The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) Read online

  Where was I now? At a flight of stairs leading down. I looked over the twisting balcony. Three new guards were walking up casually, obviously still not aware of Danvell Takary’s order to stop me, but they would be soon. The whole Takary Palace would be soon.

  I didn’t want to go that way. I twisted the doorknob of the nearest door. Locked. I tried the next. Open.

  Thankfully, I had the wits to leave a trail of SE. They wouldn’t know which door I’d gone in, but there weren’t that many to try.

  The room I’d chosen probably wasn’t the best choice. It had one other exit, and perhaps exit wasn’t the right word, as all I appeared to be looking at were six tall windows side-by-side. They gave view to a wide walkway that led to another part of the palace. I threw a chair through one of the windows and leapt out after it. Only then did I realize this walkway was on the second story, overlooking a massive garden that was twice the size of my farm back home.

  As I ran across the walkway over the garden, I noticed there were hundreds of people mingling, some dancing to music, and then I recognized the song—I didn’t know the name, but it usually was played before a wedding. One of the King’s daughters was getting married, I remembered. It must be happening there.

  Could I somehow use that to get my cure? No. Not important, then. Someone started singing with one of the worst voices I’d ever heard. It was too loud not to notice, like a hyena with a broken leg.

  There was a door to the building ahead, making me realize there was probably a door to the room I’d just left as well. The King wasn’t going to like that I’d broken one of his windows for no reason, but the thought just made me more eager not to get caught. I checked behind me as I pulled open the door. A torrent of guards was flooding into the walkway.

  In a frantic scramble, I dragged a small wooden table behind me as I hustled through the room and threw open the next door. I left the table there in the doorway and set it on fire with a quick blast of Bastial and Sartious Energy mixed through my wand. The floors in every room were either stone or marble, so I wasn’t worried about burning the entire place down.

  Voices of doubt were starting to hammer away at my rage, especially since I was heavily winded from the sprinting and the spells. When I nearly fell down a set of spiraling steps, I decided I needed to hide somewhere to regain my stamina.

  I approached a bend in a wide hallway, but a buzz of chatter coming around the bend stopped me. I took a quick look around the corner—an entourage of women were following a young lady in white while she gave orders. They didn’t seem to see me before I retracted my head, but they would as soon as they made the turn. There was nowhere else to go but through them or back the way I’d come.

  So I jumped into the nearest room. Its door already was open, and I closed it after me.

  A lock! The door had a lock! But even before I could turn to see what kind of room it was, someone was jiggling the handle from the other side.

  “Why is this locked?” It was a girl’s voice, deep and thick with a noble accent. “Who has the key?”

  I flipped around to find a place to hide.

  “Hurry now,” said the same voice, now heavy with annoyance. “Unlock this door.”

  The room wasn’t very large, though still bigger than any one room in my farmhouse. It seemed to be a dressing room. There were two mirrors, each taller than me, mounted onto a massive wardrobe. The rest of the room was more of a storage place for maybe two hundred extravagant dresses hung along a series of metal bars strung from wall to wall.

  “Here it is, Lady Lisanda,” a soft-spoken servant said.

  I wiggled through to the back row of dresses, finding the tallest one and squeezing between it and the wall.

  “Don’t hand it to me, open it! Prince Varth Farro will be touching my hands soon. Wouldn’t it be wise not to dirty them with that filthy metal?”

  “Very wise,” a few voices answered while the key rattled into the hole.

  The door opened. I heard footsteps enter. “Leave me alone,” Lisanda Takary ordered them with contempt.

  “They’re expecting you shortly, my lady,” one responded.

  “They’ve waited this long for the wedding, they can wait a little longer. Don’t huddle around the door and don’t come in. I’ll be out when I’m ready.”

  “Yes, my lady,” they answered in unison. The door shut hard. She turned the lock.

  Sudden silence made the noise of my breath sound deafening.

