by Guy Antibes
He took the woman to the carriage and uncovered the gold box. The three travelers had taken turns cleaning the box on the way to the temple and their labors showed. The gold glowed in the light.
“That can’t be real!” the caretaker said. “I can’t even guess at its worth.”
“It’s yours, if you want it. The box goes to the king, if you refuse.”
The caretaker ran her hands over the scene. “Is it solid gold?”
Whit hadn’t even thought about the box’s construction.
“I don’t know.” He tapped on one of the panels and heard a tiny clicking. The gold might have been hammered over the original carving. “Maybe not.”
“It is priceless solid or not. Can you bring it in to show Saint Varetta? I’d like to see it in the nave before you take it away. I’m sure we don’t want to worry about security here. Some criminal gang might slit our throats to get to it, and I’d rather not have the kind of anxiety.”
That wasn’t the reaction that Whit had anticipated, but he could easily see her point. “I’d like to have a memory of seeing the box in the nave too,” Fistian said. “I’m not a follower of Saint Varetta, but any moron, myself included, can see how priceless it is.”
Fistian took the box to the open-ceilinged nave. They put the box in front of the empty plinth that once held a statue of the saint. The caretaker and her four assistants sat cross-legged on the ground ten or fifteen feet away and talked quietly as they absorbed the image in their minds.
Argien leaned up against a roofless pillar thinking of something. He walked over to the three pixies and pulled something out of a pocket.
“No one needs to know about this,” the angel said. “Whit found these inside the box. We cleaned the inside out and among the dust were a few trinkets. I’ll leave you with a gold button. To have spent so much time in the golden box, it is probably a button off a relic of the saint.”
“But I can’t take this. It’s yours.”
“We found a few, so take this and let it help to remind you of the golden box,” Argien said.
Whit took Argien aside. “You didn’t have to give up one of your buttons.”
Argien shrugged. “To give up the box, the caretaker deserves a reward. Varetta will be happy we visited Perisia. You funded rebuilding the shrine, and we found the box. I still have a souvenir.”
The workers offered to put the golden box back into the carriage, giving Whit some time to wander in the temple. He walked into the room he had used at the temple. It was now clean and presentable. The alcove with the hidden chamber still appeared to be undiscovered.
Whit opened it and peered inside. Suddenly, he shaded his eyes from the setting sun as he stood in the now-roofed nave. Saint Varetta stood before him.
“You have done well, Whit Varian.”
“Did I find the parts because of you?” Whit asked.
“A little sooner, maybe, but you had all the tools and the instructions to retrieve the gold box and its contents. There are some opportunities to continue to serve Perisia when you return to Garri. I thank you and through you, your team. You may not see another saint on your quest, but those of us who still have an interest in the affairs of Fortis, are looking forward to your progress. Not all wish you success. Many viewed the Eye as an evil crutch, peeping into the future. It’s not the future that is bad, but there are evil things that folk with bad intentions can do with the knowledge of what is to come.
“The wand that you retrieved, was once mine. It has an enhanced capacity for magic, and I suggest you keep it,” Varetta said. “If you ever meet another saint, they will recognize it.”
“Why have you blessed me with these visions?” Whit asked.
Saint Varetta laughed. “A blessing to offset the curse your lineage has brought you, Whit Varian. You might find another artifact behind the hiding place that held the coin. Don’t show anyone the part while you are in Perisia, and then only share knowledge of it with the person you trust the most. I believe there will come a time when you will be sought by powerful people for your magic. I have already said more than I should.”
“Did you find this out through the Augur’s Eye?” Whit asked.
“How else? Be well, Whit Varian.”
~
Whit felt his body shift and stood in the room again. He peered into the hidden compartment and knocked the back panel. It wasn’t as solid as he would have thought. He used a gnome fighting technique and threw his fist at the back. The thin stone cracked enough for Whit to remove the shards and retrieve a small, tarnished metal box.
