Into Vushaar

by Robert M Kerns

  Fallon nodded. “Yes. It’s one of my duties to administer the oath to the Cavaliers.”

  “Well, in that case, I’d tie the item to the oath and not the person. You could create the items in bulk, then, and be assured that any oath-breakers would no longer have access to them. They’d just be a rod or stick or whatever you decide to make the physical form. If you really want to lock the items down, obtain a drop or two of the King’s blood and use it when you bind the effect to the oaths these people take.”

  Fallon stood in silence, staring at Gavin. He was silent for so long that Gavin started wondering if he’d offended the man somehow.

  “I haven’t felt like this since I was a student,” Fallon said at last.

  “Oh? How so?”

  “Watching someone make something I’ve struggled with for some time seem so simple. I feel like a fool for not thinking of the oath.”

  “Please, don’t. This work is one of the finest examples of imbued item creation that I’ve ever seen. I feel like I should have Braden study with you for a year to learn what you know.”

  “I’m sorry. Braden?”

  Gavin nodded, one side of his mouth curling in a half-smile. “Braden Wygoth—one of my apprentices—dreams of creating imbued items capable of rivalling the artifacts of old, and you sir are a true craftsman. Would it be possible to obtain copies of this and a couple others? I have no background with imbued item creation, myself, and this would be excellent teaching material.”

  Gavin was focused on the pages occupying the table, so he wasn’t able to see the widening of Fallon’s eyes or the moment his jaw slackened for a moment.

  “Forgive me,” Fallon said, “but I need to make sure I understand. You’re asking me for copies of these notes and other similar projects to help teach one of your apprentices who wants to create imbued items?”

  Gavin lifted his attention from the table and saw how close to overwhelmed Fallon was. He nodded once, saying, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking.”

  Fallon broke into a grin that looked fit to split his face. “You have no idea what an honor that is! Of course, you’re welcome to copies! Was that why you visited today?”

  “No, actually. I wanted to ask you something else.” Fallon gestured for him to continue, and Gavin said, “I’m in the process of establishing my own laboratory to pursue a research project of my own. I just have one, small problem.”

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  Gavin shrugged. “I’ve never used a laboratory. I have no idea what I’d need in terms of supplies and equipment. Oh, some stuff is just common sense, like protective wards to keep any catastrophic failures from leaving the lab, but that’s about the extent of it. My mentor hadn’t gotten around to the magical research portion of his curriculum before he died.”

  “Ah, I see,” Fallon said. “Just out of curiosity, what was in the curriculum he did cover?”

  “Words of Power and composite effects,” Gavin said and took a certain silent pleasure out of watching Fallon blanch when he caught up to what Gavin had just said.

  “Yes, well…I imagine that would take some time,” Fallon said, his voice small and quiet.

  “By the by,” Gavin said, “please forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn, but did you know your assistant over there is a latent wizard?”

  Fallon’s eyes went wide as he spun to look at Jasper, and Jasper looked like he wanted to hide somewhere with all the scrutiny directed at him.

  “I don’t know how old he is, but if he doesn’t start learning to use it soon, it’ll fade on him. From what I’ve read and a few things my mentor said, the ideal time to start training a wizard is their late teens.”

  “He’s sixteen,” Fallon said. “I’m teaching him the basics in preparation for his application to the College as a favor for…well…for a friend of the family.”

  Gavin nodded his understanding. “Nothing wrong with that. My mentor took me on as a favor for one of his friends, or so I’ve been told. Think it over, and if you’d like me to write up some exercises to start him on the path he deserves, let me know.”

  A silence descended on the room for a few moments before Gavin put his hand on his face. “Oh goodness, Fallon, I am sorry. That didn’t come out like it sounded in my head.”

  “Think nothing of it,” Fallon said. “I’ve felt for a long time now that we do those few wizards who are left a grave disservice by putting them through the same curriculum as our mage initiates. The only problem is that we have no wizards to train them.” He gave Gavin a sidelong glance. “Perhaps, someone should change that.”

