Javieri stared at him, then shook herself. “Why not?”
“I don’t know,” Glyndon replied. “But something in the spell has changed. Perhaps your last expedition did it accidentally. In any case, we won’t be able to open the door until we find out what it is.”
“I see.” Javieri pressed her lips together for a moment, then gave a sharp nod. “Keep trying.”
Barthelmy and Glyndon held a low-voiced conference; a few minutes later, they resumed their positions and began chanting once again. This time the flickering at the door was more pronounced, but when the two magicians finished, the door was still closed.
“This is ridiculous,” Glyndon said, running a hand distractedly through his hair.
Barthelmy grimaced. “Why don’t we try—”
“Mother!”
The shout echoed around the silent valley. Kayl jerked and spun, staring back at the slope that led toward the camp. A small figure stood dangerously near the edge of a projecting rock, waving both arms. “Mark!” Kayl shouted. She pushed her way to the outer edge of the Sisters clustered around the Tower door. “Mark, you get down from there!”
The figure waved and stepped back out of sight. A moment later, Kayl saw movement among the trees that covered the slope. “It seems your son has ideas of his own about staying behind,” Corrana murmured from immediately behind Kayl.
“It isn’t just Mark,” Kayl said grimly. She could see at least three figures moving through the trees, and she had to force herself not to speculate about the reasons why they had come. It seemed an eternity before Mark burst out of the forest at the bottom of the slope. After a brief pause, Bryn and Dara followed at a somewhat slower pace.
“I thought I told you stay in camp,” Kayl said as Mark came panting up. “What happened?”
“It was the bees,” Mark said. He puffed, and added, “And Dara. She’s coming.”
“Bees?” Javieri said incredulously. “You came shouting through the mountains and interrupted a vital spell-casting because of bees?”
“Excuse me, Your Serenity.” Kayl kept her voice frigidly polite. “Mark did not interrupt; Barthelmy and Glyndon had just finished. And I would appreciate it if you would remember that Mark is my son, not one of the Sisters you command.”
“Then find out what he means, so we can get on with our work!” Javieri said.
“He means that we left the camp rather hurriedly because he injudiciously stirred up a hive of bees,” Bryn said. She had come up to the half-ring of Sisters during Kayl and Javieri’s verbal skirmish. She had one arm around Dara, who was looking at the Twisted Tower with a dazed expression.
“Explain,” Javieri commanded.
Bryn gave her a long look, then turned to Kayl. “The bees were just beginning to get active after the winter, so nobody got too badly stung, but we didn’t want to stay nearby. So the five of us came about halfway up the saddle, figuring we’d meet you there on your way back. Then Dara started… behaving oddly.”
“What do you mean, behaving oddly?” Kayl snapped anxiously.
“She was staring up the mountain as if she saw something there, and she complained that someone was shoving her,” Bryn replied. “Then she went stiff and wouldn’t talk at all. After the fuss about the way she reacted to the crystal and the magic lessons, I thought I’d better bring her here.”
“She looked like a wood puppet,” Mark put in.
Bryn threw him a sidelong glance. “He was supposed to stay with Alden and Xaya on the other side of the mountain.”
“I couldn’t. Dara’s my sister,” Mark said, as if that excused everything.
“I think you were wise to bring Dara to us,” Javieri said to Bryn.
Kayl glared at her, then turned back to Dara. The girl still looked dazed, as though she had just awakened from a heavy sleep, but she was frowning at the Twisted Tower the way she always did when she was studying something. Kayl found that reassuring. “Dara?” she said softly.
“What?” Dara turned her frowning gaze to Kayl.
“Are you all right? What happened?”
“Nothing happened. That’s the Twisted Tower, isn’t it? It’s uglier than I thought.”
“You don’t remember coming here?” Kayl asked.
Dara shrugged. “We walked. It didn’t take long.” Her eyes kept straying back to the Tower.
Kayl looked at Bryn. “Don’t ask me to explain it,” the Wyrd said. “She seemed pretty foggy to me most of the way here. She came out of it for a little while, then had a relapse. The second spell ended just as we got to the top of the saddle.”
