by Aaron Thomas
“Not men like us, only those that suffer from madness. Those men that are cast aside like those inflicted with voices, and leprosy.” Brent finished swallowing his cheese and scraped off the rest of his plate into some tall grass. “Men like us have not been admitted, ever. I have even heard the Elder Wizards are not allowed inside.”
“Not even kings?” Kilen asked.
“No, especially not kings. During the early reign of King Atmos, any female wizard was to be turned over to him for service to the throne. He tried to create a wizard army, or at least get them to imbue a massive arsenal of armor. Because of this decree, any wizard in the Water Realm fled here. When Atmos arrived with a contingent of wielders and wizards, he found he was outmatched and even he decided to leave.”
“So you're saying there is an army of female wizards that live here?” Kilen asked in wonderment.
“Precisely, and over the years their power and skills have grown. It would not do you well to kick a hornet's nest demanding entry. Besides, there are very few men in there, and none sane enough to recruit.”
Kilen stood staring at the line of trees disappearing into the distance, “Men, no. The women would be, though.”
Erica stood up and faced Kilen, “Don’t you dare! The women in there have had enough problems in their life.”
Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for Leroy to drop what he was doing and punch Erica in the shoulder.
“You are speaking to a king, have some respect,” He said sarcastically.
Erica gave him a glare and turned to find Kilen looking at her and turned red in the face.
Erica curtsied low to the ground, “Sorry, Sire. I spoke out of turn, please forgive me.”
She quickly returned to work loading the cart to resume travel, and Kilen retrieved his horse. Brent followed in his footsteps as if Kilen was about to do something mischievous.
“My Lord, I do not think that even asking for any of the wizards to join you would be a good idea. Mrs. Augustine is very sensitive about her people,” Brent cautioned.
“Have you ever met her, Brent?” Kilen asked.
“No, I have only heard rumors,” Brent said taken aback.
Kilen smiled, “Well let’s not draw conclusions before we even meet her.”
Chapter 9 - Mrs. Augustine’s Estate
The stone barrier and trees grew in size as Kilen’s small party continued to travel along the worn road. The wall was so high now that seeing the trees on the other side had become difficult. Even before the stone was an obstruction, the trees had begun to grow together to form their own concealment of twisting branches and thorns. The trees and walls couldn’t keep from escaping the sounds of work being done.
Kilen wished it would keep the sound of Brent’s arguments from escaping his mouth. The wizard had continued for two hours, listing things that could go wrong. He dove into politics, business, and even history to explain each point. When he was asked what could go right, Brent simply said, “A lot, but it's unlikely to happen.”
“Why don’t you try and counsel me on what I should say and request instead of trying to talk me out of it?” Kilen asked with as much authority as he could muster.
“Sire, I don't know. I have never seen Mrs. Augustine before,” Brent said shrugging.
Kilen smiled, “How many times have I been against all the odds and come out on the other side, Councilmen Parker? Would you like me to list them?”
Brent simply shook his head and finally closed his mouth. He did hold out his hand to start a conversation again but would stop before the words came out. For the first time that Kilen could remember Brent was at a loss for words.
The last hour of the ride Kilen began to notice sporadic flower bushes and farm houses. The road condition also improved to where there were no wagon tracks dug into the earth. The Wall now had windows and windowed spires built in with ivy. They looked more and more like the seamless structure of Deuterium only with a green crystal vein running throughout.
Finally, a large black iron gate stood open in a circle terrace with a fountain and a stone sign bordered by flowers stating, “Augustine Estate.” Thirty women stood outside with hands folded in front of them and a pleasant look on their face. Kilen motioned his party to stop and dismounted before entering the circle terrace.
Kilen motioned the only women in his party forward. Kara and Erica came without hesitation but the female fire wizard, Charity, took the second wave to get her to join him. Al’tore gave Kilen a look. Kilen was unsure what to make of the look and almost turned back to discuss it with him.
Kilen approached the front gate and took a look at the women spread out in front of the gate and courtyard. Unsure which to address he simply kneeled, “Mrs. Augustine, I Kilen Everheart, humbly request to speak with you.”
He had not instructed the others to kneel, but he heard movement behind him and assumed they followed his lead. Kilen waited and stayed in position for quite some time before a voice finally broke the silence, “This is the first time I have ever seen a king kneel before our gates.”
Kilen looked up to see a short, middle-aged woman coming to the front of the others. She had long braided hair that nearly touched the ground. Her dress was as plain as the rest of the women and showed no signs of embellishments the others seemed to have. He was surprised that there was simply nothing to set the woman apart from the rest.
“Get off the ground, your majesty. I am Jennifer Augustine,” She said, curtsying in front of him.
Kilen held out a hand and Jennifer grasp it, “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” Jennifer responded. “I only recently heard about your taking of the throne. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Jennifer asked.
Kilen took a moment to find the proper words before continuing, “I am afraid our visit is unscheduled. I am traveling the realm in an attempt to raise an army. I didn’t know about your estate until we saw where your wall starts.”
“You will find no soldiers here,” Jennifer said flatly.
