Deceptions (Ascendant Book 3)

by Craig Alanson

  “Crossing the river would be difficult and dangerous, even for us,” Paedris admitted.

  “It would be less so if we were not so far away now,” Mwazo complained. “I understand you and Magrane were anxious to get me away from the fighting while I was too weak to defend myself, but we have travelled too far from the border.”

  “No, we have not traveled far enough,” Paedris said without offering explanation. “You should put away that map before you spill lemonade on it,” he noted as Mwazo’s hand shook and droplets ran down the stoneware mug onto the parchment map.

  “I don’t need a map?”

  “No, you do not.”

  “Paedris, while I appreciate your confidence in my memory, I am not all that familiar with the enemy’s land beyond several leagues west of the Fasse. It would be good to know-”

  “You do not need that map, because we are not crossing the river.”

  “Not cross-” Mwazo saw the twinkle in the other wizard’s eyes. “I assume you do not plan to dig a tunnel under the Fasse, and despite what people think, we wizards cannot fly, so what do you have planned?”

  “Tonight, perhaps this afternoon, we will reach the upper tributary of the Pernelle river. My plan,” he smiled, “is to board a boat there and float down to the sea, instead of riding in an infernal, bouncing coach on these rough roads. My back can’t take another day of the luxury coach provided by the Royal Army.” Paedris knew the coach Magrane had given to the wizards was the best available; those coaches with the softest springs were being used to transport wounded soldiers and Paedris did not begrudge those unfortunates that minor comfort.

  “The sea?” Mwazo asked, startled. “A journey by ship would be preferable to walking or riding a horse, but how will you find a ship with a crew desperate enough to attempt such an insane voyage?” The sea even close to the coast of Tarador was infested with pirates from, or paid by, Acedor. Even Tarador’s navy was mostly confined to patrolling within sight of shore, with the navy’s efforts focused only on preventing an invasion by sea. The few ships of the Royal Navy had not the strength to fight piracy, and no naval commander would be rash enough to take one of his ships deep into the territorial waters of Acedor.

  “We will find a ship and crew surely enough; do not worry about that, Cecil.” He dug into a battered leather pouch on the dirt floor of the tent and pulled out a rolled-up scroll, untying the wrapping. “As to where will go ashore and our journey inland from there, we will need this map.”

  The princess let out a short, exasperated breath, louder than needed but she wanted to let the other occupant of the carriage know the future queen of Tarador was displeased. The carriage ride from the Royal Army camp on the east foothills of the Turmalane Mountains to the capital city of Linden seemed interminable. Ariana wanted simply to be back at the royal palace, but the journey over rough roads was endless. While she originally had insisted her carriage travel with the army contingent carrying wounded soldiers to the royal hospital, she had been persuaded after two days that her presence slowed the progress of the entire column and she was an unwanted distraction. Since then, Ariana’s carriage and her guards had fairly flown along at a speed that threatened to shake the young princess’s teeth loose. It had been a long and exhausting journey, not helped by her own deep sense of loneliness. At first, several of her advisers had traveled in the carriage with her, until those learned persons realized the new Regent was bored of talk about pressing matters of state. That day, as the speeding carriage came within tantalizing sight of Linden on its hilltop in the distance, Ariana had invited a young wizard-in-training to ride with her. By midmorning, Ariana had grown frustrated by the wizard’s sullen and distracted attitude. “Lady Dupres,” the princess began, “Olivia, I wish you would call me Ariana when we are in private. We are almost the same age, and I have almost no one I can really talk with. Everyone is so stiff around me.”

  Illustrating the Regent’s point, Olivia stiffened in her seat. “Your Highness, if you were truly a mere ‘Ariana’, I would not be here.”

  “Oh,” Ariana’s cheeks reddened, chastened. “That is true, I suppose. You truly do not wish to be here?”

  “Highness,” it was Olivia’s turn for embarrassment, “I do thank you for your hospitality,” she said formally, wondering whether she should have said ‘gracious hospitality’. “This carriage at least has some sort of springs to cushion us from the worst hazards of the road, while the driver of the wagon I rode in seemed to take delight in aiming for every pothole between here and the Turmalanes. But, no, I would not be here if the decision were left to me. All the other wizards are doing things that are so much more important!” She clenched her fists to show how being left behind was eating at her.

  “Protecting the crown princess and Regent is not important enough for you?” Ariana tried and failed to keep annoyance from her voice.

  “Oh, no! That is, I did not mean you are not important, your Highness,” Olivia stuttered. How to properly speak with royalty had not been a topic of study during her training, and that formal training had been cut short by the forces of Acedor attacking Lord Salva. “Quite the opposite. You should be protected by a real wizard! I am still only a student,” she opened her hand, and displayed the feeble fireball that was all she could conjure without relying on her special technique of drawing magical fire with her other hand. “If you were faced with a threat from a real wizard, a powerful enemy wizard, the best I could do is hope they tripped over me on their way to destroy you.”

  “I am sure that is not-”

  “It is!” Olivia insisted. “Madame Chu was rash to trust your life to me,” she continued with bitterness. “I should be with her, or with Lord Salva or another real wizard, where I could learn. Your Highness, I fear the reason Madame Chu sent me here is not so much to offer my protection to you, but to keep me safely away from the fighting. I do not exaggerate when I tell you I will be unable to protect you against any serious threat. I do not yet have the skill, the knowledge, or the power.”

  “Well,” Ariana replied automatically, while she thought of what to say. “Lord Salva thought I would be safest inside the royal palace, so perhaps you will not need to do anything other than,” she waved a hand, trying to imagine what a young wizard like Olivia Dupres did with her time. “You could study all the scrolls you wished to in Lord Salva’s tower. Oh!” She clapped her hands in delight. “And the royal library! It is the finest library in the world,” she boasted proudly, knowing the monarchs of Indus and Ching-Do would dispute whose library contained a greater volume of important scrolls and books. “I could show you around the library, and you could look at anything you wish.”

  “Really?” For the first time, the idea of being stuck in Linden with the crown princess held hope of being something more than confinement. From what little she knew of royalty, she did not imagine they spent much time in libraries. Mostly, she thought, they had people to read dusty books and research arcane topics for them. “You enjoy reading?” She cringed as the words left her mouth unbidden.

  “Oh yes,” Ariana replied in seriousness, completely missing that the young wizard might have insulted her. “I love being in the library! I used to bring books and maps back to my study, to read about long-ago people and foreign lands, and imagine I was there. Koren and I-” She stopped, and a shadow fell across her face.

  In spite of the great societal gulf between them, Olivia reached out to pat the princess’s hand, and the future monarch squeeze her hand back as a tear rolled down Ariana’s cheek. “I’m sure he will come back soon, your Highness,” Olivia assured the princess softly.

  “No, you’re not,” Ariana stifled a sob, wiping away tears with the sleeve of her dress, not caring about the impropriety of the action. “No one is. Not even Lord Salva, is he? He hopes to find Koren somewhere in the wilderness, because Koren will not come back here on his own. Why should he? He thinks the Royal Army is hunting him as a criminal. He thinks I did nothing to protect him, that
my government wishes to kill him or throw him in a dungeon.”

  “He will surely learn the truth, your Highness,” Olivia offered, though the words sounded hollow even to her own ears.

  “The truth?” Ariana laughed bitterly. “The truth, that he is a wizard, and his family would not have been banished from their home, that his parents would not have abandoned him,” she pounded her fists on her thighs, “if the Wizards Council had seen to their responsibilities properly? And that the reason he worked as a servant, rather being granted the knighthood he deserved, is that we could not trust him with the truth about himself? Oh, yes, when Koren learns that, he will surely be happy to come back to Linden, and all will be forgiven!”

