The Black Robe (The Sword and the Spell), page 1
THE BLACK ROBE
The Sword and the Spell Trilogy
Book 3
By Clare Smith
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The Black Robe is the intellectual property of the author
and may only be reproduced, copied or transmitted, in
part or whole, with the written permission of the author.
All characters are fictitious and any resemblance to real
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental
Cover design and map by Graphicz X Designs
http;//graphiczxdesigns.zenfolio.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
CHARACTERS
A MAP of the SIX KINGDOMS
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
PART TWO
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
PART THREE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
PART FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
FINALE
CHARACTERS
LEERSLAND.
King Sarrat - King of Leersland killed by Maladran
Maladran - King Sarrat’s black magician killed by Jonderill
King Malute - Previous King of Leersland murdered by Sarrat
Tarraquin – Deposed Queen of Leersland
Callista- Tarraquin’s baby daughter
Jarrul - Huntsman and friend of Tarraquin
Jonderill – Magician, son of Coberin
Tissian – Jonderill’s dead protector
Garrin – Maladran’s dead servant
Sheevar – A maid
Birrit – Servant to Tarraquin
Livry – A whore
VINMORE.
King Steppen – Abdicated King of Vinmor
Queen Daun – Steppen’s daughter and Queen of Vinmore
Prince Pellum – Daun’s consort and Vorgret’s brother
Plantagenet – A retired magician
Animus - Another retired magician
Swordmaster Dilor - Commander of Daun’s royal guards
Lias - Dilor’s nephew
Barrin – Squad leader and Jonderill’s friend
Redruth - Guardsman
Tuckin – Guardsman and friend of Redruth
Tavlon – A minstrel
Rosera – Daun under enchantment
ESSENLAND.
King Porteous – Abdicated King of Essenland
King Vorgret - Porteous’s eldest son and King of Essenland
Sadrin – Vorgret’s black magician
Quim – Tax collector
Dorba – King Vorgret’s enforcer
Captain Bladent – Commander of Essenland’s army
Dozo – Armsman and servant to Callabris
Stanner – Dozo’s wife
Ennett – Stanner’s daughter
Trad – Stanner’s son
Banyon – Villager
Pedron – Villsger
Pillin – Newly promoted Guardcaptain
NORTHSHIELD.
King Borman - King of Northshield
Lord Rothers - Borman’s cousin and heir
Rastor - Borman’s Guardcaptain
Callabris - Borman’s white magician
Allowyn - Callabris’s protector
Callistares – Father of Callibis and Coberin
Lord Sallins - Lord of the northern coast
Lord Mallingar – Lord of Northshield
Sharman – Malingar’s steward and friend
Tordray – Malingar’s second in command
Troop Captain Janus – Soldier
Troop Leader Dowin – Soldier
Gabbin – Squad leader.
TARBIS.
King Hormund – Previous King of Tarbis.
King Newn – Uncrowned King of Tarbis
Commander Gadrin – Commander of the army
Jeswin – Gadrin’s wife
Captain Cowen – Second in command
Jacks – Bath House Attendant
SANDSTRONE.
King Duro - King of Sandstrone murdered by his brother
Tallison - Duro’s brother and Rale of Sandstrone
Coberin - King Duro’s magician murdered by Tallison
Jonderill - Coberin’s protector. Executed
Tozaman – Youngest of the Brotherlords
Dravim – Tozaman’s Brotherhand
Bradge - Armsbrother
Oraman – Eldest of the Brotherlords
Nyte/Malia – Tallison’s lover
THE ENCLAVE
High Master Razarin – The leader of the Enclave
Master Tressing – Senior Grey Robe
THE DEITIES
Federa - Goddess of magic
Talis - God of pain and suffering
A MAP of the SIX KINGDOMS
PART ONE
Captivity
CHAPTER ONE
Brotherlord
The wooden beams at his side creaked ominously and a fine cloud of sand sifted through the poorly fitting planks above his head, falling in his hair and finding its way between his shirt and his skin. With a texture more like ground stone than desert sand, the rough grains abraded at his skin and made him itch. He would have liked to rub his back on the shoring posts or on the low ceiling above, the same way that his stallion rubbed his back on the ground when he rolled, but that would have brought disaster down on them all. So instead he ignored his irritated back and the sharp stones which scraped at his hands and knees and continued crawling forward.
Behind him he could hear Dravin breathing hard and muttering under his breath although he couldn’t make out the words. It could have been a curse on the brotherlord who had led them into this decaying hole but on the other hand it could have been a prayer to Talis to be gentle with his spirit if the roof caved in and killed them all. Dravin, his brother in arms and the closest thing that he had to a friend, was young enough to be a believer in the wrathful god. Fortunately Dravin’s faith wasn’t blind and his friend only shook his head and laughed when he suggested that there might be more worthy gods he should worship instead of the fearful Talis.
