The Vengekeep Prophecies

by Brian Farrey

  Ducking inside the nest, I nearly fell over at the foul stench. Looking around, I saw crude copper pipes and a wall of dull, lead basins. It wasn’t an inn. It was a public latrine.

  Edilman, shaken from his experience, breathed heavily in the corner. Callie stood on the other side of the room, glaring at Edilman.

  “I knew they wouldn’t be happy to learn I was a Grimjinx,” I said, “but I think they overreacted. All the wingless Aviards in Vengekeep do is ruffle their feathers at my family. Too bad we don’t—” Neither Callie nor Edilman responded. They just kept staring at each other. “What’s wrong?”

  Fear in her eyes, she pointed a trembling finger at Edilman. “He’s—he’s marked!”

  I looked over at Edilman’s forearm, exposed after the Aviards tore his clothes. A raised symbol in pink flesh—the S from the High Laird’s family crest—had been burned into the muscle just above his wrist. When Callie and I couldn’t stop staring, Edilman finally turned away from us.

  “That’s the mark of the High Laird,” I told Edilman.

  “I already knew that,” he spat, still cowering from us.

  A moment later, Perrin flew into the room and landed on his master’s shoulder. He gave Edilman a sympathetic nudge with his head.

  “Only prisoners under a death sentence are branded,” I continued. “What did you do, Edilman?”

  I didn’t need to ask. The only two ways to earn a death sentence were treason or possession of fateskein. And I guessed he didn’t have the guts to commit treason.

  “I made a mistake,” he said, turning to us with tear-filled, pleading eyes. “A stupid mistake that I’m still paying for. I’m condemned to die and there’s no reprieve. Only a pardon from the High Laird can reverse a death sentence and, given my background, I’m not likely to earn that any time soon, am I?”

  Callie moved toward the door. “We’ve got to get away from him, Jaxter. We’ll only call attention to ourselves by being with a condemned man.”

  “No, no, please listen,” Edilman begged, falling to his knees as I stood to join Callie. “I need you. I need you both. The Provincial Guard has been tracking me all across the Provinces and they’re getting closer every day. But they’re looking for a criminal traveling alone. They won’t suspect a man traveling with two kids.”

  I looked at Callie and we shared the same thought. Now that we knew the Provincial Guard was onto us too, we’d attract less attention travelling with Edilman. I could see in Callie’s eyes that she hated the idea.

  Edilman used the tatters of his sleeves to cover his branded arm. “I just need your help getting to Port Scaldhaven in the north. There’s a ship there that leaves in a few weeks. It’ll take me far away from the Provinces, where I’ll be safe. I made a stupid, stupid mistake. I don’t deserve to die for it.”

  If it had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have cared. But I couldn’t shake the fact that this man had been a close friend of my parents. I thought of Maloch. We were no longer friends, but I wouldn’t wish this on him. Despite growing apart, I wasn’t convinced my parents would want to see Edilman hunted like this.

  Callie turned away and I went to her side.

  “I know what you’re going to say, Jaxter,” she said quietly. “I think it’s too dangerous.”

  “Callie, we have to,” I whispered back. “You saw the guards. They covered this village with posters. By sundown, those posters will be in every Province. If we’re by ourselves, it’s only a matter of time before someone turns us in.”

  Edilman took a deep breath and said, “What if I told you that I knew a single place where you could find every item on that list you’re carrying?”

  Callie whirled on me, shocked that I’d shared the list with him. Then she said, “He’s bluffing. He’ll lead us on a wild chase, all the while promising to do just ‘one more job.’”

  Edilman shook his head. “Not true. I swear by the Seven.” Then he looked directly at me. “I swear on the kinship of your parents. I’m telling the truth. I’ll take you to a place where you can find everything you need. All I ask in return is that you continue traveling with me to throw the Provincial Guard off the trail. Once you have those plants, just get me to my ship in Port Scaldhaven and you’ll never have to see me again.”

