Questing Sucks! Book II (55 page)

“One of the gryphons, a horrible, unruly, and untrained beast, was able to get free. It’s bound to be noticed sooner or later. We could not catch it.”

“Will it cause a problem for us?”

“No, it shouldn’t. But it was causing some problems for Benjamin and myself when we tried to leave. It is far larger than any I’ve seen before, and it has a wicked personality for what are usually lovely, affable creatures. Ah well. I suppose that’s a problem for later.” She clapped her hands together. “Let’s be off then.”

Cah’lia placed her hands on the Champion’s shoulders and gripped them tightly as their gryphon picked up speed and launched itself upwards into the air and then off towards Magia.

Wait for me
,
Sehn
.
I’m coming
!

As the orange light dimmed then disappeared, Sehn glared at Issius, wondering if the old man thought Sehn was some kind of easily pleased fool. “What manner of bullshit is this?” he asked. “Answer me at once!”

Sehn had been at it all day again, mastering yet another one of the spells that the pathetic Archmage worms were teaching him. Unlike the summoning spell, he’d picked up the last few rather quickly—even faster than he himself believed was possible, and this latest spell was no exception. He’d both learned and mastered it in just a day’s time. Yet, he was disappointed; the spell was pathetic and lacked the destruction he’d been promised. All of them so far had failed to impress him.

“My good elf,” Archmage Bennet said, approaching him without permission. If Sehn had not been in such a merciful mood, he would have kicked the man in his face and knocked him onto his back. “We are in a highly anti-magic zone.”

“So?”

“What this means is that the spell’s power is greatly diminished from what it would be if we were on the outside.”

Sehn did not bother to hide his scowl. He crossed his arms and turned his head away from Bennet, who did not deserve the privilege of having the Great Sehn’s divine gaze lingering upon his mortal self.

“It had better. So, I take it this spell is as good as mastered?”

“Yes,” Issius said. “And quite surprisingly, too. You’re exceptionally gifted with
Remmos
and its conjugations. And it is my hope that this will be a far more potent replacement for your
Remmos Salas
. Just remember: its purpose is not to wound the flesh. Without it, all your other spells will fail you against a stronger, well-learned mage. Do not use this spell to injure. You must—”

“Yes, yes, I remember. Cease repeating things, Bitchius. The Great Sehn does not require information to be told to him more than once, for his Godly brain records all that is said to him with the clarity of one reliving it.”

“Oh?” asked a voice to Issius’s left. “If that’s the case, then tell me, Sehn, what is my name?”

“Archmage
Ura…
ah…Urawhore.”

He frowned. “You would be wise to—”

Sehn lifted his palm and extended it in the man’s direction. “
You
would be wise to think carefully before finishing that sentence. Now, be silent or I shall turn you into food for my pet bird.”

“I am
not
a bird!” Estelle moaned from where she was dancing midair a few dozen feet across from him. For an entire week, she’d kept herself entrained by playing stupid, annoying games with Nero and Rina.

“You are whatever I say you are!”

“Nope-nope!”

Sehn tried his best to ignore his new bird so that he could listen to Issius while he explained more boring “facts” about the spell. But it was difficult to concentrate, because he was too distracted to pay attention to whatever Issius was saying.

With his head turned in the direction of the children, Sehn grew bitter while he watched his minion, Estelle, dancing around in Rina’s open palms. The two blabbered away to one another about ridiculous, girly bullshit. Honestly, who did Estelle, Rina,
or
Nero think they were? Just look at them, having “fun” together and giggling. How dare they enjoy themselves while Sehn was pushing himself so hard? They had done nothing but “play” for the past week while he had worked tirelessly to gain power. The least they could do was be unhappy in his honor.

“Yep-yep-mhmm!” Estelle said in answer to whatever nonsense Rina had just said to her. “I can make a Rina song.
And
I can make a Nero song, too. I love making up new songs!”

“Whoah, cool.”

How dare she not offer to make a Sehn song
?
Sehn thought, the insult burning away at his very soul.
All songs must be composed in my honor
.

Using his anger to fuel his determination, Sehn forced himself to pry his attention away from the children, then demanded Issius teach him the next spell he was meant to learn. To his satisfaction, the Holy Magus agreed. Issius took a few steps back to stand directly center between Archmage Bennet and Archmage Uramore. He tapped his chin while he looked at Sehn as though thinking up what should come next.

