Casket of Souls

  “What in Bilairy’s name took you two so long?” asked Seregil.

  “We nearly got arrested,” Alec told him. “The neighbors thought we were attacking Brader and called in the bluecoats. Brader ran, and I got away a moment later.”

  “How did you not get arrested?” Seregil asked Micum.

  “Told them Brader had gotten my daughter in trouble, and that I and her brother Alec were after him for it. That, and a little gold, worked a charm.”

  “I got here first and got the front door open and managed to get up in the box for a shot while you were all distracted.” Alec shook his head. “You three up onstage like that? It looked like a scene from one of Atre’s plays.”

  Seregil sighed. “I hate to admit it, but I am going to miss those.”

  THE city woke to the sound of gongs and herald’s cries: “The queen is dead. Long live Queen Elani!” and “Princess Klia has led Skala to victory in the north!”

  Seregil and the others strode among knots and crowds, stunned as any of the citizens.

  “This must be what Klia sent that message to Thero for,” said Alec.

  All around them, householders and servants were already hanging black swags over front doors in acknowledgment of the royal mourning. Public mourning lasted a week, but for the royal family and court it would go on for much longer.

  “No more parties with Elani,” Seregil murmured. “I doubt we’ll see much of her for a while.”

  “And Klia led the army to victory!”

  “As the last royal left on the field, it was her right to take command.”

  “Beka always said the army loved Phoria. If they thought Klia had any hand in it, they wouldn’t have followed her. So that’s the end of the cabals?”

  Seregil shrugged.

  Some people they passed were now quietly celebrating the victory or mourning the fallen queen. Others were grumbling that the death and the mourning period put off the time for the public victory feast the queen would give for the city, and had shut down theaters, brothels, taverns, and the like.

  The house in Gannet Lane was still shuttered when they arrived there to collect their horses, which fortunately were still where they’d left them.

  “Do you think Korathan arrested all of them?” Alec wondered.

  “I imagine so,” Seregil replied with a twinge of regret. Merina and Brader had seemed like a devoted couple, and there had been no mistaking how much the man loved his children, even to his dying breath.

  “I hope he was telling the truth about the others not being involved,” said Alec, as if reading his thoughts.

  “So do I,” said Micum. “I don’t regret the killing of either of them, but the thought of those fatherless children …” He kept the rest of his thoughts to himself.

  They parted ways at the Temple Precinct, Micum and Alec going back to the inn with Illia’s phial and good news, and Seregil heading for the Dalnan temple to ascertain Thero’s condition.

  “What have you done to yourself now?” Valerius asked when he saw Seregil’s sad condition.

  “Never mind that. Is Thero all right?”

  “See for yourself,” the drysian told him, leading him to a guest room off the library.

  To Seregil’s considerable surprise and great relief, he found the wizard sitting up in bed. He was pale as bleached linen, except for the angry red weal on his neck where the needle had struck him, but his eyes were clear and alert as he rasped out, “Illia? Did you get the phial?”

  “Yes. Micum has it at the inn. By the Light!” Seregil pulled up another chair and clasped hands with him. “I didn’t know what to expect here.”

  Thero gave a rusty chuckle. “Wizards are hard to kill. How else do you think we live to be so old? I’d managed to expel most of the poison from my body by the time Micum brought me here.”

  “That nasty-looking black stuff you were coughing up?”

  Thero nodded. “Not a pleasant process, but it saved my life. Valerius has been working to restore my strength.”

  “With considerable success, I might add,” said Valerius.

  “How soon until you’re strong enough for magic? We need you to restore Illia.”

  “Fortunately, the ring of protection takes very little effort,” Thero replied. “The symbols do most of the work. I only hope we didn’t just get lucky with Mika because he’s wizard-born.”

  “Don’t say that in front of the Cavishes. They’re scared enough as it is. And this might help.” Seregil took Atre’s bone necklace from his tunic and gave it to Thero. “Brader told us Atre always used it to work his magic.”

