Chapter One
Kernin
Wehr dismounted with his escort in front of the palace, glad the trip
was over. It had taken three days of riding to reach the kingdom of
Rindis, but the ride itself hadn't been the problem. The weather had
refused to cooperate in any way at all, giving them boiling hot days
and then nights that were downright chilling. Once winter decided to
show up that would change, of course, but until then travelers just
had to suffer.
"This place looks almost as big as your father's palace,"
Taris said softly from Kernin's left, the words a rumble even so. Taris
Rel was a bear of a man as well as the one in charge of Kernin's escort
- and someone who had been Kernin's friend since childhood. "And
here come the stable boys to take our horses."
"I hope it's cooler in the stable," Kernin commented without
paying much attention to what he said. "If it isn't then the horses
will probably melt, and we'll have a big problem getting home."
"That was funny," Taris said with a chuckle as he handed over
the reins of his horse right after Kernin did the same. "I can
see that you're still not sure you did right agreeing to your father's
request, but since it was a request rather than a command I don't understand
why you're bothered… You're not worrying about the problem we
came here to take care of, are you?"
"No, finding someone doing 'evil magic' and stopping them shouldn't
be much of a problem," Kernin answered, trying to pull out of the
dark mood holding him. "My own magic is strong enough that I can
hold my own against most practitioners, so that part of it isn't really
a consideration. It's that 'request' you mentioned that's got me talking
to myself."
"Would you have been happier if the emperor ordered you to marry
one of King Lormin's daughters?" Taris asked as they slowly walked
closer to the steps in front of the palace before beginning to climb
them. "All he did was ask you to meet the girls and see if one
of them appeals to you. If they don't, that's as far as the matter has
to go."
"Sure it is," Kernin said, feeling the humorless smile curving
his lips. "If I hated my father or barely knew him I'd have no
trouble doing just that, but it so happens I like my father as well
as love him. Disappointing him is something I've always hated to do,
but this time I have no choice. I'm not ready to marry and settle down,
so it doesn't matter what the girls are like. When I leave here it won't
be with a wife, and what makes it all worse is that I know my father
won't turn around and make the request an order. He wants a closer relationship
with King Lormin, but not at the expense of the closeness between him
and me."
A glance showed Kernin that Taris couldn't seem to find what to say,
the man's hesitation producing a silence that Kernin enjoyed quite a
lot. Brooding is most easily done when it's quiet, and Kernin was very
much in the mood to brood. The mood to brood. Gods, even his thoughts
were running out of control. Going after someone doing "evil magic"
would be an incredible relief…
There weren't that many steps to climb, so Kernin's brooding time was
cut very short. At the top of the steps was a dignified-looking man
with a crew of servants behind him, and as soon as Kernin got close
enough the man bowed respectfully.
"Prince Kernin, welcome to Rindis," the man said in cultured
tones with a very smooth smile. "His Majesty King Lormin is expecting
you, of course, and I have the honor of guiding you to him. These servants
will see to carrying your trunks to your apartment."
"I have no trunks, just a case on one of the pack horses,"
Kernin replied, for some reason disliking the man instantly. "This
isn't a state visit, you understand. My presence here is a response
to a request for assistance, and I mean to give that assistance as quickly
as possible."
"Of course, Your Highness, I understand perfectly," the man
said smoothly with another bow that matched his tone. "Your time
is too valuable for idle chit-chat, so please follow me."
The servants slipped past the members of Kernin's escort and hurried
down the steps, obviously on their way to collect Kernin's case as well
as the rest of everyone's belongings. That exodus, of course, left a
clear hallway for the "guide" to lead the way into.
As he followed along, Kernin felt annoyed that the man hadn't mentioned
his own name. It was a tactic Kernin had seen used before in different
places for different reasons, and he'd never liked it. Some people chose
to remain anonymous in case someone with power wanted to complain, but
others knew the name would be remembered more thoroughly once it was
mentioned. This man was clearly one of the second sort, but his game
wasn't going to work. Kernin meant to "forget" the man's name
no matter how many times he heard it, a more acceptable option to using
magic on the man the way he was suddenly itching to do.
