Chapter 8: Ellen Returns

It took over seven weeks for the King’s message to reach his daughter and for her to return by ship. Two weeks for the letter to reach her, a little over two weeks to turn her job over to her successor, and slightly more than three weeks to sail back to Sweet Port.

The letter her father had sent her had included several pages concerning what had happened to James and what was being done to make amends with him. But at the time the letter was sent, that matter still hadn’t been fully resolved. She was more than a little angry about the situation and when her ship finally made port, she commandeered the Harbor Master’s official carriage instead of waiting for one, from the Royal Palace.

She had been grinding her teeth ever since she had first learned how terribly James was being treated at the University. But she knew that she had to curb her temper or she would be the Royal Heir for the shortest time period in the history of the Gulf Kingdom. Ellen wasn’t a bad person but she did desire to be Queen and she thought that she could do a good job as the Reigning Monarch of the Kingdom.

King Richard Rivers had been informed of his daughter’s return and he found a sudden need to inspect the troops outside of the Capital. He beseeched his wife, Queen Consort Grace Rivers to greet their eldest daughter and to brief her on what had been happening in the Kingdom and most especially as it concerned young James Drake.

The Royal Consort dragged her almost constant companion along with her, her fourteen year old daughter Princess Rose Rivers. Grace had not been able to raise her first three children as she would have liked. Rose had been born seven years after her now deceased brother, Matthew. With three potential heirs already, the King and his advisors had permitted Grace to raise Rose as she desired and not as political piece on a game board. Grace was very familiar with how much Ellen and Rose liked one another and the Queen hoped that having Rose there would help to calm her oldest daughter.

Dean Greta Marks was nonplused to be facing Crown Princess Ellen, Queen Consort Grace and Princess Rose. She had already met with the King on several occasions and she had even faced him when he was angry because of the food that young Drake had been forced to eat for the first six weeks that he had attended the Royal University. But Princess Ellen was another kind of beast altogether; she asked hard questions and spotted any obfuscations almost immediately.

As the Princess walked the halls of the University with Dean Marks leading the way, she got angrier and angrier. The hallways they walked were getting progressively more dismal and dirty. The more traveled portions of the University had fine marbled floored, glossy rich woods and highly polished brass and silver fixtures.

Where she tread now the floors were cheap tiles and bare wood which obviously had not been cleaned in at least a decade. The walls were simple plaster and she could feel drafts coming in and around the warped window frames. As for fixtures there were none, in fact most of the door knobs were missing. The old servant’s wing had been long forgotten and was just waiting for a spark to light it all ablaze, and perhaps take the whole University complex with it.

Suddenly she heard a muffled “whomp” noise coming from the end of the hall, which was in the direction in which James’s new workshop was supposed to lay. She had heard that type of sound before and she started to run.

I had taken over the large kitchen and dining room in the old servant’s wing as my private work space. After my return here, it had taken over two weeks for the University to get the large room into decent shape, two other smaller rooms along the same hallway, had also been cleaned and repaired since then.

Originally and for a very short time, I was using a room that was part of my private suite for my studies but for some reason that had caused the new Dean to be quite distressed and thus I got assigned this old dining area for my use. When I had originally lived in this old wing, I had searched it thoroughly looking for things that I might salvage for my own needs. So I already knew about this large room, and when the Dean got upset about me conducting my experiments in the student residential wing; it had been my suggestion that I move my workshop here and she had eagerly embraced the idea. Really, a space with a large kitchen was almost perfect for my needs.

Once the University was done with their repair work, I had hired some workmen to make my own modifications to the dining room. While the kitchen was made of stone and brick, so as to prevent fires, the dining room was made of wood and plaster, which I didn’t have much faith in. Sometimes my experiments could go sideways and I had come to trust the stone walls of my keep and of the fortress that I helped build at Drake’s landing.

So using the same magic that I had used in the construction of Ellen’s fortress, some beach sand from the harbor and with the aid of several workmen; I had completely lined the dining room with stone, one small step thick. I must say that using solely beach sand instead of the mud and muck which we had used back in the Empire had produced glazed stone walls which were quite beautiful, when they were not covered with soot or splattered with potion ingredients. I had also enchanted the stone with various runes in an attempt to avoid any potential calamities. It goes without saying that the workmen and I; had been forced to strengthen the floor but that hadn’t been too difficult, we just had to tear up a small portion of the old flooring to gain access to what was beneath. So far the Dean hadn’t found out about my modifications and I hoped to keep it that way. I had impressive looking “No Admittance” signs hung on the doors and my private magical laboratory was of course fully warded.

I only had one question who; in the great void, was knocking so hard on my door, and calling out my name so loudly. In fact it sounded like an entire chorus of people. My new personal servants had already delivered my dinner and were now as was their custom cowering behind some stone worktables which I had constructed at the same time as the stone walls.

I walked over to the door, coughing a little because of the smoke. I hoped that the breeze coming in through the now shattered windows would soon clear the fumes. As soon as that took place my servants would be able to close both the interior and exterior wooden shutters that I had custom ordered. Just using any old boards to temporarily repair my workshop would have been unsightly. I would of course have to replace some of the glass panes, but it wasn’t the first time. In fact the glass maker and the glazier were quite happy with my business and I believe that they are now pre-making panes and windows for my laboratory in anticipation of new orders from me. The first two times that a small oversight of mine had broken some windows, perhaps all of them, it had taken a week to get suitable replacements, but it only took two days after my most recent accident.

As I approached the door, I could distinctly hear three feminine voices and one sounded familiar. “James, you had better open this door in two minutes or I’ll have my guards knock it down.”

Oh joy, Ellen was here. Before I opened the door I made sure that nothing was still burning and I tried to wave a little more of the smoke away from my face. Maybe I should learn a wind spell? The pounding on the door had increased in both strength and volume. Well there was no hope for it; I opened the door slowly while suppressing my need to cough.

“Princess Ellen it’s so good to see you again, cough. Cough, how was your trip back from the new territories, cough? I must say, cough, that you are looking extraordinarily well today. Cough, how do you keep, cough, yourself looking so posed, cough, confident and beautiful?” I tried to put a smile on my face. Alex had been teaching me how to distract women through the use of compliments. I hope it works, though it doesn’t seem to be always successful for him, the few times I’ve seen him use the tactic with Donna.

Ellen looked at the slightly undersized young man that stood before her. He had a soot covered face and it was obvious that he was unsuccessfully trying to hold back the urge to cough. James had had a difficult life. She well knew that without him her success against the Empire would not have happened and she also knew that without him she would be dead many times over.

To save the Kingdom, she had worked him to the very bone and treated him quite unfairly but she had felt at the time that she had no other choice. Even after her victory, on the orders of her father, she had not been able to reward James as she had wanted to or even been able to tell him how much she thought of him, because what were words when she couldn’t back them up with deeds. Now things were different; not only was Lord Thomas branded a traitor but her cruel and arrogant older brother was permanently exiled to a small estate and she was now the Royal Heir.

She gently put her hand to his cheek not caring that it was getting filthy and spoke. “James it’s good to see you, but what in the blazes are you setting fire to now?”

Oops, there seems to be some fire in her eyes. I burn down two little buildings by accident while I was in the Empire and she never lets me forget it. “Princess I seem to have burned my dinner.” And I had burned it, along with the heavy wooden table on which it had sat, before I even had a chance to take a bite of it too. My new flame potion proved to be much more powerful and energetic that I had thought it would be. Who would believe that such a tiny amount of it when mixed with its activating agent could cause such a short lived but devastating inferno? I would need to modify it a bit before offering it to the Navy, to use with their kraken spears.

Her expression conveyed that she seemed to doubt my words. I was hurt.

The Princess looked at young James as he tried to look completely innocent. His eyes were slightly tear filled but she suspected that it was the smoke that caused that. James’s harsh life had made him look older than his years but his short stature and his sooty makeup made him now look like a young chimney sweep. Actually she found the look quite becoming and she wondered if there was perhaps a potion that could take the lines and weathering from his face?

