by Guy Antibes
“You,” Val said. He looked into Pol’s eyes. “We will train in the darkness for awhile. Get dressed.”
Pol followed his bodyguard to the smaller training room adjacent to the armory where he had previously learned knife skills.
“Paki!” Pol said rushing to his friend’s side. “You can work with us?”
Val stepped up to the both of them. “He can, since this phase of your training is not going to involve a lot of physical strength, but coordination and mental toughness.”
“Sounds good,” Paki said, grinning and rubbing his hands. “Anything to get out of the house. My little sisters were driving me crazy.”
“You’ll soon be back out in the gardens,” Val said. “But you can extend your time off, by spending a few more days working for Kelso.”
Paki’s eyebrows shot up. “I can?”
“Not training to be a guard, but cleaning up from the mess the guards make while they train, and you can also spend some time straightening out the armory.”
After rolling his eyes, Paki said, “Anything but weeding on my hands and knees.” He grinned at Pol. “Now what are we doing?”
Val stood in front of the pair of boys. “Siggon might have had you do some of the same things, but we will continue to practice silent techniques. I’d like to see how much he taught you and what you remember. I want you both out in the woods next to the gardens trying to find each other.” Val looked at Pol. “Practice whatever kind of woodcraft you know, and I will observe. Take turns.”
They walked through the gardens to the little wood, and Pol volunteered to be found first.
“Count of ten,” Val said. “Go. I want you both to have few turns before dawn.”
Pol ran into the darkness, not caring about Paki hearing his steps until he was further into the wood. He remembered about how he had set up diversions when he successfully hid the rod before the tourney. He sighed as he remembered the praise that Siggon had given him.
Using the same technique wouldn’t work, but the dark woods made different patterns of possibilities blossom in his mind. He found a low branch and used it to climb up a few limbs and waited, trying to will his breathing to stop.
He used his magic to locate the trees and watched for Paki to enter the woods. He identified Paki and another enter the woods. Val must be walking right behind Paki. He remained silent in the tree and smiled when a breeze began to rustle the leaves, hopefully masking his breathing.
Paki investigated the areas close to the gate. He must have remembered what Pol did to hide the rod. The pair of them eventually walked underneath Pol’s tree.
“Do you give up?” Val said.
Stopping by Pol’s hiding place wasn’t a coincidence. Val must know the location technique that Malden had taught him.
“I guess. I don’t know how anyone could find something in the dark like this. I wish I had a light.”
Val paused for a moment. “And let the person you are seeking know exactly where you are?”
Pol could even hear Paki scratch his head. “I guess the best thing to do is wait until it gets lighter.”
“Is that what your father taught you?”
Another silence.
“No. He would just tell me to find a spot to wait until I heard something, I guess.”
“Did he guess right, My Prince?” Val said. He created a magic light. “You can come down.”
Pol could see the amazement on Paki’s face when he dropped to the ground. Pol’s heart still beat a bit faster after being caught so easily. “He’s right. When you’re hiding you have to be patient, too.”
“Not if your pursuer is as skillful as I am,” Val said.
Pol knew he meant skilled in magic. “My turn?”
Val nodded. “Find a good spot, Paki.”
Val and Pol didn’t say a word until they were out of the woods.
“You used magic to find me.”
His magic light went out. “Of course. It’s a tool to use. I want you to use it, but whisper to me when you’ve located your friend.”
Pol hadn’t used the locator spell since the tourney. He closed his eyes, even though dawn wasn’t close. He could see Paki’s color towards the back of the little wood.
“I can see him now,” Pol whispered. He smiled at his little joke.
“You can?”
Pol could tell by Val’s voice that he had impressed Val. “Follow me.”
He walked into the wood and led his bodyguard to Paki’s spot, but Paki was now on the move. “He’s over there.”
“Indeed,” Val said. “Continue.”
Pol moved towards Paki, but something didn’t feel right. He stopped and re-thought the pattern and noticed a faint spot to his right that wasn’t moving. Pol turned abruptly and silently circled around to approach the faint color from behind and clapped Paki’s shoulder.
“Val said you wouldn’t be able to find me!” Paki said.
“I did,” Val said. “Now you know that there are counters to your location spell.”
Pol nodded in the dark. “I’ve already learned that there must be a lot I don’t know.”
“A lifelong lesson,” Val said. “I thought my compliment would make you overconfident. How did you know?”
“The lack of movement. I couldn’t hear Paki’s movements and something didn’t feel right. Something wrong with the pattern that I saw.”
“Excellent. I’ll have to try harder to trick you in the future. It’s a good thing that neither of you have forgotten what Siggon taught you about moving in the woods.” He lit another light. “It looks like I won’t have to get up so early again. A blindfold will do for you, My Prince.”
“What about me?” Paki looked disappointed.
“Would you rather get up early and stand by yourself in the training room?”
Paki furrowed his brow. “No.”
“So you’re included. No more night games for now,” Val said. “I’m ready for breakfast. Why don’t we go to the kitchens?”
