1220 A.B.

  It took Mira four days to get to Mithram on the Unseen Blade. Though she had to stop and anchor for the evenings for rest, going downstream was a lot faster than going upstream. Mira was still deeply hurt by my secret dealings with her father. She tried not to think about it, though. Once she had secured the ship at a pier in Mithram’s partially rebuilt docks, Mira commanded the T.U.R.D.s to guard the ship after the B.U.M.M.s had offloaded the cargo Prince Kimorel commissioned her to transport here to his business associates. She then had a meal at a tavern near the docks and returned to the Unseen Blade to wait for darkness. Though the moon was slightly luminous, and it was never truly dark, traffic died down when the sun went down. That made it a much better time for the skullduggery she had planned.

  Mira looked at her reflection in the little wall mirror in the captain’s quarters of the Unseen Blade. She was wearing a gray blouse, black leather pants, black boots with soft soles, and a black leather vest with lots of little pockets in it that held her spell components and lock picks. The vest was a little tight now, she saw. It had been a gift from Whizzbang a few years back along with a pair of pants and a blouse like the one she was wearing. The originals didn’t fit her anymore, but she was too sentimental to get rid of the vest. Besides, she had found that men liked how tightly it fit her, especially me. She shook her head and scolded herself.

  “Expecting trouble tonight?” Bandit asked.

  “Always,” Mira said.

  Mira removed a small object from one of the pockets in her vest. It was a small, mithril cube on a chain that was made to hang on a belt. It was made up of a lot of smaller cubes, nine to each face, and was about an inch long on each side. Each of the faces of the smaller cubes had pictures on them. Being careful not to align all of the coin pictures on one face, which she was forewarned would unleash some sort of a nasty surprise, she rearranged the cube until all nine harlequin masks were on the same side. When it clicked into place, the cube opened a man-sized circular portal on the wall that looked like a vertical pool of gray paint. The cube was a treasured gift from the Pirate King, and Mira liked the sneakiness and utility of it.

  Mira stepped into the portal and entered a large room that looked like it had wood paneled walls, ceilings and floors. The room was stuffed full of a great many things like furniture, bookshelves that were lined with books and alchemical substances in jars, and other small objects. There were crates of food, wine and ale that she knew were perfectly preserved. Mira had her eyes on the weapon rack close to the door. She picked up a weapons belt with a scabbarded shortsword and two daggers that looked like they were made of glass. That glass was unbreakable as far as she knew and was razor sharp. Once she strapped on the belt, Mira’s hand went to the small crossbow on the rack. It was made of a dark, grayish wood and had blackened steel pieces making up its moving parts. Though it was smaller than a normal crossbow, this one magically delivered bolts to targets with the force of a ballista. It was her favorite weapon by far and she always felt safer carrying it. Even so, she didn’t expect to have to shoot anyone today, so she left it where it was in case it made noise during her excursion.

  Mira picked up a sealed scroll from the table sitting close by and slid it into her sleeve. Prince Kimorel had commissioned Mira to deliver secret messages back and forth to General Magren Redfield, who commanded Mithram’s army and was a close advisor to King Korban V. She had been taking messages back and forth since the aftermath of the invasion along with the foodstuffs and trade goods. Bran, Elle and I didn’t know about this extra duty she’d been doing, and she felt that what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. She normally found the general in a tavern close to the docks and slipped it into his coat pocket unnoticed by those around him. This time she was asked to give it to him in his quarters in the castle. From what the prince said to her, Mira had the feeling this was a test of some sort. The prince definitely knew she wasn’t a simple militia trainee, and that she had been trained by his spymaster, Ykaens prior to her militia service. He didn’t know about her training with Whizzbang, though. Maybe he was just trying to gauge her true skill.

  Mira walked out of the extradimensional room and turned the cube a couple of different ways. As soon as the harlequin masks were on different sides, the portal closed as if it had never been there. She found Bandit dancing and jumping on the bed for the pure joy of doing it.

  “So, what are we doing tonight?” Bandit asked.

