King of the Realm

by Andrew Bardsley

  “OK.”

  Ceras reached into his money purse and pulled out about ten gold coins that were lying at the bottom and showed them to the surprised guard.

  “Sorry, my lord. The people in the reception will be able to provide you with the accommodation you need.”

  Ceras was not surprised that he now believed they had enough to pay, as he had shown enough money that would take half a lifetime for a laborer on a farm to earn.

  Walking down a garden path to the entrance of the inn, Ceras noticed that there were areas in the garden for people to sit in the shade and eat and drink. He saw lots of groups of richly-dressed people who all seemed to be enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Some of them were even playing some type of ball game on the lawn.

  “What are these people doing?” asked the dragon loudly.

  “I really don’t know,” muttered Rinaldo, who was standing next to him.

  “Enjoying themselves, dear. It is what you call ‘civilization’.”

  A man dressed in a smart black jacket with long tails and a white shirt greeted them politely at the door, opening it up for the adventurers. They were led into a large reception hall with two sets of stairs running off it, and couches and chairs full of people eating from small plates of food.

  “Are you sure you want to stay here?” Ceras asked Symania quietly.

  “Of course. The experience will be good practice for you as well, for when we are in the capital. You’ll need to be able to mingle with all levels of society.”

  “Great.”

  A woman dressed in a deep maroon dress that reached the floor and with hair arranged in curls that cascaded past her shoulders came up to the scruffy-looking adventurers.

  “Welcome to the Paradise Gardens Hotel, how may I help you today?” she asked pleasantly.

  Symania moved forward with a smile and said, “We need some rooms for at least one night - maybe more, depending on our travel arrangements.”

  “What type of rooms are you wanting?” asked the polite woman, leading them to a table and taking out a book.

  “If you have the large suite available, the one on the ground floor at the back of the building,” Shunneth said excitedly as she looked at the others. “That’s where my family were when we stayed here last time. It's very nice.”

  A flicker of surprise shot across the woman's face, but it was quickly replaced by the same composed smile.

  “That suite of rooms is available, if you want to pay for it.”

  “Great,” said Symania. “Ceras, would you make the arrangements as we just sit down for a second?”

  --

  Ceras pondered the elegant room in the common area of the suite that he had paid for. He had nearly fallen over at the price, but the two women seemed to accept it as nothing. This made him wonder how the other classes lived. He had to admit to himself that the hotel was wonderful and it reminded him of the accommodation that Symania had designed for them in the dungeon, but without the magical element it came with.

  It was only mid-afternoon and he had changed into a spare set of smarter clothes that he had brought from the dungeon in his bag of holding. The clothes seemed more in line with what he had seen in the city, so he would not be too out of place. He decided to go check out the academy, since he was on this trip to find higher magical learning and this was his first opportunity.

  Knocking on Rinaldo’s and Qyndad’s door, he heard Rinaldo shout, “Come in!”

  “I'm heading to the academy to see what they have in the way of magical books. Let the girls know if they ask for me,” said Ceras.

  “I’m still trying to convince the hot-breathed boy here not to eat people, so I’ll see you later,” said the exasperated Rinaldo.

  Ceras left the apartment with his staff in hand, still able to hear them arguing as he closed the door behind him.

  On the trip across the city to the academy, Ceras stood out a lot less than he had earlier with his dirty clothing, for which he was grateful. At the academy gates he could still see young people entering and leavening. Passing through the gates, he found that the building surrounded a large open square full of sand where people were fighting in different sections. Between the sections where the matches were taking place, older men with thick muscles were giving pointers to the students as they battled. Ceras has seen this type of training in the guild in Riverward, but on a much smaller scale. He also noticed that this was not the only training field, as at the back of the building were large open areas filled with similar squares. Not all of the squares of sand were being used for match practice - Ceras could also see some of them filled with people practicing weapon techniques.

  Walking to a building marked ‘Administration’, Ceras ascended a stone stairway and found himself in a small reception hall with a petite blond woman behind a table. The woman took in the sight of Ceras’ well-made clothes and smiled politely.

  “How can I help you, sir?”

  “Could you give me directions to the magical department, or a library with magical books I can use?” asked Ceras.

  “Sorry, sir, but the academy does not have a magical department. We focus on martial combat abilities. You might want to try the guild library,” said the receptionist.

  “Thanks,” said Ceras, disappointed, but gave the woman a polite smile.

  As he was leaving the building, one of the teachers noticed his large frame and walked over to him with a smile on his face.

  “You look like a fine warrior, young man,” said the academy teacher.

  Ceras sighed internally, as he got this a lot because of his outward appearance. “Sorry, sir. I’m not a warrior, but a wizard.”

  “No, you can’t be!”

  “I get that reaction a lot, sir, but I’m sorry - it’s a fact. Here, look at my guild marking - it will confirm that I’m a wizard.”

  Ceras held his hand out to the instructor to show his guild marking.

  “My goddess!” said the muscular teacher as he saw the level that Ceras had reached. “You’re just off legendary! How the hell did you do that? At your age, too!”

  “Let's just say that I had a lot of motivation.”

