His answer was in the air itself. Khali was close. He could feel her.
"I need gold," Dorian said.
"What?" Solon asked. He rubbed his eyes. It was late.
"Gold, man! I need gold!"
Solon pointed to his purse on the table and pulled on boots.
Dorian spilled the gold coins into his hands. It barely even hit his palm before the coins melted into a glob, instantly cooled and wrapped around his wrist. "More. More! There"s no time to lose, Solon."
"How much?"
"As much as you can carry. Meet me in the back courtyard, and rouse the soldiers. All of them. But don"t ring the alarum bell."
"Dammit, what is it?" Solon demanded. He grabbed his sword belt and strapped it on.
"No time!" Dorian was already running out of the room.
In the courtyard, Dorian could swear he smelled Khali even more strongly, though the scent was purely magical. She was perhaps two miles distant. It was midnight now, and he suspected she"d strike an hour before dawn, the wytching hour, when men are most susceptible to the night"s terrors and Khali"s delusions.
Dorian tried to untangle what he"d seen. He couldn"t imagine the garrison would hold, and if Khali caught him, the results would be as terrible for the world as for him. A prophet, delivered into her hands? Dorian thought of the futures he"d seen for himself. Was it so great a sacrifice to give up seeing those rush inexorably toward him? But if he gave up his visions, he would be blind, rudderless, and useless to anyone else. It also wasn"t a simple procedure. He"d described it to Solon and Feir as being like smashing his own brain with a sharp rock in order to stop seizures. Ideally, he could sear one part of his own Talent in such a way that it would eventually heal, but not for years. If Khali captured him, she might think his gift was gone forever, and kill him.
He had begun preparing the weaves before he realized he"d made up his mind. The fact that it was dark and he couldn"t replenish his glore vyrden was no problem because the amount of magic he needed was slight. He set up the weaves deftly, sharpening some and setting them aside, holding the prepared portions as if in one hand. As the magic came together, he realized that all his time in his visions, juggling different streams of time and holding place markers at decision points, had paid off in his magic. Not five years ago, he"d come this far with the weave, practicing it to see if he could hold seven strands simultaneously. It had been brutal, especially knowing that letting any one slip could make him an amnesiac, an idiot, or dead. Now, it was easy. Solon came into the yard and saw what he was doing, a look of horror on his face, and even that didn"t distract Dorian.
He sliced, twisted, pulled, seared, and covered one section of his Talent.
The courtyard was curiously silent, strangely flat, oddly constricted. "My G.o.d," Dorian said.
"What?" Solon asked, his eyes full of concern. "What have you done?"
Dorian was disoriented, like a man trying to stand after losing a leg. "Solon, it"s gone. My gift is gone."
32
Three days north of the Silver Bear Hills, Kylar came to the small town of Torras Bend. He"d been pushing hard for six days, barely stopping long enough to rest the horses, and his body ached everywhere from his stint in the saddle. Torras Bend was halfway to Cenaria, at the base of the Fasmeru Mountains and Forglin"s Pa.s.s. The horses needed the rest, and so did he. South of town, he"d even had to submit to a Lae"knaught checkpoint looking for magi. Apparently, Waeddryn"s queen didn"t have the will or the power to expel the Lae"knaught either.
He asked a farmer for directions to the town"s inn and soon found himself in a warm building filled with the smells of roasting meat pies and fresh ale. Most inns smelled of stale beer and sweat, but the people of northern Waeddryn were fastidious. Their gardens lacked weeds, their fences lacked rot, their children very nearly lacked dirt. They prided themselves on their industry, and the attention to detail of these simple folk was incredible. Even Durzo would have been impressed. All in all, it was a perfect place to rest.
Coming into the common room, Kylar ordered enough food to make the goodwife raise her eyebrows. He sat by himself. His legs were throbbing and his b.u.t.t was sore. If he never saw another horse again, it would be too soon. He closed his eyes and sighed, only the heavenly odors coming from the kitchen keeping him from going to bed immediately.
In what was obviously a nightly ritual, probably half the men of the village pushed their way through the inn"s great oak door to share a pint with their friends before going home. Kylar ignored the men and their inquisitive glances. He only opened his eyes when a stout, homely woman in her fifties set two enormous meat pies in front of him, along with an impressive tankard of ale.
