A Spell Misplaced, page 14
part #4 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
“And how was your lunch?” Gags asked.
“Father and Lucian are getting along just fine,” Ann said.
“Lunch was okay. The most delicious thing was whenever Ann smiled,” Lucian said.
Gags closed his eyes. They shot open when he realized he hadn’t had any lunch yet. It would have to wait, he thought.
“What are you sighing for?” Lucian asked.
“I sighed?”
“Never mind,” Gags said before he told them the story. It didn’t come out as he had hoped, but there weren’t in the basement chatting with three thieves as he had.
“Who is Prince Kenneth?” Gags asked Ann.
“The queen’s cousin. Kenneth’s father and mother died in a carriage accident five years ago or so. He has been spending most of his time at his country estate, but he hosted the ball we attended.”
“Hatching a revolution?” Lucian asked.
“That’s what the thieves said. Can you really believe them?” Ann asked.
“Do I have to discount everything they say?” Gags asked. “Very few people know we moved the scepter, and all those were likely Golden Shields.”
“Except for Grant Dyre, but I don’t see him associating with the prince,” Ann said.
Gags rose. He didn’t tell them about Eliza Farris and would rather keep that to himself until Lucian asked in a more private setting. “Time for lunch. I’m going to need a big one after this morning.
“Who was the note from?” Lucian finally asked.
“A contact that Seppius had set up. She…”
“She?” Lucian asked.
“My contact has contacts among the common people. I took a walk and asked her about getting a ship to Peria.”
Lucian pursed his lips. “And?”
“Nothing for two weeks, she said. She can hide us until the ship sails, but she referred to Browning as Count Paul.”
“It caused you to pause?” Lucian asked with a smirk.
“It did. But I interpreted the note to say the woman’s people took care of those who were going to delay me,” Gags said. “I surprised the burglars.”
Lucian shook his head. “If they suspected you were delayed, why were they keeping the sound down?”
“That is a great question. Maybe there is a listening post we didn’t catch,” Gags said.
“And we don’t have the time to look.”
“It’s a good thing the scepter isn’t here,” Gags said loudly.
“Quite fortunate,” Lucian said, giving Gags an exaggerated wink.
Chapter Fourteen
~
B ags were packed, and Gags and Lucian waited for Ann’s carriage to pick them up for their trip to the Noble’s Retreat. Ray was going with Cecily’s family and wouldn’t be escorting them.
The carriage was big, and Ann and Valerie watched them load their bags in the boot. Gags secured his iron staff on the rail around the top, but he kept the rest of his weapons inside the cab with them.
“Are you expecting me to fight you in a duel?” Valerie said sourly as Gags sat down with the sword on the floor behind his feet. Gags didn’t know what he could have done to put her in such a foul mood.
“Not at all,” Gags said with a smile.
Valerie had maintained her angry edge. Gags didn’t know why she consented to come with them when Gags was so obviously someone Valerie detested.
Ann kept the conversation going as they traveled through Baxterton and exited the north gate out of the city. Gags decided to keep his mouth shut, and soon his mind was thinking about Miria and how he would soon be talking to her.
Valerie got into an argument with Ann over a hair ornament that Valerie didn’t like. Ann sighed, and the conversation came to a halt. Valerie looked out the window with a grim look on her face. It looked like the two young women’s friendship had ended.
The carriage rolled through a dense wood and then stopped.
“Where are we?” Ann asked.
“Where you are supposed to be,” Valerie said as she opened the door and hopped out. She nodded to the driver, and they both ran into the woods.
Gags lifted his sword and buckled it on. He tied the bag of crossbow bolts to his belt and stood on the running board to remove his iron staff. “We are certain to be attacked,” Gags said.
Lucian nodded. “Stay inside on the floor.”
Gags and Lucian nodded to each other and left the carriage, taking refuge just inside the wood, waiting for the attack.
“That was Valerie’s coach?” Gags asked.
“It certainly was,” Lucian said. “I hear something on the other side. It’s time to spread out. Keep an eye out for Ann.”
The assassin that Gags had fought in the exhibition still had the touch of a limp when he led ten or fifteen men out of the woods.
“You can make it easy on the woman if you step out from behind the carriage,” the assassin said.
“So, you can kill her before you kill me.”
The assassin grinned. “We have something else in store for you.”
Gags saw Lucian take a step forward, but his friend backed up and began heading on through the woods. Gags did the same thing in the opposite direction until he was well away from the thugs. He crossed the road using his airwalk technique, but when Lucian did the same thing without airwalking, one of the attackers heard Lucian.
“They are that way!” the attacker said.
All the thugs watched Lucian disappear into the woods.
“After them. I’ll take care of the Pearton girl,” the assassin said.
The men took off. The assassin stood with his back to Gags, watching them. He turned toward the carriage, and Gags could see a smile on his face. He walked up the road to meet the assassin, who turned toward him.
Gags could see the fear on his face, but his expression only lasted as long as it took the crossbow bolt in Gags’s hand to reach the assassin’s forehead. The leader of the thugs fell back; his eyes fixed on the sky.
“One down,” Gags said to Ann, who clutched a small knife.
