Rising of a Mage: Book 03 - A Mage Risen Read online

  A

  Mage

  Risen

  © 2013 by J.M. Fosberg

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or distributed by any means without prior permission in writing from the author.

  Dedication:

  I dedicate this book to my loving wife , Sara.

  Without her I would be lost. She is my rock. I wouldn’t be who I am today without her, and no one would be reading these words if she hadn’t taken the time to help me get my life together. Thank you , baby , for being the amazing wife, mother, and all - around selfless person that you are.

  Acknowledgments:

  First I would like to thank God for my imagination and passion.

  A big thanks to Brent Markee , Penny J. Wills, and Stuart Bohnet , who saw a much rougher version of this book and helped me shape it into what it is now. Your feedback and encouragement was invaluable.

  I would like to thank Jodie Young from www.rooftopcopy.com for taking the painstaking job of editing my work. She did an amazing job, and I am happy to have the opportunity to work with her.

  I cannot leave out Camille Neighbors , who did the amazing work on the cover.

  I would especially like to thank Toby Neighbors , who , in one way or another , linked me with all of the before - mentioned individuals.

  Finally I would like to thank you. I know everyone always says they write for their readers. I am sorry, but I have to be honest : I don’t. I write because I enjoy it. I write because it allows me to push the characters out of my head and allows them to grow. If I didn’t sell a single book I would still write. I may not write for my readers, but I do try to improve my writing for you. I hope that is enough. Thank you all for your support and feedback.

  Books by J.M. Fosberg

  Rising of a Mage Trilogy

  Rising of a Mage

  Gods and Magic

  A Mage Risen

  The Half-Dwarf Prince Series

  The Half-Dwarf Prince

  (Estimated release 2013)

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter One: No Time

  Chapter Two: Creating Chaos

  Chapter Three: Setting Out

  Chapter Four: Orcs

  Chapter Five: Magic

  Chapter Six: Black Dragons

  Chapter Seven: More Orcs

  Chapter Eight: Chaos Begins

  Chapter Nine: Goblins

  Chapter Ten: Freeman

  Chapter Eleven: A Day Lost

  Chapter Twelve: Trouble in Ambar

  Chapter Thirteen: The Fairy Forest

  Chapter Fourteen: Cannen and the Black Dragons

  Chapter Fifteen: Real Fairies

  Chapter Sixteen: Saying Goodbye

  Chapter Seventeen: Traveling Dragons

  Chapter Eighteen: The Call of Kalise

  Chapter Nineteen: Coming out of the Forest

  Chapter Twenty: Trouble in Kampar

  Chapter Twenty-One: Back in Freeman

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Orcs and Dragons

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Anwar and the Black Dragons

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Waiting for War

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Mountain of Fire

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Second Assault

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Another Goodbye

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Dwarf Offensive

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: Bird’s-Eye View

  Chapter Thirty: The Tide Turns

  Chapter Thirty-One: A Power that Consumes

  Chapter Thirty-Two: The Ones Left Standing

  Chapter Thirty-Three: Healing Hands

  Chapter Thirty-Four: Recovering

  Chapter Thirty-Five: A Dwarf King’s Funeral

  Chapter Thirty-Six: The Father of Mortals – The Keeper of Balance

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Slowly everyone began to snap back to reality. Being in the presence of a god was almost unheard of; being in the presence of that many gods had simply never happened. They were all dealing with it in their own way. Eventually, they all gathered around Anwar and Mariah.

  Anwar looked around at everyone, then his gaze stopped on Navaeh. “Kalise said you would know what to do. What do we need to do?”

  Navaeh struggled with how to word her thoughts. “Anwar...” She stopped to swallow, but her mouth was dry. “Anwar, when a wraith passes through you like that, it can pull your soul from your body. A wraith has a small amount of substance where a ghost does not. That is why a wraith is able to affect you physically, while a ghost can only scare you into harming yourself.”

  Anwar just shook his head. “That’s not what I asked.”

  Navaeh knew he was frustrated. She knew she had to tell him. “Anwar, when a wraith rips a mortal’s soul from her body one of two things can happen. The most common is that the body dies, and the soul will go home to whomever that soul is committed to. The other is that the soul fights to stay with the body. When this happens the link is maintained but the soul is lost. Mariah’s soul is lost in the void.”

  Grizzle grabbed her arm. “You mean she is trapped in the waiting?”

  Navaeh nodded. “It has many names, but they all mean the same thing. Her soul is in the place where souls go after a mortal dies, and their soul is waiting to be claimed.”

  Anwar looked around at the looks on everyone’s faces. They were hurting too. They were worried about her too. He shouldn’t be so hard on them. “So how do we get her soul back to her body?”

  Tears welled in Navaeh’s eyes, and one ran down her face. Rundo put his hand on her back. She looked down at him, and then she wiped away her tear and looked back at Anwar.

  “The only ones who can travel into the waiting are the fairies. If we could convince them to go find Mariah’s soul they could guide it back to her body. The only thing is...” She paused.

