Chapter 01

The woman’s face was troubled as she hurried through the cold stone halls. Flickering oil lamps lit the castle with tremulous light but did nothing against the bitter cold draft coming in from the winter wind blowing outside. With a hand, she pulled her lamb’s wool shawl tighter across her shoulders and increased her pace. The sooner this was over with, the sooner she could return to the roaring fire in her hearth.

She paused outside the ornate wooden door, nodding at the two guardsmen stationed outside.

“How is his humor?” She asked the guard on the right.

“Vilka hasn’t graced him with her presence today,” the guard remarked dryly, “so he shouldn’t be in too foul of a mood.” The guard shrugged. “Besides, he also had a glass of Rovian wine with lunch and that always makes him a bit mellow.”

Vilka was her brother’s third wife and the most troublesome. The other four of his wives were kind and supportive but Vilka was raucous, needy and entitled. She expected all to bow to her and came up with outrageous desires and demands, demands her brother was loath to support even if just on sheer principle.

“Good,” the woman replied grimly. “Although I hate being the bearer of bad news.”

She took in a deep breath. Pushing her hand from under her shawl, she struck the door soundly with the side of her fist. She knew from experience the door was thick and hard; better bruised hand’s edge than bruised knuckles.

“Enter,” came the deep voice of her brother.

She opened the door, her eyes blinking. The oil lights in the room had been doused and the only light came from the ruddy glow of a crackling fire in the fireplace; shadows writhed on the wall, their dance keeping time to a beat only they could hear. She stepped into the warm room with a sigh of ease; a darkened, warm room always seemed to put her brother in a good humor. She hated she had to destroy his peace.

“Ah, Vondi,” her brother smiled. He was reclined in the deep cushions of his favorite chair, his feet supported by a plush footstool. “I was just contemplating life as a pirate.”

“A pirate?” Vondi asked, her brows drawing close in surprise. “How would you know what it’s like to be a pirate?”

“I don’t,” he confessed, chuckling. “However, I think I’d make a much better pirate than Emperor. Plus, I think it would be much less work. And the freedom...”

“And the starvation,” Vondi said evenly. “Or the beatings. Either one is part of a pirate’s lot, you know. It isn’t all like what you hear in those bard tales.”

“How would you know?” Her brother chuckled.

“Stories make their way to my ears from the strangest places,” Vondi replied mysteriously.

“Sometimes, I think it might be worth it,” the Emperor mused. He laughed. “Usually after a visit from Vilka.”

“I was told she hadn’t been by,” Vondi murmured, her voice tinged in curiosity.

“She hasn’t,” the Emperor confirmed. “Not today, at any rate. Do you think I could order her to never enter this room? A proclamation, perhaps?”

“Proclamations only work on your subjects, Radu,” Vondi chuckled. “She’s one of your wives. There is a whole different set of rules for them – not that she follows those rules either.”

Radu Invar IX, Emperor of the Empire of Kortho, sighed dejectedly. “I figured it would be something like that. It’s not even worth it to lock the doors; her voice pierces them like a harpy.”

“I will admit I sometimes wonder about your choice in taking her to wife,” Vondi admitted. “I suppose she’s attractive enough, but her personality doesn’t lend itself to ... romance,” she finished lamely.

Radu sighed and closed his eyes. “It was an impulsive decision,” he admitted quietly. “I was taken with her and overlooked her drawbacks.”

He opened his eyes and grinned wryly. “Or maybe I was bewitched.”

“You’ve heard the rumors, then?” Vondi asked, her eyebrows raised.

“Heard them?” Radu chuckled. “I started them. It vexes her which I find makes me happier for some reason.”

His laugh turned into a sigh. “I’m sure you’ve not come to comment on relations with my third wife – or, at least, I’m sure that’s not the only reason you’ve come.”

“No,” Vondi replied, her right hand searching out for a lock of her long, raven hair. She twirled it absently as she continued. “Crowett has returned. Kiltner, as well. They came over on the same boat.”

“Ship,” Radu said absently.

“Sorry?” Vondi asked in confusion.

“They came over on the same ship,” Radu explained absently, his eyes on his sister’s twirling hair. “A ship is larger, with one or more tall masts or a multitude of oars. A boat is smaller.”

He looked up at his sister’s face and grinned. “See? I’ve done research on becoming a pirate, at least.”

Before Vondi could respond, Radu sighed and his face fell. “Judging by the way you’re twirling your hair, it’s not good news.”

Startled, Vondi dropped the strands of her hair. Twirling her hair was an old habit she’d picked up in childhood and of which she’d never been broken, though her mother had certainly tried. “I’m not sure if the news is good or bad; I’ve not spoken to either man.”

“But you have an inkling,” Radu remarked, jutting his chin at her hair. “Otherwise, you’d not be twirling your hair.”

“Neither man looked ... happy,” Vondi explained. “It could just be they had a bad journey.”

“But probably not,” Radu finished her unspoken thought. With another sigh, he stood, his tall frame dwarfing Vondi. He was a young man, only a year older than Vondi’s seventeen years, but he’d been Emperor for three years now, ever since his father had passed. “Let’s get this over with.”

