It was surprisingly hard to put his thoughts on paper, and not just because the quill pen kept running out of ink. He had too much to say, too much anger and regret, and not enough time to write it all down. When he finished scribbling the note, he read it, and almost tore it up. It was a mess, full of smudges and misspellings, as a result of his haste. "Oh, to hell with it." He said, almost too loud, for the guards were only two floors below him, and left the note on top of the bed.
What the guards outside didn't know was that firewood for the tower originally used to be stacked in a room under the ground floor, to keep it dry, and so occupants of the tower did not have to go outside in nasty weather when more wood was needed. There was a room in the foundation of the tower, accessed by a trap door under a closet on the ground floor. And a hatch leading outside, up against the wall of the castle, hidden behind overgrown bushes. When Paedris moved in years ago, he had the firewood moved outside, because he didn't want bugs like termites inside the tower. But the trap door and the hatch still worked, Koren had oiled their hinges only two months ago. The moment of greatest danger was moving the cleaning supplies that were stored on top of the trapdoor, with the guards just outside the heavy wood door of the tower. Koren's heart nearly stopped when a mop toppled over, he managed to catch it with a foot just before the handle hit the floor. The trapdoor opened quietly, Koren slipped through, and carefully let it close behind him. Now he was in darkness, complete darkness. Fortunately, since he could not light a torch, he knew every step on the ladder, and the chamber was empty. When he reached the floor, he felt his way along the wall until he came to the hatch, which he unlocked by sliding aside the bar. Cracking open the hatch only an inch, he listened for voices, but no one sounded nearby. Careful to open the hatch only enough to squeeze through, he stepped into the night, and closed the hatch, crouching behind the bushes which screened the hatch from the castle courtyard. The courtyard still rang with shouts and commotion; it must be that the guards, soldiers and palace staff were frantically searching for him. He felt safe for now, the bushes were thick, and extended almost all the way to the castle wall. The wall was in darkness behind the wizard's tower, and there Koren knew another secret; a possible way under and through the wall. A storm drain, which let rainwater cascading off the wizard's tower drain away, without flooding the courtyard. This particular drain had an iron cover that had rusted over the years, the castle maintenance crew knew about the rusty cover, but none of them was eager to be near the wizard's tower, so the cover rarely got attention. Koren had discovered a couple months ago that the cover was loose, the rusted iron was not only weak, the rust also had eaten away at the stone the iron cover pins were set into. He had brought an iron bar with him for the purpose of popping the cover out of its setting. It was surprisingly easy to break the rusted pins, but the cover was also surprisingly heavy! Koren nearly lost a couple fingers getting the cover out of the hole, moving slowly so the sound of heavy, rusted iron scraping on stone didn't alert guards. He dropped his pack in ahead of him, and considered whether to crawl in head first or feet first. Head first. He might need his hands if there was a cover at the other end.
There was a cover, which Koren found after perhaps half an hour of crawling and squeezing his way along the storm drain. It was disgusting, but still better than the last time he'd been stuck in a wet, smelly, slimy drainage channel. The opening at the far end was barred with an iron gate, above a stream, in the shadow of a grain mill. This gate was well maintained, and sturdy, with a lock, for the gate was periodically cleaned of leaves and other storm debris to keep it from clogging. There was no way Koren could break this gate open. But, he didn't need to. With his thick, short knife, he picked away at the mortar around the stones the gate was set into. Soon, enough stones were loose that he was able to push them out, out, out, until the stones tumbled into the stream, and the gate fell away. He was free, away from the castle, in the city of Linden! Now where was he going to go?
Captain Raddick nodded to the guards at the entrance to the royal hospital. Visiting the wizard was his first stop in the castle since arriving only an hour before; as the Regent was busy. General Magrane he had met on the road, the general was so anxious to take command of the eastern borderlands that he arranged to meet Raddick along the way. Raddick hated going to hospitals, even more than he hated being a patient in hospitals. Twice in his life, he had lain weak and sick in a hospital bed, suffering from fever, nausea and terrible pain. In his long military career, which began when he was only sixteen, he had never been actually wounded in combat seriously enough to require being sent to a hospital. Once, a sword cut to his leg, shallow as to be shrugged off as a mere scratch, had become infected within a week, and he had come near to death as he had ever been. Potions, herbs and poultices had served only to keep him barely alive until a minor wizard, by chance passing through the town, healed him with a single spell. The second time, he had been bitten by a snake, and potions had served to save his life, although he had been so sick that he had almost felt dying would be better.
“Halt!” One of the guards called out, blocking the entrance to the hospital with his pike. The three other guards, Raddick noted, had hands on the hilts of their swords. “What is the password?”
“I’m Captain Raddick, you oaf, get out of my way.” Raddick said with a deliberately haughty sneer, and moved to brush aside the pike.
The pike didn’t move, being held in a grip like iron, and three swords came out of their scabbards. “You look like Captain Raddick, I served under him last year on patrol in Holdeness. Maybe you’re him, and maybe not. But whoever you are, you’re not getting through that door alive without the password.”
