Shapers of Worlds Volume II

Letters from an Imprisoned Wizard to a Young Queen, and Associated Explicatory Correspondence-1

Letters from an Imprisoned Wizard to a Young Queen, and Associated Explicatory Correspondence

By Garth Nix

From the Wizard Zachariah Zelznibone

to Her Majesty the Queen

Your Majesty:

I write to proclaim my joy at Your Majesty’s ascension to the throne, so long hoped for, and so welcome. I dare to hope that Your Majesty may recall the small services I was able to do for Your Majesty as a very young princess in years not so long gone by, in the matter of illusions and the like for the celebrations of your seventh, eighth, and ninth birthdays and construction of the clockwork monkey whom you named Rollo.

I wish to apprise Your Majesty of my situation, given I do not believe Your Majesty or in fact anyone at court is aware of my predicament or the circumstances of my removal and imprisonment, under the seal of Your Majesty’s late aunt and predecessor, but I believe in fact at the direction of Your Majesty’s older cousin, Angelika Raustem, who was then the Gatewarden of the Inner Castle. I know not what she may be now, though I devoutly hope she currently inhabits a cell far more vile than my own.

It is only the belated news of Your Majesty’s coronation and the understanding that I was once honoured to be one of Your Majesty’s first tutors as a royal child that has cowed my guards to the extent of allowing me pen and paper and, I trust and hope, the chance my correspondence will be carried to the palace. For I do not truly know if Abel, as I call the entity I have summoned to carry it, will, in fact, do as I have commanded or simply eat it. These denizens of the deep realms are over-fond of paper.

I do not know in which prison I am held so that Your Majesty may find me, but I am fairly sure there is a significant moat here, or perhaps a lake. I hear the water lapping at the wall beyond my cell, but lacking windows of any kind, I do not know exactly what makes this sound.

I wander far from the point, for which I offer a copious apology. I beseech Your Majesty to order my release, and remain your most humble and obedient servant,

Zachariah Zelznibone

From Captain of the Guard David Tzikes

to the Keeper of the Green Cabinet, Wizard Suzanne Palindros, enclosing a suspect missive

My dear Suzanne,

I trust you are well, and your familiar, Wildebjorn, likewise. I write to request your assistance with the matter of an unusual letter to Her Majesty, which I have enclosed. It arrived by odd means; to wit, it was tied to the back of a white rat with a black satin ribbon. The rat sat up before the guards at the Rose Garden gate and ran away when the letter was taken, and the ribbon fell into dust. I had the boy Willem write a fair copy for Her Majesty (as you know, she insists on seeing everything), and he appears to have suffered no ill-wishing, and I could feel no curse or magic in the letter itself. But I do not have your expertise, so I send the original letter on in the hope that you might have some explanation as to who it is actually from, what it means, and so on and so forth. I also wandered across to the Archive to ask old Fellquist if he knew of either “Zachariah Zelznibone” or “Angelika Raustem,” and he said no, but he frowned in that way—with his surviving eyebrow, you know—which suggests he has conceived some thread he might tease out to come into greater knowledge, and he has disappeared back into his books to do so. Whatever you might be able to do would be welcome, and I would like to also take the opportunity presented by this necessarily official letter to add that I personally hope you will soon return to the city, and I invite you to share a bottle of the Tramin ’88 with me, and I would not begrudge your familiar Wildbjorn a barrel or two of some lesser vintage.

From the Wizard Zachariah Zelznibon

to Her Majesty the Queen

I fear Your Majesty has not received my previous letter, or so I must presume from my continued durance. Surely, in your magnanimity and kindness, Your Majesty would have ordered my release upon the receipt of my first missive. I send this note via the zephyr, Sarissa, who perhaps has a trifle more wit in her head than Abel and is less likely to eat the paper.

I remain Your Majesty’s loyal servant and hope to serve you again, upon my release.

From the Keeper of the Green Cabinet,

Wizard Suzanne Palindros,

to Captain of the Guard David Tzikes,

copied to Her Majesty the Queen

Dear David,

Thank you for sending me the Zelznibone letter. It is most interesting. I have not yet been able to ascertain all I would wish to know from it, but you are correct that it carries no ill-wishing or curse and is, in fact, generally an innocuous and unremarkable piece of paper, without watermark or distinction, inscribed with common oak-gall ink. I say generally because in one specification it is remarkable. The letter was written both a week ago and a hundred and six years past. That is to say, it was created in two separate moments of time. Which is puzzling, to say the least. If any more letters arrive from Zelznibone, see if you can capture the rat, but do not harm it. I shall ask Her Majesty if I might return sooner than planned—though the work of the commission here is not yet complete, it is close to being done. Close enough, I adjudge.

Tramin of the ’88 vintage? I was not aware any bottles survived the destruction of the vineyard, but I would happily share even the lesser vintage you offer Wildbjorn. I regret the trouble with the Carrengrove has called me away, for many reasons.

Report from the Rose Garden Gatekeeper Veronika Napp to Guard Captain David Tzikes, copied to Her Majesty the Queen

Sir:

The letter enclosed arrived by the beak of a saffron-coloured heron that flew overhead and dropped it at the feet of Harmold, one of the gardeners. We have now put by bird nets ready for use as well as the rat baskets. I have taken the liberty of enlisting the assistance of my two younger girls to stand by as rat- and bird-catchers, at a half-penny per day, which I trust I will be reimbursed?

