"Mother, you say that every time you get a letter from her," said Saba, then under his breath. "People are going to think you're going all wobbly."
"My goodness!" Mrs. Colbshallow exclaimed. "She says that Miss D has sold Mooreworth cottage and the lands around it."
"Really," said Zeah. "That's a surprise. The old master enjoyed that house."
"Probably why she's selling it," said Saba, voicing what the older members of the staff would never have put to tongue.
"Still," said Zeah. "The family owns a dozen properties in the area. You don't imagine she's planning to sell them all, do you?"
No one in the servant's hall dared to make a guess, not even Saba.
* * * * *
"Kafira, help me!" pleaded Arthur McTeague, as he hung his face over the railing and vomited once again into the white-tipped waves of the open ocean.
"Buck up, my friend," said Augie, slapping him on the back. "Kafira helps those who help themselves."
McTeague rolled over, hanging so precariously over the railing that Augie felt compelled to grab him by the collar and pull him back. Though he had been fine for the first two days of the voyage from Birmisia, once they had hit the first bit of rough weather McTeague's seasickness had surfaced. He hadn't been able to keep a meal down in almost a week.
"Curse you, Dechantagne. How can you look so pleasant?"
"Well, I am pleasant, come to that. You'll be right as rain in um? well, a week or two. A week or two in Mallontah, and then home to Brechalon. And when we get to Mallontah, I'll make you forget all about it. I've still got that check from my sister. Remember? Wine, women, good food."
At the word food, McTeague turned around again and spewed toward the ocean.
"I didn't think you could have any more in you."
"I should have just stayed in Birmisia."
"You liked it there?"
"God no. I hated it, but at least I didn't puke my livers out there."
"I'm pretty sure I'm coming back," said Augie. "You could come with me."
"If I survive this trip, I'm never setting foot on a ship again."
* * * * *
The inside of the divination shop was dim and smoky, but the room was rent by daylight, seemingly as bright as lightning, when Wizard Smedley Bassington swept in from the street, his rifle frock coat trailing behind him like a black cape. In two long steps he was at the comfortable chair by the fireplace. Sweeping the coat to one side, he sat down and placed first one black hobnail boot and then the other on the corner of the sorceress's desk. He crossed his arms and stared, his horn-rimmed glasses making his beady eyes seem even beadier.
"Madame de la Rosa," he said.
The old sorceress behind the desk looked as though her skin was made of dried apples. She was small and hunched over, even sitting there. She raised a wrinkled hand and waved at the strikingly beautiful olive-skinned woman behind her.
"Amadea, get the wizard a cup of tea."
Bassington waved the girl off, though his gaze carefully took in all of her curves.
"So what do you know?" Though his eyes were still on the young woman, his question was for her mistress.
The old woman reached beneath the desk and pulled out the perfectly round pearly white orb, precisely thirteen and three fifths inches in diameter, which Bassington had left in her care two days prior. Given that Madame de la Rosa was a diviner, one could have been excused for assuming that it was a crystal ball of some type, but it wasn't. From its complex swirly white, silver, and grey appearance it might have seemed a pearl taken from some gigantic oyster, but it wasn't.
"It is a dragon egg," said Madame de la Rosa.
"Don't waste my time."
"Watch your mouth, Wizard," hissed the young woman.
"Don't mind Bassington, Amadea," the old woman soothed. "You may leave us."
"What kind of dragon is it?" asked the wizard, once the girl had left. "Gold? Silver? Flame? Red? Green? Night?"
"It is a Mirlughth Dragon."
"Never heard of it."
"Mirlughth is an ancient shiny substance. That's all I can tell you about it." Madame de la Rosa pressed her fingertips together creating a steeple. "There hasn't been a Mirlughth Dragon seen in millennia. This particular dragon will be very powerful and important. He is destined to rule a vast land and be worshipped as a god."
"Maybe we should destroy it now."
"If you did, and I'm not sure you could, but if you did, you would be destroying an important ally of the Kingdom of Greater Brechalon."
