CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHAT YOU’RE ASKING IS EASIER SAID THAN done.” Mersed replied, shaking his head. The mage looked from Blaine to Kestel. “Very difficult, and dangerous.”

“Especially since we don’t want a repeat of what caused the Cataclysm in the first place,” Cosmin, another of the Quillarth Castle mages, added.

Blaine, Kestel, and Piran sat in a small parlor within the partially rebuilt castle. The Great Fire had badly damaged the old fortress, and subsequent attacks and looting had left the castle far from its old grandeur. With the pirates pushed back for now, Blaine had sought out the mages to see what additional precautions could be taken to protect the port and enable the city to rebuild.

“That’s the question,” Blaine said, leaning back in his chair after they had finished dinner. “What can our mages do, with the way magic is now, that can protect the kingdom, or at least the harbor?”

“Oddly enough, probably the single biggest way to use magic to protect Castle Reach would be to crown a king,” Viorel remarked. He was the third mage to join them, and together the three were the most senior and most powerful mages working with the artifacts and magical items that had been salvaged after the Cataclysm.

“What do you mean?” Kestel asked, purposely not looking in Blaine’s direction as she leaned forward, anxious to hear Viorel’s response.

“You know all about anchoring the magic and the Lords of the Blood,” Mersed answered. “We’re still trying to figure out how the magic that was finally brought under control is similar—or different—from what it was like before. What we do know is that prior to the Great Fire, when the battle mages all did their worst, Donderath received a level of magical protection through its king.”

He hesitated, trying to find the right words. “Think of it like a sort of immunity. With a properly crowned king, the kingdom had a basic level of protection against minor magical threats. Not something as big as the Great Fire, but lesser attacks, the kind most likely to be launched by a single mage or a few mages working together.”

“The kind of things we’ve been fighting off one at a time,” Piran observed.

Cosmin nodded. “Exactly. When the Great Fire killed the king and the Lords of the Blood, it untethered magic from our control. That eliminated the magical ‘immunity’ as well, including any power that might have built up over the years through an unbroken line of succession.”

“So we have to start all over again,” Kestel supplied.

“Yes,” Viorel said, nodding. “The first step was to re-anchor the magic correctly, which Lord McFadden did when he reestablished the bond and the Lords of the Blood.”

“But we can’t complete the rest of the protection without a properly crowned king,” Cosmin said. “And kings, at the moment, are in short supply.”

“What do you mean, ‘properly crowned?’” Kestel asked.

Mersed looked as if he had been waiting for the question, and warmed to the subject with a scholar’s zeal. “We’re still piecing that answer together from the documents we’ve found. Needless to say, that kind of information was closely guarded. No one wanted enemies to find out the extent—or the limits—of their magical immunity.”

“Makes sense,” Piran said. “Kings usually have more than their fair share of enemies.”

Cosmin nodded. “Exactly. And there would be additional incentive if, on top of the political ramifications, killing a king—especially ending a dynasty—left a kingdom open to magical attack.”

“What we know so far,” Viorel continued, “is that the coronation ceremony is key to conveying the magical immunity. Not unlike the ritual that anchored magic through the Lords of the Blood,” he said with a nod toward Blaine.

Blaine repressed a shiver. Anchoring the magic had nearly killed him, and it had taken several near deadly attempts to get the ritual right. Mersed guessed his thoughts. “We intend to do our research thoroughly, m’lord, before we expose anyone to such magic, especially our future king. And that’s the sticking point,” he said. “The mages who presided over King Merrill’s coronation are dead. If they understood the power conveyed in the ceremony, they aren’t around to ask.”

“We’ve found a few scrolls from mages who might have been part of the coronation of Merrill’s ancestor who founded the dynasty,” Cosmin added. “And there may be more down in the catacombs, but you’ve seen for yourself how dangerous it is to go exploring down there.”

“Not my favorite place,” Piran said adamantly. “Ghosts fighting old battles. Dead Knights of Esthrane that don’t stay dead. Dark, spooky tunnels filled with things that try to kill you. I could do without going down there again.”

“Agreed,” Viorel replied with a nod. “But General Dolan, being one of the Knights of Esthrane, has had better luck than the rest of us retrieving artifacts and scrolls.” Dolan, a talishte-mage, would be under the protection of the watchful spirits of the dead Knights of Esthrane buried in the catacombs. “In fact, we believe that the Knights are an important part of the ceremony—but we’re not sure of the details yet.”

“Interesting,” Blaine remarked, “since the Knights would have been in exile for the last several coronations. If they were supposed to be part of the ritual and weren’t, might that have affected the protection for the kingdom?”

“Perhaps,” Mersed said. “I’ll look into that.”

“We’ve been working with the mages at Mirdalur and at the Citadel,” Cosmin said. “I believe that with all of us working together—including the Knights—we’ll figure this out. Of course, it’s not much use without a king.”

Blaine felt himself flush, and a nervous knot formed in his stomach. Piran and Kestel both gave him a telling look. Mersed’s lips twitched into a knowing smile. “Your name has come up more than once as a preferred candidate, Lord McFadden,” the mage said. “In fact, yours was the only name that has support from all factions.”

“It’s a bit premature, don’t you think?” Blaine replied. “We’re still under attack.”

“Of course,” Viorel said. “But when the day comes that the kingdom’s borders are secure, this is a conversation that must continue.”

Blaine sighed. “I know. And when that time comes, I’m willing to discuss it further. But right now, we’ve all got to live long enough to get to that point.”