The Accidental Archmage: Book Four - Void Lands (The Accidental Archmage Series 4) Read online

  THE ACCIDENTAL ARCHMAGE

  Book Four

  VOID LANDS

  An epic fantasy on another world –

  With a modern twist.

  Edmund A.M. Batara

  September 2018

  All Rights Reserved.

  1st Edition

  ASIN: B07FNHXG7B

  This book is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places, interactions, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously unless otherwise indicated.

  Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All Rights Reserved. 2018.

  To my family. My wife, Julette-Marie, and my daughters, Amina Francesca, Katrina Fae, and Ana Bettina, for all the support and joy you have given me.

  To my sister Amy. For being so supportive.

  To my readers. Kindle readers of the series and those at the website where the first drafts of this continuing story were posted – for the encouragement and constructive feedback.

  CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS

  Cover Image from Shutterstock.com under license. Alterations by the author.

  Editor: Line editing by Proofreaderbooks.com/Roth Notions/GSR

  Other Image Credits:

  Title Page image – Aztec. Pixabay.com. Public domain. CC0 Creative Commons.

  Chapter End image – Scorpion. Openclipart.org. Public Domain. CC0 Creative Commons.

  Page Separator Image – Sitting Aztec vector. Pixabay.com. Public domain. CC0 Creative Commons. Alteration by the author.

  Compendium Alphabet Images – Public domain. By Freeman Delamotte 1814-1862 – http://www.reusableart.com/d/338-2/alphabet-13.jpgGallery page http://www.reusableart.com/v/Alphabets_Letters/full-alphabets/alphabet-13.jpg.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25164950

  Images: Aptrgangr, Yahui, Habrok, Jorund, and Yayauhqui – under license from Shutterstock.com

  Images: Drake, Empusa, Keres, Teocalli, Wolves, Vord Nafjardar, Vrykolakas, Void Lands, Asem, and Astrid – CC0 Creative Commons. Pixabay.com.

  Ettin image in the Compendium used with the consent of the artist, Santhosh Kumar Racha ([email protected]). Conversion to black and white by the writer.

  Minotaur image in the Compendium used with the consent of the artist, Catalin Bila ([email protected]). Conversion to black and white by the writer.

  Maps created through Inkarnate software under a commercial license.

  Citations for quotes are shown in the chapter notes.

  Contents

  The ACCIDENTAL ARCHMAGE Series

  Author's Notes on the Series

  Additional Notes on Book Four and the Series

  MAP: The Plain of Fire, the Void Lands, and Nearby Realms

  PROLOGUE A Maggot Thingummyjig

  Chapter One Back to the Ruined Temple

  Chapter Two Inti's Portal

  Chapter Three Idiot Savant

  Chapter Four Habrok the Philosopher

  Chapter Five Perilously Asinine

  Chapter Six Bessie

  Chapter Seven Victory Cheats

  Chapter Eight Retaliatory Measures

  Chapter Nine Tatsu, Yokai, and Henge

  Chapter Ten Chakrams and Complications

  Chapter Eleven

  Huitzilopochtli and Bob

  Chapter Twelve From the Frying Pan

  Chapter Thirteen Trickster in the House

  Chapter Fourteen How to Deal with a Tenma

  Chapter Fifteen Eira's Gift. And Harry.

  Chapter Sixteen Lessons in Magical Geology

  Chapter Seventeen Pest Control Extreme

  Chapter Eighteen Rasshøla

  Chapter Nineteen That Old Destructive Feeling

  Chapter Twenty Forest Interlude

  Chapter Twenty-One Lumeri

  Chapter Twenty-Two The Barren Lands

  Chapter Twenty-Three Water and Bones

  Chapter Twenty-Four A Surfeit of Rogues

  Chapter Twenty-Five An Old Man Named Wilan

  Chapter Twenty-Six Magical Fail

  Chapter Twenty-Seven Welcome to the Void Lands

  Chapter Twenty-Eight The Barrier

  Chapter Twenty-Nine “Gnargssh” Yourself

  Chapter Thirty Not A Pom

  Chapter Thirty-One Liam

  Chapter Thirty-Two Dead Land

  Chapter Thirty-Three The Room

  Chapter Thirty-Four A Way Home

  EPILOGUE

  The Chronicles of Adar: A Brief Compendium of Lore

  Author's Introduction to the Compendium

  I. Maps, Notes, and Definitions

  II. Mortals, Deities, and Other Characters

  About the Author

  Other Published and Upcoming Books of the Author

  The ACCIDENTAL ARCHMAGE Series

  Author's Notes on the Series

  Incidents of people disappearing in plain sight are well-known in recorded history. One of the earliest known accounts was in the 1700’s. The most recent disappearance was in 2007. Various theories have been advanced to explain these phenomena; this story is not such a theory.

  Endnotes appear at appropriate chapters. There are mythological terms and names used in the story as well as words which might not be familiar to most readers. Footnotes are not appropriate for eBook formatting and I believe footnotes are more distracting than endnotes. Story immersion may also suffer if the reader is left to search by himself the meaning of the terms and names used. As some terms from the other books again appear, the definitions are repeated in the endnotes.