Behind her, Kayl heard Glyndon mutter, “Oh, lord. If that’s the problem…”
“If what’s the problem?” Kayl demanded, turning.
“With opening the Tower,” Glyndon said. Beside him, Barthelmy’s eyes widened, and she stared at Dara.
Kayl stepped protectively between the two wizards and her daughter. “What are you talking about?”
“Both of them have taught Dara,” Corrana said coolly from a little to one side. “Your daughter also appears to have a link with the Crystal that seals the Tower. She has two periods of ‘behaving oddly’ which seem to coincide with the two unsuccessful attempts to breach the spells on the Tower. The conclusion would seem obvious.”
“No,” Kayl said without conviction.
“It’s all right, Kayl,” Barthelmy said. “I mean, it will be all right, now that we know.”
“It isn’t all right,” Glyndon said. “But we need Dara, and she’s safer here, where we can see what’s going on and do something about it if we need to.”
“I—” Kayl shook her head. She felt trapped, and for a moment she hated them both. Then Dara tugged at her arm, and she turned.
“They’re right, Mother,” she said.
“Dara, you don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do.” Dara’s voice sounded amazingly adult. She was still looking past Kayl to the Twisted Tower. “Please, Mother; I don’t think we should waste any time.”
Kayl stared at the suddenly unfamiliar child-woman she had borne and raised and cherished. Slowly, she nodded. “All right, Dara, if you’re sure you want to do this.”
“I’m sure.” Dara stepped forward, toward Barthelmy and Glyndon. Glyndon flashed an uncertain look at Kayl, then bent to talk to Dara. A moment later, he and Barthelmy each took one of the girl’s hands.
“Don’t try to do anything yourself,” Barthelmy cautioned. “Just cooperate with us.”
Dara nodded. Glyndon raised his staff one-handed, and Barthelmy caught the other end. For the third time they began to chant. The heat-haze flickered into existence in front of the iron door. It intensified swiftly into pulsing waves of distortion that made Kayl’s eyes ache to look at. Dara stood straight as a willow rod between the two magicians, her hands clenched around their fingers and her eyes wide and sightless.
Finally the chanting stopped. Kayl blinked and realized that the Tower door was ajar. “We did it!” Glyndon shouted. He dropped his staff to scoop Dara up and swing her, laughing, in a wide circle. “We did it!” Barthelmy grinned with relief and tossed her head, sending her black hair flying in all directions. Javieri relaxed slightly, like a laborer resting between two parts of a difficult task when the harder work was yet to come. Even Corrana smiled.
“You certainly did,” said an unpleasant voice from outside the half-ring of Sisters.
Kayl’s sword was in her hand almost without thought. She turned, shoving Mark behind her, and saw a score or more of grinning, eagle-helmeted men and women arrayed in a neat line between the Sisterhood and the edges of the valley. In front of the newcomers was a short, solidly built man with bright, cold eyes. Kayl stared in disbelief. “Utrilo Levoil!”
Utrilo inclined his head. “Mistress Kayl. You would be surprised to know how glad I am to see you.”
“Your timing is remarkable, Magicseeker,” Javieri said. She made a small gesture with her right hand, and the defensive ring of Si
sters shifted slightly, closing the gap between it and the Tower.
“Is it indeed, Your Serenity,” Utrilo replied affably. He rocked back onto his heels as he spoke, a gesture both like and unlike the pompous mannerisms Kayl remembered from Copeham. “Then perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that we have been watching you since you arrived.”
Javieri threw a withering glance at Corrana. “On the contrary.”
“Oh, don’t blame your scouts,” Utrilo said. “They did what little they were capable of.” He favored Corrana with a broad, toothy smile. “We are simply better than you.”
Kayl studied Utrilo as he spoke. She could hear traces of Islorran’s secretary in the way he spoke, and occasionally the tilt of Utrilo’s head or a fleeting expression brought the man she remembered from Copeham vividly to mind, but that was all. Utrilo was a consummate actor, Kayl realized; he had played the part of an unctuous servant for an entire month without slipping once. But how could she have missed seeing the muscle beneath his paunch, or recognizing that there was a purpose behind his questions?
