Moonstone, Magic That Binds (Book 1) (20 page)

Fessano waved his hand dismissively. “Hardly. You are the son of a duke with pure noble Serytaran blood. You mustn’t demean yourself.”

“I don’t.”

“You do,” Fessano said. “It’s one of your endearing characteristics, but you can’t let it get in the way of soldiering.”

“But I have so much to learn.” Lotto panicked. He felt totally inadequate in the castle except in Mander’s presence. He still didn’t quite trust Fessano.

Fessano put his hand on Lotto’s shoulder. “And that is what makes you extraordinary. What other nineteen year old can wield a sword, or recite history or light a lamp with power? You are unique and every thing you learn makes you that much more unique. Indeed, that can be said of anybody, but especially of you, Lotto. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll arrange to have Restella see you in the barracks, from afar. You might not even see her, but then if she dreams it will be of you as you are now.”

The words made sense and that comforted him, just a bit. It wouldn’t hurt for the princess to have a current image of him as long as he didn’t have to meet her face to face. Didn’t he come to Beckondale to see the princess in the first place, so long ago? Now he recoiled at the thought of meeting her and the contradiction made him seem like a fool. He felt miserable all the way back down to the barracks, but once he got onto the training ground, he had the means to work out his frustration with the princess and with himself. When it came to weaponry, Lotto had the confidence that he could hold his own against most men.

~~~

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

~

F
ESSANO WALKED AT
R
ESTELLA’S SIDE
as they entered the gallery overlooking the training grounds. Ten or fifteen pairs sparred with each other on the packed dirt of the arena. Some men fought in silence and others yelled when hit or taunted their opponent. Restella loved the sounds of practice and longed to be down with the soldiers sparring with their weapons, but her wound was far from healed.

She didn’t need Fessano’s help to spot Lotto. He fought with a staff. She could tell he measured up his opponent, lightly sparring and feinting. Lotto impressed her with his patience and then he struck with his staff, taking advantage of some weakness that she couldn’t spot from her vantage point.

“He’s grown into a man—a very capable man,” Restella said, shocked by the affect of the link.

“Indeed,” Fessano said. “You can feel the link?”

“I can close my eyes and point to him.” She did so. She opened her eyes and Lotto had stopped fighting and gawked up at her. His face turned red and he left the grounds in a rush.

“He’s bashful. You’re a princess and you are one of the few who know what he looked like before the Moonstone transformed him.”

Restella didn’t know what to think as a few of the soldiers hailed her and saluted. She painfully returned their salute even though she didn’t wear a uniform.

“That’s disconcerting, to say the least,” Restella said as she turned back to re-enter the castle. “He’s actually turned out to be handsome and well-built.” Her words could not convey the excitement she felt within herself at seeing him. She no longer had to think of him as the half-wit, but as a capable soldier. It made her feel considerably better about being linked to the new Lotto, rather than the old. She played with her fingers and didn’t notice anything Fessano said as he escorted her back to her apartment to give her another treatment on the injured arm.

~

Lotto concentrated on using the iron-shod staff, going through the motions that Kenyr had drilled into him. He liked the weighting of the staff much better than a spear, but he wondered if he could get a point put on his staff, thinking back to the poker that still sat by the fireplace in the bookshop, as well as remembering a long iron tool he used to clean out seams in the mines.

His vision clouded as he finished off an opponent and he stopped his final blow in mid-arc as Restella’s face appeared in his mind and he realized that she had to be close. He followed the link up to see her looking at him from the gallery. She wore a sling for her right arm, but she looked different than he remembered. His image was of a softer, shorter girl. Restella looked like a warrior goddess standing much taller than Fessano. They locked gazes for a moment and he could feel blood rush to his face. Blushing!  He couldn’t stay out here with a red face gawking at a captain in the army, so he left the training ground and the distance seemed to break the image.

