The Archmage unbound

Chapter 40

“You don’t startle easily do you?” I asked as we sat in her study. I had already taken the opportunity to introduce her to Walter.

Rose laughed, “It is difficult to be startled when the culprits sneaking into your home are having a shouting match in the hall.”

“We weren’t shouting,” I responded while she shook her head in disagreement with me. “Walter, tell her we weren’t shouting,” I said looking to him for support.

The older wizard shrugged, “Well… we did get rather loud.”

“Fine… we got rather loud. That’s not why we’re here anyway,” I said grumpily.

“I’m assuming you noticed the men watching your house,” said Rose.

I nodded, “That’s why we used Walter’s invisibility to arrive here unseen.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t use a disguise, or just lose them once you were away from your house. Marcus and I have been managing that way for the past few days,” she commented.

“I’m afraid that isn’t good enough Rose. I can’t afford to let the King know that I’m back in the city.”

That piqued her interest. “I assume you have some new development to relate,” she replied.

“I have good and bad news,” I said, unsure how to begin.

She tapped her fingers on the desk. “I’ve already heard the worst so don’t think to spare me.”

“Dorian and Penny are alive and probably aren’t far from the capital,” I said abruptly.

She stood and put her back to us with a speed that surprised me. “Walter would you mind stepping outside,” she said carefully.

He rose and headed for the door, “Certainly. I’ll wait in the hall.”

After he had gone she looked toward me and her appearance shocked me, red eyes and tear stained cheeks where just moments before she had been composed and flawless. “Mordecai, are you sure? If this is some trick I won’t be able to handle it.”

I shook my head, “I don’t have any way to be sure yet Rose. I only found out this morning and the circumstances were unusual, to say the very least.” I crossed the room and put my arm around her shoulders.

“You haven’t said yet what the bad news is,” she said with her head against my chest. Before I could answer I felt her stiffen and she pushed me out to arm’s length, “Oh Gods! It’s the King isn’t it? Edward has them!”

Since I hadn’t told her any of the details yet I was rather astonished at her guess. “Yes. How did you figure that out?”

“We already had good evidence he was the one that sent the original abductors to Lancaster. Now you tell me they are alive and I just got news of something unusual that occurred the other night,” she answered. “Mordecai, do you have any idea what he wants?”

“Slow down,” I told her. “I still don’t know what you’ve learned.”

“Why don’t you tell me how you discovered that they are alive,” she suggested.

“In a moment, first I want to know what you found out about the other night,” I countered.

She shrugged, “Not much really, just that the King dismissed the guards at the palace’s postern gate for several hours. I had no clue what his reason was, but I knew he had to be meeting someone secretly, or moving something that needed to be kept hidden. Now that you tell me they’re alive… you can see how my thoughts lined up.”

If I had ever doubted how keenly sharp Rose’s mind was I had all the evidence I needed to prove otherwise now. Her mind was a weapon. If we did ever manage to rescue Dorian I almost felt sorry for him. He’d never be able to get anything past her. Good thing he was honest to a fault. “I’m still amazed at your quick wits Rose,” I told her.

She was trying to mend her appearance by dabbing at her cheeks with a small cloth she had produced from a drawer in her desk. “Let’s hear your story Mordecai,” she reminded me but before I could start she crossed over to the door and opened it. “You can come back in Walter, thank you.”

I explained our near disastrous exploration of the caves near Lancaster and described our encounter with the creature that now inhabited Timothy’s small body. She listened carefully and let me finish before she spoke again.

“Have you spoken with Marcus since you returned to the city?”

I coughed, “He was drunk so we didn’t talk much but he should be waking up soon. I put him to sleep to get him to stop drinking so he’d sober up.”

She frowned, “He’s been sober the last few times I talked to him. Did something happen?”

“Apparently the high priest of the iron god caught him rifling through his papers and after he escaped they figured out his real identity. They’ve given him a new name,” I told her and then went on to describe his encounter.

Rose had her hand in front of her mouth by the time I finished, “That’s terrible.”

“I rather thought it was funny, though I didn’t want to admit it in front of him while he was drunk. I was a bit peeved about that.”

“No, Mordecai. I swear sometimes I think you’re as dense as Dorian. I’m talking about Marissa,” she said the name as if it alone would explain everything.

I stared blankly at her, “What about Marissa?”

She sighed, “He was very taken with her. I think they might have developed some serious feelings.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “Are you sure we’re talking about the same man? He bedded half the noblewomen near his age and none of them were able to capture his attention for more than a day or two.”

Now it was her turn to stare; except her stare was of a much more serious nature.

“Look Rose,” I began, “I love him like a brother, but he’s an absolute plague on women. I doubt he’s even given her a second thought since they chased him out.”

“We have too many more important things to talk about right now Mordecai,” she said at last. “Let’s just leave it at, ‘you’re an idiot’, and move on. And do promise me to treat the subject carefully when you see Marcus later. Can you do that at least?”

Walter started snickering quietly behind his hand at her comment. I gave him a hard look before answering her, “Fine, we’ll just leave it at that. Why don’t we retire to my house so we can continue this conversation with Marc when he wakes up?”

The return trip was equally uneventful though Rose didn’t enjoy it much. Since she didn’t have the benefit of mage-sight she was completely blind while we were invisible. For her the experience was essentially identical to being blindfolded and led across the city by hand.

When we reached my door we simply opened it and went inside. To appease the men watching the house I had Harold come back and look out, to give the impression that he had opened the door. After I talked to him though I quickly discovered it didn’t matter anymore.