  Chapter 4: Dressing Room

  Unless she needed a dress from the back, I was well hidden behind the wall of expensive fabric. I wondered how much all these dresses had cost. Yelling at the King, pointing my wand at him, using magic without permission, fleeing from guards, and setting a fire within the palace—this one room was surely worth well more than my life after all I’d done.

  I peeked over the dresses to see what Lisanda was doing. She had both palms on the wardrobe, her head limply hung. She was whispering to herself. I strained to listen but couldn’t hear her. A knock at the door stopped her conversation with herself, but she kept her head pointed toward the ground as she shouted, “I said to leave me alone!”

  “It’s Jessend,” a similar deep voice spoke from the other side. “Let me in. No one else is out here, don’t worry.”

  Lisanda took a relieved breath before turning and unlatching the door.

  Neither princess spoke until the door was closed and locked.

  “Has my husband started singing?” Lisanda asked.

  The twins had the shimmering brown skin of their father, although far more of Lisanda’s could be seen in her immaculate white dress that draped from the tops of her breasts and puddled at the floor.

  “Yes. It’s even worse than before,” Jessend answered.

  Lisanda gasped. “That can’t be possible.”

  “I didn’t think so, either.”

  They shared a short laugh and then a long hug.

  “I know why you’re in here.” Jessend spoke as if she knew Lisanda was about to do something bad. Lisanda turned back toward the wardrobe without a response. “Want me to help you move it?” Jessend asked.

  “No. I couldn’t do that to father.”

  “Why else would you come in here?” Jessend walked to the wardrobe, opened it, fished around inside, and then gave a grunt. I heard some sort of murmur from the other side of the wall.

  “Don’t,” Lisanda said halfheartedly.

  Jessend came out of the wardrobe and closed it. “Already done.” She wiped her hands together. “I’ll tell anyone who asks that you’ll just be a moment. If you don’t show up, I’ll have no idea why.” She shrugged dramatically.

  “I will marry him. I will do it for father and for this coming war,” Lisanda said proudly.

  “I didn’t say you wouldn’t.”

  “I’m going to do it, Jessend. Has father told you whether or not you’ll be married today as well?”

  “I received a message from him just before I came in.” Besides their near-black hair, bronze skin, and expensive dresses, there was no more I could see from where I stood. I was quite curious about Jessend. How could I not be when I’d been offered a marriage to her just recently? I wondered what she was going to say about me.

  “My potential husband threatened father with his wand, knocked down the guards with Bastial Energy, and now is loose somewhere in the palace.”

  “Sounds like the perfect man for you,” Lisanda teased.

  “You joke, but I’d take the wild farm boy over a noble hyena.”

  I was so shocked that she’d used the same analogy as me that I almost laughed. Jessend didn’t seem so bad for a princess. I wondered what it would be like if I walked out from between the dresses and said, “Your wild farm boy is here.” I’d get to one knee and bow my head.

  Of course, I was joking with myself. I didn’t want that. Even if I did, they’d scream, and next thing I knew I would be in the dungeon with no cure, no Harwin, and no life outside a cell
for many years.

  I’d made the right decision not to marry. Yes, she was pretty, they both were, but beauty fades. Without a cure, my darkness would last forever.

  “Not me,” Lisanda told her sister softly. “And my noble hyena awaits, if you wouldn’t mind telling them I’ll be ready soon.”

  Jessend gave Lisanda a kiss on the cheek. “Happy or dead, I’d rather be both than neither. Do you remember this line?”

  Lisanda nodded. “The first man you were to marry.”

  Both of them sighed in harmony.

  “He was no hyena and definitely not a farm boy,” Jessend said with deep remorse.

  “Definitely not,” Lisanda agreed with the same gloom. Then she snapped her head up and clapped her hands in a short burst of three. “You must go. I need some time.”

  “Happy or dead. Remember that.”

  “I will.”

  Someone started knocking just as Jessend turned to the door. Without hesitation, she unlocked it, pulled it open, stepped out, closed it firmly behind her, and shouted, “What are you guards doing here?”

