A Sorcerer's Diplomacy (Song of Sorcery Book 3)

by Guy Antibes

  “I thought I was going to have to turn the ship around,” the helmsman said, laughing.

  “One more effect,” Ricky said. “I’m about out of power.”

  “Another big bang,” the captain said.

  Ricky nodded and looked out at the wake behind the ship. He took a deep breath and sang a loud song. The resonance filled him with power. He pointed his switch into the air and created a very thick conduit of flame until it snaked one hundred or more feet from the ship and tied off the stream. As it returned to the ball at the end, the explosion occurred over one hundred paces from the ship. The explosion rocked the ship and the brilliant ball of flame cast sparkling shards in a huge circle that blossomed like a terrible flower and faded into the sea behind him.

  The crew was silent while the captain ran into his cabin and returned.

  “I only lost three panes of glass in my back window.” He burst into applause and the sailors showed their appreciation for their private performance with applause, shouts, and whistles.

  Ricky descended slowly from the steering deck. He was a little shaky after that last trick. He couldn’t remember accumulating so much power before. The sailors were the first to reach him, and they clapped him on the back and did their best to make his left shoulder hurt more. Ricky thought the sacrifice worth it for their appreciation of what he had done.

  “I expected dancing girls,” Ubbo said.

  Jac grinned. “Amazing. You would be the best performance sorcerer on Dimani, if you stayed.”

  “But I don’t have any dancing girls,” Ricky said.

  Benno elbowed Ubbo. “I liked it. What the performance lacked in style, it gained with power. That was even better than your competition. You don’t need Loria, that’s for sure.”

  “None of us do,” Jac said.

  “I wouldn’t have won without her,” Ricky said.

  “You didn’t need to win, tonight,” Sippa said. “How do you feel?”

  “Tired, but Zenno got his performance.”

  The captain stood by while the rest of the crew congratulated Ricky. “You can create that explosion every time?”

  Ricky shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “It could change naval warfare,” the captain said.

  “I don’t know how many sorcerers are capable of that trick,” Ricky said. “I have more power than others.”

  “A lot more, I’ll reckon,” the man said. “You are one of a kind.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Ricky said. “I’m certainly me.” He smiled at the captain.

  Sorcery could remove some of the drudgery involved with sailing, Ricky thought. At that moment he wanted to research that concept in the ancient library, but it would have to wait until the fall.

  The captain nodded to Ricky and resumed his place on the steering deck.

  The sailors brought out a cask and shared little drinks with each other, offering a tiny glass to their passengers. “It doesn’t pay for a sailor to be drunk on the open ocean,” Zenno said after tossing down his share.

  Ricky even drained one of the little glasses. He coughed as the liquor burned its way down his throat. “That’s not wine!”

  “It’s not,” Jac said. “The sailors call it sea dragon’s blood!”

  ~

  The captain didn’t mind replacing three of his precious small glass windows in the stern where his cabin was, but he didn’t want to lose any more, so he rejected the pleas of the crew for more performances. Ricky liked the adoration, but he was fine with the one performance.

  The good weather deserted the ship on their last day at sea. Ricky wore an oilskin slicker on the deck, watching the waves rise and fall. He likened the feeling to standing on a swing. He had done that often enough in the forest behind Shantyboat Town growing up.

  A bolt of lighting lit the sky to their rear as the clouds seemed to thin just a bit. Ricky noticed a dirty smudge on the western horizon.

  “Dimani in sight!” a sailor yelled from far above.

  “Dimani in sight,” echoed around the ship. Ricky felt a little sad the voyage was ending. He liked the ocean, better when it was relatively calm, and the sailor’s friendliness, but he guessed saving one of their mates helped with that. His shoulder had settled down, and he guessed he was ready to land. He looked forward to a relaxing summer in Dimani.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  ~

  D IMANI’S CAPITAL WAS NAMED DIMANI, but most people called it the capital. Ricky looked out at the skyline of the city. It reminded him more of Tossa than of Applia or Sealio.

