The Brat's Final Gambit

Jolan Kine looked as if he had sunken into the bed and nearly become a part of it. His eyes were so bloodshot that barely any white showed through. His face was as pallid as a corpse’s, and around his eyes the strain on his health showed most. Niam was taken aback when the Wizard’s Hammer spoke to him in a voice so haggard that he sounded as if the ghost of death itself spoke for him.

“Young Maldies—good job bringing that box to me.”

“Um,” was all Niam managed to say for the moment. “Um, how are you sir?” he managed to ask.

“Worse than I look,” he rasped, and then laughed, but he was soon bent nearly in two by a severe coughing fit.

Niam looked up at Joachim, sorry that he had been so insistent on seeing the Wizard’s Hammer now that he knew how bad off he was. When he had pictured Jolan Kine, injured by a poisonous arrow, he had in his mind an image of the man with a thick bandage over the wound.

“Um,” Niam said. “I had a lot of help getting that box.”

Kine slowly raised himself enough to prop himself up with two pillows. When Lord Joachim said, “Let me help you with that you fool,” Kine waved him away.

“I’m not dead yet.”

“Well good, then,” Joachim told him. “Because Maldies here has something important he needed to share with you.”

“Important?” Kine coughed painfully.

“Of the utmost importance.”

Niam shuffled his feet.

“Go on then, Maldies. Out with it. Something about hair, didn’t you say?”

Suddenly, Niam wanted to shrink down into something very small and fast so he could scurry away. Instead, he asked, “How much do you know?”

Jolan Kine laughed again, and his laughter immediately turned into a series of body wracking coughs. Niam really wished he would stop laughing. When Kine saw the look in his face, he laughed harder, and Niam thought for a moment that the act was going to kill him.

“It’s the poppy,” Joachim said, as if reading his mind. “And actually, it’s good for him to cough. He’s got to keep his lungs clear.”

“He’s going to break a rib,” Davin said, obviously as appalled as Niam by Kine’s condition.

“Better that he should break a rib than lose his life,” Joachim said matter-of-factly.

“According to who?” the Wizard’s Hammer croaked.

“Duty before death,” Lord Joachim replied. Niam never could tell when Lord Joachim was joking and when he was serious. Kine leaned back into his pillows and grabbed a cloth to cover his mouth as he cleared his throat. “So is this about my duty or is it about death, Mr. Maldies?”

“Um. Both maybe.”

Jolan Kine arched an eyebrow. The act looked painful. “Did you really disarm a sorcerer’s seal when you were at Kreeth’s manor?”

Niam shuffled his feet again. Talking about sorcery made him uneasy. “It took me a few minutes and was kind of hard at first, but yeah, I guess that’s what I did.”

Now both men laughed. Joachim positively roared with laughter. It took Kine several minutes to get himself under control. Niam had no idea what he had said that was so funny, but he wished he hadn’t said it. A horrid wet, crackling sound came with each breath Jolan Kine took, and it lasted an uncomfortably long time.

Looking up to Joachim, Niam asked, “What did I say?”

Jolan Kine answered for him. “Young man, do you realize that when there’s not a Wizard’s Hammer around—and usually that’s most of the time—it frequently takes a team of mages hours to disarm sorcerer’s seals? And that’s at great peril to their own lives.”

“Oh.”

Lord Joachim added, “What you did alone and in a matter of minutes, scholars will write about for the next hundred years.”

Niam felt completely overwhelmed and wished he could have a few minutes to think, but Kine continued on in his hoarse voice. “Your ability is much more sensitive than even a Wizard’s Hammer’s. And apparently you’re somehow attuned to the forces sorcerer’s draw upon. I’ll tell you, that is something every member of my order would give a year of their lives to be able to do.”

“You had ‘hair and stuff’ to speak to Mr. Kine about?” Joachim said after clearing his throat.

Niam told him about the altar and the objects they saw on top of it, and asked, “Can things in a circle be linked with the people they belong to?”

Kine nodded his head. “Both mages and sorcerers can do bindings. And it is highly illegal to cast a binding against someone’s will.”

Niam nodded his head and told them about the encounter with Betsy and Kreeth, and about her late-night wanderings. Jolan Kine and Lord Joachim looked at one another silently for a moment. “If this is true, Niam, then Kreeth’s influence may be spread over a countless number of people, and there’s no telling why.”