"I think you"ll find Mistress Zoralat"s ale is as good as her pies," the woman said. "May I join you?"
Kylar yawned. "Ah, excuse me," he said. "Sure. I"m Kylar Stern."
"What do you do, Master Stern?" she said, sitting.
"I"m a, uh, soldier, as a matter of fact." He yawned again. He was getting too old for this. He"d considered saying "I"m a wetboy" just to see what the old goat"s reaction would be.
"A soldier for whom?"
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Answer my question, and I"ll answer yours," she said, as if he were a recalcitrant child.
Fair enough. "For Cenaria."
"I was under the impression that country no longer existed," she said.
"Were you?" he said.
"Khalidoran goons. Meisters. The G.o.dking. Conquest. Rape. Pillage. Iron-fisted rule. Ring any bells?"
"I guess some people would be deterred by that," Kylar said. He smiled and shook his head at himself.
"You frighten a lot of people, don"t you, Kylar Stern?"
"What was your name again?" he asked.
"Ariel Wyant Sa"fastae. You can call me Sister Ariel."
Any vestige of fatigue vanished instantly. Kylar touched the ka"kari within him to be sure it was ready to call up in an instant.
Sister Ariel blinked. Was it because she"d seen something, or had he just let his muscles tense?
"I thought this was a dangerous part of the world for people like you," Kylar said. He couldn"t remember the stories, but he remembered something linking Torras Bend with mages" dying.
"Yes," she said. "One of our young and foolhardy sisters disappeared here. I"ve come to look for her."
"The Dark Hunter," he said, finally remembering.
At tables around them, conversations ceased. Dour faces turned toward Kylar. From their expressions, he could see that the topic wasn"t so much taboo as it was gauche. "Sorry," he mumbled, and began attacking a meat pie.
Sister Ariel watched in silence as he ate. He felt a twinge of suspicion, wondering what Durzo would have said if he knew Kylar was eating food served to him by a maja, but he"d died twice already-maybe three times-and lived again, so what the h.e.l.l? Besides, the pies were good, and the ale was better.
Not for the first time, he wondered if it had been the same for Durzo. He"d lived for centuries, but had he been unkillable, too? He must have. But he had never risked his own life. Was that only because by the time Kylar knew him, the ka"kari had abandoned him? Kylar wondered sometimes if there were a downside to his power. He could live for hundreds of years. He couldn"t be killed. But he didn"t feel immortal. He didn"t even feel the sense of power that, when he was a boy, he thought he would feel once he became a wetboy. He was a wetboy now, more than a wetboy, and he felt like he was still just Kylar. Still Azoth, the clueless, scared child. He"d lived for centuries, but had he been unkillable, too? He must have. But he had never risked his own life. Was that only because by the time Kylar knew him, the ka"kari had abandoned him? Kylar wondered sometimes if there were a downside to his power. He could live for hundreds of years. He couldn"t be killed. But he didn"t feel immortal. He didn"t even feel the sense of power that, when he was a boy, he thought he would feel once he became a wetboy. He was a wetboy now, more than a wetboy, and he felt like he was still just Kylar. Still Azoth, the clueless, scared child.
"Have you seen a beautiful woman come riding through here, sister?" he asked. Vi had seen where Kylar lived. She would tell the G.o.dking and he would destroy everything and everyone Kylar loved. That was how he worked.
"No. Why?"
"If you do," he said, "kill her."
"Why? Is she your wife?" Sister Ariel asked, smirking.
He gave her a flat look. "The G.o.d doesn"t hate me that much. She"s an a.s.sa.s.sin."
"So, you"re not a soldier, but an a.s.sa.s.sin hunter."
"I"m not hunting her. I wish I had the time. But she may come through here."
"What"s so important that you would abandon justice?"
"Nothing," he said without thinking. "But justice has been too long denied elsewhere."
"Where?" she asked.
"Suffice it to say that I"m on a mission for the king."
"There is no king of Cenaria except the G.o.dking."
"Not yet."
She raised an eyebrow. "There"s no man who can unite Cenaria, even against the G.o.dking. Perhaps Terah Graesin can, but she"s scarcely a man, is she?"