The other Archmage, the quiet one named Sevron, continued to sit on his own, saying nothing. Sehn had only heard the man speak once or twice since meeting him. His appearance indicated he was the youngest of the Archmages and also the largest; he had the body of one who hauled cargo on the docks of a port city, which was not what Sehn expected to see from a mage.

The Holy Magus stopped tapping his chin, then rotated his finger so that he was pointing at Sehn. “Ah, of course,” he said. “There’s only one thing we forgot. If we had more time, there would be hundreds of spells I’d like you to learn. But we need to act before Magia becomes too comfortable with Duncan’s rule to oppose him or, at the very least, to do anything other than stand aside while we dispose of him. At any rate, Sehn, I think you’re going to like this next spell best of all. You’ve actually seen it once before.”

“Oh? I have, have I?”

“Yes. But ah…are you certain you don’t wish to rest first?”

“Fool! The Great Sehn is actually
weakened
by rest!”

“All right, all right. Let’s not get angry now.” Issius looked to his right. “Archmage Bennet?”

“Yes, Holy Magus?”

“You should instruct him once again. This time, teach him how to make things he can actually control.”

At this, Archmage Bennet chuckled. “Oh, I think he will like this one. You are right about that, Holy Magus.” To Sehn, he said, “My good elf, it’s time you learned to make lesser summons.”

Sehn shrugged. “As long as it brings me great power, I shall master it.”

“Splendid. Let’s continue, then. This shouldn’t take long at all.”

“And then what?”

“Then we break out of here, and you get to go on a rampage.”

Sehn grinned and shivered with delight. That was exactly what he wanted to do. Things were turning out quite good indeed. The world would know true evil once more. The rise of Sehn dawned near, and with it, all life in the universe would be submerged in darkness.

The sun was just beginning to rise when Magia came into view. Set against the early-morning dimness, the city was still aglow with its numerous multicolored lights. Nothing had ever looked so spectacular. Cah’lia regretted that it was once more under such unfortunate circumstances she was paying a visit.

“Gods,” Patrick said. He spoke loudly enough so that, even with the wind beating against her ears, she could still hear him from where he rode just up ahead with Benjamin on the back of the brown gryphon.

“It’s something else, isn’t it?” Orellia asked.

He nodded. “It’s breathtaking.”

Magia approached fast. In the distance, Cah’lia could make out dozens of individual island-like platforms, each one managing to stay afloat all on its own. The last time she’d been here, Sehn had declared war on the entire population. This resulted in an uncountable number of mages zapping them with some kind of sleep-inducing magic. Later, they’d awoken inside of a prison on a floating island a fair distance away, so she hadn’t been able to see much of the place.

Now, however, she got the eyeful she’d missed out on during her last trip. She couldn’t appreciate it, of course—or at least not as much as she would’ve been able to if she’d been here under better circumstances. Maybe if the lives of the three most important people in the world to her weren’t depending on her succeeding, she’d find it easier to appreciate Magia’s beauty.

Thoughts of Sehn and the children caused her to cling more tightly to the Champion in the desperate hope that steadying herself would also steady her nerves. She could not afford to fail. She had already been faced with Sehn’s death once, and she would not let herself be in that position again.

Be calm
, she told herself.
You know better than to get nervous
.

Cah’lia was no girly girl. She’d killed, and she’d almost
been
killed. Recent events had hardened her soul and had given her a far thicker skin than she’d ever had before leaving Elvar. But even despite this, her recent hardships were still not enough to keep a nauseating pain in her belly from spreading into her chest. She was nervous. That much was obvious. But it was the extent of just
how
nervous that concerned her.

“Where are we setting down?” she called out to Iona, who flew at the front of their formation. Using hand signals, Iona directed all four of their gryphons, and to Cah’lia’s surprise, the gryphons both understood and obeyed her instructions.

“The biggest platform,” she shouted back, twisting in her saddle to look behind her at Cah’lia while she spoke. “The one closest to the center of the bunch.”

Cah’lia found this surprising, as did the Champion, apparently, because his back straightened, and Cah’lia felt his shoulder muscles tense upon hearing her words. Patrick also seemed to share in their concern. “Are you sure about that?” he asked. “Isn’t that where the Hall of Governance is located?”

“Yes, it is. And that’s why we’re going there.”

