The Disinherited Prince

by Guy Antibes

  “That’s not true, is it?”

  She shook her head. “For many it works, but there are plenty of headstrong young men who take up mistresses if their wives don’t please them. That isn’t applicable to all men, and I know women who have a similar point of view.”

  Pol thought of Grostin’s dalliance and blushed. “I understand.”

  Farthia looked at Pol sideways. “I’m not sure that you do.” She gave him a sly smile.

  If Landon became the King of Listya, Pol would be disappointed, but not terribly so, since he never had thought he’d be ruling anything but his own life. “When will the Emperor arrive in Borstall?”

  “Three or four weeks. He had already started when I caught up to him. Now your father has to find a suitable mate for your elder brother before the Emperor shows up. That will make granting the petition a bit more certain.”

  “But there hasn’t been a vassal-king under a king before.”

  Farthia looked sympathetically into Pol’s eyes. “There is always a first time, my dear Prince. I think it will only help your situation, but I could be wrong. Now, tell me all that has happened while I’ve been gone.”

  Pol took the rest of the afternoon and told Farthia everything that had happened, from the prank that had led to a concussion to Landon’s attack the day before. He finished by going over his sessions with Malden.

  “My, you’ve made tremendous progress. Maybe I should have stayed away,” she said.

  “I’m glad you are back,” Pol said. Although he had grown to know Malden Gastoria better, Pol preferred learning regular subjects from Mistress Farthia. “I’m still learning, but I don’t feel as lost as I did just before you left.”

  “As I said, progress. Now what do you want to learn before the Emperor arrives?”

  Pol thought for a bit. “Protocol? How do I act around an Emperor? As a prince, I can just act, especially since I am the youngest, but I don’t want to embarrass Mother and Father in front of the ruler of the continent.”

  “What about the book on religion? These are your notes?” Farthia walked over to the map table that held the book and Pol’s papers.

  “I went through about fifteen religions. There are a lot more, but many of them are similar. The god worshipped may be different, but the organization of the religion and the various priesthoods are similar.”

  Farthia skimmed the papers. “I see you jumped ahead to the Church of the Sleeping God.”

  “You mentioned it. If you take out the fact that their god is in their central cathedral in Fassia, the organization is similar to others.”

  “So what does that tell you about religion?”

  Pol laughed. “You’re sounding like Malden Gastoria.”

  She pursed her lips, but Pol could tell she could have just as easily laughed at him. “Questions?”

  “Not just questions, but piercing questions. Hard questions that force me to think about the answers.”

  Farthia nodded. “Get used to it. If you ever end up in a monastery, as Malden and I think you will, all of the questions will be like that.”

  “How can you be certain I’ll be in a monastery?”

  “That or Baccusol University, but I don’t think you would flourish at the university. As a prince, you’d get too many privileges. No, a monastery is where you need to go.”

  Pol shook his head. “Don’t I get any say in what I will do or where I will study?”

  “You might. But the truth of the situation is that your siblings look at you as a threat. Look at what’s happened since I have been gone. Do you call that a healthy situation?”

  “Father said I was smarter…”

  “More reason for them to fear you, Poldon.”

  Those were words Pol didn’t want to hear. All of the progress that he thought he had made and effort he had gone through to exercise and learn stealth seemed like a waste.

  “So what do I do now?”

  “Your fate won’t be decided until after the Emperor’s visit. Malden thinks you are ready to learn more about magic.”

  That took the sting out of the current circumstances. “I get to go beyond discerning patterns?”

  Farthia shrugged. “I’m no magician and that’s why I don’t have any books on magic.”

  Pol flushed.

  Farthia broke into a wide smile and put fists in her hips. “You looked, didn’t you?” She twisted her head and glanced at the shelves holding all the books in the classroom.

  “How can I learn magic if I don’t have any books?”

  “You’ll read the appropriate books after you’ve been assessed. Malden has what you need, and it’s time that you meet with him. He should be in his rooms by now.”

  “Where has he been?”

  “Conferring with King Colvin. He is a member of the King’s Council, after all. Go now.”

  Pol left Farthia looking more closely at his notes on religion as he closed the door.

  ~

  When Pol knocked, Malden yelled at him to come in. He sat at his table looking through a few open books.

  “I don’t know why King Colvin seems to think I’m competent at scheduling events for the Emperor’s visit.” Malden shook his head. “What do you think we should do?”

  Pol shrugged. “When I read about historical events, such things are recorded. A tournament of some kind is held in conjunction with a festival to make the people happy. It gets everyone excited, even if they have no real connection to the Emperor. I would think a state dinner would be nice, and if the weather is appropriate, perhaps an Imperial hunt in Father’s hunting preserve.”

  “Well, I guess that takes care of the outline.” Malden bowed his head over a large paper and scribbled what Pol had told him. “I’ve been worrying about that for the last hour, and you just spout a good program off the top of your head.”

  Pol laughed, although it seemed more like a giggle, and that embarrassed him. “Actually I got that from the last novel that I read. The Red Knight’s Curse or something like that. Mistress Farthia would know exactly where the novel is.”

