“Yes, it wasn’t clear exactly what had happened to him. He wasn’t saying. However, the important thing is that he’s with Zilquar’s army. They’re just out of sight of Exador’s army. Staying invisible, I guess.”
“Zilquar’s army? He made good time. Given the time it would have taken to raise his forces, he must have come 600 miles in about 5 days. That’s incredibly fast for supply wagons and footmen.”
“Aaaahh!” Lenamare smiled. “Why do you think I called on him, despite his distance? Why did I ally myself with someone so far away?” Lenamare paced the room, his arm waving above his head, in a rather excited lecturer format. “You see, I knew that no one, such as Exador, would believe any distant ally like Zilquar could get there in time. But you forget that which many wizards forget when considering Zilquar. What are his school’s main areas of expertise?”
Jehenna shrugged, “Enchantment and Thaumaturgy I believe.”
“Exactly! Air and Earth! Like so many, you miss the military implications of his areas! Despite the fact that they do little Pyromancy or Conjury, they still are extremely useful for military situations. You see, one of the things that he routinely has his students making as an exercise, is flying carpets!”
“Of course. He flew his people in!” Jehenna seemed a bit miffed that she’d missed this.
“Well,” Lenamare conceded, “I suspect, to get an entire army, plus horses, he partially flew them in. I would guess he had all his horses and cavalry riding hard. His foot soldiers and supplies he probably flew.
“However, in addition to being able to arrive very quickly, his larger carpets would have made the perfect platforms from which to launch aerial attacks against that usurping son of a swamp lizard and his now glowing army.” Lenamare stopped and scowled at the floor. “Unfortunately, we had no time to reveal my plan. That demon and what’s his name, the dead student, conspired against me.” He waved his hand at any possible argument Jehenna might consider. “Oh, I know. Not directly conspire, I’m not that paranoid. Indirectly though, their incompetence aided my enemy, thus I use the word conspire, albeit rather loosely.”
Lenamare sat down again, resting his chin on his fist. “The problem,” he tilted his head to look up at Jehenna, “still remains. We don’t have the book. Nor does Exador, fortunately. We must have that book. Since, at the moment, we can’t get it, and since I suspect the council would find itself disagreeable to my venting steam by doing another Fission spell here at Freehold, I must find some other way to release my anger. Why don’t we plan the destruction of Exador? Yes, what can we do to discredit and ruin him here at Freehold?” Lenamare smiled to himself. Jehenna simply shook her head and pulled up a chair.
Maelen finished up the last of the wounded sailors. He then ran up to the forecastle to quickly look Rupert over. The boy’s body was a mess, severe burns, charred at the edges. Giant blisters had formed almost immediately. In a couple places on the outer extremities the very bone itself was showing through. His teeth appeared locked in a rictus of pain. Maelen did a quick scan for life. He found none. Admittedly, his senses were slightly obscured by the residual mana still clinging to the boy’s body.
The lightning spell had apparently been powerful enough that, even now, the mana used to create it, hung over the boy’s body in a haze. Animus was also present, however, it was not in the body as it would be with someone still alive. Rather it was the hazy disbursement of animus found shortly after the body was vacated by the soul. Actually, there was quite of bit of left-over animus, more than a boy of this age should have left. On the other hand, he’d noticed the boy had very high animus and mana concentrations while alive. That had been what had led Maelen to believe he was actually Edwyrd’s student. They both seemed to have very strong animus and mana auras. Much as he regretted it though, there was nothing he could do for the boy.
Edwyrd, on the other hand, was a different story. He’d plunged out of the sky and into the sea. It was pretty clear that he’d used up all his reserves in doing his last attack. Actually, Maelen would never have guessed the lad had enough reserves to do what he did. Edwyrd had had to use a fantastic amount of power. The Living Flame alone was taxing, add the prolonged strike against the Oorstemoth ship, finally the Avatar and then the increased heat of the blue-white flames must have drained him to the core.
