Sorceress of Faith (28 page)

“What
have you done?”

“It
was dying.”

She
flinched. She hadn’t wanted to admit that, even though she’d only been turning
it on for a few seconds at a time to see familiar colors and menus and notes
that represented her old life.

Tuck
burped. “So I ate it.”

“What?”

“I
opened the nut up and ate the kernel. Now I know everything it knows.”

Marian
was speechless.

Tuck
squeezed his eyes shut and emitted a huff. When he opened his eyes, they were
all too sentient, all too understanding of her emotions. What had she kept in
her Personal Notes section?

“Just
like I ate the golden nut Sinafin gave me, I ate the nut inside that thing that
beeped.”

It
had—every morning when it was time to leave for her bus to work, when she had
important meetings, lunches, parties. Thanksgiving at her friends’, for
heaven’s sake! Somehow she couldn’t see Tuck beeping.

“You
know everything?” she asked weakly.

“Pick
up the laundry every Tuesday evening at 6:00 p.m.,” he said, then continued,
“Andrew’s birthday March twenty-second.”

“That’s
the appointment book,” she confirmed. “May I pick you up?”

“Yes.
It was a tiring dinner.”

“Oh.”
She took Tuck, went to the armchair she’d created in which to talk to him and
placed him in his tufted nest. He curled up and watched her with bright black
eyes.

Marian
settled into the deep chair. It conformed to her body and she sighed in
pleasure. With a wave and just a little grief, she dissolved the remnants of
her PDA into molecules and sent them into a storage lattice of Power that
Bossgond had shown her how to use and had sent with her things that were now
spread out on the bed. She wasn’t sure how she’d use the complex molecules but
was sure she’d figure out something.

Tuck
blew out a breath.

She
shook her head. “I really can’t see how I can play Solitaire with you.”

He
hunched up and hummed quietly, just as her PDA had!

“Watch.”

Midway
between them, a small image of her last Solitaire game appeared.

“Wow.
I’m impressed.” She was beginning to enjoy herself. “Music?”

His
eyes bulged even more than normal and he opened his mouth. Strains of “Over the
Sea to Skye” played on guitar poured forth.

Marian
listened, entranced, tears again coming to her eyes. This time they rolled down
her cheeks. That had been her favorite track on the last album Andrew had given
her. She summoned a tissue, wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

“You
played that one the most,” Tuck said, sitting again on his rump, paws in front
of him.

“Yes.”

“I
didn’t understand music before. Your music in the square nut is different from
the Songs I learned when I crunched the golden walnut. I ate the shell of that
nut, but not yours.”

“I’m
amazed that you could eat the meat of my ‘nut’ at all,” she said.

He
opened his mouth in what she’d come to know was his smile. “You liked the nut
and didn’t want it to die. I wanted more mind-food. I thought how I could do
it, and I
did
.”

Like
person, like animal companion. “Yes, you did!” Songs. That meant prophecies in
Lladrana. What sort of Songs had the golden walnut carried and Tuck absorbed?
“So what did the Songs in your first nut say?”

His
whiskers twitched, his paws clasped each other. “Sinafin said I was not to
tell.”

Marian
could probably coax it from him, but respected him enough not to try.
She
respected a hamster
. That sounded crazy. She bit down on her lip. He was an
intelligent being, and he was her friend more than he was a pet or animal
companion. And now he was the only thing she had from Earth. Her eyes widened
in horror. And what would she do if she lost Tuck? The bits of plastic and
glass and metal around him that had been her mainstay in Colorado were nothing
compared to him.

She’d
have to find some way to protect him.

He
said, “You do not need to worry. I am very strong. I will live long, now, and I
have much Power.”

She
wondered how much hamster and how much magical being Tuck was. It would be
fascinating learning what he could do. Like Alexa, Tuck was now a mixture of
Earth and Lladrana.

A
twinge of anxiety nibbled at her. She didn’t know how she’d be able to take him
back to Earth. If he retained his Power on Earth, she shuddered at the idea of
his falling into scientists’ hands.

