Sword of the Crown

by Paul J Bennett

  Beverly watched the young princess with interest; it appeared she had learned some unusual skills. She was much more than she seemed to be.

  Anna soon had the lantern lit. It was a hooded lantern, with a metal covering that would only expose light on one side, allowing her to point it down their corridor. “How shall we split up?” she asked.

  Beverly had turned away as she lit the lantern and was now staring down the side passageway. “There looks to be something glowing down this corridor. Is there anything you know of that could cause that, Mage?”

  Revi shook his head, “No, as far as I can remember there’s nothing that would cast a glow like that. I suggest we proceed with caution.”

  “Well, we can’t leave something behind us, they could cut us off,” interjected Arnim. “We need to take a look down the main corridor first.”

  “Excellent advice,” came a voice from behind them as Gerald arrived. “Sorry to startle you, I thought you might like some company.”

  Anna smiled, “You mean you didn’t want to miss anything.”

  Gerald grinned back, and Beverly noticed the natural camaraderie between them. She had known Gerald all her life, and yet she had never seen him this way before. He had lost his family years before she was born, but now she saw…what precisely?

  Gerald's voice interrupted her thoughts. “How about Arnim and Revi stay here to keep an eye on the side corridor while the rest move forward? If we find another passage or anything else of interest, we’ll give a holler.”

  “Good idea,” said Anna. “Dame Beverly, will you take the lead?”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” she replied. Taking the lantern in her left hand, while keeping her sword at the ready in her right, she moved slowly down the hallway. The structure looked very old, its bricks placed with incredible artistry. Each stone seemed to fit perfectly in the complex arrangement that made up the walls.

  They didn’t have to go far before they found a small chamber and a dead end. The room was small, no more than a foot’s length wider than the corridor, with rings set into the wall. Beverly’s first inclination was to think of a jail cell, but she quickly dismissed that thought. The rings were wooden and would be easy to break, plus there were no bars to restrict a prisoner. She swung the lantern around the room, and noticed a stone-tipped spear hanging from a ring; obviously this was not a jail. The shaft of the spear was made of wood, with reeds used to attach the head. Where the two parts joined, a peg extended and this was used to hook the weapon to the ring. It had been here many years, and the wood that made up the pole was dried and warped. Never one to pass up an opportunity to inspect a new weapon, she moved to the back of the room.

  She had always been fascinated by weapons. Initially, just in their use, but as her friendship with Aldwin had blossomed, so too had her interest in the making of them. She scabbarded her blade and took down the spear, examining it as she brought it up to the lantern.

  “Fascinating,” she mused out loud, “the construction shows some skill; this isn’t just an Orc spear.”

  Gerald came forward to see for himself. “The stone on the tip still looks very sharp.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, “much sharper than I would have imagined. How do you get a stone that sharp?”

  “Magic, perhaps?” offered Gerald.

  She nodded in agreement. “Probably, if what Revi said was true, it would make sense that they had magic.”

  “In that case,” said Anna, “we’d better be extra careful, there might be magic traps down here. What do you think this room was for?”

  Beverly looked at Gerald, who nodded his agreement. “It must have been a guard room. I suppose they would be here to watch for intruders.”

  Lily was fascinated by the spear, despite its warped handle. Beverly handed it to the small creature and then drew her blade as she made her way back to the side corridor. “I suggest we get moving; there’s still an army out there trying to invade the kingdom. We can’t afford to take forever searching out this place.”

  They rejoined Arnim and Revi and started down the side corridor. The glowing from further away gave off a greenish hue, and as they walked, she saw Revi Bloom, the mage, stroking his chin absently. She chuckled, for it reminded her so much of her father, but where her father had a beard, Revi had none. It was indeed strange to see someone so young acting so old.

  They soon encountered another problem, for they had not gone far before they came to a four-way intersection. The party stopped, almost at the same time. “What do you suggest now?” asked Arnim.

  Revi was looking down the corridor staring at the flickering green light. “This way,” he indicated. “That’s no ordinary light, it’s magical.”

  Lily chattered, and Anna spoke up, “Lily says it’s an eternal flame. This structure must be a temple of some type.”

  “A temple?” said Beverly. “What do we know about their religion?”

  “Nothing,” said Revi, “but perhaps the word Temple is lost in translation. I believe this may have been an outpost.”

  They continued, with Arnim watching warily behind them, passing through another chamber. There were no doors that they could see, only openings. This chamber held rush mats on the floor, though they looked far from comfortable.

  “Beds,” said Anna, “just like Lily has in her cave.”

  “Yes,” said Gerald, “but these look far older; they’ve accumulated lots of dust.”

  “There’s a side passage here,” said Beverly, “it looks as if part of the wall has collapsed part way down it though.”

  “Never mind that,” said the mage, “here is the real treasure.”

  He stepped through an archway and Beverly watched as the green light glowed around him. She followed him through, making sure the way was safe for the others. It was a chamber about the size of the previous one, perhaps twenty feet per side. She saw other openings to the left and right, but the structure in the middle held her attention. The ceiling was higher here, arched, and in the centre of the room was a stone structure; a small stepped pyramid with a flat top. At the top of it, green flames flickered, creating the eerie glow that had drawn them in.

