by Guy Antibes
Bocca revealed that the fight with the royal army was tougher than Noacci had expected, but the Tossan troops were just about ready to engage. That reduced the probability that King Leon’s army would turn back to Sealio. Mansali said the same. He was an hour away from the battlefield.
His link with Mirano was met with surprise. The healer hadn’t made it to the castle. His work had just begun. Minnie wished him well. At this point, there were no counterattacks in evidence. And finally Jac had met with resistance from King Courer initially, but he had initiated a blockade of Vitacci and Amarine to ships coming in. Sealio was an open port and would remain that way. Ricky understood that King Courer would only go so far, but he reconnected with Minnie to tell her that she had some protection from Dimani.
Zaria returned. “Mattia let me have more than half my force,” he said. “We’ve lost around twenty.”
The battle sorcerers began to gather. Each held a shield, plus one for Ricky and Pira.
“Are you sure you want to lead the fight?”
Ricky nodded. “I found out today that King Leon was the one who killed my parents. I look forward to questioning him about that and all his other misdeeds.”
Sippa nodded. “There are plenty,” he said.
Ricky accepted a shield and spoke to the sorcerers. “We will clear the way, and then you can join us,” Ricky said. “Make sure your shields are up.”
Zaria picked out the strongest sorcerers to join Ricky.
“I’ll be with Zaria,” Pira said.
Ricky breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Great, as a matter of fact. There will be plenty to do once you land.”
He called the fliers together. “If a colleague begins to drop, make sure you hold onto their hand and help them down to the ground. If you can’t make it to the verandah, then you can drop to the ground and help the Gruntalians or return to the castle. We will wait a bit.”
Ricky paced along the tunnel opening until it felt right to attack.
“Follow me.” He rose into the air on the side of the tower with the fewest openings. When he reached the top, he forgot there was a flat observation post that had room for ten or so people. He landed and found the door locked. He used his magic to fuse the door shut and then hovered just to the side of the verandah. He heard voices.
Ricky slipped to the edge of the opening and used the resonance-killing spell on the sorcerers. When their voices sounded alarmed, he led the flying sorcerers onto the verandah. The battle sorcerers rushed past Ricky and dispatched six sorcerers who hadn’t thought their attackers would have the magic-killing spell. He would be happy if they could walk down all the stairways without a fight, but that thought was soon dispelled as a firebolt sped past Ricky’s head and continued into the air far above the ground.
“Shields up,” Ricky said, breathing heavily at the thought of the close call. “Make sure your shields are working every chance you get.”
A flurry of bolts hit the door, breaking it off its hinges. It knocked a sorcerer off the verandah and out of sight. The woman ended up flying up to the verandah on the other side. Not caring what damage Ricky wrought, he sent a rope of flame through the opening and let it coalesce further into the tower.
“Shields up!” Ricky said just before the explosion blew out the windows. “Get inside!”
Ricky led the charge. The large room that looked out over Sealio through broken windows was a mess. He counted eight bodies. Did the University have an endless supply of sorcerers? It seemed they did.
He felt pressure on his sound shield, so he sang the same spell back, and exercised a great deal of will. The pressure stopped. “This way,” Ricky said, heading towards the door where he felt the spell.
The University sorcerers showed their backs to Ricky. He put them all to sleep. That was five less to deal with. The battle sorcerers began to carefully go through the rooms. The large council room at the top was empty. A single stairway led to the roof, but Ricky had sealed the door.
“We go down,” Ricky said. He linked with Pira, saying that they had taken the top of the tower and the rest of the battle sorcerers could come up. He waited for Pira to arrive with Zaria.
“We must clear every level,” Ricky said to Zaria, who left the two standing on the verandah as Zaria’s sorcerers arrived and immediately went to work clearing the next floor down.
“Are there hidden passages in the two towers in the castle?” Ricky asked.
Pira shook her head. “The floors were made of the same material as the outside. There may be hidden rooms, though.”
“Then that is our job. We go floor by floor behind Zaria’s people.”
They went back up to the upper room. It looked like a council room to Ricky, but the walls of the tower surrounded them. The verandah floor was much the same. The rooms would get bigger as they descended.
The battle sorcerers were making quick work of the sorcerers. Ricky saw bodies on every floor, and none of them were his battle sorcerers. The next floor consisted of a single living space. The stairway had been walled off.
“Golitto’s lair?” Ricky asked. He looked around the place and began to poke around, looking under beds and in wardrobes. No one was there.
They had cleared five floors before Pira pointed out an irregularity.
“See?” She paced one room, but the other was three feet shorter. “There is a space right here,” she said.
They checked out the next room, which was short as well.
“We don’t have time to find a door,” Ricky said quietly. “Stand back,” He sang out a thread of fire and let the ball coalesce next to the shortened wall and let the thread go. They took refuge out in the corridor. The blast blew dust and debris through the doorway.
Ricky grabbed his shield and peeked to see the destruction. Nothing remained alive in the hidden space. Pira counted three bodies, none of which were Sorcerer Golitto or King Leon.
