037 – Morning Chores, Meet The Queen Prepare For Dinner

The next morning, Linell, the page-girl, was in for some practice. Roxanne had acquired an old target dummy from the guards and after going through its straw for broken arrowheads used it for hitting practice. Today she was teaching Linell to properly throw a punch into an object, not just the air. The Sorceress had already had breakfast, and was puttering in her work room prior to attending court when the guard at the doors of the wing announced Her Majesty The Queen.

Rox and Linell both quickly went to the door of Roxanne’s room and stood at attention. A platoon of guards with pikes filed in and took up station along the hallway, and turned to face each other, backs to the wall. One stood beside where Rox and Linell stood. The Queen strode through the double doors that demarked this wing from the adjoining ones. By the time she had reached where Rox and Linell stood The Sorceress had exited her work room and stood at its door.

Rox watched impassively, looking over the woman who was Queen. She stood about the average height of the grown women Rox had hitherto met on this planet, being most of a foot shorter than Rox, coming up just past her shoulders. Roxanne had gathered that this particular set of monarchs did not set much store on ostentatious costuming, or putting on airs. The woman strode along, rather than paraded. She wore a simple local style gown, with a gold sash tied around her waist. Rox had learned that instead of head gear, this kingdom’s trappings were in neckwear; The Queen wore a large necklace of gold squares with precious stones set into centers. A gold and silver linked chain accented the necklace. Her black hair had the front combed back and tied at the back, holding the rest down and behind her shoulders, where it fell in waves to her mid-back. She had some powder applied to her face to even her skin tone; her features were softer than The Sorceress, but with a few more pronounced age and worry lines.

The Queen’s brown eyes looked Rox over as she walked past, taking in her light blue translucent dress and gold chains from her neck to her legs and arms, and briefly took in Linell in her proper page costume. She then put all her attention on The Sorceress. As she stepped past, Rox realized that The Queen’s hair was actually a bit of salt-and-pepper, rather than all black.

She watched as the two old friends greeted, and hugged each other. They went into the work room, and Linell took Rox’s hand and led her back to practice.

“Once she is in a room, those lining the halls are free to return to what they were doing.” Linell lined herself back up to the dummy and began to practice hitting it, making her hands red. Rox continued to teach Linell to throw a punch with either hand, and to toughen her hands. Twice during each practice session, they would pause to pick up and replace the escaped straw, and fluff the rest. Rox was pleased with Linell’s progress, and was starting to teach her to block. Shortly the time for the lesson was done and Linell returned to her Page duties.

Roxanne begun her routine for this time of the day, and went to The Sorceress’s bed chamber and began to tidy it. The Sorceress was an innately neat and orderly woman, so there was little for Rox to do, beyond air it out, sweep the floors, and chase about with a duster. Once a week the curtains on the windows and in the doorways were taken down by a staff and beaten for dust. The suites layout was a mirror for the one Roxanne inhabited.

Next door to The Sorceress’s suite was the dining room for the wing. This single room had a table in the center of the end nearest to the doors with eight chairs around it. This sat lonely in the middle of the room, with serving tables lining the walls on either side. The high ceiling of the bedrooms carried on through this room, here supported by a gothic arch with the clerestory windows above. The outer half of the room was arranged as a sitting area, with a side door into the Sorceress’s suite, and opposite a stairwell with a dumbwaiter down to the floor below.

Rox swept this room, and dusted the decorative furnishings. Various busts, two large paintings of scenes she only identified as a battle and a landscape of somewhere, and other decor. The Sorceress had promised to teach Rox how to dust and sweep by magic; this lesson scheduled for this afternoon.

Once done in here, Roxanne was to proceed into the workroom, and clean it. If it was laundry day, she was to take all the clothing to be washed, and either help or retrieve it when done. Once done with these and whatever other incidental chores, she had the rest of the morning to herself.

The Sorceress had begun putting out prepared bits of spells for Rox to memorize in her work room. During their afternoon lessons these would be explained. Rox had been learning fundamentals, how to recognize what she sensed, and what it meant. She learned how to do some basic spells, like igniting fires, or flaring them. She had also learned about using assorted languages to better control meaning, and thereby to better control the power. Then the Sorceress had introduced the ‘bits of stuff’ and the idea of things having links and resonance. The bits were used in representation of larger amounts of the same, and to help shape the spell. Drawing on her concentration skills from her martial discipline, Rox was learning these fundamentals quickly. What she was not learning was many actual full spells.

The evening would be etiquette with the stewards that brought dinner.

So far Rox had not gone into the room opposite the dinning room and next to her suite. The Sorceress never talked of it specifically. Generally she said it was storage, and not to worry about it. The door into it from her suite was locked from the other side.

Rox left the dining room, having finished her chores there. The guards still lined the hall, and muffled voices still carried from the work room, its doors still open, but the internal curtains drawn across the doorway.

Having nothing better to do, Rox went back to her suite to wait for further instructions. She left her own doors open and closed the inner curtains, and then began to pummel the dummy. She had quite literally knocked half the stuffing out of it when the curtain at her door was drawn back. She wondered after why she had not heard any movement, as opposed to most other times when the halls echoed everything.

Roxanne drew herself to attention, turning to face The Queen and The Sorceress. For the first time she actually felt the chains constrict her movement, and correct her posture to slightly more erect. She had been warned that the gold slave chains she wore, starting at a choker and going down to each of her limbs were magic, and that this sort of thing would happen in royal company, and only briefly resisted it.

The Sorceress spoke. “This, Your Majesty, is my current assistant. Her name is Roxanne. She is here until she buys herself free or her husband show up to retrieve her.”

Roxanne felt the chains move her to kneel and did so as the two women approached. Two guards from the hall moved to stand in the doorway, facing the room. The Queen was slightly shorter than The Sorceress, but both looked the same general type, full dark hair, slim figure, and a glance that missed nothing. The room was spotless except for the spilled straw.

The Queen took it all in. “Why is the dummy here?”

The Sorceress almost smirked. “Roxanne is a master hand fighter. She is using it to maintain her skills, and to teach the Page who was here earlier.”

The Queen looked impassively on Rox. “The square of the long side of a right triangle?”

