Others he saw had far more serious complaints, coming in for treatment not a moment too soon. He was glad of the opportunity to help those folks regain their health, and felt he was doing some real good. Thank the heavens there were no pox, no plagues, no contagious diseases in the mix, but a few of the most aged or very ill presented him with the unpleasant task of telling their families that there was very little he could do to restore them. In most of these cases, however, everyone seemed to understand that he was doing the best he could to make their loved ones more comfortable, and to take away any suffering.
There were the heart-touching, memorable cases: the little boy who brought in his beloved cat, and explained tearfully that it had been run over accidentally by the family cart, and had broken a leg. Tvrdik set the leg with great solemnity, applied some salve against infection, and gave the boy very detailed instructions on the care of his best friend, telling him to come back in a week’s time. Both the boy and his charge left feeling much better. There were the two friends who carried a third companion for miles on a stretcher to see the healer, since the man was too sick to make the journey on his own. There was the young husband who fussed over his pregnant wife with such concern and attentiveness one would have thought her made of fine porcelain. With such variety, the day was never dull, and the people were all good, honest, plain folk who treated him with great deference, but seemed to bloom at his natural kindness and good humor. Tvrdik took their gifts and offerings out of respect for their dignity, though he would have seen them for nothing. Much of what they brought was actually very useful to a new homeowner, and seemed a fair exchange. In some cases, however, where he sensed that the gift was a hardship or truly beyond the means of the client, he would only accept a small portion of what was offered, and sent them home with the rest.
Delphine had an intensive initiation to the healer’s art, learning by watching, listening, and assisting in the diagnosis and treatment of countless conditions. In one day, they decimated Xaarus’ stock of elixirs, salves, balms, tinctures, medicines, and dried herbs so completely that Tvrdik resolved to take inventory of everything left, and to get to work his first free day on making or purchasing more of whatever was depleted.
They were all so busy that time sped by unnoticed, and no one had a moment to feel weary until the very last customer limped away down the garden path and disappeared through the gate. Realizing that he had reached the end of the endless line at last, the young mage leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes for a moment, let his arms fall limply at his sides, and allowed a wave of exhaustion to break over him.
“I don’t think I can move a muscle more,” he sighed.
“Ye’ll have to move a few just a bit further if ye’ll be wantin’ any supper,” came Mrs. Praeger’s genial quip. And, standing with a monumental effort, Tvrdik replied, “Well, if it is made by yourself, dear Mrs. Praeger, it might be almost worth it. I do think I might cheat a little though,”
“Cheat?” asked Delphine, brows furrowed.
“Under ordinary circumstances, the possession of magic is no excuse for laziness, but I do think this qualifies as one of those extraordinary occasions where I can be forgiven…” He waved his hand, and all the bottles, boxes, tins, jars, and bandage rolls that were piled high all over the parlor began to sort themselves back to the cupboards and shelves where they belonged. Any used materials gathered themselves up and headed to the dustbin, and kitchen items like knives and basins floated right past Mrs. Praeger’s nose, into their original home. Mrs. Praeger shook her head, round-eyed, marveling, “I dinna think I will ever get used to seein’ things like that happenin’ all around the place.”
Delphine giggled, “In this house, I’m afraid you are going to have to.” And they all headed into the dining room, where Mr. Praeger awaited them already. Hot bowls of leftover lentil stew and warm buttered bread already were set on the table, the kettle was heating for tea, and there was a surprise! Delphine had brought a treat from the palace that in the press of the day’s activities, had been forgotten: a box of the little custardy tarts that Tvrdik so loved, enough for everyone to have one, and the wizard, two. Lynette had already eaten and had fallen asleep in a chair.
“Poor little thing.” Tvrdik remarked, “She was such a great help today, and we wore her out.”
“Ach, she’ll be fine.” Mrs. Praeger replied, “It’s the most fun she’s ever had
“How are the renovations coming?” Tvrdik asked, as he gratefully tore a hunk of bread from the loaf.
Praeger was happy to report, “I don’t think ye’d even recognize the place, sir, it’s that changed already. And coming along it is indeed – should be ready for us to move in, in just a few days.”
“That quickly? I must say, I am amazed at your progress, but glad to hear it. It will make life so much easier for all of you.”
Mrs. Praeger jumped in, “Oh, never ye mind about that, sir, we do alright. ‘Twill be a blessin’, though, to be right here with ye all the time. Master Wizard…?” She glanced at her husband, and went on, “what would ye like us to do with that trunk o’ personal things we collected back there?”
Tvrdik paused before answering her question. “Those are just things that belonged to myself and my schoolmates many years ago. I doubt we’ll any of us be needing them again, but I am not sure I…uh…have the time to go through them all just now to decide what might be useful. I appreciate your taking the trouble to pack them up, but I suppose they are in your way. Hmmm. I know. We can store them in the laboratory for awhile. I’m sure there is a space behind something where we could put them, out of the way. Perhaps you could do that, Praeger, any time you wish…I’ll help you navigate the laboratory.”
