03- A Sip of Magic

by Guy Antibes

  Pol nodded. “That makes a lot of sense. I am certain she used mind-control on Landon and Amonna. Grostin probably doesn’t need any persuading, and Honna is likely responsible for our distressed circumstances. The soldier told us Honna sent news of our ride just before he jumped off the wall to his death. That seems to be more indicative of coercion. Would you agree, Horker?”

  The monk nodded. “Not that I am familiar with coercion as an observer, but from what I have been taught, a person can break mind-control, but coercion is a different thing altogether.”

  “And Valiso,” Isa smiled at some memory. “He was coerced.”

  Pol nodded. “There is probably at least one magician in the castle turning a few soldiers’ minds.”

  “This is serious. You should tell Colvin.”

  ~

  Pol stood in front of the doors to his stepfather’s study. His meetings with King Colvin had never been overly pleasant, but sometimes encouraging words were said. Pol didn’t expect any this time.

  “I am here to see the King,” Pol said to the guards, who knocked. One of them poked his head in the door and announced Pol.

  He took a deep breath and entered. This was the first time he had been alone with the King since he petitioned for disinheritance over a year ago.

  “Nater Grainell?” His stepfather’s voice hadn’t changed at all.

  “My King.” Pol put his hand to his heart and bowed.

  “No honorifics required. Have a seat and tell me about your experience today.”

  Pol looked at the King and sat down in front of the large familiar desk. “You’ve been briefed?”

  King Colvin nodded. “Captain Carter has spoken to me. I was told that you, not the Tesnan monk, led the party.”

  “I did, sir.”

  Colvin smiled. When did he ever smile at Pol before? “Sir, works just fine. Relax. It’s probably not often you live among royalty.”

  Pol took a deep breath. This would be the best time to reintroduce himself to his stepfather. He looked at his hands. “That’s not true. I grew up in a royal household.”

  The King’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s a surprise. In what capacity?”

  “I used to be a prince.”

  “Used to be…” the realization of what Pol had just said changed the look on King Colvin’s face. “Poldon?”

  Pol had expected a look of anger, but shock was the expression.

  The King’s eyes began to grow moist, and his voice grew rough. “You saved Landon? Queen Isa said the facts weren’t quite the same as she had originally understood them.”

  “I did. He had two chances to die that night, and I thwarted both of them.”

  “But your face.”

  Pol gripped the arms of the chair. “A moment. This doesn’t look pretty.” Pol changed his features, but left his hair darker. He let the pain subside for a few moments. “Are you convinced? If you aren’t, ask me anything, Father.”

  The King looked at Pol for a few moments. Pol could see the shock leave his face as he regained control. “You look…healthy.”

  “I am. I went on a journey to find a monk who had the ability to cure my health problem. Part of that journey took me to Alsador. The timing was fortuitous for King Landon.”

  Colvin looked stunned. “I would never have thought you would have saved Landon after the way he treated you. You say you’re cured?”

  Pol nodded. “The monks at Deftnis were able to determine that I had a bad heart from the moment I was born. They couldn’t fix it, but Searl Hogton could, and did.”

  The King narrowed his eyes. “Are you back to get me to rescind your disinherited status?”

  The two of them looked at each other, and then Pol shook his head. “If I wanted, I could have usurped the crown of Listya, but I don’t have any desire to rule. I never did, and that’s the truth.”

  “So what would you have of me?” The King looked unconvinced.

  “Not much,” Pol said. He raised his finger. “I want permission to test Grostin, Honna, and you to see if your minds have been tampered with. I think they have. The soldier that we captured claimed that Princess Honna sent them out to kill us. A messenger had to have gone out last night to notify South Salvan soldiers that we would be traveling along the South Road.”

  King Colvin sat back. “You mean I sent you out to be killed? That was not my intention, mind-controlled or not.”

  Pol pressed his lips together. “Let me touch your head. It won’t hurt.”

  “What if you put a mind-control spell on me?”

