Rising of a Mage: Book 03 - A Mage Risen (2 page)

Delvidge
had visited a dozen lesser orc leaders that night, promising each of them a land or kingdom once Evermount fell. Orcs were constantly fighting each other; they were, of course, the children of chaos. Delvidge had simply given them all something to fight for—for the moment. Once that was finished, they could fight amongst themselves to determine who got what.

“We have to act quickly. The longer the soul is separated from the body, the harder it is for it to reunite with the body,” Navaeh told no one in particular.

Anwar nodded. “Where is the fairy forest? Does anyone know it? If any of you can describe a certain
location well enough we can travel right to the edge.”

Navaeh shook her head. “The fairy forest has an even more ancient magic then Evermount. You said you couldn’t travel in or out of the mountain, and you had to get completely off of it before you could. The fairy forest will be even harder. Everything around it
for miles is affected. I would guess you won’t be able to travel anywhere inside that affected area. To be honest, I don’t even know if your magic will work once we enter the forest.”

Anwar’s mind had been blindly moving in a single direction until this point.
Save Mariah
was all he could think. The mention of not being able to use his magic, however, gave him pause. It was a good thing, though. Now his mind was slowing down. He needed to make calculated decisions. Rushing into something unprepared would just slow them down even more.

“I’ve only heard stories of the fairies and the forests. I never knew it was real, and I have never heard where it is. Do you know how to get there
?” he asked Navaeh.

All eyes rested on her in anticipation
of her answer. “It is at least a week’s walk to the east. It’s probably closer to ten days, maybe even two weeks. After that I have no idea how long it will take us to get from the edge of the forest to the fairy queen. I don’t know the area well enough for you to transport us, and I don’t know if that is even safe to do with Mariah.”

“What about Freeman
, the town just outside of the fairy forest? Couldn’t the people there help us?” Rundo asked.

Mariah shook her head. “I doubt the people of Freeman will help us. It is said that the people are very suspicious of the fairies. Every once in a while one of the youths of Freeman take
s off into the forest, and few of them ever return.”

Anwar was confused. “I thought you said no one ever makes it out of the forest.”

“People go short distances into the forest all the time. It’s said that as long as you stay near the edge that nothing will happen to you. Some say that fairies sometimes come out to the edges of the forest to lure men in deeper. Like I said, I only know what I have heard.”

Anwar looked around at everyone.
Navaeh, Rundo, and Grundel stood there waiting for him. “We will leave in the morning. Get a good night’s rest. We are going to push as hard and fast as we can. Like Navaeh said, the longer Mariah’s body and soul are separated, the worse our chances are to help her. I plan on doing everything I can to make sure we get her into that fairy forest as fast as possible, and the gods can just try to help whoever gets in my way.” With that Anwar turned away from his friends and went back to his room.

Grundel went to spend his last night with his father, grandfather, and mother. It didn’t take long before they were all in the upper assembly hall with a barrel of dark ale. Everyone sang and ate and danced. More and more of the dwarves of Evermount came to wish them well on their journey. The hall continued to fill up and grow louder. For a while the weight of the world was lifted
, and everyone was free to enjoy themselves, everyone except Anwar. After a while Jabaal and Grizzle headed out of the hall to go find their friend.

Anwar sat in his room staring at his wife’s body. She looked so peaceful. He wished he knew that was true. He was sweating profusely. His magic was roaring inside of him. Something inside of him had ripped open when he had gone after Delvidge
, and the magic inside of him was nearly more then he could withstand. The only thing that was saving him right now was Mariah. He had to stay in control so that he could save her. Once he had saved her he could worry about all the power inside of him. As he lay next to her, watching, he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He was already on his way to the door when he heard the knock.

Anwar opened the door
, and Grizzle and Jabaal entered the front room of the little apartment. Grizzle looked up at the mountain of a man who was his friend. Anwar was nearly twice his height and width. He could clearly see the pain in his friend’s face. He had no words that could comfort him, but he had to say something. “Is there anything we can do for you?”

Anwar looked
at his friends. These men loved him, he knew, but there was nothing they could do for him. “Thank you for coming. There is nothing else to do, but do it. We will leave in the morning, and get to the fairies as quickly as we can. With any luck the fairies will save Mariah and we will be back in time to help you finish off the rest of Delvidge’s minions.”

“Oh
ho! Well, you better hurry. I won’t promise to save you any. Don’t worry, brother. Don’t see why them gods would have given you the way to save her if it wasn’t going to work,” Grizzle said in the most lighthearted way he could manage. It sounded hollow even to him.

Jabaal didn’t have anything more helpful to say. He put one hand
on Anwar’s shoulder. “You’re going to save her.” Then he walked into the other room, bent down to kiss Mariah on the forehead, and left with Grizzle.

Anwar stood there staring at the door for a few minutes before going back to Mariah’s side. He thought about what they had said. They were only trying to comfort him, but it made sense. Why would the gods show them the way to save her if it wasn’t going to work? It had to work. After everything they had been through he couldn’t lose her now. With that thought in mind he forced his magic under control and closed his eyes to sleep.

Delvidge had put things in motion to start the war with Evermount. He would bring the dwarves down, but he wanted Anwar. He had been prevented from interfering with the mage while he went to save his little mortal love, but Delvidge had other plans.

He appeared in front of the leader of the largest goblin horde in the hills
, just north and west of the fairy forest. “Goblin!”

