The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) (57 page)

“The minister’s covering himself,” Steve mumbled.

“Exactly,” Tyree nodded. “And the sorcerers will want you to be there when they get hired so that you can witness the contract. That way the minister can’t go back and add things later. Most of the sorcerers will consider you their advocate in dealing with the district government. By the way, I’d take detailed notes on every contract I witnessed if I were you.”

“Sort of like a negotiator and mediator,” Karl commented.

Tyree nodded again. “And you’ll also be responsible for hunting down and stopping any rogue sorcerers in the province.”

“Sounds like your main duties are going to be as a policeman,” Chris said.

“I’m not sure what a policeman is, but if it’s someone who goes after troublemakers, that’s right,” Tyree said. “And how often you have to go after them will depend on your reputation. If you’re known as powerful and relentless, the greedy sorcerers will steer clear of Camden, and the ones who do work there will be more likely to behave, and so will the ones on the council.”

“What do you mean, ‘on the council’?” Chris asked. “Are you talking about seated sorcerers challenging him for the Master’s Chair?”

“I wasn’t really thinking about that, but there’s always that possibility. What I was thinking about is the fact that as Master Sorcerer he’s responsible for investigating ethical complaints against seated sorcerers, too. Some of them can get really arrogant and start thinking they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.” Tyree turned to Kevin and continued. “You’re the only defense the citizens of a province have against an unscrupulous seated sorcerer. Once you’re seated, the other sorcerers on the council will have to decide whether they’re willing to risk facing you in battle. The stronger your reputation, the less likely they’ll be to cause you trouble.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” Kevin said, “but I don’t like it.”

“I don’t blame you. It’s not an easy life that you’re headed for,” Tyree sighed.

“No, and probably not a very long one either,” Kevin mumbled.

“We all hope you’re wrong on that count. We would like to see you live a nice long life and have plenty of heirs. For one thing, Camden has been lucky with the House of Nordin. The sorcerers in your family have all been very honorable people, and we have been spared the horrors that a lot of the other provinces have gone through. For one thing, none of Badec’s brothers or sisters tried to kill him before Nolan died just so that they could become the new heir. How could you trust someone like that to be fair?”

“Does that type of thing really happen?” Chris asked.

“Yes, I’m afraid it does. A lot of sorcerers dream of a council seat. If you’re a seated sorcerer, you have to watch your back.”

“But killing your own brother or sister?” Joan asked. “Why not just challenge a sorcerer from another province?”

“That happens sometimes and then we end up with two siblings on the same council, but some sorcerers would rather not risk death when a little treachery will accomplish the same result. That’s when it becomes the Master Sorcerer’s headache,” Tyree said as he looked over at Kevin. “You’ll also have to investigate any unexplained deaths among the council members, possibly beginning with Badec’s.”

“Does anyone know what’s wrong yet?” Kevin asked.

“No, but in her last letter, Laryn said that she has little hope that her brother will ever recover. He must be near death for her to make that statement. Sorry.”

“Thanks.” Kevin nodded and then said, “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’m going to get some sleep. I have a dragon to fight in the morning.”

Chapter 44

Final Preparations

The Christmas Eve party was fun, but Christmas Day was depressing. Memories of families and friends left behind resurrected the guilt they felt for the pain and anguish their supposed deaths must have caused. The melancholy mood was made even worse by the fact that it would soon be time to move on, time to leave their valley, their cave, Glendymere, and the giants. The only bright spot in the day was the snow that was quietly falling outside in the valley.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the temperature didn’t climb above freezing and more than two feet of snow fell over the area. Joan handed out the heavy sweaters and Karl showed Blalick how to make snowshoes. Soon they all had a pair, even the giants.

During the night on New Year’s Eve, the wind blew the clouds out of the area and New Year’s Day dawned crisp and clear. When Kevin and Chris reached Willow Canyon that morning, Glendymere was nowhere to be found, so Kevin began to practice. Over the past few months, he and Chris had developed a “magical workout.” It started out as a way for Kevin to quickly run through his basic skills everyday, but Chris soon found ways to add grace and flair to the simple magical feats, turning Kevin’s practice routine into a major performance.

Glendymere returned while Kevin was practicing and watched in silence until he was finished.
“Not bad. And more impressive if someone just happens by.”

“Thank you, but how do I arrange for someone to just ‘happen by’ while I’m going through my routine?” Kevin asked.

“Leave that to me,” Chris said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“The elves and dwarves are setting up their camp today, and will be joining us for a little while on Thursday to set out the ground rules. I thought we’d have our first battle Friday. Is that going to be all right with your friends?”

“
A
s far as I know. The only one who’s concerned about adding a dragon to the opposing army is Darrell. He’s afraid he’ll freeze up again,” Kevin answered.

