Spirit Blade: Book III of the Dragon Mage Trilogy (31 page)

Ironfaust turned on him. “What do you mean?”

Hyrock pointed to the stables at the base of the mountain. “All of the horses we had have been taken for the war. Any late soldiers have been sent to help the army on foot.”

Ironfaust turned and cursed for a good thirty seconds. “I just don’t believe this!” he wailed. He held his hands up to the sky. “Why me?”

“No point complaining,” grumbled one of Ironfaust’s entourage. He was also dressed in personal guard attire. “You wanted to attack the ogres right away anyway. We’d better get going if we want to make sure the army is doing what they should be.”

Ironfaust finally calmed down. He stomped his foot in frustration. “You’re right. Standing here accomplishes nothing.” He turned to Hyrock. “We’ll talk about this later. There are going to be some changes to the way we do things around here. Hold firm until we return.”

Hyrock nodded and saluted. “That is my intention, Sir!”

Ironfaust and his group hoisted their flag and headed for the exit, joined by a small group of soldiers who had just appeared at the cave entrance.

As he left the fortified area, Hyrock spoke to his lieutenant without looking at him. “If that’s the real Ironfaust, I’m glad he has to walk. It’ll be good for him to get some exercise.”

Sid chuckled.

*      *      *      *      *

The commander lowered his looking glass. It was a similar unit to the ones the minotaur fleet used aboard their ships. “Yes,” he said slowly. “The dwarves haven’t got a very substantial force protecting their entrance.”

Another minotaur, a lieutenant, grinned. “They underestimate us. Pity. I was looking for more of a fight.”

“I’d say there’s something more to this picture,” said another lieutenant. He was the shortest of the three. He lowered his own looking glass and pointed to the southwest. “Something is happening over there.”

The commander examined the area with his looking glass. “Yes,” he said at last. “There is black smoke on the horizon. Something is afoot.”

Minotaurs milled about as they prepared to move out. One of them stepped closer to the commander and looked across the way to view the valley below. His horns were much larger than any of theirs and the commander wondered why he had never seen this particular minotaur before. He himself was a few inches shorter than the newcomer. To see someone taller than he was rare.

“I wonder what’s causing the smoke,” said the first lieutenant.

“It’s probably the ogres fighting with the humans again,” said Zylor. “They’re always fighting from what I’ve heard, lucky bastards.”

The commander and lieutenants turned to the newcomer. He was not asked the question and it wasn’t his place to answer, but his sheer size and his large horns were intimidating enough to prevent a rebuke by any of them.

“The ogres are at war with the humans,” said the commander at last. “It is their territory we will be invading in order to reach the dwarves.”

“So what?” retorted the first lieutenant. “If they object, I welcome their wrath!”

“Yes,” agreed the short lieutenant. “If the dwarven mountains are so poorly guarded, it will be a bonus to wipe out the ogres in the process. The land will be ours for the taking!”

“There is a small group leaving the dwarven mountain,” said the commander, peering intently through his looking glass again. “It appears to be a royal party, judging by the flag.”

“Strange,” said the first lieutenant. “Do they not see us? We could go down there right now and finish them off with little difficulty.”

“I don’t think they’re worried about us,” said Zylor. The others looked at him like he was crazy.

“How do you figure that?” asked the first lieutenant.

Zylor shrugged. “With all the earthquakes we’ve been experiencing, the dwarves are probably packing up and getting ready to leave their mountain. Attacking there will gain us very little. All we would succeed in doing would be to wander collapsing tunnels in search of left over treasure and gold.”

“And what do you suggest?” asked the short lieutenant.

Zylor didn’t flinch as he looked him in the eye. “There is no honour in killing dwarves who are fleeing their homes.” He pointed to the billowing smoke in the distance. The rain had stopped and the smoke was becoming blacker and larger. “That smoke tells me a battle is raging over there. It’s much more honourable to sink my axe into the thick skull of an ogre who is armed for battle. If a few puny humans get in my way, they’ll die too. And unless I miss my guess, there will also be plenty of dwarves present to go around for all of us!” With that, he stalked off to join the other minotaurs who were getting ready to move out.

The lieutenants looked at their commander with astonished expressions. The commander laughed at them. “If only you could see yourselves! I only wish you could both display that kind of courage and ambition more often. It would make my job that much easier.” His smile vanished. “Prepare to set out for the smoke. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, but it’s nothing compared to the fire in my veins once we go into battle!”

