by Pam Uphoff
The captain chuckled. "No, the Dragons can talk. And they're very nasty to cross. Bit of magic in them, you see, and we're a bit flammable."
"My parents and grandparents knew some dragons, when my mother was small. They went to school for awhile, so the young dragons would learn human manners." Xen watched the flapping creature veer away from them, black against the sky. "My mother says the females really do kill and eat their mates, so that's just as well."
Lester snorted. "Xen, you've got more tall tales than these sailors." His tone added, and no more sense.
Xen sighed. "Flying. Now that would be fun."
Lester shook his head in disbelief. "Dragons. Shape changers. Next I'll believe the sailors' stories about the Sea Hags."
Xen raised an eyebrow. "Sea Hags?"
"Yeah, they say you shouldn't kill, and especially not eat dolphins because some of them are beautiful women under a curse—and one of them is really the Sea Hag who cast the curse. They say that men who've lain with a Sea Witch can never drown, and that their ships will never sink."
"Umm, how interesting."
"Xen. It's a tall tale. Don't look like you are thinking seriously about it."
***
The rest of their rotation laughed at the thought of an actual dragon. But every time Xen was out to sea after that, he noticed the others keeping their eyes on the sky.
Three weeks later, the peaceful sailing ended abruptly.
"All the nations, for obscure historical reasons, claim absolute sovereignty over the oceans within two hundred miles of their shores." Garit squinted to the west.
"Except the Sea Kings of the Cove Islands." Xen had the glasses and watched the Cove Islands naval ship as it turned to intercept them. "Who claim to own all the waters of the world."
Captain Hadrey growled. "They cause trouble, now and then. And they damn well know our ships, know that this is a training ship. Lightly armed."
Lester sniffed. "They wouldn't dare do anything."
Xen passed the glasses to Garit, and stepped aside. Do naval engagements come within range of magic? What would work? Too far for push, and what good would it do? Shield? There's a whole lot of kinetic energy in an iron ball traveling fast. Can a shield be anchored in water? How about the ship's hull? If I could spread the energy widely enough it ought not damage it. "If" being the problem. I mostly just shield myself, never tried to cover something this big.
He pulled out one of his vision spells to get an even better look at the other ship. It looked like it would pass in front of them, or perhaps turn to pass them heading the opposite direction. Which would put them in a good position to use those thunder guns of theirs.
"It looks like they're loading their bow gun." Garit was frowning.
"For a warning shot across our bow." The captain explained. "We're supposed to be intimidated, and heave to. We never do." He shot a worried look at the prince.
He really doesn't want to have to explain to the King how his youngest son was killed.
Which would probably be enough to start a war.
Gunpowder. Black powder. Very, very flammable, Dad says . . . How about a very small, very hot fireball? How far can I throw it?
The gun on the bow looked to be about three feet long, perhaps ten inches diameter, with a smaller . . . bore? Is that what Dad called it? Darned thick walls, must be a heck of a . . .
A flash, a roar, a billow of smoke.
Xen dropped his enlarged vision spell in time to watch the projectile skip off one wave and sink into the next. About thirty feet in front of the ship.
Squares opened along the sides of the Cove Island ship as it curved to parallel their course from less than a hundred feet away. What Xen could see of the thunderguns, these were a lot bigger than the one on the front of the ship.
Captain Hadrey's hands were clenched on the rail as he glared across at the other ship.
Xen closed his eyes. No bright glows on the other ship. No Sea King. He could see the faint glows of ordinary men, see them carrying material to the weapons behind those hatches. Sorry, but I don't think that's a good idea.
"Captain Hadrey, I am a wizard. May I have your permission to, well, try to toss a fireball into their powder?"
Everyone within hearing stared at him.
Garit grinned. "How accurate are you? I've seen them drill. First they put in the powder, stuff it down the . . . they call them cannons. See the first gun? Then they'll stuff the ball down. If you could ignite the powder before they put the ball in, it might dissuade them from further actions . . . "
"Do it." The captain snapped. "If you can."
