The Rift War (20 page)

"Your protection?" Brysta shook her head, her mouth twitching in bitter amusement.
"More tricks? Your grandfather's light shows?"

"Magic. And teams of Valors to travel the tunnel with you and protect you against the
drakags and rixils that remain."

"And if we don't want to play your games? If we don't trust you?" She met Grego's gaze
again, and the pain, pleading and frightened anger in her eyes struck him like a blow.

"Then you cannot be trusted. Oh, and don't think you can make false promises, and then
return to Moerta and give information to the Science Directorate to use against us," she added.
"Magic will allow us to look into your deepest thoughts, even put compulsions on you not to
speak or do anything to work against us."

Grego shivered, remembering the spell Mrillis had worked on him, with his permission,
to block his memories so he could function normally and buy them all time to prepare for the
flight to Lygroes. He could imagine all the horrors of the unconscious mind these people would
suffer if they had that done to them against their wills.

"I already know your answer, Dr. Reynod," she continued. "No oath will be asked
because you choose not to believe." Emrillian snapped her fingers. Green sparks shot from her
hand and hit him in the throat. He went to his knees with a yelp, voice evidently restored. "Do
you know the legends, true and false, about my father's other sister? If Megassa were here, she
would invade your thoughts, twist your minds and souls to her purposes. But we don't use
Megassa's dark magic." She gestured, and the Valors standing guard on the Directorate people
herded them closer. "Have no fear of that."

"Are you trying to justify our deaths?" Dr. Reynod said.

Obviously, he still hadn't learned his lesson, despite his enforced silence. His voice
wavered from forced bravado. His back stayed stiff and straight, his chin jutting forward in
belligerence.

Emrillian sighed and shook her head. "There are so many options." She looked up at
Baedrix when he took his place on her right hand.

"What is the chance that if we let all of them stay here and observe and learn the truth
for themselves," Baedrix said slowly, thoughtfully, "they won't grow into a danger?"

"Let us stay? More like keep us prisoner," the unnamed man said. Anger and dismay
drove away much of his fear. He stepped up next to Dr. Reynod. "You must send us back to
Moerta. In fact, I demand it!"

"You are in no position to make demands," Emrillian said. "I have been entrusted since
my birth--no, since my conception--with the safeguarding of this land. Of the entire planet,
whether you want my guardianship or not." She shook her head. "I don't have time for this."

"What are you going to do?" Grego asked, moving over to stand on her other side. "Put
them in a holding tank? Can you spare the guards, the manpower and effort and supplies?"

"Who says we have to?" She shook her head, frowning, eyes narrowed, as she looked
over the Directorate people who stared back at her. "Grandfather will probably be disappointed,
but I just don't want to deal with this stupidity anymore. Sleep!"

She reached up with both hands, grasping thick golden Threads that became visible as
her hands closed around them. Grego felt as if all the air around him was sucked away for a
moment, and a spider's web of smaller golden and white and brown Threads expanded to wrap
around all the Directorate people. All except for Brysta.

They froze. Then their heads tipped back and their limbs folded and their eyes closed
just before they hit the ground in limp heaps.

A single pair of hands clapping made everyone jump. Grego turned to see Meghianna
coming up to rejoin the group.

"Very nicely done, my dear. You have a wonderful future as Queen of Snows, if you
ever decide to give up being a warrior queen." A merry laugh bubbled from her when several
Valors reacted in horrified shock at the suggestion. Grego was relieved to realize the woman was
joking. "Now, visitors from the unkind, cold future, perhaps in your dreams you will think on
what you have seen and heard, and make a wiser decision when you are allowed to wake."

"Take them all to the tower. Make them comfortable. They will be safe until we have
time to deal with them better," Emrillian said.

"What about me?" Brysta said. She staggered through the tangle of her limp
companions, reaching out a hand for Grego. "What are you going to do to me?" Her knees folded
and he leaped to catch her, wrapping an arm around her waist to hold her up.

"Teach you," Meghianna said. She shook her head. "Ah, yes, I can see that you are very
important to our loyal Lord Grego. He suffers a pain he never anticipated, when he swore loyalty
to Quenlaque and the Warhawk. Because of you?"

Brysta tipped her head back, staring into Grego's eyes.

"Trust me," Grego said, his voice breaking. "If you can still love me, after the secrets I
held from you... Just trust me. I want to share all this with you." He turned to Meghianna. "Is
there any chance she has
imbrose
, maybe? She's one of the most brilliant theoreticians
I've ever met. Shouldn't she be able to figure out, to adapt, to..." He sighed.

"You think I'm brilliant?" Brysta's mouth trembled, hinting it wanted to smile, and that
gave him hope.

"You don't think I fell in love with you just because you're gorgeous and fun and you
have a wicked sense of humor, do you?" He turned to Meghianna and Emrillian, and beyond
them he was caught by the relieved, delighted expression of dawning comprehension on
Baedrix's face. Their gazes met. The Regent sobered immediately and bowed to Grego.

"You are a scholar," Meghianna said. "Yes?" She held out her hand when Brysta
nodded. "All scholarship and wisdom, all history and healing, has been preserved in the
Stronghold."

"It's real?" Brysta whispered.

"Very real." She took a step closer, holding out both hands now. "Come, scholar, and
learn. Judge for yourself. The Stronghold is the safest place in this land, in the face of the war to
come."

"Please, Brysta," Emrillian said, resting a hand on the other girl's arm. "Trust us. I do
count you a friend, because you mean so much to Grego. You will be safe. I promise. You will
learn about star-metal first-hand, and be the first from Moerta in two thousand years to explore
the archives of the Stronghold." She nodded to Grego. "And hopefully, you two will have a
chance to be together, when everything is said and done."

