Mira and Bandit sat together in the captain’s quarters in the Unseen Blade as the sun crept higher above the horizon. It was early morning on Twoday. Mira stretched and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“So, what’s our next move?” Bandit asked.
“I think we should watch that postern gate of Duke Gabria’s mansion and see who comes and goes today. Tomorrow’s Threeday, so we can work up a strategy and read or rest some while it rains,” Mira said.
“But what if we see someone interesting today?” Bandit persisted.
“I’ll give you dibs on following them,” Mira said with a sigh.
“Yay!” Bandit jumped up from her seated position on the bed and did a little bouncing dance. “I hope, I hope, I hope we see the bad guys today!” Bandit sang in her musical little voice.
“We need to find out how the Xerith are affecting the king. We need proof,” Mira said.
“Yeah, yeah. Proof. Got it.”
“The two I found last night are part of this, but there are probably more of them doing the same thing. Spreading rumors is probably only a part of what’s going on here. There are going to be Xerith in key places ready to swoop in if they’re planning to oust the king, which is the whole point of a propaganda campaign. That’s what I would do. Make people believe the king is crazy. Better yet, have the crazy king kill or discredit his own heirs! That must be it!” Mira said, greatly worried.
“Oh, that’s so devious,” Bandit said as she stopped bouncing. She held her little hands in front of her mouth. “Duke Gabria of Blackrock must be the next in line after the king’s sons.”
“There’s more to this. General Redfield already told me that he thinks the king’s brother, Duke Gabria, was undermining the king’s authority. How would he know that unless he had spies of his own?” Mira thought furiously. “Whoever was going to make a move against the rightful king would need to have control of the military, wouldn’t they? What if the general’s part of the plot somehow?”
“I’ll bet you’re onto something,” Bandit said. “Wait. If the general’s part of it, then he knows who you are and that you’re a threat to their plans.”
Mira had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. That would be really bad. She hoped the general was a good guy.
“Maybe I won’t deliver news of our discoveries to General Redfield after all. What do you think about keeping an eye on the general today?” Mira asked.
“All right, but what will you be doing?” Bandit asked.
“I’ll keep an eye on that postern gate at the Duke’s mansion. Maybe I’ll take a look inside and see if the Duke left anything incriminating lying around. It bothers me that the general mentioned Duke Gabria by name, though. If the general’s in on this, then the Duke’s estate could be a big booby trap that would be too tempting for me to pass up,” Mira mused.
“If the general’s in on it, then you could be shot just walking out the door,” Bandit mentioned.
“It could be dangerous for both of us.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t know about me yet.” Bandit blew her a raspberry.
“The Xerith have been in the spy business for a thousand years, Bandit. I wouldn’t count on it.”
“Nuts. You have a point there.”
“The only thing we know for sure is that Duke Gabria’s been bad-mouthing the king. Let’s just see where our investigations take us today,” Mira said. “Let’s meet here at sundown and share what we’ve learned.”
-----
I’d almost grown out of my old armor, and I wanted something new that would be recognizable. Something that made a statement. More importantly, I needed armor that would stand up to an attack from something as big as an earth wyrm.
Concentrating intently on the telekinetic magic I was using, I rotated the front portion of my new greave with gentle mental commands, inspecting the glowing yellow adamantium with a critical eye, which I had to do while infusing the greave with the protective magics required to repulse heavy blows. Using magic, not tools, I made a couple of hinges, clasps, and pins for it out of the same lump of adamantium that I’d made the rear portion of the greave from a few moments before. Keeping all the pieces of the greave hot enough to be malleable, polished enough to look nice, crystallized enough to retain its maximum durability, and retaining as much protective magic as possible was like juggling all thirty-two things at once. Then moved all the pieces out of the forge briefly so I could compare the new pieces to the old ones I’d forged out of steel. My eye was very critical, but this time I was satisfied with the slightly larger shape and thickness of the new pieces.
Moving the pieces back into the forge to keep them hot and malleable, I mentally prepared myself to combine them all, reviewing exactly what I’d have to do and when. I would need to put the pieces together quickly but still keep the hinges and pins separate to keep them from welding themselves together. My first attempts at this didn’t go so well, but I’d learned a lot.
Starting to feel too warm again, I strengthened the magic that kept the heat from burning me to a crisp as I worked, then focused my will on the task at hand. Very carefully, I channeled the forge’s incredible heat to weld the hinges to the greaves, then put the hinge pins through, then put a smooth flare at each end of the pins to keep them from falling out, all while keeping the flow of protective magic flowing into all the pieces. Then I did the same thing with the clasp pieces and buckles, then removed the greave from the forge.
