Part 19 (1/2)

The Grandmaster waved that away. ”It won't matter. The Tree will be as low in the house as they can get it; in the bas.e.m.e.nt, preferably, or at least in a safe room on the ground floor. If we have to, we'll just burn the whole place to the ground and hope that takes care of the Tree.”

Alin raised both arms as the attendants continued working on his armor. He barely paid any attention to their work, losing himself in thought. It seemed like they had precious little to go on, but he wasn't the strategy expert here. He had to trust that the Grandmasters knew what they were doing. Something did occur to him, though.

”What if we succeed, and the Incarnation gets loose?” Alin asked.

”Then we open a Gate out of there as fast as we can, and hope it doesn't follow us,” Grandmaster Naraka said. ”I'm too old to fight an Incarnation, and you two are too green. But even if it takes my life, I would count it a cheap price to bring Damasca to its knees.”

Alin wasn't sure he agreed, and he didn't relish the idea of losing his life to a monstrosity from Naraka. ”Do you think that's likely?”

Grandmaster Naraka spread her hands. ”Who knows? No one has seen an Incarnation for three hundred years. But the truth is, I think we'll have plenty of time to burn the Tree and get out of there.”

”Also,” Gilad put in, ”there's very little chance the Incarnation will actually follow us into Naraka. From everything I've read, Incarnations become trapped if they enter their own Territories.”

That was enough to ease a few of Alin's fears, though he still wasn't thrilled with the thought of fighting an Incarnation. Still, he supposed he could always open a Gate to Elysia and hide inside the City of Light. The city's walls could defend the three of them against even a foreign Incarnation, he was sure.

The two servants stepped away, bowing. Alin stepped forward, flexing one hand in a fist to test the armor's fit. He was getting used to it; he found that the suit was crafted so well that he barely felt any resistance.

”Is there anything you require before we leave, Eliadel?” Grandmaster Naraka asked.

”No...actually, yes. There is one thing.”

Alin rummaged around on the stand next to his bed, looking for a trinket that he had left there for safekeeping. After a moment he found it, glittering in the light from the hallway.

It was an acorn trapped inside a small golden birdcage.

Alin willed Elysia's light into the acorn, which immediately began throwing itself against the cage bars as though it had gone insane.

”We need Simon,” Alin said.

”For what?” Grandmaster Naraka scoffed. ”If we needed someone to swing a sword around, we'd be far better off with a squad from Tartarus. They, at least, could open a Gate and Travel us out of there if the need arose.”

”I trust him, and I want him along,” Alin said evenly. He wasn't sure why he insisted so strongly on having Simon around; maybe just to keep the Grandmasters off-balance. But it was somehow comforting to know that, should things go wrong, Simon would be around to back him up.

Grandmaster Naraka stared at him for a while behind her red-stained gla.s.ses. Then she sighed. ”As you wish, Eliadel. But let's not wait until he responds to your call. We should at least go wake him up. We do have a limited window of time, after all.”

Alin nodded, and the three of them walked down the hall toward Simon's room.

Alin knocked first, though he didn't really expect a response. Simon should be sleeping, if anything. Still, he raised his caged acorn alarm and gave it a shake; it was still buzzing, which meant that, wherever Simon's was, it was shaking in harmony. Simon should have been awakened by the noise, if nothing else.

One of Grandmaster Naraka's servants, trailing after her like white-dressed shadows, produced a key from a huge ring and handed it to Alin. Taking it into his hand, he unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Not again, he thought. How often would he have to trudge through a battlefield, looking for any sign that Simon had survived?

The room had been broken and shattered by battle. There were shallow slashes in the stone of several walls, as though Simon had swung that ma.s.sive sword of his without regard for his surroundings. Even many of the floor tiles were sliced and cracked. One of the windows was open, one shattered. A thick, unnaturally dark blood had been splattered all over the bed and sprayed over the tiles.

Alin stepped into the room*carefully, in case the cracked floor tiles actually meant the floor might crash down into the rooms below*and searched for survivors. Or bodies.

He found a few tiny shreds of flesh that might have come from a wounded animal, though the whole room stank of so much metallic blood and musk that he would be tempted to believe one enormous beast was killed here.

