The Making of a Mage King: Prince in Hiding

by Anna L. Walls

  He took a sip of his tea; a patchwork of expressions paraded across his face as he studied its depths. “When they made the connection, and were sure of it, they tried to learn how to control it, and me. Their original plan was so much…ash.” He chuckled dryly. “This was far bigger. They tried using the heroin as bait, but I was still able to resist that. I don’t know if I could have resisted much longer.” He looked up at Ferris. “Why didn’t anyone come looking for me?”

  “We were told you were killed,” said Ferris. “That you bled to death at the scene. There was a short investigation and warrants were issued. We had a funeral. We buried you.”

  “Oh,” said Elias. “They didn’t tell me that.” He was quiet for a few moments. “Maybe they weren’t trying to ruin my career; not if I was supposed to be dead.”

  Marinda spoke up then. She could see that Elias was dwindling. “That’s enough of this. We can hash this out more another time. Maybe someone can explain some of the confusing things to me then too, but for now, you are going back to bed.” She gave Sean a jab that said ‘get him upstairs and in bed’ while she herded the others out the door.

  Elias smiled. “She hasn’t changed much, has she?”

  “I don’t know about change, but she’s definitely in charge of the house, and everything around it,” said Sean.

  Going up the stairs, Elias leaned heavily on Sean. As he helped him back into bed, Elias said, “You’ve grown.”

  “No I haven’t,” said Sean. “It hasn’t been that long.”

  As Sean pulled the blankets over the man he had known all of his life as his father, Elias asked, “You using the magic yet?”

  “Yeah, someone had to keep you from burning the house down around us,” replied Sean.

  “Yeah, this place is made of wood.” He drifted off.

  Wait til he does the math and figures out why this place didn’t burn down.

  Discipline

  Sean woke with a start; breakfast was in full swing downstairs and Elias was already gone from his bed, but no feeling could beat this one. Grinning, he dressed hastily and bound down the stairs two at a time. He had his dad back.

  Apparently, everyone had been talking about him because Elias turned and said, “Did I hear right? Not only do you have all the stones, but you’ve found yourself a warhorse already, and I’m told you’re not bad.”

  Darrel was sitting at Elias’s elbow and he was grinning too; a wide array of the younger boys were hanging around the table all wide-eyed with obvious awe.

  “You taught me almost everything I know,” said Sean, which shifted nearly all the eyes back to Elias. “There’s a lot of stuff I’m still having trouble with.”

  “That monster of yours is feeling mighty neglected,” said Darrel.

  Marinda set a plate in front of Sean. “Sit. Eat. You nearly missed breakfast.”

  Sean would have gone directly to the barn to check on Prince, but everyone did what Marinda said. After he finished the sumptuous breakfast of scrambled goose eggs with peppers and onions, alongside a heaping helping of fried potatoes, he started for the door, but Darrel halted him this time. “You’re not wearing that are you? That light stuff is fine for a ‘get-to-know’, but you’ll wear your regular gear from now on. Save that getup for meals and impressin’ the girls.”

  Sean looked down at his blue jeans and T-shirt. He opened his mouth to protest, but only Elias was smiling now and he knew that it had little to do with this. “Fine,” he said, and went back to his room to change.

  He pulled out the silk undershirt and fingered the neatly patched holes. Most of the stains had been soaked out too, but the marks could still be found. The memory made the muscles in his back cringe. The same effort had been put into the padding and the canvas lining of the chain armor, but the stains were easier to see, though there was no sign in the metal links. He buckled on his shoulder piece. He was tempted to put on the tabard too, but he figured it would be a little much; he didn’t know how to wear it with the shoulder piece anyway. After buckling on the rest of his pieces of metal, he reached up to push his hair back before putting on his helmet and remembered that his hair had just been cut. His sword belt still hung by the front door; he had been so thankful for the whole getup at first; it made him feel like Sir Lancelot, but it had been a relief not to have to wear it all the time.

