Defiant Peaks (The Hadrumal Crisis) (57 page)

‘If this conspiracy extends to any of Solura’s nobles, matters become considerably more grave.’ Mentor Garewin’s expression was as dour as his words.

‘This is the Detich wizards’ tower.’ Aritane looked directly at Jilseth. ‘The necromancy worked since this spell has not shown the Soluran adept meeting with any nobleman or woman, at least not with anyone who could be known to hold such a rank from their clothing or their manner.’

So the Mountain woman could assuredly see her standing here, imprisoned within her own necromantic vision. Worse, Jilseth realised with a chill that would have been a shudder if she could have moved a single muscle, Aritane was reading her thoughts as each question the Col mentors asked prompted Jilseth’s memory of the information which the Soluran corpse had yielded.

She stared back at the Mountain woman. Now it was Aritane’s turn to be disappointed by the meagre return on Jilseth’s endeavours. Without knowing the man’s purpose, seeing where the Soluran had gone was of limited value.

Memory of the irritation and frustration which Jilseth had felt shifted into fierce anger at now finding herself so invisible, so wholly ignored, entirely subject to this Mountain woman’s Artifice. Jilseth glared at Aritane. Let this arrogant adept read the depth of her outrage if she dared.

‘Have we seen enough?’ Garewin had drawn closer to the table to contemplate the thin-faced woman with a cream surcoat over her brown robe.

Guinalle raised a silent hand. She was intent on surveying the fifth wizard from head to toe.

Jilseth found herself wondering if the Tormalin adept was contemplating some Artifice. Was Guinalle somehow working in harness with Usara’s wizardry beyond the confines of this enchantment? She strained to feel some touch of his earth affinity to no avail. Jilseth strove to quell the gnawing, irrational fear that she would never feel any element again.

In the next instant the tower room disappeared and they were safely within the Prefecture once more.

Jilseth snatched her hand out of Aritane’s grasp. She shoved her chair backwards, rising to her feet. Even with the table between them, she couldn’t bear to be so close to the Mountain woman.

‘How dare you?’ Though inconvenient relief blunted her fury. At least she could now speak and be heard. At least she could feel the elements around her.

Aritane gazed at her, unrepentant. ‘It was of the utmost importance that we saw your memories before you had any chance to twist what you recalled. I don’t say you would have done so deliberately but remembrance is a fragile thing easily warped by hopes or fears. We could not risk you unwittingly changing some detail.’

Guinalle looked at Aritane, making no attempt to conceal her displeasure. ‘I have taught you gentler methods of learning unsuspected truths from willing witnesses.’

‘Forgive me.’ Aritane didn’t sound in the least contrite and worse still, as far as Jilseth was concerned, her half-hearted apology was solely for Guinalle. ‘The
sheltya
will demand that any evidence I lay before them passes the measure of their own Artifice. They will accept no other.’

‘The
sheltya
?’ Usara asked carefully.

‘They do not concern themselves with lowland affairs.’ Aritane looked around the table to address everyone in the room. ‘However, it is evident that their attention has been drawn to this alliance between Soluran wizardry and the Artifice which is now turned against Hadrumal. I do not know where their interests lie but they sent this man from Wrede to make enquiries on their behalf.’

‘Do you think that they will object to the abuses of Artifice which we have uncovered?’ Guinalle asked with ill-concealed hope. ‘Will they help us unravel these malicious enchantments?’

‘If we don’t have to worry about some aetheric assault, Hadrumal’s wizards can withstand anything these Soluran Orders might hope to threaten us with,’ Jilseth assured everyone. With or without Planir’s help if he was still so absorbed in reading through Kerrit’s archive. She hastily crushed that disloyal thought.

Aritane continued as though the magewoman hadn’t spoken. ‘I do not know what the
sheltya
will do but I am willing to lay all this before them, to add to whatever they have learned from the man from Wrede. I am willing to do this to repay the debts which I owe to Suthyfer. But I will not risk my life and sanity by encroaching on
sheltya
business without invitation.’

