The Archmage Unbound (62 page)

Using my fingers I lifted a stray piece of her hair
away from her mouth and nose. I tried to do it without disturbing her but her
eyes opened anyway. She had become a light sleeper as her belly had grown.

We spent a long time there, simply watching each
other in the dim light. I could have stayed that way for years, but for the
urgent call of Mother Nature. When I returned from the privies I found Penny
sitting up and waiting for me.

“I thought you would never wake up,” she said as I
climbed into the bed beside her.

I leaned in and smelled her hair. Something about
Penelope’s scent had always captivated me. It was a smell of warmth,
affection, and home. “I thought I might never see you again, and for a while I
thought you were dead,” I replied.

“About that Mort,” she began but I shushed her with
my hand.

“I was under a bit more stress than usual when I saw
you yesterday. Don’t apologize, you did what you thought best and it worked
out in the end,” I told her. “I’d rather apologize to you Penny. I failed you
terribly, and I’ve done nothing but struggle with that knowledge every day
since I found out what had happened to you.”

She leaned over awkwardly (her belly made it
difficult), and kissed me quickly. “I know that’s what you felt, but it isn’t
the truth. No one person can ever be prepared for everything.”

“Do you want to talk about it? What happened after
they took you...,” I asked. I feared the story she might have to tell for the
guilt it might leave me with, but I had to know nonetheless.

Penny looked down at her hands, “It wasn’t pleasant
but nothing happened that you should worry over. I’ll get past it.”

Something in her features pulled at my heart. “I’ll
worry anyway. Did they hurt you?”

“The King or the undead?” she replied with a bitter
voice.

“Either.”

“While we were with the shiggreth there was no
respite, no privacy, no comfort, and no warmth, but they did not hurt me,” she
answered slowly. “They wanted us for hostages, but they kept us like animals.”

A dozen questions ran through my mind but I kept my
tongue and waited, watching her carefully. Penny looked away before she spoke
again.

“We were fed well enough, but they took Dorian’s
armor and clothes from him. He was badly bruised and battered beneath it, with
blisters where it had pinched and chafed. I had to bathe him with what water
they would bring me and eventually I managed to convince one of them to give us
a blanket,” Penny stopped and looked down, letting her hair cover her face.

A new fear replaced the ones I had held before, a
fear not of abuse but of solace. Alone for so long I began to realize the toll
her isolation might have taken… and the ways she might have held it at bay. Yet
I could no more voice those fears than I could have deliberately hurt her in
any other way, but the seed of doubt was there now. I had been tempted as
well, though my situation had been far easier to bear.

“It was cold at night, especially when we were in
the caves. They fed us nothing but meat and water. We had no fire and so we
slept huddled together. Occasionally they approached us, but Dorian wouldn’t
let them near me, though if they had wanted they could have slain us both very
easily by then. When they eventually brought us to the King it was a relief.
His men clothed us and gave us both privacy and warm rooms. It was almost like
being a guest of the King again,” she finished.

I stroked her hair. “I suppose that is one thing I
cannot lay blame on the King for… he did treat his hostages well,” I said at
last.

Penny glanced up at me with wet eyes, “Mordecai… I
need to talk to you… about Dorian.”

Closing my own eyes I summoned up all the strength I
could muster before opening them again. “Penelope, I love you. Whatever
happened I will not feel differently or lay blame upon you,” I answered with
honest eyes and a liar’s heart. I knew that deep down it would bother me and
it might take years to completely accept it. Still I knew I could not honestly
blame her.

“Hey!” she said loudly, snapping her fingers in
front of me. “Don’t ever think that again. Nothing of the sort happened! Are
you listening Mort?”

Something like relief washed over me. “I just want you
to understand that I love you, no matter what.”

She glared at me suspiciously and then her face
softened. “You are right to worry. They kept us like caged animals and we had
only each other for support. I was tempted Mort, sorely tempted, I will not
lie. We slept together for warmth only, but I do not know if Dorian will ever
get over his shame.”

I understood immediately. Dorian was the one man I
would trust more than any other in that situation, but the toll upon his
self-image might be too much for him. He held impossible ideals for himself
and even having resisted temptation the reality of his own human frailty might
have undermined his sense of self-worth. “I’ll talk to him,” I replied.

“No!” she said, alarmed. “He’d die of shame if he
knew I had told you this.”

I shook my head. “He’ll die of guilt if I don’t. I
know Dorian. He won’t be able to live with himself until he has confessed
every sin that he didn’t actually commit, both to you and me,” I told her.
Then I had a sudden realization, “Oh damn!” He would also want to confess to
Rose. I trusted her reaction but things might get terribly awkward before it
was all said and done.

“What?” asked Penny.

“Rose,” I said simply.

Penny shrugged, “I think you’re underestimating
her.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I agreed. “She is a woman of
rare talents.”

Penny gave me a discerning stare, “Something
happened.”

I stared back, “Nothing. You have my word on it.”

Her features relaxed, “What was that look then?”

“Rose and I both suffered a tragedy at the same time,
so I got to see her at her worst. There were some temptations… but mostly I
just gained respect for her character. You are still the only woman for me my
dear,” I said truthfully.

Penelope’s face contained a mixture of warring
emotions, or so I thought. Eventually she leaned over and kissed me quickly.
“I have to go.”

Confused I asked, “What?”

My bewilderment set her to laughing, “Nothing
serious, I believe you… it’s my bladder. I think it’s the size of a pea these
days. Honestly, I can’t go more than ten minutes without having to find a
chamber pot or run to the privies.”