He had to work the opening, but he finally sprung the little door. A round ball, covered with dust lay inside. It was slightly smaller than an egg. Whit wiped the ball. It appeared to be made of dark glass. A shaft of clear glass about the width of Whit’s little finger went through from one end to another. It didn’t look right to be the Eye itself, but there was another sphere in the drawing. It had to be a part that was supposed to be in Coria. He put the ball in the box and found his way out of the ruined temple.
He found the others, now talking in the courtyard.
“Have you communed with Varetta?” the caretaker said. Whit’s face must have revealed the truth because she touched Whit’s sleeve. “I was only joking.”
Whit grinned. “She wishes us well.”
“Don’t they always say that?” Fistian asked.
They all laughed.
“A meal before you move on?” the caretaker asked.
“Why not?” Whit said.
They spent another hour listening to Varetta tales and enjoying some simple fare. Whit could tell the caretaker didn’t have any regrets about not retaining the gold box. Whit rose from his bench and thanked the caretaker and her staff before leaving the plateau and taking the same easy route he had taken to arrive to circumvent the angry villages on the other side. Whit came to the crossroads back to Old Garri at Lilypond, the location of Yetti’s retreat. They turned west and as the sun set, they arrived in one of the villages that circled Old Garri. It was too dark to look for their companions, so they found rooms in a small inn. Argien and Whit placed wards over the carriage, and everyone looked forward to reuniting with the rest of the team the next day with their treasures safely hidden.
~
Old Garri had lots of hiding places, so when the team wasn’t where Whit expected, Argien and Whit flew over the ruins and found three carriages lined up next to a large copse. Whit and Argien landed by the carriages to make sure one of them was theirs. Underneath the trees, Whit could see Gambol and the rest of his team sitting on blankets, their hands tied behind their backs.
He was about to enter when he noticed Ritta Misennia and Jonny Evia standing next to Paros Porch. Whit was confused by the situation. He didn’t know what to think. He didn’t think anyone could defeat Zarl in a fair fight. Maybe the fight wasn’t fair.
“Shall we go in?” Whit asked Argien.
“One of us will need to escape to help Fistian defend the carriage,” the angel said.
“One or both of us,” Whit said. “Let’s see what is going on.”
They walked under the trees. All eyes turned toward them. Whit started at Barine and Sedge, sitting, hands untied facing the remainder of Whit’s team.
Deechie wasn’t in sight.
“Where is Deechie?”
“Behind you,” the human said.
Whit whipped around. Deechie smiled and stood still. “I made some new friends.”
Whit looked at Ritta and Jonny. Ritta he could almost understand, but not Jonny. Whit walked over to the team and began untying their hands.
“What do you think you are doing?” Deechie asked.
“I don’t see why you have captured my team. This is going into a report to the head of the university,” Whit said. “I can’t see how the magic college can condone the abduction by rival teams.”
“You don’t know what I’m authorized to do,” Deechie said through clenched teeth.
“I can,” Jonny said. “We came not long ago to see you, but were disappointed to find our friends already tied up.”
“Your friends?” Deechie said.
“We go back all the way to Willet’s Bay,” Jonny said.
“I think he’s right,” Paros said to Deechie.
Deechie backed up as Jonny approached. Argien flew to a spot behind Deechie and grabbed him by the arm. Deechie struggled, but he wasn’t a match for the angel. Whit didn’t know if Argien used a spell or not. It didn’t matter, Deechie was trapped.
Jonny held out his hands and clasped them to Deechie’s shoulders.
“Ugh!” Jonny said as if he had swallowed an unmentionable substance. “Do you have the power to capture Whit’s team?”
Deechie struggled with an answer, but he blurted out a yes.
“What is the source of this power?” Jonny asked.
“The Magician’s Circle.”
“Not the College of Magic?” Jonny furrowed his brow.
“The university means nothing to the circle,” Deechie said.
