Ascendant

by Craig Alanson

  “Shomas!” Madam Chu wagged a finger at her fellow wizard. “We are going to eat dinner in the palace. Couldn’t you wait?”

  “Oh, you know how these royal dinners go,” Shomas grumbled, “lots of talk, and little bits of fancy food. A man needs something substantial to fill his belly.” He tried to wipe away the stain, but only smeared it deeper into the fabric of his robe.

  Koren brought a wet cloth to clean as best he could, but Madam Chu waved him aside. “Koren, dear, you have been so kind to us, let me take care of this for you.” Touching her hand to the blob of jelly, she whispered words under her breath, and the robe was clean! “It’s not really clean,” she explained, “but the stain will be invisible for a while. Now, Shomas, try not to embarrass us tonight, please?”

  Although Koren, in his official purple robes, escorted the wizards to Carlana’s private dining chamber in the palace, he was not allowed to serve them at dinner. Even the palace servants, after they brought the food and drink, we told to wait outside, and the doors firmly shut. Koren stood in the hallway, wishing he had eaten something before coming to the palace. The door on the other side of the hallway opened, and Ariana waved him to join her. “I’m supposed to be working.” Koren protested half-heartedly.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that, they’ll be in there for hours. Mother and Paedris love to argue. Are you hungry?”

  “I could eat.” Koren admitted, when he saw the delicious dinner waiting in Ariana’s private dining chamber. He still felt vaguely nervous around Ariana, although it wasn’t as bad now. “Why aren’t you in there with the wizards? You’re the crown princess.”

  “Mother never lets me hear when she is talking about anything secret.” Ariana stuck her lower lip out in a pout, and Koren thought that was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. “Do you know what they’re talking about?”

  Koren shook his head.

  “Mother says it must be important, we haven’t had this many wizards in the castle since I was a little girl.”

  “All they’ve been doing is talking, and reading a lot of dusty old books and scrolls. And they argue a lot. Except,” Koren paused, with a buttered roll halfway to his mouth, “they stopped arguing a couple days ago.” After they asked him questions about his family, and then held hands and chanted around him. And then he’d had a dream about the wizards standing over him, while he’d been asleep.

  “What happened?”

  “I, uh, I don’t know.” Koren lied. He didn’t think Paedris wanted anyone to know what went on inside the wizard’s tower. Whatever involved him couldn’t be important, anyway. He shrugged. Who knew about wizards? “I guess they agreed, about whatever they were arguing about.”

  “That must be why they’re with mother, to tell her what they decided. I hope Paedris doesn’t try to get her to send the army out again in the Spring, they have that argument every year. If Paedris thinks three more wizards are going to change my mother’s mind, he is in for a surprise.”

  Koren frowned at Ariana's remark. The Regent was powerful, to be sure, but more powerful than the four wizards, or even Paedris alone? "Ari- Your Highness, do you know how powerful Lord Salva really is?"

  "Your Highness?" Ariana asked with a tilt of her head. "Koren, please call me Ariana, when we're alone. Or nearly alone," she added with a nod to her maid Nurelka, who sat discretely by the window. "I need someone who can talk to me as me, not by my official title. I have too many people who do that."

  "Uh, oh, all right. Ariana." The name sounded strange in his mouth, saying it to her, in person. Being around the wizards, who were first formal, then friendly, and now dressed in their official robes and meeting in the royal palace with the Regent behind closed doors, had Koren confused again. "Do you know wizards can make things disappear, and then come back? I saw Lord Mwazo do that to a teapot, right in front of me. He sent it into the spirit world."

  "I think I've heard of that. But I've never seen it. It must have been amazing!" Ariana hastened to add, when she saw Koren was disappointed his revelation was not something new to her. "Can Paedris do something like that? He hardly ever does any magic that I can see."

  Koren knew that Paedris didn't show off his magical powers in public, because real magic was serious business, and he felt that the court wizard was not to be viewed as a circus performer. If people wanted to see silly magic 'tricks', they could give a couple coins to one of the charlatan street performers in Linden. "Anything Mwazo can do, Paedris can do. Uh, don't repeat that, please, Lord Mwazo is kind of touchy about his, I guess, status as a wizard."

