Lady Of The Helm (Book 1) Read Free

one si de, a little curious.  Xander grinning almost.
    Marius pulled his dirk out of his belt.  Dungeon warders were not supposed to be routinely armed, lest a prisoner should take their weapon, but he was grateful of his breach of the rules as he waved the blade first at one then the other.  “I’m leaving no w,” he told them.  “And neither of you is going to stop me.”
    “As the good father wishes ,” Xander smiled winningly.  “Run along then.”
    “Still, ten gold crowns will that be enough to cure little Elsa and Roncine,” Haselrig interjected.  “It is a quite serious sickness that ails them.”
    “Their names are Elise and Rancine,” Marius replied through gritted teeth, taking three more careful steps back towards the exit.
    “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Haselrig said with a sincerity so genuine that Marius felt almost moved to reassure the little man that no harm had yet been done.
    A lilting voice behi nd him called out, “vos sile Marius!”  ‘The bloody mage’ he’d forgotten about the mage.  He tried to spin round but couldn’t, his legs wouldn’t move, nor his arms.  Panic seized him as the mage enquired at his ear, “going somewhere Master dungeon warder?”
    Xander and Haselrig advanced on his helpless paralysed form.  The mage flung a rope around his middle and long before the magical restraints wore off he found himself just as securely and physically constrained by tightly bound ties.
    They laid his trussed figure flat on the floor and Haselrig placed the cloth covered gem atop his heaving chest. “What are you doing?” Marius cried as power returned to his lungs. However, they busied themselves without sparing him so much a glance, still less an answer.
    “Help!” Marius s creamed at the top his voice. Xander made to strike him, but again the mage caught his arm.
    “Relax, my friend, the way is closed up there now.  An army could scream in here and no-one would hear them. Let him scream while he can.”
    Marius was whimpering now, fearful for his life and his family.  How could he have been so foolish? Why had he not simply run when they first arrived, or even reported Haselrig’s first approach to his superiors?  But no, the girls had been ill and the fat little man with the strange proposition had appeared as though sent by the Goddess herself.
    “Aargh,” he cried out as Xander dragged a knife across his wrist.  He could feel the blood leaking profusely across his hand.
    “Careful,” Haselrig rebuked the prince.  “We don’t want it bleeding too fast. He must be weak not dead when the ceremony climaxes.”
    “Then you’d better get on with the ceremony,” the mage suggested.
    Marius turned his head, unleashing a wave of dizziness in spite of his prone position. The mage and the antiquary were standing either side of him.  Haselrig held in his hand the crescent symbol of the Goddess and was waving it in invocation of a priestly spell.  In some recess of his fading consciousness, Marius remembered a rumour of long ago scandal, how the court antiquary was a defrocked priest, denied advancement in the church for an unforgiveable indiscretion.
    “This was your ancestor’s mistake my Prince, why he never succeeded,” Haselrig was saying.  “There have to be three for the ceremony, and despite his many talents Chirard could not be all three.”
    On his other side the mage was also summoning a spell and now Xander loo med over Marius’s helpless form.  He wiped the bloodied knife clean on Marius’ shirt. “You are a disgrace to your father,” the dungeon warder muttered with failing breath.
    Xander nodded genially.  “So he often tells me.  Maybe if he hadn’t neither of us would be here no w. Think on’t my poor old soldier.”
    The ex-priest and the forbidden mage were circling Marius now and the gem rose from its wrappings, hovering above his chest. As the focussed magic poured into it, the great jewel shone and sang, humming with vibrations