“You’d have done better not to waste your time on those quaint little traps you set in our path,” Utrilo went on. “I fear they delayed you more than us.”
Ferianek flushed. Kayl raised a mental eyebrow at Utrilo’s phrasing. So the Magicseekers did not know that the booby-traps were Ferianek’s work!
“Have done with this game,” Javieri said. “What is it you want?”
“Why, the same thing you want, Your Serenity,” Utrilo said. “The key to this Tower.”
“Mother!” Dara’s voice was soft but insistent; she had come up behind Kayl to stand beside Mark.
Kayl tilted her head back, not taking her eyes from the Magicseekers. “Quietly Dara. What is it?”
“They’re who the thing in the Tower is calling,” Dara whispered. “I can feel it.”
“Tell Glyndon and Ferianek, if you can.” Both men were well within the protective ring. “But try not to attract attention.” Kayl felt Dara nod and move slowly away. She returned most of her attention to the conversation between Javieri and Utrilo, wondering how soon the Magicseekers would attack and why they had not yet done so.
“Then how did you succeed in opening the door?” Utrilo was saying. “If magic alone were enough, we would have done it ourselves yesterday, and there would be no need for this farce.”
“Perhaps we are simply better than you,” Javieri suggested.
Utrilo’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Give us the key.”
“No,” said Javieri.
Utrilo gestured. A tall, hawk-faced man stepped forward to stand beside him. He called three words in a strange language and pointed. Fire lanced out from his finger—and spattered harmlessly against an invisible barricade a few feet in front of the foremost Sisters. Kayl turned her head and saw Barthelmy, white-faced, staring with great concentration at the smear of flame.
The Magicseekers hesitated, then two more came forward to join Utrilo and the hawk-faced wizard. The rest drew their swords and started toward the ring of Sisters. Kayl glanced back quickly to make sure that both of the children were safely behind her, then took a firmer grip on her sword.
The first wave of attackers arrived, and the neat lines dissolved in a chaos of individual fights. One of the Magicseekers broke through beside Kayl. He swung a saw-toothed bronze blade at Kayl’s head. She parried, and her sword caught in the toothed edge of her attacker’s sword. He twisted it in an attempt to disarm her. Kayl wrenched her sword free in time to parry as a second Magicseeker struck at her arm. She was in trouble now, she thought with the clearheaded calm of battle. She couldn’t handle two of them for long without moving too far to protect the children.
Kayl parried another stroke by her first opponent, but barely managed to duck under the second’s swing. As she rose, she saw an opening and sent her sword toward it. Then, an instant too late, she realized that the move would leave her open to a counterattack from the Magicseeker’s partner. As her sword sank home, she twisted, hoping to avoid most of the blow she expected.
The Magicseeker crumpled. Kayl pulled her sword free and whirled, wondering in the back of her mind why she wasn’t dead. Then she saw that the second Magicseeker was bleeding from a slanting scratch on his right arm, just below the bronze scales of the armor that protected his shoulder. Whoever had tried to disable him had failed, but the attempt had apparently thrown his stroke off far enough to save Kayl’s life.
Kayl attacked with a ferocity that surprised even herself, and the Magicseeker was driven backward. Kayl let the crowd of combatants swallow him; she dared not risk getting too far away from the children. She edged backward, watching for a renewed attack. “Mark? Dara?” she called. “Are you all right?”
“They are fine,” Corrana’s voice said in her ear. “Inside, and join them.”
“What? No!” Kayl’s cry was half denial, half horror as she realized what Corrana had to mean.
“Inside!” Corrana grabbed Kayl’s arm and swung her around. Kayl’s sword came up automatically, but Corrana ducked under it and shoved her from behind. Kayl took two steps forward and fell sprawling through the doorway of the Twisted Tower.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
“I THOUGHT I’M THE one who’s supposed to make awkward entrances,” Glyndon’s voice said from somewhere in front of Kayl.
Kayl shook herself and looked around. “Glyndon? What are you doing in here? Barthelmy can’t handle three Magic-seekers alone!”
