Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 19 (Patreon)

“Aldrich!” Mabel cried once more, and this time Alvin heard the ringing of steel against steel.

He still stood beside the bed, covered in sweat from the heat in the room, though most of that was starting to disperse now that Magus Terrance’s spirit wasn’t powering an inferno in the Dreamrealm. His hand rested on Clover’s bare waist. She was still sleeping, but he could see her chest moving now and could tell it was only sleep, not the deep fugue-like state she’d been in before.

Alvin turned and saw Mabel crossing swords with a pair of strangers. Another man lay at her feet, already dead from a stab through the throat with the thin rapier Mabel had brought along on her hip. This one Alvin recognized. He’d been Magus Terrance’s carriage driver. Earlier that very day, the man had sprayed Alvin’s face with mud, and now here he was lying dead on the ground.

“Aldrich!” Mabel yelled. She couldn’t turn her head to see he was up and about, so she was still desperate to rouse him.

Alvin’s eyes darted to the dagger in the dead man’s hands. Mabel needed his help.

Before he could hesitate, Alvin scooped up the dagger. Mabel was pressing the two of them hard, and neither of them could afford to look at Alvin. He scrambled on his hands and knees, wondering for a moment if Clover had enough energy left in her to heal a sword wound.

Then he lunged forward, taking one of the man’s leg’s out from under him. In his old body, this probably wouldn’t have done much, but Aldrich’s body was that of a master swordsman. It was fit and full, even more so than Mabel’s attacker.

Alvin grabbed the man’s sword arm by the wrist as they fell, trapping it against the floor. His other hand held the dagger up. Alvin closed his eyes as he thrust the dagger down. He felt the man thrash and buck beneath him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw he’d slammed the stolen dagger right through the man’s eye and into his brain.

The man was just a corpse that hadn’t stopped moving yet, and Alvin jumped back with his heart racing fast.

He’d just killed a man. He’d thrust a dagger through his eye and taken his life.

Meanwhile, Mabel faced only one opponent. She’d been an even match for the two of them, so now that the man she faced didn’t have an ally, Mabel made quick work of him. He tried to dart under her guard to end things, knowing the tides of battle had turned against him. But the opening Mabel had given him had been a faint all along, and Mabel flicked her blade across the inside of the man’s wrist.

“Gahhh!” the man screamed in pain and horror as his hand hung limp and useless. His sword fell from limp fingers, and he didn’t even have time to close his mouth before Mabel finished him with a thrust between his teeth toward the top of his mouth and out the back of his head. Soon he too toppled to the ground.

“I knew I could count on you... Aldrich? Aldrich, what’s wrong?” Mabel asked, her voice of gladness as she wiped off her sword on the dead man’s clothes cut off into one of worry.

Alvin clenched his teeth and leaned against the doorframe. He wasn’t a killer, and he’d grown up in a society where a brutal death like the two he’d just witnessed was rare. The sickly scent of blood filled the air, and Alvin felt his stomach trying to rebel against him.

Through a conscious effort of will, Alvin suppressed the feeling. He might be sensitive to death, but Aldrich wouldn’t be worried in the slightest. These men had planned to kill them, after all. There weren’t police to call or the rule of law to protect him. It was kill or be killed.

Yes, kill them, master! Burn their bones and scatter their ashes! Summon me!

The same girlish voice from before giggled in his ear. Alvin considered once again the fact that he might really be going crazy. Men had lost their sanity for trials less than this.

Satisfied for the moment by that line of reasoning, Alvin felt his stomach recede. He would deal with these thoughts later.

Standing straight once again, he answered Mabel as he picked Clover’s limp body up off the bed. “I’m fine. Just tired from magic. Magus Terrance must have planned a two-pronged attack. Clover and I fought him in the Dreamrealm, and he sent his people here to attack Clover in the physical world.”

“Oh.”

“We need to hurry back to the castle. He’s probably still looking for me in the Dreamrealm.”

“What do we do, Aldrich?”

Alvin’s gut dropped out again as he realized what he had to do. “He saw my face. We’re going to have to deal with him sooner or later. And I’m thinking the sooner, the better.”

“Understood. You go hide the books. I can smuggle Clover into East Water easier than you,” Mabel said.

With a grimace, Alvin reached down to the man he’d killed and grabbed the hilt of the dagger buried there. It was a rather small and stealthy thing. All of Aldrich’s swords were weapons of war, and Alvin thought he’d have more need of an assassin’s dagger.