He ran through the halls and out to the stable yard where he dumped his head into a horse trough and let the cold shock bring him out of the link. He could never touch that woman. If he did, he would crumble in fear. Taking deep breaths, he stood staring up at the castle walls that rose above him. The sooner he could get out in the field and away from proximity to her, the more comfortable he’d feel. His confidence had never been so quickly shaken.

The forges were right around the corner. Perhaps he could thrust her out of his mind by talking to a blacksmith about making an iron-shod staff with a poker at one end. The sharp smell of sintered iron finally broke Restella’s spell. Lotto breathed deeply to clear his head.

“Could you make me one of these with a sharp end? I’ve got a poker weapon back home.”

“I think I’ve already got what you want. It’s a heavy old thing, for you need to weight both ends for balance.” The weapons maker, dirty and sweaty, returned with a rusty weapon that appeared to be exactly what Lotto wanted. “It has a pointy end, like a poker and a flat, blunted blade, like a pick on the other. I imagine you could use the weapon for all kinds of things, from levering up a rock to throwing it like a spear. You look like a strong enough lad. That poker end would pierce any armor, leather, metal, flesh and bone, if used as a lance. Leave it with me and I’ll refinish it for you. We’ve had that thing in the back as long as I’ve been here. It’s probably older than both of us combined.”

The excitement about the staff kept Lotto’s mind diverted until he peeked from underneath the gallery out at the training ground. His eyes were drawn to where Restella had stood, but he felt relief to know she had gone, even though he didn’t need to look. The link had moved into the castle and up towards the royal quarters. He wondered if it was love, but decided that it wasn’t. The magical force of the stone linked them and drew them to each other.  How could his mother and father stand it?

The next day he picked up the staff. The rusty thing had been sanded and finished black, except for the shiny point at one end and the short, flat edge on the other. The weight didn’t bother him, but remembering Kenyr’s words, he’d have to train more to get used to it. He didn’t want to use the training ground with the risk of Restella showing up again, so he sought out the indoor gymnasium and dragged Gully with him.

“This is my weapon. The armorer found it in the back of his forge someplace. I need to get used to it.”

“What about archery?”

Lotto shrugged. He wanted to tell Gully the truth. “I don’t think I have the patience to learn.”

His friend looked disappointed. “A crossbow for you, then. Easier to master, closer range, but it still takes a lot of practice. We can do that on the road. Now what do you have to show me?”

Lotto held out his new staff. 

“This is heavy!  A point on one end and a chisel blade on the other.  I’ve never seen one of these before.  It looks like something a farmer would love,” Gully said.  “How did you get it?”

“I wanted a round point on the end and the armorer remembered he had this.  I need to practice with it. I told you the story about the poker?”

Gully nodded.

“I sparred yesterday…”

“When Princess Restella walked out on the gallery and you fled like a bashful schoolboy. Everyone knows.”

“How?”

Gully just shook his head. “From what I hear, you two froze, looking at each other, until you ran away.”

Lotto hung his head. “We’re linked.”

“If that’s what you want to call it. Everyone else calls it love at first sight.”

He didn’t want to remind Gully about the Moonstone and just accepted the general interpretation. “She’s the most stunning person I’ve ever seen,” he said, gritting his teeth right after he said it. “I didn’t expect her to do the same. I don’t consider myself stunning.”

‘Oh you’re stunning enough, Mistad. Now show me what you’ve got.” Lotto sighed with relief.  If Gully would dismiss the encounter, then he would too. He circled Lotto with his own iron-shod staff.

Lotto twirled the staff, not quite as quickly as he would one of the other staffs and attacked his friend. Gully had moves he hadn’t seen before, but Lotto fought without being struck. Gully probably wished for the same, for Lotto’s strikes had broken through and were certain to raise welts. He grabbed the octagonal shape of the shaft, another innovation of whoever had designed the staff, and jammed the flat blade right to the side of Gully’s foot.

His opponent jumped back and looked at the flat blade embedded three inches into the dirt floor of the gymnasium.

“Whew, I’m glad you missed. That’s a frightening dimension. Either end carries it’s own surprise,” Gully said.

Lotto laughed and threw the staff into a wooden target for spears. The wooden plank split with the force of the staff and stuck into the wooden support behind. It took both of them to remove it.

“I’ll have to remember that. If I throw it too hard in battle, I might not have the time to retrieve it.”

