Shards of a Broken Crown (68 page)

Turning to the
General, Pug said, “You may also tell your Emperor that should
any Kingdom soldier move south uninvited, every man under arms who
crosses the border will be destroyed.”

“What?”
said Patrick standing. “You dare threaten the Kingdom?”

“I make no
threats,” said Pug. “I am telling you that you will not
be permitted any retribution against Kesh. You will both return to
your respective sides of the border and act like civilized
neighbors.”

“You are a
Duke of the Kingdom, a member of the royal family by adoption, and a
sworn vassal to the crown! If I tell you to destroy that army outside
the gate, you will do so!”

Pug’s
anger rose up and he stared the taller young man in the eyes. “I
shall not. No power you possess can compel me to act against my will.
If you want those Keshians outside the walls dead, take a sword and
go out and try to kill them.”

Patrick’s
rage erupted. “You traitor!”

Pug put his hand
on Patrick’s chest and shoved him back into the throne. Guards
throughout the hall put hands on the hilts of swords to protect their
Prince. Miranda stepped forward, hand upraised, and said, “I
wouldn’t!”

Nakor stood at
her side, and held up his staff. “The boy is all right.”

Pug leaned over,
almost nose to nose with Patrick, and said, “You who have never
drawn a sword in a battle more serious than chasing some goblins
around in the north call me ‘traitor?’
I
have
saved your Kingdom, you fool. I did not save it for you anymore than
I saved the Empire for that man’s”—his finger shot
out, pointing at the Keshian General—”master. I did it
because of the countless souls that would have been lost had I not.”

Looking first at
Patrick then the General, Pug said, “Take word to your father,
and your master, that Stardock is free. Any attempt to force Kingdom
or Empire rule on that entity will bring my intervention. They have
my word on that and I shall enforce their independence.” Pug
turned and stepped away from the throne. “I care not who sits
on your father’s throne, Patrick. You gather together the
shards of your broken crown and rebuild your nation. I care not for
your titles and rank. I am done with your Kingdom.” He put his
arms out and Miranda and Nakor came to stand on either side. “I
renounce my title as Duke of the Kingdom. I foreswear my oath as
subject to the crown. I have larger concerns than your vanities and
national agendas. I am here to protect this world, not just one part
of it.

“Let it be
known that Pug of Crydee is no more. I am now merely the Black
Sorcerer. My island is no longer a hospitable place for the
uninvited. Anyone sailing within sight of it is at peril, and anyone
setting foot upon it without my leave will be destroyed!”

Then with a
thunderous crash and a thick cloud of black smoke, he vanished with
his companions.

Dash said,
“Great-grandfather certainly twisted Patrick’s smalls,
didn’t he?”

Jimmy said,
“I’ve had more pleasant afternoons.”

They had just
retired from a council with the Prince. The withdrawal of the Keshian
troops was discussed as well as what exactly Patrick would report to
his father. It had lasted long past dinner and into the night.

They were
walking toward Jimmy’s quarters for a quiet moment alone before
retiring for the night. “Did you talk to Francie?” asked
Dash.

Jimmy said, “No.
I saw her a brief second but didn’t get a chance to really
speak with her.”

“She’s
afraid that once she’s married to Patrick you’ll just
stop .talking to her. She doesn’t want to lose your
friendship.”

Jimmy said,
“That won’t happen. One thing about this war, it taught
me what really is important and what just seems important.”

Dash said, “I
know.”

There was a note
in his voice Jimmy had never heard before. “What is it?”

Dash said, “Just
some people I cared about didn’t get through this.”

Jimmy stopped.
“Someone special to you?”

Dash turned and
said, “I don’t want to talk about it today. I’ll
tell you all about it someday, just not today.”

Jimmy said,
“Very well.” He was silent a minute as they continued to
walk along the hallways. “I think I learned something myself,
and maybe it’s important, too.”

“What?”

“Francie
is. . . someone special. But I think I feel the need for something
and she is the person I elected to cast in the role of the person to
fulfill that need.”

“Grandfather
and Grandmother?”