Joachim’s voice grew noticeably worried. “Niam very well might have explained what’s behind the nods. I am gathering the names of everyone that’s been affected. I’m also going to have troops from my garrison begin patrols. Maybe this has something to do with all of the break-ins that have been occurring lately. Thought it might have something to do with the trade conference. That always brings out its share of thieves. But too much is happening at once that is too damned coincidental for me.”

“You know what less than friendly elements are going to say about the patrols, don’t you?” Kine asked.

“Yeah,” Joachim sighed. “Show of force like that is illegal and unnecessary except during a time of war.”

“That’s not going to go over well with your enemies in Kalavere or Pallodine.”

“Then we’ll call it safety drills. Nobody can make hay out of that,” Joachim said, absently rubbing his eyes as if he had a headache. “I hate politics. I wish my forefathers had been circus performers.”

This elicited chuckles from both Niam and Davin. Joachim turned his attention to all of them. “You young gentlemen are going to spend a good bit of time here with me. Niam, you and Hapwell will eventually stay with the Sartors. I have to send Karin and Brent on an extended business trip. Gaius will quietly allow some of my troops to stay there.”

“But!” Both Niam and Davin said at once.

“But nothing,” Joachim said sternly. “Before anything else is done, Jolan here has to recuperate. I think things have gotten to the point where he needs to be able to do what’s necessary now that he has enough evidence to move against Kreeth. But I’ve got to get to the bottom of this nods business while he is getting better.”

Niam and Davin both held their heads down. “Yes sir,” they said in unison.

“I mean it,” Joachim warned them. “I better not catch you off of my property before Mr. Kine here is up and moving around.”

“I promise,” Niam said.

“I promise,” Davin said.

Moments later, as they strolled alone down the hallway, Davin asked Niam, “What do you want to do now?”

“Oh,” Niam said. “I intend on keeping my promise. I’m going out tonight, but I’m not letting him catch me.”

“Good,” Davin replied eagerly, “I was thinking the same thing.”

“I was thinking,” Davin said as they snuck across two fields and prepared to skirt the edge of another one, “that maybe we should have said something to Maerillus first.”

“Uh-uh. I’m not saying a stinking thing to Maer about this until I know for sure what’s going on with Betsy. He’s going to be mad at me as it is if he finds out I saw her and Kreeth together and didn’t say anything.”

Davin moved forward quietly for a moment, keeping his eyes out for any of the tenants who worked and lived on Joachim’s property. He hoped that Betsy would go out tonight, once the soldiers from the garrison started patrolling, they were going to have a much harder time. Soon, they reached the Sartor estate, and they drew close enough to the servants’ wing to see who entered and left.

“Now it’s just a matter of waiting,” Davin said, settling down in the dark, concealed by a screen of young fir trees. “How late do you think we’ll have to wait?”

Niam shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe pretty late—late enough to move unseen by anyone.”

“It’s pretty late already,” Davin said, shivering slightly beneath his coat. Above them the starlight and moonlight left the world bathed in a softly somnolent glow. Niam settled in as well, and they lapsed into long silence, each gazing into the sky and waiting. Davin was locked in thoughts and fears about the future. He was constantly plagued by the worry that at any moment he might make a mistake that would get someone hurt or killed. After all, one of Kreeth’s wolfstrosities had nearly taken Maerillus down. Leave it to Niam, of course to come up with a name like wolfstrosity. Thankfully he had been there to help kill the thing. If the experience had taught him one thing, it was this: he was now certain of the fact that his abilities weren’t a guarantee of success, and that scared him.

Davin felt Niam stiffen. “Hey, someone’s coming outside.”

Davin yawned and stretched. “Bout time. Is it Betsy?”

“Some old guy,” Niam said, sounding disappointed.

Davin watched for a moment as the old man turned and slowly made his way toward them. “Niam, what’s the chance of someone heading our way at this hour of the night?”

“Not much,” Niam said. “Only thing behind us is old trails.”

“Where to?” Davin asked absently. He was sure the man was probably just stepping out to relieve himself. Then as the sleepy wheels of his mind began to turn he realized he already knew where the trails went. “Hey—this trail goes back around Joachim’s property.”

“And straight to Kreeth’s,” they both said at the same time.

