by D. R. Rosier
He was king, and there would be no point in trying to free him at that point, assassination was out as well and would merely make things worse and destabilize things further. If he was on our side, we would gather Reed and go take care of the seneschal and his fellow guard. If the new king was behind it… we would flee the country and warn Arinith of the treachery. I’d just have to hope Sienna and I would be welcomed by the Elves with us carrying such bitter news.
I also considered if there was anything I could or should do if the king himself was responsible for his father’s death. Should I try and tell someone? Would it matter if I did? If it was true there would be some dark times coming for the kingdom, if it survived attacking the Elves and a possible invasion from the East.
But then, I was new here, my only real loyalty was to my wife and future mate. I held no silly ideas of backing man against Elf, and I’d fight for my future mate’s people if she but asked it of me. The only people I had met that I’d consider giving a heads up on our way out would be Serina and Steve.
The Mayor had been helpful to me and of course, Steve’s family had taken me in when I appeared out of nowhere asleep in their field.
Tonight would be a risk though, we couldn’t afford him calling out to the guards, which he might do in either case. Even if he was on our side, he may not know we were on his.
We assumed he would be guarded in some way magically as well as physically. The plan was simple yet complex in the difficulties we may encounter. We would fast travel directly to a room in the castle Ari was familiar with in the middle of the night. Then we’d use scrying to avoid the patrols so we could make our way stealthily to the king’s rooms.
We all thought it a bad idea to travel straight to his rooms even if we could, who knew what wards were set there, we might be attacked and killed as soon as we crossed back over from the realm of air.
I glared at Sienna who was getting a sword lesson from Ari right now. I had tried to suggest she stay behind since she had no magic and almost no standing as a commoner, but she was fiercely opposed to the idea. My wife was not only loyal but determined not to let me go off in danger without her by my side. She yielded to my word in all other things, but she refused to be separated from me.
I admired and loved that about her, but it was also frustrating, I wanted to keep her safe.
Part of me felt the same about Ari, but I knew that was just my desire to protect talking. She was better at magic and at least my equal in swords. Truthfully now that she was like me with enhanced speed and senses, she would be better once she was used to it.
Ari smirked over at me, “Stop thinking and come take me on… if you can.”
I drew my sword and moved at her quickly. She didn’t bother blocking and simply danced out of my way. I did block her return strike, barely. Now that she was as fast as I was it was clearer than ever her sword technique was greater than mine. I couldn’t wait to learn it. That didn’t mean the outcome was assured though, I’d been sword fighting for millennia and knew a trick or two.
It was a good workout, and what I needed to get my mind straight, I had been brooding over all the possibilities. I tended to try and plan for every contingency and not knowing enough about things made me nervous about tonight. After about fifteen minutes at full speed without holding back at all my pulse was racing and I felt the adrenaline.
I smiled as we broke apart and sheathed our swords. I considered a draw with Ari to be a win these days, despite a few desperate awkward dodges.
“Thanks, I needed that.”
She just winked at me and went back to Sienna’s lesson. We were as prepared as we were going to get.
There was something important I had failed to pass on, thank god I thought of it before we had to enter any kind of combat. We were eating our evening meal; Sienna seemed to be able to make a good meal out of nothing although we had gone hunting for meat earlier.
“Ari, I forgot to mention, you can’t ever use all your magic, no matter what.”
Ari tilted her head and her eyes went wide with understanding after she thought it through.
“That’s good to know… I don’t ever let it get down below a quarter anyway, but I imagine if I was forced to fight…”
I shrugged, “If we get to a quarter we can always dump half what’s left and just fast travel out.”
She nodded.
If we were ever in that kind of trouble, it was probably too late for us anyway…
That night we scryed the empty corridors and Ari took us to the empty room. We were a little tense, scrying didn’t work from another realm and it would take just under five minutes to get there, hopefully the room would still empty when we got there.
When we appeared in the room I released a spell that would completely muffle sound around us. Sound is simply vibrations through the air so it was easy to do. Though I couldn’t say exactly what my elemental was doing to dampen the vibrations. I had a similar spell ready to go in one of my mental launch tubes that would silence the king’s room, basically making it sound proof.
Ari took point and I had the rear. I kept an eye on the corridors behind us so no one would sneak up on us while she led us through the corridors. I think I had probably watched too much television and read too many books as a child, the castle was nice and all, but the hallways were rather plain and unadorned. I assumed the rooms were probably different, but we weren’t here for a tour.
Ari led us into a side room, where we waited until a patrol passed. Then we went back out into the hallway and made our way to the royal apartments. There were two guards posted so we stopped at the intersection before we could be seen and started scanning ahead for magic, specifically traps and wards and hidden guards.
It appeared the king had company, considering how close the heartbeats were in proximity I was assuming it must be a woman. There were also no spells that we could detect, except on the guards themselves. I wasn’t sure what they did, but it didn’t matter, we had no plans to harm them. I knew the way was clear, so I fast traveled the three of us into his chamber and released my silence spell into the wall.