  Malden laughed and jotted that down, too.

  “Well, let me get to the point. I think you need to learn some magic, enough to help you with stealth. Landon sneaked up behind you, and I know a technique that will let you sense the presence of someone near.”

  Pol’s eyebrows went up. “Real magic? I thought you said I would have to wait years.”

  “Maybe a few days, but have to be talented enough.” He pulled out one of his dotted boards. “Tell me what this is.”

  Pol thought back to how he had successfully read the other boards. He shut his eyes and let them relax. He opened his eyes and saw the word ‘Magic’ spelled by the dots “Magic. It says magic.”

  Malden grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Great. That didn’t take you any time. Have you given any more thought about detecting patterns?”

  Pol knew that Malden was aware of his activities. “Of course. I look for patterns all the time now.”

  The magician nodded. “So there are patterns that you need to identify around you. This is an easy visualization. Picture the dots on this board in your mind and think of people as colored dots moving around you.”

  “Is that it?”

  Malden shook his head. “It is much, much harder than seeing ‘Magic’ on the board. Close your eyes and picture a pattern.”

  “Does it have to be dots?”

  Malden paused. “No. If you know the plan of this room, then you can picture the walls and where the furniture is placed. The layout becomes the pattern. Don’t try hard, just let the visualization come. Take your time, just let the image appear.”

  Pol leaned back and shut his eyes. He thought of the layout of the room and concentrated on relaxing. His mind thought of the room as black. Furniture and walls were a shade of lighter gray. He noticed that there were two large dots.

  “I see two dots in the room. One is red and the other is a pale yellow or a yellowish gray.
” He furrowed his brow and shook his head. “I can’t tell the difference in the color.”

  “Keep your eyes closed.” Malden stayed silent. “Now, where is the red dot?”

  “By the door,” Pol said, pointing towards the door.

  “Open your eyes.” Pol blinked his eyes open to see that Malden stood by the door.

  “That makes me the pale yellow.”

  Malden nodded enthusiastically. “I’m absolutely amazed you succeeded on your first try.”

  “Does that make me a magician?”

  “Is a baby who holds a rattle a warrior?”

  “No.”

  Malden folded his arms. “That’s your answer. But you definitely have potential. So we know you can detect people in a room with your eyes closed. The theory goes that your location’s physical layout is like a painting, and that becomes the pattern. People moving about are aberrations to that pattern.”

  “But how would I tweak that pattern?” Pol said, using the term that Malden introduced to him.

  “No tweaking. That can be dangerous. If you tried to move me, I might feel the urge to move or I might be thrown across the room. The results are very unpredictable to the unpracticed. You will need to train to know how far you can go and what you are capable of. For now, we will work on identifying the dots. You will have to be able to do it with your eyes open.”

  “Then Landon can’t sneak up on me any more?”

  Malden shook his head. “Landon may approach you again, but it won’t be a secret. You’ll sense him coming if you are consciously aware of your location.”

  Pol folded his arms. “That will do me a lot of good when he starts kicking me and Grostin joins him.”

  Malden shook his finger at Pol. “Don’t forget Honna.”

  Pol raised his arms with mock exasperation. “How can I forget her? She’ll join in using her pointed shoes.”

  “But you’ll know they were coming,” Malden said, smiling.

  Life might become more complicated using the location spell. Pol could always turn and run away. Now he had another good reason to know how to defend himself. “I think I need more lessons from Kelso Beastwell.”

  Malden nodded and sat down at his books again. “Never said you didn’t. But know this, Prince Poldon, you have been tested and have passed.”

  “That was the test?”

  Malden tapped his finger on the table. “A test. There isn’t a specific one. You have to manifest the ability to set up a pattern in your mind and interpret it.”

  Pol was unconvinced. It seemed too easy for him, but at least his actions met with Malden’s approval. “Will I get more lessons?”

  “Hopefully, we can carve out some time. I know Mistress Wissingbel wants to cram protocols into your head, so you don’t make a fool of yourself when Hazett III comes. That is, unless all the behavior that you need to learn was in that red knight novel.” Malden smiled and clapped Pol on the shoulder.

  “But what about my siblings learning the proper behavior?”

