The gold boy frowned and shot her a hurt expression. “They’re not stingy. They’re conservative. Especially after you were Aarlen’s apprentice for so long.”
The dark-haired savant shrugged.
Sarai put a hand on Bannor shoulder. “Do you think this will work?”
Bannor smiled. “Of course. We’ve both seen a lot more amazing things than that.”
The maid struggled out into the hall with a large mirror in a crafted wooden frame. Her muted gasps of effort had the male folk in the room striding over to assist her with the burden. Only moments and one creation spell later, they had the intricately carved mirror on a stand in the middle of the conversation circle and the mages working their craft around it.
As their enchantments were progressing, Janai and Daena returned from the back hall. The auburn-haired savant was dressed in a short skirt that seemed stressed to contain her broad hips. If there was anything to be said about physical shapes that seemed to come naturally to the first ones, they were less than subtle creatures. Daena’s top was a silk robe cut short obviously to cover proportions elf-sized attire normally would not. The girl seemed more at ease, but a great deal of discomfort and agitation remained present in her aura; something Bannor totally understood given what had happened to the girl.
“You all right?” he asked her when they drew close.
Daena drew a breath and met his gaze. “Physically—fine.” She glanced at Janai who was looking on with a concerned expression. She focused glowing green eyes on him. “I—this new thing—it’s scary.”
“Wren seemed to understand it,” he offered.
Daena pressed her lips together. “Yes. I’m glad she doesn’t hold grudges.” She drew another breath body trembling. “I’m so scared I’m going to lose control.”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “Stick with us like you always have. We’ll get you through it. Haven’t we always?”
Daena swallowed and nodded.
Sarai leaned in to Daena’s line of sight. “Chin up, show us the mettle of true prodigal that you are. Bannor has faith in you, and I trust him implicitly.” She looked up at him. “Even if he is a royal pain in the arse sometimes.”
Janai raised an eyebrow. “Anytime you decide you don’t want him sister…”
Sarai frowned at her. “Hush you.”
Behind them Senalloy hummed. “Ah yes, now it is working. Well done, Vanidaar.”
“Thank you,” the red-haired man answered. “It is a pleasure working with a skilled sorceress.”
“So this must be balcony where you entered?” Euriel asked.
“Yes,” Ziedra answered. “That’s where I had to bend the ward.”
Ryelle, who was standing behind the group clustered around the mirror was rubbing her throat and looking uncomfortable. “I find it troubling that the three of you can so easily bypass the citadel scrying security.”
Euriel looked back with a grin. “Good thing we’re allies, eh?”
Ryelle sniffed. “Indeed.”
“Kal sure has things battened down tight,” Euriel remarked. “Guards everywhere.”
Bannor stepped around to the middle of the conference circle where he could see the mirror. The glass now resembled a glowing window looking into another place. Along the edges, dark tendrils of energy crackled and fizzed. Senalloy, Vanidaar, and Euriel stood together slightly apart staring into the image. Vanidaar seemed to be controlling the vision with his outstretched hand, the view changing facing, pitching and yawing as he moved his fingers.
Wren came up beside Sarai to look in. Ziedra drifted up into the air to look over the heads of the taller people. After a moment, the dark-haired savant drew her gold husband into the air to join her in her aerial vantage. Even Tymoril and Kegari the giant dragon ladies were curious to see the display of magic. With their huge height it was easy for them to see over the others.
“This is really wizard, Dad,” Wren remarked.
Vanidaar grinned.
Wren’s brother came up behind her in silence and draped his arms around her neck to look over her head. The blond savant pushed back against him.
“So where should we look?” Euriel asked.
“Perhaps we should start by looking in the place where the encounter occurred to see what’s happening.” Ryelle offered from the rear of the group.
Euriel shrugged and looked to Vanidaar. The red-haired man simply pushed out his lip, and made a kind of grasping gesture which made the view blur, corridors and side passages rushing by, twisting and pivoting as though at gigantic speed.
Janai and Daena joined the gathering followed by Corim and Dulcere, all eyes trained intently on the glass.
The scene of their fight with Kell appeared pretty much as Bannor expected, a dozen guards turning the area upside down looking for some clue as to what caused the noise and rumbling. It occurred to him then.
“You know I just realized something,” Bannor said his voice dropping.
Wren turned to look at him. “What?”
“Well,” he said. “When we were outside of the citadel, I remember seeing two or three of those dead spots. With all the excitement with Kell, I forgot that there were—ummm, two others.”
“Oh great,” Wren said. “Nice thing to forget!”
“Sorry, things were a bit intense there.”
“Do you remember where those other places were?” Vanidaar asked.
“They weren’t far from where we found Kell. The places didn’t seem more than a few dozen paces apart.”
“It looks like the guards have searched all the nearby rooms,” Ziedra remarked from overhead.
“Aye,” Senalloy agreed. “The room doors all down that hall have been opened.”
“You mean no matter which one we opened we would have found him?” Ziedra asked.
“But you are only guessing?” Ryelle asked.
Bannor let out a breath. He hoped that was true.
