A Sorcerer's Fist Page 14

  You should hear me, Ricky said.

  Ricky smiled as he saw the astonishment on her face. Can I do this?

  Probably, but you have to be a strong sorcerer to establish the link. The one who holds the charm doesn’t, but they need a modest amount of power to listen. Do you understand?

  Ula giggled. I think I do. How do I use this?

  It only works one way. I have to enable the link. Once the link is engaged, we can hear each other. I can’t read your mind, if that was what you were thinking. Rick didn’t mention deep-linking to the woman. He didn’t know how she would want to use linking, so he kept it secret.

  Maybe you can read my mind, Ula said. Can I talk to Pira like this?

  Ricky shook his head. Not directly. It can be through me, just like you can communicate with Baron Mansali through Brollo. If I save her, perhaps I can try to teach her to spell the link like I just did.

  Do. How do I stop talking to you? She looked at Ricky with questioning eyes.

  “You will it to stop. Think of something like closing a door or a window. You can feel the link disengage, just like you could feel it begin to work,” Ricky said.

  The link abruptly terminated.

  “Just like that.” Ricky smiled, but he didn’t feel it. He was more worried about Pira.

  “It’s time for me to attend to a few court functions, and I’d like to see the rest of my daughters. They are all older now. The one who intruded into the bedroom was my youngest. She is now ten.”

  Ricky nodded. “I haven’t had a chance to memorize the map.”

  “Then I will leave you to do so. Find a better hiding place than under the bed. I could smell you.”

  Ricky raised his eyebrows.

  “Just kidding,” she said with a smile. “I think I heard a bump before I opened the door, and there is a red mark on your forehead. Clumsy boy.”

  Ricky nodded. The woman was as sharp as Pira was. “I will retire until the palace sleeps.”

