The Never-Dying Man

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Book excerpt

Prologue

Carthinal sat working at the table in the rooms that he and Yssa shared in the Mage Tower of Hambara. He had moved in after their wedding, but they both knew they would have to move out soon after their child was born. It was due in a couple of sixdays and they had decided that they would have to find a house in the city as soon as the birth occurred. He glanced over at his wife who was sitting before the fire and sewing a blanket for the child’s crib. It was a cool day at the end of autumn, and so they had decided to light a fire. The Winter Solstice was in four sixdays and they were hoping to join in with the celebrations, assuming the birth of their child allowed it.

He was working on a translation from Elvish to Grosmerian, set for him by Yssa. He wanted to be able to help her in her work of translating the ancient spell-books that he, Basalt and Randa had found in a secret room in the Duke’s Palace. Although he was a half-elf, his parents had died while he was still very young, and he had not learned much of the language of his father.

Yssa, a beautiful golden-blonde elf, insisted that he learn to speak modern Elvish first, not only for the translations, but also so that they could speak Elvish to their child. Neither of them wished for the infant to grow up with no knowledge of its mother’s tongue, so he worked on at his task.

He and Yssa had married that summer after Carthinal returned from his quest to find Sauvern’s Sword for Duke Rollo. She had become pregnant after they had had a brief affair before Carthinal left. He did not love her, although he felt friendship and respect for her, but he had felt obliged to marry her to give their child a name. Elven children born out of wedlock were given a hard time.

Carthinal looked up as he heard Yssa give a sharp intake of breath.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘I think the baby’s coming,’ replied his wife.

The half-elf looked anxious. ‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘What do I do?’

‘Nothing at the moment. Just wait.’

'Should I send for the midwife?’

‘Not yet. The pains are still quite spaced out and not very strong. I think I’ll walk around for a bit.’

Eventually, after what seemed like days, but was only hours, she said,  ‘Find Tomac and tell him to go and get Harretta. I think it’s nearly the time for her to come.’

Carthinal flew down the stairs to the library where he found the young apprentice. Tomac had been one of his fellow apprentices before the death of their master, Mabryl, and before Carthinal’s success in passing the tests that all mages were required to take before becoming admitted to the full fellowship of the Tower. He quickly told the young man to go for the midwife, Harretta.

Tomac, brushing back the lock of black hair that insisted on falling over his eyes, leaped up and ran to the door of the Tower, without thinking to pick up a cloak in spite of the cold.

Carthinal returned to the rooms he shared with Yssa where he paced over to the window on the opposite side of the room and sat on the window seat looking down over the town. He sat there for a long time thinking.

Harretta had arrived some hours earlier and taken Yssa into the bedroom, leaving Carthinal in the living room with his thoughts. There were still some lights in windows although it was the eighteenth hour of the day, but as he watched, they were gradually extinguished. He paced the room for a while before sitting down on one of the two sofas in front of the fire.

Then there came the sound of birds twittering. Carthinal woke up with a start. He must have fallen asleep. He was stiff with sleeping in an awkward position and he stood up and stretched. He rolled his shoulders. It was the first hour of the day and he walked to the window. Dawn was just breaking over in the east. He glanced at the bedroom door. It was shut tight. He listened. He thought he could hear Yssa’s panting breath. How long was this going to take?

There was a knock on the door. It opened and admitted Emmienne, the other apprentice that Yssa had taken on from Mabryl. She was carrying a tray, which she set down on the table.

‘I thought you’d like something to eat, Carthinal,’ she said, smiling at the young man.

'Thank you, Emm,’ replied the half-elf distantly, ‘That was very thoughtful of you.’

The girl smiled again and was gone before they could say anything more.

Suddenly there was the cry of a baby. Carthinal’s eyes went wide with wonder and a grin broke out on his face. Then the door of the bedroom opened and Harretta came out.

'You can go in and see your wife now,’ she told Carthinal. ‘She’s very tired, so don’t stay too long. It was not an easy birth, but everything is fine now.’

