Ascendant

by Craig Alanson

  My Lord Salva, I heard guards saying you ordered me brought to the dungeon, and when I arrived at the castle, the guards said I was a coward and a deserter. I am not a coward, when I tried to follow you as the enemy attacked, two soldiers told me they had orders from you to bring me away. Later, I disobeyed Captain Raddick’s orders, because I went to rescue you. I am only a servant, and you owe me nothing but my pay, but I am not a coward and not a deserter. You should tell people that. You lied when you told me you would give me land, I know now you don’t own that land so you can’t give it to anyone. A powerful man like you should not need to lie to little people like me

  The priest told me God cursed me to be a jinx because I was a bad son, and I can’t do anything to change God’s judgment on me. Keeping me around so you could stop my jinx curse from hurting people must take a lot of energy, I thank you for that, but now I am leaving and going far away so I can’t hurt people

  Then the pen strokes became lighter, and the paper was smudged with spots that Carlana guessed were tears.

  Thanks to everyone who was nice to me -Koren Bladewell

  P.S. Please take good care of Thunderbolt. He is a good and brave-hearted horse and should not pay for my sins

  P.P.S. Please tell her Highness the lady Carlana that I never meant to hurt her daughter, and she was right to not want a jinx around the castle

  P.P.P.S. If you ever find my parents, please tell them I am very sorry for being selfish, and not leaving on my own, instead of making them leave their own home

  Carlana’s knees weakened, she swooned back against the wall. Captain Raddick appeared at her side, helping her to sit on the edge of Koren’s bed. He also dismissed her guards and maids with a curt gesture, the Regent needed privacy. She looked up at the wizard, wiping away her own tears with the sleeve of her dress, paying no heed to proper manners. “I don’t understand. You ordered guards to take him to the dungeon? Why?”

  “This is, this is all a terrible, terrible series of misunderstandings. Not the dungeon.” Paedris said slowly. “The fortress. I ordered the guards to take him to the fortress; the safest, most secure part of the castle. To protect him, from the assassin. Other than your daughter, Koren most needs to be protected.” And Paedris was not sure that the princess was not less important that the young, unknowing wizard.

  “But, I don't understand."

  Raddick cleared his throat. “I explained to Lord Salva that, because the lower level of the old fortress is now used as a dungeon, and that is where guards work in that building, they call the entire structure the 'dungeon'. If one guard was repeating his orders to another guard, he likely would have said dungeon, and not fortress. Any boy, I mean, young man, who heard he was to be brought to the dungeon, would be fearful. Especially a young man who had been falsely accused by his captain of cowardice and desertion. Falsely, and most grievously, accused. By me, I am ashamed to say.”

  “And falsely accused by his Regent of hurting her daughter.” Carlana added miserably. “He has left? He is gone?”

  “Yes,” reported Raddick, “he left, soon after Lord Salva ordered the guards to find him. He must have written that note very quickly.” Seeing the effect the letter had on the court wizard and the Regent, Raddick was burning with curiosity to know what the letter said. And how a mere servant boy could affect powerful people so much.

  Although, anyone who rode off, against orders and alone, to rescue his master from three enemy wizards, could not be a mere anything. If Raddick ever met Koren Bladewell again, he would look at the boy very differently, And very closely.

  “Three days ago!” Carlana said in a hollow voice. “Why wasn’t I told? Has anyone searched for him?”

  Raddick cleared his throat nervously. “At the time, with the castle being searched for more assassins, the guards did not think to bring it to your attention. And, as you wanted the boy away from your daughter, his leaving was in keeping with your wishes. Your Highness, I apologize. I did not think, with the country invaded, and assassins about, that this Koren boy was important?" Raddick hoped his question would lead to an answer, but he was frustrated.

  "You did your duty, Captain." Carlana said. "Have you searched for him?”

  “No, your Highness. My soldiers still have orders to arrest him as a deserter, if they see him, but no one is out searching for him.”

  “We should search for him.” The wizard spoke for the first time. “We must!”

