The Queen and the Mage

by Wilma van Wyngaarden

  “Pardon me, Lady Minda,” she said, although her sharp eyes stared at Scylla. “Is it true we are to return to the old ways?”

  “It is true. Queen Scylla has banned the priests’ religion,” Minda told her.

  “Ahhh...” She heaved a satisfied sigh. “Then, Lady, put that stone in a bed of salt.” Her eyes shifted as if she might have said too much, and she withdrew quickly.

  “Salt… it is sprinkled around for protection from evil. I have heard that before in folklore. Well, it cannot hurt.”

  “I will bring back some salt. Do not touch it again. Oh… Coltic has revived! I forgot upon seeing all this.” She gestured around the room.

  “Coltic has revived?” Minda exclaimed.

  “Yes, I came to tell you. He is thirsty but seems lucid,” Scylla told her. “I will return with the salt.” She hobbled back to her chambers. The large guard sprang to open the door for her. “Thank you, I’ll go back in a moment.”

  “Yes, Queen Scylla!” His words echoed around the arched hallway.

  Coltic sat at the table, picking at a pound cake left over from the morning. Sorrell sat near him. They both looked up.

  “I need some salt. About this much.” Scylla cupped her hand to demonstrate. Without a word, Sorrell went to the wooden stores cupboard near the small stove and poured salt from a bag into a small dish.

  “Perhaps a little more.”

  “Salt, Princess?” Coltic sounded much more like himself than he had upon first wakening.

  “Minda and the servants found a clear quartz stone under the bed in the guest quarters—small and round. The servant Kay said to put it in a bed of salt.”

  Coltic’s gaze slid away from hers. He repeated her words slowly. “Clear quartz.”

  “I believe the Goddess spoke within my mind. ‘Clear quartz is the stone of magnification.’ Those are the words that came to me.”

  “Magnification or intensification.” Coltic nodded. “They must have left it behind. Take more—enough to bury the stone in salt.”

  “I think the secretary is a sorcerer, as I said yesterday.”

  “He is,” Coltic said shortly, and ate some more cake.

  “I will take the salt to Minda. You should sit down, Princess.” Sorrell left without waiting for a response.

  Scylla sat in her chair by the window and rested her foot on the stool. Coltic continued to eat in silence, half-turned away from her.

  Shortly after, Sorrell and Minda returned. “For now, I’ll put these in the cupboard,” Minda said, indicating the dish in her hand and the jeweled box. “Let us not forget the stone is there. Captain, I am beyond pleased that you are back with us!”

  “So am I, Minda.” Coltic returned her smile with some effort. “Sorrell has told me what happened this morning… and that Woliff and his men left. Where is the chancellor? And has Renold reported back from his travels?”

  “Yes, he has, and is fully informed of all events here. Mako is at the kitchen where they are feeding the feral children as they did last night. He wants to see who turns up today.”

  “I look forward to our War Council meeting,” Scylla said.

  “It will be interesting,” Coltic agreed, with a shadow of his usual vigor.

  Jay came back from the stables with the dogs scampering around him. Some minutes later Axit returned, carrying Leon who was tired out and wailing… until he saw his idol Coltic at the table, and the dogs begging at the captain’s feet. Then he screamed with delight and wriggled to get down.

  Dusk gathered. The evening feast arrived. Captain Renold came along next, looking weary but brightening at the sight of the food. Shortly after, there was another knock announcing Mako’s arrival.

  “Is this all of us?” asked Scylla, looking around as he came in. “Minda, Jay, Sorrell, and Axit and Leon, who are going off to bed soon. Captain Coltic, Captain Renold… and Chancellor Mako.”

  “I am going to bed too,” Jay said, a stubborn jut to his boyish chin. “Can I have some food for me and the dogs?”

  “Coltic!” exclaimed Mako, reddening in shock as he suddenly noticed the captain at the table. “No one told me you woke up! Good Goddess, man, no words… no words! You looked like death!”

  Renold demanded, “What are you talking about? He looks fine to me… well, maybe a little…” He trailed off. “He appears to have… did you have the gray in your hair before, man?”

