A Soldier's Life - 467 -

Just a quick announcement. The audiobook for book 5 has dropped. I will post the ebook in the morning, two days earlier than planned. Update: Kindle wont let me change the release date so it is still 10/12....42 hours from this post at 6:00am on 10/10

Chapter 467:

The storm surged outside with the wind raging from the south. The shutters rattled, and the south-facing, uncovered ones were shattered by debris blown in from farther in the city. Servants rushed to deal with the damage as my companions huddled in my room.

“Can you feel it, Evie?” I asked. She didn’t seem scared or concerned. She was too young to have seen so much horror, but here we were.

Evie closed her eyes, her hair slightly matted from the rain. “When I draw in aether, I can feel the chaotic nature of the aether.”

“Same, but I can sense it in the air. When I use my aether sight, I can see random sparks in the air, like it is oversaturated,” I replied. Baelira closed her eyes too to focus, but didn’t comment.

The rain pounding the tile roof was almost deafening, but through it, the house bell rang to announce an important visitor. “Let’s go see who is here; it may be important.” Hopefully, whoever arrived had news of what was happening.

We entered the audience room to find the queen seated and waiting for the unexpected guest. She was soaked through in a simple dress, and I assumed she had been somewhere else in the city when the storm began. The ringing of the bell was not for her, though. A tall, thin man with a meticulously groomed beard was led into the room by two of the queen’s guards.

The man’s black robes shimmered and flowed unnaturally, and no water weighed down his clothes even though his dark hair was soaked. He looked constipated as he took long strides across the chamber’s gray marble floor to stand before the queen. Princess Elenora rushed into the room, tying her cloth belt around a wrinkled dress. She stood behind her mother and tried to look presentable, fixing her hair. With the queen’s soaked state, it was probably unnecessary.

“Mage Lord Osrien! I am surprised to find you still in the city. The hospitality of my house is yours,” the queen said formally in a friendly greeting. The guards, servants, and the princess bowed. I only nodded slightly, more curious why a Mage Lord had chosen to come here first. If I recalled correctly, this was the Mage Lord who had brought news of Kyrenic to the queen and teleported her to Petos.

“Queen Adelin, you honor me,” the Mage Lord said, but I thought it lacked sincerity. “I was investigating the Prismatic Dungeon outside the city when this disturbance began. The aether inside the dungeon surged, and I feared it was another dungeon break. The adventurers escorted me out, but there was no dungeon break. However, I believe it is connected to the problems with message sending spells. I am mostly confident the ley lines are being used to amplify the origin of this weather disturbance.”

That was impressive, as the Prismatic Dungeon was twenty miles outside the city. Teleporting through the heavy rain should have been extremely dangerous. That dungeon was a treasure trove of small gems in a wide variety of colors. Although the Adventures Guild managed it, the heavy tax on the gem mining supported Petros.

“Is this an attack?” Queen Adelin said, straightening. There was no fear on her face, only a mind calculating a response to a threat.

The mage seemed to consider. “It is too early to say. I am requesting a room. I will track the disturbance and be able to give more details on what is occurring in the coming days,” he said with only a slight nod. Technically, a Mage Lord had equal status to a king.

The queen summoned an attendant, and the Mage Lord was escorted away. Her eyes fell on me and my companions. “I hope the storm breaks, as there will be no chance of you sailing in such a monsoon. I will find out how far the storm extends tonight.” She rose from her chair, leaving a wet spot behind on the expensive throne’s fabric. Her daughter was on her heels.

When we returned to my room, I shared my thoughts. “It has to be the Nashasari. If they can stop sea travel and land travel is dangerous, it will be hard to assemble an army to invade the Brotherhood of Mitza.”

“Do you think they know what we are doing?” Maveith said in his deep voice.

“Most assuredly by now. They infiltrated the sects in Godok, and a number of cells have been found in cities. I am assuming they have spies in courts across the continent,” I said testily. “They most likely already know our plans and are going to make it as difficult as possible.”