The very wide hallway led more deeply into the palace, and the corridors
they turned into weren't much narrower. Some of the walls were marble
and some paneled in carved and polished wood, the decorative touches
here and there showing restraint and good taste. Kernin noticed all
of it without paying any actual attention, more aware of the greater
comfort the deeper they went. The heat of the day had been left behind,
which made all of them grateful.
By the time they reached an intricately carved door of very dark wood,
Kernin was even more annoyed. Their guide had tried to set a pace that
was on the hurried side, as if the new arrivals were supposed to be
so eager to be presented to the king that they all but ran to where
the king waited. Or were too unimportant to keep from being intimidated
into almost running. Kernin immediately set a different pace for his
people, keeping to that pace even when their guide tried again and again
- wordlessly, of course - to hurry them, but the tries had still been
very annoying.
"And here we are, Your Highness," the guide said in an overly
jovial way just before knocking on the door. "Now, if you'll excuse
me, I must see about refreshments for you and your escort. I'll return
in a moment."
Kernin was about to say that the man wasn't excused, but the man performed
a small, quick bow and then strode off without looking back. Taris growled,
"Just a minute, you!" showing that he felt as annoyed as Kernin,
but their former guide just kept going until he disappeared around the
corner at the end of the corridor.
"What in hell is going on here?" Kernin demanded, a rhetorical
question if he'd ever asked one. "If this is the way King Lormin
treats a man he wants help from, I'd hate to see what he does to everyone
else."
Taris was about to say something in response, but the yanking open of
the door they stood near kept the words unspoken.
"Who in chaos are you, and what do you mean by knocking on my door
and then refusing to enter when invited to?" The man growling at
Kernin was large, almost as tall and broad as Kernin himself, just a
good number of years older. His blond hair had no more than a touch
of gray at the temples, a gray that matched the man's angry eyes.
"I'm Kernin Wehr, and I didn't knock," Kernin responded, suddenly
more suspicious than annoyed. "A man who presented himself as our
appointed guide did the knocking, and then he all but ran away. I've
come at the request of King Lormin - "
"Prince Kernin!" the man in the doorway exclaimed, now more
surprised than angry. "I had no idea you'd arrived, even though
I was supposed to be notified at once. Blast and damnation, I'm going
to have someone's head for this! I'm Lormin, of course. Please, come
in."
"Your Majesty, I don't understand what's going on," Kernin
said as he followed his host into the room the king had come out of.
"Do your people make a habit of playing this kind of practical
joke on you?"
"My people don't play any kind of joke on me," Lormin answered,
gesturing Kernin to a chair before yanking on a bell pull. Taris and
the rest of Kernin's escort stayed outside the room, and Taris had closed
the door once Kernin was inside. "I'll wager that what you just
experienced was part of the reason you're here, part of the insanity
going on in my realm. What did that … guide look like?"
Kernin described the man who had met him while waiting for the king
to sit down. Once the king was settled, Kernin took his own seat.
"The person you just described is named Rellow, but that wasn't
Rellow you met," Lormin said with a headshake and an annoyed edge
to his voice. "The real Rellow, who's extremely efficient at making
the palace run smoothly, is away at the moment due to a family problem.
He couldn't possibly be back this soon even if he turned right around
once he got home, so what you met was an impostor. The part I don't
understand is what the impostor hoped to gain by meeting you when you
arrived."
"I think I know what he hoped to gain," Kernin said, having
considered the point for the last couple of minutes. "He tried
to make me scurry along behind him like some breathless social climber
willing to do anything for acceptance, and then he arranged things so
that you would be angry when you opened the door to this room. I was
more than a little annoyed, you were angry, so it was perfectly possible
that I would have responded to your anger with some of my own."
"And then we would have ended up shouting at each other,"
Lormin said with a nod, showing he now fully appreciated the point.
"We both would have been filled with resentment and anger, and
that would have continued even after our identities were straightened
out. The perfect way to begin any kind of relationship."
