“You are persuasive,” Alsman said, shaking Theus from his reverie.
“If the two of you can prepare a credible plan, I’ll be a figurehead to help the city shake off the shackles of corruption and self-serving leaders,” he told them.
“Now,” he suddenly yawned. “It’s getting late. I know I should be full of energy after all this wild discussion, not to mention being rescued by a boy who is the goddess’s own chosen instrument, but the truth is – I’m exhausted. Do we have some place we can sleep for the night?”
Eiren and Theus looked at one another.
“We didn’t make any plans yet,” Eiren said. “Theus, give him some coins so he can get a room here at the inn next door,” she directed.
After Theus complied, she spoke again. “We’ll meet you down here for breakfast, and plan how we’re going to make this happen,” she told Alsman as he rose to his feet.
“What did you think you were doing, volunteering me to run the city?” she leaned into to Theus and hissed the question as soon as Alsman left.
“You can do it,” Theus told her confidently.
“Maybe I can, maybe I can’t, but that’s not the point. You’re trying to tie me down here so that I don’t go on with you to the next adventure, and you didn’t even ask me,” she confronted him.
“I was just answering his concern,” Theus was taken aback.
“It’s lucky for you that I can do it – run the city. If working with Vanline has taught me anything, it’s been about how to run complicated operations,” Eiren seemed satisfied to have momentarily vented at Theus. “And he does seem like a good man. If he needs help, I don’t think I’ll mind helping him.”
“And you’ll make the city a better place,” Theus pointed out.
“We’ll see how that turns out. If I do manage to make it work, people will just expect more to be done,” Eiren harrumphed. She sat back and silently watched the people in the tavern after that, as Theus sat next to her. The dinner guests were largely departed, so that only those who were there to drink remained.
“We better go to the inn and get some sleep too,” Eiren announced after several minutes. “We may have a big day tomorrow.”
They rose and walked to the inn next door, and stopped at the front desk.
“We’d like two rooms,” Eiren told the clerk.
“I’ve only got one room left,” the clerk said.
Eiren looked over at Theus. “Great!” she shot him a dark look.
“This isn’t my fault!” Theus protested.
Another customer entered the lobby. “Do you have any rooms available?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” the clerk spoke to the man. “Do you want the room or not?” he asked Eiren.
“Yes,” she answered angrily. “We’ll take it.”
“I’ll need to see your money,” the clerk immediately informed her.
“Give him some money, Theus,” Eiren was unhappy with the situation, and it showed, even after Theus handed coins to the clerk and got a key in return.
The pair walked in silence up the dim stairs to their room.
They opened the door and stepped into the darkened space. Theus use his white magic to create a ball of light that illuminated the chamber. The room was adequately sized, and decently furnished, but it only had one bed.
“The rules are the same as the last time; I’ll let you sleep here, but it’s only to sleep. Don’t get any ideas, or white magic or not, I’ll clout you upside the head,” Eiren growled.
“That’s fine,” Theus replied. He was feeling weary and not in the mood to argue. The use of his energies, and the day chock full of surprises and activity had taken its toll on him. He was ready to sleep. He took off his staff and his sword and his knife, then his boots, and finally stretched out on one side of the bed.
“You can turn off the light now,” he heard Eiren say as he faced the wall.
He extinguished the light, then felt the bed shake as Eiren climbed in.
“Theus?” she said after several seconds.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Can you believe that this morning we were in the caravan, riding through the mountains? Do you realize everything that has happened in the past few hours? We’ve been in Limber – we’ve seen a god! – we’ve traveled through the mountains all the way to Greenfalls in a matter of minutes – and now we’re planning to overthrow the governor! It’s impossible to believe!” Eiren exclaimed.
“And it will get more complicated before it gets easier, I fear,” Theus commented softly, before he dozed off to sleep.
Chapter 26
When they awoke simultaneously in the morning, the pair of travelers were facing one another, their faces close as they shared a pillow.
“Theus, back off!” Eiren sat up as well as pressed Theus’s shoulder away.
“I’m just sleeping!” he retorted.
“Well, stop sleeping. Go clean up and then go down to the tavern and wait for me, and Alsman,” Eiren dictated.
Theus grumbled, but complied, taking his weapons and his pack with him as he went downstairs and next door to the empty tavern.
“We’ve got fried corn mush and oatmeal for breakfast today,” an elderly waitress told him.
“Do you have any bacon?” he asked hopefully.
“It’s bad for you – you don’t want that,” the woman said, then shuffled away.
“I do want that,” Theus muttered under his breath, dissatisfied with the prospect of not having bacon.
He sat at the table and waited. The platter of slices of fried corn mush and bowls of oatmeal arrived at the table at the same time that Eiren and Alsman sat down. The waitress returned immediately afterwards with honey and a pitcher of milk. Theus grumpily added honey to his meal, and listened as Eiren and Alsman began talking.
“I need to go to the warehouses and talk to the stevedores about rounding up some muscle for our people to use,” Eiren began the conversation.