  As he clumped his way down the stairs, he felt odd. Somehow, armor didn’t seem to belong in a house. By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed that everyone was gone and the place was quiet. It seemed strange not to see Marinda in her kitchen.

  Then he heard an explosion, a yell, and a clash, almost on top of each other, outside the door. His self-consciousness vanished and he snatched up his belt and burst out the door to see chaos reigning all over the courtyard in front of the house.

  Off to the right, some women were being hustled away by Elias and Larry.

  Sean stepped out into the middle of the chaos. Farmers were fighting armored men all across the yard and another explosion went off near the guardhouse. They must’ve found us. Despite Clayton’s convoluted trail, we were followed after all.

  Sean squelched the fires he could see as he drew his swords and discarded his belt, then he spoke in Prince’s ears. “Prince, find me. Come to me. Come.” He had no idea if he would understand the commands – they hadn’t been among those he’d learned from Manuel – but he needed the extra help. They needed all the help they could muster. Where is Manuel? He wasn’t given the time to call for him.

  Spells started to come at him – a binding spell to trip up his feet and an air punch, but they were weak, and he broke away from them before scarcely identifying them as spells. Is that all they can muster?

  A mountain of a man charged at him with a sword the likes of which Sean had never seen before; it had to be all of six feet long from end to end and yet this man used it as if it weighed nothing. Sean blocked his swing with crossed swords, though he was nearly knocked to his knees by the force of the blow. I can’t duel with this thing. He took his air away and held him off.

  Just as the man wilted, a screaming crash came from the barn and the doors flew open, one of them crashing to the ground when the hinges ripped out of the wall.

  Prince came thundering toward him, scattering another pair of combatants with his charge. Sean discarded the limp body, hastily rehearsing the signals he had been taught to give a warhorse from the ground. He had no saddle and no bridle; he couldn’t possibly fight from his back and expect to remain there for very long.

  Sean coated him with a shield so he wouldn’t have to worry about arrows, and headed for another knot of fighting. When the fighters saw them coming, they threw down their swords and pulled off their helmets. Suddenly the battle was over and they were all grinning. Men were picking themselves up from the ground with the helping hands of others who were just moments ago trying to kill them. Elias, Larry, Marinda, and half a dozen other women, reappeared from around the other side of the house. They too were smiling and laughing.

  Was this all a joke? Furious, Sean teleported Prince and himself to the overgrown courtyard of his uncle’s manor house, then he brought the rest of Prince’s gear to him and saddled him up. I hope I tripped some warding. I’d really like to cause some real damage right about now.

  In an attempt to work off some of the anger and frustration clawing at his spine, he ran them through their paces in the courtyard until both he and Prince were sweating freely and he wasn’t nearly as angry. He was just about to quit and try to find his way back to the farm the long way when a squad of soldiers came charging into view.

  Two demons on their destriers, accompanied by seven soldiers, spilled into the yard. Here was the real fight he’d been wishing for, but he had a little more sense between his ears now. He knew he couldn’t afford to leave any witnesses behind, not here. He teleported the two demons to his dear Uncle Ludwyn and contained their screaming and thrashing horses, then he flung debris from the
yard into the other men’s faces, causing their horses to panic, creating enough mayhem to make his work with the sword simple, then he sent their bodies to his uncle as well.

  So much for wandering through the woods and finding the farm; he’d never be able to herd the horses there – not and conceal his passing too. He gathered them all together and teleported back to the corral. It was a large load and other magics were already in use. He felt dizzy, but not so dizzy that he wasn’t able to face the horde of men that swarmed around the corral at their appearance.

  They recognized Sean as soon as he identified them. “Miss Marinda said you’d gone to the manor house,” said Darrel. “I knew you’d find yourself some trouble there, but she wouldn’t let the young master go after you.”

