CHAPTER TEN - MAGERY

Julian knocked on the door, making a firm staccato series of thumps against the wood. A muffled voice from within indicated the occupant would be with them in a minute, so he stepped back and waited. Beside him, Raedrick smirked slightly but said nothing.

A short while later, the door swung open, revealing the woman Julian met the night before in the taproom. She was, if possible, even more lovely than he recalled, garbed in a dark green dress that was just as well-crafted as her clothing from last night. Recognition flashed across her face as she saw him, and she frowned.

“You again. I thought I made myself clear last night: I don’t want to be bothered by the likes of you.”

Julian fought down a surge of irritation. “We’re here on business, Mistress Klemins.”

Her frown deepened as he spoke. “How do you know my name?”

Readrick interjected. “I’m Raedrick Baletier, Mistress Klemins. This is…”

“Jules Hiddenstrap. We’ve met.”

Julian ground his teeth in irritation. “Julian Hinderbrook.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She didn’t sound like it, and from the sweetly innocent expression she wore, she sure didn’t look it either. Silence hung awkwardly between the three of them for a moment.

Finally, Raedrick cleared his throat and got back to it. “We’re working with Constable Malory, Mistress Klemins. He told us about your encounter while you were with the caravan that was attacked, and we wanted to ask you a few questions about it.”

“Law men, huh?" she replied. “You don’t look the type.”

“That’s because we’re not.”

She smirked. “Hired swords then. These yokels must really be getting desperate.” With a sigh, she gestured for them to come into her room. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

Room was inaccurate. She had a suite. A sitting room, larger than the room Julian and Raedrick shared, lay beyond the entrance. A couch and two padded chairs sat in a loose circle around a low table in the far end of the room, near a crackling fireplace. Two other doors led out, one on either side of the room. A taller table stood near the door on the right with a decanter filled with dark red wine and several glasses resting on top. Next to the table stood a small shelf that was filled with books. Julian recognized several titles from one afternoon of liberty that he spent within a bookstore in Calas. He normally didn’t have the money to indulge in many books, and a man in his position couldn’t afford to get overly encumbered. But he had always enjoyed reading a good story, so he found himself envying the collection.

“Can I offer you anything?" she asked.

Julian shook his head.

“No thank you,” replied Raedrick.

“Suit yourself.” Taking a moment to fill a glass for herself, she moved over to the couch and sat down. Taking a sip of the wine, she smiled faintly and said, “What is it you want to know?”

“Mistress Klemins,” Raedrick began.

“Melanie.”

“Alright. Melanie, how much of the attack were you able to see?”

She looked at Raedrick as though he was daft. “All of it, of course. At least, all of it until I slipped away.”

“So what did you…”

“There were thirty-five of them, ten with bows. They started shooting and the wagon drivers tried to make a run for it. At first it looked like we were going to get away, but we turned a corner to find they had felled a tree across the road, so the horses could not carry us onward if they wanted to.” Melanie shrugged her shoulders. “You can imagine what happened after that.”

”Thirty-five. That’s a fairly precise number.”

Melanie gave Raedrick a long-suffering look. “I have a very good memory,” she replied.

“I’m sure,” Julian said. He didn’t try to keep the irony of her statement out of his tone at all. “So did you get a look at their leader?”

Melanie shook her head. “They were split up into three groups, and each of them had a leader. I couldn’t even hazard a guess which of them, if any, had overall command.”

“How did you escape?”

She shrugged. “When I need to be, I’m very good at not being seen.”

“I’ve heard you mages have some tricks that can help with that.”

Melanie made a soft tsking sound in response to Julian’s statement. “You are mistaken. I’m not a mage. The Magestirium does not admit women as students.”

Julian snorted. “After what you did last night, do you expect…”

“A simple carnival trick, nothing more.” Melanie’s tone was casual, dismissive. But her expression had become guarded and wary.

