by Cindy Dees
“Are we hiding from that Thanon fellow again?” he asked.
“Yes. And my other watchdogs.”
“Do I want to know?”
She scowled at him as they sat down at a table in the back corner of the mostly empty space. “You might as well know. White Heart emissaries are guarded around the clock by members of the Royal Order of the Sun.” She wagged a teasing finger at him. “Which is to say your kind had better not try to snatch my kind unless your kind plan to tangle with the knights who protect my kind.”
Justin grinned. “I’m not here to kidnap you on behalf of my friends.” He leaned forward and murmured conspiratorially, “And if I were, I’d be much more afraid of Thanon and his men than a bunch of Heart types.”
She snorted. “That’s because you have not met Lord Justinius. He and his men make Thanon and his crew look like children playing at being soldiers.”
“I’m glad,” Justin said, his voice low and fierce. “You tell Justinius to keep a close eye on you. He’ll answer to me if something bad happens to you.”
She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Stars, I’ve missed you.”
“And I you.”
They ordered two plates of whatever the kitchen was serving and dug into steaks of fresh venison in a savory mushroom sauce and roasted root vegetables.
After the meal, they lingered over mugs of hot mulled cider, and Raina asked, “So if you did not come to kidnap me, why are you here? Not that I’m complaining,” she added hastily.
“Ever the clever girl, you are. Nothing escapes your notice.”
“Like the fact that you’re avoiding answering me.”
Justin smiled. “I’m here to invite you to visit Alchizzadon as the honored guest of the mages.”
Her mug hit the table hard. “Are you mad?”
“I told them you would respond with exactly those words.”
“And they sent you nonetheless?”
“Raina, you have neatly foiled their plans for you by joining the White Heart. They realize they cannot just do with you as they will. They wish, instead, to work with you. To share knowledge. To see if we and thee can be of mutual benefit to one another.”
“I will never give them a new generation of daughters of Tyrel to manipulate.”
“I believe they understand that,” he replied dryly.
“Then what do we have to discuss?”
“There are … things … about the mages you do not know. Subjects they study. Goals they work to accomplish. Mutually beneficial aspirations we and you share.”
“Like what?”
He glanced around the empty room and lowered his voice. “We have spent years beyond count working on ways to wake ancient beings who have fallen into magical torpors.”
Her eyes widened. The mages could help her wake Gawaine? That might almost be worth the risk of talking to them.
“I see you are interested. I give you my word they will not harm you while you are there and that they will let you go without protest when you wish to leave. They only wish to talk.”
“You cannot promise that all the mages will honor your word,” she retorted.
“True. But I can promise you that mages powerful enough to protect you have sworn to do so. The high proctor himself—” Justin broke off.
She’d never heard the title before. So the mages had a hierarchical structure, did they? Just how many of them were there? She had always assumed they were a handful of crazies, a dozen at most, clinging to their fictional legends. But the way Justin spoke of them …
“What sorts of things do the mages study and goals do they pursue?”
Justin shrugged. “I don’t know all of it, but they study magic in all its forms. Among other things, they study how to collect it and concentrate it. And of course, you know about the one whom they attempt to wake. I do not know what the third branch of the order does, but I see them moving in the halls from time to time. I have heard rumors among the other acolytes of a fourth order, but no one dares even guess what they might do.”
Four entire orders? Dismay rolled through her. How big and powerful was this bunch, and what had Justin gotten himself embroiled in? Fear for his safety followed close on the heels of her dismay.
“When do they wish me to visit them?”
“Immediately. I am authorized to portal you back to Alchizzadon with me.”
“No. Absolutely not,” she declared forcefully. “I’m not portaling anywhere!”
“Well, you can always walk to Alchizzadon. It will take you months, however.”
“Better that I travel with my own two feet and know where I am, thank you very much.” She did not add that with her own two feet, she could always turn around and run away from Alchizzadon, as well.
“They will not let you walk right up to the front door. Its location must remain secret. Surely, you understand the necessity for that.”
