Can't Look Back (War for Dominance Book 1) (6 page)

He would never live down the Spectre case, Dantes realized, throwing a rock into the lava pool far below him. He found he did his best thinking while sitting on the edge of the volcano’s crater. Something about having his legs dangling over the edge was liberating. Maybe he would just slide in…one day…ending his need to think for all time. His father might have survived a fall into the molten lava, but he didn’t think he would.

He had come to the conclusion a long time ago that it was his fault the case would never be solved. Dantes was the one that had broken the mirror, trapping the Spectre in a far off land...with the queen’s crown still in his possession. Too young to have been trusted with such enormous responsibility, he had recovered a fake crown. Although Dantes had traveled the length and breadth of Tasidar, he had been unable to locate the land where they trapped the thief. That place was either across the ocean or on an alternate plane. The only thing he knew was that it wasn’t on Tasidar. If it was, he’d have found it.

Being a member of the Magisterium had been the high point of his life. It was the only place that he had ever belonged, even a little. Although most of the humans had never trusted him, a few had, as had many of the demi-humans and other races. His partnership with Ghorza had been the pinnacle of his career. Even though she was a little flighty, they worked well as a team; each drew from the other’s strengths.

That time was over, though, and he doubted that he would ever be trusted with that level of responsibility again. None of the good races would ever trust him; most of them believed that he had intentionally helped the Spectre escape. After three years, it didn’t appear they had any intention of ending his probation, or they would have done so by now.

Perhaps it was for the best. The devil side of his personality had been calling him for the last year. Forsake the gods of good and come over to the evil side, it said. He could do what he wanted. He could kill whoever he wanted, and he could torture people at will. There was a considerable appeal to that...his powers would rise unchecked, and he could be the devil his father had wanted him to be. Maybe someday he would even take his place in the triumvirate of devils that ruled the second level of hell.

But that was not what he had promised his mother, and his word had to be good for something. It was the only link he still had to her. His father had destroyed everything else, not wanting Dantes to be ‘soft.’ He had even killed Dantes’ mother. Dantes walked in as it was happening and had stopped his father the only way he could. He had killed his father, driving one of his horns through his father’s heart. He was too late, though; his mother was only human and too far gone to be saved. Before she died, she made him swear to stay with the gods of good, and he had given his word to do so. The longer he sat looking down at the bubbling lava, the harder he found it was to remember her face...or his promise to her.

Although they started out early the next morning, John and Ghorza were delayed leaving the city. They made it as far as the gate, but were stopped there as company after company of troops was directed through ahead of them. In every military parade John had seen growing up, the crowd cheered the soldiers on. Not only were the people
not
cheering the soldiers marching by, they gave every appearance of actively disliking them. He saw several of the passers-by spit in the direction of the troops.

“What’s going on?” asked John. “Where are the troops going? Why aren’t the people cheering for them?”

“You’ve come here at a bad time,” replied Ghorza. “Our country is at war. The armies of Salidar have come.”

“From your tone, I’m guessing they didn’t come bearing gifts,” said John, “but I don’t know anything about it. Is Salidar your enemy?”

“Don’t you know
anything
about this land?” asked Ghorza, frustration heavy in her voice. John shook his head, so she continued. “Our world has two continents. You are currently on the continent of Tasidar, which lies to the north; to the south of us lies Salidar, separated by an ocean. It is a land of evil. Trolls, ogres and orcs all roam freely there, which until recently was the best thing that could be said about it. All of those races roamed freely. They fought and they died in their petty territorial squabbles,
and they stayed there
. There was never a force to unify them, so they were never a threat to Tasidar. Every once in a while raiders would hit some of our southern towns and villages, but the raiders were always disorganized and easily driven off.”

“Until recently?”

“Yes,” Ghorza said, nodding her head. “Until recently. Something unified them. Now when the raiders hit our villages, they don’t leave anything behind except the dead bodies of the village men. The women and children they carry off, along with anything else that has value to them. They burn the rest. They are so well organized now that they disappear before help can arrive. They’ve even hit some of the larger towns.” She shook her head. “It’s bad.”

