The beggar walked into the room. He removed his clothing and climbed in the bath. A few minutes later, the servant walked in and began scrubbing him. She didn’t speak. She scrubbed him with a cloth and the scented sands, and then she just stood at the end of the tub. She seemed to be waiting on him so he stood and stepped out of the tub. She hesitated when she saw that his skin was tinted blue. He understood how that could give someone pause, since he had just stepped out of a hot bath, but she said nothing. She wrapped a towel around him and walked to the other room. He followed her into the room. She had already laid clothes on the bed. She picked up the dirty tattered clothing he had been wearing. She turned to him. “Will there be anything else, sir?”
He stared back silently until she nodded her head, bending forward slightly at the waist and departing the room. He put the clean undergarments on. He pulled the thick blanket off the bed, wrapped it around himself and then lay down on the stone floor and fell asleep.
* * *
Anna woke early. She was in a lot of pain. Master Brennin was by her bed. Grundel was asleep in a chair a few feet away.
“Drink this,” Brennin told her, handing her a cup. “It has poppy in it. It will help with the pain so you can sleep better.”
She took the cup and sipped it. Whatever the concoction was, it was bitter, but she finished the cup. She knew if she didn’t, she would just have to listen to Brennin’s protest until she did. Once she finished, she laid back. Her knees were throbbing, and she felt like someone was trying to tear her arms off.
“It will take a few minutes, but you will know when it starts working, Your Highness,” Brennin told her.
She lay there in her bed, unable to think about anything but how bad she was hurting until she realized that she wasn’t hurting anymore. She looked up at Brennin and he nodded. He smiled and she realized that she was smiling so hard the corner of her lips had to be nearly to her ears. She couldn’t stop though. She didn’t know when it happened, but eventually she fell back asleep.
When she woke again, Grundel was sitting at the small table next to her bed. The table was actually a nightstand. It was tiny, and Grundel was huge. He sat in a chair in front of it, leaning forward and trying to use it as a table. Watching it, she couldn’t help but laugh.
He looked up when he heard her laugh. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“I am fine. What are you eating?” she replied.
“Sausage, bacon, and something they call hash,” he told her.
“Of course you are,” she said with a smile.
“Would you like some?” he asked, holding out a piece of sausage between his fingers.
“No, I don’t think I can handle that yet. Could you have someone bring me up some fruit, then send someone for Master Brennin?”
He popped the sausage in his mouth and went to the door.
A few minutes later, Master Brennin returned with a tray of freshly cut fruit with two cups on it, one small, and one the size of a normal cup.
He set the tray on the bed next to her. “Here is your fruit, Your Highness. I brought you another small glass with poppy. This one won’t make you fall asleep,” he said before she had the opportunity to protest.
She stared at the cup for a few seconds, debating whether she should drink it, but she knew that Brennin would make a number of very compelling arguments, and she really was in a great deal of pain. She didn’t think she could get through the day without it. She put the cup to her lips and swallowed its contents. Brennin had the poppy mixed with a warm tea. She took a moment to enjoy the soothing warm liquid flow down her throat and into her chest.
“I want to see him,” she said, looking up at Master Brennin.
“Of course, Your Highness. I will have him brought up straight away.”
“I want to see him alone, Master Brennin,” she said with a tone that left no room for debate.
Master Brennin wouldn’t argue, but he had to make an attempt to understand. “If I may, could I ask what it is about this man? I understand he helped save you, but it seems like there is something more. If you told me what it is you are thinking, I might be able to help.”
“I will tell you when the time is right. For now, I just need to have a private word with that man. Grundel will stay with me to keep me safe.”
Master Brennin stared curiously at her for a minute and then bowed his head slightly. “Of course, Your Highness.” He turned and walked out of the room.
Captain Thompson was guarding the man’s door when Master Brennin arrived. “Queen Patria Stoneheart would like a word with her guest.” Brennin addressed the captain formally even though there was no one around to hear.
Captain Thompson took the hint. Master Brennin didn’t like this and was not open to discussing it with him.
“Of course, Master Brennin. I will escort him personally.”
“You will escort him to the queen’s quarters, but no further. Prince Stoneheart will act as her guardian. She will not permit any others in the room,” Brennin explained.
Captain Thompson would normally argue the point, but he now understood Master Brennin’s frustration. He had obviously not agreed with this decision, but the queen must not have been interested in hearing any arguments.
“I’ll wait outside,” Thompson said. He turned and knocked on the beggar’s door.
A few moments later, a completely different man opened the door than the one he had left there the night before. The dirt that had covered the man’s skin was now washed away. The man seemed to have gotten ten years younger overnight. This man was well built. His tan shirt hung loosely on wide shoulders, but his broad chest was prominent through the loose garment. The man’s bald head shone with the dirt gone. It wasn’t the style, but he wore it well. Looking into the man’s bright blue eyes, he was reassured that he somehow knew this man, but he just couldn’t figure out how.
“Dad?” the man asked.
“Come with me,” Brennin said, turning and walking toward the stairs. The man followed and a few minutes later he stopped and waited while Master Brennin knocked on the queen’s door.