  That brought a smile to Pol’s lips. “That would make everything easy, wouldn’t it? But no, I’ll reaffirm my disinherited status before I do it, if you want. It will only take a moment.”

  Colvin rubbed his beard and shook his head. “You’ve never lied to me. It’s not in your nature.”

  Pol could agree with that, but he didn’t remind his father that his whole existence had been a lie for the last few months. He went around the King’s desk and put a hand on his head, seeing the expected thick film of mind-control. He saw no evidence of coercion, but the mind-control would explain his stepfather’s irrational behavior of a year ago.

  “I’ve removed it. You might feel a little disoriented, but it will pass quickly.”

  The King put his head back in his chair, holding his palm to his forehead. “How long has this been on my mind? Gastoria never told me.”

  “Deftnis doesn’t know about these mind-control spells, and certainly not about coercion. I doubt if Malden even suspected.”

  Colvin closed his eyes. “I can remember my decisions, but the reasoning of them eludes me.” He opened them and looked up at Pol, who still stood by his side. “I’ve wronged you. I wronged your mother, and now that my mind is clear, I don’t know if I can forgive myself for that.” He looked distraught.

  “What’s past is past,” Pol said. “Allow me to set up a shield that should keep another attempt from happening.”

  Colvin nodded. He smiled grimly when Pol stepped away. “I didn’t feel a thing.”

  “You shouldn’t.”

  Pol endured a long, hard look from this stepfather.

  “Well, then, I’ve just picked up a burden that I hadn’t expected to bear.” The King took a deep breath. “What are we to do?”

  “Give me free reign to root out the South Salvan spies. That will begin with Grostin, Honna, and your new magician. He may be more powerful than you suspect,” Pol said.

  “You’re only sixteen. I still can’t believe that you’re you, but the attack tells me that we are not as secure in Borstall as I thought.”

  Pol nodded. “Let Kelso work with Captain Carter in preparing the town’s defenses. I don’t know how successful we will be, if the Emperor’s forces are late. As Queen Isa probably told you, King Astor and General Onkar boast of a fifteen thousand man army.”

  The King nodded. “It is hard to believe anyone would create such a large army. It will be a death sentence for Astor.”

  “He might be mind-controlled as well.”

  King Colvin nodded. “I will do what you ask. I suppose you wish to be a free agent in all of this?”

  Pol nodded. “Just don’t let Grostin clap me in irons. You might emphasize that I’m helping to save the kingdom that he will inherit.”

  “Grostin won’t see it that way, you know.” The King spoke with all seriousness.

  “I agree. Let me examine them at dinner tonight.”

  “We’re not eating in the family dining room. But leave that to me. Can you assume your disguise again? I want you to reveal yourself at the dinner. There is no reason that I can see to keep it a secret after that.”

  “Whatever you decide, My King.”

  Colvin curtly nodded. He seemed to be back in control again. “I am thinking more clearly now, thanks to you. I really wasn’t intending on putting up a defense, and it may already be too late.”

  “I’ve also eliminated a similar spell from Amonna’s mi
nd. I helped her last night.”

  “I thought she looked happier today. Go, I have things to do. We will talk again, Poldon.”

  Pol left the study after changing his face back into Nater, relieved that his father now knew, yet dreading having to reveal his identity at a state dinner. His meeting had gone better than he could have ever imagined, but he knew his trials at Borstall were far from over.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  ~

  “IT’S TIME TO TALK TO THE SOUTH SALVAN SOLDIER that we brought with us,” Pol said.

  Shira raised her eyebrows. “I forgot about him.”

  “We both did, but perhaps he can give us some good background information.”

  They walked over to the Castle Guard and found Kelso discussing fortifications with Jamey Carter.

  “I’d like to visit Seen, the soldier we brought with us.”

  Jamey looked at Pol. “I assure you he hasn’t been mistreated.”

  “This isn’t an inspection. I want to ask him some questions on background.”

  “On background, eh?” Jamey smiled. “That sounds like Seeker talk.”

