Sword and the Spell 01: The Grey Robe (29 page)

"Stay here, boy, whilst I go and fetch my good
friends some of my best grain spirit from the cellar."

"Yes, sir," replied Jonderill meekly.

"And don't touch anything or you’ll not sit on
your backside for a week!" bellowed the Cellarmaster from the door.

"No, sir."

Jonderill waited for the Cellarmaster's footfalls to
fade along the corridor and then quickly emptied the contents of the first
packet into the honey mead. The grey powder floated on top for a moment and
then dissolved, leaving the mead clear and golden. He repeated the process with
the stone jug of cordial next to it, which would be consumed by the princess's
maids when they had finished with their mistress’s needs. He just hoped that
the powders would work, despite the hurried mixing; otherwise he was in real
trouble.

The Cellarmaster returned and thrust a small jar of
grain spirit into one of Jonderill’s hands and a large flagon of honey cordial
in the other. He turned Jonderill around and pushed him roughly out of the door
before slamming it behind him. Jonderill gave another sigh of relief and made
his way along the palace corridors to the place Animus had told him to go. He
was fortunate that Vinmore was such a peaceful kingdom otherwise there might have
been guards at the end of each corridor, or even worse, outside the doors he
needed to enter. If that had been the case their plan wouldn’t have worked but
the only guards on duty were the two standing to attention outside the studded
doors which led into the grand central tower and the royal apartments.

Jonderill knew both the guards well. The senior was a
long-serving veteran who drank at The Soldiers Rest and had a reputation of
being amongst the most diligent of the king's loyal men and the other was his
best friend. It might have been easier if it had been some other guard then his
lies wouldn’t have mattered so much. As it was he was worried that his carefully
constructed story wouldn’t be convincing to someone who knew him as well as
Barrin did, even if he had heard the rumours that were circulating about him.
Worse than that, he knew that the part he was about to play would almost
certainly result in the ending of their friendship. He thought about changing
his story but it was too late to think up something new.

"Halt!" commanded Lowis, bringing his
halberd across the door. "State your name and your business."

Jonderill stopped and gave Lowis a brief smile.
"It's me, Jonderill."

"Hello Jondi, what you doing around here at this
time of night?" The younger of the two guards smiled in greeting but still
dropped the tip of his halberd to cross over that of his companion. "Shouldn't
you be seeing to Plantagenet and Animus? I hear they're both down with a
cold."

"They are," said Jonderill brightly.
"They sent me to the Cellarmaster to fetch some grain spirit and honey
cordial but by the time I got back they were both fast asleep and they don't
look like they will move again until morning. So I thought instead of wasting
the drink and an unexpected night off, I would go and share both with a
friend."

"I'm not off duty for another two candle lengths
but I will catch up with you then if you can wait that long," said Barrin enthusiastically.

"I know," said Jonderill. "But this is
another friend who I thought might enjoy my company."

Barrin looked hurt and raised a quizzical eyebrow.
"And which friend would that be then?"

Jonderill looked coy and blushed slightly. He knew the
rumours of his supposed relationship with Maladran would be all over the palace
by now and it wouldn’t take much for people to jump to conclusions. "He's
a new friend but he said he liked me so I thought if I could get him to have a
drink or two with me he might spend the night with me or at least go for a walk
afterwards."

Barrin turned away in disgust and Lowis looked at
Jonderill as if he were a hound turd.

"I suppose he’s some little page boy with gold
hair and pretty looks," spat Barrin.

Lowis pulled back his halberd and opened the door.
"If I 'ear yer've been up to yer dirty ways against the boy's will I'll
make sure yer never do it again, whether yer turn me into a stink toad or
not."

"Thanks, Lowis," muttered Jonderill, quickly
ducking into the open doorway before the guard had time to change his mind and
refused him entry.

He felt sickened by what he had done. It wasn't so
much the reputation which would now follow him wherever he went but the way he
had so easily lied to Barrin and destroyed a friendship which meant a lot to
him. He stopped just the other side of the door and waited for it to shut behind
him.

For a few moments he fought with his conscience but
then realised that for the next few summers at least, neither his supposed
preference for young boys nor the loss of Barrin's friendship would matter one
way or another. When this was all over and if it
all
worked out well he promised himself he would do
everything in his power to put things right with Barrin and if it didn’t work
out well it wouldn’t matter, he wouldn’t be returning to Alewinder anyway.

Jonderill set off again down the carpeted corridors
which were only vaguely familiar. Whilst he’d been in the royal apartments only
the previous day he remembered very little of its layout, his mind having been
in turmoil from the events which had just taken place. He knew the king and
queen had their apartments on the upper levels of the central tower because
that was where the balcony overlooked the square but he knew that the princess
preferred the lower level which gave access to her private garden.

Hoping that she hadn’t changed her mind he hurried passed
the staircases leading upwards and kept his fingers crossed that by going
straight on he would eventually come to the hallway Animus had described to
him. When he reached a large open area with benches against the walls and rich
tapestries displayed between the many doorways he felt completely lost. Fortunately
Animus had for once thought ahead and had anticipated his difficulty, drawing
him a plan which he now drew from beneath his robe and carefully followed.

The cream and gold door of the princess's room looked
no different than any of the others around the hall so Jonderill stopped to
recount the doors again just to make sure he had chosen the right one. He put
his ear to the door but could hear nothing so he pushed it ajar and crept
inside. It was just as he remembered it from the time he had seen the room through
Maladran’s scrying globe.

The walls were dressed stone the colour of honey
inlaid with pearl shell decorations and overlain in places with three bright
tapestries. All the furniture was made of rare blanchwood, highlighted in gold
leaf and covered in bright cushions and heavy drapes covered the glass doors
which led to the enclosed garden with the decorative pond. A thick sea-green
carpet covered a polished weiswald floor which had been bleached to the rich colour
of sweetnuts. The sheer beauty of the room stopped him dead and he looked
around him in absolute awe.

