When the mage woke up, he found himself exactly where he expected to be. Which was a problem.
He sat up and looked around the sparse room that had been appointed to him months ago when he entered the Kings service. As a young mage, barely beyond apprentice, he was not allowed much. Not that he even had a lot to begin with, but the few things that were – proudly – his were back in the little village in the mountains that he called home.
He had, in the days after arriving here, tried to make this tiny closet more liveable. A few books he had purloined from the royal library, a couple of runes that he had remembered from the academy and a tooth from something that hung from the ceiling. He didnt know that it was all necessary; the capital was far from the border, far from the fighting. There was nothing, really, that could breach the protections raised by the elder wizard in the tower. Still, though, it was ingrained in him from his first day as an acolyte and it was essentially instinct now.
A good thing too, because there was no other way he could have made it back here without his preparations.
What mattered now was finding out what had happened and who had tried to kill him.
The mage was named Tersa and, in the traditions of his people, had forsaken his family name until such time as he had done something to earn it. This was the farthest thing from his mind as he trudged down the tower stairs towards the main hall of the castle, retracing his steps from … from when, exactly? He had no actual idea of what day it was, or how long it had been since he – and the others – were attacked.
He remembered the celebrations. A victory had been eked out on the far front and the Kings military, such as it had been whittled down to, had made progress towards recapturing the border that had been taken in the initial invasion. Tersa had not been keen on celebrating that accomplishment, per se, he remembered that the young women from the royal family would be pausing their seclusion in order to let the ordinary people see that the monarchs were not afraid of what was happening all those thousands of miles away.
Tersa reached the doorway that led from the tower into the corridor that spanned this side of the castle. A few doors down from his, on the opposing side of the hallway, was the large wooden double doors that led into the main hall. He could hear the low murmurs of whatever few people were sitting around eating, or drinking or whatever. There did not seem to be any excitement and the hallway itself seemed to be cleaned and swept after the celebrations. Not the best omen.
He entered the main hall and a handful of people looked up from their tables to see who it was and immediately went back to their meals and drinks. No one called his name, no one rushed over to assist him. The mood was not sombre, but it was quiet. Like a day or so after the bad news had been delivered, and everyone was now just having to accept it.
Across the room, at a table alone, he saw another apprentice who had been brought here at the same time as him. He ducked and dodged between the cleaning staff and sat across from him. The other apprentice, a mage named Gitear, looked up, nodded, and went back to slowly eating the brown mush that passed for stew here.
“What day is it?” Tersa asked, gathering the robes he was wearing and leaning over to whisper conspiratorially to the other. “When was the victory celebrations?”
“What?” Gitear replied, having not heard a word of what Tersa had said.
“The day, today,” Tersa repeated, more urgently. “How long has it been since the victory celebrations? Since the royal daughters appeared?”
“Were kidnapped, you mean?” Gitear made a look that, under different circumstances, could have been a smirk. “Where have you been anyway? Everyone has been looking for you.”
“I went out into the town,” Tersa said slowly, as if the memories were coming back to him even as he spoke. “There were eight of us? Ten? You didnt want to come, remember?”
“Of course, you all wanted to go to the Dagger. No one below the rank of Accomplished goes there. Did they even let you in?”
“Yes!” Tersa shouted, drawing more looks and some grumbling from the other occupants of the room. “They did,” he lowered his voice to a hiss and checked around him to see if anyone else could hear. “Because the redhead was with us.”
Gitear was now fully invested in the story. “You were with the crown-princess?” he asked, equalling Tersas whisper. “What happened to her?”
“No, I wasnt with her, she was with us,” he fought the fog of his mind to recover the memories of that night, as hidden as they were by the strike to his head, as well as the drink he had been enjoying. “She wanted to see how the lower classes lived. She was in disguise, dressed as a scullery maid.”
“And because she was there, they let you in?”
“I was at the back. The last one in. I dont know what happened, exactly, but there had been a conversation at the door, someone had spoken a spell and then we were all inside.”
“Ok, so the Dagger,” Gitear said. “The King will pay me for that information.”
“We didnt stay there long,” Tersa said. “She didnt like it, and she shouldnt. That place is full of treasonists and anti-royals.”
“Yeah, no shit. But they serve the best drinks in town.”
“Best women too,” Tersa said, remembering one of the group breaking off from them to head upstairs with a barely dressed woman who was clearly not from this nation.
