A Kingdom Besieged

  Twice more the boat lifted and then Jim remembered there were rocks along the western shore of the island and then he looked.

  White surf crashed against a massive rock face and Jim started frantically pulling with his right oar, while backing with his left, pulling his little boat around onto a southerly course.

  He had rowed until he felt his arms would fall out of his shoulder sockets, and now he let the boat drift. He just shipped the oars, sat back, and watched. Currents took the boat around the island, slowly moving past the rocks to an open, sandy area. Jim had been to Sorcerers’ Island more than once, but he hardly considered himself an expert on geography. His usual landing site when he came by ship was on the south-east corner of the island, and he was now at the south-west.

  Given the belligerency of almost everyone currently sailing on the Bitter Sea, Jim expected Pug to have lookouts posted around the island. Then he realized that Pug probably had some magic device or spell that let him know when trouble was on its way.

  Jim took a long breath and let it out. At this point he decided he would rather walk for a day than row, so he grabbed the oars and turned the boat towards shore.

  He started rowing again.

  Magnus watched as the boat came ashore. He used his distant sight to see who it was who had come across the Bitter Sea in a rowing boat designed to cross a harbour at most.

  At first he wasn’t sure who the scruffy-looking sailor was, but when the boat rode in on a breaker and the man jumped out, Magnus smiled. Of course.

  He willed himself to the beach and Jim nearly leapt from surprise. ‘Damn, I wish you wouldn’t do that! Couldn’t you appear a few yards away, yell “hello” and then walk up in a civilized manner?’

  Magnus leaned on the staff he always carried and smiled, genuinely amused. ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘Tell me, how did you get to here in a rowing boat? Tell me you didn’t start in Vykor or Durbin.’

  ‘I didn’t. Got dropped off by a smuggler about half a day’s sail out, which is why I’ve been rowing for the entire day.’ He glanced around at the light. ‘At least I think so. It is close to sundown, right?’

  Magnus pointed. ‘That’s west. That bright round yellow thing hanging above the horizon is the sun. Yes, it is close to sundown.’

  Exhausted, Jim said, ‘Just take me to your father.’

  Magnus reached out and put his hand on Jim’s shoulder, and abruptly they were in Pug’s presence.

  Jim looked around, confused, as he had expected to be taken to the castle. He smiled at Pug as the magician turned to greet him. Pug still wore the black robe he had always worn since his time in the Assembly of Magicians on Kelewan, where he had learned his craft in Greater Path Magic.

  ‘Jim,’ he said extending his hand.

  ‘Pug,’ said Jim, looking around. ‘Rebuilding, I see.’

  The villa was nearing completion. With the aid of talented magicians as well as skilled craftsmen, a year’s worth of work had been finished in a month. Pug said, ‘Making changes, but it’s much the same as before.’

  Left unsaid were the people who would be missing.

  Jim said, ‘I’m exhausted. Have you a cup of wine and somewhere we can speak?’

  Magnus said, ‘I’ll get the wine, Father.’

  Pug motioned for Jim to follow him and led him through the entrance to the main building. It was just as it used to be, a massive square with a huge garden in the middle. Currently the fountain was restored to its formal beauty, comprising three dolphins which would spew water in graceful arcs into the pool around them. It was currently empty, waiting for water. And the soil in the garden was bare, having recently been denuded of weeds.

  Jim followed Pug to his office within his personal quarters. The room looked very different. Instead of the large sprawling desk Pug had used for years there was a small work table and a single chair. ‘I thought it time for some changes,’ said Pug. He motioned with his hand. ‘I’m leaving the walls as white plaster. It was Miranda’s idea to paint the quarters that light blue she loved so much.’ At the mention of his wife, Pug’s voice echoed a distant sadness.

  The magician motioned for Jim to pull up a chair. ‘So, how is it you come to us in a boat, Jim? Magnus was alerted that someone approached, and went to investigate. I will confess I was surprised to see you. Why didn’t you use the orb I gave you?’

  ‘Broken,’ said Jim, deciding to leave the details until later.

  ‘Ah,’ said Pug. ‘Tell me what you can about the madness I see going on across the whole of the Bitter Sea.’

