Chapter 6

Dev could not believe what he was seeing. The city, from his vantage point, was huge! It seemed to go on forever, and that was just the portion he could see. A very tall wall stood before the city as a silent guardian.

While the wall might be silent, the guards walking the wall would not be. As far as he could see in either direction was wall. It must have been a hundred feet high! What a feat of building! It must have taken years to build that wall.

Dev continued onward, and the wall started to appear as if it were getting higher. By the gods, but the wall alone was intimidating! Finally Dev joined a crowd going through a gate.

Once inside, Dev pulled out of the crowd, and approached a guard.

"Excuse me, but where might I find a Lord Benaldin?" Dev asked the man.

"I have no idea Lieutenant. Let me direct you to the officer of the guard. He will probably know. He knows a lot about lords an such," the guard responded.

Dev received directions on how to find the Officer of the Guard. After only one false turn, he soon found himself talking with a finely dressed man of indeterminate age, who directed him to the palace.

After getting exact directions on how to get to the palace, he continued on, into the city. People were everywhere! He gawked at everything. The streets were clean, and made of stone of some sort. His horse struck sparks occasionally on them, from its shod hoof.

He passed homes, merchant's stores, street vendors, wagons, carts, people on horses, and carriages. It was a dazzling display of people doing whatever it was they were doing. Dev had never seen such a thing, not even in Westford. Taslon was so much bigger than Westford

Sometime later, Dev came to the palace gates. He was stopped by a guard outside the gate, wanting to know his business.

"I am here to see Lord Benaldin. I have information for him," Dev responded to the question.

"Leave your horse and weapons with the guard inside the gate. No weapons are allowed in the palace, except for the palace guards, and those who know they can carry them. As soon as you enter the palace, a page will greet you. Tell the page where you wish to go, and he will take you there," the guard rattled off in a bored fashion.

Dev soon found himself turning over his horse to a guard, with his sword and dirk hanging from the pommel. He walked the hundred feet or so to the palace. He felt the crawly sensation of being watched. Well, considering this was the palace of the King, he would be surprised not to find himself being watched.

He went to a door at the front of the palace that had two guards standing outside of it.

"State your business," one asked him.

"I am here to see Lord Benaldin," Dev responded.

The guard who had asked opened the door, and motioned Dev to enter. As he did so, a young boy of about twelve came up to him, and asked his pleasure. Dev responded he was here to see Lord Benaldin. The boy nodded, and asked Dev to follow him.

The boy led Dev through a bewildering maze of turns and corridors. Finally they entered a small room with a man sitting at a desk.

"A Lieutenant to see Lord Benaldin, Sir," the page announced, and then left.

"Take a seat Lieutenant. Can you tell me what this is concerning? Lord Benaldin is pretty busy this afternoon. Also, I need your name," the man stated.

"I have information of a sensitive nature, concerning the palace of the King of Ralm. I am almost one hundred percent sure his lordship will be interested in this information," Dev responded politely, and gave his name.

The man nodded, got up, knocked twice on the door behind his desk, and entered. He was gone for perhaps a minute, and then he returned.

"You may have five minutes. Please try not to take more than that, as he is a very busy this afternoon," the clerk? Aide? whatever he was, stated.

Dev entered the room and found himself confronting a man with a thick head of graying hair. He had sparkling blue eyes, and was about five feet eight inches tall. While his hair may have been gray, the man did not appear to be old. Another man sat in a chair off to the side.

Dev was unsure of how much to say with two people in the room. Lord Benaldin seemed to guess at Dev's hesitancy and spoke.

"Well Lieutenant, what you have to say you can safely say in front of this person also. He knows everything I do," Lord Benaldin said soothingly.

"Yes, uh, Lord Benaldin. I have a couple items of interest for you, well at least one item. The other is something I hope you can help me with. I have a map purporting to be the palace of the king of Ralm. It shows a number of secret entrances and exits," Dev said, retrieving the map from his belt.

He passed the map over, and watched as Lord Benaldin unfolded it and looked at it carefully. He finally looked at Dev.

