Essence of Chaos

by Marie Andreas

  Keanin flashed one of his heart-stopping smiles. “See? I am good for something. Now, about your question.” He broke off a large piece of bread, nibbling as he thought.

  “You’re familiar with translocation spells?” At Jenna’s nod, he continued. “Well, the royal family sort of has a built-in one. Actually, it’s built into all of their primary audience and living areas in Lithunane. When called upon by a member of the royal family, it will transfer the whole bunch back to the safety of Irundail. It also works on a few select hangers-on.” He gave a self-mocking bow. “And anything, or anyone in your case, they happen to be hanging on to. Corin must have grabbed hold of you when he knew the spell had been triggered.”

  Jenna nodded slowly as she picked at some bread. “I heard a woman’s scream before Storm grabbed me.”

  “The queen. She’s always been a bit high strung, although in this case I’d say it was justified. The whole lot of us got dumped here. Resstlin’s the only one who was sent back. He’s acting as king now.”

  “Why didn’t it get triggered when the attack first happened? I mean, wouldn’t it have been better to have evacuated when the fighting first started?”

  Keanin nodded. “They tried it when the fighting started. But for some reason, it didn’t work. I’m no mage, but I gathered that things were pretty out of sorts, magically speaking, for a while there.”

  “The disruption spell.” She shuddered; that was one spell she never wanted to feel again. “It must have done something to the rescue beacon. It must also be what prevented Ghortin and the king from being brought along with us.” It made sense; any spell that was on call constantly would have to be extremely sensitive. The mage may, or may not, have known about the rescue spell. She chided herself. That whole event was too well planned out; he must have calculated the rescue spell’s strengths and weaknesses into his plan.

  A shiver went down her spine. That delayed action spell that Ghortin had found on her; it must have been part of the attack as well. Someone had targeted her. Either they knew who she was, or they were taking care of Ghortin’s apprentice to get to him. Who knew what that spell could have made her do?

  “Are you alright?”

  Jenna shook herself and smiled weakly. “I think so. I just realized that I had been targeted too. Although I think I was probably meant to be an assistant to the attack, not a victim.” She briefly outlined the whole incident with the fake page and the bath. She didn’t tell him about finding the real boy, or any of the other things. She wasn’t sure who could be told what, and she was going to play it safe until she talked to Ghortin again.

  Keanin grew quiet as the talk turned toward the missing king.

  “Are you all right?” Jenna watched as Keanin played with his food where moments before he’d been wolfing it down.

  “Of course.” He looked up and met her eyes. “No, I’m not.” He ran long fingers through his thick hair. “My parents died when I was young, and the royal family raised me as one of their own.”

  He tried to smile, but Jenna noticed that the tension and loss of the past two days was finally surfacing. “In fact, King Daylin used to joke that I was his real son, and that Corin was a foundling. When it looked like I was going to lose both the king and Corin…” His voice tumbled off and he looked sightlessly down at the bed cover.

  Jenna took one of his hands in hers, the food tray forgotten off to one side. “Storm—I mean Corin, is going to be fine. And you know he won’t rest until we get them back.”

  Keanin squeezed her hand tightly. “Corin’s going to be all right because of you, my lady. I shall never forget that.” A wry smile lit his elegant face. “And he’d probably like it if you continued to call him Storm. He does wish that were who he was.”

  Jenna nodded in agreement. She was having a hard time getting used to his real name anyway. “One more question, then I’ll let you go until tomorrow. What about Mikasa?”

  Her wish to switch to lighter subjects worked. Keanin rolled his eyes. “That one. Met her, did you? I’m afraid our Corin has gotten himself trapped with a royal disaster. Not that she’s not beautiful; heaven knows, she’s lovely to look at. But I swear, if I hear ‘Cory honey’ one more time, I’ll break that beautiful little neck myself. She’s trouble, stay clear of her if you can.”

  Jenna chuckled at Keanin’s flawless imitation of Storm’s bride-to-be. Hanging around the court constantly certainly gave him a lot of fuel for mockery and imitation.