  Guards? Not good. My pulse quickened.

  “Pardon us, Lady Jessend, have you seen a man of seventeen, tan skin, blue eyes, brown hair, medium height and weight? He would be wearing commoner’s clothing, a buttoned shirt and worn pants, both brown.”

  I looked down at myself. I had on my best pair of pants! They hardly were worn compared to my other pairs.

  “You mean the dangerous Sartious mage who was almost going to be my husband?”

  There was no reply. Lisanda had slowly shifted toward the door. Now she was leaning an ear against it.

  Jessend spoke again. “Well? Isn’t that the man you speak of?”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  “Don’t you think that would’ve been a bad idea?” Her tone was rhetorical.

  “I, um…it’s not my place to say whether the King’s decisions are good or bad.”

  “But aren’t you required to answer my questions?”

  “I am, my lady.”

  “What is the answer, then?”

  “I’m not sure, my lady.”

  Lisanda appeared to have heard enough. She paced to the wardrobe at the other end of the room.

  “You’re useless,” Jessend said. “The man I almost married isn’t here. Go look somewhere else.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  After a quick glimpse in the mirror to check her hair, Lisanda frantically grabbed the edges of the wardrobe and started pulling it away from the wall with a series of grunts. At first it seemed she was trying to topple it, but then I noticed the small wheels on its bottom as she peeled its edge away from the wall.

  The petite princess was far stronger than she looked. She was at least half a foot shorter than me, yet the wardrobe was beyond my height. The moment she stopped, she hurried toward the gap she’d created between the wardrobe and the wall and squeezed herself in.

  Then I waited. When I heard nothing for a few breaths, I realized she wasn’t simply hiding like a child, she’d gone somewhere. There must be a tunnel behind the wardrobe.

  Now was the time to get out of this room, I realized. I could return and leave through the same tunnel when I found the cure and Harwin. I started to push my way out, but the sound of a knock on the door froze me between rows of dresses.

  “Lisanda?” It was Micah Vail’s smooth voice. Jessend and the guards must’ve left, for I heard no one else but him. “Lisanda, are you in there?” He quickly unlocked the door, pushed it open, walked inside, and locked it behind him. “I thought not.”

  He spoke too loud to be muttering to himself. It frightened me. Did he know I was there?

  “How long has she been gone?” He turned toward me. My stomach swallowed my heart. “How long has she been gone, Jek?”

  I stepped out from behind the dresses shamefully. “She just left. You saw me?”

  He tilted his head and rolled his lips. It was clear he didn’t think my question was even worth answering. Before he could say anything, I asked a better question.

  “Where’s my cure?” It felt wrong to raise my wand at him, so I didn’t, but I was ready to if he didn’t answer.

  “Hear that?” He pointed a thumb toward the shifted wardrobe.

  I may have heard footsteps but couldn’t be sure.

  “She’s coming back. Take this.” He closed my hand around a small leather pouch. “When she gets here, let me have a quick word, then come out and blow it into her face.”

  I looked into the pouch. It was some kind of white powder. He shoved me behind the dresses, and I almost spilled it.

  “Don’t breathe it in,” he whispered.

  Lisanda gasped when she squeezed back through the opening to find Micah waiting for her. “I was just looking,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t planning to leave.”

  “It’s fine, Lisanda.” He spoke forgivingly. “Everyone’s waiting. Your father is sorry he couldn’t see you earlier, but he’s ready now…are you?” His question was asked slowly. I had the dust ready and prepared myself to leap out.

  She took a long, shaky breath before answering. “I’m not sure.”

  She spun toward me as I bolted at her. I blew the dust into her face before she uttered more than a startled gasp. She started to cough and slowly sank to the ground. Micah pretended to look shocked.

  “What are you doing here?” he demanded in a convincing voice. “What did you just do to Lisanda?”

  He snapped his fingers in front of the Princess, who now was puddled against a wall. When her eyes didn’t open, his face switched back to the calm demeanor he’d worn before.

