Myron and Klaybear both looked at her for a moment before Klaybear spoke.
“What do you mean, dear?” Klaybear asked with care.
“Klaybear! I’m shocked!” Klare replied, grinning. “Are you telling me that after a year of marriage, you are still naïve as a schoolboy?”
Myron moved his hand from holding his chin to cover his mouth and hide his grin. Klaybear sat with his mouth open.
“Of course,” Klare continued, “I sometimes forget that you were raised by your father without the benefit of your mother, so things of the ‘female realm,’ as you often call them, are beyond your experience. But surely, your master would have explained these things to you before we were married?” Klare glanced at Myron and saw that he was struggling not to laugh; Klaybear still sat with his mouth open, so she plowed ahead mercilessly. “You know how, often, when we are alone, we start to kiss, and our kisses become more passionate, and you start to disrobe me. . . .”
“I know about that!” Klaybear exclaimed, interrupting Klare. His face glowed red.
“Of course you do, dear” Klare went on, sweetly, “and you have become quite proficient.”
Klaybear interrupted her again, his face pulsing with blood. “Could you get to the point before the soldiers clear away the rubble and rush in here to arrest me?”
“No one is going to arrest you,” she replied, an edge to her voice, “I won’t allow it.” She continued before he could interrupt her again. “You realize, of course, that while intimate play is quite pleasurable for us both, it does, on occasion, have another purpose, which is to produce children, and that act of producing children requires both a male and a female. So that, since we are literal children of the One, he,” she emphasized the word, “would require a she, to produce us,” she finished smiling wickedly at Klaybear, which caused more color in his face.
Myron could hold his laughter no longer, so he let it burst out. “Klare,” he said after a moment, “now is not the time or the place to instruct your husband in the subtleties of the ‘female realm,’ although I do enjoy a good laugh, now and then,” he said, wiping a tear from the corner of one eye. “It does remind me of my own mate, who has been gone for many years.”
Klare’s face fell, and her mood changed instantly. “Forgive me, Headmaster,” she said, “I did not mean to cause you grief.”
Myron shook his head and smiled at Klare. “The grief is mine; you did not cause it. Remembering is not a bad thing. However, the view you have expressed, Klare, implicitly accepted by most wetham, is not widely accepted among those who hold power, so I would be careful about who you mentioned them to, as also, what you have learned about the One. There are further facts, and maybe these are why I said, ‘implications,’ in the beginning. If we are literal children of the One, as what you have related indicates, then we must be, on some level, divine and immortal. That idea alone could get you put to death in some locales, just like what has happened here.”
Klaybear’s face looked less colored when he nodded; he noticed, out of the corner of his eye that Klare glanced his way and grinned wickedly.
“The other side of this idea,” Myron continued, “that we are his literal children, and so that we are divine, is that He must be, on some level, mortal, which will get you killed almost anywhere. The dogmatic among us down through the ages have constructed an unbreachable wall between the One and his children. So again, I would caution you about where you say such things, or to whom you say them.”
“I understand, master,” Klaybear said. He looked at Klare. “I wonder how the others are doing?” he asked.
Klare, still smiling, touched her now glowing finger to the bracelet on her left wrist, and whispered, “Blakstar.” After a moment, she lifted her finger. “They are northwest of us, moving, probably, back to our sanctuary.”
“We better get back there, then,” Klaybear said.
Myron looked at them curiously. “What did you just do?” he asked.
Klare pointed to her gold bracelets. “These are verghrenum, made by the founders and left for each of us,” she pointed to herself and her husband, “and the other chosen. They protect us from mental manipulation by outsiders. . . .”
Myron interrupted her. “I know what verghrenum are, and what they do,” he said. “I meant, how did you use yours to find where the others were?”
“I’m sorry, Headmaster,” Klare said.
“Yes,” Klaybear put in, “you were preoccupied with your clever arguments to embarrass me.”
“You be careful, dear,” Klare noted, “or I’ll come up with new ways to punish you.” Again, she smiled at him wickedly, causing his face to color for the second time. She turned back to Myron. “Master Thalamar discovered that these verghrenum are connected to each other, so that we can actually locate each other using them.”
“Interesting,” Myron said, rising to his feet. “Shall we go, then?” he asked.
“You are coming with us,” Klare asked, “leaving Mistress Storga behind?”
Myron looked over to where Storga lay wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by a purple nimbus. “Since I know how thoroughly you do your job, I’m sure she’ll be fine until I can send someone to carry her back to the Infirmary.”
Klaybear nodded. “There was one other thing,” he said, pulling a parchment from inside his robes and handing it to Myron.
“What is it?” Myron asked. taking the rolled parchment.
“It is a rubbing Thal made of the original stone upon which Shigmar inscribed his prophecy,” Klaybear replied.
“You never mentioned that,” Klare noted.
“We discovered it while you were sleeping,” Klaybear said.
“And who was right?” Myron asked, slipping the parchment inside his robes.
“Shigmar made the changes to the copy,” Klaybear said.
Myron nodded. “You go first,” he said to Klaybear, pointing to the open grate.
Klaybear started to climb down. Klare moved over to follow him, but she could not resist baiting him again.
