The Emperor's Shadow War (Tales of Alus Book 2)

by Donald Wigboldy

  "Perhaps we should wait to talk about the rest of my adventure after we go to the council," he suggested as they entered the school building. "They wouldn't have sent you for me and expected any delays."

  His friend nodded solemnly as the tensions seemed to remain despite their attempts to push it away. The duo went to a special room in the school. It was reserved for the true reason of the building's existence, Aerwold's Council of Wizards. Though much less a part of the world around them, the wizard's council held perhaps more power than any true kingship. They were a council of magic and their domain was all the world that needed their help and protection.

  The large room was completely constructed of the cut gray stone that made up the whole building, but when it formed such a cavernous space as the council chambers it seemed more noticeable. That was perhaps one reason for the hanging of banners upon every wall. These banners were crimson, azure, and the deepest of purples, yellow, and emerald and upon each was a name with a set of dates below them. The banners of those that had gone before were hung to not only honor the dead, but to inspire the living.

  As Darius took all the banners in at a glance, he wondered if anyone took the time to read all those names anymore. To think of such a memorial as serving as nothing more than decoration seemed unfair and Darius planned to put aside a time one day when he would look through them all. Perhaps their memory would give him new strength, the apprentice thought.

  The two had stopped their walk before the center of three tables arranged around the great chamber. Darius briefly noted the lack of four bodies in the chairs. Elias and Elder Wizard Welden were two of the men missing and one of those chairs would never be filled the same way again.

  "Thank you for your appearance, Darius. Thank you as well, Tate," Sorceress Zardia, the chairwoman and head of the council greeted the pair. Zardia led the council though many of the world would have been surprised that such a powerful leader would be a woman, but powerful she was and respected. The wizards were not misled by gender as much of the outer world was. No, they knew Zardia to be perhaps the most powerful wizard in their history and she was almost as proficient a politician and head mistress. She had led the council for nearly a hundred years already and with such strength of magic to sustain her, she could possibly lead another century. To Darius, it was like coming into the presence of a god.

  Zardia seemed to see such thoughts in their eyes and perhaps the rumors of her ability to read minds was not unfounded. Heedless of such worries, the sorceress waved a hand to be at ease. "Don't worry, boys, you are not on trial here. If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were preparing for your own hangings."

  The other council members chuckled at the apprentices' expense, and Tate and Darius tried their best to smile easily in the face of so many powerful people. Zardia continued, "Wizard Elias has told of the way that you two handled yourselves in the field. He was impressed with both of you, I must add. He did have one thought in particular to add about one of you, but I will share that in good time.

  "Tate, you performed to Elias' expectations and we have great hope for your continued training and hopefully, eventually, you’re graduating to full wizard status. You did well in your ministrations for your wounded comrade and performed the rituals of healing flawlessly. We received word of this from both Elias and the physician of Tamaya on your behalf. I believe that if we asked him, your friend Darius could also confirm this."

  She stared at Darius long enough to receive a nod. The apprentice wondered at the strangeness of the proceedings, but satisfied himself with the gesture as he waited for the wizards to get to the point. Patience was one of the virtues that the school strived to ingrain into its students after all. Darius noted that the same patience apparently was needed for a council address as well. He stood straight and still and waited the words out.

  The sorceress had continued on as Darius had considered the goings on. "With all these points in your favor, Tate Fioris, we invest you with the award of healing for your efforts. We also graduate you to first level apprentice."

  Darius could sense the excitement at the decree. First Level was the final level before wizard class. Tate could expect to graduate fully in probably less than two years if all went well for him.

  Zardia had to have noticed the jubilation evidenced in the young man's face as well. She smiled and said, "I congratulate you on coming one step closer to joining our council's ranks." The woman seemed to switch gears and a glance at Darius proved that his moment was coming, and he figured that it would be anything but short and probably not that sweet either since he had left the others behind. The sorceress looked at Tate one more time and said, "Now unfortunately Apprentice Tate, the council needs to dismiss you as we have already heard your portion of the mission to the portal. Darius will remain here. Thank you again, Tate."

  "Good luck," Tate whispered quietly as he turned past Darius to leave. There was a smile returned to his usually ebullient face with the news of his promotion.

  Darius didn't want to nod in front of the wizards, but chose to watch his friend leave his side with only his eyes. The clanking of the large metal framed doors as Tate left meant that he was alone as his friend had obviously been previously as he had told his part of the story. He swallowed as his slight fear of speaking before crowds reminded him of itself. Darius drew in a deep breath quietly to steady himself.

  Zardia looked at him intently for more than a minute, before turning to her comrades. "I hardly know this young man before us, wizards, but even I can see that he has changed since he left. Those of you that have taught him most recently can probably see this change easier than I." There was a general consensus of nodding going around as those that had most recently taught him his lessons and overseen his experiments confirmed the chairwoman's observation.

  "Darius, tell us what has happened to you, not only what has happened since leaving Tate and Elias to search for the attackers of our compatriot, but anything relevant from the time they separated from you to explore the rift."