  I looked to Callie, but she still hadn’t changed her mind. She wanted us to sever our ties once and for all right there. And even though the possibility of every item being located in a single place seemed far-fetched, as rare as these ingredients were, I couldn’t turn my back on the chance to save Vengekeep quickly.

  “You’ve got three days,” I told him. “Three days to take us to where we can find everything on the list. And if you don’t, we’ll call the Provincial Guard ourselves.”

  Exhaling with relief, Edilman rose, a thankful smile on his lips. Callie shook her head in disbelief.

  “Three days?” Edilman asked, peeling off his fake mustache. “I can get you there in two.”

  15

  The Dowager

  “There’s a word for a thief who doesn’t know danger: poor.”

  —Minaeris Grimjinx, founder of the Tarana Thieves Alliance

  The tall, imposing wall around Redvalor Castle loomed ahead of us. The two Provincial Guards at the gate, halberds in hand, watched us warily as we approached.

  “Everyone ready?” Edilman whispered. He was nearly unrecognizable in a scraggly wig, false nose, bushy eyebrows, and dentures that gave him a pronounced overbite.

  Callie tugged at the high collar on her dress. “This will never work.”

  “You knew what we were doing when you left Vengekeep,” I said to Callie. “Why did you pack a dress?”

  Before she could answer, Edilman interrupted. “It’s good that she did. We need to look presentable.”

  “This will never work,” Callie repeated. She’d said little else in the two days it had taken us to get here.

  Edilman pointed ahead. “Behind that gate is everything we both need. You get your plants, I get whatever I can grab in the castle vaults. Wait here.”

  We paused while Edilman went to speak to the guards. A moment later, they unlocked the gates and allowed us through. We walked across a courtyard paved with sparkling stone until we arrived at the huge front doors of the castle.

  Redvalor was a castle in name only. It bore none of the battlements or reinforcements of a proper castle. In reality, it was a lavish mansion that had been in the High Laird’s family for centuries. Mostly it had been used as a vacation home for the royal family. However, rumor had it that some years ago, the High Laird’s sister, the Dowager, had a falling out with her brother and had moved into Redvalor permanently.

  Edilman tugged on a rope, and a bell sounded. Moments later, the door opened, revealing a tall, stern-looking Aviard.

  We jumped, the nestvillage still fresh in our minds. But we quickly recovered and pasted large, fake smiles on our faces. The elderly majordomo looked down the length of his ample beak at us with an air of supreme caution. “May I help you?”

  “Greetings!” Edilman trilled in a very high, overenthusiastic voice. “I am Professor Quintas Wenderkin from the Urahl Academy. I do believe the Dowager is expecting us.”

  Edilman produced a pince-nez with lenses so thick I couldn’t imagine he could see through them. He parked them on the end of his nose and elbowed Callie. Callie curtsied while I clutched the sides of my vest proudly, as I imagined a student at the “Urahl Academy” might do.

  On hearing Edilman’s fake name, the majordomo nodded. “Of course, Professor. Do come in.”

  With the setting sun at our backs, we stepped over the threshold into Redvalor Castle. I’d been in some fancy homes in my life. I always imagined that royal residences would put them all to shame. Looking around, I was right.

  Sort of.

  In the cavernous main hall, where I expected to see a floor of shiny, swirled marble, I found a field of soil. A blanket of transparent grass covered the entire floor. Tall, thin tree
s sprouted up, their long branches twisting up and around the shiny copper chandeliers. Large bushes changed from green to red as we walked by. Overhead, a small black cloud hung over a grove of trees, raining down on them. A moment later, the cloud stopped raining, and it floated over to a hedge along the far wall, where it started raining again.

  Amid the miniature forest, contraptions made of metal and wood whirred and clicked. Squatting down, I peered into the nearest, a boxy machine. Inside, I saw pairs of small animals running on wheels that moved conveyor belts that churned the innards of the device. Every so often, a pipe at the top shot a jet of steam into the air.

  The majordomo led us through all this—stepping over knee-high mushrooms with squinty eyes, stubby arms, and several pairs of knobby feet—and acted as though everyone had a small jungle filled with contraptions in their foyer.