  Olivia sat in stunned silence for only a moment, for Madame Chu had told her all about the unfortunate Koren Bladewell, and had told her what to say if, when, the princess raised the subject. “Lord Salva will take full responsibility, he had sworn it. I do believe that when Koren learns the full truth, that everything Lord Salva did as to protect Koren, I-” she paused, then sighed. She could not simply parrot the words Madame Chu had given her, they were empty. What Ariana needed was not false words of assurance; she only needed someone to listen. “The truth is, your Highness, I do not know Koren Bladewell. I never met him, and I cannot imagine what he has been through. Lord Mwazo believes an immensely powerful wizard such as Koren appearing now is no coincidence; that the spirits must have anticipated our hour of great need and given Koren the power he needs to defeat our enemy. If that is true, then whatever path Koren has taken and all the bad things that have befallen him along the way, they are his fate. Lord Salva,” she smiled at the memory of Paedris and Cecil arguing about the very concept of ‘fate’. “He does not put so much faith in mystical notions such as ‘fate’. He told me his faith is in Koren himself. Paedris believes in the end, Koren will swallow his anger and do what is right, because of the essential goodness inside him. Lord Salva is a great and wise master of wizardry, Highness, I know of no wizard of such power. If Paedris trusts in Koren, then I do also.”

  Ariana looked away, out the window. “My fear is that Koren may come back to Linden, he may even save us all. But he will not come back to me,” she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

  To that, Olivia had no answer, she did not know what to say, what anyone could say. So, she sat in silence, giving the young princess time to compose herself. It was several minutes before Ariana wiped away her tears, sniffed and sat upright. “I do feel safer having a wizard as my bodyguard.”

  “Highness, I really am not ready to be your bodyguard,” Olivia said while looking out the carriage to avoid the princess’s eyes. “Against a skilled assassin, I could not protect you.”

  “Madame Chu thinks you are ready,” Ariana replied, though her voice did not sound entirely convinced. “Besides,” she brightened, “Lord Salva placed magical wards around the palace. No enemy can get past the wards to hurt me!”

  Paedris had explained the operation of those wards to Olivia. She as yet lacked the technique and power to establish or even renew such wards, but she now understood how to check they were in place and working correctly. Paedris had expressed confidence the wards would have sufficient strength to last months without being reinforced by a wizard, and he was supremely confident it would take a very masterful enemy wizard to disable or slip past the wards.

  While the court wizard had boasted of the wards to the crown princess, he had also explained to Olivia the limitations of the magical wards; what they could not do. In truth, the wards did not cover the entire palace, for that elaborate and sometimes opulent structure was simply too large, with too many windows and doors. The wards guarded only the private family residence and a few public rooms, when Ariana went outside of that limited area, she would be vulnerable as if the wards did not exist. The wards could not stop an assassin’s arrow from flying through a window, nor deflect magical fire cast by an enemy wizard. That last danger was unlikely, for unseen secret wards protected all of the royal castle, no enemy wizard could use magic within those walls without raising an alarm, and any hostile wizard approaching the royal palace would certainly use magic for guidance to their target.

  Most importantly, Paedris had told Olivia with grave emphasis, all the wards in the palace did were prevent an enemy from gaining entry to the building. The wards sensed if a person was not authorized to be within their confines, but if the princess were betrayed, a traitorous guard could sneak an enemy assassin past the wards. Only those people most trusted could be allowed within the warded part of the palace.

  That was the part of acting as Ariana’s bodyguard that most worried Olivia; she had not spent much time around the royal palace, and she lacked the magical skill to detect deception and hostile intent in people around her. If the crown princess were attacked inside the palace, it would be by betrayal, and Olivia feared she could do little to prevent that.

  “Whoa!” Bjorn demanded. “Slow down there, you young fool. I know you are eager to get to Linden, but if you make this a race, you will lose.”

