Thief (The Key to Magic Book 7)

by H. Jonas Rhynedahll

  Mar relaxed. Throughout his imprisonment, the old man had been entirely cooperative and had made not one attempt at resistance or escape. And, to be fair, Mar had to admit that the old man's ancient knowledge of the ether had been extremely helpful and instructive.

  Still, trust, once destroyed, is not easily restored.

  "Come with me," he told the old man.

  Waleck nodded in quick obedience and moved to his side.

  "Before you go, Mar," Llylquaendt said quickly, going to a shelf and picking up a device the size of a grapefruit that had a number of polished gemstones mounted in gold settings. "I need to give Waleck's sprites one last check to make sure that they are replicating properly after the sampling."

  Mar sighed. "Be quick."

  "Of course!"

  The medic drew close to the two of them and moved the hand that held the device in a broad, sweeping gesture. The gemstones showed a sequence of varicolored lights as the device passed over Waleck that seemed to satisfy Llylquaendt, but when it coincidentally swept slightly over Mar's arm, an abruptly different sequence drew a frown. Without pausing, the medic moved the device to center it upon Mar's chest. The new sequence played continuously.

  "Hmmm. You also have a sprite payload. Where might you have acquired it? Is there some depository left in the world?"

  Mar glanced down at himself in surprise. He had to delve deep. His own sprites were smaller and much less numerous. So much so that had he not been looking for them specifically, he would not have noticed them at all. He had no idea exactly where or when he had taken on the stowaways, but could only have brought them back from the past.

  "They are not of this time," he told the medic.

  "Ah, yes, more wizardry." Llylquaendt sighed. "A pity. A depository with a wide variety of strains could cure countless diseases in this world."

  "Mine are not like Waleck's."

  "Yes, my readings say that yours are transponders. They send messages about your physical state into the ether. They allow anyone who can decode the flux anagrams to monitor your health, location, and perhaps some other factors."

  "They leave tracks as I move about?"

  "Actually, they tell the monitors exactly where you are at any given moment."

  Mar grimaced. "Can you remove them?"

  "I can deactivate them in the autodoc and within a day or so the natural ethereal fields of your body will break them down."

  "How long will it take?"

  Llylquaendt made a face. "Oh, come now! You are a wizard, Mar! You have all the time in the world."

  "So everyone says."

  When the procedure was done -- only three minutes in total length -- Mar thanked the medic and immediately rejoined Waleck. While still disturbed by the discovery of the sprites, his ire had evaporated.

  "Is there anything here that you'd like to bring with you?"

  The solicitous nature of the question seemed to slightly surprise the old man. "No, I have my clothes and my boots. I am ready."

  Mar took his arm, made a step through undertime, and released it when the scorching sun and wind of the desert swept over them.

  As he turned about in a complete circle to examine his new surroundings, the old man began to laugh.

  Mar walked by him to peer through the doorway of the first shed. Both appeared to still be in good shape, though musty from disuse.

  "Here, of all places?" Waleck asked him as his mirth subsided. "Is there some not subtle ironic message in this choice or did you just choose the Waste City because of the tortuous existence that I will endure here?"

  "I don't have time for irony," Mar replied. "Without horses, you'll have a very difficult time getting out of here and there's nothing here to provide temptation."

  The place was some changed. Most of the wall of the company compound to the north had toppled, allowing a shifting dune to encroach, but otherwise the pavement was still clear. A dune had also all but buried the heaps of stone at the south end of the square, but the rubble had apparently given stability to the sand and fixed it in place. On the east side, the shoulder-height, melted columns looked undisturbed from the last time that Mar had walked amongst them.

  "What about food and water? Or is there a spring and a lagoon somewhere about that I did not find when last here?"

  Mar turned a sharp look on the old man, saw him grinning the same quirky grin that he had so often used before they had uncovered the first text, and found himself smiling in return.

  "I'll fetch both as needed."

  Waleck continued to look about, holding up a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. "I have never had the desert as my only companion," he mused. "Always before there were at least the ponies."

  "You'll have a guard."

  The corners of Waleck's lips twitched into a half grin. "You are going to watch over me?"

  "Yes."

  Waleck inclined his head. "What shall we be having for lunch?"

  Mar patted his purse. "Anything that you like."

  "Anything? Well, in the Imperial year 47, I came across an inn just outside the eastern gates of Old Khalmooer. On Thirdday, they served a spiced beef dish that had yams and okra and some other things. It made such an impression upon me that some decades later I made the effort to return, but by then the volcano had buried the city."

  "Where was Old Khalmooer?"

  "In the Ehb'n Foothills, just twenty-five leagues or so south-southeast of Ilhihm, which is called Ihem today if I recall correctly."

  Mar nodded. "I'll find it."

  He stepped into undertime. He was back, in Waleck's time, in only a moment.

  They took lunch together in the shade of the main shed, just as they had a hundred other times.

  After devouring the meal and the ale that Mar had purchased along with it, Waleck leaned back with a broad smile and patted his full belly. "Excellent! Just as I remember it."

