The Might of Magic

by N M Zoltack

  Finally, Marcellus nodded.

  “And you, did you have this audience with the queen? What is it that my son had you tell her?”

  “He sought peace.”

  “Peace!” the king roared. “My son had been speaking to you in jest! Or else he thought… Ah, clever boy. You wished for the queen—Which queen is it that you spoke to?” King Antonius asked.

  “There is only one queen,” Vivian murmured. “The announcement has not been made yet, but it seems Queen Sabine was not innocent of crimes after all. Her mother had slain the prince.” Vivian paused to ensure she did not give herself away, and she dared not utter her brother’s name. “Queen Sabine was her mother’s daughter, and she is kept in her room, a prisoner basically, and her crown has been stripped of her. Rosalynne Rivera is the one true queen—”

  “Silence, you knave, or else I will chop off your tongue! Rosalynne is no queen, and my son here sought an audience with her only so that he could then slay her where she stood. Isn’t that right, Marcellus?” Antonius gripped his son’s shoulder, his fingertips turning white.

  Marcellus’s dark eyes fixated on Vivian’s face. “Yes,” he uttered.

  It took everything within Vivian to maintain her tether on hope and faith so that she did not give into the might of the new dragons, but in that moment, she could have grabbed her sword and slain them both even if it meant she should perish in the attempt.

  44

  Prince Marcellus Gallus

  The Rivera princess was lucky the king had decided that settling north of the town was a suitable solution for now. Runners had been back and forth from Arlingway River several times now, and some of the horses had been recovered. His father had calmed down slightly, but then her statement that Marcellus had wished for peace… Marcellus actually feared for his life in that moment. At least his father had come to believe that Marcellus had meant that only as a means to be able to assassinate the queen.

  The moment the meeting ended, Marcellus followed Vivian outside of the tent. He gripped her elbow and forced her to come with him inside his tent. At least he had a tent of his own, as did his father. Their legionaries had to sleep under the stars.

  “What were you thinking coming here?” he demanded, his tone low but barely. He could hardly control his temper. “You could have gotten yourself killed! Or me for that matter! My father—”

  “Are you worried about what your daddy thinks?” And she had the audacity to giggle.

  She was maybe three or four years younger than his twenty years, but she was acting as if she were only a young child who knew nothing important at all.

  “Your father holds your life in his hands as long as you are within this camp. If anyone—”

  “I don’t care about your father, and neither should you,” she insisted.

  He gaped at her. “Vi—”

  She clapped her hand against his mouth. “Cateline,” she ordered, her dark blue eyes flashing.

  “You need to leave.”

  “I will, once I’m done.”

  “What will that take?” he growled. “Did you even tell the truth about Sabine?”

  “Yes. Why would I lie about that?”

  He just gave her a look. Did she take him for a fool? Most everything she had said had been a lie.

  “Marcellus.” She took her hands in his. “You can do what you want, what you want. You can get out from your father’s shadow.”

  “How?” he asked, curious despite himself. She was a cunning young woman, a princess and a warrior, but she was not deceitful. A bit too optimist at times, but even she acted more like a Vincanan at times.

  “What was it you told me once?” she murmured.

  Was her thoughts aligning with his?

  “‘You are not just Tenoch,’” she uttered. “That is what you told me. I don’t believe I am, but maybe…” Vivian shook her head and then seemed to realize she still held his hands. She released them but stepped even closer to him, far closer than was proper. “You wish to know how you can get out from your father’s shadow? It’s simple. All you have to do is marry my sister.”

  He gaped at her. Was she serious? There was no mirth in her eyes, no suppressed laughter in her tone.

  “Would she even be willing to?” Marcellus murmured.

  “It would end the war between our countries,” Vivian said desperately. “We can face the dragons together, although I don’t necessarily mean… We can have peace.”

  Naïve. She was a bit naïve, that was certain, but her earnest eagerness had him considering things he never would have before.

  “Do not worry about your father,” she added. “We can spread the word about the wedding, and once every knows, your father won’t be able to stop it.”

  Marcellus appraised her. Her dark hair had been twisted into a braid that had become rather messy during her ride here.

  Maybe she became self-conscious about it because she undid the braid and rewove the three strands again. Her eyes remained on him as she worked.

  “Well, what do you think?” she asked. “Will you consider it?”

  “I will consider,” he murmured, astonished that he meant it. Could the war end despite his father?

  No, to believe that meant he was as naïve as Vivian. At least one of the two of them needed to remain levelheaded.

  His father… If Marcellus went forward with this, it could prove disastrous. His father might even come at Marcellus, could engage him in battle over it.

  If it came down to it, could Marcellus fight his father? To what lengths would Marcellus go in the name of peace?

  45

  Alchemist Apprentice Sabine Grantham

  The more Sabine studied, the more she learned, the more gaps in her knowledge she discovered. Alchemy wasn’t so much a direct study of science. There was a measure of art to it. Not all combinations of ingredients rendered the same results. Adding a pinch of sapphire rosemary to bits of thorn rosemary should make a potion that can cause the recipient to become drowsy, but if the vial had not been cleaned and dried thoroughly before the bits went in, then the mixture would prevent one from slumbering for two days.

