The Rise of a Dark Mage

by D. L. Harrison

  I supposed at a glance, four or five families.

  I said in a strong cold voice, mostly because I was trying not to cry at what I’d found, “Grab what you want to take with you, I’m sending you to the capitol of Sandoval. Vernon and Darrell know where to go from there.”

  I opened a portal about a half mile from the city gates. It would stay open for several hours, or until I dismissed the magic, which I’d do once everyone moved through.

  Darrell volunteered, “I’ll go through first,” and stepped through.

  Everyone watched him look around, and then he waved at them to come through. People grabbed some of the clothes off the piles, and came toward the portal.

  I hit their enchanted cuffs with an earth spell, both breaking the enchantment and turning the cuffs to dust. When the others saw that, they hurried up and formed a line to walk past, and I freed them all from both the cuffs and the prison.

  Vernon brought up the rear, “Thank you Cassandra. I… don’t understand, you’re staying?”

  I nodded and smirked, “Someone has to shake this place up.”

  Vernon laughed, “Maybe I’ll get that revenge after all, just not to plan I suppose. Will you use mind magic?”

  I shook my head, “And make the queen a puppet? What fun would that be?”

  It was true, I was trying to fix things, not compound the problem. Plus, mages aged slower, I’d be here long after her great grandchildren turned to dust. Eventually things would change. Either that, or they’d figure out a way to kill me. True change couldn’t be forced.

  Vernon stepped through with another chuckle, this one had the sound of hope in it. I cancelled the magic and the portal disappeared. I opened another back to the mage hallway, I didn’t sense anyone on the other side, so I walked through. Huh, I wondered how long it would take for them to figure it out. Probably a couple of hours, once those guards got unstuck…

  Chapter 20

  I took a moment to ward and protect the hallway. Much in the same way I’d used for the fountain. People wouldn’t be disturbing me here in the mage wing with violence. No, I’d have to just worry about the corridors. It only took me a few minutes to lay the enchantments, I’d have to recharge them, but they’d let me know if they got low on stored magic. I could do the auto charge thing, but I didn’t want to overuse that. Not when I could just summon an elemental and order it to recharge them all.

  I stepped into the master mage quarters at the end of the hall, and took a look around. As expected, there were no spell books from the former masters, of course I had Silvia’s, so I didn’t need anyone else’s. I was sure there was tons more to learn about magic. I had the basics down, and a few combinations and useful rituals, but there would be more with some effort.

  As for the room itself, it was large. About twice as big as the guest room I’d been in during my first visit. The bed was huge, and would probably fit a family of five comfortably sleeping side by side without touching. There was a small empty bookshelf I wasn’t tempted to fill. My advanced books would stay in the hideaway where they were safe from bigots with fire.

  There was a small attached room where robes could be hung on hooks, as well as space for breaches and shirts, even someplace to hang dresses. Through the other side, was a decent sized bath. Which… sounded really good.

  I cast a glyph of water to fill the tub, and a glyph of fire to heat it, and then stripped down and sunk into the water. I summoned an air elemental to go get my pack with all my clothes in it. Although I supposed I should be wearing robes now all the time.

  I sighed, I’d miss dresses. Or maybe, I’d just miss the way Daniel stared at me when I wore them. That was over anyway.

  After I soaked for a while, I got out, dried off with another water glyph, and then cast clean and refresh spells before pulling on a fresh robe from my pack. I’d been very busy, and it was a long day. But it was also supper time. I supposed I might actually be a bit evil, because when I headed for the door I had a huge smile on my face.

  I felt strange as I walked into the throne room, which was empty except for a couple of guards. They didn’t attack me, which was pleasant, if surprising. I took a moment to enchant the dais with protective spells. The children were protected, but the queen wasn’t. I wouldn’t give her a permanent enchantment, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t protect her.

  I’d have to charge these enchantments once a week, or sooner if the wards activated the protective spells, but again it wouldn’t be a hardship, I could do it during court. There was also the fact I could have elementals do it for me. I smiled to myself and wondered what the guards thought about that. I liked Maria, but I was sure the queen would hate me.

  I left the throne room and walked toward the dining room. I almost giggled when silence fell, but managed to maintain my cold uncaring demeanor as I approached the table and sat down with the court. They all stared at me as I pushed back the hood of the robe and pushed the hair out of my eyes.

  “Good evening,” I introduced myself, “I’m Cassandra, the new court mage.”

  Then I reached for the wine and poured myself a cup in complete silence, and even got some food on my plate before there was any reaction at all.

  Maria asked, “Are you insane?”

  I replied sweetly, “I don’t know your majesty, I suppose it’s possible. Since I’ve taken the position of your court mage, I’ve fixed the weather problem, and rescued slaves and kidnap victims. I do believe kidnapping and slavery are against the laws here in Lethia, are they not?”

  Maria asked dully, “The weather?”

  I frowned, “Didn’t Michael tell you? I created a magic ritual to fix the weather, as long as there’s a mage to activate it every ten years or so, you won’t have to overtax your people anymore, or pay outrageous amounts of gold for relief food from Sandoval or Mendell. Plus, it makes fresh water and has a nifty statue of your namesake, along with her court mage. It’s quite a pretty fountain.”

