Guild Mage: Apprentice-Chapter 129 - 128. The Point of the Spear

General Mishra and his officers, including the man with the very thin mustache and beard, Commander Jagan, were already present in the council chamber when Liv, Wren and Isabel followed Arjun and Chandrika in through the doorway. Lower ranking soldiers had brought in trays of food from the fortress kitchens, and from the placement of the chairs, it seemed they would be eating around a map of the shaft, landing, and fourth gate that had been placed in the center of the table.

There was one more person in the room that Liv didn't recognize: an old man with a long beard and even longer, unbound white hair. On his forehead, streaks of white and yellow paint had been smeared, and he wore robes rather than armor.

"Have a seat," the general invited them, and Liv arranged herself so that she would be in between Arjun and Wren, so that she could ask for a translation if she needed to. As soon as everyone had found a place, the soldiers acting as footmen brought around covered pots, plates heaped with buttered, soft flatbread, pots of tea, and carafes of some sort of liquor that Liv didn't recognize. When the pots were uncovered, she saw that some contained saffron rice, while other were filled with a steaming mix of a spicy, red sauce and chunks of meat, topped with a sprig of some sort of green leaf.

"Lamb," Mishra explained, for the benefit of his visitors.

"It smells wonderful," Liv said. "I wonder if I might get the recipe before we leave?"

"It would be expensive to make in Lucania," Commander Jagan warned her. "There would be a great many spices to import. Cumin, coriander, turmeric…"

"Something for a special treat, then," Liv told him, waiting her turn to spoon a heap of rice onto her plate. It seemed that the soldiers only imitated footmen to a certain point - the actual serving of portions would be left to those eating. "I'd like to share it with my mother."

"Is your mother the Eld?" Jagan asked.

"My father, actually," Liv answered, shaking her head. "He should be in Varuna by now." She couldn't help but frown, because she would have rathered she was there with him. When Arjun passed her a wooden spoon, she covered her rice with a heap of lamb and sauce.

The man with the long white hair and beard said something in Dakruiman, and then switched to accented Lucanian. "May the trinity watch over your father, while he walks in the land of the dead gods. May they preserve him and protect him."

Liv blinked. "Thank you."

"Your blessings honor us, Paṇḍita," Arjun said, from her right side. "Vivek Sharma is a priest of the trinity, Liv."

"It is an honor to meet you," Liv said. "My name is Livara Tär Valtteri kæn Syvä."

"That isn't how you usually introduce yourself," Isabel observed.

"In Lucania I usually use my mother's name," Liv told her. "It's simpler. People don't ask as many questions." She took a bite of her lamb and rice, and despite the fact that she'd been eating Dakruiman food since they'd arrived, the heat of the sauce still surprised her. Once she'd swallowed, she tore off a bit of her buttered flatbread to soothe her mouth.

"We are grateful for the assistance of the journeymen from Lucania," General Mishra began, taking advantage of the break in conversation. "You have not only helped our ksatriya to hold the third gate, but with the assistance of Kumari Livara, all lost ground leading up to the fourth gate has been reclaimed. We have a new portcullis and doors waiting to be hung, to seal the gate - but in order for our workmen to do that, the risen dead must be pushed back off the landing. Commander Jagan and I have carefully arranged the rotation of our men, over the past day, to rest as many as possible, in preparation for a push in the morning. Pandita Sharma has confirmed that the timing is fortuitous." He turned to the priest.

"All indications are that the eruption has begun to subside," Vivek pronounced. "We have taken careful measurements of the shoal's boundary, and we are confident. Still, entering the Well of Bones itself always brings with it risk of corruption by the fallen goddess' essence. What you would call," he told the Lucanians, "Mana sickness."

"We can help with that," Arjun offered. "One of the ways to use the guild's word of power, Aluth, is to drain off excess wild mana from people who have been exposed to the shoals. But we need somewhere to put it. Do you have much mana-stone, or something like it?"

"Our supplies are entirely exhausted," Commander Jagan answered, with a frown. "They've been used to give our ksatriya the strength they need to fight."

"Empty is good," Liv broke in, once she'd swallowed another mouthful of lamb and rice. The heat became more bearable as the meal continued - or she got more used to it. "That's what we want. We can set some of our people to transfer the excess mana into your empty mana stone, where it will settle over time."

"It is not a perfect solution," Arjun admitted. "But it is better than simply cutting away the corrupted flesh and hoping for the best." He turned to his betrothed. "Perhaps you can speak to the general's healers and find a place to support them?"

Chandrika considered Arjun's words for a moment. "You will be with the healers?" she asked him.

"After the fighting, I will go to them," Arjun said. "I will meet you there."

