The Hidden Mask (Wizard's Helper Book 6) Page 10

  “I can,” Annette said. “Briette and I will make it happen.” She curtseyed to Jack. “I look forward to talking to you more on our journey home.”

  Lord Floury bowed to Jack. “Until tomorrow.”

  Jack bowed back and was about to return to Penny when a husband tapped Jack on the shoulder. His wife, a skinny woman of late middle years, smiled at him as she curtseyed from behind.

  The ball was much the same until Lin had said she had been seen enough. They left before the ball ended and walked back to the inn.

  “You were the most popular dancer on the floor,” Lorton said, laughing. “All I had to do was glare at people and grunt my replies to be left alone.”

  Jack shook his head in dismay as they walked behind their three charges in the darkness. “I was supposed to be a light-hearted lord,” he said, “but I didn’t know that would make every woman want to dance with me.”

  Lin turned around. “You were my favorite partner of the night, even if we traipsed across the ballroom floor only twice.”

  “I even danced with Lord Winder,” Sera said.

  She didn’t turn, but Jack could hear the amusement in her voice. Penny kept quiet. He was able to dance with her three times, and he had to be rude to another older couple to do it.

  “You didn’t ask me to dance,” Jack said to Lorton.

  “I considered it, but my gown just didn’t match your garb well enough,” the policeman said. “I would consider our evening to be productive.”

  “Especially our new connection with Lord Floury,” Lin said. “It didn’t take much persuasion to talk him into accompanying us to Bristone. He is high enough in the government to scour his brain for information.”

  “It will be biased,” Lorton said.

  “Biased is better than to know nothing,” Lin said. “The Ratitoux woman was dreadful. If she is typical of the White Way Society—"

  “WWS,” Jack said. He explained the other three factions.

  “The Antibeaux people like their letters,” Lin said. “She is obviously a fanatic WWS member.”

  “So are the Black Fingers,” Sera said. “I didn’t see a difference except they are religious, where the Black Fingers aren’t.”

  Jack agreed. “My discussion with Yvessa wasn’t long enough to know how aligned the WWS is with the goddess, but if I had to guess, I would say they are close enough for us to worry.”

  “Worry, worry, worry,” Lin said. “I’d say we made progress enough. Let’s make sure we are ready to go before we eat lunch tomorrow.”

  Chapter Ten

  ~

  D eera showed up to say goodbye and thank them for showing up at the ball. She had been as popular with the young men in Boxwood as Jack was with ladies of all ages.

  After a large lunch, they assumed their positions as they were about to leave the stableyard. Lord Floury walked in from the gate.

  “We are lined up outside. It looks like our timing was excellent.”

  Lin nodded. “It was indeed. An auspicious beginning to our journey, don’t you think?”

  “It is. There are six in my party, including the two drivers. We can make introductions when we make our first rest stop,” Lord Floury said.

  Lin talked to the lord while Jack and Lorton made a final inspection of the carriage and mounted their horses when Lord Floury left the stableyard.

  “He and I had chosen the same inns,” Lin said. “We will look much more official this way.” She turned to Oscar, sitting in the driver’s box. “We shall follow their lead.”

  Dee waved to them from the sidewalk as they followed Lord Floury’s carriage out of the town. He felt that their journey had really started in Boxwood. He had met Yvessa, the WWS woman, and learned that the political situation in Bristone was as complicated as they had thought.

  The only disadvantage of traveling with Lord Floury and his daughter was that they couldn’t shed their roles along the way. Perhaps the good part of that was in practice before they arrived in the capital when the stakes rose.

  Their first stop for the day was the last stop in Corand. They paused at an inn to refresh themselves and have some snacks.

  “You look different from last night,” Annette said as she sat down next to him. “I didn’t expect you to travel armed.”

  Jack smiled. “I received my title for valorous actions, at least they were valorous enough for King Jordan. I’m the son of a furniture-maker.”

