by Guy Antibes
“Fine. I can do that,” Jack said. “It helps to talk some of these things out, I’ll admit. I can be a little too aggressive.”
“I agree with that,” Penny said, “but that aggressiveness has saved important lives before, including mine.”
Jack shrugged off the compliment.
“I wish we could obtain a guest list,” Lin said, “since one of our goals for this ball is to identify as many nobles as we can, with a secondary goal of determining their factions.”
~
Jack wasn’t so sure about how well he would do taking attendance at the royal ball, but it was part of the assignment. He shared his misgivings with Penny.
“That is a big part of any investigation. You wait around waiting for something to happen, but most times, you just observe. It isn’t much fun, but an investigator doesn’t get much done without the information gathering part.”
“But it seems so boring,” Jack said.
“It is boring. A lot of things in life are boring.”
Jack thought a bit about the concept before he spoke. “I suppose it is like all the work we had to do in Masukai. Two years of learning for two weeks of action,” Jack said.
“I wouldn’t have stayed Masukai so long,” Penny said.
“Patience, since I had the Battlebone as my goal.”
Penny brightened. “Patience. We just practice patience in two different ways.”
Jack smiled back. “I guess so. The royal ball is part of being patient while we gather information about the Hidden Mask. In Masukai, it was patience as we prepared ourselves for the final battle.”
Penny stood with folded arms, but she didn’t reply. Jack knew she expected something more out of him.
“It will still be boring, you know, but I will keep telling myself that it is all for finding the location of the Hidden Mask,” he said.
“And then we will rely on your expertise to grab it,” Penny said.
They left the downstairs sitting room, which they had to themselves, and went to their rooms to get ready for the ball.
Jack looked over his outfit. He decided he could still wear the black of the Deep Mist wizard-warriors. Lin had told him to have one of the maids make a long, thin pocket for a rod he could use as a wand, and if needed, use the wand to block any edged weapons.
He straightened out the long black jacket he had added to his Deep Mist uniform and walked downstairs. Penny stood with Lin, dressed in white. Her hair, with the ever-growing dark roots, had been styled to hide them. She looked every inch a lady, Jack thought. He didn’t know how he looked, but he was ready for the ordeal of meeting strangers and engaging them in conversation to find out their name and faction allegiance. Lorton walked to the lower-level stairway escorting Sera Waters. Sera looked very nice, and Lorton wore a dark blue uniform that made him look more like a policeman in Jack’s eyes.
“Shall we go?” Lin asked. She looked out the window at the snow falling in the darkening streets.
“We shall,” Penny said. She grabbed Jack’s arm. Sera and Lin descended the stairway on either side of Lorton.
“You look pretty,” Jack said quietly to Penny.
“I heard that,” Sera said.
“You all look nice, even Lorton,” Jack said.
“Why, thank you, Jack,” Lorton said. Jack imagined he spoke with a smile on his face, but the man didn’t turn around.
Oscar waited at the bottom of the stairs. Two of the rolling litters were waiting for the women. Jack and Lorton walked on either side of them.
“You got to wear a sword,” Jack said, a little envious, but he had his wand.
“Perhaps another time, for you,” Lorton said. “I must play my role as a bodyguard.”
Jack nodded. “And I must play my role, whatever that is, at the moment.”
“Penny’s escort, Lord Winder.”
Jack laughed at the sarcasm in Lorton’s voice. “Of course.” He was about to say “Lord Reedbrook,” but there were people around them.
They proceeded down the subterranean lane and in fifteen minutes, had arrived at the palace gate embedded in a long line of similar conveyances. Lin convinced him that there would be food, but Jack still felt a hollow in his stomach. He decided he could man the refreshments line and ask people who they were, but then he stopped daydreaming. He would have to mingle and be discreet about the information gathering.
The guards now wore dress uniforms, at least that is what Jack thought they were since their clothes looked finer than before. He paid attention to where they were stationed and how many were clustered around the gate. Eight men with two checking invitations and three on a side standing behind them.