Brysta met Grego's eyes, and something he dared believe was hope warmed the chill of
fear and uncertainty. Nodding, she put her hands into Meghianna's, and the Queen of Snows led
her away.

"I am sorry," Baedrix said, stepping up next to Grego, pitching his voice soft and low.
"It takes great strength and sacrifice, to choose honor and duty over the woman you love."

Grego was positive now he saw a spark of something like happy relief in the other man's
eyes. He remembered what Ectrix had said that first day when they had arrived here. Could
Baedrix have been worried that he and Emrillian were bound together as more than friends?
Could the Regent be interested in her so soon?

What exactly did happen on that short trip to the Stronghold? Grego fought a grin when
it occurred to him that maybe Emrillian hadn't been saving herself for a cold, politically astute
marriage of state after all. Baedrix was intense, devoted to duty, but there was nothing cold and
emotionless about him, by any means.

* * * *

Emrillian had not realized before how much work was involved in just listening and
thinking and weighing the consequences of what went on around her. She scolded herself often
during the intense discussion held over the noon meal, for thinking that being a queen would
have any moments of ease and amusement. Long before the meal was over, she wished to be
back on Moerta, eating from a tray in the library. The press of her studies and the solitude
seemed like paradise, compared to her seat at the head of the huge trestle table. Every gaze was
on her, and conversations slowed every time she opened her mouth to speak. Her only comfort
was that Grego had somewhat the same treatment or reaction. And Shalara and Karstis as well,
because they were included in the discussion. But that led her to wonder if her Valors treated her
as they did because they considered her an outsider, a novelty.

Then again, the fact that Meghianna sat next to her might have been part of the problem.
People openly stared at the Queen of Snows, and went pale whenever she looked them in the
eye, or blushed and stammered when she addressed them. The few times she spoke, all
conversation in the tent died completely. The only people who didn't react in subservient fear or
awe or both were Baedrix, Eleanora and Ectrix.

Emrillian suspected when her aunt had been alone with Eleanora and her younger
brother after they arrived that morning, she had charmed them and convinced them she wouldn't
freeze them with a glance or eat them alive. They addressed her as Grandmother, which visibly
pleased her. Baedrix did as well, but he still stumbled over it, which amused Meghianna.

Emrillian suspected that she had to learn how to charm people into accepting her as one
of them, and somehow get around the high wall created by glamour and great power, just like her
aunt had done. Otherwise she would never be at home here in Lygroes.

Courage. It shall grow easier in a while,
Meghianna said through the
Threads.

Magic, or being a proper queen?
she retorted, feeling her spirits lifting.

You will never be what the dowagers and stalwarts of your court imagine as a
proper queen.
Meghianna's muted laughter came through their link, and she reached under
the table to hold Emrillian's hand and strengthen the link.
There is too much need of change
in Quenlaque. Half your duty is leading by example.

Are you warning or encouraging me?

Both.

When the meeting ended, late in the afternoon, they immediately set about striking
camp. The plan was outwardly simple, and Emrillian had learned long ago that the simplest plans
worked best. The only flaw was that they were splitting their numbers.

Meghianna would take her recruits from the Archaics and return to the Stronghold. She
would begin their lessons and awaken the star-metal hoarded in the depths of the Stronghold, to
tap as much power as possible for the battle to come. Her new Queen's Ladies would have one
task--to help her gather the power and send it out again across Lygroes, to feed to those who
would need it in the battle to come.

Mrillis and Graddon had not been physically present, but through Meghianna they had
listened in and participated in the discussion. When they had completed their spying mission and
assessed the magical and military strength of the Encindi, they would split up. The goal was to
have the three strongest enchanters in Lygroes spread equidistant across the continent and then
merge their
imbrose
with the dome, to bring it down under their control, at their
choosing and timing.

If the Science Directorate got its ships close enough to the Death Zone to drain power
from the Threads before they were in place, the three enchanters would do their best to keep the
collapsing dome from raining destruction across Lygroes, and then spreading on to impact the
rest of the world.

Carious would lead the combined forces of the Valors and Archaics, to ride to
Quenlaque and rouse the army. After that he would ride to every estate and send out soldiers and
warriors to the borders of Lygroes, in preparation for the fall of the dome. They would face
Encindi warriors as well as soldiers from the Science Directorate, and possible enemy soldiers
from any other Moertan countries that came out in reaction to what the Goarlotte-Welcairn
people were doing.

Emrillian and Baedrix had the most crucial task of all. She didn't like being separated
from the battle and not participating in helping to guard against the crash of the dome, but she
agreed with Mrillis' assessment and Meghianna's theory. Twice before, the Zygradon had reacted
to massive expenditures of magic that drained the Threads. Both times, Meghianna and Mrillis
had been too busy to follow the chimes and the stirring in the Threads, to find the place where
the bowl had been hidden centuries ago. When the dome came down, whether by choice or not,
the Zygradon would react.

Emrillian and Baedrix would ride to the general area where the first Emrillian and her
companions had been when treachery struck and she had separated from them to hide the
Zygradon. Between them, with the heritage of their ancestors linking them to the bowl of magic,
and with Braenlicach to reinforce the link, they would find the Zygradon.

With the Zygradon in their possession and with Braenlicach, they would race to the
tunnel to awaken and heal Athrar. With the knowledge that Ynfara had been feeding to him all
this time about the modern world, through the link with Emrillian, Mrillis and Grego, Athrar
would be ready to lead in the defense of Lygroes.

If Edrout doesn't stop us and steal Braenlicach and use it to destroy the Zygradon
and perhaps kill Grandfather. If he doesn't realize what the Directorate is doing and attacks the
dome, to help bring it down even faster,
Emrillