Maggie, Nathan quickly discovered, was an exceptionally talented cook. Dinner was simply delicious, a blend of familiar foods and some entirely new. A perfectly cooked roast, potatoes, gravy, roasted bavar nuts, and some sort of custard for dessert that made Nathan’s tongue tingle. From the glazed eyes of his companions, it looked like Nathan wasn’t the only one to overindulge during the feast.
Avera laughed, “Isn’t she just the best cook ever? I stole her from the castle when I moved here. It was two months before my brother would even speak to me.” After everyone agreed that she was amazing, Avera continued. “Nathan and Ava, while you two were at the beach, I was making plans with Rose and Sharon.”
Rose could hardly contain her excitement. “I am going to school here. Tomorrow, Avera is taking me to meet the schoolmaster. She says there are lots of girls and boys my age there.”
Next Sharon spoke. “And I am going to work for Miss Deville in the dress shop. Avera tells me I will get to make my own outfits. I can hardly wait.”
Nathan smiled. Avera was doing a wonderful job acclimating the girls to Balta. Seeing Sharon and Rose happy after all that had happened was very comforting.
“As for you two, my brother Verin tells me he has made a deal for you to make use of a blacksmith shop in town, and arranged for lessons with Balthazar. That should keep you busy Nathan. Ava, when you are not learning magic I have a proposition of you. Rose has been telling me that Nathan has been teaching you girls how to make perfume. I haven’t had a good bottle since my sister left us for a handsome northerner. Would you be interested in making more perfume, the market for it here in Balta is quite good.”
Ava smiled and nodded, “I’d be glad to, but there are a lot of plants on Mithbea that I don’t know yet. Everything is so different here from Solotine.”
“Luckily my brother, the ranger, happens to know all about the herbs and plants that can be found outside Balta. He will gladly escort you and Nathan on a few excursions to help get you acclimatized to your new surroundings. There are also several books in this house on the subject. I would read up on them before going out with Verin.
Chapter eight
SINCE THE DUKE HAD killed the man, he had become an accepted part of the bar’s landscape. He could come and go as he pleased without anyone trying to rob him or threaten him. In a pool of sharks, he was no longer bait, simply another predator.
Most of the time the duke sat and watched, listening to the drunken thugs that would brag to the bartender of their misdeeds, or the furtive nobles who would attempt to casually enter and slip a word to the bartender without drawing attention to themselves. It was ironic, the harder these nobles tried to blend in, the more they stood out.
The bar door opened and another noble slipped inside, hiding in the doorway’s shadows before making his way into the bar. This one was interesting to the duke. He was frail, slight of frame yet held himself with a certain style. Obviously out of his element, the man was highborn. Even in a place like this, the man carried himself well but was not oblivious to the danger this place presented. The noble was middle-aged, lines around his eyes and the grey just starting to make its way into his well-combed coiffure gave away his age.
The bartender recognized this man, and pulled out a bottle of brandy from below the bar, obviously high-quality stock, and poured a glass. The bartender walked over to the corner table the noble had sat himself down at and slid the drink onto the table. While the man went through his coin purse, he spoke fairly rapidly in a low voice to the bartender. The duke was only a few tables away yet could only hear mumbles. The man was careful about who heard him speak, the duke liked that. After a minute of discussion, the noble slid a gold coin into the bartenders hand. No change was given, the man was paying for more than just a drink.
As the bartender walked past the duke’s table, he looked over and asked if he wanted a refill. This was an intriguing change in behavior, normally if the duke wanted a refill he just silently signaled the man. It appeared the bartender was creating a reason to come to his table. The duke nodded his commitment to another glass of whiskey, curious to see what information would accompany the drink.
The bartender returned to the table carrying the fresh glass of liquor. As he put the drink on the table he leaned in and spoke softly. “Now don’t be going and getting offended, but if you were interested in making more than a coin or two, you should join the man in the corner for a drink.”
The duke coolly looked the bartender over, giving him an icy stare before replying. “And why would I do that?”
The bartender shrugged. “You do as you please, the man has a need for a certain skill set and he has a great deal of influence within the city. I just make suggestions to who might fit the bill, no skin off my back if it doesn’t interest you.”
The duke gave the bartender an appraising look. The man was more perceptive than the duke had originally given him credit for. “And what skill set might that be?” asked the duke.
“He needs someone who can handle their own if a transaction turns violent, and he needs someone who knows how to deal with highborn. I’ve dealt with this one before, he is not above dealing with the sort that frequent this place but he is an honest man who pays good gold. I’d prefer to keep him as a repeat customer.”
The duke almost smiled, the bartender was able to say so much with so few words. The bartender, by his actions and words, had guessed that the duke was interested in access to someone within the inner circles of the kingdom, not coin. Further more, he knew the duke was at least somewhat accustomed to being around royalty. His mention of keeping the man as a return customer was the bartender’s way of saying, if you take this job, the man had better not end up in a ditch with a knife in his back. The man represented a good deal of coin to the bartender and he was taking a small leap of faith bringing this to the duke instead of someone else. It was a test to see if the duke would take the job, and also to see if he would do it in a way that benefitted the bartender. It was exactly the type of situation he was looking for.