They reached the guards, and Lorton presented them with the invitation. The guard looked in each litter and helped the three women out.
“Your sword, please. It will be returned when you leave,” the guard said. Three of his companions drew their swords.
Lorton smiled and gave them his weapon. “I was given to understand a bodyguard could retain weapons in the ball.”
“They can if noted on the invitation,” the guard said. “Could you point out where it says you are a bodyguard.”
Lorton sighed. “It doesn’t.”
“You may save the ladies by other means tonight, Lord Reedbrook.”
Jack looked at Lorton’s reddening face. If they knew his title, they knew of Lin and the rest of the group.
“You may proceed. Welcome to Bristone and enjoy the ball,” the guard said, bowing to Lorton.
Lin stared at the guard, but it did no good. She walked past, followed by Sera and Lorton. Penny took Jack’s arm again.
When they were out of earshot, she whispered to Jack. “I’ll stay closer to you since you don’t need a sword.”
Jack looked at the three walking ahead of them. “Maybe you need to stay with Lin and Sera since Lorton lost his edge.”
“Edge…he sure did,” Penny said. “Maybe you are right.”
They continued along the tunnel. Jack noticed the arrow slits in the wall and holes in the ceiling. Boiling oil? That wouldn’t be nice, but if he were defending the castle, he would do something like that. There were liveried servants, but none wore the shorts and long stockings of the common people as did none of those invited to the ball. Those in charge lived on a different plane in the capital, just like everywhere else Jack had been.
They walked up three staircases and were ushered across a wide corridor to the ballroom. Panels of different colors of silk set off the white plaster and painted woodwork in the ballroom. Jack looked up to see a white ceiling with painted beams. The Antibeaux rulers liked things simple, it seemed. They waited in a line until they were announced. All except Jack were introduced as nobles. Jack Winder was from Raker Falls, and that was how he liked it.
Lin staked out her place in the ballroom, using the same strategy as staking out her territory at the Boxwood ball, despite her words before they left.
As far as Jack could tell, it was a common strategy because there were lots of clusters of people. Fenton Crabson, the ambassador from Corand, walked over to them with a formidable woman at his side.
“I would like you to meet my wife.” Crabson looked at his wife. “Enara, this is…” He proceeded to introduce everyone correctly.
“I see you discovered my title,” Lorton said.
Crabson turned red. “I make it my business to know who comes from Corand.”
“And you run and tell the queen, or some other minister, who the visitors really are? That doesn’t strike me as protecting Corandian interests,” Lorton said.
Lin pulled on his sleeve, but Lorton shook her off.
“That is not something for you to know. I have my own reasons for what I do, and they have nothing to do with you, Lord Reedbrook.” Crabson turned to Lin. “I neglected to invite you to dinner. If I do, leave your bodyguard at home.” The ambassador bowed to Lin and led his group to a different spot in the ballroom.
“Why
did you do that?” Lin said. “Now we won’t get any information from him.”
“As if he would provide any,” Lorton said and then snorted. “He is not a friend of ours and probably not of Corand’s either. He is in the pay of Bristonians, of that I am sure, and it might be from two or three factions. If he was an honest man, he would have already invited you to dinner and would have consulted with you about me.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but a ball is not the place to confront him.”
Lorton straightened up. It was easy to see he was angry. “I think it is the best place to confront him. He is out of the security of the embassy. That makes him an easier target for interrogation.”
“You may retire to the townhouse for the evening,” Lin said.
“No.” Lorton moved directly in front of Lin. “I will do my part to gather information, but I won’t be using your little base in the ballroom to do it. I’m hungry and will have something to eat. I will meet you back at the townhouse tonight at some time of my own choosing.” He stalked off to a long table filled with food and drinks.
“I will talk to him,” Jack said, not really wanting to talk to an angry Lorton but to fill his complaining stomach.
