by Guy Antibes
Jack looked at the entrance, where there was vicious fighting between wizards and warriors. “Not yet. We have to capture Payare Bellet, first.”
“Look at your bone.” Jack was about out of the power to do even that. He clutched Eldora’s box and received a jolt of power. Payare Bellet had made his way into the embassy.
“I can’t get inside,” Jack said.
“I might have one teleportation spell left,” Ari said with a grin.
They both landed in a hallway. Jack fought his way to the ambassador’s office and kicked the door open, hurting his foot. It was a heavy door.
Four people stared at him, Fenton Crabson, Payare Bellet, Anne LaForce, and Etienne Tolmoux.
“How did you—”
“Your wife is dead,” Jack said.
Etienne rose from his seat.
“I killed Enara Crabson while Borigore possessed her.”
“Impossible!” Tolmoux cried out.
“My wife!” the ambassador said.
“It’s true,” Ari said.
“Gasheaux. You shouldn’t be here.”
Ari shrugged. “I haven’t hurt anyone, Etienne.” He looked at Jack. “But Jack has.”
“Stop the bloodshed,” Jack said to Payare.
“It is out of my hands. Jesse Guymon is in command,” Payare said.
“And he doesn’t report to you?” Jack asked.
“No.”
“Then I have no reason to keep you alive,” Jack said.
Bellet shot to his feet. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“In fact, I imagine there is no reason for any of you to exist if Payare is correct.”
“Now let’s not be hasty,” the archbishop said. “If it is about my prank…”
“The marriage?” Jack said. “I don’t need you to take care of that. If I have to, I’ll just kill Lady Ephram.”
Ari coughed behind Jack. It was all that Jack could do to keep from laughing in front of the men.
“I suppose I can talk to the queen about banishment. A WWS wizard tried to kill the real queen when she entered the throne room after I banished Borigore.”
“And how did you, a mere mortal, do that?” the archbishop said.
“I’m not mere,” Jack said, maintaining his role. “I am going to seal this house up and let the queen decide what to do with you. Your Black Fingers are dead. Borigore won’t be around for a while, and you should begin to figure out how you can save your skins.” Jack glared at the ambassador. “Including you. King Jordan will ask for my report, and I won’t mince words about your involvement in a failed foreign rebellion.”
Jack looked at Ari as they left the room. After defeating the four guards, Jack pulled out his Serpent’s Orb and fused the metal of the door latches and the lock before they turned, and Jack led the way out of the embassy.
Ari pointed to the local commander, surrounding the embassy.
Jack ordered him. “Don’t let anyone out. Do you have men stationed at the lower level?”
“All the entrances are guarded,” the man said, bowing to Ari and giving a salute to Jack.
“Carry on,” Jack said.
“Yes, sir.”
As they made their way to the castle, Jack informed Penny what had happened in the embassy. The queen was having a difficult time recovering from her wound, but there was nothing Penny could do as a healer.
“A detour,” Jack said.
They returned to the townhouse. Jack looked at the pale face of Queen Inez. “Clean!” he intoned.
The woman seemed to sink into herself, but she gasped, and her face regained some color.
Ari nodded. “She was fighting a compulsion spell,” the wizard said. “Good thinking.”
Jack gave Penny’s hand a squeeze. “I didn’t mean what I said about you,” he said.
Ari laughed.
“What is so funny?”
“Ari might tell you. I wouldn’t dare,” Jack said. “We need to return to the troops.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
~
J ack looked at the way into the castle. The gate was open, and guards littered the outside of the castle, but the troops milled about on the outside. The local commander was brought in. Jack recognized him.
“What is keeping you?”
“Traps,” the man said.
“What kind of traps?” Jack asked.
“You’ve seen the corridor below?”
Jack nodded. “It is a killing field.”
The man looked at the gate. “And so is that.”
“Can we push a wagon or something through?”
The man nodded. “I have one being brought up with poles to push it forward.”
No one guarded the parapets, which meant there might be traps up there as well. Jack wished he could have teleported into the castle, but both he and Ari had reached their limits.
“Come with me,” Jack said, trudging through the dirty snow that hadn’t melted against the side of the castle wall. He took out the bone to figure out the traps in the entrance. There were arrows and bolts and holes beneath the pavement, but Jack didn’t have time or the power to trace a path. “We will have to cut a hole in the wall. Bring some men,”
Jack pulled out the orb and made sure there wasn’t another building on the other side of the thick wall. He went to work, attacking the mortar. Men used their weapons to pry the rock out. Jack had to make sure the wall wouldn’t fall in, but shortly, there was a hole large enough for a man to walk through.
“Armored men first,” Jack said. He jumped through first, ready to fight the guards.
A few men challenged him, and he barely ducked a wizard’s bolt from the parapet before he was joined by an ever-increasing number of local men.
“Secure the castle. Show mercy!” Jack cried out as the Delancey soldiers began to flood into the courtyard.
Fighting began to burst out on the parapet. Jack considered it the battle for Bristone, but it really was a fight for Antibeaux.
When enough men had come through the hole, Jack found a door and destroyed it with wizard bolts before he jumped into the building, followed by ten or twelve soldiers.
