Dev could not believe what he was seeing. The city, from his vantage point, was huge! It seemed to go on forever, and that was just the portion he could see. A very tall wall stood before the city as a silent guardian.
While the wall might be silent, the guards walking the wall would not be. As far as he could see in either direction was wall. It must have been a hundred feet high! What a feat of building! It must have taken years to build that wall.
Dev continued onward, and the wall started to appear as if it were getting higher. By the gods, but the wall alone was intimidating! Finally Dev joined a crowd going through a gate.
Once inside, Dev pulled out of the crowd, and approached a guard.
"Excuse me, but where might I find a Lord Benaldin?" Dev asked the man.
"I have no idea Lieutenant. Let me direct you to the officer of the guard. He will probably know. He knows a lot about lords an such," the guard responded.
Dev received directions on how to find the Officer of the Guard. After only one false turn, he soon found himself talking with a finely dressed man of indeterminate age, who directed him to the palace.
After getting exact directions on how to get to the palace, he continued on, into the city. People were everywhere! He gawked at everything. The streets were clean, and made of stone of some sort. His horse struck sparks occasionally on them, from its shod hoof.
He passed homes, merchant's stores, street vendors, wagons, carts, people on horses, and carriages. It was a dazzling display of people doing whatever it was they were doing. Dev had never seen such a thing, not even in Westford. Taslon was so much bigger than Westford
Sometime later, Dev came to the palace gates. He was stopped by a guard outside the gate, wanting to know his business.
"I am here to see Lord Benaldin. I have information for him," Dev responded to the question.
"Leave your horse and weapons with the guard inside the gate. No weapons are allowed in the palace, except for the palace guards, and those who know they can carry them. As soon as you enter the palace, a page will greet you. Tell the page where you wish to go, and he will take you there," the guard rattled off in a bored fashion.
Dev soon found himself turning over his horse to a guard, with his sword and dirk hanging from the pommel. He walked the hundred feet or so to the palace. He felt the crawly sensation of being watched. Well, considering this was the palace of the King, he would be surprised not to find himself being watched.
He went to a door at the front of the palace that had two guards standing outside of it.
"State your business," one asked him.
"I am here to see Lord Benaldin," Dev responded.
The guard who had asked opened the door, and motioned Dev to enter. As he did so, a young boy of about twelve came up to him, and asked his pleasure. Dev responded he was here to see Lord Benaldin. The boy nodded, and asked Dev to follow him.
The boy led Dev through a bewildering maze of turns and corridors. Finally they entered a small room with a man sitting at a desk.
"A Lieutenant to see Lord Benaldin, Sir," the page announced, and then left.
"Take a seat Lieutenant. Can you tell me what this is concerning? Lord Benaldin is pretty busy this afternoon. Also, I need your name," the man stated.
"I have information of a sensitive nature, concerning the palace of the King of Ralm. I am almost one hundred percent sure his lordship will be interested in this information," Dev responded politely, and gave his name.
The man nodded, got up, knocked twice on the door behind his desk, and entered. He was gone for perhaps a minute, and then he returned.
"You may have five minutes. Please try not to take more than that, as he is a very busy this afternoon," the clerk? Aide? whatever he was, stated.
Dev entered the room and found himself confronting a man with a thick head of graying hair. He had sparkling blue eyes, and was about five feet eight inches tall. While his hair may have been gray, the man did not appear to be old. Another man sat in a chair off to the side.
Dev was unsure of how much to say with two people in the room. Lord Benaldin seemed to guess at Dev's hesitancy and spoke.
"Well Lieutenant, what you have to say you can safely say in front of this person also. He knows everything I do," Lord Benaldin said soothingly.
"Yes, uh, Lord Benaldin. I have a couple items of interest for you, well at least one item. The other is something I hope you can help me with. I have a map purporting to be the palace of the king of Ralm. It shows a number of secret entrances and exits," Dev said, retrieving the map from his belt.
He passed the map over, and watched as Lord Benaldin unfolded it and looked at it carefully. He finally looked at Dev.
"First, never fold a map, roll it. However, I can see this has a bit of age to it. Might I ask where you got it from?" Benaldin asked him.
"I bought it and another map from a peddler when I was down south with a cavalry unit. The other map showed a way through the swamps and let us do a bit of mischief to the enemy as a result, my lord," Dev answered honestly.
The man sitting in the chair guffawed at that. Dev looked at him again, and saw a fairly young man in his mid to late twenties. He had a shock of unruly brown hair, was wearing very good clothing of a dark green color, with black riding boots.
The man, noting Dev's look, spoke up.
"You would be the Lieutenant Devlin Cantor of troop D, detached from Fifth Army at Westford who procured and gave a map to general Forran?" the unnamed man asked.
"Yes, Sir. That would be me," Dev answered shortly, unsure of how to address this man.
"That was a good bit of work, Lieutenant. Nicely done," the man said.
"Thank you," Dev answered politely.
"Which brings us to the other thing you wanted to talk to me about. Make it quick, I have an appointment with his majesty, and he gets cranky if he is kept waiting," Lord Benaldin said with a twinkle in his eye.
