Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Bokuboy

I wasn't brought to a private chamber when we entered the castle. We were led to the throne room and Ellen sat on the throne, her crown gleamed in the sunlight. Behind her with very sad expressions on their faces, sat two women. On one side was the old queen, Samantha Rivers, on the other side was Melanie, the king's concubine and royal consort. She was also quite pregnant.

“Lord Drake, my queen.” The lead horseman said and bowed deeply.

“He doesn't look like Lord Drake.” Queen Ellen said. “He looks like a fool's copy of a ship's captain.”

“That was the point.” I said and didn't bother bowing.

“Remove it at once.” Ellen said.

“I refuse to disrobe in front of the Queen Mother and the Royal Consort.” I said. “They are delicate enough in their conditions without having to suffer through pains of desire and lust as well.”

Ellen frowned at my words and both the queen mother and Melanie showed small smiles.

“I came directly here from the harbour, despite my desire to return home.” I continued. “I assumed that the ruler of these lands could tell me what was going on.”

“We are losing the war.” Ellen said. “A third of my people are loyal to the Mages Guild and won't follow proper orders from their superiors if it conflicts with something the guild orders. The rest don't want to be killed if they defy them.”

“Then kill them or dismiss them. They are as bad as the disloyal ones and will only make things worse.” I said and she sucked in a sharp breath.

“You killed two of the King's Men.”

“I did.” I admitted. “They were trying to steal from me and assault myself, my sworn sword, and my apprentice.”

Ellen's eyes went to the two women with me. “Slaves.”

“Former slaves, as Lady Ming's message clearly told you, since you haven't reacted to my albino appearance.” I said and she nodded. “What happened after I was kidnapped?”

“You mean killed.” Ellen said.

“No one that knows me would ever think I was dead.” I said and she had an odd look in her eye. “Yes, like that. You knew I would be back somehow.”

Ellen tried to frown at me, then she sighed and rubbed her face with a hand. “Lord Drake... David...”

“I know the Mages Council illegally seeded my lands to the Grand Mage.” I said and she nodded. “I need a note from you to take to the bank. I'll be stripping the Grand Mage of his belongings and businesses to put in my own account.”

“You don't have an account anymore.” Ellen said. “When you died, they kept the money.”

“That's also illegal, since I signed papers to hold it in trust for my son.” I said.

Ellen looked sad and tried to turn away from me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You... you need to go home.” Ellen said. “Go home.”

“I need missives for the bank or I will tear it down and take all the gold it has, after I kill Carson and his family for robbing me.”

Ellen nodded to Melanie and she waved for a court scribe. She dictated the missives and added the royal seal, then the scribe gave them to me. “Good luck making them honor those.”

“They will or they die. Either way, I'm getting everything I'm owed.” I said and turned to walk away, then stopped and looked back at her. “Do you want to win this war?”

“Yes.” Ellen said. “There's just not a lot to fight for with the mages claiming half of the kingdom for themselves.”

“I'm killing the council after I kill the Grand Mage and destroying the guild.” I said and she looked surprised.

“You can't challenge them to mage duels until you graduate.” Melanie said.

“I don't waste time duelling thieves. I just kill them.” I said and walked towards the doors of the throne room. “You should send word to the garrison to not try to steal anything from my ship at the dock. I warned the lieutenant trying to do just that, that I would burn the garrison to the ground.”

“It will be done.” Ellen said.

“Good, because once I deal with the thieves, I need to fix myself and all of the slaves I've saved and brought here with me.”

“WAIT!” The queen mother shouted and I stopped to look at her. “The... the mages... they took...”

“If she's still alive, I'll bring her back. If she's not, I'm killing them all anyway.” I said and she nodded.

We left at a fast walk and left the castle. We entered the carriage and I told the driver to take us to the bank. Gella and Farra quickly covered my face and hands in the concealer to give me a normal looking skin tone, just so we could avoid the whole 'slaves get nothing' problem, then I tucked my hair under my hat and put it on.

We stopped at the bank and I stepped out of the carriage and brought Gella and Farra with me. I entered the bank and only a couple of people inside paid me any attention. I walked right over to the back of the bank and entered the hallway there. I opened Carson's office door and entered without knocking, which was the height of rudeness.

“You can't just come in here, whoever you are!” Carson spat.

I glanced at the man sitting there and he wore mage robes. I grabbed him by the neck and snapped it, then tossed his body aside. “It seems you're free to talk now.”

Carson's face paled at my casual murder in front of him. “You... you killed...”

“He was a mage and stole from me.” I said and sat down in the chair. “Where is my money?”

“What do you mean 'your money'?” Carson asked. “Who are you?”

