To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  After they exited the room, Sarah put on her uniform, and thought of what she had learned. Best scout ever, she thought and stepped out the door and into what appeared to be a greeting room. The Maestro and the boy were gone and so was the Conductor. “Seeker, where do we go from here?” It might not be a bad idea if she were able to learn more about the base. One apartment was not much to report on.

  She fell asleep and woke up in the woods not far from the cliff where she had been injured. The Seeker was nowhere to be seen, but looking up at the sun shining between the many dangling leaves gave her a good idea of the time. It was still late afternoon.

  -----

  Jessie Dusavil stood about fifty strides down the hallway from the communal chamber in the section near the apartments where the royals stayed, hopefully far enough away not to be overheard. Rorie had been missing for marks, but the team was finally back together. Jessie stared at the two princes. Sir Daniel wanted them watched after and Jessie did not want to disappoint the knight, but it was not easy when the royals were staying in one area and the residents of Cana in another.

  “How are we supposed to help defeat Tarin Conn without weapons?” Lauren asked a good question. He had on a fancy royal blue coat and pants with gold trimming.

  The Accomplisheds would not allow Jessie to walk around with his knife and every attempt to sneak it under his clothes had failed. “We can’t. I even tried to hide a knife in my boot. I think the spell-casters can sense it. So even if we find weapons, how are we going to hide them from the Aakacarns?”

  Lauren began rubbing his chin, did so for quite a while, and it became clear he did not have any ideas beyond the need for weapons. Rorie looked right and left, then motioned for Jessie and Lauren to come closer. “I’ve been exploring and listening. I heard about how Maestro Benhannon figured out the way the crystals work. A crystal can block any spell that is focused at it, but from the inside, the Aakacarns can use it to strengthen their spells,” the young Cenkataaran prince shared a fact that, while interesting, did not solve the need for weapons.

  Lauren, who had bent forward to be closer to eye-level with Rorie, stood up straight. “Something like those might be useful, except for the fact that none of us can cast spells, so possessing crystals would do us no good.” His tone became a little snooty on the back half of his sentence. It was also too loud, but no one came into the hall to find out what three boys might be up to, which meant they did not hear or didn’t care.

  “By Maestro Benhannon’s orders, all of the old tunnels, compartments, and caverns that were used by the Serpents were filled in. Some of them could only be partially filled because of the huge crystal formations and that resulted in gaps. The spaces are tight, but not too tight for me,” Rorie told some more interesting and useless facts.

  Jessie was beginning to see why Sir Daniel wanted eyes kept on the two, especially the younger one who liked to explore. “Suppose you got stuck. If you are hidden in gaps made by crystal formations, how do you think the Aakacarns could find you? The crystals would block their searching spells.” Jessie had gotten into a lot of trouble in the past and even explored a few places he had no business exploring, but that was way back when he was nine.

  “That means unless they got lucky and happened to focus a spell at the exact angle needed, you might not be found. And if you wandered up and down or right and left in the course of exploration, then luck might not even save you,” Lauren explained, as if Jessie had not been clear enough about the danger. He probably thought he was the head of the team, him being the oldest.

  Rorie grinned, clearly unaffected by what he had been told. “If I hadn’t gone exploring, I never would have found these,” he said and then opened up his fancy purple coat that had silver scroll work on the arms. Inside were what appeared to be icicles, twice as long as Jessie’s hand and each ended in a sharp point. “We can’t cast spells but these are sharp enough to be used as daggers.”

  Unlike icicles, the crystals would never melt, and would probably be difficult to break. The little prince was right and Jessie was thrilled when the young royal gave one to him. “These are fully wicked. Now we have weapons to use in a fight,” Jessie said, unable to hide his excitement. “I still think exploring in those gaps is dangerous, but I am glad you did.”

  “I agree with the Ducaunan,” Lauren said while examining the crystal that had been given to him.