"No." Chandrika shook her head. "Your place is not in battle. Our place is not in battle. You should be with me, ready to receive the wounded."

"I am here as part of the guild," Arjun told her. "I will be with my friends."

"Then I will be with you," Chandrika said. "To make certain that my betrothed is safe. I promised both our parents that I would bring you home so that the wedding may occur."

"Perhaps that is a conversation more suited to be had later, and in private," Mishra interrupted. "Up to this point, the fighting has taken place in close quarters - hallways and stairwells that were built to be defended, by very few people if necessary. Once we push out onto the landing, that will no longer be the case." He motioned to the map that had been placed at the center of the table. "It stretches fifty yards to each side, in a semi-circle carved into the walls of the shaft. We must expect that the entire area will be filled with corpses."

"The father we push out," Commander Jagan said, picking up his superior's point, "the more men we will need. The most efficient thing to do is to clear a path straight out to the wall of the landing, here, immediately." He lifted a length of wood two feet long, like a thin switch or riding crop, and used it to point at the map, sketching out his plan. "Then, we have two lines of men, from the inner to the outer wall on each side, that can push forward, clearing the landing in both directions."

"And leaving a safe corridor in the middle to use for pulling out the wounded, or sending in reinforcements," Isabel observed. "What do you need us to do?"

"Your people's ability to step in and give our lines time to recover, when they falter, has been invaluable," Mishra said. "Once each line is established, a journeyman for each side, to support our ksatriya as they press forward. Not Śrī Iyuz or Kumari Livara. They have other uses."

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"We should be able to do that," Isabel said. "It still leaves us two teams of three, one for each side. When the first person is exhausted, we rotate to the next."

"What is it you want me to do?" Liv asked, then took a sip from her goblet. The liquor was earthy and sweet, and reminded her of flowers.

"I want you to be the point of our spear," the general told her. "The wall you left has melted, but our men were ready with barricades. When we pull the barricades aside, I would ask you to break the horde and push out, clearing the way for our men to follow behind you."

Liv craned her neck to look at the map. She wouldn't have the advantage of walls on either side to restrict the movements of the skeletons, which meant they could close in from the sides as she moved forward. That would be the most dangerous part. "I'll need people to guard my back," she said. "So they don't swarm in behind me."

"Our soldiers will do that," Commander Jagan promised.

Liv bit her lip. If she was going to open up about what she wanted to do, now was the time. But could she really trust everyone in the room? She'd only known the Dakruiman officers for a few days, and while she'd fought during the king tide with Isabel, they weren't close. Chandrika Tiwari and the priest she'd only just met now.

"Do not hesitate now," Vivek Sharma said, breaking Liv's line of thought.

"Excuse me?" she said.

"You are hesitating," the priest repeated. "Do not. It would be a cold and bitter life, indeed, in which one never extended trust. You cannot live in fear of betrayal."

Liv narrowed her eyes. She hadn't noticed before, but there was a very light pressure on her. It was not the overwhelming force of Ractia, nor even the dizzying, maddening presence that accompanied Celestria Ward's magic. But it was recognizably Authority, nonetheless – even if very subtle. "What are you doing?" she asked. She tried to push back with her own Authority, but wasn't certain she was achieving much of anything at all.

"Peace, child," Sharma told her, in an even voice. "It is the word of truth, of seeing things as they are. Bheuv."

Liv frowned. "It lets you know what I'm thinking?" she asked.

"Not as such," the priest clarified. "I can tell that your heart is troubled, that you are in doubt. You hesitate to say what you are thinking. If it is true that one of the dead gods has returned, then you cannot afford to allow doubt to cripple you. There can be no hesitation in the heart of a warrior - and that is what you are, is it not?"

"If I do this for you," Liv said, turning back to the general. "After I do this for you. I'm going down into the Well."

It was not Mishra who spoke, but his subordinate. "Why?" Command Jagan demanded. "It is a place of horror and death. What could you possibly hope to gain down there?"

Liv did her best to organize her thoughts: everything was clear in her head, but making someone else understand was another thing altogether. "We don't know enough," she began. "Ractia has returned. I've seen her, and I've fought her cultists. But we don't understand what she's doing. She's using the rifts, and the waystones, to do things we didn't even realize were possible. At Coral Bay, her people were trying to steal something from inside the Vædic ruins - but we don't even understand what it was, never mind why or how she intended to use it. I don't see how we can win when we're - it's like we're blindfolded, grappling about in the dark. I don't know what I'm going to find, but I have to begin somewhere. And I'm here, right now."

General Mishra leaned back in his chair, considering her words. "I fear you will find nothing but death at the heart of the rift," he said slowly. ""In the battle that finally killed Costia, there were hardly any survivors. Only a few, broken warriors who climbed back out of the shaft. The founder of our jati herself, Ksatriya, was lost in the depths, leaving her twin sons without a mother. I cannot ask my warriors to go with you into such an unholy place."

