by Jaxon Reed
The following day, Bartimo set out in search of empty casks and fresh water. Obtaining both, and arranging their delivery to the warehouse, Bellasondra and Kirt helped him prepare the Dwarven Stout, diluting the thick rich beer into something more palatable for human consumption. Soon, they had triple the number of original casks.
Then the twins began selling. The first day in the pubs, to Kirt’s surprise, they sold 120 casks. That amount covered most of their expenditures thus far, Bellasondra told him. A single establishment, a huge pub and gaming hall right off the docks called Dead Man’s Reef, purchased 50 casks on the spot. The owner loved the beer, saying he’d never tasted anything like it.
The next day they sold more, with other pubs and inns buying anywhere from three to 30 or more. By the third day, Bartimo said word had spread, and he expected middlemen to begin approaching with offers.
Indeed, on the morning of their fourth day, an elderly lady with a straight back and a surprisingly quick spring in her step, knocked on the door to their warehouse. She wanted to know how much beer they had in stock. Bartimo showed her, and her eyes bulged at the casks stacked up to the ceiling.
Then the bargaining began. She offered to buy 1,000 casks for 500 gold. Bartimo held firm as she steadily upped her offer. Finally, he explained that their backers expected a return of one gold per cask, and he could not return home with any less. If she was not willing to meet the price, he and his sister were content to continue selling pub to pub until their inventory was depleted.
“Besides,” he said, “when those existing customers run out of Dwarven Stout, you can always charge them more.”
At last, the lady agreed to Bartimo’s terms. She left, then showed up an hour later with guards carrying gold and a wagon train for the beer. Hired hands transferred 1,000 barrels to her wagons, and she left to store them in a different warehouse.
Over lunch, Bartimo and Bellasondra discussed whether they should remain in Coral City and try to sell the remainder of their stock, or if they should load everything up in a ship and go to another port. Bellasondra thought introducing the beer to different places might be good for sales next year. Bartimo felt that selling everything in Coral City would be a more efficient way of making a return on their backer’s gold.
“Let’s at least wait a while and see if more brokers are interested in making a deal,” he said. “If we sell another 1,000 casks all at once, we can start thinking about booking passage home.”
Bellasondra agreed, but she wanted a break from selling beer. Bartimo wanted to scout out some new establishments, so they agreed to part ways for the afternoon. Kirt decided to go with Bellasondra to explore and see the sights.
Coral City offered an extensive commerce district, with several blocks and city squares devoted to market stalls and shops. One of the reasons the twins started selling Dwarven Stout in Coral City, Kirt knew, was because it was the largest and wealthiest port.
As they wandered past the products hawked from dozens of distant lands, Kirt realized Bartimo might have a point. If they could sell everything here, in the midst of all this trade, there’d be no need to travel anywhere else.
After a couple hours, they wandered onto another street and found storefronts offering services rather than products. Many beauty shops lined the boulevard, hawkers offering a variety of aesthetic spells and glamours.
Bellasondra ignored these, laughing off the callers’ attention. Privately, Kirt agreed with her choice. He did not think she needed the help of any spells for her looks.
Then they entered a street offering more serious fare. Signs greeted them, rather than hawkers, and the services included things like representation at court, handling matters of estate, sales in foreign lands, petitioning the king for personal redress and the like.
At the end of this street, the sign in front of the last shop caught Bellasondra’s eye. It read, “Ye Olde Agency. Tempolius, Locator of People, Finder of Lost Things, & Sundry Other Matters of Investigative Nature & Inquiry. Serving Merchants & Nobility in Confidence since 3150.”
Bellasondra gasped and said, “Maybe he can find Stin!”
She grabbed Kirt by the hand and hurried into the shop with him in tow.
Inside, they met the owner. Tempolius appeared to be a man of considerable magical skill, Kirt decided. He stood at average height and build, and his black hair had a cowlick that sometimes dropped down in front of his right eye. He’d brush it back and it would stay put on his forehead for a while before inevitably dropping down again.
Despite that quirk in appearance, he held an undeniable grasp of the magic arts. After they were seated in his office he offered them water, and full drinking glasses appeared on the table when they accepted. This trick alone placed him at least in the lower ranks of court mages, Kirt thought.
Bellasondra began telling him all she knew about Stin, and how he had been captured by pirates on their voyage to Refugio.
Minutes later, noting the way he carried himself and the confidence with which he spoke to Bellasondra about being able to find Stin, Kirt decided perhaps Tempolius belonged in the upper ranks of court mages.
His fee was 12 gold. Kirt thought the sum was preposterous, and audibly guffawed.
Tempolius acknowledged the boy’s skepticism. He said, “It’s not all for me. I have contacts everywhere, and finding a man who has been taken like you say, who has disappeared on the high seas, will require a considerable amount of coin. I’ll be starting with my acquaintances at the maritime courts, and their words don’t come cheap. Information is expensive in this city. But if I can find him, I will. You have my word.”
Bellasondra opened her purse and counted out the coins for him. Tempolius promised to bring news from his contacts to their warehouse on the morrow.
