by C. G. Garcia
He said it so softly that she wasn’t sure if he even meant for her to hear. She started to comment on it but then decided against it. Although talking with Aidric would make for a good distraction from having to think about the horror of her upcoming presentation, she really didn’t want to make him any more uncomfortable than she already had.
She glanced up at him as he led her down a dim corridor she assumed was part of the Mage Hall he had spoken of earlier that was illuminated only by a single, green-flamed lantern suspended from the high ceiling. He seemed lost in thought, his brow creased as if troubled.
Feeling a sudden surge of anxiety, Allison was about to ask him what was wrong when he led her through a door at the end of the hall, and instead of the room or extension of the corridor they had just left she had expected to see, a small, indoor garden lay before her in its place. She quickly forgot her questions as she let out a little gasp of surprised delight when she absorbed the extraordinary beauty before her.
A colorful array of flowers, some slightly familiar and others completely alien, grew throughout the room in intricate patterns of such complexity that only a skilled landscape gardener could have arranged the beds. Many of the flowers hugged the grassy path that led across the room to an opened archway and another brightly illuminated room. The bright sunlight shone down into the garden through a glass ceiling.
Many different plants hung from hooks extending out from the walls, giving the illusion that trees aligned the room. It reminded Allison very much of a live butterfly exhibit within a large botanic garden she had once visited as a child on a class field trip. It was all so beautiful.
Aidric smiled down at her and said, “Not something you would expect to find at the end of a gloomy corridor, right? It is an odd place to put a garden, but Diryan insisted that this room be converted into a garden when he first took the throne. He said that the palace had always felt so impersonal and cold inside, that it needed something to make it seem wore welcoming. His Majesty always did have a weakness for extravagant gardens.
“He had the ceiling removed and replaced with glass in order for the moonlight and sunlight to shine through. It gives the impression of being outside without all the inconveniences—thunderstorms, insects, and other such nuisances. My mentor, Lord Othos—who was Diryan’s court mage at the time—spellcast a shield over it to prevent any intruders from using this room as a means to enter the palace easily and also to prevent the weather from damaging it.”
“Now, over there,” he pointed to a room on the right beyond the opened archway she had only glimpsed earlier, “is the palace’s main courtyard. It’s constructed in the same manner as the garden, and it’s where we celebrate our holidays and festivals. But mostly, it’s a place for leisure and gossip. As you can see, they are preparing it even as we speak for tonight’s celebration.”
Sure enough, many women and men were hard at work inside the courtyard, busily hanging up decorations, grooming the many plants and shrubs, and setting up dozens of tables that were being covered with every kind of food and drink imaginable.
“You can sneak a better look when we walk through, Allison, so there’s no need to strain your eyes now,” Aidric said with amusement.
Allison looked at him sharply. “Walk through? You said that the Golden Mage scares people. We’ll cause a panic!”
“There’s no need to fret, milady,” Aidric assured her. “I have already thought of that possibility. I’ll simply cast the spell of invisibility over you.”
“Will it really make me invisible?” she asked incredulously.
He chuckled. “No. The spell doesn’t actually make your body disappear from this plane. It’s a glamour, a misdirection of the mind. It causes anyone who looks at you to believe that they see nothing. However, you must be very careful not to bump into anyone, and you must also be silent, or the spell will be broken. Now, stand perfectly still as I cast the spell. It will cause you to feel a little peculiar, so don’t be alarmed.”
Allison watched in fascination as Aidric made a few wide-swept gestures over her with his hands while muttering a few strange words almost under his breath. Then, true to his word, she began to feel a curious tingling all over her body similar to the pins and needles sensation of the blood rushing back into a limb that has gone to sleep. Yet, she saw nothing of the magical properties he was using. No colorful streams of light emerging from his hands or even a faint glow.
When Aidric lowered his hands in completion, she asked, “Am I invisible now?”
“I should certainly hope so,” he said with a smile. “I can still see you, but that’s only because I know you are under a glamour. Now, let’s go. The Circle and the king are certainly anxiously awaiting your presence.”
“Don’t remind me,” Allison groaned as she unconsciously took Aidric’s arm again—now hanging casually at his side as to not arouse attention—and allowed him to lead her down the small path in the indoor garden and into the courtyard. Once inside, the courtyard loomed all around them even larger than what she had believed it to be at first glance. It was easily the length of at least four football fields placed end to end and twice as wide.
She had wondered how they were going to fit so many people into one place, but now she saw that they would indeed have no problem in fitting several towns’ worth of people into the courtyard. That a space as large as this was situated within a building made her suddenly question the size of the palace, itself. Maybe later, Aidric would take her outside to see it, to tour the grounds.
As they made their way through the courtyard, Allison noted that everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and either bowed or curtseyed to Aidric as they passed them by. Aidric acknowledged everyone with a slight nod and smile, but he said nothing to them. Just as if he were a king. Allison had to bite her tongue to keep herself from voicing the many questions that suddenly arose in her mind.