“There will probably be more of these, so we will have some sorcerers roam the halls while we search. I’d rather not have anyone sneak up on me,” Ricky said. He linked with Zaria, asking him to send up a few of his sorcerers.
Ricky didn’t have anyone to link to among the Gruntalians, but the squeeze was going to happen soon enough. They cleared another level, but on the next one, there was a big space missing.
More reinforcements were called up. Ricky positioned ten battle sorcerers in front of a small commissary that ran the width of the tower. He estimated that the hidden room was probably twenty feet long and perhaps fifteen feet deep at its widest part.
Zaria arrived and verified that there weren’t any doors. Ricky ran down to the next level to verify that there wasn’t a hole in the ceiling that could be used as an exit, but then he looked more closely at a certain spot. He remembered the fissure in the stair treads and saw a barely noticeable shift in the fused stone material that made up the tower. He brought four sorcerers from the floor above and stationed them just outside the room.
Everything was set up. He directed the sorcerers above to hide behind their shields as he created an explosion a little bigger than the one a few floors above.
Ricky ran to the stairway and stopped midway, holding Pira’s hand as the explosion shook the tower.
Ricky led Pira to the doorway of the room with the bolthole in time to see a ladder descend. Smoke billowed out. Ricky motioned the sorcerers out of sight, but Pira remained with Ricky.
The escapees didn’t even see Ricky until the second fugitive turned his head.
“Pira!” King Leon said.
The sorcerer at the bottom spelled a bolt of fire that hit Pira’s shield and pushed her back against the wall. Ricky plunged his wand blade into the man and held the blade at King Leon’s throat as he sang the magic-killer spell at the third man.
The Master Sorcerer Golitto, dressed in ornate robes, climbed down the ladder. Ricky could see flashes indicating a conflict going on above him in the hidden room. The sorcerer was caught between his enemies.
“He is.” King Leon spat on Ricky’s shoes. “Vermin,” he said, muttering.
Zaria stood in the doorway, along with the other sorcerers peering in.
“You are the cornered rat,” Ricky said to Leon. “I heard you killed my parents.”
“Of course. Wouldn’t you if they had threatened your throne? If I had any idea that Noacci continued what your father started, he would have been dead long ago.”
“My father started the Order of the Curled Fist?”
“He was so naive. Painfully naive,” the king said.
“Mara Torris said much the same thing about me before I killed her,” Ricky said.
“You won’t kill me,” King Leon said. “I am your ruler. You should be on your knees.”
“Not my ruler,” Ricky said. He looked at Pira, but he had heard all he wanted to know.
“Go ahead,” Pira said. “It will make my day.”
Ricky plunged the same blade that had ended Mara Torris’s life into the king.
Golitto tried to run past Pira, but she did the same to the Master Sorcerer. “He always made my skin crawl,” Pira said.
“May he rub Botoy’s tummy,” Ricky said.
Even Zaria laughed at Ricky’s unseemly joke.
“Our work isn’t done,” Ricky said. “We have a tower to clear.”
Zaria led his sorcerers down to join the others.
Ricky held Pira in his arms. “Maybe we are worse than traitors,” he said.
“Or much, much better,” Pira said as she looked at the king’s body. “You have some linking to do.”
“First I’ll do a little linking with you.” Ricky kissed Pira, who vigorously responded.
“It is over,” she said. “It’s finally over.”
“Not quite,” Ricky said. He announced the news of King Leon’s demise to everyone he could link to. Noacci was happy; Baron Mansali was almost giddy with the news. Minnie took it in stride, and Healer Kokorak radiated warmth and good wishes for the future. Ricky complimented Wedo and Krankel Kokorak for the shields. Mirano responded positively, but wearily. His trials had just started with the aftermath of the battle. He thanked Jac for his help and asked him to give his appreciation to King Courer.
They walked back up the stairs and flew out from the verandah. Ricky had one more to talk to, but he wanted to give Kened Gostok the news directly. He linked to the Tower sorcerer long enough to find out where he was and landed at Crespi Field.
Ricky gave the man a big hug.
Kened laughed. “You should save those for her.” He nodded to Princess Pira. “I would guess we won some kind of victory?”
Ricky told him the whole story, from the tunnel to the deaths of the two highest leaders of Sealio.
“More than a few will mourn King Leon’s passing, so don’t take your newly-won victory for granted. I imagine there will be Botoy followers and royalists that will not be happy about the day’s events.”
“You really helped us,” Ricky said.
“You deserved it,” Kened said. “I’m glad to see Princess Pira on her throne, but we came for you. You saved our city. We’ve barely begun to pay you back for that. This expedition is the kind of thing Gruntalians don’t see as a sacrifice but as an adventure.” He laughed. “I appreciate your informing me in person. I know you have other things to do. Make sure you quickly heal your country. I’m afraid Duteria will take some time, but the Suns can’t be looked on as victors. If I know the Ring faction, they are already taking steps to remove the Suns’ power.”
“You don’t have anything to do with that, do you?”
“Me?” Kened said. “Not at all.” The little man gave Ricky a sly smile.
~~~
Chapter Thirty-Nine
~
P ira stepped out into her sitting room, wearing a gown. She made a face. “It stinks a bit. I wonder who they had staying in my rooms?” she said.
