The Wizard's Chalice, page 25
part #2 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
“I will have my iron staff. Honian can take my sword,” Gags said, removing his sword belt. He touched the hilt of the sword and infused the sword with a magic attraction spell. “It might be more comfortable if you wrap your hand. Fire and lightning bolts will be attracted to the blade, and sometimes your hand gets it.”
He Bin tossed a glove to Honian. “If that fits, you are good to go.”
“When shall we attack? I have a niece to save,” Honian said as he drew on the glove.
“No better time than right now,” Pophius stood. “Let’s get this fire doused and be on our way.”
“This is like a little army,” Honian said.
Gags was assigned to use his magic to kill the fire. He took a deep breath. It was six to sixteen, but those were familiar odds to Gags, as long as he filled up before they left their camp. The horses would be retrieved later.
All of them walked in silence. Gags lifted the bar and pushed the small man-door open. They entered the little fort, and Gag flipped the bar to the locked position. It wouldn’t do to let the sorcerers out.
~
Gags stood with the others, looking at the fort in the starlight. It took him back to Atto when they had an entire squad. Miria, Selcius, and Barian were replaced by He Bin, Honian, and Soxus. They faced now, as they did then, sorcerers. Gags considered them evil people with minds twisted by wizards who fed them lies about how important they were. Sorcerers were as expendable as magicians in the infantry. Deliry had succumbed to the same siren song of power that the wizards in Atto did.
In his naivete, Gags had first thought the wizard eruption in Atto was unique, but Pophius had told him that it happened from time to time everywhere in the world. Wizards were as bad as any evil king or lord. The difference was that wizards were generally neither, so they usurped traditional authority, and their dark side came out when they did.
Nestus Deliry’s dark side had emerged when he was on the magicians war council. Pophius hadn’t heard of a council member flipping, but there was always a first time, and there probably wouldn’t be a last. Gags gripped his staff tightly and felt for the crossbow bolts he bought in the general store in Peachton, where he purchased the maps. They were of inferior quality, but Gags could overcome that with his magic.
Pophius nodded to Gags, and the two groups hugged the palisade walls as they approached the tents. War was war, and this would likely end up as an extermination. He reminded himself that these people sent children and Pepper and Patricia down a hole and beat Mexius to death.
Someone from their group stumbled in the darkness. Gags could hear it across the little fort, and the two guards jumped up and called an alarm. They were too far away for an accurate shot, but the other three had drawn the attention away.
“Show no quarter,” Gags said.
“We know what to do,” Honian said.
Gags led them around the box wagon as they threaded their way between the two supply wagons before Gags ran along one of the tents, cutting it open with a knife. The fight was on.
Across the fort, but in range, Gags began to cut down the sorcerers, sleeping in their black uniforms. Guards came out of their tents on their side, and Soxus and Honian began to fight them. The darkness was their biggest ally against Deliry’s sorcerers.
The fight accelerated when the magicians and sorcerers began to use their magic after the shock of the attack wore off. Fire and lightning lit up the fort, and before too many exchanges, the palisade caught fire.
A spear of fire headed for Gags until it dropped down and washed the bottom of his staff, as intended. Gags rushed to attack and used the pointed end of his staff to end the threat. The conflict was ebbing, and then everything was happening in two pockets. Guards against Gags’ army. Honian was as effective as anyone until a lightning bolt shot toward him. Soxus rushed to get in front of Honian, but the merchant dropped his sword to shove Soxus aside and took the lightning bolt directly into his chest, falling to the ground.
Soxus cried out, but Gags couldn’t lament the loss as he guided one of his remaining crossbow bolts into the sorcerer, who fell backward and didn’t move.
“Pick up his sword,” Gags said to Soxus, who knelt over Honian’s body.
“He’s dead!”
“He saved your life. Don’t let it be in vain,” Gags said, echoing words he had heard repeatedly on Atto.
Soxus stood with the sword and began to cut down the remaining sorcerers. Lightning bolts and streams of fire lit the blade up as it rose and fell until the fighting was over.
Gags checked Honian, but the merchant had made his last trade, and it was with Mexius. They had both succumbed to their greed. Ten children were down below as a result of Honian’s greed. Gags knew it wasn’t a kind thought, but he knew it was accurate.
“Check the dead,” Pophius said.
Gags saw He Bin limping from body to body. Lucian held one arm to his side. Soxus was untouched, and Gags didn’t know what damage he had sustained, but it had to be minor.
The fight was mostly over. Pepper, Patricia, and the children had to be pulled up from the treasure rooms, and then Patricia and Soxus could grieve together.
“He fought like a Gagareen,” Gags said to Soxus.
“Of course, he did,” Soxus said with bitterness in his voice.
Chapter Thirty-Three
~
Pepper
~
“W
hat do we do now?” Pepper asked Patricia.
“We need water, first,” she said, staring at the note from Gags.
Pepper sent a message up for more water. He was glad the sorcerers were dead, but he hadn’t expected Honian to perish. Patricia took the news smoothly, but he knew Patricia well enough that she was holding in her grief.
