The White Robe Read Online Free Page B

father who he’d served loyally for a dozen years or more.
     
    He pulled the rest of his torn shirt from his arms and tore it into three ragged strips, wrapping two of them around his wrists to soak up the blood. The other one he used to wipe out the last of the dampness from the water bowl and dabbed the bloody cut on his cheek with it. “One last chance,” he muttered to himself as he lay down on the dirt floor, rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.
     
    It was the small square of light shining in his eyes from the grill high up in the wall that woke him up; that and the sound of activity outside his cell door. He sat up and groaned at the pain in his back and the stiffness in his shoulders. In his sleep he’d accepted the goddess’s healing but not too much; it wouldn’t do to be completely healed when he was taken before the Prince again. Should Newn recognize him before he was ready to reveal himself then he could be in real difficulty. He checked his disguise in the square of light and chuckled to himself; ragged, bloody and dirty with three day’s growth of beard, made any other disguise unnecessary.
     
    When his prison door opened he was still chuckling to himself but neither of the burly guards seemed to be amused by him or his stink as they pulled him to his feet and dragged him out of his cell. He stumbled in the bright sunlight and would have fallen if the two guards hadn’t had such a bruising grip on his arms. They marched him across the courtyard to where Prince Newn stood by a brazier warming his hands. When he and his escort came to a halt the Prince looked up and stared him in the eye. He shuddered, not just at the chill of the cold morning air on his bare chest, but the vicious glint in the Prince’s eyes. It reminded him of a beast just about to rip apart its defenseless prey.
     
    “Well, old man, has a night spent in your own blood and filth jogged your memory of where you have hidden the rest of the gold and jewels you brought with you from Sandstrone?”
     
    “Your Highness, please believe me I have no more gold and jewels, just the gift I have offered you. Please accept the bronze and silver tree and let me return to my home and family.”
     
    “You lie. The Rale wouldn’t send me such a paltry gift as that.” The prince nodded to the guard next to him who handed him a thick gauntlet like the ones used by nobles to protect their hands from the talon’s of sky hunters. He pulled it on and flexed his fingers. “Hold him.” The Prince took hold of an iron rod which had been heating in the coals of the brazier and pulled it out of the fire. The tip glowed a menacing red. “Let’s see if this helps you to remember.”
     
    “Enough!”
     
    The prisoner clenched his fists at his sides and the two guards staggered back as if they had been hit in the jaw. He raised his hands and took a step forward focusing his power into the iron rod in the Prince’s hand. Instantly the red from the tip glowed brighter and spread along the rod and into the Prince’s gauntleted hand. The Prince screamed and dropped the burning metal, clutching the smoldering glove to his chest. He stared in disbelief as the figure before him shimmered and changed from the ragged, tortured merchant to the magician in his pristine white robes who he remembered from his childhood. “You!” screamed the Prince in anger. “Guards, take him! Kill him!”
     
    Callabris took another step forward and the Prince retreated whilst around him his guards blinked in confusion and started to wander aimlessly towards their barracks. Callabris waited for them to leave until there was only him and the Prince in the courtyard. The sound of breakfast being prepared in the kitchen became muffled and then ceased and the fire in the brazier flickered out, the glowing coals turning to ashes. Even the early morning sky singers above them ceased to call as the sky dimmed.
     
    Prince Newn, visibly shaken and still clutching his singed