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Anders woke with his right-hand opening, thrust into the darkness of his bedchamber, toward... Something. There was a sound, but it wasn’t the typical explosion or dull thump that the move caused, most of the time, when used against a person. Instead, there was a rapid movement that he dodged, after a fashion, by rolling away from whatever was happening. From the sound it was all about stabbing into the place he’d just been.
“This is annoying. I was having a good dream, you do know that, don’t you? It’s so rare when I do that anymore.” He sounded glib, which wasn’t how he felt about the situation at all. It also wasn’t true. He’d been dreaming of killing four men, with magic.
The assassin laughed.
“Forgive me then, Warbow. I simply cannot allow you to return to the war. The portents do not go well for my people, if you go to the front.” The man stopped speaking, screaming instead.
Mainly because Anders had set the bed on fire, which rose in a sudden wall of white-hot flame, illuminating the room. Then he spoke, his voice barely audible.
“Hom verin bi bar ere fen ot!” There was a bit of screaming involved, but Anders tried to keep a manly bass to his voice. It came out as a tenor, but at least wasn’t a high-pitched squeal, so he decided to take it as a win.
The attacker screamed again. This time he moved back, clutching his eyes, which were glowing, brightly enough that looking at him was a bit painful. The room was filling with smoke, even as he put the bed of flames out, using a simple hand gesture. His left hand contorted and aimed at the place he wasn’t going to be finishing his night’s sleep.
“Bar, ere ot ere, fen ot...” A line of light, of only normal brightness, ran haphazardly along his ceiling, just as four castle guards ran into the room.
One of them, a man known well to Anders, spoke first.
“Why is he screaming? He... tried to sneak in and take advantage of you?” The words weren’t even playful, just spoken as if that might truly be the reason for there to be a burning bed and smoke, along with a man who was still screaming about his eyes.
In Yansian. Which made some sense, given it was Duke Cohen, dressed in the gray of a castle guard, his dagger still in his hand. Anders removed that from play, using a spell. One that cut the blade into five portions, making it very hard, if not impossible to use as a weapon.
Anders shook his head and spoke, his voice calm.
“Nothing that untoward. He only tried to kill me, in my sleep. Apparently for his people, to protect them, which is honorable enough, I suppose. I woke up fighting. He has some kind of counter magic on him, I think. I hit him with an explosive spell and it didn’t even make him step back. It didn’t block fire from the outside or his eyes starting to glow. I can stop that now?”
Sergeant Hod, who was a sturdy man of little compassion in weapons practice, waved at his men.
“Hold that for the moment, if you can, Anders. Lewit, get some rope. We want him bound before he can recover himself. Cohen is good in a fight.”
The whole thing took a few moments and there was yelling and screaming going on the whole time, with an alert going up, since an attempt to kill one boy might not be the end of the events planned. Given that, Anders fought to drop into a trance, even as his heart raced, seeking any sign that there was a further attack happening, or about to.
Which meant that he noticed when Cohen brought his hands around, and started to summon magical powers.
“Friend Followgrath, pretender of stone, aid me, please!”
The words were called out in Yansian, and for a moment, nothing seemed to be happening. Not until the floor itself grew into the shape of a monster. One that looked vaguely like a man, rough shaped from clay. When the guards moved in, before it could gain footing, their swords sparked and in one case, broke against the thing. The floor where it stood was gone, the thing hovering in the air, magic causing it to float.
Then, ignoring the grown men, it moved at Anders, as if it knew where to attack. Thankfully it wasn’t fast. That gave him a moment to notice some things. First, that Duke Cohen was holding still, and had gone silent. There was a strong flow of magic to the construct, but at the heart of it, inside the fit fellow, was a glowing mass of energy. A thing that nearly glowed as it pulled at Anders’ thoughts. A Slouagh.
A being of power which Anders didn’t have even the first clue how to battle at all. Not yet. For a moment he thought about killing Cohen, but that might not stop the thing at all, and leaving the man alive could, potentially, allow them to question him.