  Anwar was getting anxious. He was trying to be patient but it was hard. He just wanted to make this right. “What? What is it?”

  Navaeh couldn’t look him in the eyes, so she looked at the ground and talked to her feet. “Even if we are able to get into the fairy forest—which no one has returned from in nearly three hundred years—even then we would still have to convince them to help us. And even then, once the soul is ripped from the body, there’s no way to know it can be put back. The chances are that once her soul and body are reunited…well, her body will probably die, sending her soul back to the waiting to be claimed by Mishima.”

  Anwar thought about that. He might just kill her by saving her. What then?

  “What if grasshoppers had crossbows? Then birds wouldn’t mess with them. I can’t think about what-ifs right now. What I know is that I have to get her soul back to her body. I’ll deal with everything else when I have to.”

  Grundel stepped up. “I’m coming with you.”

  Grizzle looked at him. “No, you’re not, son. I will go. You need to stay here.”

  Grundel shook his head. “No, I can’t. You have to stay here. War is coming. That is what he said. We are the targets. Delvidge can’t go after Anwar so he’s going to send an army here. Bordin said we needed to support Anwar, so I will go. Evermount will need both of you to lead it through this war. Hopefully we can all make it back in time to help.”

  Grizzle Stoneheart looked at his son, with whom he’d had only a few weeks to spend. He knew Grundel was right, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. “All right, boy, but you get back here quick as you can.”

  Anwar would have been touched if he wasn’t so worried about Mariah.

  Navaeh stepped up next. “Well, you know I’m coming. There’s no way yo
u’re getting into the fairy forest without me.”

  Rundo was next. “I guess I don’t have anything better to do. We godless ones have to stick together, you know.”

  Anwar patted him on the shoulder.

  Jabaal stepped up next but Anwar stopped him. “Jabaal, I want you to join us more than anything. I know you want to be there, but you can’t. They are going to need you here. This is where the fighting is going to be.”

  Jabaal wanted to argue. Mariah was like his sister. He wanted to help her, but he knew there was nothing he could do. Whatever Delvidge sent at the dwarves, they were going to need all the help they could get to defend against it. He nodded his head and stepped back.

  Delvidge appeared in front of the leader of the Dungin orcs. Fredin Dungin was a huge orc, nearly nine feet tall, twice as wide as the average man, and weighing nearly five hundred pounds. He was descended from the original Dungins.

  Orcs weren’t typically organized. They followed whoever won his place at the top: it was a true alpha male society. But the Dungins had ruled the tribe for more than six centuries. They had bred the biggest and most powerful orcs in history, and they were almost never challenged for the rule of the tribe, as Dungins were raised not to challenge their own Dungin leader. For even if an orc could beat the Dungin in charge, there was always his son and his son’s son to beat, and no orc could defeat them all.

  “Fredin Dungin,” Delvidge said.

  Fredin kept his great sword in front of him as he took a knee in front of the god. The only thing orcs gave into more than superstition was Delvidge.

  “Fredin, It is time for the orc to rise up, and past time that the dwarf falls. I will rally the other orcs to your tribe. You will march on Evermount with your tribe. By the time you reach the mountain you will have a hundred thousand orcs at your disposal.” Delvidge didn’t even wait for a response.

  When the chaos god disappeared Fredin jumped to his feet and let out a terrifying and earpiercing sound, somewhere between the roar of a bear and the squeal of a boar.

  That night, orc witches gave prophesies of how the orcs would run the dwarves out of their holes like rats. Celebration followed. In the morning, fifteen thousand orcs were marching toward Evermount.

  Delvidge had visited a dozen lesser orc leaders that night, promising each of them a land or kingdom once Evermount fell. Orcs were constantly fighting each other; they were, of course, the children of chaos. Delvidge had simply given them all something to fight for—for the moment. Once that was finished, they could fight amongst themselves to determine who got what.

  Chapter One

  No Time

  “We have to act quickly. The longer the soul is separated from the body, the harder it is for it to reunite with the body,” Navaeh told no one in particular.

  Anwar nodded. “Where is the fairy forest? Does anyone know it? If any of you can describe a certain location well enough we can travel right to the edge.”

  Navaeh shook her head. “The fairy forest has an even more ancient magic then Evermount. You said you couldn’t travel in or out of the mountain, and you had to get completely off of it before you could. The fairy forest will be even harder. Everything around it for miles is affected. I would guess you won’t be able to travel anywhere inside that affected area. To be honest, I don’t even know if your magic will work once we enter the forest.”

  Anwar’s mind had been blindly moving in a single direction until this point. Save Mariah was all he could think. The mention of not being able to use his magic, however, gave him pause. It was a good thing, though. Now his mind was slowing down. He needed to make calculated decisions. Rushing into something unprepared would just slow them down even more.

  “I’ve only heard stories of the fairies and the forests. I never knew it was real, and I have never heard where it is. Do you know how to get there?” he asked Navaeh.