Val gave Paki instructions on what he was to do to reorganize their training room for the next morning while they walked to the castle. Pol liked eating in the kitchen better than maintaining his composure if he met up with his siblings in the family dining room, especially now that Amonna was in South Salvan.
After breakfast, Val and Pol walked up to his rooms. “I want you to spend this evening, haunting the halls of the castle. Malden said you’ve done it before, and I want to see how well you do. You lead, and I will follow.
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Six
~
MALDEN HAD SENT A MESSAGE that they wouldn’t be meeting in the late afternoon, so Pol prepared for his tour of the castle by finding a suitable outfit in black.
“Why do you wear black if it will be dark anyway?” Val asked, looking over Pol’s shoulder.
His bodyguard was in tutoring mode with that question, Pol thought. “So light won’t reflect off my clothes. Merge with the shadows. That’s why you wear dark greens and browns in the forest when you hunt. From a magical point of view, it would be becoming part of the pattern.”
“That’s not a magical concept. Many animals use camouflage as a defensive measure. They are born to wear their camouflage, but the same isn’t the case with humans. Hiding with the pattern. Remember that. If you pursue your magical training, you will learn that magicians don’t solely rely on magic. Live magicians, that is.”
“How much magic do you know?” Pol said as he finished making his choices.
“Enough so that I use my powers more sparingly than most. In my line of work, power can be a hindrance and can get in the way of what I’m trying to do.”
Pol began to change his clothes. “And exactly what is your kind of work, other than being my bodyguard?” Pol left unsaid the element of assassination.
“I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that in the background,” Val said. His face lost the smirk it usually showed. “I’m my own man, but I take on man
y jobs for Farthia’s father.”
“Like this one?”
Val nodded. “The Emperor can order strange tasks, and protecting your mother and you is one of them.”
Pol let that slide. He might engage Val in asking the details of this and that part of his duties, but for now, he tried to cast his doubts aside as he prepared for practicing more stealth in the castle. He had done it before on his own, but now he’d be tested.
At least he could sneak around the castle as well as anyone older. Pol didn’t need to be strong or tall or anything but a bit nimble and smart. He knew he could do the nimble part for short stretches, and he already had accepted that his intelligence was a notch or two higher than most.
Being smart didn’t make him better than anyone, because Pol was learning that there were a lot of different kinds of ‘better’ among people, and people had their own ideas of what that was. His siblings certainly didn’t think Pol was better than they were. Thinking of patterns had given him a more realistic view of how others thought. Pol knew he thought better than many, but better didn’t mean he’d live longer, either, Pol thought as Siggon came to mind.
Val yanked the servant’s rope. “We’d better get some food in us before we start. I want you out and about for much of the night. You can take a nap after we eat.”
Pol didn’t have much of an appetite. He didn’t think he’d feel nervous, but he found himself fidgeting with his hands after he had eaten.
“Nap time.” Val said as he lay down on the couch. “I’m going to take one. Follow my august example.”
Pol smiled at the request and felt a little lighter as he went to his bedroom and closed the drapes, darkening the room. He drifted off thinking about the coloring of various animals he had seen in the wild with Siggon and Paki.
A hand grasped Pol’s shoulder, and he cried out.
“Quiet,” Val said, a finger to his lips. “Our goal is not to say a word once we have left your rooms.”
Pol nodded and kept his mouth shut. He would do everything he could to follow Val’s instructions. As he rose and followed Val to the door, Pol could feel excitement begin to build, displacing his anxiety.
He cracked open the door and looked to one side, and then the other. No one populated the corridor in front of his rooms. Ignoring Val, as his bodyguard had instructed, he padded to the opposite side of the corridor and began to scurry from shadow to shadow in the corridor, gradually moving further away from his rooms.
Footsteps intruded on the silence of the night coming towards Pol. He found a darker shadow in the crease of an internal wall and collapsed into it, with the visualization of becoming part of the darkness. A shock of light appeared, making Pol hug the wall closer after he pulled up the black scarf that he had worn around his neck.
Grostin turned the corner and walked right past Pol, looking neither right nor left. He followed his brother through the castle until Grostin stopped at his mother’s rooms.
The Queen’s bodyguard sat in a chair at the side of the door and held up her hand. “You wish to see the Queen at this hour?”
Grostin nodded. “Ask her. She’ll see me.”
“Stay here,” the woman said and disappeared through the door into the darkness beyond.
Pol could see light suddenly emerging from the bottom of the door, and the bodyguard appeared.
“You may enter. Watch yourself, My Prince. I will tolerate no sudden movements, even by you, in the presence of the Queen. Understand?”
Grostin’s face showed a tinge of fear, but nodded as he walked in, followed by the guard.
Pol looked around the corridor. He couldn’t see Val with his eyes, but used his magical sense to see a faint dot of color in his mind not far away. Val had used magic to conceal his presence. Pol wondered if his mother’s bodyguard could do the same.
He tossed that caution aside and slipped to the door, crouching down into the darker shadows lower on the wall. and listened. Farthia had taught him about sound in a nature lesson, so Pol tried to think of a pattern that sound made, bouncing around inside a room. He caught the pattern and amplified it in his mind.
