Moonstone, Magic That Binds (Book 1) (26 page)

“It’s a long story… Restella. Perhaps another time,” Lotto said.

Mander laughed. “The boy is too humble. He faced down the Prolan army, nearly single-handed, and convinced them to surrender.”

“It didn’t take much convincing since the king had turned into an awful ruler, under the influence of the Dakkorans,” Lotto said. “Their leader asked me to represent Valetan when we marched on Mountsea, so Captain Applewood made me a Captain while I rode with the Prolans. Now I’m just a soldier, again.”

“And he used his magic to open the otherwise impregnable gate at Mountsea Castle and fought through to the court room where he encountered the king.”

“I didn’t open the castle gates, I kept them from shutting,” Lotto said in a low voice.

“Magic!” Restella said. “We haven’t had a real warrior with magic since before Fessano’s time. Battle mages rarely know how to use weapons.” She looked at Lotto with new eyes.

“I fainted after I fused the doors open. Not much of a battle mage, but the rest is true.”

Mander raised a sheaf of pages and slapped them with the back of his hand. “Indeed it is. Captain Applewood called his performance ‘brilliant’ in his dispatch.”

Lotto looked up, surprised as if he hadn’t known of the importance of his actions.

“Let me be one of the first in the castle to congratulate you, Lotto.” Restella put out her hand to Lotto, but he wouldn’t take it.

“We can’t touch!” he said moving back.

Restella furrowed her brow. “Can’t touch? I’m the princess!” How dare he? She jumped to her feet as a flash of anger returned.

“You can’t feel it like I can, but something might change if we touch again.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what will happen. Forgive me if I offended your majesty, but it’s something that I feel.”

She couldn’t help putting her hand to her mouth. “We might change back to what we were?” The thought of shrinking appalled her and, it appeared, that his terror became her own.

Lotto shrugged and shook his head, in some kind of mental pain. “I don’t know. Do you want to chance it? I don’t”

Restella had to take some long slow breaths. The two of them waited while she composed herself. The entire episode had been an embarrassment but it also alarmed her as much as it must have shocked Lotto. “We can still be friends?”

A look of incomprehension came from him, but then she could see Lotto think. His eyes were so intelligent. She had never noticed that before. The village half-wit couldn’t be seen at all. This was an impressive young man and her feelings twisted inside. She refused to look at him as an eligible man. That would be dreadful. Restella wanted to escape from Mander’s office, but she couldn’t, not yet.

“Certainly. I’ve never felt otherwise,” Lotto said, lifting his chin and giving her the ghost of a smile. “I’ve never looked on you as an enemy. We fight for the same side, you in your way leading and me in my way…” he paused and grinned, suddenly he looked at ease. “I don’t know what my way is, but you understand. I didn’t mean to upset you.” The smile took the tension out of the room and Restella relaxed. Could the link have confused Lotto’s feelings as much as her own? The thought made her shudder.

Her cue had come; she stood up and straightened out her dress. “I came to talk to Mander about you and the link. It appears we have done so. I know you didn’t mean anything insulting by your reluctance to touch, but we will have to be careful, you and I, won’t we?” She leaned over Mander’s desk and shook his hand in a military way.

Lotto’s mentor smiled and said, “Captain Beecher. Thank you for seeking me out and your words with Lotto was all that I could wish. I don’t mean to speak for him, but he wants to function as normally as your unique relationship will allow.”

“Thank you both.” Restella repressed the urge to salute and left the room. She headed for her rooms not knowing if the encounter worked. Still, she had faced Lotto, the enemy.  At least she had made a first step in battling the furious emotions that raged inside.

~

“You were serious about the touching, weren’t you?” Mander asked.

Lotto sat back in his chair. The sweet fragrance that surrounded the princess remained in the room as they had sat for a few moments, stunned by the meeting.

“I was and I know that something will happen when we do. Maybe we have to both touch the Moonstone, I don’t know exactly. Fessano might not know, either.”

“He’ll seek you out as soon as I tell him about this,” Mander waved Applewood’s report.

“A friend, and I can call her Restella. Who would have thought? She smelled very nice.” Lotto ignored the conversation that Mander carried on by himself.