Kilen let out a small laugh, “Yes, that is exactly what my councilmen has been telling me for the last two hours. I do have a request, though.”
“Request?” Jennifer said, raising an eyebrow.
“I would like you to meet Charity, Kara, and Erica. The charity was recently liberated from King Atmos’ dungeon for being a fire wizard. My sister Kara also spent some time there but has gained control of her powers. My favorite is Erica, she saved my life and is now traveling with me as a servant.”
Jennifer looked at each of the girls in turn as she greeted them, “I’m sorry. I did not hear a request.”
Kilen nodded as though he had forgotten, “I wanted to see if you would allow them a tour. Each of them has been through an ordeal in their life and deserves to get the chance to live in peace with you. If I understand correctly, you take in the less fortunate.”
“I do when they are right for our estate. Give me a moment,” Jennifer said as she walked away.
The large group of women converged on Jennifer surrounding her to where she could not be seen. Whispers could be heard but not what was being discussed.
Kara looked furious, “I’m not staying here. I have other things to do besides garden my life away.”
Erica gave a curtsey, “Your majesty, I offered my service to you and will not be turning back on my word.”
Before Charity could speak, Kilen held up his hands, “Ladies, no one I know has to set foot in this place. You may decide to stay or continue on with me, I just wanted to know what was behind these walls. If she has an army in there, I want to know. If you get to enter I will want to know what you see inside.”
Finally, Charity spoke, “That’s underhanded.”
Kilen turned to the fire wizard, “I will not ask you to do it if you don’t want to. Think of this as an opportunity to see something others rarely get to see. If and
when you come back out, what you choose to tell me is up to you. I simply must know if these women are dangerous, that is all.”
Charity and the others nodded their heads in agreeance just before Jennifer returned.
“After a bit of discussion, we have decided to allow the tour. These girls should not be a problem, but there will be certain concessions we will have to make for you,” Jennifer said pointing at Kilen.
“You are going to allow me to enter?” Kilen asked confused.
“If you agree to a couple things, then yes,” Jennifer said, smiling.
Raising an eyebrow, Kilen asked, “What is it you will have me do?”
“You must simply leave all of your imbuements with these other men,” She said as if it was an easy thing to do.
Erica coughed and took a step forward, “Mrs. Augustine? I don’t think that would be wise. His Majesty has been using his magic to keep all of us moving forward with little rest. I am afraid that if he removed all his imbuements, he would be too weak to keep breathing. Even now he controls four elementals to protect us.”
Jennifer raised an eyebrow and took a step back as if Kilen were something evil. Quickly she motioned for the other women to gather around. Kilen knew Erica was right. He couldn’t take off all the imbuements, or it would reveal he could hold elementals without his weapons. Worse yet is if Max or Tokeye healed him to keep him alive.
The second discussion amongst the women was more intense, but they finally returned to their positions.
“We have decided to allow you to keep your weapon. After all, we cannot expect a king to walk unprotected into an unknown city. I will be assigning a wizard of each element to escort all of you. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s simply a precaution,” Jennifer said as if she was trying not to offend.
Kilen gave a deep bow, “Your restrictions are agreeable, and I am honored for the opportunity to see your estate.”
After standing back up, Kilen quickly went to Leroy, “Get this armor off of me.”
Brent did not take long, “You got her to let you inside? You never cease to amaze me, Sire.”
“It is only a tour. You will stay here and make sure nothing happens. I am taking the women in and will be back before nightfall. Make sure the fire wizards don’t do anything foolish,” Kilen said, removing the necklace containing his father’s imbued rings. He hesitated before dropping the rings into Leroy’s hand. It was only the third time he had been separated from the rings since he had gotten them. The first time he nearly killed himself by taking them off. The second they were taken from him during his trial. It took him a moment to reassure himself it was the only superstition that being separated from the rings would cause another disaster.
Letting the rings go, he watches as Leroy’s muscles visibly tightened.
“How do you not crush people while wearing these?” Leroy asked.
“With practice,” Kilen replied with a smile. “Take care of those Leroy, those belonged to my father.”
Leroy gave him a nod and slipped them down his shirt with the necklace around his neck. Kilen turned and joined the women still staring at each other. Only Kilen’s presence made Mrs. Augustine look away.
Kilen’s body felt weak as he walked across the courtyard following the group of wizards. He hoped that he could remain upright while taking the tour. Mrs. Augustine ran her hand through Kilen’s arm as if he were escorting her to dance, and maybe this would be a dance. A dance of wits and not of the feet.
Once inside the gates vines grew over the black metal to prevent the rest of his party from looking inside. Kilen was unsure what it is they were supposed to see beyond the line of female wizards. He saw humble houses with smoke trailing out of chimneys. The smell of bread laced the air and the sound of children playing caught Kilen’s ears. He finally saw the children tossing a potato back and forth as they ran between houses.
The town felt much Humbridge until Kilen took a closer look. Anywhere he used magic vision he could see the elements being manipulated. A woman used fire to cook bread in pans along the rock wall. Another woman drew water into a bucket without dropping it down the well she stood at. Fruit and vegetables were being grown at a rapid rate in various gardens. Kilen wondered what was being done with wind magic since his sword did not contain the mark and he had left Warick’s knife behind with Leroy.
