The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) (56 page)

“Are you serious? You’ve built a model of the castle?” Joan stood up and began gathering dishes. “Give us a minute to clear the table.”

 “It’s fairly accurate as of about ten years ago,” Tyree said while they were taking dishes out to Joan in the kitchen, “but I haven’t been back since then, and Badec may have changed some of it around.”

“How much could he have changed things like walls?” Darrell asked.

“You don’t really want an answer to that one, Darrell,” Chris said with a chuckle. “He’s the Master Sorcerer. If he wanted to get rid of a wall, BAM! It’s gone!”

“Oh, yeah,” Darrell said.

Tyree smiled. “Actually, it’s more likely that something may have been added.”

“Well, some idea is better than none, right?” Karl said.

“That’s sort of what we thought,” Steve said. “Besides, Badec probably hasn’t made a lot of changes in the past ten years.”

Once the dishes were done, they all gathered around Steve’s desk in his room to look at the model. Steve and Tyree had spent a lot of hours putting the model together. They had made each floor a separate unit and fixed them so that they could be stacked. Looking down on the model from above, it resembled a blocked “U” with a wide base.

Tyree pointed to the open area inside the “U”. “This courtyard is basically a big flower garden. There’s a stone roadway around the inside, but the only people who use it are visiting dignitaries. They’re the only ones who use the front entrance.” He pointed to an arched doorway with double doors had been drawn in on the middle of the base. “Everyone else uses one of the back entrances.”

“How do they reach them?” Darrell asked. “Is there some kind of driveway or something?”

Tyree nodded. “There’s another roadway that curves around the southern end of the castle between the kitchen area and the vegetable gardens. It goes to the stable area out back. There’s a river that loops around the back of the castle grounds, and there’s a small meadow on the other side of the river, between the river and the forest. They turn the horses out over there for grazing.”

“What’s on the other side of the forest?” Karl asked. “Farms?”

“There are a few, but mainly it’s mountains. The castle is at the foot of the chain.”

“So the back of the castle faces east?” Kevin asked.

Tyree nodded. “And the front faces west, towards Milhaven.”

“What are these?” Theresa asked, pointing to two boxes sitting on the front half of each of the two legs.

“Those are towers,” Tyree answered. “When the castle was first built, guards were stationed in them. Now the guards patrol the roof of the castle, but no one’s stationed in the towers themselves.”

“Is one of those towers where Freddy has his roost?” Chris asked.

Tyree pointed to the tower on the northern leg. “This is the one Freddy stays in. It’s over the sorcerer’s family’s living quarters.”

Then he took the towers and roof off of the model to show them the layout of the second floor. He pointed to the two-story entrance hall that blocked the second floor off into two distinct and separate areas. “You could put a hundred people in that hall and still have room left over. It’s so big that it echoes, and there are a couple of places where you can stand and hear every word spoken in there. Be sure you keep that in mind whenever you’re in that room.”

“Could come in handy,” Darrell said quietly.

Tyree nodded and said, “I’ve often wondered if it was designed that way.”

Then he pointed to the rooms on the northern side of the entrance hall. “This entire wing is the family quarters and is off limits to everyone else.” He pointed to the largest room. It was in the back corner of the building, with two outside walls. “This is the sorcerer’s room.” Then he pointed to a slightly smaller room that was located between the sorcerer’s room and the entrance hall. “This one belongs to his assistant or second. I’ve never been up there, but it seems like I heard that there’s a connecting door between them, and I know that both rooms open onto a balcony that runs the length of the two rooms.”

“And you said there was a river and mountains out back?” Joan asked. When Tyree nodded, she added, “Nice view.”

Then Tyree pointed to four smaller rooms that were located in the leg, “The rooms along here are for the sorcerer’s children. If Badec’s still alive when you reach Camden, Laryn will give you one of these.”

“But I thought all of the sorcerer’s children were sent to foster parents,” Kevin said, frowning.

Tyree smiled and said, “Only the ones born with magic in their blood are fostered, and that’s only until they reach their twenty-fifth birthday.”