“Will they make you a queen?” Ricky said.
“That remains to be seen. My elevation would have to be approved by the Council of Notables, and there are still some who aren’t very happy with my role in the king’s death.”
“But you didn’t kill him.”
“I was there,” Pira said. “To them, it is the same thing.”
Nemo knocked and walked into the room. “You should sit on the throne when you speak to the council representatives.”
Pira pursed her lips. “I’m not the Queen.”
“But you are first in line to the throne.”
“Until my late cousin’s son is born.”
Mattia grunted. “There is no baby.”
“What?” Pira said.
“The sorcerers did something to the woman. She miscarried, but what she produced was no baby,” Mattia said. “The sorcerers played King Leon.”
“Greedy to the end,” Ricky said. “He couldn’t wait to snatch the potential crown off your head.”
“I’m not so sure I want it.” Pira smoothed her gown. “I know my place during the transition of power. Where is Duke Noacci?”
“He will arrive tomorrow.”
“We’ve waited long enough.” She stood and took Ricky’s hand.
~
“Your father was not a royalist,” Noacci said at a quiet dinner. He looked weary from hurrying to Sealio after defeating the royal army before knowing that King Leon had been killed.
“Did he want to give up his title?”
“No. But he didn’t like the Crespi dynasty. He would be very happy you avenged his death, and I say good riddance,” Noacci said.
“You never told me,” Ricky said.
“How could I? You were sent to live with Gobble Bangatelli in Tossa to grow up in obscurity while I kept your father’s organization alive. He wasn’t that far along, but King Leon always worried about me. I was never a pleasant man,” Noacci said, “so it wasn’t hard for me to act the part of a royal henchman. For a while I was, I’ll admit.”
“How long did Pira know?”
The princess cleared her throat. “You can ask me directly, Lord Valian.”
“How long did you know?” Ricky said, with a smile.
“The duke and I had a serious meeting before I left for Dimani. He knew I played around with a few peripheral members of the Order. Insippa Baldico introduced me to a few minor players. Anyone who opposed my cousin seemed to be my friend.”
“Where is Baldico?” Noacci asked.
“In the city jail. He’s there for his own protection,” Ricky said, “at his request. He knows the jailer, a big broomball fan.”
“I hate to change the subject, but am I going to be proclaimed queen?” Pira asked.
Noacci rang a finger around a rim of his wine goblet. “Do you want to rule?”
“Only Ricky,” she said.
Noacci turned to Ricky, “Your father always thought the Vorrian government was the best idea. But I have watched my neighbor to the south. A king elected for life is not a good thing. Perhaps the council can elect a ruler among themselves who might serve for five years or then years and no more. I was thinking of having a conclave to discuss the idea before any crowning takes place. Would you be willing to abdicate your right to the throne if there was a new government?”
“I would if you were the first regent of such a government,” Pira said.
Noacci nodded his head. “I’d give up Naparra if I did that. It isn’t really mine anyway.”
~~~
Chapter Forty
Epilogue
~
A fter reading a letter from Saganet describing the joys of fatherhood making his bad leg even worse, Ricky thought that when Merry wanted to retire from running Doubli Academy, he should invite her to live at Cistia. His musings were interrupted by a little, dark-haired girl, who ran into Ricky’s arms.
“Pirie! How were your lessons today?”
“Mama was especially stern with me. My circles weren’t round enou
gh,” she said. “When are you and Aunt Pira going to eat dinner with us again?”
“Soon,” Ricky said. He picked up Tobia and Minnie’s daughter and took off to find a parent again. The little girl had developed a bad habit of running away from her mother and finding him.
Tobia was in Samira working with Mattia to get the military side of the new institute started, so Ricky had no choice but to return Pirie to her mother, who undoubtedly sat in her office running the Cistia Palace.
“There she is,” Minnie said, walking up to Ricky. “Pira was looking for you. She’s with the architect at the hospital site.”
Ricky walked out into a beautiful spring day. The park wasn’t quite greening up, so the hospital foundations were barely visible through a screen of bare trees at the far end of the gardens. He could see Pira walking with the architect.
He left the palace and walked into the garden, meeting them on their way back. They stopped at the monument of the huge golden fist and waited for Ricky.
Pira walked up to him and put her arm through his. She looked at the architect. “I’ll be right in. You go on ahead.”
The architect nodded, “Duchess,” he said with a bow, leaving both of them alone.
Ricky looked at the fist and put his hand up to touch it.
“I found out something interesting today. Regent Noacci didn’t build this monument,” Pira said.
Ricky nodded. “It never seemed like his style. Who did, then?”
Pira laughed. “Your father, of course. He had this commissioned. I think it was to inspire him.”
“It does look like something a flamboyant performance sorcerer would commission. That makes more sense, doesn’t it? I’m glad to know that.”
Ricky put his arms around Pira. “Do you regret not becoming queen? You could have made a much bigger fist and put it in the square in front of the castle in Sealio.”
“I like this one. It reminds me it has been three years since we arrived here, on the run from my cousin.”