“If you can provide me with writing materials and messengers, I can send notes to several priests and noblemen who will be ready to help us,” Alsman chimed in. “We need to get someone inside the palace to report on what is happening in the governor’s court, too.”
“I can do that,” Theus said confidently.
“You can, that’s right,” Alsman said thoughtfully. “With your invisibility, you do offer amazing opportunities to wreak havoc in the palace. Could you steal the great seal of the city?”
“I think so,” Theus answered immediately.
“What is it?” he asked in embarrassment a moment later, causing Eiren to guffaw.
“The seal is a large metal stamp, something the governor uses to print on official documents to show that he approves of the things they say, like when he creates a new edict or writes a new law,” Alsman explained. “It’s larger than your oatmeal bowl, but not much, and it has a handle.”
“It probably tastes better than the oatmeal,” Theus mutters.
“The oatmeal must not have been too bad; I notice that you ate all of yours,” Eiren pointed out.
“It was good with the honey and milk,” Theus admitted. “This seal sounds like something I could take,” he said.
“It would agitate the governor and cause an uproar in the palace, if it disappeared,” Alsman explained. “They would distrust one another even more.”
“Could we use it?” Eiren asked.
“To crack open nuts?” Theus asked with a laugh.
“No,” Eiren shoved his shoulder. “We could print something of our own, some story about corruption, and then print the governor’s seal on it, and spread it around the city,” she said.
Alsman began to laugh. “That would infuriate them! And there’s nothing they could say! They can’t admit that the seal got stolen from inside the palace, and they can’t say the document’s one of theirs!”
“I’ll go get the seal today. Where will I find it in the palace?” he asked.
“I’ll go
start spreading the word that we’re going to change things; give me some money, Theus,” she commanded as she stood up.
“What’s this for?” he asked blankly as he opened his pack and began to hand her a portion of the funds they had brought from Limber.
“It’ll be useful when I talk to the people down on the docks and in the warehouses; they listen better when money is involved. And give Alsman money so that he can buy paper to write his messages,” she told him. “Theus, go back to the inn and pay for our rooms for another night. Let’s all meet back here at the tavern at midday,” she handed out directions. “Alsman,” she paused, “my lord,” she appended the title respectfully, “give Theus directions on where to go in the palace to get the seal.
“Now, I’m off, and I’ll see you soon,” she waved and then was out the door.
Theus and Alsman looked at one another.
“She knows how to take charge of a situation, doesn’t she?” Alsman observed.
“I think you could say she’s bossy,” Theus agreed.
“Well, I like the way she’s handling the situation. I almost believe you could be right, and we may be able to organize our way into this coup to save the city. Now,” the priest said, then began to give Theus a description of the way into the administrative center of the palace, where the seal was kept in a vault.
“I’ll be back soon,” Theus said nonchalantly as he stood, after listening to the directions. He counted on the sunshine outside the tavern to provide the energy he would need to move invisibly around the palace grounds.
He went back to the inn and paid for retaining the rooms. He was oddly pleased that Eiren hadn’t thought to tell him to ask for separate rooms for the two of them. With that errand accomplished, he walked through the city to reach the palace, which stood atop a slight hill, allowing it to look down upon the neighborhoods surrounding it.
It looks simple to Theus. The walls were not as imposing as the walls around the dark palace of Southsand, and there were several gates open within view, offering him a choice of which route to enter through. He selected his preferred gate to his right, then stepped back into an alleyway entrance and wrapped himself in invisibility. His task accomplished, and his energy coming from the diffused sunlight that filtered down through the thin clouds overhead, Theus set in motion and walked into the palace grounds.
Chapter 27
Theus entered the center of a lightly-traveled gate and walked through into the palace grounds. Alsman had given him directions for the way to navigate to the offices in the back of the palace where the seal was maintained, and Theus set about walking around the building to enter it as close to his goal as possible.
He walked for several minutes, invisible and unnoticed, until he reached the rear of the palace. Two guards stood beside a door that was closest to the part of the palace Alsman had told him to visit. Theus threw his voice to the shrubbery closest to the steps.
“Can you come help me climb out of this mess?” he requested assistance from the shadows under the bushes forty feet away from the guards.
“Help me too; I’m stuck,” he called also from the sculpted shrubs on the other side of the guards. He watched the pair start down the steps, then bump into each other as they tried to go to opposite sides. The collision knocked one to the ground, and Theus laughed at the sight, making both guards look sharply in the direction of the invisible laughter.
Theus stepped away from his position, then threw his voice once again to the left, and added to the comment by forcing a breeze to rattle the leaves of the bush in that location as well. The guards rose to their feet to investigate the disturbance, and Theus darted up the steps and through the unguarded doors to enter the palace building.
The floors were a checkerboard of large marble squares, white and black, and the ceilings were painted with scenes of war battles. The building was quiet elegance, filled with few noises other than the sounds of genteel conversations in rooms with closed doors, and boots that echoed as they walked along the halls.
