Madness and Magic- The Seers' War

by Greg Curtis

This was not the day to upset her. Not when there were no pigeons and she knew what it meant. Still, she tried to tell herself, they'd had five or six glorious weeks with them. And it might well take King Richmond five glorious years to undo what they'd done! A girl could hope.

  “Are you two fighting again?” Nyri emerged from the stairwell housing.

  “What fight?!” Mortimer huffed at her. “The fool Girl lacks the wit for a true fight!”

  “Nyri!” Dariya was glad to see her. Especially after what J'bel had been telling her about the Protector's ongoing battle with the priests. Things had been getting nasty with accusations flying back and forth faster than bullets and she hadn't expected that the Protector would be back any time soon.

  “Ahh, the golden giantess!” Mortimer called out when he could see Nyri as she stepped out from the stair housing so he could see her. “I should have known! Just when things were already bad.”

  “You're just jealous because you're short and pasty faced!” Dariya snapped back at him. Then she instantly wished she hadn't. This was childish! She had to stop responding! But it seemed to be her life of late. Still, it seemed to have silenced Mortimer for once and he returned to his book, grumbling under his breath about the ingratitude of the young.

  Nyri as always, ignored the old man as she walked over to Dariya. “You told the boy that you have news for us?”

  “There.” Dariya waved at the empty roosts. “That's your news. Two days in a row. No pigeons.”

  “So you believe King Richmond has stopped sending them? Because he knows?” Nyri immediately understood what she telling her.

  Dariya nodded.

  “It is a shame. I was just beginning to enjoy some of the changes. Painting all those public buildings green and white really added a sparkle to the city.” A tiny smile almost cracked the corners of her mouth as she said it. “And those hellish chariots are gone too! They were horribly noisy and dangerous.”

  Dariya agreed with her. Not everything she'd done had been completely crazy. But then she looked out across the city to the guards in their tethered dirigible, wearing their pink and blue, and she had to admit that some of it had been purely for her amusement. Those poor bastards! Hopefully they would never find out that it was her doing.

  “Do be careful!” Nyri unexpectedly called down to the workman in the tree. “That branch doesn't look very stable.”

  “I will Ma'am,” He called back. “Thank you.”

  It was a strange thing, Dariya thought. People treated the Fae with the utmost respect, instead of as the ancient enemies they were. And it didn't bother them that the Fae had powerful magic. In fact, they loved it. Even when the King had declared it evil. She hadn't had a chance to change that yet. Still it didn't matter. People couldn't stop buying their magical wares and the Trading Mission was the one store in the city that was busy. By contrast a human with magic, even now that the King had reversed most of his decrees, was still a witch to most. She didn't understand that at all.

  “I don't suppose there's something you can do?” Dariya asked her visitor.

  “You know we can't. As J'bel has said, we cannot do anything that would break the Golden Concord's terms.”

  “I thought as much.” Dariya nodded, wondering why she'd even bothered asking. She hadn't really expected any help from the Fae and it wasn't why she'd called the Fae here. She’d called him to warn the Fae that the King had learned their secret. Or Baen's secret.

  “Well, if this can't be fixed, then you need to be ready. The King, now knows what we've been doing. Undoubtedly he’s angry and looking for people to blame. I expect the decrees to be flying thick and fast. Though with all the realm in the grip of elections, it will be a while before many of them can be implemented.” And that had been a master stroke of cunning. Baen had brought them the breathing room they needed. She had to give him credit for that.

  “Even without the officials in office, there will be Inquisitors everywhere. Soldiers will be out on the streets and accusations will fly. All in all, for the next few months we can expect general disorder.”

  “It's even possible that he will blame your people.”

  There! She had given the warning she needed to give. King Richmond had no evidence of who was behind it, but he was bound to suspect the Fae. And though there was no evidence, it wouldn't matter. Evidence was not something the King was ever particularly concerned with. He would note the arrival of the Fae in the realm and that a short while later the changes that had been made to his decrees. Dariya could well imagine him putting those two facts together and assuming the rest. But then what would he do? Dariya didn't know, but she suspected it would be bad.

  “Baen prepared for this day,” said Nyri. “He gave us a letter to send to the King on the day the pigeons stopped flying. We suspect it is a confession. He will take credit for what was done.”

  “But then –.”

  “Look around you. He's living in a forest in the middle of a city. His home is warded so that it is almost indestructible and unable to be found. His family are now a long way away, well hidden by a growing forest. And Baen himself is – was – warded too. I don't think he feared the King. Now less than ever.” Nyri leaned out over the railing and stared wistfully at the city.

  “Maybe so.” Dariya agreed, joining her at the railing. The wizard hadn't been her greatest friend, but he had still been a friend and someone she respected. Now he was gone and the world was a sadder place for it.

  “I was too hard on him,” Nyri said suddenly. “I see that now.” Her voice was filled with sadness.

