The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (25 page)

“
Yes, Morgain’s dead
husband, the Sivaeral Second, whom his father, the Archimage of
Abal, slew.”

“
He seems kind of lively
for being dead,” I exclaimed.

“
Yes, and he does not look
like these Husks! We must retreat!” Hydan exclaimed.

I tried to shrug off Hydan, but his
grip was strong.

“
Nick, you don’t have
protections yet, and I can’t hold a Second off of you! He will turn
you to dust with just a thought if you get near him, do you want
that?”

I snarled something unintelligible,
but right then the fire beast beat its flaming wings, setting four
more trees alight, and then it lifted off with Ziny on its scaled
back.

I cursed, but without any chance to
save Ziny, my decision was made. I turned and ran toward Toji, with
Hydan running right beside me, which was fortunately away from the
approaching resurrected wizard and his four necromages.

As we got near, Hydan gestured and the
nearest Husk turned into an undead snogfish, flopping on the soil
for air, which explained the ones I’d seen earlier.

Toji leaped in and beheaded one which
was still standing to his left, spun low and under the thrust of
the next one and cut its leg off at the left knee. He continued his
move around and stabbed it through the eye. The monster went down,
finished.

“
Now I finally have you!” a
deep voice declared.

Hydan, Toji and I turned, and found
the approaching Medrod was only fifty yards away, and running
toward us swiftly.

Hydan called to us, “I will slow him
down; you help Myrka!”

So Toji and I ran to Myrka’s aid, and
I hoped Hydan could deal with a Second Derkaz wizard, somehow
returned to life.

“
YOU!” Medrod bellowed, and
then added, “I will take your soul and bind it to my will
forever!”

Hydan smiled and said, “Good luck with
that, Medrod. I have some other plans, and you should have stayed
dead.”

Medrod was clad in red glowing plate
armor, and now he reached back and up by his shoulder and drew a
thick, but short blade. The short sword had purple flames running
up and down the blade.

Hydan actually smirked and said,
“Pretty… useless.” Then Hydan gestured, but nothing
happened.

“
Damn,” Hydan exclaimed,
taking a step backward, and calling to us, “I suggest
haste.”

I only heard his last statement
because I had already turned my head to deal with the six Husks
attacking Myrka. She had downed one already, and right then Toji
leaped in, taking out two more swiftly. That left one more for each
of us.

Toji squared off with his, and Myrka
leaped at the second one, but the third headed for me; uh
oh.

I grabbed a rock off the ground, and
tried to believe I’d picked up a knife, but it was still a rock,
great. Doubting Thomas has nothing on me.

Now I was face to face with this Husk,
and I could see its eyes were dried up milky white shriveled grapes
in the sockets where its saeran eyes should have been, but it
seemed to see me just fine. The lips were also dried, as was the
skin of its face, pulling back against the bones like plastic wrap.
This caused the dry lips to pull back from the brown rotten looking
teeth.

It thrust its knife at me, and I
realized it was one of those rubber movie blades.

Now, you have to understand, it
wasn’t, not when it started toward my belly, but I really thought
it was, and I guess I believed myself, because just as it was about
to get thrust deep into my guts, the rubber blade bent.

I clouted the thing in the side of its
dried brain pan and felt a satisfying crunch as the dried skull
gave way to my rock.

It fell to the ground.

Toji and Myrka had finished theirs and
were just turning to see if I needed any aid.

That’s when the fog came up out of the
ground. This was the thick pea soup kind of fog, and in about three
seconds it was impossible to see.

I found Toji and Myrka because they
were right nearby, and I just moved that direction, calling out to
them so they didn’t try to stab me.

We found each other, and that’s when
Hydan ran into us as well. He stopped, almost surprised, and then
said, “Link hands, and run for the river!”

“
Which way?” I
asked.

“
Listen!”

So we all shut up and then heard the
sound of the river to my left. I dropped my rock and we grabbed
hands, turned and started running.

Behind us, I heard Medrod, “Clever,
but this fog won’t last!”

Already I could see the fog lifting,
and then our feet hit the water. Dimly, I could see the place where
the nets had been in the cascade, but we were below that now. The
Celadon had nearly filled in the cascade now, as the water from
above brought the river below back to full level.

We let loose of each other’s hands and
dove under the surface, and then started kicking.

An hour later, we surfaced and took a
quick look. We could hear sounds of pursuit from up river so we
went under again and started kicking. Soon the water picked up
speed and then we were all falling. We had gone over a massive
waterfall and were plummeting toward the pool below.

I believed, with all my heart, there
was water, not rocks below. Then I hit the water and went under.
Everything was white bubbles, and zero visibility because of it. I
just kicked for deeper water and was buffeted by currents. I
finally managed to reach calmer water, and finally swam to the
surface. I found Toji and Myrka swimming nearby, but I didn’t see
Hydan until I looked up at the waterfall, he was floating down
gently out in front of the falls. He slipped into the water near us
a moment later.

“
You know, you don’t have
to fall like that,” he noted. “Not if your body is almost as light
as air.”

“
Great, now you tell me,” I
said sourly.

He smiled, “I did see some rocks
disappear right before you hit the water, was that your
doing?”

I nodded.

“
Well done! That might have
hurt a bit otherwise. Keep practicing, you are starting to develop
your power!”

“
What about that Medrod
thing?” I asked.