Lorton had seized a plate and began to fill it with what looked like finger food. Jack couldn’t see any eating implements.
“Mind if I join you?” Jack asked.
“Suit yourself,” Lorton said with a sting in his voice.
“Now what are you going to do?”
Lorton snorted. “Do what I’m supposed to, of course.” He looked back at Lin. Jack followed his gaze as Lin had shifted her sight to somewhere else. He stopped. “Isn’t Lin getting under your skin too?”
“Because she is a woman?” Jack asked.
“No, she is too sure of herself. In Dorkansee society, in her element, I wouldn’t have gotten so upset, but that sniveling little ambassador has ruined my cover, and she just batts her eyes at the man.” Lorton said.
Jack nearly smiled. This wasn’t about Crabson but about a little power struggle in the group. “I am just biding my time,” Jack said. “There will come a point where she won’t be needed to retrieve the mask. I just have to exercise some patience. She isn’t the only connection we have with people in Bristone. Ari Gasheaux is still in the city, and he keeps in touch.”
“The old wizard?” Lorton asked.
Jack nodded. “Those throwing knives for Penny were from a craftsman who knows Ari.”
“I know that. Penny told me.”
Jack smiled. “He knows the regular people, Lorton. We might need them more than the nobles we are supposed to meet tonight. You’re the policeman. We have to get information so we can observe. Right?”
Lorton took a deep breath. “You are right. If you came over here to calm me down, you did. I lost the view of the mission. I’m more of a tactical man than a strategic one.”
Jack guessed that was an apology, or as close to one as he had expected. “I’m going to get some of this in my stomach, and then I’ll start to introduce myself to people. I’m not very excited about it—"
“I know,” Lorton said.
“It has to be done. The commoners may have information, but the nobles hold all the power.”
Lorton glanced at Lin. “You’ve got that right.”
Jack nodded to Lorton and took his plate to the empty table next to Lin’s territory on the dance floor.
“Are you going to eat that all by yourself?” Penny asked.
“Of course not. I have enough for both of us.”
They sat down. Lin nodded to Jack and turned back to survey the room. The ball hadn’t started yet, but then the queen hadn’t yet arrived.
Jack pushed the plate toward Penny and put the napkin he had taken from the refreshment table between them. “I probably should have gotten a plate for both of us, but I was on a mission,” he said.
“Did your mission succeed?” Penny asked.
“Well enough,” Jack said. “Lorton isn’t mad at everyone in our group.” He looked at Lin over Penny’s shoulder. Lord Floury had walked up with Annette, and they were conversing.
“A little tug-of-war?”
Jack nodded. “I would say so. I told him that I would be taking over once we found out where the mask is.”
“And that mollified him?”
Jack smiled and reached across the table to pat Penny’s hand. “Enough. He isn’t going to stalk out of here and pout at the townhouse. That was what I was afraid of. He is probably the best interrogator among us. We need his expertise at some point more than Lin’s.”
“Does that make you the indispensable one?” Penny asked.
Jack wondered if she was testing him. “None of us are indispensable, but my time will come, and if I can’t complete the mission, I guess it will be up to you. No one else has the power that you and I have.”
“That you have,” Penny said.
Jack wondered if she was on Lin’s side of the Lorton-Lin dispute. He hoped not.
“Maybe you should answer that question.”
Penny smiled. “I just did.” She put her hand on his. “I am the wizard’s helper, this time,” Penny said. She looked back to see Sera and Lin following Lord Floury across the dance floor. “You are the Fasher on this mission. I look to you more than Lin to complete our errand, but for now, she has more knowledge about what goes on here.”
Jack had to agree. “Let’s finish this and start on our own.”
“Together?” Penny asked.
“Together.”
They stood for a moment when horns blared, announcing the arrival of Queen Inez. Two women walked in together. Princess Glorie was followed by Queen Inez wearing a crown of silver flowers. The princess wore a simple silver circlet around her head.