  Thero held it gingerly between two fingers and wrinkled his nose.

  “Those are human bones,” said Valerius.

  “I thought so,” replied Seregil.

  “And strung on human skin.” Thero dropped it onto the coverlet with a look of disgust. “How this whole business didn’t reek of necromancy I can’t imagine. As for that thing—” He gestured at the necklace, clearly loath to touch it again. “It isn’t magic.”

  Seregil’s heart sank. “What? But Brader said Atre always used it!”

  “He may have, but his magic didn’t come from it. It’s a nasty relic, very old, and clearly a ritual piece, but the only power it might have had was if Atre believed it was magic. If so, it was nothing but his own superstition at work. The power lay in him.”

  “That would explain why you didn’t find it with your magic, unless he carried it with him.”

  “I suppose so.”

  Seregil let out a frustrated growl. “So it won’t help you at all?”

  “If anything, the foul aura of the thing would hinder me. From what little I felt from it, it’s been used by hundreds of evil people over a very long period of time.”

  Seregil told them what had happened to the bodies after Brader and Atre died.

  “Abominations!” the drysian rumbled. “Are the corpses still there?”

  “Yes, we locked them in.”

  “I’ll deal with them.”

  “Can you tell from the necklace where they were from, Thero?” asked Seregil.

  The wizard reluctantly rested his hand over it, eyes squeezed shut with the effort, then fell back against the pillows.

  “It’s too soon to be doing that!” Valerius scooped the necklace up and tossed it to Seregil.

  “It’s all right,” Thero gasped. “They came from somewhere far beyond the Ironheart Mountains, a land I know nothing of. And centuries ago, though I can’t tell how many in my present state.”

  “Not Zengati, after all?” asked Alec.

  “No.”

  Seregil nodded. “In that first play of his we saw, the narrator spoke of ‘eastern mountains’ and black ships. Alec noted it at the time, thinking they were talking about Mycena, which didn’t make any sense. I thought it was just poetic license at the time, but perhaps he was talking about his real homeland.”

  “I wouldn’t have guessed them to be foreign, having spoken with them.”

  “They were actors, after all, and apparently had plenty of time to learn new ways and accents as they went along. So, how long until you can help Illia?”

  “I should be strong enough by tonight.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Valerius objected.

  “We don’t know how long the elixirs last,” Seregil told him. “It’s already been four days, and for one reason or another the stricken ones we know about don’t last much longer than that. For all we know, the unfixed souls can fade.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Thero interjected. “As I said, the protection doesn’t take much strength.”

  “Will you be strong enough to do what you did with Mika?”

  “All I really did was talk to him, and calm him. I can do that, and Illia knows me. Besides, her body will be right there. She won’t have to find her way.”

  Despite the reassurances, a chill went up Seregil’s back at the thought of opening that bottle. In his mind’s eye he could still s
ee that fluttering gesture Atre had made.

  Sometimes they just float away …

  Valerius tended Seregil’s shoulder, packing it with a honey-and-herb poultice that relieved some of the pain, then found a clean tunic for him to replace his torn and bloody one.

  Seregil went next to the Palace and was admitted to Korathan’s private quarters, where the prince was in the process of dressing for the day’s duties.

  Korathan dismissed the valet and sat down with Seregil in the sitting room. “I received your message last night, and locked the city gates. I took you at your word, given the urgency of the messenger. The actors, however, had already fled, and apparently in a great hurry. The City Watch is searching for them, but they may have escaped before the gates were closed.”

  “I see. Well, I doubt they had anything to do with the deaths.”

  “I assume this all had something to do with the cabals?”

  “Yes and no.” Seregil showed him their evidence and explained the night’s events—the revelation of the cause of the sleeping death, their pursuit of Atre and Brader, and the true manner of the mysterious deaths among the cabals and the general populace. He took out the chain with Elani’s ring and brooch, along with the loose emerald, and gave them to the prince. “You have my deepest apologies for unwittingly exposing Queen Elani to such danger. I’ll abide by whatever punishment you think best.”

