The Mage's Daughter 2: Book Two: Enlightenment

by LeRoy Clary

  “Find out? How?” Prin asked in a huff.

  Sara smiled the sly smile that she sometimes used when she knew an answer and Prin didn’t. “Because you will tell her.”

  “Will not.”

  “Will too,” Sara squealed as she made a weaving motion with her hand and disappeared before Prin’s amazed eyes.

  Prin darted forward and hugged empty air while hearing Sara off to one side laughing uproariously. Prin lunged at the laughter, only to miss again, and the laughter came from behind her. She whirled and spread her arms as if sweeping Sara into them. She shot forward and felt Sara brush her left hand. She paused, “Learned a new spell, huh?”

  The tap of a finger on her shoulder told her where Sara was. Sara said, “Imagine the fun we can have if we both use this at the same time?”

  “We can pretend there’s nobody in the room. Is it a spell Maude gave you, or is it one you found and cast?”

  “Maude helped me with the details, but this is one from the journals Angelica left us, one of those she translated from old scrolls.”

  Prin found it difficult to have a conversation with someone she couldn’t see, let alone follow the expressions and body language. “Can you make it stop?”

  “I should, anyhow. The spell uses much more energy than I think it should. I’m already feeling weaker.” Sara glittered into existence a few feet away. “I must have done something wrong.”

  Maude stood in the doorway, wearing a firm expression. “You did.”

  Sara turned, “What? I thought I followed Angelica’s instructions correctly.”

  “You used a spell without knowing all the details, the nits, and gnats. You might have blown up my home, or yourself. You could have made yourself invisible for the rest of your life, or injured little Prin.” She stamped a foot hard enough to echo in the room.

  Sara said, “I didn’t mean to do something dangerous or wrong. It won’t happen again.”

  “Damned right it won’t,” Maude snapped. “Sorry about the language, but we all need to understand that magic is not about having fun and hiding from each other. When I was young, I took an oath to use it to help people. I will expect the two of you to do the same.”

  “And me?” Brice asked, looking over her shoulder.

  “And you. There is plenty of time for humor and play, but when it comes to your studies, I expect and demand your full cooperation.”

  “Holy crap!” Prin said.

  Maude stiffened. “It is not that much to ask of you.”

  “Not that,” Prin said. “I just saw Jam on the street.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Sara’s eyes remained fixed on the window and the narrow street beyond. “Gallium is a huge city. There must be many boys who look like Jam.”

  Prin shook her head. “How could he be here? On this hill? This street?”

  “We saw them take him and Sammy to the other ship. The bos’n said it sailed,” Sara said without turning to look.

  Maude asked, “Who is Jam? And Sammy?”

  “A deckhand and night wheelman from our ship. Jam’s been spying on us.” Sara said.

  Prin added, “A lazy creep who’s the captain’s son. He put them both on another ship before we reached the pier, a ship heading to sea.”

  “Then, how can he be here?” Maude asked. “Perhaps, as Sara suggested, it was just someone who looked like him.”

  Prin sat where she could watch the street. Perhaps Maude was right. Maybe she was paranoid from Jam watching them in Donella and on the ship, every time she turned around, and he’d searched through their crates. But, there was a particular way he walked, holding his pointed chin thrust in front as if accusing anyone looking in his direction.

  Yet, others must walk the same. They might be passing by. After all, she had only caught a glimpse of whoever it was out there, and her emotions the last few days had run wild. Prin drew a deep breath and forced herself to relax. “I just saw him for a flash.”

  She was still watching the street as a small wagon pulled to a stop in front. Two men climbed down, one unlashed the crates the wagon carried, while the other approached the front door. Maude welcomed them and showed them where to place the crates, which was not in the workroom Prin hadn’t yet seen. They were placed in one corner of the main room, to the side of the massive fireplace.

  Prin wondered why there but said nothing. After they were gone and the door barred again, Sara said, “Wouldn’t it have been better to put them in your workroom?”

  Maude slowly shook her head and closed her eyes, as if frustrated at Sara’s stupid question. Prin was glad she hadn’t asked it.

  Maude said, “How fast would word travel if those workmen knew I was a sorceress? And how could they not know if I showed the workroom to them?

  Prin said, “Even I haven’t seen it.”

  Maude said, “Earlier you and Sara were playing hide and seek and seemed to enjoy yourselves. Forget about this Jam person, and suppose we begin our studies for the three of you with you seeking the location of my workshop? I’ll watch and grade you.”

  “Down the hall past our rooms,” Prin shouted, as she raced Brice to the hallway.

  He shouted, “I’ll take the doors on the left.”

  Prin raced past the first three on the right, those belonging to Brice, Sara, and her. She threw open the fourth on the right, then the next and the next. A quick look in each revealed a neat and tidy bedroom much like the ones they used. Each was a different color, slightly different furniture, or decorations, but while no two were the same, they were not very different.

  Eventually, with more than twenty doors on the right open, and nearly as many on the left standing open, she pulled to a stop and tried to catch her breath. “Brice.”

  “It’s not down here,” He panted.

