Into The Ruins (50 page)

“The notes says that Carif has chosen the next Queen.  It will be someone she can control.”  Mitty had made this clear in other ways during their limited conversations on the subject.

“Carif will regain complete control over us once Queen Rosul is replaced.  That means our situation will no longer be protected.”  He looked at his two friends.  “We all know what that means.”

“How long do we have?” Lorl asked.

“Less than three weeks,” Ash’urn replied.  “The candidates will be listed by the end of this week, and two weeks after the posting, the formal transition ceremony is scheduled.  I believed the Guild has actually accelerated the usual schedule.”

“Curse Risos!” Lorl said.  “I shouldn’t have listened to you when they removed my bands.  We might have been freed.”

“We might have been dead,” Rigo countered.  “Anyway, Mitty says the Queen is planning to help us escape.  She will have her people overcome our guards and will hide us away somewhere.”

“Can she do that?” Lorl asked.

“She must think so.  Certainly, the Guild will suspect her, but if they have no proof, they will be hesitant to accuse one so popular.”

“Where can she hide us?” Ash’urn asked.

“I don’t know, but the Queen clearly has her secrets.  She appears willing to risk whatever she has been doing to help us.  Perhaps she hopes we can aid her in some way.”

Rigo looked at his friends.  “What do you think?”

“I can’t see where we have any choice,” Ash’urn said softly, smoothing his beard as he considered the surprising news.

“I certainly don’t want to be turned back over to that witch,” Lorl said emphatically.  “We know the Queen has our interests at heart.”

“So we are agreed,” Rigo said. “We will have to be alert in the coming days and be ready to help in whatever small way we can.  The note doesn’t say when. It’ll probably depend on when an opportunity presents itself.”

He took the note over to the fireplace and dropped it into the flames, watching as it burned to ash.  Once again, they were looking into the unknown, but with luck, they might soon have access to their magic.  If the Queen wished their help, she would have to give them access to their powers.

Rosul paced around her private quarters while she fretted about her decision to free the three outsiders.  The note she’d had Mitty transfer was a grave risk all by itself.  It would alert anyone who read it to what she intended.  Mitty, of everyone she knew, would have the best chance of passing it unseen, but if she made a mistake, then who knew what repercussions would result.  Certainly, the implications would be bad for Mitty as well as herself, and Carif would use it to denounce her to the kingdom.  Even if the note were passed successfully, the very act of freeing the prisoners would take precise timing, and a great deal of luck.  So much could go wrong!  She would be glad when the young woman returned and indicated the transfer had gone unnoticed.

She had guards she could trust.  The actions by the one named Lorl hadn’t hurt the situation either.  Two of the men on her private staff had brothers serving in Fernwah, and one had been saved by the outsider’s healing.  Many also shared her dislike of the Guild and Carif.  She had selectively advanced those with such feelings into positions around her over the years.  Lyes would be able to help get the prisoners out of the area.  He could make a
Doorway
that was untraceable.  He could also see to the removal of the bands.  Only magic could do that.  She hated to put the young man at risk, but the potential gains couldn’t be denied.

She hadn’t decided whether to have the three outsiders moved to the island.  That might be taking too great a risk.  She still couldn’t be entirely certain of their motives, so it was probably best to isolate them from the rest of her people until she had positive proof they were what she believed.  She had decided to transfer them to Captain Abend’s ship far offshore.  There was an agreed location for the ship to wait and she had sent the Captain a note where to head the previous evening.  He would wait there for up to two weeks.  Nearby was a suitable location for making a
Doorway
for transferring people.  If they hadn’t acted by then, it would be too late or something would have gone horribly wrong.

She hated being indecisive.  It wasn’t like her.  If only matters weren’t being forced by her being replaced.  The outsiders offered an opportunity that she couldn’t have hoped for.  Clearly their magic was unique and powerful.  That they could heal, and heal so completely was proof of that.  Sedfair’s own use of magic for healing was primitive in comparison.  What other powers could they call upon, if they were released?  More importantly, could they somehow pass such knowledge and ability to her own people, those who had exhibited the spark of inherent magic. 