“Wouldn’t it be wiser to meet up somewhere a bit more secretive as we’d originally planned?”

“No, why would it be?”

“It’s just…wouldn’t Archmage Duncan notice if a large gathering of rebel mages assembled right at his doorstep? Isn’t that why we were going to meet some distance away in the first place?”

“I’m also confused about this,” Cah’lia said. “I thought the plan was to meet them somewhere safe and then fly together as a group to the Hall of Governance. Are we doing things differently now?”

“Just trust me.”

“Yes, trust her,” Orellia said. “She knows what she’s doing.”

“Thank you, Mistress Orellia.”

“No thanks required. You should know that I always have your back, Iona.” To the others, Orellia called out, “Please trust in her judgment.”

Cah’lia gave them a half-hearted salute to indicate her compliance, though in truth, she was doubtful. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Iona, but more that she believed the woman was making a foolish choice. If the Hall of Governance was located on the platform they were flying towards, then that would mean the “resistance” would assemble right where Duncan would see them. Wouldn’t that enable him to put a stop to things before they even began? Wasn’t that a bit…well, stupid?

I don’t know how things work around here
, she reminded herself.
Maybe this is just how things are in Magia
.
Maybe this kind of gathering won’t draw the kind of attention it would elsewhere
.

As they began to fly over one of the outermost island platforms, Cah’lia promised herself that, one of these days, she’d tour Magia the proper way. There were so many places she wished she could visit, such as a small, resort-like island, where a field of green surrounded a single castle-shaped structure, and closer towards the edges were giant, unisex bathing springs. Or perhaps bathing was not their intended purpose after all, as the few people Cah’lia could spot from up here were clothed and were not concealed behind a curtain. The springs must have been more for relaxation and socialization; that by itself was not completely out of the ordinary, but the fact that men and women went in together was something uncanny and would be considered indecent anywhere else.

Even more surprising were the seemingly natural water sources and land formations, something that she’d failed to notice the last time she’d been here. A few of the platforms were actually chunks of earth with vegetation, ponds, and various wildlife—entire ecosystems but on a much smaller scale. She wasn’t sure if these earth-like islands were artificially created or if they were broken-off pieces of landmasses that had once been part of the surface below. They certainly
looked
natural.

A bit off to her left, there was even an island with a miniature-sized mountain and a waterfall that ran from its peak down to its base; Cah’lia watched as a constant stream of liquid pooled over the edge of the island, where it would then fall like rain on its long plunge back down to the surface.

The closer they flew towards the center of Magia, the fewer of these “natural islands” she spotted, and instead those with various buildings and structures became greater in number. Some were small, and aside from a lone house or two, there wasn’t much else to see; others were quite large and looked to contain miniaturized cities. But the largest of all was the one closest to the center—the one they were flying towards. It was also the island with the grandest, most remarkable structures she had ever seen.

Cah’lia had never known buildings could be so tall. How did they not fall apart, crumble, or simply topple over on their sides? Some neared forty stories in height, and although they reminded Cah’lia of towers, they took on more of a box-like shape. On many were hundreds of equally spaced glass windows. Did this mean that these enormous buildings contained hundreds of individual rooms? How could such miraculous creations even exist? And there were so many of them, too.

“Are those…?” Cah’lia wasn’t sure how to finish her thought, but it turned out she didn’t need to. Shina appeared to understand what she was trying to ask and seemed all-too happy to enlighten her.

“Yeah, they’re exactly what they look like. Amazing, huh? There’s nothing you surface-dwellers have down below that can match it. Magia is the best!”

There was pride in the way she spoke, and Cah’lia didn’t think it was entirely undeserved, either. “How can all of these structures stay upright?” she asked. “And if people live in them, there must be so many more mages here than I thought.”

“Hmm…not exactly,” Shina said. “Most people who live in Magia aren’t actually mages. In fact, you know what? Less than a percent of us are. The rest aren’t. It’s true, I swear it.”

“They’re not?”

Cah’lia wasn’t sure why, but Shina seemed to find the question somewhat difficult. “No, because…it’s because keeping a place like this running requires a ton of labor, so we’ve got a whole lot of people doing that uh…that labor, basically.”

“So you pay them to live here and perform these functions?” Patrick asked her. “How does a small sovereign entity like Magia afford to take on so many workers? If what you’re saying is true, then the majority of people in your civilization are employed by it.”