Beyond Dravin there were his other armsbrothers, crawling on their hands and knees, dragging shovels and picks and cursing or praying depending on who they feared most, their god or their brotherlord. Like him they had all volunteered for this rescue mission but unlike him they didn’t really have a choice. It had been his suggestion that they should attempt to rescue the fifty or so miners who were trapped underground when a section of the mine had collapsed and as he had volunteered to lead the rescue the others had little option but to volunteer too. Well, that wasn’t quite true; any one of them could have stayed behind but they were armsbrothers and where their brotherlord went they all went.
The wooden beams and the shoring creaked again and more sand and rough, powdered rock cascaded down making the air in the tunnel thick with its dust. Behind him he could hear someone whimper in fear and another curse, which he suspected was aimed at him as much as the black hole they had been crawling through for what must have been at least two candle lengths. Not all of his armsbrothers would remember what it was like to have solid walls around them and a stone ceiling above. Most would have been just babies when their people lived in proper dwellings and some, the very youngest, had spent all their lives under the sky and stars. He remembered though what it was like to live in a city and whilst this tunnel was more enclosed than the house he had played in as a boy, the confined space did not worry him as it did some of the others.
In the feeble light of the lantern he pushed in front of him he could see the nature of the darkness change. Before there had been just blackness and the light had been sucked into nothingness but now the light hung there, reflecting off the dust that filled the air. The noise had changed too. The creaking of strained beams had changed to a groan, as if they were in pain and there was a constant hiss as sand shifted into spaces which shouldn’t have been there. His father had told him that the Goddess made the ground move when she was angry, and that the rumble that was heard when a mine collapsed, was her laughter as men died. He no more believed in the Goddess than he did in Talis and he was absolutely certain that when this mine collapsed there would be no rumbling, just a sibilant hiss as the stone hills above poured in and buried them alive.
He put that thought out of his mind and held the lantern higher trying to make out what was beyond the dust, and then held up his hand to halt the column of men behind him. As he glanced back he could see Dravin grinning, his white teeth shining in his dark face and his eyes reflecting the lamp light. His armsbrother always grinned when things were at their most dangerous. Perhaps that’s why he liked him so much and had chosen him as his brotherhand,
Leaving the lantern where it was, he tied his burnoose around his nose and mouth before setting off again, alone. There was more sand and dust beneath his hands now and larger stones too. Some were as large as a fist with sharp edges, whilst some were just the size of his thumb nail. He wondered if he took one back with him and polished it, he would be a wealthy man. It was a trivial thought and beneath him; every gem that was found belonged to the people, kept safe by Tallison against the day his people would need such wealth.
If that time wasn’t now then he didn’t know when it would be, but what did he know? He was just a brotherlord and not one of Tallison’s chosen men. It was an unworthy thought which could get him killed if it was said out loud so he thought of other things until he touched something which didn’t feel like sand or stone. He stopped and carefully moved the debris from around it. It was a hand, cold but still pliable. Carefully he traced it back from the wrist and up the forearm before the fall of stones and splintered wood prevented him from following it further.
He gave a tug on the rope which was attached to his waist and waited for Dravin to move up next to him. The other man came too, squeezing in between Dravin and the wall and looking as grim as a man could be. It wasn’t surprising, his two sons were down here somewhere, which was probably why he had begged for their help and had volunteered to accompany them. He pointed at the sagging beam above their heads and made a ‘T’ shape with his hands. Dravin nodded in understanding and shuffled back to the waiting armsbrothers. Moments later Bradge, a big brute of a man, crawled forward with a thick wooden prop under his arm and together they eased it under the sagging beam until its groaning complaint was reduced to an occasional creak. Then they began digging.
Tozaman had done his share of digging in his time, even a brotherlord was expected to bury their own waste when they were on patrol, but this kind of digging required heavy muscle, so he moved to the side and left the toil to his armsbrothers. He watched as the first body was recovered and passed down the long line of men which stretched back to the mine’s entrance. This one had died without a mark upon him, held in place by the beam which had fallen across his legs and suffocated by the falling sand which had filled his mouth and nose. They cleared the space, propped up the fallen beam and carried on.
The next man they found had been more fortunate. He had died instantly when a falling beam had crushed his skull. The man next to him had been equally fortunate when the end of a splintered beam had pierced his chest, but the one behind must have taken longer to die, his entrails spread in a line behind him where he had pulled himself forward in an effort to escape. Their bodies too were passed back down the line.
