The fall of skullkeep, p.22
The Fall of Skullkeep, page 22
The courtyard of the College of the Arcane hadn’t changed much since the last time Jennifer had visited. Her gateway opened on the smooth stone path that connected the gate to the steps of the ancient keep that had come to be known as the Tower of the Council. She saw the stables off to her right and thought one of the horses milling about the paddock might be Jasmine… but she wasn’t sure.
“What brings you to the College?” a voice asked, pulling her attention away from the stables. She turned and found a man who looked about her age. He wore a red robe with silver runes on the cuffs of the sleeve, and his expression seemed to hover on the edge of a sneer.
“Oh… I’m just here to visit my dad. I have something to show him.”
“Aren’t you a little old to be running your newest handpainting to your father?”
For the briefest moment, anger tried to spike within her. For the briefest moment, she longed to put this arrogant prig in his place. But that would not serve her greater intent. He wasn’t wearing a medallion, so it wasn’t like he posed much threat—if any—to her. So, she decided to take a different tack.
“Oh, you know us Daddy’s girls. We’re never too old to make papa smile. Have a good day now.” Jennifer skipped into motion after giving him a finger wave. She didn’t look back as she headed for the Tower, but it was impossible not to hear him sputtering behind her.
Whether he was some sort of self-styled ladies’ man or merely the College greeter, Jennifer had no interest in further interaction with him. He gave her a smarmy vibe, and she had plenty of those from visiting used car lots back on Earth.
“Here, now! You can’t just…”
Jennifer didn’t stop or slow. If he wanted to accost her, he could bloody well catch up to her. She was up the steps and inside the Tower before she felt a hand close on her elbow, and that shredded whatever frivolity remained. She turned only her head to face him, and her expression showed none of her earlier playfulness.
“If you enjoy having the use of that hand, I strongly suggest you remove it at once.”
Now, the man’s sneer did break free. “And just what is a commoner going to do about it? You’re already deep inside College grounds, and I don’t see your daddy anywhere.”
Jennifer regarded him in silence for a moment. Sure… she could whip out her medallion and scare the piss out of him, but she couldn’t shake the feeling this wasn’t the first time he’d accosted a woman. She didn’t like the idea of leaving him free to re-establish his dominance on someone else after she made him piss himself in fear. That never ended well with people like him.
Before Jennifer could settle on what to do, a woman’s voice pulled her attention away from him. “Jennifer? What brings you to the College? It’s been simply ages, dear.”
Jennifer turned and smiled when she saw an elderly woman in a white robe standing at the intersection a few feet away. “Valera, it’s so good to see you, too. I think you have another predator lurking in your midst. This fellow seems to think he has the right to grab whatever woman he chooses—especially if they’re commoners—and we have no recourse.”
Valera’s expression settled into an unreadable mask as she eyed the mage holding Jennifer’s elbow. “Is that so?”
“Magister, I found this one inside the gate, halfway to the Tower. She refused to identify herself or give any reason why she should be on College grounds.”
“You don’t say.” Valera’s expression was still unreadable.
Just then, another woman—closer to Jennifer’s age—stepped into view from the other side of the intersection. She wore a black robe trimmed in crimson. “Ah, good. I’ve been looking for you, Valera.”
At the sight of the new arrival, Jennifer felt the man holding her elbow jerk in surprise. His grip slackened, and as she glanced his way, she saw he looked like nothing more than cornered prey.
“Reyna,” Valera said, “has anyone ever told you what excellent timing you have?”
“Timing? Uhm… er… no. What makes you say that?”
Valera smiled now and nodded her head toward Jennifer. “I do believe our guest has caught the mage who’s been preying on commoners. If you’re feeling particularly merciful, you can take him into custody.”
The woman Valera called Reyna still hadn’t looked in Jennifer’s direction. “And if I’m not feeling merciful?”
Now, Valera’s expression turned absolutely evil as she pointed toward Jennifer. “Tell her father.”
“What? Why would that…” Reyna’s voice trailed off as she turned to see where Valera pointed. It was apparent she understood when her confused expression vanished. “Oh. You know… I think maybe you’re right. I think we should tell her father.”
A rustle of fabric heralded the arrival of a tall, broad-shouldered man in a gold robe. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings as he looked at papers—well, probably parchment—in his hands. “Tell whose father what, Reyna?”
Jennifer felt like an absolute, mischievous brat as she grinned and said, “Hi, Dad.”
“Jennifer?” Gavin’s head turned her way, and he took in the situation just as quickly as Reyna. His eyes narrowed at what Jennifer suspected was the hand still clutching her elbow, though now it felt more like a vise… as if she were the only life preserver in sight of a man overboard at sea.
Reyna stepped back as Gavin stepped forward, and he crossed the distance between Jennifer and the mage almost in the blink of an eye. His expression was eerily calm. “Young man, I don’t know who you are or who you think you are, but when you tell me why you have violated my daughter’s personal space—not to mention her person—I assure you with all that I am that your reason had better be exemplary.”
