Rune Mage: The Rune Mystic: Book Two Read online

  Rune Mage

  The Rune Mystic: Book Two

  Author: D. L. Harrison

  Copyright 2020. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Other books by D. L. Harrison:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  The castle wall’s golden hued stones shone in the morning sun, and it was a rather intimidating sight. That, and the large thick gates which towered fifty feet high, made of extremely thick wood banded with iron. He imagined it must weigh a ton.

  He was usually a fairly confident young man, but the idea of being around royalty constantly for the next month as their guard was rather intimidating. He might be a rune mage, only after seven months instead of just over a year of being an apprentice, but that part of his mindset was a leftover from his humbler days as a blacksmith.

  It didn’t help that the promotion to mage was a fluke of circumstances, a traditional reward bestowed upon any apprentice that ranked in the top ten during a competition. Sure, he had the bracers and the sword of a rune mage, even more complete with spells and runes than most new rune mages would have, thanks to his flawless memory when it came to magical rune spells. It was experience, and perhaps most importantly of all, his level of power that was lacking.

  Of course, as a rune mage with the ability to cast from all disciplines, along with his sword, that very much evened those odds. If it didn’t, he wouldn’t be there, even if Master Mage Tanner of the fire guild was up to something. Sure, he wasn’t a match for a long-experienced master mage of any discipline, but then neither was anyone else in their group.

  All the masters in the seven mage guilds were far to the south on the border, serving in the war against Vemor. As far as he knew or heard, their troops and mages were still holding out at Sleek Pass where the enemy’s main thrust into the kingdom of Reton was taking place.

  In short, he felt out of his depth.

  It didn’t help that the other eight mages, four each from the water and earth tower, had looked rather unimpressed when he’d been part of the group that morning, and he wasn’t sure if he could blame them. Only Lia showed any confidence in him, which actually helped him.

  Lia was an extremely powerful rune mage for her young age, she was actually younger than he was, but growing up in the tower meant she’d found her magic and had started training long before he had. She had much more power than the average mage as well, one of the rare exceptions of truly powerful wielders. She was also incredibly beautiful, long blonde hair, bright and expressive cerulean eyes he could get lost in, and a lovely face of soft beauty he never got tired of seeing.

  Perhaps most importantly, as far as he was concerned anyway, she was also his future. They’d been courting for six months now, which was the halfway point of their society’s customary courting length before handfasting could be considered. He was already sure of her. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, they had disagreements, but what was? In the end, she was perfect for him, and challenged him, that was far more precious to him and important than some woman who would agree with him all the time.

  When Tanner had pushed for his early promotion to mage within the rune guild, Cassandra had managed to convince the other master mage guild leaders to approve her and him being a permanent team until his magic fully matured, which should be in about six months. That more than anything else gave him confidence in this mess, they made a great team.

  Even better, by the time his initial growth spurt of magic had ended, they’d be hand-fasted, and married mages were always assigned as teams and kept together. He’d never be apart from his chosen partner in this life again, barring unexpected circumstances. He’d always missed her and worried about her when she was out on missions over the last six months, it wasn’t something that would come up again.

  Assuming of course, everything between them continued to go well. They’d never spent quite so much time together before, but he wasn’t expecting any major problems that way. Well, they had in the beginning, but that was just friendship, he hadn’t started courting her until she’d been promoted to mage.

  If anything, their relationship was the one thing he truly had confidence in. At the same time, a little over seven months ago he’d learned the hard way that life could kick you in the ass when you least expected it to, and wash all your life plans down the river, as a result he’d never take her for granted.

  Ironically, on this first mission together, he suspected there’d be almost no time where they could talk privately, or to steal a moment for even an intimate conversation, even less than when she was on a mission and they’d used spells to keep in contact. Guarding the royal family didn’t allow for much personal time, it was why the mission was limited to a month at a time.

  The royal guards at the gate to the castle complex gave them all a piercingly searching look, and one spoke as they arrived.

  “Wait here please, for just a moment, good mages. We’re not quite ready for you yet.”

  Well, at least the man was polite as he kept them waiting at the proverbial door, but then being polite to someone that could kill with a wave of the hand seemed the course of prudence. Not that the guard looked at all afraid, mages that did that kind of thing because of simple rudeness were executed. The guard motioned to a page, who took off toward the castle at a dead run.

  The castle itself beyond the gate was quite grand. The capital city of Highspire was named after it, there were spiral towers at the four corners of the castle, and one almost twice as high in the middle. No doubt the king at the time had felt the castle needed to be grander than the large seven tower and huge domed edifice the mage guilds had.

