01 - The Price of Talent (35 page)

I have no idea whether they are still there or not. Besides I can’t abandon Meredith to her fate here. She’s worried sick about the fate of her father.

And now we get to the crux of the problem. You like her and it’s making you soft and weak. Well, softer and weaker anyway. Honestly, I’m surprised you two haven’t been getting about all that messy fumbling you humans do when you like each other. It would certainly cut the tension between you.

Messy fumbling?! We’re in the middle of a dorm, full of students and possibly spies. It wouldn’t be appropriate and the consequences could be dire…

Dire consequence? Like what? Staining your robes?

You do realize that part of the reason humans fool around is that it can result in babies right?

And you realize she’s magically gifted right?

What’s that got to do with anything?

Jesus boy, you are stupid! We’re in a castle full of young men and women and there are no babies. You ever wonder why that is?

I thought it was because they knew better and weren’t taking any risks. Once you graduate, they can send you anywhere in the realm to represent the church. Attachments and children will only get in the way there.

Well, I bet the reason there aren’t any kids is at least partially related to that. But I’m betting it’s also because mages know how to use their powers to prevent such inconveniences from happening.

What, you think the priests trained in doctoring can keep people from getting pregnant?

Either that or end the pregnancy before it shows and becomes a problem. Think about it, stupid. During mating season at your farm, how difficult was it to keep the breeding males away from the females, regardless of the species?

Well, at a neighboring farm, a bull did knock down the fence between him and the heifers.

Exactly, and think of all the marriages that went on in town between young people that were, shall we say, on very short notice? None of that is happening here. I’m guessing the reason is that Meredith, or at least her teachers, know how to keep it from happening.

But wait, what does all that have to do with my escape plans?

You’re making things more difficult than they need to be because you’re attracted to Meredith. You could leave right now, but you don’t want to. You’re more interested in seeing what she has under her robes than you are with rejoining your bandit friends.

As I said, I don’t even know if they are alive still. Claudius mentioned sending troops into the woods to wipe them out shortly after capturing me. Which is why it’s important I go with Meredith. If I escape by fighting my way out of here and I find they’re all dead, I have nowhere to go.

Well, suit yourself then. I just wonder how honest you are being with yourself over your real motivations. I know what you think about before you go to sleep at night.

YOU WHAT?!

Hah! Even if I couldn’t read your thoughts, you just confirmed it for me.

Chapter 20.

The next few weeks passed relatively uneventfully. Meredith spent some time talking to her teachers both in class and during hospital rounds about personal records, usually in reference to other people, to try and find out where they might be stored. I continued on with my usual routine, except that I started adding a jog around the castle grounds to my usual training routine. I figured it was a good way to hide that I was spying on the guard rotations at the front gate. Couple that with a few good walks near the gate at random times and I had a pretty good idea about the security there.

The front gate was a typical design according to what I had read in the library. The gate had two towers guarding its approach that were rounded in the front to give the guards in the tower a better view in all directions approaching the castle. In between the towers was the gate itself. The wall was thick enough that the gate area under the wall had two portcullises, one at each end of the gateway. Likely there were murder holes in the ceiling between the two for easy disposal of trapped enemies, but I had not gotten close enough to check. There were typically guards stationed on both sides of the gate to talk to people coming and going. They kept a list of names and deliveries and seemed fairly attentive about their work. So that meant four guards at the gates and an unknown number in the towers themselves keeping a lookout. Fortunately though, despite their attention to their lists, they did not spend much time investigating the contents of deliveries. I never saw the portcullises closed, and I never saw the actual doors drawn on either side of the gate either. Still, I had no doubt that, should we be discovered by any of the guards, we could be easily trapped between the portcullises. All this implied needing to be hidden or disguised as we traversed the gate.

Unfortunately, Meredith had not had similar luck in finding out the information we needed. This wasn’t entirely unexpected, as while the gate was very easy to find, ferreting out the information we needed was not. Eventually, she had a breakthrough. Late one night in late autumn, she dropped by after rounds with a big smile on her face.

“I know where the records are held,” she said as soon as she was in my room and had shut the door.

“Oh?” I replied.

“I overheard one of the guards complaining about being written up for falling asleep while sitting on top of one of the southern towers,” she said. “He mentioned to his friend about how his supervisor had ‘threatened to put it in his personal file’. Then his friend said, something like, ‘not bloody likely! As if that fat old codger would walk down all those steps to the library basement!’ And they had a good laugh at that.”

“Did they mention where in the basement or subbasements these were?” I asked.

“Well, no… But I’m betting we will know when we get there,” she replied.

“When we get there?” I asked.

“Yup!” She said with a smile.

“And when are we going to have the opportunity to do that?” I asked.

“I’ve done some more digging and I know just the time!” she said. “Sudchester has a harvest festival every year towards the end of fall. This is going to be going on in just a couple of weeks. During this, most of the guards head down to the town to enjoy the festivities and only leave a skeleton crew behind. Most of the ones left will be manning the gates making sure us initiates don’t sneak out for a night of carousing. This should make it easy for us to sneak into the library basement and dig around for the information we need.”

“So we don’t know precisely where the information is, but we’ll have all the time we need to find it?” I asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” she said. “I know it’s not the soundest of plans, but it’s the only one we have so far.”

“When did you find out about this harvest festival?” I asked.

“I was talking to one of my patients at the hospital,” she said. “This poor lady had twisted her ankle pretty badly while trying to patch a hole in her roof. Anyway, she was talking about wanting it to be all better in time for the harvest festival as she’s a big fan of dancing. So I just asked her about it and got an earful!”

“So then, while most people are off carousing we just walk into the library?” I asked.

“Well, not exactly,” she replied. “See, our hanging out together has not gone unnoticed. And, of course, people sneak off for some ‘alone time’ in the library. The dorms aren’t the most private of places after all. The stone walls are thick, but not that thick.”

“Oh?” I replied, a little incredulously. “People go to the library to fool around?”

“You didn’t know that?!” She said. “I sometimes forget how sheltered you are from the rest of the initiates. But yes, the library at night is a place frequented by couples who want to be away from the prying eyes and ears of their friends in the dorms. So, I implied to a friend of mine, who happens to be working security at the library the night of the festival, that you and I might want some ‘alone time’, and asked her if she would look the other way if we came in. She agreed for a solid ‘I owe her one’ and now we have a way in, and an excuse to make it seem less nefarious!”

“Wait, won’t she become suspicious when we disappear for what may well be many hours into the depth of the library?” I asked.

“I doubt it,” she said with a gleam in her eyes. “My guess is she’d just be jealous…”

“Uh… I see,” I said, suddenly feeling a blush rise in my cheeks. “Well, uhm, I guess that’s taken care of. When will you come get me for this?”

“Well, unfortunately, it will likely be late in the evening as I have hospital rounds, and the evening of a celebration usually means we have more injuries than normal,” she responded. “But I should be off before midnight; and really, isn’t that the best time to do things under cover of darkness?”

“Sure, why not?” I said, still flustered from the implications of us taking hours to fool around in the library. “I’ll leave my door unlocked for you. Just come in and wake me when it’s time.”

“All right!” She said, with obvious excitement. “Finally, some progress!”

              And with that she said her goodbyes and left. I spent some time pondering the implications of things, like that our hanging out had made people assume our relationship went beyond that of just friendship.

Hah! You could hardly hide your boner when she implied that her friend would assume you two were screwing for hours!

Hey, not true, I didn’t have a… Anyway, I was just startled and embarrassed by the implication that’s all.

Riiiiiiiiiiight. Of course you were. Silly me. I’m sure it was just the loose robe making it seem like you were hiding a sword’s hilt.

I was not hiding a sword’s hilt!

Yeah, because here I am, right in the corner where you left me after practice. I’m sure she was well aware that it WASN’T a swords hilt!

I didn’t have a… what you’re implying I had.

How repressed are you kid? Seriously? You can’t even say boner or erection in your own head! Hah!

I’m not repressed! I’m just worried about how I’m perceived here. If people think we are a couple and we both go missing at the same time, it will make it seem more obvious that we escaped! Pursuit will be on us that much quicker.

You don’t understand gossip very well do you kid? With months of spending evenings together, I’m sure everyone already assumes you and Meredith are boning. Hell, Claudius probably likes the idea. Ties you here a little better and makes it harder for you to run off. Emotional ties are some of the strongest.

