Perilous Travels (The Southern Continent Series Book 2) (17 page)

“Are you ready?” he asked Grace as he raised his flute, following her use of her wand to amplify their ability to project their music to the crowd.  “What would you like to sing first?” he asked her.

“Can you play ‘My Love Will Not Give Me Love’?” she suggested.

Grange shook his head.  “Let’s give them something jolly for the first song, something to lift their spirits,” he suggested.

“Sure,” Grace replied listlessly.  “How about “When the Sun Rises in the West’?”

Grange grinned at the song about a girl’s resistance to going to a dance with a homely boy, and the many excuses and ruses she uses to put him off, until he gives up and she belatedly discovers his wonderful, unrecognized value.  He began to play the opening bars of the tune, then gave the song to Grace to sing.

The stanzas about the increasingly outrageous demands and excuses of the girl flowed across the valley floor.  The audience laughed, uproariously at times, as the pair of musicians paced the way through all ten stanzas of the song.

When they finished and received warm applause Grace suggested a tender love song, her spirits evidently rising.  Grange’s flute offered the notes and Grace followed with the lyrics.  She seemed in a more emotional mood that afternoon, Grange concluded as he played his flute while watching and listening to her, and she seemed to transmit her emotions powerfully through her singing.

They continued to perform several more songs, until Grace’s voice began to grow scratchy.

“We have finished for today, but we will come back again,” she told the audience.   There was silence, then a scattering of boos as well as some applause.

“Those who listened to us last time, those who are healed, should meet us at the foot of the dock,” she told the crowd.  “It will be the turn today for some of you to leave the island with us.  The rest of you will leave soon – sooner and healthier than you had expected,” she assured them.

“We better hurry back to the dock.  This could grow more complicated than I realized,” she placed her hand on Grange’s shoulder and leaned up to speak into his ear.

He nodded, as the audience clapped more enthusiastically for the two of them, then the apprentices turned and walked rapidly back to the dock.

There were a few people awaiting them already, people who must have taken shortcuts or who had left the performance early to arrive at the dock.

“Who here is the aunt to the Queen?” Grace asked as she and Grange stepped down the last few feet of the trail from the hillside.

“I am, and these are my servants and family,” one elderly woman indicated a foursome of women with her.

“I’ll walk them to the boat and have them seated,” Grace told Grange.  “You bring the next group of healthy ones that arrive.  We’ll leave as soon as we have a reasonable load,” she said.

Grange watched the small group slowly walk down the short dock, and within minutes he had seated enough others to fill the boat.  He and Grace made sincere promises to the other healthy former lepers who had arrived too late for seats, and they left the teary-faced people behind as the rowers backed the boat away from the dock and began stroking their way back to the city harbor.

The sky was turning dusky as the boat arrived at the docks of the royal island, and guards immediately helped moor the ship, then offered assistance to those who disembarked from the boat there, both the former lepers as well as the wizards.  The boat left quietly, its mission complete.  Grange wondered what the members of the crew thought about carrying the people who had previously carried the horrible disease, but his question was lost when he saw Shaylee standing at the end of the dock with her mother and the queen, a royal welcoming committee waiting to embrace the returned and healthy member of the royal family.

Bartar and Astel were standing in the background of the royal group as well, Grange briefly noted.  As he followed the healthy survivors up the dock, he saw them enveloped in a group hug by the queen and many others of the royal party.  Grace slipped through the group to join the others from Palmland, but Grange did not manage to pass through before the hugging and crying mass of family members cut him off from leaving the dock.

As he stood there, his eyes were fixed on Shaylee, and she in turned stared back at him, both of them smiling, waiting for the chance to join one another when the others began to disperse.

“Young wizards, approach,” the Queen suddenly commanded, before Grange and Shaylee could consummate their reunion.

Grange turned his eyes to the Queen, then worked his way towards her, as did Grace.  The pair of them arrived at the same spot in front of the Queen and bowed and curtsied together.

“Your miracle is placed here before me to see by the light of the setting sun,” the sovereign told the pair, as she gestured towards her aunt.  “I owe you great thanks for what you’ve done for her, and so many others.  Let us go inside to sup together, and tell me what great things you believe you can do next to help the residents of Kilau.”

She turned and began to walk towards the palace, as a host of guards and servants came to assist the newly healed lepers, taking those who were from the royal family along towards the dinner, while leading the other healed lepers off to another part of the palace before sending them back to the mainland to return to their own lives.

Grange broke away from Grace, and threaded his way over to where Shaylee was strolling slowly with Layreen, her mother.

“My lady,” Grange momentarily paused to say to Layreen, then he turned and gathered Shaylee up in a warm, tight, enveloping hug, one that she returned just as enthusiastically.

“I’ve missed you,” she told him softly.  “It’s grand to see you again.”

“I’ve missed you.  I’ve tried to look for you.  When I went to parties, I hoped I could find you,” he answered.

“I’ve looked for you too!  Of course, you’re a little easier to spot in a crowd than I am,” she teased him for his fair complexion.  “But I heard that you were going to parties, with a pair of pretty girls,” she momentarily pouted, then laughed.

“Those are my sparring partners,” Grange answered hastily.

“Is that what you call it?” Layreen spoke at last.

“Never mind,” she laughed at the confused look on his face as they entered the palace doors behind the others.  “We’re glad to see you here, especially under such auspicious circumstances.”

The three of them chatted about the things they had been doing, ignoring the others as they walked along the hallways, until they came to a dining room, and Grange found that he was to be seated with the Queen and the Palmlanders and a few others at the head table, and was directed away from his friends.

