Secrets and Spellcraft

by Michael G. Manning

  The king frowned. “I don’t believe in altruism. You’ll have to do better than that.”

  “I’m in love with your daughter,” admitted Will.

  Lognion laughed. “And yet I have given her to someone else. It seems our goals don’t align well at all.”

  “I don’t have the power to take her. My only hope is to serve you well, since I couldn’t dare to oppose you.”

  The king got to his feet and paced across the room before turning back. “I’m afraid I still don’t understand you, William. The ritual was your best opportunity. It probably could have killed me and Count Spry as well. If your goal was my daughter, then you wasted your chance.”

  “As I said before, Your Majesty, my principles don’t allow for the murder of innocents.”

  “Yet you killed the people in that house, and you sacrificed the duchess herself. Such principles and ruthlessness do not mix.”

  “I am what I am. My life is in your hands.” Will’s heart was racing, and tiny droplets of cold sweat were forming on his brow. He had a wind-wall spell prepared, but he doubted he could kill the king, even if he had surprise on his side. His intuition was screaming at him that the man was far more dangerous than he appeared.

  King Lognion stood over him, looking down. “Very well. This is my judgment. Kill Count Spry quietly in his home. Make sure that none can trace his murder to you. Do this and I will give you his place as well as my daughter.”

  Will started to protest, but the king held up his hand. “Silence. This is not mercy or a boon. You have earned my interest. I believe you would make a useful tool, and my daughter seems the only leash capable of ensuring your loyalty. What do you think of my offer?”

  Will rose from his seat and knelt, bowing his head. “I won’t murder the count.”

  Lognion sneered at him. “Then you’re a fool.”

  Looking up, Will tried to project a confidence he didn’t truly feel. “She won’t marry him. Your daughter is in love with me.”

  Lognion’s fist struck suddenly, driving Will to the floor. Stunned, Will counted several seconds before his eyes would focus properly. “Selene understands filial duty and she obeys my will, as is only right. She will marry whoever I say. Love has nothing to do with it.”

  He struggled to collect his thoughts, for his brain felt as though someone had stuffed his head full of wool. Did I go far enough? Maybe I should have taken the offer instead of sticking to this ridiculous plan. “She won’t marry him,” he repeated for good measure.

  The king dragged him up from the floor and hit him again, knocking him over the chair and causing him to tumble until he fetched up against the wall. “Get out,” commanded the king. “If you won’t make yourself useful, then I have no need of you. You have until the wedding to consider your options.”

  King Lognion left and Will tried to stand, but his legs had turned to jelly. Two servants appeared after a minute and half carried him to the waiting carriage. The same complement of sorcerers and guards escorted him back to Wurthaven, where they unceremoniously dumped him on the cobblestones in front of the main gate.

  Will managed to sit up as the carriage pulled away. I think that went rather well, he thought. He waited a few minutes longer before attempting to walk, and the entire time he could see the Wurthaven gate guard staring at him. He stood and staggered drunkenly past the guard station and then looked over at the guard. “No, it’s fine. Don’t get up. I’ll be all right,” he announced sarcastically.

  The guard looked away, pretending to study the road in front of the college. What an asshole, thought Will. I liked the other guard better.

  He had almost recovered his balance by the time he reached the dorms, but someone must have spotted him and spread the word when he returned, for Seth, Rob, and Janice were all waiting on him. They accosted him before he could go inside.

  “Whoa! Look at your face!” exclaimed Rob. “That’s impressive.”

  Janice was already examining him, holding his head between her hands as she tried to see how badly he’d been hurt. “It’s horrible. Who does something like this?”

  “He looks like a ring-tailed cat,” suggested Seth helpfully.

  “Thanks, Seth,” said Will.

  “I’ve never seen someone with two perfectly matching black eyes,” declared Rob. “Don’t worry, though. It will probably improve your looks.”

