Silver Mage (Book 2) (14 page)

“Flynn,” Bren said
, looking at the large soldier. “You’re perfect,” Bren said laughing to himself.

“I knew that,” Flynn said
, taking a hesitant step back. “But I prefer women.”

CHAPTER XIV

For the next three days Bren barely left his office. He spent almost every waking moment planning on what to do next. Even after having picked his steward there were plenty of things to do, not to mention the fact that he had to deal with the people. To help calm nerves he had Lillian and Flynn start spreading around what had happened during the roundtable. For the most part, the informati
on was supposed to be guarded and Bren had to work with rumors, but the people now had faith that something was being done to keep them safe.

There was so much to prepare for before he could leave that it had Bren feeling overwhelmed. The gold and supplies were the easy part but getting them together while alerting as few as people as possible was daunting. His biggest threat was
Elyse. While she had proven that she could be trusted Bren didn’t know how she would take the news of him leaving. If she deemed it a threat to the tower then she would report it and it would give them time to think of the best way to exploit his absence before he had all the safeguards in place.

Bren felt like yelling as he placed his seal down on another piece of paper. He had been lax in coming up with laws seeing as he didn’t expect to have to leave so soon and he wanted to be flexible depending on the situation but he no longer had that choice. Every small thing had to be addressed so that his steward would know how to act as he would have no power to make laws, only enforce them. It was a tricky situation and one that he wished he had another ten years to prepare for but he doubted the brotherhood would give him that much time. If they
learned they had something he wanted then they would most likely destroy it or plan a trap for him. The latter he must assume they have done so anyway…the first would mean the end to everything so he had to keep his true reasons secret even from his friends. He hated keeping secrets but this time there was little choice.

“You should take a break my lord,” Lillian said
, making him jump.

“I didn’t hear you come in,” Bren said
, pushing the small map that sat on his desk under the large stack of papers.

“As hard as you are pushing yourself
, I am surprised that you are even aware what time of day it is,” Lillian said in a motherly fashion. “How much longer do you plan to stay cooped up in here?”

“Not much longer,” Bren said
, looking back to the stack of papers. “I think I have almost everything prepared. In fact if you could call everyone together so that I can address them at once I would be grateful.”

“Everyone?” Lillian asked surprised.

“Flynn, Jacob, Crusher, Cass, Phena, Elyse, Sae-Thae… and anyone else that you can think of,” Bren said, not looking up from his work.

“At once my lord,” Lillian said hesitantly.

When Bren heard the door to his study shut he pulled the map back out from where he had hid it and ran his finger over the path he had chosen. First he would have to get to a port from there he would sail north so that he could pass the crescent isle that separated Northern and Southern Kurt. He could cross overland, using the large bridges that connect the island to the mainland, but it would add weeks onto his journey and would make it much more likely to be noticed.

Once he reached the northern continent
, it would get tricky. It wasn’t as if he could simply travel across the land with a large number of people without a reason. He had an idea but he didn’t know if he could get it to work. It would require a small stopover in Rane capital but it would be worth the few days it would cost him if it worked.

It was more than an hour before Lillian returned to tell him that everyone of note had been assembled in the throne room. Bren thanked her for the hard work and took a deep breath before standing from his seat. His legs cramped from the long hours of sitting but Bren quickly pushed the pain from his mind. Everything was ready
, all that was left was to move the first piece.

There
were far more people than he had anticipated in the throne room when he arrive. So many in fact that Bren was sure that if any more were jammed inside that floor would start to give. Everyone bowed to him as he entered the room, and Bren quickly set them at ease as he took his seat.

“I know many of you are wondering why I have called you here. The truth is that there is no easy way to go about this, but I ask that everyone remain calm until after I have finished speaking otherwise we shall be here all day.” Bren noticed the uneasy look that many of the crowd had as he spoke.

“In a few days, I will be leaving. I will be heading to Northern Kurt to talk to different lords about the brotherhood,” Bren declared. He knew that he had asked everyone to remain silent, but he expected the small bout of whispers that sprung up from the crowd and waited for them to die down.

“Unlike the other rulers, the true residents of this land live far and wide. The dwarves,
Vathari, elves and all the magical people are my concern. The issue with the Brotherhood affects us the most, and as such, I need to make some alliances with other nations and not just those that border us. There will be some need for secrecy so I ask that those here do not let everyone know where I have gone…though in honesty I will be keeping that a secret except for the few who I bring along with me and even they will not know until we are safely on our way.”

“The main reason that I have called you here is that I have chosen a steward to hold my throne until I return,” Bren said
, getting another rush of murmurs from the small crowd. “Flynn would you please approach the throne.”

Bren could tell from the look on Flynn’s face that he wasn’t happy about being called forward. “You’re not thinking of making me the steward,” He whispered when he was close enough no one could overhear him.

“Flynn is a proud man and one of honor and integrity. Of all those who serve under me, he is the one I trust most with the fate of my people,” Bren said, holding out his royal seal to the less than happy warrior.

Flynn took the seal from Bren’s hand with a glower on his face. “You know I hate you,” He whispered as he put on an impassive face and turned toward the crowd.

Once everything died down, people started to drift out of the palace. From the way that everyone talked, he was sure that he had made the right choice in Flynn. He was headstrong and hated those in power, but that made him perfect for his position. Bren doubted that he would do anything to harm the people and would punish those harshly who tried to in his absence. Most likely far worse than Bren himself would have.