  They all inspected Coltic, who ignored them.

  “You’ve aged overnight,” said Renold, staring at him critically. “How can that be?”

  Coltic shrugged without answering.

  “Here’s your dinner, Jay.” Minda handed a plate to him. “And Axit, take what you want for you and Leon.” Jay disappeared promptly with the dogs at his heels, and Axit wasn’t far behind, a plate of food in one hand and the now exhausted small child drooping over her shoulder.

  “Let the Council meeting and the dinner begin!” said Mako. “Minda, I see you have finally convinced the kitchen to cut back a little.”

  “Yes, fortunately! They have seen how much we sent back, especially when only Sorrell and I were here with Axit and Leon. They have agreed to discontinue the pre-dinner banquet, disappointing as that may be to them. The servants and soldiers will eat regularly in the Great Hall. I understand King Tobin and the late queen presided over dinners there almost every night, attended by some or any of the district lords and their retinues, and others.”

  “We should host the dinners at least two or three times a week,” said Mako. “Even if you, Princess, prefer not to attend. We need an informal way to meet with the district lords and others. And to keep our head cook happy… we do not want to lose him. I recall some very unreliable head cooks… this one, Scobie, is by far the most talented. Even Woliff was impressed by the feast they presented.”

  “I am too, as always… I am sorry I missed your visitors.” Renold shook his head.

  “I told Woliff nine-tenths of our home army was out on troop exercises,” Mako confessed. “Not that half our army, which has never seen battle except on the king’s games field, was out trying to recruit more troops—mostly sheepherders and woodsmen, aged from twelve up to any old codger still able to ride a horse.”

  “Do not despair… I had good meetings with the outlying district lords. Their troops look better than you might expect! They are ready to ride out as necessary.”

  “Ah yes, as necessary.” Mako’s expression sobered. “The wolves of Gryor… we cannot know what they will do after their losses here. We may have won the battle, but what next will we face?”

  Minda reminded them, “Orwen should reach Gryor tomorrow. And Woliff likely returns there the day after. I hope Orwen will not linger.”

  “I sent a message ahead on a smaller, faster boat. Orwen will know what happened here before Woliff’s boat docks… I hope,” said Mako. “I have sent riders to the district lords—they all should know by now what occurred here last night and this morning. We will need to have all soldiers at the ready within a few days. The villagers and fishermen have been told to keep last night’s activity quiet and to be ready when we need them. We don’t know if any Gryor spies are in the village, but our people are on watch.”

  “After catching Gryor’s sailors setting fire to the village, I expect they are on full alert. Have you had the castle gates repaired?” Renold asked.

  Mako nodded. “Also, the laundry spillway and another weak spot are being fortified. The scaffolds at the damaged wall are under guard at all times, and the fishermen report back every time they go out into the delta.”

  “What of the feral children?”

  “The kitchen fed them last night, Princess. They put out ten baskets of food and will add more as needed. Seven turned up in daylight and two after dusk. Today I watched from behind the locked gate... they are wary as deer. There were two from the village—not homeless, I’m told, but starving—also five other lads who live rough. Four of them were together, and I spoke to three. The o
ther and the loner were in and out so fast there was no speaking to them. Then there is the rat-girl, ten or eleven… she carries two brown rats with her as we were warned. And the last was the smallest one, the only one who spoke to me. She offered to cut my fingers off if I didn’t keep away.” He chuckled.

  So did Coltic, for the first time that evening. “Do you remember seeing the little one in the tree, Princess?”

  “Oh, that one! She was barefoot and dirty—and very young.”

  Mako said, “She was also the only one to thank me! I am told her mother’s shack outside the village burned down more than a year ago, with the mother and her sailor husband inside. He was known to be dangerous and may have killed the mother. The child escaped, obviously, but no one has been able to get near her since… not a bad thing, I suppose, as both the priests and the traitor Darwyn would pay to have a child brought to them, we hear.”

  “I suppose in age she is the one most suitable for Zara’s spring. However, even if she cannot be tamed, I hope the kitchen will go on feeding them. In fact, I order the poor to be fed,” said Scylla.

