Chapter 15

“Less than a day and you are assaulting my people,” the governor said as he stamped his boots just inside the front door. His pink satin outfit with the ruffled cuffs seemed out of place beside the plated stone of the doorway. The governor flung his handkerchief that he had used to wipe his hands off to the side. The cloth lay on the floor like a tormented dead bird.

Ezza had surged to his feet at the governor stepped over the doorway. Aden shook his head at the display and while his pressing his hands on the top of his knees, slowly rose to his feet. He refused to act as if he was in a rush or the least bit impressed with pomp.

“Less than a day and your criminal elements are demonstrating their ineptitude,” Aden said as he strode forward. “Any decent mugger would have gotten me within two steps of the doorway of the tavern. Your imbeciles had to slink through the shadows for a block or two as if they were predators in the wild stalking their prey. Then they cried like indignant brats when they are caught and spanked.”

“Spanked? You call the harm you inflicted upon them a child’s punishment?”

Aden snorted. “They’re grown men acting like children. They aren’t dead – yet. Besides, I wager you probably have punishments for attacking visiting dignitaries that are severe compared to what I gave them.” Aden pointed a finger at the man. “Regardless of what you think, circumstances have changed more than any of us expected and now I must rise to the station of high wizard that is thrust upon me. Those two men-children are nothing compared to the problems that I am about to dump on your shoulders. Come and let me enlighten you.”

“I am the governor and I still have the power to dump you in the harbor,” the governor said, anger painting his cheeks red.

“Not anymore,” Aden said as he walked back, twiggling his finger above his head in a show of distain, “and that is the crux of the problem. Welcome to the main room of the ten regiments of battlemages. You will be delighted to find their practice weapons to your right and to your left as you step into the room.”

“You dare to threaten me?” The men behind the governor put their hands on their swords.

“I don’t know how to use any of these weapons; they were banned generations before my time in my land,” Aden said. “However, I’m fairly certain that any given one could level your city in less than a morning and if you insist, I am willing to learn.”

“Well, I suppose this little find changes things,” the governor said. “Only wizards can use these things?”

“I can’t even get one of them out of the slots, your lordship,” Ezza said. “If you don’t got the wizard touch, you can’t even hold the damn things, pardon my language.”

“I’ve heard your salty language before, sergeant,” the governor said. “What are these swirly designs on the floor and are they dangerous as well?”

“Battle mantras and focus spells,” Aden said. “They’re completely harmless and a bit of a puzzle. In other schools and temples, these drawings are made each morning and they rub away by evening. These are permanent, and I don’t know why. You and your retinue can step on them.”

“Are these all the weapons in the building?” the governor asked as he stalked over to the first rack. He touched the head of one weapon with his middle finger and then glanced at the finger pad. He placed his entire hand on the weapon, letting his fingers and palm slide around the metal, as if he was getting a feel for the weapon.

“They battled with these things in this room?” the governor asked with his back still turned.

“If you look at the walls and ceiling, every surface is faced with metal and stone to absorb phyzeec blows. I would surmise that there are also active spells meant to dispel energy without blowing out walls and floors. I don’t know; no one really knows. These schools or barracks haven’t existed for centuries elsewhere in the world. They were put away because they were too dangerous.”

“I’d love to see what one of these long shafts could do,” Ezza said.

“No!” Aden and the governor said at the same time. They both looked at each other and Aden shrugged.

“We will have to burn it down,” the governor said.

“Won’t work,” Aden said. “Wizardry in the walls, don’t you know, meant to keep the place from burning. Please, have a seat.”

“I think not,” the governor said, wiping his hand on his silken trousers absently. “What else is here?”

“We don’t know, your lordship,” Ezza said. “Neither of us have gone upstairs and the wizard is not keen on going downstairs. He thinks the basement is where the real weapons are stored.”

“I will hold your hand when we go down, O high wizard,” the governor said with a sneer.

