given to wonder if you had not had this prank planned ahead for my arrival.”
I was warming up to the baron quickly as it was clear we would get along superbly. “No I am afraid my poor attempt at humor was entirely spontaneous. I was heading to the smithy to work on a project with my father.” I could see Dorian shaking his head in a silent ‘no’ out of the range of the baron’s peripheral vision.
“I had heard you were raised in unusual circumstances, this must be your adopted father you refer to?” he asked mildly.
“Yes,” I answered. The man’s insufferable attitude was irritating to say the least. “I hate to be abrupt, but I have some rather pressing news to relate.” I worried that the longer we talked the worse things would get so I decided to get directly to business.
“Please go ahead, I would rather not strain your hospitality further,” the baron seemed as anxious as I to have our conversation done quickly.
I gave him the briefest version of what I had learned concerning the unknown threat posed by the shiggreth and the more looming danger of invasion from Gododdin. Even brief as I was it took a quarter of an hour to relate the news and throughout it all the baron showed little sign of apprehension.
“You say you informed the king?” he asked finally.
“I did.”
“What was his response?”
“He will face the invader at the river Trent. He plans to call on our levies as soon as spring arrives,” I told him. “When I discussed this with him I told him I don’t plan to answer that call. Instead Lancaster and I will face them in the valley. We have a plan to…”
“You disobeyed the king?” he interrupted.
“After a short talk he saw the wisdom in letting me attempt to stop them here,” I kept my voice neutral to hide my increasing annoyance.
“You plan to face them by yourself… you’re either a madman or a fool,” the baron’s disdain was plain to hear.
“James of Lancaster and I will work together; we have a plan that may lead to success. If you will hear me out I believe you will find some hope in it.”
“I think not. Nor do I believe the duke would be part of your foolish schemes.” He stood as if to leave.
I was prepared to be labeled a fool if it would gain the baron’s aid but it looked unlikely to happen now. “Before you go,” I inquired, “What do you plan to do?”
“That should be plainly obvious to anyone but a madman covered in mud. I will take my men and join the king as soon as possible,” he replied. He began heading for the door.
“What of your people?” I shouted after him.
The baron stopped for a moment before answering, “I will rebuild when the war is done. As long as there is land people will come.”
Everyone in the room was staring at me. Thus far I had kept my calm, though perhaps I hadn’t gotten off on the right foot. Now it seemed kind words would have no effect. As he reached for the door handle I considered stopping him but I saw little hope of changing his mind.
“What a bastard!” I remarked as the door closed behind him.
“I don’t think your appearance helped any,” said Penny. “Though I am surprised you kept your cool. After he mentioned your father I thought you might burn him to a cinder on the spot.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted his help anyway,” my mother added. On that point everyone agreed, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the baron’s men might wind up being a deciding factor in the coming war. It wasn’t as if we were sure of completing the dam on time.
Chapter 23
The next day I returned to working on my new explosive enchantments. Since my father’s suggestion had worked so well I decided to stick with iron for all my future experiments. I used several pieces to get a more precise feel for how much power could be placed in a specific amount of iron without risking a premature explosion. I was very careful to protect my ears before each test.
Once I had pinned down the amount of energy I could use I switched to my second task, finding a way to set them off from a distance. I could easily do so myself, if the piece was within a range of about five hundred yards, but for our plan to work they would need to be used over much greater distances. The gem Cyhan had used during my bonding ritual had given me the idea I needed.
It was a simple concept; I would include a gem in the initial enchantment to contain the energy within the iron. Afterwards I could presumably remove it and use it to detonate the iron by crushing it. The real problem was that gemstones were in short supply; in fact I had none other than the diamond set in Penelope’s engagement ring. I had a feeling she wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of me crushing it for a test of my new spell. In any case diamonds aren’t known for being easily destroyed.
Eventually I picked glass beads. As far as I could tell there was no reason the activating gem had to actually ‘be’ a gem. It just needed to be something strong enough to avoid accidentally breaking and brittle enough to be easily crushed.
Oddly enough, glass beads were almost as difficult to come by as gemstones. Washbrook hadn’t had an actual glassblower in decades. The small town made do with wooden shutters on windows and handmade pottery for dishware. After a fruitless search and asking various townsfolk I gave up and went inside for lunch.
Penny was studying me as we ate. “You seem deep in thought,” she remarked.
I realized I had been silent during most of the meal, “I’m sorry. I’ve just been trying to figure out a problem with a new spell.”
“Perhaps you should bounce your ideas off of me. Let me be your sounding board. Besides I’d like to know what you’re thinking before you kill yourself inadvertently.” It never ceased to amaze me how much faith she had in my magical experimentation.
Penny had a quick mind and it didn’t take her long to understand my problem. “So you just need some glass beads?”
I nodded affirmatively.
“Does it have to be a bead? What about faux jewels, you know… cut glass?” she suggested.
“That would work just as well,” I replied, “but I haven’t seen much jewelry of any kind around here. Have you?”
“No, but there is at Lancaster Castle,” she reminded me.
I was feeling a bit dense. “Where?”
“The chandelier in the sun room, it used to be my job to dust it once a week, it always took me forever,” she said. The sun room was an upstairs reception chamber, the same one where I had my original ill-fated conversation with Devon Tremont. I had never paid particular attention to the furnishings.
“Do you think the duchess would part with it?”
“She’s already given you every able bodied man on her estate… at harvest time, I would think the chandelier would be a small price to pay,” she told me.
“I hate to ask her,” I said uncertainly.
“I’ll do it. I can ride over there this afternoon,” she offered. “I’ve been cooped up here for days now with nothing to do. I’m starting to feel useless.”
“You can’t,” I reminded her, “Not unless I go as well and I have other things to work on today.”
“Why not?” she replied before she remembered our bond. She glanced down at the sword she wore ruefully. “I never thought this would be so inconvenient.”
“Who wouldn’t want to be stuck with me twenty four hours a day for the rest of their life?” I said sarcastically.
“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s just strange not being able to move about on my own. I guess you’ll just have to send a messenger.”
That reminded me, I still hadn’t set up any regular messengers. The only people I had available to me were