Rox felt the choker at her neck stop tingling, and realized that it had started when she had first stood to attention. She answered almost immediately. “Is equal to the sum of the squares of the other sides, Your Majesty.”

“Where do you come from?”

Roxanne had to think briefly how to answer this. “Ah. . . Another world.”

The Queen waited.

Roxanne continued. “I was born in the city of San Jose; State of California, on the planet I understand is locally called Terra. Your Majesty.”

The Queen turned to The Sorceress. “Why is she here?”

The Sorceress looked at The Queen. “I do not know, nor does she. She and her children were kidnapped by agents from this world, and brought here. They sold her to a slaver, who paid her as tax to cross our boarders. Beyond this we do not yet have any more meaningful information. I do not dare scan her memory with magic, and there are no talents around to do so. She is certain from a dream she had that her husband is following after her, in company of another.”

The Queen turned back to Roxanne. “You are certain she is not a threat?”

The Sorceress answered this quickly. “I am certain she is not a threat to us. To those who took and separated her from her children, she most definitely will be.”

The Queen looked Roxanne over again, and then turned. “Carry on. I will see you in court.”

The Queen walked out, the guards falling in step with her. They turned and went out of the main doors.

The Sorceress watched her leave. Roxanne felt the magic on the chains release, and stood up and approached The Sorceress.

“My Lady, what am I to understand of this?”

The Sorceress turned briefly to Rox. “Understand that she is still worried about this treaty that is being developed and the reasons for it. Your being here is unexpected, and so she must judge whether you are a threat or innocent interloper. To that end, a tailor is going to be sent for, and you will attend the state dinner this evening.”

Roxanne nodded. “Yes, My Lady.”

The Sorceress started to leave. But Roxanne stopped her.

“My Lady, what do you mean by ‘a talent’?”

“One who has the ability to read a persons mind and memories. Their individual abilities are varied, so no other specific title can be applied. The closest community is several weeks travel to the north east. They keep to themselves, mostly. The previous King had one as a retainer, but the man left when that King died.”

The Sorceress’s tone ended that conversation, and she left to get her necklaces for wearing in court.

The Tailor showed up shortly and Rox spent the rest of the day standing on or by the dressing pedestal as a formal dress was built around her. To her mild surprise, the slave chains were to continue as part of her formal costume.

Roxanne finished with the tailor as two formally uniformed guards came to retrieve her and The Sorceress. The Sorceress had returned to her suite in the late afternoon, and several Pages accompanied her.

Roxanne’s costume for this dinner had a translucent strapless shift under all, with a petticoat around her waist. There was no collar to anything she wore with this costume. The flounce was worked over several times to get it right. Then another petticoat was put on. Due to her comparative height new pieces had to be cut and sewn, instead of adjusting existing pieces. One thing Roxanne noticed was that the sides were slit up just short of her waist. A corset was constructed; this required that several seamstresses be sent for to accomplish the required sewing. Padding was added to the bust to fill out what Rox lacked naturally.

In a spare moment, two stewards washed Roxanne’s now completely platinum hair, and quickly set her mohawk up and tied the sides into two braids that went behind her shoulders. By now Rox’s mohawk stood up, mostly on its own, a hands span tall from her bangs around the back of her head. The sides hung past her shoulders. Roxanne had considered shaving the sides, but had not yet come to a conclusion. Gold squares about an inch to a side were attached into the bottom of the braids on each side. Another steward quickly and expertly applied a layer of light colored powder to her face and left that as all the makeup she got.

The dress was of a deep blue color, and feltto Rox like silk. Roxanne was not much of one for dances or formals, so she lacked the vocabulary to really describe the cut and style of the dress. Its top settled around her chest with close cut sleeves over just her shoulders, and a sash around her waist, and some pleats in the skirt. A translucent vest billowed as she walked.

038 – Formally On Display

The Sorceress joined the procession as it started out of the suite. She wore a dark green gown with her full set of regalia, demarking her station. Rox had seen her wearing this necklace and collar set once, but had been forbidden to do anything about helping with it. They marched to a formal dining room, flanked by a quad of guards.

The walls of the room were the same color white to light grey as the rest of the stone that the palace was either carved or constructed from. The columns rose up to vaulted arches supporting the roof, four stories up. Every third column all the way around the perimeter had a medium sized fireplace within, half with fires in tonight. From the entrance, the room was longer than it was wide; with stained glass windows on the three sides the doors were not on. The room had several straight tables at the far end, and the same number of round tables at the close end. Stewards’ tables lined the outer edge, with stair wells going down between the walls and the tables.

Several people were already sitting at several tables with the stewards bringing up food from below. Roxanne was escorted to a round table and instructed to sit. The Sorceress was escorted to a seat at one of the straight tables. The Court began to arrive. As The King and Queen arrived, everyone stood. They were shortly followed by the Ambassadors from each of the southern countries. As the various ministers and guests arrived they were announced, and shown to seats, but otherwise the conversations continued. Assorted Traders and Merchants from the local communities and other countries were seated at the table where Roxanne was.

As the dinner progressed Roxanne felt herself under scrutiny. These merchants were interested in her origin and antecedents, in a polite manor, but once they realized that she was a slave in the palace, and of no real possibility of selling or buying large quantities, they dismissed her from the conversation. Roxanne listened carefully; most of the conversation was about buying and selling. A third of the guests were local. The other two thirds were divided between the two southern kingdoms. They mostly talked of trafficking in the local silks, foodstuffs, and salt.

Roxanne would later be told that she was watched by the guards to see if she recognized any of the people there, or if they recognize her. The conclusion reached after consideration what that Roxanne only knows those she has met, and none of those here appear to recognize her. Either she was a very good spy, unknown to any of those here, or totally honest in being from elsewhere and not involved.

Once the dinner was done, Roxanne was approached by a steward and quietly told that she was dismissed and to return to her suite. Rox glanced briefly at where the Sorceress sat in conversation, and then stood and excused herself, and was escorted down the closest stairwell. Linell waited down in this kitchen area, and guided Roxanne back to her suite. Linell then helped Rox undress from the formal gown and hang it on a dummy that had been left by the tailor. Roxanne then got to wait. Linell departed to go off duty.

The Sorceress came back late and simply sent Rox to bed.

