Part 14 (1/2)
Leah held up her Source in one hand, but she held her other palm up in warning. ”I have conditions. You must only take*”
The six-eyed creature ignored her. He reached out one thick, three-fingered hand, grasping Leah's Source. Leah jerked her hand back, trying to pull the crystal out of Seliethin's grip, but he was far too strong.
All six of Seliethin's eyes closed, and he inhaled deeply. The light in the four-pointed crystal dimmed, then dimmed again. In seconds, it seemed as if there was a white candle barely flickering in the crystal's depths.
Seliethin released his grip, and Leah immediately banished the Source back to her sanctum.
”How dare you,” she said, feeling both incensed and violated. The Source was personal. Too personal to let him grab, certainly. ”Give me one good reason why I shouldn't trap you here until you rot?”
The side of Seliethin's mouth quirked up, showing his amus.e.m.e.nt. ”For one thing, because I have the majority of your power now. I doubt there's anything you could do to me that I couldn't undo.”
Briefly, Leah considered summoning her crown and teaching him just how wrong he was.
”Ultimately, though,” Seliethin went on, ”it's because you need me. And now, dear Heiress, I am at your disposal.”
The blue ape bowed once again, one hand against the ground to keep him from falling over, the other crossed politely in front of his chest. Where had he learned courtly manners in this gray desert?
”Get the crystal, Seliethin,” Leah said. ”Don't disappoint me.”
Without another word, Seliethin turned and loped away.
In the distance, a crystal formation shattered like dropped gla.s.s. The Enosh Travelers both whipped around to face the noise, the crystals floating behind them spinning like wagon wheels.
Behind them, at the base of the cliff on which Leah rested, another crystal shattered. They spun in her direction.
Then the ground began to shake, sending sand bouncing into the air. A voice boomed out from nowhere, chanting in an ominous language that Leah couldn't identify.
Bolts of white light, like miniature stars, shot out from the crystals behind the Enosh Travelers. The lights blasted forward in a string, but the Travelers had no target. The shots detonated against a cliff in the distance.
Leah couldn't help but admire Seliethin's work. She had no idea what kind of Lirial Traveling would make the ground shake like this.
But how was this supposed to get her crystal? The two Travelers had been distracted, but they were actually backing towards each other instead of running off, moving even closer to Leah's hidden surveillance crystal. How did Seliethin intend to separate them?
Leah felt a finger tapping her on the shoulder and she spun around, calling power from her Source.
Seliethin stood behind her, his six eyes blinking randomly, holding a crystal out to her in his open palm.
”Howa?” Leah began, but she couldn't finish the sentence.
The bluish ape executed a smooth bow, the crystal still extended. ”A gentleman must have his secrets.”
Back in her Enosh rooms, Leah placed the recording crystal in the center of her bed. Then she drew in one deep breath, and called power from her Source.
In her mind, she saw the Source's light sinking to dangerous levels, but she couldn't afford to be stingy now. She had to know what the Grandmasters had discussed, even if it turned out to be just a routine budget meeting.
Sparked by power from her source, the crystal flared to life. It worked something like a shard of her scrying crystal, though not quite as convenient. Within the confines of the plum-sized slice of crystal, an image bloomed. The surface of the crystal wasn't big enough to see the whole room, and it could only watch from one angle: the place where the Lirial Gate would have opened. Unfortunately, in this case, it turns out the Lirial Gate would have opened slightly behind and below Grandmaster Asphodel's chair.
Leah was treated to a grand view of the soft, round Grandmaster s.h.i.+fting position in her chair, scratching the back of her head, and sighing in frustration or boredom.
Her point-of-view s.h.i.+fted steadily, drifting from right to left at a snail's pace. Every few seconds, the picture would fuzz out to silver dust, and then re-form. That was due to the s.h.i.+fting interference of Lirial's moons, she was sure.
But the problems with the image scarcely mattered. The crystal had also captured sound, so now she could hear the Grandmasters' meeting in full.
Only a few minutes into the recording, she found herself stunned.
They're going to attack, she thought. She had to act.
She pressed a hand against the wall and reached into herself, into her blood, stoking the power there until her hand started to burn.
Then she reached out to Ragnarus.
