The Warded Box

by Guy Antibes

  “It might be dangerous. Will any message to the grand wizard represent a threat to you?” the same wizard asked the baron.

  “Of course not. I’m not afraid of the grand wizard, especially now. I have you, and the Black Finger Society is about to take care of the Wizards Guild.” Overvale waved his hand as if clearing the air in front of his face.

  “What do you intend to do with me?” Lark said.

  “Barter, probably, although a prince doesn’t have much value, especially one who is a wizard.” Overvale looked at Tanner. “Wizard princes in Tesoria are forbidden to rule unless they are the last in the family line. King Kaleen was the last in his line. It is ground into the ancient strictures of Tesoria, supposedly established by Eldora herself.”

  Jack nearly staggered at the revelation. He wondered if that was what the bone was for, to destroy the stricture. He pressed his lips together as he thought about the ramifications of such a thing. That would mean Lark might ascend the throne of Tesoria. A future king had been leading them around Tesoria? It boggled Jack’s mind.

  Overvale leaned toward his wizard advisors again. “Could the grand wizard destroy the curse?”

  The Black Finger wizards all shook their heads. “No. Only Eldora can do such a thing.”

  Through Corina and me, Jack thought. He pressed his lips together. How could he be sure of anything at this point?

  “Eldora,” Overvale snorted, “she is a myth. We won’t have to worry if I let the four Corandians go?”

  One of the wizards nodded with a confident smile. “They represent no threat to you or to us.”

  “Very well.” He looked at Tanner. “Take your two ladies and the boy and leave the camp. Don’t think about going to Gameton or to Yellowbird. I control the road in both directions.”

  Tanner looked at Lark. “He was a pain in the rear anyway,” Tanner said.

  “Not as much as you, mercenary,” Lark said.

  Tanner pressed his lips together. “The sooner we get out of here, the better. I hope you will give us our weapons back.”

  Overvale looked at Helen. “I have my misgivings about putting anything in her hands, but yes, if you promise to head toward Wilton.”

  “Done,” Tanner said.

  Tanner, Corina, Helen, and Jack were given directions that would take them a mile farther up the waterway from where they left it. Their papers were given back to them, and they didn’t waste any time leaving camp.

  “I kept my mouth shut, but we can’t leave Lark and Ralinn back there,” Jack said.

  “No we can’t,” Helen said, looking at Tanner. “We didn’t promise we wouldn’t head toward Wilton for a little bit and then return.”

  “Oh,” Corina said. “You said you would head to Wilton.”

  “It doesn’t matter what I said,” Tanner said. “We won’t leave without them, even if I have to kill or disable every soldier in the camp. Jack can take care of the three wizards, since he is the only one with any extraordinary magic left unless you wish to join him.”

  “I can get them on my own,” Jack said. “It might be better that way.”

  “No heroics.”

  Jack laughed. “Rescuing a prince and a beautiful princess always requires a hero. Haven’t you read any storybooks?”

  They continued to slowly put distance between themselves and the camp, should Overvale send watchers, and Helen had seen signs that he had.

  “It is getting dark, so let’s find a suitable place to rest for the night,” Tanner said with a smile.

  “Even if the cot were minimal, it would beat sleeping on the ground,” Jack said.

  “I doubt if you will do much sleeping.”

  ~

  Corina agreed to stay with the horses after they tossed the blankets on piled leaves made up to look like the three were asleep. Jack, Tanner, and Helen moved swiftly toward the Overvale camp. Helen had the best sense of direction between them, so she led as they loped along through the forest using the moonlight to keep them from impaling themselves on the branches.

  It took them more than an hour to get back to the camp. Jack was ready to go find Lark and Ralinn when Tanner stopped him.

  “We have to prepare a bit first,” Tanner said. “What are you going to do once you find them?”

  “Steal some horses,” Jack said.

  “Wouldn’t it make sense to do that first?” Helen said.

  “Oh. We need to plan the escape,” Jack said.

  “A wise lad, isn’t he, Helen?”

