The Road to Magic (Book 1 of the Way of the Demon Series) (35 page)

Vereene nodded, looking at Oleg in astonishment.

‘Brilliant,’ she whispered. ‘No-one will bother to look for a murderer of criminals. A marvellous idea! Did you think it up yourself? Is that how you hunt?’

‘I read it in a book,’ Oleg replied. ‘And as for hunting, I don’t need human blood. Now, let’s get on with it.’

The Vampiress melted into the depths of the passage. Oleg, groaning, picked up the body of the young duke and, holding onto the wall, staggered out of the tower. Right by the very exit itself Outpost’s quiet whisper reached him: ‘Thank you,’ the warden-spirit rustled.

‘You’re welcome,’ Oleg mumbled in reply, took two more steps and then collapsed exhausted onto the ground. He heard the alarmed cries of the guards who’d accompanied him, the lieutenant’s ominous shout: ‘To the healer, quick!’ and then he lost consciousness once more.

***

Oleg came round to an unbearable stench. He was lying on a soft, comfortable bed, and the confident and indomitable Mead-Beard was leaning over him. The magician-healer took the phial – the source of an extremely strong smell of ammonium chloride - from under his patient’s nose and, looking somewhere above Oleg’s head, said: ‘He has come round, your Grace.’

There was a rustling of skirts and the Duchess came into Oleg’s field of vision.

‘How are you feeling, Hunter?’ Genuine concern could be heard in her voice.

Oleg did a quick inventory of his body parts and determined with amazement that he had a full count. Not only was that “count” all present, but it was in full working order, too! Admittedly, Oleg still felt a slight weakness, but it was even pleasant, somehow.

‘Not as good as I’d like to be but not as bad as I could be,’ he answered. However, they didn’t understand his humour. The Duchess looked askance at the magician, who slowly ran a light hand over his patient’s body, after which he flopped wearily into an armchair. Oleg sensed a sharp influx of energy. He at once had the urge to run somewhere, to do something… ‘All the symptoms of an energy overflow,’ he coldly ascertained in himself.

‘I could have managed fine without an energy spike, he said hurriedly. I feel great!’

‘Splendid. In that case, if Mead-Beard is also of the opinion that you have a clean bill of health, you can get dressed and have some lunch. I will wait for you in my study. We have business to complete.’ The Duchess gave a polite smile and left the room.

Oleg jumped up at once and threw on his clothes. He was absolutely starving! Just then servants came into the room carrying trays of food. The sheer quantity of victuals they were bringing would have been enough to feed Gargantua himself!

At a loss, Oleg looked over at Mead-Beard. The old magician answered him with a jaunty wink.

‘Is all this for me?’ Oleg drawled longingly, examining the endless number of dishes, plates, bowls, saucers and jugs.

‘For you, for you,’ “kind, old father” Mead-Beard nodded amiably. ‘You need to gather your strength now, eat more…’ There was a note of irony in his voice, so subtle that Oleg couldn’t for the life of him make out whether the old wizard was teasing him or was indeed genuinely concerned for his health.

Having sat down at the table, he ran his eyes over the “gourmet’s paradise” once more, and then he tumbled to it!

‘Would you perchance do me the honour of sharing this food with me?’

‘Ah, yes, that I shall, young man, that I shall. Only, don’t you worry too much about me. After all, it was you who lost a lot of blood, not me. So you go ahead and tuck in, it’ll do you good!’

Oleg sighed and, having managed to wait until Mead-Beard sat down at the table, he hurled himself at the food.

At first the only sound in the room was the clatter of spoon against plate and the crunch of munched bones. Then, when Oleg was sufficiently satisfied, he decided to slake his hunger for information, too.

‘How long was I out?’ he asked Mead-Beard.

‘The guards brought you and Kolin yesterday, soon after sunset. You were unconscious. There were no particularly serious wounds, just cuts, but they were quite long and deep so that is why you lost a lot of blood. I sealed them and then gave you some blood-creating potions and fed you with energy. Your head might spin for two or three days, then your body will regain its equilibrium and you’ll be fit as a fiddle.’

‘And how is Kolin?’ Oleg knew that everything should be alright with the young Duke as he had put the sleep spell on him, but it would have looked suspicious had he not asked.

To his surprise, Mead-Beard grew gloomy.

‘Ah, well, that one’s not so simple,’ the wizard answered evasively, causing all sorts of most unpleasant thoughts to come to Oleg’s mind.

‘What’s wrong with him? When I dragged him out of the tower he was alive and seemed OK. He was just sleeping, as though under a spell. I thought you would have already woken him.’

