As I approached Master Gareth's shop I, again, heard the voice of the mysterious visitor.
"You are early," said Gareth gruffly.
"Pressing business. The King's Guards are looking for Lora of Sandar."
At the end of the second sentence I pushed open the door and stared coldly at the pair of them.
"May I enquire what the King's Guards want with my student?"
"Who are you?" snapped the stranger.
"I am Lady Leanni Nikarya, and you, sir, are very rude. I ask again, what is it that your King's guards want with my student?"
"Ah, Lady Nikarya, I have the dresses Mistress Lora ordered on your behalf."
"Then you must be Master Gareth? Good day to you. Who are you, sir?"
I wasn't expecting an answer but it was worth a try.
"My identity is none of your concern Madam. As for what the King's Guards want with your student. They want to question her about her activities while she was in the city."
"I'm afraid that will not be possible. Lora is traveling, on my business, and will not return for some weeks at least."
"I’ll see you later, Gareth. Good day my Lady."
I waited until he had slammed the door shut behind him then leaned against the counter and remarked, in my own voice.
"What a charming gentleman."
"Lora? Is it really you under there?"
"Last time I checked," I replied with a smile. "What do you think, will I do?"
"They shall be falling over themselves to tell you anything you want to know."
"Good. I hope Leanni will have more success than Lora has. Now where are these dresses, and are any of them suitable for wearing to the Royal Court? While we’re on the subject, perhaps you could tell me about the Royal Court so I know what to expect?"
"Expect to get stabbed in the back at every opportunity."
"Perhaps in a little more detail than that?"
"Certainly. There are a number of groups within the court you need to watch. First of all, there’s the Sandaran Royalty, Sandaran Mages, the Sandaran nobles, Foreign Mages visiting the Royal Court to confer with the Sandaran Mages, Foreign Ambassadors keeping an eye on the Mages and spying for their own countries, probably a few visiting nobles as well."
"So far it doesn’t sound too bad."
"Wait." advised Gareth. "It gets more complicated, there are several factions within the Sandaran Mages and nobles. Both of those groups are divided according to which of the King’s sons they think should inherit because the King hasn’t made a choice yet. He is a healthy man and has no intention of dying anytime soon therefore he refuses to say which of his two sons will inherit after him."
"I was under the impression that it was normal among humans for the older son to inherit the father’s title."
"Usually that is so but the oldest son is a Mage and it isn’t very often that a Mage is chosen over a Prince but there is precedent. It would be easier if the King’s Council favoured one above the other but they seem to be remaining neutral at this point."
"The King’s Council?"
"A combined group of nobles, and Mages, the King’s trusted advisors."
"Where do the Ministers fit into this?"
"Well, as you know, the Trade Minister and the City Librarian are both Mages. The rest of the Minister’s offices are held by a combination of Mages and nobles, in fact a lot of Mages are noble born as well."
"Of course. So how is the King related to you?"
No it wasn’t simply a guess; I had reasons for the question.
"What?"
"When you were telling me about yourself before you said The new Arch Mage then intervened on my behalf to have me confined to the city and prohibited from using my powers-as opposed to death or exile. His motives were not what he led them to believe, of course, he wanted me where he could keep an eye on me.
"Now it seems to me that even with his intervention you must be related to an important family and since most noble families are generally related to the royal family in someway or another I was just wondering how you are related to the King.
"If your question is, in fact, what made me come to the conclusion that you related to the King then the answer is that among my people nearly all of the noble families are related in some way."
"I am the King’s great-Uncle quite a few times removed obviously considering my age; my brother was King at the time of my punishment."
"A question." I interrupted as politely as I could. "Would a Mage-King live as long as a Mage normally would? Perhaps even outlive his children?"
"Aye and that’s another consideration to be made in the debate. Obviously the Mages wouldn’t mind but if the nobles’ successors or theirs successors object to his policies...it could turn into a great mess."
"And what do you think, Master Gareth, who should be the next King?"
"Keeping in mind that I only have second hand information about them, The younger Prince would be a terrible King but his reign would be over in a mere sixty or seventy years. As for the Mage Prince, he has the makings of a good King but who can say what the double burden of Magic and Kingship would do to his character?"
"Who indeed?" I agreed. "It is well known that humans are easily corrupted by power. Could the Mages make the Nobles choose their Prince if the King will not make a decision?"
"Only by completely overthrowing the present government and replacing all the nobles with Mages. They have considered it but they are not ready to go that far yet."
"So your mysterious visitor is one of them?"
"I can not say." replied Gareth warning me not to continue that line of questioning.
"As you like. I am certain I shall work it out eventually."
"Be careful who you meddle with, Leanni, these men are dangerous enemies."
"Compared to the enemies I have made of late they are nothing."
"I can not imagine and I will ask you not to tell me for I am certain I do not want to know!"
"I suspect that is entirely true."
In any case I am certainly not about to tell him that his Gods have some kind of vendetta against me the poor man would probably die of shock!
"Let yourself simply be assured that I am confident of my ability to deal with the various factions with the Royal Court."
