A Sorcerer's Diplomacy (Song of Sorcery Book 3) Read online

  SONG OF SORCERY

  BOOK THREE

  By

  Guy Antibes

  Table of Contents

  Map of the Kerrothian Continent and the Isle of Dimani

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Excerpt from A Sorcerer’s Rings

  Copyright Page

  Author’s Note

  A Bit About Guy

  Books by Guy Antibes

  Copyright ©2018 Guy Antibes. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the permission of the author.

  ~

  This is a work of fiction. There are no real locations used in the book; the people, settings, and specific places are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual persons, locations, or places are purely coincidental.

  Published by CasiePress LLC in Salt Lake City, UT, February 2018.

  www.casiepress.com

  Cover & Book Design: Kenneth Cassell

  ~

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ~

  As usual, I liberally sprinkled this book with politics and betrayal, but I also spent some time helping Ricky gain traction socially. As a result, there might be some slower parts to the book, but be patient.

  As always, I’d like to thank Bev and Judy, my editor, for helping me produce this third book in the Song of Sorcery series.

  — Guy Antibes

  THE CONTINENT OF KERROTHIA AND

  THE ISLE OF DIMANI

  CHAPTER ONE

  ~

  D OUBLI ACADEMY LOOKED LESS FRIENDLY when Ricky Valian returned from his first meeting with Duke Bariani of Tossa, the city Ricky called home. The encounter added to his string of disappointments and challenges since he had been plucked from the streets of Tossa by Mistress Marissa Doubli, Dean of Doubli Academy. His dark mood did more than echo the cold damp of the Tossan night.

  He had become adept at setting aside beatings, betrayals, incarceration, and personal attacks, but finding out that his guardian, Saganet Crabacci, could have softened his sentence to the Applia Juvenile Home made his morale plummet. He had no home and no sponsors worth trusting, with the sole exception of Mistress Doubli.

  Ricky didn’t utter a word, and Saganet, walking at his side, stayed silent, as well.

  Saganet unlocked the gate and let Ricky inside the academy grounds. He locked it as Ricky looked on, feeling detached from the academy and wondering why he had had to endure the hardships of the last year and a half.

  “You aren’t happy,” Saganet said.

  “Would you be?” Ricky responded. “I was attacked again and again. People tried to kill me multiple times, and what support did I have?”

  “Loria was meant to be your lifeline,” Saganet said.

  Ricky could tell that his guardian didn’t believe his statement.

  “We didn’t think she would betray you at such a critical time.”

  “And what did you do when you found I had no way of communicating with you other than the odd letter that Henni, the library guard, was able to send and receive outside the Home? I was so disoriented at the time; I just went along with the flow of events when I should have just escaped.”

  Saganet said nothing as they walked the rest of the way to the cottage they shared on academy grounds. Ricky was tempted to stalk off to his room, but whatever kept him going at the Home, made him sit at the kitchen table. He knew he had to talk it out with Saganet. Moping just wasn’t Ricky’s style, but his mind was filled with conflicting emotions and still-vivid memories of his perilous experiences at the Home, and he couldn’t shunt aside what happened to him in Applia.

  Saganet re-kindled the fire in the stove and heated up a kettle while Ricky sat closely examining his hands, trying to make some sense of his life.

  “You can be as angry as you want,” Saganet said.

  Ricky stood. “I don’t want to be angry. I don’t want to be depressed. I don’t want to feel worthless.”

  Saganet made tea in silence.

  “I don’t want to be kept in the dark,” Ricky muttered when Saganet shoved a steaming mug of tea under his nose.

  Saganet’s head snapped up. He peered at Ricky. “Is that it? You are most upset with us not letting you know what was going on?”

  Ricky looked away. He felt angry about everyone taking advantage of him. He didn’t want to be used.

  “I’m not a coward,” he said, knowing that was true.

  Saganet took a sip. “No one said you were.”

  “Yet you treat me like one. You kept information from me—”

  “For your own good.”

  Ricky couldn’t help but shake his head. “Not for my own good, but for yours. So you could feel safe.”

  Saganet pursed his lips and frowned. “You believe that?”

  Ricky had to think about what he said. He knew his words were intended to punish, but he couldn’t say what he meant. He felt as helpless as Mara had when she couldn’t express herself because she could barely speak Parantian. “Not really. I can’t tell you how I feel. I don’t have the words.”

  “Let me throw out what I think. You are used to living on your own terms, using whatever resources you can scrape up at the time.”

  Ricky nodded. He always had done that when he lived by himself on Gobble Bangatelli’s shantyboat. In the past year and a half, he still had to earn everything that came his way, especially at the Applia Juvenile Home. “I can’t be mad about being used?”

  “Because you feel you were tricked into being there?”