‘Oh, that’s fine. We didn’t even need to wake him up. Koly came round the very same night, all by himself. Now he has a problem of quite another order. You see, it seems he was genuinely in love with the she-vampire and now he’s in acute depression. I would never have thought such a thing were possible! But I hope he’ll come to his senses soon. After all, the wedding is in just two months, so he has time to calm down and accept his fate. I hope you destroyed her?’ Mead-Beard asked him with sudden concern. ‘Otherwise, don’t you know, these Supreme Vampires are terribly tenacious creations…’

‘Don’t you worry, she will never trouble you again,’ Oleg avoided giving a direct answer. ‘But what were you saying about a wedding? Is Kolin getting married? And who is the bride? After all, he’s still quite young.’

‘Why, what are you saying? He’ll soon be seventeen! It’s just the right age. As for the bride, she’s the young viscountess Nadena Borly, daughter and heir of Count Andjei Borly. A splendid partner! They have been betrothed since childhood.’

Oleg remembered a young girl he had glimpsed as he rode through the Borly estate. They’d told him she was the Count’s heir, and he had realized that he had to get out of the castle in haste. Viscountess Borly was, possibly, a splendid partner for the young duke of Bel, but no-one could call her a splendid woman, not even the most impudent and honey-tongued of flatterers. ‘Although,’ Oleg corrected himself at once, ‘That depends where. She would probably have won first place in a beauty contest on the island of Samoa where the natives think that there should be a lot of beauty, and the bigger, the better. But here…’

‘But she’ll crush him!’ Oleg let out a cry from the heart when he pictured this “splendid partner” frolicking around on Kolin’s rather slender little body.

‘Kolin has already put that argument forward, when he asked Mistress Katina to postpone the marriage,’ the old man smiled slyly into his whiskers. ‘I suspect that the Duchess’s uncompromising attitude in matters relating to the wedding has some role to play in his depression.’

Oleg wiped his lips and got up from the table.

‘Thank you very much for your pleasant and informative conversation. Would you be so kind as to tell me, how I can get to the Duchess’s study without happening by chance upon the young duke? I suspect he may be under some considerable confusion regarding my deeds, and I believe it would be better for me to avoid his company for the time being.’

‘Your reasoning is most sound, young man! Most sound! On the contrary, however - Kolin very much wants to see you, he insisted on expressing his gratitude to you. Nevertheless, I also believe it’s not a good idea for you to meet him just yet. And the Duchess’s study is situated in the northern wing of the castle, so have no fear, you will not happen across the young duke. But I would not advise you to walk in the southern wing. No, not at all.’

‘I thank you,’ Oleg bowed and, calling a servant, asked to be led to the Duchess’s study.

Katina Bel received him seated on a large velvet-covered armchair, more like a throne than a normal chair. When Oleg entered, she tore herself away from the documents on the table in front of her, and, having ordered the servant to see to it that no one disturbed them, she asked Oleg to be seated.

‘How are you feeling?’ she asked.

Slightly taken aback, Oleg replied: ‘Well, thank you.’

‘Nothing hurts?’ the Duchess continued her interrogation. ‘Your scars aren’t bothering you?’

‘Why no, everything is perfectly fine.’ Such concern for his welfare surprised Oleg.

‘Excellent. That means that I have fully met the terms of that point of our agreement. Now, moving on. Starlet, my best mare, last year’s winner of the Imperial Horse Race, is waiting for you in the stables. Should it be necessary, on your arrival in Volgrad you can look up my agent and a relay will be organized at once, to any corner of the Empire. You will not need a relay before you get to Volgrad as it is merely a short stroll for Starlet.’

Oleg whistled. It was forty versts to Volgrad, or, counting in units Oleg was familiar with, more than twenty-six miles. And that was just an easy stroll? Then this horse was indeed something out of the ordinary!

Ignoring his reaction, the Duchess opened a drawer in the table and pulled out an extremely weighty bag – its sheer size simply wouldn’t let you call it a purse.

‘There is exactly one thousand here,’ she handed it over to Oleg. ‘Please go ahead and count it.’

‘That won’t be necessary.’ Oleg had studied the customs of Trir nobility well. Had he taken it into his head to do a recount, it would have been a weighty insult. And anyway, the proud and powerful Duchess didn’t look like someone who would cheat. Not at all!

