Ascendant

by Craig Alanson

  Paedris agreed with everything Shomas said. Paedris had been there, at the battle, although he had been on the other side of the river, battling enemy wizards and a troop of orcs who had sworn to kill him. He had not seen the king personally at the head of the final charge until it was too late, for Paedris was too far away, and too hard-pressed by enemy wizards, to intervene. The final charge was successful, ensuring Tarador's victory in the battle, but it was a victory empty of joy. The king had taken a poisoned blade under the arm, a gap in his chainmail, and he succumbed hours later, despite the best efforts of Paedris and other wizards.

  Agreeing with Shomas, believing he spoke the truth, was far different from agreeing with the other wizard's blunt talk. "Lord Feany, I insist you apologize to her Highness the Regent. Her husband was brave-"

  But the Lady Carlana had heard enough, heard such talk before. That her husband had been impulsive, in battle, and in his choice of wife. Through eyes half blinded by tears, she stood up abruptly. "That will not be necessary. Lord Feany, I understand you plan to leave shortly, before the winter snows block the roads to your home? See that you do so. Good evening to you all." Without another word from anyone, she spun on her heels and left the room, slamming the heavy doors shut behind her.

  After a minute of stunned silence, Chu spoke. "That could have gone better."

  Shomas shook his head. "No it couldn't. She wasn't going to allow Cecil to read her fortune, no matter what we said. And she needed to hear the truth about King Adric."

  "Shomas, she is a widow, still grieving-"

  Shomas cut off Wing with an angry gesture. "She was a grieving widow, before she decided to become Regent. Once she put that Regent's crown on her head, she needed to put her grief away, and do her duty. Those in power most need to hear the truth, and not indulge in happy fantasies of what they wish to believe. If she believes that wizardry, not personal foolishness, led to her husband's death, we need to correct those notions. Perhaps then she will not be so reluctant to send the royal army out to challenge the enemy, rather than sitting uselessly in garrison all season."

  None of Lord Feany's companions could find fault with his reasoning. "Now, since there is nothing more to discuss, and I will be leaving Tarador sooner than expected, perhaps we should not let all this delicious food and drink go to waste, eh?"

  Whatever the four wizards had discussed with the Regent, Koren saw that everyone left the dinner in a glum mood. Even Shomas, who ate his fill of the best the royal kitchens had to offer. The wizards talked late into the night, and awakened late, to be delighted that Koren had breakfast ready and their clothes cleaned. After Koren left to care for the horses, Madame Chu returned to the subject they'd discussed late the previous evening. "Cecil, you need the Regent's blood, because you think you saw a regency crown on your card?"

  "Yes. It was more an impression, a feeling, than something I can say for certain that I saw. We must understand what the spirit world is trying to tell us. If we have a chance, any chance, to know any small part of the future, we must know it." Mwazo said vehemently. "The enemy is also blinded to the future, we can be sure the demon seeks any advantage he can seize. With the Regent of Tarador so adamantly against us, I do not see how we can do, what we must do."

  "There is another way." Wing said hopefully. "Her daughter, the crown princess."

  Mwazo shook his head. "No. Ariana will not become queen until her sixteenth birthday. Whatever the card tried to show me, that future is closer."

  "I didn't mean Ariana's future. The Regent is her mother, so-" Her voice trailed off meaningfully.

  "They are connected! Yes, yes, good thinking, Wing!" Shomas said with great enthusiasm. "Excellent."

  "I don't quite understand." Paedris said, confused. In this area of magic, he was no master, to his embarrassment.

  "Ariana's fate is connected to her mother through the Regency, and by blood." Wing explained. "We can use that close connection to divine her mother's future."

  The four wizards agreed that approaching the crown princess with a request to use her blood for fortune-telling, with her mother angry and watching the wizards closely, was not a good idea. Instead, Paedris casually mentioned to Koren that Mwazo wished to try telling the boy's fortune again that afternoon, and that he wanted to try casting the fortune of a girl also, as an experiment. And that Mwazo promised, if the fortune-telling spell didn't work, he was willing to perform other magical 'tricks' to make up for the disappointment. Paedris casually mentioned this to Koren, as Koren was going out the door, properly dressed, for lunch and reading old books with the crown princess. Naturally, Koren excitedly mentioned the fortune-telling to Ariana, who exclaimed that, in case Koren hadn't noticed, she was a girl, and she very much wanted to see magic.