  Gavin grinned and chuckled. “I’m not sure the Council wants me anywhere near a group of young, impressionable minds…especially young, impressionable wizards.”

  “One does hear things, even in Vushaar,” Fallon said, “but I would argue that’s beside the point. You are the first wizard trained by a wizard since I don’t know when. If they had any sense at all, they’d offer you your choice of classrooms without a second thought. Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, it would be my honor to assist you with setting up your laboratory. Just tell me where and when.”

  Chapter 27

  Gavin and Declan once again stood at the landing halfway down the steps into the basement of the property Gavin purchased. The space below them did not resemble its previous incarnation as a wine cellar in even the slightest way. Several bookshelves lined the walls where the large casks once sat. A table with several chairs occupied the space directly under the stairs, and three slate-boards on wheeled frames stood near the table. A large circle inset into the floor occupied the far corner to Gavin’s right, and a lectern for a book or papers stood beside it. The sconces hanging from their fixtures along the walls filled the room with light while not consuming any fuel or radiating heat, much like the sconces Gavin had seen in every building he’d visited across Tel Mivar.

  “Fallon does impressive work,” Declan said.

  Gavin nodded. “Indeed. I shall have to find some way to reward him. The time has come, Declan. I’ve allowed myself to be distracted for far too long. I need a slave branding iron, a slave, and a slaver. I imagine you’ll be able to hire someone from the group we delivered from the slaver camp, and I want the person hired, not conscripted. I’m not all that concerned where you locate a slaver or a slave brand.”

  “Should I hire the slaver as well?”

  Gavin shrugged. “I don’t really care. He or she won’t be leaving this project alive, so it makes no difference to me.”

  “May I ask what you’re planning?”

  “The time has come to remove Kiri’s slave mark. I will start by examining the effect of the mark on a slave and the embedded power in a slave brand. I may need a slaver to use said brand on another person somewhere down the line to observe the embedded effects in action, so I’d rather not have to scour the countryside looking for a slaver when I need one…well, have the Wraiths scour the countryside, anyway. We both know I will be relying heavily on you and your associates for various aspects of this.”

  “Have you considered that you could probably use the brand yourself and get a better understanding of how it does what it does?”

  “Perhaps,” Gavin said, “but suppose whatever protects me from being branded ruins any brand I try to use? I don’t know how often those things are made, but I’m sure we’d eventually run through the supply of them.”

  “There aren’t any more being made. Those arcanists responsible for their creation made one hundred fifty brands and refused to make any more, after destroying all their notes and records. I don’t know exact numbers, but I do know several have been lost or destroyed down through the centuries. There may be sixty still in use, at most.”

  Gavin turned and leaned against the bannister, crossing his arms across his chest. “How difficult do you think it will be to acquire one?”

  “Several slaver groups are operating throughout Vushaar during all this unpleasantness. It shouldn’t be too diffi
cult to retrieve one or two.”

  “Once you have one or two branding irons and a slaver, I’m not concerned what befalls any other slavers nearby at the time. Do with them as you will.”

  At Declan’s nod, Gavin turned and strode up the stairs. It was almost time for his turn on the wall.

  A slight breeze blew north toward the sea when Gavin stepped out onto the wall. Sergeant Khelson turned and smiled at seeing Gavin.

  “Afternoon, Sergeant,” Gavin said as he approached and shook hands with the veteran. “How goes the siege?”

  “Pretty well for us,” Khelson said, “but not so well for them. We slipped a few scouts into their perimeter last night, and they just reported back. You see those encampments way off by themselves to the east of their main army?”

  “I do.”

  “Those are their sick camps. When someone starts showing signs of illness, they get shipped over there, and those camps have been steadily growing over the past few days.” Khelson shrugged. “If you’re not almost vicious about enforcing proper latrine discipline, there’s not really anyway to avoid mass sickness during a siege. Even then, your soldiers are still going to fall sick to some degree, and the jungle terrain to the north is a hotbed of disease. If the druids hadn’t created jungle-free swaths of land for us after the Godswar, we wouldn’t have the roads connecting our northern cities and settlements. Plus, Ivarson’s starting to get a bit short on rations. Loyal units of the army have been raiding supply trains headed for this army, and skirmishers have been picking off foraging parties. Before too long, he’ll be forced to make a major push to gain the city just to get our granaries if nothing else.”