"Perfect for your enemy," Kernin agreed, his continuing annoyance
now aimed in the direction of the one he'd come here to stop. "The
only question I have left is the one concerning how your enemy found
out I was coming. Did you make my having been sent for general knowledge?"
A knock interrupted before Lormin could answer, and a moment later the
door opened to admit a group of servants. Both tea and coffee services
were brought into the room, along with plates of small cakes and tiny
finger sandwiches.
"There's still more than two hours before lunch will be served,
so I thought you and your men might like a snack to hold you,"
Lormin said after gesturing to the food and drink. "You and I can
relax and be served, but your men will have to help themselves."
"They won't find that a hardship," Kernin said before turning
to gesture Taris and the others inside. "And allow me to say, Your
Majesty, how good of you this is. Most kings in your place - and most
highly placed men in general - would not have concerned themselves with
my escort."
"I was taught that if you pay attention to the needs and wants
of individuals, you don't have a problem with the population as a whole,"
Lormin returned with a smile. "My father ran a happy kingdom using
that philosophy, and my own reign was going the same way - until just
recently. And to answer the question you asked before the food and drink
arrived, no one but the messenger I sent even knew there was a message.
Since I didn't use a scribe, no one at all but me knew what the message
said."
"So now we also have to find out how your enemy knew I'd be coming,"
Kernin mused, accepting a cup of coffee from the servant who brought
both coffee and tea and offered both cups for Kernin to choose from.
"And a couple of those small sandwiches, if you please. We had
only a quick breakfast before breaking camp since we knew we'd be here
for lunch."
The servant hurried back to the table with the food and drink, all but
snatching a plate of the sandwiches before Taris was able to help himself
from the plate. Kernin smiled to himself, imagining the servant seeing
Taris emptying the plate in a matter of seconds, but that wouldn't have
happened. Despite looking like a ruffian from off the streets, Taris
was the son of nobility and had been taught better than to grab and
gobble.
The king took a small cake to eat while Kernin and his men did justice
to the sandwiches. Once all the eating was done the servants left, so
Kernin had his people take the heavy mugs of coffee back out into the
corridor with them. When the door was closed behind Taris, Kernin looked
at his host.
"If you don't mind, Your Majesty, I'd now like to hear about what
your enemy has been doing - aside from pretending to be a palace guide,"
Kernin said. "And just how sure are we that that was your enemy?
Could the man have been an accomplice instead?"
"Very frankly, I have no idea," the king replied, his headshake
showing how unhappy he was. "What the enemy has been doing has
been a series of … very bad practical jokes, to borrow the description
you used earlier. One of my subjects will get all dressed up for some
reason, and then walk out into a bright, sunshiny day - only to suddenly
find that a very small set of clouds is pouring rain down on him or
her and on nothing else. Or someone would tie a horse to the rail outside
a store, then come out to find that the horse was gone - or at least
no longer in sight. Running to the place where the horse was supposed
to be would then show that the horse was actually still there, only
now invisible."
"Which means that magic is being used beyond all doubt," Kernin
said with a nod. "Is that all there is to it, just a series of
pranks?"
"Some of those pranks have gotten people hurt," Lormin responded
after taking a drink of his own coffee. "One day, in the middle
of the city's biggest market, everything suddenly went black. Not just
dark, mind you, but completely lightless. People screamed and panicked
and most just froze where they were, but some tried to run. The lack
of light didn't last more than a couple of minutes, but when everyone
could see again there were broken legs and arms and a large collection
of bruises. Standing still was no guarantee that someone wouldn't come
barreling into you. And that doesn't even count the injuries that came
from people fainting or having heart attacks."
"So not all of it is just good, clean fun," Kernin mused.
"What about more deliberate attempts to cause trouble, like food
being spoiled so that those who ate it became sick or actually poisoned?"
"Happily there's been nothing like that, but business has still
suffered," Lormin answered with a sigh. "Apples have been
turned blue and pears purple, expensive material was made completely
transparent, fattened cattle have been made to look skeletal, horses
have been seen limping around even though there was nothing wrong with
their legs, and once a hitching post was found to be made of whipped
cream. People are almost afraid to leave their homes, and I'm told that
some of them have been wondering out loud if we've had the same kind
of trouble here in the palace. Before that episode with your guide,
the answer would have been no."
