If we hide, maybe birds will come to drink. We can catch and eat them.
Standing up, she walked to the pool and regarded it. Clearly the wasteland had some water, but even here, right by the spring, there was no life. She crouched beside it and dipped her hand in the pool. Concentrating, she sought the scattered sense of energy within water that came from ever-present tiny life forms in it.
Nothing.
She frowned. When they’d arrived she’d checked if the water was safe to drink. Despite the bird droppings, the water had been pure. Which was … odd.
Perhaps a Traitor came by just before we arrived and drew all the energy out. The smaller and less sophisticated a living thing was, the weaker the natural barrier against magical interference. Even trees could be drained of magic without their bark being cut, though the magic came slowly and there was never as much as in an animal or person.
Killing the little life forms makes the existing water safe to drink, but the fresh water should quickly add more tiny life forms. She reached up to the trickle that fed the pool. Cupping her hand to collect some water, she concentrated again.
There. Like tiny pinpoints of light.
She let the gathered water drop into the pool. There could be only one explanation. Something was killing off all life once it entered the pool.
Her stomach clenched in sudden apprehension. Was the pool poisoned? They had been drinking from it for a few days. What could kill off small life forms instantly but not affect people?
The bowl was smooth. It could have been shaped by time or man or magic. Reaching into the water again, she ran her hand slowly over the surface of the stone. She did not expect to sense anything. Detecting a poison within a body was more a matter of detecting its effect. Her fingers encountered a bump in the surface. She explored it with her fingertips, then sent her mind out.
Something tugged at her senses. She drew a little magic and let it seep from her fingers. It was drawn away immediately.
Her blood went cold.
Sitting up, she stared at the little bump in the bowl’s otherwise smooth surface. It is not a part of the rock. If it does what I think it does, it has been placed there to clean the water. But if it does what I think it does …
“Regin.”
She felt the coolness of his shadow on her back.
“Yes?”
“Could you get me a knife or something good for gouging?”
“Why not use magic? Oh … of course. You won’t want to use it up.”
He moved to the packs. While he was busy, she drew magic and used it to channel the trickle of water away from the pool. Then she emptied the pool with a sweep of force. The surface began to dry immediately and by the time Regin returned the bump was visible as a darker patch in the stone.
He held out a silver pen.
“Is that all we have?”
“I’m afraid so. Nobody expects magicians to need knives.”
Sonea sighed as she took the pen. “I suppose we asked for supplies to last a few days, not a picnic. Let’s hope this works.”
She began to dig around the bump with the tapered end of the pen. To her relief, whatever was keeping it in place was softer than stone – more like wax. Soon she had gouged out a channel around it. She wedged her fingertips around the bump and pulled. It would not budge, so she got to work again.
“Can I ask what you’re doing?”
“Yes.”
The lump shifted and Sonea tried to pull it free in vain. Gritting her teeth, she returned to digging waxy lumps from the pool.
“So. What are you doing?”
“Digging out this thing.”
“I can see that.” He sounded more amused than annoyed. “Why?”
The pen wasn’t narrow enough to fit between the hard bump and the edges of the hole it was crammed into. She seized it with her fingertips again. “It’s … strange … ah!” The bump – now a stone – came free. She held it up into the light, working the remains of wax off the surface.
Regin bent over to look at it. “Is it a crystal?”
She nodded. Smooth, flat areas reflected the sunlight. “A natural one. Though by that I only mean uncut.”
“And otherwise unnatural?” Regin looked down at the hole it had come out of. “What sort of gemstone is it?”
“Gemstone!” Sonea exclaimed. She sucked in a breath and looked up at Regin, then climbed to her feet. “One of the Traitors’ magical gemstones, most likely. I doubt the Duna come this far south, and if the Ichani know about them they’d have used them on us twenty years ago.” She considered the way it had drawn in her magic, and her blood went cold again. She looked at Regin and held back the words. Could she tell him her suspicions? What if his mind was read? What if he told somebody? What if …?
