Taellaneth Complete Series Box Set

by Vanessa Nelson

  “But things in the shadows can be harmed, yes?” Kallish was watching her surroundings, the shapes of Erith in the first world and the slightly darker shapes that were the room’s furniture.

  Arrow nodded once in reply. Kallish thought a moment more before tilting her head back to Arrow.

  “Head for Noverian’s rooms. We should be able to slip past the guard.”

  “Without opening a door?” Arrow asked, sceptical.

  “The guards go in and out,” Kallish explained patiently, “and will not be looking for something in this realm.”

  “Alright.” Arrow took a step forward, pausing when she realised that all five warriors were still touching her. “I do not think you need to hold on to me here. Just for entering and leaving.”

  “No?” Kallish’s eyes gleamed and she took a few steps away, lifting higher from the ground than normal. “This will take a little adjustment.”

  “Perhaps outside, where there is more room?”

  The warriors agreed and they slipped through the building’s door with little fuss, heading to one of the many garden spaces that were scattered between Palace buildings. Once there, the warriors went through a series of drills that had Arrow’s heart thudding, throat tight with nerves as they ran, jumped, wrestled and went through weapons drills with bare steel, all at a much faster pace than she was used to seeing. One of Undurat’s jumps took him level with the upper storey windows of one of the buildings in the first world and so, of course, all the warriors had to try and go higher.

  Arrow stayed on the ground, testing her sight instead. The lines of power of second sight were there but made little sense to her eyes. Perhaps with more practice she could make sense of them. At least she could see the shapes of things in the first world, and avoid walking into walls. Or bumping against people. She wondered what it would feel like, in the first world, to encounter someone in the shadow world, or if anyone in the first world would realise they were being watched. Kallish would help her experiment, she was quite sure, and also quite sure that this was not the time or place.

  The jump competition seemed to be over, Undurat the absolute champion.

  “Which way, svegraen?” Arrow asked. Kallish pointed out a direction and the group fell in together.

  Arrow found herself surrounded by the warriors as they walked, struggling a little to keep up with their pace and glad that, for the first time in what seemed an age, her ribs were not cracked, broken or bruised.

  They arrived at the building with the Queen’s rooms and went around to another entrance, passing numerous shadows that were Erith in the first world. Whatever wards were in place in the first world did not appear in the shadows.

  Unlike the doors to the Queen’s private chambers, this set of doors were open, in Erith tradition, and they went up a wide flight of stairs to a set of double doors with a pair of Erith outside. Arrow was getting better at interpreting the glimpses of the first world from this realm and thought that the pair were White Guard.

  “Now we wait,” Kallish said as quietly as possible.

  It did not seem long before the doors opened, a new pair of Erith emerging. The doors were left open while the new and old pairs stood together. Doubtless exchanging information, Arrow thought, as Kallish grabbed her shoulder and moved her forward through the open doors, the other warriors following.

  Arrow noted that Kallish seemed familiar with the layout of Noverian’s rooms as the warrior guided her through a series of large chambers, all with their doors open, until they came to another, closed door.

  “Noverian’s chamber. We may find information here.” Kallish’s voice was a bare sound.

  After checking that there were no Erith in the first world, Undurat opened the door and the group filed in. The room was empty.

  “We need to explore in the first world,” Kallish said, lifting a brow at Arrow.

  “Yes. Of course.” Arrow held out her arm and five hands took hold of her again. She found a fissure, with a little effort, and spoke the word for opening, stepping through.

  Coming back into the first world was a heavy drag, the weight of the hands trying to pull her back into the shadows, but she set her jaw and took the few, necessary steps to come out of the shadows.

  Once out, all the warriors with her, her knees gave out and she collapsed onto a handmade, priceless floor covering.

  “You are bleeding,” Kallish noted, kneeling in front of her.

  “I am?” Arrow touched under her nose, following Kallish’s gaze, and found she was indeed bleeding.