He tugged it free and wiped it off on the dead man’s clothes just as Mabel had, and soon the two of them left the empty cabin behind.

***

Alvin hid the books in the woods, burying them under a small pile of dry leaves. The cauldron lid flipped over on top of them would keep the rain off them, and the branches would keep anyone who stumbled across them from wondering what a cauldron was doing upside down in the middle of the woods.

By the time Alvin made it to the gates of East Water, Mabel was riding out to escort him in again.

“My lady, you left Baron Aldrich unattended?” A guard asked when she saw Alvin and Mabel riding back into town.

“Like my mother always said, a proper lady should never pee in the woods on the first date,” Mabel explained.

“Er... far be it from me to question her ladyship’s wisdom. Carry on then.”

And that was the end of the matter. No one else stepped forward to question the two of them, and they made it back to the manor without any issues. The guards at the manor even greeted the two of them with salutes.

“Welcome back, Lady Mabel, Baron Aldrich,” the higher ranking of the two guards said.

Alvin nodded to the guard. This was the first time one of them had truly addressed him by his former title. Perhaps that stunt with the captain had some of them thinking he had real power again. “Is our guest up and about? I’d like to show him the estate.”

“The honored mage has locked himself away in the manor’s study. He told everyone he was performing an extremely important magical ritual,” the guard replied.

“Thank you, guardsman...” Alvin let the word hang.

“Taft, sire. Guardsman Taft.”

“You’ll do great things, Guardsman Taft. Stick with me, and I’ll see to it you move up in the world.”

Guardsman Taft’s eyes lit up, and his salute became more enthusiastic. “Yes, sire!”

Alvin saw the other guardsman take note. Rumors would spread that Baron Aldrich was promising favors. Maybe they would be worth something someday. He wasn’t sure if he could really steal Count Grandhill’s guards out from underneath him, but it couldn’t hurt to try. Besides, all these guards knew that Count Grandhill was all the way in his county, but their baron was right here. If he could turn even a small core group of them, he’d have a better-equipped army than Aldrich ever had.

And even if he couldn’t win over more than one or two of them, one or two was enough for him to always know what the guards were thinking. Guardsman Taft probably wouldn’t like to think of himself as a rumormonger, but that was the sort of thing Alvin thought he could help with immediately, as Alvin’s intelligence lines outside of the palace were sadly deficient.

Once they were through the door, Alvin lowered his voice and whispered to Mabel.

“Where’s Clover?”

“In my room,” Mabel replied. “That’s safer than yours. Mine doesn’t get searched by the guards.”

Alvin grimaced. He thought he’d had the last of that when Count Grandhill’s knights returned with their lord. They’d been the ones truly paranoid about him. The rest of the guards around the manor had settled down.

“Good. Now, I have to go to my study and take care of something. I’ll need you to get rid of any guards Magus Terrance has commandeered. The only question is how we’re going to deal with this when we’re done,” Alvin said.

Mabel wrapped her hand around Alvin’s. She looked into his eyes as she nodded. “We’ll figure it out. I’m the lady of the land, or so I hear. Don’t worry. You do what you need to do.”

Alvin felt his heart grow harder. He hadn’t really thought he’d get this far. He’d been certain Magus Terrance would be awake, and they’d have to wrestle over who had control of the guard. Or maybe he’d already have left town, and they’d need to hunt him down in the wilderness. But it turned out he was still right where they expected him to be.

When they arrived at the study, there were two guards posted on either side of the door, just like they’d expected. They didn’t look particularly alert, but they still stood with their weapons and armor in hand as they guarded the study.

“Guardsmen, I need you down on the practice fiend,” Mabel said.

“Lady Mabel, Magus Terrance ordered us to guard this door for him while he cast a very important magical ritual,” one guard protested. The other looked between the door and Mabel.

“Don’t give me that. I have a very important set of safety regulations to clarify, and I want everyone in attendance! Nobody gets to skip out on the meeting!”

“But my lady, what about--“

Mabel must have learned from Alvin earlier that day because she raised her fist in the air. “No buts! I’m in charge! And when I call a meeting, I want all of you saying ‘how early, my lady!’ Understood?”

“Yes, but--“

“I said, is that understood, guardsman?” Mabel cocked an eyebrow as though daring him to protest any further.

“Understood, Lady Mabel.”