“So you have made up your mind,” Sae-Thae said moving over to where Bren stood.

“Yes I have,” Bren declared with more confidence than he felt at the moment.

“I will be sending Isophena with you,” Sae-Thae said in less than a whisper making Bren look over to his half-sister.

“Don’t you think that she will…” Bren said, as he fished for the words.

“The
Vathari have ways to blend in,” Sae-Thae answered mysteriously. “When do you plan to leave?”

“In the morning,” Bren replied.

“You don’t leave much of a notice do you?” Sae-Thae replied laughing.

“The longer I wait the more likely that I will continue to postpone it,” Bren answered. “It is best to do these things once everything is ready.”

“That is true but don’t rush head blindly,” Sae-Thae warned. “You need to keep your wits about you. As I told you many times in the past your father was a good man but he had the forethought and attention span of a fly.”

“Don’t worry while I may be my father’s son. I am also my mothers,” Bren said with a look of reassurance on his face.

“That is true,” Sae-Thae said, his worry still clear on his face. “You know that once she learns of this she will come yelling at me. You and your father never make things easy,” Sae-Thae added with an exaggerated sigh.

“Admit it you like complications. Keeps you from growing old,” Bren said laughing.

Many other people came to talk to him before they left. Most of the people waited until everyone had left to ambush him. The first of those being Cass, who looked none too pleased with his decision.

“Why in the nine hells didn’t you talk to me about this?” Cass nearly yelled and from the looks of his other friends who were gathered about many of them wanted the same answer. “You wait until the day before you plan to leave to tell us. Do you have any idea how much planning goes into a trip like this. Now I have to send the men around trying to gather up enough supplies for the trip. Not to mention having to pick out who will go with us. Don’t you think they would like a little notification to give their loved ones besides…oh by the way I have to leave tomorrow and I don’t know when I will be back.”

“Are you done yet?” Bren asked knowing that Cass was right in his own way.

“Not even close,” Cass said angrily.

“I couldn’t tell anyone until everything was ready,” Bren explained. “I needed to keep it hidden from the tower until I was already gone, otherwise it would cause more problems. I understand your concerns, but something’s just can’t be avoided.”

“You think my men would tell your business?” Cass asked
, his anger still flaring.

“I still don’t know how everyone learned of the Brotherhood,” Bren replied
, taking a lot of the heat out of Cass’s eyes. “I couldn’t risk it.”

“A trip sounds fun to me,” Brenda said
, taking a long drink from a large mug. “I never been to Northern Kurt, sounds interesting.”

“I didn’t think you would be going with us,” Bren said
, having forgotten that Brenda and Shariel were still staying at the palace.

“Wouldn’t miss,” Brenda said loudly. “Isn’t that right Shariel.”

“It’s either go with him or be the one who goes back and tell the queen what foolishness he is up to,” Shariel said sighing. “Given those choices I think going with you is the only chance I have at surviving.”

“How many are going all together then?” Cass asked
, shaking his head.

When Bren made it back to his room he felt tried. Most of the night he had spent trying to talk people out of going with him
, but for most of them it was impossible. In the end it was decided that Brenda, Shariel, Phena, Lillian, Cass, as well as eight guards would be leaving with Bren in the morning. It was far more than he had expected but it was still a manageable number. The hardest thing to decide out of everything would be Avalanche. That was if the rock hound decided to follow him. One could never tell where Avalanche was concerned.

Surprisingly
, Bren didn’t have trouble drifting off to sleep that night. Now that everything was settled the tension that had building up in his body had faded away leaving him weak and tired making sleeping easy.

As tired
as he was and as hard as he slept Bren still woke early the next morning. Lillian was the only one awake when he went down stairs and after a quick meal Bren roused Cass and the other guards so that they could begin preparations to leave.

It took more than four hours to get the wagon loaded with all the supplies that Cass insisted that be taken along. Bren wanted to complain but he figured that they would come in handy even if they did slow them down a little.

Once everything was loaded, Bren quickly gathered the rest of his companions. In the end the only person he was waiting on was Phena who he hoped was already on her way down from the tower.

“What are we waiting on?” A young girl with milky white skin asked.

“Who are you?” Bren asked thinking that Lillian had decided to bring along someone to help her with meals.

“And here I thought you would recognize me even through this little façade,” Phena said
, letting the spell drop and returning her skin to its normal color.

“That was… Amazing,” Bren said laughing.

“It’s just an enchanted item that Sae-Thae had. It seems like it was made by a mage skilled in light magic. Oddly as much as light mages hate hiding the truth, nothing is better at it than light magic,” Phena said with a concealed grin.

“That is odd,” Bren agreed.

“Ready to leave?” Flynn asked walking up next to Bren.

“That we are
, but first I need to talk with you,” Bren said pulling Flynn to the side. “First I have a trunk in my study that will allow you to send things through them to us and vice versa.”

“That will come in handy in case I need to get news to you,” Flynn said impressed.

“It can only be used once every few days, so only use it in emergencies,” Bren said holding out his hand and placing a small earing in Flynn’s hand. “If you need to contact me use this. It allows two people to communicate over long distances.”

“Seems like you are well prepared then,” Flynn said unhappily. “I don’t like this and you know it.”

“That’s what makes you the perfect choice. You hate the mages in the tower but you are not reckless enough to do anything that would harm others. You are the one person I know who will do everything they can for people. You will hate it but you will be fair, and in the end most likely a much better king than I was.”

“A blind fool would be a better king than you,” Flynn retorted.