Guild Mage: Apprentice-Chapter 139 - 138. The Trap

Another evening of circulating mana, a morning meal, and a wash with a wet cloth all left Liv feeling marginally more prepared to play at politics. She would much have preferred to have Duchess Julianne there to handle something like this, but like anything else, sometimes you had to do things yourself. There was a reason the noblewoman had kept Liv with her so often during those years at Castle Whitehill, and she'd truly have been an idiot if she'd learned absolutely nothing from the experience.

By the time Thora was brushing out her hair, Wren had returned.

"Did you find him?" Liv asked, holding herself straight where she sat on the enormous bed so that the maid could do her work. No armor, today, unfortunately: she wanted to give a different impression. But Liv had already put on the golden bracelet and rings that she'd won from Princess Milisant, and now that the rift was no longer erupting, she had her bone wand back in its sheath on her belt.

"I did," Wren said. "Took me a bit - I haven't had time to learn the city at all. There's several temples, and by the time I found the right one, the old man insisted I stay for dinner. He made me talk through everything that happened down the Well twice while we ate; I got the impression he already knew most of it from General Mishra, but that he wanted to hear it for himself. Do you trust him?"

"I think so, yes," Liv answered. "A noblewoman's style today, please, Thora," she said. "As best you can, anyway. And the best dress we brought." Armor of a different kind.

When Liv and Wren finally emerged from the bedchamber, Arjun was waiting, along with two guards who had been stationed in the hall. The ksatriya were respectful, at least: they didn't take her by the arm or anything. Instead, they simply inclined their heads and spoke a few words in Dakruiman.

"They will lead us to General Mishra," Arjun translated, and fell in beside Liv and Wren. One guard strode in front of them, while the other brought up the rear. Neither of them seemed to regard Thora as any sort of threat, as the maid was left to straighten things out in the bed-chamber without any supervision. Liv wasn't surprised by that: it seemed servants were just as invisible here in Lendh ka Dakruim as they were in Lucania.

Rather than the war-room, with its great map table, or the dining room, where Liv had been before, they were brought to a chamber that had more the feel of a baron's great hall, or the sort of throne room Liv imagined that King Benedict might have.

Mishra sat in a chair that was not quite a throne, upon a dais, with armed guards to either side – and, to Liv's relief, Vivek Sharma, the priest, stood to his right, on the next step down. Commander Jagan had also been waiting, it seemed, though not up on the dais. To Liv's eye, he seemed to be standing in the position of a supplicant, like the merchants she'd seen come before Baron Henry or Duchess Julianne at Whitehill.

"We are relieved to see that you are recovering, Journeyman," General Mishra said, his tone formal as he addressed Liv. "We were all concerned when you returned from the Well of Bones in such a damaged condition."

"Thank you, General," Liv said, and glanced over to where Jagan waited.

"Ah yes." Mishra frowned. "Commander Jagan has levelled certain accusations against you, Journeyman Livara. First, that you violated sacred ground, trespassing where the founder of our jati herself struck down the Lady of Bones, so long ago." As the general finished speaking, Liv felt someone's Authority press upon her. If she guessed right, it would be the priest confirming the truth of her words, so she didn't even try to resist.

Liv kept her back straight, her head high, and her tone even. "We found the chamber where Costia was killed," she confirmed. "At the heart of the rift. They were surrounded by formations of bone that looked like frozen waves. Both Costia and Ksatriya had been transmuted to bone, as well. I don't know if the spear was originally bone or not, but by the time we got down there that's what it seemed to be made of."

"You see!" Jagan cried out. "She confirms it with her own words. This is why I argued against allowing them to go in the first place."

"Did you expect I would lie about it?" Liv asked. "We went to the heart of the rift, where you threatened to order your men to fight us. And when you backed down – while you were having your men take hammers to my wall, actually, so the dead could get in and kill us – I broke the spell that Costia left behind. Which is why there have been no further attacks from the Well since we returned. Have there?"

"There have not," General Mishra said.

"Coincidence," Jagan argued. "The eruption is over. The Well will be quiet for some time now. She did nothing, save to trespass and steal."

"What did I steal?" Liv asked.

"When we sent a team down there to see what you had done," Jagan said, "the spear was gone. Along with the bodies of both the goddess and Ksatriya."

"The two bodies dissolved when I broke the magic," Liv said. "There was mana left in Costia's remains, but not Ksatriya's. The spear did not dissolve."

"Where is it, then?" Mishra asked, leaning forward.

"Since I was barely conscious, and this traitor had already tried to get us killed twice, I had it sent away to somewhere safe," Liv said. "Which Pandit Sharma can verify is the truth, I believe?" She looked to the old priest for confirmation.

"Everything that the journeyman has said is true, to this point," Vivek said. "I will be certain to speak up if it is not."