*          *          *

The second day out of the native village Abey felt good enough to remove the sling. The Healer’s magic had repaired her broken bone and torn up muscle, generally, but she had to be careful to get it back to full strength, and not over stress her shoulder too quickly. She would keep the scars on her left collar and shoulder from the mauling she took, as well as the light scratches on her back. But with the salve the healer had given, she was healing quickly. She applied it apparently at need, and had a little bag of it that she drew from.

As they tracked across the highlands to the mountains, Abey and Steven decided that hunting and keeping the pelts might be a good way to earn some keep. At their insistence, Caspian went with them off the main road Abey had brought then along, and back onto the game trails. In this instance, these were a bit out of the way, where prior Caspian had been following them as the shortest path. Abey soon proved as good with her sling as Steven did with his crossbow. Abey drew the main duty of tanning the hides, as Caspian had no knowledge of how and Steven was ages out of practice. Their little bundle of hides soon began to grow. The ghillie suits were abandoned incomplete, as they were deemed too impractical.

*          *          *

The next morning, Linell woke Rox with instruction to help her bathe and dress. Rox was to attend court, as The Sorceress’s assistant. The Tailors returned while Rox bathed in the cold water and quickly made a set of formal outfits for Rox to wear. These were essentially the same as the Sorceress’s costumes, but in a light blue color instead of the green the Sorceress wore. Roxanne sat in a chair off the side of the dais behind the Sorceress. Mostly she just got to sit and watch.

One thing that Rox watched with some interest was the interaction of The King and Queen, and The Sorceress. Mostly The Sorceress sat aside and watched herself, speaking only when spoken to. The King plowed through issues quickly, passing some things to The Queen to handle and pass a decision, and plowing through others himself. The ministers came and went according to the business they had to do. Rox noticed that there was a pair of guards who sat and watched her, and only her. The King quickly moved through the other mostly domestic business, and then called in the Ambassadors to discuss the trade treaty. Roxanne listened, grasping only the general principles, but was quickly out of her depth for particulars. After a few moments, she only paid polite attention. They stopped the discussion for lunch; one of the guards who watched Rox spoke briefly to The Queen, who in turn spoke briefly to the Sorceress. Just before lunch was brought in Roxanne was dismissed from Court, and escorted from the office wing, then left to get back to her suite on her own.

Roxanne returned to her suite, changed clothes, and set about her chores. Just before dinner a procession arrived. The Queen and The Sorceress were escorted by eight guards. Once the women were within the suite, two guards turned aside to stand in the corners of the hall and the rest departed, closing the doors to the suite.

Roxanne stood at attention in the doorway of her room. The Sorceress looked at her, smiled, spoke a word and waved her hand. Rox felt the magic in the chains and their bands on her arms and legs dissipate.

The Queen relaxed. “You have leave to speak and act freely.”

Rox looked at the women. “Are you joining us for dinner?”

The three women sat at the table chattering as friends do. The guards stood at the corners of the room, flanking the doors. The stewards came up the stairway and served the women, and also gave some to the guards. Roxanne sat and watched old friends talk as only old friends do. Roxanne had again explained and told her story, this time to The Queen.

“Did you see their livery or symbols?” The Queen had a keen interest in the kidnappers.

Roxanne had to shake her head. “No. If I did, I do not remember. I spent most of my time with them half awake, or less.”

“I am left to wonder who it was. That circle has attracted travelers of all kinds. The Kings of the kingdoms around it have long since stopped trying to manage what there is of that.” The Queen evidently knew more about that circle than Roxanne would have guessed.

Roxanne paused, letting The Queen control the conversation.

“I suppose I have to apologize. My husband included your arrival in his correspondence to me while I was out of the palace. He was concerned by the timing of your arrival that you might be a spy. It was easy enough to leave you in the charge of The Sorceress until I could return. We needed to see if you knew or were known by any of our . . . neighbors. We brought you to the dinner last night and to court this morning to test their reaction to you and your reaction to them. Had you recognized them, or they reacted to you, there might have been more reason to be concerned. Now, we see that you are most likely not known, or a good actor. Besides you were dismissed before we got to the real meat of the issues.”

Rox considered this. “I accept your apology.”

The dinner the rest of the evening drifted to other conversation topics. The one Rox wanted to ask about was never brought up.

Several days later The Sorceress shared breakfast with Roxanne. The treaty had been signed the night before. As the conversation continued, Rox looked for an opening to ask about the one issue that did interest her.

The Sorceress was quietly amused and slightly embarrassed. “The Queen has been home for about a week. In that time, The King granted a dismissal to his last harem-girl. The Queen has insisted on his time, and his bed. I have not mentioned it to you, but I wrote to The Queen once I had the church lined up.”

The Sorceress looked around conspiratorially. “I have realized she had been going into The King on her own over the years, and she was gratified at the idea of having him all to herself again, if even for a little while, as he might think for now.”

That afternoon The Sorceress took Rox into the city. They went shopping and on other personal errands. Rox learned that her gold slave chains actually had a significant social status, as she was from the Palace complex. As they went, the Sorceress mentioned for the first time that Roxanne had a bit of funds at her disposal. This surprised Roxanne, but she did not have much need to spend just now. Rather to save it to buy her own freedom.

039 – Pactical Magic And Fight Training

Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 38

At last, a high mountain range. Got to watch for late season avalanches.

Rox entered the work room to clean it, and found bits of cord and string laid out on the work table, arranged by size. Yesterday had been an extensive conversation on what The Sorceress called resonance. Part of the summary was that material things had a kind of memory about them that magic could use; for instance small bits could be used to magically emulate the effects of having and using the whole, spells could be transmitted from one bit of a broken thing to another bit of that broken thing. A previous lesson was that many times small bits of stuff were used to focus the mind, and better organize the energy of the magic. Rox guessed that today would be a drill on using the bits of cord to magically emulate the whole cord, or to put magic on one part and pass it to another.

As Roxanne swept the room, she came back to the dressing mirror under the silk cover. The Sorceress had essentially confirmed that, while being itself magically inert, the mirror was used in some of her spells from time to time, including looking at things a distance away. She had yet to teach Rox how to do this.