“You keep your eyes down, dear,” she said. “I don’t want to embarrass the Headmaster with further displays of your country manners: no leering up at me as I climb down.”
Klaybear opened his mouth to respond, closed it as his face colored, then spoke. “Yes, dear,” he said meekly, starting to climb down the ladder. “I’ll only leer when he is not looking,” he said, then slid the rest of the way down the ladder to avoid her response.
“After you,” Myron’s voice said, “and I’ll turn away, so I do not notice his ‘country manners,’ as you named them.”
“You are as oafish as he is!” Klare’s voice exclaimed, then she climbed down.
When they reached the side passage where they had heard the soldiers enter the sewers, Myron turned aside. “I think I can get the horses to the private entrance in a couple of hours.”
“But how will we get there?” Klaybear protested. “The path by the waterfall has fallen away, so we are still trapped inside the city.”
“Well,” Myron said, clasping one of his apprentice’s shoulders and grinning crookedly, “given the careful preparation of the founders, I’m sure they prepared another way of escape,” he added. “I’ll meet you near the private entrance, outside the city walls in two hours.” He turned, opened the gate, and climbed the stairs into the lower level of the barracks.
“How did he know?” Klaybear asked. He and Klare had arrived back in their sanctuary after the others, who had shared what they had found with Tevvy. They had just related to Klaybear and Klare the door they had found that led into what they thought must be the kailum teleport house in the northwest quarter of the city.
“How did who know?” Thal asked.
“The Headmaster,” Klaybear replied, “how did he know there was a way into the house from the sewers, a secret way that could only be opened by Blakstar?”
Thal shrugged. “Probably the same way the founders knew,” he said, “or maybe
they left him instructions.”
“That’s possible,” Klaybear said, “there is a book kept by the Headmasters, a book that only the Headmaster can read.”
“Well why wouldn’t they have spoken more clearly,” Tevvy noted, “you know, like told us exactly where to find the keys.”
“The One told us where to find the next key,” Klaybear said, “in the tomb of the greatest kailu, which we have reasoned to be Shigmar and his staff.”
“We also now know,” Thal added, “that the morgle who is attacking Shigmar holds the rod of Melbarth, so we know where both of the other two keys are.”
Tevvy shook his head. “Why do we need to leave the city?” he asked. “Isn’t Shigmar’s tomb here?”
“No, Tevvy,” Klare said sweetly, “he retired to his hometown before he died, so that is where he is buried.” Klare entered the room in which she had been sleeping.
“So now we need to go to the tomb of Shigmar,” Thal noted.
Blakstar stood on the other side of the table, looking at the things on the shelf. “And we need to leave the area around the city,” he said, “before the morgle’s army is fully in place, or we never will leave.”
“We don’t have much time,” Thal noted, “before the morgle opens another door with Melbarth’s rod.”
Klare disappeared from view, and they heard the sound of a door opening. The three wethem and one awemi, looked in the direction of the sound, then back at each other. Thal spoke.
“So now all we need is the location of Shigmar’s tomb,” Thal said.
Klaybear shrugged. “The record only says that he was heading north when he left, carrying a cloth-wrapped, staff-sized bundle. It’s possible he returned to his estate in Kalbant.”
“How do we know he actually went there?” Tevvy asked. “How many supplies did he carry? Was he traveling by horse?”
“Those are odd questions,” Thal replied.
“Not really,” Tevvy said, “since if we knew how he traveled, and how many supplies he carried, we would narrow the area we need to search for this tomb.”
Thal raised one eyebrow. “Good thinking,” he said.
“Klare said that he was buried in her hometown,” Tevvy went on, “so with the knowledge of how much he carried, we could search the map for towns within the circle of distance he could have traveled. That would help us focus our search.”
“There is only one town,” Klaybear said, “that I know of, that is north of Shigmar: Kalbant, on the shore of Krystal Lake, where the Krystal River leaves the lake and flows south to Shigmar.”
“He could have turned another direction after getting out of sight of the city,” Tevvy said, “we cannot depend on him going straight north, since there is no record of him reaching his estate. For all we know, he could have turned south out of sight and circled the city, going somewhere else; that is why knowing how he traveled and how many supplies he carried will help.”
Klaybear shook his head. “As far as I recall from my history studies, the record does not give us that information.”
“Of course not,” Tevvy quipped, “that information might actually be useful.”
Klare stuck her head out of the door. “What information might be useful?” she asked.
“Well,” Tevvy said, “how Shigmar traveled from the city when he retired, how much food he carried, maybe even the location of his tomb.”
“Horse, one day, and Kalbant,” Klare replied with a smile. They all looked at her, stunned.
“How do you know?” Tevvy asked.
“Because,” she smiled, “he came from Kalbant, and so did I. Didn’t my husband share that information with you?”
“He did,” Thal replied, “but knew of no record that he actually arrived there.”
“That makes things easier,” Blakstar noted.
“I require the presence of my husband,” Klare said, still only showing her head in the doorway.
“What for?” Klaybear asked, suspicious of her request.
