Hemlock And The Wizard Tower (Book 1) (50 page)

Finally
, the expected knock at her door came.  Rising after a moment, she opened the door and beheld Falignus, who looked resplendent in a fine dark suit, with an ornately woven black neck tie.  He carried an ornamental cane, which was tipped in gold with the visage of snake.

Their eyes met and once again she caught a rare glimpse of Falignus appearing off guard.

"You look beautiful," he said, smiling.

"You also look nice," she replied, in what she hoped was not a gush.

"Shall we be off then?" he asked, backing up and offering his arm.

"Yes," she said noting his gesture, "but let’s not overdo it."

He looked awkwardly at his arm and retracted it.  "Ah," he said airily, "right, after you, then.  We will exit via the back door.  I think you are familiar with the route."

"Indeed I am," she said, closing the door behind her and walking through the dimly lit corridor toward the familiar stair.  As she walked, she noted that the oppressive air of the Tower didn’t seem quite so heavy for some reason.

They walked together and chatted lightly and effortlessly.  Soon they exited the Tower, navigated the caves and caverns and then climbed up the narrow chasm walkway as she had done on the morning when she met with Samberlin.

They walked side by side and close together around Hemisphere lake, and the night was crisp and cool.  He put a light shawl over her bare shoulders.

Hemlock noticed that the magical field which the wizards used to contain her was not visible.

Has he decided to trust me fully?
  She also wondered whether she should try to exploit that trust, if it had truly been granted.

They reached the Elite district, passed the stately Senate building and continued deeper into the beautiful district, which Hemlock had never set foot in before.

Hemlock marveled at how clean and perfect everything was.  Special rose colored torches had been placed in the streets for the ball, and marked the route to the dance hall.

Other revelers filled the streets, dressed beautifully, and it seemed to Hemlock like the entire district must be attending, as they neared the hall in the midst of a small crowd.

The dance hall was a special building, rivaling the Senate hall in its architectural beauty and grandeur.  It was bedecked in more rose colored lanterns and colorful bunting accented the whitewashed railings and columns. 

Sweet music could be heard coming from within the hall.

"This is amazing," said Hemlock, "it’s almost like another world."

"Someday all of the City could be like this," Falignus said.

Hemlock turned to him and saw that his comment would likely lead to an exposition on politics, were she to engage it with a reply.  Instead, she chose to smile and took his arm.

He smiled in return, and she saw the political line of thinking pass from his countenance leaving only an expression of joy. 

Arm in arm, they entered the Hall, amidst other joyful couples.  Hemlock was surprised to see that the interior of the building was open to the sky above, where the stars twinkled majestically, as if in approval of the happy occasion below.

The Hall itself contained many huge ice sculptures which lined the walls in a series of three-quarter gazebos rendered in ice.  These glowed from within with sparkling blues and reds.  Great carpets had been placed on the floors and the benches within these structures of ice in order to shield the revelers from the cold.  Happy guests sat within and watched the dancers, and the ice did not seem to be melting or giving off any discomfort to the occupants of the gazebos.

A large line dance was being performed to the tune of an expert orchestra.

The combination of the music and the spectacle left Hemlock feeling light-headed, and just then Falignus took two glasses from a waiter and presented her with a glass of fine wine.

"Let us toast this fine evening," he said.

She nodded, and as their glasses met, a beautiful note was struck by that meeting.

She drank and the light-headed feeling intensified.  She realized that she didn’t want the feeling to lessen.

After a few more moments, Falignus pointed out a young girl who was dancing in a peach gown cut very similarly to the one that Hemlock had chosen.

Tears ran down Hemlock’s face as she realized that it was her sister, Mercuria.  She had never seen her sister look so healthy, vibrant and beautiful.

Turning to Falignus, she realized that she was beaming with joy, but it was too late to try to mask it.

"She looks amazing – like her ailments are gone," Hemlock said.

"They are gone.  I have seen to it that she has received the best care available.  She has been adopted by a fine family from here in the district.  Like you, she had no trouble adapting to a more refined environment.  In fact, I think you’ll agree that she’s flourished in it."

