Perilous Travels (The Southern Continent Series Book 2) (15 page)

“You’re telling me that the man who must sleep with his sword by his side also is a musician?” Jadie asked with feigned shock.

“He claims he is,” Casey answered.

“You just need to be at the armory tomorrow at the crack of dawn to find out,” Grange told them.

“It’s not that I don’t want to get up so early, but I just can’t wait that long,” Jadie told him.  “Can’t you play for us tonight?”

“I don’t have my flute with me,” Grange said.

“What if we go back to your home and you can play for us there?” Casey suggested.

“But what about your parties?” Grange asked, certain that the girls were not serious.

“We can stop in at Sangel’s party on the way to say hello, then walk right out,” Casey answered promptly, with Jadie in agreement.

They walked for ten minutes to reach the next party, one held in a city townhouse.  There was no music and no dancing, only numerous rooms and gardens that were filled with people engaged in conversations.  The boisterous conversations often quieted when the two visitors brought the fair-skinned Grange to join any particular group, as the members studied his unconventional appearance.  Many had heard of the Palmland delegation in general, but few had heard of Grange in particular, other than those who had been at the dance in the palace when Grange had first arrived.

He said little, and let his eyes wander among the attendees, hoping to run into Shaylee.  He twice thought he spotted her, but found out he was wrong, to his disappointment.  He missed both her and her mother.  The two women were his connection to the comfortable village he had called home for several weeks, a place that had felt like home.  And Shaylee was more than just a reminder; a piece of his heart had been left in her pocket he realized, as he longed to see her again.

When Jadie and Casey led him away from the party, the failure to see Shaylee was the only regret he felt.  The atmosphere inside the second party was more gossipy and inquisitive than the first party, in the absence of dancing and music as alternative activities

They walked through the city to reach the embassy, and Grange led them inside.

Gats greeted them at the door with a twinkle in his eye at the sight of the two women accompanying Grange.

“You have guests, my lord?” he asked.

“We are going to go upstairs so that I can play some music for them,” Grange explained.  “They don’t believe I can play the flute.”

“We’ve all enjoyed hearing your music, my lord.  I’m sure the ladies will as well,” Gats said.  “Watch the steps in the dark,” he warned, looking up at where there were only a pair of candles burning at the second floor staircase.

Grange thought momentarily about using his wizard abilities to form glowing lights, then dismissed the prospect.  The girls would only see it as showing off, he decided, or they might be intimidated.

They climbed up to the second floor, then to the third.  As they started towards the fourth floor, Jadie called out.

“Where are you taking us, to the roof?” she asked.

“Actually,” Grange grinned in the dim light, “I am going to take you to the roof.  It’s the best place in the house at night, with the stars overhead and the city spread out all around,” he told them enthusiastically.  “I sleep up there.”

The two girls stopped two steps below Grange.  “Are you serious?” Casey asked.

“I think he’s serious!” Jadie replied.

“Who goes on roofs?” Jadie asked.

“Grange does, apparently,” Casey answered.  “Does anything about him surprise you anymore?”

“Just come up and listen and have fun,” Grange said.  “It’s safe,” he reassured them.

The girls looked at each other, then stepped up the remaining steps to the third floor landing.

“Just one more floor,” Grange encouraged them, and he led them up to the top of the building, and into his room.

“Why are you all the way up here?  Just to be by the roof?” Casey asked as he held up his flute.

“Not originally,” Grange answered as he opened his windows.  “But now I wouldn’t leave because I like the roof.”

The two guests followed him as he opened the western windows, then watched as he grabbed his flute and a cover, climbed on the table and pushed the roof hatch open.  He climbed up, then pulled them up one at a time.

“Here is our concert spot tonight,” he told them as he spread the blanket, and the three of them  sat down on the material.

“The stars are prettier from up here for some reason,” Jadie decided.

Grange began to play the tune that he and Casey had danced to, the tune that had led to revealing his musical talent to her.  He looked up at the stars as he began the first bars of the song, while Jadie lay with her eyes open, looking up at the stars.  Grange played on, thinking about the courtships he had played the song for back in the small village at the end of the island chain.  The song had seemed so meaningful to those couples when he played it for them at those times.  Then, in the dance hall, it had seemed to have less purpose.  But now, alone in the darkness with just two friends, it seemed to recapture the romantic longing he associated with it.