“Like hell. I’ve seen that trick, and I know how it’s done. You didn’t touch your drink at all, and you sure didn’t have time to suck down anything else. And the only fire nearby was the candle in the center of the table. So you can claim not to be a mage, and maybe you didn’t go to the Magestirium. But you learned a thing or two about magic somewhere.”

Melanie was silent for a time, meeting Julian’s gaze with a level stare of her own. Finally she shrugged and looked away. “I suppose it is hypothetically possible that a young lady might encounter a certified graduate of the Magestirium, that the two of them might fall in love, and that he might pass on what he’d learned to her despite the rules against it. But if such a thing were to happen, she would have to be very careful never to let her ability become common knowledge, because the Magestirium’s wrath is legendary in its viciousness.” She looked back at the two men, an unspoken plea in her eyes.

Julian and Raedrick exchanged glances. Everyone has secrets, it seems, Julian thought. He wouldn’t want his betrayed any more than she wanted hers. He gave Raedrick a small nod, which the other man returned with a quick grin.

“Your secret is safe with us, Melanie,” Raedrick said.

“Who said it was my secret?” she replied, but Julian could not mistake the gratitude in her eyes.

“One thing I don’t understand,” Raedrick added. “If such a hypothetical lady existed and she was in a situation where her traveling companions were attacked like you were, why wouldn’t she try to help? Surely her companions would keep her secret in exchange for their lives.”

Julian nodded. “Yeah, we saw the mages assigned to our division wreak some serious havoc in battle. Lightning from the sky, fireballs…it was impressive.”

Melanie sniffed. “Well, speaking hypothetically, the sorts of things you’re talking about require more than just waving your hands around. There are incantations to make and very specific gestures and stances that must be performed in time with the incantations. Also, there are material items that are used up in the spell. If the lady in question found herself in a situation similar to mine, she would have two problems. First, the only spells that could have conceivably helped take several minutes to cast and would have left her exposed to harm for the entire time. More importantly, though, the material components involved… Well, some of them are worth more than that entire caravan and all its contents. She would have been foolish to expend them under those circumstances.”

Julian supposed he could understand Melanie’s point, but at the same time… To figure the cost of her spell components against the lives of her companions struck him as particularly cold-blooded.

But then, he thought about several decisions his officers had made on the battlefield. Decisions that he had understood even if he had not always completely approved of. They all came down to math: don’t risk twenty men to rescue one who was probably dead, things like that. Was her decision all that different from theirs?

Raedrick spoke again. “You’ve made it more than clear you don’t want to be here. So where were you going?”

“Away.”

“Away from what?”

“Let’s just say it was time to leave.”

That was suitably vague. And not that dissimilar to the thought process that got them started on their own journey. Julian looked over at Raedrick and saw from his expression that he was thinking the same thing.

Raedrick continued, “Well, as long as these thugs have the passes blocked, you’re stuck here, you know.”

“That’s been distressingly clear for days. But thank you for confirming the obvious.”

“You know we’re working to drive the brigands off,” Julian interjected.

Melanie nodded. “I assumed as much.”

“If the group that attacked you numbered thirty-five, there’s probably at least forty to fifty total. Pretty long odds for the two of us. But if there was someone in town who had knowledge of magic and could even the odds a bit, that might make all the difference.”

“What would be in it for this person?”

Raedrick replied before Julian could. “The satisfaction of helping people in need. And,” he added as a smirk began to form on her lips, “freedom. Once the brigands are gone, there’s nothing stopping you from going wherever it is you’re planning to go.”

Melanie pursed her lips in thought. Leaning back on her couch for a moment she considered the two men. Julian felt as though he was being weighed and measured under her gaze. Finally, Melanie shrugged and nodded.

“I may be able to do something to help. What is your plan?”

Glimmer Vale is the first book of the Glimmer Vale Chronicles, an ongoing heroic fantasy series set in a world of valor and magic. It will be published here, one chapter per week, on Tuesday.

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