  She looked ahead, and the hallway was as long as when she’d begun. Looking behind, showed a hallway twenty doors long. She said, “Come on.”

  Back in the great room, Maude munched on a tray of small cookies as she sipped tea while watching their antics. Her eyes sparkled. Prin watched her, waiting for the eyes to flick in the direction of the hidden workshop, but they remained centered on her, never giving a clue.

  Sara returned from the kitchen, another logical place to hide it. But she was shaking her head. “I also checked Maude’s bedroom.”

  Their eyes went to the dining room, a rectangular room with walls covered in tapestries. Brice said, pointing to the dining room, “It’s here.”

  “Where?” Sara asked, turning a full turn.

  Prin said, “Quit looking for it and use your heads.”

  “Impressive,” Maude said, tipping an imaginary hat in Prin’s direction.

  Sara said, “Okay, it’s not down the bedroom hall, the kitchen, or dining room.”

  “Outside,” Brice shouted.

  “No,” Sara said after considering it for a second. “She wouldn’t want to go out there in the snow or rain. Besides, the backyard is too small.”

  “Small?” Brice asked.

  They ignored him. Sara continued, “For now, let’s rule out a basement or attic. Too many steps to carry large things and besides, we haven’t seen any. It makes more sense to hide it nearby on the same level.”

  Prin turned to the crates. “If the steps are too hard to climb with large objects, why would Maude have the deliverymen place the crates anywhere but close to the workroom?”

  Their eyes went to the neatly stacked crates near the massive fireplace. Prin noticed a twitch of Maud’s lips. Sara and Brice rushed to the crates, but Prin held back. Twice she’d noticed the fireplace. She’d even said it was massive. The opening for the fire would accept small trees, but she didn’t believe Gallium had winters so cold.

  Prin studied the river stones and the mortar used. It all matched, but on the left side of the firebox, she found an oddity. One of the stones located chest high was more triangular than round. Several rows to the left of it was another stone, the same height,
shaped exactly the same.

  Prin started matching up the stones and found duplicates the same distance away, which was the width of a wide door. A spell copied the stones from one side of the stone wall to another. On impulse, she said, “I’m going to look outside for a second.”

  Ignoring the disappointing look Maude threw her, Prin went outside and examined the rear of the fireplace, finding the side with the hidden door perhaps a single step deeper. Using the spell that made the bedroom hallway longer, Maude could make the workshop inside larger.

  She went back inside and sat beside Maude, who asked, “Cookie?”

  “Why, thank you, Maude.”

  “Did you satisfy yourself outside?” Maude asked, with a slip of a smile on her lips.

  “The fireplace matches the inside. There is a slight bump, but only a foot, or so.”

  Sara glared at Prin. “You’re not going to help us find it?”

  “She’ll sit here with me, dear,” Maude said, holding the tray of cookies for Prin to accept another.

  “She found it?” Brice shouted, and ran for the door outside, convinced he’d be the second to locate the room.

  Maude said to Sara, “Prin was right, earlier. Use your mind instead of eyes and emotion.”

  Sara crossed her arms over her chest and strolled around the far end of the room, not touching anything, but examining all things, her mind searching more than her eyes. She finally smiled and said, “I think I’ll have a cookie, too.”

  Brice busted back into the room. “Not out there. What are you all doing sitting?”

  “Waiting for you to locate the workroom,” Maude said. “Think. Stretch your mind. Tell me what is happening inside there.”

  Brice spun around, then again. His eyes went to the fireplace. “It’s too big for the room.”

  “Yes, it is, unless it’s used for more than just for fires,” Maude said. “But how?”

  He walked to it, feeling several of the stones and when he touched one of the duplicates, Prin expected his hand to find only air. However, it did not. He touched others. He said, “A secret place to touch?”

  Maude glanced at her and Sara. “Did you expect only one protection?”

  Brice examined the inside of the firebox, the mantle, and turned in frustration. Maude said, “Look closely at the stones beside your shoulder and at others.”

  He studied the stones and finally placed a hand on one, then his other hand on another. “The same.”

  “Yes, but no door,” Maude said.

  “There is a spell here,” Brice said. “It duplicates the look and feel of the stones over there, but you must have another spell that either removes the first or lets you pass right through.”

  “Excellent,” Maude said. “Now, which is it?”

  “You pass through,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Because, if anyone came into this room, or looked in through the windows, they’d see the opening. If you were inside working, they would know of the room.”

  “Brice, would you like a cookie, too? That was very good work on the part of all three of you. I watched your minds work and found all three superior to almost all I’ve encountered. True, you lack training, but those things can be taught. Raw ability cannot.”

  They beamed at each other. Prin said, “We still haven’t seen your workroom.”

  “It uses a simple voice command in case my hands are full. Masha. In the old language of Gallium, that means Maude.”

  Brice went to stand in front of the fireplace. “Masha.”

  A section faded to a shimmer. An opening in the stone revealed a room beyond. Maude said, “It re-forms when you step through, just as you determined, in case I have unexpected company, but the spell is clever because it allows anyone on the other side to see into this room. That prevents me from accidentally seeming to walk through the rocks when visitors are here.”

