by Jaxon Reed
“We found a magic gate which led to a deserted village. Then we found this gate on the other end of the village, and here we are.”
He dismounted, and handed the reins of his horse to a squire.
“Prince Trant, if you would excuse me for a moment, I would like to speak with my daughter in private so she can explain to me what has happened since she left us several weeks ago.”
“Certainly, Highness.”
Keel led Margwen by the shoulder, and they walked some distance away. Margwen began telling him everything, beginning with Darkstone’s attack on the road in the Hidden Woods. Keel stooped so his ear could be closer to her, only stopping her on occasion with questions of clarification.
Trant watched them walk off in the distance. Margwen looked back at him, and smiled.
The last wizard apparated into the library of the floating castle. Quartzstone took a seat at the table. Cutie rushed over to him, offering cold cuts and drinks. He declined both.
Conversation quieted, and all the wizards looked toward Oldstone.
Privately, Oldstone held some contempt against Quartzstone and the others who decided not to join them in battle against Darkstone. Their services had been needed, and at the critical moment they had simply refused.
Publically, he ignored the slights and pretended their actions were of little consequence. In fact, their actions really had been of little consequence. The battle’s outcome would almost certainly have been the same even with them present.
But the attitude, the thoughts behind their actions, were what worried Oldstone. If three of the members were not solidly behind the council’s efforts against Darkstone, that meant a quarter of the council disagreed. A third if one counted Darkstone. Either was a distressing percentage.
Oldstone put all such worrisome notions aside, and addressed the wizards.
“I’ve called this meeting to again discuss replacing Darkstone. As you are all aware, his recent actions disqualified him from serving on the Council of Magic, even if he wanted to continue doing so.”
Quartzstone cleared his throat, and all eyes turned toward him. Quartzstone seemed younger than many of the other wizards. His hair and beard were still brown, and much shorter than most.
“Obviously, he cannot be replaced until he dies and the stone bound to him is released. I think such discussion might be premature.”
“Following his betrayal and open warfare with the council, I don’t think it’s at all premature to discuss.”
Oldstone locked eyes with Quartzstone. If he were divulging information from their meetings, as the elder wizard suspected, news that the council wanted to eliminate Darkstone would surely come as no surprise. In fact, Oldstone reflected, Darkstone would be expecting it.
Quartzstone broke eye contact first, in acquiescence.
“Very good,” Oldstone said. “Now, who knows of candidates who might be powerful enough to manipulate a wizard’s stone?”
The men looked at each other across the table. Finally, Redstone broke the silence.
“Keel has a court magician who is quite adept. He hails from th’ Ageless Isles, a lad by th’ name of Sullio.”
Three or four nodded, recognizing the name. It opened the floodgate for nominations, and most everybody mentioned a good candidate or two.
After discussion died down, Greystone, who had not yet put forward a candidate, spoke.
“You’re all forgetting the most powerful wielder of magic besides us. The one who saved us, most of us anyway, from an eternity in chaos. I speak, of course, of Princess Mita of Crystal.”
Pandemonium broke out as everyone spoke at once.
Above it all, Quartzstone angrily shouted, “You can’t have a female wizard!”
Oldstone raised his hand, and the heated discussion died out.
“Certainly we can have a female wizard. I served on this council myself with Agatha the Great, one of our founding members.”
Quartzstone waved aside the notion.
“She’s an exception proving the rule. Everyone knows Agatha was outstanding and highly unusual.”
Oldstone nodded.
“She was exceptional. She was about ten times more powerful than any member of this present council, myself included.”
He paused and looked meaningfully at Quartzstone, as if to drive home the point. Everyone knew Oldstone was their most powerful wizard. If Agatha was ten times more powerful than him, then she had been far more powerful than Quartzstone or any of the others.
Quartzstone looked down again, unwilling to argue the point since everyone knew it was true.
“Furthermore,” Oldstone continued, “Theena would certainly have been nominated at some point after the Battle of Hest had she survived. I have no doubt she was at least my equal, and in some areas even stronger.”
He paused to see if Quartzstone or one of the others wished to dispute his claim. None did. Many had known Theena, and they knew how powerful she had been.
“Therefore, I make a motion that upon Darkstone’s death, the opportunity for obtaining his stone be offered first to Princess Mita, who is indisputably the most powerful wielder of magic in the land outside this council.”
He looked around the table. Greystone raised his hand first, followed by Redstone and Loadstone. Slowly, other hands raised.
Finally, only Quartzstone had both hands on the table. He looked around as the others looked at him.
“Oh, very well.”
He raised his hand.
“She’ll have to pass the tests first, anyway. After she fails we can find a more suitable candidate.”
Stin climbed up into the driver’s seat of the old wagon. Horse looked back at him and snorted, seemingly eager to get on with the trip. Stin smiled down at Kirt next to him, then at Bellasondra sitting on the far side.
She smiled back.
“You’re going to love the Ageless Isles, Stin. They’re so beautiful!”