  “Maybe you’d like a set too,” offered Will. “You could definitely use some improvement.”

  “No thanks,” said Rob quickly. “I’ve given up on looks. I rely on my dazzling personality to impress the ladies.”

  Janice turned on Rob. “What’s that smell? Oh, I see now. It’s the bullshit that keeps falling out whenever you open your mouth.”

  Seth hadn’t experienced Janice swearing before, and the shock sent him into a convulsive fit of laughter.

  “As much as I’m enjoying our reunion, I think I should go lay down,” said Will, pushing past them.

  Seth was kind enough to accompany him, offering an arm to make sure he didn’t lose his balance on the stairs. Janice and Rob let him go once they saw he was in good hands.

  Back in his room, he shooed Seth out and lay down on the bottom bunk. Stress and fatigue had made him sleepy, but before he closed his eyes he summoned a large steak from the limnthal and cut it in half. Then he lay back and put one piece over each eye. The cool meat felt nice on his bruises, and he fell asleep shortly thereafter.

  Chapter 60

  His eyes had become a lovely shade of bluish black the next day, and the swelling made them difficult to open. Will practiced some, but he didn’t spend long hours at it. He reasoned that he deserved some rest. Lognion really throws a mean punch, he observed when he examined himself in the mirror.

  Naturally, there was a considerable amount of whispering when he appeared in the dining hall, though he ignored it. After the first trip for breakfast, he asked Seth to bring him food at mealtimes for the rest of the weekend. He didn’t feel like being a spectacle.

  On Sunday the swelling went down and he practiced more, but in the afternoon he was bored, so he decided to consult the ring. As usual, Arrogan was in top form.

  “It’s times like these that I truly regret not being able to see,” the ring informed him. “It would be so satisfying to see your ugly face right now.”

  “I’m glad you worry about me,” said Will dryly.

  “Mainly I worry about you dying without ever melting me down,” admitted Arrogan. “You seem to have a death wish.”

  “I’m just doing my best.”

  “This plan of yours is foolish.”

  Will sighed. “You don’t think I can pull it off?”

  “There’s a lot that could go wrong. You’re counting on that sadistic bastard indulging his worst impulses, which is risky. If you’ve misjudged him, he might do something you don’t expect, and even if he does do what you think, you could die. You haven’t even mastered the point-defense spell yet.”

  “I’m close—I think.”

  “Close won’t cut it. Close will get you dead. Even with it, you might cock the whole thing up. Are you really sure this is what you want to accomplish? She’ll still wind up married to Count dickhead.”

  That was the part that bothered Will the most, but he wouldn’t admit it. “She might not. Once she knows the truth, she might choose me.”

  “And you think that monster she calls a father will let her have her way? He’s more likely to just put something sharp and pointy right through your middle and call it a day.”

  Will shook his head. “He’s rotten to the core, but he’s remarkably consistent about certain things. In the past he’s made considerable concessions for her wishes.”

  “You mean letting you live? He just did that because he thought he could find a way to make use of you. Making his daughter feel like he listened to her was just a bonus,” said Arrogan. “Let’s look at all the things that can go wrong. First, he might just decide to kill you at the
start, what will you do then?”

  “I’ll switch to Plan B. I’m planning to survey the area. I’ll make sure I have a clear exit.”

  “Second, he might be too good, and you’ll die before you escape.”

  “Well, then I’m dead. Let’s move onto what happens if he doesn’t try to kill me right away,” said Will.

  “All right, so supposing that doesn’t go ass up, Count Spry is very likely to make an attempt.”

  “Selene won’t let him,” Will pronounced confidently.

  “You’re trusting a girl who has no idea what you plan to do. She’ll be embarrassed and stunned. She might not react in time. Hell, she might cheer him on.”

  “She won’t. Say what you will, but I trust her heart.”

  “Spoken like a fool.”

