Chapter 11

The walls of Montcairn are high, and the city gate is wide, and the road that leads to it is teeming. These are facts. Facts that I suspect are generally unchanging enough to seem eternal.

For me, the walls were still high, but they seemed to have sprouted men in armor, wielding weapons. The gates were still wide, but closed. Upon that teeming road, I stood in the middle of a bubble of bleak solitude, save for the lone soldier who approached me.

"State your business, traveler," he spoke loudly and from a distance.

"I am Pacasin, apprentice to Ethric, Wizard of the Vale. I am here to answer my King's summons." I touched the King's favor that hung around my neck, and the soldier let his eyes flicker to it briefly.

"We have word of your coming, my lord" the soldier said, shifting his pike back to rest the butt of it on the ground beside him. "Welcome to Montcairn, Pacasin of the Vale."

My two companions shifted in their stances, slightly behind and to each side of me. I saw the soldier's larynx bob and his tongue flicked out to moisten suddenly dry lips. "King Tynis sends welcome as well to your Vukai companions."

"Thank you," I responded with a grin. "Not to seem in a rush, but my companions and I have been on the road for some time now, and I have been on foot for some few days. Can you direct me to a meal and a bath?"

"Of course, my lord," The soldier motioned towards the gate, and I fell in step beside him as we walked through it. We were joined by another man, no pikeman this one, dressed in fine clothes and wearing what appeared to be an ornamental blade only. The five of us making quite a procession, marked as we were by the bubble of separation that seemed to flow around us.

"I am Juonne, my lord, secretary to Palus, Chamberlain to the court of King Tynis. The chamberlain has asked me to escort you to the Consulary. It is where visiting ambassadors and dignitaries stay when they come to court. I'm sure you'll find it quite comfortable during your stay."

I'm not sure what I'd expected would happen once we were inside the gates of the city, but a carriage ride was not it. Kei and Labo were certainly not going to ride inside, and the secretary wasted only a few minutes determining that a pair of riders would have to accompany the carriage, bracketing the pups as they ran alongside the carriage on its way to the Consulary, which turned out to be a large, three story building near the northeastern wall of the city, adjacent to the king's keep itself. The walls and towers of the King's keep could be seen looming behind the building as we approached it.

The carriage took us into the bottom story of the building itself, which looked quite used to the traffic, and we were met there at the bottom of a wide stairway.

"Good afternoon, Apprentice Pacasin, I am Deputy Chamberlain Regus Uttereld. I will stand for the King as your host here at the Consulary."

I was not used to hearing the word apprentice said as a title, so I smiled slightly at the sound of it, and returned the man's bow. This man saw titles, not people, it seemed to me, and his regal bearing suggested he was probably of royal blood. Perhaps even kin to Tynis himself.

Whatever else he was, Uttereld was master of this particular domain, and managed it with a smooth aplomb that bespoke a sharp mind and a n eye for detail. We were escorted up the broad staircase to the second floor, where we were pleased to see that the large square building had hidden within it an inner courtyard of a good size. It was at least four or five times the size of the Magister's inner garden at Starhill. The boys were certainly pleased. All the rooms here faced the inner courtyard, and each apartment, for want of a better word, had a lower and upper floor.

We were shown to one such apartment done up in whites and blues. The upper level was a sitting room and a large bedroom with an included water closet. The lower level looked to have been cleared out with the Vulkai in mind, most of the furniture replaced by large pillows and thick, knotted rugs. There was a small kitchen, but it didn't look like it would be up to anything but the most basic of tasks. There was running water though, and a second water closet.

"We have a large kitchen and service staff on the ground floor, and you may take a meal at any time in the street level dining room if you aren't otherwise engaged," Uttereld was telling me as we came back out of the apartment and into the courtyard. "There are private and public baths on the ground floor as well. We have hot water available full time; no notice needed for drawing a bath, though you can certainly ask to have a bath drawn for you in advance."

I got the feeling, from the cold glitter in the man's eyes, that the option to have my bath drawn for me was an offer to have other services provided as well. I kept my face neutral.

I had breakfast the next morning with the Wizard Jager. My invitation delivered to my door by a liveried servant. That invitation, and the smooth ministrations of Uttereld, typified my experiences in the crown city. It was as if life was buried in endless layers of velvet. Every experience was soft, warm and comforting, certainly; but I couldn't help but feel like I was just an unsure step or two away from drowning in it

Jager's tower at least seemed to have avoided the worst effects of the local environment. It could just as well have been my master's tower, somewhat rearranged. Granted, Jager seemed to favor colors my master would have considered garish, but he didn't swamp himself in them.

"King Tynis would have liked to have joined us, and he knows his court is not where you'd be, given a choice," Jager told me once the lavis was served. "It will work best for both of you to have your meeting very publicly and as much of an official visit as possible."

"Politically," I added with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

"Politically for Tynis, certainly," Jager nodded. "But for you its more about your safety and the level of cooperation you're likely to receive once you leave Tynis' court and are once again outside the walls of Montcairn."

"I am not overly concerned about my safety," I said with a scowl. "Unless someone looses an army upon me, I can protect myself."

"So I've heard, and so the King has heard as well," Jager agreed, nodding thoughtfully. "I have no doubt you could grow into a fine war wizard if you'd a mind to, Pacasin. King Tynis sees a different path for you, though he will not say what that path will be."

This matched what my master had told me, directly and otherwise. I found it incredibly frustrating to think that my future might be known to King Tynis. I found it even more interesting that he seemed to have shared much more of what he knew with Wizard Ethric than with Wizard Jager. Could that simply be attributed to Ethric being my master and Jager not? Would a king keep something from his own royal wizard and yet share it with another? War wizard be damned; I was glad to know I would not be one, for I had no plans to be one either, but the knowledge that someone saw my future with certainly gnawed at me a little. Perhaps not just a little, it must have been visible in my expression.

"You will get used to having a King who sees your steps before you take them, Pacasin. In the fullness of time, when you have grown more into the wizard you will become, you too will learn to shift the veil of time a little, seeing the road ahead. Then what our King does will seem as much less than it does now, and his ability to carry on living as close to a normal life will seem like much, much more."

It did not take too much imagining on my part to believe what Jager was telling me. As telling for me was the wizard's attitude, which bespoke an inevitability that I took to heart. I could only do what I would do. I couldn't worry about whether it fit a path I could not see. Jager seemed to anticipate my thought then, almost as I thought it. "No one, whether wizard or king; might-born or right-born, sees his own future, Pacasin. Those strong in the gift, as is King Tynis, can learn much about their own futures by reading the futures of those around them. With only hints, echoes and second-hand surmise as their only clues to their own destinies, does it surprise you to think that they seem so intent on manipulating the ones they can see?"