by Guy Antibes
Lily just smiled and felt her hair.
“A word of warning. Don’t touch your hair too much or it will lose the body that makes it poof out.”
Another knock at the door, but this time a voice from the other side told her she was expected at the Mage’s reception and if she knew where Lily was.
Norra opened the door and realized that having Lily had distracted her from worrying about meeting one of the dreaded Nine Mages.
They followed the servant and Norra was relieved to hear Gristan’s voice whisper quietly in her ear. “You’re in for quite a surprise, lass. I’ve had a few words with the mage already so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Norra eyed the servant and decided to nod to the invisible ghost rather than respond verbally as she walked the spotless halls of the palace. A brighter light shone further down the corridor and she heard the voices of many people. Perhaps a formal reception? She wished that Delia could be with her for this.
About one hundred people stood in the hall in little clumps. They stepped down into the hall, with Lily trying to find Namen, and then stopped. Norra spotted Herran, talking to a group of people. What was he doing here? She wondered which pass he took. But it couldn’t be Yulga’s or they would have seen his tracks. No one could have crossed into Magia that way for quite a while. Did he double back and take the Pass through Bistomer’s fief?
She felt awkward. He seemed so familiar with these people and it seemed that the only thing Norra was familiar with at this point was anxiety, despite Gristan’s reassurances. Could she just walk right up to him? Did she want to seek him out when he so abruptly had left them? She resolved that she wouldn’t let her temper bother her and walked towards him.
He certainly dressed differently for the Mage’s reception. He wore a dark burgundy robe of velvet with silvery threaded embroidery. She shivered when he noticed her and stood silent while she approached him with Lily at her side.
“Norra and Lily, it’s wonderful to see you. I’m so glad you both made it.”
The thought ‘no thanks to you’ rang through her head. She felt intimidated by his cheerfulness after all of their hardships, including the death of Bloggo. She hated herself for feeling a thrill as he grasped both of her hands and couldn’t resist a smile. He looked at her hair, but didn’t say a thing. She thanked him in her mind.
“You’ve met my uncle?”
“I didn’t really meet your great-uncle. What would he be doing here?”
“No, no, Uncle Jorell.”
“Uncle Jorell? The Mage is your cousin?”
The little group laughed along with Herran.
“No, you are talking to the Mage. My name isn’t really Herran, it’s Merran.” Herran or Merran, whoever he really was, bowed to her.
Norra instinctively curtseyed back, something ingrained into her long before Miss Poddy’s and Lily, who followed Norra’s lead, could only manage a little bow. “So you played with us while we were in Taxia?”
His visage turned serious. “No. I never played with you and I know the trials you have gone through on your journey here. I would have lightened them if I could, but my abilities to move between Taxia and my lands are limited and difficult. But no more talk of that. Let me introduce you to the people of my domain.
Norra’s mine was in a whirl. The introductions were like a dream until Namen joined them.
Namen bowed deeply. “My regards, Mage Herran.” His eyes opened wider as he realized that Lily stood at Norra’s side.
“Merran,” he corrected, “Mage Namen. But I understand. Bloggo’s death must have been a blow. Losing one’s brother is an awful experience. I lost one of mine in Polda.”
Namen looked up with some alarm. “Did I…? “
Merran nodded. “You might have, I believe, or it could have been from some other wizard. You were in the same city at the same time.” He gave Namen a clap to the shoulder. “Hestel was a bit of a black sheep and could have practiced magic here with us, but he decided he wanted riches and adventure on his own and went with others into Polda.” Merran sighed and lost his smile for a moment, “I don’t blame you if it was the slim chance it was one of your bolts, but you see, I can empathize with your loss.”
Norra’s heart went cold. The way he talked about wizards seeking riches and adventure as they pillaged, burned and killed innocent people repelled her. The Herran she knew and so attracted her now seemed as dead and as distant as Cloud and Fenning. Despair filled her heart. Would Merran keep her from her goal? A Tower Mage was a Tower Mage. Was he really so different than the other Nine?
