by Guy Antibes
He was tempted to return to the hidden room, but even with a more positive attitude, his bottom needed days of healing. He left his room and went down into the training room. Perhaps exercise would be the antidote to his depression.
A few large tapers brought little light into the hall. Ricky spelled a few brighter sorcerous lights and picked up a staff. He twirled the staff around his head and slowly practiced moves to keep his pants from rubbing his bottom. He could work for an hour or two before he had to return to his cell.
When he was through with that, he picked up a sword and continued to work on forms. His arms moved much faster than his legs, but it felt good to generate sweat and purge his muscles. As he continued, he forgot about everything except the flow of movements, just as Saganet had taught him.
Patterns that he had forgotten through disuse came back to him. He focused his mind on slipping from position to position. He heard the door close and stopped, looking up at Master Mattia slowly walking down the stairs. The man took his time.
Ricky grabbed a rag and wiped the sweat from his face.
“You returned to the hall,” Mattia said.
“I felt cooped up in my room. It’s an awful thing, sometimes, to be left alone with your thoughts,” Ricky said.
“I know the feeling all too often,” Mattia said. “I came down here to do just what you are doing. Do you feel well enough to spar?”
Ricky shook his head. “I’m taking it easy. My butt reminds me that my thoughts are not my only complaints.”
Mattia chuckled. Ricky didn’t know what to make of Master Mattia’s visit.
“We can spar in slow motion. It won’t be much different from what I just saw.”
Ricky shrugged.
Mattia removed his scarf and coat and rolled up his shirtsleeves. His bulk was not made up of much fat.
“I was a lucky mercenary,” Mattia said as he stretched for a bit.
It seemed the man wanted to talk, and Ricky wanted to test his own mood to see if the exercise had removed his demons. He decided to just listen to his former science teacher.
“I rose in the ranks and made a lot of money, you know. Being the smartest in your group isn’t always a blessing.” He nodded.
As they slowly sparred, he continued to talk of a few of his exploits. “And so I got used to being rich and free to do what I wanted. It all seemed hollow somehow, and I woke one day to find my purse had been emptied.”
“Who emptied it?” Ricky said.
“I did, of course, through foolishness. I was too old to lead by example, as you have done in your own way. Years ago, I worked for the Duke of Applia before he ruled this city. He asked me to visit him and asked me to do this.”
“To bring hundreds of inmates to their deaths?”
“Not at first. I was told a little arms training would be good for the boys and the girls who showed an interest. After I planned the program with Warden Sarini, the duke told me I would be working with Antino Pacci. By then it was too late. I was snared in the duke’s plans and had to deal with Pacci’s increasingly strident demands.”
They fought a bit more. “When during all this did you meet me?”
“I had an unpleasant session with Pacci, and that led to an even more unpleasant session with Nania just before my class started. Baco Poppi had already begun to train boys interested in learning about how to defend themselves. When Baco told me of his conversations with Pacci, I knew I was just a minion, and Pacci would have me killed if I left his program.”
“This is the program?” Ricky said.
“It is. Pacci wanted more battle sorcerers, but Siria and Baco both told him that he was lucky to have found two with sufficient power among the inmates.”
“Then Siria was conscripted to join Kela and me?”
Mattia moved a bit more quickly than Ricky had expected. His corresponding defense made him wince at the effort.
“Sorry. She was when all the older inmates were brought into the program. Pacci didn’t like your leading my unit. He distrusts sorcerers, even though the Duke has no such problem. You’re too different from the others. You have sorcery, you’re smart, and you’ve shown no reticence to lead. Pacci is afraid of you, or jealous. I don’t know which.”
“What about Warden Sarini?”
“She is Pacci’s hostage. Her life is forfeit if I leave or if you leave. You understand that, don’t you?”
Ricky nodded. “It isn’t fair.”
“None of it is. Life isn’t always fair. For some it is entirely unfair, isn’t it?”
Ricky lowered his sword. He had exercised enough. “Just as I thought I had a chance at life, Lord Taranta and his son Victor decided I was their enemy,” Ricky said. “I feared the Applia Juvenile Home more than anything, but when I arrived, it wasn’t so bad.”
“Only because of Nania Sarini,” Mattia said. “She refused to stand for much of the casual torture and beatings that had given evidence to your fears. Pacci’s program kept her from making even more improvements.”
“As she lost power, my fear became a reality,” Ricky said.
Mattia stared at Ricky. “You are a lot more of a thinker than anyone spawned in Tossa’s Shantyboat Town should be.”
Ricky kept quiet. He had said more than enough. Mattia might be testing him.
“Perhaps a thinker has no place in the Home,” Ricky said.
Mattia laughed. “I believe you are right. If you somehow through some miracle survive Winter’s Day, you shouldn’t return here.”
“I will,” Ricky says. “There is unfinished business behind these walls.”
Ricky nearly bit his tongue. He should not have said that.
“There is for me, too,” Mattia said.
Neither of them seemed to understand what the other had just said, for Ricky couldn’t think what Mattia meant until he remembered his asking after the warden.
“Warden Sarini?”
