Fletcher

by P. S. Power

  She nodded.

  “This way then. I didn’t sleep there last night.” She didn't seem embarrassed about that at all. The Prince gave her a raised eyebrow over the words. Depak Sona smiled a bit and looked away. It was clear what was going on.

  The room was tidy enough and lacked the needed gear to do blood magic, though there was copious sewing materials. Some jewelry as well, in a small box. Nothing cast blood out into the room. The travel bags were just as dusty as the rest of them had going on.

  That changed in Depak’s room. Not only did a blood cloud come into the air when called, the spells, several of them, were on top of his book case. Things on paper, which were made into a triangular shape. The symbols weren’t the same as the ones on the leather working, being similar to the ones that had been taught to Anders for basic magical working.

  There was magic still in the papers, if only a trace.

  Prince Alpert went wide eyed. His face paled a bit.

  “You did this? Tried to kill the King? Why? We’re at peace with Barquea!”

  Anders waved a hand, dismissing the idea. The Prince stared at him, seeming more than a bit worked up over the current find. A thing that wasn’t needed at all.

  “No. Look at these. There was blood magic on it, certainly. It’s crude though. The work of a self-taught beginner. The feeling of magic on it is different as well. I’m pretty certain that this particular piece is just a spell to make the letters on the page glow with light. I recognize enough of the symbols to be able to read it, if roughly.” That was handed to Master Tolan, who didn’t take it, simply holding a hand over it, his eyes going closed.

  A moment later there was a slow nod.

  “True. All of this is as Anders said. There is no sense of the attacker on these. Blood magic. Rough and as suggested, crude, compared to the other work. Not complex, I mean.”

  Beginning efforts generally weren’t. Depak Sona bowed then.

  “I have been making an effort to understand such works. The blood on it was, I can assure, only my own. It is a powerful enough way of acting, though slow and inelegant. I am not, I fear, the culprit.”

  That was simply true. The combined words got the Prince to let a large breath out, his body slumping a bit as part of the tension was released.

  Anders spoke then, his own voice rather soft, thinking carefully, instead of dropping into a trance.

  “Whoever planted the magic used last night did so while we were at the high meal. Ambassador Depak was with us at the time, making it very unlikely that he’s involved in at least that attack. Most likely in any of them. Now…” He stopped then waved to Eltha and then Depak. “We need to search my room as well. Then… Probably the rest of the castle. I don’t have a right to do that.” He didn’t have one to do what he had, either.

  Prince Alpert waved a hand at him.

  “I can’t see a need to do that, Anders. You don’t know any blood magic.”

  A thing that was true, of course. Except that it was partially false. He had several books in his head, in languages that he could read, that told him a whole lot on the topic. A thing that no one had mentioned as being possible as of yet.

  “True, Prince Alpert. I haven’t checked my room for things like that as of yet, however. No one should waste time to attack me, not being important, of course. I’ll still sleep better if it’s certain, first. Master Tolan…” He glanced at the man and nodded. “Should be allowed to dress and ready for the day. Then we need to check everything. As much as we are allowed, I mean.” Going over the King and Queen’s chambers would be wise, as well as not be allowed at all.

  Given that they wouldn’t be held guilty if they were secretly in league with the blood mage it didn’t make a difference if they had such magics in their chambers on purpose. Their secrets would be held, which was a thing that they might not understand about him.

  Alpert patted his cheek, which was unshaved, even if he had clothing on for the day. Not his normal level of dress, for some reason. Nothing was dirty but it was all plain. Nice, in drab colors that spoke of being a merchant of some kind, instead of a Prince.

  It was none of his business, so Anders didn't bother thinking about it. Not once he realized that everyone that had been at the late meal with them was cleared. At least of being in the forest with a magical mouse. That idea was important as well. That the animal was a mouse. The heavy stone walls didn’t have places for little animals to easily pass. More than that, it had gotten exactly to the correct place.

  Some hired man from the town wouldn’t know how to control the mouse to do that. Some kind of magic might have been used for that as well, naturally. It just seemed like a lot to ask, making its way through the maze of hallways without guidance, to a specific room. The first carrier had been controlled as it walked down a road. Slowly and in a straight line. Walking the halls of the castle without being caught or spotted was a thing that would take real skill.

  Anders had literally lived his entire life there, until the trip that had been taken to Sapphire Lake. Thinking about it carefully, he wasn’t certain that he could have guided the little beast to the right location. Farad knew that his own knowledge would be lacking that way totally, without the aid of the boy who was part of himself now.

  If he could find a map, it might be possible to memorize it and use that to control the carrier. Maybe. The most likely case would be that the person working with the blood assassin would be someone in or around the castle. A noble or a servant then. Possibly one of the guards. No one else would be able to come and go easily enough to learn the layout of the place.

  Even the visitors would be kept out of so many of the places the mouse would have needed to travel, making it highly unlikely to be one of them.

  Which only worked if it wasn’t just down to being some kind of magic that Anders didn’t understand as of yet. Even, possibly, something new to the world as a whole. If that was the case, then anyone might be the culprit.