  "I would never tell anyone something you told me in confidence." Ariana said, while reaching out to hold Koren's right hand between her own hands. The gesture was so natural, offering reassurance between close friends, that she didn't realize what she was doing, until Nurelka discretely coughed in her corner by the window.

  "Uh, thank you." Koren stammered out, flustered by the feel of the princess' warm, soft hand. Even after she released his hand, and looked a bit embarrassed herself, he could feel his hand tingle, and he self-consciously made his hand into a fist and tucked it behind his back. "I, uh, what was I, uh, saying?"

  "You were, um, I, something about Lord Mwazo?" Ariana was thinking that Koren's hand had felt warm, and rough. Rough like the hand of a farmer, a worker, a soldier. She liked that. So many of the royal boys, and men, that she knew, had soft hands, for they had never done any labor in their lives. Rough felt good.

  "Oh, yeah." Now Koren felt warm all over, like when the wizards had been chanting around him on the rooftop, but for an entirely different, entirely natural and wonderful reason. To stall for time while his mind was overwhelmed, he took a goblet of water, but his hand shook, and he spilled a few droplets down his chin. Without thinking, he wiped his chin with the back of his shirtsleeve, an action that would have completely horrified Charl Fusting, with Koren wearing his best clothes, especially as those clothes were still barely, barely passable for an audience with the crown princess. "Ah, sorry." He said, and pulled a proper handkerchief out of his pocket. "So, uh, Lord Mwazo. He made a teapot disappear." Koren continued, while looking out the window to avoid looking at Ariana, because right then, he was having terribly improper thoughts about his future queen. Thoughts that could get a common-born boy like him hanged, or at least thrown in a dungeon. Ariana Trehayme was the highest-born person in Tarador, while he couldn't even claim the name Bladewell anymore, since he had been abandoned by his family. Thinking about his parents helped him focus, on something other than the warm, kind, beautiful, sweet-smelling girl standing close to him, with her soft skin and- "Do you know Paedris built a stairway that doesn't exist?" He blurted out.

  "Doesn't exist? What do you mean?" Ariana asked, while watching her maid out of the corner of her eye. Ariana wished the kindly Nurelka would- just- go- away! But the woman had risen from her seat, and approached the table.

  "Would you like hot tea, my lady?" Nurelka asked. "This pot has gone cold."

  "No, it's fine, Nurry. We're fine." Ariana waved the woman away with irritation, but the maid, with a small, knowing smile, stood by the table.

  "How could someone build a stairway that doesn't exist? You must be joking, young Koren." Nurelka prodded.

  "No, it's true! He showed me." Koren explained about the magic portal in the tower, as best he could, and by the time he was halfway through the story, even Ariana was interested. Although she was still irritated at her maid. And irritated at the strict rules a crown princess had to follow. She would be the most powerful person in the realm soon, but right now, she couldn't even innocently hold hands with a boy. Or maybe not quite so innocently.

  "You'll not catch me going into that tower, young Koren," Nurelka declared, "I don't know as how you do it, night after night, sleeping in there, with strange lights flashing, and the wizard casting spells." She shuddered, and put her hand to her forehead dramatically. "Didn't know wizards could make staircases out of thin air."

  "I di
dn't either." Ariana said, troubled, but excited. What else could the wizard do? She'd seen him heal people, but when the wizard laid hands on a sick person, there wasn't anything to see when he did that. And she'd heard wizards could throw balls of glowing fire, but she'd never seen Paedris do that. "Can he fly?"

  "No." Koren shook his head. "But he can walk on a rooftop, or along a ledge, like me strolling down a flat road. I saw him do that at Duke Yarron's castle. And he can talk to hawks, he can put pictures in a hawk's mind."