The time he had taken an arrow in her place, she had thought him dead or soon to be. That ambush had seen some furious action and she had had no time to tend him or send anyone else to his aid. She wasn’t able to get back to his location for almost an hour and she had fully and fearfully expected to find a cooling corpse. Instead she had found that he had dragged himself off and was tending his own wound with potions and bandages. Seeing a bloody knife close by him, it was obvious to her at the time, that he had been forced to cut the arrow out of his own body. He had looked so forlorn lying there. After aiding so many people, yet again no one had come to his aid when he had needed help. She had desired to mother him but the needs of the battlefield and the war had forced her to suppress her emotions.

Now they weren’t on the battlefield or in a war any longer. She pulled him into a hug and crushed him against herself. “James we have won the war; there is no longer any need to place yourself; in any danger. Please promise me that you’ll start being a bit more careful.”

A muffled response was all she heard back. Dean Marks, Queen Consort Grace and Princess Rose all looked on in amazement. Ellen could have cared less, James deserved some consideration and private acknowledgement of highly she truly regarded him. He had been by her side for almost three years and providing a constant stream of magical miracles during the entire time. To the Princess he was more than a friend, he was family.

I couldn’t breathe and because of a little smoke still in my lungs I started to cough just slightly into Ellen’s chest. She finally released me and I gulped air into my starved lungs. I desperately needed to spit up a sooty film that was in the back of my throat but with four women present, I had no choice but to swallow it; yuck.

Two hours later I was in my private suite, having a meal with Princess Ellen, the Queen Consort, Princess Rose and Dean Marks. Dean Marks was done with her diet of gruel and water or worse. She certainly seemed to be savoring the meal that my chef had prepared for us.

Queen Grace and Princess Rose had given me more than one disconcerting glance since I had met them. Princess Ellen was talking.

“James, things are much different now. As the Royal Heir my words are no longer discounted so I want you to promise me that if you need any help or anything troubles you, that you will contact me immediately. I will take steps to make sure that any messages from you will reach me in a most expeditious fashion.”

“Thank you Princess but everything seems to be just fine now.”

“That is another thing James when we are in an informal setting like this; please call me Ellen as you did in the Empire. Being constantly called Princess by my friends, I find most disconcerting and uncomfortable.”

“Yes Ellen.”

“Very good, now you can you please tell your friend what you really did in your magical laboratory to cause such a fire? Also I think Dean Marks is quite curious about the stone walls we saw through the doorway there, considering how all the other rooms in that wing are constructed of wood and plaster.”

I decided to answer the second question first; it might help keep me out of trouble later on. “As you know I grew up in a small keep constructed of stone, afterwards I helped you build your fortress at Drake’s Landing. So twice now I have had workshops built of stone and I’ve long since learned to appreciate the properties of stone. Dean Marks gave me permission to modify the rooms that she assigned to me in that old wing and I did, using the same magic that we used to build your fort. With the help of some men that I hired, I lined the room with a step’s worth of enchanted stone.”

There was a startled exclamation from Dean Marks, I knew good and well that she had expected only simple modifications and not what I had actually done. Princess Ellen was giving me one of her “looks,” which conveyed that she knew that I knew, that I had exceeded what Dean Marks’s expectations had been when the Dean had granted me permission to modify the room.

“As for the fire, I’ve long held the thought that the twin bottle flame potions which the Navy now regularly uses with their kraken spears is too bulky, slows down the spears and makes them more inaccurate. I am trying to develop a newer, lighter and smaller concoction. The potion I tested a short while ago is much smaller and burns extremely hot but it burns too quickly and it has no persistence. It might be useable as a weapon, but Naval experts would have to tell me if that was true or not. However it is extremely unstable at this time, and I will need to make a much safer version of it before I can demonstrate it to anyone.”

Dean Marks started to speak but she stopped herself. She was quite concerned that James was experimenting with something so dangerous in her school but she felt that what with his recent history and the Princess’s fondness for him that she wouldn’t have any official support if she did decide to remonstrate with him. To the contrary, she felt that if she rebuked him that she might just get herself into trouble. She decided to accept the status quo and mollify herself with the thought of all that enchanted stone lining his workshop, which was hopefully making James’s laboratory extremely fire resistant and less of a danger for the University.

A pleasant evening passed as the Princess and James kept the Queen Consort, Princess Rose and Dean Marks entertained with their stories from the war.

