P.S. the Dragon Sleights

by K. G. Wilkie

  The man in question shook off his boss’s concerns with a careless wave. “That doesn’t matter now, look at this,” Victor said. He slapped a sheath of papers on the desk and both men leaned in closer to read it. The letter so carefully sent by Aeron to Alabastor had clearly made it to its intended recipient at some point. The seal had been opened the officially accepted way after all. No one had spies that could open the Royals seal without leaving some burn marks from the security spell, and the letter was pristine and clearly legible to show that at some point it had been where it was supposed to be. “I picked this up on my way back over here,” Victor said. “One of our spies realized he’d gotten hold of quite the treasure in the guard barracks trash and sent it over to me as soon as he could,” he said.

  Gruzelvelt snatched the letter right out of his hands and furled it open to read. “Well this is perfect! We have them right where we want them. We heard from the witch that this was going to happen. After she sat in on their top-secret meeting, she knew the time had come to speed up our plans,” Gruzelvelt said.

  The Elder wrinkled his nose at that. “Our plans? Hours? What you have to do with it,” Victor said. The man was supposed to be a peer, on the same council all the other elders including Gruzelvelt sat on, but here he was returning intelligence given in good faith with these high handed demands! Victor scoffed at Gruzelvelt. “I think you’re getting a bit too big for your britches once again. You may remember that you are my secretary. This is my plan. There is no ours about this,” he said.

  The secretary narrowed his eyes. “That is true, you are the leader and I ingest your secretary,” Gruzelvelt said. He held up a finger when the other man tried to apply. “That is how things were supposed to be. However, all of this time you have made me do all the work of your job. I’m your assistant in name only. In reality I do everything you’re supposed to do and you if only kept my rink lower than yours so you can keep power and not because you deserved it! I have worked tirelessly for you for years,” Gruzelvelt said. The words spat out of his mouth with the force of long suppressed rage.

  In a flash leader held his subordinate by the throat. “You do well not to stand against me,” he said. “You are weak, I am strong. You have no friends, and I have them all. You’re not strong in politics, you are not strong and magic, and you are not strong in battles. I could take you down, destroy you in your career in your life, at any moment. You’d do well to remember your place in this city,” the leader said.

  Gruzelvelt scowled at him but inclined his head in acquiescence. The man was right, he had no power. He’d done all the work for so many years without any benefit to show for it. Was a great show of humbleness and begging of forgiveness Gruzelvelt closed the door in the office softly. This meeting had served as a good reminder that it was time to change how things worked around here. It was time for a new man to stand on top.

  Keeping the news of Prince Richard’s betrayal on their grand plans close to his heart, he stomped off into the city. It was true no one had publicly allied themselves with Gruzelvelt. He didn’t think it was because they didn’t support him though. I simply hadn’t been a need to pick sides between the two leaders for years. Gruzelvelt had willingly gone along with all of his boss’s plans. But now he wasn’t so willing to do so anymore. Now he needed to know exactly who stood with them and who would be willing to stand against the leader.

  Gruzelvelt tucked his beard over his shoulder and walked to the marketplace. More and more people showed up every minute there to get their rations in trading done for the week it was simply a matter of talking to each of them. Many were willing to hear what he had to say. Promisingly, even more were willing to pledge their allegiance if it ever came down to war.

  It wasn’t a good time for a Civil War to begin because the plan was more important for their people than mere matters of leadership. That was the main concern people had who weren’t willing to side with him. After hearing that, Gruzelvelt had to agree with them. He had to find some other way to take on the role in this world he desert, without messing things up. What good would it be to have his role in a world that still is not a world where his people had what they deserved. He’d just be selling himself short that way.

  But the concerns of the other elders and the younger wizards didn’t perturb Gruzelvelt much. It wasn’t much of a change to make sure he got all that he deserved without changing the order and process of the city. He’d just have to make some changes in how public his plan going forward would have to be.

  He had many chips in his hand. The work he’d done to dupe Richard into working with him going forward was sure to pay off in the overall plan. He’d need every ally he could get his hands on when he eventually went forward with the final phase of the plan to destroy the divide. Nothing was changed by the prince being a clueless fool who didn’t know he was working towards all of his family’s demise. Who knows, maybe it even would turn out that Aeron was being precisely as noble as he’d publicly appeared to be lately. It hadn’t been hard to string together different random things the crown prince had done in a way to convince the gullible prince that Gruzelvelt was exactly the person he wanted to be working with. Even better, it turned out it was a great thing that the leader had no idea about his plotting with the prince. He hadn’t planned to keep the boss man out of the picture for long, but not that he’d shown his loyalties were lacking it was good to know he’d be able to keep the little side project as his first publicly acknowledged accomplishment in the leader’s seat. The only problem left was to advance his other plans to move forward to the top of the Domed City dog pile.

