I still had the presence of mind to cast detect poison for each course, my only lapse being the day Hollis passed. Maybe that was another reason for my drive, diving into my work I didn’t have to contemplate my loss. It was getting better though. Either that, or I was getting better at suppressing the feelings. I still had trouble letting things out, in Zual that gets people killed for weakness. I was a much better and happier person now I thought, but twenty five years of conditioning, surrounded by people who either wanted to kill you or control you doesn’t just go away after a year and a half.
I shook off my dark thoughts and started paying attention to the conversations around me… Watching the convoluted maneuvering of the lesser nobles was always worth a smile. I thought it all silly, which worried me in a way, since apparently I would have to be good at that sort of thing to improve my standing in the mage community. Apparently magical breakthroughs don’t count. Well, I’ve avoided even stepping into the mage council building in the upper city so far, and I didn’t want to start now.
I suppose if I ever take an apprentice I will have to though, since they track all that in records. I almost snorted out loud when I thought I could just send a message.
After dinner I walked with Maria back to her suite. Her scent was a delightful torture. I was a little worried this would eventually poison our relationship, but what could I do about it? I warded the room when she closed her door and we sat rather close together.
I said somewhat scatter brained, “I have a surprise for you. Your new dress looks amazing.”
She touched my arm and replied in a soft voice, “Thank you, what surprise?”
Trying to ignore the tingling in my stomach I pulled out her new bracelet and her smile widened.
She said, “It’s beautiful,” while I slipped it on her forearm.
I said, “It’s the protection I was talking about, didn’t quite take me that week.”
She grinned and said, “Why doesn’t that surprise me.” Looking curious she asked, “What does it do?”
I said, “Well, it stays dormant until you’re attacked. Then it will protect you, and try to hold the person or persons attacking. It will also let me know you are in danger, and tell me where you are in a vague way. I plan to make the other two like that as well. Oh, and it doesn’t radiate magic at all, so even mages won’t know about it, until it’s too late.”
She tilted her head, a mischievous look in her eyes, “You can track me with this?”
I realized I was still holding her hand and let go, “Only when you’re being attacked, otherwise no. I figured that would be an invasion into your privacy.”
She blushed and said, “I wouldn’t mind that,” and she looked at me with smoldering eyes.
I sat back and started talking while my heart hammered away, “It also does one other thing I wasn’t going to add to your father’s and Uncle’s. The original design that makes this work included a communication spell.”
I blushed, then practically babbled out, trying to keep my train of thought, “When I have to move on, when the official court mage comes, I wanted a way to keep in touch. All you need to do is think about talking to me, pretend I am right in front of you. The ward will turn on the connection.”
Maria leaned forward a little and said softly, “I’m glad you liked my new dress… I wore it for you.”
When she leaned forward even further I thought how stupid. But I couldn’t figure out if I meant because it couldn’t work, or because we had fought it for so long. Then her lips touched mine and all my thoughts went straight out the window…
Chapter 14
I woke in a start in the morning. Then wondered briefly why the guard wasn’t knocking down my door to drag me to the king. I snorted and took care of my morning spells. I knew it was foolish, but I couldn’t bring myself to regret a moment of last night.
I considered starting connecting swords and plates, but on balance my newest idea seemed to me more important, so I simply put an elemental to work on it as I had in the past. Then grabbed four plates. I didn’t use the more complicated spell with the illusion, but a simpler one that would only carry a voice. It was a spell that took very little power, like a ward. I added the rest of what I needed to connect them and ran the ritual for each pair.
Ironically the idea that would help most was the easiest and fastest to get done. Granted, only because I already had the ritual on my staff.
I walked out to the knight commander’s office and knocked.
He looked at me bleary eyed, guess he just woke up, and said, “Lady? What can I do for you?”
I replied, “I have presents I think you might like.”
He raised his eyebrow and said, “Come in then,” and motioned with his arm.
I said, “I couldn’t help but notice the risks of the slow communication to the passes, all of your intel being at least a day old. So I made these.”
I put down the two plates on the desk and said, “I created a communication spell, there is one plate for each location you need to hold onto. I had to add extra spells to make it work. Basically, if you hold it in your hand, it will turn on.”
I took the other small plates out of my pocket and said, “Same with these, if the onsite knight in charge puts one in his hand, it will turn on as well.”
The commander’s mouth dropped open when he heard my voice coming from the desk plates as well as from me. It sounded weird to me too but I smiled.
He said, “That’s… amazing. Thank you my lady.”
I put down the other two plates and said, “So, send these two out with the next sword delivery? Oh, almost forgot, when one of your plates starts glowing yellow it’s time to track down a mage to get them charged. The enchantments don’t take much magic to run, so it should be every couple of weeks, unless you use them a lot, then maybe three days.”
He nodded slowly, I could see the wheels turning in his mind as he considered instant communication to the front lines.
During breakfast, I thought about my other idea of helping with an elemental as well. I also thought, if I used two of the three settings I had no plans for yet, I would know right away if an attack started by virtue of the elemental being summoned.
