by Guy Antibes
Jack shook his head. “Shouldn’t we be talking about how to protect her? Don’t you think having help would be useful?”
“Yes, but—”
Jack nodded. “But. I didn’t ask to know about your love life,” he said. “All I can say as a married man,” both men laughed, “Seriously, if there is a chance your relationship is deeper than bodyguard and the body needing guarding, then I suggest you think about what it would be like to put yourself in Bristone permanently.”
Lorton looked a little shocked. “It will never come to that.”
Jack shook his head. “You’ve got a good start from what I have heard. From my perspective, once the mask is exchanged, you are released from your duty to me and the rest of us. If it is important to you to protect Princess Glorie, then do an outstanding job of it. Having said that, if she has opinions about the factions, we can use that information without compromising her. Don’t you believe we can do that?”
“I can,” Lorton said, lifting his chin. “And I will think about your unsolicited advice. You can keep her information confidential?”
“You know we can. Any information you give me doesn’t have to be attributed to her. You have used confidential informants before in your work, haven’t you?”
Lorton nodded. “You have me there,” he admitted. “How did you learn about informants?”
“Talking to Penny and Sera about their police experiences helped me understand the situation. I will give them all the credit. We will change the focus of our third-floor sitting room by trying to predict when the fighting will begin. Lin is the expert in reading people. Haven’t we identified most of the players?”
“We have.”
“Then Lin becomes our watchman.”
Lorton chuckled. “She might not like the term, but the job fits her well.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
~
J ack looked across the table at Grier Floury and Terry Hortine. At least they were smart enough not to have worn their uniforms. There was a time not long ago when Jack wouldn’t have realized that.
Lorton sat back down after ordering at the bar. Jack had never heard of such a thing, but it wasn’t uncommon in parts of Bristone, Lorton had said.
“So, you have a proposition?” Grier asked.
“We do,” Jack said. “We think that the factions will break the city apart this winter, and we’d rather that not happen.”
“That makes four of us,” Terry said. “The problem is the choice of the victor.”
“Aren’t you Royalists?” Lorton asked. “You said you were when we last met.”
“The Royalists won’t win,” Grier said.
“Why not?” Jack asked. He settled in to get information from the guard’s answer.
“My father can tell you this better than I. Queen Inez sympathizes with the APS, and her husband actually sponsors the Double P, although he claims to be a member of the WWS. When the streets begin to stir, who is there for the Royalists?” Grier said.
“Your father? Princess Glorie?”
“Not even mother,” Grier said. “She is a devout member of the church, so she pulls for the WWS.”
“Even though Payare Bellet is a secularist?” Lorton said.
“You know that?” Terri asked.
“We do,” Jack said. “Don’t think the prime minister will establish a theocracy in Antibeaux. I think he will quickly set up an alliance with Kadellia and the Black Fingers. The Black Fingers are not good people.”
“And you think Payare Bellet isn’t good?” Grier said.
“I don’t.” Jack clenched his fist, but he didn’t pound on the table. “I have fought the Black Fingers before, and they rule through wizardry and brook no dissension. They convert wizards into their society, often against their will. The WWS does something similar, doesn’t it?”
Terri nodded. “Recently.”
That was all Jack needed to know. “If it is recent, then we look for a cluster of Black Fingers in the city. They literally have black fingernails.” Jack now had something else to look for with the Battlebone. He was worried about something else. “What are the chances of the Double P and the WWS uniting?”
“That will never happen,” Grier said.
“Why not?” Lorton asked. “The Black Fingers will try to make alliances. What motivates the Double P?”
“Power,” Terry said. “They aren’t the populists they claim to be. I know too many of them.”
“I’ll make charms that will protect your people from their conversion spells,” Jack said.
“You can do that?”
“He can,” Lorton said. He looked at Jack. “You really can, can’t you?”
Jack nodded. “If you want to start investigating, you will have to take directions from Lorton. He has already made all the mistakes I would make directing you. The guards whom you trust can listen and alert us if people begin to assemble. I will tell you that Ari has been working on enlisting common citizens to defend the city—”
“From within,” Terry said, shaking his head. “I knew things were going to get bad, but you make it sound so real.”
“We need to keep it real to defend the queen.”
Grier looked at Terry. “Or someone else.”
“You have someone in mind?” Lorton asked.
Both guards nodded their heads. “Princess Glorie, if the queen declares for the APS. If Inez does that, she is essentially abdicating the throne.”
Lorton blinked. “Why, Glorie?”
“She is not aligned with any faction, and she is much smarter than her sister, without the weight of the shiftless Richard Raimon, who no one trusts except the queen.”
“I wouldn’t quite have been so blunt,” Jack said, “but that is consistent with our guesses.”
“Consider the facts, but we have to have someone talk to the princess.” Grier looked at Lorton.
The policeman smiled, shaking his head. “Are you suggesting that I could do such a thing?”
“There are few secrets in the castle,” Terry said.
“Should I be worried about an assassination?” Lorton asked.