Hemlock couldn’t dispute that claim.  She watched as Mercuria danced gracefully and Hemlock saw that she seemed to be smitten with the young, smartly dressed man who danced with her.

"Everything you’ve said is true.  I can see that she is happy," she said.

Hemlock
continued to find
the environment to be intoxicating.
 
Seeing her sister filled with joy repaired a part of Hemlock that she hadn't realized
had been wounded.
 
She became aware
that she had shut off her feelings for a long time.
  But Hemlock chose not to dwell on this revelation, for fear of it dispelling her current mood.

She then marveled as blue and green lights
scintillated playfully through the lattice
s
of ice, rendering the entire ballroom in incandescent splendor.
 
She became aware of Falignus standing beside her
and
of his warmth
–
which was highlighted by the
pleasantly mild chill of the air.

She realized that it would be easy
–
frighteningly easy
–
to forget herself for this one night.
 
She felt like she could step into another life
–
perhaps a life that she
would have had outside of the C
ity
–
if things had been different.
 
It occurred to her that this chance might never come again.
 

She felt Falignus reach his hand down and grasp hers.
 
She didn't recoil from
his grasp.

As they held each other
,
she realized that if the freedom of this night was a pool that she had tried to reconnoiter
–
that she had instead fallen in head first.
 
She felt
increasingly
light
-
headed from the
wine.

Looking up at Falignus
,
she whispered
,
 
"Just remember, this i
sn't real.
 
It's a fantasy."

He looked down at her, his cheek rippling pleasingly as it rendered his sardonic smile
.
 
"What isn't?" he replied.

They danced for hours under the starlight.

When the hour began to grow late, and the revelers grew fewer and fewer in number, Falignus bid her to return to the Tower.

She agreed, and as they walked near the Senate building, he stopped her short.

Holding up a finger to bid for her patience, he began to weave a spell.

Hemlock felt a sensation of warm energy wash over her as she felt first a dweomer of obfuscation and then a strange sensation of lightness.

Falignus took her hand and they began to float gently upwards.

She laughed and he laughed with her as they floated higher, and eventually travelled over the Senate building and out over the lake.

The water was beautiful in the moonlight as they soared, hand in hand.

Even the dreary appearance of the Wizard Tower couldn’t dull their mood as they landed on its upper balcony.

They entered through the atrium and Falignus led her down the Emerald stair, which did spark a glimmer of a memory of harsh reality and of the weight of the past in the back of Hemlock’s mind.  She began to be conscious of herself again, but only a little.  If anything, it made the sensations which were still running strong in her seem that much more precious.

When Falignus paused at a door that was not her own, she knew what he wanted.  She looked into his eyes and nodded in agreement.

As she entered his room, she repeated a phrase over and over in her mind.

"It is just a dream."

As the first, virgin rays of light hit the ceiling of Falignus’ chamber, she was fully herself again.

She stole a final glance at his sculpted body and rose.

Also awake, he rolled over and made a plaintive command that was really a question: "Stay?"

She shook her head sadly, trying to savor the final echoes of the prior night, but finding the effort unsuccessful.

"Last night was just
a glimpse
of another life that we could have had, if this world
wasn't so ugly and full of pain,
"
she said.

"It can be more than a glimpse.  That was a foreshadowing of the life that we can build together," he insisted, spreading his arms wide.

Again she shook her head.  "I’m sorry."

She felt his eyes on her as she walked to the door and let herself out.

…

Siros gazed out over the v
alley below, watching nervously as several units of Tanna
Varran l
ancers moved along the
valley
floor, moving in and out of the
trees in the
wooded terrain.  He had
recently
ret
urned from the Wizard Tower, still reeling from
his tense meeting with Falignus
, and was fulfilling his resupply mission for the front line units
. 

He felt somewhat overmatched by his
new responsibilities as c
ommander of the field units of the First Circle.  He knew that he was a good leader of men, and felt very confident in that regard, but the tactical and strategic decisions caused him great worry and sometimes panic.  He secretly wished that he could be demoted, but
he
didn't feel that Falignus would ever have faith in him again if he expressed this
sentiment
.

