The Warded Box

by Guy Antibes

  Ralinn nodded.

  “Prompt?” Jack asked.

  “Ralinn is the only sister I have been able to communicate with telepathically. It is not common to teach such a thing to a student, but Ralinn is no normal student.”

  “Jack isn’t a normal bodyguard. Shake his hand.”

  Parena looked around. “It is time I got back anyway. Let’s separate here.” She shook Jack’s hand. She looked into Jack’s eyes. “You are a helper?”

  “I am. On this trip, I am Eldora’s helper, it seems.”

  “I should bow down to you. I have never known such a blessed person.” She bowed to him deeply.

  Ralinn unclasped the necklace from her neck and removed the ring that Jack had given her. “Wear this,” she said.

  Jack grabbed it and poured additional power in it and hoped it would work for Parena.

  “It may give you some protection against Black Finger sisters,” he said as he handed the ring to Parena. Jack watched her go. “I’m glad you did that. We may need her help.”

  Ralinn grabbed Jack’s upper arm as they continued their stroll. “She is right. You are a blessed person, and of this moment you are Ralinn’s helper.” She put her head on his arm. Jack was too tall for her to put her head on his shoulder. He had that cursed cuirass on anyway.

  “I wished we could have taken walks like this sooner,” Jack said.

  “But we couldn’t when we were on our journey. It would have gotten in the way. I’ve wanted to ever since you saved us from the Sparrows.”

  “What makes now different than then?” Jack asked.

  “We have little time together. Who knows what happens when you release the spell? All our lives may change.”

  “You will have to become the princess again.”

  “Or something else, but we won’t talk of it.” She put her finger on his veil where his lips were to silence him. “I’d just like to walk with you back to the house, but maybe we need to taste some more market food, just to make our trip look more authentic.”

  “I am all for authenticity,” Jack said.

  When they got back to the house, Lark was in his bedroom reading, but everyone else was out of the house. Ralinn took Jack into the empty sitting room and pulled his veil down and then did the same with hers.

  “A reward for being my bodyguard,” she said, closing her eyes and closing her lips. “Perhaps some additional rewards might be in order.” Her lips closed again.

  Jorey and Tanner opened the door a few moments later. Jack and Ralinn put their veils up again and separated.

  Jack thought he would feel guilty, but he didn’t.

  “Your walk served its purpose?” Jorey said.

  Ralinn nodded and sat away from Jack when the others did. “We bring bad news from the temple. Jack confirmed, and I agree, that Wessa Fanstrong has violated Eldora’s temple. Her spiritual essence has departed. I did make contact with my temple mentor. We can communicate like the grand wizard and Fasher Tempest can.”

  Jorey smiled. “Isn’t that forbidden?”

  “No, it isn’t,” Ralinn said. “It is unusual and frowned upon since most priestesses lack the talent. Parena and I don’t.”

  Jack wondered if he should have Ralinn teach him how to communicate that way, but he was sure they were running out of time.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  ~

  A fter Helen’s dinner, which Jack was thankful for, they paused when someone knocked on the door. Someone’s servant had their hat in hand.

  “I have a message for Grand Wizard Jorey Balcon.”

  “From?” Jorey asked entering the foyer.

  “Lady Maltwill.”

  “I will accept it. Please come in, the house is being watched,” Jorey said. When the door was shut, he added, “by Norris Everlight, who probably is observing all our activities.”

  Jorey opened the seal of the message and read it.

  “The Lady is all right?” he said.

  The servant nodded. “She is.”

  “Then tell her ‘yes.’ You may return.” He looked at the assembled group. “Jack and I are summoned to a meeting tonight at Harida’s mansion in an hour. She claims to have interesting guests.”

  “Could it be a trap?”

  “I know Harida’s handwriting,” Jorey said. “It is genuine. She also knows Jack and asked for him specifically. We should go.”

  “Surely you need to prepare,” Lark said. “Should I go with you?”

  “No,” Tanner said. “We can’t defend if attacked. With Corina and Ralinn, Helen and I can defend the house, but not traipsing about in the dark.”