The Gate to the Crimson Vault tore itself open on the wall, looking out into a familiar set of silver doors. The bearded, one-eyed old man glared at her from the doors, the unnatural red torches to either side giving his face a b.l.o.o.d.y cast. Even the edge of the Ragnarus Gate glowed slightly red, where the image of the Crimson Vault ended and the mundane wall began.
Leah hesitated at the Gate. She could only Travel through Ragnarus in one direction: to her father's palace in Cana, capital of Damasca. No matter where you entered the Crimson Vault, you could only exit into Cana. She would have to use Lirial to return here, which meant a risk. Sometimes, the journey would take seconds. If she was impossibly lucky, the Gate for Cana and for her room in the Grandmasters' palace would be only two steps apart. She would enter Lirial, walk two steps, and then open a Gate back.
However, the moons s.h.i.+fted. It was just as likely that the two points would be a hundred miles apart, in which case she would have to either wait until the moons s.h.i.+fted into a more favorable position*which could take several nights*or take a horse from Cana's stables and just ride normally to Enosh. That would raise a few questions.
This is more important, Leah told herself firmly. She stepped forward into Ragnarus and, before she could reconsider, let the Gate close behind her. Then she turned, putting her back to the silver doors.
Odd sounds came from behind her, within the Vault: a sort of scratching, tapping sound, like a dozen spiders skittering across stone, and a howling like distant wind. She had to fight the urge to turn back around; the Gate wouldn't work if she tried to open it while facing the Vault proper.
But facing back the other way was worse. There was no cavern wall behind her, just an empty stretch of darkness. Unexpected smells drifted on the lazy air: one puff of wind brought the smell of ice, another was tinged with rotting vegetables, and she thought she smelled something like the musk of a huge animal. Being here was always confusing, and never comfortable. Best to move on.
Unfortunately, tearing a Gate out always took longer than the Gate in. Almost a full minute after she had started concentrating, the Gate slowly tore itself open, and she looked out onto her father's palace.
More specifically, she looked out onto the Blue Room. Queen Cynara, who had originally commissioned this palace, had apparently thought that returning Ragnarus Travelers would need a break from all of that uninterrupted red, so she made sure that this room*ready to receive returning royal Travelers*was completely blue.
Blue stone pillars stood at the corners of the room, and the tiles underfoot bore a pattern like the tropical ocean, s.h.i.+fting from shades of green to a deep, almost purple, blue. The ceiling above was painted like a summer sky, with even hints of clouds forming near the walls. Two attendants, both wearing blue instead of the normal red-and-gold palace uniform, stepped forward. One offered Leah a clean towel to wipe off her face and hands after her journey, and the other bore a pitcher of water. As soon as she stepped through the Gate, he poured her a gla.s.s.
A visitor wouldn't be able to tell, but both servants were actually low-ranking Travelers, probably from Tartarus or Asphodel. They were stationed here for two reasons: their primary purpose was to force back any enemies that somehow managed to infiltrate the palace through Ragnarus. It had never happened, but paranoia had proved itself a healthy habit over Damasca's three-and-a-half century reign.
Their secondary purpose was to be there if anything came through a Ragnarus Gate uninvited. Leah had never seen any living creature native to Ragnarus, but she had no doubt they existed. And if one came through, these guards were supposed to do their best to slow it down. Before they died.
She had never heard of a breach, and her father had once declared that there was nothing to worry about in that regard. But they had to replace these guards with disturbing regularity.
Leah took the towel as she stepped down from the pedestal where her Gate emerged. Wiping off her hands, she asked, ”Where is my father?”
One of the servants bowed. ”He is personally overseeing the war in Helgard, Highness.”
Leah turned to the servant and raised one eyebrow. ”The war?”
”No doubt Your Highness has heard of our successful attack on the Helgard Grandmaster.”
Leah nodded. The Grandmasters had mentioned that fact in the meeting she had recorded, though Leah had already noted that the new, bear-like Grandmaster Helgard was obviously new to the position.
”The heretics are attempting revenge, Highness,” he said. ”Your father has gone to reinforce his Travelers on the twenty-first floor of the Tower.”
”Very well,” Leah said. She turned to stride out of the blue room, heading for the Helgard Travelers' barracks.