Inexperienced Mage (Reawakening Saga) (18 page)

He finished the swords a few weeks ahead of schedule and over a two day period moved them back to his house and replaced them in the wooden crates Bruno had sent them over in. With them crated he only needed a way to get them to the palace so he went out and purchased a one horse wagon.

He was quickly let into the palace grounds and a host of slaves unloaded his wears and transported them to the guards training ground. After a couple hours wait he was soon g
raced with the presence of the queen and princess who greeted him fondly. “What have you brought us?”

He signaled for one of the slaves to open up the nearest crate. He picked up the first sword and walked over to one of the training pells and with one deft stroke cut the man sized
pell in half, securing gasps of astonishment from his viewers. "From what I was told each sword is magical strengthened to withstand massive blows, as well as magically sharpened to cut through your opponents."

The q
ueen nodded to one of her guards who picked up one of the swords and took it through a series of strikes, then attacked the pells cutting a score of them into firewood. He gave the sword an appraising look and replaced it back in the crate. “They are well balanced and cut thought the pells with little resistance. I would be honored to have such a blade at my disposal your Majesty.”

“As per our agreement I will have
the fifteen hundred gold sent to the local moneychangers in your name. I would also like to order two hundred more swords and three hundred shields, to be used by my personal guard.”

“Your Majesty I can’t give you an exact time frame for my source to be able to prepare such an order, but I will do my best to see that it is done.” Thad said trying to hide his irritation.

The queen smiled slightly. “Tell your source there is no rush and may send them as he has time. I will pay the aforementioned fifteen gold per sword and ten gold per shield, the price is nonnegotiable, now if you would excuse me I have prior engagements I must attend to.”

CHAPTER VIIII

With the sale of the swords Thad had more gold than he could honestly spend even after paying off the loan for the house. The moneychangers had given him a small booklet of fine paper to use for notes of payment for large payments as well as recording the signet ring that he had gotten from Monique to verify payments.

With a light step in his step Thad made his way to the blacksmith where he was greeted by a happy Margret. “Have you come to make another large order lady Clair?”

"Yes, I have is Bruno available? While I will need more swords, there are a few other things I would like him to make that are going to have to made to a specific design."

“For one of our distinguished customers I am sure he will be more than willing to step away from whatever he is doing.” She said before disappearing to the back of the smithy.

Bruno came out with his normal bluster about being bothered while he worked, that he was sure was more to annoy Margret than for any practical reason. "Master smith just the person I needed to see, I have a couple of new projects and I find myself in the need of your assistance again." Bruno gave him a look that was in-between a smile and a smirk as he launched into the details of what he needed.

"Well lady Clair the swords can be made easily enough now that the molds are already made, the shields will take a bit to make a mold for, though I don't know why you want the metal so thin, but that's your decision, the chests you're asking for are the real problem making something fit as tight as that will take a bit of working and the five large ones even more work, and lining the inside with silver won't be easy or cheap. I'm sure I can get it all done but it's going to take some time, I hope you're not in too much of a hurry."

“Not in too much of a hurry Master Bruno, but as you get the items made I would like them delivered, the main question here to me is cost.”

Bruno and Margret steeped aside and talked among themselves Margret jotting down notes on a sheaf of paper every now and then. When they were done talking Margret turned back to him her smile as big as ever. “For everything swords shields and chests it will be a total of twelve hundred gold.”

Thad had to keep from fainting from the cost but thinking about it, he should have expected it. He had been doing well with all his projects he had
slightly over two hundred gold hidden at his home, but even with that and what he had left at the moneychangers was barely enough to cover the expense.

After a long bout of haggling he was able to get Margret to come down to one thousand eighty gold, which half was paid up front with the rest paid at increments as the products were delivered.

With nothing else pressing to work on until some of his orders were filled by Bruno he began working on the many orders by the nobles. Most of the requests were simple and boring things that didn’t grab his interest, but from time to time they would ask for something that presented him with a challenge.

The days passed by fairly quickly with him working in the sewer during the day and prowling the seedier taverns at night. Most the time he got the same feeling from the patrons of the taverns, unhappy but no diabolic plots.

Shariel was proceeding well with her studies and seemed to enjoy herself at the school. She had a natural charisma, and seemed to make many friends many of who she brought over quite often. He was glad she was adjusting so well to her new life, but the constant need to hold his disguise while at home was getting annoying.

The swords came along with two of the smaller chests he had ordered. The chests were sized to fit a few small letters, while not much in size they were perfect to try out his idea on, before waiting time and money on the bigger ones. He had to get the sending chest enchantment perfect before trying it on the larger ones since they would have to be done at the house being too large to fit in any of the
sewer entrances.

With the two small chests in his sack he quickly made his way to the sewer to begin his work. With all the metal work already done for him all he had to do was place them gem and start enchanting. Not having to tax his strength to manipulate the metal himself was refreshing. He was a little wary of starting the project without someone knowing, doing something new especially something as complicated as this required complete concentration until he completely understood where he could stop without the enchantment collapsing.

While he didn’t want to start on the project without someone to watch out for him, the urge to was almost unbearable. When he was about to give in to his desire the princess was nice enough to grace him with her presence. “I could almost kiss you; I was hoping you would visit today.”

