Cal was thoughtful as he headed back into the Emporium. He closed his own door behind him, feeling the weight of the key to Sark’s shop in his pocket as he did so. He’d have to find out what he was going to do about this soon, but for now, he had his shop to mind, and Maddie Turner was waiting.
“Hey, thank goodness you’re back,” Max said urgently as Cal came into the front shop. “Take over here, will you?”
“Uh, sure,” Cal said, moving up and taking his place behind the counter. “What’s up?”
“Dying for the bathroom,” Max said quietly, and vanished toward the back of the shop.
Cal chuckled as he took a seat. With all the wild and outlandish things that had happened, it was good to be reminded of something homely and basic like that. Nothing crazy, just a normal and very human crisis.
He smiled around at the customers in the shop as he settled down in the chair behind the counter.
There were several customers in the little space, a few people on their own looking at the pendants, and two couples looking at the bowls, the cups, the gloves, and the hats. If there had only been one person in the shop, Cal would have started speaking to them and seeing if there was anything he could help them with, but the little crowd seemed to be enjoying looking at the wares themselves, and Cal felt it would be enough if he just sat by the counter and made himself available if he was needed.
He occupied his time looking over the ledger book, glancing down the columns of sales written up in Max’s neat, clean handwriting. Cal was pleased to see that they’d done well for sales today. Looking at the record gave him an idea of what he needed to make to restock as well. Cal hadn’t had the chance to look in the bag of cores that Laria had brought yet, but it seemed like there was a lot there. He noted down the different items that had sold the most and those that had been least popular, scribbling notes of the other things he’d need for the enchanting.
“Hey, I can take over again now,” Max said, appearing beside Cal. “How did it go with…you know?” he nodded in the direction of Sark’s shop.
Cal glanced at the customers. “It went well, actually,” he said quietly. “But it’s not entirely resolved. I’ll tell you more later. Right now, I could do with going to see Maddie.”
“Oh, sure,” Max said. “I’ll be fine here for the afternoon.”
“Thanks, Max,” Cal said.
* * *
Maddie lived in Blue Mile. As Max had said, Blue Mile wasn’t as posh as Castleview, but it was still a nice, comfortable, quiet residential area. It was out in the west end of the city, where the old town and the commercial heart of Jutlyn gave way to sprawling streets of residential houses, built in the more recent years of the city’s history. It was a few miles from the Emporium, so Cal caught a cab and gave Maddie’s address to the wyvern.
Since the weather was warmer than it had been, Cal sat up on top of the carriage, in the spot where a driver would have sat if one had been needed.
The wyvern glanced over his shoulder at his passenger and threw Cal a lopsided smile before trundling off in the direction of Blue Mile.
“Weather’s better, eh?” the wyvern said to Cal once they got underway.
“Oh, definitely,” Cal said. “It’s a relief. I’m looking forward to springtime.”
“You and me both,” the wyvern replied. “I like this job, I’ll not say a word against it, but in the winter it’s not as easy.”
“You can’t take a holiday in winter?”
“I do try,” the wyvern replied. “But the custom is best in the winter months, and that’s when I tend to do a lot of my trade for the year. I’ve got two young wyvernlings at home, and that takes a lot of food, so I like to work when it’s most profitable.”
“Ah, I can understand that,” Cal said.
“Still,” the wyvern continued as they rattled up a wide thoroughfare crowded with cabs and smaller carriages, “it looks like there’s maybe going to be even more winter in future, with everything that’s been going on.”
“Everything that’s been going on?” Cal said. “What do you mean? Did you say more winter?”
“Aye, don’t you read the papers?”
“No, actually, I haven’t read a newspaper for ages. I’ve got a new business that I’m getting up and running, and I’ve not had time to look at the news much at all recently.”
“Ah, fair enough,” the wyvern said. “Well, it’s been in the news the last few days that there’s some master villain type up in Helk, trying to take over the world. Wants to bring winter to the world or something.”