Lily said into her ear, “I need to sit down.”
“Didn’t they send a healer? You didn’t say anything when you came into my room,” Norra said.
“Oh. I didn’t, did I? I thought my face was a greater emergency,” she said. “He had to re-break my leg and set it up in a brace. It’s on under the dress, but he couldn’t take away all of the pain without knocking me out. I’ll soon walk without a limp.” Lily gave her a radiant smile. Norra knew that her malady wasn’t just the pain but the inability to walk normally and to wield her sword.
“I’m so glad. I didn’t expect Herran to be Merran the Mage. I must admit it’s very hard to get used to.” That was a vast understatement, but Norra couldn’t let anyone know how she now felt about Herran’s betrayal of the group in Taxia.
“Indeed,” Lily said watching Namen circulate among the room. “ It looks like Namen actually knows a few people in this gathering. It makes me feel shut out, somehow.”
Norra pressed her lips together. “Not from the way he keeps looking back at you. I wouldn’t worry about him. I think we’re all in a bit of shock at who Mage Merran is. We need to rest and you need to recuperate. Then we need to proceed as soon as possible or we might be stuck in this prison.” Norra spied some chairs against the wall and they both sat and viewed the gathering.
Lily looked around at the nicely dressed people and the polished stone and draperies. “This is quite a prison. More impressive than Delia’s, I might say. I used to dream of being a Lady in a palace and rich beyond belief. Well, right now I’m in the palace.”
Norra felt a pang in her stomach. “Do you intend on staying?” She really didn’t want to hear the answer.”
“No.” Lily furrowed her brow. “What got that idea into your head?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m confused and rather hungry. Is there any food here?” Just then a dinner bell rang and two sets of double doors led to a large room adjacent to the hall. Norra struggled with her feelings. If Mage Merran knew where they were, why couldn’t he have saved them? The thought of leaving them so exposed ignited a flash of anger. She touched her face. What if Namen hadn’t healed her burns? She’d be disfigured and it would all be Merran’s fault.
“Dinner is served. The guests from Taxia and beyond are to sit on the dais with the Mage.”
Norra narrowed her eyes and wondered what would become of her in this environment. She wished she hadn’t come here. Emotions and memories of her journey whirled in her head. The pomp and comfort of the tower conflicted with the hardships she had suffered along the way.
Gristan whispered in her ear. “Careful, careful, Norra. Merran doesn’t have anything but the greatest admiration for you. Sit with him and talk to him. See how freely he answers questions and what kinds of questions he solicits answers from you. Learn, don’t let anger get in the way before you make up your mind about him.”
“Gristan, has he bewitched you!”
“Perhaps. In a sense he has bewitched us all, but not with his powers. Merran is a powerful man, but that power doesn’t rule him, yet, and it’s his intent that it never does, just like it didn’t with the Master Mage.”
Norra looked towards the voice. “How can he say that? The Master Mage casually cursed you.”
“Ah, you forget, I had a sword ready to puncture him.”
“There is that.” She ceased to speak. Namen collected Lily wh
o looked very pleased and Norra entered the dining room alone. The walls were covered with huge maps from all over Polda and perhaps from Magia, since she wasn’t familiar with some of the places. Pale yellow drapes of gauzy silk moved with the breeze, contrasting to the heavily veined brown marble walls.
Merran sat on a raised dais on the far side of the room. Others sat at large round tables holding ten or so. A servant took her elbow and escorted her to the mage’s table.
“Sit with me, Norra. We have much to talk about, but I promise you that we don’t have to say anything about your journey you don’t wish to discuss. Let’s talk about Bordon Forest. I’ve never been there before.”
Norra forced a smile and sat next to him. Namen and Lily sat on the other side of Merran, engrossed in each other. Jorell sat on the other side of Norra. She would have to spend the evening talking to a man she thought she might love and hate at the same time. She just couldn’t shake the sense of betrayal.