Kilen only drew a look from a few of the women and was unsure if it was his presence or the three elemental’s traipsing along behind him. He hoped that Jace had remained behind as if he was disappearing. He smiled to himself knowing that Jace would not make the mistake of being caught. Max maybe, but not Jace.
“What do you think so far?” Jennifer asked releasing his arm.
“It feels a bit like home, except for all the magic,” Kilen said, looking around. He put a hand out to a nearby wall and tried to remain upright.
“Carol, would you be as so kind as to renew this King’s energy. Just enough so he can walk without leaning on me,” Jennifer said to a woman working in the garden.
Kilen tried to wave the woman away, but Jennifer motioned her on, “Don’t try and turn my hospitality away in my home.”
Kilen reluctantly conceded and let the woman restore his energy.
“It’s been awhile since someone has done that for me,” Kilen said thanking the woman.
Jennifer smiled, “The price we all pay for accumulating imbuements. Come on, I want to show you the rest of the place.”
The farther into the property he traveled, the grander the structures became. He saw homes made out of solid stone, fountains and sculptures made even more perfect than Max had been able to do. Bushes were grown to look like animals and flowers grew larger than Kilen’s head. He spun in a circle as he looked about the pavilion. Then he noticed Kara and the others were gone.
“Where is my sister?” Kilen asked.
“You said you wanted to give them the opportunity to stay here, so the ladies are showing them the day to day activities. We find that some of the younger girls don’t stay because of the labor required of them. Mostly the ones whose parents drop them off to keep them from running away with a boy,” Jennifer said walking away from Kilen.
He assumed he was supposed to follow her and did. Catching up to Jennifer he held his arm out, and she slipped her arm in his.
“When you raised your castle from the lake did you marry a woman you were in love with or out of necessity?” She asked while smiling.
He knew his answer would be more than just a conversation starter. “A little of both,” Kilen said. “The necessity of marriage made me see how much I really do love her. I would like to say I would have noticed eventually, but I am blind when it comes to girls.”
“Good answer. Who is it that you married?” She asked, looking up at him.
“She was the first wizard I ever met; Twilix. I got to know her rather well after she trained me in Deuterium.”
Jennifer’s eyes furrowed, “Twilix, that is a name I’ve heard before.”
The wizard stopped in the middle of the path, looking deep looking down as if trying to remember something. When she came out of her thoughts, she pointed at a dark stone building set back under the shade of a group of trees. The building had small windows and stone overhangs to prevent rain from seeping inside.
“This is the asylum you must have heard of. After all, it contains all of the grown men that are allowed to stay on our walls.” She said.
“Most?” Kilen asked.
“Well, we have the occasional woman who wanders in pregnant and desperate. If she has a boy, we let her raise him here until he is thirteen years of age. When he is that old we pay for him to obtain an apprenticeship and send him on his way,” Jennifer explained.
“Are there any others?” Kilen asked, still unable to take his eyes from the building. Talking to voices in his head had at one time made him think he had gone mad. If he had not been able to summon his elementals in their own bodies, he might have very well ende
d up in the building in front of him.
“We have one, Paul. Paul is different than the others,” She said with a bit of confusion in her voice.
Kilen raised an eyebrow, “Different how?”
Jennifer thought for a moment and turned away from the building, “I would have to show you for you to understand.”
She walked forward on the path pulling Kilen beside her. Still looking about amazed, Kilen was lead back to the wall and up a spiral staircase to one of the rooms overlooking the road. In front of a small, sturdy door, Jennifer stopped and rested her hand on the handle.
“I want you to go in alone and speak with him. Paul was turned over to me nearly thirty years ago for having gone mad. You see, he speaks to himself,” she said as if letting the notion sink in.
“He speaks as if he was having a conversation with someone who is not there. Since that day he has aged like a wizard, but has shown no signs of magic ability,” Jennifer said. “We have tested him many times over for the ability to control the elements, but he has none.”
Kilen recognized the man’s ability before she was done explaining the symptoms of his madness. The man wasn’t mad at all, he was another spirit wizard.
“I would love to meet him,” Kilen said, trying to hold back his excitement.
Jennifer took a key from her pocket and opened the lock keeping Paul in his place. Quietly, she swung open the door, and Kilen took in all the sights before him. Paul’s room was chalked full of books, paintings, and parchment. The art of every sort filled his view from ceiling to floor. Kilen stepped inside and nearly knocked over a vase more elegant that he had ever seen.
Jennifer quickly closed the door behind him, and he heard the lock click shut.
“Let me know when you are ready to come out,” her voice said from the other side of the door.
Kilen walked around the room and finally heard a quiet rambling from a small hallway. A man that looked to be in his mid-twenties entered the room. He had short blonde hair and a beard that was neatly trimmed. He wore a fine linen shirt with buttons up the front. A vest cinched in his midsection in a vibrant green color. Paul stopped and looked up at Kilen before closing the book he held and looked about.
