Sir Henri Gaubert was the greatest scientist in Rohesia – and probably all the kingdoms, if he were to be quite honest with himself – and people questioning his judgement always annoyed him.
“If you would just listen, Sir Gaubert…”
“I’ve listened, and I’ve made my decision,” the great scientist informed his apprentice for the fifth time. He had an excellent memory, and he could recall with clarity the four other conversations in which he’d emphatically said no. “You’re not suited to that sort of research. It’s fanatical nonsense. I won’t throw away any more coin just so you can chase a child’s dream.”
“It’s not nonsense,” Balzer protested. “I know I can do this. My latest research shows…”
“Latest research?” Sir Henri Gaubert froze his apprentice with an unwavering stare. Never before had the walls of his esteemed office heard such blatant rebellion. “Do you mean to tell me you’re deliberately ignoring the great work I’ve assigned you to pursue this magical drivel?”
Balzer, at least, had the decency to turn red. “No, no, Sir Gaubert. Of course, I haven’t neglected my other studies.”
Sir Gaubert doubted that. “Then tell me what your latest research shows on harnessing the power of the sun.”
As expected, Balzer sputtered a great deal and had no satisfactory answers for the great scientist.
“Appalling,” Gaubert sneered. “I should’ve known the little miller would fail me. My trust and gold must be earned, and you’ve won yourself neither.”
Balzer’s face paled at his words. “What are you saying?”
“You’re dismissed,” Gaubert said roughly. “You will no longer align yourself with me as my apprentice. You will leave my house this day and never again receive monetary assistance in my name. I never want to see your pathetic face again.”
He pointed to the door. Normally, he would have rung for the butler to show the apprentice out, but Balzer’s incompetence had lost him such favors. The fool could see himself out. He was a distraction now, and Gaubert couldn’t afford any more distractions.
Rohesia had awarded Sir Gaubert richly for the years of his scientific work, but there was a reason Gaubert made himself difficult to find, why his estate remained hidden from the public eye and held a fully-armed troop of loyal guards. Too many men were amateurs like Balzer, who wanted nothing more than to waste the great scientist’s time and gold to promote their own schemes. Gaubert had neither time nor gold for lesser men’s ideas. His own work was too important to waste time on distractions.
But Balzer wouldn’t be dismissed that easily. “Don’t you know how much my research means to me? You can’t send me away!”
“You wouldn’t say that,” Gaubert said simply, “if you knew how much my research means to me. Do you expect me to rest when there is a prince out there who knows more about the workings of the sun than I do?”
The Crown Prince’s solar-powered rose gnawed at him in more ways than one. Dmitri didn’t fully understand the extent of his little success, the things that could be accomplished if man controlled the light of the sun, the glory associated with such power. But, since Gaubert’s introduction to Dmitri’s rose, the prince had denied every request to examine it further. Dmitri was a small prince – and made smaller by the insufficient workings of his own mind.
Balzer was just as small a man as Dmitri.
Gaubert narrowed his eyes. “Out.”
Balzer only proved himself more of a nuisance by throwing himself on his knees. His pleas fell on deaf ears, and Gaubert growled as he leaped for the butler’s bell.
In the end, it took the butler and two guards to throw Balzer out the front door.
“You’ll be sorry!” he hissed at Gaubert, picking himself up in a rage off the cobblestone drive. “When my name is renowned across the kingdoms, you’ll regret kicking me away. You’re wasting your time with that rose, and you’ll come crawling to me when your work comes to nothing.”
“We’ll see about that.” Gaubert spun to return to his familiar and peaceful office. That worm is a humiliation to the name of science. What bliss there was in ridding himself of such vermin.
“You’ll never do it, Gaubert!” Balzer screeched suddenly. “You’ll never crack the secrets of the sun. Not without me. That prince will forever and always be greater than you.”
Gaubert spun on his heel, another growl in his throat. “What do you know of it? Absolutely nothing! Your aspirations are drivel compared to mine. My work is the labor of the century.”
“At least I do my own work,” Balzer retorted, looking far too confident for a man who’d just lost everything. “I know what I’m about, and I don’t have to hire intellect greater than me to research for me. You’re nothing but a fraud!”
“You dare to speak to me like that?” Gaubert yelled. Not only was his butler still standing listening to every word, but the two guards looked far too interested to forget the conversation anytime soon. Gaubert, the great scientist, not do his own work? The audacity! “I am your superior in every way, and I will not tolerate such opinions. Get out! Get out before I call the dogs.”
The threat of the dogs shook Balzer enough that he retreated a few steps. But not fast enough for Gaubert’s liking.
“Get out!” he bellowed again.
The two guards put their hands to their swords, and Balzer fled.
Still fuming, Gaubert turned to his guards. “Makes sure he leaves. If he tries to return, use whatever means necessary to ensure he doesn’t come back a second time.”
The guards silently followed the retreating form of Balzer, and Gaubert took himself back inside. He wouldn’t waste any more thoughts on that miserable man. The other two scientists under his employ, Kaspar and Melchior, were valuable enough. Balzer was wrong. They would discover the secrets of the sun and harness its power without him.
Besides, Balzer was poorer than a hermit. After he’d lost his mill all those years ago, he’d relied on Gaubert’s gold and influence to support him. The scientific failure had nothing to fall back on.
Meaning, he was as good as dead to Gaubert.
~*~
When Seth Stendahl directed his horse down the familiar path to his childhood home, a swarm of unexpected emotions settled upon him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go home; his mother, of course, would be thrilled to see him and consequently spoil him. And he couldn’t wait to get back into his familiar haunts, particularly his beloved workshop. There was still plenty to keep him busy at work, and he was eager to get his hands into his alchemy again. His sisters were the wild card – if any of them were actually home now. Some might be happy to see him, while others might be temperamental or put thistles in his bed. One never could tell with sisters, and poor Seth was blessed with six of them.