  Korathan took the jewels and shook his head. “You saved her life, and a good many others, from the sound of things. You have my thanks. I’ve a mind to raise you and Alec to a dukedom.”

  “I’d consider it a greater reward if you didn’t,” Seregil replied. “We’ll be much more effective at our current rank, if you take my meaning. A dukedom would raise too many questions, and seriously complicate our social lives.”

  Korathan smiled. “You’re a curious fellow, cousin, but I think you and Alec may be two of Skala’s most loyal and useful subjects, after all.”

  Seregil blinked in surprise, not at the compliment, but at the familial term; Korathan hadn’t called him “cousin” in a long time. “Thank you. I hope we continue to be for some time.”

  Thero arrived at the inn just after sunset, accompanied by Valerius. The wizard didn’t look much better than he had before, but he was on his feet, at least.

  Seregil brought them upstairs, where the Cavishes and Alec were anxiously waiting.

  Kari went to the wizard and embraced him. “I’m so glad you’re here! But you’re so pale! Are you strong enough?”

  Thero smiled down at her. “I am. And I promise you, I will do everything in my power to restore Illia, even if it takes my last ounce of strength.”

  “Please, please do!” Elsbet implored, tears glistening in her dark eyes.

  Micum put an arm around her, but his gaze was on the wizard as he said, “Don’t fret, love. If anyone can, it’s Thero.”

  The phial lay safely in the center of the table, on the map of Rhíminee still spread out there with the coins on it.

  Valerius carefully picked up the bottle and held it a moment, frowning. “You really believe the soul of Illia Cavish is in here? And yet her body is still alive.”

  “We can have that debate later,” said Thero. “Micum, would you and Alec clear the floor for me?”

  They pulled back the carpet, uncovering the smudged remains of the last circle. Working on hands and knees, Thero slowly inscribed a larger one. When he was done Micum carried Illia from the bedroom. She looked smaller, younger, more vulnerable, lying against her father’s shoulder in the oversized nightshirt.

  Micum laid her in the wizard’s lap, then handed him the phial. Thero reached out and wrote one last symbol, closing the circle.

  The critical moment had arrived, and the others stood around in tense silence as he broke the seal.

  * * *

  Thero sent up a silent prayer to Illior Lightbearer, then murmured the spell of intent. The energy rose more slowly than usual in him, but he pressed on. He had to do this, and he would, at any cost. With that spell complete, he pried the cork from the bottle. At once a white plume of spirit surged from it like steam from a boiling kettle and swirled around him in a mist. No one in the room said a word.

  “Illia, can you hear me?” he asked.

  There was no face in the mist this time, but he heard the faint sound of crying, then a whispered Thero?

  “Yes, Illia! Can you see me?”

  Yes, and Mother and Father and Elsbet. And Uncle Seregil and Uncle Alec. There was a pause, then And I see me. Am I dead, Thero?

  “No! You just need to go back into yourself, that’s all. Can you do that, Illia?”

  Illia made no reply, but after a few agonizing moments the mist began to thin, then disappeared altogether. The girl stirred in his arms and looked up at him in alarm. “Am I still not dead?”

  Thero hugged her. “You’re fine, Illia. Welcome back!”

  He cut the circle and Micum hoisted his daughter in his arms, tears streaming down his cheeks. Kari and Elsbet clung to them, weeping with joy and relief.

  Thero rose unsteadily to his feet, and a wave of dizziness nearly overwhelmed him. As the edges of his vision went dark, he found himself supported on either side by Alec and Seregil.

  “Well done, my friend.” Seregil’s voice was hoarse, but he and Alec were both grinning like madmen. “I think this may qualify you for uncle status, too.”

  ON a crisp, cold morning, the twentieth day of Rhythin, Princess Klia, Marshal of the Queen’s Armies, arrived at the north gate of the city, not at the head of the regiments but with a small bodyguard and a covered catafalque drawn by glossy black horses.

