Battle Mage: The Dark Mage (Tales of Alus) by Donald Wigboldy Jr Page A

wizards, who were his colleagues on the current project, as they faced eight other men. Two were older men, one was an orc decked out in a military uniform that seemed oddly appropriate for the creature despite his race often being judged unintelligent and crude. Such beliefs in orcs were extremely misguided and those who worked with them understood that many were similar to human men in their wants and needs.
    His eyes continued across the other men stalling on a silver haired giant. While his physical size, well muscled and powerful looking besides, was impressive, Palose viewed the man’s magical aura dwarfing everyone else in the room. He was beyond the term, monster, and such strength masked the final creature standing by his side.
    Even with a hood pulled up to mask his face, the mage could see his red eyes glowing faintly with an otherworldly power. An air of death hung around the hooded figure and Palose knew that it was one of the wraiths feared by both the men of Southwall and even the people of Ensolus. Such creatures raised from the dead gave his kind of existence the stigma of a resurrection man. While both spells involved necromancy, the mage could see the distinct difference. Where he had been pulled back from death, this wraith was death held in check. A resurrection man’s heart still beat in his chest and he could bleed as any human, but a wraith’s heart was dead and his blood turned to rot and acidic to the touch should it bleed.
    Palose had never fought a wraith to see the difference, but he had already read deep enough into his books to see the variations of what necromancy could achieve. Given the will behind the spell, bones and flesh could move or a mind could remain sentient hovering beyond death or could be made whole as the young man felt he was now. He felt a shiver as he looked at the creature before its eyes turned on him a moment later. Death could be felt in that look and Palose’s heart felt the cold of what could have been.
    “Gentlemen,” Atrouseon’s voice interrupted the creature’s attention bringing all eyes to the warlock standing with his three associates. “What I am about to share with you can not leave this room as I believe we all know.”
    The warlock’s eyes lingered on Palose as he scanned the room as if to tell his apprentice that he was not above the warning. While the apprentice only knew some of the truth behind these experiments, he would have assumed that Atrouseon had trusted him for secrecy before this. The man didn’t need Listher to bring him after all, if he didn’t trust his apprentice enough to see the fruits of his labor.
    Continuing on with his speech, the man elaborated, “We all know that since the breaking of the barrier which brought the emperor and his people into this world, his body has been weakening. The emperor’s godlike powers have been destroying that body and he has been looking for the appropriate vessel to hold both his mind and his great power.”
    Most of the eyes glanced towards the giant. His jaw tightened in apparent exasperation and Palose wondered why such an exchange had happened.
    “While we can all conclude that Garosh’s creation wasn’t a complete failure, the emperor wasn’t satisfied so he imparted only a portion of his power to you,” the warlock finished nodding to the giant whose back looked stiff with what was apparently a great slight to his worth, Palose thought. “Since you have the honor of being the emperor’s proxy, I am glad that you could come to test the latest vessels we have created.”
    Listher and the three warlocks pulled five cloths from what the mage had believed were cages, but instead these revealed glass encased tanks. Within each was a body. All appeared male save one, which caused Palose to wonder. If the emperor was male, then why had they bothered to make the female test subject? Unless all previous attempts had been based on males and failed, then perhaps it was just an attempt to find