I reached across his desk and grabbed him by his expensive shirt collar. “Take a close look at my face, Carson.” I said and pulled him across the desk. “Do you recognize Lord Drake now?”

Carson choked and tried to pry my hand from his collar.

I shoved him back across the desk and he fell to the floor. “Where is MY money?”

“G-gone.” Carson said. “The mages took it.”

“After giving you a cut.” I said and he looked guilty. “That's good for you, because now you can transfer ALL of my money back into my account and you can take a cut of the fees from the Mages Guild.”

“I need authorization from...”

I put the two missives from the queen on his desk, opened them, and showed them to him without handing them over. “Sealed and delivered, so do it immediately.”

“Y-yes, of course.” He said and stood.

“Where are you going?” I asked, as if I didn't know.

“I need to consult with the bank owners and...”

“I'll escort you, just to make sure you are actually doing that and getting my money.” I said and stood as well. His face paled again. “You weren't going to do that, were you?”

He didn't say anything.

I pointed to his desk. “Get to work right now or your replacement will be making a lot of money over your dead body.”

Carson looked at the two women beside me and they glared at him. He sat down and did up the paperwork. He transferred all the stolen funds from the Mages Guild accounts and into my reactivated one. It was done magically, so as he was writing out the amount for his fee, I cut his hand off. I crushed his voice box to stop his screaming and then changed the total that the guild owed me to account for all the ingredients they stole from me, too.

I searched through Carson's files to get his account info and used his severed hand as I added it to where his fee was and I also added in a negative symbol, which meant that his account total went into my vault as well. I checked the papers for Grand Mage Henrietta and they only handed over a thousand gold crowns as a fee for renting my lands. I chuckled and added six zeroes to that, defaulting the account and emptying it into mine, and the businesses he owned reverted to my ownership until the debt was paid.

“There. That's more like it.” I said and cast a sealing spell on his wrist. “Where are the withdrawal slips?”

He pointed to the top drawer and I took one out and used his severed hand to fill one out, easily copying his writing. There were several loud shouts when the transfers were approved and then a train of young women came in carrying sacks of gold. Sacks and sacks and sacks of gold. It went on for quite some time and soon Carson's office floor was covered with bags of gold crowns.

When they left, I looked at Carson. “Where's the contract you broke about leaving my money in trust?”

Carson shook his head, which meant he destroyed it.

“Well, I'm killing you and your family anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.” I said and his eyes widened as I sliced my sword across his face and cut the top of his head off. I pushed him off of the desk and he fell backwards. I pulled out several larger sacks and added the smaller gold sacks to them. I had nowhere near enough for it all, so I sent Farra and Gella out to get more.

They came back with a large chest and we filled it up with the small coin bags and still had some left. I tied them onto my belt and when I moved, I jingled a lot. It made the girls smile, so I left it and hung the large sacks of gold over my shoulders and picked up the trunk. I felt burdened like I did when carrying the owlbear, which meant it was a bit too much for me to walk well with.

“I need to make two trips.” I said and they nodded. Gella stayed with the trunk as Farra and I left with the sacks over my shoulders. I put them in the carriage and Farra stayed with them as I went back into the bank to get the trunk. No one noticed Carson was dead until we were at the front door.

“STOP!” One of the female workers yelled and I put the trunk down.

“Yes? What do you want?”

“Carson is dead!” She exclaimed.

“Yes, because I killed him.” I said and everyone in the bank gasped or made shocked noises. “He robbed me of my fortune and robbed this bank of their appropriate fees, broke several contracts, one of which was to keep money in a trust, and let the Mages Guild steal from everyone else that uses this bank.”

That made a lot of people look uncomfortable.

“Be glad I'm only withdrawing my money and that I don't hold the entire bank responsible.” I said and picked up my trunk. “Is there anything else?”

“The... mage.” She said.

“Also a thief. I'll be killing a lot more of them soon.” I said and Gella nodded as we left a room full of stunned people behind us. I put the trunk into the back with us and helped Gella inside before I climbed in myself. “The Henrietta Longshore Estate.” I said and the driver snapped the reins to get the horses moving.

The drive seemed to take both a long time and it was over quickly.

The estate was a wreck. The retaining walls I had around it were beaten, battered, scorched and broken. The grounds were burned and weren't growing back. The topiary hedges were only twigs, despite it being summer. The magnificent fountain was smashed and in pieces. The entire place was ruined.

We rode up to the house and it wasn't much better off. Windows were smashed, walls broken, and the doors were barely hanging on the hinges. Part of the roof had fallen in and it was in almost the same shape as my old dorm mansion used to be in before it was fixed.

