A Sorcerer's Fist

by Guy Antibes

  Ricky showed Pira the way. They sat down.

  She grinned at Ricky. “I wondered where you lived.”

  “We will visit the Rings tomorrow. I need to report to Aned Leekal, my Tower supervisor. She will be disappointed I don’t come back with new spells.”

  “Should I be jealous?” Pira said.

  “She is old enough to be Minnie’s grandmother,” Ricky said, smiling.

  Minnie held a dark-haired toddler as she came down from the stairs. The little girl rubbed her eyes but held her hands out for Ricky.

  “She remembers me,” Ricky said.

  Minnie laughed. “Already she has a thing for boys,” she said.

  Ricky held the little girl while he began his long tale, but Pirie began squirming.

  Pira took her. “She has my name,” Pira said smiling.

  Ricky continued until Tobia burst through the front door.

  “Ricky! I am so glad to see you.” He paused. “You brought a visitor. Is this Princess Pira? My, how you’ve grown up since Dimani.” Tobia bowed to the princess. “It has been a long time, Princess.”

  Pira nodded. “Perhaps it won’t be so long in the future. I am happy to be here.”

  Ricky gave Tobia a quick rundown to catch up and continued on with his story, leaving nearly nothing out.

  “Hemo is happy?” Minnie said.

  “He is too busy to be anything else,” Ricky said. “We all are or were until recently. Duke Noacci has taken things over while he recuperates, which has given us the opportunity to come here.”

  “You flew all the way here in two days? It took you that long just to fly to Tossa with Hemo.”

  Ricky smiled. “Pira has learned to fly faster. She kept up with me all the way.”

  “As I should have,” Pira said, finally interjecting herself into the conversation.

  Minnie sighed. “So now I know how Ducri Wamia died. He finally took a step too far in one direction. Lord Griama and he deserved what they got. I will say that.” She took Pirie from Pira and then handed the little girl over to Tobia.

  “Your turn,” she said, smiling at Tobia. Minnie turned to Ricky. “Housekeeper’s day off. I’m afraid you will have to put up with my cooking, or we will chance going out.”

  “Chance?” Ricky asked.

  Tobia’s face darkened. “You’ll find out tomorrow when you report to the Rings. Duteria is not quite the same as when you left.”

  “But I wasn’t gone that long.”

  “Your actions around Kerrothia probably have made some people nervous.”

  “Am I safe?”

  “I think so. You have your wand?” Tobia looked at Ricky’s waist. “That isn’t even your old sword.

  Ricky pursed his lips. “I lost my steel wand and Naparran sword when I was captured by King Leon.”

  “Can you fly me to my cousin’s blacksmith shop? We can talk him into giving you a proper weapon.”

  Ricky drew his sword, looked it over, and put it back. “I think you are right. We can go after I’ve reported.”

  ~

  Despite Pira’s comment when they first flew in, the Tower looked a little smaller to Ricky as he walked through the Rings with Pira at his side. No one recognized her, but while Ricky wore his Tower sorcerer robe, Pira dressed in black. Ricky inquired about Aned Leekal and found she was resting in her room after a bad cold.

  Ricky took Pira and walked up the stairs. Aned was on the third floor. Her room door was opened. Ricky rapped his knuckles on the door before he ventured in.

  “Sorcerer Leekal?”

  “Come in. I’m just sitting on my couch.”

  The woman looked even frailer than the last time Ricky saw her.

  “Sorcerer Valian. I am surprised you returned. You have a guest?”

  “I have returned to report on the progress of my current project. This is Princess Pira of Paranty. She expressed a desire to see the Rings.”

  “You brought her as part of your report?”

  “She plays a role. May we sit?”

  Ricky talked about learning the sterility spell in the library and the real reason for his journey. He talked about his confrontation with Anna Benicci and his extracting Pira from Sealio, to Dimani, and on to Vorria and his extended stop at Samira. Aned sat up a little straighter.

  “I hadn’t expected such a hands-on approach to your project,” Aned said.

  Pira spoke for a bit about her life as a princess in Sealio.

  “I didn’t stop there.” Ricky then told her about his visits to Fisttia, Jarrace, and Cralt.

