Spells of the Curtain: Court Mage

by Tim Niederriter

  “Thank you, mother, this city is massive. A carriage seems perfect for navigating it.”

  “What animals does it use?” Zuria asked as she walked past Sampheli.

  “Why, four greater moths, Zuria, a fabulous contraption.”

  Edmath grinned as his mother turned and led the way out to the street. This day boded well for his interests, at least since they arrived in the city. Perhaps being attacked on the Levoth suggested more pressing worries than fates. Fates and feelings would have to determine if Chelka returned to him. Edmath rubbed his knuckles with his hand, his smile slipping.

  The moth carriage landed in front of the hostel took up a third of the street. Each of the great, worm-like creatures flapped its eight-feet broad, white-furred wings just to keep itself floating over the ground. The stones of the street were dusted clean by the wind they kicked up. The white-jacketed controller sitting on the edge of the carriage basket looked up at them as they came down the hostel steps.

  “Ah, Lady Mierzon, you did not tell me your daughter was so beautiful.” He laughed and donned a wide-brimmed hat, with a grin. “Serving you is truly a pleasure.”

  “You are too kind, sir.” Sampheli approached the basket, opening her parasol to reveal the snake patterns on the violet canvas.

  Zuria smiled as she walked past the controller and took a seat in the basket. Edmath gave the man a curt nod. The wrinkles on the man’s face made him reale that not only was this controller clearly a moth royal, he was an old one.

  “Sir, what is your name, if I may ask?”

  “It is Augo, of the Vassma family, a simple man of action and veteran of the last war with Roshi, if you must know.”

  “Well, that may be necessary. You see, my sister and I may be in this city for quite some time, and I would like to offer you a job.”

  “Already, sir? Let me get this one done, and then we will talk.”

  “Of course. Whatever you wish.”

  Edmath climbed into the basket, preferring it immensely to the feelings of the Levoth’s bones and gullet. He sat down and the moths started upward. They beat their mighty wings and carried the basket quickly off the street and over the rooftops. He turned to Sampheli, who sat beside him with her parasol shading them from the sun high above.

  “I take it this is a mode of travel common in this city, mother?”

  “Only as common as Moth royals, son. The High Emperor’s lineage means there are more here than in most areas, though.”

  The tethers attaching the moths to the basket spooled up as the creatures fluttered lower. Zuria gave a small cry of surprise as the basket jumped a few inches in the air. Edmath had to admit the motion jarred his thoughts as well. They fluttered up the hillside, dragged through the sky above the many rooftops rising from the slope. Those rooftops were full of decks, balconies, and terraces, all alive with motion. People came and went below, serpents slithered through cracks between buildings, and smells of all kinds of animals drifted upward to the carriage.

  Augo Vassma looked over his shoulder to Sampheli. “How far do you wish to go, Lady Mierzon?”

  Edmath’s mother twirled her parasol. She peered down at the city passing below perhaps glad to have finally returned to it.

  “To the palace grounds, Lord Vassma. I trust that won’t be a problem?”

  “Not at all, good lady, it will be a long flight, but you have paid enough for it.”

  “I am glad,” Sampheli said. “I have little money at the moment, sir.”

  Edmath looked up at the moths from under the corner of his mother’s parasol. He wanted to bring Chelka here sometime, sometime soon hopefully, and fly like this. Saales were taught to only use magic seriously but royals could fool around with as much of this manner of flight as they liked. Somewhat jealous, Edmath chuckled.

  Zuria and Sampheli spent the rest of the journey speaking to each other and Augo Vassma, asking questions about the city and the palace. The moth lord answered them all, laughing as he replied to Zuria’s question about the farms where oyster cattle were harvested not far north in the sea.

  “The Oyster King is visiting the palace now, actually. I’m surprised you didn’t know. The oysters are always kept close between Naren and Zung so he is here fairly often.”

  Zuria leaned against the edge of the basket, looking down into the valley.

  “Of all the tribes, they have the hardest lot I think. Their animal is mostly used for food, so they must ask many to sacrifice themselves.”