“Do you think Lesna, Blaze, and Benito are alright?” Evie asked, concerned.

I looked at her and gave it some thought. “Certainly. The High Sentinel had skilled weather mages on board; even if they were caught in this storm, they would not have had trouble navigating it. But they are thousands of miles away from here, so I doubt the storm reaches that far.” I gently messed up her silky golden hair to reassure her.

“What are we going to do?” Baelira asked, sitting on my bed.

“All we can do is wait,” I said. “We should stay together, and this is the biggest room.”

While the others settled into my room, I finished my alchemy, successfully creating 13 aether restoratives, bringing my inventory to 21. Kyrenic would be upset with me because the fumes from the reactions would be absorbed into the room's fabrics and bedding. They weren't unpleasant, but I hadn’t considered how poor the ventilation would be with all the windows shuttered for the storm. After my thermal stones and glassware cooled, I stored the alchemy set to find everyone sleeping, sprawled out on couches and the bed.

I left quietly to walk the manor and question the servants still awake. The rain and wind had settled into a steady rhythmic downpour. The servants knew there was flooding in the city’s streets and basements. The storm had only abated over the city due to the interdiction of the Archmages of the academy. The storm still raged fiercely in the ocean. That was all the useful rumors I could glean from them.

If we were planning to leave Petos, we would likely be doing so on horseback. In the wet gray dawn, I took Ginger out for a ride, and I traveled fifteen miles north. As Ginger and I passed the cobblestone roads, it turned muddy, but the further we rode from the city, the lighter the rain became. I believed the roads would be passable and planned to get horses for my companions. If we couldn’t sail when we were ready to leave, we would ride. It looked like many of the fields had been flattened by the heavy rain, but would recover if the sun even came out. I turned around and let Ginger run.

As I was rubbing Ginger down in the stables, the princess found me. “That is a Telhian breed, a legion warhorse by the muscular haunches,” she noted.

“You have an excellent eye,” I complimented her.

“I didn’t know we had any Telhian chargers in our stables,” she said offhandedly. When I didn’t reply, she walked up to Ginger boldly and took a brush to help on the other side. Ginger looked at me skeptically, and I shrugged.

“King Roderin, the dwarven king of the Brightmantle Kingdom, sent a messenger bird. He will be here tomorrow night. Please don’t ask how, as my mother doesn’t know he plans to arrive so quickly, but her message did carry a severe warning. She wishes to host him to get his support confirmed before the war council,” she said. That was why she had come to find me, to make sure I would be available to convince the dwarven king.

“Will he be bringing the truth seers like you thought?” I questioned.

The princess put on a sly, knowing smile. “He is a truth seer himself, which is why he only trusts people he questions personally.”

We swiftly finished grooming Ginger and rewarded her with an apple. “Do you have a spell for slow aging?” I could tell she was attempting to flirt, but I wasn't skilled at it and wasn’t interested in encouraging it.

“No…well, an artifact slows my aging. My family was gifted three rings of eternity for helping against the Telhians, but one was lost…” her voice trailed off in sadness associated with the relic.

“That is a remarkable ring. I know of a dungeon artificed amulet that does the same thing, but it crumbles to dust after a century,” I replied. “Where did your rings come from?”

“It... it’s a secret, sorry. Obviously, it’s a dungeon artifact, but it appears rarely—once in a thousand delves, I’m told,” she said softly, not sure if she had given away too much.

Once in a thousand delves was extremely rare, and probably why I hadn’t uncovered it in the copied books from Godok in my dreamscape library. “Understandable, the amulet has a similar low rate of appearing, and the king who controls access to the dungeon does it with a fervor. While the amulet prevents aging, it does not protect the mind.”

“Our rings are similar; after two centuries, or sometimes sooner, we hand them down to our chosen successors,” she said quietly. “Lord Mage Osrien will be dining with the queen and Lord Protector Maveith. You should join them when you are dry and clean,” the princess added after a brief pause.