  The castle itself was at least seven stories tall, the spires a third again of that height, which put the vast fifty-foot-high walls protecting it to shame. If it weren’t for the fact that he’d be following the royal family around and protecting them for the next month, he’d be worried about getting lost in the behemoth.

  They still didn’t know who would be protecting who, the queen regent, the queen apparent, or the younger prince, but they’d find out soon enough.

  He had learned that despite the no speaking unless asked a question rule, they were to accompany their charge at all times outside of the royal apartments, and even then they would be no farther than a room away. In that, they had authority even over the crown’s wishes through custom and law, not even the queen could order them out of a room. Despite that, he just hoped that kind of thing never came up.

  Regardless, he wasn’t too worried, he wouldn’t be leading any of the teams he was on as a brand-new mage. A small comfort for the next four weeks.

  He tensed slightly a
s an older man in an elaborate royal guard uniform walked out of the castle, followed by almost a hundred royal guards. He calmed as they started to move into dress formation in the courtyard in front of the castle. The old man continued toward the gate with a serious look on his face, and he got the impression the older man didn’t smile much.

  “Welcome, I am Royal Guard Captain Severn. This is a little different, but I understand none of you have guarded the royal family before, nor have you come in the top ten of a mage competition. That means none of my men know any of you by sight, which could lead to problems as my men are rather paranoid about the safety of the queen and her family.”

  He imagined that was simply true, especially since the king had been successfully assassinated under their watch, and there’d been several more tries for the rest of the family since. He knew he’d take something like that personally.

  Severn added, “I also have your team setups, and who you’ll be guarding. As I call your names and teams, please stand out in front of my men. Obviously, there are many guards on duty right now that can’t be present, but these will pass word, names, and descriptions to all on duty within the hour.

  “Mages Sienna, Justin, and Amanda. When the family is separated, you’ll be guarding the queen.”

  Sienna was a water mage in her late twenties. She had golden blonde hair and green eyes, and from what he could tell was rather shy and quiet. Though… she could just be having his problem, and be a little intimated in the moment, it wasn’t like he’d spent a whole lot of time with any of the other mages outside of Lia.

  All he had were first impressions.

  Justin and Amanda were both earth mages. Justin was also in his late twenties, most of them were between twenty-five and thirty-five, outside of him and Lia. Justin had light brown hair and eyes, and he was wiry. He hadn’t spoken that much since they’d met at the mage building entrance that morning, but the mage smiled a lot.

  He got the impression Justin saw it as an adventure.

  Amanda was just over thirty, and five foot three. She was a lithe redhead with gray eyes, and outside of the dubious looks sent his way that morning, she seemed nice enough.

  It was in fact, a bit annoying, that he really didn’t know any of them, even after over seven months in the tower. That was all thanks to the ridiculous customs of keeping professional distance between the towers and mage disciplines. He was sure there was a reason for that, besides the stated ones, but on the bad side while assigned to their first mission ever together, they had no idea how they’d react to an emergency.

  In short, there was no team cohesion, hopefully it would develop quickly. At least he and Lia would act as one, relatively.

  Severn said, “The next team will be guarding Princess Vida, queen apparent. Mages Lia, Olin, Karina, and Carolynn.”

  He and Lia walked over with the other two to stand in front of the guards, presumably so they could memorize their faces, and who they should be with at all times. He had no doubt they had orders to report on it if any of them weren’t near the princess at any time, which is how it should be.

  He also returned the favor as the guards studied their faces. It’d be harder for him to learn every face in the royal guard than for them to learn ten, but it made sense to try. Assassins didn’t usually announce themselves or wear black clothes.

  Karina was a water mage. She was five foot three, with black hair and gray eyes, and a lush beauty he took note of but otherwise didn’t care about. He didn’t really know much else about her yet, but she did have a measuring and calculated look in her eyes, and he got the impression her mind was always working on scenarios in her head.

  Carolynn was an earth mage, and very petite at five foot one. She had brown hair and eyes, and although she looked relaxed, he got the impression she was just as observant as Karina was. Just a whole lot less tense about it.

  It wasn’t lost on him that the queen had split up their disciplines, which made a lot of sense. An earth and water mage could offset their weaknesses while working together. Rune mages didn’t have weaknesses that way, since they could access all six spheres of magic, as long as they could hold onto their stuff that is. That was their major weakness, take their runes away and they were as helpless as any other man or woman without magic.

  It also wasn’t lost on him that four of the ten of them were assigned to the Princess, who was the true queen and heir apparent. Cassandra had suggested that was a likely scenario. The current queen, the wife of the late king, only ruled as regent. She and the younger son were only getting three mage guards, not four, as Vida was the future of the kingdom.

