“Of course! You don’t imagine for one moment I would leave you here alone, do you, with nothing but a couple of scared mages and wishful thinking to protect you? I’d like a company of guards as well, but I suppose that’s out of the question. I’ll protect you from Drei.” He ran his long fingers through my hair, smiling, and I was reassured, trying not to remember that his protection hadn’t been very effective so far. He was a skilful mage, but his training was not in battle spells or armed combat.
Evening board was rather an awkward affair. It was the first time we’d shared rooms since I’d first emerged from the city after our midnight chat to the Drashon many moons ago, and the question of where Cal would sleep was occupying all my thoughts. We’d reached some kind of accommodation in our relationship, but it hadn’t moved beyond kisses and handholding, and I was desperate for the comfort of something more. Yet I wasn’t sure if he wanted that.
So we ate and drank and talked determinedly about anything other than ourselves.
“Do you think the other mages should have jade belts too?” I said.
He set his wine glass down carefully. “I don’t think it’s necessary. The extra energy doesn’t help if Drei has power himself, and if he has none, then even a mage with a single vessel can deal with him.”
“Haven’t they asked for them? Now that they’ve tried them out, I mean.”
“Surprisingly, no. They all had a go with mine, but although they like the extra power, they’re not sure what to do with it. They’re comfortable with their vessels, I think. They’ve always been taught that being a mage is a difficult business, they think it would be hard to learn to use the increased power.”
“It’s not hard, exactly, it just takes time to get used to it,” I said. “And there’s so much more you can do with a decent amount of magic.”
“I’m not preventing them from having belts, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said quietly. “If Krayfon thought they could be useful, I would do it instantly. I don’t see how it could help, that’s all. It would distract them from the purpose.”
We made the meal last as long as possible, but we couldn’t put off the moment indefinitely. We went upstairs, the lamps dimming themselves behind us, and stopped on the landing. To one side was the bedroom we’d shared before. On the other side, a smaller bedroom. I glanced at him but I couldn’t read his face; I’d never been good at that. It wasn’t the time for prevarication, I was sure of that.
I took his hand. “Will you share my bed tonight? I’d like it if you would.” I tried to keep my voice calm, but it shook just a little.
A definite hesitation, not a good sign. “Are you sure? I mean... the thing is, I don’t know what you want of me. Or what you’re offering.”
“Sex, if you want it. Just company, if you don’t. But I... I can’t face spending another night alone.”
Another long pause. Then, with sudden passion, “Are you in love with him? Because if you are—”
“Who, Drei? You’re joking, aren’t you? The man who tried to kill me? Gods, what kind of idiot do you think I am?”
He smiled then. “Sorry. Stupid question, but I had to be sure there wasn’t some lingering affection.”
“Lingering—! Look, I thought he was a friend, once, that was all. I was mistaken. I’ve never loved him, never.”
“Sorry, sorry.” He pulled his hand out of mine and ran it through his hair. “It’s just... I don’t know what the future is... for us, I mean.”
I couldn’t make sense of that. “Future? Look, I’m scared and I’m lonely and I need you, right now, and anyway, we might all be dead tomorrow! I can’t think beyond that!”
He gave an uneasy little laugh, and took my hand again, letting me lead him into the bedroom. It wasn’t quite the delight we’d shared in the carefree suns when he was first at Kingswell, since my ungainly shape got in the way, but it was a tremendous comfort. Afterwards I fell asleep almost instantly, wrapped in his reassuring arms. When I woke later to visit the bucket room, he was sitting, head on knees, on the window seat, but when I returned he was curled up in bed again pretending to be asleep.
~~~~~
We waited almost a ten-sun for Drei. The mages became more agitated as time slipped by, jumping at shadows and sniping at each other. Outside the city, the Drashon’s court was in uproar, and Krayfon and Cal had to repeat the details of events over and over; to Yannassia, to the Drashon, to the law scribes, to the Council of Nobles, to the guards’ commanders. Several times I was summoned to give my story, but I refused, even to the Drashon. It was safe, I was told, Drei’s mother had fled before she could be arrested, but I wasn’t convinced. The town was crawling with Icthari and I didn’t trust them. The nobles were still in Drei’s thrall, too, and I didn’t trust them, either. And still Drei remained underground, and I refused to leave the city.
In the end, the Drashon and Yannassia came to me. A carriage brought them to the city’s main gates, accompanied by Krayfon, Cal and their personal guards. I waited on the other side of the wall. The Drashon was too frail to walk up to the library or to risk the birds, so we whisked him into a building right beside the gate, presumably a guard room at one time, judging by the lockable store room with its lines of holders for swords, spears and bows.
The Drashon looked shockingly old and grey, and leaned on Yannassia’s arm the whole time. There were only three steps up to the door, but he needed his guard’s help as well to manage them. We’d found a room fitted out with soft chairs, several tables, the wood rather scuffed, and a not too badly worn sofa, where the Drashon flopped, exhausted.