  Given that he couldn’t rule out everyone in the world, he simply kept a running tally in his head, going over everyone he could find information about, as they all moved as a group, around the castle. Master Tolan didn’t find any magics that felt right for being powerful and of the correct tenor to be lethal. There were things found, of course.

  Anders’ room had to be searched simply due to the man leading them right to it.

  The Master grinned as the place had everything inside of it uncovered. Including Anders’ hidden bottle of fine spirits, that was untouched and of a sort that indicated it had been taken more than half a year before, when such was used as part of a celebration. No one mentioned it and fortunately there were no paintings of nude women to explain away.

  The entire thing was covered in magic, since he used it there so often. Even his clothing was, at that very moment. The things laid out on his work table as well. Part of that did resonate to the magics of the night before, it seemed.

  Master Tolan let his hand wave over the surface, his eyes closed.

  “The flames were of magic. Solid as well, the air itself burning. There was great power used in it. I shouldn’t be able to feel this much after being part of any type of energy system.”

  Depak Sona checked for blood, which there was enough of that it made a nice cloud, most of it coming from his clothing, a bit from the bandage on his arm, since the wound was weeping in places. No one thought to having him take that off, in case there was a hidden blood magic badge underneath it.

  Then, not that rapidly, they worked from every room in the building with recently active magics, to the most minor tastes of it. That lead to the searching of thirty rooms, very closely.

  No one had a secret stash of incriminating magic that indicated they were the minion of the blood mage, of course. They were still all on the suspect list, as far as he was concerned. Even the people that he liked. Himself as well.

  After all, it was very possible that whoever had woken Farad Ibn Istel from his long slumber in the red g
em had plans that he simply hadn’t been informed of. If that was the case, Anders himself could be the guilty party, without even knowing it.

  Chapter thirty-two

  Just after the late meal, Anders knocked on the door to Prince Robarts’ office. The wood was thick enough to make a solid sound when hit. A deep clatter that spoke to just how hard it would be to break the thing down, if an emergency ever came.

  No one answered the knock. There wasn’t even a stirring from inside the space. A thing which made perfect sense to him. The only trouble was that the rather long message he had for the King wasn’t the kind of thing to risk leaving on the floor of the hallway. It was nearly twenty handwritten pages of details about who had been where before the attack two days before. Also, what had been found as far as magic, for the entire castle.

  The lack of response left him feeling a bit out of sorts. After all, no one had asked for him to try to figure out who the attackers were. In fact, he’d been told nothing at all, nearly the whole time. No one had even scolded him for taking it upon himself to search the dignitaries’ rooms. A thing that had been needed, clearly, since Ambassador Fromet would have died later in the day if he’d laid down for even a brief nap.

  Anders understood that he didn't have any call to be hunting down the heir to the kingdom, given all of that. It meant that he just sort of stood there, in front of the great double doors, examining them for a few moments. Not knowing what to do at all.

  As he turned to leave, he saw the small mouse scurrying along the wall, moving in a place that no self-respecting rodent would have allowed itself to be caught out in. The poor little thing was small, had something on its back and was going to have to die.

  “Que-li bestle-fen.” His own voice sounded tired to his ears. Listless.

  That made no difference to the fact that the tiny beast froze in place, instantly. Unmoving as he walked up to it, the blood smeared bit of fine leatherworking on its back standing out as odd, even if other similar things had been seen in the last days.

  This time it was different.

  On its back was a circle pressed into the leather. The hand that had made it wasn’t as fine as on the other ones, however. The symbols were different as well. Similar in some respects but not the same ones at all. Comparing them to the ones in his memories showed that rather clearly. The complexity of the spell was well down as well. This one had ten parts to it. The others had hundreds each. Some of the things in front of him looked lopsided as well, instead of in perfect balance.

  Whoever had made this particular bit of magic was either a different person or had been in a very great hurry in what they were doing.

  Standing there, Anders took a deep breath and then started to yell.

  “Emergency! Emergency! Master Tolan to Prince Robarts office!” He called that out four times, getting decent volume, which was nice to hear.

  It meant his wind was coming back after his illness.

  The call went up then, as he just stood there, staring at the tiny dead thing on the floor. Four of the castle guards showed up first thing, each with spears, which were pointed at him directly. For his part, Anders simply pointed at the floor in the right place to draw their eyes. One of the men, who was older than the others, looked at it and nodded.

  “Blood patch, like we were warned of. You do this, Brolly?” The unamused tone was clearly asking if he’d done the magical work.

  An accusation, rather than assuming the obvious. That he wouldn’t have called out if the work had been his.

  “The freezing of it. I was delivering this to Prince Robarts. When I turned I saw the mouse walking along the wall and reacted.” It had been a bit more thought out than that, naturally.

  No one else needed to understand that about him. Not in the moment. Really, no one should care about how he’d gotten it done, he didn’t think.

  There was calling out still going on in the background. This time Prince Robarts arrived first, at a run, with Master Tolan not twenty paces behind him. The man slid to a stop, the stone floor hard and smooth enough that his flat leather soles didn’t provide much purchase. He didn't go down, simply standing up straight and looking at Anders directly.