  Darius nodded and began, "I suppose that it started just after the others left me to watch the horses. I took out another of the scanning devices and found faint traces of magic moving in the opposite direction. When I searched there, I found a woman not of our world.

  "She saved me from walking into a creature that she called a troll. The others have told of them and how fire will not harm them overly much, I'm sure. This she had warned me of as well. I went to join the others and the woman tried to save me from one of these trolls and was injured in the process. I had adjusted my magic to that of the more physical sources and killed the creature when she was struck down. I brought the girl with me, since I could hardly leave her for one of those creatures to find and maul. When I arrived the others came racing to the wagon, where I, knowing how to kill the creatures, slew their pursuers.

  "I assume the others told of the time there after, of our return to Tamaya and Elias' injury. I say injury since the elves say that it was an accident."

  "Elves? What are elves?" the wizard Matalchus questioned.

  "Sorry, I forgot that point. The woman that I saved is one of a race of people calling themselves elves or Alfar. That night of Elias' wounding, I used my magic to track them. I caught up to them by morning where they attacked with arrows. The fire barriers that I erected were more than a match for them and I soon drew out their leader to talk. He was an elf known as Holy Knight Janus Orleaf. I never discovered the true rank of such an office, though I presume it to be close to that of a warrior wizard. They claim that he is one of twelve."

  "Twelve?" Wizard Alem, a grizzled old man asked with his scratchy voice. "Did they say why there are so few to have such rank?"

  "No, sir. I did manage to be taken to their camp to try and find out, but I could not."

  "Wizard Alem, you are making the boy skip ahead," Matalchus scolded. "Get back to the high knight. How did you escape attack by he and his men?"

  "The woman, Electra, co
uld see that we would come to blows and I used my magic to become powerful enough to destroy him if I needed to."

  "Hold on, hold on," Alem admonished holding up a hand. "How can you tell us that you used your magic to become more powerful than you were when you met these people? That is not possible. You can achieve greater strength with practice and more practice brings more stamina. So how can you say that you took in more strength?"

  Darius shrugged, "I used a theory that I had been working on to draw power straight from the earth. Even the holy knight couldn't stand up to the earth's power."

  Again Alem protested, "No, my boy that is impossible! It has been tried though I am impressed that an apprentice would have the talent to go that far with his thinking. Only the most powerful and skilled of wizards have ever tried this and the books only tell of one outcome, death. The power is too great to hold for a vessel of the size of a human."

  "I found that too, at first."

  "At first?" Sorceress Zardia interrupted the two as his words surprised even the leader of the council.

  Darius nodded and noted the expectation on the faces of those around him. He had gotten past the feelings of being interrogated now. This had just become a gathering of those interested in learning magic and for once he could instruct them. "I was nearly consumed by the first flowings of the line of power that I had tapped, lines that have never been talked of as far as I had ever known, but with the heightened senses of the tapping, I could see them. I probably would have died then, if I hadn't lucked into touching a tree next to myself. Like a bolt of lightning, the energy shot back down through its' bark to the earth. You see, I had broken the line's path and the tree formed a ground to reroute the path back into the earth.

  "I didn't actually use the power against anything, but I think that it would have worked without destroying me. It is something that I plan to study more when time permits."

  A sigh from Matalchus signaled the old man's annoyance, "You've disrupted the story once again, Darius, despite the intriguing bit of news. Get back to your tale."

  "Matalchus!" Alem chided.

  Darius returned to his telling of events and ignored the dispute, "Electra, the elf woman, stopped any further conflict by telling me that she was perfectly safe. I doubted that I could bring such outsiders back with me after using that much power and attempted to leave them behind me. I must confess that I must have taxed myself beyond what I should have. Between the lack of sleep and using my magic so often, I passed out just out of sight of the elves.

  "Their hunters found me and brought me back to their encampment. Once I awoke they treated me civilly enough. I was asked questions, but I told them little while I asked much. They were guarded as well, of course, but I tried. One thing that I should point out is that their camp was filled with children, the old, and women still in flowing dresses. The warriors that I had met were the defenders of a small city that had been attacked and forced to withdraw to our world."

  "Attacked by whom? The trolls obviously, but who sent them?" Alem asked observantly.

  "They say that a creature, most likely a powerful sorcerer, called the Dark Emperor, took over the trolls as well as other races to slowly conquer the four remaining races still free in their dimension. Their town was a border fortress, which apparently was not strong enough to resist their enemy even with a holy knight coming to help defend it.

  "Anyway, once I realized that they were probably not going to give me anymore important information away, I used my magic to hide myself and left. I then used my magic to blend into the nature around me until I returned to Tamaya. Finding that the others had left for Aerwold, I walked home as quickly as I could. I would've come straight off to report, but I could no longer hold off exhaustion. I hope that I have not disappointed the council." Darius finished his report.

