NOVEL NEXT Book 3 Ch 10: Julian - Preferably with Death
“...there are three categories of finalists today. There’s the junior division, with Rocco the fire mage against Sandy Moor the summoner. Then there’s Candace Stannard, the giantess, against Cimor the Monk in the newcomer tourney. A bad match up, but that just means if Cimor wins anyone who bet on her is walking away with a heavy purse.”
Julian cut off his mother, “You bet on her, didn’t you.”
“Of course,” Grand Duchess Calisto smirked. “Now, the finalists for the main Summer Solstice Tourney are unexpected. We have a mouse named Vance Underwood and Kenji Toriyama from Peldeep, both high level sword arts users.”
“Is Vance a mousekin or a beastman who can shift into a mouse?” Julian questioned idly. Mouse was small for a shifter, but he didn’t want to automatically assume they were the unchanging mousekin. There were many different kinds of kin, from ratkin to lizardkin to catkin, and everything in between. They always kept the same form, unlike beastfolk who could go from an elf-like appearance all the way to full on beast.
“Neither,” His mother surprised him. “Vance is a knowing mouse who immigrated here from the Dark Enchanted Forest earlier this year. He’s very reputable, and known for guarding merchant caravans.”
“Huh,” Julian stabbed a bit of scrambled egg. They were sitting at the breakfast table. The summer sunrise wasn’t an hour ago and already the world was bright and ready for the day. Birds were chirping in the trees, and the city was just starting to wake up.
Julian was used to getting up early, but he wasn’t used to tossing and turning all night thinking about a mysterious troll.
And there he was, thinking about her again.
“...that’s why you’ll be overviewing the bout. We don’t want any interferences.” There was steel in Calisto’s voice that instantly made Julian glance up and regret that his thoughts had wandered.
“Interferences?” He said, hoping that would hide the fact that he’d missed the first part.
“The Blackfog spies.” His mother’s hand tapping on with irritation on the breakfast table. One finger at a time fell as her sharp manicured nails, painted purple, made a soft tik. “We haven’t found any yet, but that just makes me all the more nervous.”
Julian tilted his head, “Madame Potts’ didn’t say that the Blackfog spies were going to attack. She just said that there are going to be fireworks.”
The sharp look his mother shot him made him hesitate. She explained, “The fireworks in Peldeep were Their Royal Highness Rowen fighting the spies during an illegal assassination attempt on his person.”
“Ah.”
“Morning.” Julia walked in, yawning, with a bright smile on her face. His sister was tall, just shy of six feet, and built like a knight. Her black skin was the color of the midnight sky, just like their mother’s, though she had a red undertone that burned her cheeks scarlet whenever she was angry. Or embarrassed.
Neither had their mother’s dark red hair, but they were both born with the duchess’s gray eyes. Julia's eyes even shone silver when she used her powers as the Paladin of Light.
Where Julian’s locs were the same color as their father, a rich purple, Julia’s hair was the same straight black as their maternal grandmother. She wore it shoulder length and pulled into a ponytail.
“Still no word on the spies then?” Julia said, spooning some scrambled eggs and two slices of fried flyingpig meat onto her plate. She grabbed a freshly baked bun and lathered unigoat butter on it.
“No,” Callisto sighed, but turned a smile to them. “But I’m sure it’s only time. I have something to show you both.”
Callisto waved her hand and a piece of paper materialised in the air in front of her. She caught it and handed it to Julian first.
MADAME POTTS
Their Royal Highness Rowen of Peldeep
Earl Oakley of Sumbria
Countess Oakley of Sumbria
Lord Geoffrey of Oakley
Commander Carsen Jules
Nera of Servalt
Joseph of Servalt
Knight Commander Havork of Drendil
Grand Duchess Callisto of North Sumbria
Countess Julia of North Sumbria
Necromancer Chloe of Nilheim
Commander General Rufus of Nilheim
General Knolith of Nilheim
Gerda the Bridge Troll
Chikli of Nilheim
Sithli of Nilheim
Milith of Nilheim
Tulith of Nilheim
Lilith of Nilheim…
The list continued with over fifty names jotted down. The first name, Madame Potts, was the only one in capital letters and bolded. Julian frowned when he saw his mother and sister on the list, and his eyes lingered on Gerda’s name before he handed it over to Julia.
“What is this?” He asked.
“In the last few altercations,” Callisto explained, “the leaders of the spies carried a list of targets. Different operatives carried different names, and these are all of the names that have been collected so far.”
“Targets?” Julia demanded, slamming the list onto the table. “For what purpose?”
Callisto tapped her fingers on the table again. “We have only begun to piece it together. The leaders of each group were told as much as they needed to know, but people talk. Some of them had lists ordering perma-death, with my name included. So was Rowen and Havork and everyone from Nilheim–”
Julia sucked in a breath, but Callisto added, “except Chloe.”
His sister frowned. “What about the other lists?”
“They were to be secured.” Callisto said. “Preferably with death.”
Death was reversible with a Revive or Resurrect potion. Permanent Death was just that, permanent.
“What else did we learn?” Julian did his best to memorize the list of names in front of them.
“That the group has been around for decades, if not longer, but they’ve only started getting seriously involved in international affairs starting last year. The Spring Ball was the turning point, and the lists were distributed right after.” His mother looked each of them in the eye. “A lot of members were simple information brokers until then, and even more are recent hires.”
“What changed?”
“Duke Lector made a contract with the leader of the Blackfog spies. He seemed to think that he was in control of them, and they’d come to his rescue.” Callisto leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in front of her on the table. “But no such help ever came.”
“Why?” Julian asked, knowing there might not be an answer.
“If I could guess…” His mother frowned, “Any contract he had with them might have ended upon his death. Or, they decided he was too much of a liability and they didn’t have a use for him any longer.”
“Who is ‘they’?” And why did it feel like he wouldn’t be getting any of this information if he didn’t ask for it? Usually his mother was more thorough.
Callisto shrugged. “So far, there are two lead suspects. A woman with blond hair and pink teleportation magic–”
“That’s the one who keeps messing with Madame Potts?” Julia cut in.
“The same,” Callisto affirmed. “And the other suspect is a young boy with black hair and black eyes. He’s the one who hands out the orders to each of the spies and controls their entire network.”
“Where are the spies now?” Julia asked, her eyes starting to glow a faint silver.
“Those that were informant’s have been handed over to their respective kingdom’s authority, and the ones that were mercenary hires were heavily fined, made to sign a magical contract impeding them from working with the Blackfog spies, and currently busy with community service.” Callisto sighed. “Duke Lector was handed over to Servalt…who in turn handed him over to Telv.”
“Ah,” Julian stopped worrying about the duke returning. The selkie would use his elf bones for jewellery.
There was a moment’s pause, and then Julian spoke quietly, “If the Blackfog think that they can get away with harming either of you… then they are in for a surprise.”
Callisto nodded, approving his anger. His mother looked ready to burn something down herself.
“And if they think they can mess up my wedding,” Julia crossed her arms as her eyes shone with a silver light, “Then they’d better have made peace with their patrons. How is security?”
Their mother smiled, “Excellent.”
That made Julian feel better. Between his mothers inventions, their trained guards, and his own team, they should have enough on their side to overcome anything thrown at them.
Julian asked, “Who else knows?”
“Rowen handed over the list to the ruler or representative of each nation last night. They didn’t want to wait for the official Continental Council Meeting after the masquerade, as you can imagine.” Callisto said. “So I need you to keep your eyes open at the tourney today. Which, need I remind you, starts in less than an hour?”
Julian sighed, but rose to go and do his duty.