After
chittering to get her attention, Tuck said, “I want to go back to my house now.
I have good drink and salty nuts there. I want my better food.”

Marian
wanted to listen some more to Earth music. Instead she gestured to the speaking
tube by the bed—this one with a trumpet painted like a blue morning glory and
the tube a green stem with embossed varicolored green leaves. “Jaquar’s study
is locked to me. Can you climb up that?” Four floors.

He
perked up. “Yes.” Staring at her with his protuberant black eyes, Tuck said,
“I’d like to go outside tomorrow with you and Jaquar. You can watch me.”

“Are
you sure?”

“Yes.”
He nodded emphatically.

“Very
well. Ready to go upstairs?”

“Yes.”

Marian
set him in the bottom of the tube. He grinned at her, cheeped, and zoomed up
the shaft. The opening strains of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” echoed down and
kept her company as she headed back to her desk. Lladrana had changed Tuck,
wondrously. Perhaps it could change Andrew, too.

I
mpatient that he
had to explain himself to other Circlets, Jaquar strode into the parlor of
Chalmon’s Tower. Venetria and Chalmon stood by the large table, arguing. They
stopped as soon as they saw him.

“Salutations,”
Jaquar said.

Chalmon
placed a hand on Venetria’s shoulder. “I think we all agree that we must
cooperate and that the Dark can no longer be ignored. It was for that very
reason that we had the Marshalls Summon our own Exotique.”

Jaquar
said, “Since she comes from outside our community, and is exceptionally
Powerful, I think she will be an able leader, given time.”

Frowning,
Chalmon said, “We definitely need a report on the Exotique. That is why we
asked you to come. We must learn when she will be ready to infiltrate the
Dark’s nest. All the signs point to the maw opening in the next couple of days.
Will the Exotique be ready to enter then?”

“I
have another idea,” Jaquar said. “Perhaps we can form a team to seal the maw.
Close their own shield. We may not be able to infiltrate it and learn of the
Dark, but we could delay, perhaps even stop the master and the horrors he
controls.”

Chalmon
tapped a crystal ball. “One of the younger Sorcerers tried to lob a fireball
in—nothing. We’ve tried everything, and nothing works. All our Power slides
away from the place. Nothing penetrates and nothing sticks.” He grimaced. “Ten
people have attempted spells.”

Jaquar’s
gut tensed.

“Is
it true the woman is already a Third Degree Scholar?” Venetria asked.

“True.”

Both
Chalmon and Venetria exclaimed in astonishment.

“When
do you anticipate her becoming a Fifth Degree Scholar or a Circlet?” Chalmon asked.

Jaquar
had already considered the question, estimated the time, lengthened it to
protect Marian. “I believe no longer than a month.”

“That’s
not soon enough.” Chalmon’s voice hardened. “I believe the maw will open within
the week. We must send Marian in to learn of the Dark, to harm the nest and
perhaps destroy this once-human master who taunts us and directs the horrors.”

“I
think your plan disastrous,” Jaquar said. “What can you hope to learn through
her?”

“I’ve
made a little echoing spell—it will send back all she sees and hears when she
is within the nest,” Chalmon said.

“No,”
said Jaquar.

“It
was your plan in the first place!” Chalmon snapped.

The
words were like a blow to the chest. He nearly staggered. “Made in the heat of
anger and vengeance.”

Chalmon
lifted and dropped a shoulder. “That may very well be true, but what choice do
we have? You saw what
one
sangvile did. Its damage multiplies rapidly.
Marian is very Powerful already. She might be able to return by herself. Who
knows what she could do.”

“I
am her teacher and protector. I will not allow this,” said Jaquar.

“The
Exotique Marian would not have been sent to us
now
if we weren’t to use
her for this purpose,” Chalmon said.

“That’s
convoluted thinking,” Venetria argued. “That sounds as if you believe in fate
and not free will. Why do you think that now when you never have before? Or is
it only that you want to sacrifice someone else?”