While the lieutenants scrambled to get things underway, the commander tried to seek out the mysterious minotaur in the crowd, but he was nowhere to be seen. He sighed. “Oh, well,” he thought, “I’ll no doubt see him in battle leading the charge.”

Chapter 28

“T
his looks like a suitable area to change our mode of travel,” said Kazin. They had successfully levitated over the west fence of the encampment and no one could have seen them leave since Kazin had made them invisible. He had used four spells simultaneously again - three to make each of them invisible, and one to levitate them over the fence. The fourth spell worked on all of them at once as long as they held onto Kazin. Amelia had expressed concern about being detected since there were so many mages in the encampment, but he assured her he had that possibility covered with a spell designed to prevent them from being detected. If that were true, then Kazin was casting and holding five spells at once, which was impossible. She just shook her head at this incomprehensible feat and resigned herself to holding on and enjoying the ride.

Levitating was an unusual experience. It felt like they were simply standing on air as they went, yet somehow Kazin moved them along at a smooth pace. They simply floated across to the expanse beyond the encampment and then lowered to the ground as gently as a leaf.

When they were on solid ground, Kazin let go of the levitation spell and breathed a sigh of relief. “Whew! That spell takes a lot out of me!”

Amelia looked at him in concern. She had enjoyed the experience so much she hadn’t noticed the strain Kazin had been experiencing.

Kazin looked down at his feet. Even though he was invisible, he could feel his feet pressed into the mud up to his ankles. His sandals made sucking noises as he tried to lift his feet out of the mud. “I should have found a better spot to land.”

“That’s why I wear boots,” said Sherman, chuckling.

“Mages need to travel light,” said Kazin. “It’s part of being a spell caster. Most shoes and boots contain some metal parts, such as buckles and shoelace eyelets. That metal can reduce the potency of spells, and ultimately be costly if the spell isn’t powerful enough to work properly. That’s why we prefer to wear sandals with leather straps, and robes with cloth waist straps. That’s also why we don’t use metallic weapons. It interferes with our magic. Even magic cast on metallic objects won’t adhere for long unless it’s refined properly. Besides, I don’t get blisters like you do.”

“That’s true,” admitted Sherman. “It could mean the difference between life and death if you’re in battle and your footwear is causing pain. The distraction only has to make you take your mind off what you’re doing for an instant. You could let your guard down and then it’s too late.”

Kazin looked around and sighed. “It’s going to be a muddy walk for a little while. But once we get far enough away, I’ll be able to get us off the ground and into the air.”

“There’s a grove of trees over there with a valley behind it,” said Amelia. “If we can get over there, we can fly along the valley at a low altitude and avoid detection by the guards in the encampment.”

“I’m more concerned about the dragons,” said Kazin. He looked up at the lightening sky. “At least the dark rain clouds are keeping the daylight to a minimum.”

“We’d better move,” said Sherman. He started for the grove of trees Amelia had mentioned.

They reached the grove quickly and without incident, and Kazin transformed himself into a dragon. As he did, the magic that made them invisible disappeared. The others climbed onto his back and then Kazin took off. With a few strokes of his wings he was off, circling to the west. Amelia cast a haste spell on him and the trio shot off so quickly anyone potentially catching sight of them merely had to blink to miss seeing them vanish into the distance. Such a momentary glimpse would make any man question what he had seen.

The takeoff had the effect of disturbing a pair of ravens sitting in a nearby tree. They squawked into the sky and one of them turned to fly in the direction of the encampment. It had to report what it had seen, however improbable, to its magical master. The presence of its new mate, however, would be kept to itself.

Kazin streaked across the sky. He soon spotted the human patrol to the north and stayed clear of their visual range. Only when he was well away from the human encampment did he increase his elevation. This allowed them to better view the terrain below. The trees gave way to sparse vegetation and a rolling terrain that dipped and rose like huge waves in the sea. Boot Plateau rose before them and its sides looked dry and barren, while the top sported vegetation and an abundance of flowers and herbs.

“I don’t recognize that plateau,” said Sherman.

“It doesn’t exist in your time,” said Kazin. “It was probably destroyed during the dragon wars.”

“It’s incredible how much everything has changed since then,” remarked Sherman. “It must have been quite the war.”

“It won’t be long before it happens,” continued Kazin. “We need to catch our quarry before it’s too late.”

“Speaking of which,” interrupted Amelia, “the orb is vibrating. It wants us to go northwest.”

Kazin changed his course and Amelia gave directions. In about ten minutes Amelia pointed to a narrow gully below. “There’s the spot! We have to land there.”

Kazin dove downward and soon spotted the carnage below. Bodies were strewn about the area and some ravens were disturbed from their feast.

While Sherman and Amelia disembarked and ran to examine the corpses, Kazin transformed himself back into a human mage. Then he hurried to join them. “Well? What have you discovered?”

Sherman rose from the body of the human soldier he had been checking out. “They’re all dead. By the looks of it, the entire human patrol was wiped out. The orcs must have won this battle. That’s why the bodies weren’t buried.” He turned to Kazin. “I guess that’s it for our quarry.”

Kazin looked around at the bodies. “It doesn’t look like anyone was strangled this time. I wonder why.”

“These humans did not die by the orcs’ weapons,” said Amelia slowly. She prodded one of the human corpses with revulsion. She appeared like she was going to be sick.

“What do you mean?” asked Sherman. He looked at the body she was investigating. “The torso is torn open and one arm was hacked off.”

Amelia shook her head. “This person was dead before he was stabbed and mutilated. See the area of the wound? There is no sign of significant blood loss or blood-letting. This body was dead before it was hacked up.”

A careful examination of the other human bodies turned up the same evidence.

“Amelia’s right,” said Kazin.

“Damned orcs!” growled Sherman. “I can understand them eating their enemies, but this?”

“The bodies are also in a state of decomposition that would indicate they had been dead for some time,” continued Amelia. “The orc corpses are fresher.”

“How can that be?” asked Sherman. “They obviously fought each other here.”

Kazin turned to Amelia. “Have you been able to identify our quarry yet?”

Amelia shrugged. “I’ll try again. We are closer now than we’ve been to them considering this is where they were attacked.” She looked into her orb and concentrated.

A moment later she looked up in confusion. “We haven’t caught up to them, Kazin! We’re very close, but we haven’t caught them yet!”

Sherman straightened from examining a dead horse. “What?! Are you saying this isn’t the group we’ve been chasing? How is that possible?” He looked at Kazin in bewilderment.

Kazin was staring off into the distance. An idea was forming in his head. “I think I know what might be going on.” He turned to Amelia. “Did you see what our quarry looks like?”

Amelia concentrated on her orb again. After a time her straining ceased and she looked up a Kazin, perplexed. “I don’t get it.”

“What did you see?” asked the young mage.

“I - I saw a group of orcs,” said Amelia quietly. She sighed and lowered her orb. “It’s no use, Kazin. I keep getting different images.”

“What you saw is correct,” said Kazin gently. “We are chasing a group of orcs.”

“What?!” exclaimed Sherman. He looked at Kazin as if he had lost his mind. “There’s no way we’ve been chasing orcs through the human’s land! People we’ve questioned along the way would have reported that to us. I’m sure of it!” He pointed back to the army’s encampment. “They certainly would never have wandered through the human army without being cut to pieces!”

“You’re quite right,” said Kazin. “Until recently, our quarry was in human form.”

“Magic?” asked Amelia.

“Perhaps - in a manner of speaking,” said Kazin. “I believe the group we are chasing has been jumping from body to body as they go. Once the bodies they possess decay too much, they have to find a new host body to possess.” The mage pointed to the bodies around him. “If these humans died before this fight, I’d wager they were strangled to death.”

“Strangled?” said Sherman, looking around at the corpses.

“Of course!” exclaimed Amelia. “They deliberately strangled their victims so their new host bodies were intact and viable for a period of time!”

“Precisely,” said Kazin, nodding. “What we are dealing with is a group of spirits that jump from body to body.”

“That’s a lethal combination,” said Sherman. “No wonder they got away again, even though they were facing a more numerous enemy.” He looked at Kazin. “How do we kill them? If we kill their host bodies, which are already dead, they’ll just jump into another one and keep fighting.”

“Quite right,” said Kazin. “I think the only way to kill them is to dispel the evil souls so they are sent back into the afterlife.”

