“This soup is cold,” scowled Maraton. “Get me another. Be quick bringing it back this time.”
Princess Alastasia nodded meekly and left the room. Instead of going to the kitchen, she wandered through the corridors looking for her sister. It took her over half an hour to find Alahara and describe the conversation that she overheard.
“Who is the mage that the leader reported to?” asked Princess Alahara.
“Salfour,” answered Alastasia. “I had a session with him earlier today. He was not very enthusiastic about teaching me, but that is true of many of the mages here. What should we do now?”
“First we speak to Garl,” answered Alahara, “then we find Tamar. Garl knows the mages here better than we do. He will know what to do about Salfour. We must warn Tamar about the confrontation tomorrow. Many people will get hurt if the soldiers react the way that I think they will.”
“Let’s go,” urged Alastasia.
“What about Maraton’s soup?” asked Alahara.
“Let him get his own,” shrugged Alastasia as she headed for Garl’s office. “I am no servant.”
Alahara raced after Alastasia. When they reached Garl’s office, the old man was just entering it. They followed him through the door and closed it.
“This is hardly the proper way to enter the office of the Head Mage,” scolded Garl. “Even though you are relatives and princesses, here you are students, and you shall behave as such.”
“Today we are not students,” retorted Alahara. “Today we are spies. What can you tell us about Salfour?”
“Spies?” Garl asked as if he was surprised. “What do you mean?”
“Father explained it to us yesterday,” answered Alastasia. “I wish we had known sooner. We think Salfour is involved with the demonstrations.”
“And much more,” added Alahara. “He met with one of the boys who tried to kill us yesterday.”
“Kill you?” echoed Garl as concern etched into his voice. “How did they try to kill you?”
“With arrows on a trail outside the city,” replied Alahara. “That is not important right now. Alastasia recognized their voices and they were talking about the demonstration for tomorrow.”
“Then the leader went to visit Salfour,” nodded Alastasia. “What can you tell us about him?”
“He is mostly a loner,” frowned Garl as he moved to the chair behind his desk and sat down. “He has been at the Society for many years, yet he only speaks to one or two other mages.”
“Who would those one or two mages be?” asked Alahara.
“Let’s not be jumping in the pool before we know how deep it is,” warned Garl. “Just because this boy spoke to Salfour does not mean that Salfour is trying to overthrow the king. If you make unfounded accusations, no one will believe you when you do find the correct culprits.”
“We are not making accusations yet,” replied Alastasia, “but it would be helpful to narrow down the mages that we must spy on. Whom does Salfour talk to?”
“Levitor and Maraton,” answered Garl, “but I will not have you making any accusations against any of them without proof. If you do so, I will have you both expelled from the Society of Mages. Do I make myself clear?”
“Exceedingly clear,” frowned Princess Alahara. “I thought you were on our side? Why are you protecting them?”
“I am the Head Mage,” answered Garl, “and I take my responsibilities seriously. It is disturbing enough to think that any mage under my care would be involved in such a plot, but I demand proof before any public accusations are made. I will not see the reputation of the Society of Mages besmirched for anything less than the provable truth.”
“So how do we get this proof?” asked Princess Alahara. “We can’t just come out and ask them to confess.”
“What reason would there be for boys to be running around inside the Society building?” asked Princess Alastasia.
“Many of the mages have boys who do errands for them,” replied Garl. “It is quite a common practice.”
“Do you keep track of who they are?” asked Alahara.
“No,” answered Garl. “There has been no reason to.”
“What if something was stolen?” prompted Alahara. “Something valuable? What would you do?”
Garl’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Alahara. He sighed and shook his head.
“I would doubt that any of our members would resort to stealing,” answered Garl. “If something valuable was missing, I would ask the mages which servants they had into the building that day. Then I would investigate, but this is not a good plan.”
“Why not?” asked Alastasia. “We would learn the names of all of the boys who had been here today.”
“We might,” answered Garl, “but I suspect that if your suspicions are true, some of the mages would deny that anyone had been here today. One other result of this plan would be particularly nasty. Suspicion would immediately fall upon the six junior members. It might mean the end of the program.”
“Well,” frowned Alahara, “we must do something. Those boys are going to try to make the soldiers attack the protesters tomorrow. A lot of people are going to get hurt.”
“We must inform the army,” stated Garl. “They will know what to do.”
“We will take care of that,” Alastasia offered instantly. “Come on, Alahara. Let’s go.”
Princess Alahara looked quizzically at her sister, but she followed Alastasia, who hurried out of the office and out of the building.
“Hold on,” Alahara said as they reached the street. “Why are you rushing off? You dropped that conversation like a skillet with a red-hot handle. What is wrong with you?”
“What is wrong with me?” fumed Princess Alastasia. “Why were we wasting time talking to Garl? All he cares about is his precious Society of Mages. Never mind that mages are working to kill the entire Royal Family. Forget about citizens dieing in the street as the soldiers attack tomorrow. Dismiss everything as long as the Society of Mages’ reputation is left intact. How could you stand there talking to him any longer?”
“Wow,” Princess Alahara remarked with awe. “And I thought I was the one with the short temper. I have never seen you act this way. What is really bothering you?”
“I don’t know,” sighed Princess Alastasia as her eyes dampened. “This is just so frustrating. We should have killed those boys on the trail yesterday instead of trying to keep ourselves safe. Not only are they helping the mages to kill us, they are also going to get a lot of other people killed. I do not understand the elven way of dealing with problems. In the Sakova I would just have eliminated the threat.”
“You are going to go up against three of the mightiest mages in Elvangar by yourself?” asked Princess Alahara. “Think about what you are saying. We don’t even know for sure that Salfour and his associates are really involved in this. While the boy did go to his office, it is quite possible that Salfour merely uses the boy for errands and someone else is using him to provoke the riots. I am sorry, MistyTrail, but Garl is right on this. We need proof. Let’s talk to Tamar and see what he says.”
Princess Alastasia nodded silently, and Alahara led her away from the building. They headed towards the army offices to find Tamar. As they walked over the bridge that crossed the river running through the city, Alastasia gripped her sister’s arm tightly. Alahara stopped and turned to see what the problem was. She saw Princess Alastasia staring at three boys below the bridge on the banks of the river. The boys were gathering stones and putting them in small pouches.
“Those are the boys,” Alastasia whispered. “The tall one is the leader that visited Salfour today.”
“They are so brazen as to gather the stones in full daylight?” questioned Princess Alahara.
“Brazen?” shrugged Alastasia. “No one knows what is coming tomorrow except us. Who would find anything strange with boys gathering stones?”
“Let’s go talk to them,” suggested Alahara.
“Are you crazy?” asked Alastasia. “It is not like they will not recognize us.”