Light in the Darkness

by CJ Brightley

Dhes-Andis’ laughter flooded my mind. Use it, child. Strike!

  I thought Geric was supposed to be your pal, I answered indignantly. Great ally YOU are. He’s doing this to get you safely back.

  The laughter increased. He wants what I can teach him, and does not yet know that you have supplanted him as my apprentice.

  Who says I am anyone’s apprentice? I shot back.

  Too late, was the reply, amid stinging mirth. I await you with growing impatience.

  He wasn’t the only one.

  “Try it and they die anyway,” the furious prince snarled, head thrown back. Distractedly, I couldn’t help noticing that he was handsome even when in a rage. “But I will take my time.” Handsome but nasty through and through.

  I had to act fast.

  Glancing at Kee’s pale face, I remembered our ride through the rain, and my use of wind—

  Of course!

  I recalled Kee’s range, and tried something I’d never done before. I shaped a thought and shoved it at her head: Hold your breath.

  And I put the whistle to my lips and blew. A fine mist of powder, almost invisible, floated out. Would my wind-shimmer be strong enough to spread it? No way to find out but to try. With a wave of my hand I directed the cloud of liref directly down onto the faces waiting below, making myself see it reach them all.

  For a long moment nothing happened, then thud. One pirate slid to the deck. The one holding Kee fumbled weakly with his knife, then he too dropped, knocking Kee off balance. Prince Geric tried to lunge at her, and fell on his face at her feet. All around her the others toppled.

  “Where are the rest?” I called to Kee.

  She pointed behind her, her hand over her nose, her face rapidly turning red.

  Two came running, faltered when they entered my cloud, and gently joined their brethren in slumber.

  I hopped down. Kee followed me to the hatch, both of us sucking in lungfuls of air as the rest of the liref dust drifted out to sea. Through the opening I heard the sounds of cries and scuffling. I bent down, carefully blew the rest of my liref dust along the stairway, and used a shimmer to waft it through the passages below.

  Presently we heard thumps and thuds, then silence.

  “Oh, thank you,” she exclaimed fervently. “What was that? Poison?”

  “Liref.”

  “Then the Scribe will recover.” She sounded thankful.

  An interrogative shout from the second pirate ship brought both our heads around sharply.

  “Do you have enough for them?” Kee asked, pointing shakily.

  “I don’t think I could control the cloud unless I was on their ship. Bet they don’t know magic, though,” I said. “Watch this.”

  I couldn’t use the fire spell to aim at people, now that I knew its strength, but I could use it against the masts of a ship.

  I braced myself with my back to the rail, then I dropped the whistle into my bag so I wasn’t touching it. Gathering my strength, I ran through the fire spell. This time I was prepared for the rush of light and heat through my mind, and I took what I needed and let the rest slip by.

  “There,” I said, aiming my hands.

  Fire slashed through the night, hitting the sails and rigging of the pirate ship. The caravel’s bowsprit caught flame as well, and broke off with a shower of sparks. “You next.” I flamed the second ship’s sails.

  “And there.” I sent lightning toward the third pirate ship and soon its sails and upper rigging glowed red against the stars. Cries erupted from the ships.

  Fighting the vertigo of reaction, I turned in triumph to Kee. “How’s that?” I asked past chattering teeth. “No one hurt. F-fires should burn upward. B-but the pirates can’t go anywhere, and they’re too busy. To bother. Us.”

  She laughed, a gasping sound very close to tears. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “But liref won’t have the pirates on our ship asleep forever. What shall we do? Tie them all up?” She asked doubtfully.

  I pushed myself away from the rail, ignoring the ache that settled into my bones. “How about we drag them below, get their weapons, and lock ’em in. Then we get away as soon as we can.”

  Thunder muttered a distant warning. The sky blackened behind angry clouds.

  “A storm coming,” Kee shouted. “Let’s hurry. Rain might revive them faster.”

  We sprang to the nearest pirate, and found that we could barely move him even with me tugging on his booted feet and Kee dragging on his limp arms. I sank down on my knees, breathless from the exertion. It was Kee who ran away down the deck and reappeared with a thick cape. After rolling the snoring pirate onto it, we dragged the cape toward the hatch. We repeated this again, finding it a less difficult method for hauling them.

