Up in the Air

Syndi discovers Muld speaking to a mysterious object

11.

Up in the Air

 

 

Two hours later, as they were overseeing the last of the cannons’ removal from The Locust, Muld and Syndi heard the distinct sound of vacuum engines coming from the south.

Everyone looked up in alarm, fearful that perhaps Hobnail’s pirates had more advanced airships than anyone had known.

But soon the familiar shape of the old, but reliable Autumn Maid came into view, slowing down as it approached the docking station.

Minutes later familiar faces emerged onto the platform.

“Muld and Syndi, thank Yesh!”  Rick exclaimed as he saw them.    With him were Tadd, Jevon and Mutt and they all exchanged greetings with their lost companions, and then Muld briefly recounted what had happened to them.

“King Eleazar was contacted by one of the Losasidhe wizards yesterday, telling him you were here and that you’d captured an airship that you couldn’t pilot.    The king notified us and allowed us to travel here by airship.    He even sent a crew skilled in flying an airship by sail!”    Rick turned to a group of six men who had stood quietly behind them on the docking platform.

Muld was elated and for the rest of the day he had all of the guild members clean out The Locust for their travel back to Westmark the following day.

“This will certainly benefit us,” he told them as they sat with him resting in the ship’s captain’s quarters at the end of the afternoon, “We will use this ship as a guild craft and make it our own.    Once we fit it with more advanced engines and learn the mechanics of steering it, we probably won’t even need a crew.    We’ll have this ship all to ourselves.”

“Then we can select our own cabins?”  Jevon asked hopefully.

“Yes indeed… and before you ask, this one is mine.”   Muld joked.

“So we’re to put the orders we have on hold while we work on weapons?”   Mutt wondered, “Your disappearance was big news in Westmark, boss, and we were flooded with queries about the guild and many orders.”

Muld looked concerned.    “We’ll have to figure something out, because I don’t want us to lose customers while we work on cannons and engines.”

“Either way, we are going to be very busy,” Tadd commented, “We’ll probably need more guild members.”

Muld nodded, “Yes, but we’ll be selective.    I will make all five of you the ‘master’s council’ that will be the administrators of any that we hire.”

“A promotion already!”   Mutt said with a whistle.

“Yes, but that means more responsibility and you’ll have to work hard to learn the basic spells.”

“So do we get started tonight, boss?”   Tadd inquired.

“No, tonight we enjoy the hospitality of the Losasidhe court.   But before we do, I want to teach you the spell ‘Anchor’ so we can secure our ship.   I don’t want to lose it to a surprise attack by Hobnail, though I doubt he’ll try anything so quickly.   But the more you know, the better.”

They gathered around him and he began to explain the dynamics of the spell and teach them the incantation.

 

***

Two hours later, after the guild had dispersed to dress before the Losasidhe banquet, Syndi was growing somewhat concerned.

The dinner had begun nearly an hour ago with everyone present except for Muld.

Knowing the eccentric habits of the Master Magician, she decided to go search for him, for he was supposed to be one of the key guests at the feast.    

Yet he was not to be found in his room.   She walked out to the docking station and glanced up at the airship, but it was dark and all was quiet.

This worried her even more, and she hurried back into the palace, wondering what she should do.    Her father had arrested the spies, after a series of arcane enhanced interrogations had revealed their identities.   But the fear of foul play haunted her, and growing more and more apprehensive, she rushed down the private hall reserved for the royal family and guests, to try to locate a scrying ball so she could search for him.

But as she was passing the private family chapel, she noticed that the door was slightly ajar and she could hear someone talking within.

Syndi crept to the door and pushed it open enough to peer inside.

The chapel of Yesh was beautiful and intimate and the girl was extremely familiar with it.     Presence candles were continually lit at the altar and along alcoves that lined the walls.      Inside she found Muld, dressed for the feast, but talking in an animated tone as he paced back and forth nervously at the front of the chapel.

Yet there was no-one there for him to converse.

Intrigued, she knelt down and leaned in, straining to hear his voice at the other end of the chapel.    He was speaking as if chatting with someone very familiar, for there was an unusually comfortable sound to his voice.

“--So obviously I don’t have a clear idea what I should do,”  he was saying, as if he had nearly finished explaining something that had troubled him, “It is easy when it comes to arcane, technological or scientific problems; you know I’ve never had any worries figuring out what to do there.     Oh, I’m not confident in my knowledge, of course, but I think I fool everyone into thinking that I am.”

He stopped in place and sighed, then resumed, “It is crazy, really.   Since coming to Westmark, things have changed so much!     You wouldn’t believe how easily I now communicate with everyone!    I really don’t understand it myself.   You know, I even think King Eiolmoel likes me!   Can you believe that?!    Of course the queen and Lord Derych don’t, but everyone else seems to admire me.”

He laughed for a moment, shaking his head.   “Isn’t that insane?   I mean, what have I really done to gain any respect?  I simply came up with a plan that worked.    The Guild has taken off like a bolt of lightning and I imagine when we get back we’ll have more business than we can handle.   Everything is flowing so smoothly except for… hey… is someone there?”

He stopped in place, staring toward the door.    Syndi held her breath, scared to move and even more scared to stand up and admit that she was spying on him.