Servants set soup in front of everyone on the dais first and then began serving the others in the room. Norra didn’t have to say anything as she took refuge in the first course. She grabbed some bread and put some butter on her plate and recalled the manners instruction her mother and Miss Poddy gave. She acted as if she would have to give an accounting for her behavior at this banquet.
“So, Bordon Forest. What did your father do there? What kind of crops did he grow?”
Norra ate and answered his questions. She found it easy to talk of home. They were memories she had ignored on her journey and she felt she could open up to the emotions of remembering her birthplace that she had repressed for some time.
“It seems you love your home,” Merran said. Why did he have to be so kind? His softly spoken questions only increased her anger.
“I do. Do you love yours? Have you lived here long?”
“A very good question, Norra. I grew up in a fief on the other side of the Crystal Sea. Since we had a great deal of magic in our blood, our family did well and, if you might be thinking we were slaves, we weren’t. I told you about my great-great-uncle Yulga. He was second only to the Master Mage in his power.”
“Do you have to learn to be a tower mage?”
Merran laughed. It reminded her of the map shop assistant she met in Taxia. “Some mages can get away with a lot if they have strong sons. The mage who ruled this fief had no direct heirs and his family lacked the power. The tower mages held a competition for the who would take this over and,” Merran shrugged, “I won. But this isn’t a night to talk about me. Did you ever visit Delia?”
Norra wondered if she should be coy with the man who said she didn’t have to talk about their journey. “She does fine as Queen in a marvelous native village. They changed their tribe’s name to Laput to match Delia’s story.” Norra couldn’t help but smile. “She’s as good a civic leader as you seem to be. Clean streets, people who feel good about themselves. I hope she can keep it up for a long time.”
Merran nodded. “There is that. Longevity. Life can break down into some pretty awful basic components in the blink of an eye. I hope I’ve helped the people in my charge.” He looked at Norra in a way that sent chills down her spine. “I’ve missed you. I hated to leave you nearly stranded, but Namen has quite a reputation and I thought it better to let him lead.”
“Except he didn’t lead. I did, but with his help and Gristan’s. We all helped, even Bloggo in his way.” She didn’t want to cry and had to use the napkin to dab at the wetness in the corners of her eyes.”
Merran went silent. “I so easily broke my promise.” He put his hand to his chin. “I’m sorry.” And then he put his hand on hers and Norra didn’t feel like pulling it away, but she didn’t understand within herself why she didn’t. “How do you travel? Namen said mages have a hard time teleporting.”
“He’s quite right. But I have less of a hard time than most. I had to sleep after I moved from here to there to gain energy. I have a great many powers gained from years of furious study, but it comes at a cost.”
“What were you doing in your great-uncle’s shop the day I went in?” Norra felt it necessary to peel away what truth and fiction made up the mage’s stories.
Merran looked out at the crowd talking and laughing. Norra followed his eyes. It looked to her as a room full of contented people and then he looked at her. “Ah. I have another confession to make, perhaps more awful than this one of my real identity. Will you promise not to make a scene if I tell you?”
What could be worse that this? She didn’t know and nodded her ascent.
“I noticed the transfer of power from the Master Mage when it happened. It must have occurred in your Bordon Forest or it seemed to be in that proximity. My powers don’t provide me with pinpoint accuracy. By the time I had prepared a way to approach, your party was just about to Nastaly Port. I feared that wizards would capture you. I cannot physically transport that far, but I found a way to …”
Norra put her hand to his lips. “Cloud. You are cloud. He pointed me to the mapmaker’s shop. You could transport to Taxia.” Norra could only slump her shoulder and look at him with sad eyes. “I suppose Gristan knows?”
Merran looked miserable himself. “He drew it out of me when we talked today. That ghost amazes me.”
“It’s so hard to believe a man who’s led three lives. Are all of them deceitful or one or two? I can’t tell. I do know this, Cloud was a friend, Herran might have been more than a friend, but you Mage Merran, are no friend.” Norra lifted her chin. “If you will excuse me.”