  The story is told from the main character’s perspective. His own thoughts are italicized. His conversations with Hal, an entity introduced in Book One, as well as telepathic discussions with other characters, are italicized but with quotation marks.

  Enjoy the journey.

  The Writer.

  Additional Notes on Book Four and the Series

  Hello. We’ve now come to Book IV of the series. My heartfelt thanks to readers who found the journey entertaining enough to follow our protagonist as he experiences a world familiar in some respects to his own, yet so unfamiliar in many facets of its reality. Along the way, he found his personal beliefs challenged, a worldview changed, wrestled with issues of conscience and guilt, and made to adapt to survive. In a magical world where man is not on top of the food chain and a visitor from Earth finds himself bereft of magic.

  The series is high or epic fantasy though I have shied away from the classic “us-good, you-evil” stereotypes so prevalent in the genre. Just because a creature is ugly or so far from human conceptions of what is normal doesn’t mean the being is evil. The fantasy world is depicted as a huge, living and breathing realm. It is based on numerous myths and legends from various cultures. Their motivations and personal beliefs drive characters of the story. The fantasy world itself is not pretty. Life for humans was usually nasty, brutish, and short, to quote Hobbes. But our myths and legends were never tales for children. A great many were bloody, terrifying, nightmarish even, and shows man either at his best or his worst. Early stories dealt with human sacrifice and were cruel or debauched to the extreme. As with this plane of reality, the insane lust for power drives men, deitie
s, and other beings. Plots and schemes abound, and one does have difficulty in differentiating between truth and lies. In many instances, traps of half-truths wait for the unwary.

  Thanks to you, the reader, each previous book in the series had their respective days in the sun – bestsellers in their own right. Book IV tells of his quest to the Void Lands to cut off the source of power of the Aztecah pantheon which, despite the reverses it had suffered, stands to bloodily dominate the eastern part of the world if its mysterious patrons get back on their feet. But the core of the story is in the journey, not the destination. The reader might note that some chapter notes and lore have legend indicators. TAA stands for the name of the series, followed by the book volume. SOA refers to the book “Stories of Adar: Tales from the Abyss (Book One).” Some elements of the latter were incorporated in Book IV. Presenting long stories in another book and literary format enables the writer to explore the viewpoints and experiences of other characters in the epic.

  It is up to the reader to decide whether one Tyler West is a hero. In the eyes of the protagonist, he isn’t. He has his priorities and views, though a moral streak characterizes his personality. Like most of us. A depiction which in turn begs the question on what we would do if we were in his place.

  The Writer.

  September 2018.

  MAP:

  The Plain of Fire, the Void Lands, and Nearby Realms

  Provided by Lumeri the Scribe upon request of Lady Asem, High Priestess and Daughter of Thaut. Not to scale. Geographical features might have changed. Muspellheim’s northern border, as well as that of Ymir’s Domain, is but an approximation. No mortal, even Lumeri the Scribe, had been to those regions.

  PROLOGUE

  A Maggot Thingummyjig

  William Martin slammed into a wall of scales and hard greenish-black flesh.

  WTF?

  His drunken consciousness was rudely shaken out of its blissful stupor. He turned on his back. Blearily, he opened his beer-challenged eyes, but Liam found it hard to focus. It was all blurry shapes and flashes of color. The movement around him was too fast for his inebriated senses to catch up. And the noise! A din of growls, hisses, and the clang of metal upon metal. He could barely hear human voices, but the words didn’t make any sense. He closed his eyes again as he slowly merged into the crumpled mass resulting from the impromptu pile up.

  What a maggot thingummyjig.

  Suddenly, hands, gauntleted ones, grabbed him and pulled him out of the fallen heap. Liam was quickly dragged away, two figures on the sides holding his arms, the drunken man’s feet leaving small furrows on the black ground as his mysterious helpers hurried him away from the chaotic mess.

  Are these blokes carrying me to the divvy van? I’m not that legless. Okay, I am pissed as hell. All I need is a chunder to make it official.

  After a few seconds, Liam made it official.

  Three months later.

  The border between the Void Lands

  and the Dual Monarchy of Sumer and Akkad.

  The Great Fortress of Amelatu.

  William looked at the three commanders across the map-filled table. Strewn on the table were large maps with the largest one spread out in the middle with small carved tokens on its surface.

  “Are you sure, Girnita Balashi?” he asked.

  “Yes, Anu Liam,” came the answer.

  “Another new incursion. That makes five in two months?” Liam asked.

  “Correct, Anu Liam. At least we got some reinforcements in addition to the replacements for casualties. Three nim battalions and a force of niskum,” answered one of the commanders.

  “What kind of creatures are we facing this time, Girnita Enkara?”

  “Scouts observing the portal report a form of beastman together with some flying creatures. The enemy is still consolidating, but more are coming through the portal. Our lookouts estimate around twenty-five thousand have crossed over.”