  “Like the rest of Storm’s real life, I don’t know anything about the two of them. Except that he claims to be unhappy.”

  Keanin’s sadness vanished completely. “Unhappy? Lady, that boy is miserable. The official engagement began last year, announced before the two met. Corin figured he could talk her out of it once they met in person. He couldn’t believe that any intelligent person would want their partner for life picked out for them. He didn’t stand a chance.” His hair fell across his face as he burst out laughing. “She took one look into his big blue eyes and swooned. Literally, right there in the courtyard. When she came around, she swore to all who would listen that she would never be parted from her gallant prince.”

  Jenna couldn’t help but feel sorry for her friend. It probably had never dawned on him that his bride-to-be would like being promised sight unseen. “But that’s awful, they’ll both be miserable.”

  Keanin patted her hand. “Never fear, he’ll waggle out of it somehow, he always does. And Mikasa’s too caught up in court life to be miserable. She’s not looking for true love, she’s looking for power.” He carefully peered into her eyes as if searching for something only he could see. “Why, are you a bit smitten with our fair prince? To hear tell, Corin rescued you from the Abyss.”

  “Actually, he accused me of the same feelings toward you. I’ll have you both know, I’m quite happy with the status quo at present, thank you.” Jenna shot him a frown. “And I’ll also have you know that he plucked me from a ten-foot-deep ravine, not some pit of hell.” She didn’t add that she still had nightmares about what could have happened to her if he hadn’t rescued her.

  She tried to stifle a yawn, but the sharp-eyed kelar caught it anyway.

  “Maggie would have my hide if you turn up all tired out tomorrow.” Rising gracefully, he bent over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Off to sleep with you. I’ll be back in the morn to start that tour of ours. Sleep well, my lady.” Then he was gone.

  Jenna slid under the covers. Lying there, she tried mentally reaching out for Ghortin. It wasn’t a serious attempt; her mind sort of drifted that way. But then she started to panic. What if he never came back? What if he never left? What would happen if that king-napping mage killed Ghortin’s body? Would he be with her forever? Or would he just pop out of existence?

  She shook herself free of the dark thoughts. Exhaustion was making her paranoid and irrational. Besides, if she did want to reach Ghortin, she certainly couldn’t do it with a fear-clouded mind.

  As she slowed her thoughts down, she focused tightly on her own sense of balance.

  Finally, as if he was speaking to her from far away, Ghortin’s voice came to her.

  “Lass, you couldn’t wait, could you? Well, now you’ve got me, what did you want?”

  It was harder than it had seemed in Storm’s room to focus her thoughts into concrete conversation. Probably because they were both still exhausted. “I wanted to make sure you were still there. No one seems to know much about what you did. How will I know if anything’s happened to you?”

  “You’d feel it.” His voice was grim. “But don’t worry about me; I’m a tough old bird. I’ll make it through. But how is everyone else?”

  “Storm’s feeling better. He woke up after you’d gone. I think he’s already making plans to go after you and his father.”

  An odd wave of concern flowed through her mind. Sharing Ghortin’s emotions like this was going to take some getting used to. “He’ll need to be careful with himself for quite so
me time. I don’t need to tell you how close to dying he was. But I’m sure Resstlin will curtail him long enough. How is Areania?”

  There was a peculiar tone to his voice with the question, but Jenna couldn’t tell if it was from her or him. “Not well, and probably getting worse. She was hanging on to Storm like a lifeline. Now that he’s going to live, I think she’ll be forced to think about the king.”

  Ghortin was silent so long that Jenna feared he might have slipped away again. When he spoke, the voice in her head was grim.

  “I’m going to tell you things that you mustn’t tell anyone. Not even Storm.” His tone was low, as if he didn’t want to say it at all. “I don’t know for certain that the king is still alive. And I get no feeling from my body at all. Theoretically, I should be able to sense something, but since this has never been done before, there’s no precedent.” Jenna sensed a mental shrug.

