Berlina's Quest

by James Hartley

  Now, all three of the women were smiling. “Your Highness, this was truly more of a test, but we called it a game, so you would feel easy about it,” said Forsythia. “Only a witch could perform the task we gave you to do, so that means…”

  “That means I’m a witch?”

  “Yes, Your Highness, and from the way you caught on so quickly, you are potentially a very powerful witch. You need training, of course, but that is why my assistants and I are here. If you agree, we shall remain here in the palace and work with you.”

  Berlina shook her head. “These have been the strangest birthday gifts I’ve ever gotten. First, I get a companion who is a shape-shifter. Then, I find I’m enrolled into witchcraft school. Shades of the dragon! Of course you three can remain.” She paused. “Now, all I have to do is figure out some way to explain to my mother and father why all of you are here.” She turned to the white-haired girl. “Felistia, my parents are a bit…well, old-fashioned. Medieval. I fear the idea of a commoner simply being a companion might not sit well with them. Would the description of maidservant bother you? In name only, just to grease the wheels? At least until they get used to you.”

  Felistia shook her head. “No, Your Highness. It would not upset me. I expect I will have to behave in a proper manner when others are around, anyway. Doing a few chores that might be expected of a maidservant would be no problem.”

  “Good, good. By the way, as far as addressing me, when we are in private, you don’t have to use ‘Your Highness.’ ‘Berlina’ or even just ‘Bee’ will do.”

  “Thank you, Bee. Many who know me well address me as ‘Fee’. Bee and Fee—sounds like a recipe for all sorts of fun…or mischief.”

  “So, that’s settled. Now, I just have to explain the ladies of the Order of the Flowers. Oh, well. I’ll think of something. Come on. Let’s get back to the party. I want something to eat. Does witchcraft stimulate the appetite?”

  “Not particularly, Your Highness. I’ll bet Felistia would like something, though. I know that shifting uses a lot of energy and requires food. Right, Fee?” The girl nodded her head, and all of them left the room to go back to the banquet hall where the food was.

  As they got to the entrance to the hall, Felistia looked at one of the warriors standing guard and whispered to Berlina, “Who is that hunk over there?”

  “That’s Lathan,” Berlina whispered back. “A very sad case. He’s only a few years older than we are, but he was severely injured in a battle. Not a physical injury, but it scrambled his mind, almost destroyed it. Both sides had sorcerers slinging spells, and he got caught in the crossfire. Trashed. Now, he has the intelligence of a rock. Friendly, polite, but dumb!” She turned and waved at the warrior. “Hello, Lathan.”

  “Hello, yer Highness. Happy birtday.”

  “Thank you, Lathan.” She turned to Felistia and whispered, “See what I mean? Tragic.”

  The king and queen sat near the head of the hall, in ornately-carved, wooden chairs that just missed being thrones. A crowd of people, mostly people who believed that being seen near royalty would gain them added prestige, surrounded them. As Berlina and those with her approached, however, they moved aside and left a path open for the princess.

  “Mother, Father,” said Berlina, “I want to show you my latest presents. This girl,” she pointed to Felistia, “has offered to be my maidservant and companion, and I have accepted her services. Her name is Felistia. These three ladies are members of the Order of the Flowers. They have come to teach me, to set up classes.”

  “That is very nice,” said Queen Lystia. “We welcome you to the palace, Felistia. However, for these ladies, I must ask what they are planning to teach.”

  Berlina had been thinking, and was ready with an answer. “They’re called the Order of the Flowers. They know all about flowers and other living plants. They’re experts of nature and growing things. They know about plants used for food and medicine, and those which are harmful and must be avoided.”

  The queen nodded. “That sounds like something worth learning. Honestly, my dear daughter, I am glad to see you take an interest in learning and education, after your many efforts to avoid school over the past several years. I approve of this. Find them quarters, see the chamberlain, and set up classroom space as needed.”