“Yes, what
they had. I think that seeing how they felt, especially after seeing
how cool Mother and Father always were to each other, it makes me
want to have what Grandmother and Grandfather had.”

“Few gain
that.”

They reached the
door to Jimmy’s room and opened it.

Three people
were sitting inside. “Come in and close that door,” said
Pug.

Jimmy and Dash
entered and Dash closed the door.

Pug said, “I
could not leave without speaking to you two. You are the last of my
line.”

Trying to lift
the mood, Jimmy said, “Please don’t put it that way.”

Miranda laughed.

Dash said, “And
we do have relatives in the East.”

Pug laughed.
“There is so much of your grandfather in you two.” He
looked at Dash. “Upon occasion you look like him when he was a
boy.” He looked at Jimmy. “And sometimes you look so much
like my Gamina it haunts me.”

He opened his
arms and Jimmy and Dash came and hugged him in turn. “I shall
not return to the Kingdom unless it is for a reason far more
important than the whims of kings,” said Pug. “But you
two are my blood, and you and your children will always be welcome on
my island.”

Dash said, “You
have influence with the King. Do you have to make this sort of
break?”

Pug said, “I
knew King Lyam as a boy in Crydee. I knew Arutha better, but both
knew my heart. The King knew me from his father.”

Nakor said,
“Borric knows me well, and my words might carry some weight,
but what Pug is being diplomatic in avoiding is that, short of an
unexpected disaster, Patrick will someday be King.”

“We are
avoiding an argument of momentous proportion later by having it now,”
said Pug. “The Kingdom is in shambles. Patrick is forced by
circumstances to yield to my demands. If this confrontation occurred
years from now, how many innocents would die as I enforced my will?”

“And what
would that make him?” said Miranda. “Only a different
tyrant than those men of whom we just disposed.”

Dash said, “You
cut yourself off from so much.”

Pug said, “I
have seen worlds and traveled through time, my boy. I have so much
more to see. This Kingdom of the Isles is but one of many places that
are now dear to me.”

Nakor said, “And
if need be, we’ll be back.”

Dash said,
“Well, we have a lot of work to do, and if you want my opinion,
you’re doing the right thing.”

Pug smiled.
“Thank you for that.”

Jimmy said, “I
can’t say I agree with Dash, but I know that it is your choice
and I wish you well.” He smiled at Miranda. “Shall I call
you Great-grandmother?”

“Not if
you value your life,” said Miranda with a smile.

Dash said, “I
shall think of you a lot.”

Jimmy said, “As
shall I.”

Pug stood. “Be
well,” he said, holding out his hands to Nakor and Miranda, and
they vanished.

Dash sat down on
Jimmy’s bed, leaning back against his down pillow. “I
think I’m going to sleep for a week.”

“Then make
it next week, Sheriff,” said Jimmy. “We have a lot of
work to do in the morning and one hell of a mess to unravel.”
He glanced over and saw his brother was already asleep. For a moment
he considered waking him, then he shrugged, left, and went next door
to sleep in Dash’s bed.

Gathis bowed.

“I am
pleased to see you all return and looking well,” he said.

Pug, Miranda,
and Nakor had just materialized near the fountain that was the
centerpiece of the garden of Pug’s estate on Sorcerer’s
Island.

Pug said, “We
are equally pleased to see you. How fare things here?”

Gathis smiled
his toothy goblinlike grin. “Very well. If you would indulge
me, there is something I think you should see before you rest. It
should only take a few moments.”

Pug nodded and
Gathis led him out through the building and across the meadow toward
the hidden cave that was the shrine to the lost God of Magic. The
cave stood open to view.

“What is
this?” asked Pug.

“You
observed, I think, Master Pug,” said Gathis, “that
eventually the appropriate person would find this shrine.”

Miranda said,
“And that person has arrived?”

“Not as we
thought,” said Gathis.

Pug entered the
cave, with the others behind him, and looked at the statue that had
once resembled Macros the Black. He faltered as he saw his own
features upon the statue. “What?”

Miranda stepped
around beside her husband and she saw her features upon the statue.
“I see myself!”