  A moment of silence seemed to stretch out into infinity before Sorceress Zardia shook her head. "You have most definitely not disappointed the council, except maybe Matalchus who would like to hear even more stories," the woman added with a wink to her peer. The wizard harrumphed in response to the ribbing. "If you can back up some of those claims of your magic, I would hazard that we would have to fully instate you as wizard despite your youth. Does anyone disagree with that summation?" she made sure to consult the others who all agreed.

  Darius was stunned. He stood there before the school's powers-that-be and was dumbfounded. The young man had never expected such appreciation. The apprentice had just been doing his best to make his magic serve him well. He said as much.

  Zardia nodded, "I understand your thinking, Darius, and will let you in on a little known secret. We that serve on this council have all felt at one time or another as you do now. You see that is the whole point of an apprenticeship. You work on developing skills and control so that one day you can go out and use your magic as best you can. We serve others and work to protect the world around us. We try to keep nature itself safe and work with it as best possible. You, young man, if you can prove that you are true to your words, have accomplished that goal in the past few days, haven't you? That is why you have the chance to join our ranks so soon."

  Another figure entered a door that Darius had not noticed in a far corner behind the council tables. They all turned to look at the black cloaked figure. Darius knew what the stranger was immediately, a Seer. He wondered what such a being would be doing in the wizard's council.

  "We'll have to wait until later to test you though, Darius. I'm afraid that our visitor has come and will wait no longer to make his case known. I should warn you though, he is here for you in particular," Zardia cautioned.

  Darius' brow knitted. What would a Seer want with him? They only showed themselves to people at the direst or most important of times. Had the coming of the elves brought disaster on them all? If so, what could an apprentice like himself do?

  Chapter 14- Dante

  Dante could not believe it, but rather than the darkness of death claiming him forever, the soldier awoke to the light of day once more. The sounds of voices and the clanking of metal seemed to come from afar off at first. He noticed as the darkness faded, that his eyes were still opened. Light came in and slowly the world around him clarified as it did so, his hearing identified that the sounds were female and not as distant as he had at first believed. Staying as silent as possible, Dante turned in the direction that his ears told him the sounds came from. Seeing four women replacing armor only about ten feet from him, Dante realized that very little time had passed.

  The soldier still believed that he was dying and his anger at Valenia's attack incited his retaliation. Rolling quietly to his feet, but quickly, Dante found his sword missing. The soldier leapt up silently and unnoticed. Two of the women were helping their captain to replace her armor. These Dante took with both of their heads in hand and slammed them together with a crack that alerted Valenia to his attack.

  The woman was quick, but slightly hampered by the half set armor. Her dagger was in hand while her sword remained on the ground out of reach for the moment. Valenia's eyes went wide in shock as she realized that it was Dante back from the dead.

  Dante had her right hand thrust away from him with a strength that assured that the dagger would be of no use. His right hand brought his knife to her throat in turn in his anger. "You back-stabbing witch!" he snarled.

  The captain said nothing, but seemed to resign herself to a death by a man that should already be dead.

  "You children sure don't get along well yet, do you?" a voice laughed from off to their right. Valenia had been backed into a tree with the knife still at her throat. She had nothing to lose, since her life was forfeit at this point anyway and so she looked for the man delivering the words of admonishment.

  "Seer?" she gasped.

  The word broke through Dante's need for revenge long enough for him to look away as well. There leaning against a knotted oak, was a man clad all in black. His hair was gray above the blackness of his long tunic and breeches. T
he symbol of an eye was emblazoned on his chest and in the pendant that he wore around his neck.

  "What do you want, old man?" Dante snapped.

  "Nothing much, Dante Betrice," he replied, "but perhaps you'd like to know that the one you are about to kill is the one that you are looking for in Valos."

  Dante looked into the woman's face and frowned. "It figures. My life just seems to be getting more and more disastrous with each passing day. My killer would wind up being the one that I needed to find to save the world."

  The soldier stepped backwards a single step. Valenia was caught off guard as he punched her in the face with nearly his full strength. The woman's head slammed back into the tree behind her with sufficient force to knock her out cold. The final standing soldier looked worriedly between the two men.

  The Seer took pity on the woman. "Do not worry, girl, your captain will remain safe. Go back and tell the rest of your command to await her return. Do not bring them back with you though, please. We have important matters to discuss and your interference would be most unhelpful."

  Still the soldier looked uncomfortable. The Seer urged, "Go on. I promise you that none of these women will die here today."

  The girl looked at the two again, but quickly disappeared into the trees beyond them.

  Dante stared at the Seer. "You are a little late to save me, aren't you, Seer?"

  The older man chuckled, "Hardly. Do you feel weakness? Look at your chest for yourself, my friend. Go ahead, I'll wait."

  Dante looked down at his bare chest and though there was blood staining his upper body red, the wound was now closed by a large scab. He felt along the rippled surface of the wound with a feeling of wonder and worry mixed in. "What has happened to me?" he asked of the Seer.

  The man shrugged, "Have you ever heard the story of Gerid Aramathea the Lord Grimnal of the North Continent?"