Guild Mage: Apprentice

49. The Black Horse

Liv spent the entire carriage ride from North Beach back into Freeport shaking. She'd managed to keep it together after the duel, when everyone rushed forward to congratulate her, and even when the Elden man in the audience had come over. Inkeris ka Ilmari, she repeated his name to herself once again, so that she wouldn't forget. He hadn't expressed even a moment of doubt that she was who she said she was, and he and the ambassador were coming the next day. Liv went from smiling giddily to feeling faint.

"You've got to breathe, Liv," Triss said, with a big grin on her face. The older girl put her hand on the back of Liv's dress and began to move it in gentle circles. "No passing out before we even get to the inn."

Liv nodded, then practiced her breathing. In, hold, out again. When her heart was no longer thumping like a runaway horse, she looked up. On the opposite bench, Matthew was watching her with obvious concern.

"You all right, there?" he asked her.

"I think I will be," Liv said. "I wasn't sure it would all work, even at the end," she admitted. "I kept waiting for something to go wrong."

"No worries there," Triss said. "You understand how ridiculous all that was, don't you? People our age, who haven't even been to Coral Bay, might know one or two spells, at most. No one but a full mage runs through five spells in a single duel."

"Half of them connected," Matthew added. "That's Liv, though. I guess now your secrets are out."

The carriage rolled to a halt. "You going to be able to walk?" Triss asked.

"I will." Liv reached out for her staff: having the length of wood in her hand was familiar, comforting. "Where are we?"

"Sign of the Black Horse," Matthew said. "Mother said this called for a few drinks, but I don't think you heard her. Your boy Cade was following us over, and probably others, as well. She didn't make a secret of where we were headed."

"I don't think I heard any of that," Liv admitted.

"No, you didn't look like you were aware of much after talking to that Eldish man," Triss told her. "He wasn't a pain on the eyes, either. Come on, then."

Matthew opened the door, then helped both of the girls out in turn. The Black Horse was a massive trading inn, Liv saw, with a great circular drive and a yard for parking wagons and carriages, as well as an attached stable. The building itself was nearly a hollow rectangle, enclosing the yard but for where the drive went under a sort of bridge made by the second and third floors of the building. The entire structure was framed by massive, exposed beams, and painted white between them.

Two of the guards were already on their way in, while another was lifting Baron Henry into his wheeled chair. Liv allowed herself to be tugged along by Matthew and Triss, past a ragged young boy who'd taken up station against the wall of the inn.

"A penny, miss?" the urchin called out to her, and Liv fumbled at her purse.

"Here you are," she said, pressing a copper into his extended palm. "Go and get something hot to eat."

"Just ignore them," Triss murmured to her, and tugged Liv through the door and into the common room.

The bar and half the tables were filled by weather-beaten sailors, recognizable by the slops they were wearing: a canvas doublet and breeches, linen shirt and stockings, and often knitted caps. Many of them wore rings in their ears, and where their sleeves were rolled up Liv could see all manner of tattoos: anchors and fishes and mermaids and stars. The entire assembled company raised their glasses and cheered when the three young people entered.

"They're all from the Gallant," Lady Julianne half-shouted, coming up behind Liv and putting one arm over her shoulders. "I told Captain Athearn I'd cover their drinks for the evening." With her other hand, she waved to the bar, and the sea captain raised a mug in response.

"Why?" Liv asked.

"In case there's trouble," Matthew explained, leaning in. "Father and Mother own their ship, and they all know it. If anyone comes here tonight looking for a fight, these boys will run them right out again."

It was strange: though none of these men looked like the sort of people Liv would have gone out of her way to spend time with on a normal occasion, the idea of the entire common room being packed with men who would fight to defend her actually let her relax a great deal. Liv ended up at a table with Triss, Mathew, Cade Talbot, who arrived just as they were getting settled, and even Cecily Falkenrath and her brother.

The dark-haired girl had arrived with a gaunt older man Liv presumed to be her father, the Duke of Courland, from the way that Lady Julianne, Master Grenfell, and Mistress Trafford all rose from their seats upon his arrival. Cecily's father joined the table furthest away from the common room's wooden stage, where Matthew's parents settled deep into conversation with the other nobles. Liv picked out Triss' father there, as well as others she didn't recognize.

Cecily, however, pulled Thurston, whom Liv had only seen once before, over to the closest table to the stage, where Triss had settled them all.

"Congratulations," the duke's daughter shouted over the noise. "That could have turned into an absolute mess, but you handled it about as well as anyone could have. I stayed long enough to hear the chirurgeons tell everyone she'd survive, and load her into a carriage."

"That's a relief," Liv said. "I never wanted to kill her." Someone had brought her a glass of wine, and she nearly choked when she took a sip. "What is this?"

"Fortified wine," Cade explained. Somehow, he'd managed to end up on one side of her, with Triss on the other. "Be careful; it's strong."

"I saw you speaking to the Eld of the North," Thurston said, leaning forward across the table from where he and his sister had crammed in. "The ambassador was there, too, but father says that one has come to address the great council."