The water was sent down, and Pepper and Patricia struggled to get through the hole in the ceiling. Now that Pepper, Patricia, and the children had collected all that could go through that hole in the ceiling, they might as well bring everything up.
Children went up first, and then Patricia and Pepper sent all the artifacts up. Patricia had been holding back the tears. They embraced, and the tears came flooding out.
“He is my uncle, but he’s treated me like his daughter. How can I bear his loss?” She broke down for a few minutes but composed herself. “I’ll do more of this on the surface, and I will expect to use your shoulder for some time,”
Patricia reinforced the magic lights and left Pepper alone.
He walked around the treasure rooms to see if he missed something until he noticed that on the chest that carried most of the chalices, there were decorative knobs. They had to be unique in his experience, so he pulled his little knife out, removed all the knobs, and spread them around in his pockets. He would very likely never return to the treasure rooms.
He hoped that Lord Quilius would someday find a way to get to the rooms and remove the huge statues or make a more accessible way down. He tugged on the rope and saluted the subterranean chambers as he looked up and made his way through the hole and back up to the surface. This had to be his biggest theft ever!
~
Patricia was waiting for Pepper. When Pepper clambered to a standing position, he took a deep breath and coughed.
“What happened to fresh forest air?” he said as Patricia hugged him.
“The fight set the palisade on fire,” Gags said. “I’ve just finished putting it out, so it’s still smokey.
Pepper looked around at the darkness, but he could see the tinges of dawn in the eastern sky. “I forgive you,” he said.
Thanks,” Gags said.
“Where is Honian?” Pepper asked Patricia.
“Soxus is dressing him before I preserve the body. He will be buried in the dry lands,” she said.
“As he should,” Pepper said.
Patricia locked arms with him as they walked through the fort. The bodies had been stacked outside with the rest. Gags was going to use his magic to bury them. Lucien and He Bin went through all the personal effects, looking for clues to Deliry’s turn to evil wizardry.
Soxus was in the box wagon and stood up as they entered. “He is ready,” Soxus said, bowing to Patricia. “I have lost my patron.” His voice was broken.
Patricia stood over Honian and spread her arms, saying a spell. Her body shrunk a bit before his eyes. She wavered a bit, but Pepper caught her.
“It takes most of my magic,” Patricia said.
“We have plenty of food. I will prepare something for you.” Soxus turned in the small space and left them.
“Gags said he fought heroically,” Pepper said.
“Fought saving me.”
“Which he did. It was a team effort,” Pepper said.
Patricia nodded. “Soxus told me he had never seen such an elite unit of fighters.”
“According to Gags, they had lots of practice. I’ve only seen Gags fight, though.”
“Hold me while I look at my uncle,” Patricia said to Pepper.
Pepper looked down at Honian. Whatever spell Patricia used made Honian look like he was carved out of stone.
“It is an embalming spell,” Patricia said as if she had read his thoughts. “Part of the magician’s basic power is used in the spell to preserve the body. That way, the body can be buried without a casket in the dry lands or burned if they were warriors. In the old days, that was what they did. We have cemeteries like everywhere else, now,” she sighed. She broke down again and hugged Pepper tightly. “What am I to do? He has ruined everything,” she said.
“What has he ruined?” Pepper asked.
“You. Me. I was hoping I could join you at Yearsend, and we could be happy together.”
Pepper was a bit confused. “And now?”
She sighed. “And now?” She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I am the chief of Basheer Trading and Transportation. I am committed by solemn ceremony to inherit the business.”
“And we have to be apart?” Pepper said.
“For now,” Patricia said. “I must take Uncle Honian home, get him buried, reestablish the business and make sure everyone knows there is a successor. It is how we do things in the dry lands. I cannot shirk the duty, or I will dishonor my uncle’s memory.”
“Oh,” Pepper said. He understood honor as well as anyone and had learned more about it during his time with Gags. “Perhaps we can do business together? Gags & Pepper Protection Agents and Basheer Trading and Transport can work out things on a cooperative basis. I can be the representative of my company. We can see each other again if there is a business reason, can’t we?”
Patricia brightened. “We can.” She took his hands in hers. “We have time together if you join us at least to Artport. I’m not for another long voyage from Sheerport to Caless; moisture isn’t good for an embalmed body. My uncle would be furious,” she said, managing a smile.
“I think I can make that happen.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
~
Gags
~
“W
hat now?” He Bin asked, looking at the bags of loot Pepper had brought up from the bowels of Go-Greva.
Gags shook his head. “I don’t know. It isn’t ours, even though I can see you adding figures in your head, He Bin.”
“It isn’t ours, and the artifacts aren’t Nestus Deliry’s either,” Pophius said. “By rights, they belong to Quilius, Lord of Fetishing, and a certain amount to the lord’s king.”
“We will return this to Fetishing? Do we have enough people to defend it?” Pepper asked. “He Bin is injured.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” He Bin said. “I suggest we stash it in the box wagon with Honian’s body on top.” He looked at Patricia. “You said he was preserved, right?”
Patricia gave the box wagon a worried look. “He would want a reward for doing so.”
“Then take a reward,” Gags said. “I think we all should take a souvenir. I will take impressions from all the chalices because I’m worried they will all end up in Deliry’s hands. Lord Quilius is afraid of the wizard.”
