The Secret Scroll

Meanwhile, Alacer was making his way across the room towards Bellatrix. She saw him coming and waited respectfully for him to approach. Alacer only bowed his head to her as he had seen others do to her although they bowed to Jadis from the hip. For someone who looked so much like Jadis, she got a lot less reverence from the courtiers. Bellatrix smiled as if she knew what he was thinking and did not give a fig. Alacer blushed.

"It seems that we might be in-laws a little down the road, Princess Bellatrix" he said.

"Yes, it does," replied she. "And you can call me Bella, like all my friends do. Do you fancy my sister?"

The question took Alacer by surprise. He had not expected her to cut to the chase so quickly.

"She certainly is pretty," he said noncommittally.

Thankfully, this awkward moment was brought to an end when King Aduncus clapped his hand for attention.

"It is time for the young ones to go to bed," he announced. "Young princesses need their beauty rests!"

Everyone made way for the girls as they left the room.

"It is time for you to go to bed also," said King Altor to Alacer. "You must be tired after that long journey through the desert." Alacer did not ask whether his father was not also tired. He knew he had to stay up and discuss the union between him and Princess Jadis with King Aduncus. A servant came to him to lead him to the second guest room. The principal guest room was reserved for his father.

Alacer and his father stayed a fortnight in Charn. On the day of their departure for Affinis, Alacer still did not know whether he was going to marry Jadis or not. It was only after three days on the journey home that his father informed him that he would. Aduncus had agreed to honor the Affinian tradition of men marrying only after they had reached their twenty-first birthday, so he did not have to do it for quite some time. This was good news to Alacer, since he did not feel ready to get married just then.

"Sword blade up, Bellatrix! Good!"

The sound of clashing metal echoed through the courtyard as the two princesses practiced their swordsmanship (or swordswomanship, as Bellatrix liked to call it). It was the last activity after a long day of charioteering and horseback riding. Aquila, their trainer, had served under their father in the old wars and had been instructed to now teach the princesses his skills. To King Aduncus, conquest was as much a part of ruling an empire as making laws. He wanted to make sure that his heirs learned this as early as possible. Even though it had been five whole years since the visit of King Altor of Affinis and his son, Prince Alacer, the girls were still at a tender age.

Finally, Aquila announced that training was over for the day and their royal highnesses were free to go to dinner. Hot and sweaty, they gladly took off their protective helmets and arm braces. The cool evening air felt good on their bare skin. They handed in their practice swords to Aquila and ran inside to freshen up for dinner. After dinner they retired to their rooms to spend the rest of the evening however they wished.

Jadis at once locked her door and made sure that only one lantern was lit before she opened her bag of dirty laundry to fetch what she had hidden their. She took out an ancient scroll which she had pilfered from the palace library during a history lesson when the instructor was not looking. The seal was still unbroken as she had not yet had time to read it until now. Eagerly, she broke the seal and started reading as she unrolled the parchment.

In the twentieth year of the reign of King Bilis in the land of Charn in the royal city of Charn in the palace of the king in the great hall in the month of Ver, the last known use of the curse that was the abomination of abominations called the Deplorable Word occurred. During the feast of the god Ambrosius, King Bilis bade seven hundred nobles to feast with him in honor of the gods. Before the feast, he ordered the doors and walls to the great hall where it was to be held to be replaced with pure gold. The reason for this is that gold is a shield against many spells and enchantments and cannot be penetrated by them. For this reason, the door and walls of the Hall of Images are of gold so that no one outside of the Hall may be turned into an image like the monarchs of old inside.

King Bilis did not want to wipe out the whole world but only the men inside the great hall. More slaves died of exhaustion in the gold mines in the months leading up to the feast than had died in five years getting enough gold to cover the walls and doors of the hall. No one knows the exact time the king uttered the Word, but a servant who was polishing the banister of the great staircase remembers seeing the king come out of the hall with a dazed look on his face. Upon looking into the great hall, the servant only saw seven hundred empty chairs and on the tables were seven hundred half-full plates, with seven hundred forks and knives on them. Candlelight glittered on seven hundred napkin rings, salt cellars, and other metallic things.

Later, the king was found in a corner of his private chamber muttering over and over, "They were going to kill me … They were going to kill me…" After he was deemed unfit to rule, Bilis was retired to his country house in rural eastern Charn for his mind to rest. His son, Avus rose to the throne and forever forbade the use or study of the Deplorable Word. All scrolls and records of it were burnt although it was said that some magicians hid their own copies to save them from burning. Despite such rumors, no such scrolls were ever found from the north to the south of the kingdom.

Disappointed, Jadis put the scroll down on her reading desk. It had not at all contained the great secret that she had expected from seeing it on the highest shelf in the library. She should have known that it was nothing special when all it had taken to bring it down was a simple levitation charm. Surely a document of greater import would have been guarded by tougher spells? But, on the other hand, if one was to know this Deplorable Word, would that not make her the most powerful person in the whole world? The temptation was too much for the ambitious Jadis and she quickly gave in.

King Aduncus of Charn was enjoying the warm weather (which in Charn means it was less colder than usual) with a stroll down one of the garden walkways. He saw his firstborn, Jadis, walking towards him from the other side of the garden. Oddly, he saw that she was accompanied by his deaf-mute slave which he only summoned for a secret council that he did not want anyone to hear about. Surdus was his name, and he walked behind Jadis carrying the train of her cloak so that it did not pick up too much dirt. What in Charn did a fifteen-year-old want to talk about that was so serious that she brought a slave who was both deaf and mute?

"Good afternoon, Father," she greeted him.

"And to you, Daughter," he replied.

"Father," she began, "I have been studying the scrolls in the back shelves of the library."

"Go on."

"Well, there is one that talks about something called the Deplorable Word and I was wondering what it was."

King Aduncus was a rough man and his daughters were the only one to whom he showed any gentleness, but now he grabbed Jadis tightly by the wrist.

"Who told you about this?"

His eyes flashed dangerously and Jadis winced despite herself.

"No one told me, Father. I read in one of the scrolls from the library."

"Where is it now? Give it to me at once!"

"I hid it in my dirty laundry so it must be ruined in the wash by now," said Jadis.

At this, King Aduncus' face relaxed a little.

"Never let me hear you speak of it or hear that you have been studying about it again."

"Yes, Father."