“‘To allow the MageLords to strike at the Commoners should they prove rebellious,’“ Karl said, as if he were quoting.
Tagaza smiled. “And I thought you were asleep during that lesson,” he said.
“But that’s all magic originating inside the Barrier. Surely it is designed to prevent any magical attack from outside.”
“It is, Your Highness. But there are laws to magic. The Barrier cannot be even slightly permeable in one direction and remain completely impermeable in the other. So it is theoretically possible that someone could strike at you magically through the Barrier. Even, I suppose, that someone could find a way to bodily pass through the Barrier. But it would be very, very difficult to accomplish.” He spread his hands. “I am First Mage, and I know I could not do it.”
“Still, the man you saw in the snow could have been the mage who placed and armed the assassin, out there to observe the results of his efforts,” Falk said. “Or, indeed, he may have been a Commoner… which in some ways is an even more troubling prospect.”
“Why would a Commoner want to kill me?” Karl protested. “I’ve represented the Crown in New Cabora for years. I want them to know that, even if the current King is… uninvolved… the next King will keep the Commons’ interests in mind. I cut the ribbon to open the new clock tower of their city Hall just three months ago!”
“Ribbon cutting only goes so far,” Falk said dryly. “You are still a symbol of what they call MageLord ‘oppression.’ There are some Commoners who might see killing you as a way of making a very loud, very public statement.”
Karl frowned again. “Are you thinking of the Common Cause?”
“Not the public version, Your Highness, but as I have told you, there is a hidden, far more dangerous side.” Falk glanced at the milk-white world outside. The Common Cause’s public adherents insisted they were loyal to the MageLords and the King, but lobbied, as much as the Commoners could lobby, for greater control over their own affairs. Falk found them irritating, but left them alone as a kind of safety valve, a way to release the rebellious pressure constantly bubbling beneath the surface in the streets of the city.
But he knew well there was a shadowy side to the Common Cause, secret adherents who drew heart from the fact that once before, eight centuries gone, Commoners had risen up against the MageLords, had driven them out of the Old Kingdom to Evrenfels, terrified them so much they had built an impenetrable wall to protect themselves. Perhaps, those Common Causers suggested, it was time for history to repeat itself…
Fools, he thought. Commoners could not rise up against the MageLords without rebellious mages to fight at their side, and no such traitors existed.
Maybe they think a “Magebane” will arise, he thought, and snorted to himself. The mysterious master of anti-magic that old legends claimed had helped the Commoners defeat the MageLords in the Old Kingdom had been conclusively proved decades ago to be a myth, probably designed to cover the asses of the incompetent MageLords who had allowed the rebellion to get so far out of hand.
What could they do, after all, against a superhuman who hurled their own magic back at them, destroying whole armies and cities? It wasn’t their fault they’d lost the Kingdom. It wasn’t their fault they’d fled to a howling wilderness on the far side of the world. It wasn’t their fault they’d been so frightened of being hunted down, even here, that they had wrapped their new Kingdom inside an impenetrable, magical Great Barrier, a circular wall of protection six hundred miles in diameter.
It wasn’t their fault they’d trapped their descendants in that self-made prison for some eight centuries and counting.
Oh, wait, he thought. Yes, it is.
“But I still don’t understand what they could hope to accomplish,” Karl said. “What message did they hope to send with my death?”
“The message, Your Highness,” Falk said, trying to keep his annoyance at the boy’s thickness out of his voice, “that even inside the Lesser Barrier we are not safe from them. The message that they are committed to the eventual overthrow of the MageLords… and might even have a hope of succeeding.”
Karl shook his head. “That’s stupid. The Royal guard alone could drive off any attack with ease. We wouldn’t even need to call on the army.”
“I know that, Your Highness,” Falk said, this time not entirely successful at hiding his irritation, “but they may not.”
“So how was the attack carried out?” Karl glanced at Tagaza. “First Mage?”
“I cannot tell for certain through the stasis field, of course,” Tagaza said, “but from the nature of the attack, I assume your attacker was, indeed, a Commoner. She still clutches a spellstone in one hand and a crossbow in the other. The spellstone probably allowed her to remain hidden in the water until you came within range; the crossbow is perfectly ordinary, but the quarrel it shot was no doubt also charged with magic.” He glanced at Falk, who knew he was thinking about the Unbound symbol. “Perhaps she also had… something else.. which stored a magical charge. When the bolt touched your skin, the magic was discharged.”
“But not into me,” Karl said. “How do you explain that?”
