by Joseph Lallo
'Fine.' Angstrun stood up. 'I'll pull back the Cloak, unless anyone has any more objections.' He glared fiercely down at the group.
'I do.' Elder Sanfaer's eyes held a hint of amusement as she looked at Angstrun, though her tone was quietly firm.
'Oh, you do?' said Angstrun, with dangerous calm. 'On what grounds, pray?'
'We would like to examine that cave before we return to Glinnery, and it would be preferable to have the company of several of those gathered here. Including you, Lord Angstrun. Your collected expertise will be invaluable.'
'Approved,' put in Guardian Troste. 'The cave is clearly central to these incidents. It is high time it was properly investigated.'
Angstrun looked at the ceiling. 'Do you realise how long it takes to restore the balance of the thing after an interruption? The Cloak goes back at moonset tomorrow, and not a minute later. Better do what you need to before then.'
'That will be plenty of time,' said Elder Sanfaer, gracing Angstrun with a smile. 'Thank you.'
'In the meantime, I've some assistants to question.' He left without another word.
'Well.' Troste looked at Eva. 'High Summoner Glostrum, perhaps you'd share the progress of your efforts regarding the whurthag problem.'
It was late when the meeting finally closed. Eva took the first opportunity of speaking privately to Elder Sanfaer, catching up with her outside of the Council Hall.
'Ynara. You received my letter, I hope?'
Elder Sanfaer inclined her head in assent. 'Yes. Thank you for the warning.'
'And your daughter? Has she been harmed? I heard of civilian injuries.'
Ynara nodded again, to Eva's dismay. 'She was the first to encounter the whurthag, on her way to that cursed cave. The worst injuries were to her arm, but she is healing fast. I only wish... I wish we had understood at the time what we were dealing with.'
Eva touched her arm in sympathy. 'Just as I wish it had been possible to banish the whurthags before they started killing our citizens. It's not possible to know everything in advance, alas, much as I try.'
'Eva, I'm sorry. I should have sent condolences for your friend. I'm afraid I was too preoccupied with Llandry.'
Eva smiled sadly. 'Your daughter's safety is by far the more important consideration of the two.'
'I worry about her every minute. I've left her well guarded, but still...'
Noting the shadow of worry in Ynara's eyes, Eva felt suddenly strange. Had she followed her friend's path in life, she might by now have had her own daughter, a girl nearing adulthood. She couldn't immediately decide whether or not she regretted the lack.
Shaking off the thought, she smiled and asked, 'You'll be leaving tomorrow?'
'Yes, certainly,' said Ynara. 'As soon as we are finished at the cave.'
'Why don't you and your husband dine with me tonight? Vale will be joining us.'
Ynara smiled. 'Thank you, that would be a pleasure.'
'Lovely. My carriage will be here momentarily.'
They waited in silence for several minutes, facing the horizon where the waxing moon was slowly sinking out of sight. Eva could almost feel the waves of tension from her friend as she stood, still but restless, her fingers twined through her husband's.
'She'll be all right, Ynara,' said Eva softly. 'A woman couldn't ask for more dedicated parents.' She was thinking of her own as she spoke: her mother, who'd died so young, and her father, distant and uninvolved in her life until he too passed away. She'd been alone since her fifteenth year. It was possible that she envied Ynara's daughter, just a little, for her safe, loved existence.
'She's right,' said Aysun in his gruff, laconic way. 'Llandry's tougher than she looks, too. Takes after you.' Eva glanced over to see him kiss his wife gently. An encouraging smile sat oddly on his lined face, but the expression held the more power for that.
'I hope you're right. Both of you.' Ynara smiled, but her heart obviously wasn't in it.
***
Eva was out well before moonrise the next day, mustering her summoners. Angstrun's sorcerers were present in greater numbers than before, closing the several new rogue gates that had appeared overnight. By moonrise the forests west of Glour City had been thoroughly explored and declared free of dangers.
