Theus amazed the man, and left him skeptical about the claims of a magic powder that disabled memory stones.
"I suppose you're the expert on the stones, from what I hear, but the sounds far-fetched to me," he politely dissented.
The woman on Theus's right was an older woman, an aunt of the Prince, who lived mostly in the countryside, at an estate along the Westlands River between Stoke and Great Forks.
"I'd enjoy my estate much more if I hadn't developed an allergy to the wildflowers in the region," she told Theus, then sneezed as if to prove her point.
Theus felt a jolt from a recollected memory about a treatment for allergies.
"There's a treatment for that," he said cautiously, knowing from experience that such conversations typically led to only one conclusion.
"I've spoken to all the best doctors, and tried everything known, without success," the noblewoman contradicted him.
Theus saw Coriae pause in her own conversation on the other side of the table to listen. She too had an idea of how the matter would proceed.
"But there is a treatment," Theus assured her.
"And where would I have to go to find this miraculous cure?" the noble aunt asked skeptically.
Theus gave a slight, rueful shake of his head. "Probably the kitchen of this palace," he decided to address the issue directly. "I can go prepare a batch for you now, if you like". He sat back and waited for an answer.
"You shouldn't tease her," spoke up the young man on the other side of the Aunt.
"He's not teasing," Coriae broke from her own conversation. "He prepared a salve for me one time in our kitchen that healed my bruises in a day!"
"I'll go right now," Theus pushed back from the table.
"I am astonished!" the aunt exclaimed, as she pressed her own chair back. "I have to watch this!"
"So do I!" her other neighbor insisted, amused by the sudden turn of events.
The three abandoned the dinner and flummoxed the kitchen staff when they staked a claim to a section of counter space, and Theus began to request a number of ingredients and supplies, which were delivered to him with alacrity by the staff, fearful of upsetting the nobles who coexisted with them in the kitchen.
By the time Theus finished his work an hour later, many of the others from the dinner party had joined the group observing Theus, as he gave a running commentary about the steps he was taking,
When he finished, he held up a spoonful of viscous syrup to the aunt.
"Take this," he instructed. When she did, the crowd around them applauded, while Theus held up a jar.
"Take another spoonful every night until this is all consumed," he instructed.
"What else can you treat?" asked one of the nobles standing in the audience.
"Almost anything," Theus answered enthusiastically, caught up in the moment.
" Which he may have time to do when we return from Great Forks," Coriae stepped forward to end the conversation. "Come with me dear," she took Theus by the arm.
"There's dancing, and you and I have never danced," she explained as she led him away, drawing murmurs of approval from the surrounding group.
They passed through the empty dining room, then crossed through other rooms to reach a ballroom where musicians played and a handful of couples danced on the floor.
"You found your way here to the ballroom quite easily, through a bit of a maze," Theus commented.
"I've been here a few times," Coriae commented in an offhand manner.
"The prince took quite a fancy to her," Forgon spoke as he joined the pair and put an affectionate arm around his sister's shoulder. "She could be the princess, I believe, if she wanted to.
"But I'm happy she's going to be married to you instead," he added in a lower voice.
"You two should dance," he said as he pulled Coriae towards Theus.
"I had the same thought," Coriae asserted.
"I've only been dancing once before," Theus warned.
"We may have to carry you to the carriage, if your toes are all broken," Forgon warned his sister with mock seriousness.
"Come along, Theus," Coriae reached out and pulled her betrothed onto the dance floor with her.
"You could have been a princess?" Theus asked curiously.
"I believe I still could," Coriae answered airily, then laughed.
They danced the song together with a minimum of miscues, then Coriae was invited to dance with the prince, while Theus stood against a wall and wondered how he had come so far from being a farm boy in a poor family in the Jewel Hills. He was engaged to a woman who was stunning in personality, skills,and beauty. He'd first been attracted by her beauty, but had come to love her personality more, while he admired the way she handled weapons and horses and more.
And unbelievable as the notion of being engaged to Coriae was, the rest of the story of his past year was just as extraordinary. The caravan trip, the memory stone skills, the swordsmanship, the Voice, slavery, war - there seemed no end to the impossible parade of events.
"You've made a good friend there," Coriae told him later, speaking of the Prince’s aunt, after they left the palace and began to walk back to her family's city home. "Your cure for her allergy will work, won't it?" she asked.
"Yes, of course," Theus instantly replied.
"I knew it would," Coriae said without doubt.
They chatted about the people at the dinner while they walked home, and then parted at the landing on the staircase at the end of the evening. Theus slept well, except for one dream that he remembered clearly the next morning.
He, Coriae, and Forgon were in the saddle of horses immediately after breakfast, and weaving their way through the city streets on the first stage of their journey to Great Forks.
"How did you sleep?" Forgon asked. He looked tired himself, with bags beneath sleepy eyes.
"I kept dreaming of a voice calling my name," Theus replied.
"Perhaps it was Coriae calling you from the third floor," Forgon jested. "You should have gone up to her room."
Theus blushed slightly, then looked at the lovely girl riding between the two boys.