"Including the fact that Commander Jagan refused to aid us on the stairs," Liv said, "threatened to attack us at the heart of the rift, and then broke down a wall of ice to let in the flood of risen corpses, before they fled?"

"Including each of those things," the old man confirmed. Liv thought she could see a bit of a twinkle in his eye.

"After all that, and as weak as I was," Liv said, addressing the general, "there was no way I was going to trust a weapon that powerful anywhere it might fall into his hands." She thrust her arm at Jagan, and pointed with a finger. "Now, we can discuss where the spear is and who gets it. Once something has been done about him. We went down there in good faith, and we did not deserve to have him stab us in the back. Especially after everything we've done to help you all."

Mishra and Sharma shared a look, and then Liv felt the priest's Authority move away from her. From the wince that Commander Jagan made, she imagined that he was feeling it now.

"Commander Jagan," the general said. "I have now heard no less than three testimonies that implicate you in this matter. What do you have to say to these accusations?"

"Three?" Jagan said, recoiling. "This is just one foreign girl. How can you take her word over mine? There should not even be a question!"

"Did you think today was the first time that we discussed these events?" Mishra asked, leaning back in his chair. "We had testimony from Arjun Iyuz the day you all returned - and he, you will note, is no foreigner. Just last evening, Pandit Sharma questioned the bodyguard." He nodded to Wren. "So, three. More than enough to subject you to the word of truth, no matter how much it may anger your father. Now tell us, Jagan. Did you order your men to break down a wall of ice, while you were in the Well of Bones?"

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"This is an insult," Commander Jagan barked. "And it will not go unanswered. Nor will I stand here and listen to my honor questioned. You will hear from my father." He turned and began to stride toward the door that led out of the audience chamber.

"I think not," the general said, and his guards stepped in Jagan's path, barring the door. "While you were simply arrogant and contentious, I was willing to subject myself to your presence. After all, you were sent to Akela Kila to learn from me. I had hope that you could learn humility. But to betray our allies? Those who came here to aid us, and asked nothing in return? You speak of honor, Jagan, but you have none. If anyone profaned the place where Ksatriya died, it was you. Now. You will answer my questions, or I will have you stripped of both weapons and rank, and thrown into a cell."

Jagan faced Mishra for a long moment, set his jaw stubbornly, and remained silent.

"Disarm him and take him away," Mishra commanded. "Jagan has no rank in this fortress."

As disagreeable as he was, even Jagan seemed to know better than to fight back, but he shot them all the kind of look that a man might give a venomous scorpion in his boot. Only once the doors closed behind him did Liv relax.

"My apologies," Mishra said, standing and descending the dais. "I am certain that was not the first thing you wished to do after leaving your sick bed, and I feel that I am a poor host for demanding it."

"You knew what you were going to do before I ever walked in here," Liv said.

The general nodded. "Unfortunately, Jagan's family has a great deal of influence. Arjun's testimony alone would have only invited interference - especially after he ran off to join your guild and then spurned his betrothal. Your bodyguard's testimony is useful, but again, insufficient alone."

"But once he had all three of us, with Vivek Sharma vouching for the truth of our words," Arjun explained, "that was enough that no one could object to him demanding answers from Jagan."

"Answers he quite deliberately refused to provide," Wren said.

"Of course not. He would only incriminate himself," Sharma said. "We will question the men he brought with him, next. This is more than ample justification. With five sources of testimony, his silence will be no shield."

"I guess we're glad we could help?" Liv said.

"And I am pleased you did not ignore my warning," Sharma told her. "But. We are going to need the spear back."

"I sent it to the Tomb of Celris, in my family's lands," Liv said. "I'm not sure I'm in the condition to take anyone there myself, but I can show you the sigil and write a letter to my family."

"In that case, I will go myself," Vivek Sharma said. "I have always wanted to see far away lands."

"But not alone," Mishra said. "I will send men with you. Men that I can actually trust. And there is one more thing we must speak of. The rift."

"Whatever you did down there," the old priest said, turning back to Liv, "seems to have fundamentally altered the Well. We've sent scouts down the stairs, and they report no corpses rising at all. What is more, the shoal seems to be shrinking."

"So far as we can tell," the general said, "it is no longer a greater rift. We suspect that when it is finished shrinking, it will fall well within the limits of what your guild would consider a lesser rift."

Liv thought about that for a moment. "There was so much mana pouring out of Costia's corpse, that wouldn't surprise me," she said. "I wish I'd had time to stay down there and learn more. The whole thing was connected to the ring, I could feel it. I think if I had time to stay down there and study everything -"

Mishra shook his head. "Unfortunately, you cannot. My old friend Jurian is already desperate to have word of your health. I am surprised we haven't seen him come walking out of the waystone yet; he's sent half a dozen messengers. As soon as you feel ready to travel, I think that you should be on your way home."