Jack kept trying to get the guards to stop fighting. He called out “Clean!” The fighting began to diminish. Jack stopped fighting and began to eliminate the compulsion. He spotted a wizard chanting some kind of spell leaning on a banister on the next floor. The man fell after Jack threw a well-placed throwing star. He continued with his own chanting, and the fight began to dwindle. Unfortunately, there were enough guards committed to their factions, that made the going continually dangerous, but the fight had turned.
Jack made it up to the second floor, where the wizard’s body was and entered the throne room. Grier drew his sword and sneered at Jack.
“Clean!”
Grier staggered. “Sorry about that.”
Jack turned and held Eldora’s box and shouted, “Clean!”
“Call your men to you. Lord Delancey’s forces are taking care of the castle. We have to take care of this room.”
Grier looked grim. “Put down your weapons in the name of the queen.”
“She still lives!” Jack shouted.
He saw uncertainty spread among the faces. “You don’t have to fight each other!”
Jack ran to the throne and stood on the seat, waving his sword in the air. “Stop fighting!”
To Jack’s surprise, the fighting stopped. Bodies littered the floor including that of Charl Masson. That was one less headache to deal with.
“The castle has been taken by forces loyal to the queen.”
Richard Raimon strutted to the center of the room. “I rule here,” he said.
“What about the queen?” Jack said, stepping off the throne.
“She is dead,” he said, pointing to Enara Crabson.
“That isn’t your wife, Richard,” Grier said.
“You don’t address your king that way,” Richard said.
Jack walked up to the conso
rt. “It is over, Raimon. The archbishop and Payare are confined to the Corandian embassy, and Charl Masson is over there.”
Richard Raimon followed Jack’s finger to the man’s body. “Does it matter? Can you prove the queen is alive?”
“Right,” another courtier said. “We saw her hit with a wizard’s bolt.”
“Clean,” Jack said, pointing at Raimon, but nothing happened. Jack was disappointed.
“It won’t work. The revolt or coup or whatever you want to call it is over,” Grier said.
Ari arrived with the queen.
“Who put the hole in my wall?” Queen Inez asked.
“I did,” Jack said.
The queen smiled. “Thank you. It helped save Antibeaux. What is this nonsense, Richard?”
Raimon turned red. “They said you were dead, my love.”
“No longer my love, you traitor.” Queen Inez turned to Grier. “Take him away. He will be executed along with the others.” Grier ordered two of the guards in the room to escort Raimon out of the throne room.
“I wouldn’t go overboard on the executions,” Jack said. “You have a capital to put back together.”
The queen sighed. “I suppose you are right.” She glared at Richard. “You will be punished severely.”
Raimon continued to object as he was escorted from the throne room.
“If any of you have any issues with me, bring them up at the council,” Queen Inez said to those remaining in the throne room. “Go to your homes. Come back the day after tomorrow after what has happened recently has been sorted out,” the queen said. She looked at Jack. “Captain Floury and Lord Winder will accompany me to my chambers.”
Once they reached the queen’s quarters, Jack said, “You do know the fighting isn’t over.”
“I’ll leave that to you, Lord Winder.” She sat down, grimacing.
“My queen, you are still injured,” Grier said.
“But not dying, thanks to Lord Winder.” She looked at Grier. “Get your guards in order and remove the riff-raff from the castle.”
“Your opponents?” Grier asked.
“All of them, even the farmers Delancey tried to use as soldiers. Pitiful. They couldn’t subdue the rebels without killing so many,” the queen said.
“They were fighting for their lives, Your Highness,” Jack said.
“It doesn’t matter what they were fighting for. The worst is over. You may go.”
“But you still need protection,” Grier said.
She gave her Captain a cold stare. “Did you hear my order?”
Grier got down on one knee. “Forgive me, my queen.” Grier looked up at Jack and motioned with his head toward the door.
They left the queen, putting her head back in a chair.
“Is she always like this?” Jack asked.
“Always,” Grier said. They spotted Ari standing at the end of a corridor. They walked over to him.
“Did you tuck her in?” Ari asked.
“How can you do that when your head has been bitten off,” Jack said.
“In some ways, it is a pity, she wasn’t the one you killed,” Ari said.
“That is treason,” Grier said. His hand went to the hilt of his sword. “But, I might agree.”
There were sounds behind Jack. He turned around to see Richard Raimon chased by guards. He had a sword in his hand and burst into the queen’s quarters. There was a scream.
Jack ran to the door, followed by the others. Raimon stood above the queen. His sword had pierced her chest. He turned around and scowled at Jack, swinging the sword he had just plucked from his dead wife.
Jack didn’t bother entering the void and quickly dispatched the murderer with a wizard bolt.
“He didn’t deserve to bloody my sword,” Jack said. The two guards stared at the couple.
Ari bent over both of them and shook his head. “They are both gone. Long live the queen.”
“Glorie?” Jack asked.
Ari nodded.
Grier didn’t look particularly disturbed. “I can’t say I’m unhappy.” He looked at the other two guards who nodded their heads in agreement.