  “Perhaps a message,” Jorey said to Lark. “Harida trusts me, but others might not. Write a letter giving me the authority to discuss your affairs with her. That would be at least tangible evidence that you are engaged in your own cause.”

  Lark wrote the letter while Jorey changed his clothes. Jack would wear what he wore in the afternoon, clothes that he still had on. He checked his weapons and objects.

  “Are you afraid?” Ralinn said. “I’m afraid for you.”

  “Just be here when I get back,” Jack said. “I don’t know how long we will be gone.”

  She lifted his veil and pecked his cheek when the others weren’t looking. “I will be waiting.”

  Jack nodded. “Don’t let up. We live in enemy territory.”

  Jorey and Jack left the house. Jack looked back. Shutters were being closed. The door was locked behind them. The deep blue along the western edge of the sky provided a little light as they walked toward Harida’s mansion. At least the citizenry was still out and about. When they passed the central market where Eldora’s temple was, food vendors and street performers livened the evening up for young couples.

  Jack sighed. He was sort of a couple, albeit a temporary one, with Ralinn. He touched his cheek where she had kissed him before he left and sighed again.

  “Thinking of a certain someone?” Jorey asked.

  Jack nodded. “Ralinn and I have become friendly, but before you lecture me, we both know that when this is over, we are too.”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything of the kind, although I am a bit relieved you have discussed it. Any long term relationship would only curtail your development.”

  “What about hers? She will be a princess.”

  “Princesses can have consorts, you know.”

  “I wasn’t really thinking about marriage. I’m only eighteen after all.”

  “And that is what I am talking about. Regardless of Ralinn’s path, she will have to grow up very fast. She put off that kind of thing in Wilton as a student, but Larkin will need her if he succeeds.”

  “Which brings me to something that has been bothering me. Whelham Waterford must have told his brother that Ralinn and Lark are in Gameton. Why hasn’t he contacted them?”

  Jorey laughed. “I was wondering when you’d get around to asking that. It is because he isn’t his own person. Whoever is controlling him is keeping Kaleen from seeing his two surviving children, not that they were very close in the first place. Kaleen doted on his two older boys. That really isn’t a good thing. Depending on what happens tonight, I think we will be taking the Corandian ambassador’s offer to live in the embassy. That is defensible. Our house is marginally so. I had expected some kind of communication today.”

  “We haven’t made any moves yet.”

  Jorey nodded. “No moves, but we have most of the pieces in place. I hope Harida doesn’t give us any surprises.”

  When they arrived at the mansion, a man at the gate let them in. “Lady Maltwill is anxious to talk to you,” the man said.

  They were shown into a small dining room, decorated in blues and greens. Harida Maltwill arrived dressed to match the room. This time her hair was a brilliant red interlaced with blue and green ribbons. Jack thought she certainly had style.

  A man and a woman followed her into the room. Jack looked at Jorey. The grand wizard knew who they were. H
e whispered in Jack’s ear. “The Jakalan leaders.”

  Jack had to search his mind and finally remembered these people were related to old Tesorian dynasties that predated the Waterfords.

  “Sit all of you. Treena and Quentin, I want to introduce you to Jorey’s protégé, Jack Winder of Raker Falls in Corand.”

  Jorey cleared his throat. “He isn’t my protégé, but the one of a long-time friend who lives in Raker Falls. That is a good-sized village in Corand. Jack has amazing wizardry talent.

  Quentin chuckled. “He wears his talent as armor and conventional weapons.”

  “The sword is an object of power he imbued himself. He carries two objects of power that are rumored to have belonged to gods.”

  “Four, actually,” Jack said. “My bracers are objects of power from Eldora herself,” he said wanting to counter the man’s snide comment.

  “You can prove that?”

  Jack looked at the man in the eye as he leaned back in his chair and whispered the trigger word. Ice splashed and froze in the empty fireplace.

  Even Jorey’s eyes bulged at Jack’s casual use of power.

