104 – Welcome to The Party

  Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 137

  Going to this ball seamed  like a good idea at the time. Now, I wonder what we are expecting to happen.

  Caspian stood against the wall as the Caplan's sat on the bed. Steven had started the conversation. “What are we looking for?”

  Caspian answered. “Anyone talking about the reason for this ball. And where they were taken.”

  Rox's brief experiences with official happenings in Veradale were at the foremost of her concerns. “Remember, don't start the conversation about our kids, unless you can deflect any suspicion that may arise.”

  Steven brought the conversation back to his original concern.“So what's the plan?”

  Caspian had thought about this. “Spread out, find the important people, and discretely listen without attracting attention. I have not sensed any magical attention on us, but if they are using trackers like we have for your kids, then I wouldn't. I would presume that if they were aware of us, and considered us a threat, they would have moved against us by now.”

  Steven countered Caspian's initial idea. “Or we could listen for and to the chatterboxes and socialites. The problem then becomes distinguishing between the chatter and the facts.”

  As the conversation continued, Steven conceded to Caspian that authority figures were a good source, and Caspian conceded that the socialites were as well. Roxanne was mostly concerned with not attracting attention.

  That evening Caspian and the Caplan's set out from their hotel rooms with Roxanne on Steven’s arm. Under her cloak, Roxanne wore an illusory elfin looking dress attached to one of the smocks from Veradale, and taking its substance from it, with an amulet on a necklace around her neck driving the illusion. Her mane had returned to full growth thanks to some magic after having had it cut short on Earth, the sides being about a cubit long, tied in rope braids with costume gold bands at the bottoms; the middle stood up free of the hood of the cloak. Under the illusory skirt she had secured her staff into her belt by the lanyard she had wrapped around one end. Steven and Caspian wore suits of the local season’s flavor, with short coats, and pantaloons that cuffed and bloused mid-calf, and stockings and black buckled shoes below that. Both men had made it a point to shave and trim their beards carefully. Caspian had again changed the size  of his staff and stuck it into a pocket of his coat. All three were slightly chilled by the cool night versus the cut of their clothes.

  Cyrril was not in visible evidence, Caspian having instructed him to keep clear of the palace, after the little dragon had tried to get near on his own, and been scared off by something he could not clearly define to Caspian. In his spare time after, Caspian had simply remarked that there was a lot of old heavy magic about the palace fortress, most of it martial in feel. It should not interfere with their plans to go in an listen around.

  They caught one of the carriages that wandered the city as a taxi service. The leather and fabric top to the carriage had been deployed, but not the sides. Initially the three rode alone, but Caspian soon switched from his position in the passenger area to being on the bench with the driver as another couple was picked up.

  This was a local couple and initially tried to engage Steven and Rox in conversation. The woman wanted to talk about who did what since the last ball, the man about what business he might do with Steven. As soon as it was understood that Steven and Rox were from a long way away and just traveling through, the couple seemed to lapse into an uncomfortable silence, since  there was noting familiar to talk about.

  The carriage turned onto a main road heading south, and the whole way in, Steven and Rox had a good view past the driver and Caspian of the fortress/palace they were going to. The carriage joined a line traveling across the western most bridge over the Skarg River into the fortress. Other bridges could be seen crossing the river to the island, and from the city on the north to the city on the south. Also the river here was wide enough that there were shipping docks visible on both shores. The line of carriages went into a large court yard were it turned and lined up to some stairs. Here each carriage jockeyed into position, and the passengers  dismounted from the carriage. 

  The Caplan's deferred to the local couple to disembark first, then followed. Caspian got off the drivers bench easily, and adjusted his trousers slightly. The three then followed the flow of people. A squad of Palace Guards in polished breastplates over their fabric tunics and trousers stood with pikes at presentation as an honor guard lining the yard and a short formal staircase to a formal Palace Entrance. The Caplan's climbed the stairs and entered the palace.

  Karen wore a body hugging gown of very light tan. The gown generally allowed her full freedom of movement in the skirts and shoulders. She had ended up taking one of her three last-seasons gowns to a tailor and having it adjusted for this season, mostly in removing some of the trim, shortening the hem accommodating for the two less layers of petticoat, and slitting last season's puffy sleeves open from the wrist to the elbow with the cuff adjusted to still close at the wrist. Jeweled hairpins, large enough to be weapons, held her medium length brown hair off her neck. A small jeweled stiletto in its sheath hung as a necklace center pointing into her cleavage, in the wide collar. The rest of the necklace is a crescent style collar filling the open neck of her dress. She carried a small leather clutch hung on the sash of her gown.