  The spell didn't work, Mwazo said, and he expressed great disappointment, and had to entertain the princess by performing silly tricks. In truth, the spell had worked; he was much perplexed why Ariana's fortune was the same as Koren's; a blur of images. What could that mean? What were the spirits try to tell him through the cards? Or, worse, was the future as much a mystery to the spirit world as it was to Mwazo?

  He finished his last trick, a simple spell which made Ariana's hair stand straight up, then he bowed deeply and announced that, regrettably, he must return to the wizard's tower, when a painting caught his eye as he walked out the door of her suite of rooms. "Your Highness, who is this in the picture?"

  Ariana touched the gold-painted frame lovingly. "That is my grandmother, my father King Adric's mother, Queen Lilith."

  "And this portrait was done while she was queen? Not before?"

  "Yes, why?" Ariana titled her head. Wizards hardly ever took notice of the doings of the Taradoran royal court.

  "The crown she wears, it is rather," he struggled for the right word, not wishing to cause insult, "understated, is it not?" Queen Lilith wore a simple gold band, wider on her forehead, where it was inscribed with the symbol of Tarador. No jewels, there was nothing fancy about it, that is, if you forgot that it was made of gold. "It is not unlike the regency crown your mother wears."

  "Of course." Ariana said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "That is a queen's everyday crown. The big ceremonial crown is much too heavy to wear every day, Lord Mwazo. You don't wear your formal robes every day, do you?"

  Koren thought Lord Mwazo would indeed like to wear formal robes, and have everyone call him 'Lord Mwazo' every day, but he kept silent.

  Mwazo stood rigid for a moment, his mouth open, as if he'd been struck by lightning. He put a hand to his mouth, breathed heavily, and recovered his senses. "You will wear such an every day crown, when you are queen, Your Highness?"

  "Of course. I will wear that crown. It has been in the royal family for generations." She said with pride.

  Mwazo fumbled for something to say, when all he wanted to do right then was get to the wizard's tower as quickly as he could. "I'm sure you will wear it well, Your Highness." He bowed awkwardly, one eye still on the painting, and fairly bolted out the door.

  "What was that about?" Ariana asked with amusement.

  Koren shrugged. "Wizards. If that's the strangest thing they do today, that will make me very happy."

  Mwazo sprinted up the stairs of the tower, bursting in on his fellow wizards as Paedris was reading aloud from a scroll. "It's not a Regent's crown! It's the crown of a queen! A queen!" He shouted in excitement.

  Shomas almost spilled his mug of beer when Mwazo surprised them. "Crown? What in the world are you going on about?"

  Paedris took a guess. "The crown you think you saw, in my fortune card? It was not the Regent's crown? I thought the crown you saw was too simple, too plain to be the crown of a queen?"

  Mwazo shook his head vigorously. "I was thinking of the fancy type of crown a queen wears on formal occasions. Paedris, but I've rarely met a queen when it was not a formal occasion. Ariana told me she will wear a very simple-looking gold band as a crown, for everyday use. She w
ill only wear the big crown with all the jewels on formal occasions. You see what this means?"

  "I have no idea, so please tell me." Shomas said.

  "When I cast Paedris' fortune, I saw two symbols, and one symbol was a crown. We thought that meant the Regent, but I now know it is her daughter, the future queen."

  "Wait," Madame Chu said, "you were sure the crown could not mean the princess, for she will not become queen until her sixteenth birthday?"

  Mwazo's hands made two fists, and he knocked them together. "I cannot explain that. But the crown means Ariana, I am certain of it. I think something very exciting is about to happen! May I show you? May I cast your fortune now?"

  Wing nodded. "Please."

  Mwazo smiled broadly and clapped his hands in delight, the other three stood with mouths agape. On Wing's card, clearly visible, were two symbols: a lightning bolt; a white-hot streak of fire flashing across from top left to bottom right. And a crown, which, oddly, flickered from a simple gold circle to a shape more like a tiara, and back.

