The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (35 page)

“
We can’t have you passing
out, that would stop all the fun,” he said smugly, and suddenly my
body was healed.

He lifted the glowing hot spike and
said brightly, “Now, shall we start again? Tell me about the mages
with whom you are traveling.”

He drove the spike back into my lung
again, and it hurt just as badly the second time.

After a few more punctures, I gasped,
“All right, all right, I’ll tell you!”

He healed me again, and I took in a
deep breath, “One of them is Nakama, a Bakemono Fifth, the other is
Loretta Tarvos, a Sixth, and the last one is a Friare Sixth named,
Hakly.”

He nodded, “This makes much more
sense, but tell me why were mages, from three different Houses,
working together with a Sivaeral Third?”

“
I told them we were going
to steal the secret to creating necromages from Morgain, and each
of them wanted the information for their House. I believe they each
planned to kill the others once we had the information, with the
winner taking the secret home to their House.”

Medrod nodded, “Now I believe you! I
will leave you now, to be sent to Mystical Island where you will
meet my wife, whom you shall soon learn is not as fair or cordial
as you have found me to be.

"These three necromages shall
accompany you. They should be sufficient to keep your power in
check if they remain close by. I have also shackled your hands in a
powerful manacle relic, sufficient to keep any Third
bound.

"While my wife deals with your
conversion, I will track down your three mage companions so we may
add them to our army! Once we have them, and all of you are
necromages, you will willingly help me take down your
mother.”

Medrod went to the table and picked up
Caliburn. “Thank you for bringing me this, it saved me the trouble
of hunting down Nimue, though she will be brought into the fold
soon.” He picked up the sword and belted it to his waist, and then
turned back to me and smiled; “Now I, Medrod, wield the most
powerful Actuality blade ever made!” Then he strode out of the
room, which left me with my three necromage guards.

They soon unbound me from the post,
though they kept my hands in the relic manacles. They marched me
down toward the boats. I tried to make the manacles fall apart, but
the relic must have been too strong for me, or perhaps I just
screwed the pooch. I mean, I was pretty angry at this point, I’d
gone to all the trouble of getting the sword and a fat lot of good
it had done me. Worse than that, Medrod now had
Caliburn.

They took me to a ship, a mighty
three-masted galleon, and lashed me to the smaller fore-mast,
facing forward like some ship’s figurehead.

After a few minutes, the sailors
untied the ship from the dock and headed out to sea. I could see
the large island ahead, Mystical Island, lair of the Island Witch,
Morgain, and right where I wanted to go, though not right at this
moment.

Soon we were beyond the breakwater and
out into the swells, riding the four-foot seas with ease. There
were several sailors around working the rigging, and of course, my
three necromage babysitters, who were standing around me and
keeping a sharp, if shriveled and milky white, gaze on me and the
surroundings.

That’s when I saw it, a chicken. It
was up near the bow, walking in the odd strutting way that chickens
do, moving through the ropes and other objects stored in the
fo’c’sle.

What the hell was a chicken doing in
there? In fact, what was a chicken doing on Abal? Wait, this meant
Hydan was here, and this was his message to get ready!

I glanced at my three captors and
said, “Hey, what does it take to get a drink around
here!”

I figured they would turn toward me at
my outburst, just goes to show you should never think. These three
bastards were as cold as, well, dead fish.

This is when I really started
believing my manacles were unlocked.

When I felt one slip down my hand, I
knew it was true, I was loose! And as I believed it, the manacles
fell off completely.

“
Hey, dry dudes, I’m
escaping! I called out, and then dashed around behind the mast,
while snatching out one of the belaying pins which were inserted
into a rail around the base of the mast, and brandished it like a
weapon.

The point wasn’t to beat three
necromages senseless, though that would have been fun and very
satisfying. No, the point was to get their attention on me and
their backs to the bow. My histrionics did just that.

Behind them, I saw Myrka, Toji and
Hydan clamor over the bow, and then they were suddenly all dressed
in saeran armor. Each of them picked a necromage and made their
approach.

I kept dancing around, waving my
belaying pin like a baton at a pep rally, and hooting at them, in
fact, in the spirit of my cheerleader diversion I used an old
Looney Tunes line which popped into my head, “Rick’em Rack’em,
Rick’em Rack’em sis boom bah, Bugs Bunny, Bugs Bunny, rah, rah,
rah!”

This puzzled the necromages so much
they didn’t even see the knives coming, and two of them were
dispatched by Toji and Myrka. Hydan just grabbed his by the collar
and seat of his pants, then pitched him over the railing and into
the ocean.

I smiled grimly at Hydan, Myrka, and
Toji, and then I snarled, “Let’s take this ship!”

This turned out to be fairly easy, we
just charged up the deck toward the stern where short stairs led up
to the poop deck. Two sailors tried to get in our way, but Hydan
turned them into snogfish, and they were soon flopping around on
the deck.

In three bounds I was up onto the
raised poop deck and said, “Captain, if you would like to avoid the
fate of your unhappy sailors below, and remain standing on feet,
you will surrender this vessel to us!”

He gaped at me for a moment, but when
Hydan turned another seaman into a flopping snogfish, the captain
capitulated. The ship was ours. Hydan turned the flopping fish back
into sailors.

“
What course,” the Captain
asked with a dark scowl.

Hydan had picked up a bottle of booze
from somewhere; it had one of those net bottoms on it. He raised it
and said, “Like your pirates from Earth, I say, yo, ho, ho, and a
bottle of scum!”

I let it go, for all I knew it was a
bottle of scum.