"Oh? What else did you see?"
"The dragon will be raised and protected. He has to be, you see. He has to be raised and protected by someone powerful enough to be the surrogate parent to a dragon. Do you know anyone like that?"
"I know who you're talking about, but she's in Schwarztogrube."
"She won't stay there."
A look of panic briefly crossed the wizard's face.
"Don't worry. She won't get out for some time. You have plenty of time to get out of the country." Her laugh was like seeds rattling inside a gourd. "I don't blame you. I wouldn't want her after me either. But I know a magister we can trust, who will sell her the egg. She'll never know that either of us had anything to do with it."
"How do you know she'll even want a dragon?" asked Bassington.
"Come now."
"Alright, but Zurfina's not going to stay in Brechalon if? when she gets out. What if she takes it to Freedonia or Mirsanna? We certainly don't want either of them to have a pet dragon."
"You don't want that," replied the old sorceress. "I don't care one way or the other. But there is an easy answer. Do you know the name Dechantagne?"
"Vaguely."
"The Dechantagne family is planning to build a Brech colony in Mallon or some other distant place. A Brech colony would be the best of both worlds. The dragon would be safe from Brechalon's enemies and Zurfina would be safe from you and your masters."
"How do you know that she'll go to this new colony?"
"I'll put a bug in her ear. I feel certain that when she hears about it, she'll be very interested."
"I'll leave it to you then," said Bassington, getting to his feet. "And don't even think about playing any games. I know where that egg is at all times, and you know what will happen to you if you cross me."
"I couldn't if I wanted to," said Madame de la Rosa, her eyes looking at some distant object. "Its future, like my own, is foreordained."
"And keep an eye on that pretty little apprentice," he said as he headed for the door. "She's already steeling from you."
"I know." The old woman cackled again. "Oh, Wizard Bassington?"
"Yes?"
"Wouldn't you like me to answer the question that everyone else who comes to see me wants answered?"
"I'm not everyone else." He crinkled his forehead. "What is it?"
"How you will die."
"All right. Tell me."
"Wouldn't it be ironic if you, who have dealt such a blow to dragons by stealing their eggs, were to be killed by a dragon?"
"No. It would be, um? whatever the opposite of ironic is."
"Well, this is how you will die. You will be killed by a dragon."
Bassington looked thoughtful. "Good," he said, and left.
* * * * *
"Welcome to Schwarztogrube, Mr. Halifax," said Sergeant Halser, saluting.
"Thank you. No need to salute. I'm a civilian after all."
Mr. Halifax held out a hand and Sergeant Halser helped him out of the small boat and up onto the shaped stone dock on the lowest section of the ancient castle. He was a short, rotund man wearing a white suit, the shirt of which was still stained with his lunch, eaten aboard the ship that had brought him. Halifax led him up the stone stairway to the upper levels.
"Can you explain to me what happened? The Judge Advocate General was rather vague in his description."
&n
bsp; "As far as anyone can tell, it was some kind of disease. It could have been brought here by one of the guards returning from leave. They were all killed. Most of the prisoners. A few of the boys. The boys might have been less affected because of age or because they were all down near the water. No one really knows."
"I have no doubt it was due to mismanagement of some form or another," opined Halifax. "That's why operations were taken away from the Ministry of War and were given to us."
They reached a fork in the passageway.
"The north wing is this way, sir. It's where the offices and kitchen are, and most of the prisoners."
"How many prisoners are there?"
"There are twelve surviving prisoners in the north wing; one in the south wing."
"Only one?"
"Yes. Prisoner 89 was segregated from the others. There's no record of why. Perhaps it is because she is the only woman."
"A woman? Here?" Halifax frowned and licked his lips.
Halser nodded.
"Take me to her cell."
Halser led his new superior up another set of stairs and down the stone hallway to a door with a single small, barred window. Halifax had to stand on his tiptoes to peer through. He could see a blond woman inside, dressed in rags, sweeping the floor of the cell with a broom.