  Gerald looked at the base of the flame. “There’s no fuel here. How is that flame sustained?”

  “Magic,” said Revi, “notice the green colour? It’s powered by magical energies.”

  “You mean the whole pedestal is magical?” asked a wonderstruck Anna.

  Revi scrutinized the flame before answering, “No, although there is some magic to it. I suspect the flame is kept alive by the ley lines.”

  “What’s a ley line?” asked Arnim.

  “Magical forces crisscross the land,” Revi explained, “they concentrate in certain areas. Ley lines cross roughly North South and East West. If I’m not mistaken, the lines cross right here. That makes this place unique. It can’t be a coincidence.”

  Lily chattered while Anna moved to inspect the pedestal. “There’s writing on these stones.”

  Revi moved closer, floating his light until it was almost touching the stone. “These are magical letters,” he said absently, deep in thought.

  Beverly had no idea what they were talking about. She thought of her cousin Aubrey; she would probably understand. “Could someone explain this to us ordinary folk?”

  Anna stood up and faced her. “Magic uses symbols to represent the Arcane Powers. Language varies from culture to culture, but the Arcane Letters are consistent. It’s their shape that gives them power, as far as I can understand. Lots of people can read the Arcane Letters, but few can use them.”

  “That’s correct,” said Revi. “It takes a person with magical potential to unlock the runes. There’s very few of us these days, but this proves the Saurians had magical ability, or at least some of them did.”

  Beverly looked at the flame again; it began to draw her in, to captivate her. “I can see something in the flames,” she said after a moment.

  The others stopped their examination o
f the stones to look again at the flame.

  “Yes, I can see something,” said Anna. “It looks like…trees?”

  “Yes, I can see that too,” said Beverly. “It looks like we’re looking over the tops of trees.”

  Lily chattered excitedly.

  “She says it’s home,” said Anna. “We must be seeing a picture of the Saurians home. Is that possible?”

  “I suspect it’s more than possible,” said Revi, “I think we are scrying, remotely viewing it as it truly is.”

  “Like a portal?” said Arnim.

  “Yes, like a portal, or a window.”

  “Lily says there's a term she’s familiar with, ‘step through the flame’. Does that mean anything?”

  “It means you can transport through the flame, like a dimensional doorway or a gate.”

  Everybody looked at Revi, who blushed slightly. “Sorry, I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but we’ve just discovered the most amazing thing in more than five hundred years!”

  “So we can travel through this thing?” asked Beverly, a little skeptical.

  “Yes, but we’d need to learn the words first,” the mage replied.

  “Words?” she asked.

  “Yes, the correct combination of Arcane Letters that would unlock the transport spell.”

  “How long would that take?”

  “Months, maybe even years, though I suspect that Lily here would be a big help if we could communicate better.”

  “But I can talk to her, so can you, using your spell,” said Anna.

  “Yes, but only at a basic level. This would require a much higher level of language.”

  “If I were to learn her language, would your spell improve it?” she asked.

  Revi looked at the young princess. “Yes, the spell enhances your own ability. It can grant you basic communication skills or enhance what you already have.”

  “Good,” she said, “then for the next little while you can keep casting that spell on me and I’ll endeavour to learn her language.”

  “I admire your determination, Your Highness,” Revi replied, “but I think you’re underestimating the difficulty.”

  “Don’t tell her how hard it is,” said Gerald. “It only makes her more determined.”

  “We need to keep moving,” reminded Beverly. “Remember the invaders?”

  “Yes,” agreed Gerald, “we need to wrap this up. I know you’d like to stay here Master Revi, but we really do have to keep moving.”

  “Fine, fine, let’s complete this search quickly then. The flame is fascinating, but there may be more to see.”

  “There’s another chamber over here,” said Beverly, pointing with the lantern. “There are shelves and what looks like a workbench.”

  She stepped further into the left-hand chamber. The racks reminded her of bookshelves, but instead of books, there were slabs of slate, each less than half a fingers size in thickness and slightly larger than a splayed hand. There were more runes and other scratches which were undecipherable.

  Gerald looked over her shoulder, “That’s Saurian,” he said. “We found similar scratchings in Lily’s cave.”

  “I can read this one!” said Anna in surprise. “How is that possible?”

  “It’s the spell,” said Revi. “It allows you to read as well as speak.”

  “You mean I’m reading magic?” she asked in amazement.

  Revi looked at the slate she was holding. “No, that’s not magic; it’s probably a recipe rather than a spell.”

  “Recipe for what?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, what does it describe?”

  The princess looked over the slate carefully, conferring with Lily. “It sounds like a recipe for something; I recognize some of the ingredients. They use Lily’s names for them, but I don’t know what they are in our language.”

  “Likely a potion,” he said, “not magical in nature, but with magic-like effects.”

  “I thought potions were the stuff of legends,” said Beverly, not quite believing her ears.

