Michael Manning - The Line of Illeniel

“Well… technically that wasn’t my fault,” I protested. It had been Marc’s idea, and he had taken another three without me realizing it. The cook had been so incensed they interrogated every boy in the keep.

“The hell it wasn’t! You showed up and hid them in my room, ‘trust me’ you said. Remember what happened? I still have the scars. I couldn’t sit for a week,” Dorian’s eyes lit up. He loved telling a good story, even if it involved childhood pain.

I didn’t bother arguing. We’d have gotten away with it if he hadn’t blown our cover. As soon as the duchess put him to the question he had frozen up. Eyes wide and face pale they had immediately known he was guilty of something. It was the only time the duchess ever taken a switch to me personally.

“It will be fine,” I reassured him, but I had to wonder. If things went wrong this time I would get much worse than a switching. I went back to my room, I had a lot of work to do before we left in the morning and I needed a certain book.

The wagons rolled steadily toward the gates of Albamarl. Joe was driving the lead wagon while I sat beside him. I was carrying a crossbow and dressed as a guard. I had no plans to announce my identity as we entered the city. I couldn’t be sure what might have happened since I had been in the city a month past but if Lord Arundel had reached the king’s ear my reception wouldn’t be warm. Caution seemed the better course.

Penny rode beside the driver of the second wagon and was similarly attired. A woman guard was a bit unusual but shouldn’t attract too much attention, unless they were expecting me to return. If they had been alerted to look for a man traveling with a female warrior she might arouse suspicion, but Penny hadn’t taken up that role until after we had left. Hopefully it wouldn’t have occurred to them. I didn’t think they would expect me to try to sneak in to Albamarl anyway. As far as the king knew I should be back at home, preparing for a hopeless defeat.

The guards at the gate let us pass with only a few questions. So many empty wagons attracted attention but they could find no reason to stop us. A few minutes later we were rolling down the streets of Albamarl. “Where to first?” Joe asked.

“The Lancaster house, it should have the space we need. I’ll have to make some preparations before we do anything else,” I answered him.

The gates to the Lancaster estate were open when we reached it, something that seemed unusual. On my last visit they had been closed and guarded. We rode in and I got off the wagon. “Take the rest behind the house. There should be enough room back there for the wagons,” I told Joe. I walked to the front door and opened it.

The house seemed empty so I began searching, hoping to find someone who could explain what had happened. I found James sitting in the breakfast room, he looked tired. The room itself had been crudely repaired and was yet unfinished.

“Mordecai!” shouted James, leaping up from his chair.

“My lord,” I answered, “you look rather glum.” In fact the good duke looked downright depressed. It was rare to see him so worn looking, he was generally a man of uncommon health and energy.

“Heh,” he said. “You might be right there. If you had been here a few hours earlier you would understand why.”

“What happened?”

“The king forced Hightower’s hand. He showed up with the royal guard and confiscated everything Rose had bought and stored for the next journey. They took considerably more besides… to be certain they had it all,” he told me.

“I noticed there was no guard at your gate.”

“They arrested everyone Rose had hired, including my retainers. I thought for a moment they might take me as well, but apparently I am still in the king’s good graces,” he said.

“I imagine Rose will be a terror when she finds out,” I commented.

“Lord Hightower was commanding the guardsmen, he took Rose with him.”

“Willingly?” I asked.

“He had her trussed up like wild game, she was far from willing.”

“Where is she now?”

“I expect she’s under lock and key at her father’s house. I rather suspect that’s why he took a personal hand in the matter, to prevent her from being locked up in the king’s jail. The rest I don’t know.” James sat down, placing his head between his hands.

“We’ll have to do something about that,” I remarked.

“Such as? In case you didn’t realize it the king has declared you an outlaw. You’re to be locked up as soon as they get their hands on you.”

I had expected as much. “He can declare whatever he wants, it won’t make a difference,” I said.

“What are you planning?”

“I’ll explain soon. I have to run an errand, I’ll be back in a few hours,” I replied.

James was concerned. “Where are you going? If you’re going to do something I’d rather know beforehand. We’re already in enough trouble.”

“I’m going to my father’s house. Trust me I’ll be back. In the meantime get your things together, we’ll be leaving tonight,” I said with a tone of authority. As an afterthought I added, “…your grace,” but James didn’t seem to notice.

Penny and I reached the house of Illeniel after a short walk. Entering was much simpler this time now that I understood how the door worked. I smiled inwardly at the memory of our last visit.

“I’m still not sure why we need to come here,” Penny commented. “You already said this isn’t necessary for your plan.”

“In case we need to come back. Once they figure out what we’ve done they’ll destroy my circle. This house is the one place in the city no one can get into. Plus I’m fairly sure they don’t realize that I’ll be able to return here at will. It may give us an advantage in the future, but only if I know the key to the circle here,” I answered her.

We went upstairs and I got out the writing materials I had brought. My studies of ‘A Definitive Guide on the Creation and Maintenance of Teleportation Waypoints’ had yielded good results. Teleportation circles were very specific in their construction; they all shared the same basic design. The most important part however, was the ‘key’, the part of the circle that identified it. Once that was known another circle could be created to match it. Every circle contained two keys, one identifying itself, and another that corresponded with the key of the destination circle.

Whatever circle had existed in Cameron Castle to match the one here was long gone, but if I knew what the key was I could create another. That would give me safe access to Albamarl, practically at will.

It took me several minutes to copy the keys found within the circle marked ‘Cameron’. When I finished I carefully blotted the sheet with sand and folded it away. It wouldn’t do to mistake one of the runes due to an unfortunate spot of ink. I tucked the paper into my pouch and Penny and I went back outside.

“Back to Lancaster’s house?” she asked.

“Yes, I need to do one more thing there, then we can go get Rose,” I replied.

When we got back to the Lancaster residence I didn’t bother finding James. I went around the house to find Joe. I found him in the stables, helping to groom the horses that had been pulling the wagons. “Did you find a good place?” I asked him.

He looked up startled, “Oh! Yes your lordship! The duke has a small storehouse here, it’s that building over there,” he pointed across the yard to a large stone building with double doors wide enough to drive a wagon through. “He said we could use it. Lady Rose had been storing her acquisitions there, before they were confiscated.”