The Sorcerer's Legacy (30 page)

“Could you see who was coming?” Azerick asked.

“A bunch of soldiers, and I am pretty sure the princess is with them,” Wolf answered nonchalantly.

“A princes!” Colleen exclaimed.

“She is not a princes, Wolf, she is the duchess’s daughter,” Azerick corrected. “It is probably Lady Miranda,” Azerick told Colleen.

“I have to change I look dreadful! I cannot be seen be seen by a noblewoman wearing this old sack dress!” Colleen said in panic.

“I bought you that dress,” Rusty reminded his wife. “I thought you liked it.”

“Oh it is fine for you, but the daughter of the duchess is important! I have to go change,” Colleen insisted and waddled quickly out of the hall to her room.

Rusty turned a gloomy look towards Azerick. “I thought I was important,” he said dolefully.

“You are important to me, Rusty,” Azerick replied cheerfully.

“Maybe you should have married Azerick,” Alex suggested with a laugh.

Azerick shook his head. “I doubt I am nearly as good a kisser and I hate to cuddle,” he replied drolly.

“Well I guess we all have to settle at some time,” Rusty laughed back.

“You better not let Colleen hear you say you settled or you will be sleeping out in the main hall with the kids, if you are lucky enough that she does not toss you out into the snow,” Alex warned.

“Well, let us go and see to the
princess
,” Azerick suggested and stood up.

“I thought she was a duchess?” Rusty asked as they all walked towards the main hall.

Azerick rolled his eyes. “Trust me, Rusty; they all think they are princesses.”

The first thing Miranda noticed were all of the children playing in the snow before they all stopped to watch the procession of horses ride up, plowing through the hip-deep snow. Captain Brague insisted on sending a full score of palace guards but Miranda and her mother had finally talked him down to ten. She felt ridiculous with even half so many.

Miranda and two of her guard detail climbed the few steps to the portico, insisting that the others wait outside. At a nod from Azerick, Jansen opened the door when one of the guards knocked a second time. Azerick did not want them to think he was waiting to greet them. Was it an infantile display of authority? Probably, but he did not care. Nobles needed to be knocked down a peg whenever possible.

Miranda strode through the open door with her two guards following closely behind her. Miranda wore a white fur jacket with a hood as well as a white pair of fur-lined trousers. The supple leather was oiled to help waterproof the material. Azerick had to admit to himself that she looked good in that outfit and the fit of the trousers complimented her figure surprisingly well.

“Greetings, Magus Azerick, I hope I am not imposing,” Miranda said in greeting, smiling warmly.

“Good day to you, Lady Miranda,” he returned the greeting politely but not the smile. “I would like to introduce you to my friends, Franklin, but we all call him Rusty, Alex, and Jansen. Magus Allister has also decided to grace us with his presence but he is tinkering about in the laboratory.”

Miranda greeted Azerick’s friends as he introduced them. “Magus Allister, did he teach at The Academy in Southport?”

“He did, but he is on sabbatical for the time being,” Azerick informed her.

“I believe I recall seeing him at the banquet that was held there a few years ago. He was involved in a bit of a ruckus if I remember correctly,” Miranda said thoughtfully.

“I am sure I wouldn’t know. I was not a student at that time,” Azerick replied, wondering if the heat he felt in his cheeks showed. “Was the good Captain Brague unable to grace us with his presence today?”

Miranda gave Azerick a conspiratorial smile. “The
good captain
seems to have a problem with his armor, refuses to leave the castle until he is able to repair it, and will not go out on official business without it.”

“What a pity. So what brings you to see me, Lady Miranda?”

Miranda’s answer was cut short as Colleen burst from her room wearing an elaborate gown, her hair done up, and a bit of rouge applied to her cheeks.

Rusty leaned over and whispered to Azerick. “It takes her three hours to get ready for me! They must do it on purpose to drive us mad.”

“Your Grace, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance!” Colleen gushed and made a less than graceful curtsy due to her very pregnant stomach.

“Lady Miranda, I have the pleasure to introduce you to Rusty’s wife, Lady Colleen,” Azerick introduced with a small smile at Colleen’s anxious entrance.

Miranda darted to Colleen’s side and took hold of her by the arm, lifting her out of her curtsy. “Please, my mother is, Your Grace, I am just Miranda, Lady Colleen,” she insisted.

“Oh, and I am just Colleen.”

“Oh my goodness,” Miranda said in astonishment. “You are very much with child!”

“I know, I look awful in this dress with my fat belly stretching out the fabric,” Colleen pouted.

“Nonsense, you look wonderfully radiant. I am jealous. Have you had a baby shower? When are you due?”came the typical barrage of questions when one woman meets another who is pregnant.

Azerick let the two women
cluck it up,
as he called it when women started rambling on with one another, for a few minutes before interrupting.

“There was something you wished to see me about, Lady Miranda?” Azerick interrupted.

