“Just,” I said. “I wouldn’t have thought the old man had so much power in him.”
“He was a modest man,” Fenra said.
I squeezed my eyes closed. I hadn’t been modest, is that what she was saying?
“You have to be fairly powerful to have apprentices,” Fenra was pointing out to Elva. “You must have had quite a few of your own,” she added, setting the skull back in place before turning to me.
“Yes, ‘Arlyn,’ tell us about your apprentices.”
Before I could answer, Fenra held up her right hand between us. “Stop this. Focus on what we are doing, both of you. I do not want to hear about before unless it helps now. Is that clear?” She stood up. “I have rested enough, let us try the next stage.”
“Fenra . . .”
“Yes?” She turned her face to Elva’s.
“Nothing,” he said finally. “I’m ready.” We resumed our grip on her arms. She closed her eyes, lifted the locket to her forehead, and the empty room around us became even more empty, the wood grain in the paneling growing indistinct, the colors fading, the glow of the lamps darkening into clouds. Fading away to nothing at all but a hot mist, thick as smoke and just as dirty. I thought something brushed up against my leg, but I must have been imagining it.
Then I saw walls around me, empty shelving, furniture, and I thought we were back in the vault again, until I realized that I could see more—
“Ow!” Fenra let go of my arm and rubbed at her knee. She must have bumped against the metal-reinforced corner of a large trunk. Its lid was laid back, and packing straw stuck out of the open top. When I looked around the room I saw other, smaller crates, padded wooden boxes covered with leather. A familiar hat and cane were propped in the corner by the door, exactly where someone who had found them would see them and remember to take them away when they left the office.
The shelves weren’t completely bare. There were books, a long silver dagger-shaped tool with a braided blade. I recognized a glass safe lying sideways in the corner. Whoever owned it would need to turn it right side up before the glass decided to break.
Someone had obviously begun moving into the old man’s office.
“Who are you? How did you get in here?”
* * *
“We’ve mastered sending objects through,” Predax was saying as they walked through the gardens where people sat on stone benches under the trees. Moving, shaded water made the air feel cooler. In the week since the discovery of the vault, spring had turned into summer. “But you were quite right, Practitioner, when you theorized that the gate would close immediately, and that we wouldn’t be able to open another gate in the same place.”
Metenari knew that by “we,” Predax meant himself, and two of the senior students. “And what is your next step?”
“Well, Jordy wanted to send animals through, but I pointed out that we wouldn’t have any way to know whether they’d made it or not. Then I said—” The boy broke off and his ears turned red.
“What did you say?” Metenari pressed his lips tight to hide his smile.
“I said we should send Jordy through, and then Konne pointed out that we still wouldn’t know for sure whether it had worked.”
“And then you said, ‘No, but at least we’ll have gotten rid of Jordy.’ Oh come now, Predax, don’t look so alarmed. That’s exactly what I would have said when I was an apprentice. Might have done it, too, if I’d had the chance.” He laughed at the look on the boy’s face. Predax relaxed, but only a little. “So, your conclusions thus far?”
“We’ll have to send a practitioner through, sir, someone who can work the forran. There’s no way around it.”
“I agree. But it’s not yet time for that. We have proof of theory—the forran does what we thought it did, but not easily, not smoothly. Let’s exhaust every other option, before we send anyone after the carpenter. That remains a last resort.”
“But Practitioner, isn’t the experiment worthwhile in itself? I mean, don’t we want to be able use this forran when we want to? Not just for this occasion?”
“Of course, and we will, when we have more time. Just now, we must return our attention to the original project. I’ll need your help for that, and unless you think Jordy and Konne can be left to experiment alone—”
“Absolutely not, sir, no.”
“So I surmised. No, we’ll have them go back to relieving the others at the doorway, while you and Noxyn assist me in the vault.” Predax only nodded at this, but his smile told Metenari how pleased the boy was.
He and Predax left the garden, and strolled down one of the wide yew-lined paths leading toward the older buildings. Several people nodded as he passed, and Metenari was careful to acknowledge every greeting, sometimes with a lifted hand, sometimes a nod. Only once did he stop to exchange a few words. It paid to be gracious to everyone. You never knew when you were going to need a favor.
When he recognized a particular set of shoulders coming around a hedge toward them, he deliberately turned his head away. He hadn’t spoken directly to Ronan Sedges since he’d beaten the man out for the last council seat, and he wasn’t going to start now.
The stairwell that hid Xandra Albainil’s workroom was now blocked off. In fact, that entire end of the building had been put out of bounds. Several of Metenari’s students who hadn’t yet reached the apprentice stage were posted at the hallways connecting to the old tower, to keep people out, or divert them away, citing Metenari’s authority when they had to.
They reached the tower and turned into the stairwell. The workshop door was no secret to them, now that they knew where it was. Inside, Noxyn was speaking with a student whose name Metenari couldn’t remember, who sat on a stool placed in the open doorway of the vault next to a small table where he could work and eat. As he and Predax came in, the student got to his feet, and Noxyn turned to greet them.