Davin immediately felt more alert. “What do you want to do?” Davin whispered as the man drew closer. “Follow him or wait to see if Betsy comes out tonight?”

Niam looked conflicted. Davin knew it was because he wanted badly to feel like he could make things right for Maerillus. “I think we will have to follow him,” he said hesitantly.

Davin leaned in to lighten his friend’s mood and said, “Assuming he doesn’t drop his pants and pee.”

Now that the man was closer, he saw that the old guy was in his nightclothes, and Davin was half prepared for the old fellow to find a tree and relieve himself. Instead, he kept walking down the path leading away from the Sartor estate. Niam turned his head toward Davin and asked, “Did you see the man’s face? He looked like he was still asleep.”

“His eyes were open,” Davin said uneasily.

“Yeah, but I have a feeling that there wasn’t much going on behind them.”

They kept close to the man, who continued to walk in a shuffling manner, stumbling over roots and branches without actually falling. The moon overhead moved across a quarter of the sky as they proceeded farther into the forest. The first indication that something was up came from Niam, whose gait stiffened and his posture became defensive. He seemed lost in thought until Davin asked him what was wrong. Niam looked up at him surprised. “Are you starting to feel something, too?” he asked.

“No. You tensed up.”

“It’s him. I can feel him,” Niam said.

The moment Davin began to wonder what that might feel like, Niam spoke, as if reading his mind. “It feels like I have a stomach ache, but the ache has moved outside of my body and is now somewhere ahead of us.”

“Any idea how far?” Davin asked, dropping his voice as low as he could.

“Close,” Niam whispered.

Several paces later, the path brought them to a natural opening in the forest. Davin dimly made out numerous shapes in the night. He motioned to Niam to follow him off of the trail. To Davin it looked as if a dozen people stood in a loose, motionless bunch. A man’s deeply resonant voice began speaking in a string of harsh, guttural words. The moment Davin heard them, he cringed. The words had the effect of two rusty hinges grating together. Davin saw that the sorcerer’s language had an even more pronounced effect on Niam’s face.

Kreeth’s voice grew slowly louder, and a green glow suddenly flared into existence so that all of the people gathered together became easily visible. This made Davin nervous. If they could see everyone so easily, he knew that Kreeth might be able to make them out if he glanced up.

“Let’s move back a bit,” he whispered.

Niam nodded his head.

Davin backed slowly to where a thicket of waist-high bushes provided excellent concealment. He couldn’t help but stare, transfixed. Kreeth moved almost as if dancing in a slow circle around the group of victims. An unnatural green fire followed him until at last he had the townspeople entirely encircled. Davin and Niam watched for a while as Kreeth spoke. Davin flinched with each word that came from the man’s mouth.

“Can you make any of that out?” he asked Niam.

Niam shook his head. “Doesn’t sound human.”

As they continued to back slowly, a sudden dark shape lifted up out of the bushes directly behind them. Before Davin had time to reach for his sword, Niam let out a muffled yelp of surprise and fell back heavily on his butt. A hard, strong hand grabbed ahold of Davin just as he began drawing his weapon. The attacker’s other hand closed over Davin’s mouth, and in a hoarse whisper from behind the hooded cloak, a man’s fearful voice flashed, “Quiet, fool. You’ll get us killed.”

Most of the man’s face was hidden in deep shadow, but his eyes were visible, and they were wide and frightened beneath the hood. Niam gasped. “I know you,” he blurted out as quietly as he could manage, causing both Davin and the stranger to turn and make furious shushing noises at the same time.

Niam shot up off the ground and reached up to pull the man’s hood back. The stranger reacted as if Niam were carrying something contagious and tried to jerk away. Niam was too quick and caught the hood, pulling it back to reveal the man beneath.

Davin gasped as he looked directly into the eyes of Mayor Braun, who frantically waved his hands in an intense state of agitation. “Be quieter,” he hissed. “We’re all in danger here.”

They both stood there looking at him, dumbfounded.

Niam was the first to get over it. “What are you doing here?” He demanded.

The mayor grabbed ahold of both boys’ coats and pushed them back several more yards until a large pine tree stopped them. Niam slapped his hand away. “You’re supposed to be dead or something,” he accused.