  Your work would be easier with a shifting spell, Dhes-Andis’s voice interrupted me suddenly.

  Startled, I dropped the end of the cap I was tugging, and Kee stumbled, casting me a reproachful look. How did you do that? I’m not touching your whistle.

  Do you want a shifting spell? Or you could make the sleep last as long as you like.

  I don’t trust your spells.

  But you just used one, child. It all gets easier with time.

  I closed my inner eyelid. Had it worked? I waited a little, then cautiously listened.

  His laughter at my futile hide-and-seek game scoured my mind. You gave me your range when you memory-shared, my child.

  A hideously unpleasant thought occurred to me then: You’re not a prisoner at all. What is this whistle thing really for?

  A communications device. Necessary for some, but not for you. I shall teach you how to use that farsense gift—

  Gritting my teeth, I concentrated on slamming my inner door—and my mind contained only my own thoughts.

  I glanced up. Kee’s face in the torchlight was worried. “You looked like someone in a nightmare,” she said.

  Lightning flared overhead, and thunder ripped the air. A moment later stinging rain slashed down at us.

  I shook my head at her. “Let’s finish,” I shouted. “I’ll explain later.”

  She gave a jerky shrug and we went back to work. The wet deck made it more difficult to drag people about, but as the water became more choppy, the ship pitched and rolled. We found our task more manageable when we waited for a wave to slant the ship in our direction. Our pirates rolled easier then. When it was Geric’s turn I stopped long enough to rob him again. All I got this time was a ring and a small bag of coins.

  The last two pirates muttered and struggled a little, but we got them below, Kee bumping them down on the cloaks. They’d probably be bruised up a bit, but after all, as Kee said, “They’re pirates. They deserve some bruises.”

  We shoved them all into the big stern cabin, then I threw the last of my liref into the cabin with them and shut them in. We piled a giant barricade of barrels and furniture outside the door.

  By this time the storm had broken directly overhead. The pair of ships bumped together, timbers creaking warningly. On the burning ships, the pirates were too busy fighting flames to bother with us.

  Kee and I staggered up to the deck, exhausted and wondering we should do next. Passengers wandered around looking dazed; others who’d been caught in the liref cloud lay here and there, groaning. We found Hlanan sitting up groggily in the slashing rain. The torches had gone out, but we spotted him in a flash of lightning. He was looking around, and saw us in the same flash.

  “You’re all right,” I shouted in relief. “We got the pirates locked up. And the others won’t be attacking any time soon.” I pointed at the red glow of the fires on the other ships.

  Hlanan scarcely gave them a glance. He moved with slow, painful-looking steps to Kee’s and my cabin, which still had candles lit in it. Kee sank gratefully onto the bunk, but Hlanan stopped me from following her and grabbed hold of my shoulders. “Lendan traced us here,” he said. “By magic. Who have you been in contact with?”

  By now I was shivering so hard I could hardly get my bur
glar’s bag out. I fumbled the whistle from the bag and numbly held it out. Reaction was setting in fast. “I took it off Geric. In Imbradi.”

  Hlanan wiped his streaming hair out of his face and squinted at the whistle. “What’s this?” he reached for it, but I yanked it away.

  “Don’t t-touch it,” I mumbled. “He might hear you.”

  “Who?”

  “Dhes-Andis.” I braced myself for the angry tirade I expected and—I gulped—deserved.

  Hlanan leaned his head back and shut his eyes. His hands dropped away from me, then he straightened up and eyed me in anguish. “Why?”

  “It happened by accident. Here.” I opened the window and flung the whistle out into the sea. Lightning flared, shining on the pale white shape spinning end over end toward the water. It disappeared without a splash. “He can’t get at your mind now.”

  Hlanan’s tired brown eyes narrowed at my emphasis on ‘your.’

  “We’ve g-got to get away,” I stuttered on. “Dhes-Andis knows who I am, and he knows w-we’re here.”

  “I’ve got to do something,” Hlanan said softly, as if to himself.

  “We gave those pirates more of her liref,” Kee spoke up. “And we shut them in the big cabin that way.”

