Chapter 26
The ruins were much the same as the last time I had been here. Sad, silent reminders of a once vibrant city. Now, there was nothing left but ruined buildings no higher than one story and burned remains that left no clue to what the former residence had been. I wondered if the skeletons of people were left where they had fallen or if someone had buried them.
I did not say anything as we rode down the old streets, looking neither left nor right as we passed the place where I had rescued my horses and survived a bite by a dust adder.
“He is waiting at the old Magister’s Hall,” Blackfin said and I nodded. Not that I knew where it was but he did having been here before during the war. We rode down the main avenue towards a brick wreck with gutted windows and the front of the façade gone so that the staircase was exposed to view. Standing on those steps was the wizard Connacher dressed in Klese attire and unarmed. He descended to the street as Blackfin and his armed guards pulled up. Several dismounted and held the horses’ reins as the Emperor’s son slid neatly off his big black gelding. He told me to get down and I stood next to him, holding my own mount’s leathers.
“Reuven,” Connacher called and I started but remained at Blackfin’s side.
“His name is Tobias Spencer. Baronet. He is the great-grandson of Lyr Averon.”
Connacher’s face reflected his shock at the revelation. “The King cursed you? That is how you became the yfed gwaed. Why did you want to meet with me, human Wizard?”
“I am Blackfin, son of the Emperor, advisor to the Warlord Gleneden who is the boy’s grandfather. It is my contention to remove the Emperor and invade the Borderlands, to dethrone Averon and become the next Emperor of the whole world.”
Connacher snorted. “You think you can take the Lyr? He has ruled for over a thousand years and dispatched as many enemies.”
“Yes, but none of them were yfed gwaed and bound to my will,” Blackfin smiled. “He can enter any place that is guarded and kill anyone or anything I command him to do. He will obey you if I tell him to, as long as it does not interfere with my plans.”
“I’m listening,” Connacher said slowly and the Emperor’s Wizard ordered his men to set up a cabin for the two of them where they entered and spent the next two days discussing and creating their plans. I was not included although Connacher gave me leave to eat, even supplying me with a small goat that he drained reserving the blood for me and the meat for the men. The Klese had also shot and butchered a deer but I was not offered that meal except for some thin steaks that they cooked over an open pit. No one talked to me or interacted with me so I sat quietly near the tent’s entrance until the Wizards would call me.
Night fell, the Klese set up a guard perimeter warning each other about the dust adders, which for some reason were plentiful among the ruins. I sat and dozed at the entrance and did not move when Blackfin stuck his head out once to hand me a blanket. Such a kindness was beyond my comprehension, it was not something I would have thought that he had in his makeup. I stammered thanks, wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and huddled beneath the cape. The stars passed overhead in a slow parade of cold indifference and for some few moments, I slept aware of the slow churning of life around me.
I heard the voices of the creatures under the soil and those of nocturnal animals around us. Even though the Klese had set up a guard perimeter, curious predators slipped stealthily and easily between them. I smelled and heard a dyall cat, bears and a clindor as they paraded silently among the camp yet they were not hungry. Curious more likely for they came within sighting distance of me.
Once they spied upon me, they seemed satisfied and left. I did not attempt to coerce them, the memory of my lessons in the collar too clear and painful. I did wonder if they were spies and who might have sent them.
In the morning, Connacher and Blackfin emerged looking quite pleased with each other and exhausted as well they should be–after spending two days conjuring spells that had lit up the walls of the tent like a beacon from a lighthouse.
Connacher gave Blackfin his hand and the two sealed their concord with a shake and the passing of power. Inside me, I felt a subtle shift as something changed and the collar flared. Turned black with gold etchings on its surface and Blackfin smiled that particularly sweet smile that made my skin crawl.
“Tobias,” he said and I dropped to my knees so that the blanket and cape fell around me looking more like a fallen black flower than a near man does.
“Master,” I acknowledged. He rested his hands on my head.
“Though it pains me so, I give you over to the Elder Connacher to use as he sees fit. You will obey him as you would me.”
“Yes, master,” I agreed colorlessly.
“Go with him.” He watched with avid eyes as the Elder raised me up, held me by my cloak and activated a traveling spell where the magic simply transported me from the ruins back to his home and the first thing I saw was the cage. I turned to look at him but his face was lost in a rage that I could not escape. He punished me for escaping him and when he left me on the floor of his workshop, bloody, beaten and near dead, I could not move nor did I want to. I was exactly where the master wanted and in the very way he had promised me.