Wrath Of A Mad God Part 20

'The Dasati could not have known how to do this much harm in so focused a way. Varen had to have told them. In a single attack they've decapitated the Empire of Tsuranuanni.'

'There's still the Emperor,' said Caleb.

'But who is there to command?' Miranda stood and began to pace as was her wont when under stress. 'Eldest sons? Daughters? Wives? The leadership of every house in the Empire has been disrupted, which means every political party and every clan as well. Right now the balance of power in the Empire is completely overturned, and for every house that has an eldest son groomed to rule and step in to his father's place, there are a score who are torn by grief and without effective leadership.

'This is a far worse disaster than had the Emperor been slain.'

Caleb said, 'At least he lives.'

'Yes, and that gives the Tsurani a single advantage.'

Caleb asked, 'What is that?'

Miranda turned and said, 'Blind obedience.'

Caleb's expression turned doubtful. 'How does that become an advantage if there's no effective leadership?'

'The Tsurani need generals. We can give them generals. They just have to be ordered to obey foreigners-'

'And if the Emperor orders them to obey generals from Midkemia, they will,' finished Caleb.

Miranda said, 'Now, how is that meeting Tomas asked for coming along?'

'Everyone who is willing to come will be here by sundown.'

'Good, I don't know exactly what Tomas will say to everyone, but I have a pretty good idea. I've only met him a few times, but from what your father has said about him, he's hardly a man to panic, but I think he's worried, Caleb.'

'Did Father ever speak to you about the Dread?' He sat down in a chair in the corner. Miranda sighed. 'There are lots of things your father doesn't talk about, mostly from the early days. I think it has to do with a lot of different things.'

'Such as?'

Caleb was not the sort to probe idly, so his mother knew him to be genuinely interested. She realized once again how different he was from Magnus and his parents. As the only member of the family without the ability to practise magic he was always somehow detached from their shared experiences, no matter how much they tried to include him in their lives and how much they loved him.

Miranda said, 'I don't have much time before Tomas's meeting, but I can speculate a little.' She closed her eyes as if remembering something, then said, 'I also haven't talked a great deal about my youth, and I am older than your father.'

He grinned. 'You've told us not to remind you.'

She returned the smile, for while she was truly not vain, she played the role as a way of nettling her husband and children. It was one of her failings, but a tiny one. 'What you remember, it's real. It doesn't matter how accurate your memory of something is, it is real to you. What you perceive as reality is is reality.' reality.'

'I'm not sure I understand,' said Caleb.

'I have no doubt, because of all of us, you most of all live in a real world, Caleb. You don't deal in the abstracted concepts of magic. You live a life of things you can touch, see, smell. You are out in the forests hunting, tracking-' She interrupted herself. 'If you see bear tracks, let us say. Artfully fashioned, created by some manner of boot-maker, it's a pair of boots worn by a man to make it look as if a bear had pa.s.sed.'

Caleb shook his head. 'The depth would be wrong, because a bear weighs-'

Miranda raised her hands. 'That's not the point. Let us suppose I use magic to create perfect bear prints and you encounter them. What do you think?'

'Perfect?' he asked, not sure that was possible. Shrugging, he said, 'Fine, I find these perfect bear tracks. I think you're a bear.'

'Exactly. You follow them expecting a bear and until the moment you discover I was making the tracks, you think "bear, bear, bear". And then when you discover it wasn't a bear, what happens?'

'I don't know. I'm supposed to laugh at the joke?'

She almost rolled her eyes, but resisted the temptation. 'Until the moment you discover I made the tracks, if your brother showed up and asked you what you were doing, you would say you were tracking a bear. But from the moment you discover I made the tracks, you think "Mother made the tracks". She looked him in the eyes. 'Do you understand?'

'I'm not entirely sure I do.'

'Your perception changed. From that moment onward, whenever you think of that set of tracks or tell the story to someone else, it's "Mother made those tracks". You might even tell someone, "I thought it was a bear", but in your mind there was no bear.'

'There was no bear,' said Caleb, now looking more confused.

Miranda laughed. 'If I hadn't given birth to you, I'd wonder who your parents really were.'

'I'm not stupid, Mother.'