  The two boys glanced to the right and quickly hid their daggers. Jessie glanced in the direction they had been looking and almost said a bad word. Some scout I am; can’t even see what is coming before a pair of citified royals. He bent and quickly slipped the dagger into his rawhide boot and allowed his buckskin pant leg to drop down as an extra covering.

  Sir Daniel was walking toward them on his way to who-knew-where. A Serinian boy wearing copper-colored silks was pumping his legs in a hurry in order to keep up with what was probably a stroll to the long-legged knight, but there was a look of wonder on the boy’s face as he stared up at Maestro. He did not seem to mind the extra effort involved in keeping pace.

  Sir Daniel came to a stop and Jessie knew before it happened that it would be right in front of him. “Blake DuRitter, this is Prince Lauren Van Efery of Taracopa, beside him is Prince Rorie KaTaar of Cenkataar, and with them is Jessie Dusavil. Boys, Blake is an Aakacarn and the newest member of the Atlantan Guild,” he paused and then added, “I trust you three have made productive use of your time since we last crossed paths.”

  Lauren stood up even straighter. “We have indeed, Maestro. We are thinking up ways to help you defeat Tarin Conn.”

  Sir Daniel focused the intensity of his stare on the prince. Jessie could swear he saw pity in that gaze, but then the knight’s left eyebrow lifted slightly and those dark eyes shifted to him. “What was that you put in your boot?”

  The first thought was to deny there was anything in his boot other than his foot, but Jessie knew the knight would not be fooled. “A scout needs a weapon,” he insisted while removing the crystal dagger.

  Sir Daniel held out his hand and there was no way to avoid giving the weapon to him. “I admire the resourcefulness, but this thing could have easily poked through your sock and severed your tendon. The way you jammed this thing down your boot at the sight of me demonstrates you are not ready to handle this type of weapon. I am going to keep this until I think you are ready to handle it safely,” he said and then placed the dagger in an inner pocket of his light blue cloak.

  It wasn’t fair. “Your Teki escort, David something, has blades in his boots and you let him keep them,” Jessie challenged the knight.

  That gaze grew more intense and Jessie began to wonder if, perhaps, he had been a little too bold. It did not help his confidence when not only the pair of royals gasped, so did the Serinian.

  “A scout needs to have a certain amount of daring or he could not do his job. A good scout learns when to be bold and when to tread like a mouse in a room full of sleeping cats,” Sir Daniel spoke in a friendly manner, rather than the scolding tone often used by Jessie’s parents, one he had heard just about every day of his life. But the knight wasn’t finished. “David has a special sheath inside each boot and is in no danger of hurting himself with a throwing blade. I will return the crystal dagger if, when you later ask for it back, you have the means to carry it on your person safely.”

  Jessie knew he was not going to talk the knight into giving the dagger back right away. “Deal,” he said. “Maybe I’ll find some rawhide and sew it into one of my boots.”

  “I am sure a fellow resourceful enough to find a shard of crystal to use as a dagger is clever enough to obtain what he needs to make a credible boot sheath. However, it will have to pass my safety inspection before I give you back the weapon,” Sir Daniel replied, and then shifted his attention back to Lauren. “After you meet with Conductor Kleopis, if you want to talk with me, I will make the time. For now, all of you keep thinking up ways to help me defeat the Dark Maestro.”
/>   “We will,” the two princes assured him.

  Jessie watched the knight walk away. Losing the dagger was bad but at least the Maestro did not forbid him to have a weapon, perhaps because Daniel was a mountaineer way before he became a Royal Knight of the Realm and had been handling knives since the time he was a small child. All Jessie had to do was find material for a sheath.

  “You did not tell him I’m the one who provided the crystal dagger or that Lauren and I are hiding the same weapons in our clothes,” Rorie said, as if he expected differently.

  “Sir Daniel made us a team, our team needs weapons, and if I had told them about your daggers, none of us would have a weapon to use. The Accomplisheds don’t want us to carry knives, but the knight did not object to us having the crystal daggers. That kind of means, if we carry and handle them safely, he will allow us to keep them,” Jessie explained.