  The meal had been some spicy for Mar's taste, but not discouragingly so. "I saw you there. You shaved your cheeks and the crown of your head then. You argued with a scholar who sat at another table."

  "I did? I recall nothing of the visit save for the food." Waleck shrugged. "You were clean shaven when you left. How long were you gone?"

  Mar raised a hand to the heavy stubble on his cheeks. He had not bothered with shaving during this trip, of which lunch had been only a very insignificant part.

  "Close to a month."

  "Have you ever thought that you are burning through your life in an accelerated way? Wizardry has its drawbacks."

  "I'll live long enough to get what needs to be done done."

  "You know this?"

  Mar grimaced. "Yes, I do."

  "That sounds very unfortunate. Well, what shall we do to pass the afternoon? A riddle game perhaps? Or have you other appointments?"

  "I don't have time for games, but I do have time for instruction."

  "How so?"

  "Teach me all that you know of magic."

  "In general, when someone uses the word all, they do not mean all. They mean some subset of all limited by their current interests, their attention span, their endurance, their circumstance, or some other personal or environmental factor."

  "I mean all."

  nhBreen inclined his head. "It would be my pleasure. However, nhBreen was one of the greatest sorcerers of his age. He was exhaustively well read and his knowledge of magical subjects is considerable. A great deal of time will be required to do justice to even the primary topics."

  Mar showed a fierce grin. "I'm a wizard."

  "Just so, but can you spare the time it will take from your other endeavors?"

  "I can spare as much time as it takes. The things that must happen tomorrow will happen tomorrow, even if tomorrow is next year or the year after for me."

  "Ah, yes. Wizardry, as Nhorbryst said, is a most cruel taskmaster."

  "Nhorbryst?"

  "She was a sorcerer and a philosopher -- an odd combination to be sure -- from the Satrapy of Ooa
er during the reign of ..."

  TWENTY-TWO

  7026 by the Common Reckoning

  (Twelfthday, Waning, 2nd Springmoon, 1645 After the Founding of the Empire)

  Orbital B

  "Indications are that the tectonic shifts were most severe in the obverse hemisphere. The only significant surviving land mass on that side is a large island that is less than ten percent of the central highlands area of the continent that we knew as Myorkanandis. The island has a meager, near starvation level population of nomadic herdsman who possess only a rudimentary ability to work base metals,"

  Information Section Leader Minos continued his narration of uninteresting and commonly known facts as an assistant shuffled through the high resolution aerial images that were being projected from the data cube onto the back wall of the storage bay. The addition of a few dozen chairs and a table for refreshments had converted the unused bay off the shuttle dock into a briefing room.

  As the child in her eight months protruding belly and the womb that had produced that child were now universally considered vital strategic resources -- and would soon be officially declared so according to rumors -- Prim had been denied permission to accompany the first shuttle load to the surface. Only women that were beyond child bearing age had been considered for the mission and very few of those had been chosen, making it clear to her that, as she had expected, archaic, patriarchal attitudes had begun to infect the current leadership of the Project. However, as medics were in short supply and everyone knew that the barbarity of the Deficient populace would make such skills essential on the surface, she had been allowed to sit in on the briefings given to the initial landing party.

  Walis, seated beside her, had been selected as a member of Landing Group One. As the most experienced medic and the Leader of the Medic Section, it had been his privilege to claim a spot in the first shuttle.

  Prim was of two minds concerning this circumstance.

  On the one hand, if all went well, then Walis' selfless devotion to duty would earn him increased status in the ranks of the Project and an elevated position in the governing structure that would be imposed on the world below.

  On the other hand, if Walis wound up dead, then Prim would be saddled with the chore of selecting and wooing another man -- of similarly reasonable intelligence and good health -- to sire her inevitable children. As the available selection of such was less than stellar, she did not relish the prospect.

  But aside from the practical considerations, she had grown accustomed to Walis and had no desire to break in a new husband.

  Prim felt the baby kick hard and erased Section Leader Minos' stupefying droning from her mind as she wrapped both hands around her abdomen to cradle her child. Walis noticed her reaction and placed his hand with hers but, dedicated as always, kept his eyes on the presentation.

  Nali, seated on the other side of Walis, glanced over and smiled. Due to her genetic shortcomings -- though this had not been stated publicly -- her womb had not been determined to be a vital strategic resource. She had been given permission to accompany Walis to the surface as his assistant. This had caused Prim a slight annoyance, but she had concealed the pique from both of them.

  The bigger her belly had gotten, the more territorial Prim had found herself becoming and she had begun to observe any other female, attractive and desirable or otherwise, with growing suspicion. These feelings were irrational, Prim knew, but not necessarily invalid. For the very reasons that she wanted to retain Walis -- his physical strength and health, growing political power, and ingrained fidelity -- she knew that other Project women would covet him.

  Nali, however, had given Prim no cause for suspicion on that front. The three of them spent a good deal of time together, both on duty and off, but the courtesan Freak had never shown the slightest interest in Walis. As far as Prim had seen, Nali had apparently renounced both her trade and her sex. She did not flirt or chat with any of the attached or unattached males and showed no outward interest in them of any kind. She wore her coveralls loose, baggy, and unflattering. Her walk was just a walk; she did not flounce, glide, or stroll. A few of the less valuable of the Project men had made half-hearted attempts to play court to her, but she had gently but firmly rebuffed all advances.

