The Hidden Mask (Wizard's Helper Book 6) Read online

  By

  Guy Antibes

  Table of Contents

  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

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Map of Corand & Antibeaux

  Wizard’s helper Character List

  Excerpt of the Seventh Book in the Wizard’s Helper Series – The Buckle’s Curse

  Copyright Page

  Author’s Note

  A Bit About Guy

  Books by Guy Antibes

  Copyright ©2019 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, December 2019.

  www.casiepress.com

  Cover Design: www.ebooklaunch.com

  Book Design: Kenneth Cassell

  Editing: Amy Hoffman

  Principal Reader: Bev Cassell

  ~

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ~

  Jack returns as the main character with Penny at his side, along with characters familiar and new. I spent a few weeks in the Tyrolian Alps before I wrote this book and modeled the country of Antibeaux on that experience. I didn’t have to seek out a hidden mask, however. The plot of this book depends on a lot of political machinations. Our hero Jack can cut through all the confusion as he seeks out Adoree’s Mask. I used French-sounding names for Antibeaux. Again, forgive me if my names mean something objectionable. I don’t speak French!

  — Guy Antibes

  Map of Corand & Antibeaux

  Chapter One

  ~

  P enny was busy with her father and her uncle and his wife. Tanner, Ramona, Jackie, and Helen were with the duke of Bartonsee and his two aides, and Jack ended up by himself. Well, he told himself, he had the First Ring of Dorkansee to wander around in. He stepped inside the wizard registry, where he had gone with Ozzie Quist on his way to Lajia in pursuit of the Serpent’s Orb, and looked up his entry. He was still listed as a servant of Fasher Tempest, but the register noted that he was suspected of being a true helper.

  That was good enough for him. He walked along the outside of the Dorkansee Healing Institute that faced the square. He looked at the façade, thinking that Penny had spent two years training to be a healer in that building. She was a healer and much more after her encounter with Takia, Lajia’s Goddess of the Clouds. His hand brushed his growing hair, where he still had the white lock the goddess had given him.

  Too many signs, too many adventures, and too many conversations with gods, he thought. He didn’t know what he had become, but he had gradually come to know that he didn’t lead a normal life. Penny had Fasher and Corina to help her handle her new status.

  He strolled inside Alderach’s Dorkansee cathedral. It didn’t seem to have the same atmosphere when he last climbed the stone steps. Alderach’s statue looked the same, and Jack continued to stare into Alderach’s face, but Jack didn’t feel the same sense of awe he had when he sought the Serpent’s Orb. Jack carried a copy that he had made on his own. He had recently learned from Fasher that Alderach had crafted the original. His didn’t store energy like the original, but the liquid fire that shot out from the slit that represented the eye worked as well as Jack could determine.

  Jack sat down to do a little thinking in the huge nave. He felt a little adrift at the moment without having anything to do. A middle-aged man sat next to him.

  “You are Jack Winder?”

  “I am, and you are?”

  “Willet Barton. I am a friend of Penny Ephram,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I enjoy meeting young people here.” The man looked around the cathedral.

  Jack nodded. “The head of a secret band of police investigators. I don’t know everything that Penny did, but enough to know who you are and what you do.”

  Willet laughed. He seemed to be an amiable enough man.

  “Duke Hestor, the one you should be talking to, is staying at the inn opposite this cathedral,” Jack said.

  Willet laughed. “I’ve already seen him this morning. It is you to whom I would like to speak. The duke thinks Penny is fine, considering a rather traumatic set of events in Lajia.”

  Jack nodded, glad that her part-time superior had such an interest in her. “I would guess she might have some nightmares or bad dreams about Lajia, but the worst of it was when she was sedated, I think the term is. She didn’t wake up from her kidnapping until she was deep into Lajia, and that only lasted a few hours until shortly before I retrieved her. I would say you and her trainer—”

  “Gary Green, our weapon master?” Willet said.

  Jack nodded again. “He trained her well, but she is much better now. I taught her a secret technique known to Masukaian warriors, and I am sure she can beat Gary Green at this point.”

  Willet grinned. “You really think so?” The man thought for a moment. “Masukai. You were there for a long time?”

  “I was,” Jack said, wondering at Willet Barton’s real reason for catching him at the cathedral. “Did you see her white hair?”

  “I said hello to Penny in passing. She was going out with her family. The color is quite attractive on the girl. Is it all the rage in Lajia?”

  Jack shook his head. “She came by it during our journey from the place where I rescued her to Reoja. It will be a constant reminder of the events. Her escape to Reoja will change her life. We will be leaving Dorkansee soon enough on an errand for Fasher Tempest.”

  Barton smiled. “I know. I’ve already talked to Fasher Tempest about your mission. He didn’t tell me what you are seeking, but I am loaning you three of my people for the job.”

  “They must be unusually good then,” Jack said. “I was thinking Penny and I would do it by ourselves.”

  “Not a good idea for a few reasons,” Willet said. “Fasher isn’t excited about the two of you being alone since you might forget what the mission is. You two do have a relationship?”