"Open it."
Halser unlocked the door and followed Halifax inside. The woman immediately stopped sweeping and stood demurely with her head bowed. The room was clean but Spartan. Only a single window high up on the wall let in a square of sunlight. Halifax glared accusingly at Halser.
"It was worse, when I got here, sir. I had the cot brought in and a chamber pot, and a broom so that she could clean the place up."
"It's true, sir. Sergeant Halser has been very kind."
"Still, it seems poor treatment for a young lady, regardless of your crimes. What is it you are here for?"
"I used magic without approval, sir. And when they tried to arrest me, I fought back. I may have injured a wizard, sir."
Halifax's expression said all too clearly that he thought the injury or death of a wizard to be a relatively minor offense. "Well, you can't do any magic here, so we don't have to worry about that. And what is your name, my dear?"
"Zurfina, sir."
"Zurfina. Like the daughter of Magnus the Great?"
"Yes, sir." Zurfina curtsied.
"Is there anything you need right now?"
"If it's not too much trouble, sir, I would appreciate a bucket of water so that I could bathe. And if a needle and thread could be had, and some scraps of cloth so that I could make myself something to wear."
"Sergeant Halser, see if you can find a bucket of water and some soap for the young lady, and a washrag too. You can leave the keys with me. I'll lock up."
"Yes sir."
After the Sergeant had left, Halifax stepped close to the woman and reaching out, brushed the hair from her face.
"You are not unattractive."
"Thank you, sir."
"Things are not going to be like before," he said, pacing first toward the door and then back to her. "There will be better food and cleaner conditions. Maybe we could have some decent clothes brought from the mainland for you, and perhaps an occasional sweet."
"That would be most delightful, sir."
"When my duties allow, I could come to your cell here and visit with you. Would you like that? Would you be? cooperative?"
"Oh, yes sir."
He reached out and brushed her hair back again, this time caressing her temple with his thumb. "You do understand what I mean when I say cooperative, don't you?"
Zurfina looked up from the floor and into his eyes. She reached up and pulled his chubby hand from her face, moving it down to rest on her breast.
"I'm anxious to be cooperative," she said. "Very, very cooperative."
The End.
Available Now!
Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 1
The Voyage of the Minotaur
The Voyage of the Minotaur Preview
"Zurfina, I presume," said Iolanthe.
"Zurfina the Magnificent." The woman had a husky voice that put Iolanthe in mind of a teen-aged boy.
"Am I supposed to call you Zurfina the Magnificent?" asked Iolanthe. "Do I say 'good morning Zurfina the Magnificent' or 'meet me for tea, Zurfina the Magnificent' or 'look out for that falling boulder, Zurfina the Magnificent'?"
"You are of course quite right, Miss Iolanthe Dechantagne," said the woman. "We shall be on a first name basis, Miss Iolanthe Dechantagne."
Iolanthe heard a small sound coming from behind her and to her right and suspected that Yuah was suppressing a laugh, or perhaps, worse, a smirk. She didn't turn to look at the dressing maid, just aimed evil thoughts in her direction.
"Show us some magic, then," she said. "I feel the need to be impressed. I know my brother is already."
Augie, who had been so engrossed in the woman's posterior, that he had not even noticed that his sister had entered the room, suddenly startled to awareness and stood up straight. The blond woman favored him with a sly smile over her shoulder. Then she raised her arm out straight in front of her, palm down. Turning her hand over, a flame sprang up in her palm. Within two or three seconds, the flame had coalesced into a humanoid figure, eight or nine inches tall, which immediately began pirouetting and spinning in a miniature ballet, all without leaving Zurfina's hand.
"That's it?" asked Iolanthe. "That's your great magic?"
"Well I thought it was smashing," said Augie.
"You don't like fire?" said Zurfina. "How about ice?"
The tiny figure turned from fire to ice, but continued dancing, breaking off little pieces of itself as it did so, to fall to the floor like tiny snowflakes. Iolanthe pursed her lips.
