Spellscribed: Provenance Page 13

  Joven popped to his feet and charged the only man left standing. The man’s sickle sliced through the air at the barbarian’s neck. The barbarian lashed out with a fist, knocking the hand holding the blade out the way. The thug’s face had a split second to register surprise before it was permanently interrupted by a powerful blow.

  The other man was pulling himself up as his ally fell to the ground. He looked up to see Joven standing over him, his breath coming hard from his continued efforts. The man trembled and tried to scramble away, but the barbarian merely kicked him over and stomped hard. It only took one.

  A few seconds later, he had gone back over the battlefield and finished off anyone he had previously left alive. He didn’t need anyone coming in behind him. He knew he had to hurry; the watch would not likely miss this place in their search for him. He strode up to the doors to the warehouse and took a breath.

  The thrill of battle still flowed through him as he said a faint prayer to Kroma before winding up and kicking the doors in.

  The doors crashed open, flinders of wood spiraling out from the impact of Joven’s heavy boot. The barbarian rushed in immediately on the tail of the door’s destruction, ready for anything that came at him. His boots stomped heavily on the stone brick flooring and a powerful battle cry echoed off the stones as he entered the first chamber.

  From the back Joven heard a door slam open and the sounds of many sets of footsteps rushing towards him. He grinned as he gave the two sickles he had just recently picked up a flick and a twist of his wrists. Now the warm up was over, and he had to be as lethal as quickly as possible if there were any more than the amount he had fought outside.

  Only four men poured into the receiving room, each wearing actual leather armor and holding swords. While they seemed more practiced than the crowd of amateurs that had been their perimeter guard, they were not so experienced that they didn’t hesitate when they saw the blood spattered barbarian rushing into them. Joven’s sickles took the first one’s head off before the four could blink.

  The other three brought their weapons up and engaged him as their comrade slumped to the floor, blood spilling copiously over the stones. Joven’s sickles couldn’t swing his blades as fast as the three could in tandem, but his weapons struck with enough power to batter their guard down.

  It was immediately obvious that the three had been used to working in groups. They ducked and weaved with each other, trusting the man next to them to defend them from counter as he himself lunged in to attack. It could have spelled disaster for Joven if he hadn’t gotten the first before they were ready.

  The three seemed to be a match for Joven, a fact that had both sides surprised. Joven was surprised that it only took three men to match him, at the same time as the three were surprised that they were being matched by a single warrior. The stalemate lasted seconds, but it felt like minutes as their blades clashed and muscles strained to gain the advantage.

  And in a second it changed. One of the three stepped to the side to flank him and his foot slipped in the spreading pool of blood on the stone. His balance was lost and in the moment he shifted to right himself, Joven was able to catch him across the neck and shoulder with a sickle. The man, though still living joined his dead ally in spilling yet more blood across the stone.

  The fight got all the more desperate for the two left facing Joven. Their footing was getting worse by the second, yet the barbarian seemed as sure footed as ever. Only seconds more passed before another slipped up, and the fight was over. As the second man lunged to guard against the strike to his brother that he was sure was coming, Joven instead struck at the one standing. The one who fell got a good look at the underside of Joven’s heavy treaded boot as it came down on his face.

  Joven took stock of his condition. He had received a few nicks across his arms, but nothing but minor cuts. His leather breastplate had a number of new gouges in it. He was sweating and his breath came hard, but he wasn’t exhausted yet.

  A loud sound much like the crack of thunder blasted into the room and brilliant white light strobes through the door that the four guardians had come from. In but an instant the light was gone and the thunder but a ringing in his ears.

  What was that? Joven moved in a rush but without running. He knew how to move on slick surfaces from living in a frozen, icy wasteland all his life, and trying to run would only end in injury.

  The next room was empty, but the door beyond it was also open. He quickly checked for more foes as he kept moving. The next room was the main storage room of the warehouse, but it looked mostly empty and dusty. The smell of charred flesh rose on wafts of smoke as Joven saw his charge for the second time that day.

  A smoldering body lay sprawled against the wall across from what looked to the barbarian as a spit. Tied to a pole suspended by two posts was Endrance, trussed up in ropes and blindfolded. His arms were tied to his side at the elbow, but his hands were free and his right hand was covered in blackened soot. On the ground beneath him were a discarded gag and a pile of thin ropes that looked like they had been burned through in several places.

  The bound wizard tensed as he heard the big man enter. Joven watched him crane his head towards the door. “Hello?” The young wizard called out. The wizard’s voice was light, almost melodic. Maybe his description was wrong, and they did send him to watch a woman after all. She was far slighter than most women in Balator, so at least it wouldn’t be hard to find her in a crowd.

  “You’re Endrance?” Joven asked. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  The young wizard paused, thinking. It was not a voice he had heard before. “Yes.” Came the reply. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Joven. I was supposed to meet you somewhere else.” The barbarian replied, nudging the body on the floor. The body had streaks of black and charred flesh across his chest and abdomen in a line. Joven studied the wall behind the corpse and saw the same blackened line streak up the wall at an angle. By looking at the line, he could see that the man at his feet had been standing right next to the wizard. Well, she may be slight, but she was still dangerous.

