"That's fine with me," Doc said, "if Firekeeper promises to give her parole."
Firekeeper clearly had no idea what the word meant, but she was still smarting from his earlier scolding and promptly replied:
"If I am not to walk I not walk, run, or even crawl."
"That's good enough for me," Doc said with a slight smile.
"Firekeeper," Elise said, "can you get the birds to work with you?"
"Bee Biter will," Firekeeper said with that hesitancy she always showed when asked to turn her Royal allies to human cause. "I cannot promise other."
"It's a start," Elise said. "I know you don't like doing this, but the rest of us cannot poke around asking questions. It would have been hard at the best of times, but the last several days have not been the best. The embassy was attacked againùnothing more serious than a few broken windows, but Ambassador Redbriar is adamant that we take precautions."
Wendee nodded.
"I'm already paying one of Hasamemorri's maids to do most of our shopping," she said, "and Oculios has said it is no longer safe for him to bring his goods here but insists that we send someone to fetch them."
Firekeeper looked worried. Derian suspected that she was thinking of how some of the Beasts were already looking for any excuse to reopen their abandoned war with humanity. Such a use of the winged folk could be considered cause.
"I will do my best" was all she said.
Elise smiled briefly, then returned to explaining her plan.
"Meanwhile, I want Derian and Wendee to put together packs and things so that we can get out of Dragon's Breath quickly."
Derian grinned at her.
"My thought exactly," he said, quite pleased. "We're suspicious characters now. We can't expect an easy escape."
"Or any escape at all," Doc added. "That's what worries me. I wish we could relocate to outside the wall of the city. This last escapade of Firekeeper's makes us even less secure than before."
"I'm working on that," Elise said, her grin nearly as bright as Derian's had been. "I think we may 'quarrel' with our landlady. I want to make certain that we have somewhere relatively safe to go when we do. I'm going to put Ambassador Redbriar to work on the matter. This is one case where the unrest in the local population may work to our favor. It makes sense that we move."
"It sounds good," Doc said, speaking for them all. "A well thought-through plan. You reminded me of your father as you spoke."
Elise acknowledged Doc's praise without the faintest blush and Derian wondered a trace sadly if she had ceased to care for Doc. He hadn't thought the end of that ill-omened romance would make him grieve, but the thought of it did.
"I had to do something," Elise replied practically, "while you and Firekeeper slept out the day."
"Night again now," Firekeeper said, dropping a hand to scratch Blind Seer behind one ear. What she added next made Derian wonder if she had been injured more severely than even Doc could diagnose. "I wonder where the comet is and what it sees."
XARXIUS IS TRUSTWORTHY," said Columi the day after Toriovico had sent him on his mission, "at least as far as I can tell, that is. I've sounded him out and he loves Consolor Melina even less than I do."
"Of course," the Lapidary went on, suddenly dubious, "Xarxius could be playing a very deep game. He could want to lead me on to my own destruction. Still, from what he said, he doesn't think Consolor Melina's ambitions are focused on what will bring the best for New Kelvinùrather for herself with New Kelvin as the horse she'll ride to some other goal. New Kelvin's good is her goodùbut only for as long as she needs it. Then she'll let us founder."
Toriovico nodded. He'd allowed Columi to run on, though he longed to get to the point. He could see that the emeritus Prime was still overcharged with the latent tension of his mission.
"I doubt," Toriovico said a trace dryly, "that we can count on Xarxius making a more open declaration. Indeed, I'd trust him less if he did so, for such might be a trap. I will meet with him. Happily, he has already given me a good reason. Citrine Shield's guardian has requested her return. Xarxius brought the matter to me rather than to Melina."
"And have you mentioned this request to Consolor Melina?" Columi asked, his eyes round in apprehension.
"No," Toriovico replied. "I have not. Therefore, I may act on the matter as I see fit without risking that the lady will think her hold on me weakening."
