This had to be the Conclave.
She guided him to a circle of chairs in the center of the room. A stout table took up space in the middle of it. She took a seat and waited for Endric to follow. When he did, he sank into the plush chair, letting out a relieved sigh. This was where he had intended to come all along, and it had taken him losing Senda and getting attacked in the temple to find it, but he finally had. And what he had found was nothing like what he had expected.
The other woman, the heavier one who he had met first, entered the room and took a seat next to the dark-haired one. She leaned in and whispered something quietly to her. Endric didn’t bother trying to listen, doubting that he would have been able to hear anything anyway.
“Tell me, Endric son of Dendril, why have you come searching for the Conclave?” the dark-haired woman asked.
“I brought one of your own back to the Conclave,” he said.
“One of our own? Who would you have brought back to us?”
“Tresten.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Tresten?” she asked in a whisper. “Where is he?”
“We lost him. When we reached the island, we were betrayed. The other man with me claims he was abducted by people pretending to be the Conclave, and they were the ones who forced him to help them find the temple.”
“They abducted Tresten?”
“Tresten was…” Endric clipped his lips, struggling even now to say it. “Tresten is gone.”
Both women’s breath caught, and they shared a look. The dark-haired woman looked back at Endric, and tears glistened in her eyes. “Gone? Tresten can’t be gone. He is the greatest among us.”
Endric met her gaze and wished he had something better to tell her. “Novan said that we should bring him here. He said that Tresten should be allowed to rest with the Conclave.”
The woman looked at him for a long moment, glancing at the other woman. “Novan said that?”
“Novan wanted me to ensure that Tresten return to the Conclave,” Endric said.
The two women looked at each other again, and something passed between them. “And where is Tresten?” the heavier of the two women asked.
“We brought him ashore, and he was with us. The first night we were here, there was a massive storm and we took shelter. When we came around, both Tresten and Urik were missing.”
“Urik?” The dark-haired woman asked.
“You know of him?” Endric asked.
The heavier woman frowned. “Unfortunately we know of him. Why are you with him? If the reports that we have heard are true, you would be the last person who would be willing to travel with him.”
“The reports are true, but it’s not exactly my choice to travel with him. Tresten asked me to work with him.”
“That would be like Tresten,” the dark-haired woman said.
Endric looked at the two women, glancing from one to the other. “Why did Novan want me to bring him here? What did he think that you were able to do?”
“Tresten has served the Conclave for many years. If he has passed, this would be a suitable resting place for him,” the dark-haired woman said.
“It was about more than that,” Endric said. “If it was only about finding a suitable resting place, he wouldn’t have urged me to bring him here. This was something else.”
“Perhaps it was, but without Tresten, there is little that we can offer.”
“I need your help getting him back from the others.”
“There is no helping, not with them. If they have captured Tresten, they will use him. That is what they do.”
“I stopped several of them.”
“Several?” The heavyset woman asked.
“In the temple. I stopped those who attacked us. There were six—”
“That you saw,” the dark-haired woman said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that they likely only wanted you to see those six. Unfortunately, it also likely means that the temple is lost.”
“No. I set protections—”
“With teralin?” the dark-haired woman asked, her gaze darting to Endric’s sword.
“How did you know?”
“You are on Salvat. Here, almost everything has to do with teralin.”
“Yes. I set protections with teralin. I thought that if there was anything that could be done to prevent them from reaching it, at least I could trigger teralin to restrict them from reaching the tunnel.”
“It will not restrict them for long. They have a great understanding of teralin.”
“Like the Deshmahne?”
The dark-haired woman considered him for a long moment. “And just who do you think the Deshmahne stole their knowledge from? The people of Salvat have worshiped the mountain for centuries upon centuries. All of that time has given them a great understanding of teralin, even more than in many other places. Those who you met have long studied the connection to the negative polarity.”
“And the priests? Do they study the positive polarity?”
The woman shook her head. “They worship the gods from within the mountain itself.”
“Neutral. That’s what they prefer?”
That didn’t make complete sense, especially as he had seen the way that the woman had sent a pulsation of positive charge through the slender rod to trigger the doorway.
“Why would they have wanted Tresten?” he asked.
“He represents something to them that they have long searched for.”
“What is that? If they wanted to reach the Magi, they could have traveled to Vasha.”
The two women exchanged a glance. The dark-haired woman turned her attention back to him, frowning deeply. “Magi? Endric, Tresten’s much more than simply one of the Magi.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No. That’s becoming increasingly clear.”
“Then help me understand.”
“The man you know as Tresten is not one of the Magi. He is what you would call a god.”