  Raddick burned with curiosity to know what that letter said, what could be so important that the Regent of the realm and the court wizard, were so concerned about a lowly servant boy. A brave boy, but still a boy. “Ahem, uh, begging your leave, your Highness, my lord, but we have been invaded, and assassins could still be lurking in or around the castle. The army is needed here. Until we have recalled units from the field, I won’t have the men to spare, to follow this boy.”

  The Regent and the wizard shared a long look. Carlana turned to Raddick. “Captain, you don’t need to know-”

  “He does.” Paedris said, pushing himself upright on the chest. “There have been too many secrets. It is deception that has brought us to this point. Deception, and half-truths, and misunderstandings. Oh, this is a disaster. No, a tragedy."

  “I did warn you about deceiving Koren.” Carlana reminded the wizard. “And what is this he said, you lying about giving him land?”

  Paedris gave a long sigh and rubbed his face. “Ah, I should have been more clear with him. The farm that is my country retreat, it used to be your husband's hunting reserve? I’ve only been to the place once or twice. Well, I told Koren that if he remained as my servant until he was sixteen, I would give him fifty acres. I thought the prospect of land would keep him with me, until he needed to leave the castle, to begin his training.”

  Carlana tapped her chin with a finger, while she thought. “If I remember correctly, Adric granted you use of that land, and the income from it, but I don’t think he gave it to you outright?”

  “He didn’t,” Paedris responded irritably, “but I intended to ask you to give me the land, as a boon, or I would buy fifty acres of land somewhere. I did not lie to Koren, I simply didn’t bother to explain all the details. At the time, I didn’t think it mattered! How he discovered that I didn’t own the land, I can’t imagine. This is all,” Paedris pulled at his beard in frustration, “a distraction anyway. We must find him!”

  “Can’t you use your wizard senses, to find him?”

  “No, magic doesn’t work like that, I would need to first have a rough idea of where he is. And even then, the blocking spell we cast on him would hide him from me. This is a disaster. How could I have been so blind? So stupid?”

  Raddick had been silent, while his mind was racing. Secrets. Deception. Lies. A disaster? Losing a servant was, at most, an inconvenience. And, begin his training? What training did Koren Bladewell need? He was already training with the weapons master, and surely Koren knew how to scrub floors. Blocking spell? Blocking Koren from doing what? Suddenly, the captain gasped as the only possible truth dawned on him, and he blurted out “The boy is wizard?”

  Paedris looked at Raddick sharply, then sighed. The captain was not, after all, a idiot. Any intelligent person, having heard what Raddick had heard, could figure out the truth. “Koren is not only a wizard, he is the most powerful wizard I have ever known. Those three enemy wizards I struggled mightily against? Koren could have crushed them as you would swatting flies," Paedris emphasized his words with a casual flick of his wrist, "if he was trained, and ready to use his enormous power. Captain, I could cast a spell, to make you forget everything that has been said here today, but I am going to rely on your loyalty, and more important, your discretion. Only the Regent, myself, a few other wizards, and now, you, know about this great secret. This terrible secret. Koren himself does not know he is a wizard! He is too old to have his power guided by another wizard, and too young to control it himself. And too young not to be tempted by such power, if he knew it.
The enemy, you see, the enemy would stop at nothing to capture Koren, and use his immense power against us, if they knew about him. So, we have kept his power hidden, even from him, until such time as he is ready to begin training. If the enemy could use Koren’s power, all, all would be lost.”

  Raddick could not imagine how a wizard, a powerful wizard, could not know he was a wizard, but then, Raddick knew little of wizards. He put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes briefly, trying to make sense of what he had heard. He was beginning to feel a headache. Truly, dealing with wizards and Regents was no job for a soldier! “My lord, your Highness, I understand now why we must search for this b- this young man. But, if I send out army patrols, particularly now when we are understrength here, will that not catch the enemy’s eye, and cause him to wonder what is so important about a mere servant boy?”

  “You speak the truth, Captain. As much as I detest it, your orders to arrest Koren as a deserter, and perhaps for causing harm to the princess, are all your soldiers need to know. And I agree we need to keep our strength here. Instead of sending out patrols to look for him, could you send riders to carry messages to our units in the field? It would be more effective to have units in the field keeping watch for him, a search patrol may only spook Koren and drive him into hiding. If you agree, your Highness?”