When – if – the Traitors arrived, she would need to have already considered all the implications of her discovery. She might not need to tell Regin, to seek his opinion, but she wanted to.
Regin was staring back at her, bemused and worried. She drew in a deep breath.
“It is, I suspect, a black magic gemstone,” she said, keeping her voice low in case someone, somehow, was watching and listening to them.
He drew in a sharp breath and stared at her in horror. Then he looked down at the stone and his eyes narrowed.
“So that’s why the wasteland never recovered.”
She shivered despite the growing heat and looked around them. It makes sense. If they can make one stone like this they can make hundreds. Thousands. Strewn across the land, they must slowly but relentlessly suck away life. The soil becomes too infertile for plants. Larger, more sophisticated living things like animals starve or move away.
Which meant the Traitors had been deliberately keeping the wasteland a wasteland.
For centuries.
“All this time it was thought the Guild created this to keep Sachaka weak. Instead it was the Traitors.”
Regin frowned. “Well … we can’t be sure of that. They may have just put the stone here to keep the water clean.”
She looked up at him. “I reckon I could find more stones, if any are about.”
His gaze sharpened. “Give it a try.”
Handing him the stone, which he took gingerly, she walked a few steps away and looked at the ground sloping downward toward the dunes. She closed her eyes and expanded the natural barrier around her skin until it was a globe. Where it overlapped with the rock beneath her feet, she weakened it so that magic began to seep out. Then she began to walk forward slowly.
She had only taken fifty or so paces when she felt the faintest pull. It was an illusion – the sense of no resistance where everywhere else there was one. Stopping, she turned and, after losing the sense a few times, managed to narrow down the area the pull was coming from to a few paces in diameter: a stone-filled crack between two sheets of stone.
Regin joined her as she poked around inside the crack. She began sweeping her barrier down the length of the gap, but before she had gone far Regin gave a little crow of triumph and held something up.
Another dark, glossy crystal. Taking it from him she tested it. The magic she sent toward it was drawn into the stone.
“Twice is coincidence,” Regin said. “Thrice is …”
Nodding, she set off in another direction. This time she found a stone easily, buried in a sand-filled depression. All in sheltered positions where water might collect or flow through. Nooks and cracks where life might take root. They returned to the meeting place. She had undone her diversion of the spring, and the pool was full again. Dipping her hand in the water, she confirmed that it was now full of tiny specks of energy.
She looked up at Regin.
“Osen needs to know about this.”
He smiled crookedly. “Oh, he most certainly does.”
And Lorkin, she thought. Though he may know already. Ah. If he’s not supposed to know, I may endanger his life by telling him. It may not be wise to let the Traitors know we’ve discover
ed their dirty little secret, either.
Still, once the Guild knew, the Traitors would gain nothing from killing her and Regin. Taking Osen’s ring from her pocket, she sat down, leaned against a boulder and slipped it on her finger.
—Osen.
—Sonea!
—Do you have a moment? You won’t want to believe what I’ve just discovered.
PART TWO
CHAPTER 16
PLANS AND NEGOTIATIONS
Cery sighed. “Let’s run through this again.” “We arrange for Skellin to learn we’re living under the Guild,” Gol said. “Not being protected by magicians.”
“Even if he knows the Guild isn’t aware that we’re down here, he’ll suspect Lilia does,” Anyi continued. “We have to make Skellin think Lilia isn’t always with us, and let him find out her routine so he’ll know when she’s not protecting us.”
“He’ll send others first, to check whether it’s true, or to capture me,” Cery repeated. “So we’ve got to set things up so that only a magician can get through to us. Like a magical barrier created by Lilia.”
“But won’t that make him suspect Lilia is down here?” Anyi asked.
“He’s a magician,” Cery answered. “He knows a magician can set up a barrier, then go somewhere else.”
“Still, it might put him off going any further,” Anyi pointed out.