  “The plan is simple,” argued Will. “It doesn’t matter too much exactly what happens, or who does what. As long as the basic elements are in place there’s a good chance that Selene will be forced to face the truth one way or another. I just need her and her father in the same place. Toss in some murderous intent and the recipe is done. I just have to stay alive long enough for her and her father to go head to head.”

  “That brings me to the next big thing that could go wrong,” said Arrogan. “Your plan works, she has her epiphany, but you die anyway. After that she gets to live miserably ever after with Count wrinkly-dick, knowing the truth but completely unable to do a damn thing about it.”

  “At least she’ll know the truth. She deserves that.”

  Arrogan wasn’t done, however. “And the final thing that might go wrong is she might just tell you to go fuck yourself. You march in there and make a complete ass of yourself and she just says, ‘Sorry, no thanks.’ Everyone laughs, then they have a murder party and finish the wedding without you annoying them.”

  “That also falls under Plan B,” said Will.

  “You damn well better make Plan B good, because I’m sure that’s the one you’ll wind up using, one way or another,” said Arrogan.

  Will agreed with him there. In his mind he thought the most likely probability was that he’d expose the truth but still have to abandon the scene. After that he’d have to find some way to return in the future. By then Selene would have fully understood the truth and he could find some way to extricate her from her predicament, likely by killing the king. That she might have to spend a period of time married to Count Spry was distasteful, but he might have to accept it.

  “You should just take the king up on his offer and kill Spry,” opined Arrogan.

  “You’re missing the point,” insisted Will. “If I do that, she’ll never know the truth. We’ll get married and then I’ll spend the rest of my days running errands for her father since he could use her against me, or simply kill her at any time.”

  “It’s better than being dead. Besides, you promised me you’d kill Lognion, so you’d be free eventually.”

  “And she would hate me for killing her father,” argued Will.

  “You want too much. You want to win and be happy. You can’t have both. Trust me, I was married.”

  Will couldn’t help but snort. “Which did you choose?”

  “Being happy, until everything went to hell anyway. In your case though, winning means living, so just kill her father and deal with the consequences. Lots of men are married to women who want them dead and they do just fine.”

  “I’m going to win and be happy.”

  “You’re going to go in there an humiliate yourself. The only question is whether you’ll get out alive.”

  Will had had enough, so he dismissed the limnthal. I’ll just have to make sure Plan B is as good as I can make it, and if that fails, there’s always Plan C. He hadn’t shared his other option with Arrogan, because he knew the ring wouldn’t have approved.

  On Monday he went to visit the armorer, Byron Waters, and brought out the demon general’s breastplate for him to examine. The smith stroked his beard as he stared at the strange metal. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like this. Where did you get it?”

  “I’m not really free to discuss that,” said Will. “Do you think you can adjust it to fit me?”

  “Let’s see how close it is,” said Byron. The armor-smith opened the breastplate and backplate and tried putting it on Will, making notes as he marked the places where it was too tight or too loose. After a quarter of an hour he gave his answer. “It’s close to your size, so if the metal is workable, I can make a good fit for you without having to start from scratch. Leave it with me for a few days.”

  “How much do I need to pay?”

  Byron waved him away. “You’ve been a good customer. I’ll trust you. I won’t know until I do the work anyway. It depends on how stubborn the metal is.”

  Will left, making his way to the southern gate and exiting the city. Once he was near the congruence point, he called Tailtiu and waited. She appeared within just a few minutes. “That was quick,” Will noted.

  “Since I still owe you many days of service, I thought I would stay close to this crossing,” Tailtiu replied.

  “How considerate of you,” said Will. “I want you to go into the city with me again. I need to examine a building.”

  “You want me to sneak in for you?”

  “Not today. In fact, I can just walk in. It’s getting out that concerns me,” he explained. “I want you to get familiar with the area. When the day comes, I’ll need you to help me escape.”