Mattia nodded ruefully. “I shouldn’t be pouring my heart out to a fifteen-year-old boy, but, yes. I grew fond of her, although I think she places me side-by-side with Pacci.”
Ricky hadn’t ever heard her disparage Mattia to the same degree of the new warden, but he kept his thoughts to himself. He looked directly into Mattia’s eyes.
“Stay aware of everything on Winter’s Day,” Ricky said. “Battle plans often don’t turn out the way they are intended.”
Mattia smiled. “I’m the one who’s supposed to say that.”
“Pacci has his battle plans. There may be other things that might surprise you.”
Mattia measured Ricky’s gaze. “I look forward to any surprises. It is time you returned to your room. Pisan will be locking up Building Two soon.”
“Thank you for exercising with me, Master Mattia.” Ricky wondered what had changed in Mattia, the gruff evil man Ricky had met weeks ago? Did the mercenary’s regard for Warden Sarini change him or had the desperation that led him to make a devil’s deal with Lord Applia finally disappeared? Ricky sighed. He might never know.
Mattia clapped Ricky on the shoulders. “It is I who should thank you. Again, I look forward to surprises. Go now.”
Ricky’s climb up the stairs was less painful than his descent. He walked to his room and didn’t feel like crawling into a ball. He didn’t know if the exercise erased his depression or if it was his startling conversation with Master Mattia. He only knew that he felt better about his plan.
~~~
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
~
H E RUSHED TO HIS ROOM before Pisan came to lock up. The lock clicked, and Ricky relaxed. He decided to practice levitation to see if it re-infected him with depression. He soon became bored moving around his room. Why levitate when a few steps worked better?
Ricky knelt by the side of his bed and put his elbows on the straw-stuffed mattress. He closed his eyes and willed a conversation with Mistress Merry, Dean of Doubli College. They must be close to or in Applia by now. He concentrated and felt the link
slip into place. It seemed incomplete and insubstantial, but since he’d linked with Merry before, he knew he had it right.
Mistress Merry?
—Icky? At ou?
The link established, but the thoughts exchanged were incomplete.
Danger, danger danger! Duke Applia is attacking the Royal Barracks on Winter’s Day.
He sensed Merry’s confusion.
Danger barracks? Merry wasn’t understanding.
Applia is rebelling. The inmates from the Home will attack the King’s soldiers. Ricky doubted if she understood anything. He would have to try again tomorrow. The day after that was Winter’s Day. He shook his head in dismay after the link fluttered and faded away. Will helped, but affinity still might have a lot to do with strong bonds, Ricky thought.
He had done more than enough for one day. However, he felt better at the end than he had at the beginning. He couldn’t lose hope. He couldn’t.
~
Ricky headed for breakfast. Siria and Kela stood in line with the other inmates. He joined them.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were fed in your rooms.”
“One day to go,” Siria said. “I’ve been told we will practice in the gardener’s shed again.”
Ricky suddenly lost his appetite. “When do we eat with the Duke?”
“Lunch. We are to pick up uniforms after breakfast.” Kela said.
The two females were about to sit down when Antino Pacci entered the room with an entourage of guards and raised his hands.
“The Duke of Applia has condescended to eat lunch with us today. As you leave, pick up a blue coat. We’ve had them made in several sizes. The sorcerers will wear red. I don’t want any stragglers at lunchtime; you don’t want to be punished. You will all have the afternoon off.”
Some boys cheered the warden. Kela, Siria, and Ricky didn’t, and they weren’t alone. Ricky watched Pacci strut out of the room. Guards brought tables and laid uniforms on them as Ricky continued to stand. He wanted to eat in his cell, standing up, but he couldn’t leave until the guards coming in and out were finished.
“I don’t see red,” Kela said.
Ricky had had enough. “I’ll meet you in the gardener’s shed when the first-hour bell rings.” He left the dining hall and returned to his room. He opened the door to see a red cape in a pile on the floor.
After placing his tray on the dresser, Ricky tried on the cape. It was warm enough and flared out from the shoulders so all three of them could wear the same size. He couldn’t say he was appreciative. The bright red color only set him up more clearly as a target. He had enough common sense to realize that.
He finished his breakfast and returned the tray to the dining hall before heading out to the gardener’s shed, wearing his new cape. No guards stood close by, but Pacci had added more men to the walls. Another pair sat by the back door in the wall the boys had used weeks ago to go on their trip to murder an innocent farming family. Ricky walked around the shed to see if anyone lurked nearby, but with Winter’s Day tomorrow and the walls filled with guards, Pacci thought not much could happen.
“So that is what they look like?” Kela said as Siria and she entered the shed.
“I imagine they are all the same size. Brand new,” Ricky said.
Siria felt the cloth. “Better than what they used on the uniforms.”
“You should take them off as soon as we are in position,” Ricky said.
Siria narrowed her eyes, but then she nodded. “Just like officers. They are the first to be targeted.”
“Saganet told me about that one evening when he was up to talking about war stories. I imagine in Pacci’s eyes, we should be put down soon after we do whatever he wants us to do. We are not without weapons.” Ricky picked up a switch from the barrel they had used before and broke it in two. “My wand.” He pointed the switch and shouted.