  “We have to deliver a message to General Redfield in his quarters in the castle. I’ve never been in there, though. I’m not even sure how I should get in.”

  “Oh, this’ll be easy. They don’t even have any magical wards in that castle,” Bandit said as she bounced around in a little circle.

  “You’ve been inside?”

  “It’s me. Of course, I’ve been inside! You know how I love to explore. Putting bugs in their porridge is a close second, but exploring is always fun.”

  “Where’s the general’s room?” Mira asked.

  “It’s on the third floor in the southwest tower. He’s got a star on his door and everything. It was really shiny, but it was too well secured to the door for me to take it,” Bandit said nonchalantly.

  “All right. This should be easy, like you said. You ready?”

  “I’m always ready for some mischief,” Bandit said with a grin.

  Mira retrieved a small piece of a veil from a vest pocket and spoke a string of mystic words. She faded into invisibility, then slipped out the door to her quarters, then up to the hatch to the observation deck because it was shielded from view. In case someone was watching the ship, she slipped over the rail on the starboard side, then walked sideways across the hull of the ship towards the back. From there, she crossed over to the pier and crept upside down under the pier all the way to the seawall. Mira walked on the side of the seawall a few piers away to a spot where no pedestrians were travelling and quickly made her way to the top of the wall, then across the street. Once she got to the newly rebuilt warehouses, she walked up the side of one and took the rooftops to the city wall. It was very easy to walk over the wall and into the city proper. Mithram was a much larger city than Stonekeep, and it had much more pronounced districts. Mira noticed that the higher the elevation of the building, the better it was constructed. This culminated in the royal district where the nobles lived in estates that surrounded the palace.

  The ancient castle of House Mithram was now just a barrack that adjoined the royal palace. The entire complex was large enough to make Stonekeep Castle look small in comparison, as long as no one looked up. From what Mira knew, though, bigger was not always better. She angled for the oldest part of the castle where the general had his quarters, alert for danger. There were usually fewer sentries to notice a scuff of a boot if Mira made a mistake on the towers, so there’s where Mira went. She walked right up the side of the wall of the most inaccessible tower all the way to the bottom of a crenel. She was still invisible but peeked over the edge of the battlements anyway. Old habits die hard. There was only one soldier up here keeping watch, and he was alert. Mira snuck a quarter of the way around the turret to a point opposite the way the sentry was looking, then made her way softly to the stairs down. Just that easily, she was inside. Mira carefully made her way down to the topmost floor where she thought the general would be and went to the southwest part of the castle. There she found the door with the star on it just as Bandit said it would be. There were no guards posted outside the door.

  Mira paused to consider for a moment whether or not she would actually help the general. She could simply deliver the message and be done with it. Ykaens had personally asked her to help General Redfield, however, so whatever the general needed must be important. That piqued her curiosity, so ultimately Mira decided to do as she was asked. This time. She ended her invisibility spell then used her talent with shadow magic to obscure many of her facial features, then knocked on the door.

  A man in a gray uniform answered the door a moment later. He was in his fifties and still looked very physically fit. He had brown hair with patches of white at his temples and was clean shaven except for a large mustache that swept down to the bottom of his jawline, giving him a very severe look. He had a gold star pinned to his chest that was around three inches in diameter and had a ruby set in the center. He had a gilded dagger at his belt and wore a pair of perfectly polished black boots.

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  “Yes?” He asked simply. The general looked her over carefully.

  Mira saluted with her right fist over her heart. “Message from Stonekeep, sir.”

  With a flicker of movement and a little magic, Mira produced the sealed scroll from her left sleeve and handed it to him. He accepted it, stepped aside, and waved her in. Not knowing what else to do, Mira walked in, but she kept her back to the wall furthest from the window and kept her eyes on the general. He closed the door absently, still looking over the seal on the letter. The general’s quarters were surprisingly utilitarian. There was only one room in the turret with a single arrow slit to let in light. There was a bed the size of Mira’s old bunk near the far wall, a wardrobe against the wall near the door, an armor stand next to the wardrobe, and a small desk with a wooden chair in front of it and a marginally more comfortable chair behind the desk. On the desk was a bottle of liquor and two glasses, a lamp, and a set of quills and ink. There was also a small wood-burning stove against the wall near the desk.