  She glanced up and found that the warriors were standing still, breathing heavily as though from a long, hard run.

  “The shadow world requires a great deal of energy, it seems,” Kallish observed. “Good thing you suggested we bring some food.”

  Arrow pulled a plain cloth from her bag and blotted her nose while the warriors rummaged in the small packs each of them carried, which she had not noticed before, producing enough food for them all, and, for Arrow, a small flask of mint tea while they shared a larger flask of Erith tea.

  Arrow stayed on the ground until her legs felt less hollow and shaky, then rose, looking around for the first time, shivering lightly as she considered just where they were and what might happen if they were discovered.

  Noverian’s bedchamber was twice as large and even more opulent than Seggerat’s, decorated in shades of blue from the deep midnight of the ceiling above to the pale froth of the cushions on a large chaise by the window. A window which looked out onto the Queen’s favourite garden. By Arrow’s estimation, the entire third could have lain side by side on the bed without touching. It was a room fit for a King, and she wondered, briefly, what the Queen’s chamber was like.

  “Are we on the floor above the Queen’s chambers?” Arrow asked, trying to remember how many stairs they had climbed.

  “Yes. There is a set of stairs down to her chambers from the corner, there,” Kallish nodded. “Heavily warded, keyed only to a few people.” Arrow’s face must have betrayed her surprise at the warrior’s knowledge as Kallish’s mouth tilted in a smile. “A great many years ago, I was a junior cadet assigned to Miach. Before he had his own cadre.”

  “He must have been in the Queen’s service a long time,” Arrow said unguardedly.

  “Yes.”

  “No one has been in here for a while,” Undurat commented, catching Arrow’s attention. He was right. The air in the room smelled slightly stale, and there was a fine film of dust on the low dresser against one wall. Dust that would never have been permitted in the Taellaneth.

  “So, Noverian is not here,” Kallish concluded, “and has not been for some time. A week?”

  “Longer,” Undurat concluded, “judging by the dust.”

  “How long is it since he was seen in public?” Arrow asked.

  “Miach said ten days.”

  “That would fit,” Undurat agreed.

  “And his guards have been concealing his absence.” Kallish’s face and voice were grim. Arrow swallowed, looking around the room. She could not think of a good reason why warriors sworn to protect the Consort would have hidden his absence.

  “Mercat,” she said suddenly.

  “What?”

  “The farmer who died was growing mercat. With enough mercat, a skilled magician might be able to stop the guards from realising that Noverian is missing.”

  “Really?” Kallish’s disbelief was clear.

  “It would require a whole field of the stuff,” Undurat added. “The warriors who guard the Consort and Queen are not chosen lightly.”

  “I know.” Arrow shook her head, unable to explain why she was so certain. She turned her attention back to the room. “Nothing has been disturbed. He either went willingly, or was taken elsewhere.”

  “We need to go through the rest of the rooms.” Kallish turned to the door.

  “How? The guards are there. Do we want them to find us?”

  Kallish’s face took on an irritated
expression more suited to Orlis than a senior warrior.

  “We cannot see into the first world from the shadows?” One of Kallish’s third asked, the most junior, Arrow thought.

  “I could try making an opening,” Arrow speculated aloud, then nearly choked on inappropriate laughter, imagining the six of them going from room to room, peering through a slit from the shadow realm like children behind a curtain. From the twitch of Kallish’s mouth she had caught the humour in the situation as well.

  “The guards should patrol the other rooms regularly. All the doors were open,” Kallish noted.

  “Let me look around here for a moment,” Arrow suggested, not quite ready to leave.

  “Do you see something?”

  “I am not sure.” Arrow dropped into second sight, the effort a tiny one compared to entering and leaving the shadow realm, and looked around the room again. “Battle wards!”

  Erith amber rose around them immediately, the third on alert and closing around her.

  “What?”

  “There is a spell trap here. We are lucky not to have triggered it.” Arrow was still in the second world.

  “In Noverian’s chamber?” Kallish hissed.

