by D. H. Aire
“I would not speak of that at Court. You are trying to gain adherents, not insult so many,” she said, chuckling.
“Do you agree it might have happened?”
“Not publicly… but I am marrying a human mage, so do not think me so locked to tradition I will not consider new possibilities.”
“Point taken, Your Majesty.”
“Enough of that, we are agreed that in private… I would like you to call me Lorraina.”
“I would like that, Lorraina.”
She smiled. “I have asked the servants not disturb us.”
“Then I would be more than happy to serve,” George said, revealing her plate, looking freshly cooked beneath the stasis bowl.
“Thank you.”
Chapter
35
Esperanza looked in her scrying bowl, saw lighting flash. Wards shielding Hayden’s army flickered. “Tane’s banner and Llewellyn’s both,” she announced.
Sianhiel shook his head, “Five thousand men-at-arms?”
“As best I can tell,” Esperanza said. “I’ve focused half the Network. The storm has halted their march. They’re armed like legionnaires.”
Terhun said, “Likely trained as legionnaires by former ones and had they been recruited from their provinces, Her Majesty would have a fourth legion to count on.”
“Any chance your cadres will arrive in time?”
“Not the infantry, but the cavalry can, if this storm lets up any time soon.”
Lee shook his head, “Then our one advantage is the Highmage and whatever mages we can gather.”
“Oh, don’t forget Grendel will be at their backs,” Sianhiel said.
“By now he knows Her Majesty plans to marry without much fanfare later today,” Terhun said with a smile. “But plenty of witnesses invited.”
“So he will seek to try to stop them and the best way will be through the arriving via the invitation list,” Lee added.
Esperanza saw the waters ripple, drawing her focus off. Follow, rang the word in her mind. She nodded and looked elsewhere and saw an old man with a cane standing in the rain and he wasn’t alone. She started laughing.
Dinner done Staff said, :Ahem, George, do something romantic.:
George took another sip of wine as the Empress watched him.
:You are hopeless.: The staff flared and they winced. Instrumental music millennia old played in their minds.
George rose. “Care to dance, Lorraina?”
She nodded and offered him her hand, “This music is not like anything I have ever heard.” They began to dance around his glowing staff.
“It was written by a man named Bach long ago.”
“It is beautiful.”
“Music knows no boundaries, does it?” he said as they danced and the room around them began to change. They were suddenly dancing amid the stars.
“Do you like it?” she asked.
“Yes, very much.”
So they danced across the stars and he shared the most beautiful music his world and his heart had to offer.
Lonny felt drawn as lightning flashed and saw that Mallory did, too. “He calls for you.”
Murfy, eyes bright, came down the corridor, “He calls.”
“Go with Murfy, I will remain as guard enough this night.”
Go to him… The storm points the way.
Lonny blinked, sensing a presence around them. “Mallory, you are certain?”
“Go, Babylon, he’s tracking him while fate does its dance across the city.”
One step, two, then arms and legs turned to hooves and as steed Babylon raced to keep up with first Murfy, then other ogres called to the hunt.
At the noise Clawd peered out, then slammed the door back in haste, “Uh, Master Terhun!”
Wind and rain were pelting them as Ruke and his escort were halted at the palace Gate. “Ruke, that you?”
“Prost?” he said as they were allowed under the wide stone gate, protecting them from the rain.
The Imperial agent who accompanied Lord and Lady Lyai from their province and now served them in Terhun’s stead said, “Who are your friends?”
“Oh, just folk that the Boss will really like to see again.”
“The Boss? Really?”
“Really… not a Rat in the bunch, either.”
“Then set aside your weapons over there. All your weapons,” Za’an and the other looked at each other as Mahr dismounted and set aside her short sword and dagger.”
Reins in hand they all moved off the path only to suddenly hear the madly racing clomping of hooves and a roaring of… “Quick out of their way!” Prost cried.
None were fool enough to do otherwise as the too large horse and the ogres ran past and down into the Second Tier. Ruke shook his head, “Was that Lord Je’orj’s horse?”
Prost took a deep breath, “That she was… Now, you nice young ladies, I said to leave all your weapons.”
“We did,” Mahr said.
“Ruke,” Prost said, “you go on with them.”
Mahr shook her head, “Oh, I totally forgot about this knife strapped to my thigh.” Her sisters followed suit and soon they, and Ruke, were cleared to proceed.
The servant ran to inform Master Terhun that his aide had returned with friends. Clawd was not certain it was precisely safer to walk the corridors after the ogres passed, but the scryers were apparently unconcerned, so what right did he have?
He took one look at the wet and bedraggled Ruke and ran down the wide curved stairs and cried, “Where’s you bin?! Ya’s had dos worr’d.”
Ruke paused, “At attention, you scamp!”
Clawd stopped, straightened, “Yessir.”
“That’s better. Clawd, meet my friends, Mahr, Za’an, Wi’in, Lei’ra, Gri’is…”
“…Len’na,” Mahr finished for him, “Ane’es, Hei’ras, and Kwi’iet.”
“Uh, pleasure.” I think, he thought to himself as he realized that the young ladies near Ruke’s age were all wearing rather distinctive black livery.