  “I am sorry to have doubted you,” Quentin said.

  “And I am thrilled to see Eldora’s blessed in my house,” Harida said.

  “I’m not blessed,” Jack said, “but I am, at this point, her servant.”

  “Let us get down to business,” Treena said, nodding to Quentin. “The very fact you are meeting with us in Harida’s house tells you how scared we are. My niece, a priestess in Eldora’s temple, is acting very strangely. I was in the temple yesterday, and it doesn’t feel as it should.”

  “They have other news, Jorey,” Harida said.

  “Your Wizards Guild followers in Gameton were rounded up this afternoon and this evening. I don’t think Kaleen missed a single one. If you were planning on having your close associates help you, you might have to revise your strategy.”

  “Where are they being held?” Jorey asked.

  “Debtors prison close to the castle walls,” Quentin said. “They were wise enough not to fight. Black Fingers were obviously accompanying the castle guards who arrested them.”

  “I will take care of that soon,” Jorey said. “What about your relationship with our coalition?”

  Quentin sighed. “I’m not fully acquainted with who is on your side. We will either be neutral, or we will unite with someone fighting the Black Fingers. We suspect the king is one of them. Harida agrees.”

  “All logic points to that,” Jorey said. “Wessa Fanstrong was talking to Whelham Waterford in front of one of her brother’s banks. That tells you what happened to the temple. Wessa is a Black Finger, and your niece, Treena, is likely a converted Black Finger.”

  The woman’s eyes watered. “I suspected as much, but it hurts to hear it confirmed.”

  “Eldora’s grace is no longer in the temple,” Jack said. “I was in there this afternoon.” He looked at Jorey, who explained the coalition that they had put together.

  “Here is a note from Prince Larkin,” Jorey gave the sealed message to Harida, who read it and passed it on to the two Jakalan representatives.

  They looked at each other and nodded. “We will join you. It is unprecedented, but these are unprecedented times. If Lark is listening to people like Norris Everlight, he will listen to us.”

  “I am sure that is his intent, but he would prefer his father be saved from Black Finger influence.”

  Quentin frowned. “We will accept that, as long as you can prove Kaleen is free from Whelham’s taint.”

  “I can do that,” Jack said. “It is something I have done before.”

  “He has, on me, even,” Jorey said.

  “It seems you have all of Tesoria on your shoulders, lad,” Quentin said.

  “It is looking more and more like that is the case,” Jack said. He had to repress a shudder.

  Jorey, Quentin, and Harida discussed how the Jakalans could help. Jorey told him on the way that the Jakalans had household guards and others they could bring into any conflict in the city, especially knowing that the Panderite army and the royal army, loyal to Harida, were on their way.

  As they walked into the central square, Jorey led Jack to the Corandian embassy and asked to see the ambassador.

  “We need a defensible space,” Jorey said. “Can we move here?”

  “When?” the ambassador said.

  “Tonight. I will fetch our group. We have to infiltrate the debtor's prison and rescue some people we need. The embassy is on our way back from there.”

  “I have rooms in the basement if that will suffice. I will have them prepared immediately. This is all going to explode tonight?”

  “It looks like the next few days. Let me bring you up to date.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  ~

  J ack held the sword in his hand and walked with his helmet on as they moved through Gameton to the Corandian embassy. Corina wore Helen’s leather vest from the Morakans, and Ralinn wore hers. They were a tight group, but midway, a group of men attacked them from the left side.

  Tanner and Jack moved to stop them, as Jorey held his wand out and Helen raised her sword with the intent of protecting Lark, Corina, and Ralinn. The men were silent as they raised their weapons, but they wore no armor, so Tanner began to wade into them, while Jack began to send wizard bolts from his wand and his sword without stopping.

  Another smaller group came from the right.

  “Get on the other side. Jorey and I will take care of these.”

  Jack was getting tired using so much magic. If he didn’t have the warded box and the Serpent’s Eye his magic would have been fully depleted, but that wasn’t the case.

  He was about through with them when another group approached them from the front.

