The Making of a Mage King: White Star

by Anna L. Walls

  Sean nodded; he left Manuel and Leo with about twenty men to guard the supplies, and still mounted, followed the messenger. The poor man was disconcerted at being followed by someone on a creature he saw as a destrier, but it kept him in line and moving quickly; it also kept people at a distance. With the excitement of his arrival having worn off, they weren’t crushed by humanity so much anymore, but there were still the ‘paparazzi’, though they didn’t carry cameras.

  The messenger led them directly to the amphitheater and down into its depths, to a certain cell. Sean, however, wanted to make a point. As soon as their location became obvious, he said, “What is the meaning of this? Why are you bringing me here?” Laon drew his sword and stepped closer, as did the rest of the men who were within hearing. Like before, Cordan had been leaving men at entryways along their path, but he still had over forty men with him.

  The man quailed. “Please, lord, just a little farther.”

  Cordan touched Sean’s elbow, but Sean simply nodded to the messenger and they continued forward. Another floor down and they were confronted by a contingent of ten guards standing in front of the cell that contained the council members. Sean didn’t give them a chance to state whatever excuse they had agreed on. “Have you figured out why you are here?” he asked, making it obvious he already knew exactly what had happened.

  The speaker, one Seshan, said, “My lord, you brought us here? Why would you do such a thing? I don’t understand.”

  “Gentlemen,” said Sean, with ill-concealed anger. “I spent most of three days judging the crimes of your entire military. If you weren’t going to obey my decrees, why did you ever bother to welcome me inside your walls?”

  “But my lord, there has been no time…” replied Seshan.

  “No time was required,” barked Sean, causing all the men to jump. “You may be guilty of treason, gentlemen; I haven’t decided yet. What have you to say for yourselves?”

  It took them a moment to assimilate Sean’s words and understand their implications, then they laboriously knelt down. They weren’t young men and it had been a long time since they had to do any such movement, but they made it. “Forgive us, lord,” said another councilman. “We have been presumptuous.”

  “Yes, you have,” agreed Sean. “In order for me to let you keep the position you have carved for yourselves, your integrity must be impeccable.” Sean made the last a compulsion that set them back onto the floor, then he made the door to their cell vanish. “It would be a mistake to make me doubt you again. I might be young, but I am not stupid.” Sean left the place feeling dirty; he was not a bully and he didn’t like acting like one.

  When they returned to the wagons, their new members had assembled. With them were their families, or at least some of them. There were nine women old enough to be someone’s wife and at least a dozen children ranging in age from around three to somewhere close to twelve. “No,” said Sean, almost before he had pulled Prince to a halt. “This is not a pleasure trip. Go home, ladies.” He was in a foul mood and this wasn’t helping any.

  When more than one of the women started crying, Sean groaned. One glance told him that their lives had been no easier than their men’s lives had been. “Dad, I’m sending you some people. They’re families of military men; find them appropriate housing.” He cut the connection before Elias could respond, then the gathering of women and children vanished. There was an audible gasp from everyone around the square, and murmurs washed out from there like a wave.

  The men started to protest, but the expression on Sean’s face quelled most of it. The fact that none of Sean’s men were alarmed or upset by the disappearance quieted the rest of them.

  Guild Rule

  As soon as they were out of sight of the walls of the city, Sean gated them back to camp then ordered it packed up; he wouldn’t feel comfortable until they were well away from this place. While the camp was being packed, he looked for another campsite. According to his map, Calais was northeast of their present location and not too far from the coast. As soon as he located the city, he immediately searched out a likely campsite. The landscape was flat for the most part; there wasn’t another little ravine anywhere near, though there were plenty of small creeks to choose from. He finally settled on a spot that was out of sight of homes and roads.

  Holding the ‘sight’, he opened his eyes and sorted through the double view to see if they were ready to go. The men had moved quickly; everything was stowed well enough for this short journey. He opened the gate and felt even more divided. When all of his perceptions were finally in one place, he felt drained and dizzy. He almost fell off his horse when he got down.

