Ascendant (20 page)

“
Yes, sir, Ari- I mean, the
princess, asked Master Fusting to help find clothing for me to wear.
”

“
Ha, ha! Oh, so you have
already had the displeasure of meeting Charl Fusting!
”
Paedris laughed. The
wizard took a big gulp of wine and chuckled to himself.

Koren smiled
while he recalled Fusting
’
s
immense distress at having to deal with finding the proper clothing for a mere
grubby servant, a servant who needed clothing fit for an official occasion with
the crown princess, which was clearly impossible, out of the question, except
that she had insisted, and she was the crown princess, so Fusting had to do
something, and so had scoured the palace for something Koren could wear. The
chief of protocol had, after hours of grueling labor, selected several outfits
that might, just might, possibly not be too outrageously horrible, if people
didn
’
t look
too closely. And then Koren had ruined all Fusting
’
s simply brilliant work by
trying to put on a jacket backwards. The chief of protocol had fainted, and
been taken away to rest, with cold towels on his forehead, and chilled wine to
drink. Koren had shrugged, and gathered an armful of clothing for Ariana to
choose from. The princess had so much fun making him try on outfits, that Koren
wondered why she had asked Fusting to get involved in the first place.
“
I met him, yes sir. It
was, uh,
”
Koren winked,
“
most
irregular.
”

“
Ha!
”
Paedris laughed.
“
I wish I had been there. A
commoner, dining with the crown princess. Why, I bet there wasn
’
t anything in his book of
protocol to cover that, and Fusting loves referring to that stupid book. Be
careful, Koren, you may be the death of that man someday. Oh!
”
Paedris
’
jaw stretched wide in a
yawn.
“
I hope
you have a good time at the party tomorrow.
”

“
You wished to see me, your
Highness?
”
Grand General Magrane, commander of the royal army, paused at the door, and
bowed to the crown princess. After the tense dinner party, listening to the Regent
and the court wizard arguing, all Magrane wanted to do was sleep, for soldiers
needed to awaken early. He was still wearing his full dress uniform, which was
heavy, and stiff and uncomfortable. Once long and black, Magrane
’
s hair was now gray, and
cut short, and his full beard partly covered a scar on the right side of his
face.

“
Yes, general.
”
Ariana replied.
“
Please, come in, sit down.
I wish to learn more about army strategy.
”

“
Tonight?
”
  Magrane asked,
dreading a long night of looking over maps.

“
No!
”
Ariana laughed.
“
And it doesn
’
t have to be you, I don
’
t want to take you away
from your duties. I don
’
t
want to wait until I have a crown on my head, to learn the tasks of being
queen.
”

“
That is wise, your
Highness.
”
Magrane thought for a moment. Who to assign the delicate task of teaching
Ariana military strategy? A delicate, likely frustrating task, but one that
could be rewarding, if the future queen thought well of the person.
“
I have a young man in
mind, a Captain Raddick. He
’
s
a distant relative of the Magnicos. A promising young officer, in my opinion.
He will be available, here in the castle, until the spring time.
”
And, Magrane thought
sourly, perhaps all year, if the fickle Regent refused to send the royal army
into the field once winter was over.

“
Good, have this Captain
Raddick speak with my secretary, soon. Now, general, my personal guards were
with me all spring and summer, they must be tired, and in need of retraining,
am I correct?
”

“
Yes, your Highness,
”
Magrane answered warily,
wondering why the princess had asked,
“
they
will report for training in a fortnight, and be replaced by fresh men from the
castle guard.
”

 
“
The Thrallren woods are an
excellent place for training, don
’
t
you think?
”
She asked with a slight smile.

“
The Trall- your Highness,
forgive me, but your mother-
“

“
Commands the royal army,
she does
not
command my personal guard. Since mother won
’
t send Rangers to help
Yarron secure the Thrallren, I am sending my own guard there. For rest, and
training, of course. I think thirty men from my personal guard should help
Yarron sleep better at night, with his border more secure?
”
Ariana could not help
smiling, she was well pleased with her self, for outmaneuvering her mother.