“We put the barrier close enough to us so he can hear us, or see light ahead, making him think he only has to go a little further to find us.”
“Him or Lorandra,” Gol said. “If he sends Lorandra we spring the trap anyway. At least the Guild will catch one of them, and they could use her as bait in another trap.”
“Yes, if they don’t let her escape again.” Cery smiled wryly.
“Once he breaks through the barrier he’ll want to act fast,” Anyi continued, “because Lilia will know her barrier has been broken. If he’s close enough to see or hear us, we won’t have much warning.”
“We could put a lamp around the next corner, so it looks like we’re close, but we’re actually further away,” Gol suggested. “And a few more lamps, so it looks like we put them there for our own use.”
“Which means getting more lamps and more oil. More stuff for Lilia to bring.” Anyi sighed.
“What if Skellin brings others with him?” Gol asked.
Cery considered. “So long as they stick together, they don’t matter.”
Gol frowned. “But will they? If I were Skellin, I’d send them ahead to look for traps once I got past the barrier.”
“Let them find us.” Cery shrugged. “They’ll either go back to tell Skellin, or wait for him to catch up and give them orders.”
“Then, when he does, we spring our trap,” Gol said.
Cery nodded. He and Gol hadn’t told Anyi their plans to reveal Skellin to the Guild using non-magical means. Cery wasn’t entirely sure he understood what the bodyguard had described. It was a method used in mines, that could cause a collapse big enough to open up a hole in the Guild gardens. Gol was confident it would work. Skellin and his men would be either buried or exposed to any magicians who happened to be about.
There was, however, a considerable danger that Cery, Gol and Anyi would be buried, too. Cery had told Anyi that if Skellin found them before the Guild agreed to the trap, she should run and fetch Lilia. She’d been reluctant to agree, until he’d pointed out that there would be nothing to be gained by her staying. At least if she left, there would be a chance Lilia might arrive in time to stop Skellin.
“I doubt Skellin will be captured by the Guild without a fight,” Cery said. “I’d rather not be buried alive. We should get Lilia to strengthen the rooms, too.”
Anyi nodded. “She’s got plenty of magic right now. Kallen’s been teaching her how to use black magic to take and store power.”
Cery looked at her and frowned. “He has? That’s … worrying.”
“Why?” Anyi shrugged. “The Guild is supposed to have two black magicians so that one can stop the other … Oh, I see.” Her eyes widened and she looked at Cery. “You don’t think … but Kallen’s the one teaching her. He wouldn’t, if he was planning to do something.”
“Who else can teach her?” Cery asked. “Sonea is in Sachaka.”
“If Kallen is planning to abuse his power then he may neglect to teach her right,” Gol said.
“Hmm.” Anyi scowled. “Well, we all know why he might become unreliable. I never thought I’d say it, but I’ll be happier when I know the Guild is growing roet.”
Cery nodded in agreement, then lifted the lamp and got to his feet. “Now that we’ve got our plan straight, we need to make sure it’ll work down here.”
“We should make sure we have an escape route or two in case it goes wrong,” Gol added. “Perhaps put a few traps in place in case we’re followed.”
“We need to practise fighting,” Anyi added. She looked at Cery. “All of us.”
Cery sighed. She was right, but his body ached just thinking about it. “When we’ve sorted this out,” he said. “There’s no point trying to fight magic with knives.”
She made a huffing noise. “But it’ll be pretty humiliating if we can’t deal with Skellin’s thugs.”
Gol looked at Cery, then turned to Anyi. “Reckon I’m ready for a bit of practice,” he said. “If we start slow.”
Anyi gave him a considering look, then nodded. “All right then. Later on.”
“For now, let’s have another look at the passages around here. Anyi, check the escape routes and make sure Skellin can’t circle around and approach us from behind. Gol and I will decide where Lilia’s barrier should go.”
