Chapter 10
Earth Wizard, the Distressed Discoverer
On the outside, the house looked just like any other house here in Chemiran. A squat stone building. Two stories high. Tucked tight between two neighbors like eggs in a cushioned crate.
But with the small gap of an alley smelling of wine as fresh and crisp as the warm night.
Even with all the windows shutters closed and dark. Spaced several feet apart to perfectly match the average haphazard spacing common in the typical residential homes. The roof slanted and tiled. The ridge extended a foot or so to match the average too.
Except there was no visible hole in the iron lock on the thick oak door.
No sound from inside either.
The screams of the poor people dying by the scores made the bent back of the Earth Wizard cringe a bit too straight. How the darklings breached the hundred-foot wall of stone and iron surrounding the city was anyone’s guess. The celebration tonight would have lowered the wariness of the guards too much.
It only took one foolish failure too many for a disaster to strike.
The smell of blood and death would soon reach here. His magic was more than enough to eradicate the army of darklings butchering the innocents throughout the entire city.
Yet the marrow of his bones tingled from a deeper, darker spell waiting to be cast.
Forcing him to wait. Confirm his fears first.
Or else he might doom everyone by trying to save them.
The young petite Paladin girl now returned behind him was still absolutely silent. Amazing how her leather boots were so quiet against the cobble. Even if she was probably annoyed at not confronting the darklings head on.
But her flat face and skin complexion, that of those ripe exquisite apricots from the deep southern regions, would have attracted too much attention if they went the usual routes through the city now.
His loose yellow robes with silvery lining matched the style of the usual old timer scholars that lived their retirement here. They also hid the extent of his centuries of wrinkles and thin boniness. His gray whiskers and long hair were just unkempt enough to prevent anyone from examining him too long.
“Connie,” he asked, “Found any other doors?”
“None,” she said, “Unless hidden by magic.”
The last bit spoken as tartly as the little lime pudding pies she loved to sneak off and feast on during her weekly day off – a little secret of hers he discovered unintentionally during his regular outings through the city and friendly conversations with friends and stranger.
Many of whom he would now never get the opportunity to chat with again.
Which sunk his frown deeper.
Death came to everyone. Eventually.
No need to speed up the process.
But the tingle in his marrow definitely came from this house.
“I doubt it,” he said, “Hidden by magic, I mean. Your skills of observation are superb.”
An honest compliment. He knew better than to assume everyone knew their own strengths and weaknesses.
Or understood his intent whenever he misspoke.
He only paused a moment for a response from her. None came.
“Stay close behind me,” said the Earth Wizard, “And remember my prior orders. It is of utmost importance.”
“But …” said Connie.
“Please, Connie,” said the Earth Wizard. Cutting off any protest before she could reveal any hint of what he had ordered. “It is vital.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
Her stiff voice betrays her unease. As the last wizard, he knew if he died, she might face a severe punishment – except the message parchment he had handed to her, complete with a disguise spell to hid it from the wrong eyes, would redeem her and her honor.
If only he could tell her everything safely.
Hopefully, this precaution and his others would prove unnecessary.
“Now let us begin,” he said, “Stay within seven feet of me unless I order otherwise.”
“As you command,” said Connie.
Her footsteps, as quiet as they were, still were loud enough for him to hear over the growing screams of the dying innocents blocks away.
She positioned herself four feet behind him.
A moment later he headed straight to the front door.
Pushed his palm against it.
It resisted.
His bones tingle as if the marrow inside had turned to living slime.
The smell of the iron lock. Underneath the blood and death of tonight’s horrid massacre, that bittersweet bite of bloodiron – iron forged with blood potions so potent a sensitive nose could smell the blood potion within the iron once close enough.
A black pentacle burned itself into existence on the lock. With five demonic skulls in each triangle and a pair of giant demonic skulls in the center.
All with glinting eyes.
Making his blood run colder than the frozen wastelands at the caps of this world.
The Seven Kings of Hell. Beings each as powerful, if not more so, as the Dark Lord himself.
And none willing to humor coexistence with any denizen on this world.
Darkling or lightling.
The forced peaceful stalemate between lightlings and darklings was already falling apart. Without the help of the other three wizards that imposed it, it was doomed. Thinking back, the wizard debated if merely letting the darklings and lightlings live as they wished – divided and hateful of each other – rather than encourage mutual peaceful habitation in various cities and towns … it still would have required a subtle, gentle hand to work.
More subtle, more care than the aid the wizard provided in starting the breeding of lycan in pelt farms over many generations to transform them from mindless murderous beasts on two feet to their more modern humanized selves, wild or tamed.
And the help of more wizardry than his own.
This attack would spiral out of control. Lead to another War of Light and Darkness. Exactly what the Dark Lord and his Dreaded Ones wanted. Where the Dark Lord would rise again and rule as a tyrant. Insist on eliminating any lightling against becoming an utter slave, body and mind, to their supposed darkling betters – yet the darklings themselves not much better off than their poor lightling brethren.
But there was no hope of marshaling a truce to defend this world against the Demon Lords. Even if all the lightlings and darklings stood in unison against them.
As he feared, the Earth Wizard had no choice left.
He had to enter this place. Undo whatever spell was about to be cast.
For if it failed, the Dark Lord and his darkling hordes would be the least of their problem.