As the adamantium started to cool, I levitated the leather straps I had enspelled to the outer casing and fit them over the rivets, mending the large cuts in the leather to fit tightly against the rivets. This held them firmly in place, all done while protecting the leather from the heat. I held the pieces in the grip of my magic carefully as the adamantium cooled and took on its bluish metallic color, locking the metal in place. Unlike steel, which needed to be heated and quenched to harden effectively, adamantium needed to cool and crystalize on its own. I wished I knew of a way to make the greaves stay closed with metallic pieces, but using leather straps and buckles was the only technique I knew about. I admired the rolled edges near the top and bottom of the greaves. The entire piece was smooth, polished, and without any flaws I could see, so I locked the protective enchantments in place permanently.
My stomach told me it was time for breakfast. I rubbed my eyes with fatigue. Tomorrow was Threeday, and because it would be raining, Mira would probably be reading. That would give me plenty of time to sleep. I put the finishing touches on the chain shirt last night, and I couldn’t wait to give it to her. At the same time, that meant I had to actually give it to her, which meant I had to face her. I’d rather have faced the demon from the ruins near Seacrown again.
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I pondered when I should go to her and what I should say while the new greave cooled. With the pieces securely set, I carefully placed the new greave on the anvil so it wouldn’t fall off and melt the stone floor. The anvil was made of adamantium as well, which was the only possible material to make an anvil from when you wanted to make an adamantium legion. Hot adamantium would have melted steel like butter.
Then I picked up the pieces of my steel armor with telekinetic magic and fastened them to the nice new gambeson I’d recently purchased. It was impossible to arm myself without magic, and I wondered again how I had ever come so far. Doing this seemed so normal now, even though I’d only practiced arming myself a couple of times. I knew what Mira was up to, and when she was most likely to do it, so I had to be ready in advance.
With Mordon’s helm under my arm, I walked to the storage rooms where I’d found all the food. I grabbed a loaf of bread, some cheese and some steak I’d cooked up very inexpertly and devoured my meal there. I washed it down with some cool water, loaded my plate with some more bread and cheese, then made my way to the throne room. As was my custom these days, I put my gauntlets on and kept my shield and mace close at hand as I concentrated on watching Mira’s doings with the Throne.
I’d be ready to help Mira at a moment’s notice if she got into trouble, which I thought was imminent since she’d discovered the Xerith, but I thought I’d put off speaking with her until I had slept some tomorrow, if at all possible. I was smelly, grimy, unshaven, and haggard looking, I’d bet. It was better to wait until I looked my best if I wanted to make the best impression when I gave her the armor I’d made.
-----
Mira watched as the two men left Duke Gabria’s estate. She was pretty sure these were the same two Xerith that were masquerading as Andros and Methuen last night even though they didn’t look like them now. Andros was slightly taller and walked with a gait that favored his left leg. Mira kept her distance even though she was invisible, and eventually they walked into a rear entrance of the Temple of the Overgod. She should have guessed they’d be going there. Where better to hide a cabal of assassins than at a church? The Xerith must have found it easy to control the hearts and minds of the people through this church, also.
As Mira patiently waited on her rooftop perch, she thought about what Elle would think of this place when she found out about it, and Mira couldn’t wait to tell her. She thought a reenactment of the events of Seacrown would be most likely. When she got through with this counterespionage mission, Mira vowed to come back here with her friends and put an end to this charade. Mira wasn’t a very religious person herself, but she hated those who took advantage of others, and there was no way a bunch of assassins would be good for the people here.
A man walked out of the small rear entrance of the temple complex. He looked as plain as a person could be and dressed in rough clothing. Thinking about it, Mira guessed that this was the Xerith equivalent of a regular person pulling a cowl down low over their head. No one would look at this man twice. The man walked uphill towards the palace, which made Mira think this was the thing she was waiting for. Mira silently followed on the rooftops, cloaked by invisibility. Because the incline was steeper, she had to leap from the roof of one house, across the street, and then to the exterior wall of the house on the next block. This slowed her down a little bit, and she almost missed it when the man ducked into an alley on his left. Mira followed from above and saw his bearing, clothes and demeanor change halfway through the alley.