“I have a revolt to put down,” Jack said. He looked at Grier. “Can you finish up at the castle. I will leave some riff-raff behind to help. It’s time to dismiss any suspect guards.”
Grier nodded. “I will do what you say. Send the commander to the guards in front of the throne room. I will send men to your townhouse. I assume the new queen is there?”
Jack took Ari aside. “Could you notify Glorie that she is now the queen?”
Ari nodded. “I will. I think our army will be happier with Glorie.”
“I didn’t think Queen Inez was like that,” Jack said.
“If you had to interact with her, you would have found out sooner.” Ari disappeared, which didn’t surprise him.
Jack found Jamie talking to some of his men.
“We have to patrol the streets to make sure the revolt is really put down,” Jack said. “I want you to meet someone.”
Jamie and Grier gathered their available commanders. A few of them were still fighting on the castle grounds.
“Please arrange groups of your troops and the locals to patrol the streets while we get things sorted out. Queen Inez was killed by her consort, who was also killed in the action. I have sent Ari to notify Glorie of the situation.”
Jack let Jamie and Grier organize the rest. Jack tried to teleport to the lower level below and succeeded, but his stomach grumbled a little. He found two of the local leaders and informed them of what was to happen. They took their men to the upper level to join up with Jamie’s squads.
It was time to walk back to the embassy. The lower level wasn’t much better than the throne room.
When Jack arrived at the embassy, Delancey’s troops were dragging bodies into rows.
“What is happening inside?” Jack asked.
“The ambassador tried to mount a counterattack. He didn’t have enough men. Anne LaForce and Payare Bellet tried to lead a group of Double P wizards. Wizards don’t do so well in close quarters,” the men said.
“The archbishop and the ambassador?”
The men shrugged. “You’ll have to go up to find out.”
Jack trudged up the stairs and found the embassy had been turned over by the fighting. He found the ambassador and the archbishop at the end of a row of bodies, cheating an executioner.
With all the leaders gone, Jack returned to the townhouse and told them what Ari couldn’t.
Lin was helping Glorie get ready for her return.
“I have to make an appearance,” Glorie said, walking down the stairs, looking the part of a queen.
“I will go with her.” Lorton held her hand. The guards finally arrived, and they left the townhouse.
Jack sat down in the sitting room. “A few minutes rest before I go out again.”
“Don’t the loyalist forces have everything in hand?” Lin asked.
“Probably, but I have to make a few appearances too. I think the townhouse is safe enough now. Penny and I will take a tour of the battle sites.”
Lin sat next to Jack. “I suppose this means we will be traveling before winter officially starts?”
Jack nodded. “There won’t be much of a social season this winter.”
“I suppose not,” Lin said. “I did like the concept, though.”
Jack smiled. “There is always next year.”
Lin was resilient if nothing else. Her talents were valuable at the beginning but mostly wasted at the end. Jack washed up before he went out, carrying a bag with him. Penny took Jack’s hand, her armor still on as they stepped out onto the upper-level pavement.
“Do you still have your ring on?” Jack asked.
“I maintain my vows even if you don’t,” Penny said.
Jack smiled and wiggled his fingers, showing her his ring. “Turn it around.”
“Like this?” Penny showed the design of Yvessa’s church.
“Isn’t it a little…” Penny snapped her fingers. “Striking while the iron is hot?”
“Something like that,” Jack said. When they passed the embassy, Jack couldn’t help talking to the soldiers, both Delancey troops and locals, to get more details about the fight inside. Jack gave them words of encouragement and spoke to two of the commanders, telling them to be vigilant.
They walked out into the late autumn sun. Jack shivered in the cool air.
“Should we have taken the lower level?”
“Nope,” Jack said. “I’m not much of burrower.”
Jack was surprised that most of the soldiers, both the Delancey troops and the local forces saluted and called out to him as they took the short stroll to the church. There were few residents in the streets, and most of them scurried around, trying to avoid the troops. They were challenged at the door by two large clerics.
“We have come to pay our respects to Yvessa for sparing us today,” Jack said.
“Make your visit short,” one of the clerics said. “We mourn the passing of our archbishop. Have you heard when we will be able to retrieve his body?”
“When Queen Glorie decides, I imagine,” Jack said. “Were the clerics involved in the fighting?”
One of them shook his head. “That was for the WWS. We attend to the spiritual.”
“Queen Glorie, you say?” the other cleric said.
Jack nodded. “Queen Inez’s consort murdered her before he was put to death by a loyalist.”
“The archbishop wouldn’t have liked that.”
Jack shook his head. “I suppose not.”
As they went in, Jack said in a whisper that only Penny could hear, “And Yvessa might not want to hug anyone to her bosom right now.”
“That isn’t very nice,” Penny said.
“It wasn’t meant to be nice,” Jack said. “I probably triggered the revolution when I put Yvessa away. Borigore might not have been so bold.”
“It is like a boil that needs to be pierced,” Penny said.
Jack sighed. “I think you are correct.”
They strolled through the nearly empty church, making their way indirectly to the north nave. Jack pulled out his bone and found out where the mask was.
