Mage for Hire by Jason Kenyon

Author:Jason Kenyon [Kenyon, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six: Verrinion Cathedral

Valia leant on the balcony of her room atop one of the highest towers of the cathedral. To the right the shattered ruins of the holy chapel lay lifeless and rimmed the ominous barrier that continued to cast its bloody glare across the land. To the left Velris’s forces sat in a grim shadow like some dark snake ready to ensnare and throttle the paladin order. It made her eyes funny going from the normally-lit interiors to the thick sanguine glow of the outside world, and it still felt very disorienting in general. Perhaps that was the idea, although Valia was not certain that Bartell’s soldiers and citizens would approve of it overmuch.

She did not really know what to make of Grand and Neurion’s theory that Obdo was the necromancer behind the demon and undead rumours. He’d never seemed anything more than the bumbling oaf Archimegadon had treated him as, although perhaps this was the way he had always been treated – and thus the prompting to seek out greater, dark powers for revenge.

It was similar to the way in which Lord Bartell had collected the amulets, rings and whatever else that now made him a near-unassailable foe. Bitter because the world hadn’t turned out perfect after the battle with Tel Ariel… Valia agreed that things had not been going great, but this takeover would only spread more dissent! And the use of these dark powers made Valia question the truth of his words.

Bleh, who knew? This was a matter for Grand now. It had become clear over dinner that the Commander had his sights set on being the one to dethrone and destroy Bartell. Valia supposed it was only right, as the paladin, representative of the Light, would be quite an apt opponent for the villainous lord with his dark powers. Indeed, it would be most poetic for it to end that way.

Valia didn’t really have any high aspiration. While she was hoping to provide some good help to the cause, she had no intention of leading it or getting a name for herself. She felt in this sense she was certainly far ahead of the ex-mage Archimegadon, whose participation she was delighted not to have. Had he been involved, he would have annoyed Grand into executing them. Although with no money up for grabs the mage would likely never have come here.

No, the world was better off without Archimegadon.

*

Grand had swiped a very nice picture from the great hall, and was working on fixing it to his wall. His current office was rather sparse, as his usual one lay across the border along with most of his possessions and useful documents. The latter mattered little as the everyday running of the kingdom was no longer what it had been. Much of what Grand had overseen and governed was still free out in the kingdom of Valanthas, while this poxy area of New Valanthas had largely been under the jealous Lord Bartell’s control. Probably why it was such a disaster.

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