The Mage of Orlon: The beginning

by Gene Rager

  Tehara slapped the Dark Queen, “Fool if anyone knew we had switched bodies, it would be your lovely virgin ass burned at the stake not mine!”

  The Dark Queen bowed her head. Tehara’s body walked closer. “Tehara, I am sorry for the slap, but you must know that the mage is tricky. I have to out trick him, now what happened?”

  The tear strewn face of the slave girl trapped in the body of her queen quickly told everything about the mage’s death and the elven castle being empty. Tehara watched as her face went from seductive to thoughtful. When her own eyes landed back on her Tehara felt fear race through her.

  Tirana moved closer to her body. She placed Tehara’s hand on her naked breast and tilted her head. “You know Tehara if I chose to have sex with you right now it would be as if you were watching yourself have sex. Wouldn’t that be an all-time first for masturbation?” Tirana blew in her ear.

  Tehara was appalled that the Queen’s body responded so completely to having her ear blown into. A thought entered her mind if the Queen wanted to do this she couldn’t stop her! The body Tirana possessed was hers, but the Queen commanded this body too! Tehara’s soul cried for mercy. She had heard rumors of the Queen’s perverted sexual appetite and had hoped never to be the target of such things! Tirana then whispered again in her ear, the vibrations caused the body to shiver.

  “All the rumors you have ever heard about my sexual appetites are sadly under stated, Tehara. If you don’t want to find out how under stated they are then you will do exactly as I say!”

  The Queen’s Head bobbed frantically.

  “I am going to give you a special dagger, you are to plunge it into the mage when you find out what is causing him to play dead. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, my Queen.” Tehara said.

  “No, you are the Queen dear, I am a slave girl who if you screw this up will become so overwhelmed with grief that my queen has failed, that I will sleep with ever orc male and female until you no longer recognize the body that I am wearing!”

  “Tirana, if I kill the mage, can I have my body back?”

  With a smile that had never graced her face Tehara heard her body answer.

  “While I like being inside your body, and it is fresh and tight, I prefer my own body. My power right now is cut in half, but before you get any ideas of having me thrown in the dungeons or whatever, know that I can switch back bodies with you even in chains. My essence does still hold some of my magic, but my body controls the orcs, so be careful with it!” With that Tehara’s body left.

  The mage was lying on a stone slab in the throne room. Tehara approached with the dagger already pulled out and at the ready in her left hand. There had to be something that was keeping him under. The Queen had coached her a little on her power, she mumbled a few words and her right hand began to glow a faint green. Tehara swept the glowing hand up onside of Nathan’s body and down the other side, her hand turned a faint red when she held it over his left arm. Carefully pulling back his cape she found a slender bracelet. She laughed to herself, even the most inept court magician knew better than to use such a trinket to make one appear to be dead! Robbers alone would steal it. Without thinking Tehara unsnapped the clasp.

  Nathan’s eyes opened up and he quickly re-snapped the bracelet on the Dark Queen.

  “I know it doesn’t kill, all I have to do is take the bracelet off!” Tehara said. Her confidence turned to terror as she realized the bracelet wasn’t coming undone. She wedged the dagger under the metal band on her arm and tried to break it, the dagger’s blade snapped instead. Then she felt all her strength drain away. The Dark Queen fell backwards, trying to escape what was happening. The bracelet drained her of all her magic, but it also stopped the curse as well. Tehara started to laugh, it kept the curse away! It wasn’t a cure, but it was close enough! Her happiness was short lived as she noticed the orcs around her they were all grabbing their stomachs and falling to the ground. The orcs were shriveling up, and they lost their teeth that stuck out of their mouths, they were turning back into humans! The true horror struck Tehara, she couldn’t do magic, and if the bracelet kept the curse away then it would keep the Queen from returning her back to her body. A graver problem arose when the first of the orcs stood up as men again, they were angry. An arrow flew at Tehara! Oh no they think I am the Dark Queen!

  The people began to look around confused at first, then anger filled the crowd. The woman that had destroyed their lives, their villages, everything now stood before them helpless. The mob of people in the room began to advance on the Dark Queen. She would die the victim of this mob.