I laughed as well. Marriage was nothing like I had
expected a year ago, instead it was different, better in some ways and simply
weirder in others.

***

The weeks went on and things settled down. Walter
and I took turns playing King and keeping the kingdom running, though he took
the larger portion of the job. James was kind enough to stay near and lend his
advice on policy matters. His newfound closeness to the King was the source of
a number of new rumors but none of them amounted to much. A few weeks after
the ‘incident’ at the palace Edward suddenly decided it was time to clear up
the matter of his succession.

Cyhan had hidden the King’s body and I used the
‘stasis’ enchantment I had found to preserve his corpse until we would need it
at a later date. I was quite grateful for his quick thinking… otherwise we
might have had to find a body and then arrange some sort of disfiguring
accident or fire. In either case there would have been rumors.

A proclamation was made and a document drawn up,
setting out in clear language that James Lancaster was to be the next king.
This created an uproar among the gentry, but most of the nobility were wise
enough to avoid antagonizing King Edward… at least while he was still alive.

A month later he abdicated in favor of James, though
Edward was kind enough to stay in the capital to provide advice and counsel to
the new king. He also made it quite clear that it was fully his intention to
make certain that James held the throne. There were numerous grumbles among
the landed nobles but none were made within hearing of the King, present or
past.

***

The summer had faded and autumn was beginning to
make itself known. The leaves had yet to turn but there was a crispness in the
air that hinted at the coming cold of winter. The mood in Albamarl had become
rather festive as people began to anticipate the final harvest and the end of
another year’s labors.

Penelope had ripened to a fullness that I had
trouble believing and I had grown nervous with anticipation. I was also afraid
she might fall every time she took to her feet.

We were sitting in the parlor on one of my days
‘off’ from playing the retired king and Penny was watching the fire when she
suddenly rose from her chair. “Mordecai,” she said.

I was already up and across the room. The midwife
had told me she was due in just a week or so and since then I had been unable
to relax. “Let me help you,” I offered.

“I’m not dying you know,” she said irritably, “just
pregnant.”

“I know,” I said for what was probably the twentieth
time.

“I need to show you something,” she told me. “My
time is soon and I need to talk to you beforehand.”

“Why don’t you sit down and let me fetch whatever it
is you need?” I suggested.

The look she gave me was anything but grateful. “I
want to show you what is in the stone,” she explained.

“Oh,” I said with remarkable wit. “Wait… what
stone?”

She graced me with an expression of deep sympathy,
such as one might bestow upon a very dim but well-loved child. “For all your
cleverness you really do have the memory of a turnip sometimes Mort,” she
answered. “Moira’s stone… the great stone,” she added to clarify.

I couldn’t understand her change of heart. “After
months making me wait and putting me off, you suddenly want to show me… now?” I
asked.

She nodded.

“You make no sense. Your water could break any day
now. I don’t know if it’s even safe for you to leave the house. What if
something happened?” I told her sensibly. “Why not wait till after the baby
comes?” I suggested.

Penny laughed, “The baby won’t just fall out right after
my water breaks you know. There would be plenty of time to get home and call
for Sarah.” Sarah was the name of our midwife, a woman of towering confidence
and experience. Penelope gave me a more serious look, “Besides, there is a
very good reason why we need to go now… before I deliver.”

An hour later we had reached the great stone. As
always it stood forebodingly over the road near the east side of the palace.
Nothing had changed.

“Should I call Moira to open it for us?” I asked.

Penny shook her head negatively and approached the
stone. “She said to show you this spot.” Her hand rested upon the stone in a
place roughly three feet from the ground. The stone was discolored there, a
slightly different shade of grey than the rest.

I examined the area closely but I could detect
nothing. No sign of magic or anything else, other than rough grey stone.
“There’s nothing here.”

“You have to say the password,” Penny told me.

“And that is?”

“It’s your name… just your first name,” she
replied. “She told me that she set the password a thousand years ago, Mort, just
before she fought Balinthor.”

“Then why would she choose my name… oh!” I had just
remembered that the man she had loved then bore the same first name as I did.
Leaning closely I placed my hand over the spot and spoke, “Mordecai.”

Runes appeared, lightly etched in the stone around
my hand. They were delicate and only visible to my magesight but I recognized
the pattern. It was similar to the one in my house, the pattern that guarded
the secret room in the library, shielding it from magesight.
It must work
in a similar manner to Walter’s invisibility when he uses it just to avoid
magical detection,
I thought.

I put the thought aside for later and used my hand
to activate the runes. A modest doorway appeared in the rock near where I
stood. The door itself was solid stone but even as I watched the massive
granite door slid away into the interior of the great monolith, leaving an open
passageway. Penelope stepped forward and led me inside.

Having entered, my mind immediately began to explore
the interior, for it became visible to my magesight once I was past the outer
enchantment. The corridor led ahead for almost ten yards before ending in a
small chamber, one that was devoid of any furniture or adornment, save for a
strange object in the center. My arcane senses could make little of it other
than its strange egg-like shape, that and the fact that it glowed intensely
with powerful magic.

Penny spoke as we walked down the tight hallway,
“Moira built this place to guard something precious to her. It was the last
and greatest of her tasks before she sacrificed herself to defeat Balinthor.”

The sense of anticipation built until at last we
emerged into the chamber and I could look upon the thing it held with my own
eyes. The room was dark but for the glow of the enchantment around the
pedestal in the center of the room.
“Lyet,”
I said softly, creating a
gentle glow above my head.