Dev launched into his year long training with Arel Grojlith, Loera Calderling, and the magic he had also trained in. Both men leaned forward and listened to Dev's story. Finally, Dev wound down and stopped, hoping that Lord Benaldin could help him.
"Let me get this straight. You were taught sword work by Arel Grojlith? For a year?" Lord Benaldin asked.
"Yes, Sir. Everyday for at least two hours a day. Sometimes more," Dev responded.
"What about this magic training you received? Just how good are you with it?" The man in the asked interestedly.
"Uh, that's hard to say, Sir. I know for a fact I can cast a fireball spell and have dozens of fireballs appear. I did it at the final battle down south. I can make healing potion, and I know a couple healing spells. I have well over a dozen offensive and defensive spells memorized," Dev answered the question.
"A dozen? Are you sure you don't mean three or four? Most spell castors are lucky to get half a dozen fireballs at a cast, and so many spells?" The man asked.
"No, Sir, it was well over a dozen. It cleared the area in front of me totally. I was very drained after I cast that spell, Sir, and yes, a little over a dozen spells memorized," Dev said in remembrance.
"What did you want me to do for you?" Lord Benaldin asked.
"My lord, I was told that the mage guild frowns on people who use magic and are not trained by them. I was also told that people who used magic without their leave, had a way of dying in strange accidents.
"I would ask for your protection. Also, I want to stay in the army. With me being able to do magic... well, it won't sit well with the mage's guild. Plus, I need to learn to use my magic properly, and I need someone to direct me to do that the best way " Dev ground out.
"Wait in my outer chamber. I will give you my answer, shortly. By the way, thank you for this map. It has a couple entrances, and one exit, that I knew nothing about," Benaldin said in a sincere tone of voice.
Dev exited the office and sat down on a chair and waited. He looked around the room he found himself in and started noticing things. First, while small compared to some offices, this one was well maintained and appointed.
The desk the clerk sat at was made of a good wood that seemed to glow. It was a natural look that Dev found appealing. The walls were paneled with some sort of wood that gave the room a woodsy feel to it. There were also a few paintings on the wall.
Dev had just started to look more closely at the paintings when the door to Lord Benaldin's office opened and he strode out.
"You are an interesting person, Lieutenant. I have decided to give you a chance. I am having you transferred to my staff, indefinitely, effective immediately. I do want to test your knowledge of magic, but we can do that in a couple days. Come back tomorrow morning, after breakfast," Benaldin said and went back into his office.
"The area I am taking you to is a private dueling range. It was created some two hundred years ago by the then King of Darlonther as a way of settling differences. It has old spells on it, to keep people from killing themselves, or each other.
"I have arranged for a very powerful wizard to test your knowledge and ability in the arena, so to speak. Don't worry about him reporting you to the guild. He is of a noble family and owes allegiance to me, and the king," Lord Benaldin explained.
Dev just hoped he did not embarrass himself. He had never really done anything like this. While the man who had trained Dev at Calderling castle had tested him, it was not in this fashion.
Soon they were outdoors and walking through one of the most beautiful gardens he had ever seen. They came to a building of some sort and Benaldin opened the door and led the way in.
Soon they came to an area in the middle of the building that had a sand floor. The walls were covered in spells and runes of all sorts. Dev was able to detect them easily. There was a man waiting in the middle of the cleared floor area.
He wore a floor length cloak and had an amulet displayed openly.
"Ah, Jern. Thank you for coming so early. This is the young man I told you about, Devlin Cantor. Find out if the boy knows anything about magic, will you?" Lord Benaldin said laconically.
The man, Jern, approached Dev and held out his hand to shake. Dev did so feeling strange about the entire thing. He must have let something show on his face because Jern smiled at him.
"Don't let that loudmouth throw you. First, we will cast shields around ourselves, and then we spar. What we want to do is try to knock down the others shield. Once the other persons shield falls, that will end the round," Jern said then turned and walked some distance across the floor from Dev.
Dev had spent the last two days reading and memorizing spells. Not only offensive and defensive spells, but useful spells. He did not know what the test would be comprised of, so he had taken a sweeping view of the whole thing and memorized as much as he could of all sorts of spells.
Lord Benaldin was sitting on a raised platform where he could watch the whole thing.
"If you two are ready, raise shields and have at it," Lord Benaldin said with a chuckle.
Dev raised the rotating shield he had read from the book, instead of the one he had been taught at Calderling castle. The book explained that the rotating shield spread spells over it more evenly and dispersed them better.
Jern looked surprised at the type of shield that Dev produced. He sent a significant look Benaldin's way that Dev could not read. Dev waited for Jern to make the first move. It was not long in coming.
Jern threw a smashing spell at Dev and while the shield absorbed and threw off most of it, Dev still was shaken by the spell. Dev cast a constricting spell that closed around Jern's shield and started squeezing.
Jern appeared startled, and had to stop all his attacks, to deal with this constricting spell. While he was doing that, Dev cast another spell. This one was a lightning strike. It smashed into his opponent's shield, and while Jern was staggered, he was still able to break Dev's constricting spell.
