James looked at Arutha to see if he was joking, and when James saw he wasn’t, said, ‘‘Very well.’’
Arutha’s concern was obvious, and James asked, ‘‘What is it, Highness? I’ve known you too long not to recognize that look.’’
‘‘Just worried about Owyn and Gorath. I sent them to fetch Pug because of what they said about The Six, but if they were ambushed between Malac’s Cross and Krondor, or if Pug had left Krondor on one of his mysterious jaunts and Katala couldn’t find him, or any number of such problems, well, when The Six appear, I suspect we would be well served by a magician.’’
James grinned. ‘‘I have one.’’
‘‘Someone responsible for that lightning display we witnessed as we approached?’’ Arutha mounted his horse.
‘‘Yes.’’ James started walking back toward the castle. ‘‘He’s an original, and I think you’ll find him entertaining. At least for a few minutes.’’
Arutha smiled his half smile, and James felt better for that.
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*
*
*
Gorath looked at the snare and kept motionless. The creature looked like an armored rabbit, or a turtle with long legs, but either way it was the only edible creature they’d encountered so far that wasn’t an insect. Two other creatures had proven inedible after being caught. This world abounded in insects, from tiny gnatlike fliers that would swarm to plague Gorath when he tried to remain motionless, to cockroachlike creatures that were as long as Gorath’s forearm. He had identified a half dozen edible roots and a prickly fruit that tasted like a sour melon and possessed a tough, stringy pulp, but which contained a lot of water.
They had found a well near the ancient temple, and had created a water bag out of an old piece of leather they had found in the temple.
Gorath!
Just a moment, he tried to think back. It was still difficult for Gamina and him to speak compared to her and the other humans, but he was getting better. He had to focus his thoughts.
He imagined himself shouting at her. I am about to catch supper, he thought.
He received a nonverbal sense of patience.
The armored rabbit moved, and he pulled the snare, tangling the right hind leg. He was on the creature in a moment, and having learned by trial and error, had the creature upside down, so it was forced to stick its neck out. He broke it and quickly had it out of the shell. He had learned to their collective distress that if you didn’t get the creature out of its shell within minutes of killing it, the flesh quickly tainted and the resulting stomach distress was extremely unpleasant. He cut the meat out of the shell and deposited it in his travel pouch.
He turned and hurried toward Gamina. What is it? he asked, knowing she’d hear his mind before her ears would register his words.
Owyn and father have found another cache of mana.
Do they think we have enough?
Maybe, she said, as he hiked into view.
She turned, and he followed her down the path to the entrance to the abandoned temple. For whatever reason, religious 321
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prohibition, fear of the Valheru, or fear of Gorath, Pug, and Owyn, the serpent men had not attempted to enter this area.
They had attacked the second time Pug and Owyn went looking for more mana, for Pug had a plan to activate the abandoned rift machine. Gamina had tried to read their minds and had come away confused, for the Panath-Tiandn, who called themselves the Shangri, were a strange mix of very simple and very clever thinking. They were primitive and super-stitious in their daily life, almost animalistic in their thinking, but brilliant in the manipulation of magic. Pug commented that it was ironic they were imprisoned on a planet, which they called Timiri, where magic had to be harvested like a crop.
Pug had declared them magic artisans, probably responsible for the construction of devices for Alma-Lodaka. Given his experiences with the Pantathians, who were obviously related to the Panath-Tiandn, Pug assumed the ancient Valheru had intentionally limited the scope of their intelligence, keeping it focused where it served her.
How they had managed to survive on this blasted world was rapidly becoming apparent to Gorath and the humans, for they had run out of food two days after finding Gamina. It had been a week since, and they were attempting to gather enough of the crystal magic for a plan of Pug’s. Gorath was unsure of how these pieces of ‘‘frozen magic’’ would serve, but he was content to let the human magic users struggle with that problem. He had elected to concentrate his attentions on finding food. Like many places that are apparently barren at first glance, this world was teeming with life if you knew where to look for it.