"Which makes everything that much worse," Kernin said with
a nod, understanding the point completely. "People will get it
into their heads that the only reason you haven't found and stopped
whoever is doing all that is because you're not suffering the way they
are. I hate to ask this next question, but it really is necessary. Do
you by any chance have an illegitimate brother or son who might be behind
what's going on?"
"I'm not an innocent, Kernin, so I've already asked that question
myself," Lormin said with a sound of mild ridicule. "My father
and mother married very young, and even though it was an arranged marriage
they lost no time falling deeply in love with each other. I know for
a fact that my father never even looked at any other women, and when
my mother died he was inconsolable. He died himself a few months later,
and both of my younger brothers came to the funerals and to my coronation.
They both have very full and satisfying lives of their own, and they
went back to those lives as soon as they could. I'm convinced that they're
my only brothers, and also convinced that they'd hate having to leave
their lives to take the throne in this kingdom."
"All right," Kernin allowed cautiously, not about to argue
what could well be wishful thinking on the king's part about his brothers.
At least not at the moment. "So that eliminates unmentioned brothers.
What about sons?"
"I looked into that question a bit more carefully, but apparently
my wild oats weren't sown in fertile ground," Lormin said carefully,
not quite admitting anything that could prove embarrassing. "Once
I was married myself I made sure to do my sowing at home, and not just
because I happen to be very fond of my queen. I gave my word not to
go gadding about, and I like to keep my word whenever possible."
"And you have two legitimate sons of your own, so any nephews you
might have would be wasting their time making trouble," Kernin
said, nodding slowly. "Unfortunately that puts us right back to
where we were in respect to the identity of your enemy. Knowing who
he can't be isn't telling us who he is, which means I'll have to find
the man the hard way - with magic."
"I've heard that you're really strong when it comes to magic, so
my hopes are very high that you'll catch the fiend," Lormin said
with his own nod. "Now, about that other reason you're here…"
Lormin's expression had turned the least bit wary, probably because
he'd seen the way Kernin had flinched at the reminder. Kernin would
have been happier putting off that particular topic for a good long
while, but with the point now raised there was no getting out of the
discussion.
"Your Majesty, I'll be more than happy to meet your daughters,
but please don't count on anything coming from the meetings," he
forced himself to say as he stopped avoiding the older man's gaze. "My
father knows well enough that I have no interest right now in marrying,
which is why he asked me to meet the young ladies rather than ordering
me to choose one. I'm not my father's heir, after all, and you have
sons of your own…"
"So there's no real need for a marriage in either of our families,"
Lormin said with a faint smile despite the … near sadness in his
gray eyes. "Yes, that's perfectly true, and I thank you for being
candid with me. Your father and I became friends when we were boys,
and when we grew to be men we found that we still enjoyed each other's
company. But that doesn't mean either of us will push you into something
you aren't interested in, so you don't have to worry. Once you meet
my daughters nothing else will be expected of you, aside from finding
my enemy, that is."
"And finding your enemy is something I do have interest in,"
Kernin said, relief making him grin. "Thank you for being so understanding,
Your Majesty. I would have hated being the one to cause bad blood between
you and my father."
"No chance of that, my boy," Lormin assured him as he put
his cup aside and got to his feet. "I had one of the servants wait
outside with your men, so why don't you let yourself be shown to your
apartment now. There are rooms for your men right near yours, and you
can all freshen up and rest until lunch. You'll meet my daughters at
lunch, and that will be that."
Kernin tried to thank Lormin again, but the king just walked his guest
to the door and sent him on his way. The servant was waiting just as
Lormin had said, so Kernin gestured to Taris and his men and then told
the servant to take them to their accommodations. The servant bowed
before turning and leading off and Kernin, no longer in the mood for
brooding, followed happily after.
