The Wizard's Mask by Ed Greenwood

Author:Ed Greenwood
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781601255303
Publisher: Paizo Publishing, LLC
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Wizards, Scripts, and Secrets

Tarram Armistrade cleared his throat, looked at the halfling who’d hired him seemingly half a lifetime ago, and warned, “After I finish telling you this, we should move. Far from here, and fast.”

Tantaerra looked disgusted. “Magic.”

He nodded. “Wielded by one who can kill us as easily as snapping his fingers.”

“Say on,” the halfling commanded, giving him a shrug to let him know what she thought of his warning.

The Masked grinned. Feisty to the last, this one.

“Mahalagris had an apprentice,” he told her. “Araungras Karm, a younger and more ambitious man whose spells were paltry compared to those of his master, but who learned fast, and was bold beyond prudence. Not to mention greedy.”

“He wanted the magic Mahalagris had, and killed him for it,” Tantaerra said flatly. “Not a unique tale, Tarram.”

“He wanted power over men, and wealth, and all the good things in life,” The Masked continued patiently, “the very things Mahalagris scorned in favor of isolation and study and the crafting of new magic.”

“This Karm wanted it all, without having to work for it.”

“He did.”

“And so?”

“And so, when Mahalagris stayed in his backland home and refused to involve himself in the strife between Nirmathas and Molthune, Karm met secretly with Molthuni who paid him well—and went to war on behalf of Molthune.”

“Starting by murdering his master.”

“I see you’re familiar with minstrels’ scripts. Karm’s first strike against the foe was indeed to treacherously murder Mahalagris, in hopes of gaining his master’s power—but his first mistake was to think that the Nirmathi regarded Mahalagris with the same fear and contempt he did.”

“Oh?” Tantaerra looked up, and her eyes held real interest at last.

“Wracked—and pursued—by the spells loosed by his dying master, Karm managed to bear away from his master’s abode just one thing. This mask.”

The halfling’s full attention was on him now.

“It took months before Karm was healed in body and confidence, and well-girded enough in replenished magic to dare to return. When he did venture back into Nirmathas, well disguised, he hoped to gain the spell-tomes of Mahalagris and his master’s things of power, including a blade that whispered and a gauntlet that blasted men in battle. The first had been borne by a loyal bodyguard who died in Karm’s attack, and the second by the wizard himself, though Karm’s swift savagery robbed him of any chance to use it. There was much wealth, too.”

“So did Mahalagris rise from his grave and murder this Karm, or did Karm replace him and become the same fell and mighty wizard his master had been?”

“Who’s telling this tale?”

The halfling rolled her eyes, but nodded and waved at The Masked to continue.

Bowing his head gravely, he did. “Karm found his master’s abode much changed. The Nirmathi had interred Mahalagris with honor—possibly out of respect for what good he’d done Nirmathas, but more likely out of fear of reprisals from his ghost. And they were right to be afraid. Mahalagris’s spirit had indeed risen as a mighty undead creature, adding his own magic to the tomb’s already extensive defenses.

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