The duke nodded at the bartender, acknowledging that he understood everything the bartender was implying. “Do me a favor, when you refill his drink, pour a second brandy. I have become tired of this whiskey.” With this simple exchange of words the duke told the bartender of his interest and that their dynamic was forever changed. By asking for the brandy, the duke was signaled that he’d no longer accept drinking the shitty, watered-down whiskey the bartender served his normal patrons. The duke was drinking with the high class folk from now on.
The bartender nodded and took the duke’s glass of whiskey back to the bar, it would go back into the bottle.
The duke waited a few moments for the bartender to return to the bar before heading over to the noble’s table. “Might I join you?” he asked the man.
The man looked up, he had expected the bartender to send someone to him at some point, he just hadn’t known who or when. He looked relieved that his wait was over. “Yes, please do.”
As the duke sat down the bartender brought over two brandies. “Gentlemen,” the bartender said before walking away. This was all the acknowledgement the bartender would give that he had arranged this meeting.
“I am Bryant Bingham, and you are?” asked the noble.
The duke was just about to say his name when he paused. This was a new city, a new start; there was no advantage to carrying around his old name. He could leave it behind with his old failures. “Everet, my name is Everet.”
Chapter nine
AVA SAT AT THE TABLE across from Nathan, Balthazar stood at the head.
“Today we are going to begin training your minds. Ava, this is going to be especially important for you. Nathan has a strong attraction magic, your own magic will want to let him in. That is not a bad thing, eventually you two will be able to sense each other’s location and moods. If the bond becomes strong enough, you’ll even talk to each other through your minds. But if one mind is well trained and the ot
her is not, mind control or unwanted access to thoughts and memories can happen.”
Ava gave Nathan a dirty look, as if to say don’t even think about it.
Balthazar continued. “This is a simple lesson designed to train you both to focus your minds to use magic.” As he spoke Balthazar put a black rock the size of a thimble on the table. “This rock has a spell on it., it will move when someone focuses on it.” The rock began to move to one side of the table, then the other before stopping again in the middle. “Now Ava, I want you to close your eyes and visualize the rock moving across the table. Don’t visualize your hand moving it, just the rock moving because you tell it to.”
Ava closed her eyes and concentrated on the rock, visualizing it moving across the table. When she opened her eyes, the rock had not budged. She looked at Balthazar, her frustration was obvious.
“Relax child, it is not impossible. Just close your eyes and concentrate on the rock, picture it in your mind. Notice every detail, now picture an invisible hand coming along and giving the rock a big push.”
Again Ava closed her eyes and concentrated, visualizing an in invisible hand. She felt something in her mind, and quickly opened her eyes. The rock was wobbling and had moved an inch. She gave Nathan and Balthazar a quick look. “I did that?”
Nathan gave her a smile. “All you.”
“Now once more, but this time a think of a more firm yet gentle push. You don’t want to flip the rock, just slide it across the table,” said Balthazar.
Ava did as he asked, sending the rock a foot closer to Nathan. She had done it, she had moved the rock using magic.
“Now Nathan, push the rock to Ava’s side of the table,” said Balthazar.
Ava watched Nathan closely, he did not close his eyes as she had done, but he focused very intently on the rock. Slowly the rock started to move until it was sitting right in front of her.
“Very well done Nathan. Ava don’t be discouraged that Nathan is able to do it easier than you right now, he has already had similar training in the north and much more practice with magic. Now keep pushing the rock across the table to each other until I return.” Balthazar spoke before walking away.
Ava closed her eyes and visualized the rock sliding all the way across the table, when she opened her eyes she saw the rock fall over the edge of the table and into Nathan’s lap. She laughed with excitement. “Oops, too far.”
Nathan just joined her in laugher. “No worries, you are doing great.” He put the rock back on the table and it slowly started to make its way back to her.
She looked into his shimmering blue eyes. “How do you do it without closing your eyes; how come he makes me close mine?”
Nathan spoke as the rock continued to move towards her. “I learned the same way, I think that doing it the first couple times with your eyes closed teaches you that focusing on the rock isn’t what makes it move. You could stare at a rock all day and it would never move, but if you think about magically moving the rock it will go. Once you get used to having a magical connection to the rock, moving it without closing your eyes will be easy.”
Ava thought for a minute before trying again. She did close her eyes but this time focused more on the thought of magically pushing the rock instead of just the rock moving. When she opened her eyes, the rock was an inch from the edge of the table in front of Nathan, exactly where she had wanted it to go.
She looked up and gave Nathan a big smile. Nathan returned her smile and kept staring into her eyes, the rock slid across the table and stopped in front of her. His eyes had never left hers. She laughed. “Now you’re just showing off.”
Nathan shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
Ava kept her eyes open and looked at the rock, asking it to move across the table. This time she was able to watch it slide across the table.
By the time Balthazar came back they had the rock zigzagging across the table quickly, the rock would barely stop moving one way before the other person started it going the other way.
