Fantasy Kingdom XXI

by Lisa Anne Nisula

  Phichorian placed a hand on Charles’s shoulder and led him out of the room. Sir Amertious and Princess Melissina followed them into the hall and went out the first door to the courtyard.

  Phichorian led Charles out through another door. “I think they want to be alone.”

  Charles nodded.

  Chapter 6

  Phichorian seemed to know where they were going and led Charles through the maze of offices and classrooms and back to the courtyard. “The library is that big building in the center.” Phichorian pointed before starting across the lawn.

  “You know your way around.” Charles hoped Phichorian would take the hint and explain.

  “I attended this university before I went to work for the king.” He turned to Charles. “Surprised?”

  Charles tried to shrug, but he was in the middle of chaffing his arms to warm them so it didn’t come out quite how he’d intended. Phichorian seemed to understand.

  “Sir Amertious would be shocked, but I am a fully qualified wizard, specializing in the useless area of ancient mythology. It’s how I met Princess Melissina.” Phichorian caught the door handle and pulled the door open, gesturing for Charles to go in ahead of him.

  The library wasn’t that different from other libraries Charles had seen. Instead of computers, there were desks with large manuscripts chained to them. Other than that, there were the usual tables with students and rooms of bookshelves just like back home.

  Phichorian nodded to a student shelving books. “I bet that’s Camille.” Hearing her name, Camille turned.

  Phichorian smiled and crossed the room. “Dean Shellwood said you would know of empty rooms for us.”

  “Oh she did?”

  Phichorian ignored her skeptical tone of voice. “Yes, I’m not sure if she meant just us or Princess Melissina and Sir Amertious as well. She may take care of them herself. And Bobble the sprite can certainly stay with us. He doesn’t take up much room.”

  Charles and Phichorian may not have impressed Camille, but their traveling companions certainly did. “There are empty rooms in the Finnegal Tower. I’ll get a key.”

  * * *

  The room Camille brought Charles and Phichorian to was small and simple, with two beds and two desks. It was slightly warmer than the hall, but Charles was still tempted to wrap himself in the blanket. He hadn’t realized how thin his dress shirts were.

  Phichorian flopped down on the bed closest to the window and hung his head and shoulders down between the bed and the wall. Charles could see Phichorian feeling around until he called, “Found it!” His legs kicked around until he managed to get them under him and leverage himself up. “Here we are. Something Sir Amertious would never think of looking for: an against-the-rules firepot. Hold this while I get the stand.”

  Charles took the black iron, egg shaped thing Phichorian held out to him and watched Phichorian flatten himself against the wall until he found what he was looking for. It was a round, black iron, five-legged stand which Phichorian placed in the middle of the room.

  “Just balance that in the middle, wide end down.”

  The firepot balanced easily in the wide top circle of the stand and the smaller inner circle kept it off the floor.

  Phichorian shook his hands a few times, then rested them on either side of the egg. Charles watched as the egg started to glow, then go dark. Phichorian took his hands away and nodded. “It should warm up in here now.”

  Charles stared at the firepot. It had gone back to dull black iron. He knew Sir Amertious wouldn’t believe it was hot, so he reached his hands out, hoping he looked like he was warming them and not checking on it.

  The firepot was warm, not as hot as a real fire, but his hands were feeling nice and cozy.

  “Told you I was a fully qualified magic-user,” Phichorian grinned so Charles would know he didn’t mind Charles’s doubt. “Once it’s finished warming up, we can toast things over it. Maybe toasted bread and cheese sandwiches.”

  Charles thought it sounded like a grilled cheese sandwich. “Where do we get the cheese?”

  “Another university trick Sir Amertious would not know, or approve of, but no magic this time.” He pulled his knapsack towards him and took out a small bag from the front pocket. “It’s always good to know where you can pilfer a bit of food. I do like to keep in practice.” He unknotted the bag and nodded to the bed. “Spread out my cloak so we have something to put this on.”

  Charles did, and took Phichorian’s small knife out of a pocket. Phichorian’s bag had bread, cheese, apples and a flask, which Phichorian sniffed and said was apple cider.

  While Charles sliced the bread and cheese, Phichorian searched the room until he found a thin metal rod they could use as a toasting fork.

  Phichorian gave the first of the finished sandwiches to Charles. It was like a grilled cheese sandwich, warm and gooey and very good.

  “Like it?” Phichorian asked as he bit into his own sandwich.

  Charles nodded.

  Phichorian took a swig from the cider flask then handed it to Charles. “The sandwiches are good with apples in them too. Should we try it that way next?”

  Before Charles could answer that it sounded good, there was a rattling at the door. Phichorian got up and looked out into the hallway. Bobble was there. “Are you busy? Can I bother you?”

  “Come on in,” Phichorian said.

  Bobble flitted over and landed on the edge of the desk.

  “Did they figure it out?” Charles asked.

  Bobble managed a weak smile. “Nothing was obvious at first glance. Dean Shellwood wanted to try a few things on her own. It will be fine, I’m sure it will be fine.”

  “Of course it will,” Phichorian said. “Help yourself to some fruit.”