  “Yes. It is over the dresser.” The dusty dresser, sitting innocuously in the first world, tempting any casual passer-by to investigate the anomaly of dust in the Palace.

  “Dangerous?”

  “It will eliminate this floor of the building, I believe.”

  “Battle magic.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you unravel it?”

  “Yes. But it will take energy.”

  “We have more food, and some potions from Orlis.” Kallish’s voice, even in the second world, was dry. If Arrow had not known the warrior she would have missed the humour. Even faced with a spell trap, the warriors around her held firm and thought clearly.

  “Please keep watch.”

  “Mage.”

  Arrow dropped her awareness of the first world entirely, examining the spell trap more closely. The knot of magic was not by any magician she knew, but it was clean magic, purely Erith in origin, and far less masterful than the spells prepared by the rogue she had defeated in the Taellaneth. She thought it might be the same magic user who had used mage fire to bring the bookcase down on Teresea. The same one who had killed Seggerat, and other Erith before. The thought of him so close to the Consort and Queen, and going where he pleased in the Palace, twisted her insides.

  It still took some time to unravel the spell, the various strands of magic falling away to leave the second world safe again.

  She came back to the first world to find that the third had not moved, battle wards still shimmering in the air, all the warriors alert.

  “It is done.” She took a step towards the dresser, wobbled, and was held up by one of the warrior’s hands under her arm. “I think,” she said, and had to pause for a breath, words jumbled, “this may be the same as before.”

  “The same magic user who killed Teresea?” Kallish seemed to catch her meaning, jaw tight. Arrow jerked her chin once and wished she had not, lightheaded for a moment.

  “Is it safe to open?” Undurat asked.

  “Yes.” Her face warmed as she leant into the hand supporting her, waiting for her knees to function again.

  At some unseen signal, a pair of warriors went forward and opened the dresser. It was a huge piece of furniture, appearing small only next to the size of the room, with a solid wooden top and a series of carved wooden doors and drawers along the front. The warriors quickly and thoroughly searched all the drawers and cupboards, coming back to Kallish with a small fabric pouch that smelled vaguely familiar.

  “A herb?” Kallish sniffed at the open end of the pouch, nose wrinkling.

  “Mercat,” Arrow told her. She lifted a shoulder when Kallish turned to stare at her, and straightened away from the warrior who had been propping her up with a murmured thanks. “The Academy requires its students to be able to identify herbs and plants that we may use.”

  “Mercat again.” Kallish’s fingers tightened around the pouch for a moment before she handed it back to the warrior who had found it. He returned it to its hiding place, at the back corner of one of the drawers. “Setting a spell trap to protect mercat seems …” The warrior waved a hand, searching for the right word.

  “Overkill,” Arrow agreed. It was a human term that did not adapt particularly well to Erith, but Kallish accepted it.

  A soft sound from the other side of the closed door had them all looking around, the warriors going completely still with the sort of attention Arrow had seen from the shifkin more than once. She kept herself as motionless as possible, hoping her breathing was not too loud.

  Kallish signalled and Undurat crept across to the door on completely silent feet, an impressive achievement for so large a person. He listened intently for a few moments, then came back.

  “Patrol,” he said as quietly as he could.

  “We should leave.” Kallish’s voice was equally quiet and she turned an expectant look to Arrow.

  Finding the entrance to the shadow realm was easier, because she had not closed the opening behind her. Five hands descended on her and she stepped through into shadows, feeling a dragging exhaustion, stumbling a little when they were through.

  “We will return to the annex. Go to Evellan and Seivella tomorrow,” Kallish ordered.

  “Give me a potion. We should go now. The longer we leave it …” Arrow did not finish the sentence but by the expressions around her, she did not need to. One of the warriors handed her a vial that bore the unmistakable trace of Orlis’ healing magic and she swallowed the dose in one gulp.

  “The dungeons are this way.”