Next it was the turn of Commander Iver and his Glour colleagues to advance on the cave. A contingent of summoners and sorcerers attended them in case of off-realm perils, though Eva was not permitted to be part of this initial exploratory force. She waited with Elder Sanfaer and her husband, flanked by the University heads, Lord Angstrun and Chief Sorcerer Laylan Westry. The mood was tense: everyone remembered well the lurid pictures of the whurthags' earlier victims, obligingly spread by the daily papers.
Commander Iver returned at last, bringing some of his men with him. Eva noticed Tren was one of the three sorcerers that had gone out with the group.
'It's clear,' said Iver, reining in his nivven. 'No signs of occupation at all. Though, that cave must be pretty well hidden; we haven't found it yet.'
Ynara moved her nivven forward. 'I've detailed instructions from my daughter. I believe I can find it.'
Iver nodded, but he looked annoyed. 'It might've been helpful to have her here in person.'
Ynara's jaw tightened. 'So it might have, but I forbade it.'
Iver looked at the sky, controlling his irritation with obvious difficulty. He said nothing more, however, only turned his mount and rode away in the direction from which he'd come. Ynara followed, with her husband riding beside her. Eva touched her heels to her nivven's flanks, urging the mare to keep step with the riders ahead.
They were right on the edge of the irignol forests. Within a few minutes, the irignol and glostrel trees melted away, replaced by the towering, broad trunks of the trees known as glissenwol. Eva looked up, fascinated, noting the incredible height of the things. She could faintly discern the glissenwol caps overhead, their deep colours camouflaging them under the night time. Long, draping vines hung from the tops, swaying in the breeze, painted silver in the moonlight. She sensed a lack of health about the proud trees, a hint of sickness as though their vitality was steadily draining away the longer they remained without sunlight.
Her nivven was not enjoying the moss that covered the forest floor. The mare's hoofs sank deeply into the thick, spongy stuff, and she snorted in disdain. Eva patted the beast's neck, easing her irritation with images of the warm stable and bag of feed that were to come later.
The riders up ahead drew to a halt, and Eva reined in. She watched as Elder Sanfaer dismounted, handing the reins of her nivven to her husband. She advanced, flanked by Commander Iver and a crew of guards.
'I need a bit more light,' Eva heard Ynara say. Tren obligingly opened a hand, releasing a dancing light-globe into the air. The glow steadily brightened until it dazzled Eva, and she looked away.
'Perfect, thank you,' Ynara said.
Eva blinked, hoping her eyes would grow accustomed to the light. They did not. She stopped trying to see Ynara's actions and closed her eyes, listening for activity.
Ynara's soft sound of discovery alerted Eva to her progress. She opened her eyes carefully, grateful to note that the light-globe was gradually dimming again. Ynara and Commander Iver stood before a pair of closely-growing glissenwol trunks. The space between the trees was choked with vines and ferns, but as Eva watched Iver found a way to slip through. Then his tall frame disappeared abruptly into the ground.
Several of Iver's men went down next, followed by some of Eva's summoners, and then Tren. Ynara and Aysun waited until most of them had emerged.
'It's empty,' Iver said, shaking loose dirt from his hair. 'Completely, I'd say, but you'll know best.' He nodded at Ynara and retreated out of the way. Eva approached as Ynara and Aysun disappeared into the cave. She followed, finding an opening in the ground just big enough for her to slip into. A mud slope led down into a dirt-walled cave, barely high enough for her to stand upri
ght. She noticed some of Iver's men had to stoop in order to remain inside.
Ynara was staring at the walls helplessly. 'I don't see any of Llandry's stone, but then I can't see enough to be sure.' She looked enquiringly at Eva.
Eva walked slowly around the cave, examining the walls closely. Nothing but packed dirt met her sensitive eyes.
'Llandry said it glows a little, down in the cave,' said Ynara. She didn't need to add anything more: no hint of a glow was visible anywhere.
Instead, the walls were pitted and marked, as if something had once lain there and had been subsequently removed. Eva noticed long channels extending deeper into the walls, casings that had probably once housed pieces of Llandry's stone. The pattern was curious: the stones had not, apparently, lain closely together, nor had they been broken free of a larger mass of the gem. The emptied channels formed a more complex pattern, one which obviously extended a long way back.