Rox wanted to try to see Diana and Alex with it, as well as Steven. But still did not yet know if she knew how to do so. She felt that she began to understand feeling the energy, ‘mana’ The Sorceress called it. Then forming the idea in her head, clearly, of what she wanted to have happen. The problem she kept encountering was that she kept jumping over intermediate steps to the conclusion. The Sorceress was trying to teach her all the intermediate steps, and the why's, not just the how's. So the desire to see had to wait.

A secondary issue in the lessons had to do with The Sorceress herself. Her specialties and perceptions were focused in energy. She always in every lesson stressed control of energy, which for her was easy from practice, and also a necessity. For Rox, this was more a lesson in focus and management. In the theory lessons, The Sorceress had mentioned that a disciplined practitioner could both control the flow in their own use, but also the control of others flows of energy. One could control the direction and volume and block this flow. This could be used to dispel spells, or patterns of energy, or to create spells, or patterns of energy. These patterns ranged from destructive, through neutral, to empowering.

After lunch, The Sorceress came and began first by drilling Rox on the types of cord she had. Each was made of a different fiber, and good for specific things. This Rox already knew, if only innately from growing up, and what Steven had taught in their time together. As expected, they drilled both on using the bits to emulate the whole, and on using the bits to pass energy on to the other parts.

But this part of the lesson went quickly, and then The Sorceress went into an explanation of what the cord bits could be used for, as ingredients of more complex spells.

She then had Rox collect a few ingredients from prior lessons.

“Now, hold them in your hand. What are they and what are they for?” The Sorceress had moved Rox to the middle of the room.

Rox looked at the bits. “Fine fiber cord, elastic, good for climbing. A small metal hook, good for securing things. A bit of resin, good for making things sticky. A bit of thread, good for binding things together.”

“Good. Now look up. See the ring. That is your target.” The Sorceress pointed at a ring secured to the keystone of the vaulted arch two stories above them in the center of the room.

“Now, pull together the mana; using the objects and ideas about them create a climbing line: a grapnel at the end, the cord secured to it and tied closed by the thread, and tacky enough to hold onto via the resin.”

Rox concentrated chanting quietly in the language she spoke with The Sorceress instead of English, she gathered energy, feeling it flow as a trickle of tingling through her, and focus and swirl around in her hand, going through and organizing in the four things in her hand. She had a question, and almost lost her concentration. “Do I need to physically toss it?”

“Only if it helps to actualize in your mind. Otherwise you just need to shape it as there with your mind. Let it draw as much mana as it needs, don’t try to force it, just be a conduit.” The Sorceress stood face to face with Rox.

Rox focused, felt a flow of mana-energy through her, and there the line was, large enough to comfortably wrap her hand around, hanging in front of her from a hook in the ceiling. It glowed slightly, and tingled in her growing sense of magic. She noticed that the thread, resin and cord were gone from her hand, but the hook remained.

“Now, climb it.” The Sorceress backed off, giving Roxanne room.

Rox dropped the hook as she took the rope in hand, and felt a tingle rather than the rough surface of a fibrous rope. A rational part of her mind was telling her that this was impossible. But over the last weeks that part of her mind had increasingly been put to silence. Rox took the rope in both hands, and pulled her feet off the ground, then pinched the rope between her feet, and reached up to pull again. As she went to release her second hand, to start up in earnest, Rox felt her concentration slip, the energy of the rope dissipate and she fell a short distance to land on her feet, and collapse to sitting, hard. Her back hurt briefly from landing on the stone floor.

The Sorceress gave Rox a moment to collect herself then asked “What happened?”

Rox got to her feet. “I am not sure. I started to climb, and then the spell dissipated.”

“Were you concentrating on the spell, or on climbing?”

Rox thought a moment. “Climbing, my lady.”

The Sorceress nodded, remembering her own struggles in school. “That is why you fell. You let go of the spell and it ceased.”

Rox rubbed her rump, aching slightly where she had landed hard.

The Sorceress moved back to the table, trying to decide what to do next. “You needn’t worry to hard yet. This is a lesson that I had to go through several times as a school girl, before I was good enough at dividing my attention to keep a spell going and do something else. Like juggling, eventually it gets to be natural.”

Rox picked up the hook from the floor. “How high did you get?”

“The first time I did it, I did not even get to where I could fall. It took a month of practice before I could get my own height off the ground and keep the spell going. After that, I got to the bell the instructor had set up. There was one girl in class who realized she was afraid of heights, and broke her leg falling from that high after getting up there.”

Rox put the hook on the table. “My lady, where did the cord, thread, and resin go?”

The Sorceress “You noticed. Good. Most un-living organic stuff disintegrates as a spell is cast through it. The best theory is that it looses it physical cohesion as its pattern is put into the spell. Metals and most rocks don’t. It is figured it has to do with the way the matter is organized in it, and that stone and metal was never alive.”

Rox though about this. “Metal is essentially a crystal; I suppose stone is similar, whereas the organic stuff is a cellular arrangement. I guess that if something is alive, it has energy to draw on to maintain its form? So while the cellular stuff can be rearranged by life, metals and stones are not rearranged thus. So the magic disintegrates the organic in copying its pattern, but not the inorganic.”

The Sorceress nodded. “That is the theory.”

Roxanne turned and leaned against the table. “You have taught me a bunch of fundamentals, how to do a handful of house keeping spells. I cobbled together a spell on that jar that reassembled it to its base, wherever the bulk of it was, though that has dissipated. I just climbed half my height up a magic rope. What else do I need to know to use that mirror?”

The Sorceress turned to face the mirror, under its cover, putting aside the other idea that was not forming despite her efforts. “You want to see your kids.”

”And if possible, my husband.” Rox almost stepped toward the mirror.

The Sorceress thought for a moment. ”The spell I have just taught you, about the rope, is a second year student’s spell. Using the mirror is something that many adults can’t do correctly. But you are determined. How much do you know about light?”

Rox sensed meaning more than the surface in this question. “Insofar as its interaction or governing by magic, I can’t say that I know anything.”

The Sorceress smiled. “Admitting your ignorance is always a good start. I do not have the spells to use it as you wish memorized. It will take me some time to find where I have them written. Tomorrow, after your chores, you may look through my index…”

Rox interrupted. “My lady, I have not been taught your script. While I can read and write in my own language, I cannot in yours.” Rox felt her own hopes smothered as she said this.

