No True Way

by Mercedes Lackey

  * * *

  The hertasi guided Stardance to the stone workrooms where Deermoon and his apprentices had gathered. Entering the outer chamber, she eyed them in turn as they studied her. Silverheart had indicated that Deermoon was only a few years older than she, but his appearance was that of a much older man. Thin and worn, he seemed even more frail than Winternight, the most senior Mage and Elder of k’Veyas. His students, on the other hand, were quite a bit younger than Stardance, and they shifted in their seats as she took the open seat beside Deermoon.

  “What is it that ails the earth here? How long has it been this way?” Stardance’s question was blunt, and Deermoon let out a raspy chuckle, his hands twisting stiffly on the end of his walking stick.

  “You are Silverheart’s pupil, that is certain. She never used two words when one would do.” He coughed, and Stardance’s own Healing Gift recognized what the k’Lissa Healers had seen. His body did not seem truly ill but was suffering a deep exhaustion. Small wonder, then, that the Healers had been unable to provide more than temporary aid.

  “We don’t know either answer,” he replied at last. “At some time in the last year or two, my work became more and more tiring, and I could not hold my focus for as long as I used to. I thought little of it when I noticed it, for I am no longer young. Instead, I concentrated on finding and training any Healing-talented Mages among k’Lissa. As I taught more, I went beyond the Veil to work less. When I did, I found it even more fatiguing, but again, did not think it unusual.”

  He paused, then shook his head. “It was always so easy to explain away the exhaustion as overwork, as distraction, as something simple. But now I’ve noticed that, in this last six-month, my students are tiring rapidly, and that their focus and control is less than it used to be. That was the first time I thought there might be something else behind this. With even the apprentices affected, the Healing work of the Tayledras is all but halted. Until we find what is causing this, we can make but little progress. K’Veyas is one of the closest Vales to us, and I know Silverheart better than the senior Healer-Mages of the others. It was logical to call upon her for aid, and Firewind supported the idea in the Council. Some wanted to go to k’Onsoya as well, but Firewind left first, as soon as there were signs of spring. When the weather turned so fierce, the Council decided to wait on his return. Now that you are here . . .” He shrugged. “The Council will likely wait to see if you are able to assist us before they ask for any other help.”

  Deermoon’s mention that the apprentices had been weakened caught Stardance’s attention. “Have any of the other Mages been affected, those who are not Healing-Mages, especially those who support your work? Even here in the Vale, I can feel the undertone of whatever it is, although the Veil mutes it. Though they do not draw on the Heartstone as once they did, do they notice the change? Or did it happen too gradually?”

  Deermoon shook his head. “K’Lissa has never been noted for its great Mages—we mostly have skilled Masters. Your father is one of our few Adepts, and he has said nothing. Our Mages are very capable, but not sensitive to this subtle degree, which is partly why they are limited in reorganizing the threads of magic. Whatever this is, it has its greatest effect at the lowest level of the earth energies, and the dissolving of the great magics after the Mage Storms made this smaller change even less noticeable.”

  Stardance frowned at the mention of the storms. “Is it possible that this is something from the Mage-Storms themselves?”

  Deermoon shook his head again, so firmly the feathers in his white braids fluttered. “I shouldn’t think so. Why would something like this only appear now, years later, when all the other effects were so immediate? And would not other Clans or Outlander Mages be noticing this, if it were a broad effect of the Storms?”

  Stardance sought other possibilities. “Might there be another Mage who is drawing on the lines of power, some sort of invader?” She would think the odds would be against something like that happening in k’Lissa, since k’Onsoya or even k’Veyas were closer to the edges of the Tayledras territories, but it was something to be considered.

  “That is the most likely answer and what I suspect,” Deermoon replied. “Such a Mage would have had to pass one of the other Vales unnoticed, but it is not impossible.”