  Alec stood with Seregil and Thero among the privileged nobility on one of the red-and-gold-draped platforms that had been set up outside the gates. Elani stood with Korathan in the open gateway, surrounded by the highest-ranking members of the court.

  There had been a good deal of speculation as to how Klia would present herself to the young queen-to-be. Although Elani was the queen now, the formal coronation and succession rites could not be performed without the Sword of Gherilain.

  Elani was dressed in a flowing black gown and the gold-chased ceremonial breastplate Alec had seen Idrilain, and then Phoria, wear. An empty sword belt hung around her hips. Her head was bare except for a diamond-and-ruby circlet.

  As Klia neared the gate, Alec could see that she had a sheathed long sword slung across her saddlebow.

  “Beka and Nyal aren’t with her,” he whispered in dismay.

  “They’re still in Plenimar,” Seregil whispered back.

  Still some twenty yards from where Elani stood, Klia reined in and dismounted. Taking the sheathed sword down from the saddle, she walked the rest of the way until she stood before Elani. Without a word, she knelt and placed the sword in Elani’s hands. Elani slid it into her sword belt, then extended her hand and brought Klia to her feet. In front of the assembled throng, she kissed her aunt on both cheeks, then embraced her. Despite the gravity of the occasion, people broke into cheers at the sight. The succession was secure. Korathan embraced Klia next, then Aralain. The four of them, Phoria’s heir and the last of Idrilain’s children, walked to the catafalque. Soldiers lifted aside the wooden cover, revealing the dead queen.

  The drysians had done their work well, preserving the body from decomposition on its long journey by sea and land. Phoria lay on a raised bier, dressed in her uniform and cape, boots, and gorget. Her grey-blond hair was braided neatly over one shoulder, hands folded on her breast. Her face was gaunt, but peaceful.

  A hush fell over the crowd and people went to their knees as Elani and the others silently accompanied Phoria through the gates of her city for the last time. Inside, they mounted horses and continued slowly through the Harvest Market and on down Silvermoon to the Palace, with Alec and the other nobles walking behind the court.

  Every foot of the route was lined with crowds of citizens, come to pay their respects to the fallen and the
victor, many holding candles and victory wreaths swathed in black silk. Like a great wave, they fell to their knees when the catafalque and the new queen passed.

  At the gates of the palace grounds the courtiers continued in, while the lesser nobles went their separate ways. Retrieving their horses, Alec and the others set off for Wheel Street.

  Thero wiped his eyes. “She was a hard woman by all accounts but such a warrior! At least she died a good death.”

  “Such a short reign,” Seregil noted. “But this marks the beginning of a new era for Skala, I think—a kind and gracious queen and peace. What will we do with ourselves, eh?”

  SEREGIL sat with Micum on the wall of the sheepfold, watching Alec and Illia petting the spring lambs. In the distance herds of still-shaggy horses gamboled and grazed in verdant, rolling meadows.

  The two men didn’t talk; watching Illia play and listening to a murder of crows palavering in a nearby tree was enough. The sound of singing drifted to them from the house, where Kari and the household women were doing laundry, and laughter and chatter from the kitchen garden, where Luthas and Gherin had been sent to pull turnips. Seregil felt splendidly content.

  Just then they heard the distant sound of horses from the highroad, and saw a cloud of dust rising over the treetops.

  “The army is back at last,” Seregil noted.

  “Thank the Flame and Light!” Micum exclaimed softly. “What do you say we ride down to meet them and see if Beka and Nyal are with them?”

  “I’ll come with you,” said Alec.

  “Me, too!” exclaimed Illia, jumping nimbly over the sheepfold gate.

  Before they could saddle their horses, however, they heard the sound of riders on the river road, coming on at a gallop. As they watched from the front courtyard, eight riders came over the hill from the river bridge. Though Seregil couldn’t make out faces, Beka’s coppery red hair shone like a banner in the sunlight. All but two were wearing the green-and-white tabards of Beka’s regiment.