Praeger nodded while Mrs. Praeger stared at the mage with an expression of concern. Catching her glance, Tvrdik thought, she knows. She knows that this is not an easy subject for me.
“Oh!” Delphine cried, interrupting the awkward silence, “I never got to tell you the news from the palace…”
“Go ahead, Delphine.” Tvrdik was grateful for the change of topic, and eager to hear about whatever might be going on.
“Well, General Boone’s intelligence agents came back yesterday with a lot of bad news. Seems that Lord Drogue has been quite busy this past month assembling troops, forging alliances with neighbors, and sending out overtures to foreign lands for assistance. It’s unclear when he’ll be ready to launch his attack, but it is coming, and not too far off. The worst news was that he is equipping ships, we assume to lay siege to Theriole from the ocean side.”
“Ships? A mountain lord?”
“They saw them. He has them lined up in the river being refitted. He must think it’s an easy way to take us off guard. Luckily, Boone’s agents are thorough and resourceful.”
Tvrdik was now wide awake and had turned pale, “There’s so much yet to do; we’ve barely begun.”
The Praegers looked grim. “Sir,” Praeger offered, “I’m wi’ ye, whatever it takes to stop that evil man. And there’ll be others linin’ up to help us as well, believe you me.”
“I pray you are right, Praeger. It’s time for me to work seriously on my magic, but you do yours as well. We’ll need every hand possible, and if this morning was any indication of your gift, I’m glad you are on our side now.”
Praeger turned red, remembering, with some embarrassment, when he was not.
Delphine continued, “Rel is beside herself, with Tashroth gone and all. She spent the day yesterday inspecting the sea wall and the gates, and trying to convince the shopkeepers and recreation booths that have spilled over outside those defenses to pull back, without causing a general panic.”
“Challenging.”
“She would very much like to see you, to hear your ideas for defense, considering this new information. Perhaps you could walk the perimeter, and take a look as well. She told me she wouldn’t be able to get a
way to come here just now.”
“Of course, I am at her service. I was planning to spend the morning tomorrow taking inventory of our medicines, and getting the process of restocking started. Some of them require several steps to make, so it would be wise to get them going. I’ll go over to the palace in the afternoon, and we can brainstorm, and take a look around. I had some ideas I wanted to run by Verger, Bargarelle, and a few specialists over there as well.” He looked around at the grim faces before him, and sighed, “It seems that there are to be no more leisurely days. Mr. Praeger, will I be able to attend to all that I have mentioned on the morrow, or will there be a second wave of patients awaiting my attention?”
Praeger’s eyes twinkled, “I doubt it very much, sir. I let it be known ye’d be seein’ folk one day a week, except for emergencies, and appointments ye gave out yerself, sir.”
Tvrdik smiled, “Why, Praeger, you clever fox! That’s perfect. However did you come up with such an idea?” Praeger smiled, delighted with the wizard’s reaction, but it was his wife who responded.
“Someone has to take charge o’ yer calendar, Master Wizard, to make sure ye have all the time ye need for yer many wizardly tasks. You folk have too much on yer minds to be orderly in these things, if ye don’t mind my saying so.”
Tvrdik laughed outright, “No, I don’t mind at all. I’m lucky if I even know what day of the week it is most times. Bless you both for taking me in hand.” There was a pause as exhaustion and the gravity of the last conversation settled over all of them. But then Tvrdik shook himself and looked up at Mrs. Praeger with pale eyes pleading, “Is it time for the custardy thingies yet?”
“Well, have ye finished yer stew, lad?” Everyone laughed, as dessert was passed around. Soon, pleasantly sated, and weary beyond words, having cleaned and tidied the kitchen, and having received his guests’ assurances that they would all be fine on the short walk back to Theriole, Tvrdik fashioned a magical glow-ball for them, to light their way. He bid them all goodnight, closed the front door, stumbled to his room, and fell into bed.
The sun was high when Tvrdik arrived at the palace the next day, carrying a sheaf of papers under one arm. It didn’t take him long to find Warlowe, who greeted him warmly and went off to inform Jorelial Rey. Not five minutes later, she came sweeping down the hall with a purposeful stride. She had a sort of pinched, grim look about her, and yet, he noticed, there was always something in her that seemed to shine whenever she was contending with a particularly difficult problem. He could not help staring at her with a kind of helpless admiration as she approached…and then, without even breaking stride, swept right by him, calling back, “Come on, then. Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you.” He fell in step behind her as they hastened who knew where.
“Sorry. I had a great deal to do this morning, and I wanted to come to you with some ideas. I do have a few things to show you…”
“Well, now that you are here, I want you to see exactly what we have to deal with.” He followed at her breakneck pace to the sea-side of the complex, up several flights of stairs, down a hall, into a tower, and up and around on the spiraling staircase, to a high battlement overlooking the castle’s rear face. There she made an abrupt stop, and pointed down.
“Take a look,” she commanded, “You can see pretty well from here.”