But going home was just a reminder of how he’d failed in his journeys. He was arriving back with not much to show for his time and effort on the road.
Well, failed scientifically, he reminded himself. In the category of making friends and having unforgettable adventures, he’d scored marvelously. There were definitely new friends that he knew he’d never forget.
But the great Sir Henri Gaubert, the Rohesian scientist with whom he’d hoped to pursue further training, was nowhere to be found. Seth had traveled for almost five years through every part of Rohesia, most of his native Trothen, and even parts of Ebbenhout and the northern kingdoms looking for any sign of the scientist. Everywhere he’d gone, he seemed to have missed meeting Sir Gaubert by mere days or hours. No one even seemed to know where he lives.
That failure was grating.
Seth adjusted himself in Dearie’s saddle, wincing. Traveling by horseback was still not his favorite means of getting around, but he had to stay in the saddle if he wanted to go anywhere at all. And his hometown of Halsterre was definitely somewhere worth going.
Should he nudge Dearie to go faster? No, anything more might be more painful than what I’m already experiencing. It wasn’t poor Dearie’s fault that riding was so uncomfortable. The farmer who had sold him Dearie a year ago had promised the best from her, and she had delivered all that and more. No, riding itself was just an uncomfortable bother.
A sudden flurry of barking and growling overpowered any thoughts of home, and Seth yanked Dearie to a stop as three large dogs bounded onto the road in front of them.
“Steady, steady,” he said, though he wasn’t sure if the words were more for his horse or for himself.
Tense and looking ready to spring at his throat at any moment, the dogs effectively blocked Seth’s path. Should I try to go back? No – they’d be sure to chase him down if he retreated. And poor Dearie was tired enough that she’d never outrun the dogs. Certainly not ones this large and fierce. They’d tear her apart before she’d even gained the main road.
Seth was just beginning to feel the sweat trickling down his brow when a whistle echoed over the lane. The dogs obeyed immediately, their growls disappearing, and their stances shifting into a more friendly position.
“Well, well, my beauties, what did you wrangle up today?”
Seth loosed a growl of his own. I should have known. “Bianka, what in the name of the blessed tongue are you about?”
His second eldest sister stepped out of the brush with a grin on her face. “Welcome home, little brother.”
“Setting your horrible dogs on me isn’t exactly my idea of welcoming.”
She frowned. “Don’t say that about my beauties.”
Dearie flicked her tail at a fly, and one of the beasts on the road snarled. Dearie skipped backwards in a sudden panic, and Seth fought to still her once more.
Bianka smiled at the dog. “Good job, Muttonchops.”
Seth wrinkled his nose. “Muttonchops? What kind of name is that?”
Her eyebrows rose. “You’re hardly in a position to judge names, when Dalvira told us all that you called a girl Rapunzel.”
“It was because I didn’t know her real name!” He’d had to call his rescuer something, and the nickname had made her smile. It made him smile now to recall it.
Bianka flicked a nonchalant hand in his direction. “Whatever. Mother and Fanella are much more interested in interrogating you on this Emerald character anyway…”
“Diamond,” he corrected. “Are you going to let me get home?”
She sighed and looked longingly at her dogs. “Poor things have seen so little action in the last few weeks; it’s almost a shame to call them off. They could make such short work of your horse.”
“Bianka!” Seth hissed. She wouldn’t, would she? Bianka was more difficult to predict than most of his sisters.
“Alright, fine,” she said. “You needn’t worry.” She whistled again, and the dogs obediently answered her call, flocking to her side as if looking for a treat for a job well done.
Seth’s hands hesitated on the reins. “How many are home?”
Bianka grinned, knowing exactly what he meant. “Just four. Allita’s touring for a fencing competition right now, and Editha’s off for the month.”
“Doing what?”
Bianka shrugged. She either didn’t know or didn’t care to share.
Four sisters. Seth sighed. Well, at least his mother would be there to keep things calm in the house. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust or get along with his sisters; it was just that girls were so difficult to understand. A brother tended to live longer if he didn’t mess in his sisters’ business. He nudged Dearie into a slow walk, giving the dogs plenty of berth.
Once he was in view of the house, Michaela Stendahl came flying out to welcome her son home. “By the blessed tongue, you’re back! Safe and sound! What took you so long?”
Seth had barely gotten off of Dearie’s back before she strangled him in a tight hug.
“Oh, I don’t know if I could ever let you go for so long again! Have you been sleeping enough? Eating enough? You know, Seth, honey, you look too skinny.” She pinched his arm affectionately and then stepped back to examine him at arm’s length. Her head barely came to his shoulder, but she still had a commanding presence about her. “Well, you’re decent, I suppose, but you certainly need some spoiling and fattening up.”
“Seth! You’re home!” A red-headed woman leaped out of the front door and sprinted at him.
“Hello…” Seth managed to say before his sister collided with him and knocked the air clear out of his lungs. “… Fanella,” he finished with a croak.
No other sisters came leaping out at him from the house, but Seth wasn’t surprised. Cyndia and Dalvira would probably choose to greet him later in their own manner.
Michaela and Fanella plied him with questions about his journey as they pulled him into the house. When Seth tried to break away to tend to Dearie, his mother shushed him.
“Cyndia will see to your horse. Now, come with me. I have a surprise for you.”
Seth shot Fanella a look, but she shrugged unhelpfully in response. Surprises from their mother ranged from the traditional, welcome-home meat and potato pie to a new pet in the form of a baby vulture. Nothing was off the table when it came to Michaela’s surprises.
~*~
Eager to read more? Pick up your copy of A Bit of Gold today at an Amazon near you!
A Synesthete Writer 