“And how do we do that?” asked Sherman. “With magic?”

Kazin nodded. “Yes. Your sword might be the key here, Sherman. It is a spirit blade, so it has the inherent ability to dispel evil spirits.”

“Can’t you dispel the spirits with magic?” asked Sherman.

Kazin sighed. “I’m not sure. That magic is typically available to clerics, and we don’t have one among us.”

Amelia was about to say something but decided against it. Instead, she said, “’Dispel’ magic, huh?”

Kazin turned to the red-haired spell caster. “Yes. Do you know ‘dispel’ magic?”

Amelia shook her head. “No.” ‘Not yet,’ she said to herself.

“Too bad,” said Sherman. “Well, we’ve finished with this investigation. We’d better get moving if we don’t want to lose our quarry.”

Kazin looked at Amelia. “Which way do we go?”

Amelia consulted her orb and pointed west. “We go that - no, wait.” Then she pointed northwest. “We go - no. Just a minute.” She scratched her head. “For some reason it’s showing two directions. I can’t narrow it down.”

“They must have split up,” said Sherman.

“Yes, that’s it,” said Amelia. “I’ve got it. The orcs went west and the human went northwest on horseback.”

“Human?” exclaimed Kazin and Sherman in unison.

“There was a survivor?” asked Sherman.

“What did he look like?” asked Kazin, interested.

Amelia reddened. “I’m surprised I haven’t seen him before. He has dark hair and a long, dark mustache.”

Sherman and Kazin exchanged glances.

“That’s the same description we had early in our pursuit!” exclaimed Sherman.

Kazin nodded. “I agree. He has been with the group we have been chasing since the start. He is the key to this all. If we can find him, we will have found our quarry. It is he who is threatening to destroy our history!” Kazin embraced Amelia. “Well done, Amelia! Now we have something to go on. We are now closer than ever to stopping the real threat to history.”

Amelia blushed. “Sorry I didn’t see him earlier. I guess all the faces I’ve been seeing are the different people who have had their bodies used to host the evil spirits.”

“You couldn’t have known that,” said Kazin. “But we know now.”

“So which way do we go?” interrupted Sherman. “We’re not getting anywhere standing around here.”

“True enough,” agreed Kazin. “I think we’ll go after our true quarry. Even if he’s on horseback, we should be able to catch up with him.”

“I’ll cast the haste spell on us again,” offered Amelia.

Before long, the trio was underway again. Kazin flew northwest, and before long the trail led back around to the southwest.

“He’s heading back to his group of evil spirits,” said Amelia. “He led us on a wild goose chase in order to confuse any followers.”

“Clever,” commented Kazin, his voice rumbling beneath them. “But I don’t think he counted on a magical orb tracking him either.”

Kazin flew low to the ground at the spot where Amelia claimed their quarry had rendezvoused with his crew. Orc tracks were seen in the mud coupled with the hoof prints of a horse.

The forest here was thicker again, but the vegetation was somewhat different than what they had experienced in the human lands.

“They went straight west,” said Amelia. “According to my orb, a very large encampment of creatures lies ahead.”

“We’d better be vigilant,” said Kazin. “If we -,” his sentence remained unfinished as his body suddenly stiffened up. With a great deal of effort Kazin tried to gain altitude, but his efforts were in vain. He rapidly lost altitude and soared to a small clearing below.

“Kazin!” cried Amelia. “What’s wrong?”

“I - I can’t maintain my dragon form!” gasped Kazin. The ground was rushing up toward them at an alarming rate. “I - I have to land! The magic is too powerful!”

Too late, Amelia realized what she needed to do. Nevertheless, she cast a ‘magical shield’ spell for what it was worth. The interference to the spells below was enough for Kazin to concentrate and land at a full run. No sooner had he come to a stop when he began to transform back into his human form. Sherman and Amelia immediately jumped to safety just in time before the dragon was replaced by a young mage who lay on the ground, quivering like a leaf.

Amelia ran up to the mage and knelt by his semiconscious form. “Kazin!” she wailed.

Sherman drew his sword and stood guard, poised to do battle with whatever or whoever showed themselves. If anyone wanted to harm his friends, they would have to go through him first.

“Kazin!” cried Amelia again. She chanted a quick spell of healing but there was no physical injury she could direct her spell at. The mage was now unconscious.