A sorcerers rings, p.35
A Sorcerer's Rings, page 35
part #4 of Song of Sorcery Series
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Ricky and Hemo took Loria’s body to the bathroom while Siria looked on. Once the body was in the bathtub, they closed the door. The doorknob jiggled.
“Where is Loria?” a voice said. Ricky didn’t remember Anna Benicci’s voice, but he couldn’t think of anyone else who would have addressed Pira like that.
“She left my apartments,” Pira said. “That is all I know. Could you tell me where Mirano Bespa is? I twisted my ankle, and it needs to be fixed.”
“He is where you cannot go, so get used to the pain.”
“You need to tell me! I am the princess.” Pira said.
“You’ll soon be nothing.”
“I doubt that,” Pira said, as she cast the compulsion spell on the woman.
“What have you done?” the Tower sorcerer said.
“Where is Mirano Bespa?”
“Compulsion. Where did you learn how to do that? How did you get free from your own spell?” Anna paused for a moment. “Tell me!”
“You haven’t answered my question, yet.”
There was another spell. “You are protected, too?”
“You haven’t answered my question, yet. Where is Mirano Bespa?”
After another pause, the sorcerer answered, “Down in the South Tower. One floor up from the bottom. Don’t go down there, or you will die.”
“From the booby traps?”
“How did you know about those?”
“Loria told me.” Pira thought for a bit. “Do not cast a spell in this apartment.”
“How did you know to say that?”
“When I mentioned Loria, I remembered she could cast a spell, even under compulsion. Look at the wall behind you.”
Benicci turned to look at the scorch marks. “She cast a burning ring? Good girl,” another pause, “but you are alive!”
Princess Pira narrowed her eyes. “And she isn’t.”
“That is because I protected her,” Ricky said, walking through Pira’s bedroom to join the pair.
“You!” Benicci shook her head, her face turning red with rage. “How did you get in here?”
“I walked,” Ricky said and turned to Pira. “Ask her about the traps.” He pulled the drapes down and used the drapery cord to tie Benicci’s arms behind her while she struggled against him. He ended up tossing her on a chair.
“Where are the traps between here and Mirano Bespa? We know about the sterilization program,” Pira said.
Benicci struggled with her bonds while Siria, Ciara, and Hemo joined Ricky and Pira.
“Hemo. Just another weakling Green,” she said derisively.
“Where are the traps?” Pira said more loudly.
“Why should I tell you? Leon Crespi isn’t under compulsion anymore because he has joined forces with us.”
“You lie!” Pira said.
“He hasn’t been under a spell for months. We had suppressed his fertility for decades. He came to see us as an ally rather than an enemy, after we just discovered that a woman is pregnant with the new heir. Now we have no need to poison the king. As soon as he is born, you’ll be out of a job, and quickly put down.” Benicci sneered.
“The traps,” Pira said.
Benicci sang a song. Ricky reestablished his shield, but the spell wasn’t directed at him. The woman slumped in her chair, and a dribble of blood from her mouth stained her robe.
Hemo ran to her. “She is dead.”
“I suppose we have to accept what Loria gave us,” Ciara said.
“What about her final words?” Hemo said. “About you not being an heir?”
Pira took a deep breath. “Liberating, if true, in more ways than one,” she said. “Let’s get the captives. I know a less scenic, but more private route to the South Tower.”
~~~
Chapter Forty-Two
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P ira went to the opposite wall and touched a decorative molding. A door popped out. “Let’s go,” she said, as she plunged into the dark passage.
As soon as Ciara closed the door, sorcerous lights popped up. “I feel left out,” she said.
Ricky smiled and followed Pira through the twisting corridors. It reminded him of traveling through the Tossan palace. They started to descend down rickety stairway after rickety stairway until Pira stopped them.
“I don’t think the sorceress knew about this passageway, but we have to proceed with caution. We are about to enter the South Tower on the level above Mirano,” Pira said.
