The Wizard's Council (14 page)

“You bring me back from avenging our King for what? A political puppetry show? You bring out witnesses to testify about the most outrageous things, knowing full well that the public will agree with whatever decision the council makes.” Arcantos stopped in the middle of his rant and caught his breath. “My apologies, I overreacted. The King was a close friend of mine. His death drove me to rage, a rage that I have focused on the Wizards and those harboring them. Let us hear all sides of this story. Let us move forward with our prosecution of the guilty party.”

“The guilty party is what we are here to investigate.” The majority of those gathered rolled their eyes or sighed in disgust as the Royal Inquisitor approached the table.

“On whose authority is this swine present?” Arcantos stood from his chair and thrust an incriminating finger at the newcomer.

“I was invited by the council. I have just as much right to be here as you do,” The man smiled a smile that made Arcantos skin crawl.

“The Inquisitor was invited here because he holds infor
mation about the events that have previously gone unmentioned,” One of the councilmen said.

“Indeed, information that places you arguing with the King the night before his death. Perhaps mere hours before. Perhaps mere seconds.” The Inquisitor leveled his attack directly at Arcantos.

“Of course I was arguing with him. Would you not have argued with him had he shown you the letter?” Arcantos sat back down after asking the question.

“What letter?” The Inquisitor asked.

“The one that I conveniently had copied when I learned that you would attempt to burn it. I say ‘attempt’ because I have some knowledge of magic as well, I know a spell that protects against fire. Need I say more?” Arcantos fixed his gaze directly on the Inquisitor.

“This is ridiculous, you have absolutely no proof of this.”

“Or do I? Was it not this chamber in which you attempted to dispose of the letter? Why not? What better place to burn something than the council chambers were devious documents are often burned?” Arcantos snapped his fingers, and a small letter flew out of the nearby fire and into his hands.

“I will not stand for this. This could be one of your cheap parlor tricks, Arcantos. What other proof can you offer that this man is the culprit?” One of the council members asked.

“I am not the one to ask for proof, and the proof is not in identifying him as the culprit, but rather identifying him as conspiring against us to incriminate the wrong person.”

“Arcantos speaks the truth about the Inquisitor trying to burn that letter. There were at least three of us here that day that saw it. I remember seeing the letter that he was trying to hide. He didn’t want us to know he was hiding it, so he held it in such a way that some of us couldn’t see it,” Another council member spoke.

“You see? The Inquisitor seeks political gain by turning us against each other. This letter is quite clear in its intent. It has his own seal on it, in fact, they even wrote it to mimic his handwriting. There is only one group that could mimic his handwriting so easily, and there is only one group that could manage to mark it with his seal and then assassinate him that night. It is my belief that the Wizards collaborated with the Thieves Guild to murder our monarch. There is no doubt that both groups disliked the King, in fact, I’ve gotten a first-hand account of how ruthless the Wizards are. We cannot take this threat lightly. Our invasion of Carmalia goes well, the clearing of the sewers is nearly finished also. That leaves us with several Conclaves, some of which are already being dealt with. It is time we think about how to recover from this. Our enemies are already being punished. The important thing is consolidating our power in a way that does not leave Galimdor weak.” Arcantos spoke with an eloquence that hit home with most gathered.

The council began to discuss the matter among its own and Arcantos asked his leave of them. He had done all that he could
, and it would look suspicious if he tried to influence the council’s vote any further. It would be better if he left them to vote on their own. Any further influence would risk them seeing it as desperation on his part. The Royal Inquisitor would, without a doubt, try to press the case against him, but his absence would speak volumes to the council about his perceived innocence. Two of his trusted confidants would stay and make sure any accusations leveled against him would be deflected as well as possible. Arcantos had other plans he needed to check on. He didn’t enjoy sending others to do his bidding, but his plan was too widespread to take care of all the aspects himself. The Holy Order was moving on the Necromancers, the pirates were harassing the Gloomvale Isles, orcs and trolls were harassing the elves, the Warlocks and the Wielders were at odds with each other, but the Barbarians were still a threat.

*

Ector readied his spear as he spurred his horse forward. There had been numerous orc sightings in the area, and Ector was chosen to lead an expedition to lessen their numbers. It had been some time since he had led an expedition in battle, but the times were desperate, and he was willing to assist in whatever way possible. He would have preferred to leave the mission to someone like Sev, but they hadn’t heard from the half-elf in a few days. Ector’s squad consisted of a strange combination of Rangers, Druids, and Wizards. There were five from each group as well as Ector, making for a total of sixteen. The woods in that area were known as a hotspot for orc sightings, and the elves felt it was a direct threat to their livelihood. Ector was inclined to agree with them and wondered why they hadn’t built an outpost in the area long ago.

None of that mattered now. It was his job to rid the area of
orcs, and he resolved to do so to the best of his abilities. Their two-day search had led them to the base of the Skyrose mountains (though it was still considered part of the Kargill Mountains if you asked the dwarves), named for the rare flower that grew on their summits. The Pass of Kerdan was still a day’s travel away. By Ector’s estimation, the orcs were filtering through the pass and running amok in the Old Forest. There was a time when the pass could be used to traverse between the Old Forest and the Telmac Valley, but rockslides made it impossible to make the trek on horse or foot. Orcs and goblins were known for their tunneling skills, and the chances of them using a cave in what was now a forgotten pass were much stronger than that of a cave in the Old Forest. Though it wasn’t his mission to find out where the orcs had come from, Ector felt that route would garner the best search results. He sent three of the Rangers ahead to scout while the other two brought up the rear.

“Merilian, you’ve shown some ability at speaking to animals, can you find out anything from them?” Ector asked one of the nearby Druids.

“I can try, but I don’t expect success. The animals in this area are unusually skittish,” She answered.