  “All right,” Hlanan said. “That’s a start.” His face tightened with purpose. “Kee, watch out,” he said suddenly.

  I glanced at Kee, saw her puzzled face, then I tried to look back at Hlanan to ask what he was talking about.

  I say I ‘tried’ because his fingers flickered, stars flashed across my vision—and it was my turn to crumple to the deck, dazzled by a spell.

  18

  Someone shook me.

  My head pounded in protest. I mumbled “Go away,” and tried to dive back down into sleep.

  “Lhind. Wake up.”

  I opened bleary eyes to find Kee’s face next to mine. “Ow,” I groaned. “Ache all over. What happened?”

  She gave me a brief grin. “A stone spell. He said you’ll feel heavy at first.”

  “Oh.” I tried to stretch. “I remember that.” With the memory came a flood of sadness, of regret. I swallowed fast a couple of times, then tried a casual voice: “So I’m back on the villain list, huh?”

  She shook her head. “No, nothing like that. ’swhy I’m here, trying to wake you up.”

  “Huh?” I sat up, trying to ignore the clumsiness of my limbs. Feeling was coming back rapidly.

  “They’re up there, talking about what they should do with you.” She pointed toward the ceiling. “I thought you should hear. So I came.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “Thanks, Kee. But what’s happening?”

  “Come on. I’ll tell you while we go upstairs.”

  I got to my feet, and made two discoveries. The good one: my tail was free, helping me to stand despite the vertigo making my vision revolve gently. The bad one: my sash and its contents were gone.

  Smacking my tunic pockets, I said, “My stuff?”

  “The Scribe had my mom search you,” Kee said, flushing. “Your things aren’t in here.”

  “Hoo,” I sighed. “Why? What happened?”

  “Let’s go,” she urged. “You’re supposed to be still asleep. And if they knew I was here I’d get into trouble.”

  I rubbed my aching jaw and followed her into a marble hall lined with arches decorated with vines and wheat cartouches. I’d seen them before. “We’re in Imbradi. In Rajanas’s palace, right?”

  “That’s right.” She gave a quick nod, and picked up the pace slightly. “The ship landed off the coast of Liacz, and the Scribe found some mage who transferred us here.”

  “Then why didn’t he take you to the Empress?”

  “He told me that he was afraid there might be tracers on you, and he didn’t have the skill to discover if that was true. I don’t know what he told the mage, whose loyalties might lie with the King of Liacz more than with the Council.” She rubbed her eyes, frowning. “I don’t really understand high politics, and I guess I don’t want to. And I’m glad I only had to endure one transfer. That hurts worse than a fall off a horse.”

  “But why did he put that horrible spell on me?”

  “Hurts, does it?” she asked with sympathy. “So you didn’t escape that, either. The Scribe said he wanted to keep that evil sorcerer from your mind, and that was the fastest way to do it.”

  “So the ship captain didn’t blame us?”

  “I guess he never figured out that we were the target, and the Scribe didn’t tell him. After he put that spell on you, he spent a night and a day putting healing-spells on the bandages of the pirates’ victims. That was good to watch.” She gave another of her quick nods. “He’s very deft with that kind of magic. This way.”

  We started up a long, curving staircase. “So we made it here safely,” I prompted.

  Kee frowned down at her feet for a few steps. “Yes. A while ago, this message came.” She sighed shortly. “I’m not explaining this right. They’ve been fighting here, trying to hold the Pass.”

  “I remember that, from our scrying before the pirates attacked the ship.”

  “I guess there’s a whole army on the Liacz side, an invading army of hirelings. That Pass is high, and most of the year it gets snowed in. As of last night, our prince and my grandmother agreed that if we can stall the army off until the snows start again, then king of Liacz won’t want them sitting there on his side, and will revoke his grant of passage. Nobody wants an army squatting at their back door. Especially the Wolf Grays.” She stopped, then quietly stepped through an archway into a round room decorated with curved couches in emerald green brocade, with an ivory and green rug on the floor.

  I followed her through. “So what happened?”

  “Sh-h.” She frowned at me. “They’re in that room,” she whispered, pointing across the carpet at the door on the opposite side, then opened a door at her right.