When they left, making their way back, Bellasondra had a spring in her step that Kirt had not seen in a while. She talked all the way home about Tempolius and his chances of finding Stin again.
Chapter 19
Mita woke up and immediately jumped to her feet. She looked in the direction Darkstone had stood before she cast her sleeping spell. His mangled body lay on the ground in a pool of blood. Gashes and gouges and chunks of flesh were torn and scattered about. Flies buzzed around his open belly and neck.
“It was a sight to behold,” Loadstone said from the edge of the clearing.
Redstone nodded and said, “You were both sleeping. Then his body started ripping apart. Never seen anything quite like that.”
The three of them approached the corpse together.
“We should bury him,” Redstone said. “He was a sorry bastard, evil to the core, but he was a wizard. And a human being. He deserves a proper burial.”
Loadstone nodded in agreement. He stretched out his hand and carved out a hole in the ground with magic, in the middle of the clearing. Redstone made a scooping motion with his hands, and Darkstone’s body floated off the ground and down into the hole. Loadstone covered it up with dirt.
Mita walked over and picked up the fake Forlorn Dagger she had created. She threw it back into the ground, the hilt serving as a makeshift marker. The three of them stood around the fresh grave for a moment, respectfully.
Redstone cleared his throat and said, “O Creator, we send him to you for Judgment. Our lives are longer than others, and we know You hold us accountable for our additional time here. We send this man to you, our brother in the magical arts, and ask You judge him impartially, as Your scriptures say you will judge all of us at the end of our lives. So be it!”
Loadstone and Mita said in unison, “So be it!”
Together, they walked back to where the wizard had fallen asleep. His staff lay on the ground, the darkstone dully reflecting dappled sunlight.
Loadstone turned to Mita and said, “I believe this is yours. Pick it up.”
She looked at both men. Redstone smiled and nodded his encouragement. She reached down and picked up the staff. The wood felt very smooth and very old. She expect
ed the darkstone to start glowing. Or something.
She said, “Nothing’s happening.”
Loadstone said, “It won’t fully bind to you until you pass the tests. Then the stone becomes truly yours. For now, keep it safe.”
Redstone said, “Expecting something more dramatic?”
“I don’t know,” Mita said. “It’s been used for evil so long, I half expected a feeling of doom to pass over me.”
“The stones are not good nor are they evil,” Loadstone said. “They are simply tools. As such, they can be used for grand purposes or ill-begotten ones. But in and of themselves, they are neither. It is people using them who are either good or evil.”
Mita nodded, turning the shaft so she could examine it closely.
Redstone said, “We need to get back and inform the others. Oldstone has given me passage to his castle.”
He cast a transport globe and its hazy yellow light slowly rotated, casting glimmers around the clearing.
Loadstone smiled at Mita and made a motion with his hand. He said, “After you.”
She smiled back and walked through the globe and into Oldstone’s library.
-+-
Mita was greeted with a round of cheers and applause when she walked in, all the wizards around the table standing up at the sight of her carrying the staff. Redstone and Loadstone followed her in, smiling and nodding.
The Troublesome Trio stood with everyone else, but did not smile back. When the congratulations died down, Quartzstone spoke up in a disapproving tone. “May I presume the staff was obtained honorably, according to our edicts?”
“A lot more honorably than he earned it, I’ll wager,” Redstone said.
Oldstone raised his hand for silence before Quartzstone could respond. He said, “The edicts state two wizards should vouch for an initiate obtaining a staff.” He quirked an eyebrow at Redstone and Loadstone.
Loadstone said, “He attacked her. He attacked all three of us, in fact. Mita defeated him in combat.”
Silverstone snorted. Skepticism crossed the faces of Quartzstone and Sandstone, too.
Oldstone raised a hand again. He said, “Is this true, Redstone?”
Redstone grinned, his orange beard moving with the muscles in his face. He said, “Aye!”
“There we have it,” Oldstone said. “‘The word of two wizards shall not be crossed.’”
The Troublesome Trio frowned, but offered no further resistance. Arguing against an edict was futile.
“At this time,” Oldstone continued, “we will vote on allowing Mita to begin the trials, and joining our ranks as the new Darkstone. All in favor, raise your right hand.”
Quartzstone, Silverstone, and Sandstone stood with their arms crossed while everyone else raised their hands.
Quartzstone said, “Greystone is still not with us.”
Oldstone nodded and said, “He has informed me ahead of time, if this situation were to develop, he is not opposed to Mita beginning her trials. A majority has agreed. Mita will depart as soon as she is rested and ready. Thank you all for being here. I will arrange a globe to take you back from whence you came.”
The Troublesome Trio left first, in a huff, saying goodbye to no one and traipsing through the hazy yellow globe as soon as it appeared. Several others stayed a while to offer Mita personal congratulations and to hear more about the battle. Trapping Darkstone in her dream proved to be a popular idea, and they wanted more details.
About the battle in the physical world, out in the clearing, Redstone provided many graphic details, telling the story from his vantage point several times over.
At long last, Oldstone politely suggested everyone should leave so Mita could get some rest. One by one, the remaining wizards exited through the hazy globe rotating slowly in place at the middle of the library. Redstone and Loadstone were the last to leave, departing simultaneously. Loadstone smiled at Mita before going through the globe, his bright white teeth shining out from his dark almond skin.