  “Or until I bring some food for you,” Ula said. “Go. My attending ladies are soon to arrive. They know all about my temple activities, as does my husband. He used to be a more tolerant man.”

  ~~~

  Chapter Thirteen

  ~

  R icky had thoroughly memorized the palace map. There were four levels shown, and that didn’t include the small basement that held the cells where Pira and Ciara were, which was in the corner of the palace.

  He would use the servant’s passages wherever possible. He looked out the window from the unlit bedroom. The sun had been set for a few hours, and he was waiting for Queen Ula to return, so he could see how Pira fared, when he felt a link engage.

  Ricky?

  Pira! Are you in a cell?

  I suppose you figured that out all on your own, she said. Have you been searching for me?

  No, Ricky said. I am currently in Queen Ula’s suite, waiting for the palace to settle down for the night. She is much nicer than I was led to believe.

  Pira smiled in her mind. The secret is out?

  It is to me, but that’s not important. You are. I will say that the queen is not compelled, although King Korlia certainly is. Have you met Sorcerer Terkia?

  We have. He was very upset we couldn’t be interrogated or compelled, so he put us to sleep. I just woke up, and Ciara is stirring. I don’t know if they realize you came with us, Pira said.

  I will take care of the sorcerer first, Ricky said, or the king, whomever I can snag first. You will have to be patient now that I know where you are.

  If anything happens, I will tell you.

  Ricky stopped linking with Pira and sought out the queen.

  He felt the link engage. It was different from most.

  Pira is awake, Ricky said.

  Who is this? A male voice, certainly, Ricky thought as he disengaged. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Ula’s amulet was now in possession of the sorcerer, and the man was likely alerted to Ricky’s presence in Coliat. He didn’t need this kind of complication inside Fisttia’s royal palace.

  He slipped into the secret passage and reset the door mechanism like Ula had. Ricky wouldn’t risk moving through the main corridors, but the hidden passages did worm their way all through the royal quarters. He went to the first door and opened a peephole that was beside the door. Three young Fisttian princesses occupied the room.

  Farther on down, he remembered, he had stood in front of the king’s study. He spied a woman’s foot in his range of view. No voices were evident. He slipped inside to discover a slumbering queen.

  Ricky checked her neck and found a constriction. He opened it up and encouraged blood flow. He dared not do anything else. Ula stirred.

  With his fingers on her neck, he linked to the queen.

  What happened? Ricky asked.

  Terkia put an interrogation spell on me. I thought I was protected. He knows you are in the palace, she said.

  And I inadvertently linked with him, Ricky said. I told him Pira was awake before I realized I hadn’t linked with you.

  He could tell my necklace was enchanted. She blinked a few times and looked into Ricky’s eyes. He will seek out Pira. You must go. I will pretend to sleep.

  Ricky nodded and left through the secret door. He scoured the palace plan in his mind and found a suitable exit from the passages. Half the distance to Pira would be in the open. He slipped out into an empty corridor and worked his way towards the basement that held the cells.

  With King Korlia and Terkia the sorcerer alert that he was about, Ricky carefully made his way through the less-decorated halls in the back of the palace. He paused to link with Pira, but she was unresponsive. Terkia must have put her to sleep again, hopefully.

  Ricky needed some misdirection. He slipped into an alcove and engaged the link to Ula, which was now controlled by the sorcerer.

  Pira is still asleep. I am going to the temple of Hassa to wait for further instructions, Ricky said.

  Very well, the sorcerer replied.

  Ricky waited, and a detachment of palace guards rushed past him. He didn’t see King Korlia or a sorcerer among them. He guessed he’d have fewer people to fight through. Ricky continued to get closer.

  He thought of a similar scene in the Sealian palace and remembered the traps Anna Benicci had set for Ricky. He began to look for signs of magic.

  He heard voices coming his way and slid into a doorway. Lamplight shone on him, so he used a song to extinguish the flame. It guttered and died, leaving Ricky in relative darkness.

  The words were in Fisttian, so Ricky couldn’t understand what they said. He let them pass by. The way two of the five men were dressed indicated that he might have found the King and the sorcerer. He put them all to sleep. Ricky opened the locked door behind him and dragged his prisoners into a storage room full of cleaning and maintenance materials.

  He found a roll of twine and bound the men. Ricky checked the one man who looked the least like a Fisttian, but couldn’t find Queen Ula’s amulet. He examined the other well-dressed body and didn’t see anything that would indicate King Korlia was at his feet.

  Ricky had guessed wrong, it seemed. He spoke the counterspell for sterility over the men and the counterspell for compulsion. He hesitated to protect them, so he left them bound.

  He saw another door to the room. After he locked the door to the corridor, he unlocked the door that led somewhere. Ricky remembered a room that should be on the other side. He opened the door to a dark room and locked the closet behind him. Tables and chairs were empty. Ricky couldn’t guess the room’s purpose, but the furniture was plainly meant for servants, and the blank walls seemed to confirm it. He recalled another path to the cells from the other side, but it was longer.

  After stepping out into a dark corridor lit sporadically by lamps, he realized this was a servant’s passage. He followed it, tracing the path in his mind until the passage emptied back onto the other corridor.

  Ricky tested for traces of magic and didn’t see an
y until he reached the door. The stone pavement in front of the entrance faintly glowed in the gloom. He spelled deflection and hovered close, slowly opening the unlocked door with his magic. Evidently, the sorcerer thought Ricky would take this path and not the other.

  No one greeted him on the other side. He didn’t find anyone else on his last few steps to the cells.

  Bars made up the front walls of five cells. No magic coated them. Ricky spotted Pira and Ciara sleeping on cots. He was about to free them when he noticed a magical sheen on their bodies. He had no idea what spells had been used. The spells might erupt in flames or cause an explosion if he touched Pira and Ciara.

