by Frank Tuttle
“’Ere, hold on,” said Shingvere. “You just used the word unpredictable. Odd that you didn’t mention it earlier, when you talked me into pilfering a foreign king’s palace. So, unpredictable to what extent?” The Eryan frowned. “And why have I never heard of this Prolep?”
Fromarch shrugged. “Sometimes it unlatches all its spells at once,” he said. “And that’s why you’ve never heard of Prolep.”
Shingvere gently laid the latch across Fromarch’s knees and snatched his hand away. “This is your secret weapon?” he asked. “‘An ancient instrument of great power’,” he said, mocking Fromarch’s baritone. “‘Forgotten, by all but me’.” The Eryan shook his head. “Simply marvelous. When the trouble starts, you can explode with the latch, and I’ll set fire to my robes, and perhaps the Vonats will be so embarrassed they’ll call in all their spies and go home to take up apple ranching.”
Fromarch rubbed the latch’s dull case with the hem of his robe. “You talk too much,” he said. “Always have.”
Shingvere sighed. “Aye. You’re probably right,” he said. Then he lifted the carriage curtain a bit and squinted into the sun. “We’ve engaged in skullduggery, and we have our eldritch magics,” he said, as traffic rattled past. “What do we do now?”
Fromarch withdrew his pipe from his mouth. “We buy some Nolbit’s,” he said. “And we go back to my basement, and we spread out our tools, and we latch every spell we know to this,” he said, shaking the latch, “and then we just wait for that—”
“Language,” warned the Eryan, with a grin. “Profanity is the footstool of lazy intellect.”
“—for that unwashed hedge conjurer to lift a paw toward the thaumaturge,” said Fromarch. “At that moment, I’ll start unlatching, and I’ll stop when there’s a pair of empty Vonat boots on the floor and a sooty spot on the ceiling.”
“And if the latch fails before that?” said Shingvere, quietly.
Fromarch stuck his pipe in the right corner of his mouth and made a small shrug.
Shingvere grinned. “A hero’s death, right out of a Phendelit poem book,” he said. “Fromarch, as Meralda is fond of saying, you’re a treasure. An idiot, but a treasure nonetheless.” The Eryan saluted, laying his right hand over his heart. “Naturally, I vow to stand with you, and share your noble, if messy, doom.”
Fromarch sucked his pipe, toyed with the latch, and said nothing else all the way home.
The Gold Room was, if Meralda was any judge, in a full-blown tizzy.
Meralda’s grandmother had used the phrase to denote any sudden onset of frantic and ultimately futile activity. “Oh, they’re in quite the tizzy,” Grandma Ovis had proclaimed, that day so long ago when Meralda’s older sister had wed. “You’d think the world a-turnin’ depended on the roses.”
Looking about at court, Meralda mouthed the phrase herself.
The Phendelits and the Alons had all arrived in the night, and were to be formally welcomed at a tenth-hour ceremony. Meralda had been summoned at eight, apparently, under the assumption that thaumaturges had nothing better to do than sit and watch the day staff set up chairs, cover tables with tablecloths, and argue over placemats and placards.
And argue they did. A bevy of retired army officers, the king’s new Protocol Corps, was engaged in a round of bellowing and finger pointing with the tall, ancient palace butler known simply as Carter.
“You can’t seat an Alon clan chief next to a Phendelit Silver Circle Guardsman,” bellowed the tallest of the Protocol Corps officers. “The Silver will call the Alon a copperhead and the Alon will cut off the Silver’s nose and we’ll be at war before brunch, you imbecile!”
Carter lifted an eyebrow in mild disdain, straightened the gilt-edged placard bearing an ornate Alon clan sigil, and moved on to the next seat.
Meralda laughed behind her hand. Elsewhere, carts of chairs were being hauled in and unloaded, a small army of florists was filling the room with fresh-cut Phendelit greenrose, and scowling floorsweeps followed everyone about in a vain attempt to keep the wide, worn flagstones free of trash and debris.