“Ask him to come over Thursday afternoon then. I’ll arrange for Jonquin to join us for a few minutes and we’ll see how Darrell reacts. I imagine he’ll be fine,”
Glendymere said.
“Now, do you have any questions?”

“Should we try to map out some kind of battle plan in advance?” Kevin asked.

“The whole point of these mock battles is for you and your companions to learn how to defend against an attack. Your battle plan is simple: do whatever it takes to survive.”
Glendymere paused for a minute and then said,
“If this were real, your first step would be to take out the sorcerer, and by take out, I mean kill. All sorcerers are dangerous. Even the less skilled ones can get lucky, and any sorcerer involved in an unprovoked attack is willing to kill. It doesn’t matter how old or young the sorcerer is, or whether it’s a male or female, take the sorcerer out first. You may not get a second chance.”

Kevin didn’t say anything for a bit. Once again he was trying to come to terms with the idea of having to kill someone.

“Hesitation will get you killed, Kevin. If a sorcerer comes after you, only one of you will walk away. You have to see to it that it’s you. Period. That’s what this has all been about.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Kevin answered quietly.

“Unfortunately, there’s no way to practice that. You’ll just have to see when the time comes, and it will come. Not today, but it will come. Think it through; prepare yourself. Your survival is important. You’ll be good for Terah, but only if you’re alive.”

Glendymere hoped that some of what he was saying would sink in, but it was time to change the subject.
“Now, let’s run through your routine again. I think I saw a few places where we can spice it up a bit with a little more showmanship and a little more challenge. Start at the beginning.”

~ ~ ~ ~

They spent the rest of the day practicing, and by the time Kevin and Chris left Willow Canyon, they were worn out. At dinner, Kevin told the others about the war games on Friday and asked if any of them would like to meet Jonquin Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t want to meet him, but I guess I need to,” Darrell said.

Chris grinned. “The second dragon’s a piece of cake. It isn’t anywhere near as frightening as the first. You know the old saying, if you’ve met one dragon, you’ve met them all.”

“Right,” Darrell said, totally unconvinced by Chris’s banter.

“I’d really like to see Jonquin again. I haven’t seen him in years,” Tyree said. “Do you think Glendymere would mind if I tagged along?”

“No,” Kevin answered. “I’m sure that would be fine.”

“The rest of us will probably be there, too,” Karl said.

“Okay. I’ll let Glendymere know,” Kevin said.

“I want to bring up something Tyree and I have been talking about,” Steve said. “Anyone who works at the castle now is there by choice, but they’re basically working for room and board, not for pay. Everything they need is provided out of the castle storerooms, but they don’t actually get to buy anything. They have no money or anything else to exchange for goods in town. They have no feeling of independence, of being self-supporting. Tyree said that most of the servants were women and children. Young men who have grown up in the castle work there for a while, but few stay past their seventeenth or eighteenth birthdays. We’ve been trying to come up with some way to set up something like the company towns that grew up around the mines.”

“I thought they were basically abusive,” Joan said.

“A lot were, but not all of them. The original idea was to give the people who worked for the company access to goods because there weren’t any other towns around,” Steve explained. “They built houses for the people and rented them out, with the rent coming directly out of their pay. The company operated a dry goods store, a farmer’s market, a tavern, maybe even a restaurant, things that would make life more attractive for the workers. The workers were usually paid in company script, and they could use the script to buy goods in any of the company stores. And, in the better company towns, there was a bank of sorts where the workers could exchange their script for legal tender. The abuse came when some of the companies started charging exorbitant prices for supplies and refused to exchange the script for currency. Some of the companies also refused to allow any businesses that weren’t company owned to set up in their ‘town’. If you avoid the abuses, the idea might be a workable one for us.”

“You mean set up stores in the castle?” Kevin asked.

“Sort of. We don’t have the coins you would need to pay a living wage to all the people who are needed to run a castle. That’s one reason why slavery is so attractive,” Tyree answered.

“We haven’t worked it all out,” Steve said. “In fact, we have more questions than we have answers. As it is now, all of the regular staff lives at the castle and eats at the castle. If you built extra houses near the castle, how would you decide who was going to be able to live in them? And how much rent would you charge? Would both parents have to work at the castle to qualify? If the families lived in town, would they get their food from the castle? Also, if you have any young married women working for you, what do you do when they get pregnant? Stop paying them? Suppose a man works at the castle, but his wife stays home to take care of the children. What if he gets hurt or dies? Do you take on the responsibility of his family? There are a lot of details that need to be worked out, but it has possibilities.”

Kevin looked at Tyree and asked, “If we decide to attempt something like that, would you be willing to help set it up?”

“If you wish. I don’t know that I’d be much help, but I’ll be glad to offer whatever assistance I can,” Tyree answered.

“I won’t even think about starting anything like this until we get settled and see if I can survive the first few months as Master Sorcerer, but if I’m still there, would you be able to join us, maybe next fall? I think that would be soon enough, don’t you?” Kevin asked and looked around to see if the others agreed.