  Jack had to admit that was an appropriate response on Fasher’s part. “We do, of sorts. There are other reasons?”

  “I can tell you that there is a strong political element to your task. You will be required to extract information from Antibeaux nobility. Fasher can tell you about the team we put together. That is why I wanted this talk. Penny thinks hi
ghly of you, and Fasher does too. I decided I wouldn’t permit my people to be put at risk in a foreign country unless I met you before I made a final decision. You aren’t going on an official mission from my department. I am lending my people to Fasher for a season or two. Tell me why I should put these people on the same mission as you?”

  “I’m not so sure you should, Willet Barton,” Jack said. “I’m not a leader, and I’m not a political person. I get focused on an errand and start on my way, taking care of any obstacles in my path. Masukai required that I learn the language, the culture, and how Masukaians fight for almost two years, so I could take a few weeks to carry out the errand.”

  “And you were successful?”

  Jack sighed. “I found the thing Fasher wanted, but the Emperor was murdered while I tried to save him. I’m not invulnerable and not a perfect person.” Jack remembered how the Borigore-controlled wizard blew him against a wall so hard he was senseless while a good Masukaian friend was killed along with Emperor Rakota.

  Barton pursed his lips. “None of us are. Will you promise to protect my people?”

  Jack swallowed. He couldn’t promise such a thing, not knowing what he faced. “I can only tell you I will do my best. I’m not a god, after all, just a wizard’s helper assisting his master.”

  Barton laughed and slapped Jack on the shoulder. “That is all I wanted to hear. We will start working together in a few days after my people take care of their affairs in Dorkansee. The strategy is that you will winter in Bristone, the capital of Antibeaux, finding out what you can about the thing Fasher wants to remove from the country. It was a pleasure meeting you, Jack Winder. We will meet again soon.”

  Jack stood and shook hands with Willet Barton. “I hope it will be a pleasure to work with your people.”

  Willet waved as he briskly walked down the corridor and out into the bright morning sunshine. Jack sat back down and tried to figure out why Willet Barton wanted to talk. Perhaps he was telling the truth. Jack thought he was like a father checking on his daughter’s suitor. It was likely it was nothing more than that.

  Jack returned to his room at the inn and decided he would write a letter to his family. Fasher had told his parents that he had arrived in Dorkansee, but a letter seemed appropriate. He took a stack of paper from the ornate desk in his room and spent the rest of the afternoon telling his parents an edited version of his travels in Masukai. He made sketches of Masukaian architecture and furniture for his father since that was the only gift of any worth he had from the country, but then he rummaged around in his bags and slipped in his last ranking card and noted the meaning. It was all in Masukaian, so no one would know how to interpret the Masukaian numbers and words except for Tanner and Helen if they truly decided to live in Raker Falls for a while.

  He stared at the journal, it was too long for a letter, and stood when someone knocked on the door.

  “Dinner, Jack,” Penny said. “Everyone is leaving in the morning except for Fasher and Corina. It is the final celebration.”

  “I thought last night was the celebration,” Jack said, smiling. He had to rip himself out of the pensive mood he had been in all day.

  Penny shrugged but grabbed his hand. “A farewell then? We don’t know when we will see Tanner and Helen again, and the same goes for my father.”

  Jack nodded. “That is a better reason for me to go.”

  They descended the stairs. Everyone was in the same private dining room they had used the night before. Jackie was entertaining everyone, letting Tanner prompt her in Masukaian. It was an impressive demonstration by the little girl. She enjoyed everyone being focused on her, Jack imagined. Better her than him.

  “We can eat!” Tanner said. “Jackie’s run out of words to say.” He swept his little girl into his arms and handed her to Ramona. “She needs a little cleaning up. Bring her back, please.”

  Ramona curtseyed to the group and left to tend to Jackie.

  Jack enjoyed the dinner. Tanner was in fine form, much to Helen’s chagrin. His embellishments made Helen cringe, but Penny seemed to enjoy them, since she knew what they had really done. The food was excellent as befitted a First Ring establishment catering to the nobility.

  “I can’t afford to keep you here,” Duke Hestor said, but I have leased a townhouse a few blocks away for Fasher Tempest, his wife, and you two,” he said, looking at Penny and Jack. “It is big enough so that everyone has their own bedrooms.”

  Reginart Ephram barked out a laugh. “As if they need to be told. They behaved in much more intimate circumstances.”

  Jack didn’t know what Penny had told her father during the day, but whatever it was, Reginart seemed to be convinced Jack harbored no ill intentions toward his oldest daughter.

  “You don’t have to provide us with housing,” Fasher said to Duke Hestor.

  “I want to.” The duke rapped his knuckles on the table. “It is the least I can do for those who helped bring my little niece to me.” The two aides to the duke nodded vigorously. They had been mostly silent after Jackie left.

  “We will be staying in Bartonsee for a few weeks,” Helen said. “Tanner has some administrative things to do before we can move on to Raker Falls.”

