Chapter Thirteen
Sitting with the mages, Justin wondered if he should try to find out if they intentionally tried to summon him or if it happened by accident. If they did it by accident, then his entire story for why he was here would be exposed. But if they had intentionally summoned him, then they needed to know that their magic worked.
Another thought occurred to him that had not before. What if the mages had nothing to do with him being there? If he told them where he came from, and they said they hadn't summoned him, whether by accident or on purpose, where would that leave him? Would the king find out about his deception and throw him out of the castle, or worse, put him in the dungeon? Would Maggie get in trouble for participating in the lie?
Looking at each of the mages through his lashes, he wondered if he could trust them with the truth. If he felt at any time that he could trust them, how would he know when the right time was to bring it up?
The first thing he would need to discover was whether or not that type of magic was actually possible, period. Maybe he could subtly ask a few questions to see if they gave the answer away.
All of these thoughts were pushed to the side when Art pulled out a stack of paper from a book that had been on the table, and he passed a sheet out to the other mages and Justin.
"Now we need to discuss what the king has had us working on for the last year. Justin, your parchment lists our tasks and goals to help us develop a solution to the problem. If you look, you can see that we have each been given several mythical creatures a piece to work on."
Justin wasn't sure if he needed to raise his hand in order to ask a question, but there was something fairly important that he needed to know in order to be useful to the king and mages. He decided to ask, and if there was a protocol in all this, he would figure it out later.
"Do the creatures listed here represent the total number of creatures that are causing problems?" Another question came to him as he spoke, so he figured he should go ahead and ask that one as well. "And are some of the creatures more distributive than others?"
While he spoke, he reached for his paper so he could write down the questions he asked as well as whatever response the mages would give. Art could tell that Justin was serious about this project, and he smiled at Justin in encouragement.
"There are many magical creatures that have caused us little to no problems. They tend to be the ones that govern the smaller magics, and they are not overly rambunctious by nature."
It was at that moment that Justin realized he had a major problem. As a citizen of Aldervaile, he would be expected to know that certain animals controlled certain magic. He would have had no idea about that if Art hadn't just said it. He knew he had to tell the mages the truth if he was going to be of any help to them.
Justin spent an extra-long minute writing down useless notes to give himself time to come up with a way to broach the subject. His hands began to sweat under the strain, and he wiped them on his pants. When he did, his hand felt the D20 dice in his pocket, and his mind grabbed a hold of an idea like a lifeline.
Pulling the dice out of his pocket, he laid it slowly on the table in front of the mages and looked at them to see if they recognized it. All 4 mages raised their eyebrows in unison and shot glances at each other. Justin wasn't sure whether that was a good sign, but it was better than them staring at him as though he were crazy.
"Where did you get that?" Cora's voice remained low and melodious even though there was surprise on her face. Justin didn't miss the fact that she didn't ask, "What is that?" That, at least, implied she knew what it was.
Justin felt like his shirt was suddenly too tight around his throat. He pulled against it and tried to formulate what he wanted to say clearly in his head before he spoke.
"It was embedded in a book that I found in a bookstore…" He knew he had to say the rest of it, and he had to say it now or he never would. "The bookstore is in the world that I come from."
Oaklie immediately slammed his hand against the table, causing the D20 dice to roll into Justin's lap. "I knew it! I knew that summoning spell worked. Didn't I tell you that it worked, Philip?" Philip gave a begrudging nod to Oaklie and crossed his arms over his chest.
Art's voice came out barely above a whisper as he reassessed Justin. "It appears you were right, Oak." Running his fingers through his short hair, Justin didn't see a single bit of it out of place once he put his hand back on the table. Justin was almost certain that magic was being used to alter their appearance.
Looking across the table at Justin, Art kept his eyes locked on Justin's. "Well, this changes things. We have to go about this from a completely different angle. First, we need to explain to you why we summoned you and what that summons entails. You were not chosen by accident, young man. Now that we know the spell worked, we may indeed be on the right track to finding a solution for the king." His eyes grew brighter and brighter with each word that he spoke, as though he was in the middle of realizing that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Justin felt humbled and scared as he realized that these people of great power were putting so much emphasis on his help. He had never had anyone need him more than these people did, and he wasn't sure he was up for the task.
Cora looked Justin over with a new interest and leaned forward on her elbows as though drinking him in with her eyes. "I would be very interested to know what your world is like, Master White."
Justin shook his head. "Please, call me Justin. I will be happy to tell you everything I can. But I must ask you, unless the king knows about this spell, can we keep where I am from between Princess Magdalin and us?"
Once again, all 4 of the mages looked at Justin in surprise. "The princess knows that you are from another world?"
Justin fidgeted with the dice as he worked out the best way to explain what had happened in the last 24 hours. "I woke up in the field on the edge of the royal property, and Maggie, I mean Magdalin, found me as I woke up. She told me about the situation with the magical creatures and told me I could stay at her home. I thought someone might have used the book to summon me here to help solve the issues with the magical creatures, since it is a specialty of mine, and by the time we talked to the king, we had a cover story for why I was here. I couldn't tell him I had been summoned because I wasn't sure I had been.