Ultimately, two things drove her decision.  Freeing the prisoners was the right thing to do.  The three men had not come with intentions of doing harm to Sedfair, yet they had been imprisoned for weeks.  She viewed herself as a just leader, and this clearly was not just.  In addition, Carif and the Guild were not good for Sedfair.  The elite Casters were trying to take over the land to use it for their own wishes and betterment.  Long had Rosul seen that the welfare of the public was secondary in Carif’s mind.  That meant as Queen she was obligated to act.  As her last official action, she would resist the power grab by the Saltique.  It was impossible to think of bringing the manipulating woman down, but if Rosul could deny the woman something she sought, and at the same time build a rebel force to oppose the Guild, she would have accomplished a great deal.

She worried that a war between the people and the Guild was ill advised at this time given the drain caused by the Baldari and the Chulls, but if this opportunity were passed, there would unlikely to be another.  Carif would put someone in place this time she knew she could control.  Rosul was already certain who it would be.

The Queen checked the clock.  It was still too early for Mitty to have returned.  She would have to be patient.

Fen was feeling quite melancholy.  He had now been at the University for a number of weeks and finally, more of his classmates were starting to arrive.  There was even another male student who had selected the room across from his own among the sea of females who now roamed the hallways.  That should have raised his spirits.  He also should have been feeling happy now that the term was about to begin.  Finally he would be starting to learn those things that he’d dreamed of for so long.  Unfortunately, he was too attuned to subtleties of this place now, thanks in part to the warnings of Lyes, that caused him to view everything with a critical eye.

Lyes was part of the matter that now had him depressed.  He hadn’t seen the upper classman for a number of weeks.  He had disappeared without a word to Fen, and no one had seen him, nor could they say what might have happened to him.  He was able to learn that Lyes was in some kind of trouble.  He was being sought by the Specialists who formed the Committee of Eight under the Saltique. 

While Fen couldn’t discover where Lyes had gone, he was certain his new friend had revealed their private discussions after he had promised not to.  Of course, he had told the Queen.  That was different, wasn’t it?  Fen couldn’t realistically expect him to be bound to their agreement if it was the Queen who asked him.  The Queen, after all, had a right to know everything that happened in Sedfair.  Fen would have expected her to already know all about the strangers even without Lyes having passed along what Fen had revealed.  It was quite obvious that the Saltique had not seen it that way.  Lyes had been right that the politics were more complicated than Fen understood.  He thought the Guild served the Queen.  When confronted, Fen had told the Saltique that he had spoken to only one person, and that had been before being cautioned to remain silent.  He admitted to having been fearful of being sent away if he revealed what he had done.

After that second meeting he’d spent several days expecting someone to come and tell him his admission to the University had been reconsidered, and he was being sent home to Slipi. 
What would he tell everyone when he returned home in disgrace?
  That, happily, had not happened.  But, instead, in the last few days he’d started to pick up on rumors.  The Guild was openly very anxious to locate Lyes.  Fen couldn’t imagine what the upper classman had done, but obviously he was no longer welcome at the University.  Fen feared it might be a result of what he had revealed.  Might he have destroyed another’s career by his loose words?  Even more disconcerting were the rumors starting to spread within the student body.  He’d overheard an upper classman first, but just yesterday morning his new friend across the hall had asked him what he had heard.  The word being circulated was that with the selection of the new Queen, the current policy of allowing men into the University would be withdrawn.  All would be turned away.  Fen knew that Queen Rosul had long been the champion who pushed the change that had allowed men in the first place.  Therefore it wasn’t beyond reason that the rules might change once she was replaced.  From what Fen had seen of the Saltique, he could believe she would pursue such a policy.

Fen had pondered what he should do if that were to happen.  Finally, he had decided to take certain precautions.  If they wouldn’t allow him to learn here in a guided manner, he would do what he could to learn on his own.  To that end, he selected a large number of his newly acquired books and made arrangements to ship them home.  Since some were texts that weren’t supposed to leave the University except in the hands of a graduate, he hadn’t told anyone what he planned.  He had purchased the texts before the incoming class arrived, so no one had paid much attention to what he had.  Yesterday he had gone to the castle and located the shipping service that someone had recommended and told them he had several boxes of clothes and other items he wished sent to his home in Slipi.  As a student of the Guild, he did have his identification after all, he was able to get a much better rate than anyone in town offered.  Now, both his backpacks filled to bursting, he was heading back to the castle to pack them up and see how much of his gold it would take to ship the books to his family.  He would need them if he were to truly learn on his own.