  “Thank you, Mother. I will do so.” Berlina gestured to her companions, and they all turned and headed over toward the food tables. Once out of earshot of her parents, she continued, “That went well. I’m glad I thought of that connection between ‘Flowers’ and nature.”

  “Ah, Your Highness. That was a very good connection. Flowers, plants, and living things all figure heavily into what we are going to teach you. One facet of it involves potion making, and you must know about the ingredients.”

  Berlina looked surprised. “I never thought of that, but egads. It makes sense. It looks like I’ve a lot to learn. Anyway, regardless of what my mother the queen said about my avoiding classes in the past, I promise you I’ll work diligently at these studies.”

  The three ladies smiled at her. As the princess and those with her approached the food, the crowd around the tables melted away and left room for the five of them to fill their plates. Berlina’s healthy helping was little compared to Felistia’s—who piled her plate to the point where it looked like it would fall over.

  Chapter Four

  The Secret Tower Lab

  “Fee, I’m getting tired of staying locked in here. I think it’s time to get out and get some action. What do you think?”

  “Oh, I’m up for some action, but how do we get out?”

  “A little magic, of course. A sleep spell for the guards outside the door, and we’re out.”

  Felistia looked doubtful. “Out, but for how long? Bee, everyone in the palace will recognize you, and most will recognize me. Sooner or later, we’ll run into someone who knows we’re supposed to be locked up and will turn in an alarm.”

  “Ah, that’s the second spell. It’s called a ‘glamour’. It’s a disguise spell. We won’t look like us. We’ll look like a couple of dowdy, old serving women. Nobody will pay any attention to us.”

  “Nice. I didn’t know you could do that. So, once we get loose, where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” Berlina walked over to the door and opened the little window just a crack—quietly, so the guards wouldn’t notice. She put just the tip of her wand through the opening and muttered a spell. There were two soft thuds as the guards fell to the floor.

  Berlina opened the door, checking that the guards were out cold and unlikely to wake any time soon. Satisfied, she turned her wand on Felistia. Suddenly, there was an elderly serving maid standing there. She aimed the wand at herself, and a second serving maid joined the first.

  The two left the room. Berlina carefully closed the door behind her and hurried down the corridor until they were out of sight of the guards. “There,” said Berlina. “We’re far enough away that if someone does see us, they won’t connect us with the sleeping guards…or the empty room, if they look inside.” With a gesture pointing toward a side hallway, she said, “We’re heading for the North Tower.”

  “The North Tower?” asked Felistia. “Isn’t that where the magic lab of Court Sorcerer Zatarra is? Is that a smart idea? Might he be able to see through your glamour?”

  “Not to worry. He might be able to see through the glamour if he expected it and if he made the effort…and if he happened to be in the palace right now. However, the queen sent him to prepare the Sorcerer’s Retreat for us. He won’t be back for weeks. In my opinion, even if he were here, he would never trouble himself to try to detect or penetrate the glamour. Zatarra is the laziest by-blow of an incestuous canine I’ve seen in a long time.”

  “Oh.”

  “Since we both suspect him of being involved in Darvid’s kidnapping, his lab is a good place to start looking for clues.”

  Felistia nodded in agreement. The two girls zigzagged through the maze of corridors. R
eaching the North Tower, they climbed the stairway until they reached the massive oak door of Zatarra’s lair.

  Berlina tried the doorknob. It turned easily but had no effect on the door. “As I thought, he never bothers to lock the door, but there is a spell on it, holding it shut.” She pulled out her wand and ran it around the door latch. She muttered a spell, but it had no effect, nor did a second spell. After the third spell, however, turning the doorknob allowed the door to swing open. The two girls entered the room, and Berlina carefully shut the door behind her. “I don’t want anyone to come along and get curious about why the door is open.”

  A single room occupied the entire top of the tower. It had a high ceiling with rough, wooden beams. A large number of stuffed animals—perhaps hunting trophies—hung from the beams, as well as skeletons, both animal and human. In the center of the far wall, directly opposite the door and apparently in a place of honor, hung the strangest skeleton of all. Much of the skeleton seemed human, but it had four arms, one pair above the other, and a tail. Felistia pointed it out to Berlina, and both girls shivered.