Since discovering the rift machine, they had explored the entire island, save for the peaks above the temple. The island was large enough that it took Gorath three days to travel from the northernmost point, where the seven pillars of the gods were located, to the southernmost point. It was roughly half that time to travel east to west, though the journey couldn’t be conducted in a straight line due to the rise of mountains down the center of the island.
They thought there might be land to the west, or at least Pug thought it likely, making the observation after watching 322
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the sunset one night. He had mentioned the effects of light over the water and thickness of clouds and other factors which were only interesting in the abstract, at least to Gorath.
Unless they needed to travel to that distant land to find more of the solid magic.
Gamina had a fire ready when Gorath reached the cave and put down his kill. ‘‘Are we going to try to put your father’s plan to work tonight?’’
‘‘I don’t know,’’ she replied.
Gorath watched her, and was forced to admit she was an admirable child, even by his own people’s standards. He knew little of human children, but knew she had to have been subjected to a frightening experience, yet she was calm, focused, and relatively cheerful considering the circumstances.
She was also quite beautiful, after the human fashion, if Gorath could judge such things. She certainly seemed to have Owyn’s attention, though Gorath could tell he was being circumspect either because of her father’s presence or her youth.
Perhaps Owyn dreamed of years to come. Again, Gorath was uncertain of these human conventions.
Owyn and Pug appeared with a large bundle of cloth, one of the woven doors pulled from a hut. Pug had observed that with so many huts and so few inhabitants, the population of this area must be falling. He had wondered what the rest of the planet looked like, but had been unwilling to use any of his arts to explore, fearing they needed to hoard as much of this solid magic as possible.
‘‘I think that should do it,’’ said Pug, as they put down the bundle.
‘‘Good,’’ said Gorath. ‘‘I tire of these creatures as our only catch. I would even welcome those stale breadcakes we ate in the mountains, Owyn, for the change they would bring.’’
‘‘As would I,’’ said the young magician.
‘‘What do we do if this doesn’t work?’’ asked Gorath.
Pug said, ‘‘Then we explore the rest of this island, and if there is no way to be found here, we do what we must to build a boat and make our way westward, to the next body of land.’’
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Owyn closed his eyes and put his thumb and finger to the bridge of his nose.
‘‘The headaches, again?’’ asked Gamina.
Owyn said, ‘‘Yes, but it is passing.’’ Owyn had been experiencing intermittent but severe headaches since having shared the Cup of Rlynn Skrr with Pug. ‘‘And it hurts less than before.’’
Pug said, ‘‘When we return to Midkemia, I think, my young friend, you will discover you have powers you never anticipated.’’
Sighing, Owyn said, ‘‘ If we get back.’’
Pug looked at Owyn, and his expressio
n was without doubt.
‘‘We will get back.’’
Owyn said, ‘‘Very well. What else do we need?’’
Pug said, ‘‘Nothing but knowledge.’’ He asked Gorath,
‘‘Have we explored every chamber in this complex?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ said Gorath. ‘‘As I told you.’’
Pug said, ‘‘Then we should plan on attempting to return tomorrow.’’
‘‘Why not now?’’ asked Gorath.
Pug said, ‘‘Owyn and I will need as much rest as we can before we attempt this. I know much about rifts and their nature, but that machine is of alien design and may not work as the Tsurani machines I’m familiar with. Therefore, I would not care to make a mistake because I was tired. So, in the morning, after we sleep, then we shall try.’’
Gorath nodded.
Owyn lay back, tired from the long walk carrying the mana.
‘‘Gorath, can I ask you a question?’’
‘‘Yes, Owyn,’’ said the dark elf.
‘‘When you bowed before the Queen, I take it that was some ritual, but I don’t understand it.’’
Gorath sat back on his heels, thinking. At last he said,
‘‘When I first beheld Elvandar, I called it Barmalindar, the name of the legendary world of golden perfection all elvenkind believes is its ancestral home.’’