It only took him a few more seconds to dip into the nooks and crannies of the room, checking under the bed and in one of the closets. He even poked his head out of the shattered window, checking the ground four floors down.

”No bodies,” Alin reported. The Grandmaster stayed in the doorway, her face a mask behind her scarlet gla.s.ses. Gilad entered, gingerly poking at the walls and peering at the blood. Once, he extended his hand*his right hand, which had been marked on the palm with a bright red symbol*and groped around in the air, as though feeling some invisible object.

”This was Naraka,” Gilad said. He sounded surprised.

A dark suspicion bloomed in Alin's chest, and his head swiveled to confront Grandmaster Naraka. If she had attacked Simon while he stayed here, in the Grandmasters' Palace, presumably under Alin's protection....

Well, Alin wasn't sure what he would do. But he was angry enough that he might very well attack the Grandmaster, even if she was an ally. He and Simon had never been at all close, back in Myria, but Alin still counted him as a friend.

Naraka slowly shook her head, keeping an eye on the room. ”I do not think he is dead,” she said.

”Neither do I,” Alin said. ”He's survived worse than this before. Just a few weeks ago, in fact.”

”I have a reason for thinking so, child,” the Grandmaster snapped. ”If this was an attack from Naraka, it was likely in response to Simon's murder of several Naraka Travelers and his role in the death of Overlord Malachi. In such a case, the goal of the attack was just retribution?”

”Just?” Alin exclaimed. ”Tell me now, Naraka, were you involved in this?”

Grandmaster Naraka glared at him. ”Will you listen to me, for once? They would see it as just, whether or not I do. It is the Narakan way. But if that is so, if this was a planned execution in retaliation for his violent actions, then the attackers would have no reason to take his body away. Do you see? They would have simply killed him and left him here, perhaps marked in some way, as a notice that justice had been served.”

Alin pondered that for a moment. ”So the fact that he's not here means that he probably retreated to his own Territory. Safe, or at least recovering.”

”And yet he's not responding to your call,” Naraka pointed out.

”It could mean he's simply too deep in the Territory,” Gilad suggested. ”Maybe he's in hiding, and didn't take your alarm with him.”

It was possible. Even likely, considering Simon. He was always the type to run off on his own without notifying or considering the people left behind.

”Time will not wait for us, Eliadel,” Grandmaster Naraka said at last. ”If he responds to your call before we leave the palace, then we will take him with us. Otherwise, we have our mission.”

Alin followed the Grandmaster out, considering her words. If she had spoken the truth about the Narakan a.s.sa.s.sins seeking justice, then it was most likely that Simon was under attack by Damascan Travelers. Which made sense, if they thought he was working on the side of Enosh.

Then again, why attack Simon? Why not one of the Grandmasters, or Alin himself? If the Damascans had enough accurate intelligence to know where Simon's rooms were located and when he was supposed to be in them, then they had more than enough opportunity to strike at anyone they wished. Why Simon?

The whole thing stank. And, while Grandmaster Naraka had carefully implied that the attackers must have been Damascan, she had never actually denied her involvement in the attacks.

Also, why now? Alin found it hard to believe that Simon would vanish so suddenly, just before they embarked on a mission that Grandmaster Naraka thought was so critical that Alin himself should accompany her. She had insisted that he stay tucked away safe in the palace before; why should this mission, seemingly so risky, be the one that she allowed him to undertake?

There were too many lies, too many half-truths, and too much suspicion for Alin's taste. He preferred his conflicts simple and uncomplicated: us or them.

He would accompany the Grandmaster on her attack; after all, she had shown him nothing but dedication and loyalty. Besides, he couldn't let it be said that the Eliadel was a coward. But he would keep his eyes and ears open.

And when he returned, he would demand some answers.

Filled with the cold power of steel and Nye essence, Simon blurred forward. He felt his cloak pulling behind him, so that he looked like one of the Nye rus.h.i.+ng over the gra.s.s.

The Valinhall Incarnation stood, calmly waiting for him. He didn't appear to have taken any sort of specific fighting stance; he just stood there on the short hill, his gold-and-silver sword held casually in both hands.

Simon stopped and pivoted at the last second, turning his momentum into a slash meant to take Valin in the side.