I lowered myself awkwardly to kneel before him. “Highness, you are unwell. Would you like me to heal you?”
“Axandrei usually does that,” he said petulantly. “Why have you not found him yet?”
“We can’t get to where he is.”
“He may be injured or in danger. You must find him!”
“He is perfectly safe, Highness, and everything possible is being done to find him. Until then, won’t you let me see if I can help you?”
“He is the only one who can help me. He told me so. No one else can make me feel better, not even Krayfon.”
“Rannassor,” Krayfon said gently, “Kyra is very skilled. Let her have a look at you.”
The Drashon leaned back against the sofa, eyes closed. I looked at Krayfon, and he gave a small nod, so I took the Drashon’s hand. I was shocked to see brown everywhere, in every part of his body. All the signs of age were here multiplied many times over. If I hadn’t known his true age, I would have thought he was eighty, at least. There was another colour too, tiny spots that flared and died away to nothing and flared again, in bright pink, a colour I’d never seen before. I didn’t know what to make of that.
I pushed a little magic into the Drashon and where it connected with the pink dots they disappeared, only to pop back a moment later. It was like trying to stamp out a grass fire; every time I thought a spot was defeated, it burst back into life. I released his hand.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. What’s happened to him?”
“We think a kind of low-grade poison,” Krayfon said. “Cayshorn root, perhaps. Axandrei managed to relieve the symptoms, but now it is getting worse again.”
“Poison.” My magic had struggled against the poison in me, but that was a different type, faster acting and more potent. This kind was debilitating over time. Perhaps that didn’t matter, though. What had worked for me was large infusions of magic, first from the stone vessel and then from the pillar. It was worth a try. Closing my eyes, I took the Drashon’s hand again and this time I poured in magic as fast as I could, imagining it spilling in like a lake overflowing its banks, trickling, pouring, rushing, cascading in a great waterfall. The Drashon’s whole body lit up in pink and gold, flaring and sparkling like a bonfire. Still I flooded magic in to him, and gradually the pink began to disappear, winking out and not returning. It took almost all my power, and the Drashon stil
l carried the signs of age inside him, which couldn’t be changed, but the poison was gone. I rested a moment, relishing the tranquillity of that strange state, the connection at an intrinsic level with another human being.
I opened my eyes. Sound crashed into my head, screaming, shouting, many voices bellowing in my ears. I shrieked at the sudden pain. Instantly the cacophony ceased, and the only sound was Yannassia sobbing and the Drashon’s rasping breath, great shuddering gasps that rattled in his chest. He lay rigid on the sofa, his back arched, eyes wide, mouth a shocked circle. Then, with terrifying slowness, he settled back and his face took on a more normal demeanour. One imperious finger brought a guard running, with an arm to support him to an upright position.
“Well,” he said, then paused to catch his breath. “Well. Interesting.”
“Father? Are you all right?”
“Better... than all right... I think. Like... myself again.” Krayfon rushed wine to him, and he sipped a little and smiled, then sipped a little more, and gradually the colour began to return to his cheeks. He actually laughed. “I feel years younger.” Another laugh, and then he winked at me. “Many years younger.” A broad grin and something which in anyone else would have been a giggle.
I think I gave the Drashon something close to a renewal experience. Cal helped me to my feet and found me a chair, eyebrows raised as he tried not to laugh, but I was too tired to manage more than a wan smile. Silently he pushed a glass of wine into my hand, and set a plate of cakes at my elbow.
After that excitement, we all settled to the purpose of the meeting, for me to tell the Drashon my story directly. He asked a few questions, but he’d already heard everything from Cal and Krayfon and I could tell him nothing new. Before long they had moved on to more general issues surrounding Drei’s disappearance.
Yannassia rose to fetch her father more wine from a side table, and with a flick of her head summoned me to her side.
“Thank you!” she whispered. “I have another favour to ask of you.” My heart sank; I wasn’t sure I had the energy for another healing. She held out her hand. “Would you tell me what you see?”
Reluctantly I did so, and at first I could see nothing. She was perfectly healthy. Then, “Oh! Congratulations!”
She beamed at me. “It is too early for me to be sure, but Axandrei knew. He says it is a girl, is that true?”
I nodded, pleased for her. “Have you told your father yet?”
“No. I hope...” A flicker of anxiety crossed her face. “I hope all this trouble will be resolved soon, and then I will tell him.” A hesitation. “It will be all right, will it not? Drei will be found safe and well?”
“Oh, yes. The city won’t hurt him.” She smiled at me, relieved, and I said nothing more, but inside I quailed. Drei was perfectly safe for now, but who could say what the future might bring, for any of us?
