Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) (21 page)

Pancras
rolled out of bed, clutching his head. Throbbing at the base of his skull made
his eyes feel as if they would pop out and shoot across the room. Bleary eyed,
he fumbled with his focus, reversing the parts before he was able to fit them
onto the tips of his horns.

Fresh air,
that's all I need.
He stumbled out of his bedroom, clutching his robes. Kale and
Delilah were already breaking their fast and waved to him from the table. He
offered a feeble wave in response and stepped out into the corridor that
overlooked the gardens. He remembered to don his robes just as footsteps on the
stone heralded the arrival of Princess Valene taking her morning
constitutional.

"Once
again, I encounter a minotaur on my morning walk." The princess teased
him, her mouth upturned and a twinkle in her eye. Her smile became a frown as
Pancras stepped into the light. "You look terrible."

"I feel
worse. I was hoping the fresh air would help." He leaned on the wall and
looked down at the garden. Overnight fresh snow fell, and the cold breeze blew
the white powder into drifts across the city roofs.

Princess
Valene looked over Pancras's shoulder. "Oh dear, a Royal Guard is coming,
for you, I suspect."

The minotaur
turned to see Lady Milena approach. Her hair was frazzled, and gray-purple bags
sat under her bloodshot eyes.

"Pancras.
Your Highness." The knight bowed to her sovereign.

Princess
Valene placed her hand on Milena's shoulder. "Good morning, Milena."

"Prince
Gavril will see you now."

Blinking to
wash the sleep from his eyes, Pancras squinted at Milena. "Now? I expected
him to keep me waiting for at least another day."

"He
said now." Milena gestured for Pancras to accompany her. He bowed to the princess
and heard her snort as he left with the captain of the royal guard.

“Rough
night?” Pancras hoped his restless sleep had not somehow affected Lady Milena.

“My duties
do not end when we part ways. Also, I never sleep well after a visit to the
catacombs.”

"You
know, if the prince would just let us go into the city and do our own shopping,
he wouldn't have to bother with me at all."

"That
is not my business."

Prince
Gavril met them in an antechamber off the main hall, rather than in his throne
room. His lips moved in silence as he read a document as he paced the floor.
Shaking his head, he rolled up the paper and looked at Pancras.

"Well,
let's have it."

"Have
what?" Pancras was unsure what the prince wanted to know. He made it quite
clear in his request for an audience what he wanted.

Prince
Gavril coughed and took a deep breath. "What is it you want?"

"You
promised to hear my request to acquire my own equipment and supplies. The
alchemy equipment delivered last night is a good start, but it is only a fraction
of what I need for the"—Pancras's eyes flicked to Lady Milena, who stood
at attention in the doorway—"for the project you want."

"And
how am I to know you won't simply flee the city, hm?" Prince Gavril
slapped his hand with the paper. "What guarantees will you give me,
eh?"

Pancras
didn't feel guarantees were needed. If the city was bogged down with snow and
poor weather, the open country would be even worse. They would likely die of
exposure within a few days if the weather continued to get colder.

"I'm
not sure what I could offer—"

Lady Milena
cleared her throat. "Your Highness, if I might offer a suggestion?"

Prince
Gavril looked at her the way parents regard a child who has just interrupted
them. "By all means, enlighten us."

"Perhaps
Pancras could stay here while the draks go into the city, and vice versa."

Pancras
nodded his assent. There was little the draks could do to help him while he
searched for his supplies other than be a distraction, and they certainly
didn't need him around if they wanted to look within the gambling halls for
Edric. For his part Pancras felt confident in the dwarf's ability to look after
himself.

"Oh,
very well. If it will get you working and keep you out of my hair. Lady Milena,
you will accompany Pancras when he desires to visit the city. You can accompany
the draks, as well, or find another guard to do it, but only you will accompany
the minotaur. Clear?" Prince Gavril did not await her response before
dismissing them with a wave of his hand. He brushed past them and headed toward
the throne room.

"Damn
it." Lady Milena chewed on her bottom lip, glaring at the prince as he
strode away. "You do not look well. Are you ill?"

