Wizard's Blood [Part One]

by Bob Blink

  While Tomas was giving the others the relevant details about the party, Jolan slipped quickly into his room, returning a few moments later. He walked over to Tomas and when he looked up, dropped the recovered ring into his hand.

  “By the Dragons!” Tomas exclaimed. “You even managed to recover my ring.”

  “We recovered a bag of gold coin as well,” Asari explained. “Some of it might be yours.”

  Tomas waived it off. “I had very little on me, and it is yours regardless. You should have all the gold that scoundrel had, but already his creditors are surfacing and claiming what they can get their hands on.”

  “What has happened to Lord Hoalt?” Jolan asked wondering how justice worked here in Seret. There had been no public news, although apparently the word was out that Falk had been captured.

  “The King was very unhappy when he learned about Lord Hoalt and his little schemes. It would have been embarrassing to the King after all the contact he has had publicly with the man for it to be known he was behind many of the kidnappings over the past few years. So, the word has been circulated that Falk was at fault, and that the man has been caught and beheaded as appropriate. The connection to Lord Hoalt has been suppressed. I trust you all to keep this quiet as well.”

  “Hopefully they have plans for the bastard!” Sindra exclaimed.

  “He was executed yesterday on the “burning pole”,” Tomas responded. “It was done very discretely, and attended only by the King and the members of families who have lost members of their family to kidnapping.”

  “The “burning pole”?” asked Asari.

  “It hasn’t been used for a long time, and is frowned upon by the religious groups. It is a large steel pole that is mounted in the center of a pit. The pit is filled with wood, and then the lawbreaker, barefoot and wearing only his small clothes, is chained by the wrist and the waist to the pole. The chains are long enough so he can move freely within the pit, moving around the pole until the chains wrap up to the point he must reverse direction. The pit is then fired. As the fire grows and spreads he can try to avoid the flames, but it is only a matter of time before he is engulfed and burned to death. Falk did not die well.”

  Jolan could barely imagine the horror the man must have felt, but could find no sympathy in his heart. He was glad that Falk, or Lord Hoalt, whatever he was to be called, had paid for his actions.

  “We were indeed lucky,” Tomas said, returning to something Jolan had said earlier. Father had learned that our abduction was arranged by a man that had been linked to Falk in the past. He knew that any attempt to buy our freedom was a lost cause. He tried to buy time while having his men try to find leads to our whereabouts. As we know, nothing ever turned up, and he had already decided I was lost when Asari showed up with me.”

  “So he wasn’t planning on paying?”

  “While delaying, he had a friend at the Royal Mint make up gold coins with a special marking. Even if I wasn’t returned, he hoped the payment of these coins would provide a link back to the people responsible. He would have delivered them the very day we escaped.”

  Tomas was obviously tiring, and reluctantly prepared to leave after getting Jolan and Asari to agree to attend the party the following week. By then he would be back to normal, and they could talk more.

  “We have to go shopping,” Ashreye said after Tomas had departed, both her and Sindra’s eyes were alight with the prospects of attending a ball and rubbing shoulders with members of the nobility.

  Chapter 37

  Jolan lay on his back, his eyes currently focused on a pair of superbly formed breasts hanging mere inches above his face, their brown nipples extended, probably as a result of the attention he’d been directing their way the last few minutes. Sindra’s long hair hung down from her head, building a curtain on either side of his face, stray strands brushing his face and distracting him from his primary focus. His hands slid forward off the compact bottom he’d been caressing, moved up along her hips and up her side to the narrow waist that he knew from prior experience was more than a little ticklish. He brushed his fingers lightly across the smooth skin and was rewarded by a wiggling that translated to a gentle swaying of the objects above him.

  “No fair,” Sindra complained. “We said no tickling.” She straddled him with her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands grabbed his arms, forcing them down onto the bed.

  He and Sindra had been spending a lot of time together of late, both in and out of bed. There really wasn’t much else to do while they were waiting for Tomas’ party, but it had begun to worry him. He really liked Sindra, but as great as she was in the sack, and as much as he enjoyed her being around, it wasn’t a relationship that would be given a chance. They were very different, and he would be leaving within weeks at most, probably never to return. He didn’t want any false impressions to develop. He’d brought the matter up with Asari.

  “Sindra understands the situation,” Asari objected. “She knows whatever happens with the council, we are leaving for Cobalo soon. She is having a good time, and that’s what matters most to her. She’ll be sad to see you go, but she’ll move on.”

  Jolan hoped his friend was right. “What about you and Ashreye? I get the impression her feelings are a bit deeper.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Asari admitted. “She thinks she’s a bit in love with me.”

  “What about your feelings?”

  “Well, I think I kinda love her a little too. But Jolan, I’m only sixteen. I’m too young to know what I want.”

  “You think,” chided Jolan. “What do you think about when you’re with her?

  “Going to bed.”

  “And then?”

  “You mean when she’s chased me down and worn me out so my, huh … you know, won’t perform?”

