by Guy Antibes
Guards rushed them but stopped when they recognized the king.
“I have wards to warn if someone flies into the palace. I decided to risk it, looking like I do. You may return to the inn, and I will be back to you,” King Quiller said. “I owe you my life, and few people can make that claim.”
~
Whit had to change his own bloody clothes. When he removed the dressing on his arm, his wound had healed, all right, leaving a thin scar. Whit didn’t know how that happened, but he didn’t need to think about it at present and proceeded to the dining room for lunch. His team looked up anxiously as he trudged down the stairs.
“Quill?” Razz asked.
“All is well,” Whit said wearily. With all the flying, fighting, and Fanni’s taking his magic, Whit had used up a lot of his energy.
Pin and Ritta walked in.
“There you are. What happened to the king?”
Razz looked at Whit. “Are you going to tell us?”
“I took him to Jonny Evia’s clinic. Fanni healed a knife wound the king picked up on the way back to the palace. One of the guards was the traitor.”
“A guard!” Ritta said. “Do you know who put him up to it?”
Whit looked around. “Not here,” he said. “I have my suspicions. It isn’t Ritta’s group.”
“No it isn’t! I was kidnapped in broad daylight and blindfolded until I reached the stadium. Then I was pushed around until they ripped the blindfold off. I saw you…” she said to Whit.
“I suspect you wouldn’t have made it out of the stadium, alive,” Pin said.
Ritta collapsed into a chair. The tough woman’s eyes were rimmed with tears. “I’ve never been so scared.”
Yetti drew up another chair and, surprisingly, comforted Ritta.
“Quill was attacked in the carriage. I flew him to his place of work after being seen to and that is that,” Whit said.
“A good deed, indeed,” Pin said. “I’m sure we are all happy you were successful and are back.”
“I’m surprised I returned in one piece,” Whit said. He looked at Gambol. “Our sessions couldn’t have been better preparation for what I did today.”
“Here’s to gnomish defense!” Fistian said.
“What is next?” Gambol asked.
“I am hoping we can meet the king again and ask for a modest reward,” Whit said.
“Permission?” Argien asked. “That seems to be well-earned.”
Whit nodded. He looked up at Zarl, who had remained standing. “Sorry to have excluded you from everything.”
“Exclude away. I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities not to be excluded.”
“You will,” Whit said with a grin.
Ritta sighed. “You might ask for something else,” Ritta said. “Forgiveness for me. For all my bluster, I never, ever contemplated something happening like it did today.”
Whit nodded, but said, “I can’t promise anything.”
Deechie ran into the dining room. “What have you done?” he said breathlessly. “We heard the king was attacked at the stadium, and you had something to do with it!”
“I did,” Whit said, feeling wearier with the human’s reemergence in his life. “But I didn’t do anything to stain the university’s reputation. Be assured of that.”
“We will see. Don’t do anything that will jeopardize the team’s goal.”
“And what team is that?” Gambol asked.
Deechie frowned and took a deep breath. “That, you will find out at another time.”
He turned on his heel and walked out of the inn. Razz followed him out to make sure he didn’t circle back to listen in. It looked like everyone else had the same greasy feeling about Greeb Deechie.
“Back to me,” Ritta said.
Whit looked at Gambol, who pursed his lips. “I will tell the king, should he ask me, that you weren’t part of the assassins. I seem to recall a recent abduction to force us to sign something we didn’t want to.” Whit tapped on the table looking at the ceiling.
“Jonny tried to talk me out of being a tool for the interior minister.” She stuck out her lower lip almost in a pout. “My bluster got to the better side of me.”
“Better side!” Yetti said getting to her feet. “We will need more than a weak apology if you expect us to rise to your defense.”
Ritta looked angry for a moment, but then took a deep breath. “I suppose I deserve that.”
“Suppose! I’ll say you do. What will you be doing going forward?” Gambol asked the young woman. “Are you going to return to your revolutionary ways?”
The pixie woman frowned. “I’m going to have to modify my approach.”
“I’ll help her with that,” Jonny Evia said, walking in. “I hope you trust me a little more.”
“Fanni performed flawlessly, if that is what you mean. Did she tell you who her emergency patient was?” Whit asked.
Jonny laughed. “She knew he was important, but not the king! I assume it was the king?”
Whit nodded.
“Fanni was very impressed by your performance today, and she doesn’t know the entire story. I told her about the aborted attack at the stadium, and she told me you both arrived with stab wounds. At first, she wasn’t very happy about you barging in, but then she realized that the patient was in a life-or-death situation.”
The team members stared at Whit. “You were injured too?”
“Want to see the scar?” Whit asked.
“No bandage?” Gambol asked.
“We did some powerful healing between us. She used some of my power, and the side benefit was my stab wound fully healed.” Whit held up his hand and shook his head. “I don’t think either of us had an idea how that happened, but I imagine it was backwash healing from Fanni.”
“I’ve never heard of backwash healing before,” Argien said holding his hand to his chin.
“You have now,” Whit said, feeling his face warm up a bit.
