The plump arms of the Archimage of the Sea were extended in motionless, futile appeal. Her open mouth seemed to have been frozen in midscream, and her eyes glittered with terror.
“O Triune God, no,” Haramis whispered.
“Yes. Ah, yes!” the Lercomi Folk wailed in heartbroken response.
Haramis ran forward to what she thought was a glass case imprisoning her friend. As she touched it she discovered the truth.
The Blue Lady’s eyes moved, ever so slightly.
She was entombed within a great chunk of blue ice. And she was alive.
“Who has done this?” Haramis asked Ansebado, after some time had passed, during which she tried without success to free Iriane.
“Four humans,” the First of the Lercomi declared, “came in a small sailboat to our village on Sundown Isle, which is half a day from here by water. Three were men and one was a woman, and they demanded that we summon the Blue Lady.”
“When did this happen?”
“Nearly twelve moons ago. We were most astonished, for the only people of your kind that we ever see are the Feathered Barbarians—and they come very seldom to trade for fireshell, gold, and precious fish scale, and never during the stormy time of year.
“These human persons were lofty in demeanor and atrociously rude. Each one wore a Star hanging on a chain. When we asked their reasons for wanting audience with the Lady they did not answer, but instead killed several of our old people by means of awesome magic. They repeated their demand, threatening to destroy our children next, and then all of our tribe if we did not hasten to do their bidding. We had no choice but to give in. No choice! Do you understand, White Lady?”
Haramis said nothing. The Mereman continued:
“We explained that our Blue Lady’s magical portal is here, in Flyaway Isle. The strangers compelled the three of us to bring them here to the cave. Then … this one made the perfidious Call. As First of the Lercomi, it was my melancholy duty. But if I had known what would happen, I would have begged those brutes to slay us all instead.”
He began to weep, and the Second and Third also, and in another minute the entire crowd of little people in the blue misty cavern howled and sobbed in contrition, striking their crested heads on the ground. Haramis calmed them and commanded that the rest of the story be told.
Ansebado said, “No sooner had the Archimage of the Sea stepped from her enchanted door (which lies right behind her, even now) than the awful deed was done. The female stranger, one having flame-colored hair, used a magical device that sprinkled the poor Lady with some gelid astral liquid. She froze instantly. Further sprinkling produced the blue ice-block that you see. No fire can melt it. No prayer can banish it. Not even your own magic can overcome it! The name of the Lercomi Mere Folk will stink throughout the Sea Realm forever, for we have condemned our dear Blue Lady to living death.”
“Perhaps not,” Haramis said none too kindly, lifting her talisman to forestall another mournful hubbub. “This ice is not true magic, but something else appertaining to the Vanished Ones and their science. I cannot free the Blue Lady now, but perhaps a way might be found.”
Ansebado and his people fell on their faces to thank her, but she ordered them to arise, pull themselves together, and answer more questions.
Haramis learned that the human villains were all dressed in the silver-and-black robes of the Star Guild. They were none of them above thirty years in age, were of differing stature, and all save the redheaded woman had hair of grizzled gray or dirty white. Each Star Guildsman carried a dissimilar ancient weapon: one killed by boiling the blood, another threw forth a deadly small thunderbolt, the third provoked fatal convulsions, and the fourth, much larger than the others and more complex in aspect, had ensorcelled the Blue Lady.
“The malefactors stayed with us for several days,” Ansebado said, “questioning us about the underwater regions hereabouts where the Vanished Ones once flourished. Then another sailboat came with two more Star Men. One of them was young, of no special distinction save for his loud and bullying speech. But the other human was different from all the rest. He was much older, and he wore a many-rayed starburst headpiece of silvered leather that concealed his upper face while leaving the back of his head uncovered. His long hair was as pale as the platinum of his Star.”
Haramis gave a low cry. Ice seemed to have congealed in her own vitals. This could not be. Must not be …
She found herself asking, “Was—was he tall?”
“Taller than the others, who gave him great reverence and called him Master. He came into this cavern, stepped into the portal of the Blue Lady, and disappeared. The others waited for some hours, whereupon he reappeared. Then the lot of them got into the boats and went away.”