Carthinal entered the room slowly and looked at Yssa. She was lying propped up on pillows with her beautiful golden hair damp with sweat. Her nightgown was white and had obviously been changed. In her arms she was holding a small bundle. Carthinal crept slowly through the door feeling like a little boy again.

Yssa smiled. ‘Come and meet your daughter, Carthinal,’ she said softly.

Chapter One

Randa, heiress to the Duchy of Hambara rode her wilful stallion, Storm, towards the woods where her lover, the ranger, Fero, had built his house. Just before she arrived in the clearing there was a loud rustle in the bushes and a tall figure covered in grey hair emerged. It was about ten feet tall, and Storm shied and reared when he saw it. It was only through superb horsemanship that Randa kept her seat. In that time she had recognised the figure.

‘Grnff,’ she exclaimed. ‘What are you doing here?’

It was indeed the yeti who, along with his mate, Zplon, had helped them to find the valley in which Sauvern was buried, and hence find his Sword—the very Sword that now hung at Randa’s hip.

The huge figure looked downcast and somewhat hunched over.

‘Grnff cum see Fro,’ he replied. ‘Tadra stolen. Grnff and Zplon need help of Wolf get her back.’

‘Follow me, Grnff,’ Randa told the creature as she dismounted to lead Storm. The black horse stood trembling, ears back and the whites of his eyes showing.

Once outside Fero’s house, Randa called to the ranger, and he came running from round the back of the house where he had been chopping wood.

‘Randa,’ he exclaimed. ‘I wasn’t expecting you today. I thought you were still in Bluehaven.’ He paused and looked at Grnff. ‘And I certainly wasn’t expecting you. What brings you so far from the Mountains? I thought you yetis didn’t like it here in the lowlands.’

Grnff looked at the ranger, and Fero thought he could see tears in the other’s eyes.

‘Oh, Fro,’ the Yeti said. ‘Tadra has been taken. Grnff not no where. Grnff track as far as he can, but then cum to find Wolf. Zplon is very sad. Grnff is very sad. Wolf help Zplon and Grnff?’

The yeti sat down on the ground and sighed. Fero and Randa looked at each other and then at Grnff.

‘We must find the rest of Wolf,’ Randa said, ‘and then we can discuss what must be done. Grnff, of course we’ll help you. We owe you our lives. If you hadn’t found us in the snow and taken us to your cave, we would be dead by now. Then you showed us the way to the valley through the lava tubes of the volcano. The whole of Grosmer owes you, if the prophecy is to be believed.’

Grnff looked at her. ‘You know what prfcy mean then?’

‘No, not yet,’ replied Fero, ‘but these things have a habit of only becoming clear after the event. Like the flood. “When Kalhera descends from the mountains”. Kalhera, goddess of death,’ he explained to the yeti, ‘certainly came from the mountains the day that Carthinal and Asphodel met.’

‘Fero, we must get the others together as soon as possible. I’ll go now and round them up. Come to the Palace just after sunset.’

With that, she rode away, leaving Fero and Grnff alone in the clearing.

‘I wonder what she actually came for?’ mused Fero ‘She didn’t say. I wasn’t expecting her either.’

OoOoOoOoOo

The meeting of Wolf took place in the green drawing room in the Palace of the Duke of Hambara.

Basalt arrived first. The dwarf entered grumbling. He still resented leaving his weapons at the gatehouse. His hazel eyes took in Randa and Thadora sitting in chairs on opposite sides of the fire.

Randa, of course, looked her usual beautiful and composed self with her ash-blonde hair hanging down to her waist. Her sister, Thadora, was just the opposite. She was perched on the edge of the chair looking as if she were about to run. She ran her fingers through her red curls—the curls that had prompted Grnff and Zplon to dub her ‘Red Cub’.

‘What’s all this about, Randa?’ Basalt asked. He stroked his chestnut beard. ‘It had better be important. I was in the middle of a piece of jewellery for an important customer.’

‘When the others get here, I’ll tell you. I don’t want to have to say it several times. Oh, do sit down, Bas. You are making me uncomfortable.’