To her surprise, the man had transformed into Chamberlain Ilsalen. The chamberlain walked uphill to the palace and casually strolled through the gate without being challenged by the guards. Mira entered a little way behind him and crept along the ceilings, watching. From what she remembered of the chamberlain when she watched the palace previously, he acted exactly like she expected him to. Either he really was the chamberlain, or he was a very good actor. He used people’s names when he greeted them, so he must be the real deal.
Chamberlain Ilsalen made his way to the royal wing and to the kitchens. He inspected the food being prepared for the royal family first, then the plates and utensils. He took a lantern hanging nearby and unlocked the door to a narrow staircase down to what looked like a wine cellar. Mira followed carefully, clinging to the ceiling on all fours in case someone else used the stairs suddenly. She watched as he selected a bottle of wine from one of the racks on the walls then walked over to a shelf that held goblets and glasses. The king’s personal wine goblet was there. It was made of gold with amethysts inlaid into the stem and base.
Instead of leaving immediately, the chamberlain carefully looked up the stairs. Mira froze. He was standing directly beneath her, and his head was only about three feet away. She didn’t even dare to breathe. To her immense relief, he didn’t sense her presence. The chamberlain turned his back to the door and began softly intoning the words to a magic spell. He then started saying bad things about the royal family, and those things appeared as vapors from his mouth, which flowed directly into the king’s goblet. He finished speaking and nodded in satisfaction as all the vapors were absorbed into the surface of the empty goblet itself. Then he picked up the wine bottle and took both items up the stairs. Mira didn’t move a muscle in the pitch darkness until he had been gone for a full two minutes.
Finally, she knew how the king was being enspelled.
Mira waited until the sounds of preparing food in the kitchen died down, then crept to the locked door. Pulling a pair of lock picks from her vest, she deftly worked the tumblers until she heard the click of the lock. Listening again to make sure no one was right outside the door, she opened the door enough to squeeze her way out then shut it again. No one had seen her. Keeping her breathing soft, Mira crawled up to the ceiling and snuck back out of the palace.
When Mira got back to the Unseen Blade, Bandit was already there in the cabin on the bed waiting for her.
“Oh, that was soooooo boring!” Bandit exclaimed the moment she saw Mira. “Please, no more stake outs for the time being, all right?”
“So, your time with the general was unproductive?” Mira asked.
“Yep. He doesn’t do much of anything. He just walks around inspecting things all day.”
“Well, did he meet with anyone?” Mira prodded.
“Nope. Not one person.”
“Not even a captain?” Mira put her hands on her hips and tilted her head a bit.
“No one.”
“How long were you really there before you gave up?’ Mira calmly asked.
Bandit put her hands behind her back and smoothed out the sheet with one bare foot while she got a sheepish expression on her face. She tried to hide her eyes behind her copper curls. “Oh, I was there for a long, long time.”
“You weren’t even there until lunch time, were you?”
“Um… Not so much, no,” Bandit almost whispered.
“The fate of the kingdom’s at stake, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. The fate of the kingdom and all. It was just so boring!”
Mira should’ve known that Bandit couldn’t sit still that long. Pixies couldn’t be trusted to do anything that took patience. They were very chaotic little creatures that needed a lot of intellectual stimulation, hence their propensity to play jokes on the unwary.
“All right, Bandit. It’s no big deal. We’ll have to think of another way to determine his loyalties. Now how would we do that?”
“Do you suppose he’d tell us if we asked him nicely?” Bandit asked.
“No, I really don’t think so.”
“I know! We could hold him down and tickle him until he broke!” Bandit exclaimed happily, showing her more childlike qualities.
Mira laughed. “Not likely. We need to trick him somehow.”
“You could disguise yourself with an illusion to be a friend of his,” Bandit said.
“That would work until he touched me or figured out that it was an illusion. Besides, who do we know that’s a friend of his?” Mira asked.
They both sat there on the bed for a few minutes with their heads bowed in thought.
“I think I’ve got it,” Mira said. “We could deliver a short, ambiguous note asking for counsel, then see where he goes to meet up.”
Bandit snapped her little fingers. “That’s it. That’ll work for sure. Uh, how’s it going to work?”
Mira went to the little desk attached to the wall and opened a drawer, removing an ink jar, a quill, and a small piece of paper. Making her handwriting as masculine as she knew how, she wrote the words “Developments in Stonekeep. We meet tonight.”
“What do you think, Bandit? Vague enough?”
“Oh, yeah. That’ll get a reaction for sure if he’s a bad guy.” Bandit clapped and wore a big grin on her petite face. No doubt she was storing this in her mind for later use. Now they just had to figure out how to not get caught.