  “Really. From a humble seed, the great tree grew,” Annette said. “I read that somewhere. Are you a great tree?”

  Jack laughed. “Not yet. I have some growing to do.”

  Penny sat down on the other side of Jack.

  “Do you like Jack’s sword?” Penny said, leaning forward in front of Jack. “It is from Masukai. Jack spent the last two years there before he rescued me from Black Fingers in Lajia.”

  “Oh, like in the romance books!” Annette said, clapping her hands. “Are you two together?”

  “I would say we are good friends,” Penny said, “very good friends.”

  “Can I be a friend?” Annette asked.

  “Certainly,” Jack said, “but maybe not a very good friend.”

  Annette laughed. “I understand. I have my own very good friend in Bristone.”

  “Terry,” Jack said.

  The girl sighed. “Ah, Terry. He wears a sword, too, since he serves with my brother in the Royal Guard.”

  “Why don’t you ride with us on the next leg?” Penny asked. “It would be nice for you to get to know Lady Kanlinn and my friend, Sera.”

  Annette brightened up. “Oh, could I? I will go ask father.”

  “You were going to let that ‘innocent’ girl get between us?” Penny said when Annette was out of earshot.

  “No,” Jack said, lifting his chin a little. “I thought I put her down very subtly by proclaiming that you are my very good friend, not her.” He didn’t mention that he thought telling the girl that he had been to Masukai and saved Penny from the Black Fingers might have been revealing too much.

  Penny moved her chair a little closer. “I thought you were the most handsome man at the ball, you know.”

  “Likewise. I thought you were the most handsome man at the ball too,” Jack said with a smile.

  “It must be the white hair,” Penny said.

  “That was it,” Jack said, snapping his fingers. “You don’t have to worry about Annette. When she gets a little too close, if that happens, I will turn the conversation toward Terry, the lover her father doesn’t approve of.”

  “Oh,” Penny said. “That was why they journeyed all the way to Boxwood?”

  “At least one of the reasons. I wouldn’t be surprised to be riding next to Lord Floury for a leg or two while he extols the virtues of Annette.”

  “Men in uniform,” Penny said. “For some women, it is a powerful attractant.”

  “I have my black Deep Mist uniform. Should I put it on before we leave the village?” Jack asked.

  “Save it for when I am swept off my feet by a Bristonian Royal Guardsman. Who knows, perhaps Terry is more handsome than you,” Penny said.

  “I will have to bear that in mind,” Jack said.

  ~

  Jack looked up ahead at the red and white striped pole that blocked their way. Lorton rode ahead, with the portfolio containing their papers. Corandian border guards staffed a building on one side of the road, and the Antibeaux border patrol worked out of the large cottage-looking structure on the other.

  Floury’s carriage had already passed the two sets of guards and waited. Jack could see the Corandian guards talking excitedly to Lorton.

  “Someone sent a bird to the guardsmen saying we were imposters,” Lorton told Jack as he dismounted.

  “Impossible,” Jack said. “Can we see the message?”

  Lorton and Jack read the small strip of paper at the same time. It was cryptic, but Lady Kanlinn’s name was clearly spelled on the message that said they were to be denied en
try into Antibeaux.

  “We have papers signed by King Jordan himself,” Lorton said.

  “How can I let you pass with this?” the border officer waved the little paper that he had taken from Jack.

  “Where is the official signature?” Jack asked. “Our papers are official, and this isn’t.”

  “The bird is the proof,” the guardsman said. “There is only one coop at the royal police headquarters. Someone would have to have stolen a bird.”

  “And that makes us forgers?”

  The officer shrugged.

  Lin climbed out of the carriage. “What will you need to let us pass?” she asked.

  “Prove to me that you are who you say you are.”

  Jack thought a bit. “I am a powerful wizard and just as powerful a warrior. Shall I prove it to you?” he said.

  The guard worked his mouth a bit. “If you can defeat one of our guards, I will think about it.”