  Bobble took a piece of apple but didn’t eat it. “I mean, if it was something very bad, she would have seen it right away.”

  “Definitely,” Phichorian answered.

  “So it’s something unusual.”

  “Probably something you couldn’t have predicted,” Charles added.

  Phichorian smiled at him.

  “Maybe it won’t be so bad.” Bobble picked up the piece of apple and started to eat.

  Phichorian let Bobble relax for a little while, then asked, “Do you know when they’ll want us?”

  “Dean Shellwood said she’d send students for us, but not for several hours yet.”

  Phichorian nodded and turned to Charles. “Would you like to see some more of the campus?”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  “What’s wrong?” Phichorian asked.

  Charles shrugged.

  “Missing your parents?” Bobble asked.

  Charles didn’t want to say that the delay, even of a few hours, was much too long. But he remembered how focusing on his problem had made Bobble ignore his own. “Just worried about them. I know they’re wondering where I am. And I don’t know what I’ll tell them.”

  “What do you mean?” Phichorian asked.

  “I don’t want to tell them that I ran away; that would hurt them too much. But if I say I was kidnapped, that’s a whole different set of problems. I’d have to say how the kidnappers got in, and describe them, and there’d be police, and what if someone matches the description and gets arrested. And the truth is definitely out. They’d never believe that.”

  “That is a problem,” Bobble murmured.

  Phichorian nodded. “It is. I’ll give it some thought. Maybe I can come up with a good story for you, although it will be difficult since I don’t know the structure of your authorities. Oh well, a good story is a good story. Should we go on that tour now?”

  “All right.”

  “You coming, Bobble?”

  “I’d better since you don’t know the new laboratories and work rooms. The recently added crystal room is particularly impressive.”

  “Then we’ll start there, if you don’t mind.”

  Bobble looked very enthusiastic about it.

  �
��Sounds good.”

  * * *

  The crystal room was impressive. Instead of the shelves of little stones Charles was expecting, the room looked like a cave. The walls, the floor, and the many rocks in the center of the room were carpeted with crystals. They were covering every surface except for the small stone paths cutting through the room.

  There were students in the room too, filling small baskets with crystals.

  “They’re harvesting,” Bobble told him.

  “Harvesting? You mean they’re growing?”

  “That’s right, take a look.”

  Charles wandered around, fascinated by the tall quartz crystals, the blankets of small salt crystals, and the many colors of the tourmaline crystals. After Charles and admired everything he could see and had asked about everything that interested him, one of the students gave Charles a small piece of malachite as a souvenir.

  As they were admiring a fine collection of geodes, Sir Amertious walked into the crystal room, his boots clanging on the floor, making the crystals shake.

  “Gently,” one of the students hissed.

  Sir Amertious tried to muffle his steps. “The Dean wishes to see all of us now.”

  Bobble got very quiet.

  “It’ll be fine, you’ll see,” Phichorian said, but Charles couldn’t tell if he meant it for him or Bobble.

  Princess Melissina was waiting in the hall. She fell into step beside Charles and Bobble. “If there’s a way to fix it, Dean Shellwood will find it. She’s been a great friend to our family for many years.”

  * * *

  Dean Shellwood was in a workroom, beside a long table with the sweater in the middle of it. Behind her were shelves filled with gadgets, gyroscopes and scales and fancy bottles that Charles would have liked to examine if he hadn’t been so nervous.

  Dean Shellwood looked up. “This is a very peculiar problem. I do not see any sign that the locating charm failed.”

  “Locating charm?” Princess Melissina asked.

  “Yes,” Dean Shellwood answered. “Bobble added a very complex locating charm to the sweater.”

  “It was supposed to find the hero,” Bobble murmured.

  “What were the exact words?” Dean Shellwood asked.

  “Find the true owner of this sweater,” Bobble answered.

  “That seems right, and there is nothing wrong with the charm itself. And you say the woven spell worked?”

  “We got in and out of the fortress through Necorious’s spells.” Phichorian answered.

  Dean Shellwood tapped the table with a wand, sending little sparks out from the end. “And I don’t see a problem with the joining of the spells. A pity really. It’s an ingenious idea, a way to be certain the sweater goes to the person best suited to its powers. I wish it had worked, or I knew how to fix it. Oh well. Charles, you might as well take this back.” She pushed the sweater across the table to him.

  Charles picked up the sweater and put it on. At least it was keeping him warm.

  Princess Melissina spoke up. “What do we do now?”

  Dean Shellwood shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know where the spells went wrong so I don’t know how to correct them. If you had brought someone more...”

  “Heroic?” Charles offered.

  “Older. Someone older,” Dean Shellwood said. “If it had gone to someone older, I would have said it worked and we didn’t understand what it found.” She started tapping her wand again. “Don’t look so incredulous, Amertious.”

  Charles stared hard at the table, hoping to hide his smile. Dean Shellwood hadn’t even looked up and that had thrown Sir Amertious.

  Dean Shellwood went on, “If it had brought us, say a scholar, then I would have said we needed to research more. But I can’t make anything of this.”