The Sorceress, unused to being interrupted watched as Roxanne slumped. She started again. “Perhaps so, but if I write out the characters surely you can compare them.”

The Sorceress watched Roxanne perk up a bit, at this. “Now, about light…”

The lesson went on for a while, and Roxanne learned several new ideas, and a few old ones that she had always considered to be preposterous or new age mumbo-jumbo.

*          *          *

Caspian, Steven, and Abey hunted their way through the mountains, keeping as many pelts as they could. Steven lost three bolts, but managed to take down and harvest the local equivalent of a deer. This had required making a larger frame to stretch the hide on, and a travois to carry the usable meat. This was all a bit awkward to carry. As they crossed the highest pass of the range they encountered snow, and a brief spring snow storm. This only caused discomfort rather than actual hindrance. When it was time to camp Steven and Caspian would build a lean-to and all three would huddle under it keeping each other warm in their blankets and accumulated scrub.

They descended into the foot hills and the farms, and warmer climate, a bit dirty from their traveling. They kept the pelts and other usable pieces of what they harvested to have something to sell. After a day of travel past the farms, and small villages, they approached the outer walls of a city.

*          *          *

When Linell next showed up for her lesson, she had a black eye, and favored her right foot. Rox took her to task for this.

“Well, there are a few bullies in the older pages.” Linell acted like all children telling something that she was afraid she was going to be in trouble for.

Rox stood with her fists at her hips, waiting. “And?”

Linell tried to melt into the floor. “At lunch yesterday, one of the older ones tried to bully one of the younger ones.”

Rox waited patiently. Linell did not want to say more.

“Don’t the Guards or people in charge of the Pages, or other stewards move to stop this?” Rox asked, not knowing anything about how this might be handled, or even where the Pages took lunch.

Linell shook her head. “No, in some cases the bully’s are recruited by the army, or navy. Others simply graduate from the pages and go home, as we all will when old enough.”

“So how did you get a black eye?” Rox asked patiently, practicing the patience she had learned dealing with her own children.

But Linell did not want to tell.

“Were you the bully?”

Linell moved her head in what Rox had come to recognize as the negative answer. “No. the bully tripped my little brother, so I stood up and slugged him. The bully’s friend hit me then, knocking me into the table. I got back up and kicked him. Then the Page Master came and had to pull me off him. I was told that if I get in another fight, I will be sent home.”

Tears were starting to well in the girls eyes.

Rox put her hands down and knelt, to look at the girl closer to eye level, and wrapped her in a hug. The girl went formally stiff, and Rox let go, and let the girl move back to arm’s length.

“What happened to the bullies?” Rox let go of the girl, who seemed more comfortable standing in front of her.

“The one that I kicked had to go see a healer. The other just got up and was told to leave me and my brother alone.” Linell seemed a bit more relaxed, since Rox was not trying to punish.

Rox looked at Linell. “So, do you want to learn how to block punches, so that you don’t get hit in the face again?”

Linell had sore forearms when she left.

040 – Local Bullies

Late that morning after completing her chores, Rox paged through one bound volume of The Sorceress’s books, looking for a set of characters that matched a set on a piece of paper that had been left for her. Rox recognized it as an alphabet instead of pictograms, and thought this was very helpful. That The Sorceress had said her index was chronological instead of alphabetic was not. After an hour of looking, she finally found the set of characters, and set the book aside, slipping the paper into its pages with the end sticking out. Rox left the work room, to prepair for lunch.

As she walked the hall, Linell was dragged into the wing by the Page Master, as the stewards showed up for lunch.

He was an average sized man, of no build whatsoever. Rox was glad no one here seamed to know what a comb-over was, or this man might have one over the top of his bald head. She was annoyed that he seemed to look straight ahead at her breasts as he spoke at her. He kept one hand fastened around Linell’s wrist.

“Linell tells me you are teaching her to fight.” His higher pitched voice fit Rox’s already formed stereotype of the man. He reminded her of Diana’s math teacher

Rox smiled. “Yes, I am. Where I am from I teach this to many children her age.”

“Do you teach then to pick fights and start brawls?” His clipped tone amused Rox.

“No. I teach then to avoid them when they can; win them when they can’t; and stand up to the bully while protecting the less able.” Rox kept herself as conversational as she could.

She looked at Linell. Her knuckles on her hands were raw, and one was bleeding. She had food smeared on her uniform, and some in her hair.

“Has Linell been in another fight? Was it the same bully or some of his thug cronies?”

The Page Master tried to puff himself up, the volume of his voice rising as well. “None of My Pages are thugs.”

Roxanne did not know the full power structure or arrangement of things in this palace. Nor did she really know how much trouble she was or was not causing by teaching Linell. But she did know that bullies were a fact of life, in whatever form, and that she would always stand up to them, and help others to do the same.

“Of course not. Children are never that way, unless taught to be aggressive, are they?”

He started to get more upset. “That is not your concern, or the issue. You will stop teaching Linell how to beat up on the others.”

“She is not teaching Linell to beat up on the other Pages.” A new voice did the equivalent of throwing a bucket of ice water on the Page Master. He turned suddenly.

Roxanne turned to the doors of the wing. The Sorceress stood there flanked by two of the Palace guard.

“My Lady.” Rox said in greeting.

The Sorceress strode forward with four other pages, all young boys, in tow behind her.

“Mistress Harem,” the Page Master squeaked out, surprised to see her here.

The Sorceress strode forward. “Master Page.”

Rox realized that The Sorceress was taller than the man.

The Sorceress looked Linell over, as she stopped, placing the Page Master in the middle between herself and Rox. Linell smiled the uncomfortable smile of one hoping a champion has just arrived.

“Master Page, you wish for my apprentice to stop teaching young Linell to defend herself from bullies?” Her tones were of one asking a simple question to a child.

“Yes. This girl had been in two brawls in as many days and …”

The Sorceress interrupted him. “Did she win?”

“Two other pages have needed healing…”

“Did she start these fights, or were they in response to bullying?”

“As far as I am concerned, she started them, and now…”

“I see.” She stopped his rant before it could get up steam. “And your side of the story, young lady?” The Sorceress looked at Linell, dismissing the Page Master to silence.

“Three of Toby’s friends tried to attack me with their lunch plates. I kicked one in the knee, then slugged the next, and hit the third in the face.” Linell slightly smiled.