  At some point, she had no choice but to try to and test out the various versions of Frozen Kiss she had made. Given that the point of the potion was something… rather unpleasant… she did not have any volunteers for the potion, and after seeing Tabes’ dead body, Sabine had released the bird.

  No, what she needed was prisoners, but oddly enough, once Rosalynne learned that one of the prisoners had escaped, most likely because of the threat of the dragons, she had released all of the criminals. The one to escape first, what had been his crime? Sabine wasn’t entirely certain, but at least Thorley was willing to talk to Sabine some about certain details. Had Rosalynne told the guard to speak to her some? Sabine did not know, but while she knew the guard was there to watch over Sabine, she also did not think the young man meant her any ill will despite everything. Clearly, Rosalynne had not told him what Sabine had done to the king.

  “How is it that you know so much about the inner workings of the castle when you’re here with me inside this room nearly day and night?” Sabine asked, turning away from her notes.

  Thorley, who always stood in the corner of her room nearest the door, stepped forward. “You answered your question in the question.”

  “When you leave to sleep,” she murmurs. Then, a replacement guard would come inside.

  He nodded solemnly. “Is there something you wish to know?”

  “There is something that I wish, yes,” she murmured. “I wish to speak with the queen.”

  “Is your potion ready?”

  “It needs to be tested,” Sabine murmured. “I need test subjects.”

  “And your potion will do what exactly?”

  “I must speak with the queen,” she said softly.

  Thorley appraised her for a long moment, held up a finger, and then opened her door. She heard soft tones from him and another as he stood in th
e doorway, and then he shut the door once more.

  “The door can remain open,” Sabine said dryly.

  Thorley grimaced. “If you wish…”

  “Why do you think that not a good idea?” she asked.

  “The queen made an announcement just this very morning,” Thorley uttered.

  “About my fall from grace.”

  Thorley did not confirm, but he did not need to.

  “I see,” Sabine murmured.

  The guard must think that those who walked by the room would gawk at her, revile her, so Sabine did not ask about the door again. If she sought to study, she would not wish for the door to be open, but at times such as these, she felt rather trapped, confined as if in a prison cell.

  Hours passed before the queen finally came. She swept into the room, but she did not look high and mighty. No, she looked a bit wan and weary.

  “I have just come from one rather long meeting, and I confess my patience is not what it should be,” the queen stated plainly. “Speak plainly.”

  “There needs to be a battle,” Sabine said without preamble.

  “A… battle…” Rosalynne repeated blankly.

  “Yes. With the Vincanans, not the dragons.”

  “Why do you have need of a battle, pray tell?” Rosalynne clasped her hands before her, exaggerating her last remnants of peace.

  “You released all of the prisoners.”

  “Yes. What of it?”

  “I wish you would have consulted me first.”

  “And why would I do such a thing? You are not one of my advisors. You are not on my council.”

  Sabine pursed her lips. Ah, yes, her council. She doubted any one of the worms had backbone enough to have fought against the young queen for Sabine’s sake. Still, what had mattered to Sabine previously no longer seemed to hold quite as much sway.

  “Why would you require a prisoner?” Rosalynne asked dryly.

  “I need a volunteer, several actually, to test my potion on to see if it is ready for use in the war,” Sabine said. Her smile was rather cunning. “You do not have any from Tenoch who you wish to potentially die, correct?”

  “You want… You want me to have a battle specifically so we can have prisoners of war that you wish to force to take your potion of death?”

  “Not a potion of death. Frozen Kiss,” Sabine corrected.

  The look Rosalynne gave Sabine was one of pure horror.

  Sabine smirked. “You do realize that with every battle, your knights and guards slay real men, women too even. War is battle and death. It is violent and carnage, and I am doing what I can to try to end the war sooner so as to minimize the loss of life, on my—our—side as much as possible.”

  The queen’s facial expression did not change, the fool. She was innocent and ignorant and did not realize what must be done.

  But Sabine knew, and she would continue her work, and if Rosalynne would not cooperate, then Sabine would have to figure out how to test her potion on her own.

  46

  Advisor Aldus Perez

  The royal painter handed Aldus the parchment. “Is that her?”

  Aldus eyed it. The face was a bit too round.

  “Her face should be more like an oval,” Aldus instructed.

  “Anything else?”

  He studied every detail with a critical eye. The elegant small nose, the high cheekbones, the dark eyes…

  “Yes. Just her face shape.”

  The royal painter smudged a bit of the black charcoal to elongate her face.

  “Her lips are too high now,” Aldus commented.

  The royal painter merely nodded, and roughly ten minutes later, there it was—a perfect drawing of the face of the missing Li princess.

  “And this is…” the royal painter asked.

  “A woman,” Aldus said smoothly, accepting the parchment. “Thank you kindly. Merely ask the treasurer for your payment.”

  The royal painter nodded, almost bowing, and hurried away.