  “Worse yet, I get no feelings from the attacking mage. I didn’t when he was in the ballroom, and I don’t now. Just the sheer energy he used to call forth those demonspawn should have blasted his location to any mage in a hundred miles. Never mind disguising them and planting them in the castle.”

  Jenna shivered. She hadn’t thought about that. She was too new to this whole mage thing to have thought about trying to pick up on the attacker’s magical signature.

  Mentally, she flashed to her first sight of the attacking mage; perhaps something in her memory would register for either her or Ghortin. She could see the mage, but her mind’s eye refused to focus on him at all. It was as if that robe of his was disorienting her mental eye as it had her physical eyes.

  “What do we do now?” There was so much information, she couldn’t process it enough to be terrified at the moment.

  “I’m afraid there isn’t much we can do right now. I’ll stay out of your consciousness as much as possible, but I’ll be here if you call. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with some answers soon. Meanwhile, learn about Irundail. And don’t let on that Resstlin may be king in truth and not just interim. I don’t yet know what we’re up against, or how we can stop it; but panicking people more than they already are certainly won’t help.”

  The pessimism in Ghortin’s mental voice unnerved her. He was the most optimistic person she’d ever met, on either world. If he was this worried, she didn’t want to think about the consequences.

  “Isn’t there anything I can do to help?” She hated feeling helpless.

  Obviously the emotion-feeling bit went both ways. “Easy, lass. Things aren’t that lost yet. It’s difficult because you’re seeing my internal doubts now, ones that normally no one would see. The best thing you can do is keep people calm. By this time tomorrow, it will be common knowledge that I’m living in here. If people see that you’re upset, they’ll believe that I’m upset. Besides, I think keeping Storm here long enough to completely heal will be task enough.”

  Jenna felt the emptiness of his leaving before she had adequate time to retort. Which was exactly as he had planned.

  She leaned over and turned down the glow light. It would be hard to appear carefree tomorrow, and after, but Keanin was the person to help with that. Banishing her nightmares away until she could deal with them, Jenna slid off to sleep.

  A firm shake jerked her awake a moment after she had fallen asleep. Or that’s what it felt like. “Am I going to see your face every time I wake up while I’m here?” Jenna growled at the smiling Keanin above her. She disliked early risers, and if Storm and Keanin were any indication, kelars were a whole blessed race of them.

  “I’ll have you know, there are more than a few women who would kill for such an honor. Up, up, up. Healer Maggie has let me come to take you away for a day of fun and excitement.”

  Jenna responded by pulling the blankets up and over her head. “G’away. It’s too early.”

  Keanin gave a few tugs on the offending blanket, but Jenna’s grip was like rigor mortis. He might be the most amazingly good-looking man she had ever seen, including in the movies, but sleep was a valuable commodity. Besides, he wasn’t trying to drag her into bed; he was trying to drag her out of it.

  With a shrug, he surrendered the battle and went for a different approach. He scooped her up, blanket and all, in one lighting fast move.

  “Hey.” Jenna squealed from within her pile of blankets. “Put me down.” She started thrashing about, not caring if she knocked Keanin over. Fortunately he, like most kelars it seemed, had amazing balance.

  “Tsk. If you don’t behave, I shall have to take you out around the city like this.”

  Jenna pounded on his chest. And to think she used to get upset when her roommate woke her up by gargling too loud.

  Keanin laughed, finally losing his balance and tumbling both of them onto the bed.

  “Having to win them by force now, are we?” Maggie’s dry voice cut through their laughter.

  Jenna tried to jerk herself free from the tangled blankets. “It’s not what it looks like. Really. He, ah, was trying to drag me out of bed.”

  Maggie settled her hands on two solid hips. “Doesn’t look like he made it too far.” She glanced pointedly at the pile of intertwined limbs on the bed.

  Futilely, Jenna attempted again to free herself. Keanin hung on all the tighter, looking up with a tortured face. “Alas, she has found us out, fair one. Mine virtue is at loss.”

