The Wizard's Chalice, page 23
part #2 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
Gags moved close enough to hear what they said.
“I’m sorry to cut your personal time short, but it’s time to get back to the headquarters,” one of the three said. “The wizard wants a meeting.”
“You go on ahead,” the woman said. “We won’t be much longer.”
“Suit yourselves. I’ve delivered the message,” one of the three said.
Gags sought out He Bin and pointed to the three guards walking a little faster out of the market. Soxus popped into view an aisle farther ahead. Gags nodded his head in the direction of the trio and they trailed the guards.
“We can jump them and take their uniforms,” He Bin said.
Gags agreed and checked that he had six crossbow bolts in his pocket before squeezing his iron staff. “Be prepared for a magical attack.”
They walked closer to the trio once they left the main square and walked down a narrow street. With no one else in view, Gags reached forward and put one of the guards to sleep. When he fell to the ground, Soxus and He Bin had weapons at the throats of the other two.
“What is the meaning of this?” one of them said.
“We want to know what happened to our friends,” He Bin said, pressing the blade of his Attoan sword on the guard’s throat.
“The army veterans?” the guard’s eyes went from face to face.
Gags realized that he was the only Perian of the three. “Yes, the veterans.”
“They are being held in the palace, special treatment,” the guard said with a sneer.
“Where in the palace?”
“How would we know? We are just the wizard’s sorcerers.”
“Sorcerers? Not magicians?” He Bin asked.
The man shrugged. “Sorcerers, magicians, what’s the difference?”
“Quite a bit, from our perspective.” Gags reached out and put that sorcerer to sleep. The last one watched his fellow sorcerer slide to the ground. “It is better to sleep on the ground than to bleed out on it,” Gags said.
The guard nodded, nervously.
“Where is the meeting with Deliry going to be held?”
“At our headquarters,” the guard said.
“Which is where?” He Bin said, putting his sword on the other side of the man’s neck.
Soxus lifted a side of his lips in almost a snarl as he nodded his head.
“Three streets that way,” the man pointed down the street that they were on.
“And then what?” Gags asked.
“Two streets away from the palace.”
Gags had heard enough and put the last of the three men to sleep.
They dragged the three guards into the nearest alley and put on their uniforms. While not perfect, the uniforms didn’t look that out of place except for Gags’s shorter cuffs on his uniform and trousers.
“They were lying?” Soxus asked.
Gags lifted his eyebrows. “I don’t know. The palace is so large that it isn’t even half occupied. Nestus Deliry could have put Pophius and Lucian almost anywhere, and they wouldn’t be in anyone’s way. We still need to go to the meeting to see if these three were close to telling the truth.”
When they were finished, Soxus noticed the couple in the market walking past the alley opening. Neither of them looked their way.
He Bin chuckled. “Let’s leave them in their underclothes and stash our clothes somewhere else.”
“If they truly are sorcerers, they are lucky to get anything to wear,” Gag’s said.
They dragged the trio out of sight and stacked them almost on top of each other. They kept their weapons, and with their clothes under their arms they entered the narrow street, again and found a gap between two buildings where they left their clothes. He Bin scored a brick with his knife so they could easily find their possessions.
The couple was a block ahead of them and turned away from the palace, just as the sorcerer had described. They stopped to observe the couple give some kind of sign to two of their own. Gags was too far away to see what it was.
“I don’t think we can get in there,” Soxus said. “I don’t have that kind of magic and there will be a lot those that do.”
They watched a few more latecomers do the same thing.
“We won’t be able to get in,” Gags said, sighing.
They watched a carriage stop in front and Nestus Deliry was challenged for the sign before he went in.
Gags shook his head. “Now, I’m sure we can’t if the wizard has to give a sign.”
“Perhaps we could look around the place without going in?” Soxus asked.
The meeting place was in a dilapidated mansion, but it couldn’t hold more than fifty people according to He Bin. If that was headquarters, there couldn’t be an army of sorcerers in Fetishing.