After breakfast I grabbed two more plates and was happy I ordered an extra twenty. I put in the three glyphs. One, for the ward. I made it huge but only to detect for battle. Otherwise it would be going off every time a private had an angry moment at his sergeant. The second to connect to my bracelet, and the third one I chose the powerful energy elemental by means of my shortcut, self made glyph.
That would work since I placed the enchantment, yet wouldn’t work for any other mage. Even if they tried to activate the enchantment manually outside of the parameters I set. I was still concerned about keeping that a secret. I would have probably told Hollis, but I didn’t really trust anyone else that much.
I also decided a hidden magic glyph would be desirable so I added that too shaking my head. I hadn’t really planned this out completely and was just throwing it together. I took a moment to go over it before completing the connection. I couldn’t think of anything else to add so I moved on.
On my bracelet I put in the connecting glyph and a simple ward to detect power level and my standard hidden magic glyph on one of the settings.
I duplicated it on the second plate and another setting. Then realizing I had to portal out to both sites anyway, I started walking back to the commander’s office. Might as well take those plates with me, and possibly any other supplies he wanted moved.
I found myself knocking on his door.
He answered and I said, “I am heading out there actually in a few minutes. I can deliver those plates for you.”
He grabbed the two plates from his desk and handed them to me saying, “Thanks, I really didn’t have anything else going out for a few days.” Then he chuckled at his own voice sounding behind him.
I nodded and took a step back before opening a portal to the ocean side p
ass…
When I stepped out a soldier said, “Can I help you Lady Silvia.”
“I have a delivery, can you take me to who’s in charge right now?”
He said, “Captain Herch, follow me.”
We walked over to tents set up by the back of the clearing opposite the mouth of the pass.
Herch said smiling, “Lady Silvia, how can I help you?”
I suppressed my smile pleased that at least the soldiers appreciated me for the healing and help in battle. No politics here… Just another person that was trying to protect our kingdom.
I handed him the plate, and explained how it worked.
He looked down at his hand and said, “Does that mean the commander can hear me right now?”
A booming laugh came from the piece of metal and the commander said, “That’s right Captain, now I can bug you all the time.”
Herch snorted and said, “Yes sir, putting this thing in my pocket now,” and he did.
Herch grinned and said, “It is an amazing thing, this will help tremendously,” then he made a face, “for the most part anyway…”
We all laughed when the commanders voice said, “Hey watch it Herch, I’m still holding my end.”
I searched for a good place to put my elemental guard. I didn’t want it found or messed with particularly. I found a good sized boulder just inside the pass by the barricades. Using an elemental spell on the rock, I sunk my hand in and released the enchanted metal deep inside the rock. It should work fine from in there, and should be relatively safe. It was undetectable so shouldn’t be easy to find, even for a mage.
I created portal to the other pass. It didn’t take me long to deliver the communication plate and find a good place to hide my second elemental guard enchantment. I took a portal back to my room directly. There wasn’t much time before I needed to be in the throne room, so I figured I would start pairing weapons with plates after that. The thought that I didn’t have anything to research or work on in the afternoons was a strange one. I shrugged when I couldn’t think of any other projects to work on right now, there weren’t really any more books to go over.
I was sure I would think of something, at the very least when a problem came up. Until then it was going to be drudge work with the swords for a while.
I also needed to remember to get the daggers from Emory and Tristan, but that wouldn’t take long and I already had done that for Maria so wouldn’t be anything new.
For a second I thought I was hallucinating when I saw Maria suddenly appear, then I grinned, “Playing with your new bracelet?”
She winked and said, “Just making sure it works is all. It’s almost like you are right here… Almost.”
I blushed, thinking of last night and she giggled with twinkling eyes.
She turned her head then looked back and said, “Someone’s knocking at my door, I’ll see you in a few minutes,” and faded away.
Audiences were going to be hard, I had to not look her way or I was sure I would blush. The court nobles may be shallow, but they weren’t stupid, it wouldn’t take much for them to figure it out. I sighed, sure that if we didn’t keep this secret, fond of me or not, Emory would kill me. I did feel a bit guilty about it, but my only regret so far was we couldn’t be out in the open about it.
Somehow, I made it through audiences and lunch. I was still good at suppressing my emotions, after all it was a life skill in Zual. One I had learned well. The problem was, when I did that I looked a little cold and hard, still, better than blushing and giving things away.
After the afternoon session, I went to the enchantment room, grabbed the metal scriber and put the connection enchantment both a metal plate and a sword. I added a simple ward to glow amber when the energy level got to low on the plate. I completed the ritual with the staff then taking the plate to the back wall, using magic, I let it sink a little, so that it was held like a setting but only the edges of the plate were obscured. After a moment of thought, I scribed the number one in both the plate and sword.
That way, if an enchantment failed for some reason, it would be easy to match up with its plate.
