"All of us?" Wendee asked hesitantly.
"Not quite yet," Elise assured her. "For this call the only danger is being attacked in the streets."
"Only," Derian said, thinking of the riot he and Doc had been in and rubbing his still healing bruises. "Only."
Chapter XXXIII
I MUST REST!" gasped Grateful Peace, leaning hard against the rough rock wall, then sliding to the ground so heavily that his robes tore.
He knew what was coming next. With booted feet, one of the guards kicked his side until Peace's only choice was to stagger upright or have his ribs broken.
The Illuminator heard the flutter of paper as Edlin dropped his sketch pad, the clank of chains as the young man lurched to his assistance.
"I say!" Edlin demanded angrily, interposing himself between Peace and the guard. "Wouldn't it be easier to let him rest a moment? Give him some water? We've been at this for hours."
Edlin received a backhand across the faceùa punishment that had become so frequent that there was a thick swelling at one corner of his mouth. This hadn't stopped Edlin from speaking out, though, taking full advantage of his value as a hostage to make the protests that might get Peace killed.
"Those hours," Consolor Melina replied from where she was studying some sigils etched into a rock at the juxtaposition of two tunnels, "are precisely why we cannot stop. I shall need to retrace my steps far too soon. It would not do for my loving husband to find me gone from my bed as well as from his. I would like to find where this tunnel goes before then." Peace indicated to Edlin that he could stand on his own. "I believe it leads to one of the hot springs, Consolor," he said as respectfully as he could. "That horizontal wavy line with similar vertical ones above it usually indicates such. I have not been this way myself."
"Well, you shall lead the way now," Melina said, silkily kind. "Just in case you remember more than you are saying. I have no wish to lose my guards to some conveniently forgotten pit."
Melina did, however, pause long enough to order one of the guards to stir some honey into a tin cup of water and let Peace drink the mixture. The sweet stuff was little enough treatment for his injuries and exhaustion, but Peace accepted thankfully. He knew full well that had Idalia been present his ribs would have been cracked, not bruised, and he would have been offered no refreshment.
Melina had a use for him, which was why she stopped her guards from injuring him too severely, but she had a use for Idalia as well and Peace's pain was payment for his sister's services. Melina weighed the two needs against each other very carefully, but Peace was the one who paid the price. Tonight, Idalia was exploring another network of tunnels, so Peace was safe from her abuseùand so had dared this small rebellion.
Within the last few days, Melina had become very interested in those tunnels which led to hot springs or other areas where the subterranean temperature was highest. She had not precisely confided in Peace what she hoped to find in these tunnels, but neither Peace nor Edlin believed any longerùas Melina's guards still didùthat what she sought was as mundane as a treasure hoard.
Melina's new intensity meant that Idalia could not be spared to accompany Melina in her search, but that Idalia must conduct some portion of the search on her own. Peace wondered why there was this sudden rush. Surely it was not because Melina thought he might be rescued. More likely she thought Peace might need to be executed soon, either to placate Idalia or because pressure had been brought to bear for his or Edlin's return.
Grateful Peace wondered if those well-meaning young people he had guided into New Kelvin realized that his discovery would mean his death. Even if Idalia would not demand it, he was thought of as a traitor by his peersùand traitors were not permitted to live.
WHEN MELINA DEPARTED for her chambers in the Cloud Touching Spire, Peace and Edlin were permitted to retire to their cave. Peace collapsed onto his pallet. When Edlin knelt beside him to inspect his wounds the Illuminator whispered urgently: "Are we watched?"
Edlin, after long days of shared captivity, had learned that Grateful Peace rarely asked an idle question. The two men had also detected the probable spy holes and often had some sense whether these were being used.
Now, with a casual deceptiveness that Peace quite admired, Edlin rose to his feet, sopped up water from the cave's tiny spring, and returned to his place beside the injured man.
"Only the usual spot by the door," Edlin replied softly, adding in a more audible voice, "Can you raise that bit of robe for me so I can clean the skin along your side before the cloth sticks?"
Peace did as instructed, a movement that conveniently hid his mouth from sight if the guard was watching. He had told Edlin early on in their captivity that they must always assume they were being watched. By now such misdirection had become nearly second nature. They hadn't had much to hide, but teaching Edlin the skills he needed to keep their secrets had given them both a small feeling of control.
Speaking rapidly, Peace said, "Consolor Melina has a shadow. Citrine has been following her these last several nights. I believe I am the only one who has noticed the child."
Edlin replied in a completely normal tone of voice, "Amazing. Can you roll to one side or shall I shift you?"
Peace accepted the young man's assistanceùin truth he needed itùthough the actual reason was to permit him to continue his soft-voiced explanation unobserved.
"I hoped to make the child pity us, so she would bring assistance."
Edlin's reply was again spoken in a normal voice.
"I can't believe you let them beat you like that!"
"Let us say I," Peace replied, also in a normal voice, "took the opportunity to rest and hoped the guards would not be too vicious."
In a softer voice Peace added, "I dare not make my actions too obvious or Citrine will suspect. She is canny beyond her years, as wounded creatures often are."