  I followed her through a small room dominated by a writing desk and several chairs, then through that room to a glass-paned door that opened onto a balcony.

  Kee stopped there and whispered, “But just a while ago a messenger arrived. A Djuran soldier, right into the Destination. He had a message from Dhes-Andis. He said that if we give you up, Dhes-Andis will give the order for that army to go away. Otherwise, he will send them against Liacz, and say that it was our prince who paid them to attack so dishonorably. Everyone knows the Gray Wolves fight for the highest bidder. The messenger will return tonight for the answer. So now they’re trying to decide what to do, and I think it’s not fair. You should be there.”

  “Well, then I’ll go in and tell them—” I started toward the window she pointed at, but she caught my arm.

  “You are supposed to be safely asleep. It’s because of what you said about Dhes-Andis being in your mind.” She looked uncomfortable.

  “Oh. They don’t trust me anymore.”

  “I don’t know what they’re thinking.” But she didn’t look at me when she said it.

  Instead she motioned me to duck down and crawl along the balcony under the windows of the next room over. We settled underneath the window that stood partially open. The voices from inside the room came clearly.

  “I don’t care what he promises.” I recognized the lovely, musical voice of Thianra the minstrel. “Even if we could trust the likes of Jardis Dhes-Andis, which would be a stupid thing to do, I would prefer to take our chances at holding the mercenaries off, and as for the King of Liacz, I will go to him myself. If I carry a letter from you, Ilyan, I think he’d believe the both of us that Prince Geric Lendan had allied with Dhes-Andis over the fact that you’d suddenly gone mad and were declaring war.”

  “Or that I could afford the price of the Duchess of Thann’s mercenaries.” That was Rajanas’s familiar drawl. “I’ll go to Liacz myself, soon’s I get rid of Lendan’s wolf pack here. But that is going to take time.”

  “Which we do not have,” Thianra murmured.

  Rajanas said, �
��At least Dhes-Andis seems reluctant to send his own armies over here in force. Yet.”

  “He seems to be testing our strength. Everyone’s strength. One thing I can attest to in my turn is the strength of his magic,” Hlanan said. “I’ll wager anything he smells a double-cross from either Thann or Lendan.”

  “The first is possible, but the second is almost sure,” Thianra stated. “You are both ignoring tonight’s time limit in favor of these longer plans. Does that mean you will surrender Lhind to him?”

  “No!” Hlanan sounded hoarse. I wondered how much rest he’d had while I was quiet under that spell. “But when we say no, we had better be prepared for some consequences. There will be some. Their magnitude will depend on how important Lhind is to him. That’s what we’ve got to figure out.”

  “How can we?” Rajanas asked. I heard the click of crystal on wood.

  “We can’t,” Hlanan said. “We still have Lendan somewhere about, possibly in this very city. If I could find someone to transfer us, he can, too. Or maybe he can do the transfer himself. I am certain now that he got the book. He could never have managed any of that magic without it. Which is why I think we should call the Magic Council and surrender Lhind to them. She’ll be safe with them.”

  Silence. My palms were damp. I pressed them against my sides.

  “She won’t want that,” Rajanas said. “From our short acquaintance, I’d say our little thief values her freedom. If she wanted interference from your Magic Council—”

  “Help,” Hlanan interrupted. “And training.”

  “If she wanted any of that, she’d have sought them out herself. I’d say she’s reasonably competent in getting what she wants.”

  “She’s a walking peril,” Hlanan exclaimed. “You didn’t see her set fire to half a street. And the same thing happened to those pirate ships. Without any thought at all to the consequences. That was before I found out about the accursed communications device she’d been playing with. Bespelled device. Communicating not with just any evil sorcerer, but the emperor of Sveran Djur.”

  “You think he suborned her,” Thianra said slowly.

  “I don’t know. Not consciously, perhaps, but she’s so . . . oh, so gallant, but so ignorant. Desperately so.” A sharp sigh followed this. “Look, I hate to see any creature’s freedom curtailed, but it’s for her own safety. That accursed sorcerer has got to be after her for a reason, and I’ll gamble my life he doesn’t intend any good by her.”