"First, never fold a map, roll it. However, I can see this has a bit of age to it. Might I ask where you got it from?" Benaldin asked him.

"I bought it and another map from a peddler when I was down south with a cavalry unit. The other map showed a way through the swamps and let us do a bit of mischief to the enemy as a result, my lord," Dev answered honestly.

The man sitting in the chair guffawed at that. Dev looked at him again, and saw a fairly young man in his mid to late twenties. He had a shock of unruly brown hair, was wearing very good clothing of a dark green color, with black riding boots.

The man, noting Dev's look, spoke up.

"You would be the Lieutenant Devlin Cantor of troop D, detached from Fifth Army at Westford who procured and gave a map to general Forran?" the unnamed man asked.

"Yes, Sir. That would be me," Dev answered shortly, unsure of how to address this man.

"That was a good bit of work, Lieutenant. Nicely done," the man said.

"Thank you," Dev answered politely.

"Which brings us to the other thing you wanted to talk to me about. Make it quick, I have an appointment with his majesty, and he gets cranky if he is kept waiting," Lord Benaldin said with a twinkle in his eye.

Dev launched into his year long training with Arel Grojlith, Loera Calderling, and the magic he had also trained in. Both men leaned forward and listened to Dev's story. Finally, Dev wound down and stopped, hoping that Lord Benaldin could help him.

"Let me get this straight. You were taught sword work by Arel Grojlith? For a year?" Lord Benaldin asked.

"Yes, Sir. Everyday for at least two hours a day. Sometimes more," Dev responded.

"What about this magic training you received? Just how good are you with it?" The man in the asked interestedly.

"Uh, that's hard to say, Sir. I know for a fact I can cast a fireball spell and have dozens of fireballs appear. I did it at the final battle down south. I can make healing potion, and I know a couple healing spells. I have well over a dozen offensive and defensive spells memorized," Dev answered the question.

"A dozen? Are you sure you don't mean three or four? Most spell castors are lucky to get half a dozen fireballs at a cast, and so many spells?" The man asked.

"No, Sir, it was well over a dozen. It cleared the area in front of me totally. I was very drained after I cast that spell, Sir, and yes, a little over a dozen spells memorized," Dev said in remembrance.

"What did you want me to do for you?" Lord Benaldin asked.

"My lord, I was told that the mage guild frowns on people who use magic and are not trained by them. I was also told that people who used magic without their leave, had a way of dying in strange accidents.

"I would ask for your protection. Also, I want to stay in the army. With me being able to do magic... well, it won't sit well with the mage's guild. Plus, I need to learn to use my magic properly, and I need someone to direct me to do that the best way " Dev ground out.

"Wait in my outer chamber. I will give you my answer, shortly. By the way, thank you for this map. It has a couple entrances, and one exit, that I knew nothing about," Benaldin said in a sincere tone of voice.

Dev exited the office and sat down on a chair and waited. He looked around the room he found himself in and started noticing things. First, while small compared to some offices, this one was well maintained and appointed.

The desk the clerk sat at was made of a good wood that seemed to glow. It was a natural look that Dev found appealing. The walls were paneled with some sort of wood that gave the room a woodsy feel to it. There were also a few paintings on the wall.

Dev had just started to look more closely at the paintings when the door to Lord Benaldin's office opened and he strode out.

"You are an interesting person, Lieutenant. I have decided to give you a chance. I am having you transferred to my staff, indefinitely, effective immediately. I do want to test your knowledge of magic, but we can do that in a couple days. Come back tomorrow morning, after breakfast," Benaldin said and went back into his office.

"The area I am taking you to is a private dueling range. It was created some two hundred years ago by the then King of Darlonther as a way of settling differences. It has old spells on it, to keep people from killing themselves, or each other.

"I have arranged for a very powerful wizard to test your knowledge and ability in the arena, so to speak. Don't worry about him reporting you to the guild. He is of a noble family and owes allegiance to me, and the king," Lord Benaldin explained.