Dean Marks went back to her own suite with the knowledge that Princess Ellen had delivered a personal message with her visit and her actions. The Dean understood that she was not to mess with James Drake and to do everything she could to support him. If James had been anyone else the situation might have been intolerable for her but he wasn’t even the littlest bit arrogant nor was he demanding or difficult. She decided she could live with the situation for now and she did enjoy teaching the young man and working with him.

The Admiralty was recruiting heavily among even the most marginal of magic users. The Navy was looking for anyone with the ability to refresh the runes on a kraken spear, which because of the cleverness of James’s runes, took little ability.

I was playing at trying to make shield runes that could stop or hinder a kraken spear, I’d had some successes. My servants, Phillip Turner and John Cooke, had arranged to get a large wagon and carriage for me. We were going almost a full day’s travel outside of town to an estate owned by a friend of Alex’s. Getting aboard the carriage I noticed that it had what looked like a variation of the Royal Crest on the door.

Alex’s county was much further away and we would not have been able to get there without at least a week of traveling. I needed to test something and I needed a lot of land on which to do it, thus Alex had beseeched a friend to help us.

“Hello Donna, hello Alex thanks for doing this.”

“It’s my pleasure James. These are my good friends Duke Paul Howard and Count Samuel Taylor. This is part of Duke Howard’s Duchy.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you sirs. My name is James Drake. Thank you for allowing me to run my tests here Duke Howard.”

“It’s no problem at all James and please call me Paul.”

“Call me Sam and it’s nice to meet you too, James.” My servants were starting to act in a peculiar fashion. Phil and John were supposed to call me James when we were alone but I guess they had to go back to being all stiff and formal like when we were surrounded by nobles.

Paul commented, “I heard that you wanted to test a new kraken tube today?”

“Actually as you probably already know, the present tube does very little but I’m working on improving that too. I’ve got a new kraken spear to test and a new rune shield that might stop a kraken spear. Ever since Lord Thomas ran off I’ve gotten worried about who else has learned the secret of the runes that we use. So I want our side to have something that can stop any enemy spears and a better version of the kraken spear for us as well.”

Sam remarked, “I really like the way you think James. I’ve had the same worries. The Empire and their secret allies would love to equal the odds against us and our growing fleet.”

Paul led us over to a large hill that we could use as a backstop for any of the spears that overshoot or go through their targets.

My wagon was full of kraken tubes, spears and large wide boards that had been framed together to give a surface area of about six steps by six steps.

Paul asked, “I don’t see any runes. I thought that you were going to test some new ones?”

“Yes sir, we are testing new runes but they’ve been disguised, that’s one of the things that we are testing today.”

It was Sam’s turn. “But I thought that the engraved faces of runes or wards couldn’t be covered for at least a hand’s width or more? And that if anyone did do that, then runes or wards would malfunction or fail to work entirely.”

“I think that I’ve figured out a way to get around that limitation. You see I thought that if I came up with a new shield rune or runes that the Kingdom’s enemies would eventually copy them and our military would lose any advantage. So I worked a long time on coming up with a solution for that problem. The first improvement; is the paint or ink that is used to fill in runic engravings. My new ink is superior and holds a magical charge far better. But the mage has to be more powerful as well, to take best advantage of this new ink. Then there is the over coat that protects the ink and makes it last so much longer. Finally, there is the second coat which hides the rune. So far I’ve made brown, white, black, red, and gray disguise paints. This process creates a rune that lasts a very long time in comparison to runes made the old way but necessarily these new runes are much harder to refresh.”

“How long will these new runes last?” Paul wanted to know.

“The military’s current kraken spears need their magic to be refreshed about every week. All of my runes, prepared with the new process, have retained a full magical charge anywhere from one hundred and ten to one hundred and nineteen days, with the majority being towards the high end. It has been one hundred and seventy days since I first started using my new inks to produce runes and all of them, still retain some of their magic. We will be testing enchanted shields thirty days old, sixty days old, ninety days old, one hundred and twenty days old, one hundred and fifty days old, and finally one hundred and seventy days old. The shields will be tested against the old style kraken spears and my new models.”

“What about your new spears, James;” asked Sam.

“I have new runes which I have also disguised and we will be testing their power today. The new spear should travel further and hit harder than the old model. I am also working on a kraken tube that will propel normal spears. The enchantment is on the tube instead of being on the spear. But I’ve been having some problems during my tests. I really need a place where I can do daily testing; it would significantly speed up my research. My thought was that if we used my new kraken spears with the new kraken tube then we should be able to shoot a spear for a very long distance indeed.”

“James have I told you yet, that I like the way that you think;” said Sam. We all laughed.

First we tested the new spear and found that they had over twice the range of the old ones. Then we tested the shields and found that fully charged runes could stop even my new spears. It took some assembly time and a donation of lumber from Paul but we found that the runes could shield a wooden wall for twenty steps to either side of the magical symbols. Sam and Paul thought that was wonderful.

It was important though that everything be contiguous, any air gap could stop the effect. Shield runes made one hundred and fifty days ago could stop both old and new model kraken spears but the shield made one hundred and seventy days ago could only stop the old model.

Testing of the new kraken spears proved that they lost a lot of their effectiveness, past one hundred and twenty days.

Paul, Sam, Alex and Donna were all very pleased with today’s results.

Paul commented, “James I’m sure that the Army and most especially the Navy will be interested in today’s test results. You’ll probably being hearing from them soon.”

Sam grinned and asked anxiously. “Can we see your new kraken tube?”

My two servants shuddered and backed up. I looked at them. “You two are just big babies. You’ve never really been hurt in testing and I’ve got both healing and regeneration potions on hand, just in case. So why don’t you put on your armor and we’ll show my new and old friends the tubes.”

Glumly they strode off. I turned towards the others. “They are wonderful at feeding me and keeping me clean but just one too many fires or explosions and they get all nervous.” Donna and Alex were grinning.

“I’ve got two tubes, the first requires a mage to operate and seems to work fine but I haven’t tested it for distance yet. The second tube sadly doesn’t work right; it’s for people who aren’t magic users. Most of the time it releases too little power but then sometimes it lets loose too much and it destroys itself, in a spectacular fashion.”

I demonstrated the first tube and with a normal spear it would propel it, for a distance over one and a half times that of the old model kraken spears. This tube was over twice as long when compared to the old powerless tubes. When firing an old model kraken spear the new tube shot it three times as far. When firing a new model kraken spear, it was five times as far.

Sam asked. “How good does the mage have to be to use this new tube?”

“Not very, but his abilities do effect how often he can activate the tube.”

“I want it now, along with the shields and the new kraken spears.”

“So do I;” added Paul.

“Huh?”

I was then reintroduced to Baron Paul Howard, General of the Army and Count Samuel Taylor, Admiral of the Navy. I gave Alex and Donna a dirty look. My other model kraken tube was demonstrated and it didn’t blow up. But the results were comical. The spear didn’t even clear the tube.

“I’ll need to teach some people how to make the new runes. Dean Marks knows how to make the inks and paints, those are actually magical potions. I would recommend that you keep those a secret for as long as you can. School will be ending in two months for the summer break but I’ll be leaving a month early to go back to the swamp. I need to hunt for ingredients and truthfully I miss the place. I’m almost getting fat with all of this luxurious living that I’ve been doing lately.”

Both senior military men looked dubiously at the skinny young man before them in response to his “getting fat” comment. But Alex seemed slightly alarmed. “James, how are you getting home?”

“The swamp runs all the way to the gulf. I’ve already hired a shop to make me a pirogue for me. I thought that I would hire a merchant ship to drop me off just outside the swamp and then I’d take my boat in the rest of the way. In the fall, I’ll leave the swamp the same way that I came in and I’ll then try to flag down a passing ship for a ride back to Sweet Port or I just might travel along the coast in my own boat.” I said with a shrug, of my shoulders.

For some reason Paul and Sam blanched upon hearing my plans. “James when you’re ready to go home you can hitch a ride on a Navy ship and if you give us an approximate date for when you might be returning, I’ll have our patrol ships keep an eye out for you and they’ll be ready to offer you a ride back.”

Paul, Alex and Donna all seemed to think that was a much better idea.