  “Since, as you say, we are a team, you can have this,” Rorie said and pulled a crystal dagger from behind his back. “I had it tucked into my belt. This coat hangs down pretty far and allows me to hide all sorts of things. That’s why it is my favorite.”

  Rorie took the dagger and stuck it under his belt and pulled his buckskin coat down to cover it.

  “When are you going to meet with Conductor Kleopis?” Rorie asked a question that had entered Jessie’s mind.

  Lauren shook his head. “I do not know, but I imagine he will be coming soon or sending for me. The Maestro seemed certain I would be meeting with the leader of the Emissaries.”

  “It must be serious,” Jessie pondered out loud and then continued when the two princes focused their attention more fully on him. “Sir Daniel did not offer to make time to speak with Rorie or me, only you.”

  Chapter Fifteen: Or The Roof Could Fall In

  After Daniel introduced Blake to Martin Varroon, the Conductor of the Department of Education, and enrolled the young Serinian as a Talented, he caught up with Simon, David, Silvia, Sero, and Carlos. His escorts did not complain as they headed through the hallway leading to his office, but he suspected they were unhappy over being parted from him for most of the afternoon. It was half a mark before sunset and Simon was in the middle of saying, “You should have communicated through the array and let me know the new Symphonic was finished and that you were going to spend time in the Department of Seekers and then take the boy to Martin,” when a mental growl from Dusk demanded attention. Daniel came to a stop and raised his hand, stopping the Chief Aid from talking.

  Through the eyes of the ebony panther, Daniel could see one of the huge barns at the skyship base. The doors were wide open and coming out was a new kind of flying vessel. It was longer and sleeker than the older model and the entire ship was blue like the sky, even the gondola, which was smoothly contoured to the upper portion, unlike on the originals that were boxy, oblong and brown.

  Four more of the new style vessels, sky-cruisers, came out of the barn and all of them headed to the east, but the rest of the skyship fleet, the seventy original style ships, were still moored to the ground. If the other nine barns each had five of the new ships, five out of one hundred twenty airships taking to the sky did not exactly fill Daniel with dread, but not knowing the capabilities of the new vessels worried him some. Thanks Dusk.

  You have seen and now I hunt, her thought came to him.

  Go eat a deer, Daniel replied, knowing she preferred venison.

  “What has happened now?” Carlos asked. “It must be horrible or you would not be frowning.” He could not know the source of the communication, only that his Maestro did not take the message as being good news.

  The visual provided by Dusk was only one of many sights the various creatures in Daniel’s swirl had been giving him throughout most of the day, sightings of carnage and bloody deaths taking place all over the realm. At one point Rifeq the condor showed him mummified corpses being tossed out on the slopes of Filia, but none of the scavengers went near them, which meant Tarin Conn might be filling his need with human life-force energy. If anything, the newest visual was the least disturbing. The reports given him through the communication array had been, one and all, bad. He began to wonder if there was any good news to be had.

  Daniel focused on Silvia. “Do you have a Seeing to share?”

  The Teki acrobat looked up into his eyes. “We are at war. I see death and destruction today, tomorrow, and for a long time to come.”

  It had been a long time since he had seen her dimpled smile. The war wiped them all away or perhaps her visions were just as bleak as the communications he had been receiving.

  Nope, no good news, “Did any of those visions involve sleek blue airships? They are called sky-cruisers and Dusk just showed me five of them leaving the base at Los Ryn, the ships are heading east.” Daniel needed to know the answer, it would help him prioritize and arrange his chores accordingly.

  “The current skyship model is bad enough, especially with those alternating shields,” Carlos remarked. “The Creator only knows what mayhem the new vessels can unleash.”

  Silvia frowned at the bodyguard, no doubt for speaking out of turn. The question had been addressed to her. “Chosen One, I have not seen the vessel, but I have seen destruction raining out of a clear sky. The cause could be one of those blue vessels or some other new weapon devised by Tarin Conn. You have had all the mantas modified for flight and desire to keep the adaptation a secret. It could be the Dark Maestro has created a number of flight-capable vehicles that will soon be raining terror on us all and I doubt he has any reticence in keeping them from us.” Hers was not a cheery notion, but likely true.

