The Severed Realm

by Michael G. Manning

  My son deflected each of them in turn, even though they happened so quickly as to almost be simultaneous. His body twitched slightly, and his arms jerked as though he might try to use his hands to do the deflecting, but it was his power that did the work. An outside observer would have seen little without magesight, but the thunderous cracks and booms as he countered each blow shook the walls around the training field, and more divots appeared in the earth where some of Tyrion’s attacks were driven into the ground.

  Tyrion had noticed our arrival by then, for he held up one hand to indicate that he was calling a halt to things and then started walking in our direction. Conall walked over as well, meeting my eyes evenly as he came, as though challenging me to disapprove of what he had been doing.

  Patience, I need patience, I repeated to myself silently.

  Conall reached me first since he was closer to begin with, greeting me once he was within ten feet, “Father.”

  “I’m glad to see you are well,” I said.

  “You came yesterday, but I never saw you,” he returned. “I wondered if you were avoiding me.”

  “Not at all,” I answered. “I was busy, which is why I came back today—to see how you were doing. Irene said she saw you, though.”

  Conall grimaced. “It wasn’t much of a meeting. She nagged at me the entire time.”

  Smiling, I joked, “She takes her sisterly duties very seriously.”

  My son looked at me for a moment, uncertain how to respond. Finally, he gave me a crooked grin. “Yeah, she does,” he agreed.

  Ahh, the awkwardness of youth, I thought. I don’t miss that phase of life at all. Thinking on what Irene had said, and what I now saw before me, I couldn’t help but think she was right. My son was seeking his independence and ready to show his teeth if necessary, while at the same time what he truly wanted was my acceptance and approval.

  Tyrion had reached us by then. “Your cub is turning out to be quite a lion,” he observed. “He’s more aggressive and confident than any of mine were.”

  I didn’t like the comparison, but now wasn’t the time to start another pissing match. “I’m quite proud of him,” I said loudly, keeping my eyes on Conall’s. “Being made Queen’s Champion at such an age is a rare honor, but I never doubted his courage.” I did my best to sound sincere, though in truth I would never shake the image of Conall as my little boy.

  Harold snorted. “And you were worried we’d have him out here swinging a blade.”

  Tyrion lifted one arm. “The only blades out here are the ones we make for ourselves.”

  Don’t kill him, don’t kill him. I repeated that mantra in my head several times. “If you gentlemen don’t mind, I’d like a few minutes alone with my son. I haven’t seen him in over a week.”

  The two other men nodded, and I led Conall back into the palace. As we walked, he said, “You don’t mind me practicing with Lord Tyrion, do you?”

  I could tell he was nervous, but he was doing his best to hide it. “You know pretty well how your mother and I feel about the man,” I answered, then wanted to kick myself for the phrasing. ‘Your mother and I.’ It was the habit of a lifetime. “However, I can’t stop you from learning. As long as you’re careful, I don’t mind. Just don’t make the mistake of trusting him.” And please don’t look up to him, I added mentally.

  Conall nodded. “I haven’t forgotten, but I thought it would be foolish not to learn from the best while I have the chance.”

  I almost choked at that. The best? “Tyrion has a long history of violence,” I agreed. “He survived hundreds of battles against other mages when he was young, but he also has difficulty knowing when to show restraint. He mortally wounded one of his daughters while training her. Make sure you’re careful.”

  My son piped up, “I think he’s matured since then.”

  It made me want to laugh, listening to him make judgements about the maturity of others, but I kept it to myself. “Learn what you can from him, but don’t make the mistake of wanting to emulate him.”

  “I won’t, Dad,” said Conall. His voice was sounding more hopeful now. No doubt he had been expecting me to reprimand him or dress him down. Being treated with respect had caught him off-guard. “Where are we going?”

  “The Queen’s chambers,” I replied.

  “Why?”

  “There’s a privacy ward around them,” I observed. “The Queen isn’t there at the moment. We can talk undisturbed, and afterward I can head home without running into any more old friends.”

  “Oh,” said Conall. “That makes sense, I guess.”

  Once we had reached Ariadne’s sitting room, I offered him the leather bag I had brought.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “A present,” I answered. “Something I think you need now that you’re the Queen’s Champion.” I gave him a proud smile.

  He opened it and immediately recognized the surcoats. “Are these Matthew’s?”

  “He doesn’t need them. You do,” I returned. “You need to wear them so everyone in the capital will know the Queen’s Champion is a Cameron.”

  Conall smiled shyly. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Don’t thank me,” I told him. “You earned this position for yourself. Just remember you represent your entire family while you’re here.”

  “I’ll make you proud, Dad,” said my son.

  “I’m already proud,” I returned. “But your job is something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “What about it?” he asked.

  “Well, originally I had wanted to you to come home. I still have a lot to teach you. You haven’t even begun to learn the basics of enchanting yet, but given the present circumstances, I’ve decided maybe it is for the best for you to stay by the Queen, at least for a while.”

  Conall frowned. “Because of ANSIS?”