Cal was surprised to head this. Helk was far to the north of Roon, a cold, ice-bound land where winter never really ended. There were people up there, hardy humans, strong frost-giants, and a whole realm of magic based around snow and ice which was said to be very different from the kind of thing done in Jutlyn. It was interesting to hear about, but Helk seemed very far away from Roon and its affairs.
“I wouldn’t have thought some conflict so far away would have made a difference to us down here,” he said.
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong!” the wyvern said. “This villain - he calls himself the Winter King, or the Lord of Ice, or some such silly title - he’s wanting to take over the world and make everywhere cold and icy! And he’s united some of the people up in Helk, and subjugated others by force, and he’s saying he wants to get an army together and come south to take over Roon, and Yallish, and the other lands too!”
“Oh, come on,” Cal said disbelievingly. “A crazy archvillain taking over the world, in this day and age? And you say that he’s saying he wants to do these things. How’s that known?”
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“If you read the papers, young fellow, you’d know!” the wyvern said. “This Winter King or whatever he calls himself, he gave an interview to the Roon Inquirer, and the Daily Jut picked it up, and all the other papers too. He’s made his intentions plain. You should read it! It’s a good interview. The Winter King says that everyone who wants to go on living needs to submit to his rule, and buy warmer socks! For my part, I hope it doesn’t happen. We don’t need any big changes around here in my opinion. Calixios castle and the Parliament of Elders may have their weaknesses, and the gods know that they don’t always get everything right, but at least they don’t mess around with the weather!”
They were heading north-west. Cal glanced up to his right, catching a glimpse between the buildings of the great brooding bulk of Calixios Castle, and the brighter shape of the Parliament of Elders on the hill below, reflecting the sun.
Cal’s whole life had been defined by a state of peace, but his conversation with Maddie recently had brought a new way of thinking about things. He had always thought of war and conflict as a thing of the past, and for all of his short life, they had been things of the past. Realizing that Maddie was someone who’d seen conflict up close had changed his perspective, and the idea that peace was not an inevitable, unshakable constant of reality was chilling.
“I hope it doesn’t happen either,” Cal said as the glimpse of the castle and the parliament vanished behind a building and the cab began to go downhill again. “But I guess Helk is a long way away, and it’ll take some doing to conquer the whole world!”
“Here’s hoping,” the wyvern answered. “You should start reading the papers.”
“I guess I should,” Cal chuckled.
A moment later, the wyvern pulled up at the kerbside. “This is Restal Road,” he said. “I guess you don’t want me to wait?”
“Thanks,” Cal said, “but I’ll be a while.”
He paid the wyvern and added a tip, and the large gleaming creature thanked Cal and clattered off into the traffic. Cal looked around, seeing the sign on the corner that said Restal Road. It was a pretty setting, a wide, cobbled avenue with solid, two-story buildings on either side. Each of the buildings had a main door that evidently gave access to four large apartments, two on each floor.
Flights of broad steps led up to the main doors, and the doors themselves were painted in different colors, with little name-tags painted on beside rows of four doorbells.
Cal walked slowly up the street. There were trees here, too, planted widely spaced apart at the edge of the sidewalk. They weren’t in leaf yet, not even close, but there was something about them that suggested the coming growth of spring.
Restal Road was a nice place to live, Cal thought as he walked up the street, looking for number 40. He found it, a block like all the others, with a blue door this time. He mounted the steps, looked at the names beside the doorbells, and found the one that said Turner.
He rang the bell.
A minute or so later, there was a clicking sound of a key turning in a lock and Maddie Turner stood in the doorway, beaming up at him.
“Come in, come in,” she said happily. “I’m glad to see you. Thanks for coming out so quickly.”
“I was happy to hear from you,” Cal said. “What’s the news? I’m excited to see what you’ve done with the sample. Good news, I hope?”
“Come upstairs,” she said.
The main door let into a comfortable, carpeted hallway that served all four of the apartments. Maddie’s apartment was on the upper floor on the left.