Raddick fairly beamed with pride. These men had been trained well, and took their jobs seriously. They guarded not just a door, not just a hospital, they guarded the court wizard, who lay on his sickbed within. “I know you, Tom Bestin, and you served well in Holdeness with me. The password for today is ‘red wolf’.” The three other guards, Raddick noted with satisfaction, did not relax until Bestin lifted his pike, and saluted the Captain. “How is the wizard?”
Bestin held his hand out, and waggled it side to side. “Some good, and some bad, the healers say. Don’t think they rightly know what to do with a wizard, sir, leastwise, a wizard who isn’t in hospital to heal the sick. Lord Salva is driving the nurses to distraction, the few times when he is awake.”
Raddick nodded grimly. “General Magrane sent for Shomas Feany, or any other wizard, but likely they won’t arrive in time to matter. Lord Salva will have to fight this battle himself, I fear. Bad enough that he had to fight three wizards, but having to rise from his sickbed to deal with that assassin may have been too much, even for him.”
Raddick found the court wizard in a private chamber that had been set up within the large, high-ceilinged space of the hospital. The hastily built chamber had wooden walls, but no roof, to let in air and light. Eight guards surrounded the chamber, four of them archers positioned behind screens, and four in full armor with swords drawn. Raddick had to repeat the password, and get permission from the healer, before he could even peek his head in the chamber’s door. The wizard appeared to be asleep, his face grey and damp with sweat, until Raddick approached, and the wizard’s eyes opened.
“Ah, Captain Raddick.” Paedris struggled to focus his vision, the man’s face kept fading in and out. “The castle, secure? The nurses here won’t tell me anything, they want me to rest, and not to worry. Not knowing what is going on is making me worry!”
“Yes, my lord. We have swept every inch of these old stones, and found no trace of the enemy, other than the assassin you killed. The princess is well, her mother is insisting she rest also, but you healed her remarkably well, my lord.”
“Take care, Raddick, be watchful. It is not like the enemy to send only one assassin for such an important task. It would be best to keep the princess securely within the fortress, until I am able to search the castle myself.”
>
“Yes, Lord Salva.”
The wizard reached out a shaky hand to get a drink of water, Raddick helped him hold the mug steady as he drank, then looked discretely away as Paedris wiped up the water he had spilled on himself. Raddick knew that no man, especially no powerful man like Paedris, wanted others to see his weakness. After Paedris had found and killed the assassin, he had collapsed, and lain almost dead in his sickbed for two full days. Even now, he was terribly weak. “Thank you, Raddick.” Paedris said, laying his head back on the pillow. “Now, I have a dispute with you. I am told that when my servant came back to the castle, you had ordered the guards to hold him, as a coward and a deserter?”
Raddick’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. He certainly hadn’t expected the court wizard to ask about his servant boy, not with so many other important matters to occupy the wizard’s attention. “Not exactly, my lord. My dispatches about the battle mentioned Koren only briefly. In the battle, he hid amongst my men, instead of staying by your side, and later, he left us, against my specific orders that he stay and help with our wounded.”
Paedris’ eyelids shut tightly, overcome with great weariness. “Raddick,” he said in a voice so soft that the army captain had to kneel by the bed and put his ear to the wizard’s lips to hear, “you are a damned fool. If not for that young man, that extraordinarily brave young man, we would all be lost. It was not I, with my wizard senses, who saw the enemy had laid a trap for us, it was an alert young man who knew that no farmer would leave his sheep alone in a field. Koren saw we were riding straight into trouble, while I was looking at the pretty flowers growing in the fields. He didn't hide amongst your men, I sent him away. I ordered two soldiers, Arteman, and another, I can’t remember her name, she had long black hair, Darton, Datman-“
“Dartenon, my lord?” Raddick suggested.
“Yes, that’s her. A good woman. I ordered them to get my servant to safety, he could do me no good in a wizard fight, and could be a distraction. You saying he is a coward is an insult to him, and to me.”
Raddick bowed his head in shame. “I am sad to report, my lord, that Dartenon did not survive the battle, and Arteman was injured badly enough that I feared he would not survive the journey back here. I left Arteman in the care of a village near the battle, I had no occasion to speak with him, for he was weak with fever, the last I saw of him. I meant no insult to you, or to the boy.”
“To the young man, Captain, Koren Bladewell is no boy. Not any more.”
“Forgive me, my lord.” Raddick looked up, and waved away the nurses who were approaching, out of concern that the wizard was exerting himself too much. This needed to be a private conversation. “I would not have said he was a coward, for many men find themselves sorely tested in their first battle, but, after the battle, he went against my orders, and he did desert us.”