  ‘Across the whole of Triagia,’ said Jim. ‘Kesh has marched against the Kingdom, on all fronts, apparently.’

  Magnus appeared with a pitcher of wine and three mugs on a tray. He poured one for Jim and his father, then one for himself.

  ‘I will confess I’ve been caught completely off guard,’ said Pug. ‘When we saw the Keshian fleet sailing to the south of us, we began our enquiries, contacting our agents. Without success.’

  ‘My agents south of the Girdle of Kesh have been eliminated.’

  ‘All of them?’ asked Magnus.

  ‘They’ve all dropped out of sight. Probably murdered.’ Jim sipped his wine. ‘In my craft, it’s best to assume the simplest explanation.’ Then he considered Amed Dabu Asam. ‘But I could be wrong. My most trusted agent in the Jal-Pur was turned and tried to kill me.’

  ‘Turned?’ asked Magnus. ‘You mean he was secretly working for Kesh?’

  Jim shook his head. ‘No. That’s the maddening thing.’ He glanced from Magnus to Pug then took another drink. ‘My arms are going to fall off from all that rowing,’ he sighed. He put down the mug. ‘There’s another player in the game.’

  ‘Who?’ asked Pug.

  ‘I don’t know. I know it’s not Roldem’s agents, because I have a good relationship with them now, and there is no gain for Roldem and much to lose. Kesh’s intelligence leader is well known to me, and he was caught by surprise: key members of his staff were being murdered when I last saw him. And now you tell me your agents were kept ignorant of the coming war.’ Jim looked as if he was ready to weep in frustration. ‘Some of this is possible, but all of it?’

  Magnus said, ‘There’s one possibility, one that even we didn’t think of.’

  ‘What?’ asked Pug.

  ‘Magic,’ said Magnus. ‘Whoever has balked all our information-gathering – neutralized it, compromised it, fed us lies – it could all be done with magic.’

  Pug was silent for a while, then said, ‘My best contact for years in Kesh, Turgan Bey, Lord of the Keep and personal adviser to the Emperor, has retired. My next highest contact, Januk Hadri, Privy Counsellor to the Emperor, has been silent.’

  ‘I always thought it odd that Bey would “retire”,’ said Jim. ‘Some of those Truebloods love the life of leisure, but not Bey. Some other man might see a political sea change coming and retire to a villa on the shore of the Overn with a dozen beautiful women, or go hunting for lions or whatever else it is retired Keshian nobles do, but he loved the infighting of politics. I expected him to die on the job.’ Jim leaned forward. ‘He was your agent?’

  ‘I told you the Conclave had many friends.’

  Jim sat back, his hands in his lap. ‘I thought I had a good conduit to Kesh’s court intrigue, but Turgan Bey?’

  Magnus smiled.

  Jim shook his head. ‘I’m impressed.’ Then he looked at Magnus and said, ‘It must be magic.’

  ‘A lot of it,’ said Magnus. ‘A spell of influence to get a noble to decide it was time to retire, for instance. It is much more subtle than any overt enchantment or spell of control. Just make a man slightly tired, slightly less interested in the day in and day out, and you might not even have to suggest it’s time to step down. He may even do it on his own.’

  Pug said, ‘Yes, magic playing on your man in the Jal-Pur’s divided loyalties, or his greed, or . . .’

  Jim closed his eyes. ‘Of course. Amed was of the desert tribes,
and blamed the Truebloods for his father’s murder, which is why I could turn him against the Empire, but . . . he was Keshian.’

  ‘A call to slumbering patriotism,’ said Magnus.

  ‘It’s still a lot of magic, Pug,’ said Jim. ‘And it would take years. Agents would have to be identified, influenced, plans made . . .’

  ‘But it could be done?’ asked Pug.

  Jim was silent for a while, thinking. After a few moments he said, ‘Yes. If they can identify that first agent, if he or she is highly enough placed.’ He sat tapping his cheek with his finger. ‘I use blinds – that is, agents who do not know who they are working for. But if you get to someone high enough they may be able to give you the identity of others, and if you can get to them . . .’ He outlined quickly how the three intelligence services of Isles, Kesh, and Roldem were structured and utilized, glossing over a lot of detail, but ending on the point that many agents knew who was working for the other agencies. He finished by saying, ‘So one of mine gives up one of Franciezka’s, and in turn her agent gives up one of Kaseem’s.’

