Cari and the Conqueror

By Robert Collins

Cari is a thief tempted to break into a wizard's house. But instead of treasure she hears the wizard tell a tale of magical airships and an evil emperor. His tale turns out to be true, launching Cari into a tale of her own with battles, witches, daring escapes, and a pretty Princess.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Collins
• Release date: Feb 5, 2025
• ISBN: 9798230298908

Robert Collins

Robert Collins is the author of the science-fiction novels "Monitor," "Lisa's Way," and "Expert Assistance." He's also author of the fantasy novels "Cassia" and "The Opposite of Absolute," and the young adult novel "True Friends." He has several short-story collections available, including "The Frigate Victory Omnibus Collection" and "The Case Files of Gwen Conner."

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

A WIZARD’S TALE

Cari looked at the outline of the house from across the street. She told herself that it didn’t seem that impressive. She was lying to herself, but a part of her knew she had to lie to continue through with the effort.

Over half the night was gone as she looked at the house. She waited that long to approach it because, from what little she knew of the trade, it was always better to wait than to attempt to get in early in the night.

She didn’t have that much experience as a thief. She’d lived her life in Eastford as a girl of the streets. She knew how to swipe food and snatch the odd coin purse. Of late she’d snuck into a couple of homes of rich folk and stolen coins and jewelry. It seemed reasonable to undertake such thefts, as she’d come to womanhood a couple of years ago. The task ahead of her was something she’d never tried before. It was something no one in the city had tried before.

She was going to break into a wizard’s house.

She could have chosen not to make the attempt, of course. But Eastford was becoming a hard place for her to remain in. It had nothing to do with the petty thefts of her youth or the recent break-ins. Though she was on the slender side of average when it came to her build, and average in height, she somehow managed to have a reasonably attractive face.

When she cleaned herself up, that is.

Some of the rougher men of the city had suggested, using the crudest words they could, that she ought to earn a living in one of the city’s brothels. An owner of one of those brothels had even given her an offer.

That sort of work wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life. She’d yet to feel any attraction to men and she wondered if she ever would. By living on the streets she knew that not all the whores in the brothels could call on wizards and witches if they got pregnant. Unless you got into the best brothel in the city, your life was going to be tough. Worst of all, when your looks faded, you’d be unable to find other work.

She feared she was running out of reasons to say no and allies who would keep men away from her. If she could pull off one big theft, she’d have enough coins to flee Eastford and go to another city somewhere in the kingdom.

This was why she was surveying the home of Aldwin the mage in the dark of night.

Not that this was her first survey of the exterior. She wasn’t a fool. The past couple of days she’d looked it over from the street. She’d been able to walk behind it. She found a few places where she was sure she could get in.

Getting out was going to be the trouble, but she decided to take on that when it came up.

The house was an odd one, even in the dark of the night. Like the houses of families of great means, it had a ground floor and an upper floor. It was built of stone, with a wooden roof and wood trim around the windows and doors. That was not unusual. What was unusual was that it had an addition built onto the back of the house. It was as tall as a cottage but only half as large. It had no doors and only a single window. She guessed that it was built to cover the back door that probably existed when the house was first built.

She didn’t know for certain, but her best guest was that the addition was some sort of working space for the wizard. It probably contained ingredients for potions, books of spells, and perhaps an enchanted object or two. She felt it was also the most likely room to have some sort of magical trap, on the window, inside the room, or both. That meant it would be the room she’d avoid.

She decided to stop looking and make her attempt. She thought that if she continued to look, her lies to herself would fail, she’d give up, and have to work on her back in bed.

In looking around the house during the day, she determined that getting in through one of the windows on the ground floor wouldn’t be smart. Other large homes she’d surveyed or been to tended to divide up the ground floor into a cooking and dining area, a water closet, and a reception space leading to the stairway. Because there was little of value, the windows of those rooms tended to have weak latches or none at all.

Peeking through the windows of Aldwin’s house, it seemed that his house did have the cooking and dining space and the stairway, but there was also a short hallway that led to the addition. As someone might want to get at the tools and creations of his magical trade, she believed that the windows on the ground floor would likely be latched, and might have magical traps cast upon them as well.

She felt that the upper floor windows would be the best way to get inside the house. Aldwin wasn’t married and he had no servants. He probably just used his bedchambers and the upstairs water closet. The rest of the upstairs rooms were likely vacant. As long as she could get a window to one of those rooms open, she could get inside.

The only thing she took with her, aside from her knife, was a length of rope with a large metal fishing hook at one end. She decided to toss up the rope, attempt to get the hook onto the chimney, and climb up to the roof.

That part of her plan went off without trouble. She climbed up the rope quickly but still quietly. Her soft boots made a slight scraping noise once she was on the roof, but it didn’t appear to alert the wizard inside the home. All the same, once she was on the roof she moved slowly to the back to get down to a window.

After all, it wouldn’t do to be seen trying to get inside if a pair of soldiers on patrol happened down the street.

It was when she came down alongside a window that she wondered if she shouldn’t have done a night survey of the house. She realized she had no notion of which upstairs room might be empty and which might be Aldwin’s chambers. She could just barely see curtains over the window she was next to. She decided to take a chance, attempt to open the window, and look.