'I know,' she said, laughing harder. 'It's just that you like only in the real world of things you can touch, feel, and smell.' Her humour vanished. 'Your father lives in a world of the mind, more than anyone I know, including myself or your grandfather. He may some day be eclipsed by your brother, but Magnus has a lifetime of experience to go through to catch up to your father. Your father is like others, though, in that his life experiences are real to him, and his perceptions of those experiences may have changed, but not his feelings about them but not his feelings about them.'

Caleb suddenly understood. 'So I can remember how I felt when I thought I was tracking the bear, even if now I have stopped thinking of it as a bear!'

'Yes! Your father went through a great deal of pain and suffering in his youth, and he's endured much since then, but the tribulations he faces now are being faced by a man with a lifetime of experience and hard-earned lessons.

'But the feelings of his youth, muted they may be, are still the feelings of his youth, and are remembered the way he felt at the time he lived them. Did he ever tell you of Princess Carline?'

'Not that I can recall.'

'She was the daughter of Lord Borric, and by adoption Pug's "cousin" of sorts, but when he was a lad in the kitchen at Crydee Castle, he thought himself in love with her. Fate conspired to give him the opportunity to press his suit, and then took it away from him, when he was captured by the Tsurani. She eventually wed a friend of his and became d.u.c.h.ess of Salador, and she died. But somewhere within your father is a tiny memory, a distantly recalled echo of a boy's love for an un.o.btainable princess.' She paused. 'He misses his wife,' she added calmly.

Caleb took a second then said, 'Katala.'

'I know your father loves me, and in many ways I am his perfect match, as he is mine, but to be as powerful as your father is, and to stand helplessly by and watch the woman you love die of a wasting disease...' She sighed. 'More than once I have tried to imagine what that must have felt like, and I can't. And he misses his children.'

Caleb nodded. William and Gamina had both died in the battle for Krondor, at the end of the Serpentwar, years before Caleb's birth. 'It is easy to forget that I had a brother and sister who died before I was born.'

'But your father loved them desperately. And he never forgave himself for his estrangement from William at the time of William's death. It's one of the reasons he has never tried to tell you which path in life you should take.'

Caleb shrugged. 'I thought Father let me go wandering around, hunting, fishing, and trapping because I was useless at magic'

Miranda smiled gently. 'If Magnus had wanted to wander around, hunting, fishing, and trapping, your father would have let him. That was the lesson he learned from William.'

'So Father doesn't talk much about the past.'

'No, mostly because he doesn't need to dredge up the painful memories; he has enough pain right now to deal with.'

'So you're saying Father never talked about the Dread.'

'Only a little, and I suspect he'd say much the same that Tomas has and will say.' She stood up. 'We must go. I really didn't mean to talk so much about your father, but the question you asked put me in mind of something that has long since been a struggle for me, the part of my husband I cannot touch: his memories and feelings for his first family'

They fell silent, and at last Caleb said, 'I worry about him, too, Mother.'

Miranda's eyes welled up and she blinked. 'You'd think after all we've been through I'd get used to-' She cut herself off and stood up. 'We need to go and speak to our guests.'

Caleb followed his mother through the long halls of the villa until they reached a clearing to the west of the largest building on the island, save for the empty castle on the distant bluffs overlooking the sea. A series of benches had been erected, forming a semi-circle. Miranda had called together forty of the most powerful magicians not in the Conclave, an equal number of clerics of the various orders most of whom had already reached an agreement with the Conclave, or who were more or less favourably disposed to them, and four of the most senior members of the island community. Many of these gathered folk greeted Miranda and Caleb, others were intent upon their own conversations. She ignored the preening representative of the faction known as the Hands of Korsh at the Academy. Keshian traditionalists only slightly less hidebound and reactionary than the other faction, the Wand of Watoomb, they were too caught up in their own self-importance to be of any political use. The good thing was that they had isolated themselves from social conflict and national politics so effectively that neither the Kingdom nor the Empire viewed them as a threat. Had either monarchy possessed a hint of just how much magical ability existed on the Island of Stardock, she was certain their reactions would be quite different. She also liked the fact that Stardock drew attention away from Sorcerer's Isle. To the rest of the world a mad magic-user, 'the Black Sorcerer', lived here alone. Over the years that guise had included her father, her husband, Nakor, and any number of students adept enough to scare off pirates or more innocent vessels that had wandered off course. A little blue light sparking in a tower window of the old castle, some horrible noises, and if necessary a hideous illusion or two on the beach below, and they gave this place a wide berth.