Satisfied, Mabel strode down the hall, and the two guardsmen peeled away to follow her. Just like that, the door to the study was unguarded.

Alvin grabbed the handle and turned... only to discover it was locked.

“Damn it,” Alvin whispered to himself.

Thankfully, Alvin had stayed in the manor longer than Magus Terrance had. The maid’s chamber had keys to every room, including his study. And now that the maids were gone, the room was empty, and those keys were free for the taking.

A few minutes later, the door slid open, and Alvin saw the Magus seated in the room on a plush cushion in the center of three rings of candles. A strange incense filled the room, and the mix of scents felt like it was luring him to sleep. The longer he stood in the room, the heavier Alvin’s feet felt. He could hardly bear to keep himself standing straight, and his back sagged.

He blinked, and instead of the back of his eyelids, he saw the Dreamrealm once again. He lay down before the broken castle, and Clover lay in the grass beside him with her cheek pressed up against his chest. The moment he opened his eyes again, the vision faded, and he was back in his study.

These candles and this incense had turned his old office into the perfect environment for Dreamwalking. This was probably what Aldrich had used to get to Alvin’s world. It was odd to think that someone needed so many crutches just to focus. Alvin didn’t think it was that hard for someone who’d had practice. Perhaps people like Magus Terrance never bothered to learn because they had all these trinkets to help them.

Alvin reached behind himself and withdrew the dagger he’d stolen off a corpse. He’d killed once with this dagger already. What was one more time?

Though he’d done his best to wipe the blade off, he thought it was still slick with blood. He wasn’t sure if it was there or just his imagination, but in either case, he didn’t think the knife would ever be truly clean.

Looking down at him, Magus Terrance didn’t look like the deadly threat he was. Of all the things that stopped Alvin, it was the pillow beneath his head that halted his dagger for a moment. It had been embroidered by hand and decorated with a clumsy image of a man casting a spell from a staff. In the corner, Alvin read the words stitched there. For my Daddy.

Alvin hesitated a moment. But then he remembered what had almost happened to Clover and what would have happened to Mabel. This was his chance to cut all that short right here and now.

So Alvin closed his eyes again and thrust his dagger down.

The blade sank into... something. But that something wasn’t flesh.

Alvin opened his eyes again, and he found a corona of brilliant white light enveloping Magus Terrance. It was spongy and had some give to it. If Alvin put his full weight behind his knife, he might be able to break through the shield, whatever it was. He could just barely make out the outline of some gelatinous creature. It would probably be visible if he entered the Dreamrealm.

But then the gelatinous shield did... something. Alvin wasn’t sure what, but it started creeping up the dagger and around Alvin’s arm. He tried to pull away, but it was too late. The gelatinous mass brushed up against his hand. If he hadn’t hesitated, maybe he’d have been able to finish the magus off before the gelatinous creature could react, but he’d been a moment too slow.

The moment the gelatinous creature touched him, he felt a curse take hold, just like the one that had covered his hand. It burrowed into his hand, just as it had before. With each passing moment, it tried to burrow its way into his flesh.

Only this time, the creature was far larger than it had been before, and so it burrowed through him far faster. He could feel it tugging at his mind, drawing it into himself. He had to get this thing out of himself as quickly as possible. With all the incense in the room, slipping into the Dreamrealm was but the work of a moment.

“Clover!” Alvin shouted as he found himself next to her. The gelatinous creature clinging to him was also a lot more solid and real. It was purple and covered with tendrils, large and small, just like the smaller creature he’d killed before. Only this one was far larger. It had a single large eye in the center of its bulbous head with a thin sliver of gold for a pupil over a lidless purple eye. It stared at Alvin with the hunger of a predator as it clung to his chest. He could feel a thousand little suckers crawling along his chest and creeping toward his face. If that happened, this fight would probably be over.

“Huh... Alvin, you’re all gooey!” Clover sat up abruptly.

She was looking much better after a few hours of rest. Her hair was still messier than he was used to, but she could do more than lie limply in his arms now.

“I need to get this off of me,” Alvin said. “Can you help?”

Clover grabbed a tentacle as thick as her thigh. She pulled and tugged at it before letting go, frowning, and shooting up some strands of grass from beneath her feet to grab onto the thing instead.

“It’s strong! Alvin, these things are yucky. We need to kill it!” Clover said.

“Fire did it last time. Come on.”

The firepit wasn’t far from where Clover had been sleeping, though she’d put some distance between herself and the dying flames.

