employed.
That’s not to say I was broke. I still had a sizable sum stored away in a hidden strongbox, more than half of what I had received. Yet my calculations had shown me already what the restoration would cost by the time it was done, and I would have to be frugal to avoid running short before the end.
While we’re on the subject, the strongbox was a work of stout craftsmanship. My father, Royce Eldridge had constructed it. Rather than being an ‘iron-bound’ box, this one was literally an iron strongbox. All kidding aside, he had actually made the entire thing of solid iron. In addition I had been studying magical wards, and my attempt to make it sounder had been successful. I pitied anyone that tried to steal from me. The whole thing, loaded, weighed over six hundred pounds. Breaking it open would require a team of men and with good tools and plenty of time; warded iron is amazingly strong. If someone did manage to force it, everyone in a large radius would wind up sleeping soundly for some time. Being a wizard did have its benefits.
Back to the matter at hand, protection, without guards or keep the only one left to handle our current situation was yours truly. I had no idea what might be behind the disappearances, but I was fairly confident that if I could find the perpetrators I would be able to handle them. My powers had grown during the past year. I spent several hours each day studying the books I had found, and much of the rest of my time was spent applying that knowledge.
I know, you’re wondering how? With a castle to rebuild and all the other projects going on you might think I should have been pitching in… lending my back etc… The Mordecai of a year ago would have done just that, but things were different now. Every time I got involved helping with something I found more ways in which magic could assist.
Take the carpenters for example, one of their biggest time consuming tasks was drilling holes for dowels. That took a lot of time with a traditional brace and bit. I had been helping them for less than an hour before I tried applying Devon’s spell to the drill bit. The one he had used to cut through my shield during our battle in Lancaster Castle. It worked brilliantly and soon I was drilling holes as quickly as you could slice butter.
That caught the eye of one of the carpenter’s apprentices, who promptly asked me to do the same for him. It wasn’t long before they all had me spelling their tools. The problem was that it didn’t last very long, so back to the books I went. Some additional research and I was soon learning to make wards. Wards involve creating a written sort of spell, using Lycian of course. The results last much longer than magic cast with words, but they still fade over time. There are some advantages to being self-taught however. I didn’t know that the art of enchanting, the crafting of permanent magical items, had been lost several hundred years previously.
Hell, I didn’t know what enchanting was, even though it was what I was attempting. Enchanting is similar to making wards, but it takes more effort, and it lasts forever. You should be familiar with the concept, magical swords, legendary goblets, unbreakable armor, that sort of thing. The problem was no one had known how to manage it for a long time.
Being a complete novice, and unaware of the possible dangers of experimentation, I had forged ahead anyway. My first attempts were simple. I affixed wards to things and made them as strong as I could. One of the kitchen knives I did is still quite sharp, but after a few weeks I could sense the gradual weakening of the magic within it.
My next idea was to make them with a secondary ward that drew energy from the world around it, from sunlight or heat for example. That worked even better, but still the spell to draw the energy showed signs of weakening over time. Once it had worn out the primary spell that depended on it would eventually fail. The spell to use heat had a wonderful side effect though; it made anything near it cold. When I had time I planned to try it on a large box for storing food… but I digress.
The solution, when I hit on it, was surprisingly simple. The wards had to be designed in a circular pattern, such that the beginning and the end were connected. Properly done it held the magic involved within the pattern indefinitely. I did make a serious mistake at one point; once I understood how to seal magic within a ring of symbols I tried it with a spell to draw energy from heat. The combination turned out to be a bad idea. After a day the item had stored more energy than the enchantment could contain and exploded spectacularly. Fortunately the object, a small paring knife, wasn’t being used at the time and no one was injured, but it still gave me chills to think what might have happened.
Anyway, I’ve made my point, I had been learning a lot over the past year. With each new idea came better ways of doing things and more ideas. The carpenter’s tools were better than ever now and I spent a considerable amount of time at the new smithy with my father. He was a wealth of ideas regarding how things could be improved and soon we had provided the stone masons with better tools for cutting and dressing stone.
So when I had ventured out last night, I had not been unarmed. I carried the same sword my father had made for me, though I had enchanted it. The thing was so damn sharp it scared me; it could easily slice through thick wood and even metal. Dorian had tutored me some in its use and between that and my own magical protections I was reasonably sure I had little to fear from bandits or night-time kidnappers.
I had spent the better part of the night being still. Not sleeping, though I was tempted a few times. Rather I was still the way a hunter is, waiting for his prey. In the dark my eyes were largely useless but my hearing became acute, and I had other senses. I had spread my awareness as widely as possible, feeling for anything unusual in the night. I could sense animals sleeping in their dens and nighttime hunters like owls finding their food in the dark. Trees moving softly in the wind soothed my watchful spirit, while the sound of the river moving slowly by the miller’s house was a balm to my ears.
I hadn’t found a thing. Whether that meant the culprit was waiting for another night, or that they suspected I was watching, I had no clue.
Noon came bright and early. Surprisingly Penny still lay sleeping beside me, and I felt a twinge of guilt that she had lost so much sleep over me. She wore a soft linen sleeping gown, much to my annoyance; still it was only a small barrier. A brilliant thought occurred to me; perhaps I could make up for my misdeeds of the night before?
Her eyes popped open as my hand ran over her posterior. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
That was a damn stupid question, but I had learned a few things about how to talk to women since last year, “Well when I first woke I thought I must be dreaming to find such a lovely woman beside me, but now my senses tell me that you must be real.” I ran my hand up the small of her back.
“Don’t think you’ll have me that easy,” she said as she rose from the bed and started putting on her clothes. She did do me the service of letting me watch her dress… pure evil that woman.
“I still don’t understand the point… we’re getting married in a few months anyway, and it isn’t as though we have never… well you know,” I said. Since the events a year ago Penny had instituted a new policy regarding our physical relations, namely that there wouldn’t be any.
“Mordecai Eldridge!” she exclaimed. Penny often used my old name when she was lecturing me. “Do you think I want to show up to my wedding in a dress sized to fit a pregnant mare?”
“I told you, I’m fairly sure I can keep that from happening, if you’ll just let me…”
“Don’t you dare! I don’t want you experimenting with… with… that! What if I became barren?” she declared.
“No, no… I wouldn’t do anything to you! It would be purely a mechanical thing, a sort of shield to keep…”
“Don’t mess with that either! I like your tools as they are and I don’t trust you not to mess something up. I do want to have children after all.” Clearly we had some trust issues concerning my magic.
“Fine, fine, I can wait,” I replied. I wasn’t really sure about that, but the argument was old. No need to go over it all again, I’d just have to bide my time and catch her at an opportune moment. Hope springs eternal. “I’m going back out tonight,” I added. I figured I’d go ahead and get that out in the open ahead of time.
“I know,” she answered easily, which set off a warning in my head.
“I understand your feelings, but I’m responsible for these people and I can’t just sit around and do nothing,” I said defensively.
“You’re right.”
“I’ll take every precaution, and I’ll be armed so I don’t think I’ll be in any real danger,” I continued.
