Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (22 page)

The Governor’s Mansion was situated a little way south of the market place and marked the boundary with the wealthy part of town. While being in no way as impressive as the Palaces at Wegnar and Boathaven, the Mansion was still an impressive building in its own right.

Wrought iron railings sat atop a small brick wall that ran right around the house, protecting it and its grounds. Sharp spikes on the top of the fence provided a more than adequate defense against the town’s lawless elements. Through the railings, Jalia’s party admired the elegant multicolored brickwork of the mansion. The different colored bricks formed patterns that complimented the shape of the building and its windows. All the windows of the Mansion were glazed with small blown-glass window panes, which showed that someone had been prepared to go to considerable expense to enhance the Governor’s status.

The only way into the grounds was via a pair of wrought iron gates to the west of the building. As they made their way towards the gates, they noticed that they were closed and locked and that a couple of uniformed guards were stationed there to prevent unauthorized entry.

“I thought we could just go in and have a look at the clock,” Jalia complained.

“The last time I came here, you could do just that. The gates were open,” Nin replied defensively.

“Let’s ask if we can go in,” Daniel suggested.

Sergeant at Arms Lon Pierce was wishing the day already over even though it had barely begun. He had drawn gate duty at the Mansion, which was by far and away the most boring task you could get lumbered with in the Governor’s Guard.

Patrolling Westtown was the best duty, as the drinking establishments would ply you with drinks to keep you sweet while the girls in the brothels would often offer their bodies for similar considerations. Lon had been indulging in a pleasant daydream involving a girl called Greta when he saw the group approaching.

Lon groaned at the interruption. He had not thought the day could get any worse and here was more inconvenience heading his way.

“Go away, we’re closed,” he shouted in the hope it would drive them away, but they kept on coming. Worse yet, young Tel Pran was looking at him in a puzzled way. Tel was a new boy and had yet to learn the ropes. To him, guarding the gates of the Mansion was fun.

“We were hoping to get in to see the clock,” Jalia told the guards. Before Lon had a chance to explain that the mansion was closed, Tel butted in with a more accurate answer.

“The Governor welcomes all visitors to the town. Because of the recent troubles in Slarn, the Governor has ordered the gates Mansion closed as a precaution, but visitors are most welcome to come in and look around. I’m afraid you will have to leave your weapons at the gatehouse though.”

“That sounds fair,” Daniel chipped in and drew his sword, offering it hilt first to the young guard. Tel took Daniel’s sword and then Don and Cara’s. By this time, he was at considerable risk of dropping them and hastily passed them over to Lon, who glared at him in response.

Hala offered Tel her knife through the railings while Nin grinned and put up his hands and turned around slowly to show that he was carrying nothing that might be considered a weapon. Lon and Tel piled the weapons up in the little hut the two men used to shelter them from the rain. Tel looked enquiringly at Jalia.

Jalia sighed and slipped her sword free of its scabbard. She tossed her sword in the air and caught it near its point, miraculously avoiding cutting herself on its razor sharp edges. Tel and Lon’s eyes widened at this casual display of foolhardy skill.

Jalia took out the throwing knife on her belt and the one in her boot. She twirled the blades so fast that their surfaces blurred before she ending up holding them out to Tel hilt first. He took them from her gingerly, scared that he might cut her.

“Perhaps we need to strip search this one; just to be sure she isn’t carrying any concealed weapons?” Lon suggested with a lecherous grin on his face. Jalia looked like a tasty bit of strumpet to him and he longed for a chance to touch her.

“Best not, boys,” Daniel cautioned. “Jalia’s hands become lethal weapons when she thinks someone is taking liberties.”

Tel looked to Lon for advice and Lon shook his head to tell him they were not going to bother searching Jalia after all. No one who admitted to carrying that many weapons was going to conceal any more, he told himself. Besides which, he had no desire to find out what this girl did to men who were too free with their hands.

Having taken their weapons, Tel unlocked the gates and invited them through. It amused Daniel that neither guard had drawn their weapons at any point and they could have been easily overcome by any two of the adults in the party.

Tel led them around the back of the Mansion and through an archway to the walled courtyard

“There it is, the famous and unique Clock of Bratin,” he said proudly.

The courtyard was about forty feet square and was cobbled with small dark grey round faced stones that were uncomfortable to walk on. At its center was the clock. As Nin had stated the previous day, the clock was contained within a solid cylinder of glass three feet in diameter and rising to a height of ten feet. Its top was curved into a perfect hemisphere.

Through the glass, a clock face two feet in diameter and apparently made of solid gold was suspended at head height in a perfectly horizontal position. The clock face was so thin that if you viewed it from the side it was almost invisible. The clock was two sided, showing a traditional face on both its sides

There were no moving parts to the clock that anyone could see. The clock face set out the usual hours of the day. Marked across it showing an incorrect time of quarter past three were two wide red lines representing the hour and minute hands. These hands appeared to have been etched into the face of the clock. Below the face was a single sheet of wafer thin gold suspended in the glass at thirty degrees from vertical. Apart from the clock face and the plate, the cylinder was empty.

“I don’t see how this clock could ever have worked,” Cara complained, “There are no moving parts, and the whole thing is solid glass.”