“That information is better than nothing. Let’s change back into our clothes and get to the palace.”
Minutes later, they stood across from the market square.
Gags looked at the palace at the end of the square. “Go back to the inn. I’m going in the palace and poke around for a while.”
Soxus looked at He Bin. “Aren’t you going to protest to go with him?” Soxus said.
“No. Gags knows how to get in and get out better than anyone.”
Gags sighed. “Knowing and doing aren’t the same,” he said. “I’ve failed plenty of times, but if I’m caught, I can demand to be taken to Lord Quilius who knows me.”
“He knows me, too, but stealth is not one of my skills,” Soxus said.
“We can see if the ale is still good in that public house,” He Bin said.
Soxus looked a bit guilty. “If you don’t return by tomorrow morning, I’ll find a way to have an audience with Lord Quilius,” the Gagareen said.
“That gives me a goal. I hope to get them out much sooner.” Gags said.
He pushed his bundled black uniform onto He Bin and gave the iron staff to Soxus before they walked in opposite directions. Gags was back on his own. Luck wasn’t with him when he sought out Miria in Pakingoru on Atto or when he went to the Basheer T & T office to talk to the children. He hoped he had learned a few things, and he’d still need some luck this time to find Pophius and Lucian.
Chapter Thirty
~
G ags tried the direct approach to getting into the palace and succeeded. He stood in the entrance hall and looked around, deciding where to go. He ascended the stairs as if heading to Lord Quilius’s study and then took a corridor leading to servant stairs that would take him to the fifth floor.
If Gags were to sequester any prisoners out of sight in the palace, the fifth floor would be the place. He rose a few inches in the air and proceeded up the stairs. He didn’t pass anyone going up, but he heard voices and steps below him. Magic lights that illuminated the stairway went out after the third floor, so Gags used his night vision and continued up the stairs to the fifth floor.
The fifth floor was immense, and he emerged into a space as empty as the last time Gags visited, but he maintained his air walking as he silently searched from place to place. Interior rooms were dark, but he used his night vision, and when he had gone through half of the floor, he heard voices. He advanced until he could listen to the conversation but remained unobserved.
Three guards discussed spells and what the wizard and top lieutenants were teaching them. They were clearly offensive spells, but nothing they talked about was new. Gags was ready to attack them since they had to be guarding something, presumably Pophius and Lucian, but then more voices were heard.
“Denius, Serian, and Lucan were found put to sleep! The wizard ordered us to join you in case there might be an attempt to rescue the captives,” one of the new guards said. “We brought dinner for us all. Wizard Deliry will interrogate the prisoners tomorrow morning.”
Gags sighed. Three magicians didn’t scare him, but he would have to take special care to take on six. He didn’t trust himself to get six bolts off before he had to defend himself from the kinds of spells the guards talked about. He did have enough time to think of something, but would it be enough?
Gags found a room far from where Pophius and Lucian were being held and lay down on the floor for a nap. He would have to wait for dark to get enough of an advantage. He could attack in the dark with the least amount of risk.
When Gags woke, the sun turned orange, and twilight fell. It was time to return to the west side of the palace. No one challenged him as he reached the corner where he could peek at the guards.
The six men played a game of dice with coins littering the dusty floor. Gags had to exercise patience since it wasn’t quite dark enough, but after a few minutes, Gags couldn’t wait any longer. He rose, walking on air, and walked away from the guarded door before he padded across the corridor, making sure his silhouette wasn’t showing up behind him.
The guards lit dim magic lights, but Gags stood out of the light’s range for a bit. He pulled out four of his bolts. He figured he could take out that many before he would have to rely on using his sword. Gags ensured he had imbued the blade with the spell He Bin had taught him to attract magic. For Gags, purely magic shields consumed too much of his power.
He sheathed the sword as his plan solidified. As he switched two bolts to his other hand, one inadvertently dropped on the floor. Gags quickly glided into a nearby alcove, converting his sight into night vision.