  Lela appeared as if by magic, she was wearing the invisibility cloak, she joined Nathan and watched as the Dark Queen half crawled up to her throne.

  “Nooooo!” The small angry voice screamed.

  Chama landed in front of her queen with a war hammer in hand. The hammer looked comically huge compared to the three foot tall woman holding it. Chama began spinning the hammer end over end stopping the huge weapon’s spin with ease.

  “I am Chama weapons master of the mountain shakers! You will not have her! I will not let a single one of you pass to harm my queen!” The little woman’s voice sounded between a yell and the screeching hiss of a cat.

  “Out of my way the bitch queen owes me a life!”

  The man lunged out of the crowd with sword drawn only to be met with the war hammer’s head. The sword shattered and the man flew into the wall ten yards away!

  “Dwarf, let us pass to deliver the long overdue punishment to your mistress!” Lela hissed.

  “No!” The one word rang through the great hall.

  “Chama, please leave me.” Tehara said.

  “No, my lady, they do not know. They do not know of the curse placed on you. I will not let harm come to you! It is not fair!” The last was screamed by Chama as the war hammer slammed into the floor causing a shockwave that repelled the attackers backward.

  “You will have to kill me to get to my queen!” Chama screeched.

  The arrow slid into Chama’s flesh causing her to drop the weapon. The dwarf woman slowly regained her feet as blood began to flow from the arrow. Chama picked up the war hammer and began to run towards the angry mob. A second arrow struck her in the arm, then a third in the leg, and finally an arrow made its way past the handle of Chama’s mighty weapon into her chest. Chama’s momentum carried the war hammer down once more striking the floor hard enough to open a hole to the dungeon below. The mighty dwarf tried to breath, in air only every breath burned. Chama knew she was dying, but she had given her life for her queen, she could have solace in that. Chama felt water drop on her face, it was her queen. Why was she crying? This was a good death, what she had always planned to do if this sort of thing ever happened. A smile played across Chama’s face.

  “Dear, why do you cry so?”

  “You silly dwarf! You are my only friend. You are dying because of me! I will be alone because I could not protect myself, and you did what I could not do.” Tehara said through choked tears.

  “I will be okay my queen. I was a warrior in my village. This is only a minor injury. I am afraid though that I will need some rest dearie.” The words came labored, even on the brink of death Chama was still trying to comfort her. The revelation caused fresh anguish to rip at Tehara’s heart. Her best and only friend was dying in her arms and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The last thought brought an unwelcomed voice.

  “Still playing Dark Queen, Meeka?”

  “Have you come to watch the people tear me apart?” Tehara screamed.

  Nate and Lela exchanged a confused look. Who was she talking to? She was not even looking at them.

  “Show yourself specter, or whatever you are!” Tehara screamed.

  The white robe appeared in front of Tehara. The same slip of a smile played across her mouth. Her head angled so even now Tehara could not see the white robed woman’s face. Who was she, and why call her Meeka? What gain could she possibly get by be
ing so close and still not show Tehara her face? Then it occurred to Tehara, it did not matter Chama was almost dead, the little woman’s body still fighting to live, even if only by fighting for every shortening breath.

  “Help me.” The two words slipped from Tehara’s lips.

  Tears began anew. The white apparition chuckled slightly. Laughing at the fallen queen! Tehara tried to get angry, but the wheezing dwarf in her arms was taking shallower and shallower breathes.

  “Laugh at me, spit on me watch them kill me, or take my life yourself ghost, but please help Chama.” Tehara could not think of anything else she could bargain with, surely her death would be worth saving the brave dwarf that stood alone against this army that called for her life to end.

  “You can save her, if you remember Meeka.” The woman in white stated flatly.

  “Tirana look at Chama’s broken body; do you not feel the wounds?” The spirit asked.

  “Yes, but I do not know what to do! Please spirit help me, help me fix this!” It occurred then that the spirit had called her Tirana; she didn’t know that Tirana possessed her body! And now her friend Chama was dyeing!