  Maggie finally burst out laughing as she smacked the prostrate kelar in the head. “Sir. I’ll take it kindly if you refrain from making my patients squeal.” She gave a nod to Jenna. “And I do hope you can protect yourself from this ravisher. I’ll still need your help with the prince. I’m afraid it’s going to be a little while before he’s ready to be up and about.”

  Jenna sobered as she slid out from under Keanin. “How is he? Has he gotten worse?”

  “His Royal Shagginess is resting peacefully at present. But fear not, you’ll be the first notified should his status change. In fact, that’s why I’m here.”

  She reached for something that had been hidden in the bun of hair on her head. At first glance, it appeared to be a small, gray mouse. At second glance, tiny delicate wings were noticeable. The small creature’s whiskers jutted forward as it explored the healer’s hand.

  “This is Ivan, she’s a scree. Let her sit in your hand for a bit.” Maggie slid the soft creature into Jenna’s hand. The mouse whiskers wiggled in earnest as it got to know its new host. “She’ll be able to find you anywhere now that she knows you. If something happens, I can call you back immediately.”

  Jenna was fascinated by the little scree stretching her wings. They looked like they belonged on a bird. They were dark blue with small magenta dots on the tips. All four legs were there like a normal mouse. The wings seemed to have been added on as a genetic afterthought. One of Ghortin’s earliest lessons came to mind. “She’s a created being, isn’t she?”

  Maggie nodded as she took the tiny creature back. “Aye. Although the scree are very old created beings. They can’t breed without magical assistance, but they’ve been around for at least two thousand years.” She watched as Keanin got to his feet. “But enough of that, I see your escort is itching to depart.” She grabbed Keanin by one pointed ear with her free hand. Not an easy feat since he was a good foot taller than the healer and his ears were hidden by all that hair. But Maggie managed with a surety that spoke of practice.

  “You can wait in the hall. I’m quite sure our young friend can get dressed without your assistance.”

  Once they’d departed, Jenna wasted no time dressing. Who could tell how long Keanin would stay out?

  17

  The bright morning light came as a shock. Although her rumbling stomach told her it was morning, it was easy to forget the time in the windowless wing of the House of Healing. It was also a bit disorienting stepping out of a building she’d never stepped into.

  All her thoughts of disorientation were washed away as the splendor of Irundail rose before her. The House of H
ealing lay adjacent to the most solid looking building she’d ever seen. Huge, thick towers rose from the corners of dark gray walls made of bricks as tall as her. Dagger-like arrow slots were the only breaks in the solid gray.

  Two guards stood at attention at the open gate. Like the royal guards in England, they looked more like stone than humans, or kelar in this case.

  “Ah yes. Our tour begins with Castle Irundail, the most heavily fortified construction in the known world. And where, might I add, we shall later have to see about finding accommodations for you. Once our esteemed Maggie has deemed you well enough to move out of her House of Healing, that is.” Keanin’s mischievous grin told Jenna that he was also staying in the castle.

  “But we can deal with that later, right?” The day was too beautiful to deal with looming, dreary castles.

  “Why of course, my lady. You have but to ask and I shall obey.” He swept down in one of his trademark bows. “On with the tour.” He led them away from the House of Healing and the castle. The two buildings, plus another fair-sized one on the opposite side, were on the uppermost level of a group of huge stone terraces.

  The buildings all looked out over a long green valley dotted with small clusters of farms. The rock terrace trailed out behind the buildings to a sharp drop into that same valley. They slowly made their way to the edge near the road, with Keanin letting her gawk in silence. As they reached the turn in the road, Jenna realized a good-sized town was at the end of it. Not only would it provide homes and supplies for people working in the castle and supporting buildings, but in an attack, it would be the first layer of defense. Irundail was obviously built at a much more dangerous time than Lithunane, which lacked such defensive measures.

  “Have there been many attacks on the castle?”

  “Not many.” Keanin smiled as if it was all his doing. “And none have ever made it past the Keepers.”

  Keanin chuckled at her obvious lack of understanding of the term. “Ghortin is getting remiss. An apprentice mage who has never heard of the Keepers?”