“Come in,” Anna said when she heard the knock at the door. She had just finished getting dressed in a simple dress of cotton. Her body was sore and she’d had the servants bring her the simplest dress. She didn’t want anything tight or that would take effort to get into. It was all she could do just to be out of the bed. She sat in the chair next to her bed when Master Brennin stepped into the room.
“He is here, Your Highness.”
“Thank you, Master Brennin. Please send him in,” she said.
Master Brennin just bowed his head and exited the room. He nodded to Captain Thompson and took his place outside the door.
Captain Thompson stepped to the side. “Go in and do everything you are told. Do not give Her Highness any trouble.”
“Dad,” the man said and then walked into the room.
Grundel closed the door behind the man and walked to his mother’s side. He didn’t feel that the man was a threat, but he wasn’t taking any chances with his mother.
“How?” his mother asked the man.
“I still don’t know how,” the man responded.
“You were dead. You fell through the ice. There was no way you could have lived.”
“I lost my memory when it happened. I woke up in a bed buried in a pile of blankets. I was bald and my skin was blue. The man who found me said I had frozen to death. He said that a dormant magic had awakened inside me when I died. He said that magic saved me. He was a wizard. He had an ability to detect magic, and he had been drawn to my magic when it awakened. I couldn’t remember anything. For years, the man tutored me. I had to learn to read, write, and do everything all over again. Once I had relearned how to read and write, he began teaching me magic. I became a wizard. I had a natural ability to freeze things and use ice. The only explanation the man could come up with was that it was the freezing of my body that had awakened the magic inside
me.
“The man who raised me and tutored me for all those years was a Black Dragon wizard. I didn’t know this until the day I regained my memory. The day you returned to Patria. When I saw you, all of my memories from before the day my magic was awakened returned. That night, Master Illudere told me that he needed my help with an important task. We met with two Black Dragon assassins. Master Illudere donned the robes of a Black Dragon wizard, and for the first time in my life I realized who I had been living with. He told me that we were going kill you and your son. I had just gained my memory back. When I realized that these men were planning to kill my sister and her son, I acted before I even realized what I was doing. I shot a bolt through the chest of my mentor. The two assassins turned on me, but Master Illudere had taught me too well. I was able to defeat them with little effort. After that, I abandon the clothing given to me by him, and I took to the streets. I began begging outside the palace. I played the fool and soon I was disregarded completely. I thought the best way to protect you was to disguise myself in plain sight. People would ignore me, and if I stayed close to you, I could protect you. I wasn’t prepared for them to attack with so many the night they took you, and I realized that I couldn’t defeat them all. I realized the best thing I could do was follow you and help the others rescue you.”
Anna was sitting in the chair with tears running down her face. “I thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead. You should have been king.”
“No! I can’t be king. Our cousin has done a good job. He is a good and fair man. He has had the training and the people respect him. I do not want to usurp him. I haven’t the training or knowledge and I could serve you better as a wizard. Let him rule. I have no desire to be king.”
“Well, I can’t let you remain a beggar. We have to announce that you are alive. You can stay in the palace and we will figure out what to do, but you can’t live on the streets anymore.” She got to her feet and threw her arms around her brother’s neck.
“I missed you so much,” she whispered in his ear.
“Master Brennin,” she shouted at the door. Her legs were still very weak and her brother was helping support her weight when Brennin came in. She saw the concerned look on his face when he walked in. “Master Brennin, please get Captain Thompson.”
Captain Thompson walked in the room.
“Gentlemen. I know you both have addressed concerns about this man. I also have seen the looks on your face as you tried to remember where you have seen him. This man is Prince Jacob Patria, son of King Patrick Patria, my brother, and cousin to the current king.”
“Your Highness, are you sure?” Master Brennin asked.
“It’s him. It was my first thought, but I couldn’t let myself believe it. Look at his eyes. There is no way those eyes could belong to anyone but a Patria. I spent every day of the first eight years of my life with Jacob Patria. If this isn’t him, then he has a twin we don’t know about,” Captain Thompson said stepping forward.
Anna stared at the captain. He had tears welling up in his eyes, but he was fighting to keep them from falling. She remembered the day they had thought her brother had died. Captain Thompson had been his best friend. He had been with him when he had fallen in. He had jumped into the icy water to try to rescue Jacob. He had nearly died himself. A gardener had seen him jump in and came with a rope. They assumed that Jacob had slid under the ice. His body was never discovered and it was believed that the fish had eaten it.
Captain Thompson, then Isaac Thompson, was devastated. He had blamed himself. There were bound to be others who had blamed him, and Anna wasn’t ignorant enough to believe that it wasn’t something that the man had grown up having to deal with, it being brought up in conversation often.
Anna sat down on the bed and the two men stared at each other. “It wasn’t your fault, Isaac,” Jacob said.
“But I could have saved you.” As the words left his mouth, the tears ran down his cheeks.
Jacob wrapped his arms around the man. “You would have. I remember it like it was yesterday. You were about to grab my hand when that rope came into the water. You were pulled away from me just as I was sucked under the ice. There was nothing you could have done. You were the best friend anyone could have asked for. I hope I can be half as good of a friend to you now as you were to me then.”