The king hadn’t noticed us yet which I really couldn’t blame him for. Erin, the cute blonde healer was riding him quite wantonly. I actually felt a surge of guilt as I cleared my throat for not letting them finish, she seemed very enthusiastic...
Ari and Sienna had amused looks on their faces.
“Your majesty? We need to talk.”
He looked up and yelled for his guards while he pushed Erin off of him. She tumbled onto the floor. What the hell?
I said coldly, “We are here to talk, that’s all. We will defend ourselves however if you attack us with magic. So calm the fuck down.”
His eyes narrowed, “What do you want?”
I shrugged, “We are here to help you if you need it, if however it turns out you’re behind your own father’s death we will simply leave.”
He asked curiously, “You wouldn’t want revenge?”
“No, but I’d probably offer you some good advice before I left. Really, I don’t owe you or your father anything, but I would like to live in a somewhat stable kingdom. A succession battle right now would be a bad thing, plus it would make me guilty of regicide, I’ll leave that sin to you, if in fact you’re guilty.”
I asked offensively as possible, “So… which is it? Are you the seneschal’s puppet now or was it all you?”
I heard Erin gasp in shock at my question from the floor. I probably would have been nicer, but him throwing her off the bed rubbed me wrong.
He growled, “You’ll never leave here alive. My father was a damn fool.”
Shit. It was his idea, or at least he went along with it. I suppressed the urge to kill him. It would just make things worse for Cirenthia and guarantee the Elves would be attacked in reprisal.
I nodded, “So your majesty, would you like my advice, or should I just leave you to destroy your kingdom?”
He frowned, “Seriously? I threa
ten your life and you offer me advice?”
I shrugged, “Yes, I would advise you to focus on the Eastern border and building up your forces. Give up the insane idea of attacking the Elves; it will only weaken you further.”
He snorted, “The elves are weak, and you just want to save their worthless hides. Besides, killing them is necessary.”
I sighed, “A king can’t afford to be blinded by prejudice, or false pride. I’ve heard slights against the Elves since I arrived in Cirenthia. They do not match the facts staring you right in the face, or your own history.”
He rolled his eyes, “Enlighten me.”
“Well, according to history the Elves held back Cirenthia when it was much stronger than it is now. As for current day, you have me as an example, I didn’t know I was a mage until less than a month ago. Ari is a fairly young Elven mage who taught me the Elven way in just a few weeks. Yet, we defeated a human mage you sent to kill her outside Star’s Cove. We defeated the mayor, a guard, and the head of the military at Hunter’s Ridge, at the odds of three to two, and then we turned around and fought off four goblin mages that same night.
“Lastly, we were surprise attacked by that bitch that taught spells at the school, and still managed to kill her and escape the capitol city. Are you really that blind to ignore all that evidence to the contrary of the ridiculous and unfounded vitriol about how stupid and weak Elven mages are? You are KING! Wake up and observe, or your kingdom is doomed. I’d like to come back someday, when I do I hope it won’t be to the empire of Rhimera.
“Oh, one more thing, we are here in this room with you, and not one of your guards or mages has a damn clue about it. If Elven magic is weak then humans are absolutely helpless.”
His face was red and he looked very angry.
I tried, I’d been looking forward to having a house here, perhaps being an emissary of sorts to the Elves. I also had some business plans I’d have to forgo. I’d been looking forward to learning the spells as well, I was sure though the Elves had their own spells and I’d just learn from them alongside Ari. Maybe there was no point in learning the power structures of this kingdom anymore. I was still ignorant, but I had a bad feeling it was not going to last much longer anyway.
I wondered for a moment if that’s why the goddess had put me here, but what could I do about it? Earth history was replete with countries that fall apart after a coup, the king was an idiot, but taking him out would just make things worse.
Erin kept looking between the king and me. She looked terrified and was crying. I could also tell she both loved, but was now repulsed, by the king.
“Erin, would you like to come with us? I have a feeling this fool will kill you now that you know the truth of his patricide. No doubt he will continue to blame Ari and start his insane war.”
The king growled, “I don’t know how you got in here, but you’ll never get out alive.”
Erin looked resigned when she shook her head at me and said in a defeated voice, “I will stay.”
I understood where she was coming from, and hoped I was wrong about what the king would do. I had bruised his pride badly, he probably also felt like a coward not attacking us, even though he was outnumbered three to one. Erin didn’t exactly count for a combat situation as all she could do was healing. I could only hope the king would come to his senses and not waste lives on a foolish attack, or even kill a good woman who was dumb enough to love an idiot.
It didn’t really make sense to me either, if he was in charge why couldn’t he just order it? There must be political reasons. Maybe other mage families would rebel if there wasn’t a clear danger? Perhaps it was more country before king priority issues that had gotten us into this trouble to begin with? I hated being so ignorant.
Ari reported in that cold voice devoid of emotion, “Something is going on out there, one of the guards is knocking on the door, and it looks like the other ran off for backup. Maybe the sound proofing tipped them off to a problem? My guess is they would normally have been hearing the king’s bedroom activities.”