  “Yeah”

  “I wonder how long it will take before I can regain my strength so we can have at it again.”

  “Asari, be serious for a minute.”

  “I don’t know. I know I really like to be with her, and like the way she tries to take care of me. I wish I could make her smile all the time like she did when the two of them learned they were really going to a nobleman’s ball.”

  “Maybe you’d be better off staying here. I can get to Cobalo from here.”

  “I’m coming,” he said emphatically. “We have things to do. Cheurt is still out there and only the two of us realize he’s up to something. There’s no way I’m ready to settle down here. Besides, what would I do for a living? I’m starting to realize I don’t have any skills that are useful.”

  That had been the previous afternoon. Today Sindra and Jolan had the rooms to themselves because Ashreye had to work in exchange for someone taking her evening shift and Asari had made another call on his uncle. Now they were playing this little game after a morning of lovemaking.

  “You promised,” Sindra complained.

  She wanted him to go shopping with her and look over the various dresses she was considering for the upcoming party. It was only two days away, and she was still vacillating on what to wear. He hated clothes shopping. He especially hated clothes shopping with women. They couldn’t settle on anything, and would be happy if you liked something, but within a matter of minutes start finding faults that you must have missed. Still, he had promised, and knew he was going to have to go along.

  “Alright,” he agreed, breaking his hands free of hers and quickly sliding them up to cup her breasts. “ I’ll go after. . . .”

  Knowing she’d won, Sindra grinned wickedly and slid down on top of him, not really in that much of a hurry either.

  The next day he and Asari made their way down to a custom jewelry shop that had been recommended by the innkeeper. Unknown to the two women, they had ordered some custom jewelry and it should be ready today. Jolan wanted to give them something special, partially in thanks for their helping Asari while he was missing, and partially as a parting gift.

  At the recommendation of the jeweler, they had tried
to come up with personal designs they thought the women would like. Ashreye liked pendants, but Sindra was keen on ear-rings. Jolan found it amusing that Asari had taken a liking to the heart he’d drawn, having never seen anything like it before. He couldn’t see the relationship between the drawing and a human heart, and was undeterred when Jolan explained it was commonly considered an expression of love back on Earth. He’d opted for the design and had selected the very popular blue sparkle stones around a clear center.

  Jolan couldn’t handle the implied symbolism, and decided against the same pattern for Sindra. When he found she was extremely fond of her birth sign, happily something totally unrelated to the stars, he’d elected to get a pair of ear-rings in that pattern, and seeing the stones Asari had selected, opted for the same. Today they could see the finished items for the first time. They weren’t cheap, and they’d paid the jeweler four golds up front for the custom work. They’d have an equal payment today when they retrieved the gifts. They hadn’t yet decided whether they would give the presents to them today, or wait until the day of the party.

  * * * *

  The party had gone extremely well, and now they were on their way to see the king. Ashreye and Sindra had found it to be everything they’d hoped for, and resplendent in their painfully selected gowns, they fit in with their more noble counterparts seamlessly. From Asari and Jolan’s perspective, the presence of eight of the ten members of Parliament gave them a chance to pitch their account of the events being pursued in the wilderness to many pairs of ears, rather than a single pair that could have rejected them as easily as Lord Tonak had done in the People’s Court a few weeks back.

  Tomas had made great progress, and other than his missing finger, now covered by a very small wrapping, looked as good as new. Jolan passed on a contact from Altz, which Tomas accepted gratefully, and then he took the four friends around to meet first his friends, and then later the people Jolan needed to meet.

  After a literal feast, with more courses than Jolan could count, and many selections he had never encountered before, the musicians took over. Asari, Jolan, Tomas, and the eight members of Parliament slipped quietly into one of the private rooms Lord Yeren kept for just this kind of discussion.

  “You realize that only the King has the right to issue an official letter of sponsorship from the country. That means if we agree that your request should be honored, we would have to arrange a meeting with the King, and he would have the final say.”

  Jolan hadn’t realized this, but nodded his understanding anyway.

  “Whatever the group decides, I have already decided to write my own personal letter. Tomas has relayed what you have told him, and I feel it only fitting to grant the one request you have after your service to this family.”

  “The King may not find that fitting,” Lord Or’ine objected.

  “I don’t give a Dragondamn,” Lord Yeren responded. “I’m willing to face whatever political fallout that might come from my actions. The King’s reign is almost over anyway, thank the gods.”

  Uncomfortable with the direction of the discussion, the others had maneuvered the discussion back to the topic of Jolan’s concerns, and for more than an hour he had told them what he knew and what he suspected. Lord Or’ine and Lord Teyw were the only two that had reservations, but the remaining six were all agreed the matter should go before the King. That meant he had won. He already had a promise of a personal letter from Tomas’ father, which alone should be enough to win him an audience in Cobalo, and if six of the parliament supported his position, no matter what the two members not present tonight decided, he still had a majority on his side.