  Carlana nodded, she typically left such matters to her army captains.

  Raddick gazed out the window for a moment, while he formed his thoughts. “And if-” He stopped, trying to think of a better way to ask a delicate question. “Lord Salva, it would be a disaster if the enemy were to capture Koren?”

  “Unthinkable. Unimaginable.” Paedris said, before his tired mind realized what Raddick was truly saying. "The end of all things."

  “Then, what are my orders,” Raddick spoke slowly, “if he has been captured, and we are unable to-”

  “To get him back alive?” Paedris asked angrily.

  “Forgive me, my lord, but I must ask the question.”

  “And I must answer. By all that is holy, I hate this war!” Paedris gave out a heavy sigh. “If Koren has been captured by the enemy, and only if we have no hope of rescuing him, then, then he must be killed. We must. His power is too great.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The night that Captain Raddick learned the truth about Koren, the young man himself was hiding between bales of hay in a stable. Getting out of Linden had been easy, he had hopped aboard an empty wagon that was trundling slowly westward, hiding under the wagon's canvas cover. None of the guards at checkpoints on the road had orders to search wagons that were headed away from the capital, so he was not discovered that night. Before daylight, he had dropped to the ground and dashed away into a field, then made his way to a wooded area to sleep.

  The next night, he walked west on the road for several miles, alone, before a group of wagons passed by, but he had no opportunity to hitch a ride, for these wagons were loaded, and armed guards on horseback patrolled alongside. From a comment he overheard one of the guards make, Koren guessed the wagons were only going a short way down the road, before stopping for the night in a village. He let the wagons pass by, and followed, walking down the road in the dark. His stomach rumbled, for he had nothing to eat since the afternoon of the day he had returned to the castle. In a way, he had come full circle in one year; once again forced to leave a home, tired and hungry, on his own, with few supplies, and no particular destination in mind. When he neared the village, he burrowed into a haystack to sleep a few hours, rising with the dawn. In the village, he bought a rough loaf of bread, a wedge of hard cheese, dried meat and dried fruit. When the shopkeeper asked whether Koren was with the wagons, Koren merely grunted, and let the man think what he wanted. Best if the man did not later remember a boy on his own, passing through the village. He left the village before the wagons, and hid in a grove of trees as they passed by later. In a field, he found a discarded, broken hayrake, and he bound it back together with twine. With the hayrake over his shoulder, he no longer needed to hide every time a wagon passed by, for to anyone seeing him, he was a farmhand walking to work. That day was a long, foot-aching walk for a young man who had grown used to riding a fast horse, but his belly was full and he had enough food to last the next day. Late in the afternoon, he saw ahead of him a substantial town, on the banks of a river, with a pair of bridges soaring high above the river. It looked like a place a young man alone would not be noticed, and could buy more supplies, although he would need to stash the hayrake somewhere.

  And then an instinct, perhaps a faint vibration, a sound, maybe a change in the wind, made Koren look back east behind him. Riders, coming fast. A group of men on horseback, moving at speed, one of them carrying a royal army banner. Koren tossed the hayrake aside and simply ran, until he was around a bend in the road, where he dashed across a field and lay down behind bushes. The soldiers rode straight by, their horses' hooves pounding the road. After they were gone, he left the road and entered the town from the north, where he snuck into a stable near the river. There seemed to be many soldiers in the town, and Koren could see both bridges were well guarded, with travelers in both directions being stopped and searched. He could not go further west. He was pondering what to do, when he heard voices, and two men came into the stable. Scrunching himself up as small as possible, Koren hid and listened.

  "With all these soldiers and wagon trains, you'd think we'd have more business." The first man grumbled. "Two horses in here! That barely pays for the hay they eat."

  "Calm down, Lan, we had eighteen horses last night." The second man responded, as he settled down with his back against the low wall Koren was hiding behind. "Comes and goes, it does, comes and goes. Ricker will be back tomorrow, and we'll be busier than we can handle, so rest yourself tonight."

  The two men were silent, while Koren fought to suppress a sneeze from hay dust, then the second man spoke again, and made Koren forget all about his itchy nose. "You hear about the wizard's servant?"

