own. You seem to be a man of integrity as well as skilled at arms,” I said.
I hadn’t asked any questions so Harold was left wondering what to say. “Thank you, your Excellency,” he ventured at last.
“To make a long story short I need your service, and not just in your present capacity as a man at arms,” I told him. I went on to describe the new order of knighthood I intended to create.
Harold stood up from his chair near the end of my explanation. “Begging your pardon sir, you can’t be serious!”
I was nonplussed. Not understanding his perspective I assumed he was criticizing the idea of a new order of knights. Dorian put his hand on my arm before I could respond, “We are serious. Before you discount yourself think about how you acquitted yourself during the recent war against Gododdin. Lord Cameron did not make this decision lightly and you might consider that before you question his reasons.” As Dorian spoke I realized Harold had been objecting to his own selection, not the plan itself.
“Do you intend to decline this burden?” I asked young Harold somberly, giving him my most gravid look.
Harold dropped to one knee as if he had been poleaxed. “No my liege, I will accept whatever you place upon me, insofar as I am able.”
I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Dorian. I had not expected Harold to be so well spoken. “Very well, rise for now. We will hold the accolade tomorrow so you will need to prepare your vigil tonight.”
He rose and left with Dorian and Rose while I exchanged a meaningful glance with Penny. Once everyone had left the room I spoke, “Are you sure you’re alright with this plan?”
She stepped closer and I wrapped my arms around her. Tipping her head back to look at me she gave me an appraising look. “I’d rather be with you but I understand the need. Just don’t make me spend too many nights alone or you’ll have a very cranky pregnant woman on your hands when you return.”
She laid her head against my chest and I leaned mine forward, resting my cheek against her soft brown hair. We stood that way for a long minute before finally making our way to the door. Looking back Penny studied the room for a moment and frowned. “This room is entirely too dusty. I’ll have to remind Lisette to give it a thorough cleaning.”
I almost felt sorry for the castle staff… having been a maid once herself, Penny held high standards for them. “Don’t be too hard on her dear, it doesn’t look so bad to me,” I told her.
“You’re too nice,” she said. “Look in those corners… the dust is so heavy there you can see footprints.”
I had to admit she was right. “Just try to go easy on Lisette; she’s a young woman in love you know. She might have a few things distracting her.” I led Penny from the room and with our backs to the room I didn’t see the dust stirring behind us or the extra footprints that appeared once our attention had moved away.
Chapter 14
That evening I returned to work in the smithy. I was close to finishing the armor I had been crafting for Harold. If he was going to be my body guard in Albamarl I wanted him to look good, as well as being properly equipped. Besides, I had a feeling Lisette would like seeing her young man in his new finery, at least until it began to smell. I chuckled to myself at the thought; even magical armor had a tendency to rankle the nose after a while.
My best estimate saw me not finishing until after Harold’s knighting. Hopefully I would complete it before we left for the capital. He would simply have to be understanding. It was a surprise anyway, he had no idea I planned to armor all of my knights in such gear.
While I worked I found myself in an awkward position, needing an extra set of hands and having only my own two. I considered calling in the guards that Dorian had positioned outside but I really didn’t want to give away my secrets to anyone else yet. Then an idea came to me. “Moira,” I called softly, wondering if asking for her help with such a minor task would annoy her.
She rose up from the packed earth floor with fluid grace. “No, it doesn’t annoy me,” she replied to my unspoken words, “Though I never expected when I created this repository of knowledge that it would someday be used as a smith’s apprentice.”
She held the hot metal with hands that felt no heat and watched me as I worked. Her eyes today were made from two pieces of glossy slag metal, giving them a strange grey cast, similar to polished hematite. Neither of us spoke for a while as I was fully focused upon my task, smoothing and stroking the burning steel into shape. Eventually I paused to let the metal cool while I used a rule to measure it. This piece was to be part of the greaves that protected the lower leg and it needed to match the already finished piece for the other leg.
While I did that Moira examined the already finished breastplate and pauldrons, running her hands over the metal and studying the lines of the enchantments I had already laid upon them. I could sense her astonishment as she examined them. “I suppose they must seem rather crude compared to the enchantments created during your time,” I observed.
She looked up at me, “Not at all. What you have done here is novel, unlike anything created while I was alive, and the sophistication of the enchantments is nothing to laugh at. Your talents would have earned you praise as a mage-smith in my day. Where did you learn this?”
I wasn’t sure how to react to her compliments. “I just worked with what I already knew, about wards and such. I nearly blew myself up a few times,” I told her, thinking back to my first attempts to create enchantments by storing heat energy.
“You have no idea how few men possessed the talents to create things like this, even in my day. This alone would set you apart, without even considering your strength as a wizard or your potential as an archmage. Your ancestors would have been proud of you,” she said.
“So far I’ve only managed to kill a lot of innocent people, I’m not sure how that fits with your assessment,” I said bitterly. For some reason her praise had irritated me.
“I won’t debate the merits of your actions with you. Your forebears were hardly innocent on that score,” she replied. “The Illeniels were well known for the many mage-smiths and skilled enchanters they produced throughout history. It is interesting to see that the trait has bred true in you despite your lack of guidance or formal training.”
“That’s not entirely true,” I said defensively.
“How so?”
“My father taught me from the time I was old enough to work the bellows. I watched him working with iron for most of my life and when I was old enough he showed me everything he could of his knowledge of it.”
“And you think that explains this?” she laughed, waving her hands at the armor lying on the table behind her. “Are you even aware of the fact that you are using more than mere wizardry as you shape the metal?”
“I’m just spelling my hands to make them stronger and heat tolerant. There’s nothing more to it than that,” I said brusquely.
“There is much more to it than that,” she insisted picking up the piece I had just been working on. “Do you think metal can be shaped so simply, so gracefully, just because you have given yourself stronger hands? You are talking to it, even as you work. Nothing as profound as what you did with the stone that day, but quietly, subtly, your mind is coaxing it to shape itself under your fingers.”
I stared at her, stunned, for as she spoke I knew she was telling the truth.
She set the metal down and pointed at my staff, which I had left leaning by the doorway. “And what of this? Look at the runes… do you realize that the geometry needed to align them like that has to be perfect? Where is the master that taught you that?”
I did have an answer for that at least, “The duke’s tutors taught me mathematics. It was one of my favorite subjects.”
“And from that you discern how to create a rune channel to focus power? Doesn’t any of this give you pause to think? At a time in history when wizardry had almost completely died out… you appear, an untaught prodigy. You are a mage as strong as any I have ever heard of and possessing amazing potential as an archmage as well. And after you appear you manage to defeat the only other remaining wizard, one who was about to summon a dark god to finish the job Balinthor started in my time. Then you rediscover the lost art of enchanting and use it to turn back