The mayor’s mouth quivered as he looked up at them with imploring eyes. “Yes, yes, yes. It certainly looked that way, didn’t it? HE almost had me, but I got away. Terrible things boys, terrible things he tried, but I got away from him, yes I did . . .”

The mayor’s voice tapered off but his mouth still worked obsessively to try to form words. Davin had the impression that the man had progressed from Nervous Wreck to Falling To Pieces some time in the recent past. Mayor Braun went on as if he were desperately trying to justify himself rather than talking to the two of them.

“I wasn’t quick enough to see what was happening . . . not quick enough at all. How does a person handle that much power? And it’s all my fault. All because of me.” Here he stopped and looked at Niam. His eyes crinkled up as he tired to say something, but the burden of it was too much for him and he began to sob. “I’m sorry boy, so sorry.”

Niam frowned as the mayor’s shoulders shook while he cried. He flashed a confused I don’t know what to do look to Davin.

Davin looked at the distant ring of people surrounding Kreeth as the sorcerer continued to chant. Thankfully he only barely heard the man’s voice. Even at this distance, listening made him feel dirty.

“What’s all your fault, sir?” Niam asked softly beside him.

The mayor continued to cry and tremble nervously. Niam gave Davin another of his confused look. Davin shrugged.

“I wish I knew what that man was saying,” Niam whispered, though Davin could tell by the look of distaste on his friend’s face that what he actually wished was to be far away from there.

“Get back,” Braun implored them. “Farther back, boys. When you walked through my screening, you made it possible for him to see me.”

Although Davin was sure they had enough concealment to remain hidden, Davin and Niam moved back even farther until a curious look grew across Niam’s face. “Wait a minute,” he said angrily and stopped.

“Go back, boys—please,” Braun begged . . . nearly whined.

Davin noticed a dangerous spark suddenly flare behind his friend’s eyes.

“Damned odd way of putting it,” Niam whispered in a voice dripping with suspicion. “He said that we walked through his screening, Davin. Screening.”

Davin cocked his head quizzically.

Niam let out an exasperated air. “He didn’t mean that the plants were screening him from view. He meant the screening spell he had cast.”

Davin felt his eyes widen. “He’s a magic user!”

Niam spat venomously, reaching for his knife, “He’s a damned sorcerer.”

Davin froze for a moment, then in one fluid movement, his sword was in his hand and he held its tip against the mayor’s neck.

“Kreeth’s presence wasn’t the only one I sensed tonight,” he growled.

The mayor looked at them like a cornered hare. “Why shouldn’t we kill you here and now,” Niam’s voice was so sharp that it could have drawn blood. Davin had never heard anything like that from Niam, not even where Bode was concerned.

“I stopped,” he insisted. “I stopped. Sometimes at night things were watching me, whispering terrible words. They wanted me to let them in . . . b-b-but I wouldn’t. You have to believe me,” he stammered. “It destroyed my student. I hope judgment has mercy on me when I die.”

Davin looked at the pathetic wreck of a man in front of him. Could Kreeth really have been his student at one time? He now looked as weighted down by a thousand pounds of regret. Slowly he let the tip of his sword dip down, though he was not ready to put it away.

Niam’s eyes held murder. The mayor looked at Niam and began to weep. “I want to know what role he played in the deaths of my brother and sister,” he snarled.

Davin understood, but scaring Braun wasn’t going to help. “Put you knife away, this isn’t helping,” he said softly.

Niam stared daggers at the mayor for an uncomfortable moment, and then said resentfully, “Fine.”

“We need to know what’s going on here,” Davin told him.

The mayor watched the two of them the way a mouse watched two cats fighting over it for feeding rights. “I . . . I can tell you,” he murmured hopefully.

Niam looked hatefully at the man and told Davin, “I want to know everything he has to do with all of this mess. Then I’ll let Jolan Kine have him.”

The mayor shook and let out a mewling sound “Stop that kind of talk,” Davin said, becoming increasingly worried by the scalding fury washing off of Niam. “We aren’t executioners.”

Niam stared pitilessly at the man now cowering before him. “Yet,” he said.

Davin gave him a cross look and followed it up by saying, “Ever.”

Niam looked away. Davin looked down at Braun. “What is happening here, Mayor Braun?”

“A very terrible thing, boys.”

“We know this is some kind of magic circle burning around them. Why? What is he doing with it?”