  “I’m glad you can spend some more time there,” Jack said.

  “The duke has graciously offered to retrieve our possessions from our former homes. Reginart built a lane of new cottages in Raker Falls, and there are a few still available. Fasher agrees we will like whichever one we pick.”

  That sounded positive. Jack wished he was returning home, but would he be satisfied living in his old bedroom now that he was twenty, going on twenty-one? He wondered if he shouldn’t reserve one of the other new homes, but the time wasn’t right. He pounded on his thigh beneath the table. He had to get out of his melancholy mood.

  ~

  Jack emerged from the inn early enough to see the carriages off. Duke Hestor and his two aides rode in the one he brought from Bartonsee. Helen, Tanner, Ramona, and Jackie hired another. Reginart joined the duke and would hire his own carriage in Bartonsee.

  Penny waved as her father left the stableyard. She looked at Fasher. “We might as well go to our temporary home.” She sighed, looking more like Jack felt.

  “That is a good idea,” Fasher said. “Let’s have some breakfast first, so I can explain what the next few weeks will be like. Jack knows there is a team that I have put together, but not the scope.

  They ate in the corner of the inn’s dining room. Jack sat facing the door, feeling a little more energy creep into his body, eager to learn more about Fasher’s latest errand.

  “You will be seeking an object of power, Adoree’s Mask. It is more generally known as the Hidden Mask. The wearer, similar to the Battlebone, must be an extremely powerful wizard—”

  “Or an agent of the gods?” Penny asked.

  Fasher frowned and looked to see if anyone was listening. “Don’t use that term again unless you are alone with Jack. You are both extremely powerful wizards, so you both might qualify. The wearer can glimpse into the future.”

  “Can’t gods do that?”

  “Not as clearly, I understand,” Fasher said. “You can imagine what would happen if Yvessa, the Antibeaux goddess, reintroduced it to the world.”

  “She is the one who hid it?”

  Fasher shook his head. “I’m not sure, but she undoubtedly knows where it is. From what we can determine, no one else has any idea of the location. Knowing the White Way Society, if they had the mask, they would already be causing havoc in the country, more than they are now, at any rate.”

  “What is the White Way Society?” Penny asked.

  Fasher chuckled. “An organization like the Black Finger Society under another name. Those in Antibeaux refer to them as members of the WWS.” He shook his head. “Until just recently, they were just as harmless as the Corandian or Passoranian Black Fingers until the Kadellians supposedly stirred them up. They support Yvessa, and we are almost certain she
supports what is going on in Kadellia.”

  “Borigore’s ally?” Jack asked.

  Fasher nodded. “She is headed that way. That is why I need both of you to go on the errand. I’m uncertain if Jack, by himself, can succeed, but with both of you, I have more confidence. The situation in Antibeaux is complex with the emergence of the WWS as a power in Bristone. Since neither of you is practiced in politics and working through the complexities of the noble structure, I have discussed the situation with Willet Barton. He will arrange three people to accompany you.”

  “Who?” Penny asked.

  “Your etiquette teacher, Kanlinn Marker—”

  “Etiquette teacher? You never mentioned her before,” Jack said to Penny.

  Penny blushed. “I needed to refresh the manners that I ignored when my mother taught me,” Penny said, lifting her chin in the air a trifle. She turned to Fasher. “Who else?”

  “An ex-military man working for the Dorkansee police, Lorton Reedbrook. He knows politics and the inner workings of the nobility from a different point of view than the Marker woman,” Fasher said. “The third person is very familiar to Penny, Sera Waters.”

  “But she is Willet’s niece!” Penny said.

  “And has been training hard for the past year. You and Marker need a servant who can move through the back channels of any house. Kanlinn Marker will introduce you as her companion, and Sera is the maid for you both. Jack will be a jack-of-all-trades, if you pardon the expression, Winder. You may assume the role of butler or escort for Penny or whatever role Kanlinn wishes. That will give you the freedom to spend time on your own seeking the whereabouts of the mask.”

  “And what is Lorton’s purpose?” Penny asked.

  “Lady Marker’s bodyguard. Lorton is an ex-battle wizard, but he has a different story than I do, and if he chooses to reveal it to you, he may. Otherwise, it might be a sensitive topic,” Fasher said.

  “Lin is an expert at self-defense. Why would she need a bodyguard?” Penny asked.

  “She is ostensibly the leader of your group and has secured the permission of King Jordan to officially notify the Corandian Ambassador that she will spend the winter season in Bristone. It is quite a different culture, and Lady Marker has a reputation for seeking out the unusual. You will spend the next few weeks practicing your roles,” Fasher said. “Jack will be helping Penny find and fetch the possessions she left behind when Simara Khotes kidnapped her. In case you are wondering, Ramona made contact with Willet Barton, and she has happily relinquished her role monitoring Black Finger activity in Dorkansee. Willet has a direct line to Reoja, and he will keep Ramona’s relative apprised.”