  “So are you going to ask me any more questions, or can I get you down?” Joven asked, irritated.

  “Just one more thing.” Endrance said. “Did I get him?”

  The Sha’hdi watched from up in the rafters as the barbarian let the young man down and hauled him to his feet. There had been a few more men waiting to ambush the man as he was helping the wizard, but she had ‘persuaded’ them to leave them alone. She also left Zadrah a pouch of gold and a note of thanks pinned to the back of one of his lackeys. The baron himself was not anywhere to be found, and she couldn’t afford to wait around and thank him personally.

  She moved silently on the wooden beams, tracking the two’s progress until they left the building. She slipped silently out; tracking their progress back to the inn Endrance had taken. She herself would have to find shelter soon. Even she would not relish the pain of being outside when Ironsoul awoke.

  As the Sha’hdi slipped out through a window, a figure stepped out of a nearby doorway and sighed. Zadrah held up the bloody dagger and the bag containing the rest of the gold he had been promised. He looked back up at the window and smirked.

  “Pleasure doing business with you, ma’am.” He said to no one in particular. The job had been far more costly than he had initially estimated. That boy was quite capable as well. Zadrah looked at the singed ropes that had been used to tie the mage’s hands. He could very well have killed him without speaking, and he was pretty sure that the only reason he hadn’t was that Zadrah hadn’t tried to harm him and had been somewhat respectful.

  The one man who had survived seeing the barbarian in the alleys near the tower had told him they had gotten the kid coming out of the tower. The assassin hadn’t said he was capable of power like he demonstrated here when he had arrived. If he had gotten that powerful after just an hour under the eye of the Archmagus, Endrance either had a ridiculous amount of potential, or
the Archmagus was just that good. Either way, it was best not to meddle in the affairs of wizards.

  All in all though, Zadrah no longer had to split the share with the dead. Far more profit for him. Now he just had to find some more prospective recruits…

  Chapter 16

  “I sure hope they don’t make them any bigger than you in Balator, or I’m going to be in some real trouble.” Endrance said after the third long silence since he had been rescued by the barbarian. Joven looked at him out of the corner of his eye as he watched the streets below. They had made it back into Endrance’s room without being accosted by either the guards or any more of the band of thieves. It was already dark and though the innkeeper was unhappy about letting him take a barbarian up to his room Endrance had managed to persuade him to let him stay at least the night since it was getting late.

  Joven shrugged. “Nope.” The barbarian rumbled. “My elder brother has about half a foot over me.”

  Endrance shook his head. “I find that hard to believe. You are the biggest and perhaps the most dangerous man I’ve ever met.” He muttered, checking through his pack. They had managed to recover almost all of his belongings, including his coin purse. Endrance could not express how relieved he was to have the bracer back in his possession, and had put it back on almost immediately.

  “Says the… man who can throw lightning from his hands.” Joven replied. He was still trying to understand how the mage was actually a guy. What happened to his muscles?

  “Fair, but I wouldn’t have been able to fight my way out of there with lightning.” Endrance replied. “I would have tapped out every dredge of my aura using that spell a few more times and then the rest of them would have gotten me. You seemed hardly winded and you killed what, fourteen men?”

  “Sixteen.”

  “Sixteen men. I got one.” Endrance finished. He supposed he should feel bad; after all, he had just killed a man. A human man. Sure he was trying to carve his face up. Sure, he was trying to sell him to slavers. Sure, it was only because it was a wildly flung spell… Endrance shook his head. Maybe he had enough reasons to be detached from it, but he didn’t for a moment consider it a good thing that he had to kill him. Killing monsters was easier, they were monsters. He hoped he would never have to get used to killing people.

  “What’s an ‘aura’?” Joven asked, breaking Endrance’s chain of thoughts. He saw only a few people left out on the streets and even they were clearing out of the area quickly. Doors and windows were being closed and shuttered. The city was buttoning itself up very suddenly, which made Joven suspicious.

  “Uh…” Endrance began. How to explain magic to a barbarian who grew up in a culture hating magic? “Think of it like a well that I keep my power in like you would water. If I pull too much ‘water’ out then it can run dry, and that would mean I’m defenseless until it can fill up again.”

  “So… You get tired?” Joven said, like he was emphasizing the simplicity of his statement.

  “Yeah, I guess that’s the best way to say it.” Endrance responded. He still over thought it; Of course it wasn’t exactly like that, he wouldn’t get physically exhausted but it was a close enough analogy for the barbarian.

  “You should exercise more then.” Joven said in a knowing manner. “You would have better endurance.”

  “It’s not as fast of a process as with physical muscles, Joven.” Endrance replied, struggling to hold in the frustration in his voice. “I can ‘exercise’ the volume of my aura but it takes time to grow stronger and last longer.”

  Joven turned away and looked at the mage. “You should do some physical exercise while you’re at it. You’re smaller than some of our whelps.” He grinned at the young man to show he was joking. Endrance scowled, but couldn’t hold it for long and ended up grinning right back at his bodyguard. The man was big, true, but he was also very charming.