“Then let’s get the souvenirs divided up between us,” Pophius said, “while we get the box wagon fixed up.”
The bags were transferred to wooden boxes that were used for supplies. Gags took a chalice. A picture of a man with lightning bolts around his head adorned the chalice along with all the writing.
“He looks like a wizard,” Patricia said.
Gags nodded. “I’ll call this the Wizard’s Chalice, then.” He then went to work using paper wrapping to transfer the engraved writing and images on all the chalices and slipped them into his saddlebag along with the rubbing he made in Lord Quilius’s office.
No one else was interested in the chalices because they were brass. Pepper and Patricia took three other small figurines like the one likely sitting on Quilius’s desk.
Soxus grabbed the last one. “I’ll take that. I will call it a desert lion.”
Pophius, He Bin, and Lucian took small gold pieces that would easily fit at the bottom of a pack or saddlebag. Gags took another small piece for Portia as a reminder of her husband.
“What about us?” the largest boy said.
Gags looked into the dirty faces surrounding him. “Can you travel on your own?”
The boy laughed. “We were urchins in Basheer. We knew how to survive until the lord rounded us up.”
Gags sorted through the loot. “Pepper, are these jewels genuine?”
“They are,” Pepper said. “They can have my gold knobs as souvenirs, too.
“Remove the jewels from that piece and give one to each of the children,” Gags said as he searched his saddlebags, extracting the purse that contained the coins from the guards. “You can hide your baubles anywhere, but this purse should be enough to get you to my headquarters in Yearsend. Can you read a map?”
The boy pursed his lips. “Sort of.”
“I can,” one of the girls said.
Gags pulled out the map they didn’t need and marked where the manor was, giving each of them one of his cards. “It is off this road. Find your way there. You’ll be safer on your own than with us. There will be more coins when you arrive.”
The boy instructed the children to grab some food, and they headed out the man door and into the forest after most of the children took knives from the pile of weapons taken off the dead guards.
“Don’t worry about us. We’ll stay away from the cities and towns.” The children left. Gags felt guilty sending them on their way, but Gags was heading back into trouble. He felt guilty enough about having Patricia with them.
Pophius stood next to Gags as the children exited to the west, toward Yearsend, and eventually to Artport.
“Are you satisfied by what you pulled from the booty?”
“The value of my choices is in the rubbings,” Gags said, “but I feel better about leaving those children to fend for themselves. I’m certain we are heading toward more danger. Let’s get everything loaded and on the road. We can take side roads most of the way.”
They spent less than an hour burying the bodies. Mexius got his own grave apart and marked, unlike the others. The fort was closed. Gags didn’t know where the keys were, so he lightly secured the two gates and the man-door with magic, and they set off with two wagons, one with Honian inside with the loot and the other carrying the food and the personal effects of those slain in the two battles. Gags took Mexius’s bags after stuffing his personal effects inside for delivery to Portia Dapple.
Leaving the fort wasn’t a reason for celebration, but Gags was happy to put his experiences with Mexius and Nestus Deliry behind him. Soxus spent his time with He Bin and Lucian, surprising Gags, but Patricia and Pepper riding closely together wasn’t.
Pophius gathered everyone together when they reached the turnoff to one of the alternate tracks.
“We must be vigilant at all times,” Pophius said. “The wizard will send his sorcerers to the fort once he finds that the Go-Greva site has been abandoned. Patricia and Pepper can ride together but will move to Gags’ side. We will operate as a military unit, and Gags can direct you.”
Patricia nodded, Pepper smirked, and Gags sighed. With that warning, they headed off the main road, such as it was, and headed north. Pophius led and had Gags’ map.
“He’s your employee,” Pepper said to Gags as they brought up the rear. “Why are you listening to him?”
“You know I trust Pophius with my life, and he is a better commander than I will ever be. Any of us can function on our own, he trained us to do that, but if we are headed into a fight, I’m more than willing to follow Pophius,” Gags said.
“He’s right,” Patricia said. “Soxus said Pophius is a great leader with the right presence.”
“He has presence,” Pepper said grudgingly. “Okay, what do you want me to do?”
“Follow my orders,” Gags said, “and I will follow Pophius’s orders. If we are fighting sorcerers, which is most likely, protect Patricia since she will stand a better chance against another magician than you. Hand me your sword.”
Gags spelled the sword to attract magic.
“The sword will attract fire and lightning bolts. Wear your gloves when the fight starts since your hands are exposed.”
Patricia didn’t have a sword and hadn’t picked one up at the fort. “I don’t fight with edged weapons,” she said. “It’s not that I can’t, but I’m more effective without a weapon in my hand.”
“That’s fine,” Gags said. “Let’s hope we don’t get pressed.”
They stopped to eat cold food and slept in the open, continuing northeast when they reached the crossroads of the main road heading south toward Fetishing.
Pophius stopped at a roadside stand, where they ate cooked food.
“Is there a place we can camp not too far from Fetishing? We have a delivery scheduled for tomorrow morning.” Pophius pulled out the map and showed it to the person who ran the stand.
He looked at them. “Who are you?”