“Arminwen,” Corim said. “I find Dulcere’s guesses often more dependable than other people’s facts.”
Ryelle raised a hand. “There is no point in disputing it.” She gestured to the mirror. “So, leave us view something else, this is not productive.”
“Hmmm,” Janai said. “Scouting is bad, but spying is okay.”
The eldest sister gave her a cold stare. Janai swayed back from her intensity but kept a smile on her face.
Vanidaar shrugged and they continued their inspection, the vision flitting through hall after hall, going past dozens of unsuspecting people. While the sights themselves were not of particular interest to Bannor, the mere size of the citadel made him shake his head. It was not titanic like the Kriar way-point was, but still this was something created by creatures of his world.
The “spying” as Janai called it continued as Vanidaar, Senalloy, and Euriel patiently probed every adjacent space.
“I must say Kalindinai is thorough,” Senalloy said. “She knows how to do a security sweep.”
They continued to pan through hall after hall, doing cursory examinations of various rooms, halls, and galleries. The magic made it possible to thoroughly scour a huge amount of area in a fraction of the time it would take several people on foot. Doors, gates, and seals were no impediment to their investigation, even darkened areas could be magically illuminated to make out the details.
“Nothing,” Sarai murmured. “Could this Kell have been the assassin? I know it makes no sense.”
“No,” Ziedra said. “It doesn’t fit him. He was too strong and in control. A couple of house guards would not have known he was there if he didn’t want it.”
Senalloy, Vanidaar, and Euriel remained focused on the task, patiently peering through room after room, swooping down passages past elven maids, stewards, and citadel guards. Bannor drew a breath, the citadel was huge, even at the speed of magic it might take bells or even days—there were thousands of places a person or persons could conceal themselves.
The view swept around a corner into a main gallery past a group of elves.
Bannor stiffened. “Stop! What was that?”
“What was what?” Euriel asked.
“Quick,” Bannor said. “Turn around, look back toward that group you just passed.”
Vanidaar swung the view around. Dressed in the deep blue of the T’Evagduran royal colors were six maids and stewards gathered in a group. They appeared to be doing nothing other than conversing.
“I see nothing,” Euriel said.
“No, they aren’t what I saw,” Bannor pressed. “It moved.”
Vanidaar panned the view around.
Bannor pushed forward next to Senalloy and pointed. “There, that small hall!”
The red-haired mage frowned and complied. The view slid across to the far side of gallery and into a small service passage. Just as their vision entered, Bannor saw what looked like a shadow slide around a corner ahead.
“There, at the corner!”
Vanidaar shook his head, but kept the magic eye moving. As the magic turned the corner in the tight corridor Bannor saw what appeared to be the edge of cloak disappear around the next turn.
“There, I saw it this time,” Sarai chimed in. “It’s like a ghost or something!”
Vanidaar tightened his hand and leaned forward. They appeared to shoot forward and around the next turn.
Outlined in the hall going away from them was a translucent figure hard to see in the poor light of the servant’s hall. The creature looked tall and wore a long hooded cloak that trailed as it moved briskly forward.
“What is that?” Janai asked.
“I do not believe we need many guesses,” Senalloy said.
“Damn, you have good eyes, Bannor,” Wren said.
“Leave us reveal this entity in more detail,” Euriel said. “Swing around ahead of it.”
Vanidaar nodded. Their perspective shot forward and turned. Senalloy and Euriel both gestured at the mirror, and the translucent almost invisible creature appeared to suddenly become solid.
What the two mages had done was not just enhance their magical view because the interloper suddenly halted in the hall, and gazed at its now solid dusky-skinned long nailed hands.
“For my next question,” Janai said with a shake of her head. “Daena, if you’re here—” She pointed at the mirror. “What are you doing there…?”
Dressed in long robes, auburn hair trailing out from under a voluminous hooded cloak was Daena…
* * *
Chapter Sixteen
Mirror Prodigal
« ^ »
Ever since my daughter Janai took on Daena Sheento as her ward prodigal I have had a certain misgivings. Not from Daena herself mind you, she is a bright child with incredible potential. While she has some streaks of self-interest and meanness in her, she is essentially a good girl with no particular ambitions beyond wanting some purpose and happiness in her life. No, it is not Daena that worries me. It is Janai. Daena is young and impressionable, and dreadfully starved for affection and acceptance. Something that makes her vulnerable to Janai’s impetuous charms—and Daena’s incredible power is such a strong temptation. Janai will get them into trouble, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’…
—Kalindinai T’Evagduran,
Queen of Malan
Bannor stared over the shoulders of the three mages into the magic seeing mirror that the three of them had created. The image showed the unmistakable profile of Daena dressed in hooded translucent robes. The woman they were viewing was not the savant of attractions changed by Hella into the physical form of Gaea’s progeny the first ones. Apparently, the impostor was probably unaware that Daena could and did change her appearance with magic. The interloper’s impression of Daena while accurate was a bit dated.
“That witch stole my shape!” Daena snarled.
“So it would appear,” Senalloy remarked. “It also is something of a confirmation that the initial target was indeed Daena.”