Erin blushed a bright scarlet at that.
I looked at Ari and Sienna, both of them indicated with a headshake they had nothing to add to what I’d said to the king. I stepped toward them getting closer.
“Good luck your majesty, you will need it.”
I released the fast travel magic to take us just west of Cliff’s Edge, before we headed to Arinith I wanted to give Serina and Steve warning of what was coming. I was also hoping Serina could fill me in on some of the political realities to make sense of the senseless. The twenty mile trip to the hill we’d been camping at only took five minutes, but Cliff’s Edge was closer to eight hundred miles.
That would be close to three and a half hours in the realm of air, the difference in casting cost was negligible though, I was right about the expenditure being mostly about moving from realm to realm…
Chapter 3
I never got tired of watching this. We had set up camp last night and discussed plans for tomorrow. After visiting Serina we would buy three horses and head west. Ari could take us there directly with a spell, but she wanted to review some of the important customs with us on the way. There were also sentry posts a day outside the forest, and then it was another day and a half ride through the forest to the Elven city. She wanted them to have plenty of notice she was bringing two humans with her to their clan’s home. Going directly there would both cause problems and would leave Sienna and I ignorant of what she wanted to pass on.
I was watching Ari do her sword dance. The moon was full and she was stunningly beautiful as she gracefully moved through the dance with her elementals accompanying her movements. It boggled my mind that she would choose to be mine.
When she finished she came over and sat by me with a smile on her face.
“Good morning love.”
She took my hand, “Morning Marcus, are you sure about this? What if she attacks us?”
I frowned, “I don’t think she will, not without hearing us out first. Just hope we don’t run into Danos, he’s an arrogant fop.”
She giggled, “Well I doubt they will be expecting us, we should be weeks of travel to the East right now.”
I nodded with a smile, “Do you think there is any chance I planted a doubt he will listen too?”
She shrugged, “We won’t know until they march. We will keep an eye on things with scrying.”
I kissed her softly and pulled her onto my lap.
She said softly, “Marcus, do you think… the enchantment. I don’t feel the… buildup anymore.”
I asked, “Buildup?”
She nodded, “It is strange to speak of it, we normally don’t. Elven mates… once our bodies and minds have found someone to claim as a mate, our bodies make us extremely passionate once a week, and our will is subsumed as our body releases the scent and we use wanton behavior drive our mates to… claim us. It’s what happened last week, and the first time we were together. It is not something we can control or stop.
“Normally we would just bond as mates at that point, no matter where we were. But of course we can’t until you’ve been through a few rites and are accepted into the clan. It doesn’t turn on like a switch though. I can feel it coming, feel it build up over time. Do you understand? I don’t… feel that anymore.”
I kissed her neck and pulled her into a hug, “So you wonder if you can still have children?”
She nodded slightly against my neck.
I said softly, “I don’t know. On my world the answer was no, but the enchantment is different here, very different. I imagine we will find out soon.”
She asked, “What do you mean?”
I shrugged, “Perhaps it is just that instinct that is different, the spell was designed by a human and it’s very complex. I see three possibilities. One, you’ll get your moon flow as you normally do which means it is likely possible. The other two are if you don’t get it.”
She asked, “Two?”
I shrugged, “Sure, it could be that you can’t have children any more, but the other possibility is you are already with child, and that’s why you don’t feel the buildup. I don’t want to give you false hope, but it’s too early to give up on the possibility. The fact we both have an insatiable sex drive is another positive indication.”
She started to kiss my neck and shoulders as she played with my hair and the back of my neck with her soft brushing fingertips. We gently made love together that morning out in the field, both of us surrendering all we are to each other, as if in a desperate hope that if we loved each other enough we would create new life together.
I actually said a small prayer to the goddess, something I would have never done before today. I had a feeling if Ari couldn’t have a child, it would destroy the woman I loved. I didn’t think she would blame me, after all she would be dead if I hadn’t done what I’d done. At least, she wouldn’t blame me at first, but what was eternity against her powerful instincts for a child? Eventually it would turn her bitter. I wasn’t so sure I would do any better to be honest…
After all, it had been my fault she had been mortally wounded in the first place. I’d been a fool to trust the smiling face of Stella. That thought made me reassess my plans. After breakfast we walked into town and bought the horses and tack first. We loaded them up with our stuff and headed out of town.
Sienna said, “I don’t like this idea.”
I smiled, “Someone has to watch the horses when we get to Steve’s farm. I don’t anticipate any danger for any of us, but better safe than sorry. If I have to fast travel out of the mayor’s place in a hurry we’ll have a half day’s ride head start to the west this way. I’m sure it’s just paranoia on my part, it won’t be dangerous.”
I knew second guessing myself and trusting no one would be just as foolish as what I did in the capitol. I had to trust my instincts, but I was newly human again in that first meeting with Serina and probably distracted. I’d already promised I’d be more observant like my old self in the future and not take anything for granted, but my thoughts on that past meeting were suspect.