When no response seemed to be forthcoming, Jennifer filled the void. “Valera thinks I found the mage Reyna has been searching for, something about preying on commoners. And I have to say, Dad, she might be right. When he approached me outside, he gave off a very unsafe vibe. I probably would’ve been afraid of him if not for… well… being your daughter and all.”
Jennifer gave the arm the mage held a jerk, and he was smart enough to let her pull away. She stepped off to the side and waited. The silence extended for several moments, before Gavin broke it.
“Reyna, take this one into custody and investigate the truth of Valera’s guess. If he proves uncooperative, inform me at once.”
The mage broke free of his terror paralysis and pivoted on his heel. He took one step toward the doors, winding up to a good sprint, when Gavin invoked a Word of Enchantment, “Thymnos.”
Jennifer expected to feel the resonance of her dad’s power concuss the ambient like something just a few steps shy of a nuclear blast, but strangely, what she felt was little more than a whisper.
But it was an effective whisper.
Every scrap of tension left the mage’s body the instant Gavin made his invocation, and he plowed head—well, nose-first—into the stone floor. There was a ghastly crack that made Jennifer wince and shudder. Reyna hurried forward and rolled the mage onto his side, revealing a river of blood cascading out of his askew nose. She cast a questioning expression toward Gavin.
He nodded overtop a sigh. “Yes, fine… call in a healer from the temple.”
Without another word, her dad turned and headed toward the large staircase across the intersection from the entryway. As he moved, he nodded his head for Jennifer to follow. She hurried to join him. Her dad maintained his silence all the way up the staircase until they stood at the final landing before roof access. There was an archway built into the wall, and Jennifer almost leaped out of her skin when a blue, translucent phantasm stepped out of the solid stone wall.
“Yes, Milord?”
“Access to the Citadel, if you please,” her dad replied, as if he conversed with blue phantasms every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The specter nodded once and inserted his left hand into the wall, just beside the archway. Jennifer felt—as much as heard—what sounded like a massive latch releasing, and the stone inside the archway began swirling like a whirlpool. As soon as it reached a speed where the individual stones in the wall were no longer visible for the swirling, there was muted flash, and the archway became a door to another place.
Through the archway, Jennifer saw what looked like fine carpet lining a stone hallway, and an arch lined the intersection where the short hallway met another. In the center of the arch, the keystone sported the Glyph of Kirloth that glowed faintly.
Her dad stepped through without any reservation, and she hurried to keep up, slightly afraid that the portal would close without her.
This was the Citadel of the Archmagister, the equivalent to the White House back on Earth, and she’d only been there one other time… when her dad brought her, Alexis, and her grandparents there immediately after creating the portal. It didn’t look like much, just a well-furnished castle really, but there was a subtle ambiance to the place that Jennifer didn’t quite understand. In many ways, it felt like she was coming home.
Her dad lifted a hand and made a swirling motion with a finger, gesturing to the structure as a whole. “This was the original Kirloth estate. Unfortunately, he never recorded that anywhere, and the Archmagisters after him used it as their residence and refuge. I can prove our family’s claim to it nine ways from Sunday, but I can’t help but feel doing so would tiptoe around the edges of dirty pool, especially since I claimed all of House Sivas’s property in the wake of that fiasco. If you feel like you just came home, that’s why.”
Her dad turned right at the intersection and led her easily fifty feet down the hallway before stopping at a door on his right. He opened it and gestured for her to enter. As she did so, she saw it was the conference room where she’d met his friends from this world for the first time.
He closed the door behind him as he followed her inside and went straight to a chair, into which he unceremoniously flopped. Jennifer followed suit without his bidding, and he seemed to appreciate that.
“So… I don’t want to sound like I’m not happy to see you, but Declan intimated that you were doing some soul searching. I figured you’d come say hi when you were ready, but this doesn’t feel like that kind of visit.”
Jennifer chuckled. “I should’ve realized he’d tell you I was here. And you’re right… this isn’t that visit. I stumbled onto something that I feel I can resolve on my own, but one of the Wraiths convinced me it was the respectful thing to do to make you aware of the situation.”
She watched a perplexed frown overtake her dad’s expression, and he leaned forward, gesturing at the rolled up document in her hand. “And I take it that whatever you’re carrying relates to that?”
Jennifer nodded as she stood and unrolled the map. “I don’t know how much Declan told you, and honestly, I can’t remember what all I told him. So, the short of this is that I came over here to explore and learn about this world a little bit. While I was on the way north from Tel Roshan, I came across three wagons all having some level of damage that made them inoperable. There was blood on the ground, and I was worried for whoever had those wagons, so I tried my hand at a little tracking.”
If her dad didn’t completely believe her about being alone, he didn’t show it.
“The Wraiths you put on me—I’m guessing after my run-in with Declan—melted out of the forest around me and said I was about to stumble onto a camp that was beyond me if I wanted any survivors. So, I waited and let them handle it. They captured the five highest-ranking people in the camp, and over the course of interrogations, they revealed they’re part of a plot to capture the province capitals while you’re away with the army at Skullkeep. That map was in the command tent, and I’m guessing it shows the locations of all the other encampments. I requisitioned another eleven Wraiths—bringing the count up to fifteen—and… well… I want to handle this. The Wraith who had been interacting with me the most convinced me you should be aware of this, even if you agree to let me handle it. I was just going to handle it and tell you later.”