When the song was finished, there was silence.

“That was really good,” Casey said at last.  “I didn’t believe you could play music so well.”

“Not like that,” Jadie agreed.  “It touched me, the way you played those notes at the end.

“Play us something happier,” she asked.

Grange thought for just a moment.  “Here’s a song from the land where I was raised, far away from here,” he informed them, then began the whimsical childhood song he remembered from the orphanage in Fortune.

Both girls smiled gently and nodded during the course of the song, then asked for another.  Grange was playing the third song when he heard a scuffling sound behind him.  He turned to see the cause, missing a note as he did, then saw Grace’s head peering over the top of the hatch sill.

“Grange!  Is this where you’ve been hiding?” she asked.  She said something in a low voice, and suddenly rose up several inches, before she grabbed the sill and rolled awkwardly onto the roof.

As she stood up, Astel came clambering up behind her.

“Oh, you’ve got company I see,” Grace said in surprise.  “We heard your music from down on the street as we were returning, so we came to see you.

“Are these the same girls you were with at the party?  I can’t see in the dark,” Grace commented.  She pulled her wand free and pointed it in the air, then muttered again, and a pair of small glowing lights appeared, just the type of illumination Grange had considered creating earlier, before deciding against them.

“What are those?” Casey asked in surprise, sitting upright immediately.

“Just some light.  Did you want to remain in the dark?” Grace asked.  She murmured again, and the lights faded away.  “I’m sorry, I guess Grange would have made lights for you if you wanted some,” she said.

“How did you do that?” Jadie asked in amazement.

“I’m a wizard,” Grace answered simply.

“An apprentice wizard,” Astel corrected, drawing a dirty look from Grace.

“Just like Grange,” Grace expanded.

Both Casey and Jadie looked at Grange with bewildered expressions.

“How did she do that?  Can you do that?” Jadie asked.

“We are apprentice wizards,” Grange answered carefully.  He could see alarm in the eyes of his companions.  “We have taken lessons and learned to do some things with great powers.  There aren’t many like us; it’s part of why we’re here with the ambassador, to show your queen the good things we can do.”

The two girls looked at one another, then stood up.

“It’s time for us to go,” they said in unison.

“Wait,” Grace said.  “I didn’t mean to make you leave.  Why don’t you stay here?  We can have some more music.  I sing along with Grange often.  Let us perform a couple of songs for you before you go.  We can do some of your songs, or some of our own songs,” she said sincerely.

“You’ll enjoy Grace’s voice.  She’s pretty good, really,” Grange added in hopes of keeping the girls on the roof a little longer, at least to calm their unease.  “Then, after just a couple of songs, I’ll walk you back to your homes.”

“We’ll stay for two songs,” Casey agreed.  The women sat back down on the blanket, and Astel took a seat as well, while Grace knelt next to Grange.

“How about something lighthearted from home?” she suggested.  “Would you play ‘The Chicken and the Rooster’?” she asked.

Grange grinned, played a bar of introduction, then launched into the comedic tune about the hen who sent an amorous rooster out on increasingly difficult missions to prove his love.

The small crowd laughed and clapped gently in appreciation at the end of the song, then listened as Grange and Grace played a romantic ballad from Palmland.

“You have pretty music in your land,” Casey said.  “Now, if we’re going to be able to wake up in the morning in time to practice with you, we’d better return home,” she said as she stood.

Grange helped Jadie and Casey drop down onto the table in his room, then looked at Grace and Astel.  “Thanks for visiting,” he told them, then he slid down through the hatch as well, and walked with the girls out of the embassy.

“That girl can do magic, and so can you?” Casey asked for confirmation.

“Some,” Grange agreed.  “I need to learn more,” he said, mindful of Ariana’s recent command.  “She’s supposed to teach me some more while we’re here in Kilau.”

“Is she your lover?” Jadie asked forthrightly.  “You two performed that love song pretty emotionally together.”

Grange coughed.

“We aren’t lovers.  Sometimes I’m not sure we’re friends,” he gave a strained grin.  “She’s mostly a nice girl, but we rub each other the wrong way sometimes.”

“This is my home,” Jadie said.  “Casey can spend the night here with me.

“Thank you, Grange,” she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.  “Thanks for going to the party with us, but don’t think we won’t try to beat you at the armory tomorrow!” she laughed.