  “What is that?” Ricky said, pointing to a large dome next to a collection of towers.

  “The aviary at Falcon Castle. With Dimani being removed from the Kerrothian mainland, birds are exchanged between all the countries. There are more than a thousand birds living in that dome, “Ubbo said. “Not so many falcons, but in the past there were more, and they gave the royal castle its name.”

  Ricky squinted in the misty late-morning air and noticed holes peppering the dome. The sky began to break up as they approached the dock, even permitting a few spears of sunlight to slash through the clouds. He looked at all the ships in the capital’s port and guessed Dimani had more docks than Sealio, to be expected for an island nation.

  “Ready to get off the ship?” Sippa said, holding onto his bags. “I’m sticking around the capital for a bit. I have a few friends to visit, then I’ll head out to visit you three at Jac’s estate.”

  “Do they play broomball in Dimani?”

  Sippa laughed. “Of course. Maybe I can recruit a few of Dimani’s better players for some teams in Sealio. That’s what I did before I came to Doubli Academy. I can make a few extra coins on this trip if I can find a few locals to send to professional teams.” He stopped when he spotted someone at the port. “As it happens, one of my contacts has shown up.”

  “How did he know your were here?”

  Sippa pointed to the white dome of Falcon Castle.

  The ship shuddered as it ran up alongside the dock. Sailors tossed ropes to waiting dockhands and climbed down to secure the ship to the dock. Ricky watched the sailors untie the gangplank and put it in position. Sippa was the first off after a few words with Jac. Ricky watched him walk up to a well-dressed man, and both of them walked across the wharf.

  “What is Sippa doing with Ducri Wamia?” Ubbo said.

  “Isn’t the man connected with broomball?” Ricky asked.

  Ubbo shook his head. “He is the former ambassador to Paranty and one of the ministers my father works for.”

  Ricky watched them turn down a street. Did Sippa lie to him, or did Ricky misunderstand what Sippa said? He scratched his head. He felt a bump and turned into a grinning Benno.

  “We’re really here!” Benno said. “Let’s get our things.”

  Ricky agreed. Despite the lightening of the sky, the air chilled Ricky. He retrieved his things. Jac told him to pack what he needed for an overnight stay in the capital in his handbags. He took those with him, and left his trunk for the sailors to deal with. Their trunks would head south separately.

  “Are you as excited as Benno?” Mara said, as she followed him up the stairs to the main deck.

  “Probably, are you?”

  “I am, excited and a bit scared. It’s different for me than for you broomball players,” she said.

  They climbed down the gangplank to join Ubbo. Jac and Benno hadn’t yet arrived.

  “I suppose it is different for you. You didn’t bring a book to transcribe, did you?”

  Mara shook her head. “I thought if we weren’t doing anything that you could teach me some spells.”

  “Maybe we can see how much talent Jac has. Do you know?”

  “Not much,” Ubbo said. “Not enough to warrant a special class, like you, anyway.”

  Ricky wondered why Ubbo’s comments always came barbed. He had never been able to become friends with him like he was with Benno and Jac. He guessed it was j
ust the way things were between people.

  A carriage rolled into the wharf and drew up beside the ship. Jac waved to them and opened the carriage door. “We can wait in here,” he said. “The captain sent a man to notify my father’s maritime office that we had arrived.”

  One of the two men that accompanied the carriage undid a leather boot and packed their hand luggage. By the time that was done, the sailors had used a dock crane to lower a pallet to the ground. The trunks were loaded on a cart. Jac, Benno, and Ricky helped the cart driver wrestle with the trunks, while Ubbo kept Mara company inside the carriage.

  Ricky tweaked his shoulder again, but helped as best he could. Soon their trunks were heading south and the carriage vibrated to the tune of wheels on cobblestones. The capital’s roads twisted and turned. Ricky wondered why there weren’t many straight thoroughfares. The architecture reminded Ricky of Tossa, but Tossa could boast of straight streets. The carriage let them off at an inn that fronted the square in front of Falcon Castle. The home of Dimani’s king was larger than Ricky expected.