  “Well, gentlemen, the usual then. Traps to whittle down their ranks and a solid defense. Add more. If those barbed wires I designed had arrived, deploy them as instructed. The new archers better build good defensive positions against the flying beasts. Order the skakattims, nugalas, and ubandas to check on the spear, javelin, and arrow supply. Double the javelin issue per man. I doubt these beastmen will die easily. Girnita Sikkuru, doublecheck our support artillery. Make sure the axehead scorpion artillery I designed has an adequate supply of ammunition.”

  “How about the chariots and cavalrymen, Anu Liam? They’ve been disappointed about not being in active fighting for two battles now.”

  “Tell them the usual. Our final reserve. Praise their courage and tell them what they want to hear. This is a defensive battle. That’s why we are in these redoubts, not in that fortress. That’s our last recourse. We can do a lot more killing on level ground. The moment we face them in the open, we’re all kimchi.”

  “Kimchi?” asked Girnita Enkara.

  “It’s a term for a delicious though odorous dish,” replied Liam. Dammit! Losing that Asia-Pacific Competition to that Korean team really fucked up my psyche! That’s the reason why we all got plastered in the outback and the cause of why I am here now. And if not for that botch, we would have won!

  “If there are no further orders, we better go see to our duties. By your leave, Anu,” said Girnita Balashi.

  “Go, and Enlil be with you.”

  As the three men left the command tent, Liam sat down. Here I am, using the name of a long-forgotten Sumerian deity, he reflected. In command of a desperate effort to stop beasties and whatever from coming over to human lands. A fucking irony for a gamer who specializes in strategy.

  Prologue Notes:

  Maggot, legless, pissed – Australian slang for really drunk.

  Thingummyjig – Australian slang used when one doesn’t remember what to call something.

  Divvy van – Australian slang for the police van.

  Chunder – Australian slang meaning “vomit.”

  Amelatu – Sumerian. The word means “gatekeeper.”

  Anu – Sumerian word for “heavenly one.” In the story, a title used by the Sumerians for William.

  Girnita – A variation of the Sumerian military rank “gir.nita,” roughly equivalent to a battalion commander. By Liam’s time, the status already meant one leading a force of three thousand six hundred men. Sumerian military units were based on the sexagesimal system. A battalion would have six hundred men.

  Nim and niskum – Sumerian. Nim refers to archers and niskum to royal and therefore elite soldiers.

  Skakattim, nugalas, ubanda – Sumerian terms referring to officer ranks. Skakattim is originally pronounced “pa. pa/sha khattim.” The story modified the original spelling to make it simpler.

  Botch – A gaming term, meaning an unforced error, also known as a fumble.

  Chapter One

  Back to the Ruined Temple

  A bright glow disturbed the quiet of the massive stone chamber of the temple deep in the ruins of the old Olmec settlement. When it dissipated, five figures stood in the room.

  Why that old bastard! He could have directly transported us inside before!

  Tyler looked around. The magelights lit up the moment the group arrived. Otherwise, their surroundings were the same as when they left.

  “Habrok, it’s your first time here. Men bunk on this side and women on the other side. Tyndur and I have been using these two rooms. Tyndur, please check if there are still food and water available. Ideally, the three of you should check the temple surroundings before we call it a day. But the barrier may not know Habrok. Arrange your accommodations while I check with the Guardian.”

  Tyler walked towards the amorphous entity and entered its jelly-like embrace. He halted in the middle of it.

  This really feels weird. I doubt if I’ll ever get used to being inside this thing. The blasted jelly gets into places I prefer to keep private. Now, how do I communicate with this thing? I doubt if I could use words. I o
pen my mouth, and its body will fill it. Uuugghh. No, not that way.

  “Hello.” On a whim, he thought out loud.

  “Hail. First Mage,” came the reply.

  Delighted, Tyler smiled at the unexpected success. It worked.

  “Thank you for remembering me.”

  “Long time since, visitor. I remember you. Others.”

  “We have a new companion with us. Habrok. I was worried you might eat him if you don’t recognize him.”

  “Temple lord joke. I don’t eat your kind. Dissolve. Throw away. World magic enough. Not much need.”

  “Ah. I can’t tell which is worse, eating or dissolving. But please don’t dissolve him.”

  “Your word is good. Temple lord says.”

  “He will be going out with two other companions to check the area. What’s your name, by the way?”

  “Name is Apu Rumi. Stone guardian spirit. Also, joke on enemies if they come.”

  “Anyway, nice to meet you, Apu Rumi.”

  “Rumi will do.”

  “Thanks again, Rumi,” mentally said Tyler as he walked out of the gray gelatin mass. That was surprisingly simple. I think I understand why Viracocha wanted all of us to pass through Rumi. Some rudimentary ability to detect corruption? That means the deity must have encountered that kind of altered energy in his travels. Come to think of it, he knew fire would be effective against Yayauhqui when the disguising flesh of that creature was removed. Asem was right. The guy’s parsimonious with his knowledge.