  The angry mob was bustling with explanations of what they were seeing. The Dark Queen had gone mad, she is buying time for one last strike, it was a trick of some sort, on and on. Finally the archer beside Lela knocked an arrow and took aim.

  The apparition felt the arrow being aimed, and stared at Lela. Lela grabbed her chest and fell to all fours. Lela locked eyes with the Dark Queen and for the first time heard the person she was talking to.

  “I am sorry for the sudden jolt princess, but I cannot allow that man next to you to fire that arrow, please tell him to put it away.”

  “Stand down archer.”

  The archer never looked at Lela, his eyes never wavered from the path his arrow would take into the queen’s heart.

  “I said stand down now!” Lela punctuated the last with a hard punch into the archer’s knee causing him to collapse at the same time the arrow was released. The arrow went wild and struck the beam across the room harming no one.

  Lela’s gaze returned to the Dark Queen and the strange white woman facing the Queen.

  “I do not want Chama to die, but I do not know why you call me Meeka, or what to do to heal her.” Tehara cried.

  She was a thing to be pitied, not the same tyrant that inspired fear in villages, only a sobbing woman who was trying to help her only friend and dealing with a ghost that seemed not to care.

  “Help me remember, if it is within your power help me remember specter!” The desperation in the Dark Queen’s voice was heard by all in the room.

  “Very well, but I will warn you, this will not be pleasant. Are you watching princess, you might need to let the others know what is going on.” With a smile the ghost pulled the hood revealing her face…it was Tirana’s face!

  Tehara was shocked “It cannot be!”

  “I hope you are ready Tirana, because Meeka is coming back!” The white robed woman said.

  The ghost shoved her hand into the Dark Queen’s head, Tehara screamed as every memory she held was ripped open like tissue paper. Her childhood, the village she grew up in, when she learned she would be a healer, then Chama being sent to get her for the mountain dwarves, the cave in, her healing Chama’s brother and sister. All of it, her memories flooded back faster and faster. Tehara realized these were not her memories but those of the Dark Queen!

  Lela was shocked. The Dark Queen had once been a healer of the highest discipline!

  Then the dark memories came the Duke coming into Meeka’s village, Meeka meeting the Dark King and his army alone, Mordock’s arrow piercing her flesh, then waking in the castle, the curse that would kill Tirana if she ever stopped expanding the dark empire, trying to fight the curse and nearly dying from it. All her memories flooded together, until she remembered her true name.

  The spirit screamed as she recoiled from the Dark Queen, it wasn’t her! Not all of her anyways! The little woman went still in Tehara’s arms. She began crying again. “It’s not my fault I never…” Her sentence was silenced by an arrow piercing her heart. The Dark Queen’s body fell lifeless on to the Dwarf that had tried to save her. Tehara felt the bolt and then saw the light that whisked her spirit away to a plane without pain and suffering. Tirana stood in the rafters in a hiding spot, tears fell from her eyes as she watched Chama die. They had killed the Dark Queen or so they thought, but she had survived it, and had a body that would disguise her for the rest of her days. She regretted losing the power, but she had to admit the spirit was right…she lost.

  Chapter 38

  The spirit circled the room looking at everyone it saw. Lela was the one it finally settled on. “I am sorry princess, but I can’t survive like this much longer!” The spirit flew straight at Lela.

  Lela turned and ran. She couldn’t defend herself against a ghost. The spirit hit Lela and lifted her into the air. Lela screamed as the two plummeted back to the ground. Lela convulsed as her body took on the new spirit. Nathan ran to the fallen princess and knelt beside her. He touched her skin and for the first time it felt cold! Nathan began to try to heal Lela when her hand grabbed his wrist with enough strength to crush it.

  “I am sorry mage, but I need somewhere to rest. The princess will not be harmed, but I could cease to exist if I don’t inhabit a body for a while.” When Lela opened her eyes Nathan was shocked to find one eye that was as blue as it had ever been, but the other eye was green. The green eye was focused on Nathan while the blue eye was staring into the sky.

