Her cheeks colored. “Oh. That was rather thick, but thank you.”
Will grinned, then glanced at Seth. “Better shovel in a few bites while I keep her distracted.”
That prompted a nervous giggle from Seth who slowly began to relax. The chitchat slowed to a crawl, and everyone paid more attention to their food for the next little while. Will, having been more serious from the start, finished first, and he used the opportunity to gain the initiative in the after-dinner conversation. “Seth helped me find out who tried to kill you,” he announced without warning.
If the news surprised her, it didn’t show on her features. Selene finished her current mouthful, then dabbed at her mouth gracefully with a napkin. A few seconds later, mouth empty, she replied, “Well, that steals my thunder, doesn’t it? I was planning to tell you I had narrowed it down to three candidates. Let’s hear the name. Now we won’t have to go through the tedium of figuring out which it was.” Before he could speak, she threw up her hand. “Wait, let me guess first. I want to know if my suspicion is correct.”
Will waited.
“Lewis Arberry?”
His brows went up. “Damn. I’m impressed.”
She waved her hands dismissively. “Don’t be. The other two matched the description, age, and presumed circumstances, but they had absolutely no reason to want you dead.”
“Except it’s you they’re targeting,” insisted Will.
“We’ll see,” she said dryly, clearly not convinced. “Lewis Arberry’s father is one of your vassals.”
That confused him. “I’m not the king. I don’t have vassals.”
A look of embarrassment came over Selene’s face, and she immediately glanced at Seth, as the mother of a child who had said something foolish might do. Fortunately, Seth was just as ignorant. “I only know his father is a viscount.”
Selene folded her napkin and put her hands in her lap. School was in session. “William, as Duke of Arenata, you have several vassals, minor noblemen, who will swear fealty directly to you. They also pay taxes to you, and through you to the king. Principal among them, are Baron Hargast, Viscount Arberry, and Baron Lambel. There is also a smattering of knights with small holdings who hold allegiance to you.”
He digested that news for several seconds, then responded, “That’s all well and good, but if they owe fealty to me why haven’t I met any of them? Shouldn’t there be an exchange of oaths?”
She nodded. “Since your elevation was handled privately, to avoid making public your own lack of fealty, that hasn’t happened. In more ordinary times, you would meet with all of them at the harvest festival, where they would be expected to render their vows; however, with the war coming that will be expedited at the first gathering of the host.”
“Host?” asked Will.
“The army,” she clarified. “Your vassals will be there.”
Seth held up a hand, which caused Will to chuckle. “Speak up, this isn’t a classroom.”
“Did you say, ‘lack of fealty?’” asked Seth.
Will gave Selene an amused look, knowing she hadn’t meant to give away that fact. Ever honest, Selene moved on without showing her discomfort. “Will and my father don’t get along. Since he has continually refused to accept a title because of the oath of fealty, my father decided to bestow a title anyway and keep the matter of fealty private.”
Poleaxed, Seth stared blankly at her for a second, then at Will. “You refused to swear—to the king.” He looked back at Selene. “And you married…” The color slowly drained from his face.
Reaching out, Selene snatched up the wine bottle and refilled their guest’s cup. Will leaned over and picked it up, then pressed it into Seth’s hand. “Why don’t you take a deep breath and have a drink?” he suggested.
Seth did as he was told, but after a moment he set the cup aside. “You really didn’t swear fealty to the king?”
“Don’t worry,” answered Will. “He figures that my marriage to Selene is enough to keep me under control.” That wasn’t strictly true, since Lognion no longer controlled Selene either, but Will wasn’t about to explain that the heart-stone enchantment gave the king absolute control over his sister Laina. Nor was he going to explain that he had sisters.
They finished the meal and moved back into the parlor, where Blake served them a sweet dessert wine. Selene gave the man a strange look. “Didn’t I tell you to stop doing everything? Where’s Melina? You should be resting.”
A sheepish look came over the manservant’s face. “I’m already looking for a replacement for her. She quit yesterday.”
Selene frowned. “She’d only been with us a few days. That makes no sense—” Her expression froze, and her eyes went to Will’s face. He was watching her with the same thought.
“They had to know when and where,” Will said quietly.
She nodded. “And she was outside the study when we discussed our plans.”
Blake’s face was dark. “I’ll look into it immediately. The girl came with good recommendations from a respectable service.”
“Perhaps I should do it,” suggested Selene.
Will shook his head. “You should focus on Lewis Arberry.”
“Isn’t he dead?” put in Seth quietly.
“He means I should look into his situation. Where he was living and with whom. Hopefully we can find someone with some knowledge of who instigated this.”
“You already said his father is Will’s vassal. Doesn’t that mean the father, Viscount Arberry, is the one behind it all?”
“It’s possible,” said Selene, “but not likely. It’s a very tenuous connection. The viscount still has a lot to lose, but his son less so. Personally, I suspect someone else must have offered Lewis money to get rid of William.”
“Or you,” added Will, still clinging to his own hypothesis.