Jern threw a spell that Dev was not familiar with, and his shield flared and flickered, then steadied again. Jern had an incredulous look on his face. Dev cast a force spell that he had read the night before, and was shocked at what he saw. Jern's shield flickered and went down. The amulet lying against Jern's shirt flared and blazed.
"Hold!" Lord Benaldin shouted.
Dev canceled out his shield, and rushed to see if Jern was all right. He sighed with relief, as he noticed that while a bit white around his face, Jern seemed to be fine.
"That was a very good spell, Devlin. I would love to learn it as I have never seen it before. Nor have I ever seen your rotating shield spell," Jern said in an admiring tone of voice.
"Would you say that young Devlin Cantor has a good working knowledge of magic, Jern?" Lord Benaldin asked.
"He is very good at dueling. As for other aspects of magic, I have not seen that, yet. I would be glad to talk with him about the spells he knows, and where he learned them. I have never seen the shield he cast, nor the spell he used to take down my shield. If my amulet hadn't acted to protect me, I would likely be dead, now," Jern stated excitedly.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to actually harm you. I was just trying to take down your shield," Dev responded apologetically.
"Think nothing of it young man. That was the most excitement I have had in years," Jern chuckled, sounding delighted.
"Well, this was unexpected. I had thought you might know a bit of magic and that would be that, but apparently you are much better, and much more dangerous than any of us thought," Benaldin said thoughtfully.
"I really didn't mean to put Lord Jern into danger," Dev responded contritely.
"Think nothing of it. Also, Jern is not a lord. He is the third son of a baron, and will never get a title. However, since he is of the nobility, he was taught magic. He is very good at it, too," Lord Benaldin explained.
Jern asked him who taught him that rotating shield and Dev said it was in a book that had been left to him. He decided he did not want his book taken from him, so was going to say it was passed down in his family.
"So you learned all your magic from a book?" Jern asked.
"No. I was taught the basics at Calderling castle. After that, I started reading the book and well, you saw the result," Dev answered.
"I would love to get a look at your book of magic. It has at least two spells not taught to anyone that I know of," Jern almost pleaded.
"You two work that out on your own time. I still have to test his sword work. I am interested to see what Arel Grojlith taught him," Lord Benaldin said.
"Arel Grojlith?" Jern gasped.
"Uh... yes, Sir. He spent a year teaching me the sword," Dev responded.
"Well then, let me get you a sword and we will spar a bit, if you feel up to it," Lord Benaldin said more than asked.
"Of course, my lord," Dev answered.
In all honesty, Dev felt fine and was not really affected greatly by the little magical duel he had been in. While he felt just a bit tired from the spell casting, he was still ready and eager.
All three walked out of the small building and back through the garden and into the palace proper. Lord Benaldin led the three to a set of stairs and went up to the second floor. He turned left and went all the way down the corridor and into the door at the end of the corridor.
Dev found himself in a room with several people sparing with swords. A boy of about thirteen or so was going through forms of some sort. Dev noticed the man who had been in Lord Benaldin's office was there, practicing with a man in the uniform of the palace guard.
Lord Benaldin motioned to a young man to come over.
"Devlin, this will be your sparing partner. I want each of you to try to disarm the other. Begin when ready," Lord Benaldin said.
Dev walked over to a rack and picked up a few swords. He finally settled on one that seemed to fit him well enough, and seemed to be balanced. He walked away from the rack of swords, and turned to face his opponent.
Since his opponent was already armed, they saluted each other and started fencing. Dev felt the young man out. While he thought the young man was descent, he knew that he was much better. He disarmed him after only a few minutes.
Another man came forward and once again Dev saluted him, and he started feeling this man out. This man was a bit trickier. The swords rang with steel on steel. Dev's opponent tried a flurry of moves intended to bewilder and confuse an enemy.
Dev was familiar with this type of sword work as Arel had done it to him so often in the past, that he was able to not only counter the moves, but finally managed to disarm this man, too.
"Do you need a rest?" Lord Benaldin asked.
"No, my lord. I'm fine," Dev responded.
Dev fought two more people in quick succession. While Dev was breathing a bit more deeply, he was having fun. As a matter of fact, he had not had this much fun fencing, since he last fought Arel.
This time Dev's opponent was an elderly man who had been teaching the young boy. Dev started out cautiously, and immediately found himself on the defense! This old man was a blur of motion, and Dev was hard pressed to keep his sword and block the man's moves.
They fought for sometime. Neither was finding the advantage. Dev lost track of time as he fought. This man he was now facing was good. Very, very good. They fought up and down the room, first one at the advantage, then the other. Finally, with a clever series of movements and a final twist, Dev found himself disarmed.
"Well done young man!" his opponent said, beaming.
Dev was gasping for breath and his right wrist hurt a bit from the sword being forced from his hand. Still he grinned.
"You fought well, Sir. My thanks," Dev said sincerely.
That was when Dev noticed that they had attracted the attention of all the people in the training room. He became a little self-conscious.
"Come, Dev. Let us go and find something to eat. I imagine you're quite hungry by now," Lord Benaldin said.
"Yes, my lord, I am very hungry," Dev responded enthusiastically at the thought of food.
Edited By TeNderLoin