“Oh, Lords of the Air,” Haramis whispered. With her gloved fingers stiff and clumsy, she drew the gold-framed small picture out of her robe and was barely able to ask her last question. “And was this the Star Master?”
The little aborigine frowned at the portrait, then replied. “His face was partly masked by the starry headgear. But, yes. It was he. He had eyes like that. Eyes like yours, White Lady.”
Pain, born in her swelling heart, was spreading like molten metal through the entire body of the Archimage of the Land. It was a jubilant hurting, mingled with stark fear. She spoke in a voice made unsteady by emotion.
“Since the Blue Lady’s imprisonment, have the Lercomi Folk visited underwater ruins of the Vanished Ones at the Star Men’s behest?”
“Nay,” said Ansebado, “but we have heard that other Mere tribes have been compelled to do so. They have gathered certain ancient artifacts coveted by the Star Men, but none of them knows what these things might be, nor do we.”
But Haramis knew. “I will come to you again, Ansebado. Command your Folk to watch by the imprisoned Blue Lady until then. Should any person emerge from her magical portal, bespeak me at once, even if you must lay down your lives to do so. Now farewell.”
She clasped her talisman and commanded her magic to take her to Kadiya.
5
Queen Anigel stared at the plate of food before her, a simple grilled fillet of garsu fish and a helping of glazed dorun tuber, and put down her knife and fork. “I confess that Hara’s dreadful account of the poor Blue Lady has robbed me of my appetite. It pierces my very soul to know that there is nothing we can do to free her from that hellish enchantment.”
“If Iriane is frozen stiff,” Kadiya said reasonably, “she cannot be suffering. What good can it do her if you pine and starve yourself?”
“You are ever practical,” Anigel said with a sigh. “But hard-hearted.”
“Nonsense,” said the Lady of the Eyes, taking a goodly helping of bittercress salad and pouring rich cheese dressing over it. “One must sympathize with the troubles of others, but not to the point of impairing one’s own good health—especially if one has duties of state to perform. Don’t you agree, Hara?”
The Archimage inclined her head. “My talisman refuses to confirm my suspicions, but I believe that Iriane’s imprisonment may be only the beginning of a new time of peril for all of us. The return of the Star Guild, and the possibility that Orogastus may be gathering weapons of the Vanished Ones, poses a grave danger to the peace and good balance of the world. It may be that we three will once again be called upon, and if this be so, then we will need all of the physical and mental strength we can muster. And you, dearest little Sister, have important personal obligations as well.”
Queen Anigel received this admonition in chilly silence. But she began with obvious reluctance to eat.
The triplets were at dinner in Ruwenda Citadel, seated at the high table with the Queen presiding, while others of the court feasted at lower boards in the torch-lit great hall. There were many persons missing—including King Antar and his military advisers—and the usual cheerful conviviality attending the evening meal was absent. Less than an hour earlier, the magic of Haramis had transported Kadiya and herself to the Citadel, where they
had reported to the Laboruwendian court not only the misfortune of the Archimage of the Sea but also the apparent resurgence of the Star Guild under the leadership of Orogastus.
The latter piece of news had caused a furor, since only a single day now remained before the departure of the royal entourage on the long journey to Labornok. King Antar, Lord Marshal Lakanilo, and General Gorkain had sequestered themselves in order to make hasty plans for increasing the security of the train, leaving the Queen and her two sisters to speculate upon what the dire events might portend.
“At the present time,” the Archimage said, “only the Lords of the Air know what Orogastus’s long-range plans might be. But we can be assured that they involve the conquest of the world—both by physical means and by dark sorcery.”
Anigel added more crystallized honey to her cup of darci tea and stirred it morosely. “I find it hard to believe that once again that evil man has cheated death. Who would ever have thought such a thing possible? Hara, how could your talisman have deceived you about his fate?”
It was Kadiya who made the unpalatable reply. “The talisman spoke true—only the Archimage misinterpreted its words.”
Haramis admitted the accusation with a doleful nod. She brought forth the portrait of Orogastus and put it on the table before them. “When I requested a view of his dead face, the talisman could not comply. Only when I worded the command differently, avoiding the mention of death, did it show me his likeness so that I could fashion this picture.”