Cal noticed that Maddie wore soft slippers. His boots were dirty from the outside world, and he noted that the carpeted stair was in good condition, a deep, rich green color. He didn’t want to mess it up, so he took his boots off and left them by the outer door, where there were a few other pairs of boots lined up.
“Thanks,” Maddie said. “Come on.”
She led him up the stairs and into her apartment. It was a beautiful home, wide and spacious and well lit by tall windows facing out onto the street. The walls were a pale eggshell blue, the carpet a dark grey, and the sofa a deep, rich blue like a summer sky. High ceilings decorated with elaborate cornicing gleamed a pearly white, offsetting the darker shades in the rest of the room.
Maddie had an eye for color, that much was clear, and she had good taste and plenty of money as well. The apartments in Blue Mile might not be quite as opulent and over-the-top luxurious as the mansions of Castleview, but Maddie had made up for that by spending large on the beautiful furnishings.
“Take a seat,” she said, gesturing toward a plush dark blue sofa. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Cal sat down, enjoying the firm cushions and the soft fabric.
I really need to upgrade my living space, he thought as he looked around the beautiful room. It’s too easy to get used to living in less comfort, but I’d love to live somewhere like this.
He looked around and his eye was caught by a copy of today’s edition of the Daily Jut, the newspaper that the wyvern cab driver had mentioned during the earlier conversation. Sure enough, on the front page was the screaming headline, “Exclusive! The Winter King interviewed! He’s taking over the world! Buy new socks!”
Cal chuckled, still finding the prospect of an evil arch villain taking over the world pretty preposterous. Such things might have happened in the old days, or in myths and legends from previous times, but they did not happen in the modern world. This so-called Winter King must be some kind of crackpot who had just captured the attention of the journalists.
He picked up the paper and gave it a cursory glance, then looked closer as his interest was caught. According to the article, the Winter King had united a group of frost trolls and used them to take over two of the larger cities in Helk. From there, he’d begun accruing money and resources and forcing other cities to acknowledge him as king. Helk was a big land, but most of the population were centered on a string of connected cities that ran along the southern coast. Control of those cities brought a lot of resources into the hands of the ruler.
That was unusual. The cities of Helk were not under unified control. Helk was not a kingdom. Rather, the cities there operated as independent city states, fiercely proud of their independence and their distinctiveness from one another. To bring them under one rule really would take some doing.
Suddenly, the idea that the Winter King was nothing more than some crazy man with no true influence started to seem less certain. Cal frowned, looking at the Light Singer picture that was printed on the front cover.
Light Singing was an old magic, but the creation of pictures using the technique was still relatively new. The grainy, shadowy picture on the cover of the newspaper showed a threatening figure in a dark robe, with a grim face, gleaming eyes, and a tall, spiked crown.
“Reading about the Winter King?” Maddie said as she came through again, carrying a bundle of something gray under her arm.
Cal put the paper down. “I was having a look, yeah. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but the wyvern who drove me here this morning was telling me about it. What do you think? I didn’t take it very seriously at first, but he looks pretty scary, and those Helkian cities aren’t easy to daunt.”
“Oh, I agree,” Maddie said. “I think he’s probably a genuine threat to the north at least, but he’s very far away, and he’d have to hold onto a lot of territory and consolidate it before he’d be able to move south. If he did…”
“Do you really think there could really war and conquest here in Roon again?”
“Nothing is guaranteed,” she said darkly. “You young folks think peace is the way of the world, because you’ve never seen anything else, but believe me, it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Cal glanced down at the newspaper again, the florid headline, the grainy, threatening picture. He shuddered.
“Hey,” Maddie said, drawing his attention back to her. “I’ve got something good to cheer you up anyway. Have a look at this.”
Cal looked up. Maddie grinned, then she took out the bundle from under her arm and held it up, ready to unroll it.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked. “This is going to be the biggest thing in years!”