The Brat's Final Gambit

Jolan Kine and Rand led the boys through the night and finally they emerged on the north end of Sartor’s estate without any more bother than Bode’s incessant moaning. Even in a state of semi-consciousness, he was insufferable. Before taking Bode to Lord Joachim’s manor to be seen by his physician, Jolan Kine and Rand took Gaius and Andromeda aside.

Now Gaius Sartor sat behind the desk in his study. Andromeda stood beside him, statuesque in a demure dress of fine blue silk. Her face seemed remote and detached, registering no emotion. Gaius appeared to be studying a ledger, but Maerillus knew what he and his mother were up to. Time slid by and the air in the office was thick with a tension that radiated from his parents. Their best weapon was on full display right now.

Silence.

Maerillus knew that his parents were giving them time to sit and stew before the lecture began. But he sat and stared back. He and his friends were made to sit on the other side of the desk, which was a large, solid work of oak, with ornately wrought scenes of fantastical beasts from mythology engraved across its highly polished panels. On the front of the desk, the family seal was emblazoned. Two rampant lions faced one another for mortal battle while the torch of truth burned between them. The desk was meant to separate them by more than its mere physical presence. Authority was what really divided them.

As he waited, he wondered how Niam and Davin were taking it all. His parents had lectured them all plenty over the years, but this was their first time to be hauled before what he and his siblings called the family court.

With an obvious sigh, as if he were setting aside valuable time for a frivolous matter, Gaius slowly shut his ledger and sat it down. In a rich and mellifluous voice, he looked at Maerillus and said, “You nearly got yourselves killed yesterday.”

“Several times it seems,” Andromeda said with all the regality of a queen who brooked no dissent.

“Um . . . if it makes any difference he nearly killed me once or twice over all of this, because I guess some of it was my fault,” Niam interjected.

Despite the Sartors’ withering glare, Niam wasn’t ready to be quiet yet. “I’m just saying,” he told them, as he seemed to shrink back in his seat.

“I’m just trying to help,” he whispered. Then he looked back at Gaius and Andromeda and squeaked an apology.

“I can explain,” Maerillus began, but his mother cut in.

“Explain why you lied to us?” The lack of any emotion on her face made the accusation seem more a condemnation.

Maerillus shifted uncomfortably as she started speaking. When she was done, more silence followed. The awkwardness of the situation was the worst part.

Maerillus had sat through these sessions countless times in the past. But he was weary of this. After all, he had done all of this in order to protect other people, but his family reputation as well. His face grew hot at the sting of injustice.

Gaius’s features were the first to soften. “I understand your reasoning, son. But in light of everything that has been going on, you showed very poor judgment.” When he looked at his son, he bore an expression on his face that showed he expected an apology.

To Maerillus, however, it felt like an abasement. “The poor judgment I demonstrated,” he began through clenched teeth, “came as a result of the fact that I was working with incomplete information.”

His mother’s curt voice almost made him wince. “Maerillus! Don’t talk to your father that way!”

For the first time in his life, Maerillus nearly shouted at his parents. “We had a right to know the things you’ve withheld from us! Don’t you think we might have made better decisions if we had known we’re somehow a part of this?”

Andromeda and Gaius looked at one another wordlessly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, genuinely hurt, hoping the pain in his voice might finally get an answer and put all of this lecture business to rest. “We’re related to the Vandin, among other things. And these things that are happening to us . . .” Maerillus had to pause before his voice broke. “What else haven’t you told us?”

Andromeda chewed her lip nervously. Her snowy and serene face was slipping. She’s been worrying about this for some time, Maerillus realized. After an uncomfortable stretch, Davin took the initiative to break the atmosphere. “Mr. Sartor,” he implored, “What’s happening to us?”

Surprisingly, it was Andromeda who was the first to speak up. Her face was no longer calm and regal. A new set of lines creased her face. When she looked up at the three of them, they were the lines of a mother worried about her children. “They need to know some of it,” she said to her husband and looked as if she were about to cry.

A burst of shame blossomed in Maerillus’s chest as he watched the emotions pass across his mom’s face.

“Their parents—” Gaius began.

“Ought to be here but they aren’t,” Andromeda finished.

Niam broke in. “We can get them here.” Davin agreed.

Gaius gave a heavy sigh, and looked beyond Maerillus and Davin to Niam. “I guess it falls to us.”

Niam caught the look that passed between them, and asked nervously, “What!?”

“Your parents are with the Hapwells right now,” he said. There was an unmistakable note of sadness in his voice.

Both Niam and Davin stiffened in their seats, and almost in unison asked, “What happened?”

Gaius glanced at Davin, and then his eyes settled on Niam. “They’re down at Siler’s Gorge. Some fishermen have found the remains of a body, a skeleton, in one of the coves. We’re not completely certain, but it’s probably—”

“—Seth’s!”

Maerillus was shocked. The look on Niam’s face could have moved hangmen to tears. His mother’s lips quivered. For all the effort his family put into keeping up a steady appearance, feelings ran deeply in the Sartor family.

Gaius was somber. “We’re all so sorry. We were going to tell you but . . . ” his words trailed off into silence and hung in the air.

“Nobody knows how to say something like that,” Niam finished. His words were quiet and dismal.

Gaius’s eyes took on a far-off look as memories seemed to pass before them. “I’ve broken plenty of bad news to people in my time, but when it happens to be the last son of one of my best friends, it gets hard. This is something I never expected to have to do when we were your age.”