The weight of his future prospects heavy on his shoulders, Fen started across the University, taking the exit path from the outer walking circle that would take him down the inner walled court toward the castle.  Rumor had it that the outsiders were living in one of the grand cottages a bit farther up the path.  Fen didn’t know.  He didn’t come this way often, and hadn’t seen anyone except some guards around one of the structures when he’d passed coming and going from the castle the previous afternoon.  Perhaps that was where they were?  He was almost directly opposite the house which was still guarded today, which caused him to be looking that way hoping to see if the strangers were really there, when he noticed two individuals wearing clashing patterned clothing step out of nowhere onto the grass.  Even as he watched more of them suddenly appeared.  Somehow Fen knew these were not Guild Casters stepping out of a
Doorway
, but more of the outsiders.  Something was about to happen!

Rigo and Lorl walked a bit ahead of Ash’urn.  Lorl was curious if Rigo knew why the Queen had summoned all of them to a meeting.  The purpose hadn’t been specified.  Both were wondering if this was a precursor to the escape that Mitty had warned them the Queen might be planning.  Even Ash’urn had raised the possibility when they were getting ready to leave for the castle.  As such, they were more alert than usual, although this didn’t look to be the best place for such an attempt in Rigo’s estimation.  The area was open and flat, and in full view of the Guild.  Additional guardsmen and Casters were close at hand.  There was little they could do to help other than physically distract the guards or the two Casters if the attempt were made.  As usual, six of the burly guardsmen followed spread in a half circle behind them.  Casters Kimm and Juli had the duty today, and they followed close beside the three outsiders.

The first indication that it was happening was the slight grunt of one of the guardsmen and the sound of a dropped blade clanging against one of the random rocks scattered in the grassy hillside.  Rigo and Lorl turned at the same time, noting that Kimm already had powered her staff, the crystal at the top starting to glow as she turned.  Caster Juli was marginally slower, but she too was turning toward the sound.  At first the scene that greeted him made no sense.  Two of the guards who had been off to the left side were down, obviously the result of the efforts of two figures coming toward the group from that direction. 
This was it
, he realized.  Queen Rosul was making the promised move to free them.

Even as the thought passed through his mind, he realized there was something oddly familiar about the two figures.  He was slow to make the connection because it would be impossible for them to be here, and because he was primed to expect action by the Queen’s forces.  Rigo realized that matters were about to erupt as he heard Kimm mutter the beginning of her activation phrase.  Her staff was glowing brighter than Rigo had ever seen it.  She was cut off in her attempt to call upon her magic partway through the attempt, as her voice choked off into a gurgle when a pair of throwing knives struck home.  One of the knives was buried deep in the side of her throat and the other in the solar plexus, just below her ribs.  With a puzzled look upon her face, she dropped her staff and crumpled to the ground dead.

Caster Juli was aware of the loss of her companion, and attempted to hurry her own attack.  She almost succeeded, but just as she completed the phrase and her magic flared, a sharp and impossibly strong blade cut through her staff, and then through her body.  The blast of magic peaked and was released, blasting off to the side in a bright beam rather than at the attacking figure.  It exploded into the ground some distance away, throwing dirt and rocks into the air.  As she died she couldn’t help thinking that no blade could cut through one of the staffs. It had been imbued with magic to prevent that very thing.  She had no way of knowing about Kellmore steel enhanced with a special form of magic.

The knives brought it home to Rigo.  Only one person he knew could throw a knife with such precision.  Now he could see that the two colorfully dressed figures were none other than Daria and Kaler.  How in Risos name had they gotten here?  Out of the corner of his eye he could see more figures approaching, stepping out of thin air rather than running from the Guild.  Most of the figures he didn’t recognize, but Jeen was unmistakable.  Her long black hair was braided and hung down the center of her back as she preferred it when going into combat.  Surprisingly, she carried a staff that looked much like his own had before it failed.  Only her clothes were odd, a poor attempt at mimicking the local colors.  Ash’urn let out a whoop of glee.  He had made the connection as well, and Lorl grinned.