41: The Stone Sphere
Cal was in a fever of anxiety, even worse than the other mages. He’d been given the task of trying to retrieve Drei from the servants’ domain before he emerged at some random part of the city, but success eluded him. He was at his most restless and volatile, constantly shooting off on mysterious errands or distractedly hopping from one place to another, as ideas occurred to him. He’d taken to wearing a long knife on his belt, although I was sure he had no idea how to wield it. Although he came to my bed each night, I would wake hours later to find him gone. Sometimes he returned by morning, but sometimes I wouldn’t see him again until evening board. If I asked what he was up to, he would say vaguely that he had things to do.
In the midst of this whirlwind, I was serenely calm, content to wait and see what happened. Perhaps it was pregnancy that made me that way, wrapping me in a protective cocoon, or it might have been the city itself, where every breath tingled with magic, reassuring and soothing me. Whatever the cause, I sailed placidly through the hours, eating well, sleeping deeply and dreamlessly, like a pig in its pen, and almost as round.
There was one unsettling moment, though. One morning I was leaving my house to go to the library when I passed two servants in their brown uniforms creeping silently into the board room to clear away. We’d all developed the habit of checking any servants quite closely, in case one of them turned out to be Drei, but these were both women.
One of them was Marras, the scholar who’d first helped Drei and me at the library. I made some exclamation, and the two stopped and looked at me in slight puzzlement before their faces returned to blankness.
“Marras?” I said. “Is it you? How are you?” I’d never yet had a response from a servant, even though I’d tried many times to talk to them, but Marras at least would understand me. But no, her face remained perfectly expressionless. “Marras? Do you remember me? At the library... you showed us the books, remember? And then you followed me through the town...”
There was nothing, not a flicker of understanding. She bowed – they both did – and then she made some reply in gibberish, and they turned and walked on, in step and unhurried.
When I reached the library and told Cal about it, his eyes were alight with interest. “Marras! And now she speaks their language. Fascinating! And the two guards must be around, as well, and Reshon... the mage who was taken, remember? And now Drei.”
“It’s so odd that we can’t find any way to get them back,” I said, “or at least find out how they’re being treated.”
Cal shrugged. “They’re treated well enough, I’d say. They all seem healthy enough, and well fed.”
There was something in his tone that made me suspicious. “What about getting them back?”
A long silence, as he chewed his lip. “Actually... I’m working on that.”
“Really? How?”
I thought he’d talk about following the servants again, or exploring the underground passages, but he surprised me. “I’ve been trying to get that thing to help.” He nodded his head towards the great stone sphere, resting in its still pool of water. “We can feel the power, we know it does something, we just don’t know what, or how. I thought it might be a sort of oracle stone – you know, you ask it a question and it answers. But I can’t get any response from it. It’s full of magic, but what it does is beyond me.”
“So that’s where you’ve been creeping off to at night.” He had the grace to look sheepish. “You’ve been sneaking over here to talk to the ball.” I giggled, and he saw the funny side too.
“But I found something... Do you want to see?”
Naturally I did. He led me down to the floor below, but not by the usual staircase. At the bottom was a broad corridor with no doors or branching passages, and only one direction to go.
“I’ve never been here before,” I said, gazing around. “Is it safe?”
“Everywhere’s safe for us. Besides, I’ve been down here before. Come on.” He set off at a fast pace, leaving me to puff along in his wake.
“Where are we going?”
Without breaking stride he half turned, grinning. “Let’s see how long it takes you to work it out. I’ll give you a hint – we’re right below the main street now.”
“Oh! So we’re heading towards the gate. Does this go under the walls?” A shake of his head. “So – the guard room? Oh – no, it can’t be, because we started from the wrong side of the library, assuming this runs straight. So it’s the building on the other side of the gate.”
He smiled his approval. There were two matching buildings either side of the main gate, made of the usual glowing golden stone. One was the guard room but I’d never been inside the other. The Imperial City was a bewilderingly large place.
The passage ran spear-straight to a second set of stairs. Above it, a single large room with stone benches round the perimeter, high windows, a carved frieze filled with symbols and no furnishings, just a sculpture in the centre, a simple elongated bell shape not quite the height of a man set on a low platform. The striking aspect was that it was made of the same stone as the sphere in the library, and alt
hough it was smooth, I recognised many of the symbols in the frieze as being the same as those decorating the sphere. To one side was a plinth supporting a book, twin to the one outside the library: the same binding, the same creamy pages, every one empty of writing.
“See? There has to be a connection, I just don’t know what it is.”
I climbed up on the platform to touch the stone sculpture. It gave me the same fizzing sensation as the sphere in the library, but nothing else. We prowled around the room but there was nothing to suggest the purpose of it. Doors led to the city’s main street, the Shining Wall to one side and on the other the view through the great arch to the library up the hill, where the great sphere and the other book sat. Whatever the connection, it was beyond our understanding.
We walked back up the road, Cal keeping to the shade while I relished the sun. I was fairly sure now that my natural levels of magic came from the sun’s rays, although how that worked I couldn’t begin to guess. The sun powered the marble pillar, so it was reasonable that it powered me too. And Drei. The instant he emerged from underground into sunshine he would be free of his servitude.
The Fire Mages Page 45