  She smirked. “Wise doesn’t describe it.”

  Jack didn’t think it was the time to make fun of him, but maybe it was a way soldiers talked to calm themselves down. He certainly wasn’t calm. They spent the next few moments while assigning duties. Jack was assigned to retrieve one or both of the sister and brother. It still wasn’t natural to think of them that way, but Jack would have to get used to it.

  Now with a plan, Helen and Tanner took off to do some preparation, while Jack invoked invisibility through his knife and slipped through the camp. Soldiers still milled around. Fires lit up the tents. He turned a corner and nearly ran into a tall bearded soldier.

  Jack nearly gasped. It was the same man that talked to Helen, Tanner, and him in the camp. It had been a setup. He imagined the man was there to dig information from those captured, and Jack remembered that Tanner had confirmed they were wizards and warriors. That fact must have led to Lark and Ralinn’s exposure.

  The man looked around but continued on his way while Jack made his way to the larger tents. He couldn’t imagine Lark and Ralinn being put back into the remote camp they had been put in before. The Baron’s tent was lit from inside, and the flaps were wide open.

  Jack took a deep breath and walked in. There he found Ralinn and Lark, now sporting black fingers, unconscious and bound to chairs. Not again, he thought. Once he searched the tent, finding it empty except for his friends, Jack positioned Eldora’s box, so it touched his skin and then took both hands and grasped them both at the back of their necks. He gathered his power and plunged his will into their bodies. Deep within his mind came the word he wanted to use as a trigger word: clean.

  He spoke the word quietly, but forcefully, and felt the power flow through him into the two inert bodies of his friends. Jack’s major hope was that he didn’t kill them.

  Ralinn stirred almost immediately. She opened her eyes. Jack leaned over and whispered, “Be silent and pretend you are still sleeping.”

  She nodded without looking at him and bowed her head. Lark took longer to come around, but he finally did. Jack gave him the same instruction. “I need to see who is around. Don’t rub the blackness from your fingers.”

  “The ring kept them from doing anything other than dirty my fingers,” she said.

  He left them and wondered what he should do at this point. He had to get the pair through the camp to where Tanner and Helen would be waiting with their horses. He stood for a moment before looking to his right, seeing a glow begin at the far end of camp.

  “Fire!” Soldiers began to run past the tent.

  Jack returned into the tent and willed himself to appear. “This way,” Jack said.

  He led the pair to the back of the tent. Both of them were wiping the blackness from their fingers on their clothes. A shout at the front of the tent meant that they were trapped.

  “One at a time. First, Lark.”

  Jack held the prince’s hand and spoke, “Shift.”

  He let go of Lark’s hand and returned inside the tent and did the same with Ralinn.

  “How did you do that?” she said.

  “It is one of my few talents,” Jack said. With a large boost from the Serpent’s Orb and from Eldora’s Bone, he thought. “We have to go.”

  Jack hoped his direction sense was correct as they twisted and turned through the tents, not daring to take a direct route out of the camp. He stopped.

  “What is wrong?” Lark asked.

  “Soldiers,” Jack said. “
I’m not an expert with a sword.”

  “Neither am I,” Lark said.

  Jack took a deep breath. “Wizardry then.”

  He sheathed his sword and raised his hands as the squad of soldiers advanced on them. He intoned “ice” and “water” as both streamed from his hands. The soldiers backed up. They were bathed in water and then in Eldora’s ice. Jack had frozen them in place.

  “Ice melts,” Jack said. “We need to flee.”

  He led Lark and Ralinn in a false direction, seeing the soldier’s eyes follow as best they could before he ducked between two tents, and they were soon into the forest that circled one side of the camp.

  “What kept you?” Helen said.

  “We ran into a few obstacles. Not everyone went to stop the fire,” Jack said.

  “I was kidding. Get mounted,” she said. Helen looked at Lark. “Are you all right?”

  Lark looked down. “I am.”