‘How do you propose to let them know that you want such an invitation?’ Corrain demanded.

‘I will approach the valleys north of Wrede where my people still live untroubled on foot and as a suppliant. The
sheltya
will know I am there so they may greet me as they see fit.’ She shrugged. ‘Or not. I offer no guarantees.’

‘Then to take such a risk—’ Guinalle protested.

‘It is my risk to take.’ Aritane looked at her. ‘I do not only owe debts to Suthyfer.’

‘You can take her to the mountains today.’ Corrain looked hopefully at Usara and Jilseth. ‘Through your wizardry?’

Aritane shook her blonde head. ‘I cannot arrive unsummoned within the
sheltya
’s purview by such means.’

Jilseth was sorry to hear that. Seeing Aritane’s icy composure cracked by the nausea which had wracked Micaran would be some recompense for the distress the Mountain woman’s Artifice had inflicted.

‘Then there’s nothing more to be said.’ Corrain shook his head, aggravated. ‘You could not walk from here to Wrede in less than fifty days, never mind venture further north into the mountains. These Jagai ships will attack Hadrumal in less than half that time.’

‘You should learn to listen and make fewer assumptions,’ Aritane said coldly. ‘I will not travel north through elemental magic but I can use my own Artifice to carry me to Wrede.’

‘You can?’ Lusken gaped, astonished.

Aritane ignored him and the other dumbfounded Col adepts, still addressing Corrain. ‘If the
sheltya
are willing to receive me, I will know within a few days.’

‘By the turn of For-Spring.’ Corrain considered this. ‘The Jagai galleys won’t arrive until a handful of days after that and then they have to load men and stores before heading southwards.’

‘Could the
sheltya
help put an end to Jagai’s madness before those galleys weigh anchor?’ Garewin asked tentatively.

‘I cannot say.’ Now Aritane looked around the room. ‘Nor can I say what will happen to me if I am called to account for my offences. One of you will need to come with me, to return with news of their decisions.’

‘I will,’ Guinalle said instantly. ‘I can tell the
sheltya
the good which you’ve done in Suthyfer—’

‘I need no such witness.’ Aritane shook her head, perfectly calm. ‘
Sheltya
will learn everything which I have done through their own Artifice. Besides, you are needed here. There can be no hope of devising enchantments to counter the Solurans’ malice without your skills.’

She looked at the Col adepts. Jilseth saw their expressions betray uneasy knowledge that the Mountain woman was right. She also saw the unguarded relief on Usara’s face. He definitely didn’t want his wife venturing into the mountains to face these unknown adepts. Then she realised that Aritane was looking straight at Corrain.

‘Me? Why me? No.’ He shook his head before Aritane could answer. ‘I must return home. My responsibilities are there—as soon as Hosh’s face is mended.’ He shot a guilty look of apology at the disfigured boy before challenging Mentor Garewin. ‘You will keep your promises to the lad, even amid all this?’

‘Of course—’

The Mentor would have continued but Aritane addressed Corrain, as implacable as before.

‘You started this.’

‘What do you mean?’ Mentor Garewin demanded.

‘Baron Halferan cannot be held accountable,’ Usara said firmly. ‘He could have had no notion that the corsairs would be so reckless to try using the ensorcelled artefacts which they had plundered, in hopes of retaliating against the wizardry which they discovered defending the Caladhrian coast.’

Jilseth didn’t need any Artifice to see that the Suthyfer mage was as determined as Planir to stop these Col scholars learning the full story of Anskal’s arrival in the Archipelago. Did Aritane know the truth? The Mountain woman’s face was unreadable.

‘He is still the best placed to bear witness to all that has happened.’

‘I can go.’ Hosh spoke up, surprising everyone. ‘I was on the corsair island longer than anyone and the baron is right. His place is back in Halferan.’

Jilseth steeled herself to speak. ‘That is true.’