A few other minor court figures were scattered about, waiting as Meralda was. There was Martin Flea, official chronicler to the court, who had plopped into his chair, waved at Meralda, and promptly gone to sleep. Cheslin Frempt, the People’s Advocate, sat a few seats away, looking bored and humming to himself. White-haired Elton Flynnedge, heir to the Flynnedge cobblestone empire, was scribbling away in a notebook by the north door.
Meralda looked up at the square-faced old clock above the portrait of King Ponnyamp IV. Eight and half-past?
“Oh, no,” she said, softly. An hour and a half of this?
The west doors flew open with a bang. Meralda whirled, her hand on her staff, but the open doors revealed only a battered chair-moving cart and a pair of red-faced roustabouts.
Behind them, though, came the captain. “Thaumaturge,” he said, hurrying past the cart. “What are you doing here so early?”
Meralda stood and shrugged. “Urgent summons,” she said. “Be in the Gold Room at eight of the clock. Bring your staff.”
The captain dodged chairs. “Ah, well,” he said. “Someone probably got a bit free with the summonses up on the second floor. Yvin just wanted you to check the wards, and I’ll bet you’ve already done that.”
“I have,” said Meralda. “All quiet.”
The captain smiled. “Good,” he said. “But as long as you’re here, Thaumaturge, might I have a word?”
Meralda shrugged again. “Only if it’s over coffee,” she said.
The captain grinned. “That, I can do. You there!” he bellowed.
A dozen servitors froze. “Bring a pot of coffee and a pair of mugs,” said the captain, fixing his gaze on a skinny youth struggling with a stack of chairs taller than himself. “Go to the kitchen. Tell them the captain wants coffee, mugs, and a plate of biscuits, and he wants them now. Go.”
The boy scuttled off.
The captain pulled back a chair and sat. Meralda did the same, leaning close when she saw the captain glance furtively about and motion her near.
“The Hang dock tonight,” he said, in a whisper. “They’ll be escorted to the docks by a pilot boat and then brought to the palace. Yvin’s cleared out half the north wing upper floors.”
Meralda nodded. “Has the army had any contact with them?” she asked.
The captain glanced about again. “We have,” he said. “Had to send a boat in close and ask what kind of draft their ships drew. Didn’t want them to run aground in the shallows outside Defton.” The captain chuckled. “The college sent over a pair of linguists and a professor who claimed he could write some Hang. They spent two hours jabbering at the Hang fleet master until the Hang broke down and asked the professors, in New Kingdom, if they needed directions to Tirlin.”
Meralda’s eyes widened.
“Oh, they speak New Kingdom quite well,” said the captain. “Like natives, one of the linguists said. Natives.” The captain sighed. “But that’s a matter for another time,” he said, as the serving boy trotted up with a tray of coffee and biscuits. “Have you moved the Tower’s shadow yet?”
Meralda scowled and took up a cup of coffee. “Why, certainly,” she said. “I had nearly twenty uninterrupted minutes just yesterday to work on it.”
The captain, his face blank, swallowed, took up a coffee mug, and waved the lad away. “Really,” he said. “Have you seen any papers today, Thaumaturge?”
Meralda froze in mid-sip. “Papers,” she said.
“The Times, in particular,” said the captain. “I thought the likeness of you was quite good. Most flattering, in fact. Though I did wonder if you really called the Tower ‘the lair of dread Otrinvion’.”
“I never said any such thing.”
“Of course not,” said the captain. He frowned. “But you’ll want to look at the story, anyway. Your shadow moving assignment is there, along with a lot of nonsense about lights seen again in the Wizard�
��s Flat.”
Meralda shook her head. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes,” said the captain. He glared at Martin Flea, who had stopped snoring, and then he lowered his face and whispered. “I’ve ordered the Tower sealed for the duration of the Accords, but you and I both know that won’t stop the foolishness.”
Oh, no, thought Meralda. That’ll only make it worse. Before the Accords are done the Tower will be mobbed each night, as the entire populace makes a hobby of mistaking crows for dead wizards and reflections in the window glass as portents of doom, and I’ll have to shoulder my way past each and every one of them.
“Marvelous,” she said.
“I’ve told the guards to keep the tourists at bay while you’re working,” said the captain. “Is there anything else I can do?”