A tiny blue flame licked out from the wand about ten paces. Ricky nodded his head, and the eruption ended, but the flame coalesced into a ball and exploded in a silent, expanding shower of sparks. They all had to take a step back, but the ball of sparks didn’t extend to them like the first time Ricky had tried the spell. He verified that he had the control he had hoped for. When the time came, he could increase the power.
He noticed the smoking tip of the wand and poked it into the dirt floor of the shed. “That’s why I need a wand,” he said.
Siria gawked at the smoke still left in the room. “What was that?”
“A performance illusion turned into the real thing,” Ricky said. “I have another trick.”
He sang and filled his body with the power from the proper resonance and rose into the air. He floated around the rough ceiling of the shed and set down. “I saw this in a performance, as well.”
“You didn’t see anyone float around like that!” Siria said.
“It’s not that it can’t be done,” Ricky said.
“Not by a Parantian sorcerer, it can’t.”
“Nonsense,” Kela said, her first words during and after Ricky’s demonstration. “Fisttian sorcerers can do such things, and I’m sure Duterians can too. Parantians purposely limit their abilities and their creativity.”
“Can you do that?” Siria said.
She shook her head. “I’m lucky to have come here. Serious study doesn’t begin until one reaches twenty in Fisttia. I’ve gotten just enough to know that magic and sorcery are dangerous and what not to do. Ricky obviously has figured that out.”
“Ricky?” Siria said.
“My first name, Mistress Lonsi,” Ricky said.
“Well, Ricky, what do you intend to do?”
“Run from the barracks if at all possible,” he said. “I have a friend coming to Applia to visit me on Winter’s Day—”
“Wonderful timing,” Siria blurted.
“If I can communicate with her, we might change our plans, but right now the inmates are to be a diversion for drawing out the King’s soldiers, and then the Applians will fall on the soldiers. In the ensuing chaos, we run out of the square fronting the barracks. At least a few of us will survive.”
“How will we do that if we have red targets on us?”
“We take the targets off, of course,” Ricky said. “When the conflict starts, pull off the red capes. Have your cloaks on underneath.”
“I don’t have a cloak,” Kela said.
“I’ll get one for the both of you,” Ricky said.
Siria snorted. “I would have been tempted not to believe you, but after your flying, I’m with you.”
“If my friend warns the King’s soldiers, we might have to improvise. Maybe we will end up fighting the Applians,” Ricky said.
“But the inmates won’t know.”
“We’ll see whose orders they follow. I have a few other tricks up my sleeve.”
“You might die if you go against Warden Pacci’s plans.”
“I am certain we all will die if follow them,” Ricky said.
Siria nodded with a deadly serious look on her face. “Ricky’s right. Am I to improvise or follow your lead?”
“You’re the experienced one,” Ricky said.
“You seem to know what’s going on better than I do, and I certainly can’t do what you do!”
Kela pressed her lips together. “No one knows I’m a spy for the king in the barracks, so I can’t do anything but follow.”
“Don’t hesitate to use your spells on anyone who attacks you, no matter what color they wear,” Ricky said. “Now, maybe we can practice the lethal aspects of the five spells.”
Siria stopped them before the lunch bell. “No more sorcery until tomorrow. We will need all the strength we can muster. Eat as much as possible, even if you are all nerves. Kela and I need to find some cloaks.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Ricky said.
The pair of them left Ricky alone in the garden shed. He snipped the lining of his cloak and put four switches inside. He thought he might run out of wands before
the end of tomorrow.
~~~~
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
~
S OMEONE HAD SET A TABLE ON A PLATFORM IN FRONT OF THE OTHERS. No one had sat there by the time Ricky arrived at the dining hall. Ricky didn’t want to sit to eat, but he would have to for this meal. He had slipped into the infirmary to borrow a pillow from the healer.
“Keep it,” the healer said. “I don’t know if I’ll be out of a job tomorrow afternoon or not.”
“What about the children’s building?”
The healer shrugged. “They have their own medical staff.”
Ricky thought that was a good thing. Even if the teenagers in the Home were gone, the rest of the children had a place.
Ricky entered the dining hall with the pillow under his arm.
A guard walked up to him. “You are to sit in front. Follow me.”
Ricky sat down at a table at the end of the platform. There were red slips of paper on three spots.
He waited as the room began to fill. Three women wearing red cloaks walked into the dining hall. Ricky stood as they approached. Warden Sarini gave Ricky a ghost of a smile and sat next to him on one side. The three spots were filled as Sarini took a seat on the end of the elevated table.
“How are you?”
“Intact, thanks to you,” the warden said. “I will spend the night in Siria’s quarters for my last night.”
“I’ll still try to protect you. At least you’ll be near us,” Ricky said.
The warden’s eyes betrayed her calm demeanor. He saw a slight tremor in her hands. The woman was terrified.
“All stand!” a guard announced.
A blonde man of medium height, old enough that his muscles were beginning to turn to fat, entered the dining hall. Antino Pacci followed. Two guards separated Master Mattia and the two other unit leaders. Master Hisso ended the little procession. They took their places at the head table, passing by Siria who stood impassively.