Instead, he laughed. He didn’t mean it, but it sounded braver than soiling his bed clothes.
“Guards out. I’m going to lead this thing on a merry chase. If someone could please summon Depak Sona? Tell him there’s a dark entity in Duke Cohen, that is the source of this animated bit of stone.” He had to dodge a slow, but no doubt powerful, blow, then. Actually, rolling on the floor.
One of the guards yelled then.
“Move back! Clear the hallway! Magical attack. Depak to Anders’ chamber! Depak to Anders’ Chamber!”
He kept calling that out as the larger men moved back, with sounds of running and in a few cases, doors slamming, along the hallway. Anders simply moved then, walking backwards, holding a light above his left hand, so that he could see as he did so. Interestingly, almost as if an animated corpse or a man walking in his slumber, Duke Cohen followed along. Powering the golem with the energy from within. It was a good trick, given the man was clearly blind. Probably forever, since his eyes had decided that glowing like the sun was their new task.
He had to move at a brisk pace, but wasn’t dashing backward, truly. On occasion, near the end of the hallway, he had to do something a bit more significant, dashing past the monster of stone, to keep the man and his beast there, attempting to kill Anders. For several minutes he did that, moving back and forth, nearly being caught, twice, the stone creature speeding up for moments, attempting to snag him by the arm or night shirt as he rolled past it on the hard floor.
He was, he knew, going to have bruises from doing that.
After some time, Depak came running up, watched the situation for a moment and then nodded.
“A slouagh? It is... Located within this man, here? I have it now. Allow me to...”
The man spoke for a very long time, lines of energy flowing from his fingertips, weaving a net of energy, then seeming to gently pull the dark entity from inside of the Duke, capturing it, as it screamed in an unearthly fashion. When the spell was ended, Depak Sona smiled, gently. The golem of stone simply stopped moving, becoming a rather homely statue.
“I have this now, gentlemen. I need to repair to my chamber. Could a clay pot or vase, be found for me? A live chicken or small animal, as well? I hate to sacrifice such a poor creature, but it is the only way to bind such things in a long-term fashion.”
Anders, out of breath, simply nodded.
“That... Seems possible. I’ll run to the storeroom and see if I can free up a pot like that. Clay?”
The man, seaming unstrained by the effort of holding the struggling energy beast, dipped his head, once.
“Indeed, Anders Sona. I also need a small animal, if one of you others could see to that? I can’t hold this being forever, as I am doing now, so haste would be welcome?”
Anders, out of breath or not, ran then. He knew where the storeroom was, after all. Near the back of the castle, in the cellar there. It had, not too long before, been one of the places he’d gone to hide from work. Not behind the shelves of clay vessels, specifically, since it was too easy to see past those. Still, he knew where they were, and could invade the space, since it was never locked.
He even had his own light, so didn’t have to stumble and fall as he moved down the stone stairs to find what was needed. The object he grabbed wasn’t vast, but still, it took both his arms to wrap around it. It was awkward, being round, but had a wide top, since, he had to guess, that would be needed if a living animal was to be trapped inside of it.
An idea that left Farad feeling bad, for a moment. He’d killed animals, to eat, and men, even some women, because of battle being upon him, but he’d never sacrifice anything specifically for magical purposes. That sounded as if it might lead to torment for whatever poor animal they had to use for the task.
He ran, moving carefully, toward Depak’s new chamber, in the visitor’s wing. It wasn’t where the Ambassadors were kept, but was just as nice, inside the rooms. All of the Barquean Princesses were there as well. All awake, too, standing in the hallway, seeming scared.
Jasmin waved to him, in fact and spoke, in Scara.
“What transpires, Prince Anders? We heard commotion and screams in the distance.”
He smiled, as if it were a grand adventure, instead of a dire attack.