Jonny came to Whit’s rescue. “It happens, but rarely, when power is shared. I don’t think Fanni has ever done it before. She was as amazed as you probably were.”
Whit just nodded and didn’t say another word. Thankfully, Jonny turned to Ritta.
“We have some talking to do. The attack presents a problem for us. If we were looking for reconciliation with the king, this might be our chance for an audience. If the king thinks you were part of the assassination attempt, you might think about leaving Perisia,” Jonny said.
“Reconciliation, as much as it makes my stomach turn. He didn’t deserve to be attacked like that,” Ritta said.
“And how were you going to attack the king?” Gambol asked.
“There are other ways to protest the actions of government,” Ritta said.
“Right out of my political geography course!” Gambol said.
Jonny nodded. “Then you can help us after lunch.”
The gnome professor looked trapped. “I can advise you, but I agree with reconciliation. It is safer, and the process might give you an audience with King Quiller.” Gambol looked at Whit.
“I can ask,” Whit said resignedly.
Chapter Twenty-Four
~
The last time Whit stood on the palace grounds was when he handed King Quiller off to his guards and flew away. This time, he was escorted by ten pixies dressed in the formal costumes of the royal guard. It was unexpected since he received an invitation for a personal audience.
Pin had been impressed that Whit was summoned alone, but that didn’t make the meeting any less daunting. He had two requests if asked for a reward: permission to remove the artifacts from Perisia and an audience for Ritta and Jonny Evia. Jonny’s inclusion was reluctantly agreed to by Ritta but might make the royal encounter more comfortable for both Ritta and Quiller.
They were going to the main throne room, a place where Whit had never been. They walked through the tall doors, and Whit was delivered in front of the seated King Quiller all dressed up as the King of
the Pixies.
A court flunky unrolled a proclamation and read it:
Be it known that Whit Varian is elevated to membership in the Order of the Valiant and will have all the rights and privileges attached thereto. The elevation is richly deserved due to the quick action in saving my life, not once but twice.
Signed: Quiller, King of Perisia and Prime Ruler over the pixie race.
The same pixie made Whit bend over while he draped the purple and white mantle over Whit’s head. The medal itself was surprisingly heavy. Whit wondered if pixies wore the medal around their necks very often.
The king rose from his throne, and with a big smile, gave Whit a hug. Whit had no idea if that was proper protocol or not, but the courtiers gasped before clapping.
“Come with me,” Quiller said into Whit’s ear.
“The installation is complete,” the flunky said. “Court is adjourned!”
While the courtiers filed out, Quiller took Whit behind the throne and into a dressing room. He took off his crown and his jewel-studded robe, putting them on a wooden rack.
“Sit,” Quiller said, taking a seat at an octagonal table. Whit took a chair a few angles down.
“We will have a bite to eat while we talk.” King Quiller clapped his hands and servants flooded into the room. “I understand your wound is fully healed?”
“It happened unexpectedly when I helped Fanni heal you.”
“Good,” Quiller said. He seemed happy and satisfied. “I couldn’t give her the reward I wanted, but I worked a deal with her benefactor to participate in funding her clinic.”
“You met Jonny Evia?”
Quiller nodded. “He isn’t unknown to me, but this was the first time I’ve met him.”
A light meal came along with a carafe of a pale sweet wine, Whit found out as he tasted it.
“You probably think you have no use for membership in the Order of the Valiant, but it allows me to treat you as a subject of Perisia.” The king snapped his fingers, and a deep red, leather portfolio was thrust into the king’s hand. He put it on the table and slid it toward Whit. Quiller looked at the portfolio and at Whit.
“Open it!”
Whit did as the king commanded, and there was the permission that he had sought. “I talked to Evia about what might be appropriate, and he mentioned that you really wanted to use the parts in your old device.”
“I do,” Whit said, reading the dispensation. “All I have to do is disclose which parts are from Perisia, and if it is ever dismantled again, the parts return to Perisia?”
“That is correct. There are more conditions if you don’t have full possession of the device, that last condition can be waived. Did I do it right?”
Whit grinned. “You did, your majesty. I don’t need anything else.”
“Some pixies would ask for half of Perisia. I have a request to make of you.”
Whit raised his eyebrows. “How can I help you?”
“Make sure I choose the right team in Hammer Town.” Quiller laughed. “Is there another request?”
“I do have one thing. Ritta Misennia would like an audience with you. Do you know Ritta?”
“The girl who abducted you? She is the same one that led the assassins.”
Whit took a deep breath. “She didn’t lead the assassins,” Whit said. “She was an unwilling cover for those really behind the attempt on your life.”
“I know that, and I know who really attacked me,” King Quiller said.
“The minster of the interior?”
“That is a good guess, but unfortunately, it is wrong. My life would be easier if Lullan Gastian was the culprit. I could remove him. It was a cabal of junior ministers who attempted to pin the assassination on Lullan. The guard who stabbed us was the cousin of one of them.”
Whit almost felt disappointed that the perpetrators weren’t connected to Deechie’s team.