  “I didn’t have a say. I’ve always dreaded that place. The thought of being there gave me nightmares, and it was every bit as bad as its reputation. I didn’t have to go.” Ricky stared at Saganet, “I didn’t have to go,” he repeated the phrase as if he talked to himself.

  “Would you have gone if I asked you to as a member of the Order of the Curled Fist?”

  “Of course I would. We would have planned an escape. I kept to my informal orders to keep my eyes open, didn’t I? When we drove back with the books, I felt that I had triumphed over my enemies.”

  “What changed?” Saganet said. “I still think you pulled out a stunning victory, and yet you are distraught.”

  “Distraught. That must mean I’m angry.”

  “Angry and disappointed and disoriented.”

  Ricky nodded. He ran his hand through the still-short hair forced upon him by the Home’s barber. “I am…” Revelation flooded through him. “I am acting like I was after using my magic to fly,” he said.

  “What?” Saganet frowned.


  “When a sorcerer does certain spells, he can get depressed. It’s in one of the old books. Flying is especially bad. I had to fight off depression after I flew. Maybe what I’m feeling is the same thing.”

  “Maybe part of it,” Saganet said, leaning back holding his hands to his mug of tea. “You can’t blame all that you feel on flying.” He narrowed his eyes. “Sometimes soldiers fighting in a war can come home and become darker creatures than when they left. It’s a condition that follows a period of high activity, danger, and the stresses of battle. Maybe that’s what has happened to you. Do you feel all used up?”

  Ricky nodded. “Among other things. I feel betrayed.” He looked at Saganet. “That includes you.”

  “Do you want a change in guardian?”

  Ricky couldn’t fathom living with anyone else. “No! I’m sure I’ve disappointed you. Do you want me gone?”

  “I think that even the great Mirano Bespa can’t cure what ails you, Ricky. But what will help might be a change. Not a disruptive change. Why don’t you spend the rest of the year in the dormitories among the other students? You aren’t a scholarship student who has to work. Baron Mansali took care of that. Concentrate on being a student and on living a more normal life. Bury yourself in studying. We all know you learned a lot last year, but there are still gaping holes that need years of filling.”

  “A distraction?” Ricky said, thinking back to the exercising that helped solve his flying depression.

  Saganet nodded. “Not one distraction, but lots of them. I’ll work on keeping you informed if you have to do something for the Order, but I think you’ve done enough for quite a while.”

  Ricky thought that without him around, Saganet’s romance with Effie Asucco could continue to take root.

  “I suppose I can do it.”

  Saganet smiled and sighed. “Let’s try that for awhile. If it doesn’t work out, you are welcome to come back. Your bedroom is still here, since this is your home.”

  “See?” Ricky said, feeling a flood of relief. “You’ve given me a lifeline.” His attitude began to brighten a bit. He now had a few choices and a challenge. He could live with that.

  “I’ll make your dormitory living an assignment. That will give you a bit more focus. Learn to live with others in a less demanding environment than the Juvenile Home. Make some friends. Be yourself. Develop some social graces. I’m sure there were few enough of those exercised in Applia.”

  Ricky managed a smile. “A few glimmers of grace here and there. I’ll need a new wardrobe, though.”

  “That is an excuse for additional distraction. Tomorrow wander around the grounds and see what kind of styles the fashionable young men are wearing these days. You have plenty of money to spend on such things. After all, you haven’t even touched the prize money from your novice competition last summer. I wouldn’t be surprised if a bit more won’t be added to your coffers as a result of your saving King Leon Crespi of Paranty from having to dispose of the former Duke of Applia.”

  ~

  Ricky, carrying a valise with new clothes and a new robe, not the used one that he wore his entire first year, walked into the Bisiccia Building, also known as Dorm Three. The lower two floors held first years, and the upper two served as housing for second and third-year boys.

  He looked at the note he clutched in his free hand for his room number, 309. He followed a sign once he reached the third floor and opened the door to a room for two. Since he started mid-year, no one assigned him a roommate. Ricky looked at the window and the room’s layout and took the bed farthest from the window.

  He sat in an easy chair, one of two facing a tiny fireplace. The floor was covered with a stained carpet, but anything was better than the bare brick walls and cold stone of his cell at the Applia Juvenile Home. Dark maroon patterned paper covered the walls. White molding surrounded the windows, and the room even had wainscoting halfway up the walls.

  Ricky opened the window and breathed in the crisp winter air, significantly warmer than Applia. He turned around at a knock on the door.

  “I see you’ve returned,” Benno said, grinning as he leaned against the open door. “Joining the rest of us?”

  “Saganet thought I could make better friends if I didn’t live with a faculty member.”

  Benno folded his arms. “I agree with him. What classes do you have?”

  “I don’t know,” Ricky said. “The second term starts in a few days. I’m sure Dean Doubli will figure something out.”

  “Not now,” Benno said, poking a finger in his ear. “You’ll be getting a faculty advisor. I’m sure Professor Crabacci was your advisor last year. You’ll get someone else, I’m sure.”