Paedris summoned his energy, and grasped the front of the army captain’s shirt with surprising strength. “Fool you are again! He left you to rescue me, when you and your men twiddled your thumbs and did nothing while my need was dire. If not for Koren, I would be dead now, a pile of scorched ash, as the enemy intended. It was not for you and your soldiers that the enemy sent three wizards into Tarador, nor for plunder. They laid that trap to kill me, and they could have succeeded, if Koren had not disobeyed your inept orders and ridden off to rescue me, all by himself! He found me, sorely beset by the last two wizards, and distracted the foul sorcerers so I could kill them. At great risk to himself, he faced wizards, and a squad of enemy soldiers. The only reason I am alive today is that Koren Bladewell, who you falsely named a coward and deserter, risked his life to save mine. He got me on his horse, and sent me to safety, while he faced the enemy’s soldiers, trapped in a ruined castle in the darkness, alone. That he survived, and made his way here, is some kind of miracle. If you seek men your soldiers should look to for inspiration, you need look no further than my most faithful servant.”
“I, I am,” Raddick stammered, “I regret accusing him, my lord.” Raddick had proven himself in battle many times, no one who knew him would question his bravery. Faced with the wizard’s wrath, however, he found himself shaking. As an army commander, Raddick had authority. The Regent who commanded him had authority. Paedris had power, before which all sane men quivered.
“You can’t help being a fool, Raddick. Now, bring Koren to me.”
Raddick swallowed hard, his throat dry as dust. “I, I, I beg your pardon, my lord, I thought you knew. Koren fled the castle, while you were hunting the assassin.”
“What? Why? I ordered guards to take him to the fortress, to protect him! Where did he go?” Paedris struggled to sit upright in bed.
“We don’t know, my lord. I regret to say, The guards had orders for him to be considered a deserter. And, and potentially, an assassin, he injured the princess?” Alarmed by the angry look in the wizard’s eyes, Raddick hastened to add “At the time, my lord, the Regent feared the boy, the uh, young man, had somehow caused that gargoyle to fall on Ariana. This was before you discovered the assassin.”
Paedris threw off the covers and swung his feet to the floor, shouting an impressive string of curses in his native language. “The Regent! Another fool I am forced to deal with.” Nurses who ran over to protest that the wizard needed to rest, stopped in their tracks when the wizard’s eyes blazed. “Raddick,” Paedris demanded as he reached for the army man’s shoulder for support, “help me up. I need to get to my tower immediately. Send a runner to fetch the Regent, I want her to meet us there.”
“Uh, my lord,” Raddick stammered again, conflicted because Carlana was his commander, “the Regent is with her daughter, and left orders not to be disturbed.”
“Ariana,” Paedris said slowly with smoldering anger, “is fine and will recover completely, she doesn’t need her mother fussing over her. You send word that the Regent is,” Paedris’ jaw worked side to side as if he had swallowed something distasteful, “strongly requested to join me at my tower to discuss an extremely urgent matter. Or I will grab that silly woman by the throat and drag her there myself."
“Yes, my lord.” Raddick answered as he helped the wizard to his feet, while gesturing for a guard to carry a message. In the future, Raddick thought to himself, he would request to always be in the field with the army, for he would rather face all the hosts of the enemy in battle, than deal with wizards and Regents.
It was a very annoyed Regent who found her court wizard, sitting on top of a chest in his former servant’s bedchamber, head bowed, shoulders slumped, staring down at a single scroll of paper. Carlana was annoyed because Paedris should have been resting in bed, she was annoyed because she had been fetched, however diplomatically the guard had phrased the wizard’s demand, she was annoyed because she wanted to be by her daughter’s side instead of roaming around the castle, she was annoyed that her daughter had been asking, more strongly every day, to get out of the cramped and gloomy fortress. And, mostly, she was annoyed that she had to be the Regent, instead of letting someone else worry about assassins, war, and death. “Captain Raddick.” Carlana acknowledged the soldier curtly, and turned to the wizard, about to vent her fury, when she was stopped by Raddick making a cutting motion across his throat with his hand, and shaking his head. Whatever had caused the wizard to summon her, this was absolutely not the time for her to voice her complaints. Carlana had not been raised and trained to command a nation, or an army, but she had been raised and trained to deal carefully with powerful men. She had met no man more powerful than Paedris. “Lord Salva?” She asked softly. “You wished to see me?”
When the court wizard looked slowly up to meet her gaze, she was completely unprepared to see tears in his eyes. Without a word, he handed the scroll to her.
At first she found the scroll difficult to read, her being used to documents written carefully by expert scribes. This scroll was written hurriedly, in poor handwriting, with many words misspelled and crossed out. Only when she skipped to the bottom, and learned
who had signed the letter, did she understand. She started over at the top, reading slowly and carefully, correcting the spelling and grammar mistakes in her mind.
To who is concerned (crossed out)
Ariana (crossed out)
To her Highness the Crown Princess Ariana
I am very sorry my jinx curse caused you injury, I did not mean to hurt you
I am leaving so that I can never hurt you again, please forgive me
Then there were numerous lines crossed out and smudged, but Carlana could see it originally said I love you, then he had tried to write I greatly esteem you, then it simply said Thank you for being kind to me, your friend always and forever
The letter continued, and the pen strokes were more forceful, angry
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