  “That’s certainly a concern, but it isn’t my only concern. My other fear is that someone may try to interfere with the Queen’s mind or emotions,” I said honestly.

  “You mean with magic?”

  I nodded.

  “But the only wizards in the capital, besides me, are Tyrion and Gareth Gaelyn,” protested Conall. “Neither of them would…”

  I held up a finger. “Just keep an eye on her. Try not to let her be alone with either of them.”

  His eyes were wide as he stared back at me. “You don’t really think one of them would try something on the Queen?!”

  Looking at him seriously, I said, “I’m not making any assumptions when it comes to the Queen’s safety. You did well when I sent you here. Extremely well. Remember that your loyalty to the Queen comes first. You are her champion. You should take your role very seriously. Even without ANSIS to worry about, she has a multitude of enemies, and most of them are also her vassals. In politics, your enemy will often be standing beside you with a smile on his face.”

  That wasn’t half bad. If Rose had heard me, she might even have been impressed. It wasn’t that I was clueless about politics—I just hated the subject, but I had been forced to learn quite a bit about it over the last few decades.

  Conall straightened and dipped his head briefly. “You can count on me, Father.”

  “I am. While you’re here, you’re my eyes and ears. Try to learn how the court works. Don’t take anything for granted,” I told him. “And make damn sure that no one with magical abilities is alone with the Queen. For that matter, make sure no one without them is alone with her either, unless one of her guards is with her.”

  “What if she orders me out of the room?” he asked, warming to his new mission. “Sometimes she wants privacy.”

  I shrugged. “There’s no helping it if she makes it an order, but don’t be afraid to let her know your concern if she gives you an order that makes you worry for her safety. The best servants are those who share their minds, and
a good liege will respect that.”

  “Should I tell her about this conversation?”

  “No reason not to,” I said. “She’s your liege, so you can’t keep anything important from her anyway. It will make your job easier if she knows what you’re thinking.” As I told him that, I couldn’t help but remember the nightmare I had been for my own guards in the past. Poor Harold, I thought. I nearly gave the poor man a nervous breakdown every time I snuck off.

  At least Ariadne couldn’t create illusions, or teleport, and she had been monarch long enough to be well used to the constant presence of servants and guardians. If she were wise she would make good use of the opportunity and keep my son close to her. There was much to be said for the earnest sincerity of youth. She would find no treachery in Conall.

  Having said everything, I embraced him again and made my way back home. Of course, the trip home entailed little more than a short walk down a hall and into what had once been a closet, and then I was home. Then I sought out my other children in the workshop and got back to work.

  They were doing well on their own, and I didn’t feel like reading the Erollith sculptures, so I resolved to finish Alyssa’s armor. In another month, her service to me would be done, and she would likely need it, if she intended to stay close to Gram.

  Chapter 8

  The next week was productive. I finished Alyssa’s armor, which she received with more enthusiasm than I had expected. I also included a set of enchanted blades, two long knives, an arming sword, and a spear. If she intended to continue as a warrior, I would make certain she was well armed.

  I wondered what Rose would say when she found out I had given her future daughter-in-law a veritable arsenal of magical weapons. The thought brought a smirk to my face. She would just have to deal with it. Being the sort of girl she was, Alyssa would have armed herself anyway, one way or another.

  Irene and Karen’s skill in enchanting was progressing too. They wouldn’t be crafting anything exceptional for a while yet, but they could handle the essentials. In particular, the first enchantment I made certain that Irene knew was how to construct a teleport circle. I tried to get her to memorize the keys for all the important circles, but as with Moira, it proved to be difficult for her to remember them all.

  Having learned from my mistakes with both Moira and Elaine, I had her promise to keep a notebook containing all the keys with her. To facilitate that, I had her craft herself a storage pouch that opened into a chest she kept in her room.

  Karen learned the basics of circle creation as well, although obviously she didn’t really need to use them herself, given her special gift. She was more excited to learn how to create the storage pouch, and she made one at the same time Irene made hers.

  Near the end of the week, I returned to Castle Cameron, or what would be Castle Cameron once it was finished. Even after a week, it was still so hot you could feel the heat radiating from it from across the castle yard. With Irene’s help as a miellte, I used my abilities once again, this time to draw forth a small river’s worth of water from beneath the ground. I encapsulated the entire structure and kept the water inside and around it for several hours to try and remove some of the heat.

  Afterward, I was surprised to discover it was still hot. I had underestimated the amount of heat such a massive stone structure could hold.

  The next morning, after breakfast, Matthew called me aside. “Dad,” he began.

  “Mm hmm?” I replied.

  “I want to examine the dimensional interfaces,” he said simply.

  We had talked about them several times over the last week, and he knew I wanted to be included the next time he did anything. Since he was the only one we knew for certain could sense them, I had been very clear I didn’t want him to do anything else without me. It was probable that Lynaralla would be able to sense them since she was an Illeniel She’Har, and there was a chance that Conall and Irene might be able to as well, but currently Matthew was the only one who had any experience with such things.