26
Endric sat alone in the room they had given him and stared at his hands. He had so many questions and there didn’t seem to be any way to get the answers that he wanted. If what the women told him was true, then Tresten was a god. Endric thought of all of the experiences he had with Tresten, trying to piece them together and trying to understand.
Surprisingly, seeing Tresten as a god made sense and explained many things that he had experienced with the man during the time they had traveled together. But how could Endric have spent so much time with one of the gods without knowing? Everything that he had ever been taught about the gods led him to believe that they would want attention and to be worshipped. The man he knew wanted none of those things.
The door opened and Endric looked up. Urik stood there, watching Endric. “What is it?” Urik asked.
Endric considered sharing with him what the women had told him, but would it make a difference? Probably not to Urik. He had faith in the gods and he believed that they should be worshiped the way that the Urmahne taught. Would it have mattered to Urik that he had traveled with one of the gods? Would it have mattered that Tresten wouldn’t have wanted to be worshipped?
He decided that it was best not to reveal that to Urik.
“They fear that we won’t be able to recover Tresten.”
“Are you sure?”
“The people that you believe to be part of the Conclave are powerful. Those of the Conclave here don’t feel that there’s anything they could do that would help us get him back.”
“So that’s it? We’re simply going to abandon him, leaving him to these people?”
“I didn’t say that,” Endric said.
“You intend to go after him?”
“That has been my intent all along,” Endric said. “I came to the Conclave thinking that we might find help.” The fact that there seemed to be only these two women made it less and less likely that any help would come.
What he needed now was the Denraen. He needed sold
iers.
Yet there wasn’t time to get word to his father to send men to Salvat. Even if there was, Endric wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do. The Denraen were tasked with maintaining peace. There had been no threat against peace. The only thing that had happened was that these men had taken the body of a fallen Mage—or god.
“I will help you,” Urik said.
“You don’t have to help.”
“You might need another sword.”
“I might, but the two of us against an unknown number of fighters? That’s not the kind of odds that we should risk ourselves with.”
“That’s what I came here to tell you.”
“What is?”
“It won’t be just the two of us.”
“The women of the Conclave won’t be able to fight,” Endric said. “They are nothing like Novan and Brohmin.” Endric tried not to let his disappointment in that be too obvious, but he wasn’t sure that he succeeded. He had thought that all members of the Conclave would be like Brohmin and Novan. He had thought that they all would seek to fight for what was necessary, but that didn’t seem to be it at all.
“No. They won’t. But they made a comment about other injured coming this way, and I asked if I could see them. It took a little bit of coaxing, but I managed to find out who those others were.”
“Who?”
“Come with me.”
Endric stood and followed Urik. He guided him through a hall, stopping at a door he had seen the dark-haired woman pause in front of. Urik knocked, and it took a moment, but the door opened. The dark-haired woman looked out. She frowned at Urik.
“I did not intend for you to continue to disturb me with my studies.”
“He deserves to know, Elaine.”
Urik spoke the name with a certain familiarity. Did he know this woman before coming here?
“What do I deserve to know?” Endric asked.
“He deserves to know nothing,” Elaine said.
“Show him,” Urik said. There was an edge of command—as if the soldier within Urik had finally decided to reassert itself.
Elaine glared at Urik before motioning to Endric and waving him over. He stood at the door and realized that there were two others in the room.
“Pendin?”
His friend looked up from the cot he was lying on. Color seem to have drained from his face, leaving him washed out, but he still appeared strong. On the cot next to him lay Senda. She was breathing and surprisingly, her eyes were open.
“Endric? How is it that you’re here?”
“How is it that you are?” he asked.
“We got lost wandering. After you sent us away”—Pendin arched a brow at Endric, as if waiting to see how he might react to the statement—”I tried following the same way back to the city, but it all started to look the same. Everything sort of blended together into one messy whole. I couldn’t tell where I needed to go.”
“Then how did you end up here?”
“He was wandering,” Elaine said. “He and his friend passed by here, neither of them seeming to know where they were going. We couldn’t allow them to continue wandering like that, so we brought them in.”
“You brought them in, and that despite the fact that the Conclave would rather have privacy?”
“We weren’t about to let them die simply so that we could maintain our sense of privacy,” she said.
Endric considered Pendin for a moment. He began to understand what Urik had intended by telling him that they weren’t necessarily going to have to fight just the two of them. Pendin was a skilled soldier. Now if only they had Senda…
“How is she?” he asked. He knelt in front of the bed and took one of Senda’s hands. The swelling in her skin seemed to have abated somewhat, receding after she had gone away with Pendin. Could the teralin-infused pool and the water within it helped? There was no doubting the fact that her eyes were open—something that they had not been the entire time that he was with her over the preceding few days.