'There's nothing here,' she said, turning back to Ynara. 'It's all gone, stripped out. Excuse me,' she added. 'I think Professor Mayn ought to see this.'
Mayn was, as Eva expected, intrigued. He managed the descent with remarkable ease given his age; perhaps enthusiasm helped. He took one look at the patterning on the walls and took out a notebook. Within seconds he was sketching the outlines with hasty strokes of his pencil.
'I'd get an image-capture down here,' he murmured, 'but I doubt it'd record the detail in light like this.'
'Maybe a couple of sketch-artists should be sent over,' said Eva. 'Actually, Ynara, that will lie in your jurisdiction from tomorrow.'
'True,' Ynara replied. 'I'll make sure someone's sent out as soon as I get home.'
Elder Ilae Shuly had descended with Mayn, and seemed no less fascinated. His keen eyes swept the walls repeatedly, staring into the darkness. After a while he gave up and looked over Mayn's shoulder, watching the progress of his sketching. Eva wondered what the two men were thinking as they studied that curious array of marks. For her part, she had no notion what it might portend.
'It's a shame,' Ynara said, looking at the bare walls. 'Only, I can't help feeling relieved, too.'
Eva understood. If the gem was gone, her daughter would no longer be tempted to seek it out. Nor would there be any further pieces distributed to individuals who may, later, find themselves endangered by it.
Still, it would have been as useful as it was interesting to see it in its original state. The fact that it glowed interested Eva particularly.
'Little to be done down here, now,' Eva said at last, smiling at Ynara. 'I'm going back up. I imagine the gentlemen here will be busy for quite some time yet.' Professor Mayn and Elder Shuly didn't even seem to hear her, so intent were they on their task. She smiled wryly, nodded to Ynara, and made her way carefully back up the slope.
Tren was waiting outside the entrance.
'Hi,' he said.
'Hello, Tren.'
'Interesting, huh?'
'Oh, yes. Fascinating.'
He fell silent, looked at the floor, then back up at her, shoving his hands into his pockets. Eva cast him a quizzical look.
'Anything I can help with?'
'Oh... no. Thanks. See you later, maybe.' Tren wandered off. Eva watched him go, puzzled. He didn't look back.
***
The Sanfaers left promptly at moonset. Eva watched them go, feeling rather sad. She felt that Ynara could be a close friend, were it possible to see more of her. If only she could visit her in the Daylands. There were rumours of new technologies coming out of Irbel; something about spectacles with manipulated lenses had reached her ears a moon or two ago, tools that would allow a Darklander to comfortably withstand the bright lights of the Daylands. She made a mental note to look into that possibility at her first opportunity.
She found, however, that her opportunity was likely to be a long time in coming. Eyde Vale was waiting for her when she arrived home, and he lost no time in presenting her with a problem.
'I need a summoner,' he said. 'Two, preferably. If you can only spare one, it'd better be the most powerful you have.'
'What? For how long?'
He shrugged. 'As long as it takes to track down Edwae Geslin. At least a few days. He'll be a long way gone by now.'
'Why do you need a summoner for that?'
'Because there might be more whurthags. If there aren't any left now, those gates are still opening all over the forest. Maybe in Orstwych, too. I'm not sending my best agent out without protection from those things.'
'Eyde, I understand the urgency, really, but I can't spare any of my best summoners. They're needed here. Protecting Glour is of paramount importance at the moment.'
'Give me a couple of lesser ones, then.'
'I can't, Eyde! It's all they can do to keep the forests clear just now. You know they've been finding more than just whurthags. Those reptiles are appearing in greater numbers, and more besides. I need them where they are.'
Vale sat down with a sigh. 'I can't compromise on this, Eva. Angstrun's pushing me to get on Geslin's case, and I concur: he's the only lead we've got. There's nowhere else to look. And I need that summoner.'
She groaned. 'It never ends at the moment, does it? I'll see what I can do.'
Vale came over to her, his broad face registering remorse. 'I'm sorry, Eva. I shouldn't press you so hard. I'm short-staffed, too; I can barely find the resources to handle this case of Angstrun's, and he insists on my best agent. Even so, Geslin's going to be a hard one to track. He's one of our strongest sorcerers, well able to hide himself from just about anything I can find to track him with.' He wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. 'I only wish I'd known about this before I dispatched men all over the Darklands looking for that damned istore stuff.'