He felt good about the friendliness and affection he had shared with Shaylee during the short walk.  But instead of sitting and talking with her all through dinner, he found himself sitting near Grace, next to a man who seemed like an important advisor to the Queen, and not far from the Queen herself.

Food was served by servants in copious amounts, and Grange devoted much time to eating, with little time for speaking to the strangers around him, except to answer questions, until he learned that the man next to him was a trader.

“I met a girl at a dance at the palace.  She was here with her grandfather, and she said her father was a trader,” Grange broached the topic.  “Her name was Asper.”

“She is my daughter,” the man said pleasantly.  “I am Asloe, the trader,” he introduced himself.  “She mentioned meeting a foreigner at the dance.”

“So you wizards can do great things for your patrons?” the queen spoke up just then, looking from Grace to Grange.

“Many of the royal courts on the mainland keep their own wizards or sorcerers to help solve difficult problems,” Bartar spoke up.

“We have not been familiar with this practice, but after seeing the marvelous miracle we have witnessed today, I can appreciate the value of such a position,” the Queen said.

“How many wizards does your king keep in his court?” she asked.

“Our king has one master wizard, and now two apprentices, these two young people,” Bartar replied.

“I would like to have a wizard in my court. May I have one of these?” the queen asked.

Grange’s eyes widened at the unexpected request, and his head snapped around to stare at Grace, who looked equally shocked by the question.  He turned then to look at Shaylee, who sat at a distant table, unaware of the topic under discussion.  She noticed his attention and smiled at him.

Bartar looked at the two apprentices, noting the expressions on their faces.

“Your majesty, that is something we can discuss,” he replied smoothly.  “I would like to talk with them first, and then also find out how our treaty negotiations are going,” he said.

“That is fair,” the Queen conceded.  “Please have your talk with the youngsters, and bring me a copy of your treaty,” she requested.

“I’ll gladly do so, majesty,” Bartar said smoothly.

The dinner came to an end soon after, as the Queen stood.  She left, trailed by many others.  “Thank you for your marvelous rescue of our relatives,” she told Grange and Grace individually as she passed by each of them.  “I will remember the debt we owe you.”

After she left the room, Bartar signaled for the two apprentices to join him.  “We need to get back to the embassy,” he said excitedly.  “I want to have the treaty proposal ready as quickly as possible.”

“I thought we might stay here a little longer to talk to the members of the court,” Grange resisted.  He had counted on time to see Shaylee.

“We’ll be back, very soon, I assure you,” Bartar replied.  “I believe we’ll be coming back very often.”  He motioned for Astel to take the lead, and the group began their departure.  Grange looked over at where Shaylee was with her mother, talking to other members of the court.

He veered over to see them with quick steps.  “I have to go now, but I think I’ll be back soon,” he told them.

“We’ll look forward to seeing you again Grange.  We want to hear all about what you’ve done with yourself here in the big city,” Layreen answered.  She offered him her hand, and he quickly bowed over it as he held it.

“It’s wonderful to see you!” Shaylee said enthusiastically, holding both his hands in hers.  “I hope I’ll see you at a party soon, if not here,” she told him.

“I know we’ll get together soon,” he assured her.  His fellow travelers from Palmland were leaving the room, he noted.  “Goodbye!” he squeezed her hands, then loped over to the doorway to catch the others.

“Who is she?” Grace asked as soon as he caught the others at the next doorway.

“She’s the girl who pulled me out of the sea when I was swept overboard,” Grange answered.  “She’s the one I lived with until I met you here.”

“So you would have friends here in Kilau, a reason to want to stay here as the court wizard of the Queen?” Astel asked.

“I might,” Grange agreed.  He was torn by the hope of spending permanent time with Shaylee at the court, as he realized how happy he had been to see her.  Yet a part of him reminded him that the threat of a battle with demons still haunted his future prospects, though he’d seen no signs of demons, nor heard much from the jewels lately.

“I’d like to be the court wizard too,” Grace spoke up.

“Wouldn’t you rather go back to Palmland with the rest of us?” Astel immediately asked the girl.

“I could be the court wizard here.  I would serve the Queen directly, and use my abilities.  I could create my own hall of apprentices,” Grace answered.  “That would be a dream come true.  Back there, I’ll just be the girl apprentice again.”

“We’ll talk it over,” Bartar told them as they stepped onto the dock.  “There’s a great deal to consider, but the most important part is that we have a treaty ready for the queen and her advisors to take a serious look at,” he reminded them.  “That’s what we’ve been sent here to accomplish.”

They sat in the small passenger ferry that Bartar had hired for them, and they returned to the mainland, then walked through the streets.

“Let’s meet at breakfast tomorrow to discuss this proposition that a wizard be stationed here to serve the queen,” the ambassador said when they entered the front hall of the embassy.  “The two of you can think it over tonight and bring your reflections down to the table in the morning.

“Or back to the table after visiting the armory, in your case,” he said with a smile to Grange.

The two apprentices looked at one another, as Astel looked back and forth from one to the other.

“I’m going upstairs now,” Grange said after the moment of silent examination.

“Me too,” Grace spoke, and she followed Grange up the first flight of stairs, and then up the second flight.

“May I come up and talk with you about this?” she asked as Grange started to go up to his fourth floor retreat.

He stopped and turned to look at her in the darkness.  A moment’s thought came to him, and he reached into his pocket, pulled out his pebble, and spoke the word – “Fywiogi”.

The pebble gently began to glow, and increased its luminosity until it cast a warm glow upon the two of them.  Grange turned and held it in front of him to light the dark staircase.  “Come on,” he said.

The pebble glowed steadily as they reached the tight turn where the stairs doubled back on their climb upward, and it still dispersed its light as they reached the fourth floor and went down the hall.