“Who’s there?” one of the guards said as the game's sounds went silent.
Gags didn’t answer and stayed still. The guards didn’t have the vision to see the crossbow bolt on the floor, but two rose from the dice game. So much for the element of surprise, Gags thought.
The guards slowly advanced, and the other four guards stood, two with swords and the others stretched their hands out, ready to throw some magic into the gloom.
Gags stretched his own hands out and began to gather the dust on the floors into an inverted volcano and shaped it into the form of a human, with a head, shoulders, and a tapered body. He moved it toward the guards and picked up more dust, making the form more substantial. Keeping up his concentration, he moved to the corridor and bent down to pick up the crossbow bolt keeping the swirling simulacrum between him and the guards.
When the men could see the form in the gloom, instead of eruptions like Gags always did, he pulled out tendrils from the spinning dust and made them into outstretched arms.
With his night vision, Gags could see through the figure. A spear of flame punctured the form and continued through the illusion, singing Gag’s arm. He quickly learned that standing directly behind the dust man wasn’t any kind of protection. He slid to the wall and continued to control the advancing apparition.
A few of the men backed up. He could see the fear in their faces with his night sight. Gags was tempted to make a ghost voice, but he didn’t know if it would be believed. The last thing he needed was for the men to laugh at his attempt and break the emotional spell that the specter’s presence was making.
Suddenly fire and lightning were thrown at the figure by all six. The swordsmen’s magic attacks weren’t as strong, and as the men finally advanced, Gags could tell all were losing their strength. If he wasn’t careful, he would, too, so it was time to act.
The apparition moved quickly and enveloped the men. The dust coated their black clothes and all but obliterated the dimming magic lights, but Gags couldn’t handle the figure and throw crossbow bolts, so he let the dust fall.
He knew where the men were and began to throw the bolts, making them count. Before a minute elapsed, four of the six were down, and the other two stood shoulder to shoulder, holding swords. The weaker ones were left. Gags breathed a sigh of relief, but the battle wasn’t over, and Pophius and Lucian weren’t yet freed.
Gags took a deep breath and closed with the men, lit by dusty magic lights as the sword fight began. Gags kept his back to the wall as he advanced on the men. Two crossbow bolts were left, including the one that fell to the floor.
“You are just a man, after all,” one of the guards said.
“As are you,” Gags said as deeply as he could, but he never had a particularly menacing voice. Soxus and Pophius would have been much better. He lunged at one of the men and was rewarded with a sliced knuckle. Gags immediately recognized his mistake. He switched sword hands to get at the remaining bolts and could barely deflect an onslaught from the pair of guards.
“Got it!” Gags said loudly enough that it made the two guards pause. Gags didn’t waste the opportunity and transported a bolt into one of the guards. The last guard threw down his sword and ran. Gags shot the last bolt, and the fleeing man dropped in the dark corridor, which wasn’t dark at all to Gags.
Gags pounded on the door but didn’t hear anything. He had to light a magic light to look at the lock in more detail. Gags grunted. He had no idea how the lock worked. He turned around and patted down the dead guards until he found a heavy key and inserted it into the lock.
After throwing open the door, Gags spotted the pair slumped together on a bed of straw in a corner. Nothing else was in the room. Gags dragged them out and used a spell Miria taught him to revive people put to sleep. He didn’t know if it would work, and it didn’t.
He spotted the three guards' remaining food and finished it. The apparition had used a lot of energy, and he had to recover as much magical power as possible. Gags decided to drag the guards and their belongings into the prison room and lock the door after he tore enough cloth off a tunic to wrap around his cut finger.
Pophius groaned, and soon Lucian was waking, too. He helped them move closer to the west stairway before standing at the end of the corridor. He smiled as he raised his hands, made a small tornado from the dust, and stopped. The dust spread. There were no tracks, no blood, just an old corridor still littered with a few bags, coins, and dice. Gags wasn’t about to cover all his tracks, but that would be enough to confuse whoever came to relieve the guards. It might even be Nestus Deliry himself if the guards were to be believed.