It took me about ten minutes, so I figured I could do six an hour. This wouldn’t be too bad as the swords made their way through one more rotation, I could easily keep up. Speaking of which, maybe I should tell someone what I’m doing. Snorting at my penchant for secrecy I picked up the sword and headed for the commander’s office again.
He answered with a smile, “What miracle do you have for me now.”
I explained what I was doing, and showed him the symbol, explaining that his troops needed to look for it during the process, if found the weapon wouldn’t have to be shipped back. I started to feel uncomfortable as the awe grew on his face.
Finally he said, “I was joking about the miracle thing, but, thanks for delivering anyway.”
Compliments still bothered me, but the awe was freaking me out. After a few minutes of silence I handed him the sword, nodded my head and got out of there…
The next few days went well, at least in light of enchanting, I got about forty weapons done. The weapon rotation was slow enough to easily keep ahead of it, which left me time to start reading again in the library. I found a few interesting things, but nothing that sparked any ideas. Against my better judgment, Maria and I had continued our relationship after dinner each night.
It was late afternoon and I was staring at the library wall, book forgotten as I went over the conversation from last night for the hundredth time today.
We were in Maria’s sitting room when she turned to me, her face conflicted.
Maria sounding unsure, “My father told me something today.”
I squeezed her hand and said softly, “What is it?”
She replied, “He told me a prince from Mendell on the other side of Sandoval was coming for a visit. His name is Varian. He should be here in a few days.”
Haltingly she continued, “My father said… he said that it was unlikely the king would remarry and have another heir. My father… well he said he can’t imagine replacing my mother either. It seems they are both determined to marry me off. Not only so I can be queen when they pass on, but also to start another generation of heirs. Varian is a third son so will likely never rule at home, so is a good choice to become a consort of a queen.”
I pulled her lightly and she leaned against me, resting her head against mine. I just wiped her tears and waited for her to finish.
She continued, “I wish… I really wish I could just go away with you. So we don’t have to hide. But I can’t. I also wish I could keep you here with me somehow, and we can just have this. But I know how selfish that would be. I can’t do that to you. Once I was married it wouldn’t just be a secret anymore but a betrayal. Of both you and who I marry.”
I shook my head to shake the memory and started reading again. I was truly an idiot sometimes. Not a minute later I heard a knock on the door before it opened. I looked up and saw Zand with a satisfied smirk on his face.
Zand said, “The king wants to see you.”
I just nodded and got up. I wondered what it could be that had him so happy. I briefly pictured my banishment because he found out about Maria and I, but dismissed it as extremely unlikely. Still, whatever had Zand so happy was eluded me. When I moved down the hall he did not follow.
When I reached the main part of the palace I felt the slight drain on the elemental enchantment I placed by the ocean pass increase greatly, meaning the ward had activated the elemental. I opened a portal a short but hopefully safe distance away and stepped through, the king would have to wait.
It was a much smaller force this time on the Zual side. Maybe ten apprentices and I did not see a master present. Or if one was they did not have an arch-demon. I held back since they didn’t appear to need any help and a few seconds later it was over. With my elemental’s help they had no trouble breaching the protections of the dark mages. I watched in satisfaction as I felt the ward determine the ba
ttle was over and turned off the elemental enchantment automatically.
I recharged it to full as I walked over. No one was dead but there were a few serious injuries.
I nodded to the Captain in greeting, then proceeded to heal up the soldiers while he reported back to the commander on what happened. I felt a little pride about it all, but was wary of becoming overconfident. I was thankful the chances of the masters in Zual cooperating to form large numbers were very close to zero.
Even that last large attack that took Hollis from me was nothing to what that would mean.
Just a few minutes later, I returned to where I left the palace from and continued toward the king’s rooms. It occurred to me getting my permanent replacement would please Zand, since that would mean I was leaving. It had been a few weeks, so I knew it was coming. Well, I’d leave once I passed on all the stuff I’d been doing. What I didn’t take into account, was how naïve I still was.
When I approached the king’s suite the guard nodded in greeting and opened the door. Both Tristan and Emory were there along with an older white robed mage who didn’t look very happy at all. I suppressed the smile at my guess being right, figured Zand would be thrilled at getting rid of me.
The mage said with a scowl, “What took you so long? We’ve been waiting too long.”
I raised my eyebrow and turning to Tristan said, “Your majesty, sorry I’m late. Something came up.”
I thought he’d get a good laugh at that understatement when the commander reported where I was five minutes ago. But at the mage’s scowl I tried to explain.
I’d barely started talking when the mage overrode me in an angry loud voice, “Stop wasting our time, you wasted enough already,” still sounding angry but lowering his voice he continued, “I am Master mage Maynard, the new court mage.”
If I wasn’t so annoyed I would have laughed at that and called him three M. As it was I looked at the king and he looked pained at this unfolding confrontation. It made me wonder just how much power the mage council actually held in Lethia. I already knew the king couldn’t order them to send someone to the border, surely if he could it would be done.
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