The Dragonswarm (23 page)

"So what," I asked at last, "is my other option?"

"Give them back to Lareth. Then we run."

"No," I said. There was no room for discussion in my tone, but Caleb spread his hands.

"It is your only other option," he said. "Give the wizard back his rebels and let the king's army find
him
behind the organization. Perhaps even Timmon will see the truth if it shows up in moth-eaten wizards' robes."

"No," I said again, but more slowly this time. "I cannot turn him loose. Look at what he's wrought. Even with the king on his scent—"

"In that case," Caleb began, and I silenced him with a dark glare.

"I understand," I said. "But how would we even begin? How could I tame a man who has tried so often to murder me?"

"I think," Caleb said slowly, "I think perhaps you already have." I barked a laugh, but Caleb pressed on. "There is no trace of good in him, but his wickedness is at least consistent."

"Consistent?" I said. "He's a madman."

"Some would say the same of you."

I started to shout, "He's a monster!" but the words died on my lips. I could already hear Caleb's answer.

My general nodded. "Lareth is a man who chases power. For all his wild ferocity, he served Duke Brant faithfully until we caught the man."

"Yes, but he never tried to kill the duke," I said. I remembered the length of the Chaos blade pinning the wizard to the earth outside Teelevon, and I shuddered. "And I'm sure the duke never tried to kill him."

"You are wrong on both counts," Caleb said. "That is precisely how Lareth came to join the rebels' cause."

I stared. Eyes wide, mouth open, I tried to comprehend the mind behind the wizard's actions. "He would truly follow me?"

"He is patient, he is careful, and he is clever. All of these make better reasons for him to follow you than to fight you."

"But he lashed out at me—"

"Before he knew. And you can rest assured he threw everything he had at you. That is not a man to hold anything in reserve. He has already done his best, and you buried him beneath the earth."

I had done more than that. I remembered how easily I had shrugged off his mindtrap. I remembered the flare of mingled powers, blindingly bright to my wizard's sight, and the ease with which I'd shattered his workings. If his mind truly worked the way Caleb suggested—

"And there's more," Caleb said. "He will have as much reason to fear the king's response as you do. There are worse than just Guardsmen coming for us."

"A Green Eagle, I'm sure," I said. "It's Othin, yes?"

"Yes," he said, "but I meant the wizards."

"Which wizards?"

"Masters of the Academy," Caleb said. "It is said they came to Tirah to prepare defenses against the dragonswarm, but when they heard the king meant to hunt you down, one among the Masters volunteered—"

"For me? For me in particular?"

Caleb shrugged one shoulder. "We don't have to share that part with Lareth."

But I shook my head, slow horror dawning. "No," I said. "No, Lareth must
not
be told that part."

He frowned, at last sensing my mood. "Why?"

"It has to be Seriphenes."

His frown deepened. "Yes, how—"

"Seriphenes and Lareth are in league," I said. I swallowed hard. "Or they were. A year ago." I caught a deep breath, thinking frantically, and then I let it go in a great sigh. "Very well. You're right. We cannot release him. I have no other choice."

"Good," Caleb said. He nodded once, sharply, then crossed the tent and lifted the outer flap to hold for me. "We should do it quickly."

I sighed again, then went past him out into the night.

The moon and stars were bright tonight, and despite the hour they showed me a camp full of activity. I saw a formation down in the wide valley training with shortbows, and another nearer by apparently packing and sorting the fine steel armor I'd seen before. Every man that I could see was dressed in leather or linen now, lighter clothes for faster travel. I nodded understanding, and in that light I realized even the men gathered around campfires or kneeling next to tents were not at rest. They were breaking camp.

"This afternoon, you said?"

Caleb raised his eyebrows in question. "Hmm?"

"You learned of the prisoner this afternoon?"

He nodded.

"And you immediately gave the order to break camp?"

He shook his head. "No. First I had to leave him time to escape and slip away. That took longer than expected."