  “Maybe moving at night wasn’t a good idea,” Jorey said.

  Jack didn’t know how much they could keep this up until the men he fought ran off into the darkness. He looked at the new group, anxious and wondering how they were going to survive until he saw Norris Everlight, with his funny hat, leading the new contingent.

  “If you had told me, I would have provided an escort,” Everlight said. “You’ve taken away all our fun.”

  “There will be lots of it to come,” Jorey said, out of breath. His magic was probably exhausted like Jack’s should have been.

  “We could use an escort to the Corandian Embassy. We will be staying there, for now,” Tanner said.

  “A good choice, if you ask me, but you didn’t. I might have even recommended it. Let’s go before more men are in the streets.”

  One of Norris’s men whispered in Norris’s ear.

  “Kadellians, he thinks.”

  “Not surprising,” Jorey said. “Time to leave.”

  “Some of my men will tidy up,” Norris said. “I want the wizard bolt wounds to show. Our wizards don’t use that tactic on purpose.”

  Although he could if it suited him, Jack thought. It didn’t matter, as they journeyed to the embassy without any other attacks. It helped when more than fifty men surrounded them as they marched through the streets of Gameton. He guessed the war that everyone feared was now on, and there were enough citizens who witnessed the fighting.

  None of Norris Everlight’s men took a step inside the embassy, but they were looking all around when Jack and the group ducked inside. Jack took one last look at the Eldora temple and saw a group of women silhouetted by the light from an open door watching them. Was there no secrecy in Gameton?”

  The ambassador greeted them. “This way,” he said as he walked down a doublewide stairway down into the basement. “No windows, he said, “but we will provide you with meals, and I have the best cooks in Gameton.”

  “He does,” Jorey said with a smile.

  Tanner gave a little cheer that was nearly matched in intensity by Lark’s scowl.

  “I wasn’t trained to be a cook,” Lark said.

  “I don’t suppose we s
hould be laughing at the prince,” the ambassador said.

  “No, not at all,” Lark said. “It is permissible to laugh with the prince, but not at the prince.”

  Ralinn laughed. “I am a partner in his crime, and I will be happy to sample the Corandian embassy’s cuisine.”

  “Good. We have four nice apartments for visitors down here, but we haven’t had visitors for some time. I suppose one for the prince, one for the princess and the two ladies can share.” He rubbed his chin, looking at Jorey, Jack and Tanner standing together, and then he looked at Lark. “Will you be willing to share?”

  Lark laughed. “I’ve been on the road for weeks with everyone but Jorey. I can stand the grand wizard.”

  “It is a suite anyway. You will both have separate bedrooms. This way,” the ambassador said.

  Jack and Tanner looked at the room they were given. One bedroom, a sitting room, and a washroom.

  “I can take the couch,” Jack said. He put his bag on the floor in the sitting room.

  “Go ahead,” Tanner said. “I’ll not feel guilty about sleeping in a nice bed.”

  “Got that settled? Good. Come into Lark’s room. Our business tonight is not finished,” Jorey said.

  All of them fit quite nicely in Lark’s suite. Ralinn sat next to Jack before Jorey cleared his throat. “Part of my plan involved the use of my best Gameton wizards for communication between our allies. I was going to gather them tomorrow, but King Kaleen and Bachan Darkwaist beat us to them. I don’t know how many were captured, but there may be more wizards taken than the ones I intended to use. They all know Fourth Level and some Fifth Level Manipulations. I have been communicating with them, but I didn’t today, and when I could have helped them, they were silent.”

  “They might be Black Fingers?” Jack asked.

  “A few,” Jorey said, “but most are too strong to be deeply affected. That is why we need to rescue them tonight.”

  “So we will all head to the debtor's prison?” Lark asked.

  “Not you,” Jorey said. “You are better protected here than at the house. It looks like that secret has been exposed, so we won’t be going back there. Ralinn stays and Corina stays. I will need to go to identify the wizards, Jack is our decontaminator, and Helen and Tanner are our muscle.”