Balthazar watched for a few moments before putting his hand beside the table, the rock suddenly changed directions and quickly slid into Balthazar’s hand. “Excellent work you two, now this rock is also magical but it is much harder to move. This time instead of working as individuals you are going to have to work as a team. The two of you are going to make the rock go into the basket.” Balthazar placed a stool on top of the table then a basket floated across the room, landing on top of stool. A rock the size of a large fist rolled onto the table.
Ava looked at Nathan, who nodded in return. She turned her focus to the rock, giving it a push towards Nathan. The rock started to move towards him but then started back in her direction, she mentally pushed back harder. The rock lift off the table briefly but then shot across the table. Nathan quickly jumped out of the projectile’s way.
Ava gave Nathan a shrug. ”Sorry about that.”
Balthazar spoke up. “Remember this is magic but the principles are not much different than normal. If one of you pushes harder than the other, the rock will go the way of least resistance. If you push with an equal force the rock will stay in one place or move in another direction. If you’re both thinking about moving the rock forward and up then the rock has a chance to go the right direction.”
As Balthazar spoke the rock floated back into the middle of the table, dropping with a thud.
Ava looked over at Nathan. “Ready?”
“Ready,” replied Nathan.
This time Ava waited for the rock to move towards her. Once she had a feel for the amount of magical force Nathan was applying, she spoke. “Okay, now up.” She then thought about the rock being pushed and lifted at the same time. The rock started to lift, slowly making its way up to the basket. Occasionally, the rock would begin to move sideways or wobble, as the two young mages learned to apply an even amount of magical force. (It was trickier than it sounds.) Everything was going smoothly until they had the rock above the stool’s height. As Ava gave the rock a sideways push to land in the basket, Nathan was doing the same. The rock spit out to the side before falling back onto the table.
“Darn it,” exclaimed Ava. “We had it, just too much side push.”
Nathan agreed with her assessment. “Let’s try again.”
This time they landed the rock into the basket with only the slightest amount of wobble when moving it sideways.
Balthazar clapped. “Very good, now one last exercise for today.” He put an object on the table. “This time your efforts are going to be against each other. Both of you will be pushing at the same time, and there is a prize involved.”
Ava looked at the fragile egg on the table. She could predict how this game was going to be played. “Let me guess, first person to push the egg into the other wins?”
“Yes, but if the egg breaks on the table you both lose. Just pushing the egg doesn’t win you a prize. You have to protect the egg from your opponent’s force while moving it forward. It’s not very often a student gets the prize.”
Ava thought it through, how the heck could she keep the egg from cracking yet still push it hard enough to reach Nathan?
Nathan seemed to be having the same thoughts and hadn’t started pushing the egg yet. Balthazar hadn’t said they couldn’t start, so Ava decided a quick attack might get it done. She gave the egg a firm push towards Nathan.
The egg was almost three quarters of the way across the table before Nathan reacted, blocking the egg from going any farther.
“Woah, that was sneaky Ava. Nice try but I got this.” Nathan had stopped the egg and was slowly moving it back up the table towards her. Ava knew Nathan well enough to know he would let the egg break before letting her push harder than him, but perhaps there was another way.
Ava imagined that, instead of a magical hand pushing the egg, she had a magical string tied to the egg and to the table. As she stopped pushing against Nathan, his magic shot the egg towards her. Just before it crashed into her, Ava’s magic string grew taut and, usin
g the momentum from Nathan’s magical push, the egg to swung around the table sideways in arch. When her magical string had spun the egg almost a full 180 degrees, Ava release her connection. The egg shot straight into Nathan’s chest, showering yolk and shell pieces all down his chest.
“Aww yuck,” exclaimed Nathan as he looked down at his now rather messy tunic.
Balthazar, who had been watching with amusement, congratulated Ava on her victory. “Well done, young lady. An excellent example of how magic can be used. Nathan applied the greater magical force but sometimes force on its own does not ensure victory. With magic, a little bit of creativity can change the outcome. As promised, here is your prize.” Balthazar handled Ava a small, intricately carved wooden box. The rose carved on the box’s continually bloomed, changing from a small bud to a fully bloomed flower, then back again. “Don’t open the box yet. Wait until you are listening to something beautiful, then open it. Close it again and whatever sounds you heard with it open will be repeated. I like to listen to the ocean; other students have chosen music. One strange boy listened to his father’s snoring.”
Ava laughed. Magic was going to be so much fun.
Chapter ten
BEHIND THE STREET CART lay the alley where Everet, the former duke, was to meet the would-be extortionists. Dark and secluded, the alley was a perfect trap for an amateur. To Everet it was a narrow killing field where numbers would be a disadvantage. His adversaries had chosen a poor location for this meeting.
During his meeting with Bryant Bingham, he had learned that the man, a cousin to the king, had been caught in a honey trap. One of his unscrupulous relatives had thrown a party and used the occasion as a setup, getting Lord Bingham so intoxicated he blacked out. The next morning, the lord woke up beside a naked woman who claimed assault. The host, a distant relative to Lord Bingham, told him to leave quickly that he would take care of the situation. Bryant, hung over and confused, didn’t recall the woman being at the party, let alone remember bedding her, took his distant relative’s advice and fled.
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