Ector nodded as he glanced at his surroundings.
This isn’t the work of marauding orcs,
he thought,
too clean
. The orcs cared little for trees, shrubs, or even grass. This area showed no signs of being disturbed in the usual orcish manner. Ector remembered some of the raids from when he was younger, trees had been chopped or burned, trash was strewn all about where the orcs had made their encampments, and the grass was trampled and smashed by their heavy footsteps and siege engines. This time there was no sign of orcish movement throughout the area. Some of the grass looked as though it had been traveled on recently, but not enough to pinpoint orcs over any other race. Merillian stared at Ector as he surveyed the area. The rest of the group seemed to be equally aware of Ector’s perplexed look.

“What is it?” Hamlin, one of the Rangers, asked.

“There is no obvious trail left by the orcs. Something had come through here in the past couple of days, but nothing like what an orcish raiding party would leave behind. This goes beyond the orcs, they are working with someone that wants their presence to remain as unknown as possible.” Ector pointed to several areas where you could see that larger groups had traveled through recently.

“I don’t see how that is a definite fact. What makes you think the
orcs leave that much of a trail?” Hamlin asked.

“Have you seen the devastation they bring? It is beyond anything I’ve ever seen from any other race. One would think that they despised the very sight of a tree. No, these are more than just mere
orcish raids. Perhaps this is a bigger move solely on the part of the orcs, but not random raids or even an invasion.”

“It is hard to believe that the
orcs would allow another group so much say over their military tactics, but I can understand your reasoning. Perhaps we can agree on the middle option and assume that the orcs are operating under some grander plan?”

“Why don’t we take a moment to discuss the ramifications of each option?” Ector asked.

The group discussed the intricacies of each possible option in detail for quite some time. Each option brought them to the eventual question of what would spur the orcs to such actions. There was no definitive answer for what motivated the orcs. The Druids were dead set on seeing the orcs as creatures of evil, bent on destroying anything they could get their hands on. Both of the Rangers agreed that the orcs seemed to be scouting the area in a possible attempt to solidify more land. Ector and the Wizards felt that there was some outside source influencing the orcs to act in ways that they had not done in centuries. The conversation continued for some time without any side gaining support for their theory. They were so engrossed in the argument that they failed to notice the return of the Rangers who had scouted ahead.

“I hate to interrupt, sir, but we’ve run into something rather strange,” one of the Rangers said.

“What does that mean?” Ector asked.

“It means that we found a small outpost at the entrance to the pass.”

“How is that possible? Who were the inhabitants?” Everyone else was now paying attention to the conversation.

“The
orcs must have set up shop there some time ago. We were fortunate that they didn’t spot us. There is no way that our small force can take them. By our estimation, we would be facing around one hundred of them.”

“Sixteen against one hundred? Even with my magic we won’t be able to handle that many. Not even with a surprise attack. No, we can’t risk that. I won’t be responsible for that many casualties,” Ector went from talking to the others to rambling to himself.

“I think we can do it, sir,” Hamlin spoke up.

“Not without casualties. There are only sixteen of us, we’d be lucky if more than five survived!” Ector was more adamant than the others had ever seen him.

“We have to try. I won’t go back without at least trying to do something.”

“I suppose you are right. These
orcs are nothing but trouble. Let’s all examine the area and see if we can’t find a weak spot to exploit.”

*

Sev crouched low as he surveyed the scene. A small orcish encampment lay at the base of a mountain pass.
This can’t be right,
he thought as he glanced around. They had been heading north for several days and in all his days exploring the forests he had never seen an orc outpost that close. There were only two possibilities, the Pass of Kerdan or the Dwarven Pass. Sev doubted that the dwarves would allow orcs to occupy a pass that bore their name, but it made just as little sense that the orcs would build an outpost at the Pass of Kerdan. As far as everyone knew, the pass was, ironically enough, impassable. The half-elf Ranger sighed as he leaned back against a nearby tree. Judging by the size of it, the outpost could have anywhere between fifty and five hundred orcs. His small team of twenty-five Rangers could deal them a lot of damage, but at what cost?
Do I risk it?
He wondered, his eyes scanning the fort for any sign of movement. Much to his surprise, movement to one side of the fort caught his eye. A small band of no more than twenty was slowly making its way toward the fort.

The Ranger put his fingers in his mouth and let out a quick whistle. Within moments, the other Rangers were following him into the open field that lay between them and the
orc outpost. He grabbed the bow off his back and nocked two arrows. Solin and Caitlyn ran to the edge of the forest where they witnessed Sev launch two arrows high into the air. They sailed with a precision unmatched on the continent. A howl of alarm sounded through the orc outpost as the two arrows landed. One of them had struck an orc on the shoulder, and the other hit the ground not too far from one of the orc chiefs. Sev’s Rangers moved with such stealth and expertise that neither the orcs nor the small group assaulting them noticed. The orcs noticed the other small band and sent out their own party of about fifty orcs. Sev smiled as he watched them scamper out of the outpost and into his trap. He grabbed three more arrows and fired them in quick secession. Each arrow hit true to its mark and killed an orc.

Ector’s group was baffled by the
orcish advance and the deaths of the three orcs. He ordered his men to stop and open fire on the small orcish raiding party. Each of his Rangers loosed an arrow and all sixteen members of the group stared in disbelief as twenty orcs met their doom. Sev’s men were raining arrows down on the orcish sortie with speed and deadly accuracy. What little was left of the orcish party turned and ran back toward their outpost. Not a single orc made it back to the outpost. Ector watched the gate while his men readied themselves for another orcish charge. This time they sent nearly two hundred of their number against the small group of sixteen. Hamlin looked over at Ector as if to ask him if they were to sound the retreat. Ector looked back and shrugged at the Ranger.