The princess face burned bright red then she closed her eyes. “Well if you must.” She said closing her eyes. Everything clicked in place for him as he watched her stand there blushing with her eyes closed tight. She was only a few years younger than him, and when she got older she promised to be a sight to behold, and he had to admit she intrigued him. So with a slight chuckle he leaned in and gave her a light kiss on the lips, his own face burning bright red.

He explained what he was going to try to do as well as the dangers involved. The princess didn’t like the idea, but finally agreed to make sure he got water and broth at least once a day and that if it looked like it was too much for him to find way to force a break in his concentration, but it cost him a second kiss.

It took two days for him to finish the sending boxes, it would have been quicker but it took a while to figure out how to link the extra dimensional room attach to the boxes, but once that was done it was simple enough to attach the rooms so that they no matter where they were they were essential the same box on the inside. To test the new sending boxes he gave one to the princess while taking the other back to his house where he put in a simple note
saying does it work. After reading a bit from his magical tome he opened the sending box to find a note written in flowing script simply saying yes. It had worked, if it would work at long distances was unknown, but Thad could think of no reason that it wouldn't.

Each morning and night he would check his sending box to see if anything was in there. He really needed a way for it to let him know as soon as anything was present inside the box, but that could be done on his next set, he still had to try allowing one box to reach multiple ones.

As his orders arrived from Bruno he went to work to finish them as quickly as possible so he could keep enough gold available to keep all the bills paid. By the time the first large chest had arrived Thad had already completed over two thirds of the swords and around a hundred of the shields. Bruno had let him know that once the molds were finished on the shields he would focus all his attention on the chests, but even so it would take a long time to complete them. With Bruno paid and the amount of gold in his account steadily growing with each delivery to the place, Thad began to slow down his work. Shariel and Maria had been harassing him about his heath, as days of working with little break and often time skips meals were starting to show. The muscle definition of his body from years of sword practice, and exercise had faded, and he had lost a considerable amount of weight.

Limiting himself to only four hours of day to work and the rest to regaining his strength seemed daunting at first, but as his health returned so did his stamina. He hadn't realized it but he had felt tired and more lethargic lately. He gave himself a mental kick, wondering why he had let himself get to such a state. Magic and gold was all well and good, but if it cost him his heath what was the point. After two weeks of his new routine he felt great and had a much livelier bounce in his steep.

While he worked on projects for the queen many other orders were coming in at an alarming rate, but he tried to push that thought aside, he had never promised anyone that what they wanted would or could be done, but he still made sure to look over each request to see if anything struck his mind. One of the ideas finally did, it was a grand idea and one that would be of great use. A Baroness had wanted to know if he could get her a magical item that would allow her to cook without fire. He had already found out that any spell using fire would cause the item focusing it to absorb heat, if he were to have a large stone with the top layered with steel; he should be able to make a fireless cooking top.

Shariel
had school, and the princess would be occupied all day with affairs of state, so he didn’t think they would notice if he skipped his early morning practice and went to work a little earlier than normal. As he made his way to his normal sewer entrance in the squatters district he hear voices from his normal alleyway. The sun had barely peeked about the horizon most people were either asleep or on their way about their business, not hanging around in a dead end alley.

“Listen its perfect, we already
have some of the queens guards, and enough of the servants to allow us in the palace, all we have to do is strike and kill her and that little bitch of a child. With them dead it will that much easier to get what we want.” The man said loudly but was quickly hushed by the others he was with. Thad couldn’t make out much of the rest of the conversation other than it was to happen soon at a party.

Not wanting to be noticed Thad silently went back the way he had come, and headed straight for his house and the sending box to warn the princess. Reaching his house he quickly dashed up the stairs and hastily scribbled, “
You are in danger, not safe with guards, attack soon at a party, stay safe,”
on a piece of paper.

Thad nervously checked the Sending box every few minutes to see if Maria had gotten his note yet. When he opened it and the note was gone he relaxed a little but kept checking in case she left a reply. After what seemed like a life time a response finally appeared, “
Party in three days, I will make sure you are invited.”

Three days wasn’t much time and the only way into the palace was as Clair he wouldn’t be able to take any large weapons, so his sword and staff were out of the question he would have to think of something else.
He would also have to make sure that if anything happened to him Shariel was still taken care of, so he made a quick stop at the moneylender’s guild.

After everything he had sold to the palace and his other special orders the account held slightly over three thousand gold, so far only his name and Monique's were on the account. Thinking it not a good idea to let Shariel have control over all the money he had
one thousand gold deposited into a separate account, as well as paid a small fee to have a signet ring made for Shariel. Now if anything happened to him she should have more than enough money to see her through school and help her with whatever future she decided.

While he waited for Shariel to get home he went through a list of ideas to help him incase trouble hit at the palace. He needed a sword but if he would never be allowed to take one inside the palace the closet he could get was the palace grounds and that was if they were crated. If he could just make a sword that would appear at his command would be nice but he had no idea how that would work. What if he made a sword that would form on his command. He had already formed metal with magic hundreds of times if he were to make a enchantment to merely form metal into the shape of a sword then all he would have to carry Is the raw materials, but how. Then it hit him what if he got a dagger with a thick blade he could enchant it to lengthen the metal would be thin but if he worked it right it would just as strong if not as strong as the ones he had made for the queens guard. As for his staff there was no need to make a miniature one seeing as he already had one, it wasn't as powerful but it was the best he could do in such a short amount of time.