The remaining four guardsmen reacted as trained and moved quickly toward the two figures who had already killed two of their number in addition to the Casters.  They never had a chance.  There were only four of them, and almost before they could get their blades into action it was over.  One stumbled from the blade that appeared in his throat, accurately striking just above his leather armor.  Two more fell to Kaler’s quick strokes, and the last swung at the small figure with a pair of short blades, only to find she wasn’t there when his blades passed through the space she’d previously occupied.  By the time he figured out where she’d gone, one of the blades was already deep inside him, and he dropped his sword and died before he struck the ground.

Coming up from behind Daria and Kaler, Jeen spoke quickly to Shara as she slipped the awkward viewing artifact that had helped them get here so quickly into the special carrying pack on her back.  “I want you to relate this to Daim.  It should come from someone other than me.  He expressed concern that Daria and Kaler would be overmatched without magic and shouldn’t come along.  Two wizards and six guardsmen down in seconds and we didn’t even release a spell.”

Rigo and Kaler had already embraced, and Ash’urn was hugging Daria. 

“How did you manage it?” Rigo asked.  He couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Time to explain later,” Jeen said and as she stepped close to Rigo, her face split in a broad grin.  “Risos, but I’m glad you are alright.”

The two long time friends exchanged a quick hug, then Jeen stepped back and with hardly a thought, sheared the bands that had held Rigo from his magic for so long.  The same was being done by Shara for Ash’urn, and a moment later Diny removed Lorl’s bands.  Rigo savored the return of his magic for a moment, then Jeen tossed him the staff she was carrying.  He caught it in surprise, and realized what he held.

“Where did you get another staff?” he asked.  “Is that how you were able to come here?”

Jeen nodded.  “Daim made it,” she said with a smile.

“Daim?” Rigo asked, now suddenly confused.  “How could Daim . ?”

“Later,” Jeen said.  “We need to get out of here.”  She could already see someone coming from the direction of the building behind them.

Rigo made as if to hand the staff back, but Jeen shook her head.  “That’s for you.”

“What are you going to use?”

“I don’t need it, and frankly I’m tired of lugging it around.”

Rigo glanced at the staff, then realizing what he needed to do, he linked it to him.  Now, like the older staff, he could call it to him anytime he wished.

Jeen was about to make the
Bypass
that would get them out of here, when she realized that Kirl was waving from a short distance away.  A figure lay on the ground next to him.  As a group they hurried over toward him.  Daria was the last to arrive at the prone figure.  She had been recovering her knives.

“It looks like he got blasted by the bolt released when Kaler chopped up the female wizard,” Kirl said.  On the ground lay the barely breathing figure of a young boy.

“It’s Fen,” Rigo said, recognizing the burned figure on the ground.”

“You know him?” Daria asked.

“He was the first person we encountered when we arrived here in Sedfair.  That was a long way from here.  I’d heard he was coming to Nals to study magic, but what is he doing here?”

“He turned us in,” Lorl said.  “Forget about him, and let’s go while we can.”  He could see the approaching figures coming from the direction of the Guild.  There were at least twenty guardsmen, and a couple of figures with staffs.

“Can you help him?” Rigo asked Jeen.  He knew his own powers weren’t up to healing anyone this badly hurt.  “He doesn’t deserve to be caught up in this.  He didn’t do anything wrong.”

Jeen chanced a glance over her shoulder.  “There’s no time to do anything here.  Kirl, bring him along.”  Then she stood and quickly made a
Bypass
.  The glowing arch looked very good to Rigo as it opened on the grass in front of them.

“Go,” Jeen commanded.  Kirl went first carrying the inert form of Fen, with Kaler and Daria immediately behind him pulling Rigo with them.  Ash’urn stooped momentarily and picked up two heavy packs that the boy had been carrying, and then stepped through with Shara grinning beside him.  Burke and Tara released a series of bright red fireballs toward the advancing guardsmen, causing them to slow and seek cover.  Half dropped to the ground hoping the balls would pass overhead.  They did, but only because the intent had been to slow them down, not kill them.