Dannyl frowned as a shadow moved into his office doorway and hovered. He looked up, expecting a slave had come to ask if he wanted food or drink, or to announce the arrival of a visitor. Instead, it was Merria.
“Lady Merria,” he said, “what’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. Silly, isn’t it?” Her mouth pulled into a lopsided smile. “Lorkin is safe and everything’s back to normal. I should be grateful for that, but all I am is bored.”
“This isn’t normal,” Dannyl told her. “We should be dealing with visitors or invitations. Even Tayend is being ignored now.”
Merria looked down. “Actually, I did get an invitation to visit my friends yesterday,” she confessed.
Dannyl made himself smile. “That’s a good sign.” All I need is for Tayend to come in here and tell us he’s off to a dinner or party, and Achati to be the only Ashaki not treating me like an outcast, and everything will be back to normal. But he suspected nothing would ever be the same again between himself and Achati.
Merria looked down at his desk. “Did you finish your notes?”
He followed her gaze to the sheets of paper, and nodded. “Yes. The slaves were finally able to buy more ink yesterday.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” She paused. “What’s wrong?”
He looked up, then realised he’d been scowling. “Ah … well, I made two copies so I could send one to the Guild, but I haven’t found a safe way to get it there.”
She hummed in sympathy. “I wouldn’t be trusting them to any ordinary courier. How do you usually get messages to the Guild?”
“With Osen’s blood ring.”
“You never send anything else?”
Dannyl shook his head. “There are a few traders who travel between Sachaka and Elyne or Kyralia a couple of times each year, and they carry goods for us. Nothing important, though. Just luxury goods. Spices. Raka.”
She frowned as she considered the problem. “So … you need to rewrite the whole thing in a code, and then send lots of copies via different couriers to Osen to ensure he gets at least one. Then give Osen the key to the code via his blood ring.”
He gazed at her in admiration. Such a simple solution. Why didn’t I think of that? Well, he’d already used a kind of code to hide the more sensitive information.
“Of
course, that won’t help if you need to get it to Osen quickly,” she added.
“Slowly is better than not at all.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “So who will I arrange to carry it?” he pondered, more to voice the thought than to ask Merria.
“I reckon my friends might know a few traders going east.”
“Could you ask them for me?”
She nodded. “I will. But … do you think there’s any chance the Ashaki might be about to attack the Traitors? Or the Traitors attack the Ashaki?”
Dannyl blinked at the sudden change of subject. “Why? Have you heard rumours?”
“Not anything specific. But my friends often discuss the possibility, and King Amakira was so determined to get information out of Lorkin.”
A chill entered Dannyl’s veins. And Lorkin may have given him that information. “I don’t know.”
“It’ll be ironic if the Traitors do attack and defeat the Ashaki. All the king’s efforts and Lorkin refusing to speak will have been for nothing, because then it won’t matter if Sanctuary’s location has been revealed.”
Dannyl shook his head. “They won’t attack. It would be too big a risk. What if they failed? They’d lose everything.”
Merria nodded. “You’re right, of course. Anyway, I guess you’re going to be making more copies of your notes now. Let me know if you’d like some help. I’ll take one to my friends tomorrow, if you have it ready.”
“Thank you.”
As she left, her words repeated in Dannyl’s mind: “… then it won’t matter if Sanctuary’s location has been revealed”. Was this the reason Lorkin had given in and told the king what he wanted to know? But that would mean …
Shivering, Dannyl drew out the two notebooks that contained his research, and a blank one, and began to make yet another copy.
* * *
Regin noticed the approaching Traitors first. From their vantage point, he and Sonea watched as the small group walked across the dunes and up into the rocky hills, their shadows growing longer as the afternoon sun descended. The cool shadow of the mountains rose to meet them, and after they entered it and dusk settled over the land, the figures slowly grew harder to make out. Soon small points of light were glimpsed, low to the ground and moving ever closer. When sounds finally heralded the approach of the strangers, Sonea let Osen know they were about to arrive, then rose, ready to greet them.