He smiled. "You Sisters like to think you"ve got it all figured out, don"t you?"
"Do you know that you"re an infuriating young ignoramus?"
"Only as much as you"re a tired old bag."
"Do you truly think I"d kill some young woman for you?"
"I don"t suppose you would. Forgive me, I"m tired. I forgot that the Seraph"s hand only reaches beyond its ivory halls to take things for itself."
Her lips pressed into a thin line. "Young man, I don"t take well to impudence."
"You"ve succ.u.mbed to the intoxication of power, Sister. You like watching people jump." He raised an insolent eyebrow, bemused. "So color me scared." people jump." He raised an insolent eyebrow, bemused. "So color me scared."
She was very still. "Another temptation of power," she said, "is to strike down those who vex you. You, Kylar Stern, are tempting me."
He picked that moment to yawn. It wasn"t feigned, but he couldn"t have found a better moment. She turned red. "They say the old age is a second childhood, Sister. Besides which, the moment you drew power, I"d kill you." By the G.o.ds, I can"t stop. Am I really going to get on the wrong side of half the world"s mages because one old lady irritates me? By the G.o.ds, I can"t stop. Am I really going to get on the wrong side of half the world"s mages because one old lady irritates me?
Instead of getting angrier, Sister Ariel"s face grew thoughtful. "You can tell the moment I draw magic?"
He wasn"t going there. "One way to find out," he said. "But it would be a bother to dispose of your corpse and cover my tracks. Especially with all these witnesses."
"How would you cover your tracks?" she asked quietly.
"Come now. You"re in Torras Bend. How many of the mages who have been "killed by the Dark Hunter" here do you think were really killed by the Dark Hunter? Don"t be naive. The thing probably doesn"t even exist."
She scowled, and he could tell she"d never thought of it. Well, she was a mage. Of course she didn"t think like a wetboy. "Well," she said. "You"re wrong about one thing. It exists."
"If everyone who"s ever gone into the woods has died, how do you know?"
"You know, young man. There"s a way for you to prove that we"re all crazy."
"Go into the woods?" he asked.
"You wouldn"t be the first to try."
"I"d be the first to succeed."
"You"re awfully full of braggadocio about the things you"d do if you only had the time."
"Fair enough, Sister Ariel. I accept your correction-until the day Cenaria has a king. Now if you"ll excuse me?"
"One moment," she said as he stood. "I"m going to draw the power, but I swear by the White Seraph that I won"t touch you with it. If you must kill me, I won"t try to stop you."
She didn"t wait for him to respond. He saw a pale iridescent nimbus surround her. It shifted quickly through every color in the rainbow in deliberate succession, though some colors seemed somehow thicker than others. Was that an indication of her strength in the various disciplines of magic? He readied the ka"kari to devour whatever magic she threw at him-hoping he remembered what he had done before, and not sure that he did-but he didn"t strike.
The nimbus didn"t move. Sister Ariel Wyant merely inhaled deeply through her nose. The nimbus disappeared. She nodded her head, as if satisfied. "Dogs find you very odd, don"t they?"
"What?" he asked. It was true, but he"d never thought much of it.
"Maybe you can tell me," she said, "why, after days of hard riding, don"t you smell of sweat and dirt and horse? Indeed, you have no scent whatsoever."
"You"re imagining things," he said, backing away. "Goodbye, Sister."
"Until we meet again, Kylar Stern."
33
Momma K stood on a landing overlooking the warehouse floor. Agon"s Dogs, as they"d taken to calling themselves, were training under his watchful eye. The force had shrunk to a hundred men, and Momma K was sure that by now its existence was well-known. "Do you think they"re ready?" she asked as Agon labored up the stairs on a cane.
"More training would make them better. Battle will make them better faster. But it will cost lives," he said.
"And your wytch hunters?"
"They"re no Ymmuri. Ymmuri can riddle a man with arrows from a hundred paces while galloping away from him. The best I can hope for is ten men who will get in range, stop, shoot, and move on before the fireb.a.l.l.s get to them. My hunters aren"t worthy of the bows they carry-but they"re a d.a.m.n sight better than anything else we have."