Steve nodded and said, “It would take a lot of planning. We’d have to decide the relative pay for the different positions, the cost of things in our ‘stores’, how much to charge for rent and food, and so on. And then we’d have to convince the staff to give it a try. It’s not going to be an overnight thing. It would probably take several years at least.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Later, after everyone else had gone to bed, Chris asked Kevin if he had given any thought as to whom he was going to ask to be Governor of Camden.

“I hadn’t really thought about it. I was sort of hoping that whoever is governor right now would be willing to continue for a little while after I get to Milhaven,” Kevin answered.

“If he or she can,” Chris replied.

“What do you mean?” Kevin asked.

“From what you said, the first question Tyree asked you was whether or not you had chosen your governor. I got the feeling that he expected you to say yes. Maybe a new governor has to be installed as soon as you take over.”

“You may be right,” Kevin said with a sigh. “We need to find out how much time we’ll have. Can you find a way to ask him how soon a new governor has to be in place? I’m not sure I want him to realize that I have no idea. He’s not too far from figuring out that we’re not from Terah, and I don’t want to add to his suspicions.”

“And it would be more likely for me to have no idea? I’ll ask, but I don’t think it’ll make much difference. If he’s going to be around us in Camden, he’s going to figure it out, if Steve hasn’t already told him.”

“I wonder when he’s leaving here,” Kevin said, more to himself than to Chris. “If he leaves when we do …”

“I know where you’re headed. I asked Glendymere about it one day while you were fighting dragons,” Chris said. “Glendymere’s going to insist that he stay here until we’re in Milhaven. I think he’s doing that so we’ll know that if anyone does find us, it isn’t because Tyree talked. Glendymere trusts the man, and wants to be sure that you do, too. I think he thinks that Tyree might be a good advisor later on.”

“I was thinking about asking him to travel with us so I could keep an eye on him.” Then Kevin laughed and said, “Chris, I think your paranoia’s contagious. That sounded more like you than me.”

“A little paranoia is a good thing,” Chris said. “Now, you want to know how long you have before you have to name a governor. Anything else while I’m at it?”

“No, I think that’ll do for now. Oh, find out about this assistant thing. Is it an actual position, or does it just refer to an aide? Xantha said that I don’t have to name a second until I have a child. Find out if that’s right, too,” Kevin added.

“And you want me to find out all of this without alerting him with my ignorance. Right!”

“You’ll manage. You always come through,” Kevin remarked.

Chris didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. He could tell from the way Kevin said it that the comment wasn’t intended to flatter or persuade, it was just Kevin’s opinion, but it was the first time in his life anyone had ever seemed to rely on him. He found the idea a little intimidating.

~ ~ ~ ~

The battle Friday would have ended quickly if it had been real, and not in the Tellurians’ favor. Kevin concentrated so hard on fighting Jonquin that he was not very effective in protecting the others. Glendymere became their primary shield instead of backup.

After Glendymere called a halt to the day’s battle, Kevin and Chris joined him in his chambers while the others gathered their weapons and headed back to Rainbow Valley.

“That was horrible! I thought I could handle it, but I can’t. There’s no way I can deal with the ground barrage and handle Jonquin’s attack at the same time. It’s just too much,” Kevin groaned in frustration.

“Which is another good reason for you to always neutralize the sorcerer immediately. That would give you one less thing to worry about.”

“I understand, I really do, but what am I supposed to do now? Against Jonquin? I can’t defeat him. He’s too strong,” Kevin moaned.

“He’s a dragon! And he’s a lot stronger than any sorcerer you’ll ever face in battle. If you can manage to counter his attacks and still protect your friends, you can feel confident that as long as you’re awake, you can defend your little group against any type of human attack on the way to Camden, with or without sorcerer assistance.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call today a rousing success.”

“No, but neither was your first battle against the elves and dwarves, or your first battle against a dragon. You’ll get better, you always do.”

“I hope you’re right, but right now I don’t have a lot of hope.”

“We’ll work on it tomorrow morning. Our next battle won’t be until Monday. Chris, bring your bow and a lot of arrows. I’ll get Jonquin to join us. You can shoot at Kevin while he and Jonquin fight.”

“And what are you going to be doing?” Chris asked. “Protecting me from magical fallout, or making sure that Kevin doesn’t end up looking like a pin cushion?”

“With a little luck, we might just be able to manage both between us, right Kevin?”
Glendymere chuckled.

“If you say so,” Kevin mumbled. He felt like all of the self-confidence that he had gained over the last couple of months was more self-delusion than anything else.

“Just stop it! Don’t start that again!”
Glendymere roared.

Kevin and Chris both jumped back, almost as if the force of Glendymere’s thoughts had physically assaulted them.