Five other bodies were found before they came to the main collapse. He didn’t have to be a miner to see what had happened; it had been obvious for some time. The deeper they went into the mine the thinner the side props and ceiling beams had become. Perhaps the mine was becoming less productive and the overseer couldn’t afford good wood, although it was much more likely that the thickness of the wood was being cut to fill his own pockets. Tozaman hoped that he was one of those still buried in this cursed pit. He crawled forward with the old miner to study the roof fall.
The roof beams had snapped in the middle bringing not only the roof down but dragging the side beams with it, so that a symmetrical pattern of triangles, filled with the rubble, had been formed. Cautiously the old miner tugged at some of the rubble near to the top where one of the triangles had been formed and when it came away in his hand without disturbing the beams he gave a grim smile. Tozaman started at the other side carefully picking out rocks and passing them back. This was going to take patience and care but it was just possible that the way the beams had fallen would have prevented the collapse continuing all the way to the end of the tunnel. He could see hope in the miner’s eyes, and that was enough for him to keep digging. Pickmen were waved forward and he fell back, waiting for them to finish their work.
He must have dozed off as it was the sound of voices which brought him rapidly from his rest. At the very beginning he had given orders for silence, not only so they could hear if any of the trapped miners were calling for help, but to prevent the noise bringing the ceiling down upon them. As he crawled forward, easing past the pickmen and the piles of rubble which were still being passed down the line, he realised that it wasn’t his brothers who were defying his orders but the miner and in the distance other low voices.
When he reached the opening they had made he could see movement on the other side, but he could also see the problem they faced. The trapped miners had been digging their way out but at this end of the roof fall, the beams had not fallen in an even pattern. That meant that the way through to safety was narrow and twisted and so precarious in places that the slightest misstep would dislodge the supporting beams. To make matters worse the miners had been down here for nearly two days and were likely to be weak and unsteady on their feet. They were going to need some help. He looked back at Dravin, who wasn’t smiling now, and held up three fingers. Dravin nodded and moved back to select three volunteers.
Tozaman picked up a spare water skin and stepped over the inverted apex of the first triangle but that was the easy part. After that it was a matter of weaving in and out between the leaning posts, trying to make each foot fall as steady as possible before moving onto the next. It reminded him of a game he used to play with his sister when they were both young, and brothers and sisters were allowed to live side by side. They had been happy innocent days when parents laughed at their children’s games and prayed to the Goddess that they would grow strong and beautiful. He wondered if his sister did the same for her own children, but he doubted it.
Hands tugging on his arm and helping him passed the last of the fallen beams brought him out of his disturbed thoughts, and he stepped into an open area made by a natural cavern where he could stand upright and assess the situation. The cavern held around thirty men, some standing, most sitting and all looking exhausted and worn. He handed over the water skin and tried to estimate who would be able to walk and which ones would have to be carried. Most of the miners were injured in some way or another, but only two had their legs splinted with what looked to be the shaft of a pick or shovel. It was going to be hard on them as their broken legs would have to be unbound to pass them through the narrow, twisted openings. There were four others in a line with cloths over their faces; they were going nowhere.
He looked back at the opening they had dug and saw that Dravin was in place, and behind him were three others with lanterns ready to help the miners through. Satisfied that this was about the best they were going to achieve, he climbed back up onto the rubble and offered his hand to the first of the trapped miners. Around half the men had been passed through to safety when the first roof fall happened. One of the miners with a broken arm stumbled on a loose stone and instead of rolling with his fall he put a hand out to steady himself and protect his damaged limb. The beam which took his sudden weight slipped and the side prop it was supporting moved sideways allowing the sagging ceiling to collapse.
The miner and the armsbrother who had been helping him were buried under a mound of rubble, planking and sand. Tozaman made his way carefully to where men were already starting to pick at the fallen debris but shook his head and stopped their efforts. The beam that had slipped was precariously balanced and to move the roof fall would only bring more of it down upon them. Apart from that, large, jagged lumps of rock had been torn from the roof overhead and it was unlikely that anyone would survive under a fall of that size. He sent the diggers back to the comparative safety of the waiting line and Dravin and Bradge to the cavern end whilst he stayed where the tunnel was the least stable.
The second rock fall was less serious; just a sudden sagging of the roof and a shower of stones and sand which caught an armsbrother a glancing blow and knocked him to his knees. It took only a short time to pull the man free and clear the passage way again, allowing the next miner through. This was one of the two with a broken leg which had been freed from its splints and dragged uselessly behind the man as he was hauled around the twisted beams. His face was white with pain and he was gritting his teeth so hard that blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Tozaman could see why; the bone on his shin was sticking through his flesh and every movement exposed more of its jagged tip. He wondered at the man’s silence, if it had been him he would have been screaming his head off.