“I’ve just found the bathing rooms attached to this, our bedroom,” she replied, “and thought to take advantage of them. Since you, husband, have just been digging in the dirt, and are covered with both dirt and sweat, I thought bathing might be wise.” Her eyes went to the others. “I’m guessing that the other bedroom also has a bath, and I refuse to travel with dirty males, short and tall, handsome though they might be.”
“Don’t be fooled by the sugar,” Klaybear said to the others in a quiet voice, “her honeyed requests are not so subtle commands.”
“Klaybear, don’t be mean!” Klare replied even more sweetly.
“We don’t have time,” Blakstar noted.
“You said,” Klare smiled, “that we still had more than an hour before we needed to meet the Headmaster outside the walls, which gives all of you plenty of time to clean up.” Her head disappeared, but her voice followed. “Coming, dear?”
“Enjoy your baths,” Klaybear whispered as he walked to the bedroom.
“I’m becoming impatient,” Klare’s voice called.
Tevvy looked up at the white maghi and the kortexi. “If I ever begin to consider marriage,” he said softly, “say one word to me: Klarissa.”
Thal snorted; Blakstar shook his head and frowned. “I recognize that tone; my mother used that tone on me all the time. We better do what she says.”
“We must be very careful here,” Klaybear whispered to the others. “Even though we only see one kailu on duty, there are many others in this building, including a lesser master. One shout from the person on duty, and everyone in the house will be here in seconds.”
They stood taking turns looking through the spyholes in a concealed hallway of the kailu teleport house. One spyhole looked into the room where the telepad was inscribed on the floor, a second into the hallway outside the teleport room, and the third, into the outer hallway of the main floor. The concealed hallway led down into the sewers to the doorway Tevvy had discovered earlier. The concealed door out of this hallway opened into the outer hallway, then they had to pass through a second door to enter the hallway adjacent to the teleport room.
“It is laid out well,” Tevvy noted, “making it easy to defend, but we should have no trouble getting past the kailu on duty, if someone can distract her for a moment.”
“Who is on duty?” Klare asked.
“Your friend, Sutugno,” Klaybear noted.
“Oh, no,” Klare said, her brow wrinkling. “I don’t want to get her into trouble.”
“She won’t remember anything,” Tevvy said, taking a very small vial from one of his many pockets, along with a small, feathered dart.
“You cannot knock her out,” Klare said.
“Of course not,” Tevvy replied, “this will only distract her.”
“What do you mean, distract?” Klare asked. The three wethem were watching through each of the spyholes.
“She will sit down in her chair and experience a pleasant daydream,” Tevvy replied.
“For how long?”
“I thought five minutes should be enough.”
“Someone has just come down the stairs,” Klaybear, who was watching the outer hall, whispered. He turned from the spyhole. “Someone must come down and check on the person on duty every fifteen minutes.”
“That should be plenty of time,” Tevvy said. “As soon as the person goes up the stairs, we will go out, Klare can knock on the door to speak with this friend. Get her to turn away from the door, and I’ll deliver the dart. She’ll grab the dart from her neck, but become distracted before she realizes what it is. Be ready to catch the keys, as they might slip from her fingers, and help her into her chair. Signal us when you can see that she is no longer paying any attention to you.”
“She’s just gotten up and gone to the door,” Blakstar, who was watching the hall outside the teleport room, reported. “I think he said that it was the four-thirty check.”
“One of us should stay here,” Thal said, watching the telepad,
“until we get the door open.”
“She is going back to her chair,” Blakstar noted.
“And he is going back to the stairs,” Klaybear added.
Tevvy dipped the small dart into the vial carefully, then put the vial away. “Ready?” he asked.
“Wait!” Thal exclaimed. “Someone is appearing on the telepad,” and after a moment, “it’s the Headmaster.”
“She is going to unlock the door,” Blakstar added. “There must be a signal when someone teleports in.”
Klare and Klaybear both nodded.
“He’s come through,” Blakstar continued, “and she is writing something down. Now she is sitting again, and,” Blakstar paused, “I think he just put her to sleep.” The kortexi turned away from the spyhole. “He just looked straight at me, and beckoned me to him,” he finished, looking slightly puzzled.
Tevvy did not hesitate an instant. “Quickly,” he said, moving to and opening the concealed door into the outer hallway, “while we have a chance.”
They moved out of the concealed hallway and down the outer hall; Tevvy closed the concealed door softly behind them. When they turned the corner, they saw the Headmaster opening the door and waving them forward.
“Hurry,” Myron whispered, “we don’t have much time.” He held the door open until all five of them had entered, then closed the door. He handed the keys to Klaybear, who opened the door to the teleport room. “How did you know?” he asked, handing the keys back to Myron. The others filed into the room.
“Not here,” Myron said, “you take the others through, and then I’ll wake Sutugno and follow you.”
Klaybear nodded, and followed the others to the telepad. “Everyone needs to touch me, and I’ll transport us through.” He waited until all had surrounded and put a hand on him, then he held up his silver symbol and invoked the teka, transferring them instantly outside of the walls. They stood in the pre-dawn darkness, surrounded by trees; they heard the sound of horses moving nearby.
“Klaybear,” came a voice out of the darkness, “is that you?”
The Redemption, Volume 1 Page 37