Mander’s lips curled into a smile. “Indeed she did. I know she’s been fighting against the link ever since she observed you at the training ground.”

“The shock today wasn’t as bad,” Lotto said. “When she looked at me from afar when I fought, I felt… naked to the world. I had to leave. I wanted to when she first walked in, but while we talked, it was like making peace. Perhaps I can manage not obsessing about it.”

“Good. So why don’t you take up residence in the bookshop until we have your status sorted out. I’m sure it needs dusting and you’ll be out of commission for a few weeks yet.” Mander filled out a scrap of paper. “Here is a pass. I may call you back to the castle at any time, but just relax.  A little more physical distance from the princess, right? You might even call on Kenyr. I’m sure he’ll enjoy your latest adventure and, who knows, you just might get an invitation to dine at Lady Anna’s house.” Mander gave Lotto a wink.

~

Mander had been right. Lotto didn’t want to sit around in the barracks. His battlefield command had given him a taste for respect from others and after a couple of nights in the common soldier barracks that didn’t sit well with him for some reason, so he took refuge in the bookshop.

Had he grown soft or had he grown arrogant? Lotto didn’t know and cleaning out the shop didn’t seem to provide any answers other than a distraction from asking the questions. After finishing with the basic cleaning, he washed the grimy windows and as the sun set, he went back to the kitchen to fix some tea and gnaw on the old bread he brought with him from the barracks.

Looking at the kettle heat up from the fire in the stove, he stood up and decided he’d walk over to Kenyr’s and see if his old friend had a free night. Walking through Beckondale in the twilight brought back memories of just arriving in town after parting from Jessie and beginning his lessons. Even though only two years had passed, his time in Beckondale seemed like ages.

Kenyr’s windows were lit and Lotto walked through to the training floor. Kenyr stood with a thin pole in his hand, observing three students. Lotto remembered it giving him bruises when he displayed the wrong posture. He wiggled his fingers and still felt the pain that had made him use his left hand for most of the cleaning.

“Lotto!” Kenyr hit one of the students on the back. “Better posture. Spar for a bit.” He walked over to Lotto.

“Hi, Kenyr.”

“Hail the conquering hero!  Mander stopped by this morning and told me about your exploits. Dispatching a rebellious king ranks right up there, boy. Your father would be proud. And stopping the Prolan army by yourself—”

“It wasn’t the entire army. They had split up, however their commander was with them and he had no taste for fighting,” Lotto said with a smile. The very act of smiling always brightened his spirits.

“That’s enough for tonight. I give you the night off. Now, go!” Kenyr told his students.

“You don’t have to…”

“I want to, Lotto.” He continued to herd his students out of his shop and locked the front door. “Come with me up to my humble abode.”

Lotto couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. Kenyr had never invited him to his rooms above the front of the shop. When he had visited with Gully, they ate and drank in the training hall. As he climbed the stairs and Lotto caught the aroma of spices.

“I still eat like a Serytaran after all these years.” Kenyr said. “So my rooms stink a bit to a Valetan’s nose.”

“My nose is as Serytaran as yours,” Lotto said.

“Pah!  You know what I mean.” Kenyr opened the door and let Lotto in.

He walked into a different world—or a different country, anyway. The room had odd furniture and beads on the doorways instead of proper doors.

“This is how your parents lived… well their palace was more tastefully done.” Kenyr’s face flushed a bit. “We sit on low chairs. My knees are beginning to complain a bit, but still. Sit.”

Lotto fell into a chair that looked like an egg cut in half diagonally. Strips of cane were woven in a complex pattern to give the chair shape and a cushion fit inside the chair. He leaned back in comfort.

“So?” Kenyr said as he disappeared into what must be the kitchen.

“So what?”

“They made you a Captain during the campaign. That doesn’t happen very often. Start at the beginning and I’ll fix you something to eat, Serytar-style.”

Lotto cleared his throat and began with his view of Restella on the balcony, since he’d end with their meeting with Mander. He held nothing back as he gave Kenyr every detail of the expedition. Kenyr laughed in all the right places and asked questions about the strategy sessions. Lotto continued after he extricated himself from the chair and ate at a proper Valetan-style table in the kitchen.

