The Archmage Unbound (52 page)

I frowned at him, “What letter?”

He held up a sealed envelope. Even in the poor
light of the entry hallway I could recognize the official seal of the king of
Lothion. “How’d you get that?” I asked him with a sinking feeling in my
stomach.

“A messenger delivered it after you left,” he
replied.

“A messenger? Why did you answer the door? What
did he say? What did you say!?” I could feel a panic rising quickly from the
depths of my stomach.

Harold looked at me oddly and I realized I hadn’t
given him any explanation regarding my plan to avoid letting the King know of
my current location. “He asked if you were present and I told him that you
weren’t,” he answered finally.

I let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank the gods!” It
was a remark of habit but I corrected myself anyway. “Actually damn the gods,
but thank goodness you told him that.”

Harold smiled, “Don’t worry; I told him you would be
back and that I would make certain you got the letter today.”

I startled Harold by spending the next several
minutes practicing my nautical language. In spite of the fact that he was
around soldiers most of the time he seemed quite impressed with my extensive
vocabulary. When I finally wound down he commented, “I get the feeling that
you didn’t want me to take mail for you.”

That was an understatement but I let it go. “You
didn’t know. Here, let me read this and I’ll explain after.” I opened the
envelope, fearing the worst. As usual I wasn’t disappointed. The letter was
addressed to, ‘His Excellency the Count di’Cameron’ and it didn’t waste any
verbiage beating around the bush.

His Majesty, King Edward the First
requires your presence to discuss matters of great import. Failure to appear
will result in grave consequences. As a sign of the nature of these matters we
do enclose this token…

The rest of the letter went on to detail the time
and place, which happened to be three o’clock tomorrow afternoon. What really
got my attention however was the ‘token’ he had included. It was a small lock
of hair, and judging by the color I was sure it was Penny’s.

I held it in my hand for long minutes, just staring,
until my vision grew blurry and I had trouble seeing. When I could no longer
see for tears I brought it to my face in a vain attempt to catch her scent but
by then I could hardly breathe through my nose either. Eventually I looked up
again, aware at last that I was surrounded. Everyone in the house stood around
me now, in a tight circle and by their faces I could see that I wasn’t alone.
Marc in particular looked as if he were having almost as bad a time of it as I
was. Rose managed to keep her composure this time but there was a look of
smoldering anger in her eyes.

Everyone watched me expectantly and the weight of it
was almost more than I could bear. I made my way to the kitchen and we all
took seats around the table. I handed the letter to Rose first and waited for
her to read it. When she was done she passed it to Marc and eventually it made
its way completely around the table.

Walter broke the silence first, “So what are you
going to do now?”

The question reminded me of another time, another
day, when I had been at a similar table with friends and family waiting on me
to give them some direction. As I recalled Penny and I had not been on the
best of terms then and they’d had to lock us in a room till we reconciled
before we could decide anything. Thinking of it now it seemed like a fond
memory, though I knew that at the time I had been just as desperate.

I reached into my pouch and drew out the letter
Penny had left for me, and studied the words she had written. One part in
particular stood out in my mind and I found myself rereading it several times:

Do not let this break your
spirit. I have seen what will happen if you pay heed to your darker impulses.
It is a bleak and empty path, and you will no longer be the man I have loved.
There is still hope if you do not despair.

I folded her note and carefully put it
away again before I addressed my friends, “First we carefully assess our
resources. In this case those would be primarily information, so let’s put
everything we know on the table.” I made a slow and careful description of the
recent events Harold, Walter and I had been through. When I finished I nodded
at Rose.

“I haven’t very much to add I’m afraid,”
she said with a graceful tone. “You only left here two days ago and since then
I’ve only had one interesting bit of information come to my attention.” She
repeated what she had told me regarding the guards at the palace the evening
before. Marc paid close attention as she spoke and after she finished I could
tell he was ready to begin.

He leaned in toward the table, “As most
of you already know I had to leave the temple of the Iron God rather suddenly
yesterday.” Marcus carefully relayed his tale but when he reached the end of
it he caught my eye. “What I haven’t had a chance to tell yet… is what I found
amidst the high priest’s paperwork,” he paused dramatically.

“What, damnitt?!” I said impatiently.

“One of the documents on top of his
stack detailed a payment received from the royal exchequer. It was for the
amount of five hundred gold, but the thing that caught my eye was the fact that
no reason for the payment was detailed on the paperwork.” He stopped there.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

He shook his head, “No, but the timing
seems… highly congruent.”

“The obvious conclusion is that he is
paying the Iron Brothers to keep his hostages at that secret compound you
mentioned before,” said Rose at last.

Marc nodded, “Yes, but it is still a
guess. We can’t be sure from the little we know.”

Walter was fidgeting with anxiety. “Do
you think he might be keeping my family there as well?” he asked me suddenly.

“I don’t know,” I told him, and I
didn’t. In fact I knew very little beyond guesswork and suspicion. Glancing
around the table I could see everyone waiting on me to announce the next step.
The pressure built upon me until it felt like a physical force, bearing down
upon my shoulders. Taking a deep breath I stood quickly. “I’m going
upstairs. I need to think and I can’t do it with everyone staring at me. I’ll
be back down in a little while,” and so saying I left the table.

In the relative silence of my bedroom I stared at
the wall where the picture of my mother Elena had been placed. Studying her
features I wondered what she would have thought of the situation I was in now.
Even more I wondered how she might have judged my actions up until now.
She
saved her child while mine has yet to be born and is already in danger,
I
thought. I had never known her in life, so even her features were strange to
me. I couldn’t possibly guess what sort of advice she might have given.