"If Firekeeper were here…" Edlin said, rising and filling the cup with water.
"Firekeeper is not," Peace replied firmly. "We must work with what is here. In my case that is a battered, one-armed body. You must take care not to defend me too strenuously. Although Consolor Melina wants you as a hostage, and it would be better if you were returned unharmed, a certain amount of 'carelessness' on the part of her guards could be excused."
Edlin shook his head. His thick, curly black hair had grown mop-like and was still too short to tie back, so he was constantly brushing it out of his eyes. He did so as he held the cup of water to Peace's lips.
"You're the one who needs to be careful."
Peace nodded, thinking of Idalia.
"I know."
FIREKEEPER KNEW her wounds weren't mending as quickly as Doc expected them to. She suspected she knew the reason, too, but she couldn't bring herself to explain. To do so would be to try and explain things that were so abstract that they didn't seem worthy of a wolf.
Simply put, she wasn't sleeping well at night, not because of painùthough the bruised and lacerated muscles in her leg throbbed constantlyùbut because the comet kept haunting her dreams.
Firekeeper had never much remembered her dreams, though sometimes she awoke so weary in body and soul that she suspected that she must have dreamt heavily. However, those sleep-time explorations always faded to wisps of cloud, burnt from memory by the light and heat of awakening.
Now, however, whenever she fell asleep she dreamed and always, no matter how innocently those dreams began, the comet entered in. Firekeeper might be hunting with her family and run to Shining Coat's side only to find that the silvery-grey wolf had become the brilliant comet compressed into a wolf's shape. She might be talking to Dawn Brooks in her cabin in New Bardenville and the fire in the hearth would spread out, creeping up the walls and across the floors, speaking in the comet's voice.
And worst of all her dreams remained with her in some form or another when she woke. For Firekeeper, who had suspected that the dreams her human friends often related over breakfast were simply an excuse for weaving w
ild and improbable stories, this was a torment. Sleeping and waking were no longer distinct. One no longer brought rest. The other no longer brought clarity.
Blind Seer was the only one aware of her difficulty and he couldn't really understand why she wouldn't talk about it to the others.
"I can't," she said, leaning her head against his flank as they sat under one of the trees in Hasamemorri's yard. She was aware that she was dangerously close to drowsing off and struggled against it. "They wouldn't understand."
Blind Seer turned and nipped her arm.
"The proverb says, 'Hunt when hungry, sleep when not, for hunger always returns.' Isn't that a way of saying that sleep is as important as food? You never hesitate to grab whatever you want from the table, to whine when you are empty. Why hesitate to ask for help with filling this hunger?"
Firekeeper's head was so heavy that the wolf's words almost made sense.
"But how can I explain that I hunger for sleep but fear it as well? They will mock me as a fool."
"I don't think they will," Blind Seer said, "but even if they did, wouldn't mockery be a small price to pay to regain your strength? Aren't you being unfair to them? They believe that when the hunt is called you will lead. Any wolf pack would tear you to shreds at the scent of such deception, but these two-legs are too gentle. They will be the ones torn to shreds in exchange for their trust."
Firekeeper didn't like that thought at allùand she knew that no matter how Elise or Derian directed things, when a fight was expected they did count on her. Guilt for abandoning Edlin and Peace still weighed heavily upon her, no matter how many times she was assured she had done the right thing in leaving.
"I will speak to Doc," Firekeeper said at last, "in a bit. The sun feels so good and your fur is so soft."
And Blind Seer, wise enough to sense her drifting off, said nothing, only moved himself as her weight grew heavy against his shoulder, lowering so she slept collapsed against him, his body curled strong and protective around her.
ROCK, BROKEN ALONG JAGGED ANGLES, not by hammer or fist, but by the shattering absence of heat. Heat still rising, though only from pockets now. A rock face hot enough to raise blisters, springs that steam and reek of dissolving minerals.
The comet's voice speaks from a glittering vein coiled through the matte-black stone.
"Motion is not freedom, though it is often mistaken for such. Do you understand?"
Firekeeper, uncertain where she is or even if she is embodied in this place, tries to shape an answer: "You can choose stillness?"
"That is one way of seeing it, I suppose. I was thinking of those who go about their days bounded by invisible walls."
"Like slaves?" Firekeeper is still trying to understand this concept. She thinks the comet might help.
"The walls that bind slaves are often very physical indeed," the comet hisses. "I was thinking of those walls by which you bind yourself, wolfling."
"I am not bound!" Firekeeper replies indignantly.
"Are you not? Duty, obligation, custom. All of these bind you as strongly as any chain or prison wall. They master you, yet you call yourself free."
Firekeeper refuses to reply.
A rippling flow that might have been laughterùbut might notùcourses along the glittering vein in the rock.
"I am bound," the comet voice says, "but I would not harm the one who bound me, rather the one who freed me. It is all a matter of perception. There are things that bind one that make one free; there are things that free only to further bind."
Firekeeper considers her own refusal to tell Doc about her dreams, about how her apparent freedom to keep her secret has bound her more firmly to these unsettling dreams.
"Why do you keep bothering me?" Firekeeper asks, her anger lighting the dark rock walls though she still cannot tell where she stands.