  The Aviard held up a taloned hand to stop us in the middle of the room. “Please wait here while I announce your arrival to the Dowager.” He turned smartly and went up a wide staircase that led to a second floor landing.

  Edilman gave a low whistle. “Well, isn’t this …? Help me out here, guys.”

  “Where have you brought us?” Callie asked, fear creeping into her voice.

  I quickly changed the subject. “Will Perrin be okay?”

  Edilman nodded absently, his eyes never leaving the mushrooms that continued to stare at us. Prior to our arrival, Edilman had sent the bird off into the forest. Talented as he was, Perrin enjoyed stealing a bit too much. Edilman had decided we couldn’t risk having him with us in the castle and exposing who we really were.

  “Why would the Dowager be looking for intelligent children?” I asked. I should have brought this up when Edilman first told us about the scheme. But he seemed so sure we’d find all the solvent ingredients here, I’d let it slide.

  “All I know,” Edilman said, “is that several months ago, the Dowager sent word to schools across the Five Provinces saying she was looking for the best and the brightest students the land had to offer. She didn’t say why, only that she wanted to meet with them. I contacted her, posing as a professor, promising to bring my finest protégés for her consideration. Even found a couple of youthful-looking accomplices to play the roles.”

  “What happened to them?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Little bunknugs got greedy. We were a day’s journey from Redvalor when they decided they wanted a bigger cut of whatever we stole from here. In the end, we couldn’t come to terms and the plan fell apart. That is, until I very luckily came upon you two. It was fate, really.”

  Callie frowned. “So, for all you know, she might be some insane person who thinks she can gain youth and intelligence by eating the brains of smart children.” She gave a little yelp when a nearby machine squealed and spat oil across the lawn.

  Edilman shrugged and raised his bushy fake eyebrows. “Erm, I doubt it. She comes from a good family. Good families tend not to feast on the young. Still, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  This didn’t please Callie. She was already angry that we had to pull another con to get the ingredients. During the trip to Redvalor, whenever Edilman wasn’t looking, she would pull out a calendar and make a show of reminding me how close we were to mooncrux. As of today, it was two weeks away. She folded her arms. “And where is Urahl Academy?”

  Edilman considered. “What sounds good to you? How about Abon? Lovely seaside village. Good location for an academy.”

  Callie looked to me, perplexed. “Urahl is par-Goblin for ‘bogus,’” I explained.

  Before we could agree on an appropriate setting for our imaginary alma mater, a thunderous boom echoed in the room. My head snapped around to find the majordomo standing on the second floor landing, bearing a large silver staff that he used to strike the floor twice more. Once he had our attention, he announced, “The Dowager Annestra Soranna.”

  The Aviard stepped aside as a tall figure joined him on the landing. From the neck down, the figure wore a one-piece leather suit like the kind a worker would wear in the Kaladark crystal mines. The suit was covered with pockets that bulged with unseen contents. A large, black glass bubble covered the figure’s head like a helmet. The figure carefully walked down the stairs, gripping the polished brass railing for support. Reaching the soil below, the figure removed the bubble helmet, revealing a regal-looking woman.

  I guessed her to be slightly older than Ma, with a touch more gray in the dark hair that wove around her head like a large cotton ball. The smile on her face was crooked but earnest. Her oddest feature was her uncanny eyes. Wide and unblinking, they never seemed to settle on any one spot for long, constantly flitting about in their sockets like agitated birds. All this combined to give her an ethereal quality, compounded when we heard her airy, lilting voice.

  “Professor Wenderkin!” she said in a singsong tone. She set the helmet down and held out her arms to take Edilman’s hands. Edilman squeezed the fingers of her bulky leather gloves, crossed his feet, and performed an elaborate bow. The Dowager blushed. “How good to finally meet you. I feel as if I know you already from your kind and effusive letters.”