  ‘And at some point, one of them turns out to be working for the Conclave,’ said Magnus.

  ‘So this has been going on for years, now,’ said Pug.

  ‘Who?’ asked Jim. ‘Who besides you has . . . this ability, this power?’

  Magnus said, ‘There are only two possibilities. If the temples were to work together, even only two or three of the most powerful, they could do it. They have magic, though it is of a very different nature to what we are used to—’

  ‘Which might be of benefit,’ interrupted Pug. ‘It might be harder for us to detect the influence.’

  Magnus added, ‘Or it could be the Academy.’

  Jim looked shocked. ‘The Academy? Why? I mean, who? Don’t you still play a role there?’

  Pug said, ‘A little, and we have agents there as well.’ He looked troubled as he gazed out the window. ‘I don’t know how such an undertaking could . . .’ His voice trailed off and he was silent.

  Jim asked, ‘Do the Pantathians have that much magic?’ Magnus said, ‘Why do you ask? They were obliterated. I was there when their birthing crèches were destroyed in the Ratn’gary Mountains.’

  Without humour, Jim said, ‘You missed some.’

  Pug stood up. ‘What?’

  ‘On a boat in the south of Kesh I saw a scaled green hand with black talons sticking out of a robe, and if that’s not a Pantathian, then I’ve not read every report on them in the archives in Krondor.’

  ‘Where was this?’ asked Pug.

  ‘Off the big island called the Island of the Snakes. Wondered what he had to do with things, maybe that’s your answer.’

  Pug sat down again. ‘It’s possible. The Great Uprising was about the Pantathians getting the moredhel to invade the Kingdom. With that relatively small force, they manipulated the Brotherhood of the Dark Path and that ended with the destruction of two cities, first Armengar and then Sethanon. With Kesh’s might at their disposal . . .’ He shrugged. ‘They have the ability to appear as other races, elf, human . . . yes, if they are back and in numbers, it’s possible.’

  ‘Kesh and the Kingdom at war? To what ends? How does that benefit the Pantathians, if it is them?’

  Pug looked uncertain. ‘What I do know is that when they first took a hand, at the end of the Riftwar, they were bent upon securing the Lifestone—’ he looked at Jim.

  ‘I know about it. My great-great-grandfather was detailed in his remembrances. He was at the Battle of Sethanon, remember, with Prince Arutha?’

  Pug was forced to smile. ‘Not many of us within that chamber knew the Lifestone existed then, and none of us ever understood its true nature; even later when Calis “untangled” it, for lack of a better way to put it, we hardly understood it better. The Pantathians wanted it, as did the Demon Lord Jakan later, because it was an artefact of great power.

  ‘But neither the Pantathians nor the demon knew its true nature, or that it would ultimately be useless to them. Whatever the Dragon Lords planned to do with it was never apparent. I know they were desperate to regain it during that battle.’

  Jim said, ‘I know its nature was unknown to James . . .’ He interrupted himself. ‘This is one of those moments when I have to remind myself that you knew him.’

  ‘My daughter was married to him,’ Pug reminded him.

  ‘You knew all of them, Prince Arutha, King Lyam, Guy du Bas-Tyra, all the great figures of history.’

  Pug’s smile was rueful. ‘Hardly all of them. And not all were mentioned in the histories.’ For a moment a fleeting kaleidoscope of images played through Pug’s mind – faces of those he had known and loved: Squire Roland, his rival for the affections of Princess Carline, then Katala, his first wife, and Laurie of Tyr-Sog, who wed Carline. Then came others, Lord Borric, Swordmaster Fannon, Father Tully, Kulgan and Meecham, those the years had left behind.