“If they’re as beautiful as you, I will agree.”
Kirt rolled his eyes.
From the back of the cart, Bartimo called out from his comfortable position sprawled atop bags of oats and other supplies.
“Don’t let my sister fool you, Stin. Two days aboard a boat and the loss of everything in your stomach will make you wish for the mainland again!”
Stin smiled, and snapped the reins, urging Horse forward. They fell in behind the royal retinue from Coral, with King Keel and Princess Margwen in the lead. It appeared that Trant would accompany them to Coral City, as he rode alongside Margwen’s repaired carriage in the thick of several Coral guardsmen.
One good thing about sticking close to a royal retinue, Stin thought, is that all the guards will surely protect us from trouble on the road.
Behind them, the dwarves were starting to make their way home, too. Battlepigs fell into step behind Horse, with two or sometimes three dwarves riding them. Other dwarves followed along on foot, most of them singing a traveling song.
The long, strange procession marched through Greystone Village, then took the road for the gate to Coral. One by one, the travelers disappeared through the gateway.
A large hazy globe appeared in the Crystal Kingdom’s throne room, startling everybody. Several members of the Royal Guard rushed forward, swords and halberds ready to meet whatever threat might come through. Everybody else backed away. A handful of guards surrounded the dais in order to protect King Aldwald and Queen Etta, seated on their thrones.
Everyone held their collective breath in expectation. Then Mita stepped through the globe and apparated into the room.
“Hi Papa. Hi Mama.”
She was dressed in the same simple white outfit and shoes she wore when she left, all those months ago. The only difference, if anyone had stopped to notice: now she also wore a thin black leather bracelet on her left wrist.
Aldwald and Etta stood up, and the three moved at once, meeting on the steps of the dais in a big family hug.
As the hazy globe d
isappeared, and everyone in the room realized what was happening, cheers and applause went up from the crowd.
Etta beckoned to a court scribe who came running forward.
“Make a pronouncement. We’ll have a special feast in honor of our daughter!”
“No, Mama. Don’t hold a special feast for me. Just let me sit in the place of honor at our usual Winterfest feast.”
The king and queen stared at their daughter in surprise. Aldwald spoke first.
“Very well. Make a pronouncement that our daughter, Princess Mita, has returned from her training with the Wizard Oldstone. She will be celebrated as the guest of honor in the royal feast for Winterfest.”
The scribe nodded, and began writing furiously.
Later in her room, Mita shooed the servants out. They had bathed her and dressed her in a luxuriously soft white robe. Then they worked on her neglected fingernails and toenails, and someone called for a hair stylist. Finally they covered her in lotions and sprayed her with fine perfume. At long last, she began to resemble a princess again.
Finally she managed to get rid of them all. She climbed into her bed and sighed in contentment. It felt good to be home, and she enjoyed the luxuries offered by the palace.
But, she reflected, if she had to choose one life over another she would go with the battlemaiden’s without hesitating. Even with no servants and minimal luxuries, the opportunity to do something meaningful with her life proved too strong to ignore.
She heard a knock at her door. Atta opened it and walked in. She rushed up to the bed and gave Mita a hug.
“Look at you! You’ve changed, Mita. You look beautiful!”
Mita laughed.
“Do I? I haven’t done anything.”
“Look into the mirror. Don’t you see it? You look all wise and mature now.”
Mita stared at her face in the ornate mirror, and recalled the lack of mirrors in the wizard’s floating castle. She had not seen her reflection in a long time.
The face staring back at her indeed seemed starkly beautiful. It reminded her of the portraits of queens and princesses long past, painted by Fulton and other masters.
“What’s happened? What made you change?”
Mita thought about all that had happened the last several months. She smiled.
“Well, if you must know, Atta, I started while I was gone.”
Atta’s eyes grew big. She said, “Finally!”
Mita laughed, and hugged her sister again.
All the other wizards were gone, apparating back through the gate Oldstone conjured. Only Greystone remained, lingering behind for some private conversation.
When they were alone, Greystone said, “I think that went well.”
Oldstone nodded and said, “I want to thank you for everything.”
“Thank me?” Greystone said, surprised. “What have I done?”
“Even though you’re younger than me, in many ways you have more wisdom than I do. Thank you for not being afraid to share it with an old man when necessary.”
Greystone smiled, and clasped Oldstone’s shoulder.
“No one is older and wiser than you, my friend.”
They smiled at each other. Greystone headed toward the hazy globe to be sent back to his village.
He turned at the last moment and gave the other wizard a serious look.
“You should face your past, old man. We all make mistakes. We all have to live with them. But there’s no use ignoring the past when you can conjure it up at will.”
He gave a formal half bow and walked into the globe, disappearing.
Oldstone sat in silence for several minutes, thinking about what his friend said.
Finally, he raised his eyebrows, having made a decision. He stretched out his arm, and a stream of black smoke billowed from his hand. It coalesced into the facsimile of Theena.
She looked at him and smiled, love in her eyes.