  “Dowager Soranna,” Edilman squeaked humbly, “the honor is completely mine. You do me such service to grant us this audience.” Edilman came out of his bow and placed his hands on Callie and me. “As promised, I’d like to present to you the two top students that Urahl Academy has to offer. Veelie,” he tapped Callie, who launched into a very elegant curtsy, “and Tyrius.” In response to my phony name, I offered a polite, stiff bow from the waist.

  The Dowager tossed us both a strange, toothy smile, and I began to wonder if Callie’s idea of us being eaten wasn’t far from the truth. The Dowager’s continually shifting eyes and the way her head swayed from side to side, as if she were daydreaming, did nothing to shake off that image.

  “Please excuse the state of the hall,” the Dowager said, her arm sweeping to indicate the madness around us. “My work became more than my laboratory could contain.”

  Callie squeezed my elbow as we thought the same thing. What does the High Laird’s sister need with a laboratory?

  “I had just about given up hope,” the Dowager said, taking Edilman by the arm and leading him across the hall. Callie and I fell in step behind them. “Several professors have brought their most promising pupils to call, but I’m afraid none of them quite measured up. From your letters, I was sure I would find what I need in the students you promised to bring. But I was expecting you several months ago.”

  Edilman nodded. “My apologies, Dowager. We would have arrived on time were it not for the fact that poor Veelie here came down with a bout of sagpox.” The Dowager winced at the news and Edilman hastily added, “But she’s completely cured now and eager to see if she can serve your royal needs.”

  “We shall see,” the Dowager said, with a somewhat dubious glance at Callie. “I was happy to receive your recent missive, announcing your imminent arrival. We’ve prepared rooms for you. I’m sure you must be tired and hungry.” The Dowager turned to the majordomo, who had been quietly following our small entourage. “Oxric, please take them to their rooms and then escort them to the dining hall.”

  Oxric, the majordomo, nodded. Edilman kissed the Dowager’s gloved hand as Callie and I repeated our curtsy and bow. The three of us left the Dowager in the main hall to follow Oxric up the grand staircase to the second floor. We were relieved to find that the second floor was more … normal. Callie and I waited at the top of the stairs as the majordomo took Edilman down the right-hand hallway to his room.

  “I still don’t like this,” Callie muttered. “I don’t trust him, Jaxter. Do you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Selling fateskein,” she tsked. “How stupid is that? And dangerous. For all we know, he’s the one who sold the fateskein to your mother.”

  I hadn’t thought of that. It was possible. In one of his disguises, he could have very easily sold Ma the yarn she was seeking,
not mentioning it was really fateskein. Was the problem that had come between him and my parents so great that he would have endangered them like that? I made a note to keep a closer eye on him. At the first sign of treachery, Callie and I would bolt.

  Callie nodded down to the Dowager, who hadn’t moved. The lady seemed transfixed by one of her sputtering machines, her head continuing to sway to unheard music. “Not what I expected from someone whose family rules the land,” Callie whispered. “She seems … not quite all there.”

  I shrugged. “Should make this an easy job. We get what we need for the solvent, Edilman nicks whatever valuables he can find, we all go our separate ways.”

  A moment later, the majordomo took us down the left-hand hall, stopping first to show Callie her room, then taking me to my room next door. It was massive. My room was the size of the entire first floor of our house in Vengekeep. Polished glenoak furniture. A four-poster bed with shiny, red silk sheets. A copper-trimmed fireplace. A small terrace overlooking a sprawling garden with fountains and hedge mazes. A selection of dress clothes in various sizes had been laid out on the bed. I tried each one on until I found a sharp set that fit perfectly. I studied myself in the mirror and had to admit that I looked every bit the dashing rake. I couldn’t pick a lock or forge a coin to save my life, but how could the Dowager resist that smile?

  Resist it she did.

  When we joined the Dowager in the lavish dining room, her demeanor had changed drastically. She was suddenly cold and distant. Edilman had warned us this might be the case, that she might force us to do the talking in an effort to impress her.

  We sat at the table as the knee-high mushrooms waddled in with our salad plates atop their caps. When we took the plates, the mushrooms waddled off, muttering to themselves.

  “They don’t seem very happy,” Callie noted.