by Guy Antibes
“What happened?” The other two wiped the black residue from their fingers.
“Out lad,” the first wizard said. “Give them a booster.”
Jack handed out three more of the wooden rods. “He is here to save us.” The wizard looked at the rod. “We can use these to throw flames and bolts, but hold on to them to recoup your magic.”
“I have to go,” Jack said as he teleported into the last cell. Three wizards, all with black smudges on their fingers were awake.
“Who are you?” one of them said.
Jack was already found out, so he lit a torch and found two of the six men Jorey had described.
“I’ve come to remove the compulsion.” He took more precious time to free the men, but all of them responded to his efforts. “Here are objects of power. Recover. I will be back.”
After looking in the rest of the cells, he confirmed there weren’t guards gathering for an attack. He returned to the first cell and slid out his knife, putting it to the neck of the minder.
“Wake up.” The other two wizards rubbed their eyes, but the minder looked sideways at Jack. “Don’t say a word or it will be your last,” Jack said, bluffing all the way, but the Black Finger wizard didn’t know that. He pulled out two more rods. “Grab onto these. I have cured you, but your power is likely depleted as is all the others. I will leave you to dispose of this man however you see fit. I have two associates confined to a cell on the second floor, Tanner and Helen. They aren’t wizards, but they are very good with mundane weapons, and they know where to take you if anything happens to me. I have come from Jorey Balcon. He still needs you in Gameton.”
The men nodded. One of them said, “The Black Fingers know. We weren’t able to tell them much, but—”
“Tell Jorey what you told them. We have allies.”
The two men nodded. One quickly used his rod to make the wizard’s eyes roll back. “He was a particularly nasty, vile man.”
Jack sighed. He didn’t have it in him to kill the minder, but it was better they did it, than him. He tried to unlock the door, but his pick didn’t work with the locks on the doors, so Jack had to teleport everyone out into the corridor. They all shuffled into an empty cell.
“There were twelve to fourteen guards. They still know I am at large, so be prepared to fight them.” The wizards’ faces all looked grim as they nodded. “Gameton could erupt in conflict tomorrow, so go to the Corandian embassy first and get your assignments from the grand wizard. The king is likely a converted Black Finger, so be careful with anyone,” Jack said. He didn’t know if he was saying the right words, but he had to do something.
“If anything happens, make sure you rescue my associates Tanner and Helen, held captive on the second floor.”
The men nodded. Jack took a deep breath before poking his head back out into the corridor and led the men, every one of them clutching onto the improvised objects of power. Jack pulled out his wand and his sword. They inspected each open cell before moving up the stairs. The last room on the left had four guards sitting on bunks.
Before the men could react, the wizards used different spells on them. All the guards collapsed with the onslaught of magic.
“I have to learn how to make someone faint,” Jack said aloud to himself.
Some of the men chuckled. Jack grabbed their keys and handed them out before locking the guards in the room. “Four down,” he said. It was much the same on the next floor up. Two cells contained three guards each. One of the wizards suffered a slice before their captors were subdued. A wizard stepped forward. “I am a healer. I can close that so we can move on.”
Jack grasped his wrist while he worked on the injured wizard.
“You are a helper!”
Jack smiled. “I’m helping you, aren’t I?”
The healer shook his head, but they were ready to attack the main floor. A few of the wizards touched Jack and sighed as Jack’s power moved into their hands.
That left four guards if Jack counted right. He peeked above the stairs. Eight guards were sitting in chairs. The wizards boiled up the stairs, following Jack. The guards were subdued, but not before one of the guards thrust his sword all the way through Jack’s thigh. He went down.
“Upstairs free my friends,” he said through the awful pain.
The healer worked on Jack. “This is a serious wound,”
The agony of his leg began to build. Through tears of pain, he saw Tanner and Helen being ushered out of the prison. Jack raised his hand to let them know he was wounded, but a spell hit him. He fought the effects of it until all went dark.
Chapter Thirty-One
~
J ack woke up. He didn’t know how long he was out, but the healer was asleep in a chair by his side, unbound. The leg felt much better. He looked down to see a scar. He rose from the bed and hobbled around a bit. He felt better with each step.
The healer opened his eyes. “You didn’t tell us you were Eldora-blessed.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Would that have made a difference?”
The man smiled. “Not at all, now that I think of it. That tiny box on your neck is incredibly powerful. I nearly touched it, yet you are always in contact with it.”
“It goes with these,” Jack pointed to the bruises on his cheeks. “My work isn’t done yet. Where are we?”
“I had to kill the Black Finger wizard that revived quickly enough to attack you. A different group of guards finally came to check on the prison and brought us here.”
“Where is here?” Jack asked.
“The Chancellery.”
“What is a chancellery?” Jack said.
“It is where the chancellor of Tesoria carries out his duties.”
“Ran Maltwill?”
The healer nodded. “I’ve never worked on a patient where I gained power rather than expended it.”
Jack smiled. “I appreciate what you have done. I can’t run across town, but I’m not feeling any pain.”