“Throw some dry wood on the pyre and try to keep me alive.” Alvin hoped Clover’s healing magic would make this less painful, but he had his doubts. This had hurt when it was just his hand. Now that he planned to burn this magical parasite out of his entire body, it was likely to be much more painful.

The fire licked up Alvin’s ankles, and the hot embers charred the bottom of his feet. Alvin let himself collapse into the fire, even though his every instinct told him not to. The creature was clinging to his neck now, so Alvin pressed its head against the worst of the flame.

“Master! Hang on!” Clover placed a hand on the top of his head, and her healing energies flowed into him through one hand even as her other hand tossed branches and logs that let the fire burn brighter.

More fire. More! I’m coming, master!

The voice spoke in his ear again, this time clearer than ever. Just like before, it was feminine and cute. It would have been adorable if not for the strange sense of hunger and malice coming from it. The only thing that kept him from fearing the voice was that he was oddly certain the malice in it wasn’t meant for him.

The flames rose in one sudden woosh, even though Clover hadn’t added any more tinder. They stretched twice as high as Alvin was tall, and the wind caught around the pyre to twist it into the shape of a fire tornado.

Alvin feared he’d been too bold with the fire. No human body could take this much heat without being cooked alive. And yet oddly, the fire didn’t burn like he expected. It was hot, but more like immersing himself in a sauna than in flame.

The voice from before spoke again, and this time he heard her clearly among the sparkles.

“You really are back!”

“Firebrand?” Clover asked, slowly pulling your hand out of the fire.

But before Alvin could ask what was going on or who the strange being of fire was, the charred remains of the tentacled creature that had been clinging to Alvin flung itself off its body and clear of the fire. That was more intelligent behavior than the small creature that he’d destroyed before.

Before Alvin could drag it back into the fire, it quivered and stretched the stumps of its remaining tendrils. Those tendrils touched in a loop the size of a small door, and space from within that loop shimmered like a mirror before turning clear again. When the shimmering effect faded, the loop had become a gate leading to the cabin Alvin and Clover had escaped from less than an hour before.

And through that gate stepped Magus Terrance.

“There you are,” Magus Terrance said, face spread wide in a grin. Who would have thought that the rogue dreamwalker I was after had been right in front of me all along?"

Note:

Wow, we just broke 50k words on this story. I still feel like I only just started it, but 50k words means it’s technically novel-length. Still a bit small for anything in the fantasy genre, but it’s an important benchmark to hit.

I think I’m going to aim for 90k words for this version of the story. I don’t want to go too long because, looking at my notes, they’re 90% “add this plot line here” for the novelization to get it ready for a publishable novel. Meaning that if I make this version too long, the rewrite will make the novel impractically large. My rewrites basically always add more than they delete, and with the addition of all the things I want to add, I wouldn’t be surprised if the novel is set to double in size.

Mainly, it’s the empire-building stuff. We’ve had a lot of magic, but basically, no empire building. Originally, I wanted to have a lot more settlement management and have Alvin command a medieval army or two. I’m a bit annoyed it doesn’t look like we’re going to get to that until the next book, so I’ll have to make some changes for the rewrite to work it all in.

I think that in the next version of the book, I’ll have the barony already lost under Alvin’s command and the “party” Alvin attends is his bachelor’s party the night before he’s forced to marry Mabel. I could add a bunch of Grandhill family politics, with Aldrich realizing he’s probably going to be assassinated as soon as Mabel’s first child by him is born (giving the Grandhill family a claim on his lands and title without him.)

This would let Alvin keep the Baron title in his own name instead of slowly regaining it and would make it so empire-building fans don’t have to wait until book 2 to get that content. And if I wanted a war, I could have Alvin forced to levy his troops on behalf of Grandhill County and need to fight a war as a vassal. I picture him as the right demographic to play a lot of Total War, so hopefully, he’d been a good strategist/logistician. And Aldrich’s reputation as a peerless swordsman would probably help, too.

Dreamwalking is also coming together a little better for me. I might split it into two magic systems, though, with Spirit Masters specializing in finding spirits and Dreamwalkers specializing in finding those spirits, with Alvin able to do both. Idk. I’m still thinking it over. Once this is done, I’ll do some reverse worldbuilding to get it all working cohesively from the start.

For now, The ending has firmed up in my head, though. I think I can wrap things up in another 15 chapters, but we’ll see.