Pancras
stifled another yawn and rubbed one of his eyes. No." Pancras and Milena
ambled down the hall toward his suite. A group of ladies-in-waiting stared at
them as they passed. "I have a terrible headache. I haven't been sleeping
well."

"I see.
If it becomes chronic, I can contact my brother. He is a priest of Apellon, god
of healers, light, and the arts. He knows a few teas than can remedy such
ailments."

Pancras
dodged a pair of children running down the corridor giggling. "Thank you.
I shall keep it in mind."

He kept one
hand on the wall as they climbed the spiral stairs to the wing that led to his
quarters. The journey seemed arduous, and he felt as if he could sleep the rest
of the morning if the shadows in his dreams would allow it.

"Will
you want to go into town this morning?" Milena took his arm as they
continued down the hall. He leaned on her for support until they reached his
door.

"No, I
want more sleep. You're welcome to come in and see if the draks want to,
though."

Milena's expression
told him in plain terms what she thought of that. "I will look for
volunteers among my guards for them. There are a few who are sympathetic to the
draks in town."

Pancras
pushed the door open and offered her a smile. "That would be most
appreciated."

Chapter 11

Delilah
looked across the table at Kale as Pancras staggered in. He cocked his head and
watched the minotaur as he headed for his room.

"Hey,
Pancras!" Delilah tossed a sweet roll at him. It struck him in the
shoulder and stuck to his robes for a moment before falling to the floor. He
watched it fall and stared at it as it laid there before looking up at Delilah.

"What's
the news? Can we leave yet?"

Kale jumped
down from his chair and retrieved the sweet roll. He bit into it as he returned
to the table.

"Yes,
with supervision. Lady Milena is looking for a couple of guards to volunteer to
escort the two of you. We can't go together. If you go, I have to stay here.
You have to stay here if I go." He pushed open the door to his bedroom.

Delilah
hopped off her chair and followed him. "So, are you going? Can we
go?"

"I am
going back to sleep. There's a thick blanket of new snow out there right now.
I'm sure Lady Milena will be by when she has found someone willing to escort
you." He fell into his bed, covering his head with his arm.

She poked
the minotaur, eliciting a grunt and a swat with his arm, and returned to the
table, closing his door behind her as she left. She returned to her brother and
helped him load up the food lift with dirty dishes.

"He
passed right out."

"I’m
not surprised. You didn't hear him yelling and screaming last night?" Kale
yawned. "I hardly slept."

"Nope."
She climbed into the armchair in front of the fire and opened her grimoire.

"What
are we going to do today, Deli?" Kale sat in the chair across from her,
nursing a mug of mulled wine."

"I'm
going to sit here and try to read until Lady Milena comes back and tells us who
will to take us into the city." She turned to the page where she left off.
The symbols danced around on the page as if they waited for her attention.
"Then, I'm going to go look for stuff."

"What
stuff?"

"I
don't know. Something, anything. I'll know it when I see it. Besides, I need to
make you a glow gem, right? So you can wander around the catacombs and other
dark places without me." She returned her attention to the page and tried
to wish her brother into silence.

"Aren't
you worried I'll run off with Kali? Or we'll do stuff alone in the dark down
there?"

Delilah
closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again, her brother still
stared at her. "I told you, I don't really care about that, but if it'll
get me some peace and quiet so I can study this"—she tapped the open page
of her book—"then you can run off with her right now if you want!"

Kale kicked
her dangling leg and then retreated before she could retaliate.
Brothers!

* * *

The next
several days passed slowly for Kale. He knew better than to spend the entire
time harassing his sister, and although Lady Milena found two volunteers to
take him and Delilah into the city, the falling snow piled up and prevented
them from leaving.

Having been
granted permission to leave the palace but not being able to was worse, in
Kale's mind, than not having been given permission in the first place. He felt
more trapped now than ever. Try as he might, Kale was unable to convince
Delilah to continue their explorations of the castle. His puzzle box provided
only a few hours diversion at a time before he became bored.