  Stardance frowned, green eyes narrowing as she sorted through her options. “So. I will take some time to observe, first. Since I am newly come here, I should be less affected by this, and might be able to see what has gone wrong more readily. Until we can determine what is happening, and stop it if we can, I will not attempt to do anything with the earth energies. The last thing your Clan needs is another ill and exhausted Healing-Mage.” I think I’m in over my head, she thought, her stomach knotting. An Outland Mage capable of disturbing the earth energy around a Vale? Does Deermoon truly realize how serious this could be? Did Silverheart suspect it? Do they really expect an apprentice, a Journeyman, to be able to fix whatever has gone wrong here?

  * * *

  Stardance began her study of the earth energy around k’Lissa from the carefully shielded Workroom. Sitting near the Heartstone, feeling its faint pulse of warmth, she sifted through the web of lines feeding it; a Journeyman could See the lines, even if she could not safely use them. Within the Veil, all was in order, but when her focus reached the border of the Veil, she detected a subtle shift, a fraying of the lines. In her own work, she would say that the lines had not been twisted securely enough and what held them together was beginning to loosen, but Deermoon’s craft was different. Instead of the spun threads of magic that she produced, his lines had a sense of water to them. He created channels like riverbeds that led the droplets of energy into larger and larger rivulets.

  The rippling of the magic outside of those courses seemed to be the strongest at the southern boundary of the Veil, so she left the Workroom. A hertasi appeared from the foliage beside her, and she asked him to guide her to that area. Kir flapped and soared overhead as they walked, familiar with her mistress’ routines, even in this strange place. When Stardance found a sheltered seat just within the Veil, the falcon came to a nearby roost to wait, and the hertasi disappeared back down the path.

  When she sank into Trance and opened herself to the earth, Stardance was glad she was still within the borders of the shielding Veil, for the strange blurring of the energy unsettled her. This close to it, she didn’t have to strain her Mage Sense and could focus instead on the feel of the power. The hazy mist of magic seemed somehow confused, as though it wanted to flow to the Heartstone in the channels that Deermoon had so carefully crafted, but the stream of power wavered with another pull, like a lodestone from beyond the Veil.

  It was this pull that Stardance now attempted to track, although she couldn’t sense it directly herself. It was like chasing the wind without actually feeling it, knowing where it had been only by the movement of the leaves. She let her awareness drift, seeking the place where the power was most disordered and following that disorder farther into deeper unease and chaos, until she felt that she had placed it. To mark the spot, she let a tiny bit of her personal energy sink into the earth, trailing a spidersilk-fine strand of Power behind it, linked to her as she emerged from her Trance.

  She stood and stretched, then moved back down the path toward the center of the Vale. Amberlight, the senior Elder of k’Lissa, had suggested she seek out Sunsong when she needed to go beyond the Veil. The scout could guide her through the physical surroundings of the k’Lissa territory while she followed that silvery thread. That bit of her personal magic was how they could find what was at the center of that muddle of energy—or find out if she needed to go still farther.

  * * *

  Only effort of will kept the contents of Stardance’s stomach in their proper place. Now that she faced what was producing it, the wrong was so intense that she could barely keep her composure to study it.

  :It feels like Blood Magic.:

&
nbsp; Her eyes flicked over to the tree next to the one that concealed her. She could not see Sunsong’s blond head, but she knew he was there. It was a good thing he had been chosen to assist her, because he could project Mindspeech to those who were not similarly Gifted, and she had practiced “thinking” back to him as they had moved through the trees toward the rocky outcropping on the southern edge of k’Lissa’s cleared territory. They had started on the paths, but some instinct had led them to go up to the trees, “walking” from branch to branch.

  :You know it?: She wasn’t sure she wanted to know how.

  :After the Storms, a scouting party came upon a lost and desperate Rethwellan Mage who had turned to it. I’m not that Gifted, but even I could feel the pain, the nasty stench to the Power she’d raised, when we interrupted her.: He didn’t elaborate, and she didn’t ask further, turning her attention back to the creature in front of the cave.

