“Probably to keep the teenagers from getting into it…” grumbled Dorian.
“In any case,” I continued, “Marc and I concluded that it would ruin if it was left too long, so we convinced Dorian to have some with us. None of us were particularly keen on wine back then, so we were rather glad to be able to drink ale instead.”
“No need to make it sound as if we were regular drinkers.”
I laughed, “Indeed, we were not. While Marc and I had stolen a bit of wine a few times before, our friend, Dorian the Pure, had never tasted a drop of alcohol before that day.”
“What happened?” said Rose, leaning in closely. The story had her complete attention. Dorian groaned.
“We found three large tankards and filled them to the brim,” I explained. “To be honest, they really were large. Each one would hold a full yard of ale, but after we had each drunk ours down, Dorian here was overwhelmed by emotion.” I grinned at my childhood friend.
Rose let out a small laugh, while Penny asked me, “What sort of emotion?”
Looking at the ceiling I sighed dramatically, “The noblest of emotions, love… that is what spoke to Dorian’s sloppy drunken heart that day!”
“You don’t have to be so damned poetic about it,” complained Dorian.
“Marc and I tried to cover the fact that we’d had a bit to drink, but it was no use with Dorian beside us. After we left the cellar, we tried to sneak into the kitchen to steal some of the left over bread. When the cook caught us, he could barely scold us for all of Dorian’s professions of love and affection. From there he forced us to stop every time we met someone so that he could tell them how much he loved them,” I laughed as I recounted the tale, and the lights in the room seemed to dim.
“It wasn’t as bad as all that,” said Dorian sourly.
For some reason it had gotten really quiet, so much so that it made Dorian’s voice seem louder than normal, but when I listened I still heard the same background noise as usual. In fact the room was quite loud with people’s voices. Strange. Shaking my head I responded to my friend’s remark, “Oh, it was bad! You told Benchley that you loved him as well.” Benchley was the valet and chamberlain for James Lancaster, and a figure of stern authority throughout our boyhoods.
“I forgot about that part,” Dorian admitted.
“Hah!” I said in a voice that sounded too loud to my own ears. “You threw up on…,” I paused as the room grew dim. The light was fading rapidly, but no one else seemed to have noticed. An oppressive silence grew around me at the same time.
A feeling of panic gripped my heart, and I stood up suddenly. My friends watched cautiously, unsure if my strange expression was meant to be part of my tale, or something to be concerned about. I felt Penny’s hand on mine as she studied my face. “Is something wrong, Mordecai?”
I was smothered in a darkness so profound, even my magesight could not pierce it, while at the same time my ears seemed to have stopped working. Looking at my wife’s face I spoke, “I’ve gone blind.”
She stared at me curiously. “Don’t be silly, you’re looking directly into my eyes.”
That made no sense, yet she was correct. I could still see her, and everyone else for that matter. The sensation was similar to the first time I had experienced seeing with my magesight alone, an occasion in which I had been in a pitch black room without realizing that there was no light. “Wait, that isn’t right,” I said agreeing with her, as comprehension of my situation dawned upon me. “I can still see… it’s my magesight that’s gone.”
“Now who’s drunk on one cup of wine, eh?” commented Dorian.
I ignored him and stared wildly around me. My sensation, my ‘feeling’ for everything around me was completely absent. Though my eyes still worked, everything looked flat and two dimensional, as if the world had lost all depth and much of its color as well. I couldn’t hear anything either.
It wasn’t ordinary mundane sounds of people talking around me, or the sound of plates and cups as people ate. No… the sounds I was missing were the voices that had been my constant companions for many years now. It had been something so pervasive, so omnipresent I hardly noticed it anymore; the tiny songs and melodies of people’s bodies, of furniture, or the gentle susurrating music of the wind… the deep drum beat of the earth’s heart below. It was all gone, as though the universe itself had gone still, holding its breath in anticipation of some important event.
