by Guy Antibes
“I agree,” Ricky said.
“That is all the nagging I’ll do. You have your letters from the bank. Make sure you keep those safe.” Saganet smiled. “That’s one more reminder.” He pursed his lips. “I don’t want to burden you, but there is a person in the Dimani capital who is well-placed. He isn’t a member of the Order, but he does provide bits of privileged information from time to time. His name is Ducri Wamia, a former ambassador to Sealio and one of King Courer’s counselors.”
“Ducri Wamia,” Ricky repeated the name.
“He will recognize Duke Bariani’s name, and you can use Insippa Baldico’s name. Insippa provided us with this information before he headed back to Sealio last week. There are rumors that Dimani has recently discovered some important mineral deposits. Wamia only hints at things, you see. My contacts in Sealio think that King Leon is more interested in those resources than he should be. Keep your eyes open. There is no assignment. You are in Dimani and can evaluate the situation better than I. Can you do that?”
Ricky nodded. “I suppose I can just write you a letter?”
“I don’t know Wamia, so I can’t vouch for his trustworthiness. He can send birds, if needed. Baron Mansali has a trading office in the capital, so that might be another avenue to be used, as a last resort. I doubt if you’ll even hear anything, but it’s always good to be prepared.”
“I’ll stay observant,” Ricky said, not knowing what else to say. Having a simple assignment added a bit of drama to his thinking about the trip.
Saganet stood. “I’m glad I won’t have to worry about leaving you without resources in a foreign country, although Dimani is as close as you will get to a country being like Paranty. Enjoy yourself, and I’m sure you will learn from your summer as much as you’ve learned all the way through since we’ve been together.”
Ricky couldn’t help but smile at Saganet’s use of the term ‘together.’ “I won’t let you down.”
“You never have.”
~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
A LL FIVE TRAVELERS FIT INTO A SINGLE COACH, loaded down with luggage and trunks. Ricky had packed his metal switch rather than the cane after asking Jac the rules about minors and weapons in Dimani. There weren’t any.
Everyone was in high spirits as they waved goodbye to Ricky’s friends and Benno’s parents who had assembled to see Benno, Ricky, and Mara off. Ricky felt energized and freer than he had for some time. The responsibilities for school, the frenzy of broomball, and the burden of working on the ancient library were left behind in Tossa, and as the coach headed west into lands Ricky had never seen, he couldn’t help but grin as unfettered adventure beckoned.
The countryside didn’t change as the road followed the River Lironi. Sealio was three nights away from Tossa. With the twisted course of the river, the carriage would arrive in Sealio a day sooner than any floating conveyance.
Ricky didn’t notice any difference in the landscape until their last day out from Sealio. The rolling hills began to flatten, and the River Lironi’s banks began to widen out. Ricky hadn’t studied agriculture, but it seemed to him that there were fewer forests and woods shading the road, and they began to roll through more villages.
He was glad that Mara had cast off some of her reticent demeanor and began to ask Jac and Ubbo about Dimani. Ricky learned nearly as much as she did from the answers. The ride was amiable and uneventful in the warm sun of early summer. Soon the villages thickened up, and they rode through the suburbs of Sealio. Ricky looked out the window at the Five Towers of Sealio rising from the city’s skyline.
Ricky listened to Benno describe them to Mara.
“The towers pre-date the current dynasty by a thousand years. Residents back then had a pantheon of five gods.”
“Then a tower for each?” Mara said.
“Perhaps,” Benno said. “Four hundred years ago, as King Leon’s ancestors rose to power by killing off the sorcerers at the time, they burned any books that mentioned their predecessors, including their religion. From what scholars have found in other countries, the five gods were the city gods of Sealio. Descriptions of the gods and how the people worshipped are lost.”
Ricky would have something else to look for in the ancient library in the fall.
“The towers are close to the palace. You can see where King Leon’s forefathers obliterated the carvings.”