Heavy dewdrops of tears rimmed Niam’s eyes, and his chin trembled almost imperceptibly. He straightened himself, and pushed the next words out. “This show isn’t about me. What’s happening to us? I don’t think my folks will be in any kind of shape to tell us.”

Gaius gave Niam an appraising look. “Well done Maldies.” The words had been meant as praise for Niam’s resolve. Niam just sat with a stony face and waited. “We had wanted everyone involved here for this, but what we can tell you is this—the thing you’re experiencing runs in our families.”

“You can say it skips generations,” Andromeda added.

“It’s part of our Vandin blood, a legacy so to speak from ages and ages past.”

“For generations the Vandin have lived apart from other people because of how different they are,” Andromeda said. “You have no doubt noticed Rand’s eyes? That is only a holdover from what the Vandin truly hide within their family lines.”

“What you are,” Gaius pronounced.

“And no matter how closed off and secretive a people can be, sometimes a member steps out here and there and marries outside of the clans—as my great-grandfather did,” Andromeda said, “during the Tolmarch War when the last of the Guldeen were driven from the haunted cities of Siloam. He was a volunteer in the army that left from this area, led by Lord Joachim’s ancestor, Count Ribone Joachim.”

Davin spoke up. “But we’ve never heard any stories about the Vandin and mysterious powers. I’d think we would have heard something about ‘Vandin sorcery’ or something like that. Blind One’s eyes—everyone talks enough about them in every other way!”

Gaius shook his head. “Apparently no one has ever manifested powers to the extent that you have,” he said. “My father told me once he knew of a man who could touch fire without being burned. Said he walked right into a burning barn and pulled a servant out before the flames took him. The Vandin man didn’t have a mark on him although the fire had burned the clothes right off of his body.”

“Did his eyes shine like ours do” Niam asked, preoccupied.

“Now that is something no one has seen for a very, very long time. The Vandin possess just a touch of it—enough to mark them with unusually colorful eyes. Sometimes someone like Rand can sense things, but that is all. At least all that I know of.”

“So it isn’t sorcery,” he asked fearfully.

“No. It is not sorcery.”

Niam looked at him doubtfully. The noise of floorboards creaking made everyone turn around to see Lord Joachim’s grizzled features as he strode into the room wearing a pair of riding boots, thick grey pants, and a heavy coat that covered him almost to his knees. “For lack of a better word, call these powers endowments. I’ve studied the Vandin for some time. They see them as gifts from a higher source.” Then Joachim looked down at Niam. “Your mom and dad are at my manor. My physician has given them something to help them relax.”

Niam nodded his head.

“If there’s anything I can do . . .” he said, and left the offer hanging in the air.

“I think Niam is worried about the sorcery thing,” Davin told him. “To be honest, I figured this was something different, but you’ve got to understand—”

“This is pretty damned odd,” Joachim said gruffly. “Damn right it is. But as to that count, you’re safe.”

The boys leaned forward eagerly.

“Sorcery involves the manipulation of powers drawn from unnatural agencies—demons, dark intelligences, and such. Wizard’s Hammers exist to prevent wizards from making the transition from using the natural forces surrounding them into far darker pursuits. It’s why every magic practitioner must be registered with the Crown.”

Maerillus shivered at the thought of Wizard’s Hammers. Tales of their ferocity were legendary, along with the lengths they went through in order to bring rogue mages to justice.

Or take down dark sorcerers.

Niam gave the Count a perplexed look. “Why haven’t there been any Hammers here with all of this going on?”

Joachim gave a grim smile. “In point of fact, there have been two around here for some time off and on.”

Maerillus was shocked. “Jort!” he exclaimed. “He—he said something to me the day I overheard Ravel talking about his plans to take Dad’s shipment. I always thought the old guy was touched.”

Joachim coughed a dry laugh. “Jort was many things, but crazy wasn’t one of them. Not in the conventional way.”

“Why was Jort here,” Davin asked.

“You three,” Joachim told them bluntly. “He knew you had yellow eyes when you were born. And as you got older, your parents and I grew concerned. We knew you possessed great potential. And none of us knew whether magic users operating legitimately or in the dark would recognize your potential and try to use you. This is new ground for us all to cover.

“What I didn’t know is that Jort had stumbled onto something. I think he was onto a sorcerer operating in this area, even before he went into retirement and came here as a favor to me. Now it looks like he might have had more than one agenda, and that’s why your parents and I chose to call in his best apprentice, Jolan Kine. Thankfully Jolan was in Kalavere at the time. And that is why I have asked Gaius to keep you all here on his estate for the time being. Indoors.”

All three boys began sputtering complaints at once, but Gaius held his hand up to silence them. Then he addressed Niam, with words meant for all of them. “Niam, you and your family have had a terrible time. An especially experienced Wizard’s Hammer has been murdered. By your accounts, Vandin have died, and you were attacked by a creature that was more than likely created by the culprit behind it. To make matters worse, someone’s been breaking into shops, businesses, and homes all over Pirim Village lately. And to top it all off, whatever your motivations were, the three of you have been doing Lord knows what behind everyone’s backs.”

Maerillus wanted to say something, but he knew his father had a point.

“If you don’t want to think of yourselves as restricted for the time being, then consider yourselves guests in the Sartor estate until we get this trade meeting behind us,” Joachim growled. “We can’t have the lot of you getting yourselves or anyone else blown up with guild representatives, businessmen, and lords running around. It’s bad for business, and I’d have to send too much time explaining myself to the Crown. Not even the three of you are worth that much hassle.”

With that, Andromeda ushered them off to the family wing of the estate, and there was not a thing they could do about it.