‘‘Fascinating,’’ said Pug. ‘‘I have spoken to Prince Calin and Tomas and other elves, but this is the first I have heard of such legends. I assumed you were originally from Midkemia.’’
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‘‘We are, as were the dragons and the Valheru, but there is a spiritual source to our race, beyond Midkemia,’’ said Gorath.
‘‘When we die, we travel to a Blessed Isle, where we join with the Mothers and Fathers who have gone before. But we all come from Barmalindar.’’
Gorath looked at Owyn. ‘‘From time to time, one among my people will hear a call, a tugging, that will compel him to travel to Elvandar. My people will hunt such a one down as a traitor if they can, and kill him before letting him reach Elvandar.’’ Gorath closed his eyes, and his tone was tinged with regret. ‘‘In ages past, I did so. But a few get there and those of the eledhel call them ‘returned.’ They take new names and it is as if they had been eledhel all their lives.’’
‘‘What I don’t understand,’’ said Owyn, ‘‘is the Queen saying you had not finished returning. What does that mean?’’
‘‘I still have ties to my past, an obligation which prevents me from completely joining my kin in Elvandar.’’
Owyn asked, ‘‘What obligation? I thought your children dead and your wife had left you?’’
Gorath looked at Owyn, and said, ‘‘I must kill Delekhan.’’
Owyn said, ‘‘Oh,’’ and lay back against the cave wall. They all remained silent while Gamina cooked and Pug prepared for his attempt to revive the rift machine the next day.
James had witnessed torture before, but he took no pleasure in it. Yet Arutha was desperate to learn Delekhan’s plan.
The prisoner was some sort of chieftain or captain, but someone who was obviously in a position to know more than the common trolls and goblins who made up the bulk of this company. The half dozen renegade humans who had been captured made it clear this moredhel was the only one who might know what was going on.
And Arutha knew something profoundly disturbing was going on.
They had sent scouts up the pass and discovered there was no second force waiting to support the first. The force that had been broken at Northwarden was the total of Delekhan’s army in the area. Thousands of warriors, goblins, trolls, and the magicians known as The Six were somewhere else.
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The moredhel groaned as the ropes were pulled taut. His feet had been tied to two iron rings in the floor, two ropes had been tied to his wrists, and those ropes thrown over a ceiling beam, making a makeshift rack.
Arutha spoke in even tones. ‘‘Speak, and you’ll see your children grow to adulthood, moredhel. My word on it. I’ll turn you loose as soon as you tell me what I need to know. Where is Delekhan?’’
The moredhel looked up, and instead of fear or even hatred, James saw amusement in his face. ‘‘What does it matter, Prince of the West. If I tell you, you cannot prevent my master from reaching his goal. Release me from these ropes, and I will tell you exactly where Delekhan is.’’
Arutha nodded and the ropes were released, letting the moredhel fall to the stone floor. Looking up with a glare, the moredhel spat, ‘‘Delekhan rests in Sar-Sargoth and gathers his army there.’’
A captain of the Royal Guard made as if to strike the moredhel, saying, ‘‘Lying dog,’’ but Arutha gripped his hand, preventing him.
‘‘Why would your master sit on the throne of ancients, while you and your companions spill your blood here in Northwarden?’’
‘‘Because you are here, now, Prince,’’ said the moredhel.
‘‘But I have an army at Highcastle, and another at the Inclindel gap.’’
‘‘It does not matter, Arutha. Only one small garrison have you left in the Dimwood, and within days my master shall overrun it and the prize shall be ours.’’
Arutha’s eyes narrowed. ‘‘Days . . . ?’’ He stood up. ‘‘Gods!
They’re going to use a rift!’’
James demanded, ‘‘How is that possible?’’
Arutha said to the Captain, ‘‘Take this one to the gate and turn him loose. I’ll not foreswear, but give him no weapon, food, or water. Let him plunder his dead comrades if he wishes to survive.’’