Magrane could
not help smiling, behind his beard. Ariana Trehayme was going to be a
formidable queen. The general only hoped he would survive the next few years,
to see her safely on the throne.

The morning of
Ariana's garden party started extra early for Koren. First, he grabbed a quick
breakfast for himself; a small loaf of freshly-baked bread, a sausage, and hot
tea. Then, he fed and exercised Thunderbolt, and back to the wizard's tower.
Paedris didn't drink tea in the mornings, he drank 'coffee'. Many of the army
soldiers drank coffee in the mornings, they said it made them more alert. Koren
had heard of coffee before, but never seen it. It was too expensive for most
people, even tea was too dear for many poor farm families. Paedris had coffee
beans brought in especially from his homeland twice a year, they were stored in
metal pails in the root cellar to keep them cool. Koren needed to scoop out
enough for a week to keep in the tower's pantry, and each morning, he carefully
roasted a small handful of beans, ground them, and slowly poured boiling hot
water over the grinds. The wizard liked his coffee strong, with a spoon of
cream stirred in. Once the coffee was ready, Koren put the pot on the side of
the stove, to keep it hot, but not too hot, and he ran over to the royal
kitchens to fetch breakfast for the wizard. With the breakfast in a covered
tray, which also went on the side of the stove, he put on an apron and crept up
the stairs to listen whether the wizard was awake yet. That morning, the wizard
was up, puttering around in his laboratory, so Koren dashed down the stairs and
delivered breakfast, which was suitably appreciated. Paedris did not trust the
royal kitchens to prepare his precious coffee, he had painstakingly shown Koren
how to roast, grind and brew the bitter liquid, and exactly at what temperature
it should be served. To the wizard's delight, Koren brewed perfect coffee!
Knowing his servant had a busy day ahead, the wizard said Koren could clean up
the dishes later. Gratefully, Koren ran back down the stairs to run the
wizard's bath water and stoked the water heater stove. He had taken a bath the evening
before, so now he got dressed in the party clothes that Ariana's maid had
delivered the previous afternoon. The maid had even shown Koren how to wear the
clothes, which was helpful, for he had no idea whether the shirt was supposed
to be tucked into the pants or not, and whether the pants should be tucked into
the boots (yes to both questions). He was dressed and ready an hour before the
party was to start, plenty of time to duck back into the kitchens and scrounge
up something more to eat. And borrow an apron, so he wouldn't drip strawberry
jam onto his new jacket.

Ariana
’
s party to open the new
garden maze was, in Kyre
’
s
words, a smashing success. The weather was perfect, a brilliantly clear late
Autumn day, unseasonably warm. At Ariana
’
s
request, the royal gardener had been working on growing the maze for three
years, the thick hedges occupied almost an acre of land in a garden outside the
walls of the castle. Stone planters held some of the hedges, which could be
moved to change the path of the maze, so Ariana and her guests would not get
bored with it. There were three entrances, all leading eventually to the
center, with many complicated dead-ends along the way. Ariana set up three
teams of three, with her were Koren and a girl who was the daughter of some
Baron, Kyre led one of the other teams. At the blare of a trumpet, the teams
were off, running head-long down the maze. It took almost a quarter of an hour,
but in the end, Ariana triumphantly led her team to the center, just ahead of
Kyre. Koren could not remember the last time he had so much fun.

Afterward,
there was a picnic on the great lawn of the garden, with kites to fly, games of
kickball, and much general racing about and tomfoolery that the children
’
s royal parents certainly
would not have approved of, but that didn
’
t
matter, for Ariana hadn
’
t
invited any adults. And she said so.

On the advice
of Niles Forne, Kyre did not act as though the princess were his new best
friend, in fact, he rather left her alone. It was Koren who brought them together,
choosing Kyre to play on Ariana
’
s
kickball team, without asking her first. The princess seemed cool to the idea,
but Kyre was a good sport, even when he was knocked out of the game, and
laughed and joked around so easily, Ariana had to wonder whether her opinion of
Kyre Falco as devious and scheming was entirely correct.