  "What does this mean?" Wing asked in a near whisper. No wizard had seen a fortune card display an image in many years, all across the world.

  "May I cast another card, before I answer?" Mwazo said with a raised eyebrow. "And not with one of us, I need someone who is not a wizard. We are too close to the spirit world, for me to be comfortable with interpreting what the spirits are trying to tell us. I need someone not affected by magical contact with the spirit world."

  "Agreed." Paedris nodded. He walked to the window, opened it and leaned out. "How about, ah. Boy! You there, boy! Cully, is it? Yes, yes, you. Come up here, please. And bring your two companions with you. Yes, at once. Quickly, quickly, now!"

  It was just Cully Runnet's luck to be crossing the courtyard while Paedris stuck his head out the window. He goaded his two companions, who had never been inside the forbidding tower, through the door, and up the stairs. It didn't help that Cully harshly told his friends not to touch anything, not a single thing, in the tower. The three boys warily edged into the chamber where the wizards were waiting, to find not one, not two, not three, but four wizards. Four wizards! And one of them a pretty lady wizard.

  It was all Cully could do to bow to the wizards without falling on his face, he was so nervous. The chamber, despite the winter sun peeking out between clouds, was dimly lit, the roaring fire tinted everything in the room with a light that Cully would have called golden, except with the place crowded with fearsome wizards, it was ominous. The room was crowded not only with wizards, it was cluttered, cabinets and tables were piled high with leather-bound books, ancient scrolls, glass jars and ceramic pots that Cully knew Paedris used for keeping roots, herbs, odd minerals and potions. That put Cully on edge, wondering what spells the wizards were planning to cast, spells that could not be good for three healthy boys. A burning log shifted in the fireplace and crashed onto the grate. That was enough, Cully was about to race back down the stairs, when a large wizard with red hair spoke from a chair in the corner "Well, come in, come on in, we don't bite, you know. I'm Shomas Feany, I assume you have names also?"

  All three boys were tongue-tied, so much that they barely managed to stammer out their names. "Cully Runnet, Lord, um, Feany, sir."

  "Stephen Bello."

  "T-Toman Miller."

  "Well, Cully, Stephen and Toman, we want to try telling your fortunes." Paedris smiled in a way he hoped would be reassuring. "All it will require is a moment of your time, and a single tiny drop of blood from each of you. When you're done, each of you will be paid a silver coin." Paedris pulled three shiny silver coins from a pouch, and laid them on the table by the window, in a shaft of winter sunlight. They glittered enticingly, and the boys almost forgot their fear.

  Almost. A silver coin was not enough to overcome a lifetime of superstition about wizards. The idea of having blood taken had the three boys imagining horrible spells, where the blood would be used to turn them into undead creatures, or something even worse. Cully's two friends were shuffling their feet, considering running for the door, when Cully screwed up his courage. "I'm ready, Lord Salva."

  "Come here, please." Mwazo said with a smile that was less reassuring than he intended. Madam Chu sought to calm the boys' fear by showing them the needles, and explaining "Lord Mwazo is going to lay three fortune cards on the table, and I am going to prick your finger with a needle. We will squeeze a tiny drop of blood onto the card, and then you can be on your way, with our thanks. And a silver coin."

  Cully went first. he didn't flinch, and a truly tiny drop of blood dropped onto a card. He sucked on his finger, and nodded to his two friends. In a moment, it was done.

  "A lightning bolt and a crown, sir? What does that mean?" Cully couldn't tear his eyes away from the mesmerizing images, the same images on all three cards. The crown spun, and flipped from one image to another, the lightning bolt fairly crackled with energy, so bright it almost caused spots in his eyes.

  "That is wizard's business, Mister Runnet." Paedris said, not unkindly. "Thank you, gentlemen, you may run along now. Here are your coins. Oh, and you may take that tin of cookies with you."

  "Yes, sir, Lord Salva sir, and Lords and Lady, ma'am." Cully said nervously, although not so nervous he didn't tuck the tin of cookies under his arm, before he bowed deeply, and the three fled down the stairs.