We walked two paces in silence. At last I said, "I am glad you're on my side, Caleb." He didn't answer. We moved down into a camp full and bustling as hundreds of men worked to break down and store as many tents. Off to the west a string of mules was being loaded with equipment. Some of the men nearest noticed when we passed close and saluted. Caleb nodded back, and they returned to work.

I stifled the question as long as I could, but the farther we walked, the more it demanded asking. At last I said, "Just...how many men are there in the camp?"

"Three hundred and thirty-five swore oath to you yesterday at dawn, and at least two dozen who had fled before the fire have come back out of curiosity or fear while you were sleeping. I took all of their pledges in your name."

"And none have fled in the daylight?"

"No. As I said, they're still coming in. These kind of men
seek
powerful leaders. Lareth is not alone in that."

"But I am not that kind of leader," I said.

"You are the kind with power," he said. "That is all they really need."

"And they will serve me? You said I will be able to trust them in time."

"In time, yes. As long as you continue to show them your power."

"Very well," I said. I stopped at a spot of empty ground on the hillside beneath the spreading oak. "Call them, then."

He turned his back and bellowed, "Officers!" so loud it left my ears ringing. All the quiet little sounds of serious industry fell still behind me, and Caleb shouted one more word. "Assemble!"

The officers passed on the order, because I heard more distant shouts throughout the camp, and soon the sound of footsteps on the trampled grass. I put them from my mind and turned my attention to the task at hand.

I stretched my hands out before me in a gesture more dramatic than necessary while I gathered and shaped the powers of earth. I reached down through the soil to the wizard's quiet, patient glow, and with delicate care I fashioned a shard of earth as strong as steel and sharp as glass. For one long moment I let it hang in the air before his eyes, then I settled it with a careful precision down until it rested on his collarbone, its pointed tip just pricking at his throat.

Behind me, my army assembled in its ranks, and while they found their places I repeated the same careful process again. Another Chaos shard appeared before his eyes, then sank to rest beside the first. I made a dozen of them, each perhaps the size of a silver coin, and strung them in a necklace 'round his throat.

When that was done, I caught my breath and pulled my hands apart, and the earth rumbled as grass and stone and dirt split along a line, folding back with a roar. Then I raised a hand and a pillar of stone stabbed up within the fissure, lifting Lareth out of his grave until he knelt upon the platform one short step above the ground, his battered head still well below my own.

He stared back at me with eyes more sane than I had expected, and not a trace of defiance in them. Instead I saw hope. And admiration. Not for a superior opponent, I realized, but for a more deadly one. That was his only measure of power. He had understood every nuance of the darkly-gleaming necklace I had hung around his throat, and it had won me his respect.

I did not let my shiver show. I took one long step toward him, with all the army watching behind me, and I said, "Lareth Undinane, I call you conquered. I offer you the chance I gave your men."

Before I could say more, he slid his hands palms down along the floor of his narrow pillar until his forehead nearly touched the earth, and he cried out with a voice surprisingly strong, "Daven Carrickson, I yield my life to you, my only lord. All that I may have, all that I may do, all that I may be I give to you. I am your bonded slave. Spare my life if it pleases you, and it is yours to use."

I had one heartbeat to gape at him, and then the force of his oath crashed into me. I fell back a step, as fever heat seared on my lips and in my ears and at my fingertips. The wizard saw it happen. His eyes narrowed, his lips parted, and then he must have looked with his wizard's sight because he dropped his jaw.

And then he laughed. He laughed and laughed with the sort of boundless glee I had only ever heard from a child. He laughed until it became a roar and then at last subsided into hacking coughs. And still his shoulders shook, still his good eye shone.

I raised a hand, ready to strike with a dozen different kinds of force, but he shook his head and dropped his eyes and wheezed. "You're even more than I had guessed," he said. "I barely began to dream that I could serve a sorcerer, but you are something else altogether. You've nothing left to fear from me at all." He slipped his hands out and kissed the ground before me once again, then met my eyes with a ferocious hunger in his. "I will do anything to follow you."