“Assassination attempt, using first a blade, then a slouagh. We’ll go over the whole thing, in the morning? Right now, Depak Sona is going to seal it away, so needs a clay pot and a live animal. That should be coming, I hope?”
The girls clutching themselves in a slightly princessly fashion, seemed to go more tense then, instead of less. So, he waved at them.
“Why don’t you all go and get some more sleep? We leave in the morning, and you’ll want to be well rested for that. Except for you, Lissa.” He was slighting her, in his nerves, not calling her a princess. She didn’t mention it. Friends did that kind of thing, after all.
“I’m not to go with you? I already packed...”
He grinned, moving toward Depak’s chamber.
“Not that one. You just have to do it with too little rest. I want you to observe what is being done here.” There was no real reason for it, other than the fact that, out of all of the new students, Princess Lissa, the youngest of them, was clearly the most dedicated to the learning.
Salina made a rather bratty face about the idea.
“You said that I was the new Great One of Barquea. Shouldn’t I be there to learn this, too?”
The others chimed in then, so Anders shrugged.
“That is... Actually a very fine point. In that case, go and rouse the others. The advanced students?” It would be interesting to see who they picked for that role. To his mind it was only three others. The ones he was planning to force into hard magical labor over the next days.
Escaping into Depak’s room, he left the door open, to find the man sitting at a common looking table, the green and purple of the dark entity floating in place over it. It struggled, but wasn’t getting out easily. The master wasn’t even breathing hard, as of yet.
“Ah! Perfect, Anders. You even have a lid for it? I have some sealing wax, and some oil, which I have already prepared. Now we need only the sacrifice. Are you staying to see how this is done?”
He set the pot down, out of the way, on the floor. Near where a large container made of finer ceramic lie. The one with oil in it, most likely, since a large block of soft red wax was next to it on the other side.
“We have others coming for that, as well? I mentioned to Princess Lissa that she should lose sleep to watch and the other soft Princesses demanded the right to learn and observe as well. The new Great One of your people, Salina, suggested that first. They are getting the other good students, so you understand, take this time to mentally practice the lesson, so you don’t have to stammer or lose your place too often?” He was teasing, a bit, which was probably out of place, but the master magician simply smiled, as if a gift were being given to him.
“That is... Impressive. I can’t tell you how rare that kind of thing is, Anders. Now, you have selected Salina to be our new Great One?” The man smiled and then, after a moment, nodded. “Very well! It’s past time for me to fade from that position anyway. Do you plan to take such a role for Istlan, do you think?”
The question wasn’t a thing that he’d ever considered before.
“I... Really, that should go to the person best suited to the task. That may not be me. Daren isn’t powerful yet, compared to some of the others, but he has the best grasp of the needed skills. Of our people here, Princess Mathia is the most powerful, but is having some issues learning the more complex skills rapidly. Still, in time that may well change, for either of them.” He didn’t mention Prince Erold, who was a decent student and had been trying hard, every single day. The truth was that his skills indicated he would probably be a more ordinary user of magic that way.
He was stronger than Daren, and faster in learning complex things than Mathia, but not enough in either direction to mark him as special. Also, while he did give much energy to the new learning, he clearly didn’t hold special interest or love for the topic itself. When he could, he focused on combat and fighting more commonly. That wasn’t a bad thing, for a man who might one day be a king.
It was even more important for a Prince who likely wouldn’t take that station in life.
When they showed up, with Jeld in tow, the man being herded into the room by Lissa, standing behind everyone else, several guards ran up, carrying a small cage that held a chicken, as had been asked for. It was not happy to be there and made that known with loud clucking and other, more distressed noises. A commotion that was truly warranted, Anders feared. It was about to have very bad things done to it, after all.
Depak Sona stood and bowed to the assembled students, smiling.