  “If he came back like this, at least he didn’t leave a trail,” said Ferris. “Where did you find these? And I bet I know what you did with the bodies.”

  Sean dismounted carefully. “The demons were still alive this time.”

  “Really,” said Ferris, with a smile. “I bet that was interesting.”

  “What?” said Elias, as he joined the crowd, having just come from the house.

  “He’s taken to dropping his conquests in Ludwyn’s lap,” said Ferris. “This time, he’s sent him two live demons.”

  “There’s no such thing as a demon,” said Elias.

  “I was a demon,” said Manuel, as he moved closer to join the conversation. “I’d tell you more about it, but I really don’t want to remember. Take a careful look at those horses, then imagine them being men. That’ll give you some idea.” By now, the five regular horses had been taken away. Only the contained, and far-from-quiet, destriers remained.

  Dad looks so pale out here in the sun. Sean pulled his helmet off and stuffed his gloves inside, then he wiped at the sweat on his forehead, finding a sharp edge on his cuff in the process. I really need to break myself of that habit. He brushed the burning cut away and used his palm to wipe the sweat from his eyes.

  “That was neat,” said Elias. “You’ve learned a lot since last I saw you.”

  With the excitement over, the crowd went back to their other duties, leaving the five of them at the corral. Sean barely noticed Darrel speaking to a boy before he left.

  Elias moved along the fencing to get a better view of the plunging and screaming destriers. He didn’t have to look too close to find the blood, old and new, nor did he have to look too close to see the crazed expression in their eyes. “My god,” said Elias.

  “No god made those,” said Darrel. “That is strictly a Ludwyn creation.”

  “My god,” said Elias again. “And men actually ride them?”

  “The men are no better; why do you think they’re called demons?” said Manuel, which won him a much closer examination as well.

  “Are you going to help them?” asked Manuel of Sean.

  “Do we have any riders for them?” Sean asked in return.

  “We do,” said Darrel, as he passed over a water jug brought by the boy he had spoken to earlier. Then he sent the kid after two men whose names Sean recognized as being among the parade of names during that first meal, though he didn’t remember which faces they belonged to.

  Sean drained the jug and leaned against the fence.

  “Are you using the stones?” asked Ferris.

  “No,” said Sean. “I hid them like you said.”

  “Really,” he said, and looked at Elias, though Sean missed that exchange because he was palming the sweat out of his eyes again.

  When the men arrived, Sean hobbled the horses then moved them apart. One at a time, he took each man over each horse until they were both quiet. He was glad that Darrel stepped in to go over their tack. When he was finished with the first horse, he was led to another corral on the other side of the barn with Manuel to get them started on their reeducation. When he was finished with the second one, Sean turned to take care of Prince and found that he had to hang onto him just to stay on his feet.

  “I was beginning to wonder,” said Ferris. “This is a bit more than you’ve ever done before. I’m glad to see that you haven’t been depending on the stones after all.”

  They opened the gate for him and he made it that far hanging onto Prince’s saddle. A boy came to take him and Sean didn’t protest; he was having enough trouble lifting his feet enough to walk and Prince’s saddle was heavy. “Be a good boy, Prince,” he said, and watched as the boy led him away.

  The sun was already high in the sky when Sean had returned with the horses, and by the time he had healed them, more than an hour had passed. Once started, the process couldn’t be put off for lunch.

  Ferris and Elias supported the unsteady Sean into the house and into a seat at the table. Marinda set a plate of cheese and bread in front of him, but he didn’t have the energy to eat more than a few bites.

  He started to lay his head down on the table, but they wouldn’t let him rest there. Ferris got him up to his room and peeled him out of his armor. Sean wasn’t much help; he was asleep before Ferris had pulled his boots free.