“Someone in the market recognized us. There must be black uniformed sorcerers infesting Fetishing. I barely saw one before I was put to sleep,” Lucian said.
Pophius nodded. “We didn’t expect sorcerers. Where is here?”
“On the fifth floor of the Fetishing palace. No one ever goes up to this level.” Gags said. “There are six ex-guards behind one of those doors.” Gags pointed up the corridor.
“You took on six?” Lucian said. “Where is He Bin?”
“And Pepper,” Pophius said.
“I left He Bin with a friend,” Gags said. “Pepper is elsewhere. My strategy wouldn’t have worked with He Bin and Soxus.”
“Air walking?” Lucian said with a grin.
Gags nodded. “A little night sight and I put my volcano spell to good use. I discovered a new twist, but let’s get out of here. Deliry might show up at any moment.”
“Deliry, as in Nestus Deliry, the war council member?” Pophius said.
“He caught Wizard’s disease in Fetishing,” Gags said.
Lucian laughed, but Pophius remained serious. “The sorcerers are his?”
Gags nodded. “He learned the wrong things on the council, I’m afraid,” Gags said. “I had a personal conversation with him that didn’t last very long before we both decided we didn’t like each other.” Gags pointed down the stairs. “Time’s wasting.”
They descended the stairs using Lucian’s magic to create the light. Pophius mentioned he was a little stiff from the inactivity, prompting the two escapees to stretch as they continued.
“If we get in a fight, I’ll give you my sword,” Gags said. “It has He Bin’s magic attracting spell to act as a shield.”
“Let’s hope I don’t need to use it,” Pophius said.
Gags spotted a door on the third level that looked like a servant’s passage. “We will take this.” Gags opened the door and stopped.
“It’s a closet,” Lucian said, shaking from laughter, but kept his index finger to his lips to stay silent. Even Pophius cracked a smile, but another identical door was farther along the corridor that led to stairs.
The rest of their exit was anti-climactic. Gags made a few turns in the lower level and recognized the servants' quarters where he had stayed with Soxus and made his way through the kitchen, and all three walked out the kitchen door as if they lived in the palace and joined other servants who were leaving the palace for the night. The servants' exit wasn’t illuminated, so with Gags hunching down, they weren’t even questioned.
After using side streets, they returned to He Bin’s inn and woke He Bin and Soxus.
“You did it!” He Bin said.
Gags has learned a couple of new tricks since we’ve been gone, He Bin,” Lucian said. “He made a dust man that scared the sorcerers enough that he was able to take care of them.”
“Not without a couple of dings,” Gags said. He hadn’t mentioned the burn on his arm that he didn’t show them.
“Is it safe to go downstairs?” Lucian asked.
He Bin shrugged. “We haven’t been bothered. The common room isn’t the best, but it will serve. Will the sorcerers be coming after us?”
“We had a brief encounter with Nestus Deliry, so he knows we are here. There is a little town not far from Fetishing on the way to Go-Greva. Why don’t we head for there tonight?” Soxus said.
“And you are?” Lucian asked.
Gags introduced everyone to Soxus and said he was Honian Garish’s chief guard.
“Good,” Pophius said. “I agree with Gags. I don’t want to spend any more time in this place.”
Gags brightened. “Then I can tell you my story on the way. Perhaps we can take some food with us?”
“That is justification for staying a few minutes longer,” Pophius said.
Everyone packed their bags while Gags arranged some food to take and paid for the room. In half an hour, they rode out the south gate and took the road that circled the city walls, and they were soon heading west toward Go-Greva.
They stopped at a thicket not far from Fetishing and sat to eat. Gags was ravenous as always since he had used a great deal of his magic, and although he had eaten some of the guard’s food, even Soxus noticed he had lost weight. When the food was finished, they headed back onto the road and arrived in Peachton.