The Sorceress stood slightly taller. “Master Page, this is not the first complaint against Toby that has come to our attention. Does this need further attention from The Court, or will you be dismissing him yourself?”

The Page Master stuck his lower lip out in frustration, and clenched his jaw. Then finally he spat out some words.

“As you wish.” He started to stomp out, dragging Linell roughly.

The Sorceress stopped the Page Master with her voice again. “Master Page, Linell stays. There is need of her here, now.”

He threw her wrist out of his grip and stomped away. The four pages behind the Sorceress scattered out of his way. The Sorceress turned a stern eye on them.

“Not one word of gossip, or I will have it out of your hides, boys.”

They all looked at her smiling. Collective “Yes, Ma’am’s” were followed by the four young pages scattering into the palace.

The Sorceress took a breath and blew it out. “I’m going to hear about this later.”

She took Linell in tow. “Apprentice, let's get this young lady patched up and fed.”

Roxanne performed some healing magic on Linell, under The Sorceress’s guidance. The Sorceress turned this into a lesson on healing magic. Her hand was closed up with the two dislocated fingers reset. The black eye was accelerated in its healing, as was her bruised foot.

Linell joined them for lunch, and was as formal as The Sorceress in her manors. As they talked over lunch, it came out that Toby was the Page Master’s nephew, and had become a careless trouble maker who had been shielded by the Master. As for the three cronies, two could be reformed once Toby was away, and the third was wanted by the Army.

*          *          *

Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 41

Finally, some proof we are going the right way.

On entering the city the three first took their hides and leftover meat to the proper merchants and sold them for a tidy sum. After cleaning up in a public bath, they decided to split up and do their shopping separately. Abey went after food and other provisions. Caspian would take Steven and show him some better quality weapons, also more expensive. Also to see whether there was anything else for him to change out of his costume.

At one stall Steven found a weapon smith, and a larger crossbow. After some bartering and haggling Steven was able to trade up to the better crossbow. This one was closer to a size that fit Steven’s frame.

As Steven walked away, he realized that the purse he had carried on his belt was now missing. A quarter of his local money was gone that fast. Steven quickly shook himself briefly, taking stock of the weights in his coat and on his back, then turned and stepped to Caspian at another booth, in irritation. Steven stopped and stood by Caspian.

“I’ve just been robbed. My purse is gone.” Steven kept his tone as conversational as he could.

Caspian nodded. “Right, lets get out of the way and check over the rest to see if anything else is.”

The two men moved through the throng and into a café, then around the side of the porch between buildings. Steven put his crossbow onto the table, and then he unbuckled his backpack straps and swung it off. Next was his coat. Steven looked through the bag, and nothing was missing. Then he went through the coat, and there was nothing missing from it. He patted his belt down and nothing else was missing.

“Anything besides the one purse missing?” Caspian looked around, and did his best to block out prying eyes.

“No. Just the one purse. All the rest is still here.” Steven picked the coat back up and put it on, and settled it. Then he put the bag back on, and settled it.

“Well, teach me to leave my money visible,” Steven remarked dryly, as he shouldered his new crossbow.

They walked out into the street, and continued their shopping. A light misty rain swept past, as the afternoon moved on. Caspian and Steven were in a minor hurry to meet Abey at the town gate. She had volunteered to get the food, as she found Caspian’s cooking passable, and Steven’s just too rough.

As they crossed a market, they passed a few wagons, with a cage attached to one. Caspian just kept going past the group. Steven glanced, and almost came to a stop, staring at the locked cage with five naked people. He took a few steps farther and saw some rings and other things on a merchandise table. One of the rings glinted and caught his eye, causing a double take. He stopped, and took a closer look. The two platinum bands, one with a medium sized diamond set low into the band, the other matching snug against it.

“Wait a moment,” Steven muttered.

A man stepped up to Steven’s side, as he picked up the rings and turned them over. There was that one rub mark…

“Can I help you?” the voice from his left said.

Steven turned to face a well dressed man. He was about Steven’s comparative build and almost his height, with thick dark hair graying at the roots, and tied into a tail. On his belt he had a small purse, a ring of keys, and a knife. Steven quickly understood what this man’s employ was, and found himself offended by this man, and the idea of a slave trade.

Caspian stopped short, realizing that Steven had stopped. He turned around as his magic senses blazed telling him something important was about to happen. They rarely did this: Caspian’s talents were more of the artistic and technical magic’s; he could sense when things had been used for magic, or been the target of it; people casting magic within a certain scope of distance always got his attention, and so forth. Precognition and its related fields were not usually in his scope, though like all practitioners, he was subject to particularly strong happenings. This was one.

Caspian approached and reappraised the arrangement of the situation. The trader had three carts in a row; the one on the far left as they were faced had the slave pen attached to it. On the other end was one with a merchandise table. Caspian guessed that, as he had not seen any other slavers in this city, this must be the only slaver in the area. Therefore this was the most likely person for the bad guys to have sold Roxanne to, had that been the actual disposition of her.

Steven had some rings in his hand looking them over then looked up, as a man of reasonable size with a salt-and-pepper ponytail and mustache, and rough looks, stood to his left.

“Yes.” Steven held the rings out in his palm. “Where did you get this?”

“Why do you ask?” He moved to take it back, but Steven closed his hand to prevent this.

“Because it is my wife’s wedding ring.”

Caspian took hold of Steven’s arm, and turned him from the merchant, to face him. Caspian addressed Steven in English. “Give me the rings. I will take care of this. Get out of here.”

“But,” Steven started to protest.

“But nothing. You will cause a scene we don’t need. Trust me. Give me the rings.” Caspian held his hand out, still holding Steven’s arm with the other. He spoke evenly, but his countenance had visibly hardened. Cyrril had reared up from his lounging, and fanned his wings a bit, hissing in agitation.

Steven looked at Caspian, and back at the merchant. Then put the rings in Caspian’s hand and scowled. “I want these back where they belong.”

Steven stalked away, carrying a cloud of anger with him.

Caspian put the rings down on the board with the rest, and Cyrril dropped down to crouch on the board and held on to the rings.

Caspian waited for Steven to be out of earshot. He then turned to the merchant.