The two walked out through the doorway, the guards coming to attention as the Emperor appeared. “Uuntred,” Radu spoke to the guard on the left. “Find Werten – he’s probably in his apartments. Tell him I have need of him in the antechamber off the throne room. Tell him Crowett and Kiltner have returned – that should speed him up.”

Emperor Radu didn’t have to wait long for his primary advisor, Arch-Wizard Werten to appear.

“Apologies, Excellency,” the older man bowed deeply. Werten was thin almost to the point of emaciation and the burgundy robes he wore hung on him like miniature tents. Atop his head, hiding his balding pate, was a deep blue, conical cap whose top hung along the left side of the wizard’s grizzled face; Radu had always found the blue hat laid upon the wizard’s flowing white beard to be an interesting contrast. “It took me a moment to put aside my studies; some of the things I was working with were volatile and I didn’t want to blow up my chamber ... again.”

“Think nothing of it, Werten,” Radu smiled. He was seated at the head of the large table which dominated the ante-chamber with Vondi, his sister who served as his Right Hand, standing behind him. “I appreciate not having to dip in the coffers yet again to repair your rooms.” Radu’s face turned curious. “It does make me wonder, however, why my advisor – who I have always considered the smartest and wisest man in my kingdom – is still studying?”

Werten smiled. “Smart and wise men only stay smart and wise by continuing their studies. Plus, as I’ve counseled your Excellency many times, magic is only as powerful as the mind which wields it. So a wielder of magic must constantly study – both to increase the parts of the world subject to his or her control as well as to understand the permutations of changes he or she might make.”

Radu looked thoughtful. “Honestly, it makes sense.” He shook his head and looked back at his primary advisor. “So, what were you studying this time?”

“The nature of volcanoes,” Werten grinned.

“Why volcanoes?” Radu asked.

Werten looked surprised. “Why not? We still don’t know why a volcano might sleep for centuries and what wakes it up. Where does the fire of its lava come from? We know it surges from the world beneath our feet – but why? What causes such tremendous heat? Is there a portal to the plane of fire below? And if so, do the fire elementals come from there or do they just naturally gravitate toward the fire from elsewhere?”

Radu laughed. “I’m sorry I asked.” He shook his head. “I’m also sorry to pull you from your studies – but I wanted you to hear the reports from Crowett and Kiltner first hand.”

“Of course, Excellency,” Werten replied, taking his place beside Vondi. “While I am also a student, I am, first and always, your advisor.”

Radu nodded at a page, standing just inside the door. “Bring Kiltner first.”

Kiltner had been a guardsman at one time until Radu had appropriated him for delicate diplomatic missions. Kiltner’s father had served as an ambassador to the far southern land of Kal’thos for Radu’s father many years ago; Kiltner acquired his diplomacy naturally. Where he picked up his skill at deception was anyone’s guess – but Radu knew of it and had use for it, as well.

The man was neither tall nor short, fat nor thin and his face and bearing were unremarkable. Actually, unremarkable was a good word to describe the whole of the man – which was one of the things that brought him to Radu’s attention in the first place. Kiltner was the man Radu sent in ‘unofficially’ when the situation warranted.

“Your Excellency,” Kiltner flourished with a bow as soon as he entered the room.

Radu waved at the man. “Enough of that, Joric. If anyone asks, I’ll be sure to tell them you prostrated yourself thoroughly. What news have you?”

“That’s one of the things I like about you, Radu,” Kiltner responded with a grin. Kiltner was one of the few men who could get away with calling the Emperor by his given name. The two were friends, though Kiltner was a decade older than the young Emperor. “You dismiss ceremony when it serves no purpose.”

“What have you found?” Radu asked, his face keen.

Kiltner dropped into a chair on the side of the long table with a sigh, slouching back with his left hand on the table. Absently, he began drumming his fingers lightly. “Absolutely nothing,” he replied. “Nothing among everything – I think I’ve read that somewhere before.”

“Joric, quit speaking in riddles,” Radu demanded, his face firm and grim. “Has the Church of Tyln really taken power in Jacovia?”

“Tylnanar,” Kiltner corrected. “The last King and Queen of Jacovia abdicated the throne in deference to the Church of Tyln – led by Arch-Bishop Romer. It was an unusual process, honestly – but since the Arch-Bishop is also called the ‘Prince of Tyln’, it held up legally. Well, it held up since the King made the announcement on his deathbed – both his and the Queen’s actually.”

“What of their children?” Vondi asked intently from over her brother’s shoulder. Normally, she wouldn’t have spoken up but would rather have whispered her questions into her brother’s ear – but Radu kept court politics outside small meeting places like this – mostly.

“Gone, Highness,” Kiltner responded with a sigh. “I spent three months searching for any clue of their whereabouts, but I found nothing. It’s as if they vanished in a cloud of smoke. Princess Renar and her husband Yenal, as well as Prince Topher, are nowhere to be found.”

“Do you suspect foul play?” Radu asked.

“I suspect a great many things, but I have no proof,” Kiltner sighed. “The King and Queen were taken with the wasting sickness within days of each other. I find that alarming but certainly possible, even if there is no history of the wasting sickness in their familial line. I find the sudden disappearance of the royal family – along with Renar and Yenal’s daughter – even more alarming ... but still within the bounds of possibility. Taken together, though... “ He shook his head.