  Gruzelvelt did his plotting quietly and in private. It wouldn’t be good to reveal his hand any more thing he already had now that he was forced to go the indirect route to get what he wanted. The old wizard put the steps of his plan in place fire before the actual day he planned to set his trap. Gruzelvelt’s worked with some junior scribes to make sure the leader’s wishes for his retirement were put into writing. It didn’t matter that the leader himself wasn’t at the meeting because for years all of his orders had been given to Gruzelvelt to carry out. This appeared to be just more of the same. And that the documents included many grants and benefits to Gruzelvelt wasn’t surprising at all. After all, he had carried out all of the man’s wishes for years, it made sense to the junior scribes that now the leader was offering not only his position but many of his worldly goods to Gruzelvelt upon his retirement ceremony was unsurprising. None of the junior scribes had been in the marketplace the day before, so none of them thought it suspicious that such an important legal document that in this city covered either a person’s retirement or there will upon death would be carried out so suspiciously soon after Gruzelvelt had been agitating to get these very same bequests the day before.

  The night before the faded day Gruzelvelt had one last step to take care of. He put the leader’s special mix of breakfast brew–a combination of black tea, dandelion root, coffee, and dragonsbane–into the leader’s steeping bauble that was refilled and prepared every night. Unlike the usual brute though, the new ingredients was added. Nightshades were put in the brew. Gruzelvelt had stewed an identical concoction earlier in the day and determined it would be indistinguishable from the normal unadulterated brew. The taste and color of the beverage would still be exactly the same. No one would suspect a thing unless they’d talk to him yesterday in the marketplace, and he’d only talked to people of no real power or importance here. He thought he could use such insignificant people for a fistfight type of battle for power, but switching his plan to a more intrigue focused operation meant that they still wouldn’t stand in the way of his goals.

  The morning of the leader took a sip of his drink. But he got distracted by the work on his desk, and spendt the rest of the afternoon in deep concentration. Such a small dose still might’ve killed an average human, but the leader of wizards is anything but an average human. The day wore on and it quickly became clear to Gruzelvelt that something el
se had to be done.

  So when all the juniors scribes and other workers in the building had gone out for their lunch breaks he knew it was time to make his move. Gruzelvelt stormed into the same office without even bothering to knock this time. The sputtering rage the leader had at such and a rude intrusion quickly changed to a gasp of surprise as he had to Throw up a shield spell to stop an attack just barely in time before it injured him.

  “Are you crazy! Just what do you think you’re doing,” the leader said. He tried to throw a petrification spell back at his recalcitrant employee but it just slid off. Gruzelvelt shrugged off the spell and threw a clone of the same magic back.

  Spells went back and forth between the duo. “I’m doing what I should’ve done a long time ago,” Gruzelvelt said. He jumped out of the way to Dutchess spell and bolts of black lightning struck the wall where he’d been mere moments ago. “You finally showed me that I had no hope of at least getting recognized for all of my hard work I do in your behalf. I wasn’t willing to take that lying down any longer,” Gruzelvelt said. He summoned an enchanted sword and threw it at his bus. It fell short and sliced through the window instead. The panes of glass shattered at the impact. “You have done me wrong for a very long time. I refuse to take it lying down any longer. But lying down is about all you’ll do from now on,” Gruzelvelt exclaimed. He summoned a whole armory worth of swords this time and caused them all to move forward as a solid wall of death. The leader stood no chance. Many of the blades pierced through his shields, and then other blades came through in the holes they left. He was left bleeding and gasping for air on the ground.

  Gruzelvelt walked over to His enemy and nudged his clutched hand away from his heart. With a passive expression he examined each struggled rise and fall of that pierced chest. Then with victory in his eyes and a smile on his lips he took one last sword and gave the man a final blow.

  “And now you see that I have the power,” Gruzelvelt said.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The Best Laid Plans

  Gruzelvelt didn’t take much time to enjoy the fruits of his labors. It was true that he finally had the position he knew he deserved to have all along. Nevertheless, it was important to focus on what really mattered right now. Much as he might enjoy the thrill of victory, it wasn’t a primary concern right now. No, right now he knew to focus on the big plan. He needed to focus on moving his people forward. It was nice that he finally had moved up to the position in the world that he deserved, but that didn’t change the fact that even though the wizards under him were pathetic and inept, they still deserved better than to be under the control of dragons who were even more pathetic and unlikable swine. At least the wizards in Domed City were human, and very intelligent. They are smart enough to follow his plans and mostly understands his genius when he spoke. It was a good enough reason to help them move along in the world as well.

  That was why he’d brought up the plan in the first place to Breitsch. And now that leadership of the city had changed hands that was no reason to let go of such a brilliant directive. Especially since that plan came from his own mind’s brilliance.

  Still, he knew he had to bide his time. Gruzelvelt said all the right words at the memorial service. It had been hard enough to keep his face trained in a mask of bewilderment when the junior scribes had ran to him and reported the leader’s death a mere hour after he had ensured it happened. It simply wouldn’t do to show any signs he was static about how things had turned out at the official ceremony in front of all the rest of the wizards. Aside from looking very impolite for him to show his excitement, there’s always the risk that it might give his own secretary ideas. That was simply something he couldn’t allow to happen. So he had to patiently hold himself together through the funeral.