  “It takes more than just motivation, but also a lot of resources to gain that high a level in such a short time,” said the teacher cautiously. “You must have access to a dungeon or else you would‘ve had to travel all across the country to find the high-level monsters, which you wouldn't have time to do at your age. Did you use the dungeon west of here, that was just found a year or so ago?”

  “Yes.”

  “It‘s obviously pretty good if you’ve accomplished that much in such a small amount of time.”

  Ceras thought, Here’s an opportunity to get people excited about the dungeon. He tried to mimic Grikius’ salesmanship as he said, “I have some connections at the dungeon castle if you or anybody from the academy wants to use the dungeon. When you get there, talk to Grikius in the shop at the castle and tell him that all accommodation is on Ceras’ tab for anybody from the academy.”

  “Sounds a bit too good to be true,” said the man skeptically. “It would be more believable if I was able to see a demonstration of your level and know that you’re not one of the fakers we sometimes see around here.”

  “Fine, but if you’re impressed you should use the dungeon because it needs more adventurers and is still underused.”

  “If what you are saying is true, of course we’ll use it. Let's see a demonstration of magic, then,” said the man, indicating toward a dummy against one of the outer walls of the academy.

  “OK, but I’ve only got battle magic at the moment as that’s what I’ve been concentrating on.”

  “That’s what I want to see, so go and do your best.”

  Ceras moved to a clear spot where he had an unobstructed view of the human-shaped dummy. Wanting to impress the academy teacher, he thought that it would be best if he used overwhelming power. It was time to use the mixture of the fire, frost and immobilization spel
ls that he had been thinking would be good for overcoming a powerful enemy.

  Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on the sequence in which he wanted to produce the magical spells. After a few seconds of working it out in his mind, as this was his first attempt, Ceras twisted his staff around above his head. A massive fireball like a Catherine Wheel, white-hot, shot up into the air only to freeze about twenty feet above Ceras. In tandem with the fireball, hundreds of ice shards the size of heads also froze in the sky.

  Once the swarm of frozen fireball and ice shards was hovering above Ceras’ head, buzzing with suppressed energy, he reversed the immobilization spell and used it to propel the mass of ice and fire as fast as he could toward the dummy.

  As a single entity, the swarm of fire and ice seemed to disappear, a flash of white light streaming toward the dummy indicating the path it had taken. Ceras did not see the dummy being hit - he was blasted off his legs by the shock that radiated from his target. Looking up from his prone position on the floor, his vision was obscured by the cloud of dust and sand that had been stirred up by the swarm’s magic. As Ceras got up he noticed that most of the teachers and students were still on the ground as the dust settled, allowing him to see the after effects of the explosion.

  Oh well, crap. They did ask for a demonstration. Maybe next time I shouldn't be so eager to impress.

  Surveying the scene that became apparent as the dust clouds cleared, he had not only completely destroyed the dummy, but there was now a crater where it had stood and a section of the academy wall was missing, allowing the shocked people out in the square to see inside the academy grounds.

  “Sorry about that,” said Ceras to the astounded teacher as he was getting up to his feet. “I think that I got a bit carried away.”

  “Are you sure you’re just at the master level of magic?” he demanded, rubbing his forehead and looking around to see if anybody was hurt as they picked themselves up from the floor. “There’s going to be hell to pay for this.”

  People had started to run out of the administration building, looking at the crater and the wall and questioning the muscular teacher, who was trying to explain what had happened.

  “It was really my fault...” Ceras began.

  “No, no, I didn't do it,” the teacher was saying. “It was the master wizard - or maybe legendary wizard over there, as he has that much power.”

  The teacher pointed at Ceras as all of the administration staff looked at him with something like fear. He wandered over to them, trying to put on his brightest smile as he addressed them to try and calm them down.

  “Yeah, sorry about that. I may have gotten carried away with the demonstration. I’ll pay for the damage if you want.”

  The staff looked slightly pleased with the offer of paid compensation, but the teacher was shaking his head.

  “I’m staying at the Paradise Gardens if you want to send over the bill,” said Ceras apologetically. “I’ll be off, then. Goodbye.”

  With that, the wizard-warrior walked out of the academy with a red face full of embarrassment. When he passed through the city square, people were staring open-mouthed at the hole in the academy’s wall. Ceras was happy that nobody seemed to recognize him as the culprit.

  When he got back to the suite of rooms, Rinaldo and Qyndad were still discussing correct human-dragon behavioral etiquette.

  “Is that you, Ceras?” shouted Rinaldo from the open door.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you hear that blast earlier? We were wondering what that was,” said Rinaldo, standing up and walking to the door to meet the dusty Ceras.

  “Bloody expensive is what it was,” Ceras said, as he went to get ready to change his clothing for the second time today.

  “For whom?”

  “Me, most likely. Me!”

  --

  “Has anybody seen my staff?” Ceras asked as he was searching around the rooms where the party of adventurers were staying.

  “You must have left it in the common room,” said Rinaldo, strapping on his sword and mace before the adventurers went out for an evening meal in the city.