Gully whistled. “I’m not going to spar with you carrying that thing again. Tell you what. A few of us wrap their staffs in oiled leather. I suggest you do the same or you’ll get a reputation that might get in the way of your command.”

Lotto laughed, but Gully didn’t. “Get it done now. We leave in a few days,” Gully said and it surprised Lotto because it sounded an awfully lot like an order.

~

On the last night before they were to leave, Lotto spent it in the barracks. He had written out a list to make sure he had everything. Sitting on his bunk, he picked up the spell handbook that Fessano had given him. Ever since he had seen Restella on the gallery, he wanted nothing to do with the Moonstone or magic, but he would be a fool not use magic as a weapon. None but Gully knew of his capabilities, so he could probably get away with lighting campfires, but what if they needed his help to carry out a mission? He’d have to learn some basic spells.

He chided himself for his continued weakness as far as the princess was concerned. This would be the last night he’d dream of Princess Restella or as his fellow soldiers called her, Captain Beecher. He slipped the book in his saddlebags and laid back. The other soldiers were all out at various establishments in Beckondale for a last fling. Lotto liked a good time as much as the next soldier, but he’d rather forego the headache when they rode out in the morning.

Gully had suggested that he get tight fitting soft leather garment to wear under his trousers. It would save him the anguish and embarrassment of the first couple of days travel. He laid it on top of his clothes so he wouldn’t forget to put it on in the morning.

Lotto figured that he had learned to fit in. The rangers weren’t much for drills but Lotto could now salute, stand at attention and could now do an about face as well as anyone. Gully said he would give all of the command training he’d need on the road. He smiled at the thought of all of the acquaintances he had made in the three weeks they’d been training.

“Lotto?”

Mander walked in and sat next to Lotto on his bunk. “Have you got your staff with you?” His mentor actually looked excited when Lotto pulled it out of its leather case. “I’ve heard you had an odd battle staff.”

‘What’s so odd about it? Someone left it behind. The blacksmith said it had been in the back for a long time.”

Mander laughed. “Indeed it has. This was General Kirrello’s personal weapon. He died one hundred and thirty years ago on the field of battle. The Oringians, again. They wore plate armor in those days and he would batter and smash his opponents with this. There’s a painting in the castle with him holding this very weapon.”

“How did he die?” Lotto was in awe as Mander told him the history of his staff.

“An arrow through his visor. Not a nice way to go, but then it might have been an instant death.” Mander shrugged. “I’m proud of you, Lotto. Pulling this out on your own. It takes a certain person to wield it, and you are that person.”

“Thanks for putting Gully and me in the rangers.”

Mander waved away the comment. “Gully will do just fine. I’ll bet he knew he’d be called back eventually.”

“He did,” Lotto said amazed at Gully’s confidence and that it was so well placed.

“Do us all proud, Lotto. There are dark forces in the world that need to be pushed back. The Red Kingdom has just fallen. Learsea and Valetan are under attack. Baronies and Dukedoms are spurning treaties and I imagine it will get much worse before it gets better.”

“Aren’t there any other allies?”

Mander snorted. “I suspect that Daryaku is working hard to suborn every kingdom and principality. He’s behind all of this, I’m sure. I told you that a Dakkoran wizard put a spell on Baron Forthwith. All of Besseth is under siege and don’t think it isn’t. Prola is where you’re headed and I think the king is under Daryaku’s influence, as well.  But he’s one among many.

“Roppon is as insular as always, a nest of bureaucratic infighting. It has the highest concentration of wizards in the world, yet all they seem to be able to do is fight amongst themselves. I doubt that they’ll be dragged into this war.”

“So Dakkor is at war with the rest of the world?” Lotto said.

That raised a half smile from Mander. “So it is, in a way.  We’ve never invaded any domain on Zarron, including Dakkor, and they’ve never attacked us in this way before.  I have no idea how it will all come out. Perhaps you’ll be at the center of it, eh, Lotto?” He slapped Lotto’s knee.

“I’m just a common soldier.”

“I would say that you are quite an uncommon soldier. Promise me that you will take care of yourself and keep me informed when you can. Use official or unofficial channels. They’ll both get to me.” Mander clapped Lotto on the shoulder and used him to get up.