“Enough!” Jonny said, letting go of Deechie. “His mind is like a cesspit. Greeb’s thoughts are so twisted. It is the worst mind I’ve ever probed.”
“I don’t recognize the Magician’s Circle and I believe none of the others do,” Whit said, finishing the untying. “You are merely a petty thief, as far as we are concerned.”
“Paros. Help me here,” Deechie said.
“Deechie is right about the circle,” Paros said. “I’m a new member, but I can say Deechie is under pressure to sabotage your group. I’m not. My instructions are to follow you and grab the artifacts as you find them, but not to do what we’ve done today.”
“I’m disappointed,” Whit said. He was, but the disappointment was from before they embarked from Herringbone. In Whit’s mind, Porch was thoroughly on the other side.
“I think we now outnumber you,” Whit said as Argien let Deechie go.
“Zarl, you have my permission to do whatever ogres do to their naughty children if they attack us,” Whit said.
“You mean I have to hug them?” the ogre said, making a face.
Whit had to laugh, now that the situation was hopefully defused. “No. What do you do to your enemies?”
“Love them?” Zarl said. His lip curled enough to signal Whit he was joking.
“Then love them until they ask you to stop,” Whit said.
“I can do that.”
“He can,” Yetti said.
It wasn’t the time to ask Yetti how she knew that. “Then let’s be off. Ritta and Jonny can come with us if they wish.”
Whit noticed that Barine and Sedge didn’t look comfortable during the entire encounter.
“You don’t know who you are dealing with,” Deechie said.
“I do now, thanks to you. There are a lot of parts to find, and you’ll have to be very nimble now that we know that Paros Porch’s instruction is to be a thief, just like yours. We will respect your team, but not you two,” Whit said for the benefit of Barine and Sedge. “Let’s go.”
No one followed Whit’s team to their carriage. Ritta and Jonny stood, holding the reins of the small pixie horses.
“We came out to find you,” Ritta said. “Instead, we found them,” she looked at Zarl helping Yetti into the carriage.
“Our camp isn’t far, so I’ll talk to you in an hour or so.” Whit told Argien to guide them through Old Garri to where they left Fistian.
Whit took to the air and reached the gnome and the carriage. Fistian spotted Whit and waved when he recognized him.
“Where is Argien?” Fistian said.
“Guiding the carriage. Ritta Misennia and Jonny Evia are with them.”
Fistian grinned. “I like Jonny, even if others don’t.”
“He keeps me guessing,” Whit said before he described what happened under the canopy of trees. “I’m curious why they came to Old Garri by themselves. We must be careful, and don’t assume they know anything about our activities here.”
Whit made sure about the hidden compartments in the carriage and moved the golden box underneath the driver’s seat. Whit checked the hidden chamber that held the Eye’s parts. The two wands, Varetta’s and the magic-killer wand, were secured underneath a seatback. He couldn’t see anything exposed.
Fistian and Whit rummaged around in the satchel of food they had bought when they left the inn that morning. Whit took half a loaf and a pot of ale and sat on the running board on the shady side of the carriage. All the camping equipment was on Gambol’s carriage.
By the time the food was consumed, Gambol’s carriage appeared with Ritta and Jonny riding to the side, staying out of the dust spewed by the carriage. Whit climbed on the top and waved to the incoming travelers.
He jumped down when the rest of the team arrived. Argien climbed down from the driver’s box along with Razz, and soon everyone stood in a circle. Whit hadn’t heard the story, but he imagined Deechie captured Gambol’s group in the middle of the night.
“Yesterday, late afternoon, we faked a celebration, shouting that we were done and could leave Perisia. It was convincing, since we were all asleep when they came. Deechie and Professor Porch threatened Zarl.” Razz said.
“I wouldn’t have fought them in the night. It was too easy for something to go wrong and injure one of our group. Pin told everyone to stay calm and let them have their way unless someone was injured,” Zarl said, “so they tied our hands, and everyone’s foot was tied to another to keep us from flying away.”