"It is neither your confidence nor your ability I doubt Leanni, it is your trusting nature!"
My what?! Is it possible for someone to misjudge me so badly?
"I beg your pardon?"
"Please I do not mean it as an insult, merely an observation. You are a trusting person going into a place where you can not trust anyone."
"You are quite mistaken in your assessment of my character, sir. I do not trust easily and I certainly do not have a trusting nature! I like you, Gareth, but it does not follow that I do not believe you would betray me if it suited your interests. You undoubtedly feel the same way about me."
"I..."
"Please let me finish... I have no intention of trusting anyone I meet no matter how they may seem to prove themselves, you need not concern yourself in that area. Now, if you please, tell me the names of the important people involved on the politics of this country."
"Very well. Dare I ask if you even know the King’s name?"
"I shall when you tell it to me...the common folk of your land do not use his name."
"King Davrin is his name. His Mage son is Lord Ahnen, his second son is Prince Jaret, his daughters are... "
"Daughters?"
"Yes, he has two, Lady Naria and Princess Jalina."
"Lady as in a Mage?"
"Obviously, otherwise she would be called Princess."
"There are female Mages?"
"Yes, of course. It helps keep the balance of magic but they are not important enough to be involved in politics or..."
"Oh do go on, I find this absolutely fascinating."
"I wasn’t referring to you, of course, Leanni. I just meant..."
"...That human women are not important enough to be concerned with; I understand your meaning quite well. Don’t concern yourself with my feelings on the matter; my own people have more or less the same opinion of females.
Going back to the political situation; who are the King’s councilors?"
"The King’s Council consists of the Ruling Lords of the six Provinces and the six High Mages including The Archmage, Lord Nimare."
"The High Mages being I assume the most powerful?"
"And the oldest by virtue of the fact that they are powerful. Though none of them, including Nimare, are older than me. Those who would be my age or older left Sandar, or died, during the time I lost my place as Archmage."
"I do not see why they make you stay when you can do them no harm, you said yourself their combined power is greater than yours."
"That is true and I suppose I should simply be grateful that I was not executed when they brought their false charges against me but it is in the past and shall remain there, you would do best to concern yourself with the present and the future."
"And so I shall."
"Now the Six Province Lords are: Falien, Verdin, Dreasen, Mikhael, Lornin, and Halyn.
Halyn is your most likely ally in helping the centaurs as his Province borders their land.
Falien is the least powerful, and youngest, of the Lords, he governs the Southern lands that border the swamps.
Verdin is the son of the King’s sister and one of his closest friends, his mother Princess Liana is often at Court with him.
Dreasen, Mikhael and Lornin are cousins but closer than most brothers, they were raised together and are close in age, they are also the strongest opposition to the Mage-Prince being named Kings’ Heir because they are close friends of Prince Jaret.
Naturally all of the High Mages are in favour of a Mage-King as it would increase their power in Sandar but my sources tell me that some of the younger Mages do not favour the idea. Of course they did not get to be High Mages by listening to those less powerful than themselves."
"Do you think the Mages have anything to do with the Centaur Registration Act or the Performer’s registration law?"
"Mages generally have something to do with anything that gives them more authority over the masses even indirectly. In consideration of the fact that the King never expressed any specific misgivings about the presence of Centaurs in Sandar until recently I would have to say he was influenced by someone but there are a lot of suspects and no evidence against any of them."
"Hmm...so not much chance of convincing them to change the Act? Ah well that was only one of my ideas anyway.
How involved are the foreigners in any of this?"
"The Mages are naturally wary of any upset in the balance of power here in case it spreads to their land. The Ambassadors and the Kings the represent do not care who our next King is as long as he keeps within the established borders."
I nodded, that made sense.
"Can you think of anything else I need to know before I brave the dragon's den?"
"The Ministers are divided in who they support, some are on the side of the Mage-Prince, and others would prefer the Prince to inherit. Depending on what they are Minister of they choose to support the one who will most benefit them."
"Now all I need to know is how one goes about being presented to the Court."
"As a visiting Noblewoman what you need to do is first present yourself to the Steward of the Court who will add your name to the King’s Audience list. The King reads the list and decides who he will see; I imagine an Elf-lady would be quite high on his list so you should not have to wait long."
"Thank you, Gareth. If you have a suitable dress I will go today."
"I have just the thing."
He walked across the room and removed a gown from the rack. It was nice enough, I suppose, white with long sleeves and gold trim.
"At least it is not pink." I muttered grudgingly.
"You just can not please some people." grumbled Gareth, pushing me behind a curtained area at the back of the room. "Go and put it on then."
The dress looked good, as dresses go; I certainly looked like an Elven Lady which was the aim of the exercise.
"Shall I order a carriage for you?"
"Gareth the palace is a five minute walk away. I do not think the guards will turn me away just because I chose to leave my carriage at the dress makers and I am hardly going to let the dress get dirty."
"It was just a suggestion. No doubt your little idiosyncrasies will be the object of much discussion when they become known but that is hardly a bad thing."
"I shall see you later, Master Gareth."
"Good day Lady Nikarya."