Xen gathered sunlight in his hand. Squeezed it down. Hot. Small. Fast and far.
He flicked it, followed it with his mind, steered it. Right down . . .
The gun roared. Screams and curses.
"Oooo! It wasn't tied down." Garit grinned, watching it all through the glasses.
Xen could see crewmen running about. Then the Cove Island ship was past, curving away, back out to sea.
Everyone cheered. Except for the few closest. They stared at Xen.
Captain Hadrey shook himself. "So. Lieutenant Gannis, what is our position and heading?"
***
They dissected the actions exhaustively, both with superior officers, and among themselves. Poor Xen got a lot of odd looks. Some speculative, some disapproving, more disbelieving. Even the Auralian mistresses seemed a bit alarmed by "an actual wizard" the few times they all dined together, in between more short cruises.
Garit loved being at sea. Climbing the rigging, following orders, and then beginning to give them. He was the most knowledgeable of the rotation. He even got the helm while the captain of the Wren organized some boarding parties. No fighting, though, not even actual smuggling. Baylor sneered.
There is nothing cowardly about being glad for smooth sailing and honest traders. And no, I don't regret my idea about the "misfire" in the cannon. The same explosion outside the cannon would have spread to more of their powder, and might well have sunk the ship. There's no glory in starting a war.
Garit steered all through a night cruise, Asti cursing under his breath trying to get accurate star sightings, and an absent-minded looking Xen occasionally pointing and stating a distance to this or that island, rock or reef. The sailors were giving him a wide berth as they passed. His country cousin was still getting spooked looks. Apparently the crew gossiped about the officers. Last Garit had heard, they were speculating about whether Xen was a wizard, or a mage. Muttering about the untrustworthiness of the uncanny. And the one that had Xen laughing helplessly, about the last Sea King's heir having been kidnapped.
"That was over fifty years ago. Have the rumors gone generational, now?"
The sailors being laughed at scowled and made themselves busy elsewhere.
Garit ignored their jittery glances, and steered the ship back to port at dawn. Captain Hadrey admitted to being impressed.
***
By the end of their six months afloat, all six of the Auralian mistresses were pregnant, and the men either smug or apprehensive. Probably a combination of the girls' expectations and the men's parents' reactions.
At least none of them had had their funds cut off, although Rally's started coming roundabout through an uncle. Lady Faloni had not approved. Only Dominic and Xen were living on their Army pay, and Dominic was chronically short of money. Xen found he needed very little, and even Prince Garit was frugal. Keith Rivolte, on the other hand, liked to bet, generally on horse races. And lost, more often than not.
Chapter Four
Late Fall 1388
Karista, Kingdom of the West
Their next assignment was six months with the King's Own in Karista. The elite unit was not a usual part of the young lord's rotation. No doubt Garit's presence had a lot to do with this assignment.
Garit had rolled his eyes and suggested that another six months afloat would be even better. They loaded all their gear and horses, and mi
stresses aboard a civilian ship that ran freight and passengers on a regular route along the coast. Garit gazed wistfully at the wheel all the way to Karista.
Rally's indulgent uncle had arranged a house for the women.
"Hey, damn smart arrangement, if you ask me. Damn clever, boy! Your own private cathouse. Very civilized." Uncle Jake Faloni had met them at the sea docks with a carriage for the women and led them through town to a quiet neighborhood of fairly large houses.
The six gulped collectively.
"Err, how much is the rent?" Dominic looked a bit panicked.
The uncle waved it away. "I talked to Rally's father, got him to pitch in toward buying it, then hit up the rest of your fathers for the rest of it." He frowned and looked them over. "Which one of you is Lord Xen? Your father wants to speak to you. He said something about staying with your local relatives."
Xen boggled as the others started laughing. "I didn't, umm, oh hell. Wait. You mean Dad's here?"
Garit was snickering. "You better go explain."
"No need to go anywhere." Xen said, suddenly recognizing the figure riding down the street. At least he wasn't riding Jet. Phantom was getting enough looks as it was. Pyrite trotted happily over to see his old friend.