  Ricky smiled. “I just want to be another student.”

  “Fat chance,” Benno said. “You have a reputation. Word is just leaking out about your adventure in Applia. Everyone thinks you put down a rebellion single-handed. You even killed the Duke of Applia.”

  “Some of that is the truth, but the soldiers in the Royal Barracks put down the attack. They probably won’t be able to catch all the rebels.”

  Ricky didn’t think that was possible. There were hundreds of militia in the square wearing green coats.

  He made a face. “I’m lucky to be alive. Frank Pestella tried to kill me.”

  Benno’s eyes rose. “He was there?”

  Ricky nodded. “Lady Taranta paid quite a few people to make my life difficult and, in the end, take it.”

  Benno grinned. “I, for one, am glad they didn’t succeed. You can tell me about it over lunch. It’s nearly time to head over to the commissary.”

  “Do you live in this building?”

  “Fourth floor with a few fellow fourth years. We call the building Bisiccia, not Dormitory Three. I’ve had my room upstairs for two and a half years. I’m comfortable there. The fourth-year rooms are bigger, but I like staying here.”

  “Show me around. I’ve walked past the dormitories lots of times, but this is the first time I’ve ever been in one.”

  “Sure. I can wait for you to put your clothes away, and then we’ll be off for a tour and lunch.” Benny grinned. “Or maybe lunch, and then we’ll go on a tour.”

  As they walked through the halls, Ricky instantly noticed that the fancier academy dorms and the Home’s cell blocks shared the same basic organization. He guessed people were people, and the layouts served the same set of needs.

  Ricky recognized faces here and there, nodding to those he recognized. More people nodded to him than he knew. Perhaps it was his reputation. One thing was different about the academy dorm, the Home’s underlying river of hostility didn’t seem to manifest itself at Doubli. He knew there were plenty of conflicts, but no one seemed to cower or look as guarded as his fellow inmates had at the Home.

  He could feel a wariness within that might blossom into what he felt a few days ago when he returned from the Duke’s dinner. It reminded him of times when his erstwhile grandfather had been especially mean to him. Ricky wondered if he could shake that feeling off as well as he had his first year. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his second year looking behind his back, waiting for an attack of some kind. Ricky wondered if his Applian experience had wounded him, deep inside.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER TWO

  ~

  B ENNO LED RICKY TO THE MEAL LINE. The Home’s lunchroom was the same except the trays, plates, and utensils were much better quality in the academy’s commissary. Ricky looked forward to the food. He smiled as he loaded up and followed Benno.

  They ate in companionable silence for a while. Ricky noticed Loria Mansali saunter in with three other girls. She lifted up her nose when she noticed Ricky sitting with Benno. Ricky had nearly finished when he stood up.

  “I have some unfinished business,” he said, staring at Loria who sat with her back to them.

  “You won’t succeed in winning her back,” Benno said.

  “I don’t care about that,” Ricky said. He hadn’t shared anyth
ing specific about his Home experiences with Benno. “I’ll return shortly.”

  Ricky stalked off to see Loria. Her friends stared at Ricky, standing behind Loria, who had folded her arms. He could imagine the implacable face. He’d been through this before.

  “Your attitude nearly cost me my life,” Ricky said. “I could have died because of your selfishness.”

  Loria turned around, putting her arm on the top of the chair. “Me? Am I the selfish one? Who woke me up in the middle of the night from that awful place? It makes me shiver to think you soiled my mind with your thoughts.”

  “Your mind, not mine. You didn’t have to lie to me about Saganet leaving earlier for Applia. That was a mean, vicious lie from a mean, vicious girl. You didn’t have to do that. I won’t mention it again, but you didn’t get away with anything and only made yourself look small and vile.”

  “Vile?” Loria screeched.

  All the heads in the commissary turned toward them.

  “I’ve said all I’m going to.” Ricky bowed slightly to the other girls and returned to Benno.

  They watched Loria hurry out of the commissary with her friends. One of them looked at Ricky with a worried look.

  “We all heard the ‘vile’ screamed out. What else did you say?” Benno said.

  “She betrayed me. I counted on her relaying information to Saganet, and she lied to me instead. Saganet never got the message, and I nearly lost my life.” Ricky spent the rest of their lunch giving an edited version of his adventures at the Applia Juvenile Home.

  “I can skip my next class,” Benno said. “I want to hear the end while we go on a tour.”

  They left the commissary. Benno showed Ricky the study hall that Ricky had never used and the exercise room that students could use during inclement weather. It was much smaller than the gymnasium. Ricky guessed he was a regular student at this point and would have to use the common areas that he felt were off limits to him in his former state as a charity student.

  Ricky felt different walking among regular students. He wondered if he could fit into a more conventional role as a student. At least no one would call him ‘inmate’ anymore.