  “I'm sure that's not true” Dariya answered, wondering where this had come from. The Protector was not exactly an emotional woman. She was a soldier, hard and clear minded. “You did your duty.”

  “No. I went too far. But I liked him, all those years ago. And I couldn't speak of it. I couldn't admit it. So I hid it – too well. And then when he left, I was hurt. I need to apologise to him for that. But now it's too late.”

  “It's never too late. That's what the Lady says,” Dariya told her, and then cringed as she realised the idiocy of what she was saying. The Fae didn't have proper gods and goddesses. They had spirits and supernatural woodland beings.

  Thankfully Nyri didn't answer her. She just kept leaning against the railing, staring out over the forest city, her sad eyes gazing on something much further away still.

  “Oh stop blathering you idiot Girl!” Mortimer unexpectedly interrupted them, making them jump. He'd crept up on them while they'd been talking. “My Great Nephew isn't dead. How can he be when I was speaking to him this morning? Damn fool burnt my toast!”

  Nyri stared at Baen's great uncle, and then back at Dariya, her green eyes filling with confusion.

  “Oh yeah!” Dariya began. “I forgot to mention that. Great Uncle Mortimer talks to himself. Literally. Lots of himselves! From the future.” She shook her head. “Strange how a middle-aged woman riding naked through the city, shooting her pistols into the air doesn't seem so odd anymore, isn't it?!”

  “Really, Girl. And what's that sound I hear?”

  “The sound of broken cogs and gears grinding to a halt inside that head of yours?!”

  “No I think it's the sound of that infernal machine of his. He keeps me up all night with it! Fool Boy!”

  Dariya would have snapped at him again, no matter how foolish she knew it was, but she suddenly realised he was right. She could hear the distant sound of a steam engine chugging away slowly. The city had been missing those sounds for a while now.

  It couldn't be?! But hearing that sound, hope suddenly began to rise in Dariya’s chest.

  Her heart suddenly pumping with excitement, Dariya walked over to the corner of the roof nearest where the noise was coming from and leaned out to see. Of course, all she could see were trees. But the sound was growing louder. Almost as if someone was driving a wheeler slowly through the new forest.

  “Anything?” Nyri asked as she leaned out with her. />
  “Not yet.” But it was still getting louder. And for some reason Mortimer had joined them at the railing and was staring out in the same direction.

  Then she saw a flash of movement between the trees. Something metallic just catching the sunlight. It was a wheeler and it was heading towards them.

  There were more glints of light and the roar of the steam engine grew ever louder, until finally it emerged into the open just beneath them. Then the driver turned and headed up the tree filled alley, heading for the back of the building and once more vanished into the trees.

  Dariya turned to Nyri. “He fell?” For some reason she needed to check.

  “From above the clouds. I saw the net myself. Heard the testimony.” She looked shocked. And unbearably happy. Dariya could see tears glistening in her eyes.

  “So whose got broken cogs now, Girl?!” The old man piped up triumphantly. “And I'll take my eggs on toast with a little salt and an apology in the dining room thank you!” He stomped off back to his seat at the back of the roof, his point made.

  “Oh shite!” She swore to herself. “He really is talking to his future selves! And he's still crazier than a drunken flea in a fire!”

  After that the two of them just stood there staring at the stairway housing, waiting to see if the wizard really did appear in it. His latest magic trick. And despite the fact that it should have been impossible, he finally did.

  He looked tired and battered, Dariya thought. There were more lines on his face than she was familiar with. And he wasn't really old enough for wrinkles. His clothes were tatty and covered in dirt. His face wasn't much cleaner. And for some reason he had replaced his usual hat with a large straw one that was being held down by a coarse piece of string knotted under his chin.

  “Nyri, Dariya!” He stopped in the doorway and smiled at them. “By the Lady it's good to see you!”

  “But you fell!” Despite everything she knew she should be telling him, that was what came out of her mouth.

  “Yes. No. … Maybe. I don't know exactly. I was falling, and then I was floating. Woke up two days later on a farmer's roof. Straw everywhere! He had a pitchfork! And then it took me a week to walk all the way back to my wheeler.”

  “And that thing on your head?”

  The wizard grabbed for the top of his head suddenly and then found the straw hat and looked relieved. “Oh, I lost my hat somewhere! Had to get this. It keeps flying off.”

  He was confused, Dariya thought. Unsteady in his words and his thoughts. Maybe in his memories too. He was clearly not the man he had been. And quite possibly no longer the wizard they needed. Whatever he'd been through had clearly shaken him. In fact, he reminded her of some soldiers she'd seen – soldiers who'd been too close to cannons when they fired. Not all of those soldiers had come right. But at least he was alive, and that seemed like a miracle. Hopefully the rest would come back in time.

  But then the impossible became the absurd and she watched in disbelief as Nyri abruptly ran over to him, grabbed him tightly and started swinging him around in her arms like a small child, while Baen struggled helplessly in her grip. Meanwhile the old man started laughing uproariously at the sight even as he kept shouting for his lunch.