“She doesn’t have to,” Corrana said, coming past Kayl into the Tower. “Seal the door, Glyndon.”
“Mother, are you all right?” Mark asked urgently.
“Glyndon, don’t!” Kayl said, ignoring Mark. “The Magicseekers—”
“The Magicseekers are currently facing the full strength and power of three Elder Mothers and two full Stars of the Sisterhood,” Corrana said with maddening calm. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”
“Notice what?”
“Ferianek has managed to temporarily lift the influence of the Tower on our magic,” the sorceress replied. The star-shaped emblem of the Sisterhood glittered on her shoulder, as though emphasizing her words. “Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing how long Ferianek’s spell will last, so the three of us must complete his work.”
“Mother, are you all right?” Mark insisted.
“I’m fine, Mark,” Kayl said, still staring at Corrana. “Why did you bring the children in here?”
“I did that,” Glyndon said. Kayl was too stunned to reply at once, and he went on. “The Magicseekers would have figured out fairly quickly that Dara is the ‘key’ they’re looking for. This is the only place where they can’t get at her, and she’s as safe here as out there.”
“Safe? Are you out of your wits? The creature—”
“The thing that calls is back that way,” Dara broke in. She pointed at a narrow wooden doorway beside the stone stairs. “It’s waiting.”
Kayl shook her head. Too much was happening too quickly; it was more than she could take in. “What?”
“The thing that calls is waiting for something,” Dara repeated. “I can feel it. It doesn’t know we’re inside. So it’s all right for us to stay here for a while.”
“No, it is not,” Corrana said. “We do not have much time, and we have wasted enough of it already. We must find Gadeiron’s Crystal, and quickly.”
“I doubt that it’s moved,” Glyndon said.
“Lead us, then.”
Glyndon looked at Kayl. Kayl made herself nod.
“Warn us if you feel the thing that calls coming closer,” Glyndon said to Dara. He lifted his staff and started up the stone staircase.
Corrana followed at once. Mark and Dara looked hesitantly at Kayl. She had a lingering impulse to leave them there or send them back outside, but she suppressed it. There was no sense in pretending that either place was any safer than accompanying Glyndon would be. She motioned the childr
en to go ahead of her, then followed with her sword ready.
The climb seemed to take much longer than she remembered. Halfway up, Mark peered out a slender window and announced, They’re still fighting outside.”
“Good,” Kayl said. “Then we still have a little time.”
Mark leaned forward. “There’s Ferianek! He doesn’t look too good.”
“That’s enough, Mark!” Kayl said, hauling him back. “Do you want to get an arrow through your throat?”
“Aw, nobody could hit me way up here!”
“They certainly could. Why do you think these windows were made so small? It’s so archers inside the Tower could fire without giving enemy archers much of a target to shoot back at.”
“Really?” Mark craned his neck, studying the narrow window with new interest.
Kayl gave her son a push. “Climb, Mark.”
They reached the top of the stairs at last and paused before the wooden door. Glyndon looked at Dara. “Anything happening?”
“It’s still waiting,” Dara reported.
Glyndon nodded and pushed the door open. Kayl blinked at the brightness of the light that poured into the gloomy stairwell, then followed the others into the circular room beyond. The arched windows, the tapestry-covered walls, and the high dome were unchanged. The knee-high pedestal and the enormous crystal cube that stood on it were not even dusty. Kayl was surprised to realize how familiar it all felt, despite the fact that she had hardly thought of it in the months since she had remembered its existence.
“I don’t like this place,” Mark said softly. “It feels like somebody died.”
“More than one,” Kayl said. She looked at Mark uneasily; she had felt the same way, the first time she had entered this room. “Stay away from the walls and as close to the Crystal as you can without getting in anyone’s way,” she told him. “And don’t touch anything!”
Mark and Dara exchanged disgusted glances, but moved obediently forward. Glyndon and Corrana were already standing beside the Crystal. Glyndon looked a little pale; Kayl tried to convince herself that it was because of the brightness of the light reflecting off the surface of the Crystal. Then he leaned forward and brushed the tip of a finger across one edge of the cube.