“Slough, or at times sluoagh... Dark entities as they are called in this land, can be bound in several ways. The easiest is to find a human being with an affinity for allowing such to ride them, and then confine them to a cell or cage, in a dark place, and barely feed them. The being within will keep them alive far longer than they would last otherwise. The hardest way of trapping one is in stone. A large rock may be used for that, the being tricked into inhabiting it by using the blood of animals to make it believe it is going into something living. This takes great magic, as well as a very long time to truly get them to settle. You have to hold them long enough for them to slumber.”
He waved then at the things on the floor of the room.
“This, what I will do now, is the middling way. We will prepare the jar, then place the chicken in it, still alive. The whole thing will then be passed into the cage holding the slough, which will move into the living creature, in order to escape. Then we will place the lid on, forcing the bird into the oil. It will not die. In such a configuration, such a being might keep an animal alive for decades. Perhaps centuries.”
He waved at the floor.
“Salina, if you will aid me? The rest of you observe and use those memory tricks later to firm this in your minds. These are essential skills, for those such as we. The pot first, which needs to have the oil poured into it. Carefully, please. I’m leaving in some hours and don’t wish to invite mice into the space, in my absence.”
The Princess, in a heavy robe, tied in the front, but shining in the light coming from the ceiling, a decorative thing that seemed like a slowly moving waterfall of gold and sunlight, did as she was asked. Including getting the chicken in the oil, with help from Daren, then, carefully, together, they pushed the container into the glowing green and purple light.
The bird screamed, which didn’t sound normal at all. Anders simply took the lid and moved in, before Depak could request it being done, and slapped the thing on the top. The noise still came from inside of it.
“Hold that in place? Now, we need to melt the wax, and seal the lid. Without burning Anders too much. Princess Mathia, if you would see to that for us?”
The girl, looking wide eyed and nearly terrified, still did it, working out a tidy, if simple spell, to warm the wax, and then ran it physically on the lid, wisely cooling it, once she was finished, so that the wax, all of it, possibly for at least thirty paces from her, went totally solid.
Depak clapped then, getting a few of them to jump, since the container was still making rather unwholesome sounds.
“Now, it will, in some days or weeks, go silent. Until then, we should find an out of the way spot for this? For the moment, Anders, can you inform me of what took place, exactly? I was slightly preoccupied earlier...”
He tightened his face then, and looked at the others. Mainly Erold and Daren.
“Duke Cohen came into my room, intent on killing me. As I slept. I woke up fighting for some reason. He stabbed my bed with enough firmness that I’m convinced it was a real attempt to kill and not him mistaking me for his new lover. First, I tried to make him explode, which did nothing, him seeming to have protection of some sort. Then I burned him, lighting the bed on fire as he touched it. After that, I caused his eyes to glow with a blinding light, which distracted him. For a while. Then he summoned this dark entity, the Pretender of Stone, to attack me. It wasn’t fast, so I darted around having it follow me, while we called for Depak Sona.” He blew a large gust out then. “It was inside the Duke. I hadn’t even thought to check for that and I was with the man each day, in weapons practice. Though, I have checked his thoughts, to make certain he was on our side and... Well, I found nothing indicating otherwise, the whole time.”
Truly, he’d felt poorly about doing it. Untrusting of their new ally, who had been so cruelly betrayed by his own king, for some unknown reason. A story which, suddenly, seemed a bit suspect.
Prince Erold growled.
“That is not good. The man swore an oath to my father. Also, Master Tolan also checked his thoughts. How did he hide himself, do you think?”
There was a voice from the door then. Anders turned to see Hoatha standing back, behind Jeld, having watched the goings on, it seemed.
“Probably by using the slough to dampen certain considerations. The affinity was stone? That would work for it. Stone is quiet and calm. If done well, the man might not have even known that he was lying about anything, until the order came to kill. Interesting that he went for you, Anders. On the night before you go off to the war, even. That speaks of a man under time pressure, to me.”
There was a grunt from Depak, nearly drowned out by the screaming from the clay pot.
