Exile's Return (27 page)

“How did you manage to survive all the slaughter?” asked Kaspar as he sat up and pulled his boots on.

“I hid when I could, fought when required, and had good fortune, Magnificence.”

Kaspar stood. “Ah, brevity. Very good, Amafi.” He said, “How are Pug and his family?”

“Well enough,” said Amafi, shaking his head with a sad expression. “But bereft. Many of those lost were very young. The black-armored invaders were indiscriminate; their mission was carnage.”

“Did you see the blond magician who led them?” asked Kaspar, moving toward the door.

“Yes.”

“That was our old friend Leso Varen.”

Amafi nodded. “So Pug said, Magnificence. He said he could sense who he was despite the change in appearance. Actually, Varen was looking very well until the Talnoy gutted him.”

They left the room and Kaspar asked, “Where can I find Pug?”

“I’ll show you, Magnificence.”

Amafi led him outside and at once Kaspar saw the extent of the damage. Only a portion of one hall was left intact, but the garden had been miraculously spared. Already workers were repairing the damage, and Kaspar paused for a moment to marvel at them.

A girl no more than fourteen years old stood next to a pile of cut lumber. Her hand was outstretched as she used her mind to move a timber to the top of two charred, but still sturdy, supports. When the beam was in place, two young men hammered iron nails into the wood and called down for her to send another up to them.

At other locations more mundane approaches were being used, and the sound of hammers and saws filled the air.

“The dead?” asked Kaspar.

“They held the rites last night, Magnificence. The boy, Malikai, was one of those slain.”

Kaspar said nothing, but he felt regret.

They entered a building previously used to house farming equipment, from the look of the plow, harnesses, and other items stacked outside the door.

Pug sat on a simple stool in the middle of the room; a blackened kitchen table serving as his desk, a stack of papers before him. He looked up. “Kaspar, you seem to have survived.”

“Pug,” said the former duke. “I have you to thank for that.”

“Nakor, actually,” said Pug as he stood up. “He had a potion in that bottomless bag of his which healed your lungs from the smoke damage. He used it many times on the first night.”

Pug came and leaned against the table. “We found you at the feet of the Talnoy and found the blue-clad magician gutted in the garden.”

“The Talnoy killed him and carried me to safety.”

Pug said, “Varen?”

Kaspar said, “It
was
Varen, and he’s dead again…if that means anything.” He looked at Pug and said, “You were right. He was after the Talnoy. It killed him.”

Miranda entered the room and it was obvious that she had overhead the last exchange. Without preamble she said, “That thing has to be taken away from here. They didn’t know exactly where it was at the time of the attack, but they knew it had to be here or in Elvandar.”

“Otherwise he wouldn’t have divided his forces,” said a voice from outside.

Kaspar turned to see Tomas standing in the doorway.

“And he’d have thrown the death-dancers and the Black Slayers at us together, completely overwhelming us.”

Pug nodded. “Varen will be back. Until we find the vessel housing his soul, he will keep coming back.”

Kaspar said, “Then that’s what we must do.”

Pug smiled. “We?”

Kaspar shrugged. “I was left with the impression, when last we spoke, that my options around here are limited.”

Pug nodded. “They are. Come, let’s take a walk.”

As Miranda and Tomas moved aside to let them exit the hut, Pug said, “I’ll be back shortly.” He paused and said to Miranda, “Have Magnus prepare to take the Talnoy to Kelewan. We’ll have the Assembly turn their best minds to the problem.”

She nodded. “After what’s happened here, we’ll need the help.”

Pug smiled and touched her arm. “And send for Caleb. I want him to work with Kaspar on tracking Varen down.”

She said, “I’ll take care of it.”

To Tomas, Pug said, “Why don’t you return to your family for a while? I think Varen depleted his resources in these two attacks.”

“I agree, but when the time comes to deal with that monster, I will be there.”

“Yes,” said Pug. “Nakor will see you back to Elvandar, unless you want to summon a dragon?”

Tomas grinned. “I could, but they tend to get irritated when the trip doesn’t involve something dangerous. I’ll find Nakor.” To Kaspar he said, “Fare well, Kaspar. I’m certain we shall meet again.”