When the goblin leader turned and saw him
, he fell to the ground in fear. Delvidge hated goblins. Just looking at this one disgusted him. Small like a dwarf with none of the strength. It fleshy green skin just made it look foolish. Its long curvy pointed ears were like cheap knock-offs of the elegant ears of an elf. Not that he liked elves any better, but he couldn’t deny that they were elegant-looking in their own way. The goblin had the big hands and feet of an orc and a ridiculously long nose. They were like bastard versions of all the races. Just using this disgusting race appalled him, but they had come to be his servants, and he used the tools he had.

“Goblin, keep your eyes off of me, and use those grotesque ears. There is a small city to the south of here. If you do not know south it is the direction of the fairies. Gather all of your goblin scum and go to the city outside of the forest. You will destroy the city and take whatever you wish. If you fail in this
, you will know pain greater than you can imagine for all eternity. I will have demons eat you alive and you will feel your body digested. When you come back out you will be restored and start the process over for all eternity.”

The goblin kept its face in the mud. “Yeesss. We fail you not. We will destroy the city you say.”

Schmutzig waited a long time before finally raising his eyes. The evil god was gone. He accosted the first clan chief he saw. “Stinken, get the chiefs. The great Delvidge has made a demand of us.”

It was nearly an hour before all nineteen of his horde
’s clan chiefs sat around his fire. “The evil Delvidge come to me. He say we must attack city. The city by the fairies he say. He say if we do not destroy city and kill all, he will torture us for all time. Call all goblins in. We leave in one day. It will take maybe a week to get to city.”

One of the chiefs stood. “What do we do with city?”

“The evil god said only kills everyone. We can take whatever we want after that.”

The clan chiefs began jumping and whooping. They headed back into the horde
, a trail of shouts and chants following them. The horde went wild. Every female goblin was taken that night, most by more than one male. As the night grew later and the grain liquor of the hills began to flow, even a couple of the weaker males were taken by others who were too drunk to realize the difference. In the morning nearly a hundred of the horde’s goblins had died in fights or by accident. That still left the horde at just over a thousand.

Delvidge had
observed the whole thing in disgust. Goblins were such primal creatures, barely more then animals. They would serve his purpose, though. There was no way Anwar would let the city be destroyed, and even if he did, in desperation to save her, it would change him. That would be an even greater sight. If Anwar took time from his quest to save Mariah in order to save the city, it would just increase the likelihood of her body rejecting her soul. And if Anwar let the city burn, it would destroy him. Either way, he would likely lose his humanity, and that would be the greatest victory for the god of chaos.

Sufficiently disgusted
, Delvidge appeared before the guild master of the Black Dragons. “Vingaza!”

Delvidge watched as confusion became recognition, and recognition became fear.

Vingaza fell to his knees and lowered his eyes toward the floor. “I am yours to command.”

Delvidge appreciated the attempt at control. Humans were a weak race in many ways, but they weren’t so useless as the filthy goblins. “Vingaza
, the mage Anwar has killed a number of your wizards and assassins. Are you ready to take your revenge?”

Vingaza became
visibly excited. With the help of Delvidge they would be able to remove Anwar, a young and inconvenient problem, who had undermined the power of the Black Dragons and weakened them by killing so many of the powerful wizards in the guild. Nemitz had been a fool and had gotten himself and the others killed along with him. They could have overpowered the boy, or even had the assassins kill him while he had been occupied holding off their magic. But Nemitz had been blind with revenge, and his foolishness had cost them greatly. His brother’s death had been a great loss as well, but that at least had not been his fault. No one could have anticipated a mage of such power in Kampar. They had not known of Anwar until he showed himself in that fight.

Vingaza kept his eyes down and answered his god. “I would love to take revenge if it would please the chaos.”

Delvidge had to laugh. “It would create chaos, and that would please me. Besides, I have my own grievance with this mortal, and you can start making him pay.”

Vingaza caught on quickly. He wasn’t being asked to kill Anwar. Whatever the god of chaos was planning
, he wanted Anwar to suffer. This might be more fun than he had anticipated. “How can I serve, Master?”

“
As we speak, thousands of orcs are moving on Evermount. They are uniting under one ruler to overcome the dwarven kingdom. They have the strength and numbers to overtake the dwarves, but not the ability to overtake the mountain. You will go and help them breach the mountain. Help them with ways to get up the mountain, and bombard the dwarves with magic while the orcs invade. Once the orcs have breached the entrance, your job is done. Anwar will not be there, but his dearest friends are. I have already dealt the first blow. His wife is lost to him, or soon will be. Once the orcs breach Evermount they will overthrow the mountain with sheer numbers. This will remove more of Anwar’s closest love ones. He will see everyone he cares about dead, and then I will have his life last.”

Vingaza could barely contain himself. Not only was he in the overwhelming presence of his god, but also they had the same hatred for the same individual and a plan to tear him down. “It will be as you command.”

When he looked up, Delvidge was gone.

Now that he had set his most important plans in motion
, Delvidge decided he would take a little time to increase chaos across Freiland. Anwar had only been to a small portion of Freiland, but Delvidge planned to incite chaos everywhere the man had been, from Kampar to Ambar, and all the way north to the dwarves. Only once everyone and everything Anwar Alamira had ever known was dead and destroyed would Delvidge be satisfied. Then he would have to leave this area of Freiland for at least a hundred years. It just wasn’t worth creating chaos where there was no stability in the first place. It made no matter. Freiland was a big place and this was only a small portion.

He spent most of a day appearing before the leaders of
the larger orc, goblin, and troll hordes. By the end of that day, all of the largest hordes in the area were on their were in the direction of the nearest human city or village. Chaos had begun.