Muld held his position like a frightened deer for nearly half a minute, and then with a deep breath laughed, “Wow, I’m really getting jittery!    See what I mean?    Everything is going perfect, and this scares me to death.    But it pales in consideration to my main problem.    What am I going to do?    I have never felt so uncertain of myself.   It just came over me, yesterday, like I told you, and I can’t shake it.   I feel feverish and charged full of nervous energy.   It is going to cloud my mind from clear thinking.”

He now was looking at something held in his hand and smiling at it.    “If you were here, I’ll bet you would know exactly what to say to me.    At least in my mind you would.     Yes, I know you would.   You’d encourage me and smile, wouldn’t you?     ‘Let nature take its course,’ you’d say.   Something wise like that.   Or you’d ridicule me for my immaturity.   No… no, you wouldn’t be like that at all, would you?   Of course not.    I don’t know how I know, really.    I just know it.”   Muld reached into his pocket and pulled out his prized pocket watch, glancing at it for a few seconds in the dim candle light.

“Oh no!   I’ve been here nearly an hour!    Good heavens, how rude they’ll think I am!”   He slipped the watch back into his pocket and turned around to face the altar, bringing the other object held in his hand up to his lips.     He kissed it and spoke so softly that Syndi could not catch his words.

But she knew she had to slip back out while his back was turned.     With perfect silence, she slipped back through the door and tiptoed halfway up the hallway.   

She was burning with curiosity, so she went back toward the chapel, taking purposely loud steps and calling out in a voice that was just loud enough to mimic someone searching for someone while trying not to bother anyone else, “Muld?   Muld, are you down here?   Hello?”

She moved slowly, to allow him time to hide whatever he was holding and reach the door to the chapel.    What if he didn’t respond to her and hid?

But his head popped out of the doorway and with an awkward wave, he greeted her.

“Hi Syndi, I know, I’m quite late, aren’t I?”

“We were growing concerned.”

“Sorry… I was just checking out this beautiful chapel - the architecture is gorgeous!    I wanted to make some sketches of it, but the reverence of the place so overwhelmed me that I just stood there admiring the sanctity of it.”

“Oh… yeah, it is a great place to come when you want to feel close to God.”   She replied, subtly opening a path for him to share with her what he was doing there.

But Muld only nodded and changed the subject.

“Have I offended your father?    I’m sure your mother noticed that I wasn’t there.”

“No-one said anything, but I was afraid that you might have been waylaid by more pirate spies or assassinated.”   She grinned to show him she was jesting and he responded with his shy, nervous grin.

“Hopefully they are all rounded up.    I guess we should get back to the feast, huh?    Are all of our guild members there?”

“Yes, and they are enjoying the hospitality.”

“Your father is very gracious.”  

“You know, he really likes you, Muld,”   She said as they walked down the hallway.

“He does?   I’m very glad.   I don’t think we hit it off so good the first time we met back in Westmark.”

“Well, you certainly made a good impression on him this time.”

“But not so much with your mother… or Derych.”

She frowned at his name.   “I think he is rather envious of you.”

Muld laughed, “Well I certainly don’t know why!”

“You’re brilliant, Muld, he’s… well… he’s just… Derych.”

Muld looked at her, surprised, “Are you implying that he is… ah… less than brilliant.”

Syndi gave him a sly look, “Let’s just say that it isn’t his brain that guides his actions.”

“Oh.”  Muld responded, embarrassed, though he wasn’t sure why.   Perhaps it was over how she knew this.

“His reputation has proven that statement,” Syndi explained, as if sensing his thoughts. 

“Oh,”  He said again, awkwardly.

“That’s what everyone expects from him.    These last few days he tried his ‘charm’ out on me and for a while there I almost acted as stupid as the other girls, because when I was just a little, silly-acting child, I had a crush on him.    He of course played it up, since I was the only daughter of the King except for my married sister, but back then he was merely amused by me.     When he saw that I had finally grown up, he thought he could just have his way with me.”

“But you saw the light?”   He dared ask.

“When my head cleared, yes I did.   I have you to thank for that.”

“Me?”

“Yes, when you were jealous of me-“

“I wasn’t jealous-“

“When you were jealous of me, and stood up to him, I began to see how foolish the whole thing was and how stupid and immature men are to act like that.    This cleared my head.”

“I wasn’t jealous, Syndi, only worried that he’d ruin your chance at your own future by domineering you.”

“That sounds like jealousy to me, and quite frankly, Muld, I’m glad that you were, because I want to be a member of the Practical Magician’s Guild, as well as a Sorceress.   I feel I can possibly achieve both goals, but I have to stay focused.    So being jealous, because you were afraid you would lose my abilities as a Practical Magician was actually a good thing for me.”

“I just was concerned that a handsome face flirting with you could tempt you to give up all that you had decided to work hard to achieve.”

“It was foolish of me, but I have learned my lesson now.   I am going to be all about learning my craft and doing my job.    No more personal entanglements.”  

“Well, good,”   He responded, but there was a hint of regret in his tone.

Syndi turned her head so she could smile secretly at his reaction and right then they reached the banqueting hall, so their conversation ended.