  Sara watched Brice enter and said, “Maude, you’ve made everything simple, but useful. I’ve known people who take simple things and make them complicated.”

  They laughed, but Prin was watching the fireplace that had reformed itself. She called, “Brice, can you hear me?”

  “I’m right here, you don’t have to yell.”

  They played with the door and entrance until all understood the methods to use it, then they carried the crates into the room. Prin remembered when she checked outside, the wall was not more than a single step thick. But, passing through the rock wall revealed a room at least thirty paces in any direction.

  To her left was a large desk with a floor to ceiling bookcase behind. Hundreds of books, scrolls, and stacks of parchment filled them. Shelves surrounded the room, two, three, four, and some five high. Canisters, containers, jars, pots, and boxes were stored in clusters, all neatly labeled.

  The floor held at least twenty work tables of varying heights. Most were high enough that no bending was required to work on them. Lamps, candles, and reflectors sat where they provided light, but Prin looked up at the first skylights she’d ever seen.

  An oddly shaped iron plate stood against one wall, almost as tall as Sara, with ridges fastened to it. Prin pointed.

  Maude said, “An old, but efficient way to heat this room without telltale smoke or having to lug wood in here. The other side is the fireplace. Build a fire there, and that warms this room from the iron grate radiating it in here. Let me clear those two tables nearest you, and we can set your things there.”

  Maude nodded approvingly as the contents of the first crate were placed on the worktable. She read each label and commented on a few. The tools and other items were inspected and duly admired. Then they opened a crate where Jam had destroyed much of the contents. Loose pages were scattered, the remains of containers mixed together in the bottom of the crate, along with broken pottery.

  Maude’s face paled, then reddened. “That little savage. To cause you pain, he destroyed work done hundreds of years ago. When we have removed all from the crate, that which spilled and combined with other compounds will be carried out back and burned.”

  She carefully removed every torn page and handed them to Sara. “You take these and find the book each came from. I will bind them back together.”

  Maude turned away to speak to Prin, but paused and looked back at Sara. “One more thing. You will not stand in my way when I find, and make Jam pay for this.”

  They searched the contents of the other crates, with Maude muttering curses until there were two crates remaining. The top of one reveal the books, scrolls, and papers, many obviously old. Maude instantly noted many were in other languages, and she pointed to three. “Those are enchanted to hide their real purpose. There are two sets of writings, do you see?”

  Sara and Prin nodded, while Brice shook his head. Maude said, “You won’t see what we do, Brice. There is one set of words in black, another in blue. One is a story for children, I believe, and not a very good one, but meant for those without powers to read. The blue describes a sort of spell I’m not familiar with.”

  The final crate held mostly notebooks, handwritten, but not all by the same hand. In fact, as they looked through them, at least five distinct methods of writing were there. Maude drew a deep breath and hissed, “These are worth a fortune.”

  “They were given to us.”

  “You have more here than I have managed to collect in my lifetime, and I also have acquired the works of two sorceresses before me. It will take both your entire lives to read and understand what is before you.”

  Prin and Sara exchanged looks, something becoming like the actions of sisters. Prin knew she didn’t intend to study the contents of the crate for her entire life.

  But, before either could say anything, Maude continued, “The first thing you must do, and I stress must, is to make arrangements for all of this in the case of an accident or your demise.”

  “We’re young,” Sara said, then must have thought about the assassins chasing them. “How do we do that?”

&n
bsp; “Do you know any sorceresses? Besides me?”

  “Evelyn, the one who saved us,” Prin said.

  “Then, I suggest a legal paper willing all this to her upon your death. Until we have other means, I’ll keep one copy, and one will be sent to her after we find a way to do that in private, and trusted manner. That probably means Brice will carry it to her on one of his voyages.”

  A pounding on the front door sounded. All four of then rushed to the main room and tried to appear innocent. Maude answered the door, and a soldier of the Iron Ring stood outside but made no attempt to enter. He said, “A young man has been watching your house all morning. Would you like us to detain him?”

  “Jam,” Sara said before Prin could.

  Maude said, “We will contact you if we require assistance, but I’m told you are authorized to accept donations for your cause.”

  He said, “I am; however, our services do not require and anticipate contributions. Our work is accomplished without obligation.”

  Maude reached for his hand and pressed several coins into his palm. “No obligation. A donation from a friend who helped my friends.”

  He turned and left.

  “I knew it,” Prin scowled. “What is with that boy?”

  Sara said, “He was supposed to be on a ship that sailed.”

  “I wish he would just forget about me,” Prin said.

  Maude reached for the new pot of boiling water in the teapot and another tray of cookies. “Tell me his story. All of it. If there is a threat, he may have to forget about you. Forever.”

  Both Sara and Prin turned at the same time. Prin said, “A threat to us? Of course, he is.”

  “Or perhaps there is a threat to him?” Maude said, spooning sugar into her tea. “I suppose either is possible.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  After telling Maude about her interactions and observations with Jam, the entire story from the beginning, Prin was taken aback by talking about the boy. She had never combined all his actions into one narrative, and the more she spoke, the more dangerous he seemed. Individually, the incidents seemed benign. Taken together, Prin cringed.