‘Excellent. And now the most important point. After your return, I got in touch with my contacts. Unfortunately, the general opinion is that it is absolutely impossible for even a most worthy Hunter to obtain nobility in the course of the next nine days. I even contacted the Emperor, but they explained to me most politely that His Majesty would not hold an unscheduled audience for the sake of one Hunter who is in a hurry.’

‘So there’s no chance, then?’ Oleg asked, trying to make his voice sound as measured as possible.

‘That is not what I said. You see, I have, so it seems, found a way to get around the law according to which one can only become a member of the nobility with the Emperor’s agreement. Moreover, you would not merely be a nobleman, but also a representative of one of the most important families of the Empire. However, you must swear not to use the privileges you would receive to harm the Bel family in general or, in particular, my son, as the sole legal heir.’

‘I swear,’ Oleg agreed. The ring on the Duchess’s finger flashed.

‘Accepted!’ the Duchess proclaimed without hiding her pleasure, after which she tugged the bell pull to call the lackey. ‘Invite the notary and the witnesses,’ she commanded.

The servant girl nodded and disappeared behind the door. A middle-aged man soon appeared in the room. Magical sparks glistened; he was apparently none other than the notary. The two others were evidently vassals of the Duchess. One of them was Andjei Dazhan whom Oleg already knew, the other was a man of thirty-five in dark clothes without any jewels or decorations, with a cold and haughty face. There followed a short ritual of introductions as a result of which Oleg found out that he had the chance to enjoy the doubtful honour of meeting the notary Mar Orletz and Baronet Olmet Kryazhan. As their acquaintance was a matter of business, and as he was already acquainted with Andjei – who also, incidentally, turned out to be a Baronet - the procedure was kept to a minimum. After a half hour of bowing and exchanging mutual pleasantries, thus assured of each other’s multilateral highest respect, they were able to move on to the heart of the matter.

‘Gentlemen,’ the Duchess said, when they had finally completed the required ceremony, ‘I would like you to witness my decision to adopt the Hunter present here, known by the name of Arioch, as my younger son with no rights of inheritance.’ She put her signature on one of the pieces of paper lying in front of them which was decorated with a large official stamp, and beckoned over the notary, who attentively looked it over before scratching his signature on it. The procedure was repeated by all those present, after which the document came to Oleg.

‘And now I would ask you to authorize new documents for Arioch of Bel, which I give to him by my rights as the head of the region, in the name of the Emperor.’ A new sheet of paper did the rounds of those present and stopped at Oleg.

‘Certificate of nobility, and titular sheet.’ Two more pieces of paper remained with Oleg after a short trip around those present.

‘Thank you, gentlemen. That will be all.’ The Duchess stood up from the table.

The “gentlemen” took the hint and after a hurried goodbye, left the study. With a long sigh, Katina sat down in her place once again.

‘And that is all, my son. Now you are not only a nobleman of the Empire but a titled individual, admittedly, without the right to inherit the family estates. Incidentally, I don’t think it would be particularly difficult for you to earn your own estate. Are you satisfied?’

‘Yes, I am most grateful,’ Oleg said. Looking at her tired face, he suddenly clearly realized what it had cost Katrina to make this decision. ‘It is much more than I had reckoned with. I promise I shall not disgrace your family.’

‘Our family. You are a Bel now, too, and don’t forget it. Never forget it!’ The Duchess’s voice gained volume and strength.

‘I promise!’

‘Well, that’s fine then,’ Madame Bel sighed, transforming from a powerful Duchess into a tired woman again. ‘And now might I know, as my maternal right,’ – and here she laughed – ‘why you so urgently needed to become a nobleman, and where it is you are hurrying off to?’

‘Why of course,
Mother.
It’s no secret. I am preparing to enter the Valensian Academy and I needed nobility only so as not to be the black sheep among the others attending that institution. After all, as far as I know, most of both the students and the professors are from the aristocracy.’

Once she’d heard this, the Duchess burst out laughing.

‘Please forgive me, but that is indeed funny. Firstly, as far as I know, and my informants have never let me down thus far, within the confines of the Academy class distinctions are strictly forbidden. And secondly, you have fallen out of the frying pan into the fire. True enough, there are not so many representatives of the lower classes, the children of farmers or artisans, in the Academy. But there are some. And as for an Imperial Prince – and that is how you should be addressed beyond the borders of the Empire; you are only a disinherited young duke within its confines – that will really be a first! It is, unfortunately, very rare for high level magical powers to appear in members of the Trir aristocracy. We are more warriors than magicians. So you cannot escape your place as a “black sheep”. If, of course, you manage to get in. There is always very high competition and strict selection criteria to get into the Academy.’