They had climbed a wide stairway to the second floor and had reached
the end of a corridor when a woman suddenly appeared to their left in
the cross corridor. She was a tall and pretty blond with a good figure
in a pale blue day gown, attractive in spite of the worried expression
she wore. At first she didn't see Kernin and the others, her attention
obviously on her thoughts, but then she looked up and immediately stopped
short. Wide gray eyes stared at Kernin with such upset that Kernin instantly
felt guilty without knowing what he could be guilty of. Then the girl
turned and ran back the way she'd come, a moment later disappearing
into a doorway.
"What did I do?" Kernin asked the world in general, his guilt
now replaced with confusion. "Whatever it is, I'm willing to apologize…"
"The princess has been a bit … moody lately," the servant
offered hesitantly, obviously trying not to sound as if he were making
excuses for his king's daughter. "Your accommodations are this
way, Your Highness."
The servant gestured, then led them to the next cross corridor and to
the right. A few steps down on the left was Kernin's apartment, with
Taris's quarters directly opposite and the rooms of the rest of the
escort beyond his. Kernin went into his apartment to find that his case
of clothing had already been put in the bedchamber, so he returned to
the sitting room to have some of the coffee he'd seen on a sideboard.
A knock brought Taris into the room, and the big man smiled as he closed
the door.
"Our gear has been brought up to our rooms, so I'm assuming that
yours has as well," Taris said as he strode over to join Kernin
at the sideboard. After a small hesitation he added, "And now that
you've seen one of the women you're supposed to meet, you don't seem
as disturbed as you did."
"The disturbance disappeared when I told the king about my lack
of interest in being married," Kernin corrected with a private
smile. "Lormin took the announcement calmly, and even went so far
as to tell me not to worry about it. Which is a really good thing, since
I've never been able to find even the smallest bit of interest in women
who look at me and then start to cry. Even if I never have seen a gray-eyed
blonde before…"
"Yes, the girl was pretty, but delicate women tend to make me tired,"
Taris agreed while pouring his own cup of coffee. "So that's one
down and one to go, and then the unpleasantness will be behind you.
Especially since the odds say the second girl won't be as pretty as
the first. So what was the king able to tell you about our quarry?"
"Almost nothing except for the fact that our unknown magic user
seems to have a terrible sense of humor," Kernin replied as he
carried his own cup to a nearby chair. "After lunch I'm going to
try a tracking spell, just in case our quarry was sloppy. That probably
was him pretending to be our guide, but if it was just one of his henchmen
then so much the better. People without magic aren't able to hide their
traces."
Taris said something about having the men ready just in case, and then
the conversation turned general. After they'd finished their coffee
Taris left to freshen up for lunch, and Kernin did the same. A quick
bath removed the road dust from him, and clean clothes completed the
freshening. Kernin was back in the sitting room and half way through
another cup of coffee when a servant knocked to say that lunch was ready,
and when Kernin walked out into the hall it was to find that the men
of his escort had been called for first.
They made a procession again behind the servant, but not to return downstairs.
They were led to a large room that held two tables, one table big enough
to hold all twenty of the men in his escort, the other smaller and set
for no more than four. Kernin and Taris were led to the smaller table
and guided to seats opposite each other, but before they had a chance
to sit down they were joined by the blond, gray-eyed woman Kernin had
seen on the way to his apartment. Now she wore a really beautiful day
gown in lavender, a color that suited her extremely well.
"You're Prince Kernin, I'm told," the woman said to Kernin
with a friendly smile as she took the chair between him and Taris. "I'm
Lisai, and my sister Adella sends her regrets. She and I were supposed
to host this luncheon, but she seems to be under the weather or something.
I'm sure she'll be fine for dinner, so you'll be able to meet her and
our brothers as well as our mother then."
"That will be fine," Kernin answered as he took his own place
after seating the woman Lisai. Now that she was no longer threatening
to cry, Kernin was able to see how really attractive the woman was.
Her personality was as calm and strong as her father's had been, an
unusual assurance riding behind every word she spoke.