“He’s not joking, Dorian,” said Rose to her husband, “Something is wrong with Mordecai.”
“What’s wrong with Daddy?” asked Moira, tugging on Penny’s dress.
“Nothing darling, I think he just had too much wine,” said Penny immediately.
I had broken out in a cold sweat, and a faint feeling of nausea swept over me. “I think perhaps I should retire for the evening,” I told them uncertainly.
Penny didn’t waste any time. Reaching out she caught the nearest server by the arm as he was passing by with a tray of meat, “Tell Peter that the Count isn’t feeling well and has decided to retire for the evening.”
The poor fellow was startled and almost attempted to bow with the platter in his hands. “Yes, mi’lady.” Turning he started to continue down the table with his tray.
The countess’ voice caught him before he had gone two steps, “Set the tray down, it can wait. Inform Master Tucker immediately.”
I was already on my feet, so I began heading toward the exit without waiting. Dorian caught up with me in time to prevent me from walking into the door frame; I had looked back to see if Penny had the children in tow. I wasn’t used to navigating without my magesight. Before I could pass through the doorway, a collective gasp echoed through the hall, and looking back I knew immediately why… one of the large enchanted lights in the center of the great hall had turned a vivid blue color.
Complete silence fell over the crowd for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, until it was broken by the sounds of the bell tower beginning to ring. We were under attack.
Chapter 20
I was numb with shock as I stared at the blue light. Not blue, I thought to myself, it should be red. I can’t fight without magic! Panic overwhelmed me for a moment, as all my well made plans crumbled around me, falling apart like a house of cards. Everything had hinged upon my magic, without it I couldn’t face the gods, without it I couldn’t use the enchantments that I had prepared.
Black despair devoured my courage as I realized that everything I had worked for was about to be destroyed. Everything I had ever done would be wiped out. After they kill me, they’ll undo everything I’ve ever done. It was all for naught… The urge to vomit sent me to my knees. “They shouldn’t be here yet,” I said quietly.
Looking up I realized that every eye in the room was upon me. I was their hope, and most of them had no idea that something was seriously wrong with me yet. Run! I wanted to scream at them. There is no hope. Once they discovered that my magic was gone, they would surely panic anyway.
A small voice cut through the madness in my head, “Dad? What’s happening?” Matthew’s small hand was on my arm, and then I saw his blue eyes, looking to me for reassurance.
I spit, trying to clear my mouth and stop my urge to retch. “I’m a little sick. I think I ate something bad, but I’ll be alright.” I’ve been poisoned, came the thought as I said that. “The blue light means that we are under attack, and that the castle defenses have been activated.” Taking a deep breath, I stood and stroked his hair. The gesture was to calm myself as much as it was for him.
Dorian’s gaze bored into me. “Your orders, my lord?” We had stood together through worse before this.
“This should be a red condition,” I told him without explaining.
His eyes widened slightly, “It’s too late for that, the plan is too different. Yellow is the best we can manage if people are already heading for the blue meeting points.”
He was right of course; it was a flaw in my plans that there was no
easy way to switch from blue or yellow to red. It was also something I should have realized before now. “Give the men orders for yellow then. I’ll find Walter and have him change the color immediately.”
My friend nodded and turned to his fellow knights, “You heard our Lord! Pass the word and get to your stations. Encourage everyone to pick up their pace! We need everyone to head for the teleportation circles in the courtyard immediately.”
Penny stood next to me now, with a hand on my arm to steady me. “What’s wrong with you, Mort?” she said quietly.
I wanted to lie to her. I needed to lie. If I didn’t she might not leave me to do what must be done, but as I looked into her brown eyes I felt my will falter. “I think I’ve been poisoned.”
“Then you’ll come with me,” she answered immediately. “You can’t fight like that.” Her part in every one of the plans was to take our children and retreat to our hidden mountain cottage.
“No,” I said firmly. “There are things that must be done.”