But we aren’t…

Doesn’t matter if it’s true. People like hearing salacious details about other people’s lives. Makes theirs seem less dull. So, as long as there is enough proof to make it seem reasonable, people are going to believe it because they want to believe it.

Damn that makes things a little more complicated when we escape.

Not really kid. Most likely, if you and she disappear at the same time, everyone will assume you are off doing the dirty deed in private. It may even delay their suspicions a few hours. If they think you’re off doing it, they don’t think you’ve escaped.

Huh, well then I guess we can make that work for us.

Wasn’t your plan originally to meet at the stables during the exam and try to find a way to slip out from there?

Yes, why do you ask?

You know the hay bales in the loft are another private place where you two could be bumping uglies right? That way if someone sees you both heading over to it nonchalantly, they won’t jump to the conclusion you’re trying to escape.

I see. So this fits out plan fairly well then. I’ll have to let Meredith know.

I think she’s well aware of how people will view things. Likely she’s been fostering that impression for months. Letting it slip occasionally she’s going to see you after rounds and the like.

Oh… Why would people believe it? It’s not like I’m all that special in the looks department. Worse, people here consider me a dangerous murderer. I’m not popular at all.

Oh yes, and since when are women attracted to the brooding dangerous type? You really are kind of dense kid…

              And with that, I decided it was time for bed. If anything, talking with my sword had left me even more flustered. But if it worked towards our advantage in escaping I was willing to embrace people’s perceptions that Meredith and I were a couple.

              The time passed quickly after that. I spent more time in the library when I could. Both reading as much as I could and getting a better feel for the layout of the place. My goal was to find the entrances to the basement. Fortunately, it wasn’t all that difficult. They were disguised as closets on the walls towards the back closest to the castle proper. How you could tell they were not broom closets was, first, that they were locked. But secondly, there was cold air moving under the door, implying access to the colder basement areas of the castle. That there was more than one also struck me as a good thing, I had been afraid we might run into other people in the library when we were planning on delving into the basement, and we wanted no witnesses to what we were doing. My hope was that anyone else in the depth of the library on festival night would also not want any witnesses to what they were doing.

              Over this time Alfieri also ratcheted up the difficulty of his classes with the inquisitor initiates. More time was spent searching for me and then trying to subdue me when I was found. He let me take them on one on one and in groups. Moreover, the skills of the initiates with weapons was increasing. Fencing matches between me and them, when I wasn’t allowed to use my powers, lasted longer. Groups of them were a still a problem for me. It was becoming more and more apparent that Meredith was right about what the exam was going to be. Capturing me, and likely other initiates, in a giant game of hide and seek where you actually had to subdue the person you caught. Beyond their increasing martial prowess, the inquisitor initiates were also getting better at using their amulets to find me. I wasn’t made part of the classroom lectures where they were taught how to use these amulets, but I could tell they had been doing their homework, as it took them less time to find me. From what Meredith had been able to discover, and from what I had read in the library, it had something to do with the inquisitors channeling their very limited magical resources into the amulet and that in turn made the amulet vibrate and pull in such a way as to indicate both the presence of magic, its proximity and in which direction it came from.

              My own practices were also proceeding quite well. It was taking me less time to gather water vapor in the air to make enough ice for icicles or snowballs. I had also gotten better using telekinesis to throw the sword both point first and as a spinning buzz saw. I had even tried to lift myself off the ground with telekinesis, but could only manage to do it a few inches while sitting and concentrating hard. The drain of power was so immense that afterwards I had to catch my breath and my limbs were shaky for some time. Moreover, the surrounding area got precipitously colder from my tapping the ambient heat energy to fuel my efforts. Still, that I could float meant I could possibly fly, which was a cool enough idea to make me keep trying. I could also now call lightning without needing my sword to act as a wand. It still was easier using the sword, but now I could use a fingertip too. First time I tried that I burned myself. From then on I was more careful about how I focused my power so that my finger did not absorb any of the energy released. My fire manipulation had improved as well. I could throw balls of it if I used telekinesis to create a miniature swirling vortex of it. All I needed was enough raw materials to set on fire, and then I could swirl and throw it quite easily. Materials for this were easily found on the grassy practice field, as all it took was something flammable.