“To replace her?” Ziedra mused.
“As a mole close to Janai, or to get at Janai herself?” Euriel mused.
“That we won’t know until I have my hands around her throat,” Janai growled.
“Ryelle,” Senalloy asked. “Do you have a way to send word to your mother about the package we are following?”
The eldest princess drew a breath. “Yes.”
“She’s bolting,” Wren cried.
“Not to worry,” Vanidaar said. “I have the signature of her life force.”
The image followed the fake Daena as she rushed down the passage turning corners with apparent familiarity.
“Could she actually sense the scrying?” Ziedra asked floating overhead. “I know I could but…”
“We keep saying she… it could be a ‘he’,” her husband added drifting next to her.
“Mother has acknowledged me,” Ryelle reported. “What do I tell her?”
“For the moment,” Euriel said. “Just that our scrying has turned up a spy disguised as Daena. She’s in the servant’s passages on the west side of main hall, third level, heading east… no, north.”
“Dammit, we can see her, Senalloy or Dulcere can just grab her,” Wren said.
“No,” Ryelle said. “Mother must be the one to catch her.”
Euriel looked back. “We don’t know how powerful this agent is. It could be a risk.”
“I have faith in Mother and Father,” the eldest princess answered.
“I don’t recognize any of these places,” Daena said.
Janai shook her head with a frown on her face. “I remember playing in some of these passages when I was child, but it was a long time ago.”
“Kalindinai just has to catch her,” Bannor said, glancing back at Ryelle. “No one has to know we helped.”
“Brother to be, they have done enough,” Ryelle responded.
Sarai put a hand on his shoulder. “What did you have in mind, My One?”
Bannor eyed the fleeing woman. She obviously knew the passages well, and was skirting the major galleries and corridors where she might be seen. He’d never tried to use the Garmtur across a great distance like this. However, he’d never been able to see the target so clearly either.
“Lady Senalloy, if you would permit me to touch your shoulder.”
The silver-haired elder raised an eyebrow and nodded.
Bannor placed his hand against Senalloy’s shoulder and felt for the common threads he sensed would be there. Yes, like Wren and Euriel, there was a kind of binding thread similar to what alpha and beta first ones shared. His brow furrowed, so were Baronians somehow related or similar to the creatures created by the first ones? He pushed that thought aside and concentrated on sharing his senses with Senalloy the way he had with Wren and Ziedra.
The elder stiffened next to him. “Aie!” She reached back and gripped his hand. “Oooh.” She relaxed. “You scared me for a moment. Yes. I see.” She pulled his hand down and laced his fingers in hers. She raised her chin, eyes narrowing.
In Bannor’s sight the image in the mirror changed, slowly by degrees he began to see the silhouettes and shadows of the threads of the eternity. He closed his eyes feeling the bones of the ancient citadel around him. He felt the tension of emotions swirling like eddies in turbulent water. Pockets of magic burned hot in spots throughout the gigantic shell of rock and wood that was the body of Kul’Amaron. He tuned his senses, listening and feeling for a heartbeat now long familiar
to him.
After moments of probing, he found it. He felt excitement now, tension finding release and directing it. He experienced a fit body now pelting down a corridor. Through this disjointed consciousness specific images were impossible, but he knew the fleeing impostor and Kalindinai were growing further apart.
Tightening his vision down, he found the imposter’s heart. She knew she was being watched and fleeing for her life. Bannor focused on that thundering heart and hooked a few threads free with delicate care. Feeding the power of the Garmtur into those threads he grew them, stretching their essence out across the distance toward a familiar essence, the pulse that he knew belonged to the Queen.
“Hear her heart, Kalindinai,” he murmured. “Feel her blood course, feel it burn. She’s scared. Feel her fear.”
He felt Kalindinai snatch up the thread he dangled before her, her powerful magic seizing on it, analyzing, recognizing and orienting.
“Masterfully done,” Senalloy lauded. “She has her scent now.”
“What did you do, my One?” Sarai asked him.
“I gave Kalindinai something to follow. A thread like what I use to find you.”
“You did that from here?” Ziedra asked.
He nodded.
Senalloy turned her head to one side, brushing back her silver hair. Brow furrowed but a smile on her lips she said, “Bannor, this power of yours is fascinating.” She narrowed her eyes. “Every aspect, every iota of power, emotion, and intellect all expressed in patterns of threads. Not only is it versatile, the effects can be almost infinitely refined. If only I had more of your natural sense for it…” Bannor felt a tingling in the back of his head. “Oh yes, you see so much more clearly. They aren’t just threads, they are colors, visions, instincts. So intriguing. To slow her down, all we really need to do is give a little tug, right… there.”
Arms wheeling, the fleeing impostor stumbled, missed a turn and careened headlong into a wall at a full run.
Vanidaar and Euriel flinched back.
“Oh my,” Senalloy said in that languid voice. “Equilibrium is such a tricky thing.”
Bannor winced rubbing his forehead. He knew that had to have hurt.
Reality's Plaything 3: Eternal's Agenda Page 28
