Ascendant (28 page)

"A crown
affects
your future, Lord Salva. A crown determines your future."

"Huh. I
could have told you that, without using your cards. When the princess becomes
queen-"

"No."
Mwazo stood up, stretched his tall frame until his fingers nearly touched the
ceiling, and strode over to stand closer to the fireplace, stirring the logs
with a poker. "Not the jewel-encrusted crown of a queen, nor a princess.
What I saw, what I think I saw, was a rather simple gold circle. And this
future is soon, not far off, when your Ariana becomes queen."

"A simple
gold circle? I've seen that many times, that's the Regent's crown." Paedris
said sourly. "Her mother."

The next
morning, the four wizards requested an audience with the Regent, to discuss
‘
matters of great
importance to the future of Tarador
’
,
according to the note that Koren delivered to the palace chief of protocol. Carlana
invited the wizards to dine in the palace that evening, which meant Koren was
busy the whole day getting four sets of wizard robes cleaned and pressed. Even
so, as they were about to leave the tower, Koren saw to his great distress that
Shomas had a big stain down the front of his robe, from a blackberry pastry he
had been eating.

“
Shomas!
”
Madam Chu wagged a finger
at her fellow wizard.
“
We
are going to eat dinner in the palace. Couldn
’
t you wait?
”

“
Oh, you know how these
royal dinners go,
”
Shomas grumbled,
“
lots
of talk, and little bits of fancy food. A man needs something substantial to
fill his belly.
”
He tried to wipe away the stain, but only smeared it deeper into the fabric of
his robe.

Koren brought
a wet cloth to clean as best he could, but Madam Chu waved him aside.
“
Koren, dear, you 
have been so kind to us, let me take care of this for you.
”
Touching her hand to the
blob of jelly, she whispered words under her breath, and the robe was clean!
“
It
’
s not really clean,
”
she explained,
“
but the stain will be
invisible for a while. Now, Shomas, try not to embarrass us tonight, please?
”

Although
Koren, in his official purple robes, escorted the wizards to Carlana
’
s private dining chamber
in the palace, he was not allowed to serve them at dinner. Even the palace
servants, after they brought the food and drink, we told to wait outside, and
the doors firmly shut. Koren stood in the hallway, wishing he had eaten
something before coming to the palace. The door on the other side of the
hallway opened, and Ariana waved him to join her.
“
I
’
m supposed to be working.
”
  Koren protested
half-heartedly.

“
Oh, don
’
t worry about that, they
’
ll be in there for hours.
Mother and Paedris love to argue. Are you hungry?
”

“
I could eat.
”
Koren admitted, when he
saw the delicious dinner waiting in Ariana
’
s
private dining chamber. He still felt vaguely nervous around Ariana, although
it wasn
’
t as
bad now.
“
Why
aren
’
t you in
there with the wizards? You
’
re
the crown princess.
”

“
Mother never lets me hear
when she is talking about anything secret.
”
Ariana stuck her lower lip out in a pout, and Koren thought that was the cutest
thing he
’
d
ever seen.
“
Do
you know what they
’
re
talking about?
”

Koren shook
his head.

“
Mother says it must be
important, we haven
’
t
had this many wizards in the castle since I was a little girl.
”

“
All they
’
ve been doing is talking,
and reading a lot of dusty old books and scrolls. And they argue a lot. Except,
”
Koren paused, with a
buttered roll halfway to his mouth,
“
they
stopped arguing a couple days ago.
”
After they asked him questions about his family, and then held hands and
chanted around him. And then he
’
d
had a dream about the wizards standing over him, while he
’
d been asleep.

“
What happened?
”

“
I, uh, I don
’
t know.
”
Koren lied. He didn
’
t think Paedris wanted
anyone to know what went on inside the wizard
’
s tower. Whatever involved him couldn
’
t be important, anyway. He
shrugged. Who knew about wizards?
“
I
guess they agreed, about whatever they were arguing about.
”

“
That must be why they
’
re with mother, to tell
her what they decided. I hope Paedris doesn
’
t try to get her to send the army out again
in the Spring, they have that argument every year. If Paedris thinks three more
wizards are going to change my mother
’
s
mind, he is in for a surprise.
”

Koren frowned
at Ariana's remark. The Regent was powerful, to be sure, but more powerful than
the four wizards, or even Paedris alone? "Ari- Your Highness, do you know
how powerful Lord Salva really is?"

"Your
Highness?" Ariana asked with a tilt of her head. "Koren, please call
me Ariana, when we're alone. Or nearly alone," she added with a nod to her
maid Nurelka, who sat discretely by the window. "I need someone who can
talk to me as
me
, not by my official title. I have too many people who
do that."

"Uh, oh,
all right. Ariana." The name sounded strange in his mouth, saying it to
her, in person. Being around the wizards, who were first formal, then friendly,
and now dressed in their official robes and meeting in the royal palace with
the Regent behind closed doors, had Koren confused again. "Do you know
wizards can make things disappear, and then come back? I saw Lord Mwazo do that
to a teapot, right in front of me. He sent it into the spirit world."

"I think
I've heard of that. But I've never seen it. It must have been amazing!"
Ariana hastened to add, when she saw Koren was disappointed his revelation was
not something new to her. "Can Paedris do something like that? He hardly
ever does any magic that I can see."