  “It sounds like it won’t be too long before his army starts falling apart, then. Between starvation and mass sickness, his men are going to start re-thinking their commitment to whatever Ivarson’s promising.”

  “Whatever happened to that sergeant His Majesty had following you around?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Poor fellow wasn’t equipped to handle being around me. Come to find out, workings of the Art unsettled him quite a bit. I had a quiet word with the king, and he took over a squad when that sergeant transferred to another unit.”

  “He must be rather sensitive, then. I’ve not seen you do anything unsettling.”

  Now, Gavin grinned, saying, “That just means you haven’t known me long enough.”

  Movement off to his left drew Gavin’s attention, and he shifted his attention to see Elayna, Sarres, and a female elf Gavin didn’t recognize step out of the gatehouse and approach. Elayna wore her scale-mail armor and carried her kite shield and flanged mace. Sarres wore his studded leathers; he carried his bow in his left hand with his twin swords hanging from either side and a large quiver of arrows peeking up over his right shoulder. The elf Gavin didn’t know carried a simple wooden staff, looking very much like it had once been a felled limb from a tree, and wore studded leather armor as well.

  “Ambassador,” Sergeant Khelson said, addressing the elf Gavin didn’t know, “this isn’t really the place for civilians. You should probably return to your embassy.”

  “I appreciate your concern for my well-being, Sergeant,” the ambassador said, “but we are here to assist with the defense. We have discussed the matter and feel we should stand with Vushaar, just as the Great Houses of Tel do.”

  “That’s very nice and all,” Sergeant Khelson said, “but without approval from the chain of command, starting with His Majesty, I can’t really allow you up here.”

  Just then, one of the soldiers ran up to Khelson and took his arm, pointing to the north and saying, “Sergeant, they’re moving to charge the walls!”

  Gavin looked in the direction the solider was pointing and saw a large mass of Ivarson’s army marching toward the wall under the cover of shields, making the mass look like a giant armadillo.

  “Those shields may provide some measure of protection against your archers,” Gavin said, “but let’s see how well they protect against me.”

  “Gavin,” Elayna said, moving to stand at his side, “I would introduce you to Telanna, the ambassador from my people to Vushaar and my sister. She also happens to be a very accomplished druid in her own right.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Gavin said, “though I suppose the circumstances could be better. I’ve not heard of druids before.”

  Telanna angled her head to the side, as if to shrug. “Think of us as priests and priestesses of nature. We strengthen and care for the land, which in turn strengthens and cares for us.”

  “How close do they have to be for your magic?” Sergeant Khelson asked, glancing at Gavin.

  Gavin started to speak but stopped. He frowned and scratched his jaw a moment. After a few moments more, he shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not really sure. I could probably do something to them where they are now, but the closer they are, the less power I’ll need. If you want to see the kind of thing that made poor Thaddeus want to faint, I should probably wait until they’re one hundred—maybe two hundred—yards away. I’ve been waiting for them to build catapults; I have a couple ideas I’d like to try.”

  Khelson frowned and turned his head to look at Gavin. “Do I even want to know?”

  “I wouldn’t tell you, even if you asked. I don’t know that the ideas would work in the first place, so I’m not about to get everyone’s hopes up.”

  Over the course of the next several minutes, the mundane defenders prepared to meet the assault on the wall while Gavin and the elves calmly watched its approach. The on-rushing force reached the point where Gavin decided they were close enough, and he sighed.

  “I really hate this part,” he said to no one in particular.

  “You hate wielding the Art?” Telanna asked, her right eyebrow quirking upward.

  Gavin shook his head. “No, of course not. I hate using it to kill.”