"Kale,
fetch me a bucket of water, please." Pancras called from his bedchamber.
He spent the first couple of days of the snowstorm converting the extra space
in his room into a makeshift laboratory. Kale didn't think he would want to
sleep in a room with all that equipment, but Pancras seemed accustomed to it.
Grabbing a bucket they acquired from the kitchens for such a purpose, Kale descended
the stairs and proceeded to the palace entrance. He swung the bucket and hummed
as he bounced.

"Still
too much snow out there, drak." The guard smirked when he saw Kale
approach. "I don't see your escort, either."

Kale pointed
at the bucket. "Not leaving. Getting snow."

"Snow?
What for?"

"Water!"

The guard
opened the door for Kale, and the drak plunged the bucket into a snow drift. He
scooped up as much snow as the bucket would hold and nodded his thanks to the
guard.

"We
have wells for that, you know."

The wells
from which the palace staff drew their water were located in the lower levels,
near the kitchens. "This is closer and cleaner. The well water smells
funny."

"So do
draks!" The guard called after him. Kale offered the guard an obscene
gesture and left, ignoring his laughter. By the time he returned to the suite,
he saw Lady Milena ahead of him, knocking on the doors.

"Looking
for us, or for Pancras?" Kale opened the suite, holding the door for the
guard captain.

Delilah was
still curled up in the armchair, concentrating on the grimoire. Kale set the
bucket of snow on the hearth. Pancras emerged from his bedroom.

"Kale,
do you have that bucket of—oh, Lady Milena. I didn't hear you come in."

Lady Milena
greeted Pancras with a bow of her head. "I have spoken to the guards I
know to be sympathetic toward draks and have found two to escort them into the
city."

"Excellent!"
Pancras wiped his hands on his robes as he stepped over to the bucket.
"This is snow!"

"It
becomes water when it melts, Pancras." Kale looked up at the minotaur and
shook his head. "It just hasn't gotten that far yet."

"I know
snow melts into water, Kale."

Delilah
snorted and buried her snout deeper in her tome. Lady Milena crouched in front
of the fire and warmed her hands. "We've had reports that snow packing is
proceeding well. We should be able to open the palace gates tomorrow."
During heavy snowfalls, people in Almeria worked together to pack down the snow
in the streets. They worked their way through the city on the main roads first,
then up to the palace, and finally to the secondary roads and alleys. When
their work was finished, the packed snow was as hard as dirt roads and was just
as functional, like a second road laid down on top of the cobbles of the first.

"Excellent.
I need to do some research." Pancras took a seat in the armchair next to
Delilah. "You mentioned your brother is a priest of Apellon, yes?"

"Yes,
that's right." Milena rubbed her hands together and looked up at Pancras.
"Still having headaches?"

Pancras
rubbed his head. "No, not since that one night. The project I'm working
on… I need to speak to a priest of Apellon, since you don't have an Arcane
University here with its extensive library. Cybele would probably work, too,
maybe even Aurora."

Pancras's
headaches were news to Kale. He looked at his friend. Apart from appearing a
bit disheveled, Pancras seemed normal.
Why does he need to see priests of
those gods? I thought he worshipped Aita?

"There
are temples to all three in Almeria. Are you working on some sort of love
potion? Cybele won’t help with that, unless you’re looking to woo the farm
animals or crops." Milena's upper lip curled in disgust.

"Nothing
like that. I don't work in magic that can control minds and wrest people's
will."

Milena
stood, a hand on her hips. "What is this project you're working on?"

"I
cannot say. Ask your prince."

She huffed.
"Perhaps I will. I will be around to escort you into town as soon as they
open the gates." She stalked out of the room, fists clenched.

Kale tapped
Pancras on the knee. "What about us? We're tired of being cooped up in
here."

"You
can go when I get back. I shouldn't be long, and then you can take as long as
you need."

"Suits
me." Delilah slammed her book shut. "If you two are going to keep talking,
I'm going into the bedroom to study this."

"Fine,
Grumpy-butt!" Kale stuck his tongue out at his sister. She picked up her
grimoire and turned her back on him, muttering under her breath as she slammed
the bedroom door behind her. Kale knew he shouldn't antagonize her, but he
found it far too easy some days.