“We all should be worried,” Grier said. “Let us know when you have talked to her. In the meantime, we will still take direction from you, Lord Lorton.” Grier looked outside. “We have to leave. Consider us allies.”
“We will,” Jack said, watching the two guards leave them.
Lorton moved to the other side of the table. “What do you think?” Jack asked.
“They are foolish,” Lorton said, “but I will talk to them. We shouldn’t be listening to them, and they shouldn’t be talking to us in such an open place, not the way that conversation went.”
“What about your girlfriend.”
“She’s not—”
“She is. I’m all for it, Lorton. You are underutilized in Dorkansee, anyone can observe that. If you really have something with your girlfriend, then you have something to keep you in Bristone.”
Lorton sighed and drained what was left of his ale. “I will have to think about it.”
“Give me an answer tomorrow. If you don't talk to your girlfriend, I’ll find someone else who will.”
“You?”
“If I need to.” Jack smiled. “You have nothing to worry about. I am a married man, aren’t I?”
Lorton seemed to relax. “Indeed, you are, but I will give you my answer now that you have forced my hand—”
“And your heart.”
Lorton frowned, but he replied, “and my heart.”
~
Ari and Jack met to make charms. He dragged Penny along, hopeful that she could do the same, and he was pleasantly surprised that she could. Ari was powerful enough to test them all. They made twenty-five before Ari stopped them.
“We can do this in bulk,” Ari said. “I’ll have the metal workers make five thousand blanks. They can stamp them out once they make a die. The charms won’t be pretty, but they will work.”
When
the charms were made, Ari, Jack, and Penny drove a cart to the farm and dropped off the charms. They also took enough cording and leather thongs so the soldiers could make bracelets or pendants.
Jack explained most of what he had learned from the guards, including the possibility of enlisting Princess Glorie. “I can’t promise anything, but would that help the cause, if Queen Inez declares support for one of the other three factions?”
Both Manon and Jamie nodded enthusiastically. “She would be the best case. We will gladly fight to the death for Princess Glorie,” Manon said.
Then get to work distributing the charms. It is important not to take them off.”
“I’ll be spending the next few days scouting out the enemy. Be prepared and make sure you are ready to travel to Bristone in short order.”
“We will,” Jamie and Manon said.
“I will stay and talk to your men,” Ari said. “Jack and Penny have to return to Bristone. Especially before the weather turns. You never know when you can get stuck between here and Bristone, do you, Jack?”
Jack smiled, but Penny was the one who blushed. Jack had neglected Lin and wanted to explore how to get her more involved in their work.
They entered the townhouse and found it empty, even of servants. Penny went through all the rooms, and didn’t find a thing.
“Not again!” Jack said. “They do the same thing every time. This time they must have forced their way through the front door. We will have to collect our friends and eliminate the abductors this time.
“These were in the sitting room,” Penny said, holding up three bracelets.
“Lorton wasn’t around, then. I’ll let Ari know.”
Ari was going to spend the night at the farm, but he ended up leaving the cart and teleporting to the townhouse. Jack didn’t know if he did it in one jump or multiple jumps like he would have done.
The wizard concurred with Jack. “Time for the Battlebone?”
“We need to find Lorton first. If the bracelets were taken off, then they might have been ensorcelled again,” Jack said.
They found Lorton speaking with Princess Glorie in a lower-level restaurant close to the castle. Jack couldn’t wait and teleported there.
“I’m sorry to intrude, but Lin, Sera, and Oscar have been abducted. Their abductors left behind their bracelets, not that they would do any good at this point,” Jack said.
“Not again!” Lorton said. “The abductors must have been wizards to know the bracelets were protection.”
“Protection? Magical protection?” Princess Glorie said.
Jack nodded. “How much have you told her?”
“Not enough,” Lorton said.
“Would you come with me, Princess Glorie? I have something to tell you.”
“Not here?” she asked.
Jack shook his head. “No. I will return and fetch Lorton.”
She looked at the policeman. “I can do this?”
Lorton nodded.
“Very well. I will speak to one of my guards.”
Jack nodded and waited for her to return after talking to a patron. Their conversation became a little heated, but Princess Glorie insisted. Jack led her to an empty alcove and teleported her to the sitting room. Penny looked surprised and immediately stood.
Chapter Thirty-Six
~
“P rincess,” Penny said, curtseying.
“I am bringing Lorton.” Jack returned in a moment with him.
Ari walked in soon after. He bowed to Glorie. “Your Highness.”
The princess sat down and straightened out her dress. “Now what is going on?”
“Pardon me for being so blunt,” Jack began, and then he told her all he knew.
Glorie sighed. “I am so glad you came to Bristone,” she said.
Jack could hardly contain his surprise. “You already know most of this?”
“Of course. I may be subordinate to my sister, but I am not without brains. I sought out Lorton for someone to confide in, but we were still getting to that point.” She put out her hand to Lorton. “You believe as Lord Winder does?”
“I do, Glorie,” Lorton said.
“What do we do now?”
“How soon do you think the WWS will wait?” Jack asked the princess.