“So they’re sending the troops out to defend the villages along the coast?”

“No,” replied Ghorza. “That’s not the worst of it. After months of increasing instability, a few weeks ago there was a coup in Carpos, the kingdom to the east of here. The new government welcomed in a contingent from Salidar, and within days there were ogres manning the castle walls during the day and hill giants at night. Our ambassador and all of her staff were killed, as were all of the people from our nation inside Carpos’ borders. The fall of Carpos caught everyone here by surprise. Although we have a standing army, it was never intended to fight a land war against armies of ogres and giants. The navy was supposed to keep most of them from seeing our shores, and we counted on the armies of Carpos and the other countries to assist in fighting any of the Salidarians that made it to our shores. Not having Carpos’ support completely undermines our war plans; having Carpos actively bringing in more and more of our enemies makes a war unwinnable.”

“So, who are these soldiers?” asked John, looking at the mounted cavalry that was now passing by.

“These are mercenary troops,” replied Ghorza. “I think this contingent was raised and paid for by the merchants’ guild, under the direction of Solim Asmar. You met his younger brother Rubic at the Magisterium; he was the halfling that brought you down to where the Magistra and I were talking. Solim organized the guild and paid for these troops. They are barbarians from the Central Desert and are little more than savages. If their captains didn’t watch them, they would probably loot the cities they were supposed to defend. That is why no one likes them; they can’t be trusted.”

“If these are mercenaries,” John asked, “where are your real armies?”

“They are out on the front lines,” replied Ghorza. “All of them. Every soldier and combat mage that we have is on the border with Carpos. There’s no one guarding the southern villages except the local militias. These mercenary troops
were
going to assist with the raiders, but they just got called to the front lines, as well. A group of trolls were spotted in Carpos; it is hoped that the mercenaries on horseback can stop them, should they cross the border.”

“Can they?”

“I don’t know,” Ghorza said with a shrug. “
All
of the skilled mages, even the ones that haven’t been trained for combat, are on standby to assist the army with the defense of the capital. That is why it is up to Dantes and me to track down Milos; all of the senior operatives are with the army. There’s no one else to send. If Dantes and I hadn’t been on probation, we would have been there, too. His fire magic would be very welcome against the trolls.”

“Can’t you do fire magic?”

“Of course not,” replied Ghorza. “You’ve seen me cast translation spells. My specialty is air.”

“What do you mean?” asked John, confused. “You can’t cast fire spells? Why not? Wouldn’t that be a lot more useful in combat?”

“No, I can’t cast fire spells,” replied Ghorza, picking the easiest of the questions to answer first. “Let me guess, you don’t know how magic works, either?”

“No, I don’t,” said John. “We don’t have magic where I’m from, so I don’t know anything about it. I mean, there are lots of games that pretend to use it, and tons of stories exist about it, but we don’t have any
real
magic in my world. How do you start? Can anyone do it? If so, can you teach me to cast a spell?”

“Hmmm...” Ghorza thought a moment. She’d never been asked those questions before, nor had she ever had to explain magic; everyone grew up with it, and they knew everything they were supposed to know. “Well, first of all, not everyone can cast spells; only about 10% of the people are born with the ability to cast minor spells, which we call cantrips. If you aren’t born with that ability, you will never get it.”

“Most of the people that can cast cantrips never go any further than that,” Ghorza continued. “No one knows why, just like no one knows why only certain people can cast spells at all. Only about 10% of the people who have the ability to cast cantrips also have the ability to progress and get better at it.”

“I take it you are one of those people,” asked John, “since some of the things I’ve seen you do have to be higher-level stuff.”

“Yes, I am,” said Ghorza, “I am a mage, which is what we call the people that are able to advance their skills in magic. I was rapidly advancing as a mage until the Spectre Episode, as it is called here. Things have slowed since.”

“Why is that?” asked John.

“Simple,” Ghorza replied. “If you use your talents in the service of your god, you advance your skills faster than any other way. After we made the mistake with you, we were removed from active questing for the last three years. Dantes and I were just reinstated yesterday. I wasn’t sure we would
ever
be reinstated.”