  Endrance sighed. “I…” he began, but saw something flicker by the window and it got him to stop. “What is that?” he asked as a dull tone echoed throughout the streets outside. “Oh!” Endrance exclaimed in panic. He rushed past the barbarian and slammed the shutters closed, latching them.

  “I didn’t know it was that late already!” Endrance gasped, shaking his head. He was sure he had seen something… ethereal drift past his window.

  “What?” Joven asked. He reached out to open the shutters for a look, and Endrance grabbed his wrist.

  “Don’t.” Endrance said as calmly as he could.

  “Why not?” Joven asked. “It’s not like seeing something is going to kill me.”

  Endrance shook his head. “This is magic we’re speaking of. Of course it can kill you by looking at it.”

  Joven scrutinized the young man’s face before pulling his wrist out of the wizard’s grip. He had been perfectly serious, and the young man’s grasp was surprisingly strong. Perhaps he wasn’t as inexperienced or weak as he had initially thought. Still, he found it hard not to try to look outside the window again.

  Endrance sat back down when he felt he had conveyed the importance of the message. “Look I’m tired from being kidnapped and the tests that I did for the Archmagus, so I’m going to bed. If you want I’m sure the chairs are comfortable.” Endrance said wearily.

  “Tests?” Joven asked.

  Oops. “Nothing important, just wizard things.” Endrance muttered. Still, what he had learned from the Archmagus had both been invigorating and disturbing at the same time. He tried not to dwell on it too much as he blew out the lamp and drifted off the sleep.

  Joven though still curious, said nothing more as he settled into a chair to wait. He could get all the sleep he needed before suns-rise, and then they could be on their way. The journey wasn’t short and his people needed their Spengur more now than perhaps they ever did. The last Spengur did not leave on such amicable terms though, so his job would be perhaps tougher than any guardian in prior generations of his family.

  He sat quietly in the chair, glad that it was sturdy enough to hold him. His larger weapons, the axe and greatsword leaned against the wall next to him. The other weapons remained on his person, though many were still tied down in promises. He would try to keep those promises, but now his charge was under his watch he would do anything he needed to in order to keep him safe.

  The next morning Endrance awoke to see Joven was already awake and back at the window, scanning the street for something, threats perhaps. Endrance had no idea how a bodyguard did their work, and decided to leave the guarding to Joven. If what he said was right, his family had been watching over Spengurs for generations, and should know quite a bit about protecting mages.

  He wanted to get cleaned up, but the bodyguard didn’t look to be about to leave the room anytime soon. It took Endrance a few minutes of watching him stand at the window to build up the courage to ask him.

  “Excuse me? Joven?” Endrance began, holding his pack of clothes and the large pitcher of water the Innkeep had left them that morning.

  The barbarian hardly glanced his way. “Yes?” he grumbled, his attention snapping to some sudden movement in the street below. It was just a pickpocket who got caught.

  “Do you think you could… step outside for a moment, so I can… you know, bathe?” Endrance finally asked.

  Joven grunted. “If you want to bathe, then bathe. I’m not going to leave you defenseless.” He replied, a twitch of confusion crossing his face. Now he wants to bathe in private like a woman. What else is he going to get uncomfortable about?

  “I’ve… I’ve never had to do that with other people… watching?” Endrance supplied.

  Joven sighed, turning and giving the young mage an irritated look. “Well, you’re going to have to get used to it. I’m your bodyguard, which means I have to protect you, especially when you’re exposed.” Joven waved a hand dismissively as he turned back to the window. “Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be looking at you while you bathe.”

  Endrance could feel his cheeks heating up. “
I… I guess you’re right.” He said with a sigh. His job was going to take him new places and teach him new things. This was certainly a new thing to learn, yet not anything he expected. Endrance pulled off his shirt and watched Joven warily for a minute before stripping off the rest of his clothes and pouring the water from the pitcher into a basin.

  He reached for a cloth to dunk into the water, and realized he still wore the bracer on his arm. It glimmered as the refracted light from the window and water basin danced across its silver surface. He had been so relieved to have it back on his arm he had not even realized it had been skin temperature despite being off his arm for hours. The arcane script encircling the Crystalphage set in its face seemed to squirm for a moment in the sunslight, but when he blinked they were still.

  This object was only one of a set of two, both were objects that Kaelob’s master had given him, and from him, to Endrance. Even with only one of them, this was perhaps the most valuable object in his possession next to the spell book Kaelob had crafted him. That, while enchanted and nearly indestructible was more valuable if only in knowledge.

  He carefully released the subtle catches in the bracer’s seam, popping it off his forearm and setting it down next to the basin. Taking the cloth in hand, he started wiping the grime and dirt off his body. He didn’t know when he would be able to even take such a luxury as this again, since from what he had read of maps, Balator was many months foot journey away.

  “What are those?” Joven’s voice broke the silence, surprising Endrance from his inner reverie. “Scars?”

  Endrance saw that Joven had closed up the window shutters. Now he was sitting in his chair again, looking almost directly at him. Endrance felt his face redden immediately.

  “Joven!” he exclaimed. “You said you weren’t going to watch me!” Endrance tried to cover himself up with his discarded shirt.