"My brothers and I are preparing to embark on a great expedition," she said.
"I know all about it," said the sorceress.
"Then you know I need a magic user with real power. Just dressing like a necromantic whore doesn't make you a powerful witch."
"Oh, you are so right," said the sorceress. "Clothes do not make the woman."
She waved her hands in front of her own body, and her clothing became an exact match for Iolanthe's own evening gown, right down to the red and black trim.
"Or does it?" Zurfina said.
She waved her left hand in front of her face and it became an exact match of Iolanthe's. She even had the red and white carnations atop her head. The false Iolanthe gave a very flouncy and very un-Iolanthe-like curtsy, then raised her chin and said in a very Iolanthe-like voice. "Yuah, fetch me a white wine!" Yuah took several steps forward before remembering herself and stopping.
"Outstanding!" shouted Augie, clapping his hands.
Iolanthe took a deep breath. "Not bad, I do admit. But show me something that I won't see one of our journeyman wizards do."
The sorceress pointed her arm at Yuah, fingers splayed. "Uuthanum uastus corakathum paj." There was a grinding sound, as though someone were walking upon gravel, and suddenly Yuah froze in place. She, her grey and white dress, and everything else she wore had been turned into a stone statue. She looked like one of the apostles that lined the nave in the Great Church of the Holy Savior. It was as though Pallaton the Elder had been brought from his time into the present to capture the essence of a Zaeri dressing maid.
"My God!" said Augie, absent-mindedly crossing himself.
"Now that is most impressive," said Iolanthe. "We have to sit down and discuss your terms and my conditions."
* * * * *
It was mid-afternoon when Terrence stepped back out of the tent and back into the marketplace of Nutooka. He paid no attention to words of goodbye from Oyunbileg. As it always did afterwards, the color seemed to have drained out of the world, and it now looked as monochrome as a picture from a photographic plate. And just as they always did afterwards, sounds seemed far
more intense than usual, and he felt as though he could pick out individual voices from among the crowd of native merchants and their customers. He pulled off his slouch hat to mop the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and then started as two women brushed past him. They were two women from the Minotaur, and seemed too engrossed in their conversation to notice him.
He recognized both of them. One was Professor Calliere's red-haired assistant. The other was a dark-haired woman, about two inches taller and thirty pounds heavier, who was a female medical doctor. Her name was something that started with a 'k' sound-Cleves or Keeves or something. Terrence stood and admired both women as they walked near the edge of the stall selling bolts of cloth in many colors. Both were women of class: dynamic, intelligence, determined. They were both the kind of women that he could have seen himself courting, in another life.
He was still watching the two women when the sounds of a great kafuffle somewhere on the other side of the market reached his ears. No sooner had this registered than seven or eight mounted men rode into the market near the two women from the Minotaur. These riders were dressed in various clothing of tan, brown, and white, but each had a red sash wrapped around his waist, and each wore a red hood completely covering his face, with only two holes cut out through which to see. The most remarkable thing about these mounted men though, wasn't the men themselves, but their mounts. Terrence knew that horses were unavailable on Enclep, but it was still a shock to see riders upon huge, ferocious-looking birds. The birds were as tall as a horse, though unlike that noble steed, they ran on only two massive legs, and had tiny useless wings. Their clawed feet were almost two feet across and the massive beaks upon their mammoth heads looked as though they could easily clip off a man's arm, or disembowel him in a moment. They were mostly covered with brown feathers, though there were black and white details on some of them. The men had them saddled, and though they squawked incessantly, they seemed to be under firm control.
One of the men on bird-back, reached down and scooped up Professor Calliere's assistant as though she were a shapely bag of wheat. Another grabbed the female medical doctor. Still another grabbed a native woman from nearby. Two or three had already appropriated women from somewhere else in the market and two more tried to grab nearby native women only to be thwarted by their intended victims diving behind market stalls. The entire flock of riders raced to escape the market and the city, which led them down the path directly toward Terrence Dechantagne.