A smile creased his face as his spell succeeded. He could hear the conversation.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” his mother said.
“But Honna just got word from Yastan that the Emperor might not approve Father’s petition. What are we going to do?”
Pol noticed silence. The fact that Grostin had come to speak with his mother set Pol on edge. Why? He could feel his face burn with emotion. He scattered such thoughts from his mind so he could concentrate on what they had to say.
“Leave Poldon alone, for now. Your meddling has cost lives and put Valiso Gasibli on alert. He is the most dangerous person in the castle. It was so stupid to abduct Pol’s friend and beat him nearly to death. It only makes Pol more defensive.”
“You are just trying to protect your son.”
Another silence. He pictured his mother glaring at Grostin in anger, and it showed in her voice as she said, “You know my motivations to protect Listya are as strong as my interest in Poldon, especially since the Emperor now has an interest in him and we have to move more carefully.” Another pause.
“What about the Emperor’s bodyguard?” Grostin said.
The words shocked Pol since the woman was standing right there with them. “Don’t worry about her,” his mother said. “Worry about yourself. If you want Landon as King of Listya, that only solidifies your line to King Colvin’s throne, and I will do what I can to help, but stop toying with my son. He won’t last to his twentieth birthday.”
“So you say,” Grostin said.
“So a number of physicians say. Talk to Malden Gastoria. He never lies. Now, as to the petition, if the Emperor won’t approve the elevation of Landon, Colvin can just make him regent. In five or ten years, Hazett will approve his elevation to vassal-king as a matter of form.”
“How can I believe you? Father has told me something much different. He refuses to take no for an answer from Hazett III.”
Pol began to breathe heavier. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down.
“You need to learn to exercise some patience, Grostin. It will be the death of you, if you don’t.”
“Are you threatening me?”
Queen Molissa laughed. “No. Quite the opposite, I’m giving you a warning for your own good. I think we are done here. Remember your father has alternatives to follow should the petition be denied. I suggest that you help him follow the least destructive one.”
Pol rose to his feet. He had learned more than he wanted, and now he had to get back to his rooms. He wheezed and covered his mouth. He padded back across the hall and found a shadow.
The door opened, and his mother’s bodyguard examined the corridor before returning to the Queen’s quarters.
As carefully as he could, Pol made his way back to his rooms and collapsed on the couch. His head hurt, his body struggled with the shock of what he had just heard. Pol then sat up and leaned over with his hands on the edge of the couch, taking in huge gobs of air as Val entered.
“Did you hear what they said?” Val shook his head. “Of course you did.” He put his hands on his hips. “You learned a new magical technique tonight, didn’t you?”
Pol nodded and continued to struggle for breath. “Water, please,” he croaked. His heavy breathing intensified until he took a drink of water, and Val began to massage Pol’s shoulders.
“Relax, just relax,” Val said as his hands began to move in a slower rhythm than Pol’s breathing.
His ministrations worked, and Pol leaned back against the couch, his energy gone. Val stopped and let Pol calm down.
“Now what did you learn?”
Pol blinked. “About stealth?”
Val shook his head. “No. What caused your attack?”
The shock of the words still ran through Pol’s mind. “My mother is in league with my siblings.”
“What?” Val said. �
�That’s unexpected.”
Pol nodded. He took some more time to breathe and get in control. “She said she expects me dead before I’m twenty, so Grostin doesn’t have to worry about destroying me.” Pol looked up at Val. “The petition to install Landon as King of Listya might be denied, so Mother told Grostin that all Father had to do is appoint Landon regent, and wait a few years and it shouldn’t be too much trouble to get the Emperor to agree to make Landon king. That leaves Grostin as heir to the North Salvan throne.”
Val looked angry. “That’s what they think. What did Grostin say to all of this?”
“Mother told him to be patient, but he told her that Father won’t be patient. He is intent on having Landon sit on the Listyan throne.” Pol shook his head. “My problem might originate with my father’s obsession to have Landon rule.”
Val sat down on an easy chair. “She is still protecting you, Pol.”
“But she’s working with my siblings.”
“They are her children by law, you know. Don’t you think she should care about them, too? She probably feels she’s only got seven or eight years to keep you safe, and then you’ll be gone.”
Pol furrowed his brow. “So she is protecting herself by working with them?”
Val nodded. “Patterns, My Prince. You need to see a larger pattern than what exists solely between the Queen and you. Her true motivations are likely very complex.”
Broadening the pattern. That was a concept that brushed through Pol’s mind. He hadn’t given it much thought, but it matched with looking at the pattern of the trees versus the pattern of the forest. He shook his head.
“I need to rest. This is all too much for me,” Pol said. He had just been rudely reminded of the limited horizon of his future through what he learned tonight, and Pol didn’t want to think of that right now.
~
Pol woke up some time after dawn. Val had let him sleep in. The issues of the previous night hadn’t gone away, but Pol needed a bath and some time alone to think about his predicament. He decided that he would take a chance to use the family dining room, and Val accompanied him.