After the
fireworks that closed the party, Ariana went back to her royal apartments,
Koren went to the wizard
’
s
tower, and Kyre reported to Niles Forne that the day had been another triumph
for the Falco
’
s.

While Koren
enjoyed Ariana's party, and Kyre tried to impress the young princess, Paedris
had invited Grand General Magrane to discuss recent information Magrane had
received from his spy network, although that was really just an excuse to talk
about future army strategy. Or, rather, what future army strategy should be, if
the Regent had been willing to listen to either her army commander or her chief
wizard. The general climbed the stairs with head held high, shoulder back, standing
proud and tall. When he reached the study where Paedris was waiting, he
dismissed his two guards to wait by the tower's front door, and slumped wearily
into a chair by the fireplace. "Oh, Paedris, I am tired to the core of my
bones. Perhaps I'm too old for this."

The wizard
picked up the coffee pot from the side of the metal stove and poured a mug for
his guest. "Nonsense, Leon," he said, returning the general's
informality by using the man's first name, "you're in your prime,
commanding the entire royal army. And you're younger than me."

"Ah,"
Magrane sighed as he sipped from the hot mug, "that is good coffee. You
may be older in years than I am, but you are a wizard, after all."

"A
wizard, yes, but having a longer life sometimes means having more than one
lifetime of aches and pains. I dread the winters here, they make my joints
ache. If it is going to rain, I can tell because my knees hurt, and that's no
wizardry."

"We've
earned our aches and pains, Paedris, from long service."

"And too
many nights sleeping on the cold ground."

"Aye,
that, too."

Paedris poured
a mug of coffee for himself, and reached for a scroll the general had brought.
"Where is that confounded glass? Oh," he realized he'd been sitting
on it all morning, "here it is." He unrolled the scroll, which was
written painstakingly in a cipher by the spy who had sent it to Magrane. The
general had men who could decipher the document, one letter at a time, but
Paedris had no patience for that. He held the glass, a thick, flat disc of
clear glass, over the scroll, and looked through it. Because of the spell the
wizard had cast on the glass, the words of the scroll appeared in plain writing
to his eye. "Hmmm." He frowned. "This is not quite the good news
we had hoped for, I am afraid."

Magrane snorted.
"Who hoped for good news? I didn't. About the war, about our fortunes,
there is no good news. Nor will there be."

"Come,
Leon, surely you don't mean that."

"Paedris,
we are men of action, and responsibility. You and I, here in private, need not
tell each other happy fairy tales. We are losing this war, we have been losing
for the last two hundred or so years. Our late king, and a few other kings and
queens, may have halted our decline for a time, but year by year, our enemy
grows stronger, and we do not. Our allies waver, those who have not already
declared themselves neutral, or fallen under the sway of our enemy. I do not
blame them, those smaller kingdoms, for if we cannot guarantee their
protection, they must act to protect themselves. We know Lemond allows pirates
sponsored by Acedor to use two of their islands as a base, to raid our merchant
ships." Lemond was a small independent duchy at the eastern end of a large
island off Tarador's southern shore. For centuries, part of Tarador's Royal
Navy had been based in Lemond's fine harbor, but thirty years ago, Tarador had
found the expense of maintaining a large navy, stationing hundred of royal army
troops in Lemond, and paying an annual fee to the Duchess for use of the
harbor, to be unsustainable. So, the troops had been withdrawn, the ships
returned to Tarador, and the payments stopped. The Duchess had begged for at
least two ships and a hundred soldiers, a token force at best, to remain.
Harbor fees would stop, indeed, the Duchess offered to pay for the supplies the
royal army troops needed. But the king who ruled Tarador at the time,
struggling to deal with a drought, crop failures, and orcs raiding across the
northern provinces, declared Tarador could no longer afford to support Lemond.
Three months after the Royal Navy ships departed for home, the Duchess of
Lemond received a notice that Acedor would be sending an envoy, and she would
be wise to allow the envoy's ship into her harbor. Since then, two of Lemond's
strategically placed islands had essentially been ceded to Acedor. It had been
a major defeat for Tarador, and the kingdom had been paying the price ever
since. Allies learned from Lemond that Tarador could not be relied on.