“Agreed, Father. This man seems to have worked out where the greatest threat to his people comes from, and sought to protect them. If it was a mere order, from his masters, then the fellow would have probably gone for the King or Heir. That or an important general. Not a boy playing at magic.”
There was a hand wave at the end of the sentence, as if dismissing Anders’ efforts. Which was probably fair. He almost had to seem that way from the outside.
Prince Erold took a step toward the door, but stopped, looking at Depak. His voice wasn’t defensive at all.
“Except that anyone with eyes and a will to watch would see that Anders Brolly is the one lifting us, magically, in this land. It is his will and effort strengthening us and giving us some small chance to change the outcome of the war with Yanse. A thing known to Duke Cohen. He even acted impressed by it. Indeed, he gained several students for us, from the staff here. Word had him even going to the city and seeking students there, in his own person, as well.”
None of those had come in yet, thankfully.
The servants might not be truly motivated to learn magic, but they were people that Anders knew and had for years. Plus, he was paying them more to learn than the other man would have to be spies or saboteurs. Even if that had been their plan, it had probably changed the moment they learned that he was a better source of coin.
He was about to ask what they were supposed to do then, when Prince Robarts and Prince Alpert, both armed with long knives, walked into the room. They stared at the screaming pot on the table. Erold waved at them, which had the blades put away, instantly.
“We trapped a dark entity. We need to move this pot to a secluded vault. One away from people, since it will make this noise for a while. Clearly, we need to move it carefully, so it can’t get out.”
Prince Robarts seemed to think for a moment.
“The remote vault? It’s locked, but I can gain entry. That’s near the back wall. Anders, if you and...” He stopped then, looking at the others, then lighting on Jeld, who was actually a servant there.
Anders turned and waved.
“Jeld and Princess Salina? Jeld and I will do the actual carrying, this time, of course.”
The spoiled, bratty Princess... simply stood there regally, and moved ahead of them, a light coming from above the tips of her fingers, to guide the way, as if that had been his reasoning, the whole time. It wasn’t. Prince Robarts and four gray clad guards moved with them out into the night, the sun just starting to peak above the trees in the distance, telling him that morning was upon them. It was nearly time to leave already.
Still, the work needed to be done first and if possible, Anders was going to eat before he climbed into a saddle.
As they walked Salina cleared her throat.
“Why pick me for this? You could cast a light as well as I can. Any of us in that room could have.” She, politely, was speaking in Istlan. Which probably meant she didn’t think the reasoning was all that dire.
Anders smiled, knowing that she wouldn’t see it, being in front of him as she was.
“Ah. Well, Depak Sona heard that I had picked you to be the new Great One of Barquea, and has agreed with that. He plans to step out of the way and give that title over to you, when you are ready. The duties of a Great One, of course, are different than that of a mere Princess. So, you have to go into the scary cellars, carrying the eerily screaming pot and things like that. Jeld is just being picked on because he’s a servant here. Though, when I asked for the advanced students to be called for, I notice that he was summoned? That speaks of great things as well, don’t you think, Prince Robarts?”
Anders readjusted his hands on the clay pot, a bit. It wasn’t heavy, but walking sideways, while working with someone else was awkward. Jeld looked at him strangely, as if afraid, suddenly. A thing he hadn’t been about carrying the noisy dark entity. Not outwardly, at least.
The Prince simply nodded.
“Indeed, it would seem so. You’re representing the kingdom in the war, soon, Master Jeld?”
The other man ducked his head.
“Yes, Prince Robarts. We leave in some hours, I think. I was told to pack for it. Not everyone was, but we wasn’t told why.”
Anders, feeling mean about it, corrected the man. A very rude thing to do, even at the best of times.