“Will we have a chance to visit those?” Ricky asked Jac.
“Of course,” Jac replied. “Most of what we’ll want to eat, see, and do clusters around the Five Towers.”
Sealio proved larger than Applia or Tossa. Ricky became bored as they clattered over Sealio’s cobbled streets. They began to pass through large squares. Ricky put his head out the carriage window and marveled at the height of the towers growing taller as they approached.
“The University of Sealio claims two towers as part of their campus,” Benno said.
Ricky had to change his vision of the university if they had structures so huge. He had always thought of the university as Doubli Academy with more quadrangles. He noticed the difference in clothing styles from what Tossans typically wore.
“Do we need to buy new clothes?” Ricky asked.
Jac laughed. “Not for three days. You’ll be just fine with whatever you wear in Dimani.”
Ricky nodded back. He had the funds to purchase new clothes if required. Ricky thought he’d be happy to fit Mara with a new wardrobe, too.
They rolled into a square so large that the cobbles were different colors to delineate carriageways, walkways, and market areas. The carriage turned, and Ricky looked up at the huge towers. They were shaped like thick carrots turned upside down with the root pointed into the air. Ricky suspected that magic had to have helped in their construction, or they would have all fallen over.
Jac didn’t stint on the inn. Ricky compared the place to the Duke of Applia’s palace. He felt very provincial as he stepped through the heavily carpeted lobby. The others, including Jac, dressed much the same as he did, so at least Ricky was in fine company.
The innkeeper or clerk at the front counter looked at Jac dubiously as he walked up, but as the pair talked, the man bowed to Jac and the rest of their group. He called servants to take their belongings to their rooms.
Ricky walked through a suite he shared with Ubbo. The space was larger than Saganet’s cottage. They had an inside bathroom, a sitting room, and separate bedrooms. Ricky opened a door to what he thought was a closet.
“That’s a servant’s room. Do you want to be my servant?” Ubbo said, chuckling. “Since you are a ducal heir, I suppose I’m the one who should hop inside.”
“What does your father do in Dimani?”
“He is an assistant minister of agriculture. There are three of them. I suppose he might be equivalent to an earl in Paranty. I’m the third son. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enter the University of Sealio and get a degree in agriculture and succeed my father. I’m the only son who’s shown an interest in education.”
Ubbo had just told Ricky more about himself than in the weeks they had spent together as teammates on the broomball team.
“I have no idea what the future holds for me,” Ricky said. “I don’t hold much hope in getting my father’s title.”
“But you are the heir.”
“We will see,” Ricky said.
Benno knocked on the door and walked in, looking around. “I think your rooms are as good as ours.”
“Is Mara in the servant’s closet?” Ubbo said.
“So wishes Jac,” Benno said laughing. “We will tour the principal Sealio broomball stadium before dinner. I’m here to drag you down to the lobby. You can unpack later.”
The three of them met Jac and Mara in the lobby and exited the inn into the vast square. Large trees were evenly spaced on the pavement. Each of the trunks was surrounded by benches. Ricky looked across at the palace gate that opened into the square. The palace itself rose above the wa
ll. Effie and Warden Sarini lived on the other side of that wall, Ricky thought. He wondered how they lived inside the white stone walls. Did they walk across the parapets and look out across the square from the squat towers with flat conical roofs? He shrugged as Jac took off in a different direction.
“I hope I’m heading in the right direction,” Jac said as they trooped through the massive square and turned down a wide boulevard lined with the same tall trees that dotted the square. “There it is,” Jac said.
A few blocks away stood a massive wall dotted with glassless windows. Banners flew from the top, and they looked up and read ‘Crespi Memorial Stadium.’ Crespi was King Leon’s last name.
“This must be it,” Benno said. “When I came to Sealio we never toured the stadium.”
They walked into the wide entrance, and Mara spotted an office door.
“Perhaps we can ask for a tour,” she said.