Columi looked uncertain as to what Citrine's fate might have to do with their larger problem. Toriovico chuckled.
"Come with me," he suggested. "All your questions will be answered and it is time we took a risk or two.
"Besides," he added darkly, "if something happens to me, it is better that there be those ready to carry out my plans."
THAT XARXIUS FOUND BOTH TIME and privacy to meet with them might simply have been an indication of his respect for the Healed One. Toriovico chose to be encouraged to think it rather more. After all, Xarxius was skilled in the intricate games of trade and politics. He was not likely to have missed Columi's probing.
"The reason for this council," Toriovico began after the necessary formalities and rituals that hobbled even the least meeting were concluded, "should any inquire, is bound within veils of secrecy. If pressed, you may hint that I sought your mutual advice on an appropriate Harvest Festival gift for my wife.
"Recently," Toriovico went on, spinning the cover story as if it were a tale, "I have been consulting with Columi as to an appropriate gift for Consolor Melina. Knowing her fondness for gemstones, taking one of our greatest and most senior Lapidaries into my confidence was only reasonable. We examined several possibilities before Columi had a brilliant idea."
"I did, Honored One?" Columi said amused.
"You did," Toriovico said with solemnity. "You recalled the rumors that Waterland was offering potentially magical artifacts for trade. We then decided to consult Xarxius, whoùother than Dimiria of the Stargazersùwould have the best idea of what precisely is offered for sale and whether among those items is one which would delight my wife."
Xarxius nodded slowly.
"And so here we are," he said, "but from how you began this speech, I think you have more than gift shopping in mind."
Toriovico nodded, running his hand through his hair, thinking with the incongruity that so often interrupted serious matters that soon it would be time for the hairdressers to highlight the rich green with yellow and orange.
"I do," he said. "Several days ago, you brought to me a request from Lady Archer of Hawk Haven requesting assistance in assuring the return of her ward, Citrine Shield. I have reflected on that matter and have decided that Citrine should indeed be returned to those who have legal right to her."
"You have, Honored One?" Xarxius said. "And have you spoken to Consolor Melina about the matter?"
"I have not," Toriovico said, "nor will I. You see, Xarxius, there will be a price for the child's return, and I do not think her mother will approve."
Both Xarxius and Columi were listening with active interest, neither holding enough pieces of the puzzle to guess where Toriovico was headed. Still, neither was looking as if he had suddenly gone insane.
Torio was relieved. The Healed One took more interest in government than many who viewed his position from outside the system realizedùindeed, more than many inside realized. They chose to see his attendance at meetings as largely ceremonial rather than functional.
This was how it should be, for such little deceptions permitted the Healed One to fulfill his inherited mission of keeping certain lines of research in check. Yet it had the drawback that when the Healed One must act as a ruler rather than a figure of awe and majesty, some found the transformation as shocking as if a trained dog had risen onto its back legs and started giving commands.
But neither Xarxius nor Columi seemed inclined to shock or confusion, and Toriovico permitted himself to marginally relax.
"I have reason to believe," Toriovico said, "that Consolor Melina is involved in some com
plicated plot whose end result would not serve to the long-term benefit of New Kelvin."
He went on then to brief Xarxius as to Melina's disappearances, the inspection of her soiled robes, the research he had done in the Restorer's writings and which Columi had supplemented. When Xarxius listened thoughtfully, asking no more questions than were absolutely necessary to clarity some point, Toriovico went on to explain why he had kept his suspicions secret.
"First," he said, "I would know what my wife does, the better to prevent some future action along similar lines. Second, I cannot speak too publicly of my fears for I do not know who she has in her hold. Third, having been in her hold myself, I have no wish to be made her slave again. Too public speech would risk that. Sadly, Healed Ones have been known to go insane. Consolor Melina has read enough of our history to learn that. She would have ample allies to support her claim that I had merely suffered a lapse of my mental facultiesùand I fear that as soon as she worked her charm on me I would be among those most heatedly supporting her claim."
