The Mage in the Iron Mask by Brian Thomsen Read Free Book Online Page B

apparent tardiness of their relief, he passed through the city gate, and was on his way.
    The absence of the city walls and buildings removed all obstructions from the force of the wind, and Volo quickly drew up a spare blanket that he had packed just for this reason, and draped it around himself as if it were a cape. Fastening it in place with a clasp, and then placing one hand on his beret and one hand on the reins, he spurred on the steed with a quick kick and “giddy-yap.”
    Volo looked around him as he rode, taking in the scenery, and mentally assembling descriptive passages and entries for the guide.
    The mountains, he thought to himself, seem to create some sort of wind tunnel. The breezes off theMoonsea were magnified by the funnel effect as they roared through, making everything seem colder than it should be. I must remember, he noted, to include a cold weather warning and a warm clothing advisory in the book.
    With the exception of the mountains themselves, the rising sun had very little to illuminate on the landscape through which the master traveler rode. Mulmaster was surrounded by rocky, barren lands which further magnified the gloom of the smokey industrial city. The sure-footed stallion had little problem making its way over the rugged and unforgiving ground, with only a minimal amount of direction from its well-traveled rider.
    Even though the smoky fog of Mulmaster was far behind and out of sight in no time at all, the gloom and bleakness of the jagged terrain remained as Volo continued on his way. The skies were almost as uninhabited as the ground, with only the occasional bird of prey or vulture breaking up the grey monotony that reached upward as far as the eye could see.
    The master traveler seemed oblivious to the lifelessness around him, and contented himself with putting together new and different phrases to describe the barren landscape. Occasionally he would pass an abandoned farmhouse or inn, and would wonder what ill-fortuned farmer or hostler was foolhardy enough to try to ply his trade there. Further on in his journey, he began to pass larger abandoned structures that almost resembled Southroad Keep. From the research notes that he had prepared prior to setting out on his journey, he knew that they were monasteries and habitats for contemplative orders that had long fallen by the wayside.
    There must have been something about the austerity of the landscape itself that attracted the ascetic,introspective, hermit types that had the swelled the orders that had filled these citadels in years gone by. I guess they came looking for the meaning of life, didn’t find it, and left, leaving their monastic dwellings behind, he thought.
    The great gazetteer smiled.
    Maybe I’ll include something in the guide about these places being haunted to sort of make things more exciting. Local legends have to start somewhere, he surmised.
    As Volo and his steed approached what remained of a stone arch that had in some earlier era provided egress for some now long bygone structure, the great gazetteer heard a scurrying like the scrambling of rats on a cellar floor. The master traveler smiled, and reached into the inner pocket of his cloak, the tips of his fingers caressing one of the numerous blades he had secreted on various parts of his person.
    Company, he thought to himself.
    Guiding the horse closer to the arch rubble, Volo allowed himself to slump down in the saddle as if he had fallen asleep, while tightening his hold on the reins to keep control of his steed in as inconspicuous a manner as possible.
    Easy pickings, the master traveler thought to himself, usually leads to careless thieves.
    He heard the scurrying on his left and above, and readied himself for the attack.
    A last scratch of a scurry from above, followed by a grunt, clued Volo in on a moment’s notice that the outlaw who was stalking him was leaping down on to his not unsuspecting prey from above.
    The master traveler quickly spurred his