Now Sorcerer's Isle resembled a spring garden party at the royal palace at Roldem, save that there were few beautiful ladies and no dashing young courtiers present.

Miranda said, 'Thank you all for coming,' and all conversation stopped. 'Tomas of Elvandar should be here in a while. But before he arrives here, I wish to say something.

'Each of you is known to the others, if not by sight, then by reputation. Each of you is here because you are acknowledged as both a master of your arts and an influential member of your particular orders or societies. I can do no more than beg you to believe that what you are about to hear from Lord Tomas, as fantastic as it may sound, is the truth.' She heard the dragon approach before she turned and saw it. Those sitting in the semi-circle in front of her looked up in astonishment.

Caleb walked over to stand next to his mother and whispered, 'Gold is better.'

The dragon Tomas rode now dwarfed the red one he had ridden earlier. This majestic creature had a head the size of a freight wagon, and its wingspan could have covered the entire width of the main building on the island, with the tips touching the ground. The ma.s.sive dragon touched down as lightly as a leaf fluttering from a tree and Tomas leaped down from its shoulders, more of a drop than jumping from a rooftop. He thanked the dragon and it sprang into the air, spiralling away in a steep climb into the evening air.

Without preamble, Tomas said, 'That you are here means that Miranda and Pug have confidence in you, and confidence will be required. I bring you a warning, and it is most dire.

'I am named Tomas, Consort to the most radiant queen, Aglaranna, ruler of Elvandar. I am by her appointment and the consent of her subjects Warleader of Elvandar. I wear the mantle of Ashen-Shugar, Ruler of the Eagles' Reaches, and carry his alien memories, though I am as mortal as any here. I have been allotted a longer life span than other humans, but I know that eventually death awaits me.

'I have travelled beyond the stars and into the Halls of Death herself, and have spoken with G.o.ds and demons. I tell you this so that you may know something of what I am, and what I have seen, for now I must speak of the Dread.

'Some of you may know the name from your ancient lore, others may have never heard it, but in the end, it is all the same, for you know nothing of them. I am the only mortal being on this world who knows of the Dread, save one, and he has travelled a long distance hence. So, put aside any preconceptions you may have and listen.'

Caleb whispered, 'He just told us all to forget about the bear, didn't he?'

His mother nodded.

Tomas began his tale.

When he had finished, the word that best described the a.s.sembled magicians and priests was 'shaken'. Without embellishment or dramatics, Tomas had told them the tale of the Valheru's first and only encounter with the Dread, in a realm called 'the Boundary' by the Dragon Lords. It was a place between the realms and the Void and, like the Hall of Worlds, the City Forever and the Garden, a place that defied rational description.

Tomas said, 'There is a place, the Peaks of the Quor, in that part of Great Kesh closest to the Island Kingdom of Roldem. It is there we discovered a leak in the barriers of reality, a place where this world and the Boundary co-existed. Somehow children of the Dread beings almost benign by the standards of the Void found their way into the Boundary and then from there into this world. They were playing: yet that play was deadly. Miranda and I excised their existence from this world and I hope that ended the risk, but I asked for you all to be here today to warn you that there is a possibility the risk is not over. For if the Dread ever find their way into our realm, we shall have almost no time to respond.'

'How can we respond in any rational fashion to a threat such as the one you describe?' asked the High Priest of the Order of Dala in Krondor. The elderly cleric wore his simple white robes today rather than the richly embroidered raiment of his office.

'That is why I asked Miranda to call this meeting now,' said Tomas. 'It may be that the need will never arise, but it's far better for us to be prepared for something that never comes than to be unprepared when there is need.'

'What can you tell us of these beings?' asked a magician named Komis from Stardock. Unlike most who affected the dark robes originally worn by Pug when he founded the Academy, Komis had chosen richly ornamented robes of dark plum, edged with white cord at the collar, cuffs, and hem. His youthful features belied his position in the Academy where he was a senior instructor in what was being called shadow magic, the study of energies linked to the other realms. His studies lay at the heart of most of the questions Tomas raised.