  Aldus looked over the drawing once more. The Li princess, whose name he still did not know, was a stunning woman. Yes, men would fall over themselves to follow her. She was of an age of Rosalynne. In that vision he had been given through the Fates, the dragons, magic, what have you, the Li princess appeared stoic even, calm, serene. She had come to Atlan for a reason, and Aldus sought to learn that reason.

  Perhaps he would help her. Perhaps not.

  The only one he ever truly helped was himself.

  “What is that?” an old voice croaked.

  Vicar Albert Leeson. Aldus held up the drawing to conceal his face so that his smirk. The vicar and the advisor did not get at all.

  Aldus folded the parchment, careful to not have the charcoal portions to smear. “It does not concern you.”

  “Hmm.” The vicar lifted his bushy eyebrows. They appeared like wiggling worms above his eyes. “Have you ever been told that your eyes are unusually large?”

  Aldus smirked. “My mother used to say that it was because I see most everything.”

  “Most everything,” the vicar mused.

  Aldus shrugged one shoulder. “Why aren’t you in your chapel?”

  “I do not have to be within the chapel at all times, but I do wonder why you are still within the castle. I thought, but I might be wrong, that you no longer serve as an advisor to the queen?”

  “The one true queen,” Aldus said, lifting his nose. For some time now, Aldus wondered just who the vicar truly served because he doubted very much that the old man served the Riveras or anyone at all. Maybe he truly did only seek to serve what was best for Tenoch, a sentiment he had shared with Rosalynne once upon a time.

  Or maybe the vicar, fittingly enough, served only the Fates, but what might the delusional old man think that the Fates wished for him to do?

  “So you admit that you do not serve her?” Albert lifted his own nose in challenge.

  “I serve anyone and everyone,” Aldus said smoothly.

  “Hmm,” the vicar repeated. Stooped over, he hobbled away.

  Aldus waited until the vicar rounded the corner to turn down the hallway and made his way straight outside to the tiltyard, the area where knights practiced. They halted their routine as he approached, and Aldus waved them over.

  “I will speak with the guards next,” Aldus said, “but perhaps you can be of service. This woman…”

  He held up the portrait so that everyone could see the Li princess.

  “She is to be brought to me straight away if you see her. It is a matter of security. She might be within the walls of the castle, or she might not be, which is why I wished to speak with you all.”

  One of the knights, a redheaded one, whistled. Most of the other knights laughed, and Aldus grinned. They would not forget her face.

  “Straight to me,” Aldus repeated, and the knights all agreed.

  Beyond pleased, Aldus started back toward the keep when he spied a man racing along on a horse speeding toward him. The man, Donnchad Boyle, was a scout, and Aldus shifted to block him.

  Donnchad slipped off the horse and almost collapsed.

  Aldus waited for him to readjust to being on his feet. “What news have you?”

  “I need to see the queen.”

  “She’s in a meeting right now,” Aldus said. “I can tell her. You look half-dead, if you do not mind my saying so. And meal and a bed is what you need. I can tell the queen once she has finished her meeting.”

  Donnchad rubbed his nose. His cheeks were speckled with freckles, and he scratched at one on his chin. “We’ve been told to find the Vincanas, and there have been many different small sects of them, but there’s one of note that I just located.”

  “What is interesting concerning this group?”

  “It is only Vincanan women. All warriors, of course, but only female ones.”

  “And where are they? Are they preparing to make an attack?”

  “They have settled near the swamp.”

  “Stokeford Swam
p,” Aldus mused. “Thank you for your loyal service to Tenoch.”

  “Tenoch Proper,” Donnchad corrected through a yawn.

  “Yes, indeed. Go on. Eat and rest.”

  Donnchad staggered around Aldus inside the keep, and Aldus trailed behind him. He needed to speak to the guards and show them the picture of the Li princess, but after that… Hmm…

  47

  Alchemist Apprentice Sabine Grantham

  The more time passed, the more convinced Sabine was that Rosalynne would do nothing at all to help Sabine. Perhaps the young queen had decided all along that she would merely only pretend to help Sabine’s efforts to become an alchemist. She might very well have plotted to sabotage Sabine at every turn.

  No matter. Sabine would do what she must, and she turned to Thorley.

  “I used to have a… friendship of sorts… with Aldus Perez,” Sabine murmured, casting her gaze down at the ground, trying to appear virginal and sheepish. “I… He had been there for me… after my husband… Aldus is a friend, and I… I would like to see… Has he asked about me, do you know?” Earnest now, she clasped her hands to her chest. “Do you know?”

  “I do not know,” Thorley said, “but, ah, I can go and see if he wishes to speak to you.”

  “Good.” Realizing her err, she amended, “Thank you. Could you send in Colette? Perhaps I could change first, in case he… I do not know if he’ll wish to see me, but… The queen might have turned him against me, so I…”

  “The queen would not lie about you,” Thorley said slowly.

  Yes, well, the guard did not realize how accursed the truth about Sabine could be.

  “I did not mean to suggest that,” Sabine murmured, contrite once more. “I just… You are lovely company, yes, but Aldus…”