“How much for the rings?”

The merchant’s eyes twinkled a moment, as he sized up Caspian and also Steven’s reaction. “How much are you willing to pay?”

Caspian glanced briefly around again. Then lunged at the man, grasped him under his jaw with his left hand, and pinned him against his cart, his toes off the ground. The man’s hands went to Caspian’s hand, trying to pry it loose. Caspian finished his muttering of a spell feeling energy flow from his staff, and across the man as he spoke.

“I will pay you your life, your livelihood, and fair market value for the set of rings. Is that agreeable?”

The man pried at Caspian’s hand a bit more, gurgling a bit, so Caspian thumped him against the cart once.

“I asked if that was agreeable!”

The man looked like he wanted to snarl a bit, but couldn’t say anything. Caspian knew that he had not yet won the bargain so he continued to hold the man.

“I can keep this up for some time. All you need to do is say ‘yes’.” Caspian’s staff turned to point under his left arm at the man’s wife who was approaching from around the wagon.

--Stand there, ma’am. And be silent-- Caspian said this in Elfish. Then changed back to the local language. “Your husband and I are bargaining.”

She froze in her tracks, unsure of the situation, but wanting to help her husband. However, she found that she could not use her legs, or her mouth.

Caspian turned back to the man. “What is fair market value of that set of rings?”

The man struggled a bit, and then seemed to give in. “Fifteen in gold.” He still tried to pry at Caspian’s hand to no avail. But Caspian was not trying to choke him. Just hold him there.

“All right. I will give you sixteen in gold for the rings.”

At that, Cyrril took the two rings, and flew away.

“Now. Tell me what you did with the woman you took them from.”

The man gurgled a bit more, as he tried to get Caspian to let go.

“It’s no use trying to lie, or get me to let go. Just tell me what I want, and I will be on my way.”

“There have been several women.”

“Yes. But you would remember this one. She would be very tall, and slender. Almost half-elven in features and frame. About four or five weeks ago.”

The man struggled a bit within himself. Caspian noticed his wife thinking a bit, and then nodding at her husband. The man spoke again, sounding a bit strained at having a hand at his throat. “She was given in tax. To cross the boarder.”

Caspian plopped the man down to his feet, and let go, and stood his staff up, releasing the woman.

“Thank you.” He then reached into his purse, and pulled out a handful of gold coins. He counted and dropped these into the board that the rings and trinkets were on.

“Eighteen, for your services.” Caspian then walked away as casually quick as he could.

048 – Decide What You Are Going To Do

Roxanne heard a sound she had not heard before. She stopped her sweeping of the dining room and went out to the guards who stood at the doors to the wing. She got to the doors as they pulled the first closed.

“What is happening?”

The guards who stood here were never the same ones twice. As such Rox had never learned their names, having only seen a handful a second time. Nor could she remember the exact names of the ranks. After having them described, Rox thought of them as a corporal and a sergeant; the pair was never coed, though the men and women traded days they stood guard. The corporal was unlocking the door from its clip that held it open and starting to pull it as the sergeant stopped to deal with Rox.

“A battle alert. We are to close and lock the doors and report to our superiors. Either stay in or get out, but the doors are closing.” The sergeant then gave the corporal a hand pulling the door closed.

Rox stepped out into the hall and thought quickly whether there was anything she would need, and decided there was not. The sergeant closed the door with a boom and then turned a handle locking it, and the two took their pole arms and dashed off. Rox saw that she was alone for a moment, when several bass thuds echoed through the structure, rattling the windows.

“That was not normal.” Rox had been through a few mild earth tremors here and knew that this was different. She knew that under normal circumstances The Sorceress was in the throne room at this time, so Rox started in that direction. Rox walked quickly, thinking both how to get to the throne room, and what she would do once she got there, her mind racing ahead of her feet. Into the closest hub of the structure, down two levels, along to the business wing where the winged statues were. Keep going forward, and there was a party of guards at the bottom of the stairs in a fight. With a handful of guys in dark outfits.

The bright blue and polished steel of the guards was easy to tell from the black of the interlopers. Rox’s train of thought derailed and then turned to fight or flight. Never one to flee, Rox looked the situation over deciding how she might help. The groups were currently one on one. Rox crept down the stairs as a guard backed a man in her direction, the guard’s pole arm against the attacker’s long sword and buckler.

Rox wished she had a stick. Then the guard caused the attacker to dodge against the stairs, right beside Rox. She grabbed the man by his tunic, and pulled him over the railing and palm-struck him under his ear, knocking him senseless. She let him go to tumble down two stairs. The guard held his pole arm at ready, pointing at Rox.

Rox pointed past the guard. “Behind you.”

The guard struck with a sweep of his pole arm, and turned to rejoin the fight.

Rox looked the man at her knees over, and saw he had a length of cord on his belt. Rox pushed his sword away, and then pulled his arms behind him, and quickly looped the cord around them, and then added one leg at the ankle as an after thought. She stepped over the bound man and down to the floor at this level.

This was the floor she wanted to be on. So she started toward the hall she wanted, skirting around the melee finishing on the middle of the area. The guards were busy cleaning up the last two attackers, as four more guards showed up to help, beginning with getting the wounded bluecoats out of the way. One of the guards challenged Rox with his pole arm at the ready as she started to the hall to the business wing.

“Where are you going?” The female guard did not waver in her challenge.

Rox stopped. “I am looking for My Lady, The Sorceress, to offer her my assistance.”

The woman guard stood her ground, looking Rox over, then yielded, and stood aside. “She is down that way.”

Rox nodded. “Thank you.” She strode off quickly, rubbing her hand where she had hit the man.

Half way down the hall to this wings courtyard entrance a group of guards stood at the main doors to the throne room. Rox doubted that The King or Queen was here as the place was not well enough defended. The Sorceress stood among the group, talking, idly holding her magic stick that she and Rox had previous experience with.

Roxanne went to the Sorceress, “My Lady I can help. Give me a weapon and let me fight.”

One of the guards scoffed. “A slave fight? Preposterous.”

Roxanne countered. “I have only been a slave the last several weeks. Before then I was able to take care of myself. Give me a weapon; you need all the help you can get.”

The Sorceress considered for a moment, then handed Roxanne the staff she held. “Twist here and here and the ends energize, tripling the effective length.” She demonstrated and held the staff out.