  Without further ado, Gavin lifted his hands and outstretched his fingers toward the oncoming force. He didn’t understand why, but he felt some physical gesture was appropriate. Then, having focused his mind on the effect he wanted to produce, he invoked a Word of Evocation, “Idluhn.”

  As no one else present was a wizard, no one felt the eruption of Gavin’s power as he bent reality to his will. Sparks of electricity suddenly crackled between his fingers and thumbs for a heartbeat or two, growing louder and more intense until everyone within fifty feet of Gavin could feel any hair on their bodies standing on end. That feeling abruptly ended as ten bolts of lightning shot from Gavin’s outstretched fingers with such auditory ferocity those closest were struck temporarily deaf…but that wasn’t the worst. Oh, no. After all, with lightning, there is almost always thunder.

  The lightning crossed the short distance to the onrushing force in less time than the eye could follow, and as it was not natural lightning, it followed the intent Gavin invoked. Each of those ten bolts of lightning struck a rebel soldier about six soldiers away from the next bolt of lightning. The accumulated charge then proceeded to hop from person to person four ranks deep into the formation and over seventy percent across the front rank. Those within the field of effect died instantly, standing rigid—every joint locked—while the massive amount of electrical current surged through them only to collapse like puppets with their strings cut in less time than it takes a person to snap his or her fingers. What had been a charging assault force of almost a thousand souls mere moments before now ground to a halt and recoiled from the hemisphere of death where their comrades used to be.

  The lightning was crackling through the enemy when the loudest thunder ever heard in recent memory exploded from Gavin’s position. The six feet centered around Gavin seemed to be an eye in the storm, with the elves and a couple soldiers largely unaffected beyond the immense thunderclap pummeling their ears. Beyond that, the shockwave sent every person for seventy-five feet in any direction rolling like bowling pins away from Gavin and shattered windows on the far side of the city to the south. Not one single piece of glass or crysta
l survived within fifteen city blocks of Gavin’s location on the walls.

  The elves looked around them in undisguised disbelief as Sergeant Khelson pulled himself back to his feet and ambled over to Gavin. He looked out toward the assault force to see them pulling back toward Ivarson’s lines as he held his left hand to that ear.

  Gavin thought he heard the sergeant mutter, “I wonder if the king would let me transfer…”

  Chapter 28

  Two days after Gavin’s ‘defense’ of the walls, Kiri entered her father’s study and found him sitting with Q’Orval. Terris’s study was a comfortable room, the walls lined with bookcases outside of two floor-to-ceiling windows. The furniture was upholstered in the Muran family colors.

  “You wanted to see me, Father?” Kiri asked.

  Terris smiled as he looked at the woman his little girl had become, saying, “Yes, I did. Please, be comfortable.”

  Kiri moved to a sofa across from her father and Q’Orval and sat. So many questions raged within her, but she remembered the training from her youth and folded her hands in her lap until one of others felt ready to speak. Never be the first to speak.

  “With Kaila’s death, there’s a growing sentiment that I take another wife to re-establish the royal line, and I wanted to discuss with you about returning to your position as Crown Princess.”

  Memories of so many conversations flitted through Kiri’s mind, but one phrase stood out among all others, The Slave Queen of Vushaar. Kiri worked her lower lip between her teeth as she lifted her hand to the slave mark on her shoulder.

  “What of this? Would you have the people accept a slave as queen?”

  Terris shook his head. “No. I would have them accept my daughter and rightful heir as queen. Kiri, I should never have sent you away, and I am sorrier than you will ever know that I did.”

  All the time between when she departed Birsha about the Sprite and when she stood once more in her family’s palace flitted through Kiri’s mind. Yes, a considerable amount of that time was a fate none should ever experience, but a name smothered those terrors. She didn’t understand how that name could smother those terrors, nor did she understand all the reactions that name produced throughout herself. Still yet, she knew in that moment that she was precisely where she was supposed to be precisely when she was supposed to be there. No one deserved all that she had endured, but at the same time, every experience of her life made her who she was.