Free A Magic Broken by Vox Day Page A

her to demand the massacre of everyone in the city, including the dwarves residing there. And whatever it was that the wizard sought, he wanted it badly enough that he might well be willing to give her one.
    “Now,” the wizard said, “as it appears we have more than a few horses at our disposal, may I offer you your choice of mount, my lady?”
    Thorald and Hodli helped Lady Everbright stow a share of the food supplies on the horse selected to serve as the pack horse for her journey, so Lodi took the opportunity to approach the royal battlemage on the other side of the road.
    “You say your king be friend to the dwarves, yes?”
    The mage looked down at him with a bemused expression on his face. “I believe he wishes to remain on good terms with your people.”
    “Then I got one question. The dwarf king will want to know: What is this thing you want from the elf?”
    “You can’t imagine I would tell you that.”
    “Maybe. See, if you kill me, or if I make sign to the lads, they kill your elf.”
    The Man’s bemusement abruptly vanished. He glanced sharply at the two dwarves closest to the elfess. Thorald winked at him and adroitly twirled the axe in his hand.
    “You rescued her. You expect me to believe you would kill her now?”
    Lodi snorted. “Why not? Don’t play fool with me, magic man. I know slavers, and I knows a setup when I sees one. How you know what slaver to kill? How you know where he from? I thinks you set this up. You had her catched by the slaver, but he don’t sell her to you. You get outbid by that rich whoremaster in Malkan, and you don’t even know it. That’s why you kill the Oronti: He double-cross you. No wizard know nothing about slavers, but I buys from them many times. They double-cross their mother if they get just one more copper.”
    For a moment, the wizard looked nonplussed. Then he shook his head ruefully. “Yes, well, I imagine it would have saved me a considerable amount of trouble to have hired you as an advisor from the start. But what was your interest in her? My understanding is that dwarves customarily have little use for elves.”
    “We got lots of interest for an elf they pay gold to get back. I didn’t know she was a cousin to the Forest King, but I knowed she’d be worth something. Now, I want my gold, and I be thinking the dwarf king should be knowing what you Savonders is about. I knows we can’t stop you. I don’t even knows that we want to stop you. We don’t stick our beards in Man business. But we likes to knows what’s going on over our heads. So tell me, give me my gold, and then you can send the elf to the Dark if you like.”
    The wizard pursed his lips. Lodi had the impression that he was trying to decide if he could kill them all fast enough and still preserve his long-sought prize. Finally, he shrugged in acquiescence.
    “Very well, dwarf. It’s a small enough price and will do no harm. Look to the skies, my inquisitive friend. Not tomorrow, not next year, but I’m told you are a long-lived people. When you see fire in the sky, then you may tell your king under the mountains that the shaking of the earth is nigh.”
    Lodi nodded and made a mental note to urge the King of the Underdeep to see that the deep strongholds under the mountain were well-supplied in the years to come. Even a dwarf could see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
    The wizard had gone to dangerous lengths in seeking a specific spell used to control flying beasts. Fire. The sky burning and the earth shaking. Dragons! Even the evil witchmen of the north, with all their dark and demonic arts, had never managed to tame dragons! He stifled the urge to laugh at the wizard’s lunatic purpose and somehow managed to limit himself to a knowing nod.
    “Do you understand, then? I suppose you must be rather more quick-witted than you look.” The wizard smiled, but there was little humor in his eyes. “Well, my bearded friend, I shall now bid you adieu. To the matter of the