“You will at odd times. That is how healing with wizardry works. There are a lot of things we can’t do, but injuries generally get better faster especially cuts.”
“That was quite a cut,” Jack said.
“It will leave a scar on both sides.”
“I already have plenty of those. Are we prisoners?”
The healer looked toward the door. “I’m not sure. I don’t even think the door is locked.”
He opened the door. Two guards were sitting on each side. One of them got up.
“You are awake?” the guard asked.
“As you can see, the answer is yes.”
The man nodded. “I will get Lord Maltwill. Please stay inside your room.”
Jack’s sword, wand, and knife were gone, but the orb and the box still hung around his neck. Other than the guards, he didn’t feel like he was in a cell, although the room had no windows.
A servant brought refreshments.
“What time of day is it?” Jack asked.
“You were out about five hours. The sun is barely up,” the healer said, “so they told me.”
Jack grabbed a pastry and drained the goblet of water as they both ate until a robust man of medium height entered the room. He had a ruddy face and thinning curly hair. He fingered a thick golden chain with a fish, of all things, hanging from it. Was that a Waterford symbol? Jack could see a filial resemblance to Harida, Lord Maltwill’s sister.
“Winder?” the chancellor asked. “Do you know who I am?”
“Harida’s brother,” Jack said. He put out his hand. “I am glad to meet you.”
“You might not be very glad once we’ve had our little talk. Are those?”
Jack’s hands went to his face. “My bruises?”
“Harida said you were on an errand for our goddess, but I had no idea.”
“This is hers too,” Jack said, showing him the warded box. “It is one of the five bones. The one called River. Eldora gave it to me. Is Eldora the reason why the Waterford symbo
l is a fish?”
Maltwill fingered his chain and nodded. “I was barely able to retrieve you from the debtor’s prison before Darkwaist sent his men over. Your friends and the grand wizard’s men made it to the embassy. I have nearly made my decision.”
“Of support?”
“Of course support,” Maltwill said with the irritation plain in his voice. “I didn’t want to make a decision at all and let circumstances run their course, but my sister—”
“And your duty to Tesoria,” Jack said.
The man grunted. He considered Jack. “If you weren’t so young and so raw, I would petition King Kaleen for an audience. I want to make sure he is a Black Finger. He has been quite different ever since that Yellowbird debacle. I kept asking him to negotiate with the insurgents, but…” he waved his hand. “Not for you to know. One of my advisors had an idea of dressing you up as a royal servant, since Harida said you can sense Black Finger wizards.”
“If I can touch them,” Jack said.
“He cured me,” the healer said. “I had black-tipped fingers and now…” He waved his fingertips at the chancellor.
“The idea even makes more sense, but we have to work immediately. The king will dress in an hour. It isn’t very much time, but you will be schooled in how to dress the king. Six servants are used, and five of them have an excuse to touch the king. You will have to be silent or mumble your replies. You have a Corandian accent.”
“I grew up with one,” Jack said. “I’m willing to mumble my way through. I’ve mumbled my way through tight situations before.” But Jack had never done so with stakes so high.
He was certain Lark and Ralinn would be interested in how their father was reacting. Jack knew none of them would be able to get close, and he had learned by observation that nobody ever paid attention to servants.
“The person to train you will be in presently with the proper clothing. You need to be a fast learner.”
Jack nodded. “I will do my best.”
“You’d better,” Ran Maltwill said as he left the room without looking back.
“An audience with the king,” the healer said with wonder in his voice.
Jack grunted. “I’ve spent a lot of time with the prince and the princess, so I’m not intimidated,” he said. Quite the opposite, actually, Jack thought. He touched his lips, wondering if he had kissed Ralinn for the last time, since any time could be the last time. “I’m not looking forward to it. I suspect Larkin and Aralinn will be very disappointed no matter what happens.”
“Let me give you one more treatment,” the healer said. “You are likely to be standing for a long time, and that will give you some pain, no matter what your wound feels like now.”
Jack reclined and let the healer go to work. The wizard was about done when an older uniformed man walked in carrying a large valise.
“Your clothes, sir,” the man said. “My name is Alky, and I will help you dress in the same way that the servants upstairs will dress the king.”
Jack stood up and removed his clothes.
“The king puts on his own underclothing,” Alky said as he folded Jack’s outfit. “Put out your arms like so.” Alky stood with his legs spread at shoulder width and the arms not quite straight out.” He looked at the healer. “You, come over here and hold out your hand to steady the king.”
The healer put his hand out. Jack took it while the man helped Jack step through breeches.
“There will be one on either side. If you are to touch the king, steadying him at this point will be the best duty.”
Jack went through the routine. It seemed easier to dress by oneself, but Alky insisted King Kaleen did it this way every day and sometimes more than once a day.
“Remember, if you do your job adequately, no one will notice you except for the other servants, and they don’t count, unless they try to cut you out of your duties. I can’t help if that happens.”
Jack remembered it all as Alky drilled him on the sequence and the positions. He made the healer take off his clothes, and Jack dressed the healer in the proper order. It wasn’t much different from some of the academic drills he had to complete in extended school in Raker Falls.