  “In your mother’s time, they were,” Minda said. “And why not, since the kitchen turns out so much food? The excess does not all need to go for pig slop. The feral children must steal or scrounge to stay alive. How the little ones survive, I do not know.”

  “I suspect many do not. Once these few realize we plan to feed them every day, they may begin to trust us. Only the older lad and the little girl brought back their baskets. Before she came out, though, I saw the basket thrown down from the tree… so there may be another. The others had all gone by then. We will see again tomorrow.”

  “Are we going to Zara’s village tomorrow?” asked Scylla.

  “I am sending a troop of soldiers tomorrow to repair the shacks,” Mako said. “A wagonload of boards and other supplies went this morning and sh1ould be there by now. If you go tomorrow, you may inspect the village and visit the spring… and speak to Lady Zara herself.”

  “I may go.” Could she face a whole day on the road? Sorrell could not travel, and Scylla wondered whether Coltic could accompany her in his strangely weakened state. And how much would Jay protest if she made him leave the dogs behind? “Well, I will decide for sure in the morning.”

  “Captain, are you willing or able to ride out tomorrow morning?” Mako asked after studying Coltic for a moment.

  Coltic gave an unenthusiastic shrug. “I am not at my full strength, Chancellor.”

  “What happened this morning? Did you feel unwell?”

  “I cannot say that I did,” Coltic said gloomily. He stared at a stack of battered fish resting on a bed of roasted potato sticks. He had eaten little, although everyone else had taken full advantage of the feast. Except Scylla.

  “You frightened all of us, man! You cannot die… the kingdom needs you.” Mako glared at Coltic with full intensity, as he had earlier.

  “You looked as if death itself loomed over you, Captain,” Scylla said. “The chancellor is right. Rellant’s strength lies in our council—each one of us. We are weaker without you.”

  “As the princess implies, no one may die until all this is behind us,” said Sorrell mockingly.

  “Or until we all die together!” Scylla added. “Although that would be the least desirable outcome.”

  “I hope you are right, Princess.”

  “I called the healer in,” Minda said. “The physician was not available.”

  “He has gone out to the villages, apparently. Queen Maris fawned over him as she fawned over the priests, whereas I have banished him from these chambers. I will not have him back… he might bring in leeches.” Scylla gave an exaggerated shudder.

  “I will make inquiries regarding the physician’s habits,” Mako said. “Where his loyalty lies, for example. I wonder if he was drawn into the priests’ influence.”

  “Was there a woman here? I believe I… saw someone, but it may have been part of a dream.”

  “The healer, Mother Caryn.” Minda hesitated. “She was here, but she…”

  Coltic waited in silence.

  “She gave us only a cryptic opinion and would take no payment.”

  “She wanted to see the trellet,” said Sorrell.

  “She seemed disappointed the trellet was gone,” Minda admitted. “She seems a very gentle soul. She said you… or your illness… were none of her business. She said she would ask the Goddess to free you… or assist you. We are not sure what she meant.”

  “Ah,” said Coltic, even more gloomily than before. He drew a long breath and released an even longer sigh. “I should be grateful, I suppose. I have a confession to make, Princess… Chancellor… even you, Sorrell—I have been deceiving you all.”

  Scylla studied him in puzzlement. Deceive? The word made no sense when applied to Captain Coltic’s loyalty, good cheer, and boundless energy.

  No one spoke. In fact, it seemed they were all holding their breath waiting for the captain to continue.

  “I am far from what you think I am,” he said at last. “I am the sorcerer Woliff and Mangus warned you of.”

  Mako spoke first into the astounded silence, with finality. “He is delirious... Call back the healer!”

  Renold’s jaw had dropped and his mouth hung open, his eyes staring blankly across the room. Minda appeared to have fallen deep in thought. Scylla and Sorrell traded guarded glances.

  Meanwhile, Mako sprang to his feet and paced around the room.

  Coltic watched him. With a hint of his old grin, he said, “Chancellor, I am not delirious. But call the healer if you will.”