Nakor said,
“Watch a moment.”

The face on the
statue shifted and they saw the features of Robert d’Lyse. Then
they saw the features of other students on the island.

“What does
this mean?” asked Miranda.

“It
means,” said Nakor, “that all of you are servants of
magic and that there is no one person who shall be the god’s
agent on Midkemia. Rather, many people will work on behalf of
returning the lost God of Magic to his place in this universe.”

Pug studied the
statue as other faces appeared, magicians known to him and those he
had never met. After a few minutes Pug saw his own face again. Pug
said, “Let’s return to the house.”

As they walked
toward the house, Pug said, “Nakor, I didn’t see your
face upon the statue.”

Nakor grinned
and shrugged. “I know there is no magic.”

Pug laughed. “It
is an all or nothing proposition, Nakor. Either everything is magic
or nothing is magic.”

Nakor shrugged.
“I find either proposition equally probable, but aesthetically
I prefer the concept that there is no magic. Just power and the
ability to utilize it.”

Miranda said,
“This borders on the type of long debate you two enjoy over
wine, and I am very hungry.”

Gathis said,
“Food and wine wait you in your study, Master Pug.”

“Join us,”
said Pug to his servant.

When they
returned to the house, they found a sumptuous table set for them.
Miranda took a plate and began piling on fruit and cheeses. Pug took
a large flagon of wine and filled goblets.

“Gathis,”
said Pug, “you are the keeper of that shrine. What is your
opinion on what we’ve seen?”

“It is as
Master Nakor has observed: no longer will one individual act as an
agent on behalf of the lost God of Magic. Perhaps the powers have
learned the error of depending too much on one individual. It says
that those who practice the arts will aid the return of magic.”

Nakor shrugged.
“It means that whatever power seeks to return, the God of Magic
has deduced that assigning all that responsibility to one individual
is risky. Macros, for all his power, made mistakes.”

Pug said, “I
appreciate that fact, having already made quite a few myself.”

Miranda said,
“Now that you are no longer a Duke of the Kingdom, what are
your plans?”

“I still
have many thousands of Saaur to relocate to the Ethel Duath.
Eventually I will have to return to Shila and destroy whatever demons
may linger there, then be about the business of reseeding enough life
on that world so that in a few centuries the Saaur may return.”
He smiled. “Then there’s the matter of the students here.
They need to be taught, and learned from as well. And there’s
the problem of finding and destroying Nalar’s agents wherever
they may be hiding. Other than that, I think I may take up fishing.”

Nakor laughed.
“Fishing teaches patience. That’s why I never took it
up.”

“Tens of
thousands died during the Riftwar, and more than twice that number
during this latest war, this Serpent-war. These catastrophic events
must never be allowed to be duplicated again.”

“How are
we to insure they don’t?” asked Miranda.

Pug said, “That
I need to think on. And it’s something we all need to be
involved with. I think I may have some ideas I’ll share with
you and the others living on this island. The first thing we must be
certain of is that there can be no manipulation of those who serve on
our behalf. Those are the tactics of our enemy, and as one who was
subjected to such manipulation by your father, my love, 1 find the
idea of continuing that practice distasteful. This is why this island
must become our bastion, and those who serve here must do so
willingly and with as much knowledge as it is safe for them to
possess.”

“What of
Stardock?” asked Miranda.

Pug said,
“Stardock was begun with good intentions, but I made too many
errors. I thought I would give the students more of a voice in the
organization of the Academy, and to be frank, I was a product of the
Tsurani Assembly. It’s been enough years since then that I
think I recognize those errors.

“Stardock
will continue and be an asset to us; before I built the community
there, magicians were often persecuted by those fearful of their
talents. ‘Witches’ were hunted down and their pitiful
woodland huts burned to the ground, or ’wizards’ were
walled up in caves to die of starvation and thirst, unless they
became powerful enough to keep people away through fear, or they had
patrons who were noble or rich. At least now those have a haven if
they care to make their way to Stardock.

“And we
may find recruits to our cause among those who study at Stardock for
a time and leave, seeking something else.”