  Ricky sat against the opposite wall and ran a hand through his hair trying to figure out what to do. If there were any way to get them out of the cell, he’d do it.

  He looked at Pira and sighed. Flying into the cell wouldn’t accomplish anything. He couldn’t stay sitting on the floor forever. He stood up and stared at the room and decided that if flying into her cell wouldn’t accomplish anything, flying her out of the cell would.

  He unlocked the door and sang the spell of levitation and lifted Ciara off her cot and through the door. He quickly moved her up the corridor and through the servant’s passage all the way to the room with the tables and chairs. He carefully lowered Pira’s bodyguard onto a table and ran back to do the same for Pira.

  The men in the storage closet were still asleep, so Ricky reinforced their slumber before returning to the two women.

  He put his hand over Ciara’s neck but didn’t touch it. Ricky had to concentrate to examine the veins. They were pinched off as expected. He opened them up and let the blood flow, and then did the same to Pira.

  Ricky had to sit down. A touch reduced the loss of power, just as it did with flying using deflection, but Ricky had no alternative. He waited until Pira began to stir. She opened her eyes and reached out to him.

  “Don’t touch me. You are coated with a spell.”

  “I am?”

  Ricky nodded. “I had to levitate you here. We aren’t far from the cells. You can probably walk, but don’t touch another person.”

  Ciara followed Pira. Ricky gave her the same warning.

  “Walk around for a bit, but don’t touch each other or me.”

  “Like I have an infectious disease?” Pira said.

  Ricky nodded. “I have no idea what could happen. It might be as innocuous as an alarm, or you might be smothered in flames.”

  “I can’t go on like this for the rest of my life,” Ciara said.

  “It will probably wear off, but when we are out of the palace, I’ll have more time to work out something,” Ricky said. “Are you ready to leave?”

  The two women made a few more circuits of the room to limber up and nodded. “We must be silent.”

  Pira smiled. I can still link?

  You can, Ricky said. We can keep the link open while we walk.

  There wasn’t much to say since Pira and Ciara had spent the last day asleep. Ricky told Pira about Ula’s life as a goddess.

  They reached a junction with the main corridor. There were more lamps, and the walls were faced with a finer stone.

  “Be careful, and no touching,” Ricky said.

  Pira frowned. Ricky reached out his hand and quickly drew it back.

  Ciara stood behind them. “We should get going, you two.”

  They continued on their way. Queen Ula’s description of the palace at night was apt. They came to Ula’s quarters. Ricky unlocked the door and looked right into the eyes of a man wearing a crown.

  “King Korlia,” Pira said from behind.

  Guards rushed up on both sides, grabbing Ricky by both arms. They were caught.

  Ricky struggled as he entered the room. He could not defend himself. If a guard laid a hand on either Pira or Ciara, something even worse might happen. Ula was bound and gagged on the couch. A man stood at Korlia’s side.

  “You must be Terkia,” Ricky said. Even though he was bound, Ricky sang the counterspell to compulsion, and before King Korlia could sway, he intoned the protection spell.

  The king swayed on his feet.

  “I will kill you all for that,” Terkia said, raising his arms.

  Ciara rushed to the sorcerer and threw her arms around him, pinning them to his body. They both burst into flames.

  The guards retreated into the corridor, leaving Ricky alone to save Ciara. He tried to use wind to put the flames out, but he couldn’t dispel the burning. Pira threw water from a vase on the pair, but the water seemed to feed the flames.

  They all watched in horror as Ciara and the sorcerer burned to death in front of their eyes.

  Ricky looked at Pira. Her sheen was gone as soon as Terkia expired, and the flames stopped abruptly, as well. Nothing could be done for either of them.

  King Korlia had sought a chair while Ricky and Pira were trying to save Ciara. The king looked up at the guards. Ricky could see him fighting the headache that the counterspell always caused. “You may go.”

  Ricky untied Ula’s bonds. She went to the doors that led to a balcony and opened them wide as the flames died out. The queen didn’t come back into the room, but hugged herself in the cool night air. Ricky gently moved her aside as he sang a breeze to blow the smoke out of the room.

  “I may choose other quarters for tonight. Korlia?” Ula said in Parantian.

  The king looked up and said something in Fisttian.

  “Speak in Parantian while our guests are present,” she said.

  He put his head down. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Sorry would be a great start,” his wife said. “You have a lot of atoning to do, my sweet. Lots of visits to the Temple of Hassa,” she said from the balcony.

  Korlia lifted a corner of his lips in a weary smile. “He had me do things that didn’t make sense.” The king’s gaze turned to Ricky and then to Pira. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. Leon wants you captured for treason. Since you have saved my kingdom, I can’t exactly do that, can I, Ula?”

  “No, you can’t. The boy is Hendrico Valian, who is a traitor to Leon, as well, but he is no traitor to Paranty, and he didn’t have to travel all the way to Fisttia to meet a very ungrateful king.”

  Ricky sat down after he had gone into the bedroom where he had hidden and grabbed the bedspread to cover the two bodies.

  “I am not perfect,” King Korlia said to Ula’s grunt. “But I know an unselfish act when I see it. I’ll not retain you if you leave Fisttia. What just happened to me was awful, now that my eyes are open.”

  “I’ve seen it before,” Ricky said. “The Botoyans have demonstrated that they aren’t fit to rule. Duke Bariani, the ruler of Tossa, was just as bad. King Courer of Dimani wasn’t as affected because he was able to fight off some of the spell to the detriment of his health. I don’t know what you did, but you now have the opportunity to reverse your decisions. I’ve placed a protective spell on you and your wife in case there are any other Botoyan sorcerers around.”

  “Terkia’s assistant. He disappeared after you spoke in the sorcerer’s mind. You were to follow them up here.”

  “He will know the spells. I put him to sleep with the others. They are in a storage room between a servant’s meeting room and the outside corridor, not far from the cells.”

  “I’ll make sure he doesn’t wake up,” King Korlia, making a fist.

  Ula stepped inside, rubbing her arms. “You saved another kingdom. Now you have to save your own,” she said.

  “King Leon is compelled by the sorcerers?” King Korlia asked.

  “Worse, King Korlia,” Pira said, her first utterance since Ciara had died. “He has freely joined them.”