  “She will corroborate your statement,” Minda suggested calmly, and Coltic gave her a nod in reply.

  “Good Goddess,” Mako almost wailed. “The king betrayed… priests throwing magic… mythical creatures screaming at me… and now one of my two best soldiers tells me he is a sorcerer! I ask you, Captain! What do you expect me to do?”

  Coltic shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

  “A question, Captain,” Scylla addressed him. “Now that you have revealed yourself as a sorcerer, are you leaving us?”

  He shifted in the chair and tugged at the neck of his tunic uncomfortably. “I cannot say, Princess.”

  “How does a sorcerer become a guard on a merchant boat? Was that not where you were before joining the King’s Guards?” asked Minda.

  Coltic nodded. “One must do something. I have been a guardsman several times, as I am good at it… also a sheepherder—not so good, a woodsman, a sailor, a horse trainer… oh, and a blacksmith, until a mule kicked me.” He gazed at them with a familiar twinkle in his eye. “I have had many good times and many good friends since I renounced my life as a sorcerer. Not the least of which were here in Rellant!”

  Minda said, “You appear older now than before. You were similar in age to Captain Renold, and yet now you have aged overnight and your hair has turned as much gray as blonde. How is that?”

  “Ah,” he said sheepishly. “I underestimated the toll of…” He stopped, seemingly reluctant to go on.

  “The toll of what?” Mako prompted, when he did not continue.

  “The toll of the shroud. I placed a shroud upon the castle and its surroundings.” The others stared at him, bewildered. He explained. “A shroud of protection, you might call it. Woliff claims to be a mage, a student of magic. Mangus is a sorcerer born, not a mage—and has begun to hone his talents. Queen Scylla could feel the power in Mangus.”

  “You said you could not feel it in him,” Scylla reminded him.

  “I said I cannot say I did,” Coltic corrected her. “Since I renounced sorcery, I do not involve myself in any of it.”

  “And yet now you have.”

  Coltic nodded. “I could feel the sorcery they were turning upon our… that is, your kingdom. They know King Tobin had a store of gold but not where… or how much is there. They want everything, particularly the gold. And also the priests’ books of magic. I could feel their
search intensifying, so I placed a shroud over the castle to make it impossible for them to… see… shall we say. The shroud works both ways, also muffling what I might have seen or felt. Then I had to maintain it,” he added with chagrin. “It exhausted all the powers I could summon.”

  “Woliff said they could feel a sorcerer or an amulet within the castle,” Mako acknowledged.

  “… but they could not know who or what, because of the shroud,” Coltic went on. “They felt only the restriction in place. Thus they did not… see… the fate of their sailors and can only guess at why the attack failed.”

  “Lucky for us.” Mako dropped back in his chair. He picked up a roast chicken leg and viciously bit into it.

  “We thank you, Captain,” Scylla said. “I presume when they left, you collapsed.”

  “I ran out of the strength I needed. When one uses a magician’s powers, one must use them wisely, exercising the power and conditioning oneself. I have not practiced in years, and I’m now painfully aware of that.”

  “Years.” Mako repeated the word and eyed him morosely. “How long since you renounced your… practice?”

  “Oh, decades!”

  “Decades… How old are you?”

  Coltic’s fair skin reddened. “I am older than you, Chancellor.”

  “How old?” Mako persisted.

  “I am ninety-two… no, ninety-three.”

  “Good Goddess!” Mako dropped his head into his hands. “I do not believe what I am hearing.”

  “I was a young man in this realm,” Coltic protested. “I was here at times during the years of King Corbin, who died at fifty-two when our King Tobin was but fifteen, and less frequently during the years of Corbin’s father, King Lorin. Lorin died in his forty-fifth year… of drunkenness, although they said it was a fall from his horse, when Corbin was just turned twenty-five. King Lorin was crowned at forty when his father Belrin died of unknown causes. Some said poison… that Lorin became tired of waiting for the old king to die. King Belrin ruled for more than fifty years. He was crowned at nineteen and died at seventy-one. I was born during his reign and was thirty-six when he died.”