  “I’m in,” I told him. “Is there anyone else you want to bring along?”

  “Just the two of us,” he answered. “It’s easier if I don’t have too many people around. All the talking makes it hard to think.”

  I almost laughed at that. My son really wasn’t much of a people person. “Sounds good. Where do you want to try this?”

  “Near Lancaster. It’s close, and Zephyr can fly us there pretty quickly.”

  I could have flown us there twice as quickly without a dragon, but I didn’t say that. If anything, I avoided flying too much around my children since I didn’t want to encourage them to try it themselves. Losing one of them in some sort of aerial accident was the last thing I wanted. Slightly over an hour later, we were landing near the border of the igneous wasteland that sat where Lancaster had once been.

  As I climbed down from Zephyr’s broad back, Matthew asked a sudden question, “What happened to the door at home?”

  It caught me off-guard. “Pardon?”

  “The door,” he repeated. “The one that looks like it melted without burning.”

  “Which door is that?”

  “The closet door in the living room,” he explained. “The frame is slightly wavy, as though it’s been warped somehow, but the door matches it exactly.”

  I hadn’t noticed, and since we rarely used that closet, I doubted anyone else had either, but I had a pretty good idea what had happened to it. “I’m not entirely sure,” I stalled.

  He went on, “I asked Rennie about it, and she said to ask you.”

  With a sigh, I decided to confess. “I had too much to drink last week.”

  “You lost control?” There was no tone of accusation or judgement in his question, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty nonetheless.

  “I think so,” I admitted. “My memory of that night is a little fuzzy.”

  He shook his head and ‘tsk’d,’ but didn’t say anything else.

  When he didn’t take up the opportunity, I decided to prod him. “That’s all you have to say about it?”

  Matthew shrugged. “You do stupid stuff all the time. Sometimes it works out in my favor, so what can I really say?”

  “In your favor?”

  “You let me travel to an alien world to risk my life for a dragon and a girl I hardly knew. That’s not only stupid, it’s bad parenting, but I can’t complain since it worked out in my favor,” he explained.

  Flabbergasted, I stared at him. Bad parenting? Alright, I had to admit he wasn’t wrong on that occasion. “You didn’t really give us a choice,” I reminded him. “It was let you go or alienate you by refusing and then having you sneak off anyway.”

  “You assume I would have snuck off,” he corrected. “I’ve always been an obedient son. I might have done as I was told. A responsible parent would have ordered me to stay even if there was only a chance it would work.”

  Glaring at him, I responded, “You’re lecturing me? I would say what I did was an example of enlightened parenting! You should be grateful I’m your father, you ungrateful whelp.”

  An evil smirk turned up one corner of his mouth. “You know I’m putting you on, don’t you?” When I didn’t answer immediately, he continued, “I’m starting to see where Conall gets his gullibility. I always thought you were smarter. Maybe age does make you dumber.”

  What a little bastard! I thought. Catching his eyes, I stared mutely back at him. I didn’t blink, until my eyes began to water from the dry air. Then I turned my face away and gave my shoulders a faint shake as though I was crying.

  “Hey! Dad, it was just a joke. Don’t take it so seriously,” said Matthew hastily, marching around me to check my expression.

  Glancing up at him, I grinned. “Sucker.”

  “I didn’t believe your poor acting for a second,” he said indignantly.

  I
clapped him on the shoulder. “Yes, you did. Now we’re even. I guess the stupid doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

  “The stupid tree,” he said, then he started walking. “The interface should be in this direction.”

  We walked for several hundred yards with Zephyr following behind us as we circled the outer edge of where the primeval forest had been. A strange feeling passed over me, and Matthew stopped, putting one hand up. “I think this is it.” He walked back toward me and then stepped forward and back one step a couple of times.

  It might have been my imagination, but I thought I could detect a subtle shimmer in the air near the area he was stepping across. “This is it, huh?” I said, holding my hand up as though I would try to touch it.

  Matt gave me a strange look. “You can see that?”

  “Just barely. I suppose it takes someone with your gift to see it any better.”

  “Karen couldn’t sense it at all,” he replied. “I can barely detect it either. I don’t think you should be able to feel anything from it.”

  “Maybe it has something to do with being an archmage,” I suggested.

  He looked doubtful. “Well, we don’t know since you’re the only one to look, but I have a feeling that it wouldn’t matter.”

  “Next time, we’ll bring the others and see who can sense it and who can’t,” I told him. “What do you want to do, now that we’ve found it?”

  Stepping up to the invisible boundary, he spread his hands wide, as though he was pressing them against a wall. “Watch.” Then his aythar began to move.

  It flowed outward from his fingertips, spreading out like oil on water, shimmering through a wide range of colors that weren’t really colors at all. Slowly, his magic faded from my magesight, and the air in front of him shifted, as though it were turning into a window, or perhaps a portal. The view was of a heavily shadowed forest, rather than the open plain we were currently standing in.