She had no wish to see Hosh sent on such an uncertain journey after the sufferings he had endured but she remembered Planir’s reasons for sending Corrain to the Solurans the year before. Their adepts could only learn what the Caladhrian knew. They could not steal the secrets of quintessential magic as they might from a wizardly envoy. But if the
sheltya
searched Corrain’s memories, they would learn the whole sorry story of his misadventures and their unforeseen consequences.

Aritane shook her head. ‘I will not go without Baron Corrain.’

‘That might be for the best. You can use your skills at least as usefully here.’ Jilseth was also wondering apprehensively what these mysterious
sheltya
might learn from Aritane to Hadrumal’s discredit. What would they make of the way in which Suthyfer had obtained the Khusro artefacts? Of Usara and Guinalle using wizardry alongside the Artifice which these Mountain adepts reputedly guarded so jealously?

‘I’m sure we can discover these Soluran adepts’ Houses without sending Baron Halferan three hundred leagues north.’ Jilseth found a handful of silver pennies in her pocket and she tossed them onto the table.

The devices stamped by Col’s mint shimmered and blurred to leave blank discs rimmed with amber magelight. Jilseth concentrated and the metal flowed as though it was fresh from a silversmith’s crucible.

The corpse had worn an amulet of five overlapping circles; two placed edge to edge north and south, with two more crossways on top, to east and west. The last circled the amulet’s centre, overlaying the other rings.

The black-bearded man’s device had a central circle surrounded by eight smaller ones, all framed within a larger ring. The unknown woman had worn ten concentric rings joined by a single vertical bar.

‘These are their devices.’ Jilseth contemplated her handiwork with satisfaction. ‘Cast as many copies as you need from these exemplars. Send them far and wide and someone is sure to recognise at least one.’

‘How long will that take? How soon before our enemies hear that someone in Col is asking after them?’ Corrain contemplated the silver amulets before looking at Aritane. ‘If these
sheltya
hold you to account, can you promise some Artifice will send me back here before the Jagai ships arrive?’

‘I cannot promise but I give you my oath that I will do all in my power to achieve it.’ She looked steadily back at him.

‘I have travelled in the mountains’ southern fringes,’ Usara said suddenly. ‘I can use my wizardry to retrieve you, if needs be.’

‘I can guide you to a place he knows through my own Artifice,’ Guinalle added.

Jilseth wished furiously for aetheric magic of her own, to speak unheard to Usara, to tell him to stop furthering this plan, surely so detrimental to Hadrumal’s interests.

Corrain crossed his arms and looked across the table at Aritane. ‘I’ll give you ten days. I want your oath that you’ll see me back here after that.’

The Mountain woman said something in her own tongue. Jilseth assumed it was just such an oath until Aritane and Corrain both vanished from their seats.

The Col adepts stared in open-mouthed astonishment, though Jilseth noted that Guinalle showed no such surprise. Did she have similar enchantments to call on?

‘Let us hope we soon get word from them with information that helps us.’ Usara clapped his hands to command everyone’s attention. ‘Meantime, we can’t put our feet up by our firesides. ‘Madam Mentor, Masters—’ he looked to the four Col scholars ‘—please do whatever you can to devise enchantments to counter the malicious Artifice at work in your city.’

‘I can help,’ Guinalle added quickly.

Usara looked at Jilseth. ‘We will go to Hadrumal and tell Planir what’s happened.’

Jilseth nodded. At least she wouldn’t face the Archmage’s anger alone when he learned where Corrain and the Mountain woman had gone.

‘What can I do?’

Hosh’s offer surprised everyone. As they turned to him, the boy’s blush cruelly emphasized his injuries.

‘You can keep watch as the mentors work,’ Usara said slowly. ‘Our enemies will doubtless be on their guard against artifice and wizardry alike. Perhaps they won’t notice a humble Caladhrian in the shadows.’

‘Very well.’ Hosh folded his bony arms across his skinny chest in unconscious imitation of Corrain. ‘I won’t go home until the captain’s back regardless.’

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY