Just Cause Universe 2: The Archmage (29 page)

He smiled at her. “I would be honored if you would try it on, Lady Salena. I’ll give you some privacy while you dress.”

Sally was going to say she didn’t mind, but before she could, Seth drew Wolfgang away into an adjoining chamber. The dark look he shot her made her spine tingle. She tried to put her nervousness about her true love’s majordomo out of her mind as she shucked out of her gown. She stared at the armor for a minute, because it floated several inches above the floor, as if it was some kind of strange balloon, and she forgot her anxiety and smiled. The only problem, she thought suddenly, was that it was the wrong color.

It ought to have been red, not blue.

Her feet slipped into soft leather ankle boots with straps that crisscrossed up her legs. Plates of steel protected the tops of her feet and the thick, soft soles would give her plenty of purchase. Her legs remained bare to allow freedom of movement. A leather belt fastened around her midriff and a soft thong creased her buttocks. A skirt of flexible chain hung around her waist, connecting to a large ring that centered over her navel.
I should get that pierced, he’d love that
, she thought. The unwarranted thought was immediately followed by strong guilt as she suspected the
he
in question wasn’t Wolfgang, which made no sense to her. Her breasts were sheathed in a leather bikini with a chain mail overlay. It also connected to the ring at her navel. Blued steel guards covered her shoulders, and bracers wrapped around her upper arms. A thin steel helmet lined with cotton and topped with bright peacock feathers perched atop her head.

Sally stared at herself in the mirror. She looked amazing and yet, part of her mind kept screaming it was completely wrong in every possible way. A powerful wave of mixed emotion rolled over her and she felt like laughing and crying at the same time. A single tear wound its way down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly with a flash of anger at her lack of control.

“Wolfgang? I’m finished.”

The door creaked open and he stood in the hallway and regarded her with open-mouthed awe.

“You look fantastic.”

She spun around gaily and flipped her hair like a flag. “Why thank you!”

He stepped into the room, followed by a slinking Seth. The older man drifted off to a shadowed spot along one wall and seemed to fold himself into a ball of hatred and distrust. Sally glanced in his direction before Wolfgang drew up to her and gently grasped her arms. He bent down to place a kiss on her forehead.

“I’m ready to lead your armies, my love,” she said with pride.

“Not quite yet. I’d be amiss if I sent you into battle with naught but the armor on your shoulders.”

He raised his hand, palm toward the ceiling and fingers curling up and around. A bluish glow filled his hand, and then lengthened into a long haft of finely-grained wood inlaid with silver tracings. A tuft of silky fur dangled from one end, and from it sprouted a wickedly barbed point which shimmered like water in the sunlight.

A spear
, thought Sally.
That’s not right
. Nevertheless, she reached up to take the offered weapon in spite of the
wrongness
of its shape and size.

“Go on, try it out,” said Wolfgang.

Seth stiffened noticeably from where he lurked. Sally ignored him. She stepped back from Wolfgang to give herself enough room to operate.

She whipped the spear around experimentally to get a feel for it. It was incredibly light, and she made it whistle around her as she twirled it like a quarterstaff. She brought it around behind her smartly and then snapped it butt-first down to the floor with a sound like thunder. Cracks radiated outward through the stone floor from the point of impact. Sally’s chest heaved, not so much from exertion, but from the excitement of using the weapon that seemed to meld itself into every move she made. She grinned at Wolfgang, who applauded.

“Brilliant, my dear. You’re a natural.” She swelled with pride to hear his words. His smile turned dangerous. “Perhaps we should test you under more
adverse
conditions.”

He snapped his fingers and suddenly they were in the courtyard. Sally noticed he hadn’t transported Seth along with them and that knowledge gave her a secret thrill. Wolfgang
trusted
her at last. It was a turning point. Sally knew it was only a matter of time before she’d be allowed to share everything of herself with Wolfgang.

The Archmage waved his hand at the cobblestones and a group of spectral minions rose up from the ground. They looked oddly familiar to Sally, but she couldn’t imagine where she might have seen such strange people before except perhaps in her dreams: two huge, hulking men, one black as night and the other with a dog’s face; a cackling harpy with talons and feathered wings; a living bolt of lightning in female form; a laughing rascal of a demon; an amorphous blob with stringy tentacles which reached hungrily for her head.

And amid them all was a shadowy representation of the Musician.

“They displease me,” said Wolfgang. “Destroy them for me, Salena. Prove yourself worthy of the gifts you have received.”

Sally didn’t hesitate. Swinging the spear fluidly, she waded in among them. The harpy screamed at her and threw knives from both hands. Sally dodged them easily, batting them out of the air with the haft of her spear. As the living lightning bolt cast itself at her, she spun the tip of the spear around and spitted the glowing specter neatly through its chest. The creature disappeared in a flash of ectoplasmic residue. Sally reversed the spear and swung it hard to cut through the harpy’s wings. The monster fell to the ground, still screaming, and Sally pinned it through its chest. With her spear firmly planted, she leaped up and kicked out at the leering demon, smashing its face in. It vanished in a puff of smoke. Tendrils wrapped around her head suddenly, blinding and suffocating her. She lashed out, spinning the spear in a wide arc. The tendrils vanished as quickly as they had formed, leaving her only to face the two monstrous men and the Musician. With one mighty blow of the magically-sharp spearhead, she cleaved the black creature in half and it vanished in a puff of smoke. The dog-faced demon wrapped her up in a bear hug, but wasn’t fast enough to entrap her arms. She reversed the spear and thrust it behind her just past her hip. As it gored into the spectral being behind her, she gasped from a feeling like she’d done something horribly wrong. But she couldn’t dwell on that now; she still had the Musician to face.

But before she could move against the Musician, Wolfgang dismissed him with a desultory wave of his hand. The spirit vanished off to whatever realm it called home and left the two of them alone in the courtyard once more.

“Wonderful,” said Wolfgang. “I know now that you will be successful. I am proud to make you the leader of my army. Tomorrow morning we move against the Musician, and by tomorrow night we celebrate his defeat.”

“But tonight you should rest, my Lord,” wheedled Seth from the tower entrance. “You’ll need all your strength tomorrow.
All
your strength.”

Wolfgang sighed. “I suppose you’re right, old friend.” He turned to Sally. “One more night apart, my dear. Tomorrow night you shall join me in my chambers and I will make you my queen.”

Sally felt herself quiver with repressed desire and frustration. It seemed like she’d never be able to quell the ache deep inside her. She sighed. “One more night, my darling. I look forward to finally sharing your bed.”

The look of pure hatred that Seth shot her almost made her regret her words. In that moment she knew she would have to kill him.

Chapter Eighteen

“War, war is still the cry, ‘War even to the knife!’”

-
Lord Byron
 

August, 2004

Rugby, North Dakota

Sally couldn’t sleep.

The excitement of the approaching battle made her toss and turn in her bedchamber in the castle’s south tower. She wished for a moment she had a clock so she’d know what time it was. Then she laughed at herself for such a ridiculous thought. The sun peeking through her window would be clock enough for her.

She got out of her bed and wrapped a blanket around herself against the chill of the night. She’d asked the Archmage about the unusually cool weather considering it was the middle of summer. He’d explained that the Musician’s powers were altering weather patterns and that he’d be able to restore the natural balance once their opponent had been vanquished once and for all. The fire in her hearth had died down to a soft glow. She could have thrown another piece of wood on it, but it was hard enough to sleep without flickering firelight on the rounded walls of her chamber. She stepped over to the window to look out across the darkened lands far below.

The lights of the enemy burned with their unnaturally steady glow as they made constant circles around Wolfgang’s lands both in the sky and on the ground. They constantly tested his defenses day and night, but she saw no battles being fought at the moment. The enemy troops seemed content to wait in their encampments. Nearer to the base of the mountain, she could see Wolfgang’s own armies, their camps lit by cheerful fires and lanterns. She could see the remains of a few vehicles burning away the last of their flammable parts, grim testaments to the power of her love’s soldiers.

Tomorrow she would be leading those very soldiers into battle.

She sighed happily and thought perhaps she was getting a little drowsy after all and should go back to bed. She closed her eyes and imagined the thrill of combat in her love’s name. Her mind filled with the images of floating balloons the color of fresh blood and she shook her head angrily. Why did those visions keep tormenting her?

She heard the slightest of clicks from the latch of her chamber door, and time seemed to stop around her.

Her heart pounded in fear as she threw off the blanket. The blanket hung in midair, not yet affected by the pull of gravity. She hurried over to her bed and thrust a couple of pillows underneath the sheets. It didn’t
really
look like someone asleep, but perhaps in the darkened room it would be enough to give her a momentary advantage. She ran lightly to the hearth and grabbed the poker; it was the only weapon she had readily available to her. She moved to stand in the slight alcove by the door with the poker raised in preparation.

The blanket she’d dropped settled to the floor.

The latch turned quietly and the door swung open. The corridor beyond would normally be lit by torches, but now it was dark. A figured swathed in black slipped into the room. The dim light glinted off the naked blade of a dagger clutched in his hand. Even in the near-darkness, there was no mistaking that look of disdain. Seth had come to kill her in her sleep.

Sally’s ire rose.
What nerve to attack me under Wolfgang’s protection!
 

He started to turn. In a flash, Sally brought the poker down across Seth’s wrist to shatter bones and tear sinew. The knife clattered to the stone floor.

Seth didn’t scream; instead, he grunted and staggered away from her.

“How
dare
you come in here like this?” She brandished the poker.

“You are an
impostor,
” he spat. “You’d harm my master. You’d
kill
him.”

“
I love him!
” She didn’t care if she woke the entire world with the admission.

“You only
think
that. He
makes
you love him.”

“No, that’s impossible!”

“He won’t look past your beauty, but I know better. You’re a traitor somehow, and I won’t let you hurt him.”

“I’d never hurt him. I
love
him!”

“You are only a toy to him, but he’s like a son to me. I raised him from birth.
You don’t know him like I do!
” In spite of his badly-damaged hand, Seth leaped at her.

Sally sidestepped his awkward headlong rush. He crashed into a table which shattered into splinters. Sally swung the poker hard across his back and he fell to the floor to writhe in agony.

“Stay down,” she said, “or I will kill you.”

He glared back over his shoulder. Blood leaked from his mouth and hatred ran rampant across his face. “
Fucking traitorous bitch
.
”

“
What is going on here?
” thundered a voice. The Archmage appeared out of thin air in the middle of the room.

“Your
manservant
—
” Sally spat the word with vitriol “—came to kill me in my sleep. I was forced to defend myself.” Her eyes became cold slits. “With your permission, my love, I’ll finish what I began.”

The Archmage spoke a single ancient word, and Sally was frozen in place. “You will do no such thing. Seth, is this true?”

Sally strained to argue her case, but even her tongue and jaws were paralyzed. Her eyes began to burn as they dried out.

“
Yes
it’s true!” cried Seth. “She’s
dangerous
, my Lord! You said so yourself that you couldn’t see into her mind. Doesn’t that suggest she’s hiding something?”

“Ridiculous,” countered Wolfgang. “Her mind is weak. Her personality fragmented when I took control of her. I couldn’t see into it because there was nothing left to see. All she is now is what I have made her.”

“She is a spy, sent to you by our enemies. Mark my words, if you keep her alive and near you it will be your downfall.” Seth struggled to his feet.

Energy flowed from the Archmage’s hands to envelop Seth’s injuries. “We talked about this, Seth. Don’t make me repeat myself.” His voice hardened. “You know I don’t like that.”

“Thank you, my Lord.” Seth massaged his hand as if it still ached. “I apologize. It won’t happen again.”

Wolfgang smiled. “Oh, Seth. My oldest friend… what would I do without you and your counsel?” He circled Sally as he spoke. “I’ve been watching this one. She is incredibly powerful in her own way, truly one of the Great Powers of this age. Even she hardly begins to suspect the range of her capabilities.” He crossed in front of her again. “She has it within her to defeat
each and every one
of the defenders that fool Stratocaster can bring to bear. She will be the key to our victory.”