She shook her head and gave him a sad smile. “You’ll see who’s right before long.”
After that, they turned to lighter topics, and soon Seth made an excuse to leave, saying he needed to study. Will returned to his own reading, and the rest of the evening was relatively quiet and somewhat boring.
The next day, Will returned to his classes while Blake and Selene followed their respective leads. He didn’t like leaving it to others to do the legwork, but he couldn’t deny that each of them probably knew their business better than he did. Anxious to learn what they had found, he returned home as soon as he could, but neither had returned, so he went through his daily spell practice to help keep his mind occupied.
Since their near suffocation underground, Will had added Selene’s digging spell to his repertoire, along with another general-purpose spell from Arrogan’s journal, a minor telekinesis spell that would allow him to pick up or move small objects across short distances. He had seen Arrogan use it several times back when he was alive, usually for simple tasks like calling a book to his hand from across the room.
Although the small spell was unrelated, Will chose it for the same reason he learned the digging spell. Nearly suffocating for lack of something so simple had showed him that he needed more general-purpose utility spells. It was impossible to say what he might need in a pinch, but by learning a variety of spells with a lot of flexibility in their uses, he could hopefully avoid such dire circumstances in the future. Better to know something and not need it than the reverse, he decided.
Eventually, he finished his rotation of spells and moved on to some range practice with his force-lance and then the light-darts spells, but he kept that short since he wanted to be at home when Selene arrived. With nothing else to do, he reluctantly returned to his reading while he waited.
This time he read from a newer book titled War and Modern Sorcery. It had been written by Arenvald Arenata, the grandfather of the previous Duke Arenata, the one Will had been forced to kill while preventing the mad duchess from unleashing a demon-lord on the city. Arenvald Arenata had led an active life and had been involved in several small, defensive battles during his
lifetime, as well as helping Terabinia’s ally, Trendham, during one of their border disputes with the Fareshites.
Will found the book particularly interesting despite his prejudice against the title, for it actually devoted quite a bit of time to considering the proper use of magic both in preparation for battle, during battle, and afterward. The perspective naturally focused on sorcery and the use of elementals, but most of the subject matter applied generally to magic and its application in military situations.
Given the fact that sorcery was the main type of magic being used, Will expected that the author would recommend liberal use, but the book turned out to advocate for exactly the opposite. To quote it directly, “Sorcerers, being the smallest fraction of one’s force, and the most valuable, should be used judiciously and only for that which cannot be accomplished in any other, more mundane fashion.”
That made little sense to Will. It sounded like something he would have been told by the instructors at Wurthaven. But they were teaching students who quite literally used magic at the expense of their own lives. Sorcery didn’t have that limitation. As he got deeper into the book, it became clear that Arenvald mainly thought that magic should be restricted to intelligence gathering or situations in which the enemy had very little magic of their own.
“Sorcery makes small the feats of men and the striving of soldiers. Its use diminishes morale and breeds laziness while inviting the enemy to focus their efforts on eliminating your greatest advantage, your sorcerers.”
Having stood in a shield wall face-to-face with hundreds of men who were trying their best to put something sharp and pointy into his face or belly, Will wasn’t sure he agreed. At least not on all points. He could concede that excessive use of magic might make soldiers less willing to fight if they thought they weren’t needed, but he couldn’t see it weakening their morale. What had weakened their morale most was when the enemy began lobbing balls of fire into their lines and incinerating soldiers who had no effective way to defend themselves.
“Then again, many of the sorcerers among the forces Arenvald commanded were minor noblemen,” muttered Will. “They probably didn’t want to overexert themselves or make themselves the focal point for enemy assassins.” While he knew for a fact that some noblemen were exceedingly brave—Sir Kyle for example—he had no doubt that many others were considerably less so.
In Arenvald’s descriptions of his skirmishes with the Fareshites, Will found several interesting tidbits. The forces of the Great Khan had been involved in small incursions across the border with Trendham for years, hiding their activities under the thinly veiled disguise of unsanctioned banditry. When Arenvald Arenata had accepted the call for aid, he had wound up patrolling the southern border for a period of almost two years with a relatively large company of almost two hundred soldiers. He had also had seven sorcerers, aside from himself.
The fights against the Fareshites seemed to have informed his views on magic in battle the most. In the beginning, the duke had used magic profligately, but against an enemy with almost as many warlocks and sorcerers, that had apparently not turned out well.
“In any engagement, especially with an unknown force, the primary game is one of baiting the enemy’s magic users, for the first to reveal himself by spell or deed is guaranteed to die when the opposing force focuses their fire upon him. With this first exchange, the first to use magic is then down by one, and unless one side or another is sure of their advantage in numbers of their sorcerers, this can be a devastating loss. Therefore, lacking detailed intelligence of the enemy’s magical assets, one should always exercise restraint. This may go against one’s instincts, for the general rule of war is that he who strikes first has the advantage, but the opposite is true for magic. For sorcery, the rule should be the reverse: he who strikes second is more often the winner.”