“Wait here.” I said and hopped out of the carriage and ran inside the house. It was just as bad as the outside. The place was a shambles and didn't look safe to be in. I used my vigilance technique and found two people inside. One was in the downstairs office, so I went there first. I opened the door and an emaciated man sat behind the desk.

Administrator Lannin didn't even look at me. “Another fake has come to claim nothing.”

“I don't have to claim what's mine.” I said.

Lannin laughed. “You try telling the mages that.”

“I plan to, since I already took all their money.” I said and he finally looked up at me.

“You lie.” Lannin said.

I untied one of the small bags of gold and tossed it onto the ruined desk. “Courtesy of the Mages Guild.”

Lannin opened the bag and gasped at the 500 gold crowns inside. “It's real.” He said and pulled out a handful. “With this, I can get...” He stopped talking and looked around. “Oh, right. Frank and the others were fired.”

“By who?” I asked.

“Lord Henrietta.” Lannin said and let the gold fall back into the bag. “Everything's gone.” He said and sat back in his chair, the lost look back in his eyes. “My poor Gerald.”

I knew what he meant, his son was dead, so I left him there and went up the stairs. They were sturdy, despite looking weak, and I went into my bedroom. I did not find who I wanted to.

“Hello, Greta.” I said.

“DAVID!” Greta gasped and sat up. She turned to see me and tears came to her eyes. “Oh, David!”

“Where is she?” I asked.

“She... she was...” Greta shook her head and her tears flowed out. “They took her just after winter broke.”

“Who?” I asked, knowing the answer. It was the only logical one.

“Her mother and father.” Greta said and started sobbing. “I tried to fight them and the guards held me off.”

“Your enchantment?” I asked and nodded at the thing on her neck.

“Dead. It stopped working when the Hag made it to the docks and tried to take Helena.”

I had to smile a little. “The one I gave her worked.”

“Yes, and the Hag was so angry that she couldn't take what was yours, so she ordered the mages to do it for her.” Greta said and wiped at her face. “Most listened to her and they attacked everything you owned.”

“The dorm mansion?” I asked.

“Burned to the ground.” Greta said. “They didn't get to take your things, though. The magic protections you had in place stopped them. Until they burned it, then they couldn't get inside to get them.”

“Good.” I said and walked over to the wall and used my magic sense to check if the safe was still there. It was. I used magic on it to open it and was glad to see that everything was still inside. My old bandoleer, the five books, the regeneration potions I had made, stacks of important papers and recipes, and the child things I had bought from Diane.

“David, they... you don't know what they...”

“It doesn't matter now.” I said and closed the safe. I could leave the things there, since it was still a safe place. “I'm going to kill them all.”

Greta gave me an odd look, then she nodded. “They won't accept duels.”

“I won't be asking.” I said and looked around. “Why are you here?”

“I come here every day to wait for you.” Greta said and stood. “Someone had to.”

“Where's Hope and my maids?”

Greta looked reluctant and then sighed. “Hope went home. With no money coming in and the house wrecked, she couldn't stay here.”

“My maids?” I asked.

“I don't know. After they killed all your guards...” Greta sighed again. “I only found out that much because I was late coming here the day they raided here. Otherwise...”

“You might have been killed, too.” I said and she nodded. “Stay here and I'll come back for you when I'm done.”

“David, I... if you need help...”

“You've done enough.” I said and reached for her face.

Greta sighed and leaned into my hand. Her hand took mine from her face and she placed something in my hand. “Charge this and throw it at Grand Mage Henrietta's door.”

I examined it and gained the enchantment for Overload. The enchantment didn't do anything else except store magic. When it was full, it disrupted anything that had a lesser charge.

“Thank you.” I said and pocketed it.

“I was going to use it myself soon to find out what happened to her.” Greta said.

I nodded and walked out of the bedroom and went down the stairs. I didn't bother looking in the basement at my potions room or my work room. I knew it was either wrecked or looted. I was just glad that I never left anything written out for someone to steal.

“The Henrietta Estate.” I said as soon as I exited the house and pointed where the driver needed to go, then entered the carriage.

“Making them pay seems like it won't fix anything.” Gella said.

“You figured that out, have you?” I asked and she smiled.

“After killing all those soldiers and navy men, I had my revenge. Only, I didn't really. My father's still dead and my life is still ruined.”

“I know. All we can do is make others feel the same way.” I said and she nodded as she took one of my hands. Farra took my other hand and gripped it tightly. They both knew what this was going to mean to me and I didn't realize that I needed their support. With them there to share my pain, it wasn't as bad.

My life was ruined, just like theirs were. The things I had lost, and I might lose more still, would be with me for a long time.