  “I am astounded. You established personal relations with every country on the Kerrothian continent. Is there more?”

  “There is. Duke Noacci of Applia is a member of an organization not happy with King Leon’s reign. As I said, I had to remove the princess from Sealio. The duke’s membership leaked out, and King Leon captured the duke and then had beaten him severely, leaving him to die in a castle dungeon. Pira, Mirano Bespa, and I rescued him, and Mirano healed him. The duke recovers at the castle at Samira, as we speak. Unfortunately, I was downed by a spell that you might be interested in. It strips a sorcerer of the ability to perform magic doing so through a series of discordant sounds. Hemo and two other Vorrian sorcerers are working to duplicate it and find a counterspell.”

  “I am shocked. Strip a sorcerer’s power? I haven’t heard of such a thing.”

  Ricky nodded. “It is how the sorcerers were defeated five hundred years ago. As a condition of their surrender, they demanded that any books describing that spell be burned.”

  “And yet, it survived. The Tower has nothing about it.”

  Ricky thought for a moment. “I discovered a collection of ancient texts, and I think King Leon didn’t destroy them. The spell probably was mentioned somewhere.”

  “Ricky,” Pira said. “I thought you went through all the books.”

  “No. I picked titles that were of interest. I can’t think of another way the spell just appeared.”

  “You have exceeded my expectations. I have another project for you if you are willing to keep the Tower in mind. I would guess you won’t be staying here?”

  Ricky shook his head. “Not until the situation in Paranty is resolved.”

  “Then find the books and retrieve them.”

  Ricky smiled. “I will do my best, Sorcerer Leekal. We didn’t ask how you are doing?”

  “I live from day to day, but I’m not ready to leave the Tower for the last time, yet. Healer Kokorak visits me on a regular basis. She always asks if I know what you are doing.”

  “Perhaps I can visit her before I leave.”

  “She would like that.”

  ~

  Pira said she was impressed as she looked at the white stone of the Rings Hospital. Ricky had quickly linked with a thrilled Healer Kokorak to make sure she had time available. He took Pira by the hand and led her inside.

  It seemed like it had been eons since Ricky set foot in the hospital, and yet it had only been months. Healer Kokorak waited at the front counter.

  “You brought a friend?” she said.

  “This is Pira.”

  “Princess Pira?” the woman said, raising her eyebrows. “Welcome to the hospital. I thought to talk to Ricky in my office, but I think a tour is more appropriate.”

  Ricky had never been on a tour, so he walked the halls of the hospital with more interest that he thought he would have. None of the healers had taken him through the laboratories where healers examined blood and tissue. Kokorak merely pointed towards the double doors leading to the hospital morgue. It was obvious the healer hadn’t spent much time in the back of the hospital, but Ricky never had. Pira took it all in with a mild smile on her face. Ricky would have to ask her what she really thought.

  Eventually, Healer Kokorak led them to her office. When Ricky and Pira sat down, she closed the door.

  “What do you think, Princess Pira?”

  Pira blinked her eyes. “It is overwhelming.
I had never thought about what happens after a person dies, or that people actually looked at the skin and, uh, fluids.”

  Kokorak laughed. It was a light laugh, not offensive at all. “We teach healers here. They have to know what goes on inside a body and what to recognize when they practice using their power. Ricky knows how difficult it can be. Healers can heal what they can sense through deep-linking, and if they can’t recognize what comes to them as they sing, they can’t be as effective.”

  “I’ve seen that before,” Pira said. “Mirano Bespa used my power to treat a badly-beaten patient recently. It was all rather miraculous.”

  “So you have joined up with Mirano?” the healer asked Ricky.

  “He was incarcerated in Sealio for nothing that he did. I helped remove him from his cell. So he has been helping me.”

  “A revolution? I have heard snippets. Are they true?”

  “Depending on what you have heard, yes. I am open in my opposition to King Leon.”

  Kokorak smiled. “And yet you bring the heir to the throne with you to Duteria. Who, I have just learned, is a sorcerer.”

  Pira turned red, but again, Ricky didn’t sense any antipathy on Kokorak’s part.

  “She was about to join Mirano in prison. Pira is no longer Crown Princess.”