“Hemo, can you detect spells? It’s something I never properly learned.”
“I’ll go first. Everyone has done more than me. I know a spell I’ll teach everyone here.” Hemo claimed his spell put a sparkle on enchanted objects. “I used this to evaluate student projects,” he said. “Any Second Ring sorcerer can do it.”
“I never learned,” Siria muttered.
“Nor I,” Ricky said, grinning.
Hemo hardened a wooden step with a spell he knew. Each person used the spell that Hemo had taught them to see the sparkle, so they would recognize it. To Ricky, it looked more like a glaze, a thin sheet of ice after a freezing rain.
“Now, let’s proceed.” Hemo sang the spell every few steps. They stopped at the end of the corridor. To their right was a door. Ricky could see a rim of frost on the latch.
“We can eliminate the spell?” he asked.
Hemo shrugged. “I don’t know how to remove the spell of another sorcerer. I doubt if you can.”
“Everyone get back up the stairs a bit. I’m going to move the latch with magic,” Ricky said.
He found the right resonance and levitated the latch and moved the door open. He poked his head out the door. “It’s clear. Don’t touch the latch,” Ricky said.
They all slid through the opening.
“Now it’s down the same way.” Ricky led the way this time using the spell as far as he could. The bottom tread had the gloss of a spell. “Don’t use the last step.”
“I’ll stay here,” Ciara said. “At least if anyone comes down, I can fight them. I can’t see the traps,” she said.
“I’ll stay with her.” Siria moved back a step.
The two women stayed on the stairway and moved up closer to their exit.
Ricky found the tiles were checkered with spells. “I’m going to fly like a hummingbird.”
He linked with Merry first.
Merry, we are nearly outside your door. Tell us when we are in front of it.
I will. Be careful, she said.
I can see the traps.
He sang deflection and lifted up and floated towards the cells. He heard Merry’s voice before he saw her face through the small wire grate, and Ricky soon had Merry’s door opened.
“Stay inside. I will see to Mirano.”
Mirano was asleep on a filthy bed. He was a mess. Ricky picked him up and floated out of the room and up the stairway to Siria.
“My Mirano,” she said.
Mirano stirred, but didn’t wake.
Ricky closed and locked Bespa’s cell door.
“Excuse me, but I will have to lift you up.” He did so. “You are much lighter than Bespa.”
“Well, thank you, Ricky,” Merry said, kissing him on the cheek.
He deposited her with Pira and Hemo before returning to lock her door. They returned to the passageway. Carrying Mirano up the stairs and through the passages took a long time, but soon they reached the door to Pira’s bedroom.
Pira put her ear to the door. “Voices,” she whispered.
Ricky joined her and listened to the conversation. He didn’t recognize any of the speakers.
“Burn the bodies,” a voice said. “Have you checked Pira’s tunnel?”
“Empty. They’ve probably already left the warehouse,” an older, gruffer voice said.
“Then circle her safehouse. They will be holed up in there. Take a detachment of guards to the Pecco woman’s house and have it searched. I’ll be in my study. We won’t wait for the baby to be born. I want Pira eliminated.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” the gruff voice said.
“Don’t question your king,” Leon said.
The room went silent after a door closed. Ricky put up a shield before opening the door.
“They are gone. Now we can’t go back to the warehouse. We will have to find another way out of the castle,” Ricky said.
“There won’t be anyone at the warehouse. They are all surrounding my townhouse, but we can’t tarry,” Pira said.
“We are both targets of the king’s men. We can’t risk such a thing,” Ricky said.
Pira shook her head in disagreement. “Trust me. I know how the guards work,” she said, as she was the first down the ladder that led to the warehouse. In the middle of their flight, she sighed. “I thought this was a secret. Lesson learned.”
“Lots of lessons today, for everyone,” Ciara said.
“I have a place to go,” Siria said, “a friend’s house where I can take Mirano.”
“I’ll accompany you, since you can’t carry him yourself,” Hemo said.
Ciara cleared her throat. “I guess I’m on my own for now. Where can I find you?”
“Naparra or Applia?” Ricky said.
“Applia,” a few of them said together. Ricky guessed he was the only one in favor of heading south.
“I am overruled,” Ricky said.
“That’s settled then,” Hemo said. “I will see you again in Applia. I can teach Siria and Bespa to fly.”
“Ciara, you’ll have to find a horse and travel by yourself. Fewer people will be looking for you than for any of us.” Ricky said.
“I can do that. I have to stay away from Mother’s house for the next while, anyway.”
Ricky reached the closet first, looking out at an empty warehouse.
“You were right, Pira. Maybe we can have a quick lesson on flying,” Ricky had them find the right resonance and explained how to express their will using deflection as the key element. In a few minutes, they all bobbed in the air, even a delighted Merry. “Try lifting Mirano,” he said to Siria and Hemo.
They couldn’t hold on to him and keep their focus.
“Try a stretcher,” Pira said. She looked around and slumped. “There isn’t one here.”
“There is a door,” Ciara pointed out.
Ricky thought about the problem. “When you exercise your will, include Mirano on the door.”
Hemo smiled. “Very good.”
They finally lifted Mirano in the air and slid from side to side in the large space. “We can float him with the spell and carry him to the place Siria knows without attracting too much attention. Who knows when he’ll wake up?”
Ricky tossed them a coil of rope piled in the corner of other refuse, along with a tarp. “Perhaps you should tie him down, so he doesn’t roll off, and cover him with this while you walk around Sealio.”
Pira looked outside. “The sun is going down. I think we should get out of this place before King Leon’s guards return.”
Hemo and Siria left with their comatose burden first. Ricky was left looking at the three remaining women. “I’m going, too,” Ciara said, heading in a different direction.
Ricky looked at Merry and Pira. “We might as well leave, too. We will ascend above the towers and move east.”
They nodded. Merry went first, followed by Pira, when Ricky saw them safely away from the castle, he ascended, as well. They had flown for a few miles outside the city walls when Ricky pointed down to the ground.
“How did you fare?” he asked Merry.
“I can’t go for much longer than I just did,” Merry said.
Pira just grinned. “You did better than I expected!”
“Then we will hop our way to a village off the main road,” Ricky said. He looked at Pira. “You left your spying costume back at the castle.”
“I can always get another,” Pira said, smoothing out her dress.
“We can get Merry to Applia and then head to Naparra if you need to hide,” Ricky said. “I guess you can officially consider yourself an ex-princess.”
“I’m not going to hide,” Pira said. “We have to move on.”
“And lick our wounds.” Ricky paused, trying to put his thoughts into words. “I misinterpreted the situation in Sealio. I was out to save King Leon from the sterilization spell, but that wasn’t needed. I’ve only put you in more peril, Pira.”
“Nonsense,” she said. “I’m not in any more peril than I would have been. Sorceress Benicci was getting ready to kill me. That’s why I’m so intent on having alternatives. I’m wrong about things often enough. Ciara would agree with that. It isn’t just because things can go wrong, but it’s also because facts have a way of shifting like they did with my cousin. We have to act on what we think we know. If we don’t how can we possibly get out of bed in the morning.”
“I got out of a miserable bed this morning, and now I’m free, Ricky. You saved Mirano Bespa and me because you reacted to changing facts. Now is not the time to go to Naparra, even I can see that,” Merry said.
Ricky thought for a moment and nodded his head. He could rest well enough in Applia. “You are now an exile like me. Won’t you miss living in Sealio?”
Pira sighed. “I will miss the experience,” she took his hand, “but I’m looking forward to what is coming, and whatever the future holds, it is not going to happen in Naparra. So what do you think we will do now?”
“The Order is no longer intact,” Ricky said. “Saganet is reduced to hiding. Sippa exposed every Sealian member. Bariani has been discredited. The Order didn’t save you from King Leon. We have to fight back. The world can’t allow the Botoyans to rule again. I know better than most that the time was filled with misery.”