  Pol smiled back, not knowing if Jamey was needling him or if he was sincere. He ignored the comment. “Feel free to join us,” Pol said.

  Jamey called for a guard to escort Shira and Pol to the soldier. Seen hadn’t had breakfast yet, so Shira brought up the tray, while Pol talked to the guard. They didn’t walk to the basement where Pol had been before, but went upstairs. Just as the guard put the key in the lock, they heard a disturbance. The door seemed to be stuck.

  Pol threw open the door to see a rope with Seen dangling from it. He lifted Seen with teleportation. “Get him down,” he said.

  Shira grabbed Seen’s feet and looked up. The rope frayed, as she must have tweaked the pattern of the rope and staggered around with Seen flailing.

  Pol helped get him on ground and put him to sleep.

  “Someone must have tampered with his mind,” Pol said. He put his hand on the soldier’s head. “Compulsion, this time,” he said as he removed it. “Probably had him triggered to hang himself the next time someone tried to enter the room.”

  The soldier’s eyes grew wide when he woke up, and Pol helped Seen sit on the simple sofa in the room.

  “I was spelled again, wasn’t I?”

  Shira sat beside the captive and took his hand. “Who was it?”

  The soldier put his other hand to raw throat. “I don’t remember. I should, though, right?”

  “Not if he or she came while you were asleep.”

  Seen nodded. “Right.” He looked at Shira, who still held his hand, and Pol. “What are you here for?”

  “I’d like to get some background information on South Salvan.”

  “For some reason I had thought I shouldn’t talk to you, but that was what someone put in my head, because I don’t feel that way anymore.”

  “Right,” Pol said. “We’ll find out who did this. But first, tell me how your army works. I know there are magicians in the King’s service, but do they travel with the army?”

  “No. The generals don’t trust them. King Astor uses them in his personal guard, and then there is the new Tesnan army, but you know all about them.”

  “What role does Queen Isa play with the army?” Pol said. Shira’s eyes widened at the question, but Pol shook his head quickly to keep her from saying something.

  “None that I know. King Astor would take Princess Bythia out with his magicians and do their own maneuvers while we trained.”

  “How many magicians were under King Astor’s command?”

  “Ten or eleven. We knew them all. One of them disappeared last year and another during the winter.”

  So Borstall wasn’t flooded with enemy magicians, but one had already inflicted quite a bit of damage. Pol thought the pea-shooter whom he killed just before he had to flee Borstall would be the one missing last year. He wondered about the second one.

  “I’m going to invite you to a state dinner tonight. Look at the other diners and tell me if you recognize any of the men. You’ll have to shave your beard, I’m afraid.”

  “Anything I can do for you, sir,” Seen said.

  Pol laughed. “I’m no sir.”

  “Yes, you are,” Shira said.

  Pol scoffed at the notion and returned to Jamey.

  “Do you have any visitor logs? Someone put a coercion spell on Seen.”

  The guards kept records, but no one that Jamey didn’t personally know logged in. Whoever it was entered without being noticed. That made sense since that person had to have been a magician.

  ~

  Before the dinner, Pol inspected Seen again, bringing suitable clothes and Horker to shave Seen’s beard and head.

  “You’ll stand a better chance at not being recognized if you change your appearance. Horker and I have come up with a simple story about your background and why you’re in Borstall, should anyone ask. Make sure you memorize it.”

  Seen nodded.

  Pol clapped Horker on the shoulder and left to talk to Queen Isa. She had a servant deliver a message that he could find her wandering around in the gardens.

  He rushed outside and found Queen Isa sitting on a bench in the thin fall sunlight.

  “Sit with me,” she said. Her eyes drifted across the path. “Look.” She pointed with her finger. The figure of a woman in white marble stood on a simple black plinth of polished rock surrounded by new shrubbery.

  “That wasn’t here before,” Pol said. He used to work the gardens with Paki often enough in his days at Borstall.

  “What does it say on the base?”