The world crumbled at her feet. It was all Norra could do to walk serenely from the dining room all the way to her quarters. Once inside she ripped the dress from her body and cried herself to sleep on her bed.
~~~~
Chapter Nineteen
An Unexpected Visitor
~
She awoke at a knock on the door and realized she must have just dozed.
“Mistress Norra. The Mage has requested that a tray of dinner be delivered to your rooms.”
She got up and kicked the tattered dress under the bed and found the robe she used after her bath. The smell of food drifted faintly from the door and she was, indeed, still hungry. She was afraid the Mage would be on the other side, but only a woman carried the tray.
“Do you mind if I set the tray up on the table in front of the window?” The woman set the tray down and lifted the cover. Two plates of food were on the platter.
“I would like to speak to you, Norra,” the woman said. She dressed quite well for a servant, but now that she heard the woman talk a bit more and she looked at her hands, she knew this was no servant.
Norra frantically tried to think of an excuse to dismiss the lady, but couldn’t, so she wrapped her robe tighter about herself, and sat down on the opposite chair.
“Eat while I talk,” she said and then put a morsel in her own mouth. “I’ve known of you for months. My name is Pilla. Jorell is my brother and Merran is my son.”
Norra had to make a conscious effort to chew and swallow or she would have choked on her food.
“He is a talented boy, just turned twenty-three, and he is the most powerful mage of the Nine and he feels awful about having to deceive you.”
“But he never told me.”
“Would you have believed him if he did?”
Norra looked away. “I had a hard enough time trying to understand what Cloud was all about.”
Pilla laughed. “He’s the only mage who can do that. He learned the ability to project himself as a cloud from an old book in the very tower on these grounds. Merran knew the old occupant had never read it. Jorell tried the incantation first and got nowhere. Then Merran did and found himself far to the north. His body fell to the floor of the tower here in his domain until he willed the cloud to dissipate and he returned. Further research revealed that the cloud spell should be undertaken only a few times or it will risk danger to the spell caster. “
“So when a few months
ago he said goodbye to me in the wagon, Cloud truly meant it.”
Pilla nodded with a slight smile. “Your Cloud is truly gone. It was the only way he could project himself all the way across Polda and he couldn’t hold the form for too long.”
“I loved Cloud. He was corny and a bit crass at times, but he truly did help us,” Norra said, meaning it.
“My son changed while he traveled with you and your friends.”
“Is the mapmaker really his great-uncle?” Norra had to find out where the truths ended and the falsehoods, or to put it more kindly, the misdirection, began.
“He is Merran’s great-uncle on his father’s side. He lives in Torell Port because he is bereft of magical ability and Magia isn’t kind to those people, even if all of the rest of the family has magical blood.”
So the great-uncle really existed and it made sense that the old man’s shop would carry Yulga-made maps. Although she never met him, he reminded her of Bloggo, who served Namen as his master even though they were brothers. “So when Cloud appeared to us in Taxia, Merran was always close to us.”
“No not always. He can transport here, so he came back and forth. That’s how I came to know you and learn about your harrowing adventures and Gristan, your ghostly companion, has filled Merran in on the rest.”
Norra had hardly touched her food, but began eating, feeling a bit less upset with the mage.
“I don’t feel ashamed at my not trusting him, I’ll let you know that now, Pilla. He didn’t trust us.”
Pilla took another morsel and relished it as she thought how to respond. “I understand. He would have taken you over Yulga’s Pass if Namen hadn’t chanced along. That man has a reputation in all of Magia, much more than he himself knows. Once Merran found out that there was a relationship, between Namen and the highwaywoman, he knew he could trust him to help you make it here.”
“But what if we had gone through Bistomer?”
“Then you’d now be slaves in Bistomer. That was a calculated risk that Merran took. He had to attend to matters in his own domain, but he sacrificed that so he could travel with your group from time to time. He bitterly regretted that you were put into danger because your path was filled with such peril.” Pilla took Norra’s hands. “My dear. Please give my son a chance. He regards you as he has no other.”