“Well done!”
She smiled back at him, and he walked through the globe with Redstone, disappearing from sight.
Oldstone turned to her and said, “Indeed, well done. When you feel up to it, you can begin your trials. The castle has been floating toward the northern Ageless Isles for some while. We’re over water now, as a matter of fact.”
Mita said, “No globes?”
Oldstone shook his head. “The island we’re going to can’t be reached by spells. A flying castle is the easiest way to get there. Most people have to take a boat.”
“Did you take a boat?”
“Yes. And so did all the others who were just here. Consider yourself fortunate.”
“I take nothing for granted, Master.”
“Good. That’s a good quality in a wizard.”
-+-
A week passed after Trant had taken Kathar. The metal men stood at even intervals in a circle around the walls of the castle, their animus spell spent. Now they were mute reminders of battles past.
Unlike the villagers, Katharians had no qualms or fears about the metal men. Most had not seen them in battle, only marching through the streets. In a few days after Greystone had parked them in their current locations, people came to accept them as part of the landscape. Children climbed over their feet while parents and others strolled under the shadows they cast without concern.
Trant felt concern for different reasons, as he peeked out from the curtains of a side chamber in the Emerald Cathedral. On a nearby dais sat a throne. Not the Emerald Throne, but the one used by the King of Emerald while attending worship services. It had not been used in many years, since Endrick never entered the cathedral. Next to the throne stood a podium, and a small table holding the crown that Endrick had tossed aside in his flight from the castle.
Always in the back of Trant’s mind, Endrick loomed. He had not been apprehended. Trant took the castle with minimal trouble, Endrick’s orders to hold at any cost notwithstanding. The giant metal men proved to be quite persuasive. Most of the men guarding the castle had fought with the same contraptions. Seeing them now under Trant’s command, or at least his wizard’s, led to a quick surrender. It helped that Darkstone was nowhere in sight.
Despite a thorough search of the castle, inside and out, Endrick was nowhere to be found, either. At last someone thought to look down in the dungeon, and found the jailer’s bloody body along with Endrick’s discarded clothes.
A search of the dungeon followed. Someone noticed tracks in the dust leading to the end of a corridor. A secret doorway was discovered, revealing a tunnel which exited some distance away in a vineyard. The clues thus assembled, it seemed obvious Endrick had slain the jailer, donned his clothes, and exited through the tunnel.
He could be anywhere by now. Trant put that uncomfortable thought out of his mind and refocused on the present.
The seating area was packed, the pews filled with everyone of importance from two realms. Dignitaries from other kingdoms besides Coral were present as well, many sending emissaries to declare their support for the new regime.
Sitting on the front row were King Keel and Queen Kita, along with Princess Margwen. She looked his way, as if expecting him to peek out at that moment. He caught her eye. She smiled and her warmth and love flowed across the cathedral, filling his heart.
Greystone walked up behind him and clasped his shoulder. He said, “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Get the crown, settle things down in the kingdom, then you can marry her.”
“You have an uncanny way of discerning my thoughts.”
Greystone chuckled and said, “I don’t have to be a wizard to notice the way you two pine after one another.”
“Do I pine after her?”
“You’re like a puppy dog following her around.”
“Really? I am to be King and you think this woman has me so smitten that I’m eating out of her hand?”
“Oh, I don’t think so. I know it.”
High Pries
t Gustaff approached the podium on the dais and all eyes in the cathedral turned toward him. A tall and skinny man, he could have passed for a scarecrow had he worn farmer’s clothes instead of vestments. Brown curly hair seemed to float in different directions as if with a will of its own.
Gustaff touched his throat and cast a Spell of Amplification, then began a short speech. His words filled the vast interior of the cathedral.
“Many years ago, the Emerald Throne was taken by force, and our King and Queen were murdered. But a wizard came and rescued their son, hiding him away and raising him as his own, preparing him for this very moment.
“Today, it is my pleasure to place the crown on the rightful heir to our throne. It is my pleasure to present to you the next King of Emerald, and to lead him in his vows to the Creator as he takes his place in service to our people.
“Prince Trant, come forth.”
Trant opened the curtain and walked out onto the dais. He went down on one knee in front of Gustaff.
“Prince Trant, do you swear to wear the Emerald crown in righteousness, to rule with integrity, to serve your people as their leader walking in accordance with the ways Holy Scripture instructs?”
“I do so swear.”
“Then by the power vested in me from the High Tower, in accordance with the Holy Edicts on sovereignty governing all those born to rule, I hereby proclaim you King, monarch over all the land and people within Emerald.”
Gustaff picked up the crown and placed it Trant’s head.
“You may now rise and take the throne.”
Endrick stood and walked three steps to the throne. He turned and sat down facing the crowd.
Gustaff said, “Milords and Ladies, friends and agents from all the realms, I present to you the son of Tren and Karla, King Trant of Emerald!”
Thunderous applause erupted as hundreds of people stood and clapped. Through it all, Trant and Margwen smiled at one another. From the side chamber, Greystone smiled, too.