Roxanne took the staff sensing its magic extensions, twirled it, stood to ready with it. “The balance will take some getting used to, but this will work.” The staff had assorted carved creatures and scenes on it. It was just under 4 feet long. Enough to be a cane, but not enough to be a full staff without the magic active.

Sorceress suddenly came at her with a borrowed pole arm, and they sparred a bit. Then Sorceress backed away satisfied. “She will do.”

The Sorceress handed the pole arm back to the sergeant she had taken it from. “Where were you thinking?”

Rox pointed the way she had come. “There was already a patrol of eight that got in from somewhere, and was stopped at the hub. I figured to go help at the front doors.”

Rox turned and went as The Sorceress motioned her on her way.

Rox went back to the hub. As she went, one of The Sorceress’s personal guards stayed with her. As opposed to the Palace Guard, this group wore a green sash over the belt line of their breast plates, which sash only showed up on formal occasions. Rox had met these women rarely enough that she did not know their names. They went down another flight of stairs, and out a different direction. This level had one hallway with rooms with windows. The other rooms were store rooms. Rox went in the direction of the windows and the front doors of the palace.

Rox arrived at the main doors foyer. Beyond was a courtyard that opened to a plaza on the first level of the city. The palace sat far enough off the plain that the natural terrain was this much higher already, though this was not really very far.

An arc of guards stood back from the door, as some one banged on it from the other side. The windows here were covered with closed curtains. A boom came from the doors. Rox knew that the floor directly above had a common outer wall with this floor, with casemates looking over the courtyard, above that was a barbican, with a crenellated top to the wall. Those positions should be manned, though a skilled planner should account for those. The doors boomed again. Rox guessed, correctly that it was a bettering ram, probably with some kind of defensive shield around it. She noted that half of the guards here had short bows ready, and aimed at the doors; these men and women stood along the walls, on the statue bases.

Four guards were standing at the doors, and seemed to be timing the booms. Another boom was followed by those four pausing then moving very quickly to unbar the doors, and pull them open as the battering ram nose came flying though, carrying the forward ranks of men with it to crash to the floor spilling the men holding it. The archers all let fly, and three of the men would not get up on their own ever again. Several more men were hit as they tried to let go of the ram when it unexpectedly went into the hall.

Rox compared the eighteen guards and herself and tag along to the number she saw, and decided there was a deficit on the side of the locals. But the archers got off another shot filling the hall with more wounded as two dozen men swarmed over each other into the entry.

Rox stood at the back as the front guards held the gate, and then a push through the lines brought the skirmish within the guards on the second line. The skirmish quickly devolved into man-to-man. Rox found herself facing a black-shirt with her staff, against a sword and buckler. She knocked the sword aside and almost bashed the bluecoat next to her, switched to paired sticks, waded in, and quickly bashed the sword to the floor and knocked him out. As he fell Rox acted on reflex and smashed the throat of another standing right next to her, after that black-shirt ran a bluecoat through.

The archers on the sides kept the doors blockaded as best they could.

Then the melee here was over, with black-shirts and a few bluecoats on the floor, the battering ram in the doorway, and most of the bluecoats and Rox standing ready to take on more comers. With none forth coming, the wounded bluecoats were separated; the walking ones supporting each other, the ones who could not walk were pulled aside and tended to. The black-shirts were sorted between dead and dying, and merely wounded. The wounded were lined up in a side hallway and restrained, while their wounds were treated. The dead black-shirts were dragged outside and piled aside. The captured weapons were piled aside.

Rox reassembled the staff, and was pulled/escorted away by The Sorceress’ Bodyguard, and taken up to the roof of this part of the structure. A white smoke drifted across this area obscuring the view of the north part of the city. Rox could see the courtyard walls lined by more bluecoats than she had considered would be here. The leader conferred with The Bodyguard, and then the Bodyguard scooped up Rox and took her back into the palace, and off to find someone to report to.

They entered the structure and trotted down the halls, through a hub and into a wing that Rox had only traveled through with the pages. They came to a hub that Rox recognized, and went through it to the business wing and the Throne Room. Here the Bodyguard reported to a senior bluecoat, and was told that The Sorceress was out to the roof of this part of the palace.

The Bodyguard again took Rox and went in a direction that Rox had never been. They entered a side corridor, and went up a narrow flight of stairs that switched back twice and came out in a cupola on the outer wall of this wing. The Bodyguard turned to her right and went out onto the walkway that ringed the crenellated top of the outer wall. Rox followed as they trotted to the front of the wing, overlooking another of the palace courtyards. They entered another larger cupola that overlooked the courtyard and here found The Sorceress and a few senior guards.

“My lady.” The Bodyguard spoke as she was noticed.

“Report.” The Sorceress replied.

“Two platoons tried to enter the front doors. They were repulsed, at some cost.” The Bodyguard reported.

“Very good.” The Sorceress and the other guards turned to a map of the palace and moved a few little blocks.

As Rox listened, the discussion focused on learning what going on beyond the palace. All the reports of the palace were that the entrances were all covered and that the Palace Guard force was at full strength.

The apparent senior guard turned to one of his aids, and instructed him to go find a person by name, and find out what was happening among the City Guard, and Constables.

In a quiet moment after the aid turned and left, Rox looked out the windows and asked, “What about doing something about the smoke?”

The Sorceress replied negatively. “There might be a mage among them, and I don’t want to tip my hand about my capacities yet. I have not felt much magic in use. I have sensed some magic off to the south west, but it is not directed against the palace. I can only presume some local is using magic to make a fuss.”

The senior guard added to her point. “That is why we need to contact the City Guard, and Constables. They were warned of this group’s coming, and to quietly organize the militia. That these five platoons that have got into the palace are a sign that the militia and constables were not covering everything. Just as well we were mustered enough to stand to.”

Rox felt out of her depth, but not out of comprehension as she listened. “You knew this group of… black-shirts were coming?”

“The Queen warned us of them when she got home. Some of her contacts down south told her. As did our boarder guards when they crossed. We were initially concerned that you might be involved. But you have proven not to be. Now the best thing you can do is stay out of the way.” The senior guard said this as matter-of-factly as if reciting the recipe for a sandwich.