As the dwarf sat down, the door opened and let Carthinal in. The tall auburn-haired mage was the leader of the group. He had the most impressive deep blue eyes. His hair was long, brushing his shoulders, and he wore a closely trimmed beard. He was extremely handsome and endowed with great charisma.

He had been only a newly qualified mage when they left to find the Sword, but was now out of his probation and, if rumours were to be believed, well on the way to becoming an arch-mage—the fastest promotion in all of the Mage Tower’s recorded history.

The next arrivals were Davrael and Kimi, a Horselord couple from across the Western Mountains. They had fled their homeland when their parents forbade their marriage, Davrael was around five feet eleven inches and he wore his long, dark brown hair tied around with a bandanna to keep it out of his eyes.

The most impressive thing about him was a fearsome tattoo on his face. It depicted a hawk, with its wings swooping over his brows and its head down his long, straight nose and talons on his cheeks. In spite of his fearsome look, his wife, Kimi, declared him to be ‘a pussy-cat.’

Kimi, herself was a small girl, not particularly pretty but with a sweet nature. Her hair was a mousy brown and she had light brown eyes. Both the Horselords wore their native clothing, leather trousers, cotton shirt and leather jerkin.

Finally, Fero and Asphodel arrived. The tall, dark ranger followed the elf into the room. He was, as usual wearing black. This contrasted with Asphodel’s white robes indicating that she was a cleric of Sylissa, goddess of Life and Healing. Her black hair had grown back after it had been cut the previous year when she fell foul of the Great Father of the temple here in Hambara and had been threatened with the Daughters of Sylissa, an enclosed order. She had run away from the temple, but had since been somewhat reconciled. Her grey eyes found Carthinal’s indigo ones, then quickly moved away.

They were all burning with curiosity as to why Randa had sent for them. She did not keep them waiting for long and quickly ran through the meeting she and Fero had had with Grnff earlier.

When she finished, Thadora, her half-sister, piped up, ‘Of course we’ll go to help him. We so owe him our lives. It’s the least we can bleeding well do.’

 ‘Thadda, don’t swear,’ Randa said absently. Then she added, ‘Of course we’ll go to help him and Zplon. They did save our lives, as Thadda said. I’m sure we are all agreed.’

Basalt looked at Randa and raised an eyebrow. ‘Should we put it to a vote?’ he asked, ‘or are you deciding for all of us?’

The dwarf then turned to the others, but before he could answer, he was drowned out by all their voices shouting at once. The result was a unanimous decision that they must help Grnff. Fero then left to tell the yeti and the others all went back to their various homes.

OoOoOoOoOo

Carthinal was walking along the streets of Hambara, heading for home when he heard someone calling to him. He stopped and looked round. He was close to the Mage Tower and saw a familiar figure crossing the road towards him.

‘Grimmaldo!’ he exclaimed. ‘What are you doing back in Hambara? I thought you had gone home to Frind.’

The other mage slapped him on the back. He and Carthinal had taken the tests to end their apprenticeship at the same time the previous year and had enjoyed one another’s company.

The young man pushed a lock of unruly brown hair from in front of his blue eyes and grinned.

‘I did, but it was boring after Hambara and being in the Mage Tower so I decided to come back to work here. I heard you're now married and working in the Tower with your wife.’

‘Yes, but I’m about to go off again. A friend of ours is in trouble and we're going to help him. I don’t know how long it'll take. Still, I hope you can find something you enjoy in the Tower.’

‘You're going off on an adventure again? I’m jealous,’ replied Grimmaldo. ‘I’ve always fancied myself as an adventurer.’

‘Not the most glamorous life, you know,’ Carthinal told him. ‘Not like it’s portrayed. Sleeping on the ground, getting cold and wet, and sometimes hungry. Fighting for your life!’

‘Just what I need,’ replied Grimmaldo. ‘Something to break this dull existence.’

‘Come and meet the others tomorrow then,’ Carthinal sighed. ‘We’ll see if they agree to you coming too.’

The other mage grinned and his eyes sparkled as he bade goodbye to his friend and headed off to his quarters in the Mage Tower.

