Part 23 (2/2)

Balandrick was draining his third cup of water when Gerin swept into the room. ”Balan!” he cried out as he hugged the captain. ”By the G.o.ds, it's good to see you! Where have you been? What happened?”

Balan felt himself grinning like a fool. ”It's good to see you too, Your Majesty. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see a familiar face ever again.”

Elaysen and Hollin entered the drawing room. Elaysen threw her arms around his neck. ”Oh, Balan, I thought you were dead!”

Hollin shook his hand warmly and welcomed him home. ”You seem uninjured.”

Images of his rape at the hands of Algariq flashed in his mind, but he angrily pushed them down. ”I'm fine.”

”Your disappearance was quite mysterious,” said the wizard. ”We were completely confounded.”

”If everyone will be quiet for a bit, I'll explain.”

”Please,” said Gerin. ”Go on.”

They sat around a table and listened while Balandrick told them of his captivity at the hands of the soul stealer. Balan watched Gerin's face darken with anger. He knows what I had to endure at her hands, he thought. I wonder if it's anything we'll ever speak about to each other?

He was certainly not going to be the one to bring it up.

He felt overwhelmed once more with guilt and shame when he admitted that he told Tolsadri everything they had learned about the Words of Making. ”I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I couldn't help myself. Her power...”

”I understand, Balan. I know there was nothing you could do. Believe me, I understand.”

Balandrick described Tolsadri's attempt to betray Algariq after he'd raised her from the caste of the Harridan, her antic.i.p.ation of his treachery, and their escape from the camp.

”Then she surprised me,” he said. ”She said she was sorry if she'd hurt me and made me sleep. She said she wanted to be merciful to me, the way you were to her, Your Majesty. When I woke up she was gone, and I was no longer in her power. I was myself again. I couldn't believe how good it felt to simply raise my arm or clench a fist. Being trapped in my body like that was a true nightmare.”

”What can you tell us about the Havalqa army?” asked Gerin.

”It's big, disciplined from what I could see, and it's on its way here. After she released me, I made my way here as fast as I could. I had to walk at first because I couldn't find a d.a.m.n horse to save my life! Finally, a few days later, I spied a Havalqa scout and managed to relieve him of his mount. Killed him before he knew what hit him.”

”The Archmage must be warned at once.” Hollin rose from the table. ”Balandrick, once again, it's good to have you back.”

They talked awhile longer, then a wizard arrived asking Balandrick to come with him to tell the Archmage all he could of the approaching army. He took his leave of Gerin and Elaysen and followed the wizard to the Archmage's manor house.

On his approach to the fortress earlier that day, he was as impressed with its formidable defenses as he had been the first time he'd sojourned here. This would not be an easy place to siege. But he also knew the Havalqa had substantial powers at their disposal. He wondered if Hethnost had ever been besieged, and asked the wizard escorting him.

”No, it has not,” said the wiry man.

”It looks like that's about to change.”

”Any army foolish enough to attack us will break themselves against our might. We are not a warlike people, but we can and will defend ourselves with every means we have.”

”I hope you're right.”

They entered the manor house and made their way to the second floor. ”Welcome, Captain,” said the Archmage when he entered the room where she and the other rulers of Hethnost waited. ”Hollin has told us that you have information about a Havalqa army that is even now marching to attack us.”

”Yes, Archmage.”

Sevaisan gave Balandrick a hostile stare. ”I for one am skeptical of these powers that forced you to confess all you knew of the Words of Making to your enemies.”

”I've already explained the soul stealer's powers to you, Sevaisan,” said Hollin. ”I experienced them myself. Shall we bring King Gerin in here to validate them to your satisfaction? Her powers cannot be broken. It is one of the most insidious abilities I've ever heard of, and I hope I never experience it again. Believe me when I tell you there is as much chance of breaking her powers as there is of you behaving reasonably and showing basic manners to a guest of Hethnost.”

Sevaisan looked incensed. ”That is outrageous! I am the First Siege-”

”No, Sevaisan, the only outrage is your inability to accept anything that doesn't conform to your rigid-”

”Enough!” shouted the Archmage. ”Another outburst like that from either of you and I'll have you both thrown out.” She looked toward Balandrick as the two wizards pointedly ignored each other. ”Captain, my apologies for that...unseemly behavior. Our long lives do not always confer wisdom or maturity, unfortunately.”

”It's quite all right, Archmage. I'm unhappy with myself about what I revealed, but I a.s.sure you there was no way to resist.”

”I believe you, young man. I heard Gerin and Hollin both tell of this woman's powers. We won't question it again.” She glanced at the First Siege.

Balandrick spent the next hour answering questions about the size and strength of the Havalqa army. He emphasized that he was with it for only a short period of time and that his attention had been dominated and controlled by Algariq.

”Still, what you have told us will be helpful,” said the Archmage. ”If you have nothing else to add, you are dismissed.”

A servant showed him to rooms that had been prepared for him. Balan stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes, but sleep would not come. Finally he got up, pulled on his boots, and went for a walk.

He moved brusquely through the fortress, hoping to tire himself out. He decided to wander some of the garden paths, and then, if he still wasn't ready for sleep, to climb the long slope to the top of the Part.i.tion Rock. He noted a number of wizards and soldiers of the Sunrise Guard moving in and out of the Archmage's manor house, whose windows were now almost fully lit despite the late hour.

Balandrick turned a corner by a retaining wall and saw Zaephos seated on a bench nearby. The One G.o.d's messenger was staring up at the stars through an opening in the trees. He glanced at Balandrick, then returned his gaze to the sky.

”h.e.l.lo, Captain,” he said. ”I heard you'd returned.”

Balan went to the bench but did not sit. ”You didn't somehow sense it on your own? I would have thought a divine being would know such things before anyone. In fact, I would have thought that you could have told them what happened to me when I disappeared.”

”When not in the mortal realm, my vision is very different. Here, clothed in flesh, most of my power is veiled.”

”Yes, you said that before. Near the Watchtowers. You said if you were to release your might, you could level mountains. I still find that hard to imagine. Perhaps the failing is mine.”

”It is. Whether you can imagine such a thing or not is irrelevant. A conflict among beings of my rank could easily lay waste to this continent, or reshape it beyond recognition. Mountains leveled, forests turned to ash, rivers and lakes boiled away, the earth torn like parchment with new seas bubbling up from the depths. It happened once before, Balandrick. Long ago, eons before the coming of humankind, there was such a war. In its aftermath, the very laws of the universe were changed to make it far more difficult to ever wage a similar conflict again. I am bound by those laws.”

”Is the Adversary?”

”Yes, though he is far more powerful than I.”

”You said the laws were changed to make it far more difficult. That doesn't mean it's not impossible. It could happen again.”

”It could, but the effort required to wage such a war is substantial. Far beyond any possible gains one side could make.”

”So whoever changed the laws made it impractical for your type of being to come down and fight in our little corner of the universe.”

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