  “What happened.”

  Pointing again, he waited for Master Tolan to get there, explaining as the man panted a little bit.

  “We caught another attack, I think. The work on the leather is… Primitive, compared to the other things. My guess is that it isn’t done by the same hand. Master Tolan, this is your area of magic.” The man was brilliant at gathering all sorts of information, after all. A thing that was nearly as handy day to day as being able to light a fire or make things very cold on demand.

  At least it had been lately.

  The tiny beast wasn’t touched, a hand hovering over it, the man squatting down, his hose making the move easy enough. The look was strange, though not unheard of at court for certain functions. Prince Robarts was in something similar, though dressed in black. Master Tolan was in a combination of violet and red.

  In his trance, the man spoke softly.

  “This is not the same magic worker. This was a man. Older. Nearly my own age. The… This was released here. That way, about fifty paces. Not outside at all. No more than a quarter hour before this time. The magic is still present. I can find the worker, I believe.”

  Prince Robarts went a bit wide eyed and nodded.

  “Do it. You men, go with him and keep him safe. Anders…” The man looked at the rodent on the floor. “You might be needed. The question will be as to where. Do we know who this was targeting?”

  Master Tolan didn’t hesitate to answer at all then.

  “You. The power seeks you very clearly, from this sigil, here.” It was a thing that looked like a triangle with ears, next to a slightly larger triangle with ears on the top.

  Anders nodded, getting the iconography.

  “A wolf’s head, next to a smaller one, showing you. The Heir. This is… A bit scattered, isn’t it? They’ve gone for the King, Ambassador Fromet and now the you, Prince Robarts? This one was close. Released from inside the walls here. We should hurry, to make sure the culprit can’t escape the castle. That… No one should be allowed to leave.” It was a thing that he’d never heard of before.

  Even when the building was under attack, they were told to hide, not that they weren’t allowed to run away if they were near a door to the outside.

  A call went up then, from Prince Robarts first.

  “Secure the doors! No one leaves the castle!”

  It didn’t take four repetitions for the others to start calling that out, the guards with them fairly well bellowing the words the instant they were spoken. Things were loud for several moments, the entire castle calling out to secure the doors.

  The Prince nodded to Master Tolan.

  “Do what finding you may. You have the right to arrest anyone and detain them. Try to avoid death for the moment. We will wish to question them. Master Brolly, with me. We must guard Father.”

  The man didn't touch him at all or do anything sudden. Instead he turned and then, almost casually, started to jog down the hallway. The clear message being that he expected Anders to keep up.

  As he did the papers in his left hand, carried awkwardly, if without pain since they weren’t heavy, rustled just a little. When they got to a guarded door, one with a single, very heavy oak panel to its makeup, the men were waved to the side. Rather, their spears were.

  “Magical attack attempt. Master Brolly stopped it. He’s here to guard the King.” The words weren’t whispered. They were soft and nearly menacing. Dark, in a way.

  As if not believing that they’d come to a state so low as to needing or even wanting a boy to stand to their protection. A thing that Anders had to agree with. Even being different than he looked, Farad knew that he shouldn’t be the one there doing that, in particular. Others were better with magic, for instance. Depak Sona would have been a better choice that way, by far. Master Tolan as w
ell, since he was simply more sensitive toward magic. A good warning that something was happening or about to was as important as casting more physical spells.

  The spears moved out of the way, allowing enough room for them to pass, if they turned sideways. No more than that was given. Not even for the Prince. The door was opened by the man himself, with Anders walking in behind him, so close they were nearly touching the whole time. The instant they were in, the door was pulled shut with a loud boom, from the outside.

  Glancing around, Anders realized that he needed to bow. That was done toward the King, first, his left hand going out, the gray bandage on it sticking to his flesh again. The papers were in that hand, which meant the King stood, moved forward and bowed back, using a modified version of first courtly. Taking the papers personally. Next to him, still seated, was the Queen. Her matronly face looked frightened, whites showing all around the edges of her eyes. Off to the side the other Princes, Alpert and Erold sat, perched on a padded bench, both with weapons in their hands.

  Settling again, almost instantly, King Matheus looked at the papers in his hands, then quickly shuffled through them. There was a nod.

  “We’re under attack again?”

  Prince Robarts waved in Anders’s general direction.

  “Stopped before it started. Aimed at me this time. A crude bit of blood magic, from the sound of it. Not high end like the others were. I’d be insulted by its lack that way, if not for the fact that someone inside the castle itself had to have released it on me. Master Tolan thinks he might be able to track the person. Master Brolly is here to guard us, in case of further attempts.” The Prince turned to him then, if slightly. “Is there anything you need for that?”

  Anders knew the answer, which wasn’t a grand thing to realize.

  “Better skills? I’m not Master Tolan when it comes to finding magics. I can do a bit that way… I’m going to be getting some lessons from him in that, I think. I would have started already but these matters…” Bowing again, he waved with his left hand slightly, toward the papers in the King’s fingers.