Meralda shook her head.
“Then go,” said the captain. “You’ve checked the wards. Why don’t I tell Yvin you had to leave to cast certain spells before the sun reached its zenith?”
Meralda stood. “That’s absurd,” she said. “Do keep a straight face, won’t you?”
“Always,” said the captain, from above his cup. “Mind the haunts, Thaumaturge.”
Meralda put her back to the throne and left the Gold Room to the captain and the chairs.
Chapter Six
“Here we go again,” whispered Kervis.
Meralda urged her magelamp brighter and mounted the first of the Tower’s winding stairs.
Behind her, the Bellringers followed, boots scraping on the stone with measured, careful steps. Meralda thought about all the novels she’d read, in which princes, queens, or spies, who invariably bore a single guttering candle, charged up the Tower stair, or leaped fearlessly from tread to tread. Leapt, indeed, mused Meralda. No one, no matter the provocation, would dare take these stairs at a brisk walk, much less a headlong dash.
And candles? Impossible. Her own magelamp, bright though it was, cast a cone of light just wide enough at its base to illuminate three pairs of feet. Above, the magelamp lit only a tall, narrow swatch of the Tower wall.
The rest of the Tower remained cloaked in darkness. Darkness, and the faint sensation of constant movement at the edge of the light, as if Meralda’s magelamp alone kept something darker than the shadows barely at bay.
Tervis halted long enough to shift Meralda’s bag from one hand to the other. “I’m coming,” he said, at Kervis’ unspoken question. “Don’t stop.”
The trio resumed their climb. Meralda strained her ears for any hint of sound from the park. But again, not even a hundred paces up the stair, all the sounds of the world beyond were gone, shut away behind walls thicker than Meralda was tall.
“What was that game the Alons were playing?” asked Tervis, his voice echoing faintly. “It looked like fun.”
“They call it football,” said Meralda. “They played it during the last Accords, too.”
“It’s tearing up the grass,” said Kervis. “You ought to have heard the groundskeepers curse.”
Meralda grimaced. She had heard the groundskeepers bellowing, of course. Their language was such that after a moment even Angis blanched and turned away.
Kervis laughed softly. Meralda tilted the magelamp and looked down. Already, their ascent, though it had covered less than half a revolution around the Tower, had reached sufficient height that the glow of the magelamp no longer touched the floor below.
Shadows flew as she looked up. Kervis drew in his breath in a short quick gasp, and Meralda saw, from the corner of her eye, a flash of motion as the guardsman brought his monstrous Oldmark crossbow to bear on the dark beyond the stair.
“Kervis,” said Meralda, turning and sending light over the Bellringers and the void beyond them. “What are you doing?”
Kervis’ face was pale. “I saw something,” he said, his voice low and flat. “Out there.”
Behind him, Tervis shook his head and shrugged.
Meralda sighed and played the light about the Tower. “There is no one here but us,” she said. “What you probably saw was the outline of the stair on the far wall. See, you can just make it out, now and then, and it can look like something moving.”
Tervis whispered something, and Kervis lowered the crossbow. “Forgive me, Thaumaturge,” he said, his eyes still on the dark. “I was mistaken.”
Meralda smiled. “It’s all right,” she said. “Let’s catch our breath for a moment. It’s a wonder we aren’t all seeing things, with all the nonsense being talked about the Tower these days.” She sat, and motioned for the Bellringers to do the same. “There’s no hurry.”
Kervis looked toward Meralda and cocked his head. “I thought the captain said the other mages were coming by to meet you this afternoon,” he said. “Weren’t we supposed to be back by four bells?”
Meralda smiled. Every minute I sit here, she thought, is another minute I won’t be forced to endure king and court. “Do you think they’ll climb these stairs?” she asked.
Tervis shook his head and grinned. “I think not,” he said.
Kervis nudged his twin with his elbow. “You’re learning, little brother,” he said. Then he mopped sweat from his brow and polished his crossbow stock with the sleeve of his jacket. “Anyway, we’ve got nothing to fear with this along, do we?”
“Just you,” said Tervis. “Tell the Thaumaturge how you did at targets, this morning.”