  “Put me down!” The wizard yelled. But to no avail. Nyri just kept laughing and swinging him around like a small child, and occasionally plastering his cheeks with kisses.

  “This isn't dignified!” Baen tried again.

  But Nyri wasn't listening – and she was surely twice as strong as him. So eventually he just gave up and let her have her way with him.

  Which left Dariya standing there, wondering what was wrong with the world. Or right? People who talked to their future selves. A wizard who had returned from the dead. A Fae Protector who had suddenly forgotten she was a soldier and was acting like a little girl playing with her friend. And through it all an annoying old man who was still yelling for his eggs on toast!

  Or then again she thought as she watched a wizard being played with as though he was a child's stuffed toy, maybe it was her that was out of step. Maybe she needed to be a little crazier. Either way it was a good sight to see on a bad day.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  It was good to be home again. To be able to sleep in his own bed. Just to be around familiar things. He didn't fully understand what had happened to him even now. But familiar was good. It helped.

  Baen was stronger now. Less confused. Better able to concentrate. And the pain in his head was slowly easing. Still, he was a long way from how he had been before they had hurt him.

  Nyri had told him that what he was experiencing was only to be expected and that it would come right. She also said that it should never have happened. There had been no sign of any darkness within him, so they should not have done what they had. Even had they not had the book with the enchantment in it. But they had, and it had hurt him in some way. Badly. However she did say he would heal. It would just take time. Baen had to cling to that. Unfortunately, time was the one thing he didn't have. He had to once more be that man he had been. Strong, able to concentrate and make decisions without a thought. And it had to be soon.

  He had a King who had discovered his plot and who would now be hunting him down any way he could – though Baen was fairly sure the King would never find him. However, the King would also be busy undoing everything he and Dariya had done over the previous five or six weeks. Then he had a Fae tutor to a would be king who he knew nothing about. Something he had to rectify quickly. There was a missing circlet that could be the key to everything. And a great uncle who apparently was split between times, somehow. Not to mention an aunt whose gift with plants was so powerful that the city was quickly being taken over by her forest. And none of it made sense.

  “You should eat your porridge.” Nyri appeared from out of nowhere, jolting him out of what were fast becoming maudlin thoughts. She helped him sit up in his reclining deck chair and started fluffing his pillows.

  That was something else that didn't make any sense. What had happened to the Protector? She had always been strong, certain and stern. She accepted no back chat from anyone, least of all him. Now she seemed to think she was his private nurse maid. And she was smiling too. But she never smiled!

  “Thank you, but you really don't need to. I'm not an invalid.” He'd told her that a hundred times already.

  An old man unexpectedly chuckled from the far corner of the roof. His great uncle who it now seemed wasn't mad after all. Or he might still be mad – Baen couldn't decide. But he might also be somehow spread out across time as he claimed, talking to different parts of himself and never completely sure when the present was. Was that even possible? Not seeing the future but remembering it?

  “Is something amusing Great Uncle?” He called back to him as he sat in the lounge chairs that he seemed to have made his own.

  “Only that you think that the golden giantess will listen to you, Boy!” His great uncle started chuckling even louder than before.

  Nyri, Baen noticed, ignored the old man. She might be acting strangely but she still had the best approach when it came to dealing with him. By contrast Dariya grew angry and he himself just became confused by him. Nyri however had discovered that simply ignoring Great Uncle Mortimer worked best. She was a smart woman.

  “I'm sorry Nyri. He is not fully in his right mind.” Something that Baen feared could be said about him as well.

  “Your great uncle is a seer. All of them are … challenging. Lately, from what I've been told, they have become more so. Now please eat your breakfast.”

  All of them! He'd forgotten that the Fae had their own seers. This wasn't completely new to them. But then he had to wonder how they dealt with them. Baen doubted that they would simply treat them as mad and hide them away in great houses and behind walls of servants. But he wasn't sure what they did instead. Then as he reached for the bowl and the spoon a memory struck him. Something J'bel had said to him long ago.

  “These Trading
Missions, they were suggested by your seers, weren't they?” Of course they were! His people regarded people like his uncle as mad, which was probably unfair. But the Fae went in the other direction – they listened to them! And that was probably just as bad a mistake. It might even be worse. He didn't know what his great uncle would advise if people listened to him. But it wouldn't be polite!

  “I believe their opinion was sought,” she answered him diplomatically.

  “Of course it was!” Baen took a mouthful of his porridge to cover the rush of unexpected thoughts running through his aching brain. And then a second. “If you have someone who knows the future you should use them. You would use them.” But something in the back of his head was screaming at him that that would be a very bad idea. He just couldn't quite think why.

  “I should go.” Nyri announced suddenly, having apparently decided that she'd made him comfortable enough for the moment. “A message might have finally arrived at the Mission from Caris.”