“If that was one of us,” Gitear whispered dramatically as Tersa recounted that part of the story.
“I dont know, Toa, perhaps?”
“Toa is in the dungeons,” Gitear said. “He came back to the castle in daylight hours and tried to break the protection spell to enter. Claims he forgot the password.”
“That does sound like Toa,” Tersa nodded. “We should see him then.”
“After I finish this.”
“How long as it been?” Tersa asked again.
“A week,” Gitear replied around the mouthful of mush. “Since the celebrations. Six days since they were declared missing.” He looked Tersa in the eyes and swallowed. “Three days since the blondes finger was found.”
The dungeons were not under ground, as many were. They were a separate building tucked into the inside of the castle walls. Whatever the building had been originally, it had completely changed with the coronation of the current King. He had had the building gutted and replaced with a dozen cells. Each of the external windows had been taken out and boarded up, replaced with small slits right up near the roof. You did not want to be in here for anything ever.
The two mages nodded at the guards who stood before the entrance and opened the door to let themselves in. They may not have any ranks yet, but they were still wizards. They had every right to go where they wanted unmolested. Even if that meant to see the traitor locked in the furthest cell down.
“Toa,” Tersa hissed as the two of them stood before Toas cell; the only one occupied. “Wake up.”
“Im awake, you loud cretin,” Toa’s deep voice almost echoed off the stone walls. He was in the far corner from the other two, hidden in the shadows. “What brings the nations worst apprentices to my little hovel? Come to gloat, have you?”
“No,” Gitear said, looking confused at Tersa. “Gloat over what?”
“That I am to be put to death on the next full moon.”
“For what?” Tersa asked, incredulous. “That sentence is for-”
“Traitors and enemy combatants who take the life of a royal,” Toa said, as if reciting something from memory. “According to your almighty leader,” he waved his hand in the direction of the wizards tower, “I did, I am, both.”
“Youre neither,” Gitear said with confidence.
“I am aware,” Toa said darkly. “But because I attempted to de-spell part of the castle in my hungover state after that wonderful, awful night, and having been seen with the redhead, I am accused of kidnapping, dismemberment and an attempt to open the doors for the hordes on the border.”
“On the border, yes,” Tersa said. “Thousands of miles away. And, if I remember correctly, getting further.”
“Whats in your head, boy?” Toa almost shouted. “The army was overrun almost immediately. What we took back was, again, taken by the horde – and then some. The Kings men are no longer an organised fighting force and all of the little mages that the nation can offer are heading off to, well, to do what the King says, right? Only with little sparkles of magic.”
“Then we win, dont we?” Tersa said. “They cant stand up to our magic and will retreat back to their caves and whatever.”
“Yes,” Toa said, smiling. “The kingdom will know peace once again and enrolment in the academy will spike. The standard cycle. But I will still be dead.”
“Toa, what happened that night? The victory night?”
“The Dagger happened, you little prick,” Toa sighed and the other two could hear him rustling about on the dirty hay that passed for a mattress in these cells. “I was taken by this beauty from across the ocean and she led me to her room. What happened next, I need not say, but when I rose the next morning, my head was thumping, the woman was nowhere to be seen and there were guards pounding on the door, demanding entrance. Obviously, as an important advisor to the King, and not the person they were looking for, they let me go. You know the rest of that story. Now its your turn,” his voice was strangely smug.
“I remember you heading upstairs with your foreigner,” Tersa said. “The rest of us were down trying to keep the redheads identity secret.”
“Yes, a fools errand, if I recall?” Toa asked in that way that indicated he already knew the answer.
“What do you mean?” Tersa asked. “I dont remember much about that night. I remember the Dagger, and then I remember later, flashes of a fight, getting hit in the head and waking up in my bed.”
“Well, at least you set your runes correctly,” Toa mused. “So you dont remember the blonde, barging into the Dagger, demanding her sister be released to her custody? You dont remember her personal guard – a hundred times more frightening than the comedy act guarding this building – coming in and dragging the two princesses out of there?”
“No,” Tersa said, trying to fight the fog.
“It was the last thing I saw before my goddess took me into the other room. The blonde, her mother and a handful of other royals, all dressed for a long ride. They dragged the redhead out of there kicking and screaming, leaving the guards to take care of everyone else.”