The Ways of Mages: Two Worlds Page 6

  The sound of crunching cornstalks caused the tall man to turn. Duncan and Perela were walking up. Stanton knew they shared a tent for company but he also knew that’s as far as it went. Duncan was a monastic knight and a fully honorable man. Duncan would not be sharing Perela’s bed until they were married…a fate the general knew to be inevitable even if the younger knight had not yet fully realized it.

  “There’s a cold bite to that wind.”Duncan said as he approached.

  “It’s not just the wind that is bitter this morning.”The Reed mumbled half under his breath.

  Perela placed a delicate hand on his shoulder.“What’s happening in Pershara is not your fault.”

  “Isn’t it?”He spat back a little more harshly than he intended.“We saw the signs for years; Whole families disappearing; strange arcane runes painted in blood on the doors of houses not fully behind Raymond Holden’s claim on the throne; the whispers of dark magics and forbidden rituals…we saw it all and chose to look the other way.”

  “And what could you have done…that you are not doing now?”Perela insisted.

  “Something…anything.”

  “We can lament and anguish over the past or we can build the future…”

  Duncan placed a friendly hand on the other man’s shoulder… “Let’s go build that future.”

  Chapter Seven- Finally Time

  Thomas GrimHolden woke to the noise of keys clinking. The time for his move was finally at hand. He had eaten a meal of four cooked rats just a few hours before. As he suspected the potion being used to subdue him had been increased. The rats had all died of an overdose within minutes of consuming his gruel. He had purged the toxins from their little bodies with the lightest of magical touches and at the same time cooked them. They and their brothers had been his only companions for many weeks and a part of him knew an irrational sense of regret at their demise. Still, he was a man of faith and he would use what God provided.

  As Grim heard the key being fitted into the lock he thought that perhaps the guard was a little early today. Still, it was hard to keep track of the passage of time locked in this cell as he was. He pretended to be in a drug-induced stupor and moaned an incoherent sentence as the door opened.

  The white robe of a Maltacken priest was the first sign that this was not to be a normal visit to gather his used gruel bowl. Father Solarin was a favorite of Altana’s. Whenever she was in a lusty mood she would send the priest of her dark lord to fetch him. Such adventures always started off with a humiliating cold water wash down while chained to a wall followed by a grey silk robe. If he was going to make this work he would have to pretend to be pretty well under the influence of the drug cocktail they were feeding him.

  As predicted, the priest had the two soldiers waiting outside the cell come in and drag the big man to the wash chamber. Grim endured their harsh treatment. Neither was happy about having to carry their captive down the hall. Their displeasure evidenced itself in the form of numerous elbow jabs and head slaps. Grim, for his part, simply increased the volume of his moaning with each offense.

  In order for his plan to work he needed the priest to leave. Timing would be critical. As they entered the chamber an opportunity presented itself. GrimHolden planted his left leg and stumbled toward the side of the doorjamb... Because the soldier was supporting him on that side, the action had the effect of forcing the burly guard into the jamb. The man swore loudly and responded by driving a fist into Grim's stomach. This was what the captive man had been waiting for. He turned towards the white robed Maltacken priest and expelled the contents of his stomach. Given the nature of his last meal it was not a difficult task to accomplish.

  "Idiot!" The robed figure screamed as he backed handed the guard holding Grim. "I cannot present myself to our mistress smelling like that miserable whore that bore you!"

  "My Lord." Pleaded the first man in well-deserved panic... "If you allowed us to continue here without you... you could take a moment to correct our mistake."

  "Make damn sure he is ready when I get back.”The priest warned with a scowl that would have done Maltacken himself proud.

  Both men crossed their arms and bowed... releasing Grim in the process. He allowed himself to crumple to the floor where they would be forced to pick him back up. His plan was coming together nicely.

  As the white robed figure shuffled down the hall toward what Grim could only guess was the dormitory, the two guards bent towards their interrupted task with a renewed and cruel vigor.

  "Come on, you worthless sack of meat... Time to make you all pretty for your date with the Dark Lord's bitch." the bigger of the two said as he reached for GrimHolden.

  "Watch yer mouth, Ruffy... If'n she ever hears ya speaking like that, yer be worse than dead."

  "You ever let on that I was and I'll make damn sure you join me... Let's get him in his shower chains."

  The two men each grabbed an arm and physically lifted the now seemingly unconscious captive to his feet. They each draped an arm over a shoulder and proceeded into the bath chamber. This was the moment Grim had been waiting for.

  With a quickness that belayed his size, he tightened the massive and well-honed muscles of his arms while at the same time lifting his feet off the ground. He collapsed to a sitting position dragging the two gasping men down to the ground with him. They struggled but the pressure Grim had on their necks pinched off the flow of blood to their brains and within a few moments both men had passed out.

  Grim held the pressure for a few moments longer to make sure they were well and truly out of it for the duration. When he was sure they would not be waking up anytime soon he released them and quickly tied their hands and feet using their own belts.