She grinned and winked at him.
"I'd know the sound of Coriae's voice," Theus said insistently. "It was a girl's voice, though, now that I think about it."
"So you're dreaming of other women?" Coriae asked archly.
"I'm sorry I brought the matter up, Theus," Forgon apologized. "So tell me, where did you stay along the way when you rode to Great Forks and back? We can stay in new places, if you like," he offered. "Though of course, Coriae and I have made this trip so many times I think we've stayed in every possible place."
"Theus and I stayed in our saddle, brother dear, just to hurry your freedom," Coriae answered.
"We won't do that for this trip," Forgon said assuredly.
The trip to Great Forks proceeded smoothly and quickly. Theus and Forgon shared rooms, while Coriae had one of her own each night they stopped, and Forgon's homecoming was a joyous celebration for the family and even the staff of the mansion when they arrived.
And as predicted, Theus was given a room in the family quarters of the mansion, raising eyebrows among his acquaintances on the staff.
Quite the new person now, aren't you?" Blanche asked as Theus came to have an early breakfast in the kitchen on the first morning back.
"I don't feel any different," Theus replied.
"Are we going to the armory, early bird?" Forgon appeared and asked.
The pair went out to the armory where they had spent so much time together before, and were hard at work for a long time before Coriae opened the door.
"You've had enough time with him, it's my turn," she directed her brother.
"Swords or staves?" Theus asked his betrothed between gasps of breath.
"Swords to start, then staves," the girl said.
"Good luck Theus," Forgon offered as he placed his practice weapon in the wall rack. "Are there things you want me to go buy at the
market for you, so that you can mix a remedy for all the bruises you two will give each other?" he laughed.
"You can buy a sack to put over your own head, Forgon," Coriae growled. "Theus is too much of a gentleman to try to bruise me, even if he had the talent to beat my defenses, which of course, he doesn't," she said in a falsely sweet voice.
Forgon laughed and left, leaving the other two to begin their work out.
After minutes of preliminary practice, Coriae questioned Theus.
"When do you plan to speak to my father, to request our marriage?" she asked.
Theus grinned. "I want to do it today," he replied.
"Could you wait?" Coriae asked.
The question stunned Theus, who had assumed Coriae was as anxious as he was to receive the permission to take the biggest step they would ever share in life.
"Oh no!" Coriae assured him sympathetically as she saw the expression on his face. "It's not anything bad, nothing at all," she lowered her sword and stepped in closer to him. "My parents will celebrate their own wedding anniversary in three days, and I thought it would seem more romantic to ask on their own anniversary," she explained.
Theus grinned in relief.
"Of course," he replied. "That’s a marvelous idea."
"I'm glad you agree," Coriae said. She stepped back from him, then raised her sword suddenly, and forced Theus to defend himself in a frenzied flurry of slices, stabs, and blocks, followed by Coriae's whoop of victory.
That night, Theus dreamed he heard a voice calling again. He recognized the voice that night, because it spoke more words than just his name.
"Theus, Donal, the magician from Southland," she began, though no explanation was needed for Theus to know who Donal was, for the name was inscribed in memories of fear and horror in Theus's soul.
"Donal sent magicians to Exlive and they kidnapped me. They said they followed that collar you wore, and they found out where I was," her voice echoed through a featureless dream.
"They say that you're the only one who can rescue me," pleaded Amelia, the young princess of Steep Rise who Theus had rescued once already.
He awoke before sunrise, shaken by the dream, which carried a strange and compelling veneer of truth.
Without any hope of getting back to sleep after being so unsettled by the frightening message of the dream, Theus rose and went to the kitchen, before any of the actual kitchen staff had arisen. He thought of all that he had seen the kitchen staff do in the palace at Southland. By the time the Warrell's mansion baker arrived to start his day, an hour of his work was complete.
That following night, Theus had the identical dream. He awoke in a sweat, troubled by the dream.
"Voice, what does this dream tell me? Why am I having it?" he asked as he sat up in his comfortable bed.
"You're having it because that girl is in grave trouble, and has turned to you as her only hope," the voice replied.
"It's just a dream, isn't it?" Theus asked. "She's not really a captive of Donal? They wouldn't follow that collar to find her, would they?"
"The thoughts and actions of the black magic followers is beyond my knowing. I cannot tell you. But it does seem plausible for the evil ones to track you through such a collar, and there is no doubt that you are the most desirable captive they would be desperate to hold and use," the voice lectured him. "They would do incomprehensible damage if they could feast upon you.
"But I do not doubt that these evil dogs have kidnapped your young friend to use her powerful royal blood for their needs, as well as use her as bait for a trap to capture you. They probably used their own energy to allow her to send a message to you," the voice told him.
Theus sat in his bed after that, alone in the darkness, shaken by the voice's revelation.
He felt a tear well up in his eye at the thought of young Amelia as a captive of Donal and his lesser dark magicians.
He had another dream on the third night in a row while he slept in the comfortable bed in the family quarters of the Warrell mansion.
"Oh Theus, it hurt so much!" the girl's voice sobbed. "They used me for their magic, Theus. I'm doomed, I know now."