“Lucian told me to be prepared, but I didn’t expect anything like this,” she said. “Go save my boy.”
Gags nodded to her and ran toward the ambushers. The screams were starting as Lucian began to fight. Gags stepped into the woods and saw the backs of the men. Despite the danger from Lucian’s magical attacks, they still converged.
“You know there are two of us,” Gags said.
“And two are twice as dangerous as one.” Lucian threw another lightning bolt.
Gags raised his sword, saving his magic for later in the fight, and attacked. The men split into two groups. More attacked Gags, who had to fend off six or seven assassins. These were better-than-average fighters, and Gags had to stop thinking of them as thugs.
A group of three jumped in front of the others and began pressing Gags back. Gags spelled a cloud of motes, and the soldiers had fallen to their knees, clawing at their mouths. The rest backed up. Two of those covered their mouths, but the masks didn’t stop two bolts from hitting their throats. They went down immediately. That left two more, but instead of running. One threw a knife that grazed Gag’s forehead. The other took advantage of the distraction and attacked.
Gags’s opponent was as skilled as any he had fought in Baxter, but as Gags began to power his strokes with sips of magic, the way He Bin had taught, he pushed his opponent back until the assassin bumped into a tree, giving Gags an opportunity the end the threat.
Lucian sported a bloody wrist, and his next lightning bolt was weaker. Gags used another bolt in the back to end the fight.
“I would have taken down more if they hadn’t all converged on you,” Lucian said.
“Time to see about Ann.”
“Ann!” Lucian said. He ran past Gags and into the road. Someone was inside shaking the carriage.
Gags thought the worse as he followed Lucian. Lucian opened the door on one side, and Gags did the same on the other.
Valerie and Ann struggled in the carriage. Between the seats, the driver lay with Ann’s knife in his chest, but both women had knives. Valerie turned and attacked Gags. She plunged the knife into his shoulder.
Gags pulled the knife out and shook his head. “You know what you became when you did this?” Gags said. “Fair game.
Valerie struggled with Gags but went limp before Gags responded to the stabbing. She slumped against him, and a twin of the knife in the driver’s back was now sticking out of Valerie West.
“You must save her!” Ann said to Lucian.
“What about the others?” Lucian asked.
“Burn the others. Valerie used to be my friend!”
“Well, you stabbed her,” Lucian said.
“So?” Ann said.
Lucian went to work while Gags grabbed a handkerchief out of his bags in the back and pulled out Valerie’s knife. Gags pressed down firmly on the wound as Lucian’s task with Valerie was more complicated.
Valerie’s eyes fluttered open, but then she shut them again.
“She will survive,” Lucian said. He looked at Gags. “My magic is about gone. I will help Ann, and then I can patch you up, but it will only be a patch.”
“Whatever you can do will be better than what I can,” Gags said.
The pain from Lucian’s magic wasn’t as severe as at other times, but the wound was sealed.
“We should bury the dead,” Gags said.
“No,” Ann said. “We should leave a message that we are not to be trifled with.”
“Can’t Valerie leave the message when she wakes up?” Gags asked.
“No,” Ann said, sighing deeply. “I don’t know!” Tears sprang from her eyes, and she clutched Lucian. “I’ve never hurt anyone before.”
“You have made an excellent start,” Lucian said.
Ann had to smile, but then she frowned and hit him in the arm. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“He’s serious,” Gags said. “You didn’t shrink from fighting the driver and Valerie. I didn’t expect you to have two knives on you.”
Ann put her head on Lucian’s shoulder. “Lucian suggested that I come armed.”
“Good suggestion, Lucian,” Gags said.
Perhaps Ann was the right match for Lucian.
Lucian disengaged from his fiancée and helped Gags drag the assassin and the driver into the woods. The other fighters would be left where they were struck down. They were far enough into the woods that anyone passing the road would never see the bodies.
Gags and Lucian looked at the driver’s box.
“I can’t drive,” Gags said.
“You will on the way back. We just have to find out the way to the estate. I don’t think the retreat will be as much fun as I thought,” Lucian said.
“I’ll still be there,” Ann called from the cab.
Lucian climbed up, and they left the scene of the ambush. Gags and Valerie cleaned up the blood as well as they could in a bouncing carriage, and they both looked a mess when Lucian stopped at a small village.
“We’ve had an attack. Is there a place where we can clean up the carriage?” Lucian asked.
“You are going to the count’s social gathering?” an old lady asked.
“We are. There is a lot of blood, I’m afraid. Two of us are injured, but I’m a healer, and they will survive.”
“Pull in front of the general store,” the woman said.
Lucian did as she asked.
Six villagers went to work and cleaned up the mess in the cab.
Ann changed Valerie’s clothes and her own while Gags went to the back of the store and put on a new shirt. When he returned, an old horse was tied to the carriage, and a villager sat in the driver’s box.
“I have food,” Lucian called from inside the cab. “Our good villager is driving and knows the way to Count Browning’s estate. This road heads out of Browning’s domain.”
Gags nodded. “Are you all right up there?” Gags asked the driver.
“It’s a pleasure to drive a rig like this. I feel special,” the young man grinned.
