Funny, thought Tyrrin, with unlimited resources they were taking a slow moving caravan instead of a carriage with it’s own team. Although the more that he thought about it, this was the better choice, as people were less likely to remember a pair from a wagon train than two speeding through the countryside in a personal carriage. Devereau had thought of everything. All he had to do through this journey was focus on the mission. He didn’t mind killing some Mage, it was all just business to him…
***
Life had been quiet since Jolan had split from his adventuring party a while back. He had been given the title of Lord, and a nice place to tend as the Janitor of Phelan manner. He oversaw the hired hands who tended the nearby crops and was given ample quiet time to study his arts. While Jolan’s arcane powers come to him naturally, he had found recently that he could transfer those innate powers into written scrolls and powerful potions. He had a longstanding deal with a few merchants in town who purchased these items at great cost, and most certainly sold them at even greater prices. But that was not his concern. It was an extremely profitable way to pass the time and make money for his research. He still made certain that he had plenty of time during the day to walk in the manicured gardens with his familiar Xavia. His first and best friend, this owl had come to him when he called. It seemed like years ago that he and Xavia had fled north into the Elvin Kingdom dodging Hemisal and his family’s organization of the crossed arrows. He missed his fellow adventuring friends, but not overly much. He had everything he wanted here: a quiet home, the safety of paid indoor and outdoor mercenary guards, and the ability to sit down and relax unlike the maddening running that he had been doing during the time of Hemisal’s rage.
He had slain Hemisal with the help of his adventuring friends. His enemy had confronted them while they tried to save the king’s castle from a terrible explosion. Nobody would be looking for him at this point, but he paid heed to Sheehan’s warning to hire some guards. Jolan didn’t see the need for guards, but did enjoy the protection they afforded him. Someday when his business really took off, he would be able to afford seasoned fighters for his guardsmen. But these men looked imposing enough for now.
Quietly he drifted off to sleep with a smile on his lips. Tomorrow was the day of the big sale with the merchant Jamul. He would make enough to purchase the equipment he needed to begin creating magical trinkets that were so popular with the nobles in the area. After tomorrow, he would have the tools necessary to really spring his business off the ground. Tomorrow…
*****
Jolan awoke to the sound of his guards thrashing in their beds. Trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind, he listened carefully to the sounds from the adjacent room. He had specially made the hallway so that if the unthinkable should happen, the intruders would have to go through his guards before they were able to reach him. He was certain of it now, the sounds he heard were his guards being killed in their sleep! Quickly he sat up in bed and looked around. In this section of his house, there was nothing that he had to defend himself with. He would have to rely on his powers of deception. He peered down the hallway and saw a very large man with a very large broadsword looking in towards his guardroom. He cast a quick spell to turn himself invisible and then crept to the corner of his room to formulate a plan.
If he gave the intruders what they wanted, they would probably leave fairly quickly. So he concentrated hard and made an illusionary form of himself sleeping on the bed. Because he was still practicing on this spell, he had it shown face down on the bed, as the face wasn’t a perfect likeness. Attempting to misdirect the sound of his voice, he made deep even breathing sounds toward the direction of his illusion.
The intruders crept silently into the room. He didn’t recognize any of them. Two of them were human, a man and a woman. One was a dwarf carrying a wicked looking full axe. Beside the dwarf walked a slim elvin woman and following behind them all was the man he had seen in the hallway. A human, armored to the teeth, carrying a sword nearly as tall as he. Quietly the group entered the room and began conversing with each other. It wasn’t long that he discovered that the conversation was circling around how best to kill him! Steadily he began reciting in his head the preparation for the appropriate modifications so that if they were to stick a knife in the illusion, it would appear real. Just as he had finished getting the calculations correct in his head, the elf woman stared hard at the sleeping form on the bed. Jolan’s hopes sank as she spoke that the man on the bed was not real. Controlling his instinctual reaction to run, he cast a spell behind the large man with the blade so that it would seem as if an invisible Jolan was running in the direction away from the room.
Please click here to continue reading recap 16 -->