Then he pointed to the rooms on the south side of the entrance hall. There were eight rooms about the same size as the children’s rooms on the family wing. “These rooms are for guests.”

“There are rooms for only eight guests?” Kevin asked. “I would have thought there’d be a lot more than that.”

“Those rooms are only for family and close friends, like your advisors. I’m sure you’ll want them to stay there, at least for a while.” He looked around at Steve and the rest of Kevin’s companions and then turned back towards Kevin. “Also, Badec and Laryn have several brothers and sisters, your aunts and uncles. They always stay in the guest quarters whenever they’re at the castle. And you’ll probably want to invite close friends to stay there whenever they come for a visit, but other than that, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’d let official visitors, such as district officers or dignitaries from other provinces, stay at one of the inns in town. After all, this is your home, and you should be able to relax there.”

Then Tyree lifted the second floor section of the castle off and placed it on Steve’s bed with the roof and towers. “This is the main floor, and again the entrance hall separates it into two sections.”

Tyree pointed to the southern side of the model and said, “The business of running the castle is handled on this side.” Then he pointed to northern section and said, “And Camden is run from over here.”

Kevin pointed to the northern side and said, “Let’s take this side first. Who works out of here?”

Tyree pointed to the large room on the front side of the main hall. “The Governor of Camden works out of this office. He has a private office on one side and his assistant mans the reception area on the other.”

“I thought the governor had his office in town,” Karl said.

“He does have an office at his house in town, but it makes things simpler if he does most of his work at the castle.”

“What about this one?” Chris asked, pointing to the largest room in the wing. It was on the back side of the castle and extended from the entrance hall all the way to the corner of the building.

“That’s the sorcerer’s office,” Tyree answered. Then he looked at Kevin and said, “How you arrange it is up to you. Nolan liked to have his desk in front of the door so that he dealt directly with any and all who entered his office, but Badec preferred to work undisturbed, so he partitioned off a small office in the back for himself and left the front section as a reception area. Laryn has her desk out there and handles that area.”

Then Tyree pointed to the wall that separated the sorcerer’s office from the entrance hall. “There’s a staircase here. We didn’t try to put it in the model, but it’s the only access to the family wing. The way the room is set up now, it’s behind Badec’s office. There’s a guard stationed at the foot of the stairs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Not many people would dare try to go up those stairs uninvited.”

“What about these offices over here? Who works there?” Kevin asked, pointing to some smaller rooms in the leg of the “U”.

“This office,” Tyree said, pointing to the one next to the Sorcerer’s office, “belongs to the Captain of the Guard. There’s always a guard on duty at a desk directly in front of that door, and if the door is open, which it always is, he has a clear view of the hall in front of your office, the Governor’s office and the doorway to the Entrance Hall. That hall is monitored twenty-four hours a day.”

Continuing down the leg, there were two more rooms, one on each side of the hall. Tyree pointed first to the one along the outer wall and said, “This was the provincial courtroom when I was there, and the other was the general’s office. Both of those rooms were divided into private offices and reception areas, but I’m not sure how they’re organized now.”

Kevin nodded.

Tyree moved over to the southern side of the model, which only contained four rooms: two small ones, and two huge ones. The small rooms were located next to the entrance hall, one on each side of a short hallway that led to the first large room. Tyree pointed to the small room that was on the back side of the castle and said, “This is the head groundskeeper’s office. There’s a door that leads from that office out to the stable area.”

“Convenient,” Karl said with a nod.

“The groundskeeper is in charge of the grounds, the gardens, the livestock, all the outside buildings, the walkways, the patios, and the driveways. Anything that’s connected with the outside is his responsibility.”

Tyree pointed to the small room on the front side of the castle. “The head of housekeeping works out of here. She assigns duties to all the housekeeping staff, makes sure the kitchen staff has enough groceries for however many people are at the castle, handles all the storerooms, arranges for the clothes to be made for the sorcerer’s family as well as all the servants, sets up repairs, directs preparations for any of the special feasts or social events, and tends to anything else that comes up that involves either the castle or the people staying there.”

“Quite a job,” Joan said quietly.