She returned to her seat and tried not to look too eager for any sign of her dad’s approval. She’d never tell him, but she’d come to realize that she wanted so very much for him to be proud of her.
Her dad sat in silence for several moments, his eyes roaming over the map. She longed for some sign of his thoughts, but he was better than a professional poker player at non-expressions.
“Jennifer, even after all these months, there are still times when it doesn’t seem possible that you are all grown up. I hope you never understand what it feels like to miss so much of your child’s life. My immediate gut reaction is to get you as far away from this as possible, but that’s the reaction of a dad with a little girl who’s just starting her teens. Not only would I be doing you a disservice to allow that to be my reaction, it would also be disrespectful. But… no matter how much I know I need to turn you loose, I hope you’ll forgive me for feeling a little protective, which will take the form of detailing an additional fifteen Wraiths to your command for this. If four Wraiths can see to one of these camps, I see no reason thirty would fail, and I’ll even restrain my urge to have them keep you as far away from it as possible.”
Jennifer felt a little excess moisture in her eyes as she smiled. “Thanks, Dad. That… well… it means a lot. I know you’re busy, so I don’t want to keep you.”
Her dad stood when she did, and before she could move to roll up the map again, he pulled her into a tight hug. He held her for several heartbeats without saying a word, but when he broke the embrace and stepped back, he looked her square in the eyes.
“Jennifer, you don’t ever have to feel like you need to earn my acceptance or my pride. You have been and will always be the best part of my life. Kiri can tell you that finding my daughter—even though I had no idea who she was for most of my time here—was never far from my thoughts once I realized I had a daughter. I don’t care whether you earn a tenure in the White House or work as a cashier at the grocery store in Graham. I will always be proud of you. I love you, Jennifer.”
Jennifer couldn’t stop herself from swallowing as she nodded. “I love you, too, Dad.”
He stepped back and allowed her to collect the map and then walked her back to the archway. They chatted about her grandparents back on Earth, mostly, and how well she was keeping in touch with Alexis. He touched a stone that didn’t look different from any others in the wall, but the archway quickly became a portal back to the Tower of the Council.
“Be as careful as you need to be out there, Jenny. The extra Wraiths will arrive within a day.”
“Bye, Dad. You be careful, too.”
Her dad just grinned. “Me? I’m always careful.”
She couldn’t resist giving him a look that expressed just what she thought of that statement and stepped through the portal. She waved to him one last time as the portal closed and then headed down the stairs to the Tower’s entrance, eager to return to her mission.
CHAPTER 24
The arboreal canopy high overhead shrouded the terrain beneath it in a kind of dusky twilight. It was cooler in the forest… much more pleasant than the hot sun that had pressed down upon Jennifer in Tel Mivar. She had never considered herself much of a technology junky, but she’d come to realize that she missed air conditioning… among several other ‘comforts of home.’
She, Kellea, and the first fifteen Wraiths waited for the other fifteen her father ordered to join them. He’d said they’d be waiting on her when she returned, but maybe he didn’t expect her to teleport straight back?
Either way, they sat around the mostly torn down camp and chatted or played card games or practiced and trained. It also gave Jennifer plenty of time to think about her status in the group and its operations. On the one side, she appreciated that her dad wanted to keep her safe. It meant a lot to her that he still cared about her like a dad… even though it was understandable, as his memories of her as a little girl were so recent for him.
Having reached a decision, she waved Shara over to a chat. The Wraith Jennifer thought of as her liaison to the rest excused herself from the conversation around her and made her way over to the felled log where Jennifer sat. It didn’t escape Jennifer’s notice that Kellea was the only one out of the other people in the former camp who came very close to her at all, but their insistence to treat her differently than even Kellea finally wore down all her resistance. She no longer cared.
“Yes, Milady?” Shara asked when she arrived.
Jennifer pointed to another felled log off her right side—at about two o’clock—and gestured for Shara to sit. “I’ve been thinking about my role in all of this. I don’t like that I’m treated as some kind of fragile doll that must be protected.”
Shara’s lips quirked, and Jennifer immediately grinned. “Okay, yes… from your perspective, I probably am a fragile doll that must be protected… but I’m not. Not really. Yes… I know very little of how to win a close-up, face-to-face fight. I’ll give you that. But what I can do is put the entire camp to sleep. I should’ve thought of that for here, instead of letting you four go through the camp all by yourselves during the night subduing it. Unless you can talk me out of it right now, I want that to be our operating procedure from here on out. You and yours can then secure the camp without the same level of risk. And… well… it lets me be useful. Besides, we may come across a camp that has an arcanist, and it would be better to have me close than even a moderate distance away at that point.”
Shara listened to Jennifer in silence, maintaining eye contact while doing so. When Jennifer wound down, she replied, “You make excellent points, and I understand where you’re coming from. I see no reason we can’t move forward using that as our standard. Honestly, if we do that, we don’t even need the additional fifteen Wraiths, but your father wanted you to have them, so we’re almost stuck here waiting for them. We could move out to another camp, but why make it more difficult for them to find us? No one wants that.”