Casey brushed her lips across his other cheek.  “Good night, music man,” she smiled.

Grange stood at the gate and watched the two walk to the door, then enter their home.  He smiled at their agreement to join him again in the early morning at the armory, then turned and began his own stroll back to the embassy.

He climbed up to the roof, and found Grace still there, alone, lying on her stomach on the blanket, drowsily watching him climb up through the hatch.

“Grange, I didn’t think you’d mind if I stayed up here,” she said.  “I sent Astel downstairs for the night; I said we had wizard things to discuss.”

Grange skirted around her to the empty part of the blanket and edged on the material, sitting tentatively.

“Are there wizard things to discuss?” he asked cautiously.

She rolled towards him, rolling onto her back, and she looked up at him.

“We will start working on amulets.  How does tomorrow work for you?  Will you and your harem spend the morning together?” she asked.

“What’s a harem?” Grange asked.

“It’s a group of girls who,” she stopped and sputtered.

“Who what?” Grange asked innocently.

“Will you be available to spend the afternoon working on amulets?” Grace plowed forward.

“Yes, anytime after midmorning, unless we have to perform musically,” Grange said.

“Oh, we do – Bartar said we are commanded to return to the island of the lepers.  There are apparently some miraculous improvements!” Grace exclaimed with more animation.

“Good,” Grange said in a satisfied tone.  He lay back on the blanket, his body parallel to Grace’s, his feet near her head and vice versa.  He looked up at the stars, glad to know that the lepers had benefited from the wizards’ music.  He hoped they would be able to return to normal lives.

And he hoped the palace would invite the Palmland contingent to visit for thanks, and for a chance to see Shaylee.

“I’m going to sleep now,” Grange informed Grace.  He was tired, and ready to rest; he felt the sudden weight of the activities of the long day catch up with him.

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll sleep up here too.  It is relaxing in an odd way,” Grace said with a yawn.

And so they slept together, in a manner of speaking.

Chapter 11

Grange awoke when the sun was about to break free of the horizon.  He sat up, and immediately knew he had to hurry if he wanted to practice adequately at the armory before Jadie and Casey arrived.  He left Grace still asleep on the roof, and went down two floors to her room, where he took a cool shower to clean up and to awaken himself.  He dressed in his own room, then popped his head up through the hatch.

“Grace, I’m going to go now.  Do you need help getting down?” he asked.

The girl stirred but didn’t respond.

“Grace!  Grace?” he called more loudly, and saw her eyes open.

“Do you need help getting down?  I’m leaving now,” he repeated.

She sat up, wiped drool from the corner of her mouth, and looked about, collecting her wits.

“You’re leaving now?” she asked.

“Yes.  Can I help you down?” he hoped it was the last time he’d have to ask.

She tottered over to the hatch and extended her legs down, then dropped heavily into Grange’s arms.

“Thank you,” she told him as they stood atop the table.

He removed his hands from her waist, suddenly conscious of how soft her flesh felt.

“I’ll be back mid-morning, and we can get together,” he promised, as he climbed down from the table.  He went to the doorway and looked back, to see her down in a sitting position on the edge of table, looking fetching in her sleepiness, then he left the room.

The kitchen staff told him to look for hearts of palm and lamb in the market, so he made a quick trip, found the lamb but nothing else, delivered it, then was off to the armory.

Luri had the building open, and allowed Grange to spend his time in the narrow archery range until the two girls arrived an hour later.

“Well, look at the magical, musical, swordsman,” Casey greeted him cheerfully.  “Because you didn’t ply us with vices and wickedness, we got to bed early enough to be able to get here in decent shape; you’re forewarned,” she told him.

The two of them did fence competitively with him for over an hour, before he persuaded them to joust with spears.  The weapon wasn’t their preferred one though, and they soon left him, as other members of the armory came to practice as well.

“We’ll see you this evening for parties?” Casey asked.

“I think I have to play music this afternoon,” Grange explained.  “So I better not go out tonight.”

“Will you play music for my family tomorrow?” Jadie asked.  “They don’t believe there’s a musical, magical swordsman,” she giggled.

“They’ll feed you dinner,” Casey pledged.

“If I’ll get fed, I’ll come play,” Grange agreed with a smile.

He watched the girls leave, then continued to practice, alternating between the spear and the sword, until mid-morning.