Now the Lady of the Eyes cried fiercely, “Damn that wizard! For all we know, he has already found the star-box and bonded Ani’s Three-Headed Monster to himself!”
“No,” Haramis stated positively. “My talisman indicates that he has not. Some other person has the coronet and the box—but the Circle will not tell me who.”
Kadiya took up her tableknife and with precision sliced a drumstick from the succulent roasted togar on the platter before her. “You may wager platinum to plarr-pits that Orogastus will seek out this coy new magician and attempt an alliance.”
“You are probably right, Kadi,” Anigel said. “And this is all the more reason why you should heed Hara’s counsel, and give up your own impotent talisman into her safekeeping so that neither villain gets hold of it.”
“Never!” Kadiya said through her mouthful of meat. “Even though the Three Moons tumble from the firmament!”
“Oh, Kadi,” cried the exasperated Queen. “It is the only safe course and you know it.”
“All very well for you to say,” muttered the Lady of the Eyes, pointing in accusation with the fowl’s leg bone, “having given up your own talisman to Orogastus in ransom—”
“Thus saving the life of the King my husband!” Anigel exclaimed in high dudgeon. “Should I have let Antar die in captivity?”
“You did not give Hara and me time to rescue him,” Kadiya retorted, “but capitulated to the kidnappers with unseemly haste, opening the way to the invasion of your kingdom.”
Very quietly, so that none of the other supping courtiers noticed, the Queen began to weep. “You are right. I was at fault—but so are you. Your Three-Lobed Burning Eye is sure to be stolen by Orogastus or this unknown wizard sooner or later. My own foolishness and your stubborn vainglory may yet doom us all.”
“For shame, Kadi,” the Archimage said, taking her youngest sister in her arms. “Have you forgotten that Ani is with child and should not be upset?”
“She is as rugged as a draft volumnial dropping its yearly calf, for all her fragile looks,” Kadiya remarked callously. “And do not either of you think to convince me to give up my talisman through this soppy charade.”
Anigel ceased crying. She sat up, wiped her eyes with a napkin, and shrugged. “It was worth the try,” she said sweetly.
“By the Flower!” the Archimage said, chagrined as much by the Queen’s artful deception as by Kadiya’s intransigence. “You two will drive me to distraction.”
“No, dear Hara,” said Anigel, now in deadly earnest. “We will rather do whatever must be done to help you conquer the Star Men and restore the balance of the world, no matter what the personal cost.” She turned to her other sister with a steely glance. “Is it not so, Kadi?”
“Oh … lothok dung!” cried the Lady of the Eyes, flinging the drumstick down onto her plate. “I suppose I will have to give in. You shall have the Burning Eye, Hara. What matter if my pride is in rags and my confidence undermined?”
“It is for the best,” the Archimage said, with evident relief.
“May I keep the talisman with me until we Three separate, at least?” Kadiya asked.
“Certainly. There can be no danger here within the Citadel. I know for a certainty that there are no viaducts here, through which Orogastus or his agents might enter and steal the Eye.”
“Those triply bedamned magical bolt-holes!” Kadiya exclaimed.
Haramis pushed aside dishes and tableware, laid out a large clean napkin, and touched her talisman to it. There was a faint smell of scorched linen, and immediately the cloth became a wondrously detailed map of the world-continent. “The viaducts are not truly magic, even though they seem so to us who know little of the science behind their making. Behold the viaduct portals.”
Anigel exclaimed in amazement, for the map became peppered with innumerable scarlet pinpoint dots. “So many!”
“And now,” said the Archimage, “since Orogastus stole a certain book belonging to Iriane that explained their operation, they are accessible to the sorcerer and his Star Guild.”
Kadiya said, “The villains are capable of popping up out of any one of those points like ziklu from a warren, and they can also go to ground through them, escaping their pursuers. Hara is thus far unable to destroy the viaducts or close them with her magic.”