“Oh yes, my mother was concerned that you may be trying to undermine her authority and asked me to come up here in the guise of informing you of the winter festival to investigate the disposition of the citizens you led out of the city,” Miranda answered straight-faced.

Miranda’s guards shifted uncomfortably at her words.

“Lady Miranda, I fear your frankness makes you a terrible spy,” Azerick informed her.

Miranda waved it off with the brush of her hand. “The entire thing is preposterous. Captain Brague actually thought you may be using them in some dark ritual to summon demons to take over the city,” Miranda laughed.

“The captain always was a sharp one. That is why I keep the demons in the basement.”

Miranda chose to ignore the sorcerer’s sardonic humor. “You did help mother decide she needed to do more for the people this winter so she created soup lines and got many of the homeless off the streets. For that I must thank you profusely.”

“It is good to see that the threat to her image was sufficient to motivate your mother to do something for the less fortunate,” Azerick said dryly.

“Azerick, behave!” Colleen scolded him.

Miranda gave Azerick a reproachful look. “Azerick, you judge my mother too harshly. She has completely drained our coffers to help the people through this winter. She even ordered many of the nobles to
volunteer
some of their time to help prepare and hand out bread and soup.”

Miranda laughed gaily at the memory. “You should have seen the looks on their faces when mother called them all in and told them what she required of them. When several of them protested, mother told them they could either serve the soup to the homeless or they could become one of them and wait in line to receive it!”

Everyone joined Miranda in laughter except Azerick and Jansen, but even they could not help smiling at the image it created.

“So, was there actually something you wished to tell me concerning the winter festival,” Azerick asked, “or was it entirely a ruse?”

“I wanted to tell you that the winter festival will not be held until the end of winter due to the late snows and freezing weather. We shall hold the festival to mark the end of winter and the start of spring. The spring festival shall also be pushed back to the end of spring.”

Miranda’s face dropped dejectedly. “I am afraid that due to an extreme shortage of funds, this year’s winter festival will be a poor example of our usually glorious event. North Haven has always been lauded with having the most spectacular winter festival in the kingdom.”

“I would imagine that most of the people will find the fact that they did not starve during the winter quite spectacular on its own,” Azerick replied.

“Azerick, you are so morbid!” Colleen admonished once again. “Festivals are a time of happiness and rejoicing. It lets the people put their hardships to the backs of their minds for a time so they can experience a little joy in their lives. It is often the most miserable and hopeless that benefits the most from such occasions.”

“Very well said, Colleen,” Miranda smiled graciously. “I was hoping I might see you at the festival, Magus Azerick.”

Azerick shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe, it is a large city so who knows?”

“Well, I have delivered my message and performed my intelligence duties for mother. She will be relieved to find that the children are doing well and not about to lay siege to the castle unless it is with snowballs. It was a pleasure to meet you all. Good day, Magus Azerick.”

Miranda bid them all farewell, disappointed that Azerick either did not catch her hint, or worse, chose to disregard it.

“Let me walk you out, Miranda,” Colleen offered while shooting daggers with her eyes at Azerick. “I doubt any of the men are capable of such courtesy.”

The two women walked out of the hall preceded by Miranda’s guards. Azerick watched them depart, seemingly as uninterested in her departure as he was her arrival. He had just taken a bite out of an apple he had been holding the entire time when the chunk suddenly flew out of his mouth as something struck him in the back of his head with a meaty slap.

“Ow, what the heck was that for?” Azerick cried as he spun towards Rusty, rubbing the back of his head.

“What in the eight levels of the abyss is wrong with you?” Rusty demanded as he shook his stinging hand.

“What do you mean? And there are six levels in the abyss, not eight.”

“They’re making two more just for you. They are called the levels of the hopelessly stupid,” Rusty replied in a ghostly voice and waving his hands.

“What are you talking about?” Azerick asked irritably.

“What am I talking about? The most beautiful woman in the kingdom—,”

“Besides your wife,” Azerick whispered as he saw Colleen coming back through the door.

“—besides my gorgeous and intelligent wife whom I love more than life itself—thank you,” Rusty replied quietly.

“No problem, nice save.”

“—invites you to what is normally the most spectacular festival in the kingdom because she obviously likes you for some unknown reason. Probably due to some dire affliction of the brain brought on by living in this cold for too long.”

“Rusty, you do not understand,” Azerick told his friend.

“I think I do, Az. I know what it is to love. Do you think I love Colleen any less than you did Delinda? Do you think that I have not thought what it would be like if something happened to her?” Rusty sincerely asked. “I worry about her and the baby all the time. I also think about how great it is to be with someone I love unconditionally, someone I can confide in and tell them anything without fear of judgment. To have someone who will follow me unhesitatingly and without complaint to a bitterly cold city far from home with little explanation beyond the fact that a friend needs my help, even though she is far along with child.”

“But you have that, Rusty!” Azerick cried out in remorse. “I had that and I lost it!”

Colleen and Rusty both held their friend as he broke down in tears.