  One more thing occurred to him, he was kind of the odd man out, because of the concession made to team him and Lia together at all times. The young prince had an all man mage team, and the princess an all-female team with him as the exception to that, while the queen had a mixed team. He couldn’t imagine that was on accident. He suspected if it wasn’t for that concession, he’d be on the queen’s team instead of Amanda or Sienna.

  He didn’t imagine the queen was overly thrilled about having her sixteen-year-old daughter around an eighteen-year-old male mage for twenty-four hours a day. Not that it was anything to worry about, he was properly smitten with Lia after all, but the queen didn’t know that.

  Although, he was a bit nervous about the idea of spending his nights sleeping in the same room as three other mage women while guarding Vida’s door. The duties of a mage overrode the boundaries of custom that way, but since it was his first mission ever it would take time to get used to the idea. He was a bit scandalized by the idea, honestly.

  Severn said, “Lastly, mages Levi, Andrew, and Daniel will be guarding the prince.”

  Mages Andrew and Daniel were water mages, but that was about all they had in common. Andrew was in his late twenties with bright red hair and brown eyes. The mage was quite muscular, and six foot two in height. Andrew had a rather arrogant confidence on his face, and he struck Olin as a take charge type. He was heartily glad the man was in another group, but he knew at times they’d have to work together.

  Daniel was shorter at five foot eleven, and he had a thin lean body. He had brown hair and blue eyes. Olin’s first impression of Daniel was that he was a very focused individual, but more so on the goals than the means. In short, the man wouldn’t argue all that much with Andrew about the means, and he’d just get it done with a steely eyed confidence.

  Last but not least of their ten-mage team, was Levi.

  Levi was the earth mage on that team, six foot even, and around thirty like everyone else seemed to be except for him and Lia. He had black hair and brown eyes, and a stubborn set to his shoulders and eyes.

  Olin suspected Levi and Andrew would be butting heads a lot, they both struck him as take control overconfident types, which was a lot better than Lia and Andrew, or even him and Andrew, in his head. To be fair, he wasn’t much of a follower either, it just hadn’t come up the last seven months being mostly isolated.

  Sure, he respected and obeyed Cassandra as his mistress, she ran the rune guild, just as he’d respected Cain his master blacksmith before her. But all these mages were his equals, his peers, and they were a team. That’s not to say he wouldn’t listen to and adopt a good idea, but he’d also be heard if he thought it was important enough.

  Hopefully, it wouldn’t come up, and they’d have a boring month following around snooty royalty. He suppressed a snort at that thought, never going to happen, he wasn’t that lucky. Besides, Tanner was up to something, and the Vemor empire had been trying to assassinate the royal family for months. This mission wouldn’t be boring in the least. Or at least, there’d be small moments of terror amongst the boredom.

  Chapter Two

  With a few orders, the royal guards disbursed, save Captain Severn and two of his men.

  Severn said, “We’ll escort you to the royal dining room now, where you’ll relieve last month’s mage guards. From that point on, you won’t leave your cha
rge at all, save when they are in their inner bedroom and you in the outer, or when relieved for a short time while the family is together. Any questions? You should not speak once you’ve taken your posts, unless asked a direct question, so it’s now or never.”

  They’d eaten breakfast very early that morning, to make sure they arrived during the royal family’s breakfast, which was when they had to relieve the last group.

  Andrew asked, “Our bags?” while he patted his bag which was over his shoulder.

  They each had small backpacks of personal things and spare robes carefully rolled up, but they weren’t too worried as a quick spell could render their robes pristine and perfect in a moment’s notice.

  Severn said, “Give them to who you’re relieving, they’ll drop them off in the outer bedroom chambers when they go to pick up theirs on their way out of the castle.”

  He got the impression from Severn’s tone that was a well-established thing, something they should’ve known. Of course, none of them had protected the royal family before, so he thought there’d be a lot of that.

  No one had any more questions, at least none they were willing to ask, and Severn led them into the castle, with the two other guards following the group of ten mages.

  He did his best not to gawk at the obvious wealth of the palace. Paintings, carvings, and other artwork lined the halls. The throne room wasn’t far from the entrance, in the main corridor of the public part of the castle. He calmed slightly, after they turned off that main hallway into a side hallway, and then took stairs up two floors and moved toward the back of the castle which were far less well appointed.

  The obvious wealth in the front of the castle was for the benefit of visitors. Sure, the hallways were still decked out with fancy carvings in the walls, and even some art and flower arrangements, but it wasn’t completely overwhelming or in their face. It wasn’t much more ornate than the mage towers and central round dome where he lived. Not like the public part of the castle, which was obviously designed that way to humble visitors seeking audience to the throne.