Chapter
Fourteen

There walks a lady we all
know.

-Led Zeppelin

Mystical Island was off in the
distance. I could see it had a rocky shoreline, though there were a
few inlets to small sandy beaches. There was also a breakwater off
to the north side, and according to our captain, this was where we
were originally headed.

Hydan and the others had just
explained how they had managed to fight their way through the
necromages and then try to find me. They had come upon signs of my
battle, but after that, they had to retreat. Then they created a
passage back to the forest and left it open, before making a new
passage through to the coast side of the wall, and then resealing
it after they had gone through. They hoped their pursuers would
think they fled back into the forest.

From their hidden position they
eventually saw me being led down to the docks, so they slipped into
the water, attached themselves to the ship and just waited until we
were out at sea to make their move.

My anger was still smoldering; I
really wanted to kill Medrod and his evil wife. They had taken
Ziny, and they would pay. The image of her pleading face as she was
taken away from me haunted my thoughts.

I suddenly asked Toji, “Can you teach
me how to protect myself, and how to use my powers?”

Toji answered, “Certainly, but it is
going to take time."

I nodded and looked back toward the
shore. The problem was that Ziny didn't have time. She wasn't on
this ship, but she was already, or would soon be, with Morgain,
where that bitch would start turning her to a necromage. But we
couldn't just fight our way in, not yet. I needed some practice
with my powers.

Then I had an idea, "You," I said,
pointing to a sailor, "You will take a message to Morgain for me. I
want you to tell her I will be coming soon to rescue Ziny. If the
girl is hurt, in any way, I will have no reason to come. But if
they keep Ziny alive and undamaged, in a short time I will come
with my mage friends, which will give them a chance to recapture
us."

When the sailor could repeat what I'd
said, I had him hit the water and start swimming for Mystical
Island. I figured we would be well away before he
arrived.

Then I had the captain set sail away
from Mystical Island.

I went back over to Toji and said,
"OK, let's get started on my powers."

He nodded and said, "The first thing
you need is a way to stop another mage, which begins with creating
a clear Self Image. This gives your subconscious reality something
to work with.”

“
What do you mean; is this
'Self Image' about how I look?”

Toji tilted his head back and forth as
he replied, “Partly, yes, but I’m not referring to your looks, in
this case, subconscious reality is much more. It also means your
magical protections, your view of reality around your body. You
have to set up your Self Image so your subconscious reality will
work to keep it that way, and stop severe harm.”

“
Oh, and what does that do
for me?”

“
Well, your subconscious
reality will keep things, like arrows and bullets, from reaching
you and changing what you think of as your Self Image. Those
harmful things attempt to change your Self Image, so when they get
close your subconscious reality uses your magic to thwart any
harmful things from reaching you.”

“
Is that like Caliburn?” I
asked.

“
The result is similar, but
subconscious reality requires a mage, not an artifact. When an
attacker strikes you with their weapon, your subconscious reality
can change it into something else automatically. With Caliburn
drawn, an opposing mage’s magically created items could not remain
real, but with subconscious reality your mind can change anything
harmful which comes near you if you have the power. You are limited
by your own level of power. So, for example, if Medrod was your
opponent, as a Third, your subconscious reality might not be able
to maintain your Self Image, where the very powerful artifact,
called Caliburn, is capable of dealing with a Second’s
power.”

“
Damn it, and now Medrod
has Caliburn!”

Toji nodded.

“
Great. So I can’t fight
Medrod?”

Toji shrugged, “There are ways for a
Third to kill a Second, a powerful relic can help, though it will
break down eventually in the presence of a Second’s power, or if he
uses Caliburn. From what you told me, that’s what happened to his
relic, Caliburn eventually overcame its power.”

I digested his words and said, “You’ll
have to tell me more about relics in a moment, perhaps one of those
can help me deal with Medrod, but before you explain relics
further, can you start by teaching me to have these subconscious
reality protections?”

He nodded, “Of course, you just have
to believe in the way you are, and that nothing can change your
Self Image. Once you believe that, your subconscious reality will
take care of you automatically.”

“
Then nothing can harm
me?”

Hydan chose to answer, “No mage is
completely safe. If the mage you are battling believes in the
weapon they are thrusting at you, it becomes a war between their
belief and subconscious reality. Now, they can’t do this easily
with a missile, since it is going away from them, and toward you,
and therefore their power is waning and yours is waxing as it draws
near. However, if they thrust a weapon still in their hand toward
you, well, that’s a chicken of a different color.”

“
Horse,” I noted
absentmindedly, I was still considering what he’d said. “Toji, is
that why you use those tantos?”

He nodded, and added, “And why Myrka
has her poniard, they are both relics.”

I thought about what he’d said, and
then had a question, “So what’s the difference between a relic and
an artifact?”

Hydan replied, “They are similar, yet
they have one fundamental difference. Relics are normal objects
which a mage imbues with their own reality over time, thus
attempting to keep outside forces from affecting the reality of
that object. Artifacts are kind of the opposite; they affect other
things around them, changing them to the reality of the mage
holding the Artifact.”

“
So if your opponent
disarms you in combat, can you just make a new weapon?”

Toji answered, “Well, I would make a
new weapon if I was disarmed, but by having a relic which has been
in my possession a long time, I can imbue it with layers of
reality, making the relic even harder for another mage, even one
more powerful than myself, to undo the reality of the relic. This
is how a lower Tier mage can fight a higher Tier opponent. If they
both started with regular weapons the higher Tier would probably
win.”