Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (41 page)

"Where is the steward...
where is Prilgrat?" Enin demanded, his fury obvious.

"He can't stop this,"
one of the servants cried. "This isn't what he wanted."

"I'm not here to debate you.
Where is he?"

"He's upstairs, but he's
sick."

"Which room?"

The servant advised the wizard of
where to go and Enin climbed the stairs with growing disdain. He reached the
proper room and forced open the door with a magical blast. He sensed no demon
behind the door, but the stench of evil had grown stronger and he wished to make
his sentiments clear.

Prilgrat was exactly where the
servant said he would be, but the steward was unable to greet them in any
fashion. He lay stricken on his bed, unable to even lift his head. With a
feeble twist, he rolled his body over slightly in order to face the wizard. He
did not recognize Enin, could not sense the magic, but the blast of energy made
it clear the stranger in his room had power. The once influential, even jovial
regional steward made an immediate request, but it fell out of him with all the
persuasion of a dying gnat.

"Help me... please."

It came out as a gasp, a pathetic
whisper of a man crushed in body and spirit. Prilgrat's mouth hung open after
his plea. He lacked the strength to close it. His gray skin hung loosely around
his bones as if the tissue of his flesh dissolved into jelly. His cheeks were
swollen and his eyes red, one of which seemed to roll about with a will of its
own. Each breath was labored and he choked with a nauseating clicking sound
each time he tried to swallow.

Enin moved up to the side of the
bed and shook his head, not to refuse the request, but to reveal his sorrow at
what he witnessed. He found the source of disturbance that hung heavy in the
house. He could sense what was going on deep within the regional steward, the
lingering essence of a debilitating spell. The sickness and disease which
plagued the steward was not natural. Still, Enin needed to verify all his
suspicions.

"You have bargained not only
with goblins, but with a draevol as well, haven't you?"

Prilgrat's nod was barely
noticeable, but it confirmed Jure's theory.

Enin could not believe the
stupidity of the steward. Though Prilgrat did not repeat his request, the
wizard saw the wish in his pleading eyes, but whether he wanted to or not, Enin
was unable to help.

"Draevols are plague mages
and their magic is both powerful and devastating, but this goes beyond
sickness. The spell upon you is not the simple casting of disease. You were a
willing participant. Your deal with a demon opened up your essence in a way
that only could have been done with your approval."

Prilgrat struggled with each word,
but he rejected the accusation.

"I didn't... approve..
of this
. The draevol... it promised
me... I would never... get old... never die."

Enin understood that the demon
meant to keep that part of the bargain, but he pointed out something that had
eluded the steward.

"But did it promise you that
you would never get sick? Did it promise you good health and youthful vitality
for all eternity? I can see it did not."

"You have to... help
me."

"What can I do? You entered
into the bargain willingly. You bargained with a demon. The infliction upon you
comes as much from your own heart as it does from a magical spell. Whether I
have sympathy for you or not is irrelevant. There's nothing I can do, nothing
anyone can do."

"Then it... lied? I'm going
to...
die
?"

"No, it kept its part of the
bargain, otherwise you would not be in this condition. You would already be
dead. The bargain is sealed. You will not age and you will not die from this
disease, but you will suffer."

An understanding dawned upon the
steward with greater power than he ever held. Despite all of his
accomplishments and the heights of influence he had achieved, he could not
imagine the weight of the truth revealed to him at that moment. He had wished
with all his heart to escape his mortality. He feared death more than he feared
any man or beast that ever walked the land, feared it even more than the fiend
that promised him eternity. He decided to give up everything he had attained in
order to gain immortality, the ability to not simply cheat death but avoid it
entirely.

The cost seemed so miniscule to
him. Yes, the people of the valleys would suffer and he would lose his position
of influence over them. The draevols would become the new emperors, but so
what? He believed he could always regain power. It was time he could not
battle, time that would end his reign. That all changed, but not as he hoped.

"You mean... I'm going to be
like this... forever?"

Holli whispered a portion of the
prophecy told to her by Rachael.

"'...a disguised agreement to
a false leader's end to no ends.' No end to his torment."

Enin did not wish to dwell on the
concept of forever with a man who had dealt with a demon and paid the price. He
turned his mind to those that could be saved.

"Where is the draevol?"

Prilgrat mumbled an answer, his
mind reeling from the fate he faced.

"My office... the town
hall... the basement. Can't you do... something... for me?"

"What has been done, you have
done to yourself. If there is hope, only you can find it."

As the others watched Prilgrat,
Jure moved to the far side of the room and placed Heteera in a chair. She
slumped against the back with her head bowed, but she remained upright. Certain
that she was stable in the chair, the elder wizard stepped to a window and
looked across the city. People were dying, not just in Ashlan, but everywhere,
and in great numbers. It had to be stopped. He turned back toward Enin.

"We can worry about him
later," Jure announced, his sympathy for the steward dampened by what he
knew was happening across the city, across all the valleys. "We have to
deal with the goblins. Unless someone can think of something else, I wish to go
ahead with my plan."

"Draevols are a great danger,"
Holli announced,
 
"and we have to
deal with them."

"I'm not debating that, but
the goblins must be stopped now. There is no more time. The draevols are the
ones that opened the portals and allowed the goblins to enter our lands, but
they did it over many seasons. We can reverse all of that right now... in a
single instant."

Enin knew time was of the essence.
The shadows of his sight spell still haunted him. The longer it went on, the
more innocents would die. He could not deny that Jure's plan held promise, but
it also held risk.

"Are you sure about this? I
don't want you to make a rash decision. Things have been happening very
fast."

"Too fast," Jure
responded. "Ashlan is in chaos, goblins are attacking all over the
valleys, you said so yourself. They have to be stopped. I can do this."