Home. That could mean any one of several places, and Liv didn't count Coral Bay as one of them. "Did the Archmagus send any letters for me?" Liv asked.

General Mishra walked back up the dais, and collected a sealed scroll of parchment from somewhere between the cushions. He handed it to her.

"Thank you," Liv said. "I'll look it over back in my room. If you'll forgive me, I only just woke up yesterday, and I'm not certain I should be on my feet for long yet." Mishra nodded, and Liv turned to the priest. "I'll have a letter drafted for you by this evening," she promised. "If you're staying at the fortress for a few hours, I'll have my maid bring it to you."

"Excellent." Sharma inclined his head to her in a nod. "May your health recover quickly."

☙

Once they were all back in Liv's room, she threw herself onto the bed. All the stairs and walking really had taken more out of her than she expected: what she'd meant as an excuse to get somewhere private had ended up being at least half true.

"It's going to take weeks of running to get back to where I should be," Liv complained, throwing an arm over her eyes.

"I don't get why Mishra had to play through all that if he already believed us about Jagan," Wren said, hopping up on an empty piece of the mattress.

"I've seen Julianne or Henry do it several times," Liv said. "Think of it like setting a trap. You don't want to give your prey any reason to panic until you're ready to strike. They quietly made sure they had all the testimony they needed to sink Jagan in advance, and let him think he had the advantage."

She lifted her sleeve from her eyes, held up the rolled parchment, and reached her hand out to Thora. "Pen knife, please." The maid dug one out from somewhere, and Liv broke the seal, then unrolled Jurian's letter and began to read.

"What's the old man say?" Wren asked.

Arjun, who had pulled over a chair for himself, snorted. "You're the only one who could get away with calling him that, I think."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wren asked, frowning.

"Quiet, both of you," Liv said. "Everyone's back from the coronation. Benedict celebrated with half a dozen royal pardons. One of them - probably the only one he actually wanted - was his mother."

Arjun frowned. "What does that mean?"

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"It means," Liv said, sitting up and shuffling back to lean on her pillows, "that a woman who tried to kill me is free again. It would have been easier if she'd just died of old age off on that island. And it means Benedict has no intention of keeping the deal he made with Julianne, now that their father is dead."

She looked back and forth between Wren and Arjun's confused faces and sighed.

"Neither of you were there," Liv said. "Sidonie was, and Cade."

"I was around for some of it," Thora said. "Not the parts where you were in the room with royalty, of course. But I heard enough."

"I'll talk you both through everything tonight," Liv told Wren and Arjun. "You should know it all before we get back to Coral Bay. There's more. Benedict's announced that he intends to have the small council re-examine the laws that govern the guilds. They're archaic, apparently, and could do with being simplified. And if you believe that, you're got less in your head than a barnyard chicken."

"Did he say anything about the fight on the beach?" Wren asked. She met Liv's eyes, and held her gaze without looking away. Out of all of them, Wren was the one who knew outright that Liv had a forbidden word, and that she'd used it against Karis.

"Wrote around it, a bit," Liv said. "Honestly, I wouldn't want to put anything in writing, either. Too easy for someone to get a hold of a message like this. He says Archmagus Loredan wants to talk to me, which could be a problem."

"He's always been fair with us before," Arjun pointed out. "More than fair, honestly. Are you worried he'll be upset that we lost Isabel? I can't imagine he'll blame you for that, Liv."

"Her family might. I should write to them." Liv sighed. "The archmagus also never had a real reason to come after us before," she remarked, mostly to Wren. "But. You know what Jurian didn't say? He didn't tell me to go to Whitehill or Kelthelis, and he could easily have come up with an excuse to send me to either one. I think that means we're safe to go back to Coral Bay."

"How soon?" Wren asked, turning to Arjun.

"If it's just about making the journey by waystone, we could go tomorrow," the healer said.

"I want to not be helpless when we show up," Liv said. "Call it another day after that. That's two more nights of sleep, and a few good meals. It also gives me time to write the letter for Vivek Sharma."

"You could go with him," Wren pointed out. "And then come back."

She shook her head. "I don't need frost-crusted giant bears charging me while a few flights of stairs put me on my back. That would be stupid. They can handle it, and if they run into my family, the letter will be enough."

"Alright, then," Arjun said. "The day after tomorrow, we go back to Coral Bay. It'll be good to see Rosamund and Sidonie again, at least."

Liv nodded. Jurian's plan had been to send her out of Lucania long enough for news of the coronation to push the fight on the beach out of everyone's mind. But now, she was going to be coming back after having lost a journeyman at the bottom of a rift. A place she'd essentially defanged, reducing it in power from a greater to a lesser rift.

She had a feeling that the odds of her being forgotten by the other students and faculty were rather low.