  David had one hand on his daggerlance as if the spell-powered weapon might be needed at any moment, which was his customary stance. “You said they were heading east, that means the ships are no immediate danger to us or our allies, just something we need to be on the lookout for. If they had been heading south it would be a different matter. I know your plan is to take control of all the waterways, which means dominating on the oceans and rivers, and that the airship base at Los Ryn is to be eliminated at some point after that. Even though it is not an immediate threat, you can have the ISIG take out the installation sooner rather than later.”

  The idea had merit and also had one glaring drawback. Simon must have come to the same realization, going by the negative shaking of his head. “Ducaun has experienced over a hundred raids throughout the realm just in the last twelve marks, not counting the attacks that took place before the Taltin Sea Campeign, many towns and villages have been destroyed, and the ISIG is fully engaged with countering the strikes. Defense is fighting battles across the continent. Sherree and Leah have had to lead some of the teams personally to help Samuel and his agents fight off the teleportation circles. The battle to save the Cantor Estate was lost a mark ago and our people barely managed to get the Duke and his family to safety along with some staff members and a platoon of Royal Guardsmen. I have even received reports of entire villages of people being abducted. We don’t know when or if the raids will slack off, but until they do, destroying a base that is not an immediate threat is going to have to wait. Our resources are being stretched as it is.” The Chief Aid mentioned some of the things reported to Daniel by Sherree, Leah, and Samuel within the last half a mark.

  The good news concerning the Duke and his family was that they were safe, the bad news, they were with the royals at Shantear. Daniel got on well enough with Duke Cantor Ducalin and his son Jonah, but his foolish and self-centered daughter was a different story. Angelina had been sent back to her father and was in trouble for leaking secret information to Chen, which set off a chain of events, not the least of which led to the death of her brother Kryten. An encounter with her was nothing Daniel feared, it was more like avoiding an unnecessary aggravation on a day filled with far more important concerns.

  “Simon, I will be sleeping at the Estate tonight,” Daniel informed his Chief Aid. “David, Los Ryn will have to wait.”

  David nodded
as though hearing exactly what he expected to hear. Sero cleared his throat, drawing attention. “Maestro, I believe Bella Sander is expecting to dine with you here.”

  Daniel took the statement not so much as a reminder of the scheduled event, more like a reminder of where the dinner guest is. “I thank you Sero, for bringing the fact to my attention. Simon, please inform Bella we will be dining at the Benhannon Estate this evening. You can convey him to the mansion, eat with us, and convey him back to Shantear. That is, if you have time in your schedule.”

  His face turned bright pink, not at all what Daniel expected. “Um, I am having dinner with Leah. We need to, I mean, we will be discussing what is happening, and um, the coordinating of schedules.” No playful banter from the Chief Aid, that was peculiar.

  Could he be getting sweet on the ninety-eight year-old First Accomplished? The signs were there, but Daniel wondered if the former Senior Soarer of the Eagle Guild knew of Simon’s feelings for her. She had been impressed with him for a long time, that much was for sure, but did not mean she desired him the way the Chief Aid did her. Daniel decided to let the two of them work the matter out. He, the breaker of many traditions held sacred, had no business interfering in anybody else’s business. “Sero, Carlos, might either of you be interested in dining with me tonight?”

  The natural coloring was returning to Simon’s face as he realized it would not be necessary for him to keep explaining why he and Leah were having dinner together. Carlos, who had been alternately peering right and left, up and down the hall, had evidently been listening. “I am interested in having dinner with you and will be happy to convey Scholar Sander to your mansion,” the vigilant bodyguard responded.

  Sero glanced at the Chief Aid before directing his attention back to Daniel. “Maestro, I will convey you to the estate and have dinner. If Carlos chooses to stay, I will take the Scholar back to Shantear.”