  Maria frowned, “So you think you can take over, control us?” she spat the question.

  I shook my head, “A court mage’s duties are to protect the crown, and deal with magical matters and responsibilities to benefit and protect the kingdom. I’ve no intention of controlling you, I’m just not giving you a choice. Run the kingdom as you see fit, except for matters of magic of course, that’s my job. You can’t bully me your majesty, and I’m afraid all the other court mage candidates have quit and left the kingdom. You’re stuck with me.”

  Timothy cursed, and then said, “They won’t escape, we can track them down and return them to where they belong.”

  I waved a hand theatrically, and a ten-foot-tall by twenty-foot-wide portal opened down the side of the table. Through it was the capitol city of Sandoval.

  “Well, prince Timothy. They’re in there somewhere. But I should warn you, I doubt king Leland will appreciate you going after his new citizens like that, or taking soldiers onto his land.”

  I snapped my fingers and it closed.

  “Just so you know, I’m a fully trained master mage, not the rabble you’ve been enslaving for years. I would encourage you to use me as your court mage, instead of fighting me. But, that’s up to you and her majesty. It is worth noting, I haven’t taken an apprentice, because I wouldn’t have trusted them with your lives, because of the way you’ve treated them.”

  He snorted in derision, “As if any mage can be trusted.”

  I smiled coldly, “Some could, but just like the kicked dog that bites their master, who’s fault is the bite? The dogs? Or the master that kicked it? Even the best of men will strike back against true oppression.”

  An arrow sped across the room, and bounced off of my protective shield and landed on a platter of mixed vegetables.

  I ignored it, like nothing happened at all, and started to eat what I’d piled on my plate. The room was filled with a hostile tension in the air, and maybe I was crazy, because I really enjoyed it for some reason. No doubt it would grow old in time
, but for now I was having fun.

  The queen stayed silent after her initial outburst, and I realized she was afraid of showing weakness. If she ordered the guards to apprehend me, and failed, there would be political consequences. Although, letting me sit here and eat, had its own too, I supposed. The prince who hadn’t even liked me as a merchant was quiet now too. By the time I started on my second slice of beef, everyone else in the room started eating as well.

  It was quiet, except for the clink of silverware and plates…

  Chapter 21

  “You what!?”

  I giggled, sitting on my huge bed and talking with Marie through the amulet. She’d been shocked at my black robes, but had gotten over it quickly. I’d just spent the last hour explaining my busy day.

  “Yep. It was really fun. So far no one has tried to kill me, I think mostly because of how it didn’t work all morning with the fountain, and how easily I sent all the jailed mages to Sandoval. I hope… I don’t know. I have no expectations, but I hope eventually your mother and older brother see reason.”

  Marie replied, “We just got to the first town in Mendell, do you think I should tell Daniel what you’re doing?”

  I shook my head, “Not until you’re on the way back. I fixed the weather but this year’s famine won’t be affected overly much. It will take a couple of years to get the soil back to where it should be. I’m afraid he’d probably pull his sword and rush back here, when you need to go forward with the treaty talks.”

  She sighed, “You’re probably right, I’ll tell him everything when we leave Mendell, that will give him a month of travel to calm down a little. Is my mother safe?”

  I sighed, “Don’t you trust me? I’ll keep her well and safe, promise.”

  She nodded, “I do trust you with my life, and I’m happy you’re helping my people, but I worry my mother might push you too far. They really shot you with an arrow at dinner?”

  I laughed, “It was awesome, I didn’t even flinch as I went for another forkful of meat. As for your mom, I won’t push back, I’ll be the immovable rock, not a battering ram. Forcing any more than my presence will be counterproductive. I don’t expect this to be easy, it will take years, and perhaps even generations.”

  She shrugged after a moment of silence, “Not much else going on with me, you know how exciting the carriage is. I’ll have more stories for you in Mendell. Although I doubt princess Lena will be as exciting and reckless as Elidy was.”

  I snorted a laugh in agreement, but then asked in a serious tone, “How is Daniel doing?”

  She shook her head, “Angry, sad, confused. I think he still loves you, but at the same time he hates you. You know? It will take time.”

  I sighed, “I’m the same, except for the hating part. I’m just… truthfully I try not to think of it, and work on magic instead. Wait, doesn’t Daniel have a communicator, maybe he already knows?”

  She replied, “No. I think it’s stupid, but there’s a law the communicators can’t leave the kingdom, and even we have to follow the laws.”

  We chatted about nothing particular for a few more minutes, and then both said goodnight.

  I went down into the city by portal early the next morning, and went to a book store.

  The owner stiffened when I walked in. I’d considered wearing a blue or green robe instead, but I figured they hate all mages, so why not black. Black was slimming, and I liked how I looked in the color.

  “I need blank books.”

  The proprietor asked, “How many?”

  “Let’s start with sixty, though I’m going to need more than that.”