The king continued. “I will meet with her. Jonny Evia also requested an interview. She has demands, but her efforts to inform me of them, never made it into my hands. Lullan or Ornetta Carlia might be the culprits there. As you can tell, I have enemies all around me.”
“I think you need to take a firmer grasp of your country,” Whit said. “The royal scout team is seen by many as evidence of your passive rule. People end up doing what suits them, and you can’t have a successful team or a successful government when the leaders are giving conflicting directions. Find out what the people want and serve them first before being cowed by your ministers. Your scout team needs to act as a team, and your government does too.”
Quiller cleared his throat. Whit interpreted it as a sign he had gone too far. Whit had never imagined that he would be using lessons learned in college to school a real monarch, but the advice just came out.
“I will consider what you have said, especially after I have met with the Misennia woman. Now,” the king said, “when will I find out what team I have to procure?”
“If you don’t mind, I can have Piesson Nistia do some homework for me,” Whit said.
The king pursed his lips and pointed his finger at Whit. “I shall hold you responsible.”
Whit frowned. “That is unfair. No matter who I pick, it might not work out.”
King Quiller nodded his head. “I still expect a better team.”
“You will get that.”
The king leaned back and drained his glass of wine. “I suppose I should let you get on with your treasure hunting, but there is a retired historian that you should meet. I doubt if Piesson knows her. I will set something up. She knows more than Ornnis, the nincompoop historian who is Lullan’s relative.”
~
“What is the Order of the Valiant?” Whit asked Pin at dinner the next evening.
“I think you are the first addition since King Quiller took the throne, and the first foreigner in a long, long time.”
Whit smiled. “So, there won’t be anyone my age when the order meets?”
“Two or three decades older,” Pin said. “But don’t worry, the order rarely meets. The investiture gives the member the same rights as any noble Perisian. The king didn’t grant a stipend, so you won’t be living like a noble, but I suppose you only have a few more weeks in Perisia, anyway.”
“If I’m lucky.”
“Luck will have something to do with it. I received word that Lulu has given pardons to your competitors in advance, for taking the Augur’s Eye parts out of Perisia. I’m not so sure that doesn’t violate a few obscure protocols, but what is done is done.”
“We have no time to spare. Any luck on the Hammer Town scout team?”
Pin smiled and pulled a wrinkled sheet of paper out of his coat. “Any of these three will suffice,” the pixie said. “I put them in the order that I would use. The team with the best record is last since I’m not so sure the players would move to Garri, but the first team is full of young ambitious scouts and soldiers, and the coach is who has made the team outperform their age. They came in third in the royal tournament.”
Whit took the sheet and looked at the analysis that Pin had summarized. “Good. I’ll give King Quiller his choice. I agree with your recommendation.”
Pin bowed his head. “I’m sure the king will be pleased to have a competitive team.”
Whit sighed. “I wish he had the right team around him. No wonder he is so feckless. His advisors are looking out for themselves and not for Perisia.”
“I left on my self-imposed exile because I felt I was too old to take a ministerial position and fight Lulu and Ornetta. It seems I forgot about the younger generation of courtiers. Perhaps he might accept me as an advisor.”
“Ask him, but after we leave. You should have some serious talks with Jonny Evia, first.”
Pin looked indignant. “That criminal?”
“He is redeemable,” Whit said, without disclosing that Evia was closer to the king than Pin knew. “He helped us in Willet’s Bay and showed a less rough side, if you ask me.”
&nbs
p; “I might ask you more,” Pin said, sighing. “It appears a clear-headed outsider might have some advice I can follow.”
“I don’t know who they could be, but Quiller needs a different kind of advisor than he has now,” Whit said.
Pin waved his hand in front of his face. “Enough about that. What is your next step in your quest?”
It was Whit’s turn to take a slip of paper out of his pocket and hand it to Pin. “Have you ever met her?”
“Ionna Teria?” Pin shook his head.
“The king said she was a better historian that Ornnis at the museum.”
Pin laughed. “Ornnis is only good because he uses those old books for brains.” He read the name again. “Are you going to visit her?”
Whit nodded. “As soon as possible. We are going to make a final push for the artifacts now that we have the legal documents, something Deechie doesn’t possess.”
“The trick is not if his documents are legal, it’s if he can get people to accept them.”
Whit pondered the thought and realized that Pin was right. They couldn’t let time go to waste.
They finished dinner and went up to Whit’s room to make some final guesses about where the parts might be according to his information.
Argien and Gambol joined them as they went over all the notes.
“They are all in the capital,” Gambol said. “The documents indicate they may be hidden together in a royal library somewhere.”
“Impossible,” Pin said. “The palace burned to the ground two hundred and thirty years ago. The compound was cleared, and the old structures weren’t duplicated. The architects, from Herringbone, by the way, created the palace compound without regard to the old one. Nothing is how it was when the artifacts were hidden, if they are located in the new capital.”
“Right. I don’t see how the library is the same one.” Argien said. “It doesn’t look that ancient.”
Pin shrugged. “If everything has changed, why is seeing the woman is so important?”