  Pug pushed aside the flood of memories and said, ‘Jim, your great-great-grandfather, like those not within that chamber, was told what we believe he needed to know.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘What would later become the core of the Conclave, along with Tomas.’ Pug looked off into the distance as if remembering, then added, ‘Lord James, the legendary Jimmy the Hand, had just died when Calis unlocked the mystery of the stone. It was . . . life. Somehow when the Valheru contrived to overthrow the gods during the Chaos Wars they created it. Apparently they placed some of their own life energies within it, creating a tool only they truly knew how to utilize. We surmise it was a weapon or source of great power to them, for it was they who manipulated the Pantathians to attempt to seize it. Over all these years, especially since the Lifestone was destroyed, we’ve never attempted to assess what the real nature of the device was.’

  Magnus said, ‘You have been otherwise busy.’

  Pug and Jim both looked over to see if he was joking.

  Pug said, ‘Yes, but still, it was a watershed creation in the history of this world.’ He let out a long sigh. ‘What we know is this: the Pantathians are artificial creatures, not natural beings, but rather snakes raised up to human form, given existence by their Dragon Lord Mistress, Alma-Lodaka.’

  ‘Could they really do that?’ asked Jim. ‘I mean, create life?’

  ‘No, not exactly,’ said Magnus. He glanced at his father who nodded for him to continue. ‘They could manipulate it, not create it. The Valheru were beings of enormous power, godlike even, but they were not gods. And the Pantathians were not the only product of Valheru tinkering.’

  ‘Really?’ said Jim, his fatigue wearing off as he became more interested. Here was a discussion about important things that didn’t involve people trying to kill him or destroy the Kingdom.

  ‘There’s a race of tiger men near the Necropolis called the City of the Dead Gods, in Novindus. And once a race of giant eagles, big enough to carry a man, flew the skies.’

  Jim frowned. ‘Perhaps we should go back to things I might comprehend.

  ‘If this Lifestone no longer exists then, assuming for a moment the Pantathians are behind every mad thing that is underway right now, what could they be after that would possibly benefit them by having the Kingdom and Kesh plunged into total war?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ said Pug.

  ‘And, while we’re on the topic of madness, can you even begin to suggest the part the demons have in this?’

  ‘No,’ said Pug.

  ‘Except,’ said Magnus, ‘they did manage one thing.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It just occurred to me that they did force the Star Elves to return to the world of their birth.’

  ‘You think that was by design?’ asked Pug.

  ‘I have no knowledge of design, Father, merely results.’

  Pug was silent again for a long time then said, ‘These are the moments I wish Nakor was here.’ He paused. ‘And your mother. We could use their wisdom.’

  Magnus’s expression turned dark. ??
?We could.’

  Jim did not know what just passed between father and son and decided against enquiring. He said, ‘I have never officially been one of you, but you have always treated me with courtesy. Certainly you have no desire to see this bloodshed continue.’

  ‘No, in this we are as one,’ said Pug.

  Magnus said, ‘Be we still lack information and we need to gain more intelligence before we know how to act. Father and I can no doubt tip the balance in a battle: say to defend the walls of Krondor or turn a fleet to a new course, but to end a war takes a willingness on the part of the combatants that is not in evidence now.’

  ‘Kesh has aggrieved the Kingdom, certainly, and the Kingdom will seek retribution and to take its land back, of that I have no doubt,’ said Jim. He got up from his chair. ‘Can I rest here for the night, then perhaps you could aid me reaching Rillanon?’

  ‘Not Krondor?’ said Pug.

  ‘Krondor is either safe or not, as it will be, but I must know the King’s mind and gauge the temper of the Congress of Lords. War madness will no doubt be upon many, but some see the West as no significant loss. For all I know some Keshian general is even now playing with the animals in the King’s zoo.’

  ‘The King has a zoo?’ asked Magnus.

  ‘A small one,’ said Jim. ‘Near the garden behind the palace, overlooking the river. It’s quite nice, actually.’ He stopped, overcome by fatigue. ‘Moreover, I must begin to find out who has betrayed me, and in so doing, betrayed their nation.’

  ‘If indeed, it’s betrayal,’ Magnus reminded him, ‘if magic was employed.’

  Jim’s eyes closed for a moment. ‘Apologies. I’m tired and it’s easy to forget. No offence intended, but there are days when I wish I had never heard the word “magic” and had to deal with its confusions and complexities.’

  Pug chuckled. ‘I can appreciate that.’

  Jim said, ‘What do you think you’ll do next?’