Siros' body still felt like it was being pricked by pins and needles
–
a sensation resulting from his
recent
teleportation from the Wizard Tower. 

A
nother
teleporting
brass cage had been built
by the wizards
at a great cost of time, manpower and
magic
. 
Teleportation
was essential to the command and control of remote operations and logistics, and therefore its c
onstruction had been a priority
after Gwineval and his companions had commandeered the original.  Siros wished that they were able to build more of the odd devices, but the cost was simply too great, given the many responsibilities of the
wizards
as the administrators of the Oberon supply in the C
ity,
their recent cas
ualties in the battle of Tor Varn
os
and the pressures of ongoing battles with the Tanna Varrans
.

Siros
looked over
the First Circle field
army
,
which had been
reduced by battle casualties
to
three
platoons.  Th
e
force was now guarding one of the two remaining Oberon extraction obelisks, this one
closest to
the small Tanna
Varran
town of Tor Trios.

The week before, Siros had led an assault on Tor Trios, but had been repulsed when the Tanna
Varran
s were able to bring
a b
allista to bear and prevent him from attacking un
der the cover of the remaining h
arvester
under his command
.  He had attempted several long range bombardments of the Town, hoping to set it afire or score a lucky direct hit on the siege engine.  Unfortunately for Siros, the process of amplification which the
wizards
used to
achieve the range required
made the fireballs employed inaccurate, and the bombardments had been unsuccessful.

The Tanna
Varran
units had not attacked lately, but Siros could see that they were clearly on the move and likely preparing
an assault
.  He
became increasingly tense
as he watched their forces move
before him
.

He saw
Quilog, his second in command
, seem to note
his
contemplative demeanor and approach
to discuss tactics.

"Sir, I have kept our forces on this hilltop as you ordered
,
" the man
reported.  Siros noted, with some alarm, how dirty Quilog's w
izard robe and re
d sash were, and how drawn the m
an's features were.

We've met our match in these Tanna Varrans, especially since that fiend Gwineval gives them such powerful magic resistance with his accursed counter spells.

"Distribute some quick rations from
the supplies
I've brought back.  I don't want any of the men leaving their posts though; they must be ready to
fight at a moment’s notice,
" Siros ordered.

As Siros
turned his attention back to the Tanna
Varrans moving across the v
alley, his
instincts
screamed out to launch an attack. 

The enemy forces
were moving closer to the hill adjacent to the one upon which
his wizard unit was encamped and which bore the precious harvesting obelisk
. 
The distant hill was slightly smaller than the o
belisk hill, and almost
two
mile
s
away
.  Siros
knew
that the Tanna
Varran
wings would not be able to fly that distance without
landing for
a recharge.  That
thought gave him some comfort.

This is a secure defensive position.

Still, he fe
lt sure that if he attacked now,
the
Tanna Varrans
would be routed. 
He envisioned that if he
advanced a l
ine of w
izards with ranged spells at the ready,
that
the Tanna
Varran
units would be
caught moving across the w
izard's line of fire.  It
would
be a slaughter.

But the angry words of Falignus played back in Siros' mind.  He had been the victim of misdirection more than once, and he feared that Falignus would slay him outright if he made the same mistake again. 

I will stay put this time.  But why are they moving to that hill?
he wondered
with renewed anxiety
.

Several minutes passed as Siros
continued to watch
the Tanna
Varran
s on the move.

On a whim, he turned back to inspect the Oberon obelisk, which pulsed with power.  Near the
obelisk, laboring w
izards directed a series of glass tubes which were joined with a flexible metal
lic material into a long length;
this
stretched from the open foot of the nearby Harvester golem
into the caverns beneath the o
belisk, where the harvested Oberon accumulated.  The tubes
shone with a dull green which was emitted from the Oberon plants that flowed
fro
m the caverns into the waiting h
arvester.  Siros realized, with a start, that
his wizards
were still
loading the harvester and
that it was not battle ready.