  The vote had gone down just that way, six to four in favor of placing the matter before the King. Now, two days after the party, Asari and Jolan were inside the palace, and on the way to the fateful meeting. Their escort was a splendidly attired member of the Royal Guard, although how he would ever fight in the uniform he was wearing today was a bit of a mystery. Still, he looked impressive, and Jolan decided that was the point.

  Their footsteps echoed as they walked down the long marble hallway toward the formal hearing room the King used for such things. Jolan found the castle interesting, and while great wealth was evident in the decorations and furnishings, he found it no more impressive than Lord Yeren’s estate. While the King held the power, there were those with just as much money at their command.

  Inside the chamber, the King and his Parliament had already assembled. The two factions had each presented their perspectives, and now it remained for the King to hear from the two petitioners themselves. Everyone became silent when the oversized doors at the end of the room suddenly opened and the two men were led into the chamber.

  Jolan could see immediately that the room was designed to force all attention toward the King at the far end of the room. Even the ten members of his Parliament were somehow made secondary by the layout, appearing as the advisors that they were supposed to be rather than major players in the distribution of power. Here the King made decisions. Decisions that were considered binding by the law of the land.

  He could see that a large gallery of chairs filled either side of the room, but noted they were empty today. The only people in the room were the King and the ten members of the Parliament. His throat was dry as he made his way to the front where everyone waited.

  “I don’t see where you have anything resembling proof of your allegations,” the King said a bit later, his lack of interest in the proceedings obvious. “Why should Seret take the chance of looking foolish by becoming involved in this matter.” In truth, he was annoyed that he’d been taken away from his mistress. It was bad enough he had to worry about real matters, but this was simply a distraction from time he considered his own.

  “You don’t have to take any position,” Jolan explained for the third time. “All I’m asking for is your introduction so the College of Mages in Cobalo will be willing to hear me. They can decide if my message is valid. They have means of testing me that are not available here.”

  The King frowned. This was taking far too long. Still, he worried that there might be some truth to the story the man told. What if Ale’ald was indeed preparing for war. That could be a serious problem later, and he would look foolish if he had passed over the chance for advance warning. On the other hand, it was more than likely all this would take place after he completed his reign as King, so it would fall on someone else, and ignoring the issue would protect him against the man’s claims being false and his looking gullible. The more he thought about it, the less personal risk to him was to let the matter drop. If it came up later, he could always say the man hadn’t presented enough evidence, which was clearly true. They were being asked to take the man at his word. It was all too much to be bothered with today. All the wine he’d had the previous evening had left him with a splitting headache.

  “I’m inclined to decline the request,” the King said becoming more convinced every moment this was the best way for him personally to handle the matter.

  “Father, that is simply not acceptable,” came a voice from the right hand gallery. Someone had slipped in while Jolan was talking and he hadn’t noticed.

  The King was obviously surprised, and looked over at the speaker.

  “Therasi,” he said. “Daughter, what are you doing here. This is not a matter to concern yourself with.”

  “I disagree,” she said, not afraid to counter her parent. “My friend Jolan deserves more consideration than you are showing him. I sense his concerns to be valid ones.”

  Asari looked over sharply at his friend. Jolan had suddenly realized who the stunning young woman was. Christ, if he had realized at the time what he was doing.

  “You know this man?” the King asked surprised.

  “Of course,” she answered. “Jolan and I have sometimes watched the city as it wakes, sharing observations and histories and sometimes even a bite of food.”

  “Are you and this man lovers?” the King asked tak
en aback.

  “Father!” she rebuked him sharply. “You overstep even your rights. He is my friend. That is enough.”

  “Perhaps, but I think this is none of your concern. I would request that you retire and allow me to handle this matter as I feel best.”

  “I want you to grant this man’s request,” Therasi said refusing to back down. “Perhaps I should whisper in mother’s ear about your latest little lovebird. You know how she feels about such matters.”

  The King’s head snapped back as if he’d been slapped. “You would blackmail your King? Your own father?” The King might have absolute power as ruler, but his reign would be over in two years. After that, he would return to being a common citizen, and his wealth depended upon the good graces of his extremely wealthy, but moderately alcoholic wife. If she learned he was once again fooling around, she might well cut off his finances once she had the power over him again.

  Therasi sniffed derisively. “You are the one who taught me how to bargain for what matters most. It is your choice.”

  The King knew his daughter held the upper hand, and also knew she didn’t bluff. She was correct; he really had no choice.

  “All right,” he bellowed. “I’ll have the letter prepared this afternoon. You shall have it with the royal seal by the morrow. Now, this meeting is over. Daughter, come with me. We need to talk.”

  Therasi looked over at Jolan and smiled as she was hauled away by her father.

  As they left the palace, Jolan turned to Tomas and said. “I suspect I’ll not have the opportunity for another morning get-together with Therasi before I have to leave for Cobalo. Could you please tell her when you see her that I truly appreciate her help, and look forward to another meeting one day.”