  Jack smiled. “Then let’s get this over with as soon as possible.”

  The officer left them and returned with a very tall, burly guard. He carried a long sword and a wand.

  “I am a wizard, as well,” the guard said.

  “If you are such a great fighter, then why are you stuck here on the border?” Lorton asked.

  The guard pursed his lips. “I like to drink better than I like to fight. There isn’t much drink to get me in trouble here.”

  Lorton grinned and reached up to clasp the man’s shoulder. “I like an honest man. You have a more-than-worthy opponent this day,” he said.

  Jack took his jacket off and pulled out his wand and drew his Masukaian sword.

  The guard laughed. “Isn’t that a little light?”

  “I daresay it cuts better than that slab of steel,” Jack said, letting a little show of bravado show through.

  “And a wand?”

  Jack snapped off a bolt, hitting a tree on the other side of the border about thirty paces away. “It is. Shall we begin?”

  The assembled guards winced as they stared at the smoking tree. Jack’s opponent nodded, but before he could swing his sword, Jack had touched the void and cut the man’s belt and pulled his pants down. The guard was very, very slow.

  The champion of the guards raised his hands, still holding his weapons. “What is this?” the guard said, stupefied.

  Lorton smiled along with Lin.

  “Is that enough proof? No blood needed to be spilled,” Jack said.

  The border officer laughed. “If I were king, I’d give you a title myself,” the man said, opening the gate and letting them forward to greet the Antibeaux guards on the other side who had lined up along their border pole to watch the match.

  Jack shook hands with his opponent. “Don’t worry. I’m a bit unique in the world,” Jack said.

  “Thank Alderach for that!” the man said, giving Jack a smile. “You could have cut me to ribbons with your sword and cooked me for dinner with that wand of yours.”

  “Then it is a good thing we aren’t enemies, eh?” Jack said as he mounted.

  They were waved through both gates with all the guards waving them on.

  “You gave them quite a show,” Lorton said.

  Jack pressed his lips together. “I would have rather just been waved on ahead. You know what that message means?”

  Lorton turned serious as well. “We have enemies in Dorkansee who know where we are going. Could it be the Major boy’s father?”

  Jack shrugged. “Perhaps. I will have to tell Fasher while we ride.”

  Fasher didn’t have any ideas when Jack contacted him, but the wizard promised to get word to Willet Barton, who would do a little digging. He asked Jack for a debrief from the ball and agreed that they had done the right thing letting Lord Floury attach himself to their group.

  The road climbed relentlessly higher and higher. They were soon traveling through a series of linked valleys surrounded by mountains.

  Later, when they reached their first town in Antibeaux, Jack was surprised at the tall six-story buildings in the center of a town that wasn’t that large. The streets were narrow, and the high-peaked buildings looked different from the stone or brick structures common to Corand. These were coated with white plaster and painted with various scenes. It gave the town a different look than any Jack had seen before.

  Floury led them to the inn.

  “This is where real Antibeaux begins.” Lord Floury walked back to Lin’s carriage. “The rest of our country is just like this, tall mountains creating valleys for my countrymen to live in. Yvessa gets the peaks, and we get what’s left.”

  They assembled later at the inn’s common room. There were no dining rooms at the inns in this town, Floury had said apologetically.

  “My word! What a demonstration, Lord Winder. I had thought you were so young that your father might have paid for your title, but I have never seen such speed. I could barely catch your movements when you lowered your opponent’s trousers.” The man laughed. “One of my men said you shot a wizard bolt twenty paces? That is incredible.”

  “I have been an adventurer for some time,” Jack said, “and have learned a few tricks along the way.”

  “A dangerous man. I’m feeling better about riding with you people. Occasionally we run into unsavory characters in our country. I will sleep well tonight,” one of Floury’s bodyguards said.

  Jack nodded as they walked into the inn. He trudged up four floors to his room and fell back on the bed, disappointed that so much of what he had wanted to keep a secret from the Antibeaux people was now going to be common knowledge. But as he reviewed his actions at the border, what else could he do than show them that the note was wrong?

