Hocus Pocus!

“Damn! Nothing, again!”

He was trying to make a card levitate. A Jack of Hearts, because that was somehow the image he had about himself: a lovely lovable man with his heart opened to love if only the object of his attention would notice. He tried the spell again to no avail. He had tried hundreds of times and hundreds of words on each free moment he got during the three days since the duel. No magic had come to him since.

He sighed and let himself fall on the couch, pouring himself a cup of tea. That one was an aromatic beverage concocted by Lau, and it was quite well suited for the late summer late morning hour and the sweet light that transpired through the curtains.

Next to him, on another couch, Lau slept. He had that innate talent to sleep at whatever hour and in any condition that a more nervous type like Istaìnn envied very much. In the next room, the dining room, Veea was feeding Diago with chicken soup. The duelist had his right hand immobilized to heal faster.

“Common, sweet duckling, another sip!” she was saying.

“Mercy! I cannot take it anymore!” Diago pleaded.

“Eat, sweet duckling, you need to grow big!” joked the spy.

“I’ll strangle you as soon as I ca.. !” menaced Diago, but his words ended in a gurgle; he was stopped from speaking by a spoon of soup.

Istainn laughed silently and took a newspaper from the table.

Monarchy abolished! he read. Hm, this is the first day the head news is not anymore about the duel. So, I guess we’ll have to call our host Governor now. Ten years mandate, not bad. Enough to put reforms in motion. I see he can have two consecutive ones. Not bad indeed!

His reflections were interrupted by some voices from the lobby, and to his ears, one of them was the most melodious voice of the Realm.

Ahhhh… Heyra! My love…., he sighed, thinking again at her kiss on his cheek.

The girls were returning from an early morning shopping spree and were chatting with the Governor. The voices and their bearers entered the salon.

“Your excellency!” he saluted, rising to his feet. “Congratulations on your confirmation. I wish you and your country a long period of prosperity!”

“Thank you, my friend, but each of you deserves gratitudes as well. Without you, we would not have succeeded! Hmmm…. This tea smells good! I’ll have a cup. Diago, will you join us?” he asked.

“I cannot move. I’m a prisoner! And I had enough liquids for ten days!”

“He’s coming; we finished the soup!” announced Veea. “I'll go make another.”

“Your highnesses, please put our friends up to speed,” the Governor invited.

Feyra took on the challenge.

“This morning, after we had bought a few new clothes with the help of our beloved friend, Missy here, we signed a new alliance treaty between our countries. D’Ornia recognized us as the legitimate rulers of Ohst. On a symbolic level, d’Ornia still is a vassal of the house of Ohstwald, this is a tradition from the First King, but we are just two free nations associating willingly. And we have news from home, quite good news.”

Istaìnn raised his eyebrows.

“The University had counter-attacked. Those gossips had affected their image, so they instituted an embargo on printing ink and printing-machine parts. Eventually, the newspapers published official denunciations of their previous articles. Some even say that the Regent is a usurper. This is good news. Apart from this, nothing new.”

A servant approached and whispered something in the Governor’s ear.

“Invite him in!” he ordered.

The servant returned, accompanied by a young man.

“Roybert!” exclaimed both the girls and the spy. “He’s the knight we told you about,” explained Heyra to the Governor.

“What a coincidence! Here we meet again!” the soldier replied.

“You’re not here to see us?” asked Feyra. “How did you got inside the Capital?”

“No, your highness, I’m here to see his Excellency the Governor. The staff from the palace directed me here. And I got inside through the main gate. I’m here with official business, have a message to deliver.”

“Aha,” exclaimed the spy. “I bet the nobles are in disarray. They are trying to negotiate some retreat, now that the d’Ornian Army pledged allegiance to us and we have ten regiments who are coming to raise the siege.”

“Actually no, none of those,” replied Roybert. “And our scouts reported only two regiments approaching; nice try, mister spy. But you don’t need to worry anymore; we solved all your problems.”

“How so, young knight?” asked the Governor.

“Well… if you allow me to sit, I’ll tell you.”

“Please,” said the Governor, accompanying his words with a large gesture. “Sit down and have a cup of tea and some cookies.”

“Thank you.”

The young man, like all young men, started with the cookie.

“Oh, Goodness! That’s SO good!”

“My wife cooked those,” said Diago.

“My most sincere congratulations,” said the knight, eating another two cookies. “My fiancée cooks very badly,” he said with genuine ingenuity.

“Oh, you have a fiancée?” asked Missy, looking at him with a lot of interest. “She must be a fortunate girl to be engaged with such a handsome knight!”