He could see ocean waves lapping at a sandy beach below. To the right, beneath them, the huge, sprawling palace backed right up against sheer stone cliffs, with a tall, broad wall running along as close to the edge as was prudent. To the left, the land sloped downward toward the Maygrew Delta. The sea wall followed along the ocean’s edge until, at the convergence of river and sea, a long, flat beach stretched away to the south. Several boatyards, fishing docks and port slips stood lined up as one’s gaze moved away from the palace proper. Just beyond the docks pitched a small collection of larger ships. He presumed them to be the Royal Navy, moored in a protected harbor on the other side of the Maygrew. Directly below them and slightly to the left, where the sand sloped gently down to sea level, there was a great gate in the sea wall that stood wide open. Something about its position suggested that it had not been shut in many years. There were shops and outbuildings lining the wall, on both sides of the gate. But what concerned the Lady Regent now was that the beach outside of the wall looked like a fair. There were dozens of colorful tents, booths, recreation areas for swimming and fishing, sunbathing or shopping. There was a small stage where jugglers and minstrels performed, and puppet shows were held. Everything looked as though it had started out portable, but had somehow, over time, grown roots in the sandy shore. Years of peace and prosperity had given the people a sort of sense of invulnerability which was now threatened.
Tvrdik sized up the situation in a flash, “We shall have to tell them soon enough that the nation is at war. It shouldn’t be such an impossible task to bring everything in behind the wall.”
“We could cause a general panic, perhaps without need. I don’t have to tell you, it would be best if Drogue’s ships never got anywhere near Theriole, but if they break through our defenses out there, I have to have every possible protection in place. Right now, I’m not even sure that massive gate will close anymore, or if we’ll have to build a bulkhead to close the gap in its place. I can’t even find out until those people are all off the playground. I’m thinking of telling them we need to clear the area for repairs and renovations, which isn’t altogether false…”
Tvrdik caught her eye and held it steadily, “Jorelial Rey, we have little time, and are in need of recruiting people for our cause. Your citizens are not fools. They will guess that something is not right. Trust them, and tell them the truth.”
She sighed and lowered her gaze, “You are right, I suppose. Tash would have said the same thing if he were here. It’s not that I don’t trust them. I just want to protect them as long as I can from this terrifying disruption of their daily routines.”
“Your job is to protect them, starting with giving them information. Knowledge is a tool they can use to protect themselves.”
She looked up at him, “How did you get so smart? I suppose you are right, but there’s more. Our distant forefathers were not entirely fools when it came to defensive planning. They chose to build on this spot for the sheer cliffs on that side. They are almost impossible to scale. But, they put in another powerful deterrent as well. Look straight down, and to the right there, about halfway down. Do you see those shadows, at intervals there?” Tvrdik was dizzy and nauseous, looking straight down from their perch, and he found it hard to concentrate on anything but the prospect of hurtling headlong toward the rocky shore. But he tried to calm his irrational fears, and to look where Rel was indicating. There they were, some sort of square-ish shadows directly beneath them, running off in both directions, evenly spaced.
“Those are special windows, for archers, giant pots of boiling oil, and oversized crossbows capable of propelling flaming bolts over long distances. Strategically, they are a traditional defense against enemy ships, or anyone trying to scale the castle walls. Of course, right now, the alcoves and the equipment in them are in terrible disrepair, no one having had a use for them in decades. General Boone is firmly bent on restoring and manning them. It is certainly common sense, if we are indeed facing a hostile force from the sea. But none of those strategies fit with our ‘Legions of Light’ agenda. So, if we want to head Boone off and save valuable resources, we have to come up with a convincing alternate plan, and quickly. Furthermore, it has to work, or we will have handed the kingdom over to its enemies without any real resistance.”
“Jorelial Rey, we always knew our plan would be put to some practical test sooner or later…I’ll grant you this is sooner, but of course it has to work! Xaarus never intended for us all to stand idle while the palace and the kingdom slip out of our grasp. I will summon him later and ask his guidance on this matter, but let me see what comes to mind in
the moment…I’m all for pulling everyone in behind the sea wall for protection; that makes sense. And I have no problem with setting up some ‘uncomfortable’ greetings for anyone that might chance to get in through the back door. But it would be better to try and insure that no invading force ever got that far to begin with.” Tvrdik pursed his lips in thought, “You know, the water sprites are more powerful in their element than you can imagine. Perhaps Ondine could gather all her nearby relations and stir up the river and the sea. And Tashroth and a few of the dragons – gods grant that he brings them – could be poised on the battlements to harry the enemy. I know I would find that daunting.” He had backed away from the wall’s edge and laid down his sheaf of papers, pacing, considering. His hands painted the pictures of his ideas in the air before them with great animation, as the creative wheels turned in his brain. And then, he stopped midstride, put a hand to his mouth as if to stifle a gasp, and turned to the Lady Regent, eyes wide. “Wait!” he said.
The Last Wizard of Eneri Clare Page 47