by Guy Antibes
“So why did he let me go?”
Saganet chuckled. “Merry came to your rescue. I suspect he wanted you hidden in the Juvenile Home. Maybe he would arrange your death there.” Saganet shrugged. “He didn’t seem too bothered by any cares of the world when we saw him at the theater.”
“So I don’t really know if people are after me, after you, or after Loria Mansali?”
“I’m afraid I don’t. We could capture a thug and have them tell us who hired him the next time you run into a set of them.”
Ricky shivered. “If the time comes. I don’t want to go out seeking to be beaten or killed. Who beat you when you struggled to get back to the cottage?”
“That’s an easy question to answer. Taranta’s men. They made no secret about it when they pummeled me, adding that the Duke supported their actions. Reporting them to the constables wouldn’t result in their arrest.”
“Maybe we need to make the cottage more secure,” Ricky said. Saganet’s house would withstand attack better than his Shantyboat, where a few good kicks could break down the walls. The best defense against that was anonymity, but Ricky didn’t know how many people connected him to Gobble, his grandfather, whose boat was on the other side of Shantyboat Town. Ricky couldn’t think of Gobble as anything but his grandfather, no matter what his real relationship.
“Good idea.” Saganet cleared the table. “I think we should plan on you living here next year rather than in a dormitory where you’d be more exposed. Are you willing to do that?”
Ricky couldn’t help but smile. “I’d like that, Saganet.”
“That’s settled. We can take it year-to-year after that. I must admit it’s nice to have another person around.”
“What about your group? We were going to talk about that at the gymnasium a few days ago, but we didn’t get around to it,” Ricky said.
“No. Let’s put that discussion off until you see if you can figure out the spell.”
~
Professor Calasay’s office wasn’t as impressive as Ricky had thought. He pictured something a little smaller than Mistress Doubli’s, but the place looked much, much smaller. Ricky sat on one of the two chairs surrounded by roughly made bookcases. He had never seen scroll cases before, but they were here, too.
The Professor leaned across the desk that seemed to fill half the tiny space. “Betti will be here in a few minutes. She always ran late when I knew her in the theater, always pushing the clock.” She smiled and looked relaxed, which surprised Ricky.
A tall, portly woman with shiny blonde ringlets flowing from her head stepped into the office. “Dari!” she said with a grin and hugged the Professor before squeezing into the only empty chair. “So, this is Ricky.”
Betti Singlia dazzled Ricky with her pale blue eyes. They almost looked like shards of ice, but if they were, they would quickly melt with the warmth generated by the happy face. She wore rings on five of her fingers and overdressed for a meeting in Professor Calasay’s dismal little office.
“It is,” Ricky said. “Hendrico Valian, but my friends call me Ricky.”
Betti giggled. “I just called you Ricky, so does that make us friends?”
“We can start that way,” Ricky said.
Professor Calasay clucked her tongue. “That’s not a nice thing to say.”
Betti raised a finger, “But truthful. So Merry didn’t tell me much other than she needed me to help an exceptional student’s project.” She beamed at Ricky.
“This is not an official school project, and it may be dangerous. Ricky wants to attempt to duplicate sorcerous communications.”
“Porio Mansali’s secret spell?”
“Exactly. All I know is that it is rumored to use joint resonance between two magicians. None of Ricky’s classmates are suitable partners, nor do they understand the need for precautions.”
“Well, I can certainly teach you the principles of joint resonance,” Betti said. “What we do beyond that needs someone with more, uh, creativity than I have.”
“If Ricky is anything, he’s creative,” Professor Calasay said. She pushed a candlestick to the edge of her desk. “Show her colors and how to light up the flame.”
Ricky hadn’t prepared for a test, but he tried to embellish on Professor Calasay’s demonstration. He started with a hum, and that wasn’t enough, so he raised the register and opened his mouth to sing. When Ricky felt his body fill with the right resonance, he pointed all the digits on his right hand upward to will little twirling balls of flame, red, white, orange, green, and purple. He expanded his hand, increasing the distance between the balls, and then concentrated on twirling them around his hand. He then put them together into a white flame and shrunk it, so it lit the candle.
“Simple, but impressive control, Ricky. I’m sure Dari told you that control is always the key. Very good.” She looked at Dari. “What levels have you taken him?”
“He can shout, but we won’t even get to that in his Advanced Sorcery class.”
“What effects can you produce with a shout?” Betti asked.
“I speed up. Everyone else seems to stop or slow down.”
“Amazing. Few can do that. Porio can shout rather well, I heard, and of course, Adapo could.”
Dari looked at Ricky with calculating eyes. “Did Merry tell you about Ricky?”
Betti nodded. “She did. Adapo and Vera’s son. I barely knew them. Porio, I know by reputation.”
“What do people generally do with a shout?” Ricky asked. He wasn’t comfortable being the object of the conversation.
Both women looked at Ricky as if he had suddenly appeared in front of them.