'When are you sending your agent out?'
'As soon as possible. Tomorrow, I hope. Geslin's already had a long lead.' Rikbeek, squashed between Eva and Vale, squirmed and protested.
'Better watch it,' said Eva. 'He'll bite.'
He bit. Vale cursed and released Eva, putting one large hand to his belly. A neat hole adorned his shirt.
'Evil little beast,' he muttered. 'If they weren't so damn useful I'd push for them to be banned.' A thought occurred to him, and he looked keenly at her. 'Is it true that nothing can hide from a gwaystrel?'
'I haven't had cause to test him that much, but I haven't yet found anything that could conceal itself from him. He spotted the whurthags easily.'
'Hm. Then I bet he could spot Geslin. I don't suppose you can lend him out to someone?'
Eva grinned. 'You're just trying to get rid of him.'
'I wouldn't be completely heartbroken to see him go.'
'Sadly, no. I don't think he'd respond to anyone else. He ignores any attempt to influence him but mine.'
'Damn.' Vale fell silent for a moment. 'Well,' he said at last, 'Get me a summoner with a shortig hound, if you can. That will help.'
'I have a shortig,' she said.
'Oh? I've never seen it.'
'You've never asked.'
'I suppose not.'
Eva thought for a moment. She couldn't pull someone off the patrol teams without upsetting the careful balance she'd arranged. Besides, none of her best summoners kept shortig hounds, and while a few were in training for Vale's department, they weren't yet ready for duty. Which would mean she'd have to take at least two of the lesser summoners out of the patrol groups. Just thinking about how to rearrange them all, with their different abilities and animal companions, threatened to give her a headache.
The only person who wasn't assigned to a regular patrol, in fact, was her.
'Eyde. Why don't I go?'
'What.'
'I'll go with your agent. My shortig and Rikbeek will go with me. We'll get the job done faster that way, I'm sure. And I won't have to make a mess of my patrol teams.'
'No,' he said flatly. 'It's dangerous. Besides, are
n't you needed here? You're High Summoner.'
'Oh, really. It's an empty title half the time; you know that. My second can take care of the administrative side of things for a couple of weeks. As for its being dangerous, well. I can take care of myself.'
'You can handle a whurthag unaided, can you?'
She paused, thinking. It had been difficult, before, but then it had been a new experience. In battling the whurthag, she had learned its weaknesses, learned how to deal with it. She still wouldn't dare to try full mastery over a whurthag, but all she had to do was push it through a gate.
'Yes,' she said. 'Now that I know what to expect.'
He stared at her, obviously warring with himself. Her offer presented the perfect solution to his problems, but she knew he'd hate letting her go.
'Eva,' he said at last, 'please reconsider. Surely you can find someone else. Send your second.'
'No,' she said, firmly. 'I've made up my mind.' If she was honest with herself, there was more to her offer than Vale's convenience. She was tiring of meetings and discussions and patrols; the prospect of taking more direct action excited her. 'We'll leave tomorrow. Angstrun had better be prepared to send a good sorcerer with us.'
'Eva-'
'Do you want children?'
'What?' He stared at her, nonplussed.
'Children,' she persevered. 'Small, screaming human beings that stink and break everything you own-'
'I know what they are.' His lips twitched. 'Stop changing the subject.'
She grinned. 'Were you expecting to have some?'
'I was thinking about it.' He spoke carefully, trying to guess at her opinion. 'Why, do you?'
'I'm open to it.'
He leaned down to kiss her. 'Why don't we discuss that in a bit more detail?'
Chapter Eleven
Llandry bent over her workbench, wielding her jeweller's tools with precision. Her father had made them for her years before, and she treasured them almost as much as she treasured her stones. Her equipment had been moved from her tree to her mother's balcony earlier in the day, and she had set to work immediately, eager to return to her trade. She'd chosen the balcony because the hazy forest light soothed her, the breezes caressing her wings as she worked.