True to his word, the workers also didn’t see her even though she practically walked right under their noses. It made her feel strange to think that she was technically “invisible” to all the people around her.
I’ll never get used to all of this magic business, she thought with a sigh.
“Yes, you will,” she suddenly heard Aidric say in her mind.
Luckily they were no longer in the courtyard or else she would have surely blown her cover when she let out a little cry of surprise.
“I wish you wouldn’t read my mind like that,” she told him irritably.
“I didn’t,” Aidric said with a laugh, not at all taken aback by the irritation in her voice. “You bespoke me through thought-speech.”
“What! But—I didn’t mean to—”
“I gather not,” he said, still amused. “It’s an easy enough mistake to make, believe me. I, myself, still do it occasionally when my mind is drifting elsewhere during some of the long Council sessions I’m forced to attend. I can assure you that when it happens, Diryan’s councilors are not amused with my thoughts!”
“But I was only thinking,” Allison explained anxiously. “Don’t tell me you’ve been hearing every single thought I’ve had in my mind today!”
To her surprise, Aidric drew her into his arms and hugged her tightly with rough affection before saying, “I can only imagine what has been running through that pretty head of yours to have you so worried about my knowing about it.”
“I didn’t send my thoughts to you then?” she persisted as she slowly and discreetly moved away from him, blushing profusely at having been so near to him. She dared not think about the heat Aidric’s embrace had caused her to feel in case she accidentally sent those thoughts to him!
Aidric shook his head and answered, “This was the first time you have bespoken me since the last time we spoke mind to mind. However, if you want to avoid any other thoughts to escape you unknown, then try not to focus on your thoughts so intently when you think of others. Until I teach you how to block thoughts from both entering and leaving your mind, you must
be very careful. Your thought-speech is very powerful, and the shield I have placed on your mind to prevent thoughts from both entering and leaving your mind unwittingly cannot prevent a stray thought or two from leaking out occasionally.”
“But Aidric,” Allison said anxiously, “what if I send a thought unknowingly to everyone when I’m being presented before the court and it’s one that they don’t like? They’ll throw me into the dungeons for sure!”
“I never should have spoken to you about the dungeons,” he said with a frown. “It seems that I can’t stop putting my foot in my mouth, can I? I didn’t mean for it to sound as though you would be broadsending every thought that enters your head to everyone who has the ability to receive them. What you just did happens rarely, usually when someone is highly stressed as you undoubtedly are now. Now that you are aware of what you have done, it’s very unlikely that it will happen again. Please don’t allow my carelessness to worry you.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Allison said. “I would rather you tell me the truth than to sugarcoat everything, no matter how bad or scary.” She suddenly looked down at her feet as they walked. “I haven’t been making it very easy for you to deal with me, have I? My suddenly appearing here must be horribly disrupting to your own life. I’ll try hard not to be a bigger burden to you than I already am, I promise.”
“A burden?” Aidric asked, sounding truly surprised. “Whatever gave you that impression? I find your company refreshing—someone who can jest, laugh, and cry about things other than that damned silent war with Mihr. Believe me when I say that it pleases me greatly that Diryan has given you to me as an apprentice. I don’t want to hear another word about this burden nonsense.”
“No matter what you say, I still feel like a burden and not just to you, but to this whole kingdom,” Allison insisted bleakly. “I don’t know why I was brought here—whether it was by your god or because of some huge cosmic coincidence isn’t important. My presence here is far from a welcomed sight judging from the little you’ve told me about your Golden Mage prophecy. I shouldn’t be here, and yet, here I am with no hope of ever returning home.”
Upset, Allison quickly turned her head so Aidric wouldn’t see the tears welling in her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to just drop where she was standing and release all the anguish she was keeping bottled up inside, but instead, she fought back the tears and struggled to regain her composure. These days, she had no problem with crying in front of people, but the last thing she wanted to do was to make a spectacle of herself in front of this man again.
“Allison?”
“It’s nothing,” she replied, perhaps a little too sharply to be convincing, as she turned around to face him again. “Sorry,” she said almost in the same breath, casting her eyes down. “I’m tired and anxious about the presentation. I know that’s not a good excuse for my behavior, but if you’ll forgive my bad manners, I think we should go on and get this presentation over with.” She raised her eyes and managed a wry smile. “I think I’ve stalled long enough.”
Aidric returned her smile and said, “There’s nothing to forgive, milady, but you are right. We should be getting on to the Throne Room. The king allows me a little latitude where his patience is concerned, but even I can overstep his boundaries sometimes. This is probably one of those times. No doubt he has already chewed off all of his fingernails and half of his councilors’.”
Allison laughed as Aidric led her through a door and down another long corridor. Her stomach was tied in knots by the time they stopped again. She suddenly wished that she hadn’t eaten anything earlier because she started to feel a little queasy when she realized that in a few minutes she would be facing the king and an unknown number of his court. It would do little good for her first impression if she threw up her lunch onto the king’s feet!
However, she lost some of her anxiety when she set her eyes on the extravagant double doors up ahead that could only lead to the Throne Room. It seemed that the palace would never cease to amaze her, not surprising given the restrictive life she had once led.