  She cocked her head to one side. “The man who defeated a demon lord plans to run?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t defeat Leykachak, I just softened him up for—”

  Tailtiu held up her hand. “Don’t say its name. Just the thought of it ruins my mood.”

  They walked together into the city, and Tailtiu adopted her overly endowed farmwife disguise. When they eventually reached the great cathedral near the city center, she stared up at it. “What is this?”

  “The Church of the Holy Mother,” Will replied. “Selene is getting married here.”

  Tailtiu nodded in understanding. “I see. You plan to murder your former lover on her wedding day. It makes sense that you would want my help escaping. You’ll have most of the city on your heels.” She was rubbing her hands together with anticipation.

  “No,” said Will flatly. “That isn’t what I intend—not at all.”

  She arched one brow. “A double murder then, bride and groom?”

  “No!”

  “Ooh, you’re thinking big! Maybe you plan to block the exits and trap everyone inside? A fire would finish them all.”

  “Sweet Mother, no! Is that all you think about? Killing people?”

  Tailtiu licked her lips, fixing her eyes on him. “Of course not. There’s one other thing—”

  “Don’t say it,” ordered Will. I knew better than to ask.

  In front of the cathedral was a large square that featured a statue of the goddess in her fierce warlike aspect, armored and pointing a sword skyward. According to legend, Temarah had been born as a mortal woman in some forgotten age. Raised as a cooper’s daughter, she went on to serve in the house of a great lord before eventually having her innate divinity revealed. Will wasn’t firm on the details of what happened after that as he’d never paid close attention. He knew she’d eventually married a man who later became the god of the underworld, but it didn’t make sense to him. Why would a goddess of virtue and motherhood marry the god of the dead?

  Two large roads met at the square, though they were diverted around the statue by a circular lane that allowed the carriages of the wealthy to drop off their occupants near the front steps. Taking a leisurely walk around, Will saw that smaller roads also passed along the sides and front of the massive stone building. There were exits on each side of the building.

  “No matter which way I leave I’ll have to cross at least one street before I can find cover,” he muttered out loud. “I’ll definitely need your help.” The chameleon spell wouldn
’t be sufficient if he was running across clear ground in broad daylight, but Tailtiu’s mist would be enough even by itself. He looked at his companion. “Let’s go inside.”

  His aunt smiled. “I’ve always wanted to defile a church.”

  Will sighed. “There will be no defiling today, or any other day for that matter.”

  “I don’t understand why you’re so shy,” she complained. “It’s not as if you’re a virgin anymore. I don’t ask for much.”

  He ignored her and walked up the steps to the massive wooden doors that stood open. The church was open to the public most days of the week. The doors were only shut late at night and during official services.

  Once inside, he could see that the front entrance led directly into a wide aisle that went straight through the center of two wide rows of benches until it met the main altar at the center. Auxiliary aisles further bisected the benches on either side, allowing the worshipers to move in and out even when the cathedral was filled. On the left and right of the main altar were smaller sections that branched off, giving the layout a cross-like structure. The smaller sections also had benches, though these were cushioned and reserved for the nobility.

  Glancing up, he noted that the main section also had a second level that resembled a wooden balcony. It held more seating for important visitors, likely merchants or others with money but no title.

  As they walked down the aisle Will noticed that a priest was watching them, which made him feel slightly self-conscious. From one side of his mouth he whispered, “Just act natural.”

  Tailtiu chuckled. “I’m always natural, speak for yourself.”

  They spent a few more minutes examining the sides of the room and then exited from the eastern end of the sanctuary so he could take note of any differences in the layout. The smaller sections had no central aisle, which meant anyone leaving had to move along the sides, and the doors were smaller.

  Back outside, Will took Tailtiu on a walk of the surrounding neighborhood. Unfortunately, the city in that area featured wide spaces. Both the roads and the areas between the buildings were broad. The buildings were small as well, being only a single story tall. Will guessed there must be a building code to prevent any nearby structures from competing with the cathedral’s dominance of the local area.