  “Let’s have some lunch. I’m hungry,” Jac said.

  ~

  Ricky had expected to eat at the inn, but Jac took them to a restaurant a few of Dimani’s twisting blocks away.

  “This is an authentic Dimani restaurant. The fare is mostly lamb and fish, since that is what is abundant in our island kingdom,” Jac said.

  They walked inside. Ricky smelled a lot of garlic, basil, and other pungent herbs he didn’t recognize immediately. A waiter took them to a table. Sneaking a look at the plates, he noticed a lot of rice and root vegetables, along with the meat and fish.

  The food was definitely different, but Ricky found he liked the strong flavors. At the end they were served a communal cheese and fruit plate.

  He rose to find a washroom. Along the hallway he passed a private room where Sippa and Ducri Wamia engaged in quiet conversation. Sippa looked up and spotted Ricky. He stood and beckoned Ricky to enter.

  “Ricky, I’d like to introduce you to a friend. This is Lord Ducri Wamia, one of King Courer’s advisors. Ducri, this is Hendrico Valian, heir to Naparra and a very powerful sorcerer.”

  Ducri smiled, but the man had an expression that Ricky couldn’t read. Perhaps that had been what made him a good ambassador, assuming he was a good one.

  “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Lord Wamia.”

  “Likewise, young Valian. You are here to enjoy Dimani for the summer?”

  Ricky nodded. “I am. I was fortunate to get a taste of the country just now,” Ricky joked.

  Sippa laughed, but Wamia merely kept the smile on his face.

  “I am on my way to the washroom. If you will excuse me.” He gave both men a bow and left them. He paused before proceeding and listened to a few sentences.

  “That is the famous sorcerer who threw back an insurrection?” Wamia said.

  “He may look like a youth, but I’ve witnessed his power. Do not underestimate him this summer. I know I won’t.”

  Ricky didn’t want to hear any more and slipped away. He returned to his friends.

  “I just met Sippa in a private room, having a meal with Lord Wamia,” Ricky said.

  Jac’s face darkened for a second. “I’m not sure I approve of that. Not that I can do anything about it,” he said. “Lord Wamia is not on my father’s approved list of Dimanian nobles.”

  Ubbo nodded. “My father doesn’t like him either. He plays his own games,” he said quietly.

  “I think it is time to go,” Jac said. “We’ll return to the inn a different way. I’ll show you the Royal Theater.”

  Jac led them out of the restaurant in the opposite direction, and as they twisted through little lanes and alleys, they finally emerged in front of another square, smaller than the one that held their inn. One building, a huge theater, covered one side.

  Ricky looked up at the building that must have been seven or eight stories high, much bigger than anything in Tossa. It was even larger than the theater they had attended in Sealio, but Sealio had many theaters.

  “Can we go inside?” Mara asked.

  “Probably,” Jac said.

  Few people walked in or out of the massive theater.

  “This is the central assembly house in the country. Even King Courer will hold speeches inside here rather than use the castle. More seats,” Ubbo said. “What we saw in Paranty’s capital was better than any production here, as far as I know. Dimani doesn’t have the best performances, but we have the largest theater of all.

  Jac laughed. “Maybe Princess Pira will be good to her word and sponsor a performance this summer.”

  Ricky doubted it. Did she have enough sway to entice the best of Sealio to voyage all the way to Dimani? He didn’t have any idea as they slipped into the dark foyer of the huge building. A few sorcerous lights illuminated the large entrance. He looked up into the vastness to the ornate ceiling. Each floor had a balcony. They made their way into the auditorium itself. Ricky watched a few people talking to each other on the stage. One pointed this way and that, while the other recorded notes on a writing board.

  This was a huge place. Ricky didn’t know if he could make a ring of light that would encompass the interior. He counted six balconies stretching towards the ornate ceiling, barely discernible above them.

  “Only sorcerers are permitted during rehearsals,” the pointing man said.

  “I’m a sorcerer,” Ricky said.

  The man flicked his wrist dismissively and turned his back on them.

  “I don’t want to show off,” he said to Jac and Mara, “but I don’t like being treated like an insect.”

  Ricky sang deep and found the resonance for the fiery ring illusion. He was careful when he projected his will that he not make it real. He pointed and cast the illusion, a twelve foot ring of red light surrounding by a brilliant white flicker. It flew over the seats and into the two men talking on the stage. Ricky stopped it.

  “Is that illusion enough to let us walk around for a few minutes more?” Ricky said.

  “I should know who you are, but I don’t,” the man said. “Come up here…please, come up to the stage,” he amended.

  “Wander around while I distract him,” Ricky said.

  He reached the stage and took a stairway at the side.

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Hendrico Valian. I attend Doubli Academy in Tossa.”

  “Do you know Merry Doubli?” the man with the writing board asked.

  “She is the dean and my benefactor,” Ricky said.

  “I knew her when she produced performances in Sealio, a number of years ago.”

  The other man considered Ricky. “I assume you know more, young Valian?”

  Ricky nodded.

  “You must be related to Adapo Valian,” the note-taker said.

  “My father.”

  “A lost heir to Naparra?” He gave Ricky a bow. “My lord, what else can you do?” the pointing man said.

  Ricky hummed and deflected his body from the stage floor, rising above their heads and drifted down. “I can actually do quite a bit.”

  “Are you here for employment? We might be able to come to terms, even if you are so young. Your audition was unconventional, but convincing.”

  Ricky laughed. “I’m on my way to Lord Griama’s estate. I’m staying with his son, Jac.”

  “I am always here,” the pointing man said. “My name is Tirio Estippia.”

  Ricky didn’t think he’d be able to remember the name, but he wasn’t interested in a job. He nodded. “Perhaps. I will find my friends and leave you to your work.”

  Both men bowed. They were much more polite than when Ricky had first approached them.

  “Look around all you like, young Valian.”

  Ricky bowed back and left to find his friends, sitting in the first balcony in a fancy box.

  “They didn’t kick us out?” Ubbo said.

  “No. One of the men knows Mistress D
oubli and my father,” Ricky said, looking at the soft seats. A table in the back would probably hold refreshments for during a performance. He looked at Jac. “Have you ever sat in these boxes before?”

  His friend nodded. “Twice. Generally, father will sit on the main floor closer to the stage, but not too close. He likes that vantage point better. He says the higher you go, the more it all seems like an illusion.”

  “It is better up here than in the standing sections,” Ubbo said. “That’s the only place I’ve ever been. My father is stingy with his money. He sits in the seats and his children stand in the back.”

  Ricky saw boxes without seats in the back. He hadn’t noticed them when he walked in. The theaters in Tossa and in Sealio didn’t have standing places. Perhaps they should and give less fortunate people a chance to take in a performance.

  “Let’s go back,” Ubbo said.

  “To me, one theater is much like another, I guess, except for size,” Benno said. “I’m ready to return.”

  They walked back to the inn. Ricky would have had no idea how to return, but Jac made no mistakes. Ricky went upstairs to his single room and looked out the window to the inn’s left. No views from this place, he thought. He lay down to take a nap, putting his hands behind his head.

  He guessed he could find a job as a performance sorcerer easily enough. The pointing man all but asked him to join his company. Ricky thought back at the performances he’d seen. Would he really want to do the same thing over and over again, night after night?

  Betti Singlia, who had helped them with the performance competition last summer had told him she did it for the applause and the adoration. Ricky suspected others were in it for the money. At the present, Ricky didn’t lack for means. He enjoyed performing for the sailors, but he wouldn’t have done it if they hadn’t been so insistent.

  He wondered if there was something wrong with him. He was more drawn to using sorcery than displaying it. Baron Mansali had the right idea in Ricky’s mind. Use sorcery as a tool to do things. He closed his eyes and could sense himself drifting off. Better not to think too hard during the summer, he thought. He intended the vacation to be a time for relaxation with friends.