“Then I must refuse your invitation—”
He interrupted, “What if you were to travel on your own most of the way and then I were to meet you and guide you the rest of the way, but with a blindfold for the last portion of the journey?”
“What guarantee do I have that the mages will let me leave?”
“You have my word, and Kadir’s word, and that of High Proctor Albinus. He may be ancient, but I’m telling you, I would not take on that man in mage’s combat. His skin is so covered in runes you can barely see any flesh. He’s a walking bomb of potential magic.”
“I will have to let the Royal Order of the Sun know where I am going and when I am due to return. They’ll come looking for me if I am late.”
“You don’t need to threaten us,” he replied mildly. “We understand the immunity your colors grant you.”
My, my, my. Look at Justin acting all grown up and politically savvy. He had, indeed, changed as much inside as outside. She tilted her chair back on two legs, studying him intently. “I have to say the changes suit you. Maybe you could use a little more sun so you look less yellow, but you look good.”
“You’re growing up well yourself. You look more like your mother than ever.” He raised a hand as she drew breath to protest. “Never fear, you act nothing like her, muckling.”
Her front chair legs thumped to the floor, and she grinned widely. “You do realize that the Royal Order of the Sun would box your ears if they heard you call a White Heart emissary a baby pig, don’t you?”
He met her grin with one of his own. “Who’s going to tell them? You? I’ll tell them how you earned the nickname.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Don’t test me … muckling.”
“You’re irredeemable.”
“You’ll come visit, then?”
She sighed, her smile fading. “Yes, Justin. For you, I will visit your precious mages, but I make no promise to cooperate with them. This one time, I will honor a temporary truce and listen to what they have to say.”
He reached across the table and gave her hands an affectionate squeeze. “Thank you.”
Her gaze narrowed menacingly. “And you can tell Kadir it was a dirty trick to send you to deliver the invitation to me.”
Justin laughed heartily. “I will do so. With pleasure.”
They stepped out of the tavern, and Raina was not the slightest bit surprised to see Hrothgar and three of his men standing guard, looking roundly annoyed with her.
Ignoring her bodyguards, she strolled with Justin back toward the Heart. They reached the steps, and she threw her arms around his neck, giving him a big hug.
“How will I find you?” she murmured into his ear.
“Head west into the Sorrow Wold, and I will find you.”
* * *
“What do you mean, they escaped?” Anton asked, his voice rising in disbelief.
“They somehow got free of their shackles and ran away,” the one called Gorath explained, wincing as he spoke. For good reason.
“And why did you not give chase?”
“We did!
But they were clever and quiet and left no tracks for us to follow,” one of the others whined. “We ran and ran, but they must’ve been faster. They disappeared.”
When he caught up with the spawn of Tiberius De’Vir, he was going to take great pleasure in torturing that boy slowly and painfully. Although, if he’d outwitted Kithmar slavers, Will Cobb was a boy no more. He would not make the mistake of underestimating Will and his friends again. Next time, he would see to them personally. He fingered the collection of glass globes in his pouch idly. Spirit deaths for Will and the other males. Enslavements for the females.
Oh yes. He pictured having a beautiful, young emissary of the White Heart groveling at his feet, mewling for his attention, and a slow grin spread across his face. This was going to be fun, indeed. He would crush them all. And then he would humiliate them the way they’d humiliated him.
CHAPTER
6
Raina sighed as Sir Hrothgar nodded politely to her in front of Hyland House. “My men and I will wait here to see you safely home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she replied quickly. “It’s freezing cold out here. Hyland’s men will escort me back.” Now that she’d accepted the invitation from the Mages of Alchizzadon, not a soul in Dupree worried her. Sure, the city had its fair share of thieves and brigands, but they were not likely to hurt her. They were much more likely to accost her and demand the free healing the White Heart dispensed to anyone who had need of it.
The front door opened behind her, and Guildmaster Aurelius said, “Thanks be for escorting my young friends to me in safety, Sir Hrothgar.”