  In appearance, it looked like a small basilisk with shimmering dark gray scales, all lizardlike torpor, but leaner, with longer legs. It seemed to be sunning itself, basking in the late spring sun, but something about it gave Stardance pause. This was no mere nap, and she made sure her shields were securely layered and doubled before shifting her vision to See the earth energies around them.

  The nausea swelled again as she did so, and she pressed her forehead against the tree’s cool bark to calm herself. With deep breaths, she steadied until she could concentrate on the nebulous wisps of life energy around her. Those tiny tendrils should have been gathering into droplets of power and feeding the intricate web of ley-lines, the foundation worked by Deermoon and his apprentices.

  This area, according to the maps of k’Lissa, had been cleared soon after the Storms, and the ley-lines and loci that would become nodes should by now have been firmly established. But that web was muddied, the rivulets pulled out of their channels toward the cave. Toward the creature in front of the cave. Stardance could See the tendrils and lines flowing to the ground under the creature, then disappearing. To Mage Sight, the strange creature might have been any other creature, filled with the glow of life. To a Healer-Mage, however, the color and feel of that life was dark and unpleasant. Stardance shuddered as she released her Mage Sense and slowly straightened from her perch in the branches.

  :Back to the Vale,: Stardance said to Sunsong. :I’ve seen enough for now.:

  Moving in silence, the two of them began their slow tree-walking return.

  * * *

  “I don’t know how our scouts could have so often missed so large a creature, even if the caverns are a bit hidden.” That was Fallingwater, the young leader of the scouts, who clearly took the creature’s presence as a personal affront.

  Stardance shifted in her seat. “It is not so surprising. On one of the occasions Sunsong and I observed it, one of the large forest cats came down along the river. The creature hid in the cave long before the cat was near, despite its larger size. A scout would be a much greater presence in the web of earth-energies than the cat, so the thing would have vanished before a scout could even guess it was there. We could only observe from a distance, up in the trees, so that we would not be perceived as a threat. Too close, or on the ground, and it would hide at once.”

  “No matter how it was missed, what are we to do about it? If it is anything like a basilisk, those are not easily dealt with.” Amberlight’s words caused several of the Council to grimace as they remembered a previous encounter.

  “If it has been concealing itself, I think it is not a true basilisk,” Stardance pointed out. “They fear nothing.” She paused. “I think we were too far away to tell if it smells like one. At least, I did not notice any foul stench.”

  “No, we were well within smelling range,” Sunsong replied with a wry smile, and the same Councilors who had grimaced earlier now sighed with relief.

  “Would that make it reasonable to just kill the thing? If it seems to be less tough than a basilisk and wouldn’t have the horrible odor?” Firewind’s suggestion was met with several nods. From what Stardance had seen, his name was accurate, for he always favored a blaze of swift action, and his influence on the Council was great. “It would be simple to gather enough warriors, and we could use some illusion or other to bring it out from the caves.” He gestured, the full sleeves of his Mage robe rippling through the air.

  “Considering how connected to magic it seems to be, its death could disrupt the web of power as much as its life already has,” Stardance replied, her voice thoughtful. “It has distorted the web Deermoon has created, and I don’t know if that power will simply sink back to Deermoon’s channels if the creature is killed, or if the magic will go wild. Deermoon and I will need to discuss what might happen and what can be done about it. In the meantime, perhaps the scouts can monitor the area more often than Sunsong and I have been able to? They can see if the creature becomes active by night, if it hunts, if there is anything unusual that we have not noticed. The thing has probably been here for some time, I would guess at least as long as Deermoon has been noticeably weakened. A little while longer will not make much difference.”