“Well, thank you!” he replied blushing.

Run! Run as fast as you can! thought the spy.

“Young man, get to the point,” asked the Governor, irritated. “You come with a message. Let’s hear it!”

“The message, you’ve already heard it. All is well; we took care of the bad stuff. The story is about how. So. After their royal highnesses and I parted ways, I went to the camp. Before reporting about the demise of my patrol, I spoke with my cousin, Nikos. He’s quite bright, even went to high-school. After that, we went and talked to other friends, then they talked to other friends, and…. Ah, I forgot. I reported on the patrol at some point, and as I’ve promised, didn’t mention you. But I did mention you to our friends. I would say that before night came, a lot of people knew about the treason and the real stuff.”

“That’s quite risky,” said the spy apprehensively.

“Not really. You see, we, the younger generation, are quite fed up with the oldies. You know, go and duel this or that because he sneezed in my presence and all sorts of idiotic orders. The rank and file under twenty-five hate all this rivalry between houses. We want to be useful citizens, an army serving the state and the Royal house, as we were intended to.”

“Nice to hear it!” said Feyra.

“Indeed. And I can tell you all our friends dream of serving you, your highnesses. You are so clever and pretty, any knight would give a hand to be your guard.”

The spy gave him an ugly look.

“Anyway, our friends reacted badly when they learned about treason. We all agreed we have to do something but had no idea what. We were thinking and thinking and nothing.”

“Indeed, thinking is hard, especially for soldiers,” said Istainn.

“You have no idea! We felt like our brains were on fire,” replied Roybert without catching the irony. “But then, luck stroke. Your champion beat ours and killed the king too.”

“Your champion was powerful. I felt bad that I had to kill him,” said Diago.

“All for the better. He was a prick, anyway. But now, with the king dead, the clans' chiefs convoked a meeting yesterday evening. To discuss what to do. Assault the city, retreat, whatever. But guess what? Sebastain was our guards' captain. With him gone, the task went to Nikos. Because he’s bright, as I’ve said, he can count, organize rounds and patrols, and many other things. So he got the order to guard the meeting. And guess who were the guards?”

“You and your friends, of course,” said Istainn, who had a good guess where all this was going. “I suppose the chiefs accidentally died? Falling on their swords repeatedly, because they had their shoelaces untied?”

“Ha ha ha, that’s a good one. No, we killed them all on purpose and took care to make them hurt. I lost friends, in that patrol, because of them. We invented an excuse that they killed each other. Nikos gave the news to the second echelon, and they are supposed to meet today, to pick new chiefs.”

“Can we hope for a more friendly approach from the new command?” asked Heyra.

“I don’t think so, your highness. I do not know, sincerely. The plan is to kill all the high officers. We don’t know who is in the plot or out, and they are a bunch of old goats anyway. But you can count on OUR support. We, the young wolves, we want a new system. Allowing marriages between our houses and with normal people, forbidding duels. We want a better education and new opportunities for serving the state. Why not work in the bureaucracy, for instance? Some of us don’t like the army stuff. Let the normal people join the army if they want, and let us join the normal jobs too; that’s how it should work. But now, let’s get back at our thing. We are all on your side.”

“I never believed I’d come to say this,” said the spy, “but there is hope even for the nobility.”

“Thanks,” bowed Roybert. “I have some bad news as well. We found our chief’s correspondence with the other clan chiefs. Most letters are rubbish, they argue among themselves, who to be the first new king, and so on. That Cousin is a fiction; he does not exist. The bad part is we have no idea who’s controlling the Citadel. There are some vague mentions of another faction involved, but no names, nothing. Our friends are searching for more clues among the other dear departed chiefs' correspondence, but I’d not bet many hopes on finding something useful.”

“Well, maybe you could capture some old goats alive, then? So we can question them?” suggested Istaìnn.

“Goodness! We didn’t think about that. I have to hurry back!” jumped the knight to his feet.

He rushed to leave, leaving behind him a lot of sighs and silence. To break the ice, the spy thought it was a perfect moment to compliment the object of his affection, and as a matter of fact, he chose to be fair and compliment them both.

“I have to say you both look splendid in your new clothes. It’s like they are made to compliment your beauty.”

“Well, that’s a very nice compliment,” replied Feyra. “You can tell us such nice things more often, we don’t mind. But they are indeed made to suit us. His Excellency tailor is a genius.”

