The Archmage Unbound (41 page)

“How close?” she said.

“I’m not sure, in physical contact at
least,” I told her.

She stepped into me and wrapped her arms
around my waist, “Is this sufficient?”

I had been thinking that holding hands
would suffice, but I wasn’t going to tell her otherwise now. I put my own arms
around her and tried to concentrate. It took longer than I had expected. Rose
smelled very nice.

Pushing those thoughts aside I listened
carefully to the stone beneath us. It was a complicated mixture of
cobblestones laid over gravel and sand. Beneath that was layer of clay and
then more stone, this time natural stone. I struggled to integrate it all into
my ‘self’, while at the same time maintaining Rose as a separate physical
entity. I didn’t want to think about what might occur if I accidentally
blurred the boundaries between us.

After a moment I began to sink into
myself, or rather into what I would previously have called the ground. Rose
wasn’t moving however and I had to make a conscious effort to allow her to pass
through me. If it sounds confusing that’s because it was. It was hard enough
to visualize and language isn’t really made for describing the mixing of
perspectives between animate and inanimate.

Eventually we both emerged from the
ceiling of the store room deep below. The ceilings down there were low so we
managed to reach the floor without much of a drop. I took a moment to
disconnect myself from the stone and earth above us and return my consciousness
to normal. Once I had regained my proper perspective again I realized I was
still holding Rose.

Holding her close like that felt good,
and for a second I didn’t want to release her. I hated myself for that thought
immediately. I took my arms away, “It’s safe to let go now.”

“I wasn’t sure,” she said. “That was
the strangest experience of my life. It felt as though the stone and earth
itself were
flowing
around us.” She was staring upward at the ceiling
in wonder. “I can’t imagine what the world must be like for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have the power to change the world
around you, to suit your whims. If I had such power I’m not certain I would
use it wisely.”

I’m not sure I will either,
I thought to myself. “I never had a choice in the matter. I’m
just doing the best I can to use it for the greater good.” That was a
presumptuous line, but I didn’t know how else to phrase it.

“You will succeed Mordecai. You’re a
good man,” she patted me on the cheek as she said it.

“Not as good a man as Dorian was,” I
said thinking of my lost friend.

“True,” she agreed with a sad note in
her voice. “He was the truest, most honest, and chivalrous man I ever met.
Not just in his word and deed, but right down to his very bones. You are not
as ‘good’ as he was.”

Her explanation was a bit excessive, but
it was accurate in every particular.

“But still, I think you are the best one
to bear the burden of that power,” she added. “The choices and
responsibilities that your power will thrust upon you would undo someone as
pure as he was. Your power and goals will require compassion, adaptability,
and cunning.”

I didn’t really want to engage in
excessive philosophic discourse in a moldy storeroom, though her words did
strike a chord in me. “Let’s go find Marc before we talk the day away.”

“What if we’re seen? We don’t exactly
blend in,” Rose pointed out, gesturing to her red dress. It was of a practical
cut, but the color and the woman wearing it would draw attention no matter
where you put them.

“There’s no one in the halls. Those
that are moving around are up above. I think I can get us to his room without
encountering anyone from where we are now,” I explained. It was very useful
being able to explore the layout without venturing there, and even more useful
knowing where all the inhabitants were.

I opened the door and led her into the
corridor. It was a short walk and a few turns before I led her into the
hallway that served the cells where Marc was currently ‘engaged’. We reached
his doorway without being seen. The noises coming faintly through the door
made it plain that we had reached the right room.

“Now what?” said Rose.

“Shibal,”
I said sternly in the direction of the door. The sounds inside
changed, as one of the partners abruptly stopped vocalizing. Marc of course
was wearing the necklace I had given him. The door had no lock, but was barred
from within; another word and I removed the bar. Rose and I stepped inside
quickly and closed the door behind us.

“Son of a bitch!” Marc exclaimed
coarsely. “You bastard, you scared me half to death.”

“I can see that,” I said smugly,
glancing down at the woman who had collapsed beside him.

“Boys… behave,” Rose admonished us. She
leaned over to pull the blanket up over the woman’s naked form. I was oddly
disappointed, but no one else needed to know that. Rose looked at Marc, “And
you… cover that thing up, no one wants to see that.”

I stuck my tongue out at him from behind
her, while he responded with wounded dignity, “I’ll have you know that a number
of ladies have expressed quite the opposite opinion.” He drew the other side
of the blanket up to cover himself as well. “I’m assuming you have a good
reason for barging into a young priest’s room without so much as knocking.”

As usual I found myself smiling at his
banter, until I remembered the news I had to give him. “I do. I can’t spend
too much time in the city and I didn’t know how long it would be before you
returned to the house.”

“You must have important news then. Is
it safe to talk here? How long will she be out?” he patted the woman next to
him gently on the rump.

“An hour or more, but my news can wait.
It will take longer than that to discuss,” I replied.

Marc answered quickly, “If you like I
can come and meet you at the house, say around noon?”

It was closing in on somewhere past nine
already at my best guess. “You can leave without ruining your disguise?”

“Certainly, I do so all the time. This
cell is just a courtesy for a visiting brother,” he said gesturing with his
hand to include the room, as if he were in grand surroundings.

“Why exactly did you need to stay here?”
I said suspiciously.

He grinned, “It helps further the
disguise. I’ve learned innumerable things while sharing meals and accommodations
with the Iron Brothers.”

“And?”