  “You must be a pretty resourceful messenger,” General Redfield said in a gravelly voice.

  “Some would say so,” Mira said evasively.

  “How did you get into the castle?”

  “You’ll forgive me if I don’t tell you. Your guards were vigilant enough at the walls, but you should consider posting one outside your door,” Mira said vaguely.

  General Redfield considered this for a moment, then broke the seal on the letter and read its contents quickly. Mira tried not to fidget as the general once again regarded her.

  “Was it you who delivered the other letters from Prince Kimorel?” General Redfield asked.

  “Most likely. Maybe not all.” Mira was able to change her appearance with magic when she wanted to, and she always did this when she used a little sleight of hand trick to slip the messages into his coat pocket in the tavern he frequented. She had never let the general see her true face when performing those duties. Even now, she erred on the side of caution and used shadow magic.

  “You clearly have talent,” he said. “The letter here says to trust you with our situation here. That’s saying something.” He gestured to the chair in front of the small desk. “Please have a seat.”

  The general put the letter Mira delivered into the stove and watched it burn as he collected his thoughts. His mind made up, he sat behind his desk and looked Mira in the eye.

  “The prince and I think that the king has been ensnared by some sort of insidious magic,” he said bluntly. “At a time when the ogres’ fleet destroyed our navy and made us look like kittens, the king has been consumed with preposterous claims against his own family. He thinks his wife, Queen Limoria, is unfaithful. He believes Prince Kimorel is harboring a Mordonian in Stonekeep, that Prince Anturin is incompetent, that Princess Starla is promiscuous and untrustworthy, and that Prince Mortalan is plotting to usurp the throne. This is all pure hogwash, and it goes against his nature as the benevolent king I’ve served for four decades. It’s got to be an enchantment. I need help in finding out how we’re being attacked and stopping it, and the prince thinks you’re able to provide that help.”

  “He might be overestimating my skills,” Mira said. “I’ve been known to stick my nose in people’s business before, but I think I might be out of my depth with this one.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” General Redfield said. “If you can get in here undetected, then I think you’re exactly the kind of person we need working on this.”

  “Well, then I’ll help, of course. Is there anything odd you’ve noticed that I should start with?”

  “The king’s brother, Duke Gabria of Blackrock, has been causing trouble in court. I think he may be involved somehow. It could be that he’s disloyal, but there’s no proof. I just know that he’s been whispering about the king’s incompetence recently in court and subtly undermining his authority.”

  “What about the palace staff? Is there anyone new there?” Mira asked.

  “I wouldn’t know about that. Chamberlain Ilsalen is responsible for the servants and such. Though I trust most of my soldiers in the castle, the palace is another matter. I wouldn’t go asking anyone questions anywhere. You’ll have to resort to other methods to ferret out the traitors and get rid of the enchantment,” the general said grimly.

  “All right. I’ll give it some thought and do whatever I can to help,” Mira said as she stood. “When I find something, I’ll let you know.”

  General Redfield just sat at his desk and watched her leave. He seemed to be a man of few words, Mira thought. She used another spell of invisibility as soon as she closed the door to his quarters and retraced her steps back to her quarters in the Unseen Blade to think about it in a safe place with Bandit. She would have some insight on how to go about this.

  Mira made herself a light meal of bread and cheese with a little fruit from the extradimensional space the cube accessed. Food didn’t go bad when it was stored in there, so it was the obvious place to keep her supplies. Bandit didn’t have much to add to her thoughts on the matter of the spell affecting the king, so she decided to sleep on it. In any case, she would have to start nosing around tomorrow. Maybe she’d start with the staff at the palace. She could stay invisible for a very long time. Maybe she would hear something helpful.