“Well…” For some reason, the pride in Shina’s voice lessened and was replaced by something closer to embarrassment. “Well…”

“Well?” Patrick asked. “Well
what
?”

“They’re not exactly ‘employed’ if you want to get technical about it.”

“They’re not?” Patrick paused a moment and briefly averted his eyes. “But if they’re not employed, then what you’re saying is that they’re…”

“They’re slaves,” Orellia stated bluntly. “Yes.”

Patrick’s eyebrows raised, and he craned his neck to look at her. “Slaves? As in…as in the outlawed practice of involuntary human servitude and ownership? The practice I had the mayor of Koringrath hanged for engaging in?”

“Yes.
That
. It’s one of our darker, more shameful secrets.”

“This is awful,” Patrick said. His lips peeled back in disgust. “Revolting, even.”

“Don’t judge us,” Orellia said. “We did not institute this practice. It has been this way for thousands of years, and they are treated well.”

“That does not excuse it. Gods, there must be thousands of them—no,
tens
of thousands who live here.”

“And if we released them, this entire world we call home would collapse. You would not believe the effort required to keep these platforms afloat. If you are under any illusions that it is magic and fairy dust keeping us airborne, then let me dispel you of these notions right here and now. It’s true that we’d prefer people think this is the doing of magic, but really, what’s keeping us up in the air is nothing more than tried and tested dwarven-built steam engines. It requires an enormous workforce to keep running.”

“So why don’t you pay them, then?”

“We could never afford it.” Orellia met Patrick’s stare with one of her own, and for an instant, the two locked eyes. “This is
not
something we are proud of,” she continued. “And we treat them well. They are clothed, fed, and only beaten when absolutely necessary.”

“In my eyes,” Patrick said, “that is called savagery—and a crime against all sentient life.”

Cah’lia was inclined to agree. “Shina, you knew about this?”

Shina said nothing, and in failing to respond, the girl’s silence spoke volumes more than anything she could have possibly said in reply. Orellia, though, was not quite as silent. Once more, she spoke out in Magia’s defense.

“This is our home, and right now, you are a guest in it. I don’t like how you are speaking ill of it without understanding all the facts. I assure you, it’s not as bad as you’re imagining it to be.”

“It isn’t?” Patrick asked. “If only one percent of the people who live here are mages, does that mean the rest are slaves?”

“No, no, no,” Orellia said, sounding frustrated. “Shina misspoke. Only a quarter or so are slaves. The rest are citizens who found success in selling supplies, tools, furniture, or food both to the mages and to one another. An entire economy has been built around the fact that, as mages, we don’t have the time to do anything aside from practicing our magic. Yet we all come from various cultures and races. Early on in Magia’s history, we began bringing up willing people of these various races to create things for us that we could not create ourselves. And through this, over a period of many, many years, we have become one of the largest market economies in the world, even if no one is aware of it. So the answer is no: we are
not
a civilization of slaves.”

“That doesn’t make it sound any better,” Patrick said. “So, a quarter of your population is enslaved. And what if one of them wishes to leave?”

“We can’t allow that, because we need them.”

“And if they try to escape?”

“This…this is not a conversation for outsiders,” Orellia said. She spoke in a tone of voice that implied no more discussion on this subject would be had any time soon.

It was obvious Patrick had more that he wanted to say, but Iona called out to them that they would soon be touching down, and upon those words, Patrick took his eyes off Orellia and straightened himself in his saddle, as did Cah’lia. They were close now. From this point onwards, there would be no turning back.

Here we go
.

As they finally began to fly over the largest of the platform islands, her gryphon extended its wings wide, and its speed gradually reduced. At the same time, Cah’lia felt a sensation in her stomach as the creature descended. Were they setting down? It seemed that way. But where would they be landing? All she saw were the tops of buildings, both big and small, and the narrow, corridor-like streets down below that almost seemed to be squeezed in between them. Through it all, she saw nothing that looked suitable for a gryphon to use as a perch, and despite the reduction in speed, they were still moving quite fast.

They continued to descend, coming in lower and lower. Cah’lia willed herself not to panic as they became level with some of the taller buildings. The gryphon was now at an altitude where, if the creature decided to veer off mere inches to either the left or the right, it would end up splattering headfirst into one of the top-floor windows of any one of these massive buildings it had begun gliding between.