“Not long,” Glorie said. “Payare Bellet can’t restrain his dominant behavior, and Inez is putting up with it. Richard, my odious brother-in-law, is confusing her. The kingdom is on the cusp of becoming dysfunctional.”
“I think it is already is. Penny and I are going to find if there are Black Finger agents in Bristone. They probably recognized the bracelets for what they were when they abducted three of my colleagues that were in the house.” Jack shook his head. “We haven’t fought back so far because of our errand, but this time we will punish the abductors.”
“How will you do that?”
Penny smiled. “We have a few interesting objects of power,” she said, pulling the bone seer out of her bag. She closed her eyes. Jack watched her with pleasure as she sought out Black Fingers in Bristone just as she had done in Reoja in Lajia.
“There are only four Black Fingers in a house with Lin, Sera, and Oscar. We will have to get our map.
“I will fetch it,” Ari said. “In the sitting room upstairs?”
“In plain sight,” Penny said.
Ari returned in a moment and put it over the game table in the room.
“This house,” Penny said.
“That isn’t Payare Bellet’s house. It is Charl Masson’s guest house!” Glorie declared.
Jack sighed. “They have united, after all, and with the Black Fingers. We need to put everyone on alert, Ari.”
“Everyone?” Glorie asked.
Jack nodded. “We have forces in waiting, Princess,” he said. “There are patriots positioned not far from Bristone as well as several groups inside the city walls. We lacked a person to rally around. No one wants to depose your sister, and that has complicated our plans.”
“You intended revolution?”
“No,” Lorton said. “We want Bristone stabilized, not ripped apart.”
“Which may not happen if the WWS and the Double P unite, but what kind of Antibeaux will there be when Payare Bellet and Charl Masson lead the government?” Jack asked.
“You want me to fight?”
“Not fight. All they need is someone to fight for. I thought your sister would declare allegiance to the APS, and that would leave an opening for you.”
Glorie put both hands to her head. “You know most of it. My sister just declared that she supports the Double P to Payare Bellet. That is Richard’s doing. I was about to tell Lorton.”
Ari looked at Jack with concern. “We might be too late.”
“Not yet,” Jack said. “Let’s get our people activated first.”
“You sound like it isn’t a problem. I thought you would be frantic,” the princess said.
“I am frantic, I just don’t show it, but I have a knack at saving people, don’t I Penny?”
She nodded. “My husband has a knack, if anything.”
Jack couldn’t help but smile at Penny’s wit holding up under the current circumstances. “I will change my clothes, and Penny and I will retrieve them quickly. I have to secure the trapdoor permanently first.”
He teleported to his room and changed his clothes, taking all he might need for combat.
“You were gone longer than I thought,” Penny said, already changed into riding gear, holding a cloak. She had buckled on her sword and her girtle.
“You have enough throwing knives?”
She nodded. “My purse is full of them.
“Throwing knives?” Princess Glorie said, coming out of the foyer with Lorton.
“Penny is not without certain talents herself,” Lorton said. “Some of what she knows, I taught her.”
Ari chuckled behind them. “I will stay with Lorton until you return.”
Jack nodded as he grasped the Battlebone. Th
ere wasn’t anyone close to Lin, Sera, and Oscar in the interior minister’s townhouse.
“We will return.”
He teleported into the room, and before he untied their bonds, he administered the clean spell. All of them swooned first and then fainted.
“Penny, would you check them out?”
“They are fit,” she said, “except Oscar has a broken wrist.” She healed him as best she could.
Jack grabbed Oscar and teleported him to their house. He did the same to Lin and Sera before returning to Penny.
“Isn’t this too easy?”
Jack shook his head. “It is because they continue to underestimate us. Rescuing people was much harder in Masukai and in Reoja if you recall. We will return to fight the Black Fingers.”
When they appeared at the townhouse, Jack ducked as a wizard bolt flew toward his head.
Lin and Oscar were still out on the ground, but Sera fought like one possessed, and Jack was certain that she was.
“Out!” He commanded.
“NO, I REFUSE!” Sera’s voice had never been so low.
“OUT!” Jack said. He rolled away from another wizard bolt. He clutched Eldora’s box and found it was working much better. He pointed his blue cuffed bracer at Sera and froze her hand in place. He clutched Eldora’s box again and shouted, “OUT!”
Sera fell to the ground, as senseless as the other two.
“I couldn’t do a thing to stop her,” Ari said. “But I am impressed that you could, Jack!”
“That wasn’t Borigore,” Penny said.
“Borigore, the god?” Princess Glorie asked.
Penny nodded. “I stopped him in Reoja.”
“I wasn’t about to do it the same way with Sera being the one possessed,” Jack said. “I think one of Borigore’s top Black Finger’s possessed Sera.”
Jack pulled out the bone while Ari replaced the silver bracelets on the three comatose victims.
“She will regain her wits,” Ari said.
“Ari could you get all our forces started, if the princess will permit us?”
“I permit you,” Glorie said. “May Yvessa help us.”
“She is firmly in the WWS camp,” Jack said. “I know that for sure, but I have a good idea that she will ignore you for now.”