The mayor’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Aboleth,” he said, and began to weep quietly.

Niam stomped his foot impatiently when the mayor was not more forthcoming. “What is Aboleth?” he asked angrily then looked back at the people illuminated by the green flames burning around them. “And what does it have to do with this?”

Through shaking lips, the mayor moaned, “Everything.”

Davin quickly said, “Go on,” in order to prevent the man from dropping into another annoying silence.

“He summons his powers from Aboleth,” the mayor said with a shiver. “You need to understand Kreeth wants to finish his initiation. Until then all he can do is it to summon powers and knowledge. Sorcerers cannot use magic like mages.”

“So?” Niam growled.

Braun looked at Niam through two feverish eyes. “You really don’t know, do you? Mages use powers that are a natural part of the world we live in. But sorcerers—they have to pull power and knowledge of it from somewhere else.”

“And,” Niam hissed. “What of it?”

Braun looked at Niam, and Davin could tell there was something in the glance that held more than fear. “Garrolus Kreeth wants to finish a process that will allow him to be a vessel that contains the forces that he and other sorcerers can only draw in small quantities right now.”

Davin and Niam looked at one another. “And that would be a bad thing?” he asked while an expression of concern crossed both of their faces.

“It would be catastrophic.”

“Why?” Davin and Niam asked simultaneously.

“Because Aboleth is a place of death. It’s toxic to our world and potentially much more powerful than the forces wielded by mages.”

“Why can’t he do that now?” Niam demanded.

“What’s holding him up?” Davin asked. “He looks pretty powerful now.”

The mayor shook as he answered. “There’s an artifact that he needs. One that goes all the way back to the time when the Dread Lords fought the hordes of Miloch and Kobor, scouring the world from the east.”

“What artifact?” Niam demanded roughly.

The mayor looked up at both of them. “Now that’s the question, isn’t it?”

Niam looked fed up when he didn’t elaborate, but Davin shook his head to caution Niam from rattling the man anymore than he already had been. “Do you know where we can find this artifact, Mr. Braun?” Whatever man Braun had been once, he was a pale version of now. Davin hoped that acting respectfully, as any of them would have before his breakdown began, might encourage the man to be more forthcoming.

“It’s here somewhere. That’s why he’s using these people. They’re looking for it.”

Davin realized that all of the burglaries and break-ins in town made sense. “What does it look like, sir?”

“I don’t know,” the mayor said defeatedly. “That’s what I was hoping to learn before you interrupted me.”

Niam let out a disgusted sound. Before he had time to say anything else, the mayor’s head whipped around to where Kreeth and the townspeople stood. “Oh,” he said. “They’re finished. Now he’ll seal them to his instructions.”

As soon as Braun said this, a great, sickly-green light blazed out, coating the world in garish and unnatural shades. Niam moaned in pain, his arms shot up to cover his head protectively. Braun used that moment forcefully twist the sword from Davin’s hands and throw it into the woods. Davin reacted in surprise and lunged for the man, but he was too quick. Mayor Braun shot away with surprising speed as Niam bent over and vomited.

Davin cursed. “Why aren’t you going after him?” Niam rasped.

“Not leaving you alone out here,” he said in frustration.

“But we need him,” he said between heaving fits with his face still parallel to the ground.

Davin waited with Niam as the circle of people broke up. A stab of guilt lanced through him. Once again he hadn’t been fast enough to do any good. He put a steadying hand on Niam as he finished losing the rest of the contents of his stomach on the ground. “Look man, I’m sorry he got away. It was my fault.”

Niam straightened up, wiping his face with a cloth from one of his pockets. He looked away and shook his head. “No it wasn’t. There’s no telling what might be out here in the forest. We’d be better off finding your sword.”

“We can still try to follow Kreeth,” he told Niam as he fetched his sword. With any luck, he knew they might be able to uncover something new, something key, a chink in the armored unknowns surrounding the events that had sucked them into everything that was happening. Davin ached to strike a blow that would shatter the sorcerer’s designs and bring the ugly business they had been drawn into to an end.

Niam said nothing. He looked on as people under Kreeth’s spell made their slow, plodding way back to their homes. Davin was sure they would wake in the morning unaware that anything had happened.

When Niam finally did speak, he said, “I’ve got another idea. Let’s follow the old man that led us here. I want to take this from a different angle.”