  Augo Vassma looked over his shoulder at her and nodded solemnly.

  “It isn’t like milking a serpent, I suppose, but then again, we don’t drink venom either.” Turning back to the front of the basket, Augo called out to the moths in speech that Zuria and Sampheli would not have understood, but which Edmath made out quite clearly. “Down moths, bring us down. The thermals are hard, so don’t get cocky.”

  “They get cocky?” Edmath said.

  Augo glanced back at him, dark eyes meeting Edmath’s green through his glasses. The moth lord grinned.

  “They certainly do, but I’m a little curious how you know what I told them.”

  “Oh, that,” Sampheli said. “My son has an incredible talent, Lord Vassma. You see, though he cannot use a tosh he is most capable with all languages he hears. I have yet to see him fooled by any tongue, from serpent to moth.”

  “That is incredible, Lady Mierzon. You say he can understand any animal? Can he control any animal?”

  “Alas, I think not. The power of the royal voice is weak if it is there.” Sampheli shrugged her shoulders, causing her parasol to dance in her hands. “However, the ability he does possess is uncanny and quite unique.”

  “I’ve certainly never heard of it before,” Augo said. “Now, please hold on. My moths are strong, but thermals must be taken by the group as one, and that is not easy.”

  Edmath looked out over the hilltop. It was a broad expanse of woodland up until the city walls, and from there on was covered with white and red rooftops, tiles, and crisscrossing streets. The palace lay on the right, the side opposite Edmath. Zuria gasped when she saw it.

  “That is amazing,” she said.

  Turning, Edmath looked in her direction. He felt his breath intake. The four divisions of the palace stretched out beyond and below them pointing in each of the cardinal directions. Each of the four colossal white marble domes standing at the heart of the divisions sheltered the brown-stone audience hall of one of the three lower emperors. Zemoy Benisar, the Hearth Emperor, Marnaia Hayel, the War Empress, Haddishal Rumenha the Saale Emperor each had one, and the fourth was for Nelna Rumenha, the Saale Hierophant.

  In the middle of the four divisions, the palace proper had its own ring of domes and galleries and gardens, but in the very center, a mighty and sheer pyramid of white stone rose up above the entire complex. The very top of the pyramid was flat, and on that peak stood a single structure, also of white stone that towered over even the rest of the pyramid, three stories higher than the slanted walls that supported it.

  “That is the tower of Zel’s greatest sphere,” Sampheli said. “I feel as though it has been too long since I last saw it.”

  Edmath knew what she meant. The structure was not only incredibly tall, and seemed taller due to its position on the hilltop, but also violently bright. Considering what was kept on the highest level of the building, the nation’s Sphere of Humanity, it could not have been more fitting.

  “A beacon for civilization, the proctors always say.” Edmath grinned. “I know what they mean. This is the center of our empire, of course, but also a core of our very species. Amazing to finally behold it.” He shut his mouth, feeling awkward.

  Zuria turned to him with an amused smile on her face.

  “It isn’t like you to rhapsodize like this, brother.”

  “I’ve seldom seen anything so amazing, sister. Of course, I am awed.”

  The moths finally descended upon th
e palace. Augo whistled as they did.

  “It has that effect on people.”

  He called a few orders to the moths and the basket began falling steadily lower and lower. A flock of birds flew over the city and among them Edmath could see a man with wings gliding higher and higher, no doubt a member of one of the other sky tribes in his tosh. Circling lower and lower, the basket finally fell past the walls and landed on a grassy lawn just outside the entrance to the southern division.

  “This is the safest place to touch ground,” Augo said. “Thank you for your business, Lady Mierzon, and your good company too.”

  “Excuse me, sir,” Edmath said. “How should one reach you if they have need?”

  “Oh, the city is well connected by the network of serpents. Use one of them as a messenger if you must.”

  “Ah, understood,” Edmath climbed out of the basket and onto the grass. His sandals almost slipped on the wet stuff. “Thank you very much.”

  As Zuria and Sampheli climbed out of the basket, the hugeness of the palace struck Edmath. The outer walls were at least forty feet tall, with towers twice that height here and there within them, and the domes taller still. This city would not have been possible without the combined talents of both royals and Saales and this structure was its crown jewel.

  “You are welcome, young sir.” Augo looked up at his moths and called in their language. “Home. Take us home, moths, easy going.”

  The basket bumped off the ground, leaving Sampheli, Zuria, and Edmath standing on the grass before the imperial palace of Zel, at the heart of the empire itself.

  Sampheli claimed it could take them hours to see the high emperor were it not for her connections and friendships, which seemed likely to Edmath. Sampheli talked to the guard at the front of one bridge, and he quickly let her, Zuria, and Edmath past.

  Edmath trailed behind his mother and sister on their way across a raised bridge leading through a garden to the palace domes surrounding the pyramid. Once past the guard on the front end of the bridge, he did not see a single other human. Through the rows of carved and ornate columns that lined the bridge and supported its roof, Edmath caught glimpses of the Enchieli Guardians patrolling the inner circle.

  Each of the creatures was roughly humanoid but it was difficult to tell exactly how much so with the amount of each body concealed by the Enchieli’s twin sets of multicolored wings. Edmath got a view of a man’s face under one wing, but as he walked he could swear he saw a gray mass that resembled the face of Brosk’s whale tosh on another one. The incredible creatures stalked this way and that or simply sat, veiled by their wings in the fields and glades of the gardens.

  They reached the end of the bridge and found one Enchieli in the red and white uniform of the imperial guard standing before the doors to the domes. It lifted a wing and a swan’s billed face peered out from it at the three newcomers. Its eyes were red, but lazy in appearance.

  “Stranger, stranger, stranger,” it said, bill unmoving.

  The high voice startled Edmath. He took a step back, raising an arm in apprehension. His mother put a hand on his shoulder and met the creature’s gaze with a cool smile.

  “I am no stranger, creature. Are you familiar with the name of Sampheli Mierzon?”

  “Mierzon? Oroto Mierzon? No. Sampheli.” The Enchieli Guardian bowed its fierce head and turned away from the group. Its eyes opened wide and it tittered with laughter, wings twitching. Finally, a deep voice unlike the first came from an unseen face somewhere on its body. “You may pass as well, children.”

  The Enchieli guardian pulled the door open and dragged itself to the side, allowing the three of them past. Edmath looked up at the creature. It stood well over eight feet tall but its wings made it seem taller, the way they rose from its shoulders so feathers fell like curtains over the rest of the creature. It hung its swan head and stalked past him, eyes averted.

  When they were through the door and it had closed behind them, Sampheli turned to Zuria and Edmath and gave a smug smile. Zuria smiled back at her and they kept walking down the corridor to the domed center of the structure. Edmath felt a bit nervous and looked back at the Enchieli as he passed the creature on the bridge.

  Sampheli’s smile remained confident as she walked across the white and black tiled floor. She took a passage into the space under the dome. This room was far from empty. Down a level, the garden continued in-doors, much to Edmath’s surprise, nourished by light from the transparent crown of the dome. Within the enclosed garden a dozen or so more Enchieli fluttered their wings as they sat or patrolled.

  “I suppose this was a wrong turn, but at least we’re inside.” Sampheli’s smile broadened slowly and she twirled her closed parasol before lowering the point to use it as a walking stick.

  Edmath blinked in the sunlight spilling across the floor from the dome. He wondered what manner of magic had invested the stone with its transparency.

  “Mother, perhaps we should ask for directions? Of course, I’m sure there is a human around who we’d prefer to ask than these Enchieli.” As Edmath spoke, Zuria murmured something he couldn’t quite make out. He glanced in her direction and saw the figure of a tall, but skinny and slight and shrunken old man wearing a headdress of red feathers and a long white and gray robe.

  “I heard the Guardian call, stranger three times. You confused him, but it didn’t take long for me to realize it was you, Sampheli Mierzon. It has been some years since our last meeting.”