“In the theater, it’s generally a spell with an exclamation point,” Betti said. “A big blossom of flame or glowing color. A shout, properly executed, and few can, is instantaneous. If you sped up, that means your shout augmented your physical powers and your perception. I can’t imagine how you did it, but Merry was there to witness your spell. It’s a lucky thing you didn’t burn yourself out.”
Ricky nodded. With what he had learned from Professor Calasay, he had taught himself an incredibly complex spell and lived to tell the tale. He recalled the girl with the burned hair in the commissary once again. “So I must be gifted with a good deal of control,” Ricky said.
Betti’s eyes flashed. “I wouldn’t agree to Merry’s invitation if she didn’t vouch for your control.”
“I wouldn’t permit it, either,” Professor Calasay said. “You have some innate ability to keep yourself intact, but remember, you can sap your powers like you did when you softened the soil working for Jockal.”
Ricky nodded. He wasn’t worried about hurting himself. The prospect of his efforts being directed by these two women was more intimidating.
“Please don’t tell anyone about my parentage,” Ricky said, sensing the meeting about to end. “If the current Duke of Naparra finds out I know about my legacy, he may take even more drastic measures than tucking me away in Shantyboat Town.”
~
“Am I not good enough?” Loria said. “I’m as powerful a sorcerer as you are.”
Ricky couldn’t agree with her last statement, but he wouldn’t respond. Professor Calasay had told her that Ricky’s work with Betti was a private tutoring experience under instructions from Mistress Doubli and specifically did not include Loria.
“It’s out of my hands,” Ricky said, truthfully.
“A good friend you are,” she said as she turned around and stalked away, leaving him standing in front of the door leading to the Sorcery lecture hall.
Ricky felt his face turn red, and he could feel sweat erupt from his body. She had never been so angry with him before. Couldn’t she see that working on sorcerous communications might be something the Baron didn’t want her to touch?
Could there be something more? Had she told her father about the project? If that happened, then would he force Loria into trying to make an effort fail? Ricky shook his head. There was nothing he
could do other than abandon his project, and he wasn’t about to do that. Loria would come around. She’d always been a good friend.
Ricky made it through the day. Loria made it into the commissary after he did and found a different table. He tried to smile at her, but she refused to look over at him. Ricky walked over to her table.
“I’m sorry about this morning.”
She looked up at him with eyes beginning to water. “So am I. After all we’ve been through, am I not to be trusted?”
Ricky didn’t have a good answer since part of her exclusion was a matter of trust.
“Mistress Doubli didn’t want to put you in a position of doing something against the Baron’s wishes.”
She looked down at her plate and clenched her fists. “Why are you so accommodating to Father and so insulting to me?”
Ricky reeled from the anger in her voice. “I, I…” His words weren’t coming out right. “I’m sorry,” Ricky said, knowing his words would mean nothing to her.
“So am I. I don’t want to see you again. Go.” She waved him away, her head still down.
Ricky nodded, but Loria didn’t look at him. He left her and drifted over to the gymnasium. Benno didn’t seem to have heard about their disagreement, which suited Ricky just fine. For the first time, Benno had his way with Ricky.
“You don’t seem like yourself,” he said.
“My mind is on something else.”
“Well, thanks for the time today. I have to leave a little early.” Benno waved a little note at him.
Ricky sat down, glumly watching Benno leave. Saganet walked over after dismissing his class.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Loria said I don’t trust her. She’s right, I can’t.”
“Uh-oh,” Saganet said. “You don’t need to be a sorcerer to see where she’s coming from.”
Ricky nodded. “She said she didn’t want to see me again.”
“I see the peril having her participate. It’s as valid a reason as anything else,” Saganet said.
“Do you think she could just cancel our friendship over this?”
“No way of knowing. Differences of opinion. A sudden lack of trust. Not including your friend. These are all ways that relationships can be at risk. I’m not a person who should be opining, but I will. Just let things lie. Do your research, as it is very important. When you are done, then tell her all about it. You are already at risk of losing a friend.”
“Some friend,” Ricky said, suddenly feeling angry. “I tried to say I was sorry, but that just won’t be enough.”
“Sometimes it is,” Saganet said, shrugging, “but sometimes it isn’t.”
Ricky shook his head. He didn’t want to hear any more words. “I’ll clean the gymnasium and head home.”
Saganet already had two practice swords in his hands, but he just nodded and put them back on the rack.
~
Loria ignored Ricky during the next morning’s Advanced Sorcery. Professor Dari looked at her and then at Ricky. She gave him a nearly imperceptible shake of her head.
The class felt like it lasted half the morning. When it was time for Benno to meet with Ricky, the tutor didn’t show up for the session and failed to attend the gymnasium for the first time.
The next day, Benno escorted Loria from the Advanced Sorcery class.
“Your time with Loria is finished,” he said as he passed Ricky in the hall.
Loria looked at Ricky, anger smoldering in her eyes, and then set her gaze forward.
He sighed. Betti would take up his conditioning time with Benno. It seemed a fitting replacement.
Ricky showed up early at the next Advanced Sorcery session, hopeful to speak with Loria, but she didn’t appear.