“I was not aware you had come back from Koth, Guildmaster. Congratulations on your safe return,” Hrothgar responded.
Raina mentally snorted. Congratulations, indeed. It was a rare feat to be summoned to appear before the Emperor himself and return alive. Few managed it.
Thankfully, Hrothgar gave brisk orders to his men to move out, and she and her friends went inside the comfortably appointed home.
As Will and Eben related the tale of being briefly kidnapped and escaping their slaver captors, who claimed to work for Anton Constantine, she had abrupt second thoughts about having sent the Royal Order of the Sun men home without her.
An upset Rosana latched on to Will’s arm and showed no inclination of letting go anytime soon. Raina smiled more charitably at their young love than she usually did. Perhaps her new attitude had something to do with an afternoon spent with Justin. It had been a shock to see him as changed as he was by the ogre mage’s spirit within him, but he was still her Justin. If only she could figure out a way to convince him to come away from the Mages of Alchizzadon—
“Is there any word on a new landsgrave being appointed to the Hyland holding?” Rosana asked their host. Raina’s attention snapped to the conversation at hand.
“The governess seems in no hurry to name anyone,” Aurelius replied as they moved into Hyland’s study, a big, messy room full of desks and shelves and maps and mechanical models. A half dozen comfortable chairs had been pulled into the chamber and arranged around the big stone hearth, in which a cheery fire burned.
Eben, foster son to Leland Hyland and nominal heir to his holdings until Leland’s only son by birth, Kendrick, was recovered from his captor, was already seated before the fire. His caramel-colored skin shone warmly in the firelight, and faint swirls of gray, orange, and white were visible upon it. Notably absent were the blue tones of a water caster. Apparently, Eben had no affinity whatsoever for water magics.
“Will Rynn and Sha’Li be joining us?” Raina asked him.
Eben scowled and didn’t deign to answer.
As if summoned by her question, the study door opened to admit a tall, cloaked form. The man pushed a deep hood back to reveal golden hair and three brilliant blue eyes. Ever the serene one, he made a slight bow in her direction. “Life as an emissary seems to agree with you,” Rynn remarked. “You’re looking well.”
“Thanks be. The Heart is not the least bit pleased that Lord Goldeneye outmaneuvered them by granting my new rank to me. However, they hate my being an emissary slightly less than they love the idea of getting their hooks into the Dominion.”
The nation of animal changelings was notoriously suspicious of anything or anyone Imperial. As for her, she was amused at the neat outflanking maneuver Goldeneye had pulled off. The appointment itself intimidated her immensely. The importance of it was not lost upon her, and frankly, she was relieved that Justinius would be sending a seasoned knight with her as both protector and advisor.
“Shall we wait for Sha’Li before you all tell me what you’ve been up to since I left?” Aurelius asked. “I look forward to hearing a full report from the lot of you.”
Eben replied coldly, “Sha’Li may not show up.”
What on Urth could have made him so resentful of her? Even Aurelius’s golden-skinned brow puckered. He was a solinari, a sun elf, and his skin glittered as bright as a newly minted gold coin. Although Raina knew him to be several hundred years old, he had that annoyingly ageless look of all elves. All in all, he was rather dazzling to behold.
Aurelius said smoothly to cover the awkward moment, “Catch me up. Last I heard, the lot of you had gotten a lead on Kendrick Hyland and were heading west in search of him.”
Will launched into the tale of their search for Hyland’s kidnapped son. They’d found Kendrick, who’d been transformed into a were-boar and who ultimately chose to stay with his captor, a nature guardian, Kerryl Moonrunner. Along the way, they’d been accosted by Imperial hounds who seemed intent on devouring Eben, they’d freed a unicorn from magical bonds, and they’d been kidnapped by the Dominion.
Dinner was served, and they took a break in the telling of their tale. They had just adjourned back to the cozy study and were sipping on mugs of spiced wine when Raina noticed Sha’Li slipping unobtrusively into the shadows at the back of the room, well away from the fire. The lizardman girl had become an accomplished rogue in the two years Raina had known her. She noted that Sha’Li chose to stand directly behind Eben, out of sight of the jann.