The doors were either solid gold or thickly gold-plated, and a mural of an unknown battle was painstakingly etched into the soft metal to cover every inch of both doors. Light seemed to radiate directly from them so brilliantly that Allison couldn’t look at them without squinting. On either side of the doors stood two columns from floor-to-ceiling seemingly cut out of a nearly colorless crystal-like substance. She couldn’t believe that the Lamians had found crystals large enough to create those two monstrous columns.
She pointed over to one and asked, “Aidric, are those columns really made out of crystal, or are they just glass?”
“Neither,” came the reply. “Those columns were cut from a couple of diamonds Diryan had hailed in from Sersia. The types of crystals I think you mean have never been found so large. Now, if you would pardon my absence for a moment, I must speak to the guards before we are allowed to enter.”
Allison merely nodded dumbly, distracted by the impossibility before her. Ignoring the guards and Aidric completely, she walked over to one of the columns and ran a hand over the smoothness of the jewel. She could see the colors of the spectrum glimmer throughout the flawless, diamond column as she circled around it.
A diamond, she thought wondrously. Aidric talked about it so casually, and yet, if I tried to cash in on just a piece of this back home, I would definitely be billions of dollars richer! I wonder if they even think of precious stones as valuable here beyond being just another beautiful decoration?
She took a step back from the column uncomfortably when she noticed that the guard not speaking to Aidric was staring at her intently, his face completely expressionless and unreadable. Hastily, she looked away and wished that Aidric would hurry up and finish talking with the other guard. This guard’s total lack of emotion disturbed her more than if he would have gaped at her in horror as she expected.
To her relief, Aidric abruptly motioned for her to come to him, and she hurried over to his side, self-consciously aware that the guard’s eyes still followed her every move.
“I don’t like the way that guard is staring at me,” Allison whispered to Aidric with a nervous glance in the guard’s direction. “I feel like he’s looking for an excuse to slice me in half with his sword!”
“Pay them no mind, milady,” Aidric sent into her mind. “It’s merely their duty to look so fierce. Gaul is a master at looking like a brute. It’s his way of safely gawking at you without appearing to be doing so. You must remember that they are as curious about you as you are about them and this world.”
Aloud, he said, “The Circle and the king are ready to receive us. I’ll do most of the talking, so you need not say anything unless a question is directed to you. Just remember to curtsey before His Majesty when I announce you. I’ll help you through this as much as I can.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Despite Aidric’s reassuring words, Allison didn’t feel very reassured as both guards each opened a golden door, and Aidric half-pulled her inside after him. She couldn’t help jumping a little as the doors banged shut behind them, echoing loudly through the silence of the enormous Throne Room. It sounded so final, as if the closing doors had sealed her fate. She swallowed down her fear with some difficulty and willed herself to appear outwardly calm even though her heart was threatening to tear out of her chest.
Several gasps of shock immediately followed the echoing of the closing doors. Suddenly, Allison felt the weight of dozens of eyes on her as she reluctantly took in the scene before her.
At once, she knew why this group of people called themselves the Circle. Over two dozen elegantly dressed men and women sat side by side on a narrow, elevated platform that circled the entire room along the walls, broken only in the center by the silver- and blue-carpeted aisle leading from the doors up to the dais where the king of Lamia and a silver-haired woman who was probably the queen sat. Inside the circular platform lay several rows of marble bench
es on either side of the aisle, a setup much resembling that of a church.
Four marble columns similar to those that lined the corners of Aidric’s sitting room, rising at least two hundred feet to the high, arched ceiling, lay on either side of the aisle at both the beginning and ending of the aisle where the circular platform was divided. On the wall behind the throne seats hung a magnificent tapestry of a large silver teardrop, a hint of a figure within, against a sapphire-blue background.
The whole effect was just as overwhelming as Allison had feared. It took every ounce of willpower she contained to prevent herself from fleeing from the room and all those penetrating stares that seemed to demand to know the secrets of her very soul. Aidric’s grip on her arm abruptly tightened as if he sensed that she might bolt. With his empathic abilities, it was probably closer to the truth than she realized.
It seemed that everyone began to murmur at once when the initial shock of her appearance wore off, until King Diryan shouted for silence. Instantly, the room fell silent. Fighting back tears, Allison hardened her expression and allowed Aidric to lead her up the silver- and blue-carpeted aisle until they both stood only a couple of feet away from where the king and queen sat in regal silence.
Allison’s eyes widened as she stared up at the queen. Like Aidric, the woman’s appearance seemed otherworldly. She was not young—Allison could plainly see that by the faint lines around her eyes—yet, they seemed to refine the woman’s features in a way that probably made her more beautiful now than when she was younger.
She had an agelessness about her that made pinpointing her age impossible, especially when her hair was a lovely shade of silver that seemed to sparkle with its own vitality and not at all like the dullness of the silver caused by aging. Allison suspected that it was the color the queen had been born with as Aidric’s true hair color was white.