He’d never tasted food cooked this way before. Some of the spices he liked and some he didn’t. Something had made the meat grainy or gritty, he couldn’t decide which, but despite that it was very tender.

“I soak that for three days.” Kenyr said, his only interruption after seeing Lotto play with his food.  Lotto felt a bit embarrassed about that.

Kenyr poured them both a goblet of wine and Kenyr pushed him out of the kitchen and back into the chair. Kenyr snuggled into its twin while Lotto finished up with his encounter with Restella.

“I would have never thought you’d rise so quickly after picking you up at the mine just months ago. Now you’re on first name terms with the king’s youngest daughter. Very good.” They both laughed. “Seriously, I’m very proud of you.”

His words brought tears to Lotto’s eyes. “That means a lot.” He wiped his face. “I’m not used to all of the notoriety.”

“I know, but you deserve it. Don’t be surprised if you get a different assignment.”

“As a captain?”

“Down, boy. Temporary promotions like yours, rare as they are, don’t generally lead to a commission at the same level, but you’re too valuable to waste as a foot soldier, even in an elite unit like the rangers.”

Lotto wished he could properly express his desire to do more magic and more strategic planning and more action. Being an officer would help, but if he had to lead like Captain Applewood, he couldn’t take the risks that he could as a ranger. The last thing he wanted was to be one of the officers. He thought back to the lieutenants in Lessa’s tent. They jostled for attention and were eager to let their voices be known, but Lessa only regarded the counsel of a chosen few. Did he want to languish as one of the gang of ignored lieutenants?

He remembered dressing down the lieutenant that he took with the advance group of soldiers.  He didn’t want to be like the lieutenant, making a mess of a battlefield strategy or just following others’ orders for the rest of his life.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I think I’ve been spoiled for the rank and file.” He told Kenyr of his thoughts.

“Ha!  That’s why I took up service with your father. I left the army of the Serytaran king in my twenties and went to Bomai to become Mistad’s weapon-master and,” he sighed, “in the end, his failed bodyguard.”

“You didn’t fail him,” Lotto said getting out of the chair. “I know that a common person can do only so much against magic.”

“Swords can kill magicians.”

Lotto nodded and looked at a wall sculpture. He’d never seen anything like it. “They can if you get close enough. Arrows will work just as well.” He thought of his battle staff, now up in his rooms. If he were a battle wizard, he would simply heat up the metal and the wielder would have to drop it.

“No, my training, thanks to you, took over and I beat one of the best swordsmen in Prola, so they say.”

Kenyr rose and put his hands on Lotto’s shoulders. They looked eye to eye. “You are one of the best swordsman in Valetan, or maybe the second-best,” Kenyr chuckled as he said it. “I would know. And with all of those books you’ve read in Mander Hart’s shop, probably one of the better strategists.”

“It doesn’t replace battlefield experience,” Lotto said, not wanting to be praised like that.

“And you’ve now got your first lick of that, don’t you?”

Lotto shrugged. “I’ve got to get back.” Kenyr’s comments embarrassed him.

“Of course you do. I am honored that you sought me out, Lotto. Come back any time.”

On the way home, he tried to imprint Kenyr’s rooms in his mind, remembering the decorations, the furniture and the smells. Those were his heritage and now he had a taste of them.

His meeting with Kenyr hadn’t gone the way he wanted. He realized that he wanted Kenyr to pound humility into his head. Don’t get proud. Don’t become arrogant. Be humble and keep your exploits to yourself. He hoped his account of the events weren’t boastful and it didn’t seem that Kenyr took them that way.

He walked into the shop and stopped. He was sure he had locked the door.

Restella stood thumbing through an old book.  She didn’t look particularly comfortable as soon as he opened the door.

“Princess.” He bowed, surprised by her presence in his prosaic surroundings.

“My name is Restella and Mander let me in. He’ll return to escort me to the palace a little later. I was afraid you wouldn’t return from your celebrations.”

Lotto snorted. “A little dinner in the rooms of a friend.”

“Ah. Excuse me for thinking ill of you. I must cease to do so. I wanted to apologize for my behavior in Mander’s office.”

Lotto wondered if she would sit at the little kitchen table. He offered her the simple chair and she took it.  She took pains not to touch, Lotto noticed.