  To Jack, Lark looked repentant, but he didn’t know what Lark had to be sorry for. It didn’t matter at that moment anyway as Tanner led them, picking their way through the forest until they reached the path back to the waterway.

  They found Corina surrounded by ten soldiers. Her hands were above her head, and she looked terrified.

  “That’s enough of that,” Tanner said as he jumped off his horse and confronted the soldiers. “Who is in charge?”

  “I am,” an officer said. “You will lay down your weapons.”

  “And betray a prince of Tesoria?” Lark said, from his horse.

  “You aren’t our leader,” one of the soldiers said.

  “Then who is, Baron Overvale? He is a traitor to the crown and will pay for his treachery,” Lark said. “Are you all traitors then?”

  “He pays us,” the officer said.

  “So you are mercenaries?”

  “Mercenaries can be traitors too,” Tanner said. “They can also die fighting for the wrong employer. Are you willing to do that?”

  “I’m no traitor,” one of the soldiers said, coming to Tanner’s side.

  “Who else?” Helen said.

  Three more of the ten soldiers joined Tanner.

  “I’d say the odds are even enough,” Lark said.

  “More than even,” Jack said, with his sword in hand. “Let us pass, and we will let you live.”

  The officer looked at the five soldiers around him. He moved his sword to Corina’s neck. “Come closer, and she dies.”

  Jack raised his wand and shot a bolt into his eye. The man crumpled to the ground.

  “Join us or return to the camp,” Tanner said. “Those who continue to follow us for Baron Overvale will be dealt with like him.” He pointed to the dead officer with his chin. “Decide now. We must be on our way.

  The five men who were with the officer turned and ran back to the camp. Jack kept snapping weak wizard bolts at their behinds to urge them on.

  “Are you all right?” Tanner said, kneeling and putting his arm around Corina.

  She sniffed a bit but nodded her head.

  “We have to leave immediately,” Helen said.

  “You have horses?” Tanner asked the soldiers.

  “Not now,” one of the men said.

  “Take these. They are from the camp. Consider yourself a royal escort for Prince Larkin and Princess Aralinn.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ~

  J ack looked up from his breakfast at a small village inn off the waterway in the opposite direction than the main road to Gameton. The soldiers had their own table. Corina had taken it upon herself to become the soldiers’ leader. Jack thought it was rather funny, but the men seemed to follow her orders. Corina had regained her composure a day after they fled from the camp and said she needed the diversion.

  Tanner nodded to Jack to join him at the bar. “I have bad news,” the mercenary said.

  “Overvale has invaded the capital?”

  “Not quite that bad, but close. The road is very dangerous to Gameton. There is talk of an insurgent alliance.”

  “But Lark said Loyalist forces are assembling to the west of Gameton.”

  “They aren’t at Gameton, and everyone is headed for the capital. Why don’t we go to Wilton and deliver Fasher’s message first? By the time that is done, perhaps the revolution will have been resolved.”

  “One way or another,” Jack said. “I just hope it isn’t the ‘other’ or we will have an ex-prince and an ex-princess with us. Can we send them to Gameton with the soldiers?”

  “Think, Jack.”

  “We can make it quick in Wilton. Right?”

  “This road can take us to Wilton more quickly than to the capital,” Tanner said.

  Jack looked down at the map. It didn’t lie. Tanner was right. “We should ask Lark and Ralinn.”

  “Let’s do it,” Tanner said.

  They returned to the breakfast table where Tanner presented his travel proposal after inviting Corina to their table.

  “It might be easier to enter Gameton from the south,” Lark said, “if the Loyalists still control those gates.”

  “We don’t know what is going on in Gameton, so I agree,” Ralinn said. “Let’s go to Wilton first. I think we will need Jack’s full attention when we get to Gameton.” She reached over and grabbed Jack’s hand. “Are you willing to help us once your errand is done?”

  Jack’s heart flipped. How could he say no to the woman? “That was my point,” Jack said. He still had Eldora’s kisses on both cheeks.

  “Then we go to Wilton,” Tanner said, looking relieved. “Get the doable task done first,” he said.