"Father told Adella and me that one of the reasons you were coming
was to meet us," Lisai went on after their glasses had been filled
with white wine. "Adella is a bit on the shy side, but I never
mind meeting new people - as long as it's perfectly clear that nothing
will come of the meeting. A word to the wise, after all, is usually
enough."
"A word to the wise," Kernin echoed, abruptly aware of the
fact that there was now a calm threat in those gray eyes he'd been studying.
"Are you saying that nothing had better come of the meeting?"
"I'm saying that it would be best for everyone concerned if nothing
came of the meeting," Lisai answered, her smile now showing a good
deal of amusement. "You are our guest, after all, and it would
be tragic if something … unfortunate happened to you."
"Something unfortunate," Kernin echoed again, his original
annoyance now turning to anger while Taris simply stared at the girl.
If she said "after all" one more time Kernin knew he would
probably explode… "I've been finding it hard to believe that
you're actually threatening me, but you are, aren't you? You're warning
me off and threatening some kind of unnamed trouble if I don't take
the warning."
"Look, Kernin, let's stop beating around the bush," Lisai
said, just as if he were the one who'd been talking all around the subject.
"You're not the ugliest man I've ever seen, so I'm sure you'll
find a woman somewhere who will be more than happy to accept you. It's
really nothing personal, but my sister and I have no interest in marriage
at the moment. If you decide to pick one of us Adella and I will have
to refuse, and then everyone will be upset for no reason. It's a much
better idea if we just … stay friends, so to speak. I make a really
good friend."
The radiant smile she gave him then almost made Kernin forget that the
miserable female was now giving him orders. And the fact that he'd almost
said "friends" in a third echo added to the heavy annoyance
and anger filling him. He'd never before been given the "let's
stay friends" speech by a woman, most especially not by one he'd
only just met. How he felt was obviously of no importance to the female,
only how she felt, and that added the icing. He'd been all ready to
explain to the girl that through no fault of their own he would not
be asking for either her or her sister, but being given orders tended
to turn Kernin less than reasonable.
"I'm sure you make a wonderful friend, but I really do have enough
friends back home," Kernin drawled as he gave the girl a very intrusive
inspection with his gaze. "And in any event, I didn't come here
to make friends. I came for another purpose entirely, and if I decide
I'd like your opinion on the matter I'll be sure to let you know. Until
then there's a meal waiting to be eaten."
There was a very brief flash of anger in the girl's gray eyes, obviously
a response to the deliberate condescension Kernin had spoken with, but
then the anger was gone and she smiled again.
"How lovely of you to warn me that you may want my opinion at some
time," she all but cooed, the new look in those gray eyes somehow
making Kernin the least bit wary. "As a lowly female I'm not often
asked my opinion of things, but I'll do my best to be ready if it should
happen that I am asked."
And then she lapsed into smiling silence while the servants began to
bring the food out. The first of the serving girls put bowls in front
of each of them, and then a male servant came with a large soup tureen
and a ladle. The soup smelled really good, making Kernin eager to have
some put in his bowl, but the girl was, of course, served first. The
servant stood to the girl's right to serve, between her and Taris, then
the servant moved to Taris's right to fill his bowl. Kernin was last
to be served, but waiting the extra minute or so didn't bother him.
The servant moved to Kernin's right, between him and Lisai, and then
-
And then Kernin was bounding out of his chair with a yell, the entire
front of him hot, wet, and sloppy. The tureen had been upended over
his chest and lap, and both the liquid and the solids were really hot.
"Oh, how horribly clumsy of me!" the miserable female exclaimed
at once, her expression trying for regret and remorse and just not making
it. "I've always hoped I would outgrow the awkward stage, but somehow
I never did. How very … unfortunate…"
Kernin was so furious he couldn't speak, but he wouldn't have had the
time to say anything anyway. He had to get out of his clothes as fast
as possible to keep from being even more badly burned in some very delicate
places, so he all but ran out of the room toward his apartment.
But once he was out of dripping, scalding clothes and into fresh, he
would give that girl his thanks for her efforts by making her backside
feel the way his entire front did right now!
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