Michael Manning - The Archmage unbound

“I’ll set that aside for now. My only concern at the moment is Penny and Dorian, and once that’s taken care of, the King. I can worry about the rest afterward,” I said to myself. Pacing the room I enumerated the obstacles to rescuing them. Most importantly I couldn’t be entirely sure where they were located. Our best guess lay in the secret compound that the Doronites had. Yet even if we could be sure they were there we didn’t know have precise directions to find it. Marc’s information regarding its location was good but he had never been there.

To make matters worse I had less than twenty four hours. Roughly twenty one hours now, I estimated mentally. It was past six o’clock now and my meeting with the King was set for three tomorrow afternoon.

I became still and felt my mind grow calm, filled by a clear silence that brought everything into focus. An idea took shape and I carefully pruned and shaped it until I thought it gave me at least a chance of accomplishing my goal. I can’t be certain of anything, so lacking surety I must simply act decisively, I thought. Taking a deep breath I went back downstairs.

The others were deep in discussion when I found them. They had moved into the parlor and I could tell by their voices that there was nothing approaching a consensus among them. In fact they seemed on the verge of an outright argument.

“Well if you have a better damned idea why don’t you spit it out Lady Rose!” Marc declared, raising his voice and putting an ugly emphasis on her title.

Rose was glaring daggers at him. “It isn’t that I mind regicide, you bloodthirsty sot, but it won’t solve anything. Even if we managed to kill him the hostages will still die. Edward isn’t a fool and I’m certain he has contingencies set up to ensure his revenge in the event of something drastic happening to him.” Her voice was level but the words left little doubt she thought Marc was reasoning poorly.

“We could just cooperate,” said Walter quietly.

“That’s worked out rather well for you all these years hasn’t it?” Marcus interjected sarcastically.

I coughed loudly from the doorway to get their attention. None of them heard me. “At least he’s thinking of his family’s well-being instead of seeking blind vengeance,” sniped Rose.

“That’s enough!” I barked and this time I got their attention. Walking into the middle of the room I looked around me. “We don’t have a lot of time. Marc, you did say you aren’t certain of the location of the Doronites secret compound, correct?”

He nodded, “Yes.”

“Do you know who would know?”

“The high priest surely, along with the supply master and some of the clergy responsible for rotating there for duty,” he responded.

“And which do you think would be easiest for us to lay hands upon?” I asked.

He put a hand to his chin. “None of them really, but the only two I know on sight would be the supply master and the high priest and of the two of them the supply master might be easier. Plus he might not be missed as quickly.”

“How long is the trip to reach this place? Or have you heard?”

He frowned, “I’m not certain but based on the few comments I’ve overheard I would guess about a half a day’s travel on horseback.”

“Rose, I need a place outside of the city. Something close by where we can move people without being too obvious,” I said shifting my attention.

“None of my properties outside of the city are that close,” she answered.

“It doesn’t have to belong to you,” I explained. “I just need something where no one will be watching and we can count on some privacy for a day or so.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Would something like a barn be sufficient?”

“That would be perfect. Can you show me where it is?” I asked.

She shook her head, “Not yet, I need to talk to someone first, but I’m sure I can set something up within an hour or two.”

I thought for a moment. “That will work. Go now. Don’t worry about being seen leaving, just don’t let them follow you.” I turned back to the others. “I want the rest of you to acquire this supply master from the Doronite temple.”

Marc looked concerned, “If we go in there and kidnap him from the midst of their temple it will cause a huge ruckus.”

“You know the layout of the temple,” I reminded him. “With Walter you can find him without anyone seeing you. Find him and remove him from his bed tonight. If he merely vanishes they won’t know enough to suspect what we’re doing.”

“What will you be doing?” asked Harold suddenly.

I smiled, “I’m going to Lancaster but I’ll be back in less than an hour. Once Rose returns I’ll go to her house and wait for the rest of you there. After that we’ll be moving to this barn or whatever she can find for us.”

I was back long before Rose was so I started work on another piece of my plan. James had readily agreed to my requests but he had been somewhat surprised when I asked him for two small boxes. I had thought that two small matching boxes would be fairly easy to find but they turned out to be extraordinarily difficult. Genevieve had solved the problem by emptying two of her ring boxes.

I had taken them begrudgingly, since I knew she treasured the boxes, but even after I had told her I would ruin them she insisted. The two boxes were actually smaller than I had planned but they met my most important criteria, they were nearly identical in size and shape, each being three inches square and one inch deep.

Since I wasn’t sure how much longer Rose would be I began by using some paper to do calculations and plan out my runes before attempting to do anything to the boxes. I had learned from my prior work that it didn’t do to start inscribing runes before I had them exactly planned out.

Rose returned before I had quite finished working out the details, so I had her wait for a few minutes. It would have taken me longer to regain my train of thought if I had tried to stop and start again later. Once I had the runes diagrammed I double checked my notes and put them in my pouch along with the boxes and my stylus.

“Alright, I’m ready to go now,” I told her. She had been watching patiently while I worked at the kitchen table.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to share the significance of your arcane scribbling?” she said with an anxious tone.

I winked at her. “You’ll see,” I said with more confidence than I really felt. Picking up my staff I headed for the door.

“Are you worried about being seen leaving?” she asked as I set my hand on the door.

“Not this time,” I replied. “In fact it may be beneficial to have them follow us to your house.”

She gave me another of her raised eyebrow looks, “I don’t suppose you plan on explaining any of this beforehand do you?”

I gave her a steady look, “Sometimes it’s better to act decisively. With some luck and quick action I think we can save them and put Edward in his place, but I won’t explain it all now. You will have to trust me.”

She nodded thoughtfully, “I like it when you’re assertive and confident Mordecai, but I do have one question.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“How did you regain your confidence? When you left our little meeting earlier we all thought you had finally cracked under the load, but when you came back downstairs you were commanding and assertive. What set you in motion again?” Her blue eyes were full of curiosity. That and her intelligence were the two things that had always defined Rose in my mind.

I thought about her question seriously for a moment before replying, “I finally realized that no matter what happened I had to do something and the only person that could make those decisions was me.”