"Voice, what can I do to help her?" Theus asked as he awoke immediately and sat up in bed again.
"You could go to Southsand and rescue her," the voice replied as though it were a reasonable answer.
"I don't want to die trying to save her!" Theus shouted.
"You would not have to die," the voice sounded reassuring. "There is a way."
Theus sat in his bed. It was impossible to imagine that there was any way for him to go to Southsand, let alone rescue Amelia.
"If you use the power of white magic, you will be able to rescue her," the voice spoke.
"White magic?" Theus wondered. The phrase was familiar. He'd heard it, and recently.
"Yes, that's right. In the ring," the voice prompted him.
The ring. The ring that Coriae possessed. The ring that held his betrothed's false memory of Monsant, and Forgon's true memory of Monsant's murder. There was the third level of memory he had found buried in the great memory stone jewel at the heart of the ring. There had been the mysterious memory below the others, the memory that had told of the hidden second stone in the ring.
The hidden stone held the secrets of white magic.
And the voice, the great power that he relied on, was telling him to use those secrets to go to rescue Amelia.
"When will I be able to rescue her? I can't leave right away," Theus asked. "I'm going to speak to Lord Warrell today. I'm going to be engaged to Coriae."
"You won't have time for that. You'll need to leave immediately. The journey will be long and hard and dangerous. But the life of the girl will be short and painful if you do not save her."
Theus bit his lip and shook his head. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. He was just hours away from being officially granted Coriae's hand in marriage. He was going to become a success in life.
But Amelia had been a sweet girl, one who had been like one of his own younger sisters. She had saved his life by warning him to flee from the embassy in Exlive.
He was going to do it.
He would have to go to Coriae and ask for her ring.
He didn't think she would appreciate the request, for many reasons.
He could sneak into her room and steal the ring. He'd seen where she kept the ring on her dresser.
Theus threw back his bed covers, and slowly stepped out of bed. It was impossible to believe he was doing it. He hoped Coriae could have faith in him; when he returned to her, they would have a difficult time reconciling, he knew.
He carried his boots in his hand so that he could silently creep barefoot through the halls of the mansion.
He reached Coriae's door, then paused with his hand gripping the knob. He could still turn back.
Then he felt the knob turn in his hand, and the door edged open.
Theus shook his head, wishing desperately that there was no need, no problem, no conflict driving him to the unhappiness he felt. He silently pressed the door further open, then slipped inside the room.
His eyes were adjusted to the darkness, with only faint moonlight entering through a gap in the curtains, and a minute spark beside the bed showing a shuttered lantern on Coriae's table.
Theus slipped over to the dresser where the ring and other jewelry were organized. He studied the top of the piece of furniture in the darkness, then carefully lifted the great jeweled ring that had seemed to be a part of his life forever - he'd carried it for Grant, turned it over to Lord Warrell, treated it for Coriae, retrieved it for Forgon, and now he was stealing it for Amelia.
"Press the left prong and the bottom prong, then twist the stone," the voice directed.
Theus let his fingers explore the tiny fixtures on the ring and discover the features the Voice had described. He followed the directions, and felt a substantial 'click' in the ring.
"Who's there?" Coriae was sitting up in bed, the room was suddenly
illuminated, and the small shutters of the bedside lantern were open.
Coriae's hair was mussed, but her face was lovely, and her night gown was revealing and alluring.
"Oh Theus," her voice was warm. "You should wait until father gives his blessing before you sneak in here," she smiled. "Not that I haven't dreamed of finding you here with me," she added.
"What are you doing?" her eyes comprehended for the first time that he was holding the ring.
"Put that away," her voice carried the hint of an edge.
Theus tilted the ring, and a thin disk of stone slid into his hand. It felt alive with eager energy.
"I have to go," he choked on the words. He pressed the ring closed.
"What are you doing?" Coriae didn't grasp. "Why do you have my ring? Where are you going?"
"I have to go to save the princess, Amelia," Theus answered.
"You’re leaving me for another woman? Put that ring down! How dare you?" She climbed out of bed and stalked over to him.
"I thought," she was suddenly shaking with anger. The light from the lantern behind her left her face shaded, but Theus could tell her eyes were glittering with moisture.
"I thought," she began again, "that you were genuine and honest and truly in love with me, but I see that you're just a lying, cheating, good-for-nothing disaster that stabbed me in the heart and is ready to run away again, before you make a public commitment.
"I suppose I should be grateful that you haven't let more happen publicly; at least there are a few shreds of my public name left untattered," she was growing furious as she constructed an unsavory explanation for what was happening.
"No, listen," Theus knew he had to tell her the truth. He couldn't let her grow bitter and more angry. He wanted her to understand the magnitude and gravity of the situation.
Theus reached out and gripped her wrists in his. She flailed wildly, attempting to break his hold, and she pulled them both off balance, so that they crashed onto her mattress.
"Are you going to despoil me now?" she asked in a voice full of emotion. Their faces were close to one another's.
The Deadly Magician (The Memory Stones Series Book 2) Page 29