them up and put my clothes away. One of them reached for my bag and I pulled away.

  “I got this one, there are no clothes in it anyway, just business samples.”

  Not to mention black robes, dark magic books, and all my gold and silver. They finished quickly and left, and I put my bag into one of the deep drawers on the dresser that had a key. I locked it and took the key for safekeeping. I went over the wardrobe they’d just filled, and I pulled out a dark green dress and turned to Marie.

  “That one’s perfect, I bet it looks gorgeous on you. I guess I’ll let you get cleaned up and change out of your riding leathers. We’ll talk later. I’m sure my brother will come by soon.”

  She smiled and left, and I moved into the bathroom. The water that came out was warm, but not hot. Still, I admitted it was better than cold water as I took off my clothes and slid into the bath. I’d been unable to stay really clean during the ride here because I had to watch the spell use. Once I scrubbed up, I dried off and brushed my hair out before pulling on the dress.

  I left the leathers out for the servants, and then sat in the receiving room. I’d no idea what to do. I thought about the mage corridor, and was hopeful that I’d find a library.

  No time like the present.

  I brought up glyphs for hidden magic and an air elemental. I specified no shape for the air elemental, it would in essence be a part of the air and invisible, it would also be undetectable magically. It would be less powerful splitting my power to hide the magic, but stealth was what I needed. After I casted the spell, I used a mind glyph with another hidden magic glyph, to share the elemental’s eyes, and sent it to the mage corridor to poke around a bit.

  I figured this would be the best way, I could even read books through its eyes while I sat here in my room. That was my plan anyway.

  The air elemental slipped down the hallways unseen, and then down the mage corridor. It went through the cracks under the doors one room at a time. I saw that there were several rooms which seemed to be neglected, usually with a color theme.