Soldiers roughly picked up the injured moredhel and half dragged him out the door. James asked, ‘‘Highness, how can they have a rift?’’
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‘‘The Tsurani know how to make them, as does Pug. And we have suspected the Pantathians knew of their making.’’
Arutha said, ‘‘Whatever the source, if Delekhan can fashion one, that moredhel chieftain is right. It is but then a short step from Sar-Sargoth to the Dimwood, and I am in the wrong place.’’
‘‘What should we do?’’ asked James. He was still tired, but had spent a restful night after having drunk a special herb tea made for him by Arutha’s healer.
Arutha said, ‘‘I shall have a company of gallopers accompany you, that magician character, and Locklear to the Dimwood. Kill the horses if you must, but ride until they drop.
I’ll have Father Barner make up restoratives so you don’t kill yourselves as well. I’m sending you first to Highcastle. Tell Baron Baldwin to strip the garrison and march on Sethanon.
Then pick up Gardan’s company and get to the Dimwood as fast as you can. I will be following as fast as I can turn this army around and get it moving.
‘‘But you and your two companions must ride to the Dimwood, even if you have to leave the soldiers behind. Find Captain Philip and tell him to start looking for that rift machine.
If it can be destroyed before Delekhan can bring in the bulk of his army, we may still stop him.’’
‘‘He could be there already,’’ said James.
‘‘Which means you can’t start any too soon,’’ said Arutha.
‘‘Get mounted and leave now. You’ve got half a day left.’’
James bowed and hurried to find Locklear and Patrus. He knew neither of them would be happy to get these orders. He knew he wasn’t.
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•
Encounter P UG MOTIONED THE OTHERS TO STAND BACK.
He piled the physical mana up, then took his and Owyn’s two crystal staves. ‘‘As I see it, this gate ceased working when the connection on the other side was broken, for that must have been where the power originated.’’
‘‘But where is the other side?’’ asked Owyn.
‘‘Somewhere in the palace at Krondor, or nearby. T
hey could have rendered Gamina senseless and taken her anywhere, and then to this world, but the trick Makala pulled with creating that temporary portal in my study required the original gate be very close.’’
Owyn asked, ‘‘Why?’’
‘‘When we have time, I’ll explain the theory behind it, but leave it for the moment that the device Makala gave me didn’t have the power to transport me between worlds. It simply keyed me into a rift that existed nearby.’’
Owyn seemed to understand. ‘‘Did you ever discover why Dhatsavan and the other gods of this world froze the mana like this?’’
Pug shook his head as he stood up and backed away from the machine. ‘‘I think it was a desperate ploy; if they did this at the height of the battle, perhaps the Valheru judged the world destroyed and moved on; they might have sensed all the magic going away and feared they would be trapped here.
We may never know exactly why. And I’m in no mood to return to the pillars to discover why.’’
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‘‘How do we calibrate this thing without a power source?’’
asked Owyn.
Pug held up the Cup of Rlynn Skrr. ‘‘This is what we will channel the power with. Dhatsvan told you it was a key, and with it you could reach other worlds.’’
‘‘Of course,’’ said Owyn.
Pug pointed to his head. ‘‘Here I have the knowledge. And for that I’ll need your help.’’
Owyn blinked. ‘‘How?’’
Pug said, ‘‘I need to warn all of you: this is something that may not work, or might even lead to our destruction.’’ He addressed the last to Gorath and his daughter. ‘‘I wish I could spare you the risk, but my experience with rifts tells me we shall have but a few seconds to attempt this gate.’’
Gamina said, ‘‘Just tell us what to do, Father.’’
‘‘After I instruct Owyn, I will count aloud, and when you hear me say ‘three,’ we will attempt to activate this rift gate.
If this works, a shimmering silver light should appear between the two poles and turn an opaque grey. The instant you see it turn grey, jump between the poles. It might help if you and Gorath held hands. Owyn and I will follow a moment later.’’