"No, Dad, I am not running a brothel. Six of my friends picked up some young women, and have since, umm. Well, that first night in the River of Sand the lights were dim and the women all had bleached white hair, so I can't guarantee that none of the expected babies are mine, but I don't actually think so."
The Wolf snorted in amusement. "I thought it sounded remarkably unlikely that you wouldn't have told us if you'd taken up long term with a woman, and especially if you were going to present us with a grandchild. Your mother looked a bit wistful, by the way."
"And Lord Faloni actually hit you up for money?"
"Yep. The sheer novelty of the old rake's approach stunned me into a contribution."
"Hey, did you just call me an old rake?" They'd ridden to within hearing range as they spoke.
"Sorry, Jake. He's a middle-aged rake, son."
The uncle laughed and they all explored the house and the six women all staked out their territories in the expanded space. A bedroom apiece, and two bedrooms for children. A huge kitchen, a dining room big enough to call a banquet hall.
Right, so it was probably pocket change, by the standards of the Wolf Company, but still . . .
:: Worth it, for the expression on your mother's face. And then Rufi started fussing over a bunch of Auralian whores getting close to Prince Garit, so I thought I'd take a look in. ::
Xen cast an exasperated glance toward his father. :: Rufi contacted you about a prince with a whore? ::
:: The whole royal family has some sort of odd mage gene variant—well the male half of the family—and when Rufi says "Old Gods, I shouldn't have let that boy go," I get headaches. Not summoned, but I can't shut him out. And with you involved. . ." The old god looked a bit wistful.
"C'mon, I told you about Nighthawk." Xen punched his shoulder. It wasn't nearly as far above his as it used to be. And tried to tighten up his mental leakage.
"She's a beautiful child, but she's never been allowed to be ours. Eight years old, already. Kids grow so fast."
The women did remarkably little squabbling, with the very pregnant Hoon taking the largest bedroom by virtue of Rally's father holding the largest interest in the house.
The four unattached young men, and the two older men all gravitated back to the "local relative's" house, otherwise known as the mansion of General Rufi Negue.
"I thought you said your mother was a witch?" Asti eyed him censoriously.
"She is. And so is my grandmother, who is General Rufi's illegitimate daughter."
Keith glowered at Xen. "For the last year you've been laughing every time we make some snide dig about courtesy titles, haven't you?"
Xen shook his head. "The problem is, you think titles announce some superior quality of the person attached to it, when I can see they're just words conveying something about the abilities of some distant ancestor. I prefer to concentrate on the actual abilities of the person I'm dealing with."
"You don't think the cream of the human crop rises to the surface?" Asti looked pointedly around as dinner was announced.
Xen grinned. "Sometimes it's cream, and sometimes it's curds. Sometimes it is hard to tell."
They argued philosophy and sociology all over dinner, to the amusement of the older men. His father grabbed him long enough to get his signature on some papers . . . "Proxy for the Wolf Company! Yikes. You trust me to not buy a small foreign country?"
His father just laughed. "Even I haven't got that much money."
Then they hunted down the rest of the rotation and reported in to the Karista barracks for the night.
In the morning they reported to the commander, General Rufi Negue.
"Some parts of the duties of the King's Own look easy. Flashy display. Occasionally diplomatic escorts. But at all times the King's Own must be ready to protect the Kingdom, and the Royal family. Over the next six months you will be seeing that in action. Captain Hannese has your specific assignments. Welcome to the King's Own, gentlemen."
Captain Hannese shook his head at Garit. "It's going to be very odd with you doing the guarding instead of us guarding you. Report to Colonel Janic, please, Lieutenant. Lieutenants Througus and March, report to Captain Carson, Internal Security. Lieutenants Faloni and Rivolti, report to Captain Decke, External Security. Lieutenants Treham, Eckerman, Gannis and Kemper, report to Captain Buteo, Training. Lieutenant Wolfson, report to Colonel Janic, Intelligence. You will all be rotated through all the departments and duties during your assignment here. Dismissed."