They shook hands. “It has been an honor, Tomas,” Kaspar said.

Pug indicated that Kaspar should walk with him, and when they were alone he said, “It is good that you’ve decided to join us.”

Kaspar laughed. “I assumed there wasn’t much choice!”

“There’s always a choice, but in this case, your alternative was not particularly attractive. You’re a man of guile, wit, and perception, and you possess a certain ruthlessness that we shall most certainly need before all this is done; and know that it is far from done. This new struggle has only just begun. We have learned a bitter lesson; we have grown complacent in the defense of our home. We will never make that mistake again.”

Kaspar said, “When do we begin?”

Pug said, “Now. Come, let us make plans.”

The former duke, now an agent of the Conclave of Shadows, and the former kitchen boy, now the most powerful magician in Midkemia, walked down the hill toward the meadow and began to make plans.

Magnus bowed.

A group of five magicians wearing black robes returned the greeting. One of them stepped forward and said, “Greetings, son of Milamber. You are a welcome sight to these old eyes.”

Magnus smiled. “You’re generous, Joshanu.” He looked to the other four Great Ones of the Assembly of Magicians. “It is good to see you all.”

He stepped off the dais upon which the rift machine rested, the twin of the one kept in Stardock on Midkemia. The room was large, but relatively empty save for the rift machine and the five men who waited around it. They had been warned of Magnus’s arrival by a signal system initiated years before. The room was all of stone, and cold for this hot planet, but it was well lit by oil lamps set in sconces on the wall.

“What is this thing that follows you?” asked one of the other magicians.

Speaking perfect Tsurani, Magnus answered, “It is the reason for my visit. It’s a man-made construction, yet it contains a living spirit. It belongs to the Second Circle,” he said, using the Tsurani terminology for the second level of reality.

This piqued their interest. “Really?” said a tall, reed-thin magician.

“Yes, Shumaka,” said Magnus. “I knew you would be especially interested.” To the entire group, he said, “My father begs the Assembly for their wisdom. If I may prevail upon you to gather as many of your brethren as you can, I would like to address them all.”

A short, stout magician smiled. “I shall spread the word. I am certain that when the news of this thing has spread, every member will be in attendance. Come, let us find you some quarters and let you rest. How soon would you wish to speak?”

Magnus slipped the ring on his finger and instantly felt the tingle of alien magic. “Follow,” he instructed the Talnoy, touching it lightly.

One thing the magician had discovered since being charged with transporting the Talnoy to Kelewan was that it responded to any language. Therefore, it was Magnus’s opinion that it could read the thoughts of the ring-wearer, and the vocalization was only really necessary for clarity of the command.

They led Magnus and the Talnoy through the heart of the city of magicians. The vast building covered an entire island, much as Stardock dominated the island upon which it stood. This one, however, dwarfed its imitator and was truly ancient, while Stardock was less than a century old.

No one knew more about rift-magic than Pug, and Magnus carried a set of messages from his father to various members of the assembly detailing what he knew, what he surmised, what he suspected and what he feared. Magnus had read the communiqués; they were not designed to reassure.

Still, the Talnoy was away from his home and Varen was, if not stopped, then at least slowed considerably.

But the last thing his father had said to him before he departed troubled him deeply.

Pug had embraced his son and whispered in his ear, “I fear the time of subtle conflict is behind us, and that now we once again face open war.”

Magnus hoped his father was wrong, but suspected that he was right.

Nakor swore as he bumped his head against the ceiling of the cave. It had taken him nearly a week to find it, using the information Kaspar had provided him. He ducked under the low overhang, torch in one hand, walking staff in the other.

He had used one of Pug’s Tsurani spheres to magically transport himself near to where Kaspar thought the Talnoy had been discovered: Shingazi’s Landing. He had left Sorcerer’s Isle in the middle of the afternoon, and had landed in Novindus during the dead of night.

Nakor left his rooms in Shingazi’s Landing, and walked until he was out of sight of the town. Then he used one of Pug’s tricks, and used the sphere to transport himself by line-of-sight. It was slow compared to the instantaneous jumps made from point to known point, but it was dangerous to attempt traveling in this way to unknown destinations, as the sphere could easily land the user inside solid rock.