“Is Marc awake?” I asked him as soon as we had gotten inside.

He nodded his head, “Yes, but he’s got a hell of a hangover. He’s in the kitchen trying to get some food inside him.”

I started walking in that direction, “Good, now we can finally get everyone together and see if we can figure something out.”

Harold put his hand on my shoulder, “Wait, you might want to read this letter. I think it’s urgent.”

I frowned at him, “What letter?”

He held up a sealed envelope. Even in the poor light of the entry hallway I could recognize the official seal of the king of Lothion. “How’d you get that?” I asked him with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“A messenger delivered it after you left,” he replied.

“A messenger? Why did you answer the door? What did he say? What did you say!?” I could feel a panic rising quickly from the depths of my stomach.

Harold looked at me oddly and I realized I hadn’t given him any explanation regarding my plan to avoid letting the King know of my current location. “He asked if you were present and I told him that you weren’t,” he answered finally.

I let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank the gods!” It was a remark of habit but I corrected myself anyway. “Actually damn the gods, but thank goodness you told him that.”

Harold smiled, “Don’t worry; I told him you would be back and that I would make certain you got the letter today.”

I startled Harold by spending the next several minutes practicing my nautical language. In spite of the fact that he was around soldiers most of the time he seemed quite impressed with my extensive vocabulary. When I finally wound down he commented, “I get the feeling that you didn’t want me to take mail for you.”

That was an understatement but I let it go. “You didn’t know. Here, let me read this and I’ll explain after.” I opened the envelope, fearing the worst. As usual I wasn’t disappointed. The letter was addressed to, ‘His Excellency the Count di’Cameron’ and it didn’t waste any verbiage beating around the bush.

His Majesty, King Edward the First requires your presence to discuss matters of great import. Failure to appear will result in grave consequences. As a sign of the nature of these matters we do enclose this token…

The rest of the letter went on to detail the time and place, which happened to be three o’clock tomorrow afternoon. What really got my attention however was the ‘token’ he had included. It was a small lock of hair, and judging by the color I was sure it was Penny’s.

I held it in my hand for long minutes, just staring, until my vision grew blurry and I had trouble seeing. When I could no longer see for tears I brought it to my face in a vain attempt to catch her scent but by then I could hardly breathe through my nose either. Eventually I looked up again, aware at last that I was surrounded. Everyone in the house stood around me now, in a tight circle and by their faces I could see that I wasn’t alone. Marc in particular looked as if he were having almost as bad a time of it as I was. Rose managed to keep her composure this time but there was a look of smoldering anger in her eyes.

Everyone watched me expectantly and the weight of it was almost more than I could bear. I made my way to the kitchen and we all took seats around the table. I handed the letter to Rose first and waited for her to read it. When she was done she passed it to Marc and eventually it made its way completely around the table.

Walter broke the silence first, “So what are you going to do now?”

The question reminded me of another time, another day, when I had been at a similar table with friends and family waiting on me to give them some direction. As I recalled Penny and I had not been on the best of terms then and they’d had to lock us in a room till we reconciled before we could decide anything. Thinking of it now it seemed like a fond memory, though I knew that at the time I had been just as desperate.

I reached into my pouch and drew out the letter Penny had left for me, and studied the words she had written. One part in particular stood out in my mind and I found myself rereading it several times:

Do not let this break your spirit. I have seen what will happen if you pay heed to your darker impulses. It is a bleak and empty path, and you will no longer be the man I have loved. There is still hope if you do not despair.

I folded her note and carefully put it away again before I addressed my friends, “First we carefully assess our resources. In this case those would be primarily information, so let’s put everything we know on the table.” I made a slow and careful description of the recent events Harold, Walter and I had been through. When I finished I nodded at Rose.

“I haven’t very much to add I’m afraid,” she said with a graceful tone. “You only left here two days ago and since then I’ve only had one interesting bit of information come to my attention.” She repeated what she had told me regarding the guards at the palace the evening before. Marc paid close attention as she spoke and after she finished I could tell he was ready to begin.

He leaned in toward the table, “As most of you already know I had to leave the temple of the Iron God rather suddenly yesterday.” Marcus carefully relayed his tale but when he reached the end of it he caught my eye. “What I haven’t had a chance to tell yet… is what I found amidst the high priest’s paperwork,” he paused dramatically.

“What, damnitt?!” I said impatiently.

“One of the documents on top of his stack detailed a payment received from the royal exchequer. It was for the amount of five hundred gold, but the thing that caught my eye was the fact that no reason for the payment was detailed on the paperwork.” He stopped there.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

He shook his head, “No, but the timing seems… highly congruent.”

“The obvious conclusion is that he is paying the Iron Brothers to keep his hostages at that secret compound you mentioned before,” said Rose at last.

Marc nodded, “Yes, but it is still a guess. We can’t be sure from the little we know.”

Walter was fidgeting with anxiety. “Do you think he might be keeping my family there as well?” he asked me suddenly.

“I don’t know,” I told him, and I didn’t. In fact I knew very little beyond guesswork and suspicion. Glancing around the table I could see everyone waiting on me to announce the next step. The pressure built upon me until it felt like a physical force, bearing down upon my shoulders. Taking a deep breath I stood quickly. “I’m going upstairs. I need to think and I can’t do it with everyone staring at me. I’ll be back down in a little while,” and so saying I left the table.