  Afterward you through all such preoccupations to the wind and switched back to making progress on his plans. Gruzelvelt called in his own secretary in a few of the junior secretaries to the office of the Domed City leadership and got to work. “A grave situation has occurred today. We’ve lost one of our most beloved leaders,” he said. “We destroyed this barrier. In my great wisdom, I realized that we had a solution available to us. For years our people, and I suppose the witches too though they don’t matter as much, have suffered in this so-called Shadeworld. The time for that has ended,” he said. Some junior secretaries seemed confused by this last bit, so Gruzelvelt’s on secretary had to explain it to them. He had to tell them about all the magical races found outside of the city. Even though the teachers and leaders had assured the younger generations for years they were the most superior species on the planet, that didn’t change that they were certainly the weakest. Even with all of their magic, when all was said and done wizards and witches were just humans. All the creatures of the realm–especially the vampires, but all the rest of them as well–could easily kill them. In fact, they often had. That is why even though the witches and wizards had run away to the Shadeworld to escape the persecution they faced for having magic back on Earth, they soon realized they needed to make their own safe harbors within the planet they’d chosen as a refuge. Thus Domed City and Witch City were founded from their need to protect themselves. But one thing they didn’t have on this planet was the sheer numbers they’d had on their previous planet. The population on Earth Was booming, especially compared to the slow growing species found on this planet. It was easy to see that if they only could tap in to that populace, they could easily overpower the savage species of this world.

  That was the crux of the plan. The wizards, and potentially the witches, would be powerful if the Divide was destroyed. Without the separation between the two sister planets the wizards could easily come on top. The species on this world had once almost gone extinct when faced with thousands of humans focused on their destruction. And the Mundanes, the humans who could do any magic, in chaos at the return of these magical creatures they’d long been separated from, it would be easy to take power. All the wizards would have to do would be to offer protection separation from these savage beasts, and in return the simple humans would surely be glad to accept their protection at the cost of their leadership. It was an easy plan that was guaranteed to succeed.

  The only problem in the plan was, and always had been, the difficulty in actually destroying the Divide itself. The Shadeworld wasn’t built to be destroyed. It was hard enough to go through their libraries and find how the enchantment had been built in the first place. Next step was having to figure out how to destroy it. It hadn’t been any easy task.

  But Gruzelvelt had figured it out. His research had shown that the Divide only continued to work because it had seven anchors placed around the Shadeworld. It was child’s play to realize all he needed to do to make the plan succeed was to destroy those anchors.

  Gruzelvelt did his best to wait patiently through the explanations. It should have been obvious even it to the silly Junior scribes what the plan was and how it worked. Still, he could stand to be patient. The biggest hurdle was the former leader, and now that he was out of the way there was a bit of wiggle room in the schedule. Before explanations could drag on too long, though, he interrupted. “Yes, yes. If they don’t know all of this, they need to reread through their briefs. We aren’t going to waste anymore time explaining things which are already supposed to be public knowledge in the city,” he said.

  The junior secretaries in question blushed at the admonishment but knew better than to protest at it. Instead they listen closely to what he had to say next.

  “The rest of our job is very simple as far as I can see,” Gruzelvelt said. “We’ve already gotten Witch City to agree to help, but it’s no good relying on them. We’re going to send a few representatives there to make sure they destroy the anchor in their city as promised,” he said. He looked at his own secretary. “Zark, I think you’ll have to send out one of the elders, one of the journeyman, and two juniors just to make sure the group has what it takes to fight back if the witches betray us. And you lot,” he said
. Gruzelvelt looked at the junior secretaries. “I’ll need three of you to go to the shifters. You’ll need to destroy the anchor hidden in their camp. I know the wolves at least are based in one of the forests along the Great Road North, but you’ll have to figure out precisely where the anchor is yourselves. No one knows exactly where it is, but you might be able to guess. There’s a good chance it might be hidden somewhere convenient like Westin, and the fair is coming up so all the shifter packs and other nomadic groups will be hanging out together and trading their goods. You’ll have to be careful to avoid the Alchemists distracting you from your job or even converting you into one of those deplorable outlaws though,” he said. The words seemed to hit his audience in a good way, and the young men gave each other little excited glances at the thought of getting to visit such a famous hot spot and maybe even interacting with the Alchemists themselves. Gruzelvelt noticed their reactions. Looking at the three young men critically clearly left him less than impressed with their ability to focus on their mission. “It won’t be all fun and games you lot. You’ll be there to do their job, and most likely your job will be waiting through the muck and underbrush in the forest itself. You might have to take two journey men with you as well. I need to make sure at least someone capable is along to take care of matters, though you young ones will be enough to do the grunt work canvassing the forest floor inch by inch if you have to,” Gruzelvelt said.

  Zark shook his head at the rudeness of the command but wrote it down verbatim, anyway. It wouldn’t do to upset the leader by paraphrasing him, or worse, asking him to be nicer to the young ones. That was a stupid way to get killed, and Zark was not stupid.