A man stopped at their table. “May I introduce myself?” the man said. He looked important or self-important, Jack thought. “I am Payare Bellet, the Prime Minister of Antibeaux. You are part of the Corandian contingent who have decided to spend a winter among us?”
Jack stood along with Penny. “I am Lord Jack Winder, and this is Lady Penneta Ephram. We are guilty of what you just said.”
“You have to be brave to spend a winter in Bristone. Antibeaux is not the most hospitable country in the world.”
“Our hostess, Lady Kanlinn Marker, is always in pursuit of novelty,” Penny said. “She will seek connections and ideas to take with her to Corand.”
The prime minister smiled and nodded. “A season of pain followed by a season or more of being a leader of fashion or at least a woman with more stories.”
Jack could identify with that since he had plenty of stories from his errands, but he didn’t go on Fasher’s missions for the pleasure of telling tales.
“Who are these people, Payare?” the Princess Glorie asked. She was about the same age as Lin or a few years older, Jack thought, and the princess didn’t have the personal force that Penny’s finishing mentor possessed. The prime minister, on the other hand, was very much in command of himself.
The prime minister introduced them. The princess looked at Penny.
“Is white hair fashionable in Corand?” she asked.
“Not to my knowledge,” Penny said. “I had an accident in Lajia, which resulted in this,” she grabbed a tendril of white hair and twisted it in her fingers.
Glorie’s eyes examined the white spot that would disappear with Jack’s next haircut. “You were in the same accident?” she asked Jack.
Jack gave the princess a wide smile. “I was, but I wasn’t so affected.”
She waved her hand. “I don’t know if that is good or bad,” she said.
“Neither, for both of us,” Jack said, “as it happened. Lajia is sometimes an unpredictable place to visit.”
Glorie laughed. “You must spend some time with me and describe your experiences. I doubt if I will ever leave Antibeaux,” she said.
Jack caught the tone of her voice. It wasn’t as wistful as a casual listener
might think.
They chatted about the weather and about other social events available in Bristone. Evidently, a lot of the social scene consisted of intimate gatherings.
“I must leave you. My sister beckons.” Glorie said, leaving the prime minister.
“I will have to depart, as well.”
Jack said. “What is the best way to get to know people at an event like this in Bristone?”
“Ah. Very good for asking. A strange land is often a challenge to get to know people. I used to live in Chancey before coming to Bristone, not that long ago. I face the same challenge. Of course, I wasn’t the prime minister then, but I had to move outside my group.”
“A faction?” Penny asked.
“You know about our factions?”
“A bit,” Penny said.
“I am a member of the WWS, if you know what the initials mean,” Payare Bellet said. “The queen and I don’t always see a problem or an opportunity in the same way, but factions are what make life interesting in Bristone.” The prime minister bowed. “Since the princess and I talked to you, feel free to introduce yourself to anyone. They will be happy to make your acquaintance as I am.” He left them.
Jack sighed. “I suppose we need to take his advice.”
“The prime minister and the queen’s sister. That is an excellent start. Perhaps we are as novel to them as they are to us,” Penny said.
Jack had to remember that as they approached their first real test.
“Hello, I am Lord Jack Winder, and this is Lady Penneta Ephram. We are both from Corand and will be wintering in Bristone.”
“So?” the short, corpulent lord said, looking up at Jack, but somehow Jack had the impression the man was looking down at him.
“Payare Bellet and Princess Glorie suggested we circulate and get to know people. I assume you are a person?” Jack said.
Penny squeezed his arm, and Jack knew he had been too casual.
“Are you a notable person?” Jack looked around. “I suppose everyone here is notable.”
The man peered at Jack and said. “How long have you been a lord?”
“Quite honestly, about a month,” Jack said. “I performed a service to King Jordan, and then everything became a whirlwind. Lady Kanlinn swept me away with her to spend a winter-in-training in Bristone. It shows, doesn’t it?”
