Reckoning (The Empyrean Chronicle) by Patrick Siana Read Free Book Online Page A

accident, and
wouldn’t it be best for everyone if we could just put this whole business
behind us? The corners of her lips curled in a near smile and her startlingly
blue eyes sparkled.
    “Well,” she said, “I think I will take my leave, then. Mayor,
expect a visit from me tomorrow, for there are matters of state to discuss. This
concerns you as well, Macallister, for as viscount you are steward of Lord
Ogressa’s lands in his absence, and viscounts have a fiscal responsibility to
their county. I will gladly accept your invitation to the—what is it you call
it in these parts?—oh, yes, shin dig that I hear you will be having in a few
days. We can get better acquainted then.”
    “Yes, my Lady,” said Macallister with a stiff bow, and an
equally stiff smile.
    Lady Denar turned her attention to Elias and gave him an
appraising look. “And a good night to you, master. You fought well. I daresay
you fence almost as well as I do.”
    “You honor me, my Lady,” Elias said while bowing his head,
“and may I say that you are a credit to your house.”
    Bryn Denar raised a delicate eyebrow, her eyes lingering on
Elias, before turning on her heels and striding away. She approached two men,
wearing the crimson and gold of House Denar, who stood underneath a poplar
tree, where they had watched the proceedings on the dais. She swept past them
with nary a pause and they fell into rank behind her, without so much as a
glance behind.
    The woman was an arcanist, that much was sure, thought
Elias, for she of all the onlookers had detected Cormik’s surreptitious spell. Elias
watched the flamboyant tax bursar and her retainers melt into the night and
wondered.
    †
    Padraic sat up, smoking in his arm chair, when his
children came home.
    He appeared unsurprised as they told their tale, although,
in Elias’s experience, nothing ever seemed to catch his father off guard. Danica
told most of the story, which suited Elias just fine, who paid only cursory
attention to their conversation, for he was deep in thought. For all her
protestations to the contrary, Danica thrived on drama.
    After Padraic rendered the obligatory fatherly wisdom,
Danica, sufficiently calmed, went to bed. Elias sat up with his father and
after ruminating behind three-fingers of knoll said, “Cormik used a spell on me.”
    Padraic leaned forward in his chair. “You’re sure?”
    “Without a doubt. I had him cornered at the edge of the
ring. He was finished. Then he made a gesture with his left hand, but he kept
it close to the cuff so I don’t think anyone else saw, and whispered a word or
two in a strange tongue. The next thing I knew, I was laying on my back, feeling
like a mule kicked me in the belly.”
    “How bad is it? Do you think your ribs are broken?”
    “Bruised at the worst. No, I’ll live, but I’m not looking
forward to tomorrow morning, I can tell you that.”
    “All the same, I think we better stop by and see Phinneas
tomorrow, just to be sure. It’s high time we pay that old goat a visit anyway. Besides,
I am sure Danica wouldn’t mind seeing the man that set her on her way to
becoming a doctor.”
    Elias agreed, knowing better than to argue with his father, and
it would be good to see the doctor. A smile came to Elias despite his black
mood, as he remembered his bit of good fortune. “It shouldn’t be too
inconvenient,” he said slyly. “We can drop off the Knoll Barrels first, and
then cut through Lurkwood to go visit the Doctor.”
    “What’s this, then?”
    Elias told his father about his chance encounter with a
Merchant bound for Peidra. After they shared in the excitement of the windfall,
the two men fell silent, each pondering the strange happenings of the night,
and the ramifications. They had enough trouble with the Macallisters when they
feigned civility, but now that they had been humiliated in public, and in front
of a member of the royal family, each man could only guess at what the future
would hold.
    After some