He had found the village the Kingdom traders had used as their base of operations in the northern regions of the Eastlands, and after spending some gold and asking the right questions, he had located the cave.

Nakor looked at the devastation the grave-robbers had left behind them and balanced the torch between a pair of large rocks to light the cavern. Porcelain jars with unreadable writing upon them were now tiny shards, and clay tablets had also been smashed. Nakor sighed. “Such a mess.”

He felt Pug’s arrival before he heard him call out his name. “In here!” he shouted, and a light appeared in the tunnel a few moments later.

Pug came to stand beside his friend. “What have you found?”

“This,” said Nakor. He knelt and picked up a clay shard. “Perhaps if we took these back with us, the students could piece them together, and we might learn something?”

“This has all the hallmarks of a Pantathian burial vault,” said Pug. “Look.” He pointed to some armor. “That’s Pantathian.”

“What’s back here?” said Nakor.

Pug held up his hand and light sprang forth, bathing the rear of the cavern. “Looks like rock.”

“You, of all people, should look beyond the obvious, Pug.” Nakor walked to the rear of the cave and examined the wall. Then he began to bang on the stones with his walking stick.

Pug knelt and examined something in the corner. “Did you look at these ward-markers?”

“Yes,” said Nakor. “Macros put them there.”

Pug stood up. “So, Macros the Black stumbled across a Pantathian burial chamber in which the Talnoy rested, and instead of ridding the world of it, he put some wards around it and left it here for us to find.”

“Well,” said Nakor, “if you couldn’t destroy it, what makes you think Macros could?” He glanced back and saw that Pug wore a wry smile. “You still think of him as more powerful than you, but that’s not so, at least it hasn’t been true for some time.” Nakor went back to examining the wall. “Besides, he was very busy for a few years.”

Pug said, “You could say that. But he never made any mention of it in his papers, to me, or to his daughter.”

“He didn’t spend a lot of time with your wife, Pug.”

“But this is important. It’s as dangerous as anything I’ve seen so far.”

With a rumble, the rear wall began to move and Nakor let out a satisfied grunt. “Found it!”

Pug hurried to stand next to the Isalani. “What do you think?”

“I think that if the Talnoy was out there, whatever is hiding in here must be very important indeed.”

“And perhaps dangerous,” said Pug.

Nakor retrieved his torch and they headed down into the tunnel. They had walked about a mile when the floor began to level off. Nakor said, “There’s a cavern ahead. Can’t see much with this light, though.”

Pug raised his hand and a light as bright as day streamed from his palm.

“Gods,” Nakor whispered. “We have a problem, Pug.”

The walls of the chamber rose a hundred feet or more, but the floor was less than ten feet below them. The cavern floor stretched out in a huge circle, and on it, lined up neatly as if in waiting, stood line after line, row after row of Talnoy.

“There must be hundreds,” Pug whispered.

“Thousands. We have a problem,” Nakor repeated.

As always, I am
indebted to those who created Midkemia and allowed me to use it. Without their generosity I might be flipping burgers. So, Steve A., Jon, Anita, Conan, Steve B., Bob, Rich, April, Ethan, and everyone else who contributed, my thanks.

Thanks to Ralph Askren for the fine map work.

Special thanks this time around to a group of people who have provided me with seemingly endless support and friendship through personal craziness: Andy Abramson, Richard Spahl, and Kim and Ray McKewon.

My deepest affections and appreciations to The Ladies: Annah Brealey, Jennifer Evins, Heather Haney, Candace Serbian, Jennifer Sheetz, Tami Sullivan, Rebecca Thornhill, Amaliya Weisler, Elyssa Xavier, and a special thank you to Roseanna Necochia. In many different ways you have all made life resonant and interesting. Your friendships have made me a far richer man than I deserve.

I also, once again, thank Jonathan Matson.

Thanks to my mother, for being there.

Lastly, and most deeply, to my children for their love and beauty; they drive me crazy while keeping me alive.