Creation Mage 6 by Dante King (red scrolls of magic .TXT) 📗

My palm tingled with the compulsion to conjure my black crystal staff from the ether. However, that would probably be the single biggest, and potentially the very last, mistake that I could ever make. Seeing as Leah had led us here, I figured I’d wait and see what the hell she had planned. Color me intrigued.

“Halt,” the guard captain said, advancing a few steps with his hand still upraised. He stopped well short of us—out of grabbing range and far enough away so that his shooters behind could still pick us off as easy as pie.

“Hello!” Leah said cordially, fluttering her eyelashes a little and grinning.

“State your name and your business,” the captain said curtly. Now that he had drawn a little closer, I could see that he had the hard, square features of one who must have been at least partly gargoyle. The hand not raised rested on the pommel of a scimitar hanging at his waist.

“Cutting straight to the nitty-gritty,” Leah said. “How very professional.” She licked her lips. “I must say that I do so love a man in uniform. Except for postmen… There’s something about postmen. And those blokes who man the armored tax wagons.”

“Name and business,” the captain repeated stolidly. Here was a man who had earned his position by adhering to the rule book and showing about as much leniency and humor toward his fellow humanoid as a brick.

“Leah Chaosbane at your service, oh illustrious person in shiny armor!” Leah said extravagantly, sweeping a bow. “And this is my chum, Justin Mauler.”

I had been worried that the guard might have heard my name before, but I needn’t have worried. His train of thought had been derailed at the mention of the Chaosbane name. It was good like that, the Chaosbane surname. It threw people off their guard. Discomposed them like a black widow spider sitting on a birthday cake.

“And what is your business here, Miss Chaosbane?” the captain asked. There could be no doubt, there was definitely a note of uncertainty in his voice now. A slight irresolute waver in his commanding tone.

“We’re just taking in the sights, you know, captain,” Leah said breezily. “Doing the tourist thing; buying overpriced souvenirs produced in poor neighboring kingdoms, eating revolting ‘local delicacies’, getting sketches taken of us in front of quite innocuous objects and landmarks, and generally getting in the way of the locals trying to go about their daily business.”

The captain cleared his throat and tried to hit Leah with a meltingly authoritative stare. It might have worked on a lesser mortal—hell, it would have worked on me. Leah though, took about as much heed of it as she might have done a yappy little dog.

“I was referring more to what business brought you to the Castle of Ascendance, miss,” the captain reiterated.

“Oh, I see,” Leah said. “Well, in that case… We’re here to see Gertrude. She’s an Inscriber. Probably an Inscriber of the Royal Court.”

The captain blinked a couple of times while Leah’s words penetrated first his helmet and then his skull.

He grinned in a supercilious manner. It was a lofty smile that made me want to instinctively whack him around the back of the head, or at least hit him with a medium-strength Storm Bolt.

“Do you have an appointment with this Inscriber?” he asked.

“An appointment?” Leah echoed. “No. No appointment for us. It’s a surprise, you see. Very tricky to surprise someone if you’ve made an appointment with them.”

The captain’s smile became fixed as Leah countered his condescension with this patronizing explanation of her own.

“I’m afraid that without an appointment, Miss Chaosbane, I cannot let you through,” he said.

“Not even for just a quick visit?” Leah wheedled.

“No. Not even for the quickest of visits.”

Leah took a bold step toward the half-gargoyle. Crossbows shifted ever so slightly. I could practically hear the strings creaking.

“What if we were to bust in and scatter you and your little group of troopers here like ashes before a storm?” Leah said, still in the same jovial and friendly tone of voice.

My stomach clenched, and my palms went sweaty. Just what the hell was Leah thinking?

The captain’s jaw dropped, and his eyes twitched. He let loose a little groan of incomprehension. Before he could order his crossbow wielders to mow us down, Leah clapped her hands and stepped back.

“Gods, you should have seen your face!” she said, guffawing with mirth. “I’m just kidding. Messing with you and your tough and scary fellows? Bugger that for a game of backgammon! See you later and thanks very much for your help.”

Leah turned on her heel, leaving the guard captain spluttering in her wake.

“Come on, Justin,” she said. “Let’s leave these exemplary members of the Queen’s troops to their work.”

I hurried my steps to catch up with Leah’s loping stride.

“That’s it?” I hissed as we lengthened the gap between ourselves and the immobile troops that had barred our way. “That was your masterplan? Ask nicely if they’ll please let us in?”

“Masterplan?” Leah asked me, looking thoroughly discombobulated. “I don’t think anyone said anything about a master plan. I know I didn’t. A master plan… That sounds fancy!”

“I thought about using my Greater Flame Flight Spell to boost us both over the wall, if we could find a stretch that was relatively unguarded,” I said.

“An interesting plan. Could work. If it didn’t, I think it would be fair to say that you would make the most beautiful of corpses.”

I grunted as we rounded a corner and got ourselves off the main boulevard leading to the Queen’s castle. “So I can’t just fly up there and sneak into the castle?”

“Your enthusiasm does you credit, my little creampuff,” Leah said. “But you need to get your gorgeous, perfectly proportioned head around something. The arcane defenses surrounding