  All eyes rested on her in anticipation of her answer. “It is at least a week’s walk to the east. It’s probably closer to ten days, maybe even two weeks. After that I have no idea how long it will take us to get from the edge of the forest to the fairy queen. I don’t know the area well enough for you to transport us, and I don’t know if that is even safe to do with Mariah.”

  “What about Freeman, the town just outside of the fairy forest? Couldn’t the people there help us?” Rundo asked.

  Mariah shook her head. “I doubt the people of Freeman will help us. It is said that the people are very suspicious of the fairies. Every once in a while one of the youths of Freeman takes off into the forest, and few of them ever return.”

  Anwar was confused. “I thought you said no one ever makes it out of the forest.”

  “People go short distances into the forest all the time. It’s said that as long as you stay near the edge that nothing will happen to you. Some say that fairies sometimes come out to the edges of the forest to lure men in deeper. Like I said, I only know what I have heard.”

  Anwar looked around at everyone. Navaeh, Rundo, and Grundel stood there waiting for him. “We will leave in the morning. Get a good night’s rest. We are going to push as hard and fast as we can. Like Navaeh said, the longer Mariah’s body and soul are separated, the worse our chances are to help her. I plan on doing everything I can to make sure we get her into that fairy forest as fast as possible, and the gods can just try to help whoever gets in my way.” With that Anwar turned away from his friends and went back to his room.

  Grundel went to spend his last night with his father, grandfather, and mother. It didn’t take long before they were all in the upper assembly hall with a barrel of dark ale. Everyone sang and ate and danced. More and more of the dwarves of Evermount came to wish them well on their journey. The hall continued to fill up and grow louder. For a while the weight of the world was lifted, and everyone was free to enjoy themselves, everyone except Anwar. After a while Jabaal and Grizzle headed out of the hall to go find their friend.

  Anwar sat in his room staring at his wife’s body. She looked so peaceful. He wished he knew that was true. He was sweating profusely. His magic was roaring inside of him. Something inside of him had ripped open when he had gone after Delvidge, and the magic inside of him was nearly more then he could withstand. The only thing that was saving him right now was Mariah. He had to stay in control so that he could save her. Once he had saved her he could worry about all the power inside of him. As he lay next to her, watching, he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He was already on his way to the door when he heard the knock.

  Anwar opened the door, and Grizzle and Jabaal entered the front room of the little apartment. Grizzle looked up at the mountain of a man who was his friend. Anwar was nearly twice his height and width. He could clearly see the pain in his friend’s face. He had no words that could comfort him, but he had to say something. “Is there anything we can do for you?”

  Anwar looked at his friends. These men loved him, he knew, but there was nothing they could do for him. “Thank you for coming. There is nothing else to do, but do it. We will leave in the morning, and get to the fairies as quickly as we can. With any luck the fairies will save Mariah and we will be back in time to help you finish off the rest of Delvidge’s minions.”

  “Oh ho! Well, you better hurry. I won’t promise to save you any. Don’t worry, brother. Don’t see why them gods would have given you the way to save her if it wasn’t going to work,” Grizzle said in the most lighthearted way he could manage. It sounded hollow even to him.

  Jabaal didn’t have anything more helpful to say. He put one hand on Anwar’s shoulder. “You’re going to save her.” Then he walked into the other room, bent down to kiss Mariah on the forehead, and left with Grizzle.

  Anwar stood there staring at the door for a few minutes before going back to Mariah’s side. He thought about what they had said. They were only trying to comfort him, but it made sense. Why would the gods show them the way to save her if it wasn’t going to work? It had to work. After everything they had be
en through he couldn’t lose her now. With that thought in mind he forced his magic under control and closed his eyes to sleep.

  Chapter Two

  Creating Chaos

  Delvidge had put things in motion to start the war with Evermount. He would bring the dwarves down, but he wanted Anwar. He had been prevented from interfering with the mage while he went to save his little mortal love, but Delvidge had other plans.

  He appeared in front of the leader of the largest goblin horde in the hills, just north and west of the fairy forest. “Goblin!”

  When the goblin leader turned and saw him, he fell to the ground in fear. Delvidge hated goblins. Just looking at this one disgusted him. Small like a dwarf with none of the strength. It fleshy green skin just made it look foolish. Its long curvy pointed ears were like cheap knock-offs of the elegant ears of an elf. Not that he liked elves any better, but he couldn’t deny that they were elegant-looking in their own way. The goblin had the big hands and feet of an orc and a ridiculously long nose. They were like bastard versions of all the races. Just using this disgusting race appalled him, but they had come to be his servants, and he used the tools he had.

  “Goblin, keep your eyes off of me, and use those grotesque ears. There is a small city to the south of here. If you do not know south it is the direction of the fairies. Gather all of your goblin scum and go to the city outside of the forest. You will destroy the city and take whatever you wish. If you fail in this, you will know pain greater than you can imagine for all eternity. I will have demons eat you alive and you will feel your body digested. When you come back out you will be restored and start the process over for all eternity.”

  The goblin kept its face in the mud. “Yeesss. We fail you not. We will destroy the city you say.”