The Archmage unbound

Chapter 29

In spite of myself I didn’t return until much later. After a quick lunch I wound up falling asleep for several hours. I hadn’t realized how tired I was, but stress and the events of the past day had prevented me from sleeping much the night before. When I appeared that evening the sky was already turning dark.

I found Harold still keeping watch in the room. He seemed glad to see me. “He’s been talking,” he informed me.

“Why didn’t you send for me?”

“I did, but they told me you were sleeping so I decided it could wait,” he replied.

My nap had improved my mood, so I didn’t argue the point, “What has he said?”

“I just told him my name,” said the man lying on the bed.

I ignored him, keeping my eyes on Harold. After a moment he realized I was waiting on his response. “That’s it, he volunteered his first name and I told him to keep his mouth shut till you had time to talk to him.”

I nodded, “You did well. Wait out in the hall for now. I want to speak to him alone for a while.”

After the burly knight had left I turned my attention to the man watching me quietly from the bed. “What’s your name?”

“Walter,” he stated simply. I could see by his face that he had been tempted to mention that he had already told Harold this, but his better sense had won out.

“And your family name?”

“Thatcher,” he replied. I could see the aura around him flicker as he lied.

I briefly considered letting him continue to see what sort of tales he would spin but I didn’t think it would be very constructive. “Don’t lie to me Walter. It’s a bad way to start our conversation.”

He gave me a nervous smile, “Sorry, I had to try.”

“My wife is dead Walter. It’s a miracle you’re still alive at this point and my sense of humor is non-existent at the moment,” I said bluntly.

“Why did you heal me?” he asked.

It took every bit of self-control I still retained to keep from killing him then. “If you don’t tell me your name things are going to get ugly, and I’ll regret healing you even more than I already do.”

“Walter Prathion,” he answered.

“That’s a better start,” I told him. “I’m sure by now you’ve noticed a few things about your situation.”

Walter nodded, “I can’t sense anything. Is this?” He held up the pendant I had clasped around his neck the day before.

“Yes, that’s the reason you can’t sense much. It will also restrict your magical ability.”

He frowned, “Where did you get something like this?”

“I made it last night,” I replied. Using my dead wife’s necklace, I added mentally. I had changed the enchantment to completely lock the mind it protected away from the world, blocking his magical senses as well as his power. It was a side effect I had noticed when I first made this necklace to protect Penny and it was the main reason I had never worn one of the pendants I created. Now I was exploiting and strengthening that effect to effectively shackle Walter’s power. I had also replaced the clasp with one of my explosive iron balls. To avoid causing it to explode with my tampering I had spoken to the metal in the necklace and the metal in the iron sphere to convince them to fuse together seamlessly. The end result of my efforts was a necklace that contained two intertwined enchantments, break either, or break the circle, and it would explode. Only an archmage would be able to remove the necklace without breaking it.

“I thought the craft to make things like this was lost,” he rambled.

I cut his line of reasoning off there. “I’m not inclined to explain my history or abilities to you at the moment. Today you will be doing the explaining. The necklace will restrict your ability to sense or manipulate energy. Given enough time you might be able to break the barrier it creates around your mind, but if you do so it will be the last thing you do.”

Walter stared at me with silent eyes. For a moment I had an odd sensation, this isn’t the first time he has been given a deadly ultimatum. I ignored the thought and continued, “If you break the enchantment by force, magical or physical, it will kill you. If you escape, I will break the enchantment, and it will kill you. If you attempt to unclasp the necklace, it will kill you. If you catch the chain on something by accident and it is broken, it will kill you.”

Walter closed his eyes in resignation. “I probably shouldn’t ask, but is there any way to remove the necklace without triggering this explosion?”

I smiled, “Yes, actually there are two methods that I know. The best is for me to remove it without disturbing the enchantment. The other is for someone to sever your head at the neck, allowing the necklace to fall free without being damaged.”

He brought his hand up to grasp the silver chain. “You should have killed me,” he said solemnly. There was a look of ineffable sadness in his eyes. “I’m half tempted to finish myself now.”

I had to work hard to keep my face smooth. “That’s your choice,” I said, concealing my worry. “Until you decide to do that… who paid you to kidnap my wife and mother?”

“No one,” he replied. “I wasn’t paid. It was by order of King Edward… or so his agents told me.”

I had expected as much, though I had thought it would take longer to get the answer. “Even the King pays his servants. Surely you didn’t spend weeks skulking about my castle watching me and preparing for nothing but the glory of serving your monarch,” there was a bitter tone to my words.

“He has my wife and children.”

I went still and our eyes locked for a long moment. I had sensed no deception in his reply, but his answer made me suspicious nonetheless. The only explanation he could give that might deflect some of the blame was that he was acting under duress, and I couldn’t be certain he didn’t know some method for hiding his falsehoods. He had already shown that he knew certain types of magic I was otherwise ignorant of. Finally I spoke, “That’s an easy answer for you to make.”

He didn’t waver, “I have no other.”

I decided to leave that issue aside for later. “How long were you observing us here?”

“Almost two months,” he answered promptly.

“What were your orders, in specific?” I asked.

Walter hesitated, “If the King discovers I’ve been taken prisoner, and talked to you… he’ll kill one of my children, or something worse.”

I leaned in to stare into his eyes, “My wife and unborn child have joined the ranks of the living dead thanks to your efforts. Eventually I’ll have to find her and render her corpse to ash to give her peace. I’m having some difficulty feeling much sympathy for you.”

His eyes widened, “The shiggreth?”

It hadn’t occurred to me that he wouldn’t have known what happened to his party after he was captured. “They were ambushed by them in the forest, just a few miles from Lancaster. None of them escaped alive.”

Walter’s face registered genuine shock, “I had no idea.”

For some reason his chagrin reminded me of the night that I had slain the night watchman guarding the royal warehouses. Of course I hadn’t been kidnapping anyone, but a number of people had died that night, starting with Jonathan Tucker and eventually culminating with my father. “That’s what happens when you roll the dice and take risks with other people’s lives Walter, some of them get hurt,” I said bitterly.

“You didn’t mention your mother,” he said suddenly. “What happened to Miriam?”

Hearing a complete stranger use her name like that was a bit of a surprise, until I remembered that he had been observing us closely for two months. Ask him who healed Miriam; his answer should help you understand, Penny’s words ran through my head. “You healed her didn’t you?”

He looked down for a moment, “Yes I did. Ruth… that’s the mercenary who was in charge of our group, Ruth stabbed her.”

“Why did you bother?”

“I never wanted to do any of this. Miriam was a gentle soul, I didn’t want to see her hurt, or anyone else in your family for that matter,” he said softly.

That was when I felt my first pang of empathy for the man. “What are your children’s names?” I asked on a sudden whim.

“Elaine, my daughter, is the oldest. She will be sixteen this year. My boy, George, just turned eleven last month.”

The name George rang a bell in my mind and I remembered my father’s letters. “George… is he named after your father?”

Walter looked up, “No, George was my older brother.”

That surprised me; I had assumed that the George Prathion my father had known was this man’s father. I made a mental note of the fact before continuing, “How long has it been since you saw your children Walter?”

“Four years.”

I stood up. “I still don’t know if I believe you Walter. But if you’re telling the truth I’ll do my damnedest to make sure they’re safe again.”

The older wizard’s eyes stared at me intently, and I could see both hope and fear written on his face. I turned away and opened the door. “I’ll check on you again in a few days. Rest up and heal, we can talk more then. If you try to escape, or if you aren’t here when I return… I’ll assume you were lying and kill you.” I snapped my fingers to illustrate my point. I could feel his eyes still watching me as I shut the door.