The latch was easy to overcome. The window lifted easily from the outside. She pushed aside the curtains and looked into the room.

The room was empty of everything past the curtains. There was no bed, no wardrobe or clothes chest, no chairs, nothing. She wondered if Aldwin was so determined to live as an unmarried or unattached wizard that he’d sold off all the furniture he didn’t need.

She gave up on such pondering in an instant. She got the window open just enough for her to get into the room. She was pleased that she barely made a sound getting through and getting her feet on the floor.

At that point she noticed her next difficulty. She didn’t know where the man might be keeping this treasure he was supposed to have found.

The tale had been going around the city for a handful of days that Aldwin had come back from the east. He’d not only gone to the Gray Mountains, but had gone past them. He’d been in a couple of meetings with the Baron of Eastford. The Baron was said to have some new wealth in the treasury. A couple of merchants had gone to Aldwin’s home to look over objects he had.

The view throughout the city was that the wizard had made some sort of discovery. Word among those Cari knew was that he’d come across some sort of treasure. But no one she’d listened in on wanted to take the chance of breaking into a wizard’s home to steal treasure.

She determined that she would do so. She’d get what she could in terms of items of value and coins, flee Eastford, and see if she could either make a better life for herself or practice the trade she’d grown up doing in safety.

Before she could do any of that, she needed to determine where the man kept the treasure. That meant getting out of the room. She thought that she could test the doors on the upper floor to see if any were locked. She was sure the wizard’s own chambers were locked, and there was a chance that he was keeping the treasure there. Yet doing so, she reasoned, would make a nastier thief willing to kill to get to it. He would presume a more bloody criminal than a less bloody, so he was more likely to keep it away from him.

She also noted there was a chance the treasure was in his magical workshop. She told herself she shouldn’t face that worry until she’d conducted a search of the rooms on the upper floor of the house.

She went to the door of the room she’d entered. The door was locked, but it was locked from the inside. Seeing the lock suggested to her what the other locks on the doors would be. She took out her tools, eased open the lock, and went into the corridor.

To her right were two doors on each side of the corridor, and a door at the end of the corridor leading to the master chambers. To her left were two more doors to either side, a door facing her, and the stairway leading down to the ground floor. She stepped to the door facing her. She grasped the doorknob and gently turned it. The door wasn’t locked. An instant later she saw why, as it was the door to the water closet.

She chose to turn to her left. She went to one door, unlocked it, and looked into the room. It was empty. She went to the door across from it. That room was also empty. She went to one of the rooms close to the master bedchamber. It had nothing in it, as did the room across from it.

Rather than face the wizard, she decided to go down the stairs and check the rooms on the ground floor. Of course there were no chests under the furniture in the main room. That left the workshop.

She was surprised to find the door wasn’t locked. Following that was disappointment that there was no treasure in the room. There might be things worth stealing, such jars of this and that, books, implements, and other odds and ends. But there were no jewels or jewelry, no coins or pieces of gold or silver, no artifacts, nothing that looked like it had been taken from ruins or looted from a distant land.

That left the man’s bedchamber. She sighed and headed back up the stairs. She walked cautiously to the door at the end of the corridor. She tried the lock and was able to unlock the door. She put her hand on the hilt of her knife, and with her other hand she pushed the door open.

She had just set one foot into the room when a strange sensation came over her. It was as if time stopped. She couldn’t move, but she didn’t feel as if her body was encased in ice. She couldn’t go forward and she couldn’t go backward.

An instant later a red light appeared over her head. She wasn’t certain what to do, and as she couldn’t move, she didn’t know what to do. Though not a spiritual woman, she suddenly began to pray to all the Gods for divine intervention.

While she prayed she observed how plain the room was. There was a four-post bed to her left and a wardrobe to her right. In front of her were two windows with curtains over them. Between the windows was a thin and narrow writing table and a simple chair pushed against it. Yet there were no rugs on the floor and no finery on the walls. There were no bedside tables or any other trappings of wealth. That felt wrong to her, as Aldwin was known as a well-traveled and successful wizard.

She could certainly admit to his success. She was caught like a fly in a spider’s web purely through magic.

A few moments after the light came alive she glimpsed movement from the bed. A figure rose from it. That figure said a word or two she couldn’t understand. A white light appeared over his head. He rose from the bed and looked her way. It was then that she got a look at Aldwin the wizard.

He was of average height and build for a man. He had dark hair and something of a worn face. He wore a plain blue nightshirt. He moved with purpose towards her. He wasn’t handsome, but age hadn’t made him ugly.

He walked to a few steps from where she was frozen. He spoke a number of strange words. The red light vanished. She found after a moment she could move her head and torso, but not her hands or her feet. Then the light went from above his head to in front of her whole body.

You dress as a man, he said, his voice raspy but strong, yet I can tell you’re a woman.

Do your worst, wizard, she snapped.

Haven’t I done that already by trapping you? He gave her a small smile.

Is that your worst?

It could be.

His tone sapped some of the anger from her. Just give me a little of your treasure, and I won’t tell anyone how I got in.

How did you get in?

Why should I tell you?

Well, I was rather hoping that one of the men who engage in theft would have dared attempt to rob me, not some girl.

I’m a woman, not a girl!

I suppose that’s something.