He smiled back with affection and sadness.
“I know you’re not her. I know you’re not real. But I’ve been missing her for a long time now.”
The facsimile nodded, and walked over to him. She gave him a hug, then kissed him on the lips.
Epilogue
Dirt tromped through the woods with a bag over his back and a song in his heart. He felt like he must be the richest man alive.
He had been called “Dirt” as long as he could remember. He thought maybe, in the far reaches of his memories, his mother might have named him something different. But no matter. Someone called him “Dirt” at an early age, and the name stuck.
He had wandered the Hidden Woods since childhood. He couldn’t remember what happened to his mother, or how he wound up here. But this was his life.
Life had not always been good. Many times he had gone hungry. But lately things had been better. He found berries and fruit, and on rare occasion he obtained bread and meat, although usually these were from charitable travelers along the road.
As befitting his name, he was dirty. Perpetually so. According to some he met on the road, he smelled too. Perhaps that’s why small animals ran away from him in the woods. That and the fact that, if he ever were fortunate enough to catch one, he twisted their heads off and ate them raw.
But he didn’t worry about how other people said he smelled today, for today he felt rich. Rich beyond his wildest dreams. He had stumbled into a giant clearing, one that had not been there earlier. The clearing had evidently served as the location for a large battle. Dirt had missed that, too, but he had been quite fortunate to partake in the battle’s aftermath.
First he found a large bag from an abandoned supply wagon, and he filled it with food from the same wagon. It was more food found in one place than he could ever remember, and the bag strained under the weight.
Next he searched among the strange and broken metal statues, and the corpses of soldiers and horses. He saw many fine weapons including pikes, halberds, and lances. He decided it would be good to obtain a sword, but just as he was prying one from the hands of a dead soldier dressed in bright green, an angry dwarf began yelling at him.
He dropped the sword and ran away. Why a dwarf would be wandering around the battlefield was beyond him. He didn’t think of himself as a thief, no matter what the dwarf yelled.
As he neared the trees where his large bag of food was stashed, he came across the body of a lancer and a horse. The body was horribly mutilated. It looked like several people had contributed to the man’s death.
He glanced around for any more dwarves nearby, and saw none. Then he looked down on the ground for weapons. Nothing. But, on the lancer’s body, an ornate dagger’s sheath stood out. It was attached to the dead man’s belt.
Dirt looked around again for dwarves. Then he reached down and unbuckled the dead man’s belt. The sheath was heavy, made of leather, gold, and silver. It even included saddle loops so a rider could easily lash it to his horse’s tack.
What a fantastic find! He took the ornate sheath and stuck it in his own belt.
Now as he trudged through the woods with his bag of foodstuff, he reflected on how fortunate the day had been. He had lots of food, and a silver and gold sheath that might be traded for even more food someday with one of the many caravans driving through the woods.
Then he tripped over something and his bag fell open, scattering foodstuff everywhere.
Dirt stood up and dusted himself off. He looked down to see what had snagged his foot.
A dagger stood up in the ground, attached to the tip of a lance by a cord. Dirt reached down and pulled them up out of the ground. He took the cord off, threw aside the lance tip, and wiped the dagger off on his tunic so he could study it closely. It seemed ornate, with odd markings, and the metal looked finely made. The blade glowed softly in the diffused forest light.
This is a fine dagger, Dirt thought. It’s much nicer than the sword that mean dwarf made me drop.
Dirt stopped suddenly, and his brain churned. He knew there was something releva
nt that he should be able to recall. He thought about it for several minutes.
Finally it came to him, and he smiled. He pulled out the gold and silver sheath he had found on the battlefield. It was so beautiful. Surely, these two were meant to be together.
He slowly inserted the blade into the sheath. A perfect fit!
He stuck them back in his belt, and started humming tunelessly while he gathered up all the supplies he had dropped, putting them back in the bag.
When he finished, he hoisted the sack over his back and continued walking through the forest toward his hut.
The End
Author’s Note:
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The adventure continues with Pirates & Wizards, second in the Forlorn Dagger series, Available on Amazon.
Dramatis Personae
Aldwald - King of Crystal, husband to Queen Etta, father of Princess Mita, Princess Atta, and Crown Prince Aldwald II.
Aldwald II - the Crown Prince of Crystal, sixth born child of King Aldwald and Queen Etta, brother to Princess Mita and Princess Etta.
Altor - a lancer in the traveling guard protecting Princess Margwen of Coral.
Anabella - Nanny to Princess Margwen of Coral, and her Lady in Waiting.
Artereo - from the Ageless Isles. Long dead, but widely regarded as the greatest swordsman who ever lived.
Atta - a Princess of Crystal, seventh born child of King Aldwald and Queen Etta. She is the youngest of Aldwald and Etta’s children. Sister to Princess Mita and Crown Prince Aldwald II.
Barley - a dwarf, son of Wort, of the Clan Nugget. He is known as one of the best brewers in Norweg.