  "What's he to me?" The first man asked, sounded uninterested.

  "Tried to kill the princess, he did."

  "What?" The first man was now interested. "The hell you say."

  "It's true, that's why there are so many soldiers in town. I overheard a group who arrived this very afternoon talking at the guard post. The wizard's servant is an enemy assassin, he tried to kill the princess."

  "You and your stories." The first man said, and spat onto the ground.

  "I'm telling you, I heard the new soldiers repeat their orders! This boy is charged with cowardice, and desertion, and their orders are to capture him if they can, or kill him if they must. Dead or alive, it's all the same to them. And an assassin tried to kill the princess, so it can't be a coincidence they're hunting this boy now, can it?"

  "The princess? You telling the truth?"

  "I swear. Look, these two horses are bedded down for the night, what say we slip across to the Happy Dragon for a pint? There's always a couple soldiers there, you can hear it for yourself."

  "A pint? When did you ever stop at one pint?" The first man scoffed, but he was curious to hear more. An attempt to kill the princess was big news, bad news. News that could lead towards more war, which was bad for business. "All right, but we come back in half a glass, mind you, and check on the horses again."

  As soon as the two men were gone, Koren scrambled out of his hiding place and ran into the night. Capture him if they can, or kill him. He was no longer running only for his freedom, he was running for his very life. Dead or alive? Probably dead was better, the soldiers would think. Where Koren had been worried before, now he was terrified. Every shadow seemed like it could be a soldier seeking him, every sound could be a sword slipping from a scabbard, or a bowstring being drawn back. The alley behind the stables was dark even to Koren's eyes, he stumbled over discarded junk while trying to walk quietly, and lay flat on the ground, sure someone had heard the noise. While he lay on the ground, two soldiers walked by the street a
t the end of the alleyway. As the soldiers were not holding lanterns, and didn't even glance down the alley, maybe they were off duty, and not looking for a runaway servant? Koren hoped. There were more voices, and a half dozen men walked by in the opposite direction, these men were carrying crates or sacks on their shoulders. That gave Koren an idea. From his pocket, he pulled a handkerchief, and tied it around his head like some of the men had, tucking his hair up under. From the alley, he picked up a broken crate, the very item he had tripped over. If he held the broken part next to his head, no one would likely notice the crate was empty in the darkness. Hurrying down the alley and onto the street, he caught up to the men and stayed behind them, just another laborer carrying trade goods. They walked towards the river, the men ahead of him talking loudly, until they came to another street, and Koren's heart almost stopped. Two soldiers were standing under a torch, at the intersection. These soldiers were on duty, both of them watching everyone who walked by them, hands resting on the hilts of their swords. Koren reached down to his pant leg, which was muddy, he scraped away mud with his fingernails, and rubbed it across his cheeks, to make his face less visible. Imitating the men ahead of him, he leaned to one side, as if the crate he was carrying was heavy. When the man in the lead approached the soldiers, he called out a greeting, asking something that Koren couldn't quite hear. The soldiers laughed, and one of them said something about rain. For a frightening moment, it looked like the man in the lead was going to stop and chat with the soldiers, then he laughed loudly, and continued on down the street. Koren kept his head down as he passed by, the soldiers not paying him much attention. Either these two soldiers had not yet received orders to capture, or kill, Koren Bladewell, or they were looking for a boy alone, not part of a group of laborers. Two blocks later, he could smell the river, and then they were at the docks. Here, barges loaded and unloaded their cargo at a long series of warehouses. Further down the docks, there was another group of soldiers, clearly on patrol, for they all held lanterns, and held them up to the faces of everyone who passed by. As soon as he could, Koren ducked into an alley, and set the crate down. He waited a moment for even his excellent night vision to recover from the torchlight, then walked quietly along the alley until he found windows, he tried several before finding one that was not locked. Climbing in the window, he stepped into deeper darkness, and slid the window closed behind him. The warehouse must hold barrels of liquor somewhere, for there was a smell of whiskey in the air. Setting his pack down, he was about to get comfortable, then a whisper made him freeze. "Hey, this is my spot."