  “Doable?” Lark asked.

  “We can deliver the message to the grand wizard, but I’m not sure we can save Tesoria on our own.”

  “We have Eldora behind us,” Corina said. She had been standing behind Tanner during their discussion.

  Instead of heading west back to the waterway path, they headed east for a crossroads and a road that would bypass Gameton, taking them to Wilton.

  Jack was relieved, now that he was finishing Fasher’s task first. Tanner didn’t have to convince him of that. But fulfilling Eldora’s task, that scared him more than anything else had scared him before, even falling into Amara Soffez’s abyss.

  ~

  Wilton loomed ahead across the river that led to Gameton. It was filled with spires and peaked roofs vying with tall trees to define the skyline of the city. Lark and Ralinn both had studied for some time in Wilton. It was like coming home for them. Jack didn’t know what it meant to him.

  Orchards and farms had lined the road as they rode closer to the city with patches of woods that were boundaries between properties. It seemed so familiar, Jack could have easily imagined he had returned to Corand. It seemed to be the nicest patch in all of Tesoria. He hoped it would remain that way. He needed a pause before they headed to Gameton. Even if it was for a few days after Fasher’s message had been delivered.

  Jack again wondered what role parents had in handing down magic to their children. He was a fluke in more ways than one. He looked at the back of Ralinn’s head, as she talked to her brother.

  Her brother, thought Jack. Prince and princess. Well, that was the end of that budding relationship. At least Jack could talk about his time with a beautiful princess, and it wasn’t a tall tale, not tall at all.

  They rode across an arched bridge that spanned the river. Boats were floating down the river while others were rowed upstream. Perhaps the waterway between Yellowbird and Gameton had once looked like the river. He shrugged. It was pretty anyway.

  The soldiers split off from them, now that they had reached Wilton, and rode on toward the local garrison.

  Wilton was quite different from Yellowbird. The town exuded a sense of historic solidity. Whereas Yellowbird was a crossroads of every type of person, similar to Bartonsee in Corand, Wilton seemed immutable, unchangeable.

  “What is it that gives Wilton such a different feel?” Jack asked Ralinn.
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br />   “It is Tesoria’s center of learning. The University of Tesoria is here, and the Wizards Guild is located here rather than Gameton because it trains wizards in wizardry and healing alongside the healers at the university. I learned my healing here but under the tutelage of sisters. They have a temple here too. Wilton is a free city.”

  “Like Yellowbird was?”

  “Not quite,” Corina chimed in. “Yellowbird is a political construction. It is a free city to accommodate different factions, but Wilton is a free city culturally.”

  “I see,” Jack said, but if someone wanted to make Wilton a political possession, it could suffer the same fate as Yellowbird or maybe even Gameton, with whatever was going to happen in the capital.

  Jack continued to admire the impressive architecture. He saw robed figures of all colors and styles walking back and forth in front of them as they progressed through the city. They arrived at the Wizards Guild. It wasn’t just one building but a complex adjoining the University of Tesoria with its massive tower surrounded by lesser ones.

  “I’ll get us rooms close by,” Tanner said. He looked at Lark. “Are you a prince or a wizard, today?”

  “Wizard,” Lark said, looking at Helen. That relationship seemed doomed, just like his own with Ralinn.

  “I will leave word for you inside where we will be staying,” Tanner said.

  Jack took a deep breath and entered the building. He was at the end of his first task. The warded box was in a sack tied to his belt. He had left his armor tied to the horse that Tanner had led off.

  The lobby was cavernous, with stairs leading up on either side of a large counter. It reminded him of the ducal palace at Bartonsee.

  He took a deep breath and walked up to the counter. “I need to see the grand wizard,” Jack said.

  “And?” the woman said, looking up at him with eyebrows raised.

  “I have a message from Fasher Tempest.”

  “And I have a message from the king of Tesoria. Don’t bother me, young man.”

  Jack hadn’t expected a hostile greeting.

  “The message is in a warded box. It is important that I deliver it to the grand wizard.”