  The wings of the red headdress spread around the gray hair of the man’s head and Edmath could see the three-pointed gold circlet he recognized from the coins of the nation, complete with a set of moth wings, the Crown do the Three. High Emperor Vosraan Loi’s beard bristled with brown and white whiskers bordered by long brown and gray braids on either side of his face.

  “You are not trespassing obviously. The human guards trusted you so you may follow me to see the High Emperor if you wish.”

  Edmath’s brow furrowed and Zuria gave him a confused look. Sampheli walked toward the man, extending a hand.

  “Are you not the high emperor?” she said.

  “Only in these buildings,” the image said, and it flickered. The projected light came from the floor. Edmath stared at the image, unsure of what to do. The High Emperor’s magic was strong in this place. Finally, the image waved an arm to indicate the curving hallway leading past him. “Follow me, please.”

  They followed the image of the emperor through the passages on the outside of the dome. They crossed another bridge and went down another curving hallway. Edmath wondered what sort of magic allowed the emperor to appear in more than one place. The high emperor could not be a Saale by both custom and the fact that the Sphere of Humanity would not allow anything other than an ordinary royal to be its master. Perhaps the sphere itself gave him this power, though Edmath had never heard of that ability associated with any sphere. After a short walk through another guarded door and deeper into the building, the three of them and the image reached another set of stairs leading up to a tall window facing the pyramid in the center of the palace.

  The image vanished on the steps and the three of them looked up at the throne up at the top of the steps. The man sitting on the throne had a face identical to his projection. At first, the light from the window behind him hid the color emperor’s clothes, but as a cloud moved behind him it became obvious he wore the same white, red, and green finery as the image, an exact double.

  “Greetings Lady Mierzon,” the high emperor said, peering down the steep steps at the group. “I see you have brought your adopted son and your true born daughter with you. What occasion do you have to appear before me?”

  Sampheli bowed low and lowered her parasol behind her back.

  “I bring my children to serve the empire, and I bring myself so I might speak to you, your grace.”

  “What are your names, children?” The emperor looked first at Zuria and then and then at Edmath. “The sp
here of humanity is not particular about our language.”

  Edmath dropped to one knee and dropped his head to hang. Zuria did the same.

  “My name is Zuria Mierzon, of the Serpent Tribe.”

  “And my name is Edmath Donroi, of the Hesiatic Monks.”

  “A Hesiat, but you do not wear the hair of a monk.” The emperor leaned forward on his throne and looked down at the base of the stairs. “I am also puzzled by your lack of a tribe, but I see that neither of your blood parents is among the living of this nation. I assume you did not know them?”

  “I did not, your grace. Though I know my father’s name.”

  “And what name is that?”

  “Jurgat Donroi. He gave me to the monks when I was an infant.”

  “Very well then. You children may present yourselves to the lower emperors. They have use for Saales such as you. I, on the other hand, do not.”

  Edmath’s thought flared with annoyance at the High Emperor’s dismissive tone, but he hid it in his bow. He had hoped to serve the Saale Emperor regardless.

  “Your grace?” a girlish voice came from one of the corners of the white platform on which the throne sat.

  “Lady Zasha.” The emperor’s voice boomed from what seemed like everywhere and Edmath realized it was he who had spoken through the Enchieli’s body when they’d been let into the domes. The high emperor’s magic was powerful indeed. “Lady Zasha is my personal Saale. I will employ no other, as is my will.” The high emperor closed his eyes. “I wish to continue this audience without your children. Send them to one of the lower emperors, Lady Mierzon.”

  “As you wish, your grace.” Sampheli looked at Zuria and Edmath. “Please, leave us and return to the outer divisions.”

  “No need to be so harsh.” The high emperor smiled with a crinkling of lines around his eyes and mouth. “Please, allow me to send them where they need to go.” A loud tearing sound like half-complete thunder came from behind Edmath, then rending as of metal crumpling, then the distinctive sparking of a striker opening a tear. Magic flooded around him and then, for a moment, he felt nothing at all.