  “You want your cure? That’s it.” He pointed at her.

  I stared at her limp body, wondering what in the Bastial stars he could mean.

  “Her?”

  “She’ll be your ransom. Take her. We’re running out of time.”

  The urgency in his voice put a fire in my legs, bouncing them back and forth as I motioned toward her and away from her.

  I still couldn’t believe it.

  “Her?”

  “Take her! Get out of here! Use the tunnel!”

  The last thing I wanted was to kidnap an annoying princess. What would I do with her? Harwin was easy. Lisanda surely wouldn’t be.

  “Why don’t you just give me the cure if you’re so interested in helping?”

  “I can’t get you the cure. I don’t have time to explain. The King will be here any moment. You need to leave now!”

  “Then get me Harwin, not her!”

  “Harwin’s been moved.”

  I felt my face contort with dismay. Micah threw his palms out.

  “Don’t worry, he’s fine. This is your only option unless you want to leave with nothing.”

  “What am I supposed to do with her?” Maybe Micah knew something I didn’t. It sure seemed like it.

  “Whatever you were planning if it had been Harwin. I assume you were going to hide him somewhere safe and set up a trade for the cure through a messenger?”

  It sounded like Micah had planned this out more than I had. I was just going to leave with the cure and Harwin if I could. I hadn’t thought of what to do with Harwin afterward, especially if I didn’t have the cure with me. My father always said I wasn’t much of a planner.

  “Why are you doing this?” I was close to trusting him. No, never mind that. I was only close to believing him, but I wanted at least a little information first—a reason he was helping me. He’d called us friends earlier, why?

  Someone pounded on the door. The King’s voice came through and pushed the air out of me like a punch to the stomach. “Lisanda? Are you in there? Everyone’s waiting! Did Micah Vail come by?”

  “No time,” Micah told me with fury in his eyes.

  With the King on the other side, I was going out through the tunnel anyway. I figured taking Lisanda would be better than nothing. I bent down to scoop her up, but Micah grabbed my shoulder.

  “
Once you leave the tunnel, you’ll find Goreng,” he whispered. The King was shouting something now, but I was too intent on listening to Micah to hear it. “Tell him, ‘The washboard is rigid.’ Now hit me.” He pointed to his cheek.

  I could hear the King clearly now. “Will one of you idiots get the key to this door?” The pounding became louder.

  “Hit me!” Micah repeated through a furious whisper. “Hard!” he demanded.

  I’d never hit anyone before. I curled my fist and struck him on the corner of his cheek. It hurt. I shook my hand and winced. By his determined face, it seemed to be more painful for me than for him.

  “Good. Now the dream dust, hurry.”

  I handed the pouch to him with the remaining white dust.

  He pushed it back to me and gave his eyes a quick roll. “No, blow it in my face. Keep the rest. I’ll tell the King you forced it from me when I drew it to use on you. Make sure to shut the secret door behind you and hurry through the tunnel. You should have a day before every guard in The Nest knows to look for you. Try to get out of the city before then.”

  I nodded, faced him, and drew a quick breath with a clump of dream dust waiting in my hand.

  “Wait,” he stopped me. “Don’t drink the tea. Trust me on that more than anything.” He pointed intently at my face. “Don’t drink the tea.”

  The King was shouting, “Get me the key to this door. I hear voices inside!”

  I blew the dust into his face and held my breath as I bent and then hoisted Lisanda over my shoulder. I heard the sounds of a key being wiggled into its slot.

  “Wrong one!” the King shouted.

  I couldn’t get through the small space between the wardrobe and the wall that Lisanda had squeezed through earlier. She was far thinner than me. I pulled hard on the wardrobe. The damn thing was heavy! I could barely move it, yet this little Princess draped over my shoulder had gotten it open on her own. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to her waking up.

  I squeezed through on my second try and pulled it shut after me. I heard a latching sound that must’ve been related to the lever Jessend had pulled earlier within the wardrobe.