“It seems that the Vanished Ones used these passageways for casual travel about their world,” the White Lady explained. “To ordinary people, the viaduct openings are invisible and imperceptible. But if one knows more or less where the portal is, it is only necessary to utter the proper arcane command—‘viaduct system activate’—whereupon it becomes visible and operative. Some of the viaducts were destroyed in the great conflict between the Vanished Ones and the Star Guild, but these on the map remain. Heretofore, they have been used only by the Archimages of yore and by the sindona, when they venture forth from the Place of Knowledge.”
Kadiya said, “You’ll be interested to know, Ani, that this viaduct”—she stabbed her finger at one of the dots—“opens right into Zotopanion Keep in the Winter Palace of Labornok! It was the way by which both Iriane and the sindona gained access to the keep during the climax of the Battle of Derorguila.”
“Holy Flower!” cried the dismayed Queen. “Is there no way of getting rid of these abominable tunnels?”
“My talisman says there is,” Haramis replied. “However, its instructions are given in archaic scientific gibberish and so far I can make no sense of it. When I return to my Tower I will look further into the matter of obliterating the viaducts, but for the present we shall have to barricade them instead. All that are in critical locations must be enclosed within sturdy cages or earthen mounds, and be heavily guarded withal.”
Anigel studied the map intently. “There are not so many portals in the Mazy Mire as elsewhere, but here is one not far from the Queen’s Mireway. I wonder … The trip to the Winter Capital will be so lengthy and tedious in the early rains. If, as you say, there is a viaduct leading directly to Zotopanion Keep—”
“Do not contemplate it for a moment!” Haramis said, aghast. “Only one adept in the science of the Vanished Ones dare use the things. Sometimes their routing is fixed and one has no control over the ultimate destination. At other times, if a kind of complex magical spell is recited before entry, the viaduct carries the traveler to the location that is specified. But if this spell is not said properly, the person risks emerging within the Sempiternal Icecap or even deep beneath the sea.”
&
nbsp; She pointed again to the map, and it was indeed true that some of the scarlet dots were in perilous places.
“Damn,” said the dainty Queen. Her fair hair was bound up with ribbons of a gold so deep it was nearly brown, and she wore a loose-fitting smocked satin gown of the same color, trimmed with worram fur and adorned with a collar of trillium-amber. Her pregnancy of four months was still unnoticeable. “I would have gladly whisked myself and the court by viaduct from here to Derorguila and spared us the long journey in the rain.”
“I could transport you, Antar, and the children,” Haramis offered, albeit hesitantly, “even though carrying others strains my magic to the utmost.”
But the Queen shook her head. “It was but a jest, Hara. I would not dream of asking you to exhaust yourself. No, we must go to Labornok with the others of the court entourage, as is fitting.”
“I shall give each of you copies of this map to keep,” the Archimage said. “Ani, you will have to arrange for soldiers—preferably with aboriginal helpers—to stand guard at those viaduct openings in critical places within Labornok and Ruwenda. I shall command Kadi’s Folk to watch the terminals in more remote regions—the Mazy Mire, the Ohogan Mountains, and the Tassaleyo Forest. If members of the Star Guild are seen, the Folk will sound the alarm using the speech without words.”
“What of the viaducts in other nations?” inquired the Queen.
“I have already bespoken a warning,” Haramis said. “Every civilized country will soon be on the lookout for suspicious persons wearing Stars.”
“The scoundrels can wreak no sorcery without their medallions,” Kadiya explained to Anigel. “Unfortunately, this does not hold true for their use of weapons of the Vanished Ones, which are not truly magical but partake of the same ancient science as the viaducts and those antique artifacts one may purchase from certain traders.”
“How shall we defend ourselves against Star Men equipped with such dread armaments?” asked the Queen in apprehension.
“We still have our magic,” the Archimage said. “And if the Triune wills it, we will also soon have an alliance of every nation under the Three Moons to counter the much smaller forces of those loyal to the Star. After giving warning to the other nations, I also requested that they dispatch special envoys in fast ships to Derorguila. The delegations should have arrived by the time the royal retinue of Laboruwenda completes its journey to the flat-lands. We will hold a conclave of mutual defense there in your capital in forty days.”