  Despite his foul mood, Koren had to laugh, though he laughed at his companion and not with him. “Lose? To you? Would you like to see who can get to that-”

  “Not to me, you idiot. You will lose a race against this mountain, if you try running down this trail,” Bjorn pointed to the rough track they were following, it could barely be called a trail. Even sure-footed mountain goats trod warily on the track, as it was narrow and covered with smooth stones and loose shale. Bjorn’s boots skidded while he spoke, he waved his arms and teetered out over the edge of a ledge higher than he was tall. If he tumbled over the ledge, he would survive the short fall, but he would not survive subsequently skidding farther down the hill out of control and into the deep gully below. Pulling himself back away from the ledge, he shook a fist angrily at Koren. “I nearly just fell, and I am placing every footstep carefully.”

  “Don’t you know, Bjorn,” Koren jested disdainfully at the older man, as Koren danced along the precipice of the ledge, showing off his unnatural ability to balance on the balls of his feet. “I’m a wizard! We can walk easily on the slightest surface,” he boasted, recalling how Lord Salva had strode along a stone ledge at Duke Yarron’s castle, when Koren first met that wizard. At the time, Paedris had carried a tray of pastries with one hand, barely using his other hand to steady himself against the castle wall. That feat had amazed Koren at the time, now that memory only made him more angry. Koren had nearly fallen to his death off that roof, all because he had not been trained to use the innate wizardly abilities that he did not even know he had! Paedris could have told him, could even have instructed him how to walk easily along a ledge that nearly caused Koren’s heart to seize from panic. Instead, Paedris and all the other wizards had kept the truth to themselves, lied to Koren, and-

  Koren’s own arms flailed wildly as he overcorrected from his feet skidding on loose stones and in desperation, he flung himself away from the ledge, crashing painfully onto stones with his belly. “Oof, I, help!” He shouted when the smoother stones beneath him rolled as his momentum propelled him backward, his boots frantically scattering stones in an attempt to prevent his sliding over the ledge. His heart leapt into his throat as his boots flapped uselessly in empty air, and-

  Bjorn grasped one of Koren’s hands in both of his own, falling without dignity on his backside. “Ah! Oh, that hurts,” Bjorn grunted from a sharp pain to his tailbone. While Koren got gingerly to his feet and checked nothing was broken, Bjorn rolled to one side, mouth open, unable to breathe for a moment.

  “Are you hurt, Bjorn?” Koren bit one of his knuckles in anguish that he might have injured his friend.

  “Only my pride, and my backside will be sore for a fortnight. Help me up, please.” With Koren’s assistance, Bjorn stood and walked stiffly, assuring himself he could walk normally if not without pain. “Ah,” he rubbed his aching tailbone, and kicked over the ledge the particular stone he guessed had
caused his injury. With a miniature mock bow, he addressed Koren. “You were bragging about your supernatural balance, oh master wizard?” Bjorn was not smiling.

  Koren looked down at his own dusty and torn pants, at the dots of blood where he had scuffed his knees. With a sheepish grin, he admitted “Perhaps I need a bit of practice before I can fly.”

  “Ha!” Koren looked so thoroughly embarrassed that Bjorn chuckled despite his anger. “If you ever do try flying, warn me first so I don’t leap out into a canyon to stop you, eh?”

  “I promise,” Koren said seriously. “Bjorn, I am sorry. You can lead the way, please. I am not quite,” he glanced sideways over the ledge and into the gulf beyond, “that eager to get to Linden.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Halt,” Regin Falco commanded the guards as they tramped down a corridor under the royal palace in Linden. “What is down here?” He pointed to a dark, narrow hallway that gradually sloped down and curved to the right. The entrance to the hallway was barred by a gate of heavy ironwork, mostly simple vertical bars, but with intricate scrollwork in the center. Looking more closely at the scrollwork, Regin considered with a frown that the four holes arranged in a square likely used to hold a royal crest attached to the gate.