The trick was to lead Bran into talking about those things without being obvious what information I was seeking. I said, “Can we circle the palace?”
“Ah, so you can see it from all angles. Of course. There are roads all around it.”
“And you can tell me what we’re looking at?”
He pointed, “That is the West Tower, the tallest point in Malawi. Built on the peak of the hill, it has a natural overlook . . .”
Anna’s voice entered my mind, pushing whatever Bran said aside. *We need to talk.*
*Now?*
*Yes.*
I glanced around and saw a public park filled with trees, benches, and open grass where children played. I said to Bran, “Please stop here. I need a few moments to clear my mind.”
I was climbing down before the carriage rolled to a stop. An empty slab of wood had been placed across two boulders the right height to form a bench and I sat. *I’m alone, now. What is it?*
*Your sister. She’s very distressed because of the dragon and crying. She says something is wrong with it.*
*There must be more for you to react this way.*
*She wants to go to it, to heal it or help. She insists.*
*Ouch. What does Will say?*
*He says that he will be waiting at the docks at dawn every day until you arrive. He has all the information you require.*
*There is something you are not telling me.*
*He has agreed that Kendra can go to her dragon. And he is sending me along with her.*
The last came as a relief. I’d know what my sister was up to because of Anna. Also, Will’s message that he had the information we required was welcome. They had gone to Landor to find if we could persuade the kingdom to help us. The message was not clear. *Can we count of Landor to help?*
*Will believes so. He has another meeting today and is confident.*
*We will talk later,* I told her. *I’m very busy right now but tell both of them things are going well here, or we think they are.*
I looked up to find Bran standing in front of me. He’d climbed down from his carriage to check on me. I wondered if I’d been using my lips to form the words in my mind again. That was a habit I had to break.
“Are you ill?” he asked.
“No. I just needed time to sort out a few things. This is an important day for us. The ball, and all.” My words sounded weak to my ears, and Bran knew I was lying. Not about what, but in his expression, he knew.
He said, “Money aside because there are always a few coins to be earned with a horse and carriage in Malawi, I am here because the two of you interest me. You came into our city as dirty travelers, and in a single day, you have fine clothing fit for the king’s ball. You have an agenda, a mission, and are not the common travelers you seem.”
“Is that a problem?” I asked.
“Perhaps. We shall see. But I give you fair warning. If you are part of the strange happenings in the palace these days, I will fight you.”
He had my full attention now. “What strange happenings?”
“New people, like you, arrive from the north and are quickly appointed to positions of power. The palace usually has only one mage in residence, and that has always been true, but beginning a few years ago, more arrived. There are now six.”
“Six seems excessive,” I agreed while cringing that six mages might be there to intercept me. I wished Kendra was here to locate them with her power. She could have warned me and kept me from walking into a possible trap.
“Other mages came and went, but none now for almost a month. That too is odd, that those here remain, and no new ones arrive. It is not the normal way.”
I paused before my next question, knowing Bran’s hostility could be triggered if asked wrong. I needed to ask in such a way that wouldn’t reveal what I was looking for. “How do they arrive? Ships or caravans?”
It was his time to pause. “Neither. All of them enter the palace from the east gate and depart through the same. Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen one near the docks or the overland routes.”
So, I’d given away unintended information with my question. That was a warning. I glanced at the tower to our left and said, “That is the West Tower, you said. Will you take me to the East Tower, if there is such a thing?”
“There is.”
I was not quite finished. I said, “Listen when we first met, you told us the old king has three sons. The king is ill, a son recovering from an accident. I want to know more about them. All of them. I assure you we support your king.”
Seated in the carriage again, he told me about one prince, an expert rider, falling from a horse that spooked. He was riding alone and would have died on the trail he rode if not for accidental discovery by a poacher. I wondered why the horse was spooked, or if it had happened. The youngest son was a familiar story, too. He was chronically ill throughout his childhood. Now that he was near twenty, his health had failed again about a year ago. A medical attendant, one highly respected in his homeland was brought all the way from Kaon to care for him—at the recommendation of a mage.
Kaon. That didn’t surprise me. The medical attendant probably pinched a measure of poison into the prince’s food daily.
As bleak as it sounded, at first, I almost smiled. The familiar pattern was a known quantity. Knowing the enemy gave hope to understand how to defeat it. The right person reaching the ear of the king could convince him. Bran said the king’s health was failing but he still ruled. The right person to speak to the king was Princesses Elizabeth.
The carriage rolled past government buildings, apartment houses, and the most common, two and three-story buildings with small businesses on the ground floor, the owner’s living quarters above. Often the third floor, the least desirable because of the stairs to reach it, a rental to bring in additional income. The streets were clean, the outsides of most buildings recently painted in various shades of brown and tan.
The stores had placards or signs attached to the walls beside the doors. A shoe indicated a cobbler, a needle and thread, a seamstress. The people were happy, the appearance prosperous. I knew that as the Young Mage got his grips into Malawi, that would change as it did on other kingdoms.
Bran kept up a monologue of interesting points of interest, where to eat a good meal, what had taken place at a location, and more. He told of the defense of the palace from the south rampart, and the damage to the wall still showed in the form of repairs and scars. Soldiers in bright uniforms marched on the ramparts. Banners and flags flew.
But not all was as well as it seemed in Malawi. As the carriage turned to travel north on the east wall, I shook off my speculation and started watching the buildings, roads, and all else. I didn’t see what I wanted.
Bran was watching me. “We came this way for a reason, didn’t we?”
“I thought I’d recognize something.”
“What are you looking for?”
Trust? That’s a funny word as I’d discovered with the bladesmith. Nobody fully trusts another, so the word is about how much trust to give each individual. Bran hadn’t earned that trust yet, at least not much of it. Still, I didn’t have all day to search for what I wanted. I said, “I’d heard there was a Waystone near here and I wanted to see it and look at the carvings.”