Will mused over that for a while. He was tempted to dismiss the advice as the result of timidity on the author’s part, but he could see there might be some merit to the idea. But the real question is does it apply to me? If it did, it meant he might easily die in the opening exchanges of the coming war. Even if it didn’t, the rest of the magical support for the army would be composed of sorcerers. Ignoring Arenvald’s advice didn’t seem wise.
A noise from downstairs alerted him to Selene’s return, so he closed the book and went down to see what she had discovered. He was also hungry and ready to see what new surprise Jeremy had to offer.
Chapter 13
Since it was just Will and Selene that evening, they invited Blake to sit down and eat with them when he showed up a few minutes later. Although it went against usual manners, no one could bear to wait for the other’s news, so they let their food sit barely touched while they shared what they had discovered.
Well, Selene and Blake did. Will had no news to relate, so he kept his mouth busy while listening. He wasn’t merely hungry; he didn’t like to show disrespect to the cook—at least that’s what he told himself, and perhaps it was true, at least in part.
Selene insisted that Blake give his news first. “I tracked down Melina’s given address after confronting the service that recommended her. While there was a family living there, they had a different surname and no daughter. I checked with the neighbors just to be certain they weren’t lying, but I have little doubt that the girl’s name was probably a lie. Tomorrow I’ll go back to the service and see if I can find out who gave references for her since her personal information was fraudulent.”
“I had somewhat better luck,” announced Selene. “As expected, Lewis Arberry was not in the good graces of his father. In fact, he had been publicly disowned. Being a third son is bad enough, but without his father’s assistance he became nearly penniless. He abandoned his wife, and she divorced him last year. Since then he’s been living in a boarding house.”
“We should go search his room tomorrow,” Will mumbled around a mouthful of heavy bread.
“I already did,” said Selene. “There was little to find there.”
He nearly choked. “You were supposed to bring me along for anything dangerous!”
“You already killed the man,” she said dismissively. “I didn’t want to waste time, so I borrowed a few city guardsmen who were patrolling and brought them with me.”
“You can’t just borrow…” Will stopped as his wife raised one brow in askance, then he rethought his words. “Well, I suppose you can borrow the city guards, can’t you?”
She laughed. “It’s one of the perks of being royalty, but you could probably convince them to do the same once you proved your identity. Being a peer of the realm is almost as good as being royalty.”
Will still wasn’t happy about being left out, but he decided to pick his battles carefully. This one wasn’t worth it. “So what did you find?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she admitted. “It appears he was barely scraping by. But although the owner of the boarding house told me that Lewis had been on the verge of being kicked out for failure to pay his rent, last week that changed. He paid his back rent and had prepaid for the next three months. It seems he came into some money, though I failed to find any in the room.”
“I wonder how much they had to pay him to try and kill a royal,” mused Will.
Blake coughed. “For a princess, it would be a massive sum. Tens of thousands of gold marks. For a lord of the realm it would be less, perhaps only a few thousand.”
“Those numbers came readily to mind, didn’t they?” remarked Will.
“As you’re aware, I’ve led an interesting life,” said the manservant.
Selene broke in, “As desperate as Lewis was, he may have been willing to work for much less.”
“I hoped we would learn more,” said Will unhappily.
“I’m not done,” said Selene. “Tomorrow I’ll pay a visit to his ex-wife and daughter.”
Will frowned. “You said they were separated for a year.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps they were, and perhaps not. She’s
still unmarried, but she’s managed to feed and clothe their daughter without much visible support. What would you do if you had to resort to crime to take care of your family?”
It became clear to him then. “You think he parted ways with her so she couldn’t be held responsible for his shady dealings?”
“Maybe. I’ll know tomorrow when I meet her.”
“I’m coming with you,” Will stated firmly.
“You’ll miss classes.”
He shrugged. “I can use the extra time to finish some of my reading.”
Selene smiled. “Be sure to bring his boots.”
The next day Will and Selene rose early, ate a small breakfast, and got moving. Neither of them could stand to wait any longer than necessary. Blake had his own lead to chase, so he didn’t come with them. Instead of taking a carriage, Will and Selene chose to walk since the weather was cold but fair.
Glancing over, Will noted that Selene was wearing her armored corset, an article of clothing that he heartily approved of now that he knew what it was. If she hadn’t been wearing it a few days before, he would have become an early widower. For his own part, he wore his hidden brigandine, but he intended to supplement it with an iron-body transformation before knocking on the door of their assassin’s former wife. He wished he could do the same for Selene, but the spell could only be used on oneself. His currently prepared spells included the iron-body spell as well as a force-dome and silver-sword spell.
They were headed for the merchant district, where Belinda Arberry lived along with her daughter, Theresa. They were almost halfway there when Will asked, “Are you sure it’s wise for us to go alone?”
Selene smiled, a sparkle in her eye. “Nervous?”
“I’m more worried about you. You still can’t use magic freely.”
She laughed. “I don’t actually intend to go alone.”
Disciple of War (Art of the Adept Book 4) Page 11