“What is with the attitude of everyone around here?” Aden said. “Do you breed for this trait in your children? Is it in the water? Do you not appreciate just how dangerous this building and what it contains is? This is not cowardice, gentlemen. This is part self-preservation and part fear for a city full of innocents. Okay, they may be imbeciles and not-so-innocents, but still not meriting a catastrophic explosion and lingering death.”

“Attitude, indeed,” the governor said, inspecting his fingernails. “Anything else?”

“Breakfast,” Aden said. “No sense getting blown to little bits on an empty stomach. While we are waiting, perhaps I can devise a way to dismantle these spells without getting sucker punched.”

“He is zero for three, your lordship,” Ezza said. “They knocked him on his ass each time.”

“So, there is a measure of justice in the world,” the governor said as turned back to his guards. “Captain, send someone down to the bakery and bring back a tray of morning rolls. Wizards, like the stable denizens, must be fed after all.”

Aden raised his eyebrow and gave his companion a quick thumbs-up while the governor was still facing the other way. As Aden looked at the empty chairs, he felt a wash of regret coat his tongue with bitters. Why did he just pull an adolescent prank? He was good enough to be Prime in his homeland and yet, he sat in the belly of a magnificent monstrosity and pitched a minor fit. Hearing footsteps drawing near, he slapped away the chair with a thread of phyzeec, sending it skittering back to the wall. Two sets of boots face him as he stared at his own feet. “May I suggest the stuffed chairs in the headmaster’s study?”

When each had chosen a seat, Aden stared the governor in the face. “Allow me to explain” and the man nodded. “These are personal weapons all around us, decorating the walls. If these were regiments as the flags flapping over our heads in the main hall would indicate, they had heavier weapons. Just as we have trebuchets, catapults and battering rams, they had wizardly equivalents that could do immense damage, not to a main gate but to a capitol city in its entirety. These weapons were banned long ago in my land. I only know of them from history books of the history books that recorded their existence and use. They are so ancient that if they are here and they work, I have no idea of how to disable or dismantle them. As I told Ezza, I feel like we are ants crawling over the remains of someone’s lunch outing.”

“You tend toward the dramatic,” the governor said as he adjusted his sleeves.

“He also complains by the hour,” Ezza said.

“Both of you are exhausting,” Aden said. “Your obtuseness drives me to act out in ways that I cannot believe that I am doing.” Aden held his finger in front of Ezza. “I know what you are going to say, and I don’t care that you don’t understand my choice of words at the moment; you can follow the gist of the conversation. I’m frustrated that I cannot use the technical language to describe all this phyzeec surrounding us. I’m even more frustrated that you do not seem to understand just how dangerous each and every unattended phyzeec device is from the pillars on the northern road to the instruments hanging on the wall. I’m personally frustrated because, after all my years of study and scholarship, I still don’t know how to secure any of this.

“You,” Aden continued, turning his attention to the governor, “are worried about grandiose wizards who crave power and cause damage. I refuse to pay for the crimes of other traveling wizards who have come before me. I do not crave wealth or power, nor do I enjoy being smothered by a beautiful woman, at least not all the time. I don’t steal and I’m not usually vindictive. I do come with grave concerns, which have not dissipated but grown the longer I’ve been in your land.

“Despite what I am sure is skillful governance, your city and your province is slowly decaying, falling back into ignorance and superstition, and your people are retreating ever more from the borders. This province is slowly ebbing away, as if humanity has lost the spark and the will to continue.”

“It is a time of relative peace,” Ezza said. “Right, your lordship?”

“It is a time of entropy, of energy and dynamism fading away beyond recovery,” Aden said. “There is a difference between peace and indifference, Ezza, between being at rest and resting in apathy. If my observations sound like a complaint, I protest that they are observations.”

Aden sighed. “Beyond this building, do you know what scares me? We traveled for weeks between Kagan-cal-Hippatia and Crestfall, through beautiful lands full of hardwoods and abundant wildlife on a road that would be the envy of any great nation. All of it was available and yet, no one is there; the land sits empty. As much as those pillars gave me a headache, the real anxiety gnawing at my thoughts was the emptiness of the land. Even Crestfall would only be a memory if you did not pay for its yearly maintenance, governor.”