  The part of the room to the left of the door was set up as a laboratory, with workbenches, shelves, and cabinets. The benches were messy, with jars and containers of unknown substances, glassware, and various mechanisms scattered here and there, as if someone had been too lazy to put things away when done.

  “Poor workmanship, and as I told you, lazy,” said Berlina. “Forsythia has taught me the importance of cleaning up after I’ve been working on something. She warned me about the dangers of one bit of magic interacting with another. I learned!”

  “You mean, after that little explosion you had a while back?”

  Berlina looked sheepish. “Yes, that little explosion. There’s nothing like a little explosion to drive home a point.”

  The part of the room to the right of the door appeared to be set up as an office and living quarters. There were several groups of stuffed chairs arranged for conversation, a desk piled high with papers, and a screen that blocked off a small area. The two went over to look and discovered a bed behind the screen, blankets in total disarray.

  “Not only does he leave the lab a mess,” said Felistia, “but he can’t even seem to make a bed.”

  “No surprise. This guy is a slob! Look at the pile of dirty clothing and robes over in the corner.”

  As the girls moved further around the room, they discovered that in one corner was a ladder fastened to the wall, leading up to a trapdoor in the ceiling. The wall under the trapdoor was water-stained, and the floor below it was warped.

  “This guy is a first-class loser,” said Felistia. “He can’t even seem to bother fixing the trapdoor so the rain doesn’t come in.”

  “I want to see what’s up there,” said Berlina. She climbed the ladder, and at the top, she started to push up on the trapdoor. Immediately, water began to pour through the small opening, and she let it drop again. “It hasn’t rained in a week, and there’s still water collected up there? The roof must be sagging around the trapdoor. You’d think he’d get it fixed.” She swung around, hanging from the side of the ladder—away from where most of the water was coming through—and pushed up again.

  Water poured down onto the floor below, and Felistia quickly backed away. When the flow finally stopped, Berlina pushed the trapdoor all the way open, swung back onto the ladder, and climbed a few more steps to look around the roof. She didn’t stay long. She climbed back down, shut the trap, and descended to the floor. Felistia looked at her inquiringly.

  “Not much up there. A couple of really rusted-out things. One might have been a telescope. The others were so corroded, I couldn’t even identify them. You can judge a workman by the condition of his tools, my father always said.”

  The two moved on around to the area below the strange, four-armed skeleton. There was some sort of a table—almost an altar—and in front of it was a stand holding a huge, open book. The two bent over to read it. After a moment, Berlina straightened up and said, “Damn! That misbegotten son of a pork-bellied swine! Do you see what this is?”

  “Some kind of a spell?”

  “Yes, it’s a spell to ‘Becloud the Mind of an Enemy’. This spell will produce an effect exactly like what happened to Lathan. That story about his being caught in the crossfire during a battle never rang true. As I learned more magic, it sounded fishier and fishier. Now, I’m sure.”

  “You mean Zatarra did that to Lathan deliberately? Why?”

  “I remember, back then, Lathan was one of my father’s favorite warriors. My father was very upset when Lathan was…well, beclouded, and kept him on, even though he was pretty much useless. One of his last wishes, before he died, was that Lathan be retained.”

  “You think Zatarra did it to weaken the power of the king? That he was up to something even back then?”

  “Yes, and worse. Now, I’m beginning to wonder if Zatarra had anything to do with Father’s final illness. A spell or some kind of poison? Keep your eyes open for anything that might have caused that.”

  Berlina turned back to the giant spell book and studied it more carefully. Finally, she straightened up and shook her head.

  “What’s the matter, Bee? You look a bit discouraged.”