“Have you brought those things you mentioned, the bolas?” Luri reminded him.

“I will do that; I’m sorry – I forgot,” Grange apologized on his way out the door.

When he re-entered the embassy, the others from Palmland were at the breakfast table casually nibbling on their meal.

“I was telling Grace that the Queen’s steward sent a note expressing astonishment at the reports from the lepers’ island.  Apparently the palace sent a reporter to the island, and the lepers claimed to feel instantaneous improvements in their health.  You’ll be able to return there today?” Bartar asked Grange intently.  “They’ll send a larger boat, because they expect to bring a couple of the lepers back home to the palace out of exile,” he explained.  “You’ll be carried to the palace after your performance, and we’ll meet you there.”

Grange looked at Grace and grinned, pleased at the confirmation of the results of their music.   He’d been shocked by the condition of the lepers when he’d seen the horribly ravaged people during the first musical visit to the island.  Such dramatic results seemed unusual, though the wizard duo had played an unusually long concert with a great many songs.

“And of course, proof of your success with the lepers will put you in high demand elsewhere in the country.  The queen will be quite pleased, I’m sure, and we will hopefully be able to finish the treaty negotiations in just a few more weeks,” Bartar happily prognosticated.

“And then we can return to Palmland.  I feel like I’ve been away from dear Aubrey forever,” he said longingly.

Grange hungrily ate a breakfast roll as he listened to the ambassador’s exposition.

“Go get cleaned up, Grange,” Grace ordered.  “We won’t have a lot of time to spend on your lesson today apparently, so we need to get started.  You can use my shower,” she told him.

Grange lifted a handful of bacon with a grin, and ate it as he walked up the stairs to the third floor, where he passed the servants who were still not used to have one of the embassy guests living on the staff floor.  He slipped into Grace’s room and washed as quickly as he could, half afraid she would slip in on him as she seemed to unexpectedly do, then he ran upstairs and changed again.

“Here,” he was startled by a voice as he pulled his clean shirt down over his head, and he discovered Rigan the seamstress standing in the doorway, holding a new gray outfit of cloth.  “Wear this outfit for when you do magic,” the woman told him.

“How did you know I was going to practice working with the power?” Grange asked.

“I just had a feeling,” she gave a crooked smile, then left the gray clothes on the table and walked away.

“Are those new?” Grace asked when he returned to her room minutes later, wearing the gray vest, shirt, and pants he had been given.

“I just got them,” Grange admitted.

“We’re going to go work in a shed in the garden, so we can have privacy,” Grace told him, as she led him out of the room.

“The purpose of an amulet is to store power that you place in it,” she began, when they sat down at a weathered table in a small shed in the garden.  The roof provided shade, but the ends were open, allowing sunlight, the breeze, and insects to freely enter.

“A wizard prepares an amulet to either store enough energy to perform a task all by itself when needed, or the amulet can be used as a catalyst, to jump start the rapid consumption of energy to carry out a major task,” she seemed to recite something she had memorized under Brieed’s tutelage.

“An amulet may be prepared in advance to perform a specific task or duty,” Grace continued, “or it may be charged so that it may discharge for any general purpose the wizard chooses.”

“You can just put the energy in an amulet and leave it there until you need it?” Grange asked to confirm.

“Yes,” Grace said simply.

“How long will the energy stay in an amulet?” Grange asked.

“If you prepare it right, forever,” Grace answered.

“How do you make it happen?” Grange was fascinated by the concept.  He hadn’t considered what amulets did until the conversation began, but they suddenly seemed fascinating to him.

“You make the amulet,” Grace seemed to grope for words, “become a place that the energy likes to reside, so that it wants to stay in there just as you place it.

“And then you make the amulet change with your command so that the energy will leave,” she explained.

“Different materials can be prepared to store the energy for you, and some materials are better for the job than others, while some are better suited for certain types of jobs than others,” Grace told him.

“What’s the best amulet, all around?” Grange wanted to know.

Grace made the familiar move Grange had watched so many times, as her hand reached into the cleavage of her blouse and pulled forth her wand.  She laid the stick upon the table.

“A wand is really an amulet,” she told him.  “It’s an amulet that a wizard charges with the generally available power, available to do whatever task the wizard may happen to need it to do whenever the wizard decided to use it.”