  But Nali was Zso's creature and that meant that Prim could never fully trust her.

  Zso had not appeared again to torment Prim and she had begun to hope that she was finally free of the vile wizard. It did not seem improbable that he could have perished in the cataclysm or burned out his extended lifespan in the millennia that had passed while she had been in stasis. But wizards had the bad habit of showing up at the worst possible moment.

  Nali had revealed nothing of the wizard's purpose in sending her with Prim or of his instructions to her. Prim, preferring to let sleeping dogs lie, had made no attempt to discover them.

  In any event, perhaps those plans had perished along with the wizard.

  The pressure of her bladder became a sudden priority and as Prim leveraged herself to her feet, she leaned over to tell Walis, "I'll be back in a bit."

  Well trained by now to the exigencies of pregnancy, Walis just nodded and squeezed her hand briefly.

  "Do you want me to come with you?" Nali whispered.

  "No, you stay. You can fill me in on what I missed."

  Not that what Information Section Leader Minos had to say was even remotely of any use, but she had to at least feign interest for Walis' sake.

  The facilities were just a dozen steps down the corridor. Prim made quick work of emptying her bladder, then zipped her coverall and opened the stall door.

  Her heart seized for a moment when she saw Zso standing in the aisle, but quickly recovered. "How long have you been standing there?"

  He grinned in a thoroughly disgusting way. "Long enough. How are you, my dear? I see that you have kept yourself occupied."

  Zso wore not his usual business attire, but rather a simple jacket and trousers made of natural cloth that were cut in a style similar to those favored by the primitives on the surface.

  "We have no further business," she told him flatly. "If you hadn't noticed, the world has changed."

  "The lands, yes. The people, not so much as you might assume." The wizard opened a leather pouch at his waste to show her shiny yellow coins. "I am prepared to pay for this newest commission in the currency of this present age."

  "Money is useless here."

  He jiggled the pouch to make the coins clink together. "These are quite useful on the surface."

  "I am retired."

  "Abandoning your career for kith and kin?"

  "Something like that."

  "Ah. Laudable. A pity, but laudable." He turned slightly as if to leave, but then turned back. "I should offer you a glance at your future, before you go."

  "No."

  "You will bear a son. A beautiful child. Golden hair. Green eyes. He will, sadly, die in his crib at the age of --"

  The pistol that she kept hidden about her at all times was in her hand before she knew it, but it vanished from her grip before she could pull the trigger.

  Zso looked disappointed. "You don't have the particular -- hmm, let us say aptitude -- required to accomplish my assassination with a mere pistol, my dear. But that is of no consequence. Back to your future. Of course, the death of your firstborn will devastate you, but in the course of time, you will again become with child and you and Walis will welcome a daughter to this blighted future. Sadly, she also will succumb at only a few months of age to an unknown illness. Five children you shall have, but none shall live to see a full year."

  Prim began to silently weep.

  "But there is another future. A future where all of your children live and prosper."

  As tears continued to drip from her cheeks, Prim's hands twitched, yearning to strangle the wizard. "You're absolute filth!"

  "Perform this task and I will never again trouble you."

  "No!"

  "In the course of
time, you will once again meet with Mar. He is a man of great power in this age. Here, he has a young wife and a newborn child -- or rather will in under a month's time."

  "No."

  "In not two months, circumstance will bring you into close contact with the young woman and the babe."

  "Please, no."

  "Shortly thereafter you will make acquaintance of a monk, who will provide you with a small quantity of a particular plant extract that is immediately fatal if ingested."

  "I won't do it."

  "A drop on the child's lips will suffice."

  Prim fell silent.

  "Two drops in the woman's cup will do the same for her. They will feel no pain. Once both are dead, you must drive a knife through their temples to forestall resuscitation."

  "Why don't you just kill them yourself?" she demanded in a dead voice.

  "That is something that you do not need to know." Zso smiled. "It is for you to choose. A moment of evil or a lifetime of agony."

  Then the wizard vanished.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Three times, circumstance forced Telriy to delay her departure.

  Not long after Mar had gone, a knock came upon her door. Through the ether, she could half-sense the person behind the thick oak. It was a woman, definitely, and it felt like Yhejia. The familiar cadence of the brisk raps seemed to confirm that. After casting a quick glamour to hide the large satchel that she had started to pack, Telriy called for her friend to enter.

  As Ulor's wife walked towards the bed, where Celly lay asleep in a cocoon of blankets, she asked, "How are you, my lady queen? No intense pain? No bleeding? Nothing unusual?"

  "No, I'm well. Everything is fine."

  She was aching and tired, but already felt her strength returning. In retrospect and given the travails that she had seen when Gran had acted as midwife, she had to admit that her labor had been on the mild side.

  It had still hurt, though.

  Yhejia smiled. "I thought you would be. You're well fed and strong and have the right hips for birthing."