  Farthia doesn’t care about them.” Malden smiled. “She only cares about you.” The magician colored. “Well maybe some other people, but of all of King Colvin’s children, you are her favorite.”

  ~~~

  Chapter Seven

  ~

  POL STOOD ON THE DIRT OF THE INDOOR PRACTICE HALL of the armory. He looked around at the empty space. He liked the smell of the aromatic wood they had used to build it. Pol used his toe to draw a cross in the hard-packed dirt and assumed the pose that Kelso showed him. He ground his teeth at the thought of going through all of this training for a single morning of playing for the Emperor.

  “Why do I have to participate in the tournament?” Pol said. “I’m only fourteen.”

  Kelso eyed Pol with an impatient look. “You’ll celebrate your fifteenth birthday in the fall, My Prince, so you will be competing with other boys thirteen and fourteen.” He shook his head. “King Colvin set the age categories to show off his three sons in the different classifications.”

  Pol didn’t care about being shown off like some prize horse, especially since physically he was no prize. He didn’t expect that he would have a chance to do anything other than embarrass his father and mother in front of the Emperor of Baccusol.

  Pol knew he had to give his full attention to Kelso and his training in order to give him any chance at all not to look totally clumsy out in the field with boys of similar age.

  ~

  Pol had improved in the last two weeks of intensive training, but unless he put his opponent away quickly, he discovered that he couldn’t last more than a few minutes before fatigue began to hit, and then he would be fighting for breath, and he could feel his heart labor.

  “I don’t want to be made a laughingstock.” Pol stopped practicing basic forms, which were now second nature, and stood straight up. “I can’t understand why you are forcing this on me. Can’t there be a tracking event where I can sneak around?”

  That made the older man laugh. “Just your style, along with your brother Grostin.”

  Pol could feel his face heat with anger. “Don’t compare me to my brother.” He crouched down and let his eyes lose a little focus, so he could pick out the patterns that he could detect from Kelso. Malden had shown him how to use a touch of anticipation magic to discover the next move an opponent would make. Malden called it a ‘sip’ of magic, and it took Pol ten days to get the hang of it. Pol needed to create every bit of advantage that he could.

  “That’s more like it. Just do that for a few minutes and then a good touch,” Kelso said. “It looks like you’ve got to get a bit angry to get going.” Kelso sighed. “How can you do that on the tourney field?”

  “Pretend that my opponent is Grostin or Landon?” Pol said.

  Kelso cocked his head. “If that works, use it.”

  Pol wasn’t so sure, but he knew that the magical technique would help him survive in the tourney, if practiced along with the pattern recognition technique. He just didn’t have enough time to learn all the moves and counter-moves that an opponent might throw at him.

  Kelso’s compliment made him smile and gave him some motivation. He had never expected to develop any skill in using a sword, but with the magic helping him anticipate his opponent’s moves, Pol found he had sufficient confidence not to dread disappointing his father in front of the Emperor. He finished with Kelso and washed up before heading up to the classroom.

  ~

  Luckily, his siblings had duties to perform preparing for Hazett III’s visit that kept them away from Pol, so he could walk the castle corridors without too much worry. He took the opportunity every time to practice the location magic that Malden had taught him.

  Pol had improved on that technique. With practice, he didn’t need to create a picture of the surrounding castle plan before the dots appeared in his mind. His new senses detected the layout as he walked. Pol only needed to close his eyes to get the image started, and then it seemed to stick in his consciousness while he moved throughout the castle. Malden continued to test his mastery, and Pol had failed to recognize the magician’s familiar red presence only once.

  “You must have just returned from the practice yard,” Farthia said. “Your hair is still wet from washing up.”

  Pol grinned. “You are too smart, Mistress Wissingbel.”

  She returned his grin with a smile. “Of course. I am a graduate of the University of Baccusol, and you haven’t graduated from anything.”

  “You speak the truth. What will we be learning today?”

  She turned around and waved her hand at the bookcases. “Something you won’t learn in any of these books. We are going to discuss emotional control.”

  “I’ve been lectured about controlling myself since I was a baby,” Pol said.

  “Not behavioral control, but hiding your emotions. This is an area where all your siblings are adept when they choose, and you, being the baby of the family and often feel persecuted, are unschooled. I ha
ve left that aspect out of your training since you’ve had your relationship issues to deal with.”

  “Can I be taught such a thing?”

  Farthia nodded. “You can, but it requires a great deal of patience along with some practice.”

  “My time to learn is just about gone. The Emperor will arrive in a week or two,” Pol said.

  “I don’t intend that you become an expert. In the kind of control I’m talking about, you have to develop a sense of the situation in conjunction with learning to suppress your feelings. Malden says you are beginning to learn to split your mind, something magicians can do quite easily.”

  Pol was uncomfortable with Malden sharing his magical progress with his tutor, but what could he do? He pressed his lips tightly together. “I have begun to learn a few things.”

  “You can build on developing an awareness of the emotions being displayed, so you can recognize when someone is trying to manipulate yours. Then you use that information to control your emotions. Learning to be an expert takes a lot of practice, but I suspect you do more of that than you think.”

  “Perhaps you can tell me how?” Pol said.

  “I know you’re an introspective boy. You often think things through before you respond to my questions. Do the same thing before you say something that will anger your siblings. You can use that technique before you let your emotions get the better of you.”

  “Before I lose my temper?”

  Farthia shrugged. “For lack of another suitable example, yes. You should instantly recognize situations where something is better left unsaid. Then you suppress your emotions. As Malden might say, it’s a matter of detecting a pattern and not letting others use the pattern to get a response from you. Let me try to put it another way. Think of the emotional framework in the social situation you find yourself in, and then in this situation, avoid breaking the pattern, so that you don’t react negatively and make an emotionally-charged situation worse.”

  “Not tweaking then,” Pol said. “Magician Malden talks about tweaking patterns if you are a magician.”