When they separated, Anna stood again. “Master Brennin began making the arrangements for an announcement. I will be making a royal declaration from the Grand Balcony at midday. Begin making the preparations for a parade and feast to follow that in the next week or so. I will send word to Shinestone, explaining everything to my cousin and requesting his immediate return. We will have the parade once he has returned.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” Master Brennin actually broke protocol and walked over to Jacob. He looked into his eyes for a minute. “What did you take from your father’s study that only the two of us know about?”
“It was some kind of magical weapon. It shot some kind of energy into the ceiling, barely missing my head. It would have killed me. You had it cleaned up and returned the weapon before my father returned from the trip he was on,” Jacob answered with the crooked half smile that he had been so famous for. He had never shown teeth when he smiled. He had always turned up just one corner of his lip. If the quick response to a question only he could know wouldn’t have been enough, that smile would have sealed the deal.
“It really is you,” Brennin said.
“It is,” Jacob answered.
Master Brennin looked to Anna and bowed. “I will begin the preparations at once.” He turned to Isaac. “Your things will be moved to the room across the hall after the announcement. In the meantime, is there anything you would like us to get for you, Your Highness?”
Jacob put a hand on his shoulder. “No, Master Brennin, I am quite all right. I am already more comfortable than I have been since I left your care all those years ago.”
When Master Brennin left, Anna turned to Grundel. “Would you go get the others? We need to plan how we are going to get word to Shinestone, and I think that your friends will be the fastest way to get it there.”
Grundel returned to the room with Jerrie, Rundo, Evelyn, and Flucht. When they arrived, they found the beggar who only said the word dad cleaned up and sitting across from Anna having a conversation.
Anna stayed seated when they entered the room. They all stood there, staring at the man with confused looks on their face. Anna couldn’t help but smile. They were all so protective of her. Even the very menacing dwarf Flucht, who made her very uneasy, seemed to be very protective of her. “Everyone, this is my brother Jacob. Jacob fell into a pond that was frozen over when he was a child. We all believed he had died, but his body was never found. When he killed the Black Dragon wizard yesterday I recognized him immediately. We will be making the announcement this afternoon.”
Jerrie was the first to step forward. He held out his hand. “I am Jerrie.”
Jacob took his hand. “I recognize you. You are the fast one with the knives.”
Grundel laughed. “Yeah, that’s him,”
Rundo stepped forward. “I am Rundo and this is Evelyn,” he said, motioning to her. Evelyn stepped forward to shake his hand.
Jacob shook both of their hands. “You are the druid. I don’t remember you though. I am sorry,” he said, looking to Evelyn.
“I stayed up above the fight. I was there to make sure that we didn’t lose sight of the queen.”
Isaac nodded his head and looked to the dwarf wrapped in steel with chaos tattoos covering him. “And you I suppose are the rogue Chaos Dwarf from Tiefes Loch. There is a lot of talk about you in the city.”
Flucht looked at him curiously. There is talk about a rogue dwarf from Tiefes Loch in Patria?”
“If you know where to listen, you can hear about anything,” Isaac answered. He held out his hand, and Flucht took it. “I saw you fight. You are a powerful friend to have. Thank you for helping my sister. I h
ave heard some things that you all may not know yet that could help with your plans in the war against Tiefes Loch. For now, I believe my sister has some plans of her own.”
All eyes turned to Anna. “Rundo, I need to send word to my cousin that my brother is alive. He needs to return to the city as soon as possible. We have ceremonies that will require his participation. The fastest way to get the news to him would be for you to take it. Would you fly to Shinestone and deliver a message for me?”
“Of course I will. Evelyn and I will take off as soon as you have the message prepared.”
“Thank you. Jerrie, I want you to stay with my brother at all times. He is formidable on his own, but once the Black Dragons find out who he is, they will be after him, and not just because of who he was born. It would make me feel a lot better if you would stay with him for now.”
Jerrie looked from Anna to Jacob. “Protecting a wizard? That’s a new one for me. Never thought I’d see the day,” he said with a chuckle.
Jacob looked over at Jerrie suspiciously. “How did you know?”
It was Grundel’s turn to laugh. “Jerrie has his own talents.”
“One of which is knowing that the hole in that wizard was bigger than the bolt that was shoved in it. I knew that when Anna covered for you and I saw that bolt in that wound that was obviously made by something else that the wizard had been killed by some kind of magic, and you were the source.”
Jacob looked to Anna. “He’s good.”
She smiled at him. “My son is as good at finding capable allies as his father.” She turned to Flucht. “Flucht, we have not had the opportunity to get to know each other, but my son says I should trust you, and that is enough for me. I would like you to stay with us while we work this all out.”
“I will do as you command, Queen Stoneheart.”
Anna smiled. “It will be nice to hear something other than Your Highness all of the time. She turned to Rundo. “Go get ready. I will have a letter for my cousin written when you return.”
An hour later, they all stood on her balcony and watched as two huge hawks flew up and away from the palace with bundles hanging from their beaks.
The Half Dwarf Prince Trilogy Page 49