“Now, I haven’t been wasting my time while you boys have been working. I’ve made a careful analysis of Xandra Albainil’s workroom and I believe I have enough understanding of how the man thought for us to find the Godstone more quickly than we’d hoped.”
Metenari took a long look at the room and nodded, satisfied. Parchments, scrolls, artifacts, and tools were laid out neatly on shelves and tabletops as if they expected their master to come back. Oddly, there were very few books. “Now, all practitioners keep certain things nearest to hand, but Albainil was unusual in his organization. Can either of you spot it?”
Predax cleared his throat. “Everything in here is in a circle, around a central seat. Not laid out in rows like most people do.”
“Very good, Predax. In fact, excellent.”
“Well, I’ve been stationed here quite a bit and . . .”
“And you’ve been watching me, of course, and so you should. Never be shy of watching a master at work, particularly your own.”
The two apprentices nodded respectfully.
“All right, then.” Metenari returned to the student at the door. “Just sit here quietly, will you? Remember, don’t step out of the threshold.” Metenari laughed and patted the youngster on the shoulder. “Noxyn, follow me. Predax? Bring in that stool, would you?” The boys followed him as Metenari passed through the door and then stood to one side in the old practitioner’s vault. The first thing Metenari did was point out where he wanted Predax to place the stool. As far as possible, he wanted it in the same spot it had occupied in the workroom. Metenari oriented himself with his back to the door.
“Slightly to the left. A little more. There, I think that’s it, don’t you?”
“Relative to everything else, yes. But Practitioner, the large cabinet to the left, there’s no equivalent for it in here.”
“I noticed that myself, Predax, but thank you. You may not have noticed, but the cabinet you speak of holds glassware—drinking glasses, bottles, jars and pitchers and the l
ike. I imagine there’d be no need for that kind of thing in here. A vault is essentially a large cupboard, and while you might do actual work in a cupboard, you don’t spend any time eating or drinking in one.” Again, both apprentices nodded.
Metenari sat down on the stool, folded his hands in his lap, and looked slowly around. Would Xandra have put the Godstone into a place near to the central seat, or far? In the workshop, items near the stool were commonplace ones in constant use, or everyday items like the glassware cabinet that had no duplicate here. The chances were equally good, therefore, that something as unusual and precious as the Godstone would be in one of the further cupboards, or on one of the shelves that were covered with doors in here, though they were open in the outside room. But the Godstone was more than unusual and precious.
“Now, something dangerous,” he said to Noxyn. “Close to hand, or farther away?”
“Would it be likely to act on its own?” Noxyn said.
“An excellent question, my boy. Excellent.” Metenari nodded. He should have thought of that himself. “If it was, he’d keep it nearby, don’t you think? So he could react quickly. If it had to be activated somehow, then a corner cupboard would be just as likely. Here, you take my seat, tell me what you think.”
When Noxyn was seated, Metenari looked around the room. “If it were nearby, what could you reach if you had to spring at it in a single bound?”
His lower lip between his teeth, Noxyn looked around him carefully. “I’d say nothing more than two paces away. Circular orientation, so we can’t go by what direction he’d be facing . . .” Metenari nodded his encouragement, as Noxyn stood and paced slowly around the stool. “So it could be anywhere in this circle.” Noxyn gestured. “I’d start by trying that cabinet there, the one that looks like a clothes press.”
Metenari approached the cabinet with caution. The boy was quite right, any practitioner could cross this distance in one step, as it were, even if startled and otherwise unprepared. And it did look like a clothes press. About as tall as Metenari himself, it stood on four nicely turned legs, complete with matching stretchers. Above the legs were two drawers, about three hands deep, with brass pulls, and above them the cabinet proper, two doors that met in the middle with matching brass knobs. Not one to overlook the obvious, Metenari first tried the doors. They were closely fitted, and there was no sign on the outside of the astragal that they closed to. Nor was there any physical lock visible. But nevertheless, the doors did not open. Nor did the drawers when he tried them.
Metenari smiled. He would have been disappointed if they had.
“Watch my surroundings carefully, Predax. Now, Noxyn, let’s consider this a quiz. Which forran would you use to open this cabinet?”
The boy took a moment to consider, which pleased Metenari very much. Impulsiveness was not a trait he considered useful in a practitioner. That, in his mind, had always been Fenra Lowens’ problem.
“I’d say Llono’s forran for locks would be the place to start.”
“And why is that?”
“It’s simple,” Noxyn said, spreading his hands. “And it’s a good principle to eliminate the simple before advancing to the complex.”
“Exactly. Well done. Besides, Albainil would know that people would expect him to use a complicated forran, so he might have bluffed them by using a simple one.”
Metenari pressed his palms together. A breath sufficed to fix the details of the forran in his mind. He slowed his breathing down, listening as his heart slowed to match. At the right moment he spread his fingers and drew his hands apart. He couldn’t see any light with his eyes closed, but the familiar feeling of the power coursing from fingertip to fingertip told him he was ready. Still without opening his eyes, he turned his palms toward the cabinet. His hands heated as the power poured through them. In his mind he drew the pattern, in the manner indicated by Llono’s forran, and waited.
And waited.
“Nothing, Practitioner.”