  “Oh, potions are real,” explained Revi. “They just take time and careful work to produce. My parents can brew some potions. Almost every village has someone who can brew a tea to help the sick, or a poultice to help a wound recover.”

  “Fascinating,” said Anna, “I’m going to take this one with me.”

  Revi had stopped what he was doing. He was staring at a slate, all the while his eyes were growing larger.

  “Something interesting, Master Revi?” asked Beverly.

  “This slate, it’s a spell recipe,” he said quietly.

  “Is that important? Don’t you already know spells?”

  “You don’t understand,” he explained. “Magic has been passed down from master to apprentice for generations. There hasn’t been a new spell in centuries. This spell can do miraculous things.”

  “Like what?” she asked, once again feeling a little lost in all this magical chatter.

  “Like heal people,” he said with a reverent tone to his voice.

  “I don’t understand. Can’t you already heal people?”

  “Not like this. I can fix broken bones and mend tissue damage, but this would allow me to do so much more.”

  “I don’t understand,” she shook her head in consternation. This was far beyond her comprehension.

  “This will enable a caster to regenerate something that was lost; a hand or foot that was cut off, for example.”

  “You mean you could replace lost limbs? That’s incredible.” Beverly saw so many possibilities for this.

  “Oh, it’s a ritual, a spell that’s cast over a long period of time, but it would work.”

  “We’d best gather up all these slates,” said Gerald. “You can examine them when we get to Wincaster.”

  “Listen up, everyone,” Anna interjected unexpectedly. “What we’ve found here is a major discovery, but enemy troops are traipsing around the kingdom. We need to keep this information to ourselves. Only the group of us here knows about this; I suspect we should keep it that way. We don’t want word of this getting to the enemy.”

  “Agreed,” said Revi, “we’ll just tell those above that we found some old ruins, don’t mention the flame or the tablets.”

  Beverly watched Arnim; was he planning to tell Marshal-General Valmar? She suspected he was a spy, but kept her thoughts to herself. She nodded along with the others. She would have to keep a tight eye on Captain Arnim Caster.

  Twenty-Nine

  The Capital

  The Capital

  The trip to Wincaster, once they had gotten underway, had taken them two days. For most of the journey, Revi had travelled in the carriage along with Gerald, the princess and Lily. Beverly preferred to escort astride Lightning, and rode beside the carriage whenever possible. The group had commandeered a wagon from the estate, with Arnim’s guard travelling aboard it while the captain rode on the other side of the carriage.

  She spied Revi inside, studying the tablets he had retrieved. Anna and Lily were continually talking; the young princess following through on her decision to learn the language. Gerald slept. It was hard to imagine him in this situation. She had watched him lead out patrols on a regular basis in Bodden, but as she looked at him now, asleep in the carriage, she noticed how old he had grown. He appeared at peace with himself, and she wondered how he had dealt with his situation after being dismissed from the army. Was it anything like her experiences, she wondered? The carriage slowed unexpectedly, interrupting her daydreaming, and she looked back to the road. The city was in sight, but there was a commotion at the gates. Surely the enemy could not have reached Wincaster already?

  She rode forward, only to see it was a press of commoners, trying to gain entrance. The city gate had its portcullis down and was refusing entry. She spurred ahead to investigate and soon found herself facing the guards at the gate.

  “What’s going on here?” she demanded.

  “Sorry, we have our orders. No o
ne is to be admitted to the city.”

  “On whose authority?” she barked.

  “Marshal-General Valmar,” the guard replied with a shrug.

  She wheeled Lightning around, galloping back to the carriage.

  “Your Highness,” she said, “Marshal-General Valmar has ordered the gates of the city closed.”

  Anna leaned out of the carriage to look down the road. “What about all these people? What are they supposed to do?”

  “The guards won’t open the gate. They’ve been left to fend for themselves.”

  “This won’t do,” she said. “You and the captain clear a way through the crowd, and we’ll get the gates open.”

  “How do you intend to do that, Your Highness?” Beverly asked.

  Anna smiled, “I’m sure a mere gate guard is not going to refuse an order from a Princess of Merceria.”

  Beverly made her way forward, using Lightning’s bulk to part the crowd once more, Captain Caster following suit. The captain’s horse was much smaller than her Mercerian Charger, but people still moved out of the way. Soon, they were before the gate.

  “Open in the name of Princess Anna of Merceria,” shouted Beverly.

  The guard gathered some men to help, and they pushed the crowd back to allow the carriage through. It had rolled forward no more than ten feet when Anna ordered it to stop.

  “Sergeant,” she directed the guard, “come here.”

  The sergeant dutifully came as beckoned, taking up a position of attention in front of the window.

  “Do you know who I am?” she asked politely.

  The man looked at the Royal Coat of Arms that decorated the door to the carriage. “Aye, Your Highness,” he said.

  “I order you to open the gate and let these people in. This is a royal command. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Your Highness,” the man responded with a look of relief on his face.

  He yelled out the orders, and they raised the portcullis. Anna had the carriage wait while the crowd rushed to get into the great city.