Pin nodded his agreement with the story. “After ransacking the carriage, they had us shove everything back, angry that we faked the last discovery. They drove us to the tiny forest, and we sat down on the dirt until Ritta and Jonny showed up.”
“Who put the blankets down?” Argien asked.
“Yetti insisted on laying out our blankets, so we didn’t have to sleep in the dirt. Deechie said no, but she and her uncle ignored Deechie and grabbed piles of blankets from the carriage and laid them out for us,” Zarl said. “She was very brave.”
“I was just being me,” Yetti said. “At least we slept—”
“Speak for yourself, pixie,” Gambol said. “But at least we weren’t coughing dust all night. Ritta and Jonny showed up, and Deechie refused to talk to them since he knew we had been working with them.”
“He knows everything,” Whit said.
“Deechie has spent a fortune in bribes,” Jonny said to Whit. “Finally, we were able to convince the Porch elf to talk to us about arranging for the release of your friends when you showed up.”
“Why did you come to Old Garri in the first place?” Whit asked.
Ritta turned red and looked at Jonny.
“King’s orders,” Jonny said. “King Quiller promised a half-hour audience with Ritta if she would join me to check up on you. I didn’t tell him that I already had a man following your group. We didn’t expect you to take off for a couple of days. My man thought you were fetching supplies, and when he realized you had left the ruins, he lost track.”
Whit looked at Ritta. “What would you have done if they had captured you?”
“My man would have brought others to rescue us.”
Whit shook his head. “Deechie is highly unpredictable. I don’t know if he can kill, but if pressed, I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“We can take care of ourselves. It’s not as if we haven’t been following them too. Would you like to know what Greeb Deechie had for breakfast?” Jonny said.
“No,” Whit said. He was sure that Deechie wasn’t the only person with no reluctance to bribe. “We are ready to leave Perisia, by the way, but if my side trip wasn’t a failure, we’d be leaving now.”
“But we aren’t going now?” Fistian asked.
“I have to take something I found to the king,” Whit said.
Jonny nodded. “I think that is a good ide
a. I think the king will be needing Pin and you in the near future. If you accuse Deechie of abduction, we might be able to incarcerate the other expedition for a week or two. The king still owes you.”
Whit didn’t think of King Quiller’s obligation to him in the same way, but Ritta and Jonny were witnesses as well as Quiller’s spies, although, he didn’t know if Jonny would have his man in Old Garri step forward to corroborate Jonny’s story.
“We might as well start now,” Whit said.
Gambol groaned. “Help us get everything straightened out in our carriage first. It won’t take long.”
An hour later, the carriages headed out of Old Garri on the fastest road to the capital.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
~
“W
here are the real artifacts?” Jonny said.
Whit smiled and Jonny shook his head. “You won’t tell me, and that is smart thinking. Some days I don’t trust myself. You do have them though?”
“We do,” Whit said sipping an ale outside at a waystation while the horses rested and fed. “There is something else, but I’ll surprise you with it when we get to the palace.”
“You aren’t waiting for an audience?” Pin asked.
“Not at all,” Whit said. “You’ll agree when the time comes.”
Jonny grunted. “Now I’ll be anxious all the way back.”
“That is up to you,” Whit said. “It’s worth all the anxiety you may feel.”
“It isn’t the golden box, is it?” Ritta said.
Jonny chuckled. “You didn’t convince the temple nun to accept the box that Gambol told us about.”
“How much do you know?” Whit’s surprise had just been exposed. He felt deflated.
Jonny revealed that Gambol had told him about Whit and Argien’s underground adventure. The wand wasn’t mentioned, but Argien had shown Gambol his buttons and other fragments.
“She didn’t want to be a magnet for robbers.”
“A wise nun,” Jonny said.
“She isn’t a nun. She’s a caretaker,” Argien said from a few places down on the long table. He had his legs on the outside of the bench since they didn’t fit underneath the pixie-sized table.