“You said your magesight was gone. What of your magic?” she asked pointedly.
I already knew the answer to that question. Whatever else the poison might have done to me, it had completely snuffed out my power. “I will have to find Walter and instruct him on what to do.”
Penelope’s cheek twitched as she clenched her jaw. We both knew I was likely condemning myself, and Walter as well, to death. In years gone by, she would never have cooperated with such a plan, and her eyes showed me clearly how she felt about it, but she was a mother now. Instead of arguing she kissed me quickly before whispering, “You’re a good father and a stupid husband. I love you.”
“I love you too,” I managed to reply before she turned away. Tears were starting in her eyes.
Penny began issuing orders immediately, “Rose, you will accompany me. Is Gram in the nursery? We have to stop there first anyway, to collect Irene.”
Before Rose could respond, I spotted Elaine and her brother George heading for the door. “Elaine!” I said loudly, to get her attention.
She stopped and walked toward us instead. Elaine had been avoiding me since our ‘conversation’, and something in her step now told me that she’d rather not have to deal directly with me, even now. “Yes, my lord?” she asked.
“Where were you going?”
“To the building in the yard, to begin transporting people to Albamarl, that is my assigned task if the blue beacons are lit,” she replied calmly, though she had an edge about her.
“I’m changing it to yellow once I reach the central chamber,” I informed her, “for now I want you to escort Rose and Penny.” I put a hand on George’s shoulder, “I want you to handle the teleportation circles. Go now.”
Walter’s only son straightened a bit, and with a mute nod left. His sister seemed confused, however. “You don’t trust me to handle my task?” asked Elaine.
“No, it’s because I trust you that I’m sending you with my family. They will likely need a wizard with them in the days to come, and I won’t be there,” I told her.
Her gaze went to the floor, “You should send my father instead.”
“He’ll be staying with me, and you’ll likely curse me for it later. I’ve chosen you for this, Elaine.” I commanded, and without looking back I began walking. I needed to get to Walter, and I didn’t have much time. Without my magesight, I couldn’t be sure, but at a guess their eyes were on my back. The urge to look back, to see Penny and the children one last time, was almost overpowering, but I knew that if I did so, I wouldn’t be able to continue.
My eyes were burning, and my steps were a bit unsteady, but I made it out of the room without stumbling. The anger helped. People were everywhere in the halls, rushing back and forth, gathering their children and essential items, but they gave way before me, so I had little trouble reaching the entrance to the keystone room.
The wall was unmarked, and few even knew it was there, since I had had it hidden with masonry and enchantment. Even if I had had my magesight I couldn’t have found it; the runes hid it from even magical sight. I hope the door still opens for me, I thought to myself. It didn’t require magic, but I worried that without my magic, it might no longer recognize me. Placing my hand in the proper spot, I was relieved when the door opened silently before me.
Walter looked up in relief as I entered, “I put up the barrier as soon as I sensed him.”
I tried to project a calm I didn’t feel. “Where did they appear, and which one is it?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Walter replied, “I haven’t actually sensed one of them. One of Master Grayson’s foresters spotted a large group of foreign men moving through the woods a few miles off.”
A sense of relief flooded through me, if it wasn’t one of the gods we would be fine, assuming I could survive whatever had poisoned me. A question leaped to the forefront of my mind, “Wait… why did you light the blue beacon then?” An attack by a mundane army wouldn’t be enough to justify evacuating the entire town.
“Our scout was undetected as far as he knows, and he spotted them several miles off, but by the time he reached the town gates, he realized that they were close behind him,” Walter explained. “He barely had time to signal the guard to close the gate before they reached it. He said they were moving impossibly fast.”
“What does that mean?”
“They were running as fast as horses,” said Walter, “…even though they wore armor. When they reached the gates, they began pounding upon them with the heavy iron maces that they were armed with.”
His description suggested that they were supernaturally enhanced, much like the Knights of Stone, but there were no such troops that I knew of. “What happened then?”