"His name was Keri," Liv said.

The fight club was a dilapidated old warehouse just far enough from the docks to put it out of the way: Liv guessed that the fencing club must have bought it up on the cheap after the previous owners went out of business. It had a nice large yard, which had been surrounded by wooden stands, three levels high, to provide seating for those who were either taking a breather, or who had come to watch.

As he wasn't a member yet, Matthew paid a small admittance fee, then sent the carriage on the way with instructions to come back and pick them up in plenty of time to return to the house for luncheon.

"There you two are!" Triss Crosbie shouted, bounding across the field to join them. She was wearing a padded fencing doublet, and carried a leather fencing mask in her left hand. "I see my lady has risen from her grave," she teased Liv.

"I don't know how you can possibly be both awake so early, and so cheerful, after last night," Liv grumped.

"Go take a seat by my father, over there," Triss told her. "I want to see if this brother of yours can actually fight or not."

"Prepare to be impressed," Matthew said with a grin.

"I'm prepared to be disappointed," Triss shot back. "But maybe you'll surprise me."

Liv left them to it, clambering up the stairs toward Baron Arnold Crosbie. "May I sit with you, my lord?" she asked him.

"After last night, you're something of the toast of the town," the older man told her. "Of course. Make yourself comfortable. Henry told me you're all hosting the Eldish ambassadors today."

Liv arranged her skirts and settled her staff in the crook of her arm. "That's right," she said. "Lady Julianne invited Lord Inkeris. I'm not entirely certain that's the right form of address for him, however."

"It does well enough," Crosbie told her. Together, they watched Triss and Matthew don their leather fencing masks and square off. Liv had gone through enough lessons at Whitehill to recognize they were both beginning in the third guard, which was a fairly common choice. She'd personally always found first and second too tiring to remain in for long.

"I feel a bit odd telling you what I know," Baron Arnold continued, as Triss made the first lunge. Matthew met her with a parry and riposte. "You're half Eldish, if I understand correctly, so I feel like you should be explaining things to me."

"This is only the second time I've ever met one of the Vakansa," Liv admitted. She wasn't surprised to see that Triss and Matthew seemed evenly matched: as much as a bone-headed idiot as he was for not putting more effort into his magic, he truly was quite good with a blade.

"My understanding is that each family is led by a group of elders," Arnold Crosbie explained. "There's no guarantee he would take his father's place, but young Inkeris is the eldest surviving son of his family's head elder. They had to send someone at least that important for the king to agree to this."

"He's here because of what happened, then?" Liv asked. "With the blood monsters. I heard they were here, and in Coral Bay, as well."

"And at Valegard," Baron Arnold added. "Thomas Falkenrath told us last night they were in Courland, as well. At this point, I think it's safe to assume they caused trouble basically everywhere in the kingdom. And if the Eld have sent someone south to talk about it, that means they were in the north, as well. It's too soon for word to have come from Varuna, but House Sherard will be able to tell us what happened in Lendh ka Dakruim."

"All over the world," Liv murmured. Below, Triss scored a point on Matthew's shoulder, and they reset for another pass.

"So it seems," Arnold said. "I'm going to bring Triss to luncheon at Acton House, to see whether the Eld will tell us all anything in advance. Julianne has well and truly roped us in now, I suppose."

"I hope I haven't caused you any trouble," Liv said.

"If you have, you aren't the one to blame," the baron said. "You can do me a favor, though, if you feel guilty."

"What's that?" Liv asked.

"Tell me about that boy down there," Arnold said, nodding to the yard below them. As they watched, Matthew got past Triss' guard, trapped her rapier with his hilt, and threw her to the ground. The swords went flying as they tumbled end over end, until he managed to pin Triss beneath him.

Liv sighed. "He's a good boy," she said, finally. "Magic isn't his talent, but he minds his parents, and he's the first one to throw himself in the way of danger. He takes it seriously, you know: that the barons exist to protect people. What happened to his father doesn't scare him off at all. In fact, I think it drives him to practice harder."

"I could find worse, I suppose," Arnold said. "No alliance is truly sealed until it's done with a marriage. But there's time yet; they both need to go learn what they can from the mage's guild."

"I'm a bit surprised Triss would be going to Coral Bay," Liv admitted. "I don't know what her word is, but she keeps telling me it isn't good for duels, isn't good for the flower game..."

"Derk," the baron told her. "To see." He stood up. "Beatrice!" he shouted. "Stop playing around. Go ahead and show the boy what you can really do."

Triss turned, offered her father a salute with her rapier, and then fell back into a guard opposite Matthew. This time, when they moved together, it was entirely different. Triss seemed to know what Matthew was going to do before he did it, and her blade casually met his time and again, always a step ahead, no matter what trick he attempted. Liv realized, after the third pass, that she was playing with him, and could have ended it whenever she wanted. Finally, she disarmed Matthew entirely and caught him with the tip of her rapier under his chin.

"That's your word, is it?" Liv asked.

"There it is," Baron Arnold said. "Not much good for shaping flowers, as you say. But we make do."