  Ariana thought that she needed to have a talk with the Lord Salva, about what wizards could, and could not, do. She was learning about the army; strategy, tactics, and, Captain Raddick had been explaining to her, something called 'logistics'. Sending an army into the field, at the right place and the right time, was all good, but if that army didn't have proper weapons, and food, and hay or grain for their horses, and shelter if they were going to be out in the elements for long, then the most brilliant strategy in the world could not bring victory. Even simple things like spare parts to fix broken wagon wheels were important. And all the 'logistics' cost money, a lot of money. Ariana had been dismayed to see how much it was costing her own purse to keep her personal guard stationed in the Thrallren woods, her mother had insisted that money come from Ariana's own rather small sum of funds, and not from the royal treasury. The soldiers of her personal guard drew their monthly pay from the royal treasury, but when they were in the field, their supplies were paid by Ariana. And, although she was a princess, the crown princess, she didn't actually have much money of her own, not yet. That had been a lesson for the young girl to think ahead, and not act impulsively. "I wonder what they're talking about, in there." Ariana said as she looked into the hallway at the door to where her mother and the wizards were dining, and likely arguing.

  “You are all in agreement, then?” Carlana asked.

  The four wizards nodded, and Mwazo spoke. “The boy’s power is truly frightening. Astonishing would be a better description. It was like looking into the noonday sun. And his power is still growing! Until he is ready to learn to control his power by himself, we need to keep his abilities hidden, even from the boy.”

  “Especially from the boy.” Shomas added quietly.

  "Are you certain that is necessary?" Carlana asked sharply. "You said that in a few short years, when his power becomes so great it is impossible to conceal, you will trust Koren with his immense power. Yet you do not trust the same boy now, when his power is so much less? It seems a contradiction."

  The other wizards looked to Paedris, as he pondered how to respond. To give himself time to think, he drained the last drops from his wine glass, refilled it from the decanter in the middle of the table, swirled the wine in the glass, held the glass up to the light for inspection, and finally took a sip. "Ah, that is good wine. The issue is not whether Koren Bladewell, until recently a farmboy from a small, little noted village, can be trusted to use his power, the issue is whether he can be trusted not to use his power. To not use his power until he is ready to use it without injuring or killing himself, until he can actually control his power. If he tried to use his power now, it would certainly come to the notice of the enemy, and then Koren would be in grave danger, for he would be unable to control his power enough to defend himself. Can he be trusted to not use his power, if he saw someone in trouble, or he is attacked? No," Paedris shook his head, "the temptation is too great. Consider, Madam Regent, your own daughter. She, too, will be entrusted with immense power in a few short years. If she had the power, now, to defend you from your opponents on the Regency Council, could she be trusted to conceal such power, for years? No matter what the situation?"

  The Regent took a sip of her own wine. “Perhaps not. No, she couldn't. Could anyone? Then, I don’t see that we have other choice but to conceal the truth from Koren, but I fear you are playing with fire, and it will blow up in our faces some day.”

  “How so?” Paedris asked.

  “Lord Salva, to you wizards, Koren is a mystery, a gift unlooked for, a reason to believe that we will win this war. You see his potential, as a weapon against Acedor. But he is also a young man, like any other young man. Consider this: Koren was exiled from his home town, because he is a wizard. His parents abandoned him in the wilderness, because they were afraid of him. He lost his family because they didn't know the truth! He saved my daughter’s life, and the only reward we gave him is a life of drudgery as a common servant. My daughter tells me that some of the other servants around the castle are mean to Koren, because they are jealous of him. Some day, not too far from now, Koren will learn that all his troubles are caused by his wizard power, and that we conspired to deceive him, and hide the truth from him. Lord Salva, you told me Koren’s life has been jinxed, that he has been cheated, that his destiny has been stolen from him. We, here around this table, have conspired to continue that deception, to cheat him of the life that should rightfully be his, should have been his. These deceptions are well intended, I'm sure, but when he learns the truth, he is likely to be angry, an angry and very powerful young man. And the people who mistreated him might be very sorry about that.”

  The four wizards all looked down into their mugs of wine.