  Laon, who was always within a few feet of him, caught his arm, steadying him. “You need to rest,” he said. “You’ve been edgy for days.”

  He’s right; I never felt comfortable in Ambiani and I have no idea why. Perhaps it was because it was such a fortification, perhaps it was because the people were so eager, maybe it was only the long hours. I hope I won’t have trouble with them in the future.

  Sean’s tent was the first one to be set up, so by the time he had his saddle pulled off, he had somewhere to go. Laon and Charles managed to pull him out of his armor and most of his clothes before his cot was erected and he fell into bed. No one woke him for supper; he wasn’t even sure if anyone had tried.

  When Sean showed up for breakfast, he must have been a sight because Jenny descended on him soon after. “You need to go back to the palace. Spend the day with your wife. You can’t keep driving yourself like this.”

  “Sure I can,” he said. “Men do it all the time.”

  “Sure they do. Men work; some even work all the time, but men who drive themselves the way you have been doing, break, and I’m afraid you’re going to shatter. You need to relax. If you don’t go and spend some time with Armelle, I’ll…I’ll do something to make sure that you do nothing all day.”

  Sean had to smile. Little Jenny, she barely came up to his armpit. What could she do to stop him? Then he smiled even wider; she’d already done it. Then again, what she’d asked him to do had a lot to do with it. He picked her up in a bear hug and swung her around just to hear her squeak, then he set her down and was gone.

  All day long with his lovely wife, and all night long too, he was in heaven. He scarcely remembered the contents of the papers he signed, though he did remember reading each one carefully; Elias made sure of that. Then there were some negotiations to talk over, some petitioners to hear, and a few things that Elias and Ferris simply wanted his opinion on, but all-in-all, the mere proximity to Armelle and the promise of future play was enough to keep him walking on air throughout the day, and the night…

  He was a new man when he returned to camp with the dawn, though his absence had been little relief for those who had been left behind. Laon had taken on an abysmal attitude while Sean had been gone. And, to top off everyone’s fun, it had started to rain during the night.

  When Larry handed him his cloak, he said, “Laon was fit to be tied when he couldn’t find you yesterday, then when he’d found out where you’d gone, he was just plain growly all day long.”

  When they met Cordan, the first thing he said was, “Laon scarcely slept last night. If you don’t take him with you next time, I’ll personally put him out of his misery.”

  Sean had to laugh. He was sorry for doing so, but he was still suffering the aftereffects of a delightful wakeup with his wife, and he found the situation humorous. A walk through the camp, which found Laon and glued him to his tail, was enough to settle him down so he could get back to work.

  Leaving Laon at the entrance of his tent, Sean stepped through the tent-flap…

  …and out onto the muddy road leading to the city gate. There were people on foot and with carts coming and going from the city regardless of the rain, a few people were even mounted, and because of the rain, the sudden appearance of one more traveler in a cloak went unnoticed.

  As he was passing the gate, he n
oticed that everyone entering and leaving was lightly searched, and when it was his turn, he found out that they looked for weapons.

  “Two swords,” said the man who spread his cloak. “Why you wearing two; can you use them?”

  Sean never went anywhere these days without his swords. “Yeah, I can. Why do you ask?”

  “I been a gate guard for six years and I never seen anyone with two swords. You a mercenary?” He was tying a fine wire around the hilt and sheaths of both swords.

  “I hadn’t given it much thought; are you hiring? What are you doing?”

  “You must not be from around here,” he commented. “Drawing weapons in the city is against the law,” he explained. “When you leave, if the wire has been disturbed, you’ll be arrested and an investigation will commence to find out what crime you committed. We always find out, so just keep your swords where they are.”

  “What if someone attacks me and I need to defend myself?”