“He has a huge house, all rented for his shop, and twenty apprentices. You go in, take your measurements, then in a couple of hours, the clothes are ready. Meanwhile, you can have a coffee or read a book in the salon. It’s a concept called speed-couture, very high-end,“ Missy explained the procedure.

“You and Lau should visit him,” proposed the Governor. “I will cover the costs, of course.”

“Oh no, you won’t! I’m so stupid! How could I forgot!”

The spy slapped his forehead, then jumped from the couch and disappeared. Thirty seconds later, he was back with a small suitcase and a medium size leather bag. He put both on the table and opened them. The suitcase was full of banknotes and a leather bag of gold coins.

“Gold!” said Lau, opening his eyes wide, waken up by the noise of the coins.

“You’ve robbed a bank?” asked Heyra.

“Nope. Earned all fair and square. You might remember that his Excellency had graciously offered us a consistent sum of money for the voyage. I had on me four hundred and seventy standards in coins and banknotes at the duel. Bet them all on Diago, of course. I don’t know why, but he had a two on one quota. And the rule is that if you don’t pick your gain immediately, all the money goes to the next fight of the same champion. After taxes, the amount is seven thousand one hundred and forty-four standards. I cashed the money yesterday in several currencies. I wanted to tell you, but you were all out, planning political things, and I’ve forgotten. Now, the problem is how to divide them. Legally, I bet with borrowed money, so I propose we all take an equal share, including his Excellency.”

“No, my friend, it was a gift. Divide them among you. I could help you open five accounts in our main bank, though, because that’s too much money to keep under the mattress.”

“An account will suit me fine,” agreed the spy.

“Lau will change his part in precious stones,” announced the archer. “Your banks do not operate in Lau’s country.”

“Bank will work fine for me. I’ll consult with Veea about what to do with our part. You can buy a mansion with that amount,” said the duelist.

“I will not take any of the money!” stated Heyra. “You put your lives on the line several times for us; you deserve it all. After all, we’re rich. We just have to take back Ohst, but that’s a technicality. So I will not take even one standard of that money.”

“I will!” said Feyra abruptly. “Yes, sis, don’t look to me like that. You are mistaken. We have to take the money. If we refuse, it shows we place ourselves above them. And do we? Who do you want to be? A rich princess, refusing to take the money from her subjects, or just a friend, accepting a gift? We spent so much time together and shared so many adventures that now we are family. We might not have contributed too much, but we washed clothes and dishes together, we broke bread together, we fought and ran together, we cried and laughed together. Those are bonds that surpass titles or rank. We are friends and family forever. If Istainn decided to share the money, I’ll oblige and take my part.”

The girl had spoken with fire in her voice and brilliance in her eyes. Her skin, on her throat and upper chest, became red, and as Istainn looked at her, suddenly he wanted to sweep her from her feet and gather that fire from her lips, kissing them, biting them.

What are you doing? Get a grip! he thought, alarmed.

Meanwhile, Lau had raised from the couch and made a profound reverence.

“You will be the most accomplished Queens ever. You are as ravishing as the two moons, both in the body and heart. May you reign forever!”

“Prosit!” toasted the Governor, raising a glass.

They all cheered.

“Well, now that you put it this way, I could use that money to buy some more clothes,” said Heyra, deciding to obey her sister. “After all, what’s better than a nice dress? Two nice dresses! And while we are at two, why not three or more?”

“Splendid idea,” agreed Missy, grabbing a fist of coins from the sack. “Should we return to the speed-couture boutique?”

“Of course!” said both princesses in one voice.

“I will deposit this to our bank on my way to the Parliament, and bring you each a receipt and a coded password,” said the Governor, prudently closing the sack and the suitcase. “And I will buy stones for Lau.”

“Lau, Istaìnn, are you coming?” asked Heyra.

“Lau could use nicer clothes,” admitted the archer.

“I’ll pass for now. I don’t feel very well,” said Istaìnn.

After they left, Diago headed to the kitchen, accepting the risk to be forcefully fed, and the spy went up to his room and washed his face with a lot of cold water.

“What are you doing, Istaìnn?” he said to himself, looking into the mirror.

His skin was cooled enough, but his mind was not. Haunting him was that image of Feyra, with her reddened skin on her décolletage. Somehow, his mind was extending the idea, imagining her naked, with her long hair caressing her hips.

“You idiot!” he apostrophized himself, slapping his cheeks. “Cease and desist, moron!”

Suddenly, he heard a sigh and a voice from the armchair who was in a dark corner.

“My Goodness, aren’t you humans something? You talk, and talk, and talk! Even when you’re alone, you talk!”