From Her Majesty the Queen

to Captain of the Guard David Tzikes

David,

I wish to see copies of all correspondence pertaining to this matter. I do not recall any “Zachariah Zelznibone.” I am sure I would remember such a ridiculous name. Furthermore, I never had a wizard conjure at my birthday parties as a child, nor did I have a clockwork monkey called Rollo. The Dowager Lady Blewson confirms my memory in all particulars; she was at that time responsible for all my birthday celebrations as the Mistress of the Nursery. None of my Maids know of Zelznibone, nor have any knowledge of clockwork monkeys. This includes those few living who served my mother before me.

I am also puzzled why this Zelznibone says, “when a very young princess in years not so long gone by,” given I will not see my fiftieth year again. Is it foolish flattery or something additionally sinister?

From Archivist Fellquist to Guard Captain David Tzikes,

copied to Her Majesty the Queen

Captain:

While I did not immediately recall either name you mentioned to me in passing the other day, there was some slight resonance that suggested I had seen one or another of the names at some point. After consulting the usual references and then some of the lesser-used references, I have found some records that may be of use to you.

Firstly, Angelika Raustem was gatewarden to Her Majesty’s great-great-great-great-aunt, Queen Jayne IV, and was indeed a cousin of some kind to that monarch. Raustem was executed by Queen Katalyn III, the immediate successor to Jayne IV, for her involvement in a plot referred to in a sole instance as the “Tulip Affair,” but none of the usual records make mention of this, and the relevant pages from the State Book, the Queen’s Concurrence, and the Roll of the Green Cabinet are all missing, neatly excised, the rolls expertly rejoined. I was only able to confirm the execution because a copy of the Writ was included in the disbursement of Raustem’s properties in the Day Book of the Comptroller of Treasonous Assay for Queen Katalyn III. The Writ itself was not in the Book of the Block, which again is missing several pages for the period in question. The excision of the records suggests there were at least several executions, the persons concerned were closely related to Queens Jayne and Katalyn, and the family wished the matter not to be more widely known—in which they were almost entirely successful.

Queen Katalyn III was known as “the Young,” for she ascended to the throne at the age of fifteen. This name endured throughout her reign, though it lasted almost forty years. Interestingly, certain authorities of the time considered Raustem to have a stronger claim to inherit the throne from Jayne IV than Katalyn. Both were cousins, in different lines, and Jayne had no direct heirs.

I am curious as to why these names have arisen for enquiry, and I hope you may enlarge upon the matter to me when next we meet.

From Her Majesty the Queen to Archivist Fellquist

Archivist:

We desire you to keep these matters close as they may appertain to both the safety of our person and certain family concerns mentioned in confidence by my mother and grandmother to myself. Anything to do with these messages, or Jayne IV or Katalyn III, must not be aired beyond Captain Tzikes and Wizard Palindros. I have instructed Captain Tzikes to inform you of the nature of the current enquiries.

From the Wizard Zachariah Zelznibone

to Her Majesty the Queen

Your Majesty:

I regret to say that my patience has been tried almost beyond endurance, and were it not for the affection I still bear for your late parents, I would have undertaken actions to wreak havoc on those who maintain my immurement. I cannot understand why your direction for my immediate release has not arrived! Surely the treachery of Gatewarden Raustem in seeking to supplant Your Majesty with herself has become fully clear, and my part in apprising the late Queen, your closer cousin, of the matter? I should think this service to the throne deserving of far more than my release! Indeed, I expect not only my pardon but also appointment to either the Mastery of the School of Owls or some other suitably well-endowed sinecure. Perhaps as Rector of Snowwade, or if that has in fact been rebuilt and carries actual duties with it, then as Keeper of the Pale Leopards? And I expect a donative of some weight as well, and not in the short-weight coinage of recent years, but the good currency of your grandmother or earlier sovereigns.

I await your reply, Majesty, with righteous but banked-down anger. Should my release still not be forthcoming, I will take matters into my own hands. I am sure I do not need to remind you or your advisors that the binding placed upon the practice of my art expired with the death of the late Queen, and I have not yet taken the new oath. While it is true I have neither staff, wand, athame, nor ancillary apparatus, some of my former colleagues can doubtless inform you of my reputation as a so-called “naked” sorcerer.

From Captain of the Guard David Tzikes

to the Keeper of the Green Cabinet, Wizard Suzanne Palindros, Zelznibone letter enclosed, copied to Her Majesty the Queen,

also copied to Archivist Fellquist

Dear Suzanne,

I am alarmed at the threat embodied in the most recent letter from the Wizard Zelznibone, as enclosed. Unlike the other letters, the missive was not delivered by rat or bird but simply arrived in the Queen’s privy retiring chamber and was found by a Servant of the Stool upon the lid of the pot only moments before her Majesty was about to enter to engage in her morning effusion. If this Wizard is able to infiltrate a letter past the guards and the wards about not only the palace but also the Queen’s own chambers, then it is a very serious matter indeed. Her Majesty has taken my advice and removed herself to the Scarlet Fortress for the moment, but you are urgently needed here to discover this Zelznibone’s whereabouts and remove the danger to her Majesty.