Xarxius nodded slowly.
"You have planned well and carefully, Honored One, and I am deeply grateful that you have taken me into your trust. May I ask whatùother than Columi's wordùmade you do so?"
Torio smiled, a grim and wistful expression.
"I recalled your daring to speak out against Melina's wishes when others enthusiastically supported her. I recalled, too, how often you kept from her presence. Your role as Dragon's Claw explained some of this, but when my mind cleared I was able to consider how much your travel away from the capital had increased of late. Most pointedly, I recalledùthen confirmed from observationùhow you avoided meeting the lady's gaze, though normally you are fond of using your own forlorn visage to great advantage."
Xarxius bowed his head in acknowledgment.
"I can only pray that the lady herself was not so observant. Past evidence shows that she can overextend her power over others and that her arrogance is such that she does not notice."
Toriovico felt rather hurt, as if Xarxius was dismissing the usefulness of his own carefully maintained charade. Xarxius did not miss the change in the Healed One's expression and hastened to explain.
"I did not refer to you, Honored One, but rather to another upon whom Melina laid her will and then let him slip."
"Who is this other?" Toriovico asked sharply. "Perhaps we can add him to those who share our secrets."
"I fear he is not among us," Xarxius said. "The man I refer to is Grateful Peace, the former Dragon's Eye. Unlike you Grateful Peace did not break Melina's hold through his own art. Rather she let her attention to him lapse. It seems she mistook the self-effacement he practiced as an indication that he was unimportant, a mere messenger for greater rulers."
"And later Grateful Peace attempted to defeat her aims," Toriovico said, understanding. "Well, wherever he is he may someday feel satisfaction for I plan to take a page from his book."
"Peace was an Illuminator before he took to other arts," Xarxius said, friend speaking of friend now. "I think he would like your choice of metaphorùalmost as much as knowing that in the end you understood and approved his actions."
"Perhaps when all of this is over and the truth out," Toriovico said, "we can bring Grateful Peace home again, but such hopes must wait until we have succeeded in ousting this foreigner who has made herself my wife and has tried to take my rulership from me."
He was fierce then, remembering the wrongs done to himself as well as to others, and in that fierceness he spelled out the details of his plan.
"I have told you," he said, nodding to Xarxius, "how Columi and I have tried to discover where it is that Melina goes on these nocturnal ventures and how despite our best efforts we have failed. For very good reasons, I cannot recruit anyone from the watchers already among us. With their Eye gone, it is impossible to know who might have been subverted and my own watchers would have been among the first Melina took care to place her own advocates among.
"Indeed, after careful thought I would prefer not to recruit any from Thendulla Lypella. Consolor Melina's powers seem limited to those she has met and fascinated. Therefore, those whose enmity of her is without doubt remain our best allies."
Xarxius was nodding now, but Columi looked uncertainùthough Toriovico's comment about taking a page from Grateful Peace's book might have offered the Dragon's Claw a hint. Toriovico hastened to clarify, not wishing this faithful adherent to feel slighted.
"When Xarxius told me about Lady Archer's request to regain Citrine Shield, he also told me who had accompanied Lady Archer to Dragon's Breath."
Columi raised a hand.
"Slowly, Honored One. I think it would be best if you clarified even more. Who is this Lady Archer? How did she come to Dragon's Breath at all?"
Between them, Xarxius and Toriovico explained the intricacies, then Toriovico resumed:
"It seems peculiar to me that this group, who left New Kelvin in such haste and under such unhappy circumstances, should return to Dragon's Breath with, of all things, Melina's birth daughter in their keeping. The child is said to be deeply troubled emotionallyùI have seen evidence of her pain myself. Perhaps they hoped for something from Melina and the girl's running away was something they had not anticipated."
Toriovico made a sweeping gesture that wiped the past away in one decisive blow.