  He washed his face and went down to join the rest of the party. He ran into Penny on the third floor.

  “Come into my room for a moment,” Penny said.

  “Won’t we be observed?”

  “No. Everyone else is one floor down except for Sera, and she doesn’t count,” Penny said.

  Jack shrugged. “What do you have in mind? Everyone will be expecting us.”

  “It will only take a moment.”

  He followed her to the room and sat in the only chair looking at Penny, who stood in front of him.

  “Stand up,” Penny said.

  Jack stood.

  Penny pulled back her hair. “What do you see?”

  Jack saw Penny’s natural hair color barely showing at the roots of her hair. “You are losing your white hair?”

  Penny nodded. “Exactly. I was brushing my hair and pulled it back.” She swept her hair away from her ear, showing more roots. “Could it be Yvessa?”

  Jack leaned over and let her look at his hair.

  “Your hair is blond anyway, but you are just beginning to lose your lock. Does that mean we will be losing our magic?”

  “Take out your bone seer,” Jack asked.

  “It is in the trunk. Do you have something to use?”

  “My bracers,” Jack said. He pointed his cuff into the washing bowl and saw a trickle. “Lord Floury said the valleys are the people’s and the peaks are Yvessa’s. I’d say the whole country is Yvessa’s. Stay here for a moment.”

  Jack transported to his room and then back to Penny’s “My magic works the same.” He clutched Eldora’s box and nodded. “There is still magic in there, but it is less. I’m going to have to make some energy rods for us.”

  Penny clutched Takia’s amulet and shook her head. “Same here.”

  “I will do some experimentation tomorrow with my other objects,” Jack said.

  “Should we return to Dorkansee?”

  “If this is the same as what I experienced before, my object copies will work, but the originals won’t. If I have to, I’ll make more copies.”

  “But, you won’t be able to recharge your magic so quickly.”

  “That is what the energy rods will be for. The healing rods won’t work on me, but the energy rods do,” Jack said.

  Penny
paced the room. “Aren’t you afraid?”

  “Of what?” Jack asked. “We will face what we need to face. What else can we do? Fearing what might happen only makes what we fear more likely to happen.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Penny said.

  “No,” Jack said. “It wasn’t particularly easy to get that out, but it’s true.”

  Penny sighed. “Then we need to go down to the common room.”

  Jack gave Penny a little kiss on the cheek. “Something to do when a lady invites you into her room.”

  “You are experienced in such things?”

  Jack smiled. “No, not really, but I suppose I have kissed more than you.”

  That brought another sigh. “Should I find others to kiss on this journey to catch up?” Penny said.

  “Not unless you want to.”

  “Annette seems to like you.”

  “I’m a friend, but as I told her, you are my very good friend. I’m more worried about her father pressing me to give Annette a chance.”

  “Resist,” Penny said.

  Jack smiled. “I will.” He held out his hand, and they walked together to the common room for dinner.

  Lord Floury frowned as he saw Jack and Penny walking down the stairs holding hands. Penny looked at Jack with a self-satisfied smile squeezing Jack’s hand the whole way to the main floor.

  They joined them at a long table put together in the common room.

  Jack sat across from Annette and her father with Penny at his side. He had to smile at Lord Floury’s antics, but he had to make sure he didn’t alienate the man. They had days ahead of them to pick his brain, so they could move with more surety in Bristone.

  Lin took her place at the head of the table with Floury and Jack at her left and right. Everyone else took their places as they could. She smiled broadly. “We make such a nice group. I’m sure our journey will be brighter together.”

  The server took their orders from a spoken menu, and they were presented with a light sparkling apple drink. Normally, Jack would offer to chill the drinks, but not this day.

  “Lord Floury, I am seeking a suitable townhouse for us in Bristone, perhaps something close to the Corandian Embassy.”