Chapter 20

Collin had blinked to Boavale.

The reason Silvia had not turned up at court to claim her High Wizard’s box became apparent upon his arrival. She was dead. Her three daughters, who still lived there, and her current consorts were in mourning.

Apparently, she had come across a plant that had poisoned her the day before she planned to leave for court. The toxin was so strong that she succumbed before they had been able to find a cure. While vambraces protected their wearer from many hazards and increased cellular replacement, they couldn’t cure all ailments or repair severe damage to the body without some help.

Silvia had died the night of the Ball and the family had not been able to contact Serpin to tell her, as their vambraces had not been upgraded. They could only guess the messenger was still on his way to the palace.

The bulk of the people of Boavale tended to shun the outside world. Many of them preferred to live in their Boa form. While Silvia did have an ancestral mansion, she and her family hadn’t spent a lot of time maintaining it. Every generation or so a Boa who preferred to spend more time in their human form would come along and do a bit of work on the place.

Not much had happened to the mansion since Serpin’s father had stopped coming to visit so often, about ten years before. Many of these Boa-Shifters had little interest in human trappings. The family mostly used one wing of the massive building and they only had a couple of servants.

Silvia, while the Duchess of the Vale, spent most of her time cultivating the exotic plants she found in the forests that abound the area. This was when she spent the most time in human form. Her glasshouses were better maintained than the main house.

Seth and Fay, her two current mates, had gone bush and only the daughters were in residence. Silver, Silvia’s oldest daughter, had taken over a lot of the duties of the Vale due to her mother’s disinterest when she had gained the Duchy from her own mother, sixteen years before.

While she had welcomed Collin when he finally found her, she was surprisingly disinterested in being a Wizard and Collin knew that she wasn’t her mother’s replacement. Silver was content enough being the Duchess, as her duties mostly fell to looking after the odd dispute and recording births and deaths.

She had recently had a clutch of four Boas to her partners and they were her main concern. Baby Boa’s tended to be less reliant on their parents than human babies were, but they did still need a modest amount of nurturing and protection in the early years.

Some people considered the people of Boavale lazy, but this wasn’t true. They just had less interest in the trappings of wealth and owning possessions. They were of the forest and for many this was enough. Muck-about with their forests and you soon found out that they would retaliate. More than one prospector or unsavoury character had disappeared for good in the forest.

About half of the Boa-shifters did leave for a time, to visit the outside world but many came back within a year. Some did it to gain a higher education and others to collect semen from other Boas to strengthen the genetic code of their children. Just as many Boas never left the forests or even built a house to live in, they would simply create a nest in a favourite tree.

Many of the Boas only used a sarong style wrap for clothing for when they needed or bothered to dress. The Ant-shifters and Dog-shifters had also adopted this style of dress, as it was easier for those people whose primary form was animal and not human. Nudity was common in Boavale.

About a fifth of the Boas, who liked to be in human form more than Boa, had built a small town near the mansion, in an area that had a more open forest. They did maintain common buildings like two schools, a small hospital, a courthouse, a bank and a hall with large outdoor covered areas for communal functions and the bi-weekly markets.

The town boasted two butcher’s shops, two permanent general stores, two diners, three taverns, a small motel, a stable with transport hire, a smithy with a small foundry and a wood-mill that had a hardware store attached for tools. These people even had modest, more human styled homes or lived in tree houses that were built to blend into the forest.

The young were expected to attend school, but it wasn’t compulsory. Collin had found that many of the Boas, who hadn’t been mated outside their kind for generations, had strong genetic memories. They knew a lot without strict formal education and could even read and write if they wanted to.

Many Boas did have farms after a fashion, in the forests and out on the plains to the east, as they did have territorial instincts. The farms were mostly for the breeding of livestock. The few human bound people-maintained gardens. Some of the Boas hunted in the forests to provide mushrooms, herbs, meat and leather for those who lived in the small town.

Some people prospected and a few even mined the local hills for the smiths and for commercial sale in West Keep. Most of these had a human dominance but didn’t have a love for living in the cities and had found a place for themselves in Boavale Province.

The town had a raw, untamed air about it since all of the buildings were made of wood from dead trees and they fitted in with the forest that surrounded them. It was, however, an orderly, spread out town of about three hundred homes, many only found by the lanes to their properties or the human style ladder that led up into the tree.

About twelve hundred permanent residents lived in the town and no one was sure how many Boas lived in the forests and on the planes, as they just came and went as they pleased. There were the odd carts to be seen in the rutted streets and few owned or used transporters. Only a few people rode lankys. Most people just hired transport if they needed to go to West Keep or further.

When Collin had visited with Serpin while he was still her apprentice, they had spent some time fixing the mansion. He’d had a lot of fun practising his spells on the old building. He was pleased to see that their efforts hadn’t been wasted and it looked a lot better than when he first visited.

He had automatically strengthened the spells and added a few new ones, while he had searched for Silver and her sisters. He wasn’t happy to find that Silvia had passed on. He messaged Serpin and her calm acceptance surprised him but then she was more Boa than human, so he shouldn’t have been surprised. Death was just part of life to her people.

He talked to Serpin’s sisters, Sasha who was twenty and Sally who was ten, but he found that they were not as gifted as Serpin. Neither of Silvia’s mates was suitable either. He was at a loss as to who was to replace Silvia as the High Wizard of Boavale.

He suspected that if he chose outside of the Boa people who lived in the Vale, the person wouldn’t be accepted. He would have to hang around for a few days and see if anyone tickled his fancy for the job. He fixed up a room in the mansion for his stay and went to one of the taverns for dinner.