  -----

  I got up from the Throne when I saw Mira step into the cabin of the Unseen Blade and my view of her evaporated. The Pirate King had protected the interior of his ship with wards against magical scrying and teleportation for obvious reasons. In any case, I knew that when she was there, she was safe. It was a good time for me to get some rest myself. Currently I wore Mordon’s helm since that made controlling the magic of the Throne much easier, and I took it off when I got to my new bedroom in the lord’s level of Stonekeep Castle.

  Over the last four days, I had been scrying on Mira without success from time to time. Because I couldn’t get a vision of Mira, I knew she was still in transit on the Unseen Blade. I used my time to read the Pirate King’s notebook about Stonekeep Castle’s forges and foundries and to test things out. The intense heat needed to smelt and forge adamantium was generated by elementals made of pure flame that were summoned into special chambers within the foundry level of Stonekeep Castle, and then portals were used to channel the heat into the smelting chambers and into the forges. Other portals were used to bring air into the forges, making the flames even hotter. One of the things that I found was necessary was to lessen the heat I felt as I smelted and forged the superheated metal. Adamantium required an intensely hot flame, and it would turn me to ash in short order if I couldn’t protect myself, which, fortunately I could.

  My next task was to find a volume in the library that gave insights into how to put permanent enchantments into items and read that in my currently great amount of spare time. After finding one, in simple terms, the volume said it first required the materials to be purified of all magical traces. While making the item, the maker had to infuse it with the type of magic it was supposed to perform, which was a tricky thing. It depended on the function of the item and strength of the materials to determine how much magic it could hold. Fortunately, the excess would sort of evaporate if too much magic was put into it, so it was unlikely that I’d ruin the item that way. Unfortunately, magic had to be channeled into the item during the entire process of making it, which wasn’t easy to do during a forging and polishing process. Once the item was completed and enchanted, there was a different kind of magic that must be used to make the item permanently retain the enchantment that the creator just put into the item. It took many tries to get the purification and enchantment spells right because I didn’t have anyone to teach me beyond the books I found, but I eventually did it.

  After I’d seen Mira’s conversation with the general today, and now that I knew what she was up to, I thought I would have to move more quickly on my plans. Mira was going to poke around in the business of very powerful people, and that tended to be dangerous. She was going to need protection, and she would need it quickly. I would have to balance my vigilance for Mira’s safety with my activities in the foundries, which left very little time for me to sleep, but I was determined to soldier on, as they say, and do what needed to be done.

  -----

  After Mira took her leave from the general, a tiny eye retracted on a tentacle and was reabsorbed into the mass of the monstrous thing clinging to the outer wall of the tower. The thing hanging there had a multitude of legs it used to hang onto the stone and its body was the same color as the blocks it clung to. No one would see it, so it felt no hurry to act. The Xerith previously known as Captain Safarac considered its options. It determined that the girl would be of little consequence. The general could only guess at the real plan, and the plan was foolproof. All in all, it would do its part and inform its leadership of the general’s suspicions later.

  Extending a tentacled eye to the corner of the window again, it observed the general for a bit longer, absorbing the general’s mannerisms and speech patterns into its memory. When it was confident in its recollection, the spider legs changed to tentacles, and the Xerith silently squeezed its bulk through the arrow slit. General Redfield’s back was turned as he read a report at his desk, making the assassin’s approach all the easier.

  It struck out with its tentacles all at once, covering the general’s mouth and trapping his arms, legs, neck and torso, lifting him out of his chair as easily as if the general was a child. The assassin was especially careful to make sure there was no damage to the contents of the room because of a struggle. It made another tentacle that reached around the general’s neck and strangled the man. The general tried to fight but died red-faced anyway. The assassin moved its tentacles all over the general’s corpse, making sure it knew the exact feel of his skin, the size of his limbs and structure of his face, then dragged the corpse close to the bed. There the Xerith took off his uniform and consumed the man at its leisure. It couldn’t eat the whole man at once, but it ate its favorite parts first. The others could fight over the other parts later.

  It shuddered once, then flowed into the exact size and shape of the man it had just killed. The new General Redfield sighed contentedly as it reclined in its new bed and patted its stomach. Sleep came easily. Just like that, the plan moved forward.