“We’re here to see the Boss.”
This should prove interesting. “The Boss is busy at the moment attending to… matters of state. But come with me and let’s get you dried off.”
The lightning intensified, shattering windows in the Third Tier of the city. Thunder shook the building where Grendel and his ilk plotted. Kolter, feeling the storm focusing around them, chose to excuse himself, but ever cautious he called illusion and fled the building into the night amidst the harsh pelting rain.
As the lightning flashed he heard a clicking sound on the cobblestone of the street. He saw the old man and hissed. He raised his cane and pointed as large hulking forms burst past him, crashing through the door, or climbing up the walls that should have been too slick for them to even grip.
Magefire soon shook the building, then there was a clomping of hooves and Lord Je’orj’s roan steed arrived, sans rider, and raced inside joining the fray. “Grendel, you’ve failed me for the last time.”
He glared at the old man, who turned his gaze toward him.
Harm him and your master will flay you throughout eternity.
“Alrex, insufferable even in death,” Kolter muttered, then heard Grendel’s scream and the steed who should not exist’s whinny of triumph.
As the old man smiled, Kolter turned and ran.
George winced, hearing thunder.
:I thought you were supposed to see stars.:
“Oh, my thundering head,” he whispered apparently far too loudly.
“Hmmmm.”
His eyes went wide and he turned his face ever so carefully.
“Oh, that was marvelous… Are you up to another round?” the Empress said as the clouds they swam in dissipated.
He winced the thunder roaring in some other reality, the stars wheeling, the gate calling to him, urging him to mastery.
:Well, George, she’s asked you a question that deserves an answer. After all, it is your wedding night.:
The Empress giggled, “You are definitively Highmage. Oh, my, the Gate is ringing like a bell in my head.”
“Thunder and lightning in mine,” he muttered, wincing.
“Mother said… that it gets better after we… well, practice some more.”
“Hey!”
The clouds parted as they floated in the air above the capital. He glanced down and immediately wished he hadn’t. The Empress kissed his cheek, “Afraid of heights after we danced through the stars?”
His staff floated by as if in orbit. It laughed and laughed.
“Se’and, are you all right?” Carwina asked in the room they shared not far from the Empress’s suite.
“I’m feeling dizzy.”
Thunder rattled the palace.
Carwina frowned, “Fate is playing its hand this night. I think you are sensing it through your link to Lord Je’orj.”
“My link?”
She gestured at Se’and’s barred ankle with the glowing crystalline band. Se’and sat up and stared, “Glowing? It’s glowing like Staff.”
“Isn’t it supposed to?” Carwina asked.
“No, it’s just a piece of jewelry.”
“That is not jewelry, my friend,” she replied. “Where did you get it?”
“At the Barrows.”
“You mean in Lyai?”
“Yes, it was in a barrow we fell into.”
“Taking things from the royal dead can be rather hazardous to one’s health.”
“Well, we didn’t exactly take it.”
“You, however, obviously, put it on.”
Se’and frowned. “Fri’il and Cle’or are wearing it, too. Isn’t that the strangest thing?”
“You mean they wear ones just like it?”
Shaking her head, Se’and said, “No, I think I meant exactly what I said. We’re wearing this one. Why didn’t I ever realize that before?”
Carwina said, “Se’and, you’re looking pale.” She poured her a glass of water, “Sip this… Now are you still dizzy?”
“Very,” she said, closing her eyes tight.
The room shook and Se’and shouted in delight, “Oh!”
Carwina moved away from her as Se’and lay back and laughed, “That tickles!”
Fri’il woke laughing as the storm intensified. The door burst open and Cle’or staggered inside, “Fri’il, do you feel it, too?”
She giggled, “I was dreaming of being in bed in the palace… Oh!”
Cle’or grimaced, seeing the anklet glowing about Fri’il’s foot. She glanced at her own, which glowed in response. “I’m in that bed… Se’and’s laying where you are.”
Ri’ori awoke, crying at the noise.
Juels, with Andre in tow, came up behind Cle’or, “Lady, you don’t look well.”
“We’re going mad.”
Juels said, “Andre, help me get her into bed beside Lady Fri’il.”
Cle’or slumped and the pair hurriedly helped her to the bed, while Fri’il laughed and Cle’or began to giggle. Juels went and picked up Ri’ori, “Fetch Balfour!”
Andre fled.
Then Juels whispered, “Quite a night this… just wait until tomorrow.”
Chapter
36
“Ruke? I sent you on an errand and you come back with more little girls in livery?”
“Master.”
“Miniature Cathartans, no less, so young ladies, who’s your Lord?”
Mahr gripped Ruke’s arm, “He is.”
“Mahr,” Za’an whispered, “no he’s not.”
She smiled all the more as blushing, Ruke shrugged.
Terhun frowned, “Who was before?”
Shaking her head, Mahr and the others made no answer.
“Well, you will answer that soon enough to one better suited than I… In the meantime, Ruke, what do you intend?”
“Me, Sir?”
“They’re obviously yours,” Terhun replied, while throughout their conversation Ruke’s fingers at his right side were twining and tapping. “Get a good night’s sleep. If they’re cleared, perhaps we can put you, and them, on guard duty.”