Carthinal arrived at the house that he and Yssa had bought with the money he got from the sale of his old Master’s house in Bluehaven. He had brought Mabryl’s old housekeeper, Lillora, to keep house for them as well.

When he entered Yssa was feeding their daughter, Starralishinarra, or Starr for short. He kissed his wife on the cheek and the baby on top of her auburn hair, so like his own and sat down in the chair opposite them.

‘I don’t know how to tell you this, Yssa,’ he began, but his wife interrupted him.

‘Don’t tell me you’re going away again,’ she said.

‘How did you guess?’ he replied.

‘ Your general demeanour and the fact that you have just been to what you said was an important meeting of Wolf.’

Carthinal told her about the meeting and what had been decided. Yssa knew that she could not change the half-elf’s mind once it was made up and so she sighed.

‘Just come back in one piece,’ she told him, ‘and don’t be too long or Starr won’t know you.’

OoOoOoOoOo

Fero was chopping wood when he heard the sound of hooves. He straightened up and leaned on his axe. Randa hardly let Storm come to a standstill when she threw herself out of the saddle and ran into Fero’s waiting arms. He swung her round, as though she were a child, although she was a tall young woman. Then he set her back on her feet and kissed her before speaking.

‘Randa, my Lady,’ and he bowed mockingly to her.

She laughed and took his hand. She pulled him towards the house that he had built. It was small, and built of wattle and daub with a thatched roof. He had built it with his own hands, but spent as much time as he could outside. It had only one room, which served as kitchen, bedroom and living room. Fero, when asked, reacted with surprise and said that was all he needed. Why build rooms he was not going to use?

Randa and Fero had fallen in love with each other on the quest to find Sauvern’s Sword. Randa had followed the group and insisted on joining them, against her father’s wishes. The other members of the group had not wanted Randa with them as she was an imperious young lady and thought she was better than they were because of her birth.

The quest changed her, and when Fero had nearly died of pneumonia, caught when they had been captured by hobgoblins and ill treated, she realised she loved him. She soon found that he returned her feelings but was very aware of the gulf between them.

He was a poor man’s son, the son of a sandal-maker from the land of Beridon, beyond the Great Desert. She was a high born lady, destined to be the Duchess of Hambara, the most powerful duchy in the land.

In appearance, they could not have been more different either. Fero was very tall, about six feet six, with black hair that he wore long and tied back in a queue and eyes that were almost as black as his hair. He had the olive-brown skin of the people from his land, and he carried himself with a proud bearing. His nose was straight and although he was not classically good-looking, he was a very striking young man.

Randa, on the other hand, was as pale as Fero was dark. She, too, was tall, around five feet nine, and had long silvery blonde hair, which had fascinated Fero when he first saw it. He had likened it to moonlight rippling over the water. She had blue eyes and was incredibly beautiful. Even more so now she had learned to like others and not be so snobbish.

Now she laughed with her lover and her eyes sparkled like the sapphires she so loved. Fero told her so and she laughed again as they entered Fero’s small home.

Some time later, the pair came out into the clearing that Fero was turning into a garden. He was growing vegetables and fruit mainly, with a few herbs and, to please Randa, he had planted some flowers. These Randa sometimes picked and took indoors to make beautiful arrangements for him. They sat on a seat by the wall looking down through the trees towards the lake.

Randa turned to Fero. ‘Father has been pressing me to choose a husband again.’ she said. 

‘And what about this batch?’ replied her lover.

‘I disliked a couple on sight. Another was a complete bore. The fourth, an idiot with no brain. The fifth...the fifth...it was Prince Almoro, the King’s younger son. That was why I went to Bluehaven. To meet with the Prince and agree to the betrothal terms.’

‘Oh! I wondered why you went. I thought it was to introduce Thadora at court.’

‘It was partly, but we wouldn’t have done it yet if I hadn’t had to go about the betrothal. Father didn’t think she was quite ready, but Thadda insisted.’

‘I wish I could offer for you Randa.’

‘So do I, Fero,’ replied the girl. ‘I would marry you without a second thought, no matter your background or what people thought, but you’d never be able to live in the city, it'd kill you, and as the husband of the Duchess, you’d have to. You’d have many of the duties of a Duke and be unable to leave when you needed to.’