  “I heard that, too. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Ricky slid forward in his seat. “Actually, if things get uncomfortable in the Rings, feel free to join us in southern Naparra. I can teach you to fly using deflection, so you can make the journey in less than a week.”

  “You can teach me here?” the healer said.

  Ricky helped her learn deflection. It was much easier since he could link so easily with the woman.

  “I just have to practice?”

  “Practice and practice some more,” Pira said. “You can fly faster with practice, but the more you carry, the slower you go. I can’t fly as fast if I am carrying a person.”

  Kokorak looked at Ricky. “I can’t even lift someone.”

  “Just touch them, and they rise with you,” Ricky said. “I’m going to start a sorcerer’s college when the current unpleasantness ends. If you want to help me set up a hospital, I’d be happy for you to join our group.”

  “I will have to think about that. The Rings would have to get drastically worse.”

  “They will,” Ricky said.

  The talk turned to Ricky’s exploits when the door flew open, and Healer Taragoya barged into Kokorak’s office.

  “I heard you were in Duteria, Valian. Stay away from the Hospital. You shouldn’t be here.”

  Ricky was surprised Taragoya was so exercised. “I am a Tower sorcerer visiting a colleague. No one has informed me that I’m expelled from the Tower.”

  “Consider it so. We don’t want your kind here.”

  “My kind?”

  “You are plotting against the Tower.”

  “I am not,” Ricky said. “I wouldn’t return to Duteria if I was. You wouldn’t be a Sun faction member would you?”

  “None of your business.” He looked at Healer Kokorak. “Valian is not to enter the hospital again.”

  “You can’t do that. It’s against our code.”

  Taragoya’s face turned red. “It is now. Valian, please leave with your companion.”

  “I will talk to you, later, Ricky,” Healer Kokorak said, getting up. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

  “No, you won’t. I’ll escort Valian out.”

  Ricky and Pira walked ahead of Healer Taragoya.

  “You are a curse to the Rings,” Taragoya said.

  Ricky turned and sang the compulsion counterspell.

  Taragoya fell to the floor. He looked up. “What did you do?” he said, holding his head.

  “You were compelled, Healer Taragoya. I suggest you contact Kened Gostok, who knows how to protect you. We will leave you now.”

  Ricky linked with Kokorak and told him what had happened with Taragoya. “I suggest that you get protection for all the healers. Whoever sang Taragoya’s compulsion spell is the real danger. I suspect fanatical Botoyans of the Sun faction.”