Hydan shrugged, “I don’t know, those
Husks don’t like the water, but Medrod didn’t look like them, he
didn’t have that drawn and dry look. Fortunately, depending on how
you look at it, he doesn’t have his flying beast, he sent Ziny away
on it. So our pursuers are a bit behind us, but I suggest we keep
swimming downstream swiftly to keep our lead.”

“
You could not defeat
Medrod?” Toji asked.

Hydan shook his head, “Regardless of
his living or undead status, he is a Second, and he has great magic
near him, as well as unknown Derkaz powers. I tried to reach him
but he stymied my attempts to change reality. I was down on power
from our other encounters, so I was afraid he might outlast me. I
ran back a few yards, to get out of his influence, and then started
believing in a nice forest fog.”

I was quiet at this stage, I was
picturing Ziny in that net being carted off by the peg-legged
necromage and his two buddies, and then being tossed onto the back
of a flying flaming monster, like a sack of flour. “Where did they
take Ziny?” I demanded.

Hydan shrugged, “Unknown, though I can
guess.”

“
Guess then!” I exclaimed
angrily.

Hydan just looked at me, and then
said, “To Morgain’s fortress, on Mystical Island.”

“
Then, that’s where we are
going,” I stated.

The Friare Third looked at me for a
moment, as if weighing his answer, and then said, “I will take you
there, but not until you are capable of surviving. Right now
Morgain and Medrod would destroy you with a hardly a thought. You
cannot rescue Ziny in this state, you can only die, and leave her
to them.”

“
Fine, what do I need to do
then?” I demanded.

“
Learn your powers, and
part of that is finding your parents so you can learn your past.
Only by truly knowing who and what you are can you fully believe in
yourself, and therefore your powers. Remember, even the Archimage
of Abal, in the full use of his powers, had difficulty going to
Mystical Island, and some say he paid a great cost. You are not an
Archimage, nor do you have full use of your powers. At this time
you can barely survive falling off a waterfall, you aren’t anywhere
near ready to take on a Dokkalfar Second and her resurrected
Sivaeral Second husband.”

I was angry, and I wanted to save Ziny
right then, but he was right, I was a weakling, barely able to take
care of myself in the simplest of dangers.

“
Fine, but as soon as I am
ready, I’m going to save Ziny! She was under my care, and I will
not abandon her to those two monsters!”

Toji nodded, “Say the word, and I will
go with you!”

“
And if this is where you
will travel, then I must go there as well,” Myrka noted.

Hydan smiled, “I’ve lived a long time
already, so sure, I’ll show you the way to Mystical Island, but
only once you are ready,” he noted. Then his face brightened,
“Besides, I have some things to say to Morgain; she has become a
real nuisance in her old age!”

An hour later we left the forest and
entered rolling grass-covered hills, with occasional bush and
scrub. The Celadon wound through several canyons, cut over time by
the flow of the water. Eventually, we came out onto a plain, and
ahead, in the distance, we could see a massive city.

We floated along the surface for a
while, watching the approach of Poseidon, capital city of Abal; it
was worth a good look. Light gray towers stood tall against the
dark blue sky, beyond which was a vast ocean. The wide Celadon
River led to the massive gray walls and seemed to go right under
them into the big city.

We soon came to a medium sized lake,
caused by a dam on the far side. There was a massive sluice to the
left, which took any excess rise of the Celadon fed lake off into
the original canyon where the river had once tumbled down to the
sea. This saeran made dam and sluice diverted the majority of the
Celadon river right into the city of Poseidon. That fair looking
city was perched on the white shoreline cliffs. On the far side of
the city, the river water fell in several waterfalls, plunging down
to join the ocean several hundred feet below the city.

Due to the dam ahead, we had to exit
the river from the lake, where there was a massive dock structure
to handle river boats bringing trade items, food or raw materials
downriver to supply the city. There were lots of saerans about,
working the docks. I had wondered if we would find the capital
under siege, but I guess there were enough mages within the walls
to deter that kind of long-term attack, at least so far.

Chapter Ten

Now would I say something
that wasn't true?

I'm asking you
sugar

Would I lie to
you?

-Eurythmics

The dam also worked as a kind of
immigration check, since no one could go through underwater, they
had to exit here, and could, therefore, be processed. We were
escorted to an official looking structure and eventually, brought
into some minor official’s office.

We lied, claiming to be from a village
upriver. I let Hydan do the talking; he knew all the lingo and
location names. He claimed we had come to the city to report on
troop movements by Morgain’s forces, and the loss of several
villages. He used the destroyed Inn as one such piece of
news.

The official checked a record book and
then said, “Yes, we already have a record of that.”

“
Oh,” Hydan said, looking
crestfallen, but then said, “There was also an assault on the
village of Pelen which only took place a few days ago.”

The official scanned his book and then
said, “No, I have no record of that attack.”

“
And, we found a place
where the enemy was building a dam in the Celadon!”

He looked extremely skeptical at
Hydan’s statement.

Hydan shrugged, “I will need to speak
to a commander in the military to go over the details.”

“
You can tell me,” the
saeran proclaimed.

Hydan shook his head, “Though I’m sure
you are very good at your job, I must speak to a military official,
I cannot even tell you why only that I was tasked with this
mission. However, I will tell them what a thorough and well-run
office you have here, it is truly impressive!”

The official pondered for a moment,
and then took out a piece of glossy looking paper and scrawled on
it with what looked like a dorsal spine barb of some fish. He then
handed the paper to Hydan and said, “Fine, I will send you to the
military compound in the city, here is your entry writ, but you
will be under escort to the compound.”

Two bored looking saerans were
assigned to escort us to the city.