He knew they didn’t have set meal times as many Boas only ate once a day or when they were hungry. However, he was human by nature and he still liked regular meals. He had ordered their camla steak cooked to medium-rare and insisted on vegetables to go with it.

He had been kinda grossed-out the first time he and Serpin ate here, as many meals were served as pieces of raw meat. Watching Boas simply swallow the blood-dripping slices had been rather disconcerting.

Fortunately, Serpin had selected the Slippery Serpent to dine in and they did at least offer more human-style fare. He knew if he changed to Boa, the slabs of raw meat would be more acceptable, but he didn’t often change to or eat in that form.

Collin glanced around the half-filled tavern. Many of the patrons were prospectors or locals who liked to dine in human form. He had noted that the Boa didn’t mind the odd glass of Kaboo and would happily change form to go out drinking.

The tavern even boasted live entertainment that night and he watched a Boa who had only changed her upper body to female form playing on a Bandolin. It was very hypnotic watching her sway to the music as she performed.

He noted that many of the Boas only changed their upper bodies and many of the women kept their Slider skin as a form of covering over their chests as the singer did. The skin didn’t hide her lovely tits that well and only made her look more exotic. The Boas was not afraid to be naked in public.

Seeing them in this form had also explained why the place had few seats and mostly just long slim tables that the Boas used for holding their bowls of raw meat and their glasses of Kaboo. Some of the people were in the sarongs, and others wore the long-sleeved shirts and long pants commonly worn in the other cities, to protect them from the sun and the cooler nights, like Collin did.

When the woman finished playing, she slithered over to his table. “Greetings, Apprentice Smith, I gather you have heard about Sarina? Did my cousin not come with you?”

Collin looked at her in surprise. “I’m sorry, but you have me at a disadvantage as I don’t believe we have met. Who are you?”

She smiled and said, “Well, that is a good question. I’m called Veilis. By blood, I’m closer to being Serpin’s sister than her cousin. We share her father Oliver in common, but my birth mother was Silvia’s nest-sister and my other father was, well someone my mother met but she never did say who.”

“We don’t generally get hung up on these things unless you’re related to the local nobility. Incest isn’t a dirty word with Boa’s since we are rarely more than a third related at best and the genetic combinations we can have, even being siblings from the same three parents, is rather astounding.”

“Most of us often only refer to our birth mother as far as following genetics and family lines, so that is why I’m her slightly younger cousin. I was out of town when you last visited but I know who you are. I heard you caused a bit of a stir last time you were here.”

Collin blushed, “Sorry, you can blame it on me being human. I meant no disrespect.”

Veilis laughed, “That bitch deserved to be put in her place. We may share the same mother, but my younger nest-sister Vasa is a right bitch. I have always felt closer to Serpin than I do to her. Even for Boas’, it’s very rude to ask another’s mate to copulate with you without first asking the mate. My sister only wanted you because you were with Serpin.”

Collin nodded and gave her a wicked looked, “So it had nothing to do with my magnetic charm and good looks?”

Veilis gurgled out a laugh. “Oh, I’m quite sure those attributes played a part. The fact you flat out refused will have only made her more determined, so you had better keep an eye out for her.”

Collin frowned. “Damn, I have never given her a second thought. Serpin is tied up getting her new council sorted out since she is the new High Wizard for Rockslide. I came to give her mother the High Wizard’s box for Boavale but now I have to find a new candidate. Unfortunately, none of her daughters nor her mates is suitable.”

“Well, that’s interesting. Will it cause problems between Lady Silver and whoever you pick?” she asked.

“Yes and no. The High Wizard will mostly be in charge of things that are related to the use of magic like setting up the new Guild Hall, magical training and finding new novices and mages for the different disciplines and Shields.”

“They will have to be included in any council related matters and she or he if they prefer, will also have to monitor the justice system. Since we now have an Overlord, he wants us to unify our laws so that all of the islands come under the same judicial system of laws.”

“With the vambraces, we can set up meetings between the people concerned and thrash it out. However, Ayden and I, need to get our two decads completed so that us Wizards can work more effectively together and with the lesser and non-magical people.”

Veilis frowned and another voice cut in, “What’s to stop you and the new Wizard’s, from just taking over?” Collin turned to the voice and recognised one of Silvia’s Barons, Lord Cobalt. He was sitting with a younger male who was obviously related to him.

Collin responded, “Well, for one, unlike the medallions and lower order vambraces, we have much more stringent controls on us from our items. For example, if I tried to stab you with my knife just because I want to see you bleed, I wouldn’t be able to do it. My vambrace will force me to stop.”

“If, however, I sense that you are going to hurt me and you go to attack me, I can defend myself to the point of killing you. All members of the Wizard’s decad have the same constraints. We are meant to use our magic to make things better for the people we serve.”

“This doesn’t mean that your wants are more important than my needs. I am after all still a person, who has the same rights to some privacy, to take time to care for my family’s needs and my personal needs. I also have to determine if the recipient can solve their own problems or if they do require my intervention.”

“So why can’t Serpin be our High Wizard?” Veilis asked.

“Because she has been chosen for Rockslide. Wizard Jordyn Grayson is her protégé and he has been chosen for West Keep. He is also one of my consorts as are Serpin and Paige. I need to a find a person suitable for here and for them to help me choose a Wizard for Smile Bay who will also be their protégé. I also need two High Mages to be the Guild Mages for these two towns.”

Collin looked around realising he had the full attention of the room. He was amused when he heard people mentioning names and then they all started debating the merits of said persons. He listened as they whittled down the list to give him two names for the Guild Mages. He chuckled to himself as he realised these people loved to gossip just as much any of the other races he had met.