“You learn adequately well,” Alky said. “One more thing.” The man rummaged around at the bottom of the satchel and pulled out a little pot. “Makeup.” He rubbed it over Jack’s bruises. “Not a good thing to show in front of those Black Finger bastards,” Alky said, surprising Jack with the language. “Follow me.”
Jack took the last pastry from the plate and nodded to the healer. “Take care of my clothes,” he said.
The Chancellery was connected to the castle grounds by a tunnel. Tunnels here and tunnels there, Jack thought as they made their way into the castle itself. The only weapons Jack had were his own two hands powered by the two objects of power hanging around his neck. The tunnel stopped at a stairway, reminding Jack of the tunnel from the Corandian embassy to Eldora’s temple.
They walked up the stairs into a foyer. Alky opened a plain door to the servant passages. The walls were plain. It reminded Jack of the servant passages in the Ephram mansion in Raker Falls. Alky led him to a waiting room of sorts. Tables and chairs were distributed around the room. Men and older boys sat around talking. Jack and Alky stood to the side.
“Everyone, up!” said a man in a fancier uniform than the others, as he walked into the room. The older men got up more slowly than the younger boys. “Dressing detail,” the man said. “Line up.”
“Where do I go?” Jack asked.
“I will guide you, don’t worry.”
Alky pushed Jack into the line forming in the room and stood behind him. It was clear that Alky had some sway with the man selecting the detail. Jack was picked third. There were six servants selected for the dressing detail, and from what Alky said, there were five dressing positions. Jack wondered if the servants were going to make sure he didn’t get a chance to assist.
They filed out of the room. Jack made sure he was in the middle, since he had no idea where they were headed, and he did not want to be left behind. They went up a circular stone stairway that wound and wound and wound its way upward until it halted at a long landing.
“Inspection,” the leader said.
Jack stood with his hands balled into fists at his sides, just like the others, as their uniforms were tweaked. The man nodded at Jack and leaned over to flick something off his shoulder.
“Just act normally. No one notices servants unless they make a mistake,” he whispered in Jack’s ear.
He led them off the landing and into the inhabited part of the castle. It was like walking into a different world, but Jack was prepared for it. The servants took it in stride, since it was something they experienced multiple times a day. They took a few turns and assembled in a line facing a wide gilded door flanked by guards on each side.
Jack noticed a fish device worked into the carving that matched the cast fish on Ran Maltwill’s chain. The door opened, and four maids walked out, dressed identically. The door closed again, so Jack continued to stand with the rest. His wound began to ache, but not so much that Jack couldn’t ignore it.
The door opened again, and the leader walked in first followed by the dressing servants, with Jack in the middle. They immediately went to the five dressing positions, leaving Jack standing by himself. He couldn’t exactly shove one of the other servants aside, even if he was the tallest in the group.
The leader looked at Jack out of the corner of his eye. “Wait,” he said.
What followed was exactly as Alky had described. King Kaleen came to the bedroom dressed in his underclothes. He didn’t utter a single word while posing for his dressing.
“Come with me,” the leader said and led Jack into the King’s wardrobe room. It was filled with costumes of all kinds of colors for all the seasons. “Stockings first.”
Jack knew which of the servants did what dressing, so he delivered the right clothes to the appropriate servant. A few looks
of surprise were spawned on his fellow dressers. Jack kept looking for an opening to touch the king, but nothing worked.
Finally, the king was fully dressed except for the crown. The dressers didn’t put that on. Jack guessed the leader did. He went back into the wardrobe.
“The Tesorian Star. Put it around the king’s neck. He will lean forward. That is your only chance.” The leader handed Jack a deep-purple pillow with a gold chain that looked just like the chancellor’s except the fish device was set into a multi-rayed star covered with diamonds.
He walked into the dressing room. One of the servants moved to take the star, but Jack put the pillow on his hands, and he stretched his arms out for the chain. Jack quickly swept up the necklace and walked solemnly to confront the king.
He could see Lark’s features in the man’s face. He looked off, somehow, as if Jack couldn’t quite focus on his face. It was like his vision was blurry. Jack wondered if his wound was acting up. He took the star off the pillow and raised his arms. The king, silent the entire time bowed his head. Jack lowered the necklace slowly as he gathered power and will within him. As his hand brushed the king’s neck, he uttered the word “clean” pushing all that he had into the contact.
Jack’s hand seemed to burn. He stepped away to see the king stagger. The man groaned and leaned over clutching his face. Everyone in the room uttered some kind of sound as the king’s hair color turned from a light brown shot with gray to black. The king raised his head, but the man dressed in the king’s clothes wasn’t King Kaleen, but another. Black fingertips adorned his hands. The king glared at everyone.
“What have you done?”
One of the servants said, “That isn’t the king’s voice!”
Jack had defeated the imposter’s illusion. He knew he was going to be held responsible, only because it was apparent that he stopped the game the Black Fingers were playing.