"What is most important are three factors. First, they are here and have no love for Melina, so little that it is doubtful that they are her allies. Second, they have in their number one whose assets are said to include skill at tracking and the companionship of a large wolf. This creature might track by scent what its mistress misses by sight. Third, we have something they wantùthe child Citrine. My plan is to offer them Citrine in return for their help in finding where Melina goes and what she is doing."
There was silence then, but not shocked silence, rather the careful pondering of the two older men weighing Toriovico's plan, testing it, and, judging from the approval that crept into both of their features, finding it sound.
"Interesting," Xarxius said at last, "and possibly quite valid. Where do we begin?"
Toriovico spread his hands on the table, feeling tension flow from him as water from a burst dam. He knew it would return as they worked through the details, but for now all he felt was considerable relief.
"Xarxius, you have been contacted by Lady Archer. I suggest that you meet with herùperhaps in the Hawk Haven embassy. It would be beneath your dignity to go to this boardinghouse where they are staying, yet I would not have Consolor Melina hear of her enemies coming into the Earth Spires."
Xarxius nodded.
"I have a good relationship with Ambassador Redbriar. I even think I can assure use of a parlor where eavesdropping would be quite difficult."
Torio turned to Columi.
"Your task, old friend, will be even more difficult."
Columi paled, then straightened in his seat.
"Whatever the Honored One wishes."
"You must keep silence," Torio said, "all the while acting the garrulous old man overwhelmed by honors, busy selecting stones and metals for a truly elaborate piece of jewelry."
PEACE AND EDLIN were drafting a map section when Consolor Melina burst into their cave unannounced and obviously in a foul temper.
"I want to know," she hissed, motioning the guards back out of hearing range, "about this map."
She dropped a map segment onto the work table between them. The map showed a section of the artificial tunnels beneath Thendulla Lypella, focusing on a route that permitted subterranean travel from the Cloud Touching Spire to the Dragon Speaker's residence.
"I followed your directions," Melina continued, "and came up in the kitchen of the next building over. Happily, the hour was late and no one was present."
Peace studied the map.
"I assure you," he said. "This map is drawn as I requested and according to the best of my memory."
"The best of your memory," Melina t
aunted. "I had heard you were infallible. This is failure!"
Peace forgot himself, forgot the threat he had been living under during these long days of captivity. Immersed as he had been in knowledge acquired as the Dragon's Eye, he had become that important personage once more.
He glowered at Melina, forgetting she was now the Consolor and his captor. She was only the rather annoying foreigner who had thought him a minor servant of a greater master.
"I am pleased," he said with stiff arrogance, "that my reputation is such, but I assure you, I have never claimed infallibility. Indeed, if you would bother to recall, you would remember that I cautioned you that my memory of those passages was less than perfect. My Speaker never needed to skulk unseen to report to the Healed One, nor would the Healed One so lower himself."
Melina went starkly white beneath her facial ornamentation, but only when Peace heard Edlin whisper, "I say, easy, my good man," did he realize what he had done.
Frozen, one element in a tableau in which even the uncomprehending guards did not stir, Grateful Peace waited to hear his doom pronounced. Gradually, color flowed back into Melina's face and she pursed her lips in thought.
"You did warn me," she said. "I remember now."
Something in her inflection told Peace that she had not only remembered his caution, she had remembered how she had pushed him to outline that particular section when he would have preferred to stay with areas he better knew. But Peace also knew that Melina would not forget how he had insulted her. Clearly, she had decided she still needed him, otherwise Idalia would have been given her reward.
His fear intensified as he faced off against an opponent who could calculate so carefully even when in the grip of fury.
"Have you," Melina said stiffly, "any suggestions as to how such errors might be avoided in the future?"
"If I cannot be permitted to stay with those areas I know well," Peace replied promptly, knowing nothing was to be gained from groveling or apologies, "then I would need to tour the appropriate regions. With that stimulus, I am certain I would remember more accurately."
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