  He had to walk a little closer. When he read the single word, he shuddered and whispered, “Molissa”.

  “Not Queen Molissa, so that means your father came to his senses enough at some time through the mind-control spell to erect a memorial.”

  Pol dropped to the bench beside the Queen. He rubbed wet eyes. “I never knew.”

  Isa nodded. “This is a personal memorial, without the presumption that you would ever return to see it.”

  “Since it doesn’t say ‘Queen,’ then perhaps Grostin will let it stay when he takes over from my stepfather.”

  Isa nodded. “One never knows with Grostin.”

  “No.” Pol stared at the statue. It wasn’t a particularly good representation of his mother, but it didn’t matter to him. He suddenly felt a bit, a tiny bit, softer towards King Colvin. Especially since he knew Bythia likely controlled the King.

  “I wanted you to see this and ask you if you’re ready to announce your identity tonight?”

  “My father?”

  “He told me all that you told him. He wanted to warn me before so there wouldn’t be a scene when you revealed yourself. I struggled to keep a smile off my face.” She smiled at Pol, anyway. “I let him know that I already had guessed your identity. I think that disappointed him a bit.” She chuckled at her words. “You really surprised him this morning.”

  “I needed to know if our coming here would do any good. At a critical time, I was afraid the King would make the wrong decision.”

  “You still have an attachment to North Salvan, don’t you?”

  Pol hadn’t expected such a personal conversation. “It was my home. I suppose I’ll never shed those emotions, but my attachment is to the past.”

  “Is that really true?”

  Pol shook his head. This meeting was much too personal for comfort. “Mostly, but not entirely. I have a connection to Landon, Grostin, Amonna, and even Honna, although she is the hardest to think of as a sibling. I realized that when I saved Landon’s life.” Pol took a deep breath. “But I’m afraid we have come too late.”

  Pol cleared his throat and had to change the subject, but Queen Isa asked him a question first, instead. “I have a request to make.”

  “If it is within my power,” Pol said.

  “King Colvin will ask you to check to see if his key people
are controlled. You will start with him, and then me. I don’t want to be surprised, so could you examine me for outside influence? You checked me once, but anyone could put another on me.”

  That wasn’t expected. “It won’t take a moment,” he said. He put his hand on the Queen’s forehead and found nothing.

  “Am I clean?”

  “You are.”

  The Queen shivered. “I am not happy about being used. What if I was a magician? Would anything show?”

  Pol shook his head. “I can’t tell if a person is a magician or not. Perhaps others can, but I’ve never been taught how to do that. Coercion spells are thicker on a magician, but I don’t know about mind-control.”

  “So if King Colvin’s magician isn’t mind-controlled, he could be the controller?” Isa shrugged her shoulders.

  “Maybe I’ll ask Horker.” Pol didn’t think that Horker would know. If someone could, wouldn’t that obviate the testing procedure?

  Pol’s eyes drifted back to his mother’s memorial. “I’ll come back here before I leave,” he said, mostly to himself.

  The Queen slapped Pol on his knee. “Be prepared for a ruckus tonight. King Colvin will have guards ready for whatever happens. I’d best be going to look my Queenly best.” She flashed a large smile to Pol and walked away.

  Pol watched her turn a corner and disappear behind shrubbery. Pol never had an aunt, and he thought that perhaps that was the role the Queen had just assumed when they looked together at Queen Molissa’s memorial statue. Queen Isa had grown into a real person as he had gotten to know her since their escape from Covial, and Pol found that he liked her. She had taken a huge risk in leaving King Astor and with the encroaching South Salvan army, he worried as much for her survival as he did his own.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  ~

  HORKER OPENED POL’S DOOR just as Pol slipped a few knives into his clothes.

  “Expecting trouble tonight?” Horker said.

  Pol nodded. “It is my unveiling. I know of two people who will be extremely unhappy, as will the magician who has been working with Honna within the castle. My father hasn’t said anything to me, but perhaps he will arrest his oldest daughter tonight when she is exposed.”