“Magic doesn’t need moving parts,” Nin replied. “Those red marks used to move across the face to show the hours and minutes for everybody to see.”

“What was that gold plate for?” Daniel asked.

“I’ve no idea,” Nin admitted as he squinted at the unmarked surface of the plate.

After staring at the clock for five or so minutes, everybody but Daniel became bored with it and began to wander around the courtyard. There were finely carved statues of ancient kings and queens in alcoves embedded into the walls. Daniel however, was fascinated by the gold plate, as he was certain it had a purpose.

Black words began to form on the sheet. At first, they were written in an incomprehensible language, but then they changed into words Daniel could read. It was as if the clock had realized its mistake and corrected it.

“Welcome, heir to the Magician Kings and the future High King of Jalon,” the words on the plate spelt out.

Daniel waved his hand in a silly attempt to try to tell the clock to make the words go away before somebody saw them. He looked around anxiously to see if any of the others had noticed. They were all engrossed in commenting on the statues to each other and not one of them was looking in his direction.

“Is it time for me to start again?” new words on the plate asked. “I was asked to stop by the first Heir as the Fairie knew that if I was still working, a High King still lived.”

“How would they know that?” Daniel whispered.

“You do not need to speak. Think the words and I will read them from your mind. I am much more than a clock. I am one of the four Cornerstones of Jalon. Human magic constructed magic objects far beyond the capability of the Fairie, they are copier creatures and the human mind has greater imagination.”

“The Fairie coveted human magic and so the Magicians protected their creations behind shields that killed the Fairie and dampened all magic so no human could enter their treasure rooms and use the magic objects to leave. The four Cornerstones need no such protection as we are all far too powerful for the Fairie to touch us.”

‘What is your true purpose then?’
Daniel thought while trying to block the writing on the sheet of gold from the sight of his companions with his body.

“I can only tell the High King that, and you are not yet crowned. Come back when you are and we will talk further on it.”

‘You didn’t do the Magician Kings much good when they were attacked by the Fairie’
Daniel pointed out.

“No High King has spoken to me in hundreds of years. I believe that my power has been forgotten.”

‘Well, please don’t start working now,’
Daniel thought desperately.
‘I am about as likely to be crowned High King as to grow wings and all you would achieve is condemn me to death.’

“I think not,” appeared on the plate in large letters. “However, I will give you time to leave Bratin before I restart.”

‘Thank you’
Daniel thought at the clock, relief etched on his face.

“You must beware the trap that has been set for you at the Greenhouse,” the clock wrote.

‘What trap?’

“Beware!” appeared in big letters.

“What are you finding so interesting?” Don asked from behind Daniel. Despite the fact he was looking at the gold plate he didn’t mention the writing.

“My words can only be seen by Magicians,” the clock wrote smugly. Daniel had not believed that the way words as written could convey such an emotion until he saw it happen before his eyes,

“I think it’s all rather a letdown,” Don said as he looked again at the clock face. “I would bet you money that it never worked and it was made by the glassmakers at Ranwin as a joke or maybe a work of art.”

“You are probably right, Don,” Daniel said as he led Don from the clock. ‘Thank you!’ he thought at the clock as he left.

“Let us hope the Greenhouse and its fruit are more interesting than this place.” Jalia said as they trudged back to the gate.

Tel handed them their weapons before he opened the gate, which amused Daniel a great deal. He hoped these guards never came face to face with a real enemy, as they would surely die.

It was easy to find their way to the Greenhouse. From the market square, they could see along the long straight avenue leading to its door. The avenue was a wide paved road, large enough for two wagons to pass by each other. This was fortunate because there was a steady stream of wagons laden with fruit heading to the docks while an equally steady stream of empty wagons was going the other way.

The Greenhouse was flatter on top than a true hemisphere would be. It looked more like someone had sliced the building from a much bigger ball, so while it was half a mile in diameter it was less than six hundred feet tall at its apex. The Greenhouse doorway extruded out of the dome a good two hundred feet, creating a huge arched tunnel. They were heading towards this door.

Daniel tapped Jalia on the shoulder to signal she should slow down and let the others get ahead of them. Jalia slowed her pace until she could talk to Daniel without the others hearing.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, seeing the concerned expression on Daniel’s face.

“The Clock and I had a conversation. It told me we were heading into a trap,” Daniel said in a whisper. Jalia’s eyebrows rose at this news, but she accepted it without question.

“Did it give you any details?” There were many kinds of traps in the universe and they had four people with them to worry about. Jalia instinctively loosened the dagger at her waist.

“No, and it’s not the kind of warning I can pass on to the others without some sort of explanation. I think it might generate more questions than I could cope with, if I told them that a magic clock told me.”

“Do you trust it?” Jalia grinned as a thought occurred to her. “It was a bit two faced when you think about it.”

Daniel found he was grinning back at her. Jalia’s sense of humor had a way of defusing tension.

“I can’t see why it would lie to me, or what it could gain by doing so. What worries me is its use of the word trap, rather than ambush or fight.”

“The ring is always very literal in its interpretation of what you ask it for and your brother found that the magic dagger was even more pedantic.” While speaking, Jalia ran through a number of possible scenarios in her mind.