  I was thinking ten books each light, dark, and neutral based basic spells, that should give any mage a good grounding. It wouldn’t be every basic spell I knew, but it would be all the ones I knew before I communed with the gods, with some extra’s thrown in. I was getting twice that because I planned on duplicating each, and putting one set in the hideaway, just in case the unthinkable happened again.

  I’d need more later because I was hoping I could convince Niall to share at least his basic rituals for apprentices. As far as advanced combinations and rituals I’d create, well I already had a blank book for that, and it would take time to fill it. It also wouldn’t be in the general library.

  He turned red faced, “I only have six right now.”

  I asked, “How long for another fifty-four?”

  Then I frowned, “Never mind actually, I just realized something.”

  I tossed him a silver, “For your time,” and then opened a portal to the forest and stepped through.

  Paper came from trees, and trees were under the sway of earth magic. I used an earth magic glyph, and concentrated on what I wanted, and cast the glyph at a tree. A stack of blank books slowly piled up as the spell consumed the tree. In the end I had eighty large books, each with a thousand pages in them. Which is more than I needed right now, but less than I’d probably end up using so that was okay.

  I opened a portal to the hideaway, and had an earth elemental carry the books through, all but two, which I picked up and took another portal to the palace mage library. I opened up to the first page in both. Then I built an illusion glyph, and cast a dual illusion of the truth spell glyph along with the explanation, and placed it on the page. Another glyph transformed a minute amount of the paper under the illusion into a type of ink. One more glyph, and it dried.

  This was going to take a very long time, since I’d only have about an hour a day to do it given the morning and afternoon court sessions. Eventually though, I’d have a library I could be proud of. I wasn’t all that worried about the library, I still had this whole wing protected against malicious intent, including burning books. Still, I’d make copies of everything. It was just as easy to do two at a time than one at a time.

  Still, there might be a way to speed it up, it was boring work. I had that mind spell to share memories, if I could tie that into a transformative spell maybe I could literally just copy my memories of all basic spells into available empty space in the books. I bet I could create a ritual to do that, and it would be a very short one compared to the weather ritual I’d made.

  That sounded better, and even useful outside of easily inscribing spells. It would require a glyph to read my memories, a glyph of intent for which type of memories, a third glyph that specified the stack of books available, another to ensure it wrote in blank places, and another to turn the pages. Then I’d need one to write the spells with the transformation spell, and a last glyph to dry the ink. Only seven glyphs and intents was a very short ritual, I was positive I could plan it out in my mind.

  But right now I needed to eat breakfast, and get to my first court. It was my duty as the court mage, self-appointed or not. At least I wouldn’t be bored working out that short ritual in my mind.

  I left the mage wing of the palace with a sense of adventure, humor bubbled up in me as I put on my bitch face with hard eyes. By the time I reached the dining hall I felt cheated. Not one person had tried to kill me, although quite a few had changed directions to avoid me. A servant brought me a plate, and I smiled when I detected poison with the detect poison glyph.

  That was more like it.

  I removed the poison with another glyph and happily dug in. I truly must be damaged. But really, it was either I enjoyed the challenge of my chosen path, or cried in frustration. I chose the former.

  The room was a bit tense as I walked in, and took my place next to the dais. The queen ignored me, which was fine. The first few requests were said with nervous glances in my direction, but when I hadn’t tortured or killed the first few supplicants, the people started to ignore my presence as well. After the bear of the weather ritual, the new one with seven glyphs was easy to work out before lunch came around and we were dismissed.

  I went back to the library, grabbed the two books, and took a portal to the hideaway. I could eat after I tried it, I was too excited to wait until after lunch.

  First I grabbed my
own ritual book, with original rituals, and placed it on the desk. I decided to call the ritual memory writing, and cast the glyphs one at a time, this time with the intent that only the memory writing ritual should be written. My ritual book flipped open when I finished the sequence, and paged quickly to the end of the weather ritual, and my new ritual appeared in the book.

  I touched it carefully, and the ink was already dry.

  I grabbed a stack of ten books and put them on the table, and then did the ritual again, it only took about five seconds to go through all seven glyphs, and this time I specified light magic spells. The first book flipped pages quickly, and then the ritual started on the second book, and a third, and a fourth. It turned out I only needed eight of the large thousand page volumes for all the basic light spells I knew.

  I grabbed six more books and repeated the process, and then shelved those in the hideaway.

  Then I did the same for neutral and dark spells, which took eight and six books respectively. That was only forty-four books for double the library, which left me thirty-six left. I took one set of the basic spell books back to the palace mage library and shelved the books. It had taken me less than a half an hour.

  I really loved that new ritual.

  I went to eat lunch and sat alone, this time they didn’t even bother trying to poison me. I enjoyed what I was doing, but I couldn’t deny I was lonely. It would be a while before Marie got back, and I kind of doubted I’d make many friends in the meantime. After I ate I still had time, so I went back to the library and considered what my next project should be.

  Of course, I wasn’t done with the library project just yet.

  I grabbed a blank piece of parchment, and explained what had happened to the library here, and asked Niall if he had any ritual books he wouldn’t mind copied. I also apologized for sending my problems his way, and that I hoped he didn’t mind the influx of very poorly trained and abused mages.