“Think,” I said aloud. I had always taken my mind
for granted, but now that I needed a truly inspired plan it was coming up empty
of solutions. “I have two intelligent and gifted friends,” I said to myself,
referring to Marc and Rose. “I have a wizard with strong reasons to want me to
succeed in liberating the King’s hostages and a nearly invincible warrior armed
with magical arms and armor. On top of all that I have a strong ally back in
Lancaster willing to assist with men and support.” I finished listing my
assets and considered the goal.

More than anything I wanted Penny and Dorian back,
safely and unharmed. Once that was accomplished I could easily dispatch my
largest current problem, the King himself.
And civil war be damned,
I
thought. Edward had elevated himself to a level of threat that I no longer
considered him to be the lesser of two evils. Another thought occurred to me
then,
what about Illeniel’s Doom?
That was the true motivator behind
the shiggreth making a deal with the King to begin with and I still hadn’t
begun making a search for it. Hell, I had no idea what it looked like or if it
was even a physical object.

“I’ll set that aside for now. My only concern at
the moment is Penny and Dorian, and once that’s taken care of, the King. I can
worry about the rest afterward,” I said to myself. Pacing the room I
enumerated the obstacles to rescuing them. Most importantly I couldn’t be
entirely sure where they were located. Our best guess lay in the secret
compound that the Doronites had. Yet even if we could be sure they were there
we didn’t know have precise directions to find it. Marc’s information
regarding its location was good but he had never been there.

To make matters worse I had less than twenty four
hours.
Roughly twenty one hours now,
I estimated mentally. It was past
six o’clock now and my meeting with the King was set for three tomorrow
afternoon.

I became still and felt my mind grow calm, filled by
a clear silence that brought everything into focus. An idea took shape and I
carefully pruned and shaped it until I thought it gave me at least a chance of
accomplishing my goal.
I can’t be certain of anything, so lacking surety I
must simply act decisively,
I thought. Taking a deep breath I went back
downstairs.

The others were deep in discussion when I found
them. They had moved into the parlor and I could tell by their voices that
there was nothing approaching a consensus among them. In fact they seemed on
the verge of an outright argument.

“Well if you have a better damned idea why don’t you
spit it out
Lady
Rose!” Marc declared, raising his voice and putting an
ugly emphasis on her title.

Rose was glaring daggers at him. “It isn’t that I
mind regicide, you bloodthirsty sot, but it won’t solve anything. Even if we managed
to kill him the hostages will still die. Edward isn’t a fool and I’m certain
he has contingencies set up to ensure his revenge in the event of something
drastic happening to him.” Her voice was level but the words left little doubt
she thought Marc was reasoning poorly.

“We could just cooperate,” said Walter quietly.

“That’s worked out rather well for you all these
years hasn’t it?” Marcus interjected sarcastically.

I coughed loudly from the doorway to get their
attention. None of them heard me. “At least he’s thinking of his family’s
well-being instead of seeking blind vengeance,” sniped Rose.

“That’s enough!” I barked and this time I got their
attention. Walking into the middle of the room I looked around me. “We don’t
have a lot of time. Marc, you did say you aren’t certain of the location of
the Doronites secret compound, correct?”

He nodded, “Yes.”

“Do you know who would know?”

“The high priest surely, along with the supply
master and some of the clergy responsible for rotating there for duty,” he
responded.

“And which do you think would be easiest for us to
lay hands upon?” I asked.

He put a hand to his chin. “None of them really,
but the only two I know on sight would be the supply master and the high priest
and of the two of them the supply master might be easier. Plus he might not be
missed as quickly.”

“How long is the trip to reach this place? Or have
you heard?”

He frowned, “I’m not certain but based on the few
comments I’ve overheard I would guess about a half a day’s travel on horseback.”

“Rose, I need a place outside of the city.
Something close by where we can move people without being too obvious,” I said
shifting my attention.

“None of my properties outside of the city are that
close,” she answered.

“It doesn’t have to belong to you,” I explained. “I
just need something where no one will be watching and we can count on some
privacy for a day or so.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Would something like a barn
be sufficient?”

“That would be perfect. Can you show me where it
is?” I asked.

She shook her head, “Not yet, I need to talk to
someone first, but I’m sure I can set something up within an hour or two.”

I thought for a moment. “That will work. Go now.
Don’t worry about being seen leaving, just don’t let them follow you.” I turned
back to the others. “I want the rest of you to acquire this supply master from
the Doronite temple.”

Marc looked concerned, “If we go in there and kidnap
him from the midst of their temple it will cause a huge ruckus.”

“You know the layout of the temple,” I reminded
him. “With Walter you can find him without anyone seeing you. Find him and
remove him from his bed tonight. If he merely vanishes they won’t know enough
to suspect what we’re doing.”

“What will you be doing?” asked Harold suddenly.

I smiled, “I’m going to Lancaster but I’ll be back
in less than an hour. Once Rose returns I’ll go to her house and wait for the
rest of you there. After that we’ll be moving to this barn or whatever she can
find for us.”

***

I was back long before Rose was so I started work on
another piece of my plan. James had readily agreed to my requests but he had
been somewhat surprised when I asked him for two small boxes. I had thought
that two small matching boxes would be fairly easy to find but they turned out
to be extraordinarily difficult. Genevieve had solved the problem by emptying
two of her ring boxes.