Colonel Janic looked his new assistants over resignedly and put them to work collecting and graphing commodity prices. And nearly every weekend getting them invitations to various balls as High Society swung into its 'Winter Season'. They always had lists of who they were to try to meet and later report on. Xen bought a dress uniform, in addition to the two regular uniforms he needed to keep up with his continued growth. New boots to replace the tight, worn ones.
Between Garit's title and Xen's height, they had no trouble at all getting dances, but Garit had trouble getting away from all the people he already knew. Xen danced with the daughters of Auralian and Scooner ambassadors, chatted with their fathers and brothers. The Auralians were interesting. All six of the competing claimants to the title of Amma, and, in theory, rulership of the whole not-officially-splintered-yet country had sent Ambassadors. Xen suspected about half the daughters were intelligence agents trying to create blackmail holds on anyone of importance. He warned Garit.
Who rolled his eyes and sighed, loudly.
"I guess you grew up being warned, eh?" He picked up Garit's little gold pinvase. All the men wore them to keep their lapel flowers fresh. Xen worked a trap charm on it, and put it down.
"It's hell when everyone tells me that if I'm going to be an idiot, I'd better be an idiot with the daughter of a loyal Westerner."
Xen laughed. "I'll introduce you to my sister when she's older. Or maybe my Aunt Topaz. She's only four years older than I am. They're witches, so they have nothing resembling sexual inhibitions, and never, ever marry."
"Very funny. Now tell me why the price of oranges has doubled."
"Remember the weather charts? Wasn't there a late hard freeze on the East Coast? With the wage riots in Ogat shutting down an alternate source, the prices were bound to rise."
"Xen, it's inhuman to remember things like weather charts."
The next day they were back to dancing and chatting at Lord Valsto's daughter's coming out party.
Prince Garit got roped in to the first dance with the dewy eyed sixteen-year old. The poor thing looked like she was having simultaneous attacks of shyness, boldness, excitement and was probably operating under parental orders to latch onto the Prince.
Xen found himself surrounded by the Si
sters from Hell. Not having been formally introduced to their parents, he wasn't sure the Karista Bay Witches knew who he was. Other than a tall available male. They had all the aura of Crescent Moons whose Elders hadn't given them permission to advance. Advancing, for Crescents, involved losing their virginity, getting pregnant and giving birth. Aged from barely fourteen to sixteen, the sexually frustrated witches tended to make him feel like the lamb invited to the wolf family's barbeque. And not at all tempted to let his hormones out of the attic.
But he did dance with all of them, no point in getting the God of Just Deserts pissed at him. Not that they were all sisters, the name seemed to stick to any witches who trained even occasionally with the Karista Bay Pyramid. He wasn't sure what the total head count actually was. Thirteen or fourteen, maybe?
Then he danced with Lady Fasi from Demonia, one of the suspected agents who blushed beautifully and begged him introduce her to Garit. He blocked her standard 'I'm so sexy' charm and caught a stronger one she tossed at Garit. They both chatted with her briefly, but of course learned nothing, before, during, or after Garit danced with her. Xen's charm trap had bagged two more during the dance.
No fool, Garit managed to end the dance in the vicinity of the Sisters from Hell who promptly pounced. The poor little spy—if that was what she was—didn't stand a chance of monopolizing Garit.
Talking with the Ambassador from Fascia—the former capital city of the Auralian Empire—was interesting. That Amma claimant was making a lot of economic innovations and his part of the country was booming. The Ambassador was a cousin of some sort to the Amma claimant, and brought both his daughters and a son to aid his diplomacy on the dance floor. Soltio Jamie Lilian made himself very popular with all the young ladies, and Xen could feel his underlying magical strength, even though he never caught him casting a single spell. Wizard or Mage? Unknown. But also untrained, his shield was instinctive and leaky. Lady Devvy was a good looking woman, Xen had trouble judging her age, she acted older than her apparent age, much like a witch, but there was no magic about her at all.