He smirked, “and your house is rather
unfriendly to strangers that you haven’t personally vouched for, like sweet
Marissa here.”

Rose spoke up, “Can we save the chatter
for later gentlemen?” I got the impression the setting made her uneasy.

“Noon then,” I said looking at Marc. He
nodded in acknowledgment and drew Marissa closer as if to snuggle as we started
through the door.

Rose stopped in shock, “Have you no
shame? The girl’s still unconscious!”

Marc was unabashed, “That’s disgusting.
You should wash your head out for having such dirty thoughts; I was planning to
wake her up first.” Then he tilted his head as if thinking, “Though your idea
does have some merit, sick as it is.”

I ushered Rose out the door before she
could kill him, trying not to laugh as I did. “That man is unbelievable!” she
said as we moved quickly down the corridor.

“Shhh,” I told her, “Let’s wait till we
get somewhere else to talk about it.”

To her credit she did hold her tongue
till we got back to the old storeroom. “Your friend is a cad,” she said
simply.

“As you so recently told me, I’m not
exactly a saint myself,” I replied.

She looked at me with a worried frown,
“Do you think he really woke her up?”

That did start me to laughing.
She
really is worried he might ravish the poor girl in her sleep,
I thought to
myself. “Do you want me to check?” I answered. “Really?” I had been
deliberately keeping my mind from observing Marc’s room up until that point.

Rose was torn, “No.” She chewed her lip
for a moment before speaking again, “Yes, but don’t be a voyeur about it.”

“Alright, let me focus for a moment,” I
said more dramatically than necessary. Stepping back I closed my eyes, though
at such close range it really wasn’t necessary. After a few seconds I made an
expression of interest. “Oh, now that’s original,” I said aloud.

“Stop looking!” Rose admonished me.
“Did he wake her up or not?”

“I don’t think she’s fully awake yet,
but she will be before long I’m quite certain,” I said with authority. “Now
let’s head back…”

Rose glared at me suspiciously, “
How
is
he waking her up?”

I looked upward, not wanting to meet her
eyes. “Well he’s kissing her… sort of.”

Rose blushed until her skin tone matched
her name, “That’s enough, let’s go.”

I laughed so hard it was several minutes
before I was able to concentrate. Somewhere in the middle of it Rose joined
me.

Marc arrived a half an hour before noon,
just before we had finished preparing for lunch. We had bought some food on
the way back, and Rose had tested her cooking skills warming it up while we
waited.

Unfortunately her skills had not extended
much beyond setting the table. Although we had bought nothing more complicated
than fresh sausages and bread she had managed to burn the sausages while
heating them in a pan. Thankfully she hadn’t tried to warm up the bread.

The experience had her more flustered and
upset than I had ever seen her, since she was normally the epitome of grace and
reserve. It had never occurred to me that her sheltered upbringing might have
left her short on a few skills that most people from my own social background
took for granted.

Although cooking was generally
considered a woman’s art, most of the men in Washbrook knew the basics, and
quite a few went well beyond that. Joe McDaniel was an excellent cook I happened
to know from experience. My father had also been a fair hand with a skillet.
I made sure to mention none of this to Rose as I helped to fix the mess.

Marc wandered into the kitchen as I was
helping to cut the burned part off the sausages so I could reheat them. While
they had burned in places most of them were still partly raw as well. As a
result Marc had no idea that it was Rose that had burned the food. Obviously
he never would have expected Rose to have tried her hand at cooking.

“What is that smell?” he observed upon
entering.

I glanced at Rose before answering, “I
got distracted and left the sausages on too long. They burned before I caught
my mistake.”

He grinned, “And here you always bragged
at being such a fine cook. You should have brought Penny with you. Now
there’s a girl that knows what she’s doing behind a stove.”

Rose made her way past him, visibly
agitated, “I’ll be outside. I need some air. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Marc asked
after she had left.

“Aside from the fact that she was the
one that burned the sausages, not much, idiot,” I told him.

He winced, “Ouch, I’ll have to apologize
when she returns.”

“You know better than that, I already
said it was me that burned them,” I replied.

He looked me over carefully, “Both of
you seem awfully high strung today. What news do you have?”

I turned the sausage over in the pan to
avoid repeating Rose’s mistake. I was grateful for something to do to disguise
my reaction to his question. “Let’s save my news for after yours. I’m curious
as to what you found out,” I said over my shoulder.

He paused at that and I could almost
hear him thinking. He had known me for long enough to know when I was stalling
for time. Finally he decided to ignore it and play along. “I’ve learned all
sorts of interesting things this past week,” he began.

“Are you sure? It seemed to me that you
were more focused on learning the ins and outs of a certain Doronic priestess,”
I observed.

He put a finger to his lips as if in
thought, “Doronic, I like that. It definitely has a certain ring to it. However
you are still wrong, Marissa isn’t a member of the Doronite clergy.”

“She certainly seemed to have the proper
calling,” I said. I was pretty proud of that one.

Marc laughed, “Actually I agree with you
on that. She’s definitely grown on me. However the key point is that the Iron
God doesn’t accept women among his exalted clergymen. There is also the small
matter of her being a devotee of Celior instead.”

I turned and stared at him, “Wait, let
me get this straight. You are impersonating one of the Iron Brothers in order
to seek access to the Karenthian archives, while at the same time you are
bedding a priestess of Celior. Do I have all that in order or should I be
confused about a few more things as well?”