"I have told you before," the comet hisses. "You can hear me. What good would shouting to deaf ears do?"
"I only hear you when I am asleep," Firekeeper replies, confident of at least this freedom.
"Are you so certain?" the comet asks.
HAD MELINA REALIZED the argument and uproar that Xarxius's arrest would generate, she would either have let him continue with whatever he was about and made certain that Kiero caught him doing something truly damning or she would have arranged for the Dragon's Claw to be called away on urgent businessùand meet with a bit of bandit trouble along the way.
Now Melina was faced with sitting through a long hearing in front of the Primes, a hearing meant to answer the question of what degree of treasonous actùif anyùXarxius was guilty of committing and, when that was ascertained, assigning the appropriate punishment.
The hearing had superseded all normal business. Moreover, as one of the accusersùToriovico was the otherùMelina was required to sit off to one side and make herself available for questioning at any time.
The honest truth was, Melina admitted to herself, she had not adjusted to the fact that the Healed One was not a true kingùnot as she had grown to adulthood understanding the termùnor was his Consolor a real queen.
King Tedric's nobles might present their differences of opinion to him, they might question his judgment, they might even make their unhappiness with his policies known to him by being grudging with some tithe or duty they owed the throne. However, when the king pronounced a decision, that decision became law.
Queen Elexa did not hold the same power, but when she acted as regent for her husband her decisions were also binding as law, law that could be appealed upon King Tedric's return to court, but law nonetheless.
Fleetingly, Melina wondered how such matters would be dealt with in Hawk Haven when King Tedric died, and Sapphire and Shad took the throne. Theoretically, the new king and queen were to hold equivalent power and authority. That would work nicely when the couple agreed on a point, but what if they disagreed? As Melina herself was learning through wearisome experience, having more than one person holding equivalent authority was a recipe for chaos.
In her naive misunderstanding of New Kelvinese government, Melina had thought that if Apheros used apparent treason as justification for renouncing his Claw this would be sufficient to get rid of Xarxius, ruin the man's reputation, and maybe even get him executed.
Indeed, by law and custom, the Dragon Speaker was permitted to replace any of his Three without offering any reason other than that this was his desire. In reality, some excuse should be offered lest the friends and supporters of the demoted Prime take exceptionùexception that could, in extreme cases, bring the Speaker's government to face a vote of no confidence.
Melina had thought that having the Healed One and his Consolor bring the accusation would make the matter final, for surely no one would question either their word or their authority.
In reality, her and Toriovico's involvement and the entire question of treason had complicated a matter that should have been simple. Treason was a serious matter under the New Kelvin legal code, carrying with it a sentence of death, a death that was administered in various increasingly ugly ways depending on the severity of the treasonous acts.
Mere conspiracy, such as that with which Xarxius was charged, carried with it a fairly painless deathùbeheading or suffocation accompanied by the administration of soporific drugs. Violent actions against the kingdom or leading an invading force, both of which Grateful Peace stood accused of committing, carried with them the penalty of death by slow torture.
At least, Melina thought, a trace of whimsy touching her lips, I got that part right.
Melina quickly schooled her expression to seriousness when she saw several of the Primes frown at her. When she thought of the ramifications of what she had unwittingly done, it was easy for her to be serious.
One of the rumors flying through Thendulla Lypella was that the Progressives were planning to use Xarxius's disgraceùfollowing as closely as it did on the heels of that of Grateful Peaceùto challenge Apheros's government. Even if the Progressives could not win the Sp
eaker's chair, rumor said that certain of Apheros's supporters were likely to ask him to step down in favor of another Dragon Speaker, his image and reputation having been irreparably tarnished.
Listening to the arguments and counterarguments on the floor, Melina thought how little any of them had to do with Xarxius's apparent treason. The real issue concerning the Primes was whether Apheros's long hold on the Speaker's chair had been broken at lastùand who would sit in it after him. Xarxius's guilt and innocence would be decided on that basis and no other.
Melina looked at where Xarxius sat, his face scrubbed clean of all but his tattoos as a sign of his disgrace, and thought that he knew this as well, but he, like she and Toriovico, was not permitted to speak except in response to a direct question.
The worst of this was that Melina could no longer participate in her own important and essential explorations. True, the hearings did not extend beyond normal business hours, but afterward both she and Toriovico were constantly being requested to attend meetings and strategy sessions.
Apheros was now as eager to save his Claw as he had been to dismiss him, for he saw this as the only way to redeem his own honor. However, the charges made against Xarxius could not merely be dropped, for dropping the charges would not save Apheros's reputation. The Dragon Speaker must find a way to twist the accusations that he himself had brought in order to make them seem innocuous.
This was a task for which Apheros needed every ounce of his conniving mind and Melina had to struggle to keep him under her control without damping his abilities. It was a challenge like none she had ever faced and she was not yet certain she could handle it successfully.
Fortunately, Melina's control over Toriovico was based on assuaging his loneliness and isolation, not on making him feel that his political standing was unchallengeable. A few foot rubs and a bit of passionate sexual attention were all she needed to keep her husband neatly curled within her control.
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