“Maybe there is a game while we are here,” Ubbo said.
Jac pushed the door opened and walked in. A man sitting at a desk rose and walked to the counter.
“We are visitors from Tossa and members of a broomball team. We wondered if we could get a tour of the stadium.”
“Tossa? Do you know Insippa Baldico?” the man behind the counter asked. “He coached a team in that town.”
“Our coach!” Benno said.
“He can give you a tour. Sippa is around somewhere. I’ll get someone to find him. You can wander around the stadium, but don’t go down on the field.”
“Thank you!” Jac said.
They walked through posts that were probably there to channel ticket holders into the game and then walked up a long stairway. At the top, they looked at all the seats. Thousands of seats, thought Ricky, all pointed towards the field that somehow looked bigger from up here.
Benno led them around to a stairway that went down towards the field. Ricky put his hands on a railing. He stood six feet from the field below. The chalk lines hadn’t been freshened up, and the field looked a bit shabby, just like Doubli’s did at the end of the broomball season.
“Ricky?” Insippa’s voice called from a dark portal leading off the field, closer to the center line. “Jac, Ubbo, and Benno! What are you doing in Sealio?”
They waited for Sippa to walk to them.
“I’ve invited Ricky, Benno, and Mara to come to my father’s estate on Dimani this summer. We are here for a few days to see the sights before sailing to Dimani.”
“I admire your taste in sights,” Sippa said. “The season is winding down, and I am hanging around here to pick up a professional team, except it looks like I’ll be returning to Doubli next year.”
“So you are free?” Jac said.
“I am…free to show you around. Walk around to those steps down to the field, and I’ll show you that Jockal’s turf was just as good as what the professionals play on in Sealio.”
Sippa had lost some of what made him coach. Ricky couldn’t put his finger on the change, but he seemed looser and more casual with them as he showed them around.
“It is even more intimidating than the professional arenas in Applia and Tossa,” Benno said.
“Just more seats,” Sippa said, “and they have nicer changing rooms. Follow me.”
They walked through a room that had benches, hooks for clothes, and places for playing bags.
“We need to convert the gymnasium into one of these,” Jac said with a grin. “Very nice. So what are you doing between now and fall?”
“Nothing, as it turns out, I should have stayed in Tossa. Dean Doubli had some unrelated things I could do, but I had some less important duties here,” Sippa said.
He glanced meaningfully at Ricky, but Ricky didn’t know the meaning. Maybe he was here on Order business.
“Why don’t you come with us to Dimani and meet my father? He’s a broomball fan. A few weeks out of your summer free of charge.”
Sippa raised his eyebrows. “I’ve never been to your homeland. Where are you staying? I’ll let you know tomorrow. You’ll be leaving in two or three days?”
Jac nodded. “I’ll leave the particulars at the front desk. If you choose to come, we will take you. If you don’t show up at the ship, then you will have decided not to come.”
“It’s tempting, but won’t an old person like me cramp your activities?”
“You aren’t coming as a chaperone,” Jac said. “You don’t have to stay all summer, just for as long as you’d like. Think of it as a holiday.”
“It’s tempting.”
~
After dinner at the inn, Ricky walked over to the University of Sealio buildings. One of the towers served as the Administration building.
“I’m looking for a faculty member. Actually, there are two. Nania Sarini and Nemo Mattia,” Ricky said.
The clerk at the desk, who looked like a student and probably was one, consulted a directory.
“Professor Sarini is currently conducting an evening class. You might be able to catch her at the end,” the young woman said. She pulled out a printed map and drew a line from a circle, presumably the tower to a square. “Her studio is here. You go out that way.” She pointed to her left.
Ricky had to ask for directions a few times, but finally, he found the right building and slipped into the studio. It looked a lot like Saganet’s new facility, except the outside of the building was very old. It reminded Ricky of the Home in Applia.
Nania Sarini looked at him as the door clanged shut.