Kervis ignored his twin. “So what are you doing today, Thaumaturge?” he asked. “If it’s not a secret.”
Meralda wiped back a wild lock of hair and smiled. “I don’t work in secret, Guardsman,” she said. “I’m here to set a few wards, and test the Tower structure for its latching properties,” she said.
Tervis’ brow furrowed.
“You know what wards are,” said Meralda. “Guard spells. The court’s idea, not mine, and most probably a waste of time.” Meralda shrugged. “My real reason for climbing all these stairs, though, is to test the Tower’s resistance to new spells,” she said. “Soon, I’ll need to latch my shadow moving spell to something solid,” explained Meralda. “The Tower, in this case. And before I latch such a complicated spellwork to a structure as old and unusual as the Tower, I need to determine how resistant it is to new spells.”
Tervis nodded slowly. “I’ll bet it’s as slippery as mud,” he said. “Ma’am.”
Meralda’s magelamp flickered. She drew the fingers of her right hand quickly down the traceries on the tube, and whispered a word, and the light steadied. But Meralda frowned, for the tube had grown momentarily cold, as though the unlatched coils of the light spell had begun to unravel.
“Is anything the matter, Thaumaturge?” asked Kervis.
“Nothing,” said Meralda. She rose, and the magelamp shone steady and bright. “Are you gentlemen ready?”
“We are,” chorused the Bellringers. Both stood.
Meralda nodded and turned. She shone the magelamp up, where it barely illuminated the second story ceiling, and the gaping, doorless portal that led through it.
Shadows danced. Meralda’s free hand groped in her pocket, and before she realized what she was doing Meralda had her short retaining wand in her grasp. The minor ward spell latched there warmed the wand, and made it quiver like a trapped bumblebee.
“Nonsense,” said Meralda, so softly neither Bellringer heard. She pulled her hand from her pocket, and set about reviewing her latch testing spell.
I’m surprised, thought Meralda, that no one has done it before. Simply latch a spellwork of a known capacity to the Tower, and then load the spell until it unlatches. The time elapsed between latching and unlatching, once compared to a standard, will give me a ratio. And the same ratio should hold for the shadow moving spell.
Should. That word pops up frequently when the Tower is involved, she decided. As if the Tower were a world apart, a world where the normal rules might hold sway, or might not, all at the whim of a legendary wraith.
Wraith. Haunt. Spirit. Meralda had seen the Tower
’s supposed inhabitant called many things, in the old books. “We laide no Spells there, for feare of the Spirit and its Terrible Wrath,” quoth Mage Elvis, some two hundred years ago. More recently, she read that king Tomin III had ordered workmen to board up the windows of the Wizard’s Flat, from the inside, so that the “Cursed Lights and Leering Phantoms” that looked down upon park-goers might be hidden. The king found the planks broken and scattered about the Tower the next day, and the workmen fled. Lights danced in the flat every night for a month.
Step after step, stair after stair. The second story entrance came and went, and the third, and still the Tower soared up and away out of sight. The Bellringers fell silent, aside from panting and huffing. Kervis’ crossbow, Meralda knew, must be an awful burden by now.
Meralda tried to count steps, but lost her place in the four hundreds. The sight of her own hunched shadow turned her thoughts to Otrinvion. How many times, she wondered, did he climb these same stairs? Was the Tower so dark, then? So silent, so empty?
Unbidden, a nursery rhyme sang out in Meralda’s memory.
The old, old wizard goes round and round the stair,
The old, old wizard goes sneaking everywhere,
The old, old wizard goes where you cannot see,
The old, old wizard is sneaking…up…on…me!
Meralda felt eyes on her back, and a chill like the stroke of an icicle raced down her spine.
Kervis began to hum. There was no mistaking the tune, or the words behind it.
“I see the door,” said Tervis, his voice suffused with relief. “We’re almost there.”
Meralda took a deep breath. I am a thaumaturge, she said, to herself. A mage. I do not quake and shiver at nursery rhymes.
“I’ll need you gentlemen to stand in the doorway while I set the ward,” she said. “Can you hold the lamp while Tervis handles my bag?”