"Don't just stand there with your mouth open,
stupid boy," snapped a cutting voice from an adjoining room. "If you've
brought a message from those two imbeciles about this awful mess spit it out
and then get out of here."

Jonderill jumped, not expecting anyone to be there and
then stammered some half intelligible words of apology. Daun came to the
archway from her dressing room and stood defiantly with her hands on her hips
and a look of disdain on her face. Her long sunshine hair fell to her waist and
her body looked lean and lithe beneath her flimsy, carelessly tied robe.
Jonderill stood rooted to the spot, unwilling to move a muscle in case the
beautiful apparition disappeared.

"Well, what do you want?" she snapped.

Jonderill stammered uncertainly. His mixing of the
sleeping powders had been careless but surely he’d not been so far out that
there had been no effect on her at all?
 
"Er....
I've brought you this." He held out the jar of spirit and the flagon of
honey cordial. "I thought you might be upset still and be unable to
sleep."

"Of course I'm upset. How would you like it if
you knew you were going to be nearly trampled to death by a horse and then go
to sleep forever? With that as my fate I don't want to sleep ever again."
She took two imperious steps into the room and looked curiously at the stone
jar he carried. "What’s in there?"

"It's grain spirit. You mix it with the honey
cordial and it makes you feel happy and warm inside."

"Then pour me some and let's see if it works, I
could do with feeling happy for once."

Jonderill put the two containers on the table next to
a silver tray and noticed, with some relief, that the princess had not touched
her honey mead. He’d never handled grain spirit before although he’d seen
Barrin’s father pour small tots for customers at The Soldiers Rest. He had no
idea how much was needed to make someone too happy to care what was happening
to them but guessed it had to be at least two tot’s worth. Carefully he poured
half a goblet of the potent liquid, added some of the honey mead for good luck
and passed it to the princess. She grabbed the goblet from his hand and swallowed
it down in one go, giving a slight cough and gasp at the end as the potent
drink burnt its way down her throat
 
to
her stomach.

"My father won't let me drink this but I can't
think why." She held out her glass for Jonderill to refill. "Pour me
some more, boy."

Jonderill did as he was asked and watched as Daun
swallowed the drink down in the same manner as the first and then held the
goblet out again. He refilled the goblet, conscious of the flush that was
spreading from Daun’s exposed throat onto her creamy cheeks. She emptied the
goblet, only a little slower this time and held it out once again.

"Do you know, my father says it's rude to drink
by yourself?" She walked to the table, swaying slightly and sat heavily
down in a chair. "When I'm queen I'll drink this all the time because it makes
me feel nice and everyone else can drink boring old mead." She poured him
a goblet of the pale amber liquid, carelessly sloshing it over the table and
handed it to Jonderill.

"No thank you, Your Highness, I'm not
thirsty."

Daun pouted sullenly. "If you don't drink then I
won't." She slapped the goblet onto the table and giggled as the drink splashed
over her fingers.

Jonderill looked at the drink and wondered how potent
the powders would be; not very he hoped as he refilled her goblet with grain
spirit and honey cordial and handed it to her. With a smile he raised his
goblet in salute and swallowed the pleasantly sweet mixture down, watching Daun
do the same over the rim of his goblet. Her cheeks were very flushed and she
seemed to have slipped down in her chair making her robe ride up around her
thighs. He poured her another goblet of grain spirit and she poured him some
mead, getting more on the table than in the cup.

"My father won't let me do anything," she
slurred, after once again draining her goblet. "He won't let me drink
grain spirit or ride my horse or go into the city without lots of guards
trailing behind. It's not fair, I bet you can go and do whatever you
want."

Jonderill nodded and then smiled broadly as a sudden
idea came to him. "How would you like to go into the city right now?"

Daun looked extremely pleased with the suggestion.
"Can I go by myself without anyone else trailing behind me?"

"No, you'll have to go with me and in disguise as
well but I promise I’ll show you all the best taverns and you can drink as much
grain spirit as you want."

"Nobody will know except you and me?"

"Nobody, it will be our secret."

Daun stood unsteadily and giggled. "You'll have
to help me dress because my legs have gone all wobbly and my hands won't do
what I tell them."

Jonderill gratefully left the remains of his mead,
feeling somewhat light headed and put his arm around the princess's waist as he
helped her to a long couch where she sprawled half on and half off the decorative
lounger. He’d never undressed a girl before, especially one who seemed to have
no control over her limbs and giggled every time he touched her. By the time
he’d dressed her in her riding clothes and a long thick cloak and had hidden
her long hair down the back of her tunic she was almost asleep.

The effort had left him sweating profusely and feeling
decidedly peculiar. He wasn’t sure if anyone would come and check on her so he
cleared up the mess on the table and stuffed some pillows into her bed to make
it appear as if she were asleep. After that he changed into his shirt and
breaches, turned the lamps down very low and as a final measure he left a small
rolled parchment next to her bed. Tomorrow the king and queen would find her
gone and he could only hope that they would accept the fact that she had been
secreted away by the magicians to where Maladran would never find her and not
have the Vinmore army tearing the kingdom apart looking for their daughter and
her abductors. He hoped their promise to return the princess on the day of her
wedding would be of some comfort to them.

With difficulty Jonderill lifted the princess from the
couch and supported her under her shoulder as she stood on her shaky legs. She
looked at Jonderill through half closed eyes and smiled sleepily but before she
could collapse back on the couch he had her walking to the door. He opened the
door far enough to see into the corridor which was still empty and with an
effort he helped her along the carpeted walkway, passed the grand staircase and
stopped at the closed door to the royal apartments.