“I never knew a wand was an amulet,” Grange said with bemusement.  “I just thought it was, well, I never thought about it, I guess.

“So you have to store energy in the wand?  You do that all the time?” he asked her curiously.  “When do you do it?”

“I do have to spend time recharging my wand,” she answered.  “I haven’t used it a lot here in Kilau, so I haven’t had to spend a lot of time recharging it.

“I like to do it at night, right before I go to sleep, or while I’m going to sleep,” she said.

“How do I make a wand?” Grange asked with interest.  “And how do I charge it with energy?”

“Not so fast,” Grace said deliberately.  “You need to learn about amulets first – you don’t just make a wand.

“We’ll start making an amulet for you, a practice piece.  When that’s done, then you’ll start to make a simple amulet on your own.  Then, since we’re so far away from everyone else and don’t have anyone else to help, we can try to make a wand, but I can’t promise it’ll work perfectly.  You should really wait until you’re back with Master Brieed to do that,” she advised.

“I want to start one as soon as possible, to find out what it’s like,” Grange answered.  He felt a tingle of excitement at the prospect of having a wand, of having the power that much more readily available, though it had proven to be relatively easy for him to rely upon it so far in the few instances he had tried.  There was no point in taking any chances by waiting, if he could produce a working wand as soon as possible, and have it available in the event he needed it.

“Let’s do what everyone always does for their very first amulet – we’ll make a sunstone,” Grace said.  She stood up and looked around the floor of their small cabin, then picked up a pebble and placed it in the table.

“You are going to work on making this rock store energy that will create a glow of sunlight, a glow that will last for five minutes or more,” Grace explained.  “So you are first, going to have to prepare the stone to receive and retain the energy you will put in it, then set the trigger so that it will release the power when you want it to.

“Then you are going to have to corral a portion of energy.  When you have energy present, you’ll have to condition it to cause a bright glow.  Then finally, you’ll have to direct the energy to flow into the stone,” she finished.

“When all of that is done, we’ll test your stone, and see if it works,” she summed up.

“Let’s get started,” Grange said eagerly.

“Study the stone,” Grace commanded.

Grange looked at the large pebble before him.  It was smoothed and rounded, brownish gray in color, with a few darker speckles, and about half the size of a robin’s egg.  It was a very ordinary pebble.

“Okay,” he said, sure that he had studied it thoroughly.

Her hand slapped his forehead with an unexpected blow.

“You don’t know what you’re doing.  Don’t say okay!” she admonished him.

“What am I supposed to say?” he protested.  “I studied it.  It’s a pebble.”

“What did you see in its capacity to carry energy?” she asked.

“How would I know?  That’s what you’re supposed to teach me,” he righteously rebutted her.

“If you don’t know, tell me you don’t know,” she said, but Grange was sure she was repeating the same rejoinder she had received herself at some point in her lessons.

“Call the energy forth,” she said quietly, calming down.  “Call the power and wrap it in a layer around the pebble.”

Grange had not thought about the ancient language of the power very frequently since arriving among the islands, and he needed several moments to recollect the concepts before he put his thought into words. “Ynni, os gwelwch yn dda fod yn blanced i garreg hon,” he haltingly beseeched the power.

They both watched as the small bits of glowing power subtly appeared, then coalesced around the pebble, creating a gentle blanket that enveloped the stone, tightly and uniformly smothering it on all sides.  After several long seconds of motionless light, the power faded away.

“This is a tough one,” Grace said.  “Look at how smoothly the power sat around the stone.  There was no penetration at all.  You didn’t see any places where the power naturally began to seep into the stone; than means no part of this stone was ever alive.”

“No stone was ever alive,” Grange retorted.

Grace gave him a withering look.

“Most stones have some parts that were living things.  It would have been a long, long, long, long time ago, but there was some life in something in most rocks.  A few rocks have always just been rocks though – and they’re the hardest to work with,” she picked up the pebble on the table and tossed it aside, then found another and put it on the table top spot.  “Here, try it with this one.

“If part of the rock had life at one time, it’ll be easier to see where to insert the power,” she continued, as Grange recited the request for the power to blanket the pebble.

They both watched as the glow lit up and the covering formed upon the new stone.  Then, as Grange watched, he saw a pair of tiny eddies, blemishes in the otherwise perfect coating of the pebble, as the power he had called encountered and reacted to the types of openings Grace had sought.