  Paedris let out a long breath and slumped away from the table. “I fear the same, and have been afraid to say it. Whether Koren will ultimately resist the temptation to use his power for revenge, I cannot say. He is a decent boy, and very resilient. Most boys who went through everything that has happened to Koren would be bitter and angry. Koren is mostly happy, he is loyal to his friends, and the stable master tells me all the men there treat him with respect and affection. I have only known Koren for a short time, but I think the goodness of his character exceeds even his power.”

  Mwazo cleared his throat. “We too often use the word destiny lightly,” he said in a tone that implied ‘we’ did not include himself. “Whatever the personal cost to him, I believe what has happened to Koren so far is his destiny, however unfortunate for the boy, and his family. If his power had been discovered early, he would not have been considered a jinx around his village, his family would not have been exiled from their home, his parents would not have abandoned him. He would not have been there, in the wilderness, when princess Ariana needed him. And Tarador would now be torn apart by the royal families fighting over succession to the throne, leaving us ripe for invasion by Acedor. If Koren has been jinxed, has been cheated, he has not been cheated by us, he has been cheated by his own destiny. I do not know where his destiny leads, but I cannot believe it a coincidence that he arrives here, now, unlooked for, just as our need for such power is greatest. Whether he accepts his destiny, or becomes bitter at it, will likely determine our own futures, and the future of this land.”

  Madame Chu nudged Paedris under the table. "Speaking of the future, Lady Trehayme-"

  Carlana braced for the inevitable argument about sending the royal army out on adventures once the weather warmed, an argument for which she had a ready answer: no. No, not this year. Again.

  "-Lord Mwazo wishes to read your fortune, if he can." Paedris continued.

  Carlana was unprepared for this request. "Read my fortune? I thought you were no longer able to do that."

  "Recent events have raised the possibility that may be changing." Mwazo said carefully. "We thought since, as Regent, you influence the fate of so many people, that the path of your fortune would be strong enough to overcome the difficulties we have communicating with the spirit world, in that area of magic."

  "I see." Carlana saw right through Mwazo's clumsy attempt at flattery. "You wish a drop of my blood, I believe that is how your spell works?"

  "Yes, Lady Carlana." Mwazo said with surprising hope. He hadn't expected this to be so easy.

  It wasn't. "My answer is no." Carlana said, taking a sip of wine to conceal her sudden anger.

  Chu spoke up. "We would not ask, if we were not confident the spell is beginning to work again-"

  "I don't c
are." Carlana said with venom in her tone. "I don't want your so-called magic to work again. If it ever did. My husband died because he believed you knew the future. Yet you didn't foresee his death, did you?"

  Paedris stare down at the table, a mixture of anger and guilt flooding through his mind. It was because of advice from Paedris that King Trehayme led his royal army out that fateful summer, led the royal army to stop what the enemy had intended as a surprise attack, to seize a vital river crossing, and therefore remove thousands of acres from the realm of Tarador. The magic of fortune-telling had already well faded by then, but Paedris knew something bad, disastrous was about to happen, based on the fortune cards, and intelligence reports both magic and mundane.

  Carlana saw an opening to shame her court wizard, who was far too arrogant for her. "My husband died because he-"

  "Your husband died because he was a foolish ass." Shomas said quietly. As he rarely spoke in formal meetings, everyone turned to him in shock. "I must say, this is exceptional beer, my compliments to your brewmaster."

  Carlana's face was beet red. "How dare you-"

  "I dare, because I am not a citizen of Tarador, nor do I serve the royal court. I am a guest here, and guests, like children, may speak the simple truth. Your husband was wise to take Lord Salva's advice, and brave to lead his army into battle against our terrible enemy. He was foolish to think he should personally be at the head of the charge when they retook the bridge. The enemy was hoping to kill or capture the king of Tarador in battle, and he fell headlong into their trap. An army commander commands, he doesn't fight like a common soldier. A commander, a king, belongs in the rear, where can see, and direct the battle. That is his responsibility to the army that fights for him, while your husband put his royal guards in danger because he was reckless. Your husband saw a chance for personal glory, and he died because of that. Not because of any failure of magic, or wizardry."