I smiled, and the shield appeared in my hand. Being in a barn, I knew this would drain all my aether in one go due to the range. While she was mesmerized by the shield's pattern, I activated it, and it used up all my remaining aether. My clothes dried, and the mud splatters from riding vanished. The straw in the stalls was cleaned, and the dust in the rafters and walls lessened. Elenora gasped in surprise, and I just grinned. If you couldn’t show off every once in a while, what was the point? As I walked away, I wondered if my display could be considered flirting.

I quickly found where the mid-day meal was being served. It was in Queen Adelin’s private dining hall. The fire had embers heating the space. “Thank you for joining us. How was your ride?” The queen asked.

“The storm isn’t as violent the further from the coast,” I answered as I picked some things for my plate.

Mage Lord Osrien confirmed my suspicion. “The storm is offshore, and it follows the ley line beneath the sea floor. I do not know how they are doing it, but it is feeding off the ley line and extends further east and west than I can see. It is acting as a barrier to all vessels trying to sail.”

“I think it is more urgent that we leave sooner rather than later. I will secure horses tomorrow, and we will ride after talking with King Roderin tomorrow evening, since we will be traveling through his lands.” Queen Adelin pursed her lips unhappily. She wanted me to wait on Kyrenic so he could join my group, but with the storm, I was guessing he would be delayed.

“Your sense of urgency is warranted,” Mage Lord Osrien commented, causing Queen Adelin to frown. Most likely, she was preparing an argument for us to delay. “Seeker, tell me more of the threat….”

The Mage Lord appeared middle-aged, but I doubted that was his true age. He understood the threat of demons, even though he had never encountered them himself. Surprisingly, he held himself in high regard but was not self-serving. Queen Adelin tried to steer the conversation, but the Osrien dominated the dialogue. She owed the Mage Lord too many favors to push her will in the discussion. Maveith only listened until the long lunch ended when the Queen was called away.

After lunch, I took my companions horse shopping. In the steady rain, it wasn't a pleasant experience, and the challenge was finding a mount big enough for Maveith. Evie quickly found a young white gelding and Baelira a fit but mild brown mare. Horses were very common in the Heptarchy and much more affordable than in Esenhem. Maveith ended up getting a large draft horse used to heavy riders. The beast mostly pulled heavy wagons but would serve him well on the journey.

When we passed the docks, we could see the waves licking the piers and the dark clouds out to sea with flashes of lightning. The darker line of storm clouds extended as far as we could see in both directions. The dozens of ships moored in the bay would likely be trapped here for the foreseeable future. The mood in the city was somber, as you could feel the unnatural nature of the storm even if you didn’t have a sensitivity to aether. Very few people walked the streets in the rain and gusty wind.

While the others settled their new mounts and tested their saddle and tack, I spent my evening in the library alone, paging through books. We didn’t see the queen, princess, or mage lord the following day. I could only assume they were all working on generating support for raising as large an army as possible.

The arrival of King Roderin happened with little fanfare. When the bell rang in the late afternoon, the Queen and princess were not at the estate. Apparently, I was the next best option, but I would have deferred to Maveith if I could have found him.

No guards escorted the dwarven king’s entourage, which consisted of himself and two others. All three had the same dark brown eyes and facial bone structure—clearly related. Their muddy brown beards matched as well, except the shortest of the three, who had his trimmed and glossy. I was standing in front of Adelin's throne, not presumptuous enough to sit in it.

I wasn’t sure why he had not gone directly to his estate in the city, but I decided to greet him and his family. I bowed respectfully, “King Roderin of Brightmantle, I am Seeker Eryk of the Death Sentinels. The Queen will return shortly, but her staff are here to welcome you and your sons.”

The elder dwarf puffed out his chest a little and bristled. I immediately cursed, as the dwarf to his right had hidden feminine curves under her travel cloak. Whose idea was it to leave me in charge anyway?

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