Tagaza spread his hands. “Poor enchanting skills,” he said.
“All of this lends credence to the idea that Commoners are behind this attack,” Falk said thoughtfully. “Not only was the attacker a Commoner, but they would have had to find a Mageborn to enchant the spellstone and quarrel… and any Mageborn reduced to working for Commoners is hardly likely to be one with any great ability.”
Karl stared out at the Commons. “Someone would murder me just.. to prove they can?”
“Essentially, Your Highness,” said Falk. He looked around; the guards were returning, having searched the parkland from the bridge to where the water ran right up to the Barrier. “Captain Fedric, report!” he called.
Fedric saluted smartly. “We found nothing unusual, my lord.”
Falk hadn’t expected that they would. “Escort His Highness back to the Palace. Swords in your hands and spells ready in your minds. Then launch a thorough search of the grounds and the Palace. All papers checked and double-checked. Any Mageborn or Commoners who cannot properly account for their presence within the Lesser Barrier are to be detained for questioning. The Gate is to remain closed until further notice. Also, send a wagon, a coffin, and two men to collect the assassin’s corpse.”
“Yes, Lord Falk,” snapped Fedric. He turned, barking orders. The guards started to form a protective cordon around Karl, but he pushed his way out from among them. As he confronted Falk, Falk noticed for the first time that the Prince’s eyes were now level with his own. When did that happen? he wondered.
“I will expect more definitive answers from you very soon, Lord Falk,” Karl said. “You may consider that a Royal Command.”
Anger boiled up in Falk, but he let none of it show on his face. “Of course, Your Highness,” he said. “Now, please, I must insist. Return to the Palace, and remain in your quarters until we have searched the entire grounds.”
Karl took one more look at the corpse in the water, then turned and let his guards lead him back toward the bridge, leaving Falk with Tagaza. Once the guards had passed beyond the screen of bushes, Falk pulled the Unbound symbol from his pocket and held it out toward Tagaza. “She was wearing this.”
Tagaza took it, and immediately said, “This was the storage device. Exhausted now, but I can feel a trace of power still clinging to it.” He raised an eyebrow at Falk. “Is there a traitor among the Unbound?”
Falk took the emblem back and glared at it. “I can’t believe that,” he said. “Mother Northwind has examined every one of them. If any harbored thoughts of treachery, she would know.”
Tagaza nodded. “Indeed she would.” He looked back at the corpse. “You will have her examine the body?” he said. “That’s why you put it in stasis?”
“Of course.” Falk sighed. “That means a trip to my manor.”
Tagaza shrugged. “You were going to have to go there soon anyway. Brenna…”
“… must be brought to the Palace, yes, I know.” He frowned. “Why would a Commoner be carrying an Unbound symbol?”
“To throw you off the scent,” Tagaza said promptly. “To make you look to the Unbound instead of the Common Cause, or whoever is really behind the attack.” He smiled. “Everyone knows of your bitter hatred of the Unbound. You have executed several of their leaders.”
“Perhaps,” Falk said. “I hope you are right. Because the other possibility is that someone knows that I am actually the Master of the Unbound, that the Unbound I have executed were ordinary criminals enchanted to lie about their membership in the Order, and that this assassin carried the Unbound symbol so that, after Karl was dead, I would know why he was murdered.”
Tagaza frowned. “You have a devious mind, my lord.”
Falk snorted. “That should hardly be a surprise to you, old friend.”
“If you’re right,” Tagaza said, “then this attack was not really aimed at the Prince at all. It was aimed at you. At us.”
“Someone who does not want the Barrier to fall,” Falk said, “and knows how close we are to making that happen.”
Tagaza shook his head. “An unsettling thought, my lord.”
“Indeed.” Falk glanced at the corpse once more, then up at the bridge. The Prince and his bodyguard were bright specks at its far end. “I’ll leave for my manor tonight and take the corpse to Mother Northwind to examine. And when I return, I’ll bring Brenna with me. I want all the pieces we need for our endgame close at hand. It may be we’ll want to advance the date. I can easily give some excuse for why I want to inspect the Cauldron early this year.”
“I concur,” said Tagaza.
“Wait here with the body until the men come to collect it,” Falk said. “I must get back to the Palace.” He took one more look at the snow-wrapped world outside and let his anger boil up again. “When this storm clears, the Commoners will face one that is far worse!”
He reared back and hurled the Unbound symbol as far as he could out into the lake. The silver circle glittered as it spun end over end, then vanished beneath the waves with a tiny splash of foam.