“By the time the runner alerted me, they had nearly demolished the town gate and some had scaled the wall itself,” replied Walter. “The guards managed to knock several off the walls with poles, but one reached the top and got inside. He killed over twenty guardsmen, and nearly managed to open the gate itself, before Master Grayson brought him down with a lucky shot through the eye.”
Luck has little to do with that man’s aim, I noted silently. “How did they scale the walls so quickly? Did they have hooks?”
“I am told they simply drove steel spikes into the walls and pulled themselves upward, withdrawing the spikes as they went and driving them in higher up.”
“Using hammers, that would take too long, they should have been full of arrows by then,” I observed.
“They didn’t use hammers. They were driving the spikes in bare-handed and pulling them out the same way. A rough count indicates that nearly two hundred of these men are outside the walls now. Should I have used the blue beacon, or simply put up the barrier enchantment?” asked Walter uncertainly.
“Two hundred!?” I said incredulously. There were only twenty Knights of Stone, and I was the only man capable of creating such bonds. The gods had to be involved, of that I could be certain. “You chose rightly,” I reassured Walter. “I’m assuming the barrier enchantment put an end to their attempts to enter.” As I spoke, I leaned against the wall and slid carefully down to the floor. There were no chairs in the room, and I was still feeling very unstable.
“Yes,” he said, nodding. “When it went up, those still climbing were flung from the wall itself. Those battering at the gates haven’t been able to do any more damage at all. Are you alright? You don’t look well.”
“As a matter of fact I don’t think I am,” I said honestly, “I think I may have been poisoned.” To further emphasize my point, I leaned over and emptied my stomach onto the floor. I’ve never been very good at vomiting, and frankly, it wasn’t the sort of thing I really hoped to acquire skill at. They always tell you, you’ll feel better afterward, but in my experience that was generally untrue. Once my belly was empty, the retching simply became more painful.
Walter went pale and covered his own mouth with his hand. Evidently he wasn’t the sort of fellow with a strong s
tomach for such things. He managed to keep from joining me, though. After a few minutes I had regained control of myself, and I moved away from the mess I had made. Idly I wished that Walter was good enough at healing to block my nausea. That had been a useful trick I had learned during Penny’s pregnancies, but it required a certain degree of sensitivity and a lot of confidence to accomplish. Though I trusted Walter with my life, I didn’t trust him enough as a healer to ask him to muck around with my brain like that.
“It looks worse than it is,” I told him eventually, as I tried to regain my dignity.
“And it smells worse than it looks,” he answered acerbically. Walter occasionally showed signs of dry wit.
“Thanks for your sympathy,” I responded, with a crooked smile.
“Don’t we have a healer who can help?”
I shook my head negatively. “No, just you and me, and I’m afraid I won’t be doing any healing for a while.”
“I know nothing about treating poisons,” said the older wizard.
“Neither do I, and the only person that I know of who does, is in Lancaster,” I told him.
“Who?”
“Lady Thornbear… don’t you remember how she kept you drugged until I could question you?” I reminded him. Many years before, Walter had been forced to aid in the kidnapping of my wife. He had been captured and Dorian’s mother had kept him drugged and insensible for days, before I was able to talk to him.
He shuddered at the memory, “I was sick for days after that. I think I’d rather die than take any remedy she offered.”
“Heh…,” I uttered, giving a half-hearted chuckle, “I can’t say I blame you. I’d probably feel the same if I’d been in your position.”
“You should let me take you to Lancaster. Perhaps there’s something she can do for you,” he suggested before adding, “How serious do you think this poison is?”
“I thought it was bad, but now that a few minutes have passed, my symptoms seem to be improving,” I replied.
“Why would anyone bother poisoning you with something non-fatal? Your enemies aren’t known for their mercy,” Walter argued. A moment later he clarified, “Not that I’m hoping it’s a fatal poison, you understand.”
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