“Three years?” John asked. “You said that before, but it’s only been a few days since I saw you.”

“Only a few days may have passed where you live,” replied Ghorza, “but here in Tasidar, three years have passed, and they have been long ones.”

The last of the mercenaries passed through the gate. The soldiers that were manning the gate waved at them to hurry through, as if they were the ones that had been blocking traffic through the gate for the last 15 minutes. As they walked through the gate and into the city slums outside, John had a thought. “Why weren’t you reinstated before now?”

“What do you see when you look at me?” asked Ghorza, happy to be on the other side of the questioning for once.

“I don’t know if everything in my world is the same as it is here,” replied John, “but if so, I’d have to guess that you are a half-orc.”

“I am indeed a half-orc,” said Ghorza. “The question remains, though. What do you
see?
”

John looked at Ghorza, trying to determine what it was that she wanted him to see. The green skin? The small pig tusks? The fact that she had more hair than any other girl John had ever seen? “I don’t get it,” he finally said. “What is it that you want me to see?”

“How about this, then. Do you remember Dantes? What did he look like?”

“Um, no disrespect meant to your friend,” replied John carefully, hearing an edge to Ghorza’s tone, “but he either looked like a devil or had the best devil costume I’ve ever seen.”

“Exactly,” Ghorza said. “Dantes is a teufling; half man and half devil. One of his parents was a full-blooded devil, but he’s never said which one. In fact, he never talks about his family.” She stopped walking and turned to face John. She was big enough to stop the traffic behind them momentarily, but then it flowed around them like a rock in a stream. Fists clenched in anger, Ghorza seemed oblivious to it. “Do you know
why
he never talks about them? Because people already don’t trust us since one of our parents came from an evil race.
That
is why we haven’t been reinstated. Most of the
humans
around here don’t trust us and don’t want to give us a second chance. They think we’re responsible for stealing the queen’s crown.”

“Well, it doesn’t bother me,” said John, and he began walking again to break the mood. He hoped it would give her an outlet for her anger, but his plan backfired; Ghorza began walking, and her angry strides were much longer than John’s. He almost had to jog to keep up with her. “What would have happened if he hadn’t been reinstated?” he puffed. “What would he have done?”

“I don’t know,” Ghorza answered, “but I imagine his patience is running out. At some point, he’ll probably give up on the Academy and will be lost to us.”

“Why would he be lost? What does that mean?”

Ghorza sighed. “As I already said, you increase your magical abilities by using them in the service of your god. When Dantes came to the Academy, he swore to serve Incendius, who is one of the five gods of good. At some point, he will probably break his vow and choose to serve the evil god of fire. I hope he doesn’t because I would hate to have to cross spells with him. He is almost like a brother to me.” Ghorza shuddered unintentionally.

“Do you serve the same god?”

“No,” Ghorza said, “each of the gods has an elemental sphere. There are good and evil gods of the four elements: earth, fire, water and air. My talents are in the realm of air; I serve Coelius, the good god of air.”

“You said there were five gods of good,” noted John. “What is the fifth god’s sphere?”

“No one knows,” replied Ghorza. “The fifth god of good disappeared sometime in the past, and the knowledge of the god’s elemental sphere has been lost. Not only did the fifth god of good disappear, but the fifth god of evil, as well.”

“I’m curious,” John said. “I played a lot of magic games growing up. You talked about good and evil; is there a difference between law and chaos?”

“I thought you said that you didn’t have magic where you came from,” said Ghorza.

“We don’t have real magic like you do,” replied John, “with spells you can cast that actually do things. All of our magic was just pretend.”

“Well, it is quite real here,” Ghorza stated. “The first time you are the recipient of a flame strike, you will realize just how
very
real it is.” She paused and then added, “As to your other question, if you believe in law, you are good. Those that are chaotic in nature worship the gods of evil. There is no distinction.”

“Well that’s at least easy to understand,” John said. “So, how do I find out if I am a mage?”