“You weren’t told why. Not that anyone here heard me correct you. You have to speak clearly, from now on. The reason is that you can do the work that will be needed and the others can’t yet. Even bribing them to learn is only getting medium level results. My hope for you is that we can kindle a love of learning inside of you, on this trip. That you will find value in it. Plus, if Great One Salina is going all the way to the front, you’ll be needed to guard her. With your life, if need be. The other Princesses will be returning here, at about the two thirds mark, on the map. The trip won’t be fun or easy, then we will face death on the far side.” He shrugged and kept walking.
“Depak asked me who would be the Great One of Istlan. Daren Willet and Princess Mathia were both mentioned for that. Then, clearly a land can have more than one of those. Perhaps you will aid Jeld here in doing the same as you are, for his people, Princess Salina?”
Instead of acting too good to help a servant out, she spoke, haughtily, but with words that were decently kind, for all of that.
“Of course! Especially if his task is to help keep me alive. I... Hadn’t thought about going to the front of a war. Will I be in the battle, do you think?”
Anders nodded.
“Yes. A Great One must not shirk her duty. Of course, this isn’t your land, so you’ll also have to stand back and allow us to take the lead there. What do you think, Prince Robarts... Should we also risk Princess Mathia to such a task?” He wasn’t playing at all, hearing instead the voice of Depak Sona, in his mind. Telling him that princes couldn’t be coddled too much, or they would grow to be poor leaders.
He didn’t know if that was the same for princesses.
Shockingly, and Anders truly felt a thrill of fear at the move, the Prince nodded.
“I will speak to the King, my father, about this? It may not be allowed, for you either, Princess Salina. We will also need to ask the Sula about this. Still, you have permission for both of them to ride out, and can contact us here, correct, Anders?”
“I can, Prince Robarts.”
They still had to walk for a while, until they came to a small, locked door, made of heavy timbers, on a stone building that looked almost like an outhouse. Robarts used a key, pulled from inside his tunic, which had him searching for some moments to find the correct piece of metal.
Then, Salina, the Great One in training, went first, even if she was clearly nervous about it. There were stone steps leading down and a decently large vault under the earth there, shored up with heavy timbers and a lot of stone. The place was damp and cool inside, but other than shelves with various bits of art and some nice chairs and chests, it wasn’t special or even gloomy.
Part of that, the lack of sinister aspect, was due to the fact that Salina was producing a fine light for them, that didn’t even flicker or dim over time, like a torch might have. They walked, awkwardly, down the steps, with Anders being the one to do it backwards, one step at a time. Then, inside the room proper, he selected the far-left corner, and moved toward it. That was empty, with only a pile of soft looking carpets nearby. They were older things, but decorative enough. The damp there would, eventually, ruin them, he didn’t doubt.
Still, they weren’t going to break the pot, so it seemed safe enough.
“And down. Let me...” The pot was, carefully, pushed all the way into the corner, just off of touching the stone of the walls by a mere finger’s width. Then pulled out to four, in case the thing inside ever managed to make the pot move enough to hit anything.
Then he stood up and brushed his hands off.
“There! Now... We pretty much need to get ready. On the good side, I bet we all sleep well tonight! Salina, I’d like you and Jeld to be ready to do the first two hours of road work. That won’t be until mid-day. If we have to remove moisture, I’ll have Daren and Erold doing that for you, which will make it far easier than if you have to do it all yourself. Trust me on that. Then, when we stop for the night, we’ll need housing for everyone. Salina, you’ll be in charge of that.” He stopped then. “I don’t mean doing the work yourself. I mean in organizing the others into doing it. Try to get a sense of who’s good at what and place everyone in the right spot?”
They all walked outside, with him being demanding enough that a bit of scolding was probably in order. Prince Robarts had stiffened enough that it seemed he expected that.
Salina simply nodded.
“I get to order you around for that, too?”
“Of course. More to the point, do it in such a way that no one realizes that you’re guiding them? But, yes, anyone there will aid with it.”
She seemed lost in thought then, but wasn’t throwing herself to the ground to kick her feet and cry, so Anders decided she was up to the task.