“Loria withdrew from Advanced Sorcery and returned to my basics class,” Professor Calasay said. “I’m sorry, Ricky. Your life isn’t over, and neither is hers. Just be patient. What will be, will be.”
He still stung from her rejection. If she wanted him to feel as angry as she did, Ricky refused. He didn’t like the pain he felt, but he’d been brought up differently. Anger never worked with Gobble, and he doubted that it would solve anything with Loria.
That afternoon, after lunch, he met Betti and Professor Calasay in the lobby of the Administration Building.
“I have secured a room in this building,” Betti said, leading them down a corridor after climbing the sweeping stairway to the second floor. “Only the three of us will have keys.”
She led them into a large room, the size of Mistress Doubli’s office. Blackboards covered one entire wall. Windows lined the other side that faced the front of the building, and empty bookcases hugged the other two walls. A couch and two chairs faced a small fireplace, with a large table in the center of the room.
“First of all, Professor Calasay wants you to read these.” Betti pointed to seven books stacked in two piles on the table. A box of scrolls sat next to the books.
“They don’t leave this room,” Professor Calasay said. “Some are mine, and the others are from the offices of the other Sorcery professors. Treat them gently. Scrolls are in the box. Treat them more gently. Betti will show you how. I will leave now. Betti will keep me up-to-date. I think you understand why we don’t want to talk about your project anywhere else in the academy where someone could hear.”
Ricky nodded. The two women treated his project so seriously he suddenly felt the weight of responsibility. Betti took out needlepoint, of all things, from her voluminous satchel and sat in one of the easy chairs.
“Read the books first,” she said. “If you need help with any terms or concepts, I’ll be right here. We’ll save the scrolls for last.”
~~~
Chapter Twenty
~
R icky arrived at Advanced Sorcery, waiting with the remaining three students for Professor Calasay to arrive.
“We are disbanding the class. Everyone but Hendrico will return to my first-year course.”
“What’s the deal with Valian?” Victor asked.
Ricky could see the anger begin to build on Victor’s face.
“He is working on a special project for me, and I will require more of his time.”
Victor grunted. “You are saying that he is a better sorcerer than I am? Is that what you claim? You know that is impossible. He’s only a commoner.” He shook his head, his face turned even redder. “I can’t accept this. I’m stronger than he is!”
Professor Calasay put her hands on her hips. “Stop this whimpering right now. I refuse to classify your relative strengths, but Hendrico has an idea that he wants to work on. I promise that I’ll put enough additional content into the first-year course to keep you from being bored, young Taranta.”
Victor snorted and clomped up the stairs and stopped at the door. “You’ll regret ever starting your chicken-brained project, Valian!” he said before he left. The other two students looked at Ricky with suspicious eyes. He had made no friends with them.
“You are all dismissed, including Hendrico,” Professor Calasay said, looking rather peeved.
~
Three weeks later, Ricky had finished the books and now faced the daunting task of reading the scrolls. The stack of paper and pens for notes that Betti had brought in were nearly filled with notes, and Betti quizzed him relentlessly. He now spent three hours a day in the Administration Building.
Saganet still insisted that Ricky sweep out the gymnasium and keep up with his conditioning.
“I am tired,” Ricky said. “I can barely read the scrolls. They are all written by hand.”
“But there must be treasures inside,” Saganet said as they went through staff forms side by side.
“I can only stuff so many treasures inside my head. I need a break.”
“I’ll insist you take a few days off. I am your legal guardian, you know.”
“Legal?”
Saganet raised his eyebrows. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that we made your g
uardianship permanent. Merry and I thought it safer for some reasons to use my name rather than hers. I am afraid you and I are stuck together for the foreseeable future.”
“Does that make Mina my sister?”
“I didn’t adopt you,” Saganet said laughing. He broke out of his form. “If I adopt you, there might be complications, if and when we challenge Dino Noacci’s claim to your family dukedom.”
“That is a possibility?”
“Don’t worry about such a thing. We wouldn’t dare try it until you are twenty and a legal adult. That’s more than five years away,” Saganet said. “Until then, no claims, no talk, and no action on your noble background.”
Ricky shrugged. At this point, he knew the future could change in an instant. Loria’s anger had finally subsided and was replaced with total indifference. She had finally joined a circle of noble girls, but Benno always hovered close by.
“I’ve been fine with keeping my background a secret.” There were no friends at Ricky’s side, and with his dedication to his project, he didn’t have time for any.
Saganet kept him grounded in schoolwork. Instead of being graded, his professors sent monthly notes to Mistress Doubli on his progress. Ricky assumed he did well enough since she had never called him in to complain during the entire school year.
Ricky took a deep breath to eliminate the burden of too many thoughts and focused on his forms and then on the sparring match. Despite his gimpy leg, Saganet had a knack for always being better than he was in every weapon category, but Ricky knew he consistently improved.
“I’m going back tonight after a quick meal in the commissary,” Ricky said. “Can you suffer on your own?”