  The man looked Sean directly in the eyes. “If you’ve managed to get yourself into some such encounter then you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing in the first place. You ain’t planning any trouble, are you?”

  “I wasn’t planning on any, no, but I do prefer to end it when it finds me. I’m not too partial to running from a fight.”

  “You better get used to it while you’re here. Move along and stay out of trouble.” He passed Sean on into the city and went to the next person.

  Interesting, no swords drawn in the city. I wonder how such a law worked under my uncle’s rule?

  There wasn’t much of a central market bazaar here, though a wide assortment of little shops was arrayed around the central square. I suppose it’s only practical; being on the coast, it probably rains a lot. What he saw in the square froze his feet. He had seen this before, but it took him a few minutes to place it. There was a gibbet and half a dozen stocks. This time only one man hung, bedraggled and still, from the gibbet, while four men and a woman were locked in the stocks.

  As his memory fell into place, so did the rest of what he saw. Just like in his very first vision only without the rain, the people hurried from shop to shop. What he had originally attributed to the rain might be something else entirely. No one spoke to each other in the street and no children were visible. He knew to his bones that nothing would change when the rain let up.

  He spent the morning moving from bar to bar to inn to café around the city with no apparent rhyme or reason. He stayed long enough to have a beer or two and simply watch the people, listening to their conversations if there were any. He was eating a hot stew in a dark tavern when Mattie called. “My lord, where are you?” Her anger and her deference to his rank were warring with each other audibly.

  When Sean didn’t answer right away, he really couldn’t, she called again. “My lord, can you hear me; where are you? Laon has gone into the city to find you.”

  Sean rose abruptly. Dropping a coin by his empty bowl, and drawing stares from everyone in the place with his haste, he hurried outside into the rain again. “Keep him there,” he said into the folds of his cloak. “If he rides in here on that horse of his, they’ll kill him just for breathing.”

  “It’s too late, he’s already gone.”

  Sean headed for the gate, cussing under his breath. The man was almost fanatical. Then again, he wasn’t being very cooperative; the poor man couldn’t be much of a bodyguard if he never took him anywhere.

  Sean arrived at the gate to see that Laon had been much more practical than he had feared. He strode up to the gate guard leading both his horse and Prince, who looked as though they were carrying packs under an oilcloth. Sean wasn’t close enough to hear everything that was being said, but he heard Laon say something about horseshoes and trading. After fixing his sword in its sheath, the guard passed him on through without glancing at the horses or what they might be carrying.

  As Sean leaned against a wall to watch him come closer, he called Mattie to tell her, so she wouldn’t be worried and send someone else. “He’s here, Mattie, everything’s all right.”

  Laon nearly passed Sean right by, and he was tempted to let him, but he had Prince. “You’ve just made my job four times harder,” he said.

  Laon turned his head sharply to find the source of the voice; if he jumped, it didn’t show. With a glance back at the gate, he moved on with no further reaction and Sean fell in beside him.

  “I’m sorry,” said Sean. “I should have told you, but this was just a ‘look around’. I need to know what’s here before I come blasting in with an army.”

  “You need someone to watch your back,” Laon said, with a growl in his voice. He shifted his shoulders then handed over Prince’s reins.

  “Not really,” said Sean.

  “You’re a mage. You don’t see what’s around you when you’re using magic and this place is dangerous.”

  “You’re a mage too,” he returned, and realized that he needed watching over too, though Sean hadn’t seen him use much magic yet.

  Sean wanted to continue his meander through the city, but they now were much more noticeable, especially with the two very large horses, even though they looked placid enough, they weren’t plow horses. “So, tell me…you knew about the gate guard, what else do you know about the city?”

  “Not much really. Dad didn’t like trading here. They are really strict with their laws and they are especially careful of mages.”

  “Are they?” The little disk Laon’s sister had given him showed him mages and their magic, even their strength to a certain degree, but he hadn’t seen much here, only a few sparks dim enough to need scrutiny in order to determine the element. Ambiani had fairly glittered, though few had been notably strong. Maybe that’s what gave me the willies about that city: too much magic.

