A Clash of Magics by Guy Antibes (read this if txt) 📕

carriage, and Reena explained what happened in her first meeting with the prime of Ginster.

~

Lister Vale listened to Trevor tell his experience with the prime and then excused him to have a more private conversation with Brother Yvan and Reena while Trevor returned to Jilgrath to retrieve Volst.

“Are you ready to return?” Trevor asked as he found Lissa, Glynna, and Custik drinking ale with Volst at the inn where Lissa and Reena stayed.

“Sit down. We don’t have to hurry, do we?” Volst said, pulling out the chair next to him.

“They don’t sell Zinkel’s in Collet,” Trevor said with a smile before lifting his hand to summon a serving maid. “I suppose a recharge won’t matter much.”

“They are making some progress,” Volst said, nodding to Custik.

“We couldn’t have done it without Lissa,” the magician said. “What we’ve come up with is more of a counterspell embedded in the charm.”

“Like a ward?”

Custik’s face brightened. “We will make a magician out of you yet, young Arcwin. It is like a ward, but something a little different. Lissa was the one to think of it and made the first one. If she still sought out the gold, I think the innovation might be enough to raise her level.”

“I’m not interested in being a gold as long as I know I’m good enough,” Lissa said. “My priorities have changed.”

“Test it some more. I’m pretty sure my first task is confronting King Worto in Fuleria,” Trevor said. “The Ginster prime said as much.”

“But that carries so much risk!” Glynna said. “You could lose your dukedom with a snap of Worto’s fingers.”

“I’m more concerned about my head at the moment. My choice is to visit the Brachian king or be turned over to the Presidonian ambassador,” Trevor said. He told them all about his meeting with the prime. “How sure can you be that the charm works?”

“We can’t be absolutely sure until we find a cooperative Maskumite magician who will use the spell,” Volst said with half a smile.

Trevor nodded. “Gareeze Plissaki, but he won’t be cooperative. How does someone use the charm? Can they see through the spell like me?”

“The charm operates by touch, and only the person using the charm will be able to detect a magician using any kind of spell,” Gorian Custik said. “Reena was able to see Lissa clearly, but Glynna could only see Lissa’s glowing shape when she invoked her spell. However, it also works against any spell directed at you. For example, the charm would alert the wearer if a Brachian singer used magic.”

“Is there another Brachian in Jilgrath?” Trevor asked.

“No, but there is a professor who can come close to Mara’s technique,” Glynna said. “We tested it and accurately detected when a spell was used.”

“So, it has other applications.”

“We could be wealthy if we sold the things,” Glynna said, “but we aren’t concerned about wealth—”

“Yet,” Gorian said. “We will be making one hundred charms in the next few days.”

“Do you need me to return Reena?”

Lissa shook her head. “No, but she helped with the testing. I wish I could go with you to Collet, but I’m needed to make the charms.”

“You’ll get your chance.” Trevor lifted an empty mug. “I’ll have a few of these before Volst and I leave.”

Trevor was reluctant to leave his friends, but Glynna left and returned with a small purse in his hand before he left. “There are five charms in here. We will have more when you next see us.”

“I may have to give most of these to King Worto,” Trevor said. “I don’t want to be a wanted man in Ginster any longer than I have to be.”

Volst and Trevor left Jilgrath from a corridor in the inn and appeared in the ancient room underneath seer headquarters. They walked up to the main level. There were fewer surprised glares this time. Seer Vale was alone in his office where Trevor told him about the charms and showed him one.

“I can test these if you say they can detect a Brachian singer. We have a seer-in-training who is from Brachia,” Lister Vale said.

He sent one of his aides to fetch the young man while Trevor and Volst sat in the head seer’s office, watching the man shuffle through his paperwork. Finally, a young man knocked and bowed at the head seer’s door.

“Come in and meet Duke Trevor. He now owns the Listenwell domain.”

“That is where I am from. What happened to the regent?” the seer-in-training asked.

“He was punished for his misdeeds by the citizens of Parkintown.”

“Why aren’t you there?”

“I put another regent in charge who Jacob Stoolage is helping.”

The seer nodded. “Stoolage is a good man, if a little old.” He pursed his lips for a few seconds before turning to the head seer. “What is it you want of me?”

“I want you to do a little Brachian singing, the magical kind.”

The young man looked at Trevor. “I don’t have a very good voice.”

“I don’t care about your voice, but your magic,” Trevor said. He stood and handed a charm to Lister Vale and another to Volst. “Let’s see how this works.”

The man began to sing. Volst and the head seer immediately began to relax, but then the head seer’s eyes grew, followed a bit later by Volst.

“Thank you. You may stop.” Lister Vale looked at Volst. “Did it work for you as it did for me?”

“I sent a pulse of magic through the charm, and the singer glowed. It was like turning on a light,” Volst said.

The head seer nodded. “Same here. If I can have a few of those, I’ll test it out with our brothers.”

Trevor let Volst keep one and handed another to the Seer. “Tell me what you think.”

Trevor and Volst were ushered out of