  “I was hoping there might be a counter spell I could use on Lathan, to restore him. Unfortunately there is nothing. Just a tiny reference to something called ‘The Ultimate Magick’. I don’t recognize it. Witch’s magic and sorcerer’s magic are similar but don’t always overlap. If I can find some way to get to Forsythia, maybe she can identify it.”

  They moved on around through the workbench area, but it was such a mess that neither of them wanted to touch anything. Near the middle of the bench, Felistia noticed a strange cabinet attached to the wall. The left side was a normal, wood-and-glass display case, but construction on the right side was heavy, wooden beams, and iron bars covered the glass. On each side, there was a shelf. There were numerous rings on both the floor and the shelf of each side. “Bee, what is this?”

  Berlina moved in and took a closer look. “Magic rings,” she said. “Forsythia taught me about them. Those on the left are good. Those on the right, more heavily-caged in, are evil. It looks like those on the shelf are ones Zatarra has been able to identify. See the little labels in front of each? I guess those on the bottom are those he hasn’t figured out, yet.” She pointed her wand at one of the rings on the left and said, “Ringalevio.” The ring glowed a pearly pink, and a warm, pleasant feeling emanated from the case. She repeated the spell on another of the rings on the left. This time, the glow was a warm, sunny yellow. When she moved to the right and did it to a ring in the heavily-caged section, the ring glowed with an evil, threatening, and fiery red. A feeling of dread filled the room.

  Felistia shuddered at this last. “What do they do?”

  “The evil rings, if worn, harm the user. They bring illness, a weakening, even death. The good rings will give the user strength, health, or perhaps magic powers like invisibility. Let me see what he has here that he has been able to work out…” She peered at the labels. “There has been reported to exist a ring of Identification, which would allow the wearer to know what all the other rings are, but I don’t see it. It used to be difficult even to tell if the ring was good or bad, which made it dangerous to put on an unknown ring. If it was evil, even if it didn’t kill you outright, you couldn’t get it off. It would sit there, sucking away at your strength and health.”

  “Didn’t you just spot the good or evil rings?”

  “Yes, it is much better now that someone discovered the spell I used.” She turned back to the case and scanned the labels again. “Uh-oh…trouble.”

  “What’s wrong?.”

  “In the back row, there is an empty space with a label that says ‘Dis-Covery’. See it?”

  Felistia looked carefully, then said, “Why the strange spelling with the hyphen?”

  “Oh, that’s just the name they gave it. The ring le
ts the wearer see through glamours and other disguises. If Zatarra allied with whoever kidnapped the prince and gave them the ring, we could be spotted. Not good!”

  “Is there a way around it?”

  “None that I know of. I can’t ask. The queen threw Forsythia and the others from the Order of the Flowers out of the palace at the same time she locked us up. I don’t really know where the Order is so I can’t go ask her—even after we get loose. We’ll just have to take our chances.” She shook her head. “There are some rings here that have been identified, and I think I will help myself to a few of them. You never know what might come in handy. Besides, anything I can do to lessen Zatarra’s power is all to the good.” She scooped up several of the rings, and the two moved on down the row of lab workbenches.

  Finally, when they got back almost to the door, they saw an empty frame on the wall.

  “What’s that for?” asked Felistia.

  “I don’t know…wait, there’s a little, brass plate on it. It says, ‘Map of the Eastern Lands and the Black Fortress of the Ultimate Wizards’. There’s that ‘Ultimate’ word again. Knowing how lazy Zatarra is, he wouldn’t have bothered with this without some kind of good reason.”

  “Like, maybe, it showed where they planned to take your brother?”

  “Makes sense to me. If they took Darvid east, as the title of this map indicates, I can see Zatarra convincing the queen to send me west to the Sorcerer’s Retreat. As far in the opposite direction as possible. I really wish I had that map. Let me think…” She stood silently for a minute or two, then said, “Aha! I remember the spells I need—the Adobe spell and a couple of others. Fee, search around and see if you can find some paper, parchment, anything like that. We need a piece as big as that map. You take the right side of the room, and I’ll take the left.”