‘It’s killing me now, Randa, all this secrecy and snatched meetings.’ Fero stroked the hair that he loved. Then he looked down. ‘You could always give up your position,’ he observed quietly. ‘Rollo has another daughter,’

Randa looked at him in amazement and then laughed. ‘Thadora? The Duchess? Fero, be sensible. She can hardly manage to keep herself respectable enough to be the Duke’s younger daughter, let alone the Duchess.’

Fero looked at Randa. ‘If you don’t love me enough, Randa, then so be it, but I’ll never love anyone else.’

With that, he strode down to the lake and disappeared from view. Randa sat there for long minutes thinking. How she longed to do as Fero suggested. Was it true she did not love him enough?

She was torn. Her duty to her father and the dukedom was pulling her one way and her love for this tall, dark ranger the other. Thadora could no more be a duchess than could Muldee, the little dragonet they had met on their travels. She was far too scatty and wild.

Thadora had grown up in the Warren, the thieves quarter of the city. She was the illegitimate daughter of a prostitute who had once been visited by the Duke when he was a young man. Her mother, Nandala, had been a courtesan at Madame Dopari’s Emporium, and the Duke had recognised Thadora by her likeness to his grandmother, with her unruly red curls and laughing green eyes.

He had since recognised her publicly and adopted her, but she was still at heart a thief from the Warren.

On the other hand, how would she, Randa, cope without Fero? She had known him less than a year, but he had become as dear to her as life itself. She would rather die than give him up. She sat thinking, and worrying over what they could do. Eventually, she made a decision and she went to where she knew Fero would be.

He did not look up when he heard her soft footsteps. If he could not have her, he did not want to see her. She was so beautiful with her blue eyes and long silvery hair and skin so perfect that the sight of her inflamed him with desire.

He kept on looking over the lake. She did not love him enough that was clear. He would give up everything for her, if he had anything to give up.

Then she spoke. ‘Fero.’

He did not move.

‘Fero, look at me. Please.’

He turned and looked at her and his heart nearly broke. She was standing at the water’s edge with tears streaming down her face. He could not keep his distance, and he took her in his arms.

‘Fero,’ she said, ‘I love you. You know that, but I have been brought up to be the Duchess of Hambara when my father dies. It is the most important Duchy in the country, and the duke is second only to the King in power.' She reached into a pocket and pulled out a handkerchief that she used to wipe her eyes.

'It’s not only Hambara but also the whole of Grosmer that will be affected if I give it up. I’m not interested in the wealth or the power, Fero, you should know that, nor the position of my soon-to-be fiancé. Once, yes. Before I met you and the other Wolves, but you, especially you, changed that. My values are different now, thanks to you.’

She drew herself out of his arms and faced the lake. ‘My father, too, is of importance to me. I love him dearly. I wouldn’t wish to break his heart.’

‘So you’ll break mine instead!’ Fero finished for her in a gruff voice.

‘No! Fero,’ She turned back to him, ‘I must marry in order to produce an heir. I cannot marry you, nor can an illegitimate child inherit, but once I have an heir, then nothing can stand in our way. I can come to you as I do now. I’ll spend as much time with you as I can. As long as to the general public I appear to be a good wife, then that’s all that is needed. Once I’ve got an heir, then I can be faithful to you.’ She dropped her voice. ‘I’m selfish, I know, but I can’t give you up, nor can I abdicate my responsibilities to the country. I have told father that I will accept the Prince.’

Fero sighed. ‘Randa’ he said, walking over to the lakeside where she still stood, ‘I can’t give you up either. I think about you every waking moment and dream of you every night. If this marriage must be, then let it be as you suggest. Come to me when you can, my love. It won’t be perfect, but it will be better than never seeing you again, as it would have to have been if we could not compromise somehow.’

Randa looked towards the west and saw the sun was setting. ‘I must go, Fero,’ she said,

It seemed he had accepted the compromise as he smiled down at her and kissed her before taking her back to the clearing and Storm.