  “I’m surprised someone hasn’t questioned you about it yet. Dad and I were always questioned within an hour or two of arriving when we came here,” continued Laon.

  Sean was about ready to reply when a thin wiry man approached them from an alley. “Please sirs, are your swords for hire? My mistress would like a word with you, if they are.” The man spoke with a clipped lilt that was a little difficult to follow.

  “Who is your mistress?” asked Sean.

  “I have to be careful with names, sir,” he replied with a bow that seemed a little too anxious. “Please sirs, my mistress will pay fair for your time.” He looking decidedly uncomfortable about the horses they led.

  Sean looked at Laon; he looked as curious as Sean felt. He waved the man to lead on.

  The little man led them down an alley that was almost too narrow for both horses to walk side by side. Sean and Laon would have been brushing knees with each other and with the walls if they had been mounted.

  Sean checked the horses’ progress again after the second jig in the alley and had to ask, “What have you packed them with anyway?”

  “What do you think?” his reply was as soft as the question had been.

  Sean raised an eyebrow. Did he really pack our armor? Good god, what if the horses had been searched?

  Laon chuckled as Sean heaved a big sigh. “They never used to check the goods. They’re only looking for the weapons you’re carrying; they don’t care about what you might have with your goods. If they caused too much trouble about what was brought into the city, it would hurt trade.”

  Sean looked back at the horses again.

  “Yeah, it’s all there. You don’t really think I’d leave anything behind, do you?”

  Eventually, the little man led them up to a window that had an iron grate on it. “You can tie the horses here, but if they pull the grate off, you’ll have to pay for it.”

  “Where is your mistress?” asked Sean.

  “Around the corner and down a way still, there just ain’t anyplace closer to tie up the horses.”

  “You let us worry about our horses,” said Laon. “Lead on.”

  Around the corner, the alley became even narrower a
nd Laon pulled ahead. Sean dropped back to walk beside Prince and felt around under the oilcloth. He eventually found what he was looking for. Carefully arranged for fairly quick access was his ancestor’s great sword. He undid his cloak enough to sling the baldric over his shoulder, then continued.

  When the little man finally led them up to a door, Sean thought he heard him let a tiny squeak escape when both he and Laon looped the reins over their horses’ necks and said “stay,” before following him into the building.

  The apartment building was a shabby little place with what looked like three floors, though they didn’t go up any stairs. The little man led them to another door only a few feet inside the building. He tapped lightly on the door and spoke softly into the wood. “Milady, he came. He brought a…a friend.”

  Laon and Sean looked at each other again as the door opened to reveal a woman who looked as thin as the little man, and peeking from behind her skirts was a little girl of about six. The woman looked the two of them over quickly, then ushered them into the room.

  With a wave of her hand, she offered them a chair at the table, then took another opposite them. The man led the girl off into another room.

  “Argus tells me that you look promising,” she said. “I have to agree; he’s a good judge of people.” She studied the two young men for a bit longer. She was likely trying to figure out who was the leader of the two. Her golden brown eyes were steady; she was assessing them, weighing their strength or counting their swords, or perhaps judging just how reckless they might be or whether she could afford to pay for two. “I want to hire you to rescue my father and my brother…my husband too, if you can find him, but I think he’s already dead.”

  “Rescue them from what?” asked Laon.

  She studied them a while longer, scrutinizing them both closely. Sean felt like he was being greased up to go onto an auction block. She sighed and continued. “From the mages’ guild. Everyone who can do magic is taken there. If they can use it, they keep them. Father managed to stay out of there for years. He said they kept telling him he wasn’t strong enough to bother with, but when they came for my brother, he…and my husband…fought them and they took all of them. My husband didn’t have any magic, but they took him anyway. I want you to get them out of there.”