  She rode to the palace in one of the many coaches that plied the city, with another couple from the block she lived on. These knew her as the unmarried and only surviving daughter of a prosperous merchant family. So Karen played this roll, talking up the wife on what was happening socially, and then turning to the husband and talking about his business, and their children. She was able to keep both chatting enough to avoid them asking her any substantive questions beyond her general condition.

  Within the palace was the usual Formal Hall. This had several stair cases and openings to the available wings of the buildings. There were paired guards with velvet ropes blocking access to the left hand wing entrances on all levels, a few of which were dark, and two that had curtains across them. Some people moved straight through the hall into a courtyard between the structures. The rest turned right/west and went into the wings there, whether by descending a flight, staying on this level and going along a hall, or by ascending to one of the three apparent levels above this one. Each floor was about three times the height from floor to ceiling as the average person here was tall. The walls were covered with assorted hangings trophy decorations, and paintings of various sizes. Some times the display was orderly and impressive. Others were just thrown up, almost literally.

  Aside from preventing passage into other parts of the structure, the guards were almost invisible, patrolling in pairs with swords at their belts, or standing watch with the pikes. As outside, these wore the polished breastplates over dress costumes. A few even paused to chat with the locals.

  Steven leaned to Rox as they walked. “This place reminds me of a mall, or The Pentagon.  Probably the latter, as I doubt the public is allowed into the office areas, without need.”

  Caspian interrupted. “How shall we proceed, and where would you like to set our assembly point?”

  Steven did a quick scan, speaking as he did. “Five apparent levels from here. No clear idea how deep any of them go for access into the structure, though it probably is not as deep as some suppose. There are probably but not definitely connecting stairways deeper in, but we have no idea if they connect to all the other levels. I would say that our rally point is that bench there.”

  Steven had turned and pointed to a bench beside a hallway on this level that was guarded by a pair of guards.

“It has a clear view of everything that is not directly above it. There are already others using it, so standing near it should not be much issue, mostly. And we all can find our way back here.”

  Rox nodded while people watching, studying  the crowd.

  Caspian looked at the bench, then turned to Steven. “Very well. Assuming we don't bump into each other sooner, meet there as soon after as possible after the tocsins sound one. I will start on the top, as that will allow me to clear my senses and get a better sense of the magics at work here, in order to deal with them the rest of the night.”

  Rox and Steven turned as Caspian went to the closest stairs and started climbing. The Caplan's strode into the hall on this level and followed the crowd wandering through it. Due to her novice skill with her magic senses, Rox barely perceived a buzzing at the back of her mind. Caspian needed to reset his senses, proverbially getting a breath of fresh air, or he was going to have a smashing headache before very long.

  Each of the levels, while arranged differently for their specifics, were generally arranged the same. The lower the level, the thicker the arches and pillars that demarcated the areas, but otherwise these lined up. There were large rooms with various buffet tables in array, several rooms appeared to be set for conversations with the furniture arranged in discrete arrangements. In one of these, Rox and Steven paused to listen to a man at the center of a spirited debate. There were three rooms on the east-west leg of the first floor with between four and a dozen musicians playing various forms of dance music as people did rounds and turns on the floors. The Caplan's passed a room that seemed to be just for sitting and drinking. This rooms outer doors were open to a balcony that looked north across the river. The bridge and its steady stream of carriages were easily visible. Looking up and down there were other like sized balconies almost at random on this section of wall. They passed one room on the inner side of the wing that had been taken over by the kitchen staff and was the local staging area for managing the buffets.

  At the end of the hall was a larger banquet room, with medium sized orchestra on the far left, a dance floor in the middle, a buffet to the right side of the room, and most of the wall open to a similarly large porch that occupied the western most tip of this part of the island. Looking up it was apparent that this next section of the structure was stepped back with each floor having variously sized balconies and porches that looked down to the one below.  The three floors above were accounted for, so also were the military battlements. Steven briefly wondered where the anti-ship artillery that would normally be deployed from this balcony was currently being kept.

  The hall inside turned south and the rooms repeated the same arrangements, with various social functions happening in each, and a few utility rooms here and there. They even passed one room with discrete booths and a few attendants at hand, that was well vented to the outside, with a large fragrant fire keeping the otherwise malodorous scent from disturbing anyone around it.

  A second large staircase was midway along the north-south running hallway. Here, Rox took leave of Steven and went to the next floor up. Steven continued to the end of the hall and found another balcony arrangement, this defending the south approach from the river. The hallway turned back east and ended up in another atrium with closed passages, and access to the inner yard that this structure section surrounded.