Tyree nodded. “Just about anything that deals with the castle, its grounds, or its people is handled out of those two rooms.”

Then he moved on to the large room that filled the rest of that side of the base of the “U”. “This is the dining room, but most of the time it’s set up as a combination dining room and sitting room. There’s usually one large table that seats about twenty people, and the rest of the room has couches and easy chairs scattered about. If you have more than twenty people invited for dinner, some of the sitting room furniture is removed and extra dining tables and chairs are brought in. You can seat a couple of hundred people in there if you have to but if you need to feed more than that, tables of food are set up out on the grounds.”

“Does that happen often?” Kevin asked.

“No. I only remember four times that the crowd was large enough to set tables up outside. The first time was when your parents got married, the second was for Nolan’s funeral, the third was for your birth, and the fourth time was for Yvonne’s funeral.”

“Big social gatherings are not exactly my cup of tea,” Kevin said, frowning.

“You won’t have to worry about it. The housekeeping staff will take care of everything. The only thing you have to do is approve their plans, and if I were you, I’d go along with whatever they want to do. They know what they’re doing, and if anything should come up that they don’t already know how to handle, they’ll make it up as they go. After all, who’s going to tell the Master Sorcerer’s staff that they’re doing it wrong?” Tyree said with a grin.

“Is this other big room the kitchen?” Joan asked.

“Yes, but most of the time, they only use a small section of it,” Tyree answered.

Then he lifted the ground floor off and set it on Steve’s bed. The basement area consisted mainly of a series of small rooms on each side of a hall that extended the length of the main building and down one leg of the “U”. The other leg was one large room.

“Most of the rooms in the basement are servant’s quarters. I’m not sure how many rooms there are, but when I was there, two of the small rooms were used for general supplies, the large room was for furniture and kitchen supplies, and the rest of the rooms were used by servants. Once in a while, a married couple with children might stay at the castle until they can get their own place, so a few of the rooms are set up as two adjoining rooms, one for the parents, one for the children.

“Are they servants, or are they slaves?” Darrell asked.

“Most were brought to the castle as slaves, but both Nolan and Badec always freed them as soon as they arrived and gave them the option of striking out on their own as free citizens of Camden, or remaining and working at the castle. The ones who work at the castle are there by choice.”

Kevin nodded. “That’s one tradition that won’t change. Now, I have a question. The sorcerer has an office, and his assistant has an office. What type of business do they handle?”

“First of all, you’re responsible for supervising the district sorcerers and handling any complaints that come in against them.”

“What kind of complaints? Incompetence?” Chris asked.

“Yes, and ethical complaints.”

“Ethical complaints?” Kevin asked.

Tyree nodded. “Suppose a sorcerer’s contract includes clearing farm lands in his district. The district is paying him to do it, so he shouldn’t charge any of the farmers extra when they ask for his help, and he also shouldn’t do a lousy job just because the farmer didn’t offer him something under the table. Or maybe the sorcerer figures that he’s entitled to the best of the crop since he helped clear the land, so after the farmer gets his harvest in, the sorcerer literally lifts what he wants. Most of the complaints will be that type of thing, but sometimes it’s a little more serious. Once in a while you might have a sorcerer who’s extorting money by threatening to harm someone or something. But no matter what the complaint’s about, you’ll have to investigate it and try to work out an agreeable settlement. Right now, with Badec out of commission, I imagine a few of the district sorcerers are taking advantage of the situation. You’ll probably find a few letters waiting for you.”

“And what happens if an agreeable settlement can’t be reached?” Kevin asked.

“Then it’s up to you to remove the sorcerer from that district. Most of the time, they’ll leave rather than challenge you, but every once in a while …” Tyree shook his head slowly. When Kevin nodded, he continued, “And if for some reason a vacancy opens up in one of the districts, the district minister will ask you to interview the applicants and assist in selecting a new sorcerer. On one hand, it’s like a professional courtesy. On the other hand, it’s politics. Since you’ll be responsible for supervising the sorcerer and tending to any complaints that the minister or captain lodge against him, you can’t blame them for making a bad choice if you had a part in the decision.”