Koren knew
that Paedris didn't show off his magical powers in public, because real magic
was serious business, and he felt that the court wizard was not to be viewed as
a circus performer. If people wanted to see silly magic 'tricks', they could
give a couple coins to one of the charlatan street performers in Linden.
"Anything Mwazo can do, Paedris can do. Uh, don't repeat that, please,
Lord Mwazo is kind of touchy about his, I guess, status as a wizard."

"I would
never tell anyone something you told me in confidence." Ariana said, while
reaching out to hold Koren's right hand between her own hands. The gesture was
so natural, offering reassurance between close friends, that she didn't realize
what she was doing, until Nurelka discretely coughed in her corner by the
window.

"Uh,
thank you." Koren stammered out, flustered by the feel of the princess'
warm, soft hand. Even after she released his hand, and looked a bit embarrassed
herself, he could feel his hand tingle, and he self-consciously made his hand
into a fist and tucked it behind his back. "I, uh, what was I, uh,
saying?"

"You
were, um, I, something about Lord Mwazo?" Ariana was thinking that Koren's
hand had felt warm, and rough. Rough like the hand of a farmer, a worker, a
soldier. She liked that. So many of the royal boys, and men, that she knew, had
soft hands, for they had never done any labor in their lives. Rough felt good.

"Oh,
yeah." Now Koren felt warm all over, like when the wizards had been
chanting around him on the rooftop, but for an entirely different, entirely
natural and wonderful reason. To stall for time while his mind was overwhelmed,
he took a goblet of water, but his hand shook, and he spilled a few droplets
down his chin. Without thinking, he wiped his chin with the back of his
shirtsleeve, an action that would have completely horrified Charl Fusting, with
Koren wearing his best clothes, especially as those clothes were still barely,
barely passable for an audience with the crown princess. "Ah, sorry."
He said, and pulled a proper handkerchief out of his pocket. "So, uh, Lord
Mwazo. He made a teapot disappear." Koren continued, while looking out the
window to avoid looking at Ariana, because right then, he was having terribly
improper thoughts about his future queen. Thoughts that could get a common-born
boy like him hanged, or at least thrown in a dungeon. Ariana Trehayme was the
highest-born person in Tarador, while he couldn't even claim the name Bladewell
anymore, since he had been abandoned by his family. Thinking about his parents
helped him focus, on something other than the warm, kind, beautiful,
sweet-smelling girl standing close to him, with her soft skin and- "Do you
know Paedris built a stairway that doesn't exist?" He blurted out.

"Doesn't
exist? What do you mean?" Ariana asked, while watching her maid out of the
corner of her eye. Ariana wished the kindly Nurelka would- just- go-
away
!
But the woman had risen from her seat, and approached the table.

"Would
you like hot tea, my lady?" Nurelka asked. "This pot has gone
cold."

"No, it's
fine, Nurry. We're fine." Ariana waved the woman away with irritation, but
the maid, with a small, knowing smile, stood by the table.

"How
could someone build a stairway that doesn't exist? You must be joking, young
Koren." Nurelka prodded.

"No, it's
true! He showed me." Koren explained about the magic portal in the tower,
as best he could, and by the time he was halfway through the story, even Ariana
was interested. Although she was still irritated at her maid. And irritated at
the strict rules a crown princess had to follow. She would be the most powerful
person in the realm soon, but right now, she couldn't even innocently hold
hands with a boy. Or maybe not quite so innocently.

"You'll
not catch me going into that tower, young Koren," Nurelka declared,
"I don't know as how you do it, night after night, sleeping in there, with
strange lights flashing, and the wizard casting spells." She shuddered,
and put her hand to her forehead dramatically. "Didn't know wizards could
make staircases out of thin air."

"I didn't
either." Ariana said, troubled, but excited. What else could the wizard
do? She'd seen him heal people, but when the wizard laid hands on a sick
person, there wasn't anything to
see
when he did that. And she'd heard
wizards could throw balls of glowing fire, but she'd never seen Paedris do that.
"Can he fly?"

"No."
Koren shook his head. "But he can walk on a rooftop, or along a ledge,
like me strolling down a flat road. I saw him do that at Duke Yarron's castle.
And he can talk to hawks, he can put pictures in a hawk's mind."

Ariana thought
that she needed to have a talk with the Lord Salva, about what wizards could,
and could not, do. She was learning about the army; strategy, tactics, and,
Captain Raddick had been explaining to her, something called 'logistics'.
Sending an army into the field, at the right place and the right time, was all
good, but if that army didn't have proper weapons, and food, and hay or grain
for their horses, and shelter if they were going to be out in the elements for
long, then the most brilliant strategy in the world could not bring victory.
Even simple things like spare parts to fix broken wagon wheels were important.
And all the 'logistics' cost money, a lot of money. Ariana had been dismayed to
see how much it was costing her own purse to keep her personal guard stationed
in the Thrallren woods, her mother had insisted that money come from Ariana's
own rather small sum of funds, and not from the royal treasury. The soldiers of
her personal guard drew their monthly pay from the royal treasury, but when
they were in the field, their supplies were paid by Ariana. And, although she
was a princess, the crown princess, she didn't actually have much money of her
own, not yet. That had been a lesson for the young girl to think ahead, and not
act impulsively. "I wonder what they're talking about, in there."
Ariana said as she looked into the hallway at the door to where her mother and
the wizards were dining, and likely arguing.