"Quilog!" Siros
shouted
.

The second in command, who had been directing subordinates in their efforts to distribute rations as ordered, sprinted across the hilltop to Siros.

"
That h
arvester should be in battle drill!" Siros raged.

"But Sir, what about the Oberon quota!?" cried Quilog, snapping to attention under the wrathful gaze of the larger and more powerfully built Siros.

"The
re
'll be no delivery at all if that
harvester is
destroyed!  The Tanna
Varran
s are on the move!" Siros raged.

Suddenly a cry of alarm rang out over the hilltop.

Siros turned and saw that the first units of Tanna
Varran
s, which had reached the distant hilltop, were launching into flight.

"Get that h
arvester
prepared
for battle!" Siros screamed at Quilog, cuffing the man roughly out of a surprised reverie, and then pushing him off.

Siros always felt better once
a
battle started.  His anxieties melted away as the fireballs, spears and energy bolts began to fly.

His stomach
and spirits dropped,
however, as he
realized that the Tanna Varran lancers
had not landed
between the hills as he had
felt sure
that
they would have
had
to.  They were soaring across
the intervening valley
and
were poised to
arrive
directly
over
the hilltop
where he stood,
in battle formation.

Siros cursed and looked over the disposition of his wizard units on the hilltop.  They were dug in at the lip of the hilltop, ready to repulse an attack from below.  If they didn’t reform into squares in the center of the hill, there would be a chance that the Tanna Varrans could rout them.

"Form up on the obelisk!" Siros shouted as he began to run around the perimeter of the hill.  He was shouting and pulling wizards out of their entrenched positions and throwing them toward the obelisk and the harvester as the first Tanna Varran lancers passed overhead, landing directly in the vicinity of the unprepared golem.

The Tanna Varrans, who were suddenly more numerous than the wizards near the obelisk, killed many of the wizards around it who were still trying to stow the Oberon harvesting equipment.

Siros joined a group of wizards in a charge directed at the Tanna Varrans near the obelisk.  As they met the first unit of lancers, Siros felled three with a burst of lightning from his Staff.

The tattooed battle mages beside him glowed with power as they charged into the Tanna Varrans, some falling, impaled by the spears of the blue warriors.

Siros began to realize that things had gone from bad to worse when he saw the great figure of the harvester golem buckle and fall over under the pull of cunning ropes employed by the Tanna Varrans who had taken control of the center of the hilltop.

The golem lurched in a way that was sickening to Siros, and it fell directly onto the obelisk, causing a great explosion and a shower of metal shrapnel, which caused casualties on both sides.

Siros cursed sharply.  The obelisk was destroyed.  More Tanna Varrans were flying into the battle, and the remaining wizards were unable to assume their carefully drilled formations which made them so effective in battle.

Siros remembered the teleportation cage.  It had just been used, but Siros recalled ordering it to be recharged upon his arrival.  Had that been completed?

He didn’t know, but he was close to the cage and he decided to find out.

He fought his way through three more Tanna Varrans before managing to enter the cage.  He rang the bell and hoped for the best.

As the surroundings of the hill melted away, he felt a surge of relief mixed with great shame at abandoning his men.  He also felt a terrible fear at how Falignus would react to his defeat.

…

Later, in the days following the ball, a wizard came to Hemlock’s door and told her that Falignus had summoned her.

As she followed the wizard through the tower, she prepared herself for what Falignus might intend to discuss with her.  She was feeling some self-loathing for the night of pleasure that she had experienced with him.  It felt, to her, like a small betrayal to the memory of Safreon to have conducted herself as she had.

The words of Samberlin had also had an effect on her, however.  She had begun to ponder the concept that there could be compelling, alternate points of view to the moral code of Safreon.  But that didn’t change how Hemlock felt about observing and respecting the memory of her mentor, no matter whether his teachings proved to be wholly true or just part of a greater body of truth.  She knew that some part of him would always be with her, provided that she did her part to honor his memory.