  Dean Shellwood’s wand had been sparking more wildly as Dean Shellwood tapped it more vigorously, until one of the sparks flew a little farther than the others and set a stack of essays smoldering. Phichorian hit the tiny flames and put them out.

  Dean Shellwood looked up. “Thank you, Phichorian. All I can suggest is for Bobble to start over. When there is a less immediate need, I hope you will come back and we can consider your modifications in more detail.”

  Bobble pulled off his little hat and began wringing it between his hands. “If you’re certain... A great honor... Of course I would be honored...”

  “Then it is settled. Now, would you like me to arrange rooms for the night or will you start back tonight?”

  Charles stayed quiet. He wanted to go back so he could be sent home, but he didn’t want to be the one who said it.

  It was Princess Melissina who finally decided. “I would like to go home and speak to Father as soon as possible.”

  “Very well.” Sir Amertious did not sound pleased.

  Dean Shellwood nodded. “I will have your wagon brought to the courtyard in half-an -hour. Will that give you enough time to collect your things?”

  Phichorian and Princess Melissina both nodded.

  “Then I will come down to bid you farewell. Bobble, if you would wait a moment, I’d like to speak with you.”

  * * *

  Phichorian led Charles back to their room. Charles repacked Phichorian’s bag while Phichorian shut down the firepot. As Charles folded Phichorian’s cloak, he asked, “Sir Amertious seems kind of...” He struggled to find a word that described the knight without being too rude himself. He liked Phichorian and didn’t want to alienate him if he was friendly with the knight.

  Phichorian waited for him to finish the thought, then went on as if he had. “He is in charge of the King’s Guard and that makes him...” Phichorian seemed to be having the same problem. He grinned a little. “He takes his responsibility very seriously, and he’s devoted to his order.”

  “Order?”

  “The Order of Rooksguard. It’s a great honor to be given it for service to the crown. It’s honorary for most recipients, but for a knight, it is a real order with real codes and it is an even higher honor to be the recipient of it. All members of the King’s Guard have it, and knights like to follow codes. Especially knights like Sir Amertious.”

  So Phichorian didn’t care for Sir Amertious either. “So how did he end up engaged to the princess?”

  Phichorian stared at the ground, forming his answer. “Royal marriages aren’t about the people involved. In a way the whole country is marrying the person. And Princess Melissina takes her role as the heir very seriously. Her father kept the land peaceful and prosperous by being a good king and having a reputation as a fierce warrior from his youth. Princess Melissina is no fighter, so she has chosen a husband who is.” He shrugged. “Very proper and logical.”

  “But you don’t approve.”

  “It’s not my place to approve or not. It really isn’t my business.” He looked up and forced a smile. “We should finish off the rest of those sandwiches before we leave. Destroy the evidence.”

  Charles could tell Phichorian wanted to change the subject. He grabbed one of the sandwiches and started to eat. They finished off the sandwiches in silence while Phichorian waited for the firepot to cool down so he could re-hide it behind the bed before they left.

  * * *

  In the courtyard, the wagon was waiting for them, the horses being held by a groom. Princess Melissina's and Sir Amertious’s horses were also ready, Sir Amertious’s being held by one groom, Princess Melissina's by six. Phichorian and Charles climbed into their wagon and were ready to go when Princess Melissina came down. She managed to get on her horse in spite of all the help.

  Dean Shellwood came out with Bobble and they remained deep in conversation until Sir Amertious arrived. He looked around, realized he was the last, and went to his horse without a word. Bobble flitted up to the wagon and perched on the back of the seat by Charles’s shoulder.

  Princess Melissina didn’t comment on Sir Amertious’s lateness either. She turned to Dean Shellwood.

  “Thank you for your h
elp.”

  “I wish I could have been more help, Your Highness. You are always welcome here.”

  “Thank you.” Princess Melissina turned to Sir Amertious. “Shall we go?”

  As they rode out of the gates and back the way they had come, Charles watched the university shrink into the distance. This time he was really going home.

  Chapter 7

  As the wagon rolled over the final hill before the castle, Princess Melissina reigned in and looked at the horizon.

  “Something wrong?” Phichorian asked.

  “I don’t know,” she sighed. “It just doesn’t look right.”

  Sir Amertious realized they had stopped and turned back. “Is there a problem?”

  “Of course not,” Princess Melissina said. “I was just looking.”

  Sir Amertious snorted and spurred his horse forward. Melissina nudged her horse along.

  “Giddup,” Phichorian said to their horse. Then he turned to Charles. “Keep your eyes open.”

  “What am I looking for?”

  “I don’t know. Whatever is making the princess nervous.” Phichorian turned back to the horses. “Don’t worry if you don’t see it. Princess Melissina didn’t.”

  Charles tried to study the landscape. It was like a memory puzzle- look at a picture for a minute then remember what you saw, made harder by the twilight shadows obscuring everything. And then it hit him, “No smoke.”

  “What?” Phichorian asked.

  “No smoke from the chimneys. That’s different.”

  Phichorian looked around. “It is. I wonder why everyone left.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It depends on why they left.”

  “Is there a good reason?”

  “If you mean not scary, I’m working on it.”

  * * *