'Little, save that their very touch can draw out life-energy and wither flesh in moments if you have no means to protect yourself. The more powerful they are, the more intelligent. Those we destroyed yesterday were little more than mindless youngsters, unable to speak or at least unable to speak in any fashion we can apprehend but eager to experience the hunt and taste flesh in our realm.

'The more powerful among them can be understood: I have spoken to one and know where one is imprisoned.'

'We must examine it!' exclaimed the High Priest of the Order of Ishap in Rillanon. The Ishapians were the oldest order extant, the only public order to serve one of the greater G.o.ds, and while each temple was autonomous, the Ishapians wielded great influence: more than one inter-temple war had been prevented by both sides appealing to the servants of Ishap for guidance.

Tomas shook his head. 'The journey is arduous and the destination is almost impossible to access.' He thought for a moment, then said, 'Let me consider such an expedition, for by combining arts...' He looked at Miranda who made a non-committal gesture. She knew what he was speaking of. A Dreadmaster had been trapped by Pug and Tomas in the deepest bowels of a black citadel in the heart of the City Forever, a place only bordering on reality.

One of the magicians said, 'If we know its nature, we might fashion a spell of binding!'

'And banishment!' added a priest. 'If it is not of this realm, it can be sent away with the proper exorcisms.'

That triggered an animated discussion among those in attendance. Tomas motioned to Miranda to step aside and when they were out of earshot of the others, he said, 'We're off to a good start.'

'I hope so,' she answered. 'You did a masterful job of underplaying the menace at just the right time, so as to make them look even more dire.' Her features darkened. 'Though I really don't know how much more dire things can be.'

'The Dread can not be truly killed. The Dreadmaster Pug and I captured in the City Forever is almost certainly still alive, if someone hasn't freed him.' Tomas glanced over at the discussions. 'There will be many questions for me to answer tonight. May I stay here?'

'Of course. You never have to ask. You are family.'

'More than ever, I wish Pug were here. His knowledge of what we face might be better than my own.'

She said, 'I know one thing: you can't wish him back any more ardently than I do.'

'Of course.'

She said, 'In all of this, I can't escape the feeling that somehow everything is interconnected. The arrival of those creatures near the Quor, and the Dasati. Can it be possible that before he fled Varen was also trying to fetch creatures from the Void to this world?'

'Anything is possible. Varen is by any measure insane. But he is a servant of the Nameless, and while the Nameless is often content to inflame his servants and send them out to cause mayhem, he would never be so foolish as to think the Dread in this realm could serve him. The G.o.ds above all others are foe to the Dread, for the G.o.ds represent the essence of our reality and the Dread are as far removed from our reality as anything in the universe.'

'When you go to study that Dread you have locked away,' said Miranda, 'I want to come with you. I need to know if there's a way I can kill one, or at least get rid of it.'

Tomas agreed. 'Now,' he added. 'I should talk to some of these men of power and influence.'

'When do you seek the Quor?' she asked.

'Soon, in a matter of days. Why?'

'Because I would like to go with you.'

'We'll see,' he answered as he turned away. 'There are tilings it is sometimes better not to know.'

She could only nod in agreement. How well she knew that.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Investigation.

PUG VANISHED.

Martuch had been expecting it but still he went wide-eyed when Pug cast his spells. The decision to seek out Nakor and Bek had already been made when more reports of what had occurred on Kelewan reached them. Agents of the White pa.s.sed along s.n.a.t.c.hes of information throughout the afternoon, and into the evening. Alone, each of these snippets provided a glimpse of the situation, but when put together, the result was horrific.

Three columns of attackers had been inserted into Kelewan by Dasati Deathpriests creating a rift-like 'portal' that allowed dozens of Deathknights to pa.s.s through each minute. Three locations in the Holy City had been targeted: the council chamber in the palace, the wing set aside for the First Advisor and all other ministers and their aides, and the heart of the merchants' district.

Pug knew instantly that the Dasati had derived their intelligence from Leso Varen. The Dasati would have seen the wisdom in destroying the leadership and surrounding bureaucracy but the a.s.sault on the merchants would have been beyond their imagination. There was nothing remotely resembling a merchant cla.s.s in this realm, and the concept of disrupting the financial underpinnings of the Empire would be so alien to them that it could only have come from Varen.

Pug's mind was spinning. If he could discover who was in touch with Varen here, then perhaps when he returned, if he returned, he might be able to find the malignant butcher.