He had to go upstairs to find the seal. He followed the instructions Alsman had given him, and climbed up a series of wide marble stairs, passing quietly and invisibly by a loitering guard who was talking intently to a maid. Theus walked along a hallway with numerous doors on either side, and he reached the end of the corridor, where a single door filled the end wall.
Theus listened at the door and heard nothing from the other side. The interior of the palace hall was dim, and he was drawing upon his own energies to maintain his invisibility, but he’d used little of his reserves thus far, and so he reckoned he could do more before he went outside once again.
He conjured a breeze, then opened the door and let the breeze blow in as an apparent reason for the door to open. He stepped inside, and realized that his ruse had been a wasted effort; no one was inside the room on the other side of the door. It was an antechamber, with an unmanned desk and chair, and three other doors.
Alsman had told Theus to pass through the center door, and he carefully did so. Inside the room there was again no one. There was only a single window set high, a small window that allowed only a minimum of light to enter. And there was a large table. And there was a curtain drawn across the far end of the room, hiding what was kept in the back space.
Theus released his use of invisibility in order to preserve his slowly draining power, then walked to the rear of the empty room, and pulled the curtain open in the center. It was a heavy, dark piece of drapery that hung from ceiling to floor as effectively as if it was a wall. Theus pulled open a gap several feet wide.
Behind it, Theus found a single marble stand, a half column of stone that had a flattened, squared off small table top at approximately waist height, and standing on the top of the column sat the seal, a metallic half ball with a handle that pointed straight upward as it rested on the table.
The seal glowed, compared to the rest of the space behind the curtain. It glowed with a noticeable light, and Theus was fascinated by the sight. He walked closer to the seal, staring at it intently.
Alsman had made no mention of magic powers for the seal, something Theus was certain the priest would have mentioned. Theus studied the seal closely, and noticed that motes of dust visibly glided through the air above it, as though caught in a strong sunbeam. He carefully moved his hand above the seal, and saw a sharp line of illumination falling from the ceiling onto the seal. Looking up, he saw a pair of angled mirrors imbedded in the ceiling, and looking around, he saw a second set, a pair of slightly curved mirrors where the wall met the ceiling.
It was a clever arrangement of mirrors that focused light from a window onto the seal. There was no magic, Theus saw with relief. He reached out and picked the seal up.
It was heavy. For just a moment, that was all that he thought.
Then a suddenly bright light filled the room, and painfully loud bells seem to be ringing in the very room where he stood. He held onto the seal as he clapped his hands over his ears and instinctively bent at the waist.
“Aaah! So you are alive and foolishly interfering where you should not,” an oily voice spoke to him. The sound of the rasping voice filled his heart with dread and real fear. It was the voice of Donal.
Theus stood upright and pulled his sword free with one hand as he held the purloined seal in the other, and he looked up in a state of fearful resignation.
The bright light that shone upon him came from no source, but hovered in the air, and within the bright light sat a black core. And within the black core he saw a shadowy image of Donal staring intently at him.
“You’ve set off the alarm that has summoned my assigned Greenfalls wizard to the room where you stand, so that you may be dealt with as a thief, little ex-slave,” Donal said.
“Why you are in Greenfalls will be interesting to find out; you should have kept running when you escaped, running as far as you could, in the hopes that I would never find you, as I have.
“I look forward to watching you be su
bjected to interrogation. I’ve grown strong enough to be able to do this, to establish a window that allows me to observe a city that is half a world away,” Donal still spoke, while Theus still remained frozen in fear.
“And you’ll have to explain how and why you came to my very tower in Southsand and stole my pet princess. That was a very bad decision. You made me very angry,” Donal’s filmy visage was contorted in anger as it spoke.
The door from the hall suddenly burst open, and a man wearing a dark red robe stood there taking in the view.
“Master, your presence is no longer required,” the magician spoke to Donal as he sauntered into the room. “I’ll blast this foolish thief.”
“Be careful my student,” Donal warned. “This particular thief is no ordinary being. Somehow this creature has evaded my capture twice.”
Theus instinctively lifted the heavy seal over his head and threw it, not at the live magician, but at the image of Donal. As the seal breached the space where the circle of light shone brightly, there was a loud explosion that knocked Theus from his feet. Dust fell from the ceiling, and Theus saw as he propped himself up that the image of Donal was gone, and the other magician was also prone on the floor.
There were noises outside the room, faint but undeniable. Others were coming to join the fray, and Theus was trapped.
He shook his head, then looked and saw that the magician in the other part of the room beyond the open gap in the curtain wall was starting to lift himself up as well. Once he did, Theus knew that magic would become a weapon, and he would lose.
Theus lifted himself and sprinted forward, raised his heavy, reinforced staff, and swung it at the head of the magician just as the man turned to look at him. The staff struck the man’s skull with a solid connection, and the man was knocked unconscious. Theus ran past him and picked up the heavy metal seal he had come for originally, then stood gasping.
He stood in a small square of sunlight and felt the warmth of the rays that bathed his chest and thighs. The sunlight was energy, he realized. He could resume his invisibility cover without draining his own declining power.
Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3) Page 25