  Regrets

  When Sean woke, he was appalled to find that he had nearly slept the clock around. He heard voices downstairs, and rather than face the music again, he put his armor back on before going down. Every muscle in his body was screaming as if he had just learned how to use a sword and ride a horse yesterday. The extra time and motion necessary to dress in armor helped loosen things up a bit, but he needed more. His stomach growled its neglect, but it could wait. He figured he had just enough time for a good workout before lunch.

  At the bottom of the stairs, he saw that he wasn’t going to get his workout. Elias, Ferris, Darrel, Larry and Manuel sat at the table looking at him. “I don’t remember you ever sleeping this late,” said Elias.

  “Yeah, I’m getting pampered. They made me take a nap the other day,” said Sean, and Darrel laughed.

  “Nobody could make you do anything, boy,” he said.

  “Pull up a chair and have a listen,” said Ferris. “We think we’ve come up with a decent plan, but a lot depends on you.”

  With apprehension, Sean sat down and pulled a plate of cheese in front of him. If a workout was to be postponed, eating didn’t have to be. “What kind of plan?”

  Ferris began to explain. “We figured we’d find the garrisons towns with destriers and demons in them and draw them out; you could do what you do with the men and we’d keep their stock. We keep doing that until we’re built up enough to go against Ludwyn himself at the capital.”

  Sean thought about it for a while as he munched on his cheese. “What’s to keep them from figuring out where we’re based?”

  “You,” said Ferris. “You get us there. We work our mayhem. Then you get us back again.”

  “Now wait a minute. I just brought myself and – he made a quick count – ten horses from the manor house, and it just about knocked me out. You expect me to take a number of men, and their horses, to some distant town, fight a battle then get them, plus more horses, back here the same way. I’d be a basket case for a week.”

  “You make it sound harder than it has to be,” said Elias. “We could take two or three days to get the men to the target, the battle might last all of an hour, then we’d be free to come back a little at a time. Maybe we could lead the rest of the garrison on a wild goose chase while we’re at it.”

  “Well,” said Sean, “that makes it sound a lot better, but it isn’t that easy. It’s one thing to throw bodies at the palace to piss off Ludwyn; it’s another to move loyal men, while being careful of their health.”

  “It’s not that much different,” said Ferris. “That’s where using the viewing comes in. You’d be able to see where you’re sending the men. The same with returning, if you wanted to, but you know this place well enough to not need it.”

  As he was thinking about it, Marinda came in and smacked his hand when he reached for a fat carrot from a bowl. Then she seemed to remember that he hadn’t e
aten for a fortnight and gave him a couple slices of bread and a jar of marmalade.

  “I have a better idea,” said Sean. “For beginners anyway, plus it would be easier on all of us. How about we take your look around and find the destriers. We simply bring those horses here directly from their stables. We can set the demons loose in the garrison at the same time if you like. Let them weaken themselves at no risk to us. We could go through the dungeons and collect volunteers too, or just set them all loose. Something like that would cause more chaos than anything like a visible target would cause, and the destriers wouldn’t be so worked up when they got here. Besides, taking the destriers only gives us cavalry, it doesn’t give us an army.”

  “Where did you learn to think like that?” asked Elias.

  “You and Mom taught me. Don’t you remember all those Dungeons and Dragons games we used to play? I was always having my thief sneak around to cause trouble or a diversion. It tied you up more than once.”

  Elias laughed, then he laughed harder until tears started to run down his face. “I had no idea,” he said when he could form words again. “I just played it because it reminded me of home and we had fun.”

  Sean watched the others smile and laugh while he ate his bread. He was just beginning to turn his mind to figuring out how to run a battle, or a war, when a young man burst in the door.

  “Lady, come quick. Jessup’s hurt bad.” Every aspect about the man was near panic, and it was infectious; they were all out the door in a rush.

  Jessup had been working with one of the new horses, and apparently, it wasn’t going well. The horse screamed and kicked. Men with rails worked frantically to contain him inside the corral. Jessup had apparently been kicked through the fence, creating a gap the horse was trying to widen, and he was lashing out at anything within reach.