  ~~~

  Chapter Fourteen

  ~

  A fter Ciara’s remains were buried in the ducal cemetery at Samira, Pira wrote a long, tear-stained letter to Ciara’s mother, telling the woman that her daughter had died valiantly, saving Pira’s life. Ri
cky read it, and it confirmed that Ciara and Pira had a very special relationship. Ricky slipped in a note of his own, offering his deepest regrets for the death of a person who didn’t deserve such a thing.

  “Ciara wasn’t my mother. More like a younger aunt,” Pira said as she sealed the letter. “I shall miss her always. Her counsel was always excellent and sometimes with a firmness that only a caring friend can give.” She sighed and came around from the desk to sit on Ricky’s lap. “She didn’t need to give her life, though, did she?”

  “Ciara couldn’t give me a chance to do anything since my actions were constricted by the guards,” Ricky said, “Her sacrifice wasn’t wasted, not at all. Don’t think that. What if one of the guards had touched you? What if King Korlia had pushed me against you or Ciara? We were in a very dangerous situation, and Ciara put us both out of that danger.”

  Pira put her head on Ricky’s shoulder. “There is more to come, isn’t there?”

  He nodded his head. “We still have to visit the other kingdoms and the city-states,” Ricky said.

  “I may leave those up to you. With Ciara gone, I need some time to think about her and everything else. Besides, I have plenty to do here in Samira.”

  They parted. Nania walked in with a sheaf of papers. “Are you ready to begin tackling this?” Nania asked.

  Ricky bowed to both ladies and left them to their work. Pira probably needed distractions, and Nania had a fistful of them.

  He found Hemo talking to Greda in Vorrian and waited for their conversation to finish.

  “There is a spell that covers something with a magical film. When the film is touched it results in an action of some sort,” Ricky said.

  “The spell that the Fisttian sorcerer put on Ciara?”

  “Exactly,” Ricky said. “Is there an antidote? A way to get rid of such a spell? I’m certain we will run into it again. If they taught that kind of thing in the Rings, I missed the class.”

  “Some people call them wards,” Hemo said. “It involves two spells, one to activate, and the other is the penalty for activation. In the case of Ciara, the penalty was a fire spell, conflagration, if you will, and the other was the activation by touch. As I said in Sealio, I don’t know of a way to stop the spell of another sorcerer.”