Part 25 (1/2)

Tolsadri regarded him with a blank expression, as if Nitendi had commented on the weather or the color of a flower. ”You agreed to do as he asked?”

”I had no choice!” He coughed a thick glob of blood into a towel, which he flung at an Elqosi. ”He was about to have me executed for treason to the Exalted!”

Tolsadri's mouth tugged downward at the corners and there was a tightening around his eyes. ”a.s.suming you survive this venture, report your findings to me upon your return.”

He left the tent. The Voice had taken his morning meal in private, and had not appeared to see his Adepts embark on their mission.

”Are you ready, Honored Loremaster?” the captain asked again.

Nitendi felt the weight of a hundred eyes upon him. ”Yes. Let's see what these infidels have prepared for us.”

”There's a company of cavalry leaving the forward lines, Archmage,” said Abaru. He was peering through a Fa.r.s.eeing directed toward the Havalqa encampment. A number of wizards along the Hammdras were using Fa.r.s.eeings to watch their enemy. Each wizard was accompanied by at least one soldier of the Sunrise Guard. Many of the wizards carried magical devices designed for warfare, some plumbed from the dusty depths beneath the Varsae Sandrova, others from the Varsae Estrikavis.

Five wizards upon the wall-walk directed their powers into the many layers of defensive magic protecting the valley. When the Havalqa had first appeared, the Archmage ordered wizards to work in s.h.i.+fts day and night to keep the protections at their highest levels. ”I want them to have to fight for every inch they move into our valley,” she said.

The Archmage and Wardens of Hethnost were gathered upon the gate tower. Gerin, Balandrick, Zaephos, and Nyene were with them.

Elaysen elected to remain in her rooms. She had become increasingly withdrawn, spending most of her time either alone in her chambers or in the Varsae Sandrova. She spoke with Kirin often, but rebuffed Gerin's attempts to talk. She did not look well to him. She'd lost weight, and the redness he often saw in her eyes made him think she was crying. But when he asked her what was wrong-when she would even agree to see him, which was not often-she said she was fine. ”I'm tired from trying to rebuild my supply of medicines.”

The G.o.ds take me, I wish she would tell me what was wrong, Gerin thought while he watched the hors.e.m.e.n ride across the open plain toward them. It bothered him deeply that she was apparently confiding in the Warden of Healing and not him. In a moment of weakness after being rebuffed by Elaysen yet again, he had pleaded with Kirin to tell him what was going on with her.

The Warden refused. ”It is not my place to tell you such things, Gerin,” he'd said. ”If she won't tell you, I can't help. I'm sorry.”

And that is where things remained: broken between them. How can I fix things if she won't tell me what's wrong? He knew it was far more than a lost medicine pack that was troubling her.

Beside him, Nyene was s.h.i.+fting her knives from hand to hand with great skill, the motion so fast and fluid it was almost hypnotic. ”I long to fight these dogs,” she said.

”I hope you don't get the chance, at least not here,” said Kirin. ”I would greatly prefer that we defeat them or drive them off before they get close enough for you to use your knives on them.”

Nyene laughed. ”They'll never leave. You have what they want, and the only way this will end is with us or them wiped from the face of the earth.”

”Who are those men in the center?” asked Kirin, pointing to the approaching horses.

Gerin peered through the Fa.r.s.eeing the Warden was using. ”They're Loremasters, from the look of them.”

”Have they come to offer terms?” asked the Archmage.

”I don't know, Archmage,” said Gerin. ”I would think Tolsadri would be among them if that was their purpose, since he is their leader's Voice in foreign lands. But I don't see him there.”

The Archmage turned to Lord Commander Medril. ”Are your men ready with the trebuchets?”

”Say the word, Archmage, and I'll signal for them to attack.”

”Good. I want to withhold our magic until absolutely necessary.”

”Yes, Archmage.”

Gerin made his own Fa.r.s.eeing and watched the Loremasters. He gripped the Staff of Naragenth in his left hand; Nimnahal was a comforting weight along his hip.

Blood will be shed, he thought. And soon.

”Stop!” shouted Loremaster Wrotherqu Klaati. He'd been riding with his eyes closed, one hand gripping his reins, the other held out before him, fingers rigid and splayed. ”There's power just ahead.”

”Of what nature?” asked Nitendi.

Klaati moved his hand left and right as if caressing something invisible. ”I don't know. It's completely unlike the Mysteries. I'm surprised I can sense it at all.”

Nitendi invoked his own powers and projected forward with the Eyes of Drunn, the Mystery Klaati was using. He sensed nothing but emptiness before him. He strained harder; sweat burst from his brow and back. After more probing, he thought he felt the slightest trace of...something in their path, but it was as nebulous as the wind, and if he had not known something was there, he never would have discovered it.

Klaati was the most sensitive of the Loremasters, which was why he'd been placed in the lead, his powers sweeping the path before them. It nevertheless irked Nitendi that his subordinate Adept was more proficient at certain aspects of the Mysteries than he. It left the door open for Klaati to challenge his authority at some point, especially in light of the humiliation he'd received at the hand of the general.

The anger that surged through him destroyed his concentration, and the Eyes of Drunn collapsed entirely. He swore and let his powers recede.

”I sense a curtain of power just ahead,” said Klaati.

”I feel it, too, though faintly,” said Moktan.

”Can you discern its purpose?” asked Nitendi. ”Can we pa.s.s through it?”

”It's not a physical barrier,” said Klaati. ”Other than that, I can't say.”

”Does it activate traps when pa.s.sed?” asked the captain.

”It's not your place to question us,” snapped Nitendi.

”It's my place to keep you alive, Honored Loremaster,” said the captain. ”To do so, I will ask questions when I see fit. If you decide that our presence is no longer necessary, my men and I will return to the encampment and leave you to your work without the possibility of interruption.”

Nitendi swallowed. The entire world has turned against me today. ”No, Captain. Remain. Klaati, answer his question.”

”I have no idea if the power is a trigger for something else. I've told you all I can.”

The captain climbed down from his horse, picked up a rock and hurled it toward the fortress in a high arc. It landed and disappeared in the gra.s.s.

”Did that penetrate the barrier?” he asked. ”Did I throw it far enough?”

Moktan nodded. ”The rock crossed the power.”

”That seems to confirm it does not trigger traps,” said the captain as he swung back into his saddle.

”Then what is the d.a.m.ned thing for, sir?” asked a bowman.

A soldier rushed along the wall-walk and shouted up at the battlements atop the gate tower. ”Archmage, Vesai Torndel says our defenses are being probed by the men in the field!”

Blades of ice moved through Archmage Marandra's bowels. I must show no fear! she chided herself. But the fact that war was about to descend upon Hethnost-for the first time in its history-was a thought so horrifying it threatened to send her to her knees.

One of the Havalqa hors.e.m.e.n dismounted and threw a rock toward them. Probing our defenses indeed, she thought.