“Good. Enjoy,” Gags said as he rolled up his bloody shirt and tucked it in the carriage boot.
The carriage took off, and as they rode down some rough roads, Valerie came to.
She blinked and looked around. “What happened? I thought I had died.”
“You might have, but Lucian is a great healer, and I couldn’t bear to have you die on me,” Ann said.
Valerie shrunk as she realized she was amid her enemies. “What happened to everyone else?”
“Dead,” Gags said. “Even though you tried to kill Ann, you have her to thank for your life.”
“But there were fourteen men!”
Gags shook his head. “You saw the exhibition. Lucian and I can handle fourteen common fighters in a loosely organized fight.”
“Paul said you were lucky,” Valerie said.
“So he put you up to this,” Ann said.
“Who else could talk me into taking you to an ambush,” Valerie said. “What are you going to do with me?”
Ann looked at Lucian and then at Gags. “Nothing, this time. But if there is another time, I won’t be able to help you.”
Lucian patted Ann’s hand. “You are so noble,” Lucian said.
“It’s not noble to keep my friend alive, but our friendship is now over,” Ann said, turning to Valerie.
“You bear me a grudge, anyway?” Valerie asked.
Ann shook her head. “I don’t bear a grudge. Even though you tried to hurt me, we are even at this point.”
Valerie stared at them all. “Paul won’t be happy to see you.”
“Will I be happy to see him? Why does he hate us so?” Gags asked.
“Because you are a threat to him. You are noble, can fight like no other, and are a magician.”
That still wasn’t a good enough answer for Gags, but he’d have to accept it.
Valerie winced and then turned to look out the window.
“The wound still hurts her?” Ann asked Lucian.
“It does,” Lucian said, “and it will continue for a week or two.”
“So, Valerie won’t be able to enjoy the retreat?” Ann said.
Gags shrugged. “Since Lucian and I have never been to one, we have no idea if it is enjoyable. What is it like?”
“Very low-key,” Ann said. “Isn’t it Valerie?”
Valerie closed her eyes and ignored them. Gags was tired of talking to her, anyway.
“How are the factions handled?” he asked.
“Count Browning’s estate has large guest houses, paid for by King David years ago when the count’s father offered the estate as a site for the annual retreat. Factions stay in their own houses. The king gets his own, but there are two others for the Golden Shield.”
“And how many for the Manxists?” Lucian asked.
“Four,” Valerie said without opening her eyes. “I doubt there will be places for you, two since you should have been dead.”
“I’ll be satisfied sleeping in this coach if it comes to it,” Lucian said.
“No, you won’t,” Valerie said. “The coach is one of Paul’s. It goes back into the carriage house when we arrive.”
“Then we will sleep out in the open,” Gags said. “We’ve done that plenty of times, haven’t we?”
Lucian nodded his head. He squeezed Ann’s hand. “I hope you won’t mind if we don’t stay the entire time.”
“And be exposed to more assassination attempts? I’ll talk to father about using our carriage to return us to Baxterton,” Ann said.
Lucian gave Ann a sad look, making her laugh. “You’ll miss cavorting with all your friends if you come with us.” He rubbed his eyes as if he were crying.
“I know who my real friends are,” Ann said.
Valerie grunted, eyes still closed.
Chapter Fifteen
~
B rowning’s estate looked more like a small town. There must have been twenty houses. Well-dressed people walked the paved lanes, and Valerie summoned enough energy to tell the young driver where to let Gags, Lucian, and Ann off.
Gags needed some help untying his iron staff. He wouldn’t be able to use it as a weapon now that his shoulder was still injured. Ann ran into the house and returned with her father.
“Ann tells me brigands attacked you on the way here. We were worried since we expected you here before us,” the minister said.
“It was an assassination attempt. Ann can tell you about it. The enemy made a few tactical mistakes, so here we are.”
“Was it that close?” Minister Pearton asked Gags.
“I’m wounded, Lucian was spared injury except for a cut wrist, and your daughter behaved admirably. She can tell you about it. I don’t believe we were expected to arrive, and we might need some assistance returning to Baxterton.”
“Let’s go inside, and I’ll have someone inquire. I suppose you don’t want Browning to know you survived?”
“I’m sure Valerie will tell him.”
“Valerie. You used one of the count’s carriages, you know.” Pearton said.
“She was happy to inform us of that fact,” Lucian said.
“Come in. At least we can get you fed.”
“We both need that!” Lucian said. “Lead on.”
A servant helped with the bags. Gags had buckled on his sword and carried his staff into the house.
“We can put Gags in the sitting room, and Lucian can share my bed if nothing else. These houses are decently furnished, but everything is getting worn. Browning hasn’t been willing to renovate after King David’s father paid for the buildings,” Pearton said.
Gags nodded, although Ann had told them the same thing. “As long as I am here, I’d like to tour the conservatory and the zoo before we return. I’m not sure how welcome we will be.”
“I can take you for the tour. I’ve seen Browning collect his specimens for years and have heard his descriptions many times. You can be my guests. Besides his manor house, which is at the end of the drive, everything else, including the stables, zoo, and conservatory, is accessible to the attendees.”