“Ricky!” she said, interrupting her private session with a female student. “Give me a few minutes.”
Nania’s teaching reminded him of Effie, but with a little more softness. He could see the same iron will that she exhibited when he first arrived at the Applia Juvenile Home. She looked like she enjoyed what she was doing, though.
Ricky examined the ceiling, the walls and the floor during the session. Her student was slow to learn, and Ricky didn’t want to make it even more uncomfortable by staring at the pair of them. It looked like the university had renovated the room. None of the surfaces in the room looked old or worn.
“Two days, then,” Ricky picked up Nania saying.
The girl glanced at Ricky, looking flushed and embarrassed as she left. Nania rushed over to Ricky and hugged him and took his hands.
“It’s so good to see you, Duke! You’ve grown.”
“Ah, you’ve heard.”
“Nemo keeps track of such things. He told me.”
It was Ricky’s turn to look embarrassed. “I’m in Sealio on the way to Dimani. One of the students lives there and invited me to spend Summer Break, so I wanted to see how you fared.”
“Well,” Nania said. “Duke Noacci arranged appointments for Nemo and me at the university. It served both of our purposes. The Home was dredging up too many unwanted memories for me to continue.”
“I can believe that,” Ricky said. “Our broomball team visited Applia, and I stood at the entrance talking to a guard. I felt a bit the same way.” He took a deep breath. “What do you think of Duke Noacci? Did you talk to him personally?”
“For only a minute when he visited the Home. He told me personally that I was fired, but had already arranged the offer at the University. I can’t say I was comfortable with him doing that, but it has worked out for both of us.”
Ricky nodded as she took his hand and led him to a couple of chairs. “I got the feeling his making me heir to Naparra was a similar move. He got me out of the way by doing something we both wanted.”
“Yes, that’s it.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Now, tell me how your shoulder fares? Effie and I are now correspondents.”
They spent the next hour talking until Nania had another personal session.
“Personal sessions until fall,” she said. “Nemo is out consulting with a small city helping improve their constabulary, or something. He said it was hush-hush, or we could do something.”
Ricky shook his head. “That’s not necessa
ry. If I come back through Sealio and have the time, maybe we can get together then.”
“I’ll look forward to it!” she flashed her eyes. “Go have fun with your friends.” She clasped his hand as he left.
Ricky wandered around the campus for a while and returned to the inn. Ubbo snored away in his room, so Ricky retreated to his own to do the same.
~
Someone pounded on the door. Ricky pried his eyes open and listened to Ubbo pad to the door in his bare feet.
Jac rushed in. “I have great news. Princess Pira, herself, wants an audience with me. I made her agree to let you all tag along. Get dressed in your best, for we don’t have time to have anything suitable made. Meet me in the lobby as soon as you can.”
Ricky and Ubbo beat everyone else to the lobby. Jac arrived with Mara.
“How long have you known the princess?” Ricky asked.
“Never. My father and King Leon are the friends and instigators of this audience.”
“They want to put you two together?” Benno said.
Jac just laughed. “Princess Pira is not a person to get into a relationship with. She has a reputation.” He looked at Mara. “You do not have to worry, Mara. You don’t have a reputation, and that’s a very, very good thing.” He turned to the rest of them. “Why do you think I am dragging you along?”
They all laughed and let Jac lead them. They approached the gold-painted wrought iron gate. It made Doubli’s gate look like it was made out of sticks and wire.
“Lord Jac Griama and his friends to see Princess Pira.”
The guards looked at a list in the guard house and let them in through a man gate. That did remind Ricky of the academy. As they passed through, Ricky saw the real gate, a two-foot thick steel reinforced timber monstrosity rolled back behind the wall.
Jac got them through another checkpoint at the base of the main steps leading up to the palace. One of the guards led them up to the main level of the palace where they were transferred to the care of a much better-dressed courtier, and were led to a small conference chamber.