Red
flushed beneath Chalmon’s skin. “Don’t call me a coward.”

“Why
shouldn’t I? You haven’t plane-walked to that place. I have.” Venetria gestured
grandly. “Jaquar has.”

“Plane-walking
is not one of my talents,” Chalmon muttered.

“You’ll
sacrifice her. Is it so easy for you? I always thought you were a man of
character,” Venetria said.

Chalmon’s
face contorted in anger. “I want to protect
us
. If that means
sacrificing some stranger, so be it.”

Venetria
said, “I’m not sure we should—”

“You
always vacillate!” Chalmon accused. “I tell you, the worst monsters are about
to spew from that maw. Dreeths. Sangviles that could easily target the Tower
Community and eat us all!” He grabbed Venetria’s shoulders. “Woman, your island
is the northernmost! Close to the damn border where those monsters congregate.
Your defensive shields are pitiful. I won’t lose you.”

She
stared at him, eyes wide. Her mouth trembled. “You would go to such lengths
to…to keep me from harm?”

Chalmon
shuddered. “Everyone of the Tower Community has seen the memory-vision of how
the sangvile attacked Alyeka. I won’t have that happen to you. And that was only
one sangvile.”

Face
set in hard lines, he stared at Jaquar. “Dreeths fly, and have you forgotten
that if the boundary is not fully Powered between magical fence posts—and there
are plenty of gaps—a horror can manifest as far inside the country as one of
its own reached?”

“That
hasn’t happened in known history,” said Jaquar.

“No?
But all our Lorebooks say that it’s true. And the sangvile was in Castleton, in
the Castle, in Coquille-on-the-Coast! Once the nest opens and another of its
kind spews out, it could manifest in one of those places!” Chalmon said. “We
have no choice: if Marian can harm the nest, we must Send her.”

Jaquar
fought for the woman he’d come to admire. “We could go to the
Marshalls—specifically to the Exotique Alyeka, and ask her help in penetrating
the force that shields the maw. She’s a trained warrior—both physically and
magically. She knows what we’re facing. She’s fought a sangvile twice. She is
one of us, now, a Lladranan. We could use her as a spearhead into the maw,
follow her in. That could work.”

Silence
filled the chamber as all three of them considered the plan.

“I
always liked that idea.” Venetria’s face shone. “She can penetrate the nest’s
shield and the rest of the Marshalls will follow immediately. We could go,
too.”

Her
Song was utterly sincere, and Jaquar relaxed.

Chalmon
sat on a sofa and leaned back, pulling Venetria down and close to him. He
smiled patronizingly, his usual expression around Jaquar, and nodded. “A good
idea.”

“And
the Marshalls can move fast! They’re used to mobilizing quickly,” Venetria
said.

Eyebrows
raised, Chalmon said dryly, “If Bastien and the other Marshalls don’t kill you
for mentioning the idea to Alexa.”

Jaquar
decided to speak to Bastien alone, first. Relief flooded him that he’d found a
new plan. Chalmon and Venetria had been convinced. “I’ll contact Bastien and
Alyeka in the near future,
before
the maw opens again.” His gaze swept
the room. “Alyeka is a very Powerful, strong, experienced fighter and foresighted
woman. I think she’ll agree to spearhead our force.” He smiled sharply, “And
she is linked to the Marshalls. We will follow. And do you think any Marshall
won’t support her? They
always
work as a team.”

“The
last time the Tower and the Castle tried a joint effort—some two centuries
ago—it didn’t work,” Chalmon said, considering.

“Who
will hold the focus of this combined Power?” Venetria frowned.

Jaquar
smiled. “Why, our Exotique, who is bound to Bossgond and Alyeka. I will provide
support, since I had a tentative link with Alyeka, and thus the Marshalls, in
that last battle.” He met each Circlet’s eyes, impressed upon them his
determination and confidence that this was the right path to take.