I had to fight down another shudder of disgust, but I could not doubt his sincerity. He trembled with excitement at the power he had seen. "I do not trust you," I said, pitching my voice for him alone. I could never trust him. But in this moment, I needed him.

"You can," he said, with another little chuckle. "Smoke and shadows, I'd slit my mother's throat if you asked it of me."

I growled at him. "You should think more of your own throat."

It took him a moment, then his eyes widened and a hand drifted up to touch one of the Chaos shards almost reverently. "I remember an orphan boy who only wanted to save the world." He smiled. "My, my, how you have grown."

I opened my mouth to snap at him, but it would have done no good. Instead I gestured to the west and said, "The king is coming. With wizards and warriors enough to wipe us out."

"Not you," he said.

"Perhaps," I said. "But I have use for all these men. I need you to open portals to get us safely away. Can you do that?"

"Of course" He licked his lips, thinking for a moment, then asked, "How many do you want? Just these, or all of them?"

"All of them?" I asked.

"Oh, you don't know!" He shoved himself up until he sat bouncing on his heels and grinning like a child. "My lord, my lord, my lord," he cackled. "You are going to like this."

The wizard's last motion had broken even Caleb's calm reserve. He darted up to stand by my side, and I noticed the hand on his hilt, but I sighed and shook my head.

"He's harmless, Caleb." The wizard's one good eyebrow arched at me, and I sighed again. "To me. He is harmless to me."

Caleb only grunted, unconvinced. I turned my attention back to the wizard. "What are you so excited to tell me?"

"Tell you? No. I'll show you." He raised a hand, and that was enough. Caleb's sword flashed from its scabbard, its sharp edge pressing lightly against Lareth's throat without seeming to pass through the space between.

The wizard didn't even blink. He began to chant instead, but his other hand rose almost dreamily to touch one of the shards I'd made, and Caleb noticed them for the first time.

"What in Haven's name?" he breathed, as rattled as I had ever heard him. He pulled his own blade away and stood staring.

"A threat as sharp as yours," I said.

"A gift from my new lord," the wizard said, his chanting done. "I cherish the reminder."

"You're mad," my general said.

"I'm done," Lareth said. When Caleb and I both looked blank, the wizard nodded past us. "Behold."

We turned to find a green flame hanging in the air. I recognized it well, and as I glanced back to Lareth, he shrugged. "I thought you might wish to study the working, or I would have opened the portal directly."

I could find no answer. It was a fine suggestion. I turned back to the eerie green flame and looked with my wizard's sight. The thing I saw was twisted and wrong. Not the flame itself, the hallmark of Lareth's strangely delayed magic, but the working underneath. Energy was there, the glowing threads of ordinary reality, and I could see the soft glow of Lareth's will overlaid upon it.

But his will was not tied to one energy, to one thread of wind or one blast of fire. Instead it lay spread out across the scattered sum of powers that made up this place, this little bit of Ardain, and wherever his will lay the energies themselves were...vague. Distorted. They seemed to shimmer like a heat haze even in the stark reality of the wizard's sight, and after a time I understood.

It was another place. That was the traveling. This place and another place overlaid until they nearly were the same. It was not just a matter of stretching or tearing or opening, it was a matter of matching realities. Not an imaginary scene, not just the shape or earth of the bite in the air, but all of it. All the thousand little energies trapped, contained, coerced. I saw it, and I understood, and I knew with a deep certainty I could never do such a thing.

The realization left me feeling very small. I shifted my attention to reveal the dazzling bonfire of forces that blazed around me, the thunderous power at my disposal, but it comforted me little. I could obliterate Lareth's delicate working with nothing more than a thought, but for all my power I could not begin to replicate it.

The sight faded as quickly as I could blink, but his green flame burned in quiet reminder. I turned my face away and growled to him, "I have seen enough. Show me what you will."

From the corner of my eye I saw the motion as the flame unfolded into a doorway. I heard the distant sound of chatter, laughter, and closer there was the riffle of shuffling cards. A curious glance showed me another camp much like this one, though in the flatter lands out west, and the men in that camp seemed much more comfortable than my own.