  Next he had to secure his own escape. Looking around the room he saw the familiar barred window off to the right. The iron bars would normally be a deterrent but to a Grimedian knight trained in the use of magic it was child's play. Grim quickly summoned his potential and applied the same type of aging spell to the iron that a soldier might use in the field to age wood for a campfire. The rusting metal soon degraded to the point that the big man was able to bend and break the bars with his hands.

  Unfortunately the route through the window would lead into the keep’s courtyard and would not provide a clean escape route. Hopefully though, Grim could use the window as a means of delaying the discovery of his true means of escape.

  He stripped the pants off of both men. The larger of the two he put on himself. The second he tied to the stub of an iron bar in the window and draped it outside the window.

  Next, turning towards the bath chamber he noted the heavy wood and metal grate on the floor used for water drainage was attached to a pulley system so as to be pulled out of its fixture. The pulley required more strength than one man could muster... even a man GrimHolden's size. Fortunately the knight had unwitting help. He quickly lifted and hooked each of the guards off the ground and onto the chain. Thus suspended in the air they and gravity provided Grim with the strength he needed to easily pull up the grate. He slipped into the sewer system. When he released the grate it fell softly back into place thus hiding his escape.

  Hopefully the two unconscious guards hanging on the chain would simply be seen as a means of rendering them incapacitated. Grim had no illusion concerning their fate once his escape was discovered but such was the fortune they visited upon themselves when they chose the dark road with the likes of Altana and her dark lord.

  ***

  Hours lost in a smelly sewer system had done nothing to improve Grim's mood. Twice he had lifted a grate to exit the tunnels only to find he was still within the castle proper. If he couldn't find an exit outside of the walls his grand escape would be short lived.

  One thing was certain... He did not want to be down in the tunnels after dark and the light - such as it was - from the sparsely spaced grates was fading fast. Finally his ears detected the sound of rushing water and he knew he must be approaching an entrance to the underground stre
am that kept these tunnels clear. This caused him some concern. He could enter the stream and know definitively that it would lead eventually outside the Keeps walls. What he didn't know was whether or not the stream would maintain an air gap that would allow him to breathe. He was debating the wisdom of his next move when the decision was made for him.

  Behind him, in the distance he could hear the splashing of many feet and see the slight flickering of torchlight. He had thought to get a torch for himself but in the end had decided against it because it would ruin his night vision and in all likelihood give away is position.

  With no real option, he entered the quickly running stream. The water was warmer than he expected. He hoped this meant it had already run under the keep and thus would soon carry him to safety.

  With little warning his feet were swept out from under him and he found himself being carried along by the current. He did his best to keep his head above water and his month closed. One thing was sure... He would want a clean bath when this ordeal was over.

  The stream continued to pick up speed and despite his efforts to float on his back and reduce his profile in the water... His head started to hit the bumpy but water-smoothed ceiling. Soon there were frightening periods where the tunnel forced his head underwater. When he finally got another breath he exhaled completely and filled his lungs with as much fresh air as he could. When his head went under he deliberately entered the same meditative state he used to cast wards. If he could avoid panic and keep his oxygen needs low he should be able to increase the interval under the water he could tolerate.

  After several minutes his feet hit a barrier. As he was still underwater this was a cause for concern. He was rapidly running out of air and he needed to break the surface soon or the resistance would be out one newly minted king.

  He twisted around under the water and felt the obstruction with his hands... It seemed to be some type of grate. He doubted an aging spell would work on these bars as they were intended to function underwater and thus would not likely be susceptible to rust. The cement and stone they were fashioned into was another matter. He quickly focused he thoughts on that area and began to work at the stone with both the spell and the blade of a knife he had taken off of the smaller guard.

  God was with the big Grimedian knight. The material surrounding the bars began to quickly crumble. With the last of his strength and air he kicked at the grate and felt it give way. He quickly swam through the opening and let the current carry him out. Within moments his head broke the surface and he gasped massive mouthfuls of air.

  He was in the mouth of a cave the led out into the bay of what he assumed would be the Caspian Ocean on the western shores of Pershara.

  He had no doubt soldiers would soon be searching this area... If they were not already doing so. Like all Grimedian knights, Thomas was an accomplished and well-trained swimmer. As the ocean was currently calm and the moon had not yet risen he reasoned his best hope for a clean escape would be to float out into the bay a distance and then angle back towards the shore some distance from his current location.

  When he was several hundred yards from the shore he began to feel the telltale pressure on the base of his neck that indicated the nearby use of magic. He suspected one of the Maltacken priests was attempting a locator spell. He hoped his current location, treading water, so far into the bay itself would confuse the priest. If Altana was casting the spell he knew she would be on him quickly.

  He quickly surrounded himself with a hunting shield used by the knights to confuse the senses of prey while living off the land on field exercises. He hoped it worked because he was quickly running out of energy. It had been a month or more since he had had a proper meal and the day would have been exhausting in the best of times.

  After a while he found himself dozing off and gulping in prodigious volumes of salty water. Coughing wildly, he remembered where he was and what he was doing. Barely ten feet away, he saw a sign from God that his trials and tribulations were potentially nearing an end. With two quick strokes of his massive arms he found himself holding onto a lobster buoy.