  "So? Cecil? What does this mean?" Shomas said unhappily, having watched a tin of cookies disappear down the stairs, cookies he'd been planning to eat.

  Mwazo frowned. "I don't know for certain. I will have to ponder this. Four people now have the same fortune, and I will wager my wizard's robes that if I cast the fortunes of every citizen in Linden, I would find the same two symbols. Except for two people; Koren, and the princess. Their fortunes are a blur of images, a blur of every image I've seen on a card. I am at a loss to tell you what that means."

  Shomas pushed the cookies out of his mind. "It cannot be a coincidence that the two people whose fortunes are unreadable, are represented by the lightning bolt of a wizard, and the crown of a queen."

  "Except Koren is not yet a wizard, and Ariana is not yet a queen. And you say this fortune will manifest soon?" Wing asked.

  "Within the year, yes, unless I am very, very wrong." Mwazo answered. "The wizard can't be Koren, then, nor the queen Ariana, can it?"

  "Again, we return to the question; what does this mean?" Paedris asked.

  The four wizards stood, or sat, in silence, staring at the fireplace for inspiration. "I admit, this is not my area of expertise." Paedris said, after several minutes.

  "Nor mine." Added Shomas.

  "The mysteries of- oh!" Wing took in a sharp breath. She put a hand across her face, her knees wobbled, and she slumped into a chair.

  Paedris was on his feet in a flash. "Wing, are you well?" Deep concern showed on his face, he knelt at her feet, and held her hands in his own.

  "Yes, yes, thank you." She held his hands perhaps a moment too long, then pulled away gently. "Wild cards." She told Paedris.

  It was his turn to gasp in surprise. "Could it be?"

  "It makes sense, no?" Wing responded.

  "Would the two of you mind explaining to the rest of us?" Shomas said, mildly irritated. A cookie would have improved his mood.

  Wing smiled. "I was recalling something I have not thought about for many years, not since I was a little girl, learning the craft of magic, in a school high up in the mountains. There were cards there, cards used to tell fortunes, to foresee the future. These cards were not used, not even in training, they were in a sort of museum, a dusty old library of wizardry. I remember asking a very old wizard about this deck of cards, and he showed them to me, and told me such cards had not been used by wizards for many, many centuries, since the spell to create your picture cards was created." She pointed to Mwazo's deck of blank cards. "Before such picture-revealing cards were developed, wizards used a different type of cards?"

  "Yes," Mwazo answered slowly, ransa
cking the depths of his memory. He was a student of wizardry, in addition to being a master of the arcane subject. "The art was very limited back then, a deck of cards had various hand-painted images. A wizard would shuffle the cards, and deal them one by one, the spirits were thought to have influence on which cards came to the top, to indicate the person's fortune."

  "I've seen such cards, I don't remember where." Shomas said, half lost in thought. "There was a card with a skeleton, indicating death, a card with a sword, indicating battle, or fighting, or danger. It was very crude," he observed with a rather disparaging smile, wondering how wizards of that age managed to accomplish anything with their crude magics.

  "Skeletons, yes," Wing agreed, "and swords, also lovers, and flowers, the sun and the moon. Among those in the deck was a special card, a card sometimes called the joker, or the trickster. A card that could represent any card, a card that presented any possibility, and all possibilities, at once. A wild card."

  "A wild card." Mwazo pondered the idea. "I do seem to recall hearing such, in my studies of ancient magic. If a person drew a wild card, it was supposed to mean that person had no fate, that even the spirits did not know his or her future, that the person was entirely in control of their own destiny. That their future was not written. But, drawing such a card would be rare, exceedingly rare." He was silent a moment. "Do we now have two wild cards? Is it possible?"

  "Is what possible?" Shomas almost shouted.

  "Consider, Shomas," Paedris said, "four people, one a powerful wizard," he nodded to Madame Chu, "three are servant boys, who all have the same fortune, identical fortunes. A fortune which says their future will be largely determined by a lightning bolt and a crown; by a wizard and a queen. Now, consider two other people, one a future wizard, one a future queen. The cards for their futures are not fixed, their cards display images of every possible future. Their futures are not fixed in any way, for they control their own fates."