Rosana took up the tale of their adventures. “So our captors took us to the Great Den of the Dominion and to Goldeneye himself.” She laughed ruefully. “I made the mistake of talking to him.”
Aurelius groaned. “Let me guess. He enslaved you.”
Will answered for her as she rolled her eyes. “Indeed, he did. Worse, he set us the task of taking back some vials of magical change water from Kentogen that Kerryl Moonrunner had stolen from him. So we were off again, chasing Kerryl.”
Rosana took up the tale. “We caught him eventually and got back the water. We returned it to Goldeneye in the Dominion capital, Rahael.”
“And that’s when he declared you his emissary, Raina?” Aurelius asked.
“Well, not before we had a minor run-in with a gate to the dream plane, an elemental army streaming through it, and a possessed mage holding the gate open.” She wasn’t sure if Aurelius knew about the Mages of Alchizzadon, so she left out the part where the possessed mage was a member of the order that had long been trying to kidnap her for their own nefarious purposes. Her feud with the mages was personal.
“An open gate?” Aurelius exclaimed. “How on Urth did you shut it?”
Rosana answered proudly, “Will built a maze of magical walls of force, and Rynn ran the maze, dodging the elementals who came after him. We used the cover of the walls to get close to the mage holding the gate open, and I silenced him just as Will and Rynn attacked him. Then Eben used his mace as a makeshift key to turn a giant lock and close the gate.”
Aurelius looked sharply at Will. “And where did you learn how to cast a wall of force? I don’t recall teaching you that particular spell.”
Will squirmed under his grandfather’s scrutiny. “Something happened to me on that battlefield. Some sort of repressed memory broke through, and all of a sudden, I remembered how to cast the spell.”
If Raina was n
ot mistaken, he’d abruptly remembered a lot more than that. In an instant, he’d become a clever tactical leader, his combat prowess improved dramatically, and his spellcraft doubled or maybe even tripled. He claimed to have no idea where the knowledge had come from, but she suspected he knew full well and just wasn’t saying.
Will and Aurelius shared a long, pregnant look. And then Aurelius broke into a grin, murmuring, “Clever whoreson did it, didn’t he? Trained you to follow in his footsteps without anyone else finding out.”
“Seems so,” Will replied dryly.
Of whom did they speak? Perhaps Aurelius’s missing son and Will’s father?
“Tell me more of this gate,” Aurelius said to the group.
Rynn took up the telling of the tale. “It’s a permanent structure, guarded by a claviger—the same fellow who was possessed and whom we took down. The tympan, the lock, for this particular gate is intact, although the claviger threw the key to it through the gate in his temporary madness. Until someone can find or fashion a new key for the lock, the Dominion gate should remain closed.”
Aurelius leaned forward. “And it led to the dream plane, you say? Where, then, did the elementals come from? They should be confined to their own respective elemental planes.”
“They turned out to be dreaming constructs of elementals and not actual elementals,” Rynn answered.
“Phantasms of elementals? Who would create such things?” Aurelius demanded. “For what purpose?”
Rynn and Eben exchanged a charged glance. Eben nodded slightly, and Rynn continued.
“Once the claviger was rendered unconscious, Lord Goldeneye attempted to remove whatever enslavement effect held the man in its thrall. He was unable to do it alone and asked for my assistance. When the two of us were working inside the claviger’s mind, we”—he hesitated and then plunged on—“saw something. We glimpsed what lies beyond the gate.”
“Tell me.” Aurelius was tense. And for good reason. Raina had already heard some of what her friends had seen.
A shadow from the margins of the room stepped forward, and Raina about jumped out of her skin. When had the master assassin Selea Rouge arrived? The tall dark elf must have slipped in sometime in the past few minutes, but so stealthy was he that she hadn’t even noticed. Of course, his coal black nulvari skin helped him blend into the shadows. But still.