“And King Leon has been tricked into selling his kingdom for an heir. Sorcerer Benicci boasted that the sorcerers never told him they had laid a sterilization spell on him, from what that sorceress said. They are taking credit for his sudden fertility. He’s just a tool. The sorcerers won’t let him live once they have truly taken over. He must see that” Merry said.
“My former guardian,” Pira said, “is a very greedy man. He is interested in power and often turns a blind eye to consequences.” She took Ricky’s arm. “I am, like Ricky, a traitor, as far as King Leon is concerned, but loyal to Paranty. I will fight to the death to save it.”
“Surely it won’t come to that,” Merry said.
Pira and Merry were right. He sighed and took a deep breath. “Lives will be lost before Kerrothia is peaceful again. I suppose we can’t rest, even for a season. We have a lot of work to do. I can only hope Duke Noacci won’t change his mind and turn us over to King Leon. We will have to fight, even if we are toothless.”
“He won’t,” Pira giggled, “and the Order isn’t dead. There was more help than you might realize getting Mirano and Merry out of the castle and us out of Sealio.” She put her arms around his neck and laughed. “It is time for you to know that Dino Noacci, Duke of Applia and Naparra is the real head of the Order of the Curled Fist, and we aren’t toothless at all.”
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If you liked A Sorcerer’s Rings, please leave a review where you bought the book. I would greatly appreciate it. A glimpse at the next Song of Sorcery book, A Sorcerer’s Fist, follows.
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An excerpt from
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Song of Sorcery – Book Five
Final Book in the Series
Chapter One
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M erry needed a breather from the flying. Pira and Ricky agreed, and the trio stepped into a little inn far from the main road between Sealio and Applia to spend the night. They were far ahead of any pursuit, and that pursuit would likely not think to search the out-of-the-way village.
They walked into the small common room.
“Do you have any rooms available?” Ricky asked.
The innkeeper nodded his head. “Four. One of them is filled with junk, so I guess you have three to choose from. They each have two beds, so what is your pleasure?”
“Two rooms,” Ricky said. “One for my sister and our aunt and another for me,” Ricky said. He put a Parantian silver coin on the counter. “We will be back on the road in the morning.”
The innkeeper snatched the coin. ‘Suit yourself. I eat breakfast right at dawn. You can join me as part of your fee. No horses?”
Ricky shook his head. “We walk fast,” he said.
“Suit yourself,” the innkeeper repeated. Ricky wondered how many times the innkeeper said the phrase in a day. He looked at them suspiciously but gave them simple keys to their rooms.
They sat down in the common room. “Can we get something to eat?” Merry asked.
“Stew is always in the pot. I can give you some ale. Light or dark?”
“A bit of stew and light ale for us all,” Ricky said.
“Is that all right, ladies?” the innkeeper said.
They nodded and waited for their meal. When it arrived, Pira sat in front of a bowl of brown stuff. She stirred her spoon around and frowned. Ricky didn’t mind the food. He’d had worse.
“It isn’t to your liking?” Merry said, taking a taste and then digging in. “You have to eat it.”
Pira took a tentative bite and hesitated to chew. “I suppose I can get used to this.”
“You just have to tolerate it,” Merry said quietly.
Ricky looked back at the innkeeper, who observed them despite the fact that the common room began to fill up. “Wait until you see your bedroom. Traveling to new inns is always exciting, isn’t it. Merry?”
Merry giggled. “Exciting isn’t what I’d call it, but it is an adventure.”
“I don’t suppose I can go back, can I?” Pira said. She took another bite and then another and soon ate like the others. “I am concentrating on the adventure I’m on while I eat. At least my stomach will be filled. I was getting hungry.”
“Famished, for me,” Merry said. “Challenging inns don’t have to be in small villages. There are plenty of adventures in Sealio, my dear. It’s just that you’ve had extraordinary lodgings for quite some time.”