  * * *

  When the reports of the scouts came, they were encouraging. The Blood Beast, as Sunsong had named it, didn’t seem to hunt at all, and the animals of the forest did not seem much disturbed by its presence. It always retreated into the caverns if the scouts crossed the invisible threshold it considered a safe distance. Even better, the scouts never observed it using the ability of the basilisk to fascinate a prey creature, and those who got closer to the rocky outcropping confirmed that there was no foul stench. Only those most sensitive to magic reported the unpleasant wrongness, the feel of Blood Magic that Stardance and Sunsong had noticed.

  “It would appear that it lives just by absorbing energy from the earth around it,” Stardance said, and Deermoon nodded. They sat at the side of the Workroom, observing the practice of Deermoon’s apprentices. At Stardance’s suggestion, the students were doing what they could to strengthen the web that fed the ley-lines of the southern edge of the Vale, rather than looking to expand the perimeter of the k’Lissa territory. “I’ve observed it, the scouts have watched it, and no one has seen anything unusual about it. We don’t know if it has a tough skin or any strong defenses, but its claws and teeth are no more fierce than any other lizard’s, just larger to match its size. I think Firewind is right, and we can attempt to kill it where it is. A true basilisk could be lured or driven to some other area, but I would never want to send this thing elsewhere to wreak havoc with the web of power. Even to the Uncleansed Lands.”

  “Because if it goes to the Uncleansed Lands, sooner or later a Tayledras is going to have to face it,” Deermoon replied, his smile crinkling the corners of his blue eyes.

  “And probably sooner rather than later,” Stardance continued. “I suspect the beast would only be attracted to another Vale if it was driven away from k’Lissa. As the Tayledras reshape and organize the ley-lines, we create nice, juicy ‘food’ for such a creature.” She grinned, then sobered. “At least basilisks have been around since the Mage Wars, and we are accustomed to them. This thing . . .” She let her words trail off. New monsters are never a good thing, she thought.

  The plan that Stardance and Deermoon presented to the k’Lissa Council and Elders was simple. She would go to the outcropping with a warrior party and a few Mages. The Mages, as Firewind had suggested, would use illusion to drive the Change-Creature into the open, where the fighters could take it on. Stardance herself would monitor the web of magic and try to weaken the creature by slowing or blocking the flow of the earth energy toward it. Beyond that, they set no particular strategies, keeping in mind the Shin’a’in proverb: Plans seldom survive first contact with the enemy.

  * * *

  The day of the intended ambush dawned clear. Stardance carefully tucked the wooden box with her precious amber-whorl spindle into her belt pouch, then joined the group
. The call from the Council had resulted in a flurry of volunteers, more than could ever have been needed, and Amberlight and Deermoon had selected from among them. Three Mages would go, including Firewind, and a dozen scouts, some of the most skilled with bow and arrow and thrown spears as well as those most capable with sword and dagger. They would try to kill from a distance first but would close with the creature if necessary.

  * * *

  Stardance held up her hand to signal the first stop, and the group gathered around her. “I will stay here,” she said. “There is a locus here into which I can feed the power, and the locus links to one of the larger channels to the Vale. That line of trees ahead is where Sunsong and I first saw the creature, so from here I should be able to work with the energy without disturbing the thing too much. At least at first.”

  She sat and took out the amber-whorl spindle and chain, Kir shifting on her shoulder as she entered her Trance. Several of the scouts stayed with her as a guard, while the rest moved forward.

  With her Mage Sense, Stardance could See the others as large shapes of life energy, moving slowly and cautiously toward the outcropping. Sinking into the earth, she let her breathing slow, closing off the protests of her mind to the sense of wrong that came from the creature ahead of her. Her first step was to set another layer of secure shields on the locus, adding to those Deermoon had created years ago. These shields were what prevented the creature from directly drawing on the Heartstone as well, for Deermoon had locked the magic so only Tayledras could use it. Her shields built on his, binding the magic around the locus tightly to her, so that nothing could wrest it from her. Working with a locus was just past the edge of a Journeyman’s ability, but simply shielding and feeding the lines that went to it was far easier than making use of the power it held.