  Shunneth was taking them to a restaurant that also had a stage where plays were performed, so the group was looking forward to an entertaining evening. Before Ceras could find his staff, there came a knock at the paneled wooden door. Symania went to the door and opened it, to find one of the inn’s maids with a note in her hand.

  “A letter has arrived for your group, miss,” said the maid with a slight curtsy, and handed over the note and left.

  “That’s probably a bill for me,” said Ceras with regret.

  “I don’t think so, unless you’ve been to the castle – it has the Earl’s seal on it,’ Symania said, breaking the wax seal and opening the folded parchment.

  For as few seconds she read it with a look of surprise, and then resignation. “It seems that our whole party has been invited to the Earl’s castle for a meeting. It says to come as soon as we can. I wonder what this is about. Did anybody do something that may have drawn attention to us?”

  “Hmm,” said Rinaldo as he looked at Ceras. ”There was that large explosion earlier this afternoon… and I wonder who did that.”

  “Well, it wasn't me,” said Qyndad, with a look at Symania as if he was innocent of all wrongdoing. “I was with Rinaldo all afternoon talking about my good behavior.”

  “Sorry, guys, but it was me. I was trying to demonstrate something to a teacher at the academy and went a bit overboard,” said Ceras. “I suppose we’d better go and explain ourselves as we could be dodging soldiers all the way to the capital if we don’t.”

  “Well, at least we’re dressed smartly for the occasion of meeting nobility,” said Rinaldo as he started toward the door.

  “We are certainly not, but there is nothing we can do about it now as we don’t have anything better,” said Symania as she looked down at her smart healer’s robe.

  Ceras led them out. “Let's get this over with, shall we?”

  The walk to the castle took only a few minutes through some pleasant lanes leading up to the gate. Ceras noticed that the fortification of the castle looked more ornamental rather than fully functional, as it seemed to be built for comfort rather than defense. The guards at the gate saw the five young adventurers approaching and held their spears across their path, barring them from entering.

  Symania handed over the invitation letter without a word spoken. One of the guards examined it and whistled toward a door in the outer wall of the castle. A third guard came rushing out with a spear in his hand.

  “Take these guests up to the main keep and the butler will know what to do with them.”

  “Yes, corporal.”

  The adventurers were led through the tunnel in the gatehouse toward the castle’s courtyard. Inside was a large, bustling yard filled with wooden buildings that seem to supply the castle’s every need. Ceras could hear a blacksmith forge being worked across the courtyard, and he spotted a windmill along one of the walls. On the left wall was a large keep that seemed to be where they were being taken by the wordless guard. He led them to a large set of wooden doors with a smaller door in one, that was opened by a man dressed in a black jacket and a white shirt with a black cravat around his neck.

  The guard handed over the invitation. The butler looked at it and said, “Thank you for being prompt. The Earl of Wentworth will see you now.”

  Ceras was anxious as he was led into a large hall with weapons, tapestries and other decorations on the wall. The hall was full of diners eating at long tables, and the top table was lined with more people facing the lower level.

  The top table was on a raised platform and a large man was seated in the center on a golden chair, eating some roasted meat on a platter of bread. Talking to him from the seat beside him was a woman of similar age who looked to be his wife. Around them at the table were several children ranging from about five years old to early teens. Behind the Earl of Wentworth was a wizard who held Ceras�
� staff in his hands, a curious expression on his face as he watched the five approaching adventurers.

  The butler led the team to just before the top table, where the Earl and his wife noticed them for the first time. The rest of the room carried on talking and eating as the butler introduced them.

  “My lord, the adventurers you invited,” said the butler above the sound of people’s chatter.

  The Earl looked at the adventurers, and especially at Ceras, but as he was about to talk his wife pulled on his cuff and spoke into his ear, nodding to Symania and Shunneth. A quick whispered conversation ensued until the Earl cleared his throat and stood with a bow.

  “Your Highness, it is such an honor to meet you again,” said the Earl to Symania. “I hope we may be of service to you.”

  The Earl’s announcement had caused the entire hall to suddenly become quiet, and everybody rose to stand and bow or curtsy to Symania. The reactions of the rest of the adventurers were a mixture: Ceras’ and Rinaldo’s was pure shock while Shunneth was only mildly amused by the situation, but Qyndad’s was of complete indifference to the royal status of his friend.

  Symania gestured for everybody to sit and the sound of scraping benches and chairs could be heard throughout the large hall.

  Now that the announcement had been made of who was present, the hall was quiet while its occupants waited to see what would happen.

  “Your presence here, and that of Lady Shunneth, daughter of the Duke of Northbridge, may explain the curious reason that we have invited you here this evening,” said the Earl in a more respectful tone.

  “And what is that, Earl?” asked Symania, standing tall and looking him straight in the eye.

  “Badeo is my court wizard, and will explain to you what we so humbly would ask of you.”

  The wizard behind the Earl moved slightly forward, still holding Ceras’ staff as if was the most precious object in his possession.

  “Earlier today one of your bodyguards, Your Highness, used a legendary magical staff for a demonstration of its power at the academy,” said the wizard politely, glancing at Ceras.