  “I’ll meet you at your guardians’ house later tonight to learn the spell.”

  ~~~

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ~

  R icky took Tobia to his cousin’s blacksmith shop on the other side of Gruntal while Pira got more acquainted with her namesake. The housekeeper had returned, so Pira thought it was safe, since she wouldn’t be forced to change a diaper.

  “When I first visited, I hardly knew what you two were saying,” Ricky said in Hessilian. “Now you can’t say anything behind my back.”

  “Not that I would anyway. I’d still say it right in front of you,” Tobia said.

  The three of them laughed. Tobia gave his cousin his own version of Ricky losing his heirloom sword.

  “I have four swords worthy of a duke. You may purchase one of them. Your choice,” the sword-maker said. “Come this way.”

  Ricky went into the back of the forge and into a sturdy storage room.

  “I keep my precious stones and gold in here,” the cousin said. He pulled out a wide flat drawer. “Take your pick.”

  Each sword had a slightly different style. Ricky’s eyes were attracted to the least shiny one. The steel was almost black. It, alone, had a single edge and a slight curve tapering to a point. The top of the blade was thick, but the runnels along each side were deep. The hilt was wrapped in black with a gold wire wound through the roughed-out leather.

  “The gold won’t last long,” Ricky said.

  “You are right if the bearer is Gruntalian.”

  “Or fights as fiercely as one,” Tobia said.

  Ricky picked it up. The others were shinier and more like Tobia’s, but this one seemed to link to him. “Can I play with it outside?”

  “Be my guest,” the blacksmith said.

  The balance suited Ricky since it was more like his Naparra blade than any other sword he had seen in Paranty or in the Hessilian City-States. He ran through some forms and stopped. “This is like it was made for me.”

  Tobia laughed. “It was. Made to match the black steel wand that you lost.”

  “I’ll make another one,” Ricky said,

  “You know how to work metal?”

  Ricky smiled. “I don’t know how to make a sword, but I’ll give you a demonstration. Do you have a strip of metal that is long, and maybe an inch or two wide.”

  The blacksmith showed Ricky to a barrel of odds and ends. He found what he looked for and curled the long ends of the small piece of bar stock and fused the ends together. Then he moved the metal towards one end.

  “Astounding. Watching you do that is worth the price of the sword.”

  “How much do I owe you?”

  “You just paid it,” the blacksmith said. “I can keep this?”

  “A not-so-fair trade?”

  Ricky insisted on paying for the matching scabbard that Tobia’s cousin had sitting in another drawer. They talked an hour before Tobia said they had to leave.

  The trip back to Duteria was euphoric for Ricky. He couldn’t wait to show the sword to Pira, but he had to be prepared for her not to care.

  Ricky walked in and, not unexpectedly, saw Kened Gostok chatting to Pira in the sitting room. The princess was obviously charming the little Tower sorcerer.

  “I brought a new toy,” Ricky said, holding out the black-stained scabbard.

  Pira looked non-plussed and pursed her lips. “Minnie told me. The sword works?”

  Ricky smiled. “It does.” He turned to Kened. “Did you talk to Aned Leekal?”

  “I did. Princess Pira was filling in the gaps. You have been a busy boy. It takes a lot to impress Aned. Me, not so much.” He smiled, but it was faint. “It’s good to see you boy.”

  “But,” Ricky said. “I see a ‘but’ on your face.”

  “Aned doesn’t really know since she has become a bit reclusive. Yo
ur actions have mangled the Sun faction’s timetable. They have manipulated the Duterian city council and have placed one of their own as the Chief Councilor. This isn’t a compelled person, but a true fanatic.”

  “How much power does the Chief Councilor have?”

  “More than is comfortable. Even the Ring faction is concerned. We have all been administering the compulsion protection spells. I took it upon myself to send Green Tower sorcerers out into Hessilia to protect other city officials and warn them.”

  “You know what I have done?”

  Kened smiled. “The Tower has been operating for hundreds of years. We have been able to link, but we have been very strategic about it. There is a sorcerer in each capital. There aren’t that many, you know, who relay information. Many of them are healers, since they are the best at linking and developing affinity.”

  “I was never told.”

  “We all have our secrets, don’t we?”

  Ricky felt his face warm. “We do.”

  “It may get difficult in Duteria. Already the Suns are swinging their weight around in the Tower. As a group, they are not happy you have returned.”

  “We will probably leave tomorrow,” Ricky said.

  “Good. Minnie has invited me to dinner. We have the rest of the night to talk and to plan.”

  “I have an idea that I’d like to discuss, too,” Ricky said.

  ~

  Ricky hadn’t expected Kened to be so supportive of another sorcerer college in Kerrothia.

  “With two Tower sorcerers to found your school, I’m sure when the smoke clears from our current mess, both institutions will make Kerrothia a better place, especially the way Hemo and you think. Vorria, Fisttia, and Jarrace have been too far from Duteria to send many of their sorcerers. Being further south will only make it easier for a sorcerer to get a proper education,” Kened said.

  “Now for contingency planning,” Minnie said. “If the Rings become too hostile, I have already delegated much of what I do to our city-state managers. I have already moved most of our funds out of Duteria and to Torak. Baron Mansali has even arranged some funds sent to the Bank of Firali.”

  “You think it will get that bad here?” Pira said.

  “Most certainly,” Kened said. “I hope it won’t come to bloodshed, but if the Sun faction feels free to use the spell that was used on Ricky, sorcerers in all the Rings will be thoroughly intimidated. Ricky has brought a defense, as tenuous and tedious as it is. I can’t imagine myself wearing a goose down helmet, but if I must, I must. I have been in discussions with my Gruntal associates. They are as alarmed as we are. I can say that we Gruntalians are all about a good defense and a good offense. There are near as many Gruntalian sorcerers as there are Duterian.”