(continuing the scene at the end of chapter 65)

I dropped into my scrying trance and opened my mage sight in the Regent's bedroom. Casting magic detection on top of the trance was on the difficult side but I managed. The Regent's bedroom and sitting room were warded as one unit. All the windows and doors had wards too. Moving into the hall, I noted that the door into Willam's quarters was warded and so was the door into Aricia's quarters.

I was surprised that the door into the king's quarters was not warded though two guards were on duty, standing on either side of it. My clairvoyance entered the suite of rooms. The king was sleeping in his big canopy bed. I found the bottle of medicine that the attendant used to drug the king. The label read: thrice-distilled tincture of poppy.

No wonder the man did nothing but waste away while sleeping. I wondered if I could sabotage the morning medicine. I was in a trance and already was running third eye magic. Did I have enough magic left over to transmute the contents of the medicine bottle? I decided to try it just because I knew I was remote physically and two of the best mages I knew would be watching.

First, I would pay a visit to the sleeping king's mind. With mage sight from the third eye, I could see the befuddlement and fear spells on him. Those were magic spells more appropriate to a war mage than a court mage. Regardless, these were easy spells to undo.

* γενεγ! *

It was gratifying to watch those two spells dissipate. Next, I needed to leave him a message for when we woke up, because he would be lucid when he did: * Μεμ γοαδιννε, jου μν τινζεν δε jυκκεν ὀμ τε εἁρρεν τροχ διζζε κενινγ ν σν σλιεπ ὀμ σε τε ûνθâλδεν β ἰτ εκκερjεν! *

* Hear me, king, and remember when you wake. Your enemies have attacked you with treachery in the form of poppy juice and spells of befuddlement and fear. If you wake and make a fuss or engage the servant with commands, the servant will tell the mage to renew the spells. I broke those spells this evening. Do not give the servant reason to ask for more spells. Play dumb and witless. I have changed the medicine to apple juice so it is safe to take now. Don't let them know you have your wits back. Your brother and your sons are coming to rescue you sometime between now and the end of the year. Whatever you do, do not trust Griselda because she and her brother are plotting to steal Nordweg and make it part of Osterius. *

I turned my attention back to the medicine bottle and cast a spell to make it apple juice: * εαζελ, ἰκ σμεεκ δ, τρανσφορμεαρjε διτ μεδισν ν ἀππελσοπ! *

I next found the best route to the front of the palace. The carriage entrance was one of two holes through a ward that surrounded the entire building. The other hole was the servants' and delivery entrance in the back of the palace.

The one thing I did not find was the Magus Keleher. I wanted to know if he had one of those pendants but he was now gone from the maid's bedroom. I also wanted to know where he was from, mostly because I couldn't place his accent. Last, I wanted to know where he slept so I could gift his bed sheets with the spell of one thousand unseen bites or curse his shoes with perpetual athlete's foot.

Since I could cast spells through Queen Margo's gift, I could plague the Regent and her mage with non-stop petty harassment. I wanted them to feel insecure in their own home. I wanted them to lose sleep. I wanted them to question every person around them in a growing atmosphere of paranoia until even their allies were sick of them. It also gave me something to do to combat the boredom of traveling.

Last, I visited the dungeons to see who might be locked up. I found Edmund the Fair, King Stephano's court mage, as well as several former ministers, two former bishops, and a cell full of beggar children whose crime was to make chalk drawings on the walking pavement across from the gate onto the palace grounds. The biggest surprise was Lord and Lady Herman, who the Regent arrested but never brought to trial.

There was nothing I could do for these unfortunate souls, at least not yet. Knowing that there were prisoners was valuable intelligence by itself.

I dropped the trance. * We can dive back in tomorrow and get a map of all the wards, * I said to Cat. *I don't have a map of the palace in Tammerhof. Can you draw one up, Cat? *

"Why, Fuzzy?"

* So we can mark down where all the wards are inside the palace, silly nit. *

"I hope we can do that while traveling," Cat said.

* What? Why's that? *

"Tomorrow we'll make the two amulets for the wyvern siblings, and the day after, we head back to Kizdangengar."

* Scrying should be easy to do from inside the carriage. *

"We're not going by carriage, Fuzz. We're riding on the Suhkuhl's flying carpets. When we get there, Queen Margo will hold a tribunal as to the fate of the Bishop of Tammerhof and the four soldiers who worked for him. Queen Margo will use this as a pretense to post a substantial portion of the Gorgurak army along the border with Nordweg."

I found this a bit alarming. * Whatever for? *

"A diversion mostly. It will give the elves time to infiltrate at the base of the escarpment and into the northern forest. It will also give the Zimlakuliku cavalry time to come up the Goll River to north Nordweg, which will cut off the routes between Nordweg and Osterius. While all these troops are moving and upsetting the Regent's government, Uncle Sven, Willam, and I will visit potential supporters before Willam's 16th birthday.”