"See
what I mean?"

* * *

After
warming himself sufficiently in front of the fire, Pancras took the bucket back
to his bedroom. Most of the snow melted and yielded more than enough water for
his purposes. He was not prepared for complex necromancy, such as that which
would be required to make Princess Valene barren, so in the meantime, he set up
a rudimentary alchemy lab. From what he remembered, a curse to make someone
barren required some sort of material object, a fetish or a potion, in order to
function. He scrounged sufficient ingredients around the palace to make a few
simple restorative potions.

He didn't
regret leaving most of his necromancy notes and books behind in Drak-Anor.

The extra weight
was hardly an incentive to bring them on the off chance he might need them.
Besides, the prince's request was something he intended to drag out for as long
as possible, so not having them in his possession worked more to his advantage
than not. The priests of Apellon, Cybele, and Aurora all had cures for
infertility. At least, Pancras hoped they did. He hoped to utilize them to
reverse-engineer a solution. He grimaced as he picked up his mortar and pestle.
Even in the days when regularly he created zombies and skeletons to help him in
his lab or to send off to battle, he would have found the idea of making
someone barren distasteful. He felt that sort of curse crossed the line.

Still, what
choice do I have? Jail? Execution? I have a responsibility to Kale and Delilah.
Maybe I
can find something that will work temporarily and give us enough time get away
from Almeria.
Pancras did not think Prince Gavril would have them hunted
down, and he intended to leave no trace of the curse he was about to create, so
there would be no evidence. Hunting them down would make Prince Gavril appear
petty and vengeful. Given the growing dissatisfaction in Almeria among draks
and minotaurs with the manner in which humans treated them, he thought Prince
Gavril could ill afford to further antagonize them.

Pancras was
confident he could find a solution by spring. Being permitted to go into town
was the first step. He, too, wanted to stretch his legs and explore Almeria. He
sympathized with Kale and Delilah's frustration with being cooped up in the
palace.
Strange, back home I was content to stay in my laboratory for days,
even weeks. But here, I'd rather be out in the city than in this lab.

He scraped
the mash out of his mortar and into the small cauldron in which he intended to
brew the potion. Using a ladle Kale acquired from the kitchen, Pancras poured
water into the cauldron and stirred it with a spoon.
Hopefully no one in the
kitchen will come looking for these implements.
He rubbed some dried
lavender leaves between his hands, crumbling them into the cauldron. He didn't
have a means of boiling the mixture yet, apart from setting the cauldron on the
hearth, and that sort of uneven and irregular heat was not suitable for the
delicate art of alchemical brewing. Potions required steady, even heating or
they became unstable. Sometimes instability resulted in a gooey, unusable
sludge or volatile, explosive mixtures.
I don’t think Gavril would want to
drink one of those, much as I might like him to.

As he let
the mixture steep, he changed into his black and silver robes. Each set of his
robes was worn out from months of neglect and abuse on the road. He had long
since used up all the mending supplies he brought with him.
If I ever travel
with an entourage, a seamstress will be the first person I hire.
Buying new
robes was a priority once the palace gates opened. He heard rapping, tapping at
the doors of their suite.
Hopefully that will be Lady Milena with the news I
desire to hear.

By the time
he finished dressing and entered the parlor, Kale had already invited the
knight in. The corners of her mouth turned downward in a frown, yet Kale was
almost hopping in glee.

Lady Milena
looked up as Pancras crossed the room. "I have been informed the gates are
open. I suppose you'll want to leave immediately?"

"As a
matter of fact, yes. I am ready now." Pancras checked to make sure he had
sufficient coin in his money pouch.

"I will
meet you by the entrance, then. I need a heavier cloak. It's colder than Aita's
Purgatory out there. There's talk of dogs stuck to signposts."

Kale
scratched his head. "Why do dogs stick to signposts when it's cold?"

"They
don't, Kale." Rubbing his hands together, Pancras kneeled before the fire.
The cold air permeated the parlor, following Lady Milena when she arrived.
"It's a joke."