"I'm not asking for your help," Liv said. "Just that you allow me to go."

"Are you actually planning to do this alone?" Isabel snapped. "I know you're good, Liv, but this is insane."

"She won't be alone," Wren said, breaking her long silence.

"Honor and respect to the daughter who stands alone, having put the words of her mother aside," Vivek Sharma said with a smile on his face, clearly addressing Wren.

"I'll be going with her, as well," Arjun said.

Liv turned to examine his face. "Are you sure?" she asked. Arjun had never been trained to fight, before he came to Coral Bay. As much as she and Rosamund and the rest had practiced with him, he was still a novice in that sort of thing. Even the spell she'd formulated for him - Liv wasn't certain whether he'd actually be able to bring himself to use it. She wasn't even confident it would work on corpses animated by what was left of a dead god. After all, shouldn't directly affecting bones like that involve a contest of Authority? Ironically, the one to ask about this would have been Cade, whose family word of power worked directly on living bodies.

Arjun, however, simply smiled. "You're my friend, Liv," he said. "The first person who talked to me when I came to Coral Bay, and I knew nothing and no one. I went north with you, didn't I? How could I look your father in the eye if I let you do this alone?"

"This is too much," Chandrika broke in, seizing Arjun by the arm. "You're a healer. Wait for her to come back, if she does, and put whatever is left of this girl back together."

"If it was simply a case of a journeyman Lucanian mage asking me this," General Mishra interrupted, "I would say no. And no matter how valuable your magic, I would have my men march you back to the waystone this very moment, and see you on your way. However." He sighed, reached for his goblet, and took a sip of the liquor.

"Paṇḍita," the general said, turning to address the old priest. "Do you believe this is necessary?"

"You cannot expect to live as if the world is unchanged, when a dead goddess has risen," Vivek Sharma. "Permit me to answer your question with another, Senapati. What will you do if the Lady of Bones rises next?"

Liv looked around the room, and saw that not just Mishra, but Jagan and Chandrika were silent, struck by the priest's words.

Read 𝓁atest chapters at fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm Only.

"Do you believe it is possible?" Mishra asked.

"I did not believe it was possible for the Lady of Blood to rise, but that did not stop it from happening," Sharma said. "I can see the truth in their words, and the intention in this young woman's heart. Perhaps none of us should continue making assumptions about what is, or is not, possible."

"Very well," Mishra said. "Help us clear the landing and replace the fourth gate, and you may descend into the Well of Bones, daughter of the Eld."

Commander Jagan scowled and said something in Dakruiman, only for Mishra to bark back at him in the same language. The words were not any that Liv had yet learned, and if she had to guess, she would have said they were curses. The soldiers stationed along the walls, who had served the meal, stiffened and stared straight ahead, their eyes unmoving.

"My decision is final in this," the general said. "We will respect the wisdom of Paṇḍita Sharma. There will be no more discussion of 'if,' only of 'how."

Jagan settled back into his seat, but the anger in his eyes remained undimmed.

"Well," Isabel spoke up, "If you're set on going, Liv, I'll go with you."

"You don't have to," Liv told her. "I'm not asking you to do this."

"I know you aren't asking. But Archmagus Jurian put me in charge of this group," Isabel said, "and I'm not going to go back to him and have to explain how I let a couple of first years run off and get themselves killed while I sat back and sipped tea. And I'm not asking either. If you want to go, I'm going with you."

"Fine," Liv agreed. "That makes four."

"I will accompany them," Commander Jagan broke in. "We cannot send them alone, General. You must have someone who goes with them, and returns to report on what occurs at the bottom of the Well. I will do it, with two of my best men."

"Seven is as good a number as any," General Mishra said. "Very well. It is decided, but make certain the men you choose understand what they are agreeing to, Commander. Take no one who is not willing. It will not serve any of you to have a man break and run when he is exposed to the horrors below."

"I will go and see to it now. I want it settled before morning." Jagan rose, and bowed to all who were seated at the table. "If you will excuse me."

General Mishra waved his hand in token of dismissal, and Commander Jagan strode out of the room with purpose. No sooner had he gone, than Vivek Sharma stood from his place at the table.

"Walk with me, Kumari Livara," the old man said. "I believe we have things to speak of." Though he did not phrase the invitation as a question, there was something about the tone of his voice that struck Liv as kind. On top of that, he'd convinced the general to go along with what she wanted.

Liv nodded, deciding that she'd had enough to eat already, set down her utensils, and rose from her chair. She waited for the priest to make his way around the great table to her side, then allowed him to lead her out of the room.