The Mad Mage of Sevendor by Terry Mancour

Author:Terry Mancour [Mancour, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-26T22:00:00+00:00

1st of Gespamas

My respite is over. Mel Theranyel is the dominant ghost in my mind today.

I cut my participation in the Curia short after I paid the assessment on the Magelaw. I confess I did so in a flamboyant fashion – I had anticipated roughly how much would be asked of me, and had Bryte the Wiser secure the rough amount in coin from my treasury and tuck it into a hoxter. When the royal treasurer announced the amount – a mere forty-two thousand ounces of gold – instead of preparing a letter of credit on one of my temple accounts I stood before the man and produced the entire amount (slightly more, actually) and conjured it at once in front of the entire hall.

It was a dramatic display, as I intended, and it had the intended effect: there were gasps and moans from many of the other counts at the casual display of wealth. To make matters worse (for them) I also added twenty-five suits of full plate armor made with glimmering Yltedene steel of special design, a donation to the Royal Guard. They were far superior to the armor currently in use by the corps and a significant improvement over the standard jousting armor most knights in the Riverlands could afford. I also had twenty-five longswords delivered in the same way.

Rard was impressed and gushed over the gift. Tavard was positively livid. From what Sir Festaran reported of his best troops in Darkfaller, Prince Tavard’s prized knights were poorly equipped for war, preferring armor that was really only suited for tournament use, not warfare, and which promoted decoration over functionality. Moreover, each of the sets I presented were uniform in their manufacture, which made the palace guardsmen stand out over visiting lords.

In truth, I gave Count Marcadine far more than the king for his use against the gurvani. But the gift was showy enough, after my sudden production of that much gold, to impress upon every count there that the Spellmonger was not to be trifled with.

After that, I collected my party and departed back to Sevendor by means of the new portal in the palace courtyard. Mel Theranyel was not interested in the squabbling of the nobility over coin. She had other interests. In particular, she had a desire to finish the work I had begun on behalf of Lilastien. I spent the remainder of the day in my workshop preparing the device. It is nearing completion, and once I charge it with a modicum of the divine energy I can harvest from the Everfire, I shall present it to her.

Alya was, of course, glad to be away from the palace at Kaunis. While she bore the scrutiny of the court that the Spellmonger’s wife always gets, she is not comfortable with it, nor does she play at the courtier’s game that is so popular there. That may make her seem aloof and disinterested – which she is – but it also makes her seem intriguing.

She related

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