  For the first time in hours he could finally rest his legs. Using the knife he had appropriated earlier, he cut the rope attaching the float to the lobster trap. He was now floating free. A short length of the rope was quickly wrapped around his chest thus ensuring he would stay connected to the float even if he were to fall asleep again. He closed his eyes and let the gentle swell of the ocean lull him to sleep.

  ***

  Jacquelyn DeCotes stood on the deck of her fast cruiser, the Lucky Blue Wing. The water craft was the best the Island of Grinley could produce. The war in Pershara had now involved her homeland. Word had come that forces within Pershara were attempting to illegally forge Grinlian royal messages by using cleverly dyed pigeons that looked remarkably similar to the Island's coveted and exclusive Blue Birds of Paradise. JayDee, as she was known in her circles, worked for the department of external security. Others might say she was a spy master but such terms were never officially acknowledged.

  Her mission was a simple one. Find who was forging the royal missives and put a definitive stop to it. She fingered the collection of poison augmented darts that formed her seemingly innocent hair piece. She hoped she wouldn't be using any on this trip, but one could never be too careful in her line of work.

  A commotion from the quarter deck caught her attention. Several of the men on deck were pointing toward something in the distance. With an agility that bespoke an active lifestyle she bounded up the deck steps three at a time to reach the quarter deck in a mere handful of strides.

  "Report." She commanded as the captain turned to give her his respectful attention.

  "There appears to be something bobbing in the water about half a measure off our port side... One of the lads thought it might be a man."

  "Well, we're here to gather intelligence. If there is a man out there he will be as good a place to start as any... Bring the ship about and see if you can make a better determination of what exactly is out there."

  "As you wish, my lady." the man said with a bow.

  "Willaim, you can can the 'my lady' gruff. It's bad enough I have to put up with that in court. Here, I am just JayDee."

  "Old habits die hard my la... JayDee." The old man smiled in a fatherly way.

  "Nevertheless, they need to die. I can't function if people know who I am... You know that, old friend."

  Turning toward his first mate the captain yelled "Bring her about... Let's be seeing what's out there... Be smart about it lads." Turning towards a nearby boat hand "Jingles... Shake a leg and get down to the execs cabin... Roust Doc Harding and get him up here... If there is a man in the water we're going to be needing him fer sure."

  "Aye capt'n." The man quipped while ducking below decks.

  "Man Ho... Man Ho!" The watch yelled down from the crow’s nest just a few minutes later.

  "Drop the sails and pull’er up beside him... Gentle like lads... No point in finding him out here only to be kill'm with the dern boat."

  As they pulled the sleek cruiser up beside the man it became evident he was strapped to some type of flotation device.

  "Jingles... See if you can get a hook around him."

  "I'll try captain but he looks to be a big boy... We might need to go for a swim to tie a line around him."

  "You volunteering, lad?"

  "Me? Hell no... Begging the captains pardon ser... But I ain't had a bath in four months and I see no reason to spoil a good thing."

  "Men." JayDee signed before diving over the side in a well-executed motion... And much to the continued consternation of Willaim.

  "Lady... I mean JayDee... What in God's green earth are you doing?"

  As she swam over to the figure in the water she yelled back up to her friend and mentor... "In case you missed it, we are in the middle of the ocean... So God's green earth has very little to do with it... And, unless I miss my guess, you're going to be very interested in who t
his man might very well be."

  Captain Willaim turned to his exec... "Fer God's sake man! Don't just stand there... Toss her a rope!"

  ***

  When Grim opened his eyes some hours later he found himself alone in a strange room. The sway told him he must be on a boat of some type. He was somewhat confused as to how he got to be where he was, but for the moment he seemed to be safe... Exhaustion won the day and he found himself falling back asleep.

  Doctor Harding was an older gentleman with little use for boats. He clutched the railing and tried with all his considerable medical prowess to control the unsettling urges inflicted on his stomach by the incessant rolling of the ship in the gentle swells of the Caspian sea.

  Still somewhat green, he turned to face the lady he was currently calling JayDee. "As I said... He definitively has the look of a Holden but frankly, unless I miss my guess, he's been ill used for some time. He's dehydrated and there are signs of malnutrition that would not come about from a short stay in the water. Add to that the number of scars... Some of which are only beginning to heal and I would say this is a man use to combat and very likely torture."

  "What do you think happened?" She asked the doctor.

  "Hard to say.”He responded with a shrug. "I suppose he'll tell us when he wakes up... I gave him a strong compulsion to sleep when I was healing some of his exterior injuries. I might add, he had a remarkable resistance to my ministrations... Almost as if he had some sort of counter mage training. I really got nowhere with him until he came half awake and I managed to convince him that I was just trying to help."

  "Well that would certainly be completely consistent with my suspicions.”She responded with a pensive stare at the gentle waves. "How long do you think he'll be out?"

  "Oh, I would imagine another couple of hours. When he does wake he will be hungry but I would recommend nothing more than some dry cheese and some juice sopped bread... He's going to need a few days to get back to eating solid food.