“Yessir.” Ruke bowed and his entourage followed him out.
Clawd closed the door, “Master?”
“Lots of Cathartans in the Seventh Tier with one of their Mother Shamans in charge. I don’t know what the lad was thinking, taking those nine on.”
“I don’t think he had a choice.”
Terhun nodded, “Definitely Lord Je’orj’s problem and not ours.”
“Any word from our agents in the city?” Lord Hayden asked.
“No, Milord, but that is not entirely surprising.”
“The ground?”
“The scouts report that the roads are flooded in large swathes, much is a muddy mess. The river is higher than we had any expectation of it being, but nothing else of concern.”
“Then the city is lightly defended, if at all. Order the ranks to continue our march, nothing shall stop us.”
Se’and sat at the edge of her bed, struggling over the fact that Je’orj was with that… that elf. “I’ve adopted her… I shouldn’t feel this way.”
She drew her dagger and took out a whetstone from her purse. She sharpened and sharpened. “He loves me.”
She drew out a throwing blade from her leg sheath. Sharpened it, then thought about it all some more, and cast the blade into the wall opposite. Her face grew flushed, her body warm, she felt Je’orj’s hand on her check and… her anklet flared and she felt herself part of the storm winds, lightning dancing behind her eyes. With a gasp, she fell back on the bed unconscious.
The whetstone rolled on the floor, then spun and spun, trapped in a dance of fate.
The Empress woke and looked into George’s face. The computer staff glowed as she brought his palm to her lips and kissed it. The morning bell chimed, reverberating through her wards. “Je’orj, my love, tis morning.”
He stirred and opened his eyes. “Morning?”
“Indeed, Hayden’s army grows close and my Empire requires its Highmage to rally our mages, my dear husband.”
“Husband, I recall you calling me that last night.”
“Yes, I proclaimed us wed while we danced amid the stars, if you’ll recall.”
“Uh huh, you didn’t exactly ask me, so I thought… well, never mind, what I thought.”
‘Do you wish me to reply her conversation?’
“No,” he muttered.
“No, what?”
“Nothing, Lorraina, I was talking to Staff.”
:And your response to her proclaiming your marriage before the heavens was a shake of your head and a laugh. So, no, she did not ask you. She apparently decided to adopt Cathartan custom and marry by fiat.:
George simply smiled as the gate hung in the back of his mind, not unlike the Summoning once had, sans the headache.
Carwina stared at the ogres’ black clad prisoners, their clothing torn, the faces and bodies bleeding. Each elfblood twitched semi-conscious and sweating, none more so than the elflord writhing before her.
She bent forward, “My oath demands I try to heal you… but in good conscience I can’t.”
“No need,” Lonny said, grinning. “His injuries, and theirs, will soon heal on their own. Do you think Her Majesty will appreciate her own steed?”
“Steed?”
“I bit him thrice for good measure.”
Suggest Her Majesty geld him to make him reliable, evermore.
Carwina’s eyes went wide, hearing her father’s voice. Eyes twinkling, she said, “Babylon, what would you think to my suggesting to Her Majesty that she might want to geld her new mount?”
Grendel gasped, hearing that through the cursing’s delirium.
“Oh, what a marvelous suggestion,” she replied.
Alrex’s grim laughter haunted his nightmare.
Abernathy faced the Hall. “The storm has passed, which we can hope no
t all recognized as what I know it represents… the node coming fully awakened. We can only hope that Stenh and Lord Je’orj’s apprentices succeed in creating warder mages in the Old Hall. We are going to need them.”
“Master, there is still no sign of Kolter.”
“Not surprising… any word on who is in command of forces rally to Her Majesty?”
“Lord Sianhiel.”
“But will our presence be… welcome?” one Faeryn mage asked.
“By the Empress and Highmage of a certainty, which should be enough of us all.”
Master Ofran said, “Empty the stores. We’re going to want to stage all the reset of our supplies at temporary halls in the upper Tiers.”
Posh urged an assistant to see to additional cots being put out. “So nice of the new Head of the Imperial Service to let us know an army is on the march against us.”
Ofran shrugged, “Best known now… Any word of Balfour?”
“Somehow, I do not think he plans to work from our Halls.”
“Did you send for Carwina? For this, at least, she must end her seclusion.”
Frowning, Posh replied, “The apprentice returned a little while ago. Her servant said she was not available.”
“Not available? Do I have to bring her here myself?”
“Master,” Posh confided in a whisper, “my apprentice got the impression that Carwina is not at home and is better placed than here at the Hall.”
Ofran nodded, “I can think of no one else to call in, then.”
“I sent him back out to speak with the Herbalist Guild and the Midwives.”
“Well, they will do no harm and they know to send the worst cases to us, in any case. Excellent. Excellent,” Ofran said, then was quickly distracted as someone dropped a sack of bandages. “You there, help him…”
“Esperanza.”
Deep in her scrying she heard, ‘Lord Sianhiel has ordered goon powder moved to the lower Tiers and women and children evacuated from the Seventh Tier. The Temples of Knowledge are to serve as temporary housing.’