  No one noticed the midnight blue robed woman leaving quietly as everyone looked at Lela. The spirit felt a slight pull, but was too exhausted to follow. The woman slowly walked into the forest. Tirana was still getting used to her new body, it was a pity that Tehara was gone, but after everyone left the castle, she could repair her body and take it back over. That was the plan, at least until she smelled the smoke. Turning quickly she ran back to her castle. Those bastards! They had set the castle on fire, chants of “Burn witch queen burn!”, filled the air. Tirana flopped down, it looks like she was stuck in the slave girl’s body. A thought suddenly occurred to her, nobody knew! She was safe! Safe from the mage, safe from the spirit, and the curse was gone too!

  Tirana sat for a few moments longer. Her relief was short lived as she realized she was homeless as well. At first she was a little troubled, she would have to blend in to a village somewhere, and she could start her life over. The slave girl’s body couldn’t be over twenty summers old. She would escape all her past foes and possibly death itself if she could keep hopping bodies. A thin grin crawled over her face, all she needed to do was blend in and she was safe!

  Nathan was still looking at Lela, the spirit was smiling at him. The young mage was indeed handsome the spirit thought. Why in all the realms would the princess not love him? The answer came quietly, “I do love him, I just didn’t have time to tell him. Now is not the right time for this discussion spirit, why do you inhabit me?”

  “I have to regain my strength, and spirits can’t do that while outside the body. Meeka kept me alive by shear will alone, but she has forgotten who she is.”

  “The Dark Queen is dead. You saw it yourself, the arrow struck her in the heart and they burned the castle with her body in it. She is dead.”

  The spirit chuckled, “You have been fooled princess, if that had been the Dark Queen as I had met her several nights ago I would have taken her over and she would have saved the dwarf woman. The woman that was killed wore the Dark Queen’s body, but her essence was not there. Tirana still lives, but her ethereal presence is weak, muddied by the body she now possesses.”

  Lela couldn’t believe what the spirit had told her, “Are you certain of what you say spirit?”

  “Yes, and call me Meeka, we are roommates for the time being, and I am sorry about your hand.”

  Lela’s left hand extended into long delicate fingers tipped with talons. The green ey
e never wavered from Nathan’s face. The smile ran shivers up Nathan’s spine, it was the Dark Queen’s smile. Finally she spoke, “Nathan I see by your expression you have met with my darker half.”

  Nathan only nodded.

  “Then you should know that the little trap you set for her didn’t quite work the way you planned.” Meeka said.

  “We killed her, she is dead.” Nathan countered.

  “I already explained it all to Lela, and I grow tired, I need to rest. I will let Lela take back over, but know this you have gained an ally today.” Meeka said and smiled. Her eye closed and when it opened the eye was as clear blue as the other. Lela blinked and hugged Nathan.

  Chapter 39

  The castle of darkness had toppled in the flames, and the queen along with it. The problem was all the orcs had returned as human, even the forty left at the elven castle. The sudden population of humans was troubling, where would all these people stay? They had lived in villages, but those were destroyed when the invasions began.

  “The elves will have to help these people rebuild their homes!” Nathan exclaimed.

  “We cannot, humans have been our sworn enemies since the time of the King of Darkness!” Mordenar protested.

  “The elves have taken so much from so many, you need to try to even up your bad deeds by doing good deeds!” Nathan shouted back.

  “Our deeds are our business Mage!” The king roared.

  “Is letting Lela shoulder the guilt of the destruction of Santrose also elven business?” Nathan countered.

  “Stay out of it Nathan I warn you!” The king was clearly upset.

  Nathan looked at the king when a he saw something, “You didn’t know about it did you?”

  “What are you talking about!” Mordenar sneered.

  “The spells being switched, you didn’t know about it, at least not at first.” Nathan said. The sudden flash of fear in the king’s eyes told him he was right. “If you didn’t know, then who in all of Orlon would have…Lex Ripsnorter! It had to be Lex, he is the only other elder that cast that spell! You let your daughter feel like she failed for all these years? Why?”