“Your friend suffered a significant toxicity. It will take some time before she fully recovers.”
Endric looked over at Elaine. “Recovers? You mean to tell me that she can recover from this?”
“We have seen it often enough, especially in this part of the world. The cothuln creates a powerfully dangerous toxin. It’s a wonder that she still lives.”
“She had help. There was an old woman—”
“Aria?” Elaine asked.
Endric nodded. “You know her?”
“She is one of the few who would have been able to help you. Anyone else would have suggested that what you experienced was little more than your imagination.”
“That’s exactly my experience.”
Urik had been watching his exchange with Elaine, and he looked from Endric to Senda. “The cothuln are real?”
Elaine frowned at Urik. “You have experienced more than many men, Urik. Do you really think that it is wise to question what might or might not exist?”
“It’s just that stories of them have lingered for years. I never would have believed that they were anything more than simply stories.”
“Did you believe that stories of the Conclave were real?” Elaine asked softly.
Urik looked at her before smiling slowly. “I have always believed that the Conclave was real.”
“She will recover?” Endric asked.
“Eventually. It will take time for her to regain her strength. She experienced something that has left her significantly weakened.”
“How are you able to help her?”
“There are many keys to restoring someone poisoned by cothuln. The first is simply stabilizing the injuries. You managed to do that well enough. Had she been away much longer, it is highly likely that she wouldn’t have lived.”
Endric let out a shaky breath. It was difficult to comprehend what he was hearing.
Senda would live. How was it possible that after everything she’d been through, after all that she had suffered, she would live?
“You must understand that she suffered a significant injury,” Elaine said. “She may never be quite the same as she was before.”
Endric blinked back tears that had come to his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that the toxicity that affected her will have stolen some of her coordination. It will have sapped her strength, leaving her perpetually weakened. She was a soldier?”
Endric nodded. “She was—is—the Denraen Raen.”
A flicker of recognition flashed across Elaine’s eyes. Then it was gone. “I don’t know what she will be like when she recovers. I don’t know how much she will recover, beyond the fact that I anticipate her awakening from this. Already she has improved much. But she will be changed. You need to be prepared for that possibility.”
Endric breathed out. What did it matter if Senda had changed? Would that make him care for her any less? He knew that it wouldn’t. He knew that he cared for her mind and the spirit that she had more than he cared about her ability as a fighter. As a soldier, he cared about her ability as a fighter. He had depended on that, and she had been pivotal to many Denraen successes over the years, but that wasn’t why Endric cared for her.
“How long will it take for her to recover?”
“I don’t have those answers,” Elaine said.
“Can she stay here until she does?”
“She may stay until it is safe for her to travel. After that, she should return to those who can provide better care for her.”
“Can’t you provide that care?”
“We can.”
“But you won’t.”
“We are the Conclave. It is not our place to provide a hospital for those who need it.”
“What is your place?” Endric asked.
“You know only what you do of the Conclave from Novan and Brohmin, both of whom served the Conclave in a unique manner.”
“From what I’ve seen, they serve the Conclave very well.”
Endric stared at her for a long moment. That seemed so different than what he had experienced and what he had thought was the purpose and value of the Conclave. How could they simply have chosen to ignore those who needed their help? How could it be that they would do nothing for others who needed them?
“You seem disappointed.”
“Only disappointed in the fact that the others I’ve seen and spent time with have shown me a different side of the Conclave. I now understand why this other faction has gained such traction on Salvat. You have chosen to do nothing. Were Novan or Brohmin here, they wouldn’t have sat idly by while others began to take up arms against those who they could help and who needed their assistance.”
“As I said, you have a very specific experience of the Conclave. We serve as keepers of knowledge. Do you think that we can maintain that knowledge if we involve ourselves in every skirmish? Do you believe that knowledge would be safe if we made such a choice?”
“I believe there are times when action must be taken. I believe that if it’s not, that others will suffer for it. I believe that there are times when you need to intervene simply because it is the right thing to do.”
“You sound like your father,” Elaine said.
“Good.”
Now that he knew Senda would survive, he could focus on his other task.
That meant finding Tresten.
To do so, he would need to confront those who attacked the temple. Had he not been so worried about Senda, it would have been something that he should have already done.
And he couldn’t do it alone.
Endric looked over at Urik. “This is what you have sought. Would you rather stay here and wait and see what else they might do, or will you still come with me?”
Urik glanced from Endric to Elaine. “I will help. The gods know that I have committed to it, but I can’t deny the fact that I am interested in the knowledge that is here.”
“That knowledge is only for the Conclave.”
“And I believe Tresten intended for him to be given access to it,” Endric said.
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