Enin considered everything that
was happening. He didn't have doubts about Jure's abilities to cast the
necessary spells, but he did worry about Heteera's response.

"I know you can, but you will
do it with help. Let me go in first, let me reach Heteera and guide her through
what is about to happen. I can try to protect you."

"I don't think we should be
worried about me right now."

"That's very noble, but we
have to worry about everyone."

"Each moment we delay means
that more people will die."

"You're right," Enin
admitted. "Begin casting your spells immediately, but I'm still going into
Heteera's mind. You will do what you have to do, and I will do what I must.
Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Stand back, please," Jure
insisted.

Before tapping into Heteera's
reservoir of magic, the elder wizard wished to have a clear line of sight into
the skies above. He focused a burst of energy in one forceful blast at the wall
before him and the ceiling overhead. The charge of magic blew a gaping hole
through the side of the house and part of the roof. The debris shot outward and
rained down upon the empty street below.

Realizing he faced northeast, he
looked over the horizon and noted the advancing darkness of night. A cloudless sky
greeted him, and a handful of stars were already visible as the light of dusk
quickly diminished. He couldn't have asked for better conditions.

There was but one factor that
concerned him and that was the rolling tide of magic that continued to inundate
the city. He knew his spells could break through the flowing waves of energy,
but he wondered what Heteera might do once she realized he was draining the
magic within her. If she called for more, there was a wide offering available.

He did not believe she could
possibly interfere with his spells—she always lacked control—but she could draw
in everything around her. That was her greatest attribute, and the greatest
danger. A spike of power at the wrong time might weaken the barrier that held
the large reservoir of energy. If it burst, anything could happen.

The concern was justifiable, but
there was nothing he could do about it. The danger to him was no greater than
the danger to all those that faced the goblin uprising. He guessed Enin already
considered the potential hazard and that was why the powerful wizard entered
Heteera's mind. Jure would hold to hope that either Heteera would decide to do
what was best, or that Enin would find a way to stop her. He could see no
reason to wait.

Before establishing his link to
the energy within Heteera, he concentrated on his spells. He needed to have
them ready as the flow of power would be tremendous. He knew the magic sought
purpose, and he would give it exactly what it required.

Deciding to follow Enin's earlier
spells as a guide, Jure prepared two incantations to give him sight across the
valleys. He chose not to utilize lightning, but something of a more enduring
nature and wider scope to serve as the anchor. He would embed a second spell, a
sight spell, within the first casting and his awareness would spread across the
region.

Prepared for the flood of magic,
Jure reached into the recesses of Heteera's consciousness and took hold of the
barrier spell that he created long ago. Despite his preparation, the surge almost
tore him apart. He wrestled with the deluge as he focused on his first two
spells. After he spoke the final words of the incantation, the ring of white
magic that surrounded his chest rose up into the sky with the speed of a
lightning bolt.

High overhead, the circle of magic
began to spin faster and faster. The outer edges expanded, but the inner hollow
collapsed upon itself. It formed a great white ball of fire in the sky, a
source of light that was brighter than the moon in its full phase. Only the sun
itself was brighter, but it had long since set.

The magical orb bathed the entire
region in light. It chased away the blackness of a night sky and blotted out
the stars. The waves of magical illumination washed over every farm, outpost,
town and city. Such was its brilliance that it brought the goblin insurgency to
a sudden halt. The small monsters could not ignore the great star that rose
over the valleys that offered a hopeful beacon and contradicted their dark
plans.

Just as the rays of light spread across
the land, so to did Jure's awareness. The surge of magic from Heteera continued
to race into his essence, and the elder wizard directed it with incredible
control. His second spell had quickly followed the first, and he embedded his
sight into the beacon above. He gained near omnipotence over the Great
Valleys, seeing everything at once.
The rush of power fed his abilities to conceive a vast array of images. The
torrent of knowledge could not overwhelm his thoughts since the magic raised
his awareness to an equal standing.

In that moment, he saw it all. He
saw every goblin, knew their exact position. He watched them stare up in
uncertainty at the light in the sky. He saw the limits of their destruction and
the misery they caused. He would bring it all to an end.

#

Before Jure blasted a hole in
Prilgrat's home, Enin shed his essence from his body and stepped into Heteera's
consciousness. It was exactly as it had been before. A small plot of level
ground served to hold the sorceress' limited connection to reality. A ghostly
representation of Enin's form stood upon that empty, lifeless space as he
inspected the status of the sorceress' mind. The barren gap appeared stable but
limited, as the great mound representing the barrier completely encircled and overwhelmed
the lonely space.

The sorceress had kept her
promise. She only absorbed enough magic needed to maintain her condition. The
incoming energy was but a gentle hum, and it eased into her essence to serve as
sustenance for both the sorceress and the spell that constructed the barrier.
The mound had not grown by even a whisker, and there was no immediate threat of
a magical overload.

The lackluster mountains that
encased the tunnel of magic remained strong. The thick walls would hold back
the energy and prevent other spell casters from tapping into the magic. Of
course, it was not designed to keep Jure away, just the opposite. The wall
would open willingly for the elder wizard.

Enin stood upon the section of
bare ground for only a moment, registering the phenomenal power encased in the
apparent rocks that served as a physical representation of Jure's spell. Enin
made no push to reach into the energy. Instead, he brushed his hand gently
across the rock, checking the very pulse of the magic.

There was so much energy within
the sorceress, Enin wondered how she could allow it to remain so bottled up.
Yes, the barrier was constructed by another wizard to offset her lack of
control, but she embraced the obstruction. She willed herself into isolated
despondency despite the tremendous levels of energy that waited for her
command; magic that could be shaped into spells of amazing power.