Metenari sighed, letting his hands fall and the power dissipate harmlessly into the room. “Well, not unexpected, so don’t let’s allow ourselves to grow discouraged. What’s the next forran you would try?”
But the next one didn’t work either, nor the one after that. Metenari paused for reflection. Usually he would eliminate all possibilities before moving on to the other pieces of furniture. “Finish what you are doing before moving on” had always been his motto and advice. But in this case, there was good reason to eliminate the simple forrans for every piece before trying other, more complicated ones. He explained his reasoning to Noxyn and Predax, lest they think they were now allowed to apply this approach willy-nilly.
“Each item of furniture is likely to have a unique locking forran, therefore let us eliminate the forrans themselves by trying them on each lock,” he concluded. “That way we can be sure not to miss anything obvious.” He coughed and rubbed his forehead. He shouldn’t be this tired, he’d only performed three forrans, and simple ones at that. He glanced around again at the seemingly innocent room. He wouldn’t be surprised if someone so clever and devious as Xandra Albainil should leave a forran running in his vault that would subtly drain an intruding practitioner’s power.
“Noxyn, why don’t you try the first three locking forrans on this cabinet here; Predax, on that chest of drawers.” No need to tell the boys anything yet, especially not that he was using them as guinea pigs. Let’s see if they tire as quickly as I did.
Two hours later Metenari had his answer. With less experience, it took longer for apprentices to perform three forrans on the second cabinet and the chest of drawers, but they got just exactly as far as Metenari had with the first cabinet. With the droop of their shoulders, and the pallor of their faces, the boys looked the way Metenari felt.
“I think that’s all for today, boys. We may have to rethink our approach a little.”
“Perhaps one of the juniors should join us,” Noxyn suggested, glancing at the student watching them round-eyed from the doorway. “Jordy, or even Konne. It’s unlikely that any of these simple forrans will open anything,” he continued as Metenari waited, “but we still need to check. That said, it needn’t be any of us doing the checking.”
“You’ve hit on something there, Noxyn. A very good idea. But let me improve upon it. Using the junior apprentices, we could even work in shifts. You, Predax, and I could be trying the next set of more complicated forrans on these initial cabinets while the others test the remaining furniture and shelving. We would follow each other in sequence until the correct one was found.” He still thought the nearer ones the most likely.
“Like a round song,” Predax said.
“Yes, I suppose it is, in a way. Though we must remember that just because a particular forran opens a particular artifact, it needn’t follow that it will open all of them. As I said, everything we’ve seen so far tells us that Xandra Albainil had a complicated and even paranoid mind.”
Metenari was just pushing himself to his feet when Jordy appeared in the doorway, clearing his throat.
“Excuse me, Practitioner? Konne says Practitioner Otwyn is at the foot of the tower. She needs to speak with you urgently.”
Metenari sighed. Of course she did. Every new practitioner believed that every little thing they thought or did was the most important thing in the world. She was a nice girl, careful and usually considerate. He hoped she’d get past this stage quickly.
“Tell her I’m unavailable, but that I would be happy to see her in my office first thing in the morning.” A headache began to throb behind Metenari’s eyes. Maybe there was someone else he could palm her off to. Too bad Medlyn was faded, he’d been so good at this kind of thing.
“I’m sorry, Practitioner, but I told her that already. She says it’s an emergency. Three people just appeared in her office out of nowhere, pushed her aside, and escaped before she could do anything. She’s very worr
ied.” The boy rushed through the last few words and looked thankful to be silent.
The headache disappeared. “Out of nowhere? Three people? Is she sure? Never mind, I’ll come down and question her myself.”
* * *
Fenra
I wished we had not frightened the new practitioner who was taking over Medlyn’s office. I could tell from the way she had treated the furniture that she had valued and respected him; she might have been willing to help us. As it was, she had undoubtedly gone to spread the alarm. Someone would be looking for us soon, and the stares of a few of the people we passed in the courtyards made me well aware of my stained and dusty clothing. One or two seemed about to speak, but something in either Arlyn’s face or Elvanyn’s kept them from approaching us.
“We’re attracting too much attention,” Elvanyn said. I had my hand in the crook of his elbow. Without my cane, left behind in our escape from Medlyn’s office, I found I was tired enough to need his help. “Anyone looking for us will find plenty of witnesses to recognize our descriptions, and tell them which way we went.”
“Your suggestions?”
“Get out of the White Court?” Elvanyn said. “Though it won’t be easy. Perhaps we’ll have to fight our way out.” There was a smile in his voice, if not on his face.
“And go where?” I said. “We are here to deal with the Godstone, not to escape and wait in hiding for Metenari to find it and use it, because firstly, he can, and secondly, he will.”
As we were talking, I had steered my companions into the Patio of Horses, one of the largest courtyards in the palace, large enough to have mature trees in it, and deep arcades on both long sides. We found a bench in a private but not too secluded alcove deep under one of the arcades and sat down out of the sun. Elvanyn put his hand down on top of mine before I could withdraw it from his elbow.
“Without me, the two of you could pass as visitors from an outer Mode,” I said into the silence. “The danger lies in our being together.”
The Godstone Page 14