  ~

  The dungeons were too well guarded, with barred doors, to permit the warriors through, even in the shadow realm. They returned reluctantly to the annex, where Kester was professionally reviewing his weapons, an impressive array of them laid out on the dining table, and Orlis was pacing the length of the building, his hair even more tangled than before. Orlis whirled on them as soon as they reappeared, demanding answers.

  Pleading genuine tiredness, and wanting some quiet, Arrow left Kallish and the others to tell Orlis and Kester what they had found. The presence of two warriors in her room almost made her turn back. She had forgotten Kallish’s edict. She lay down, intending to feign sleep for a while so she could think, only to wake hours later to find the warriors still on alert, and a tray, piled high with food, balanced on a stool near the door.

  Not surprised to find she was hungry after the walk in shadows, Arrow finished the food, then took the tray through to the dining room, wondering who else was awake.

  Kester was settled at the table, still, with only a few weapons left in front of him. He rose as she came in and she stopped in confusion, wondering if she had interrupted some warrior ritual. One of the warriors from the junior third approached her and took the tray away.

  “Wine?” Kester gestured to a small tray at the end of the table which held an opaque glass bottle, a pitcher of what she assumed was water and several glasses. There was a glass on the table near his chair, half-full of deep red liquid that she could not smell over the weapons oil.

  “I do not think I have had wine before.” Arrow’s brow creased as she tried to remember.

  “Another time, then. Water?”

  “Thank you.”

  She settled on the other side of the table, her back to the door, slight itch between her shoulder blades even with the obvious presence of so many warriors, and watched as he poured a glass of water and placed it near her, before going back to his place and continuing his weapons maintenance. He was using some kind of oil on a slender, lethal looking dagger. The scent was so familiar that Arrow found her shoulders relaxing.

  “Is Orlis asleep?”

  “Finally, yes.” Kester’s mouth tightened. “He was beginning to slur his words. Kallish thought she might have to knock him out.”
/>
  “Difficult to do to a trained mage,” Arrow observed, sipping the water. The last remnants of sleep were fading, and a new bit of information was calling for attention in her mind. While she had been sleeping, the book that Evellan had left for her, the only written information that the Erith had about shadow-walkers, had opened itself. She could usually keep it hidden when she was awake but it had found its way into her dreams more than once.

  “Kallish knows the guards who will be at the dungeons tomorrow. They might give her access.”

  Kester’s words faded as the bit of knowledge roared to the forefront of her mind. Arrow froze, glass held part way to her mouth, eyes flaring silver as the pages of the book fluttered inside, turning her stomach and the food that had been settled so happily moments before. She hated that book, even as she valued the information.

  “Arrow?”

  Kester’s voice brought her back to the here and now. She had the impression it was not the first time he had called her name.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you alright? You were not yourself for a moment.”

  “Evellan’s damned book,” she told him, too annoyed to be polite, and took a hasty gulp from her glass. The bright cold of the water calmed her temper a little. Kester had been with her when she had found the book, so he needed no more than that to understand her.

  “More new lessons?”

  “It chooses the worst times.” She scrubbed her face with her hands and rested her forehead on her palms, elbows on the table.

  “What is it this time?”

  “A way into the dungeons. I think.” She closed her eyes and reviewed the information again. A way to use magic in the shadow realm, to open locks, and cast a quick glamour to hide the opening of the door. It should work.

  “Not alone.” The tone was flat, determined. It mirrored the tone that Kallish used often, drawing a smile from Arrow as she lowered her hands, coming back to the here and now.

  “It uses a lot of energy to take people with me,” she began her objection.

  “I will come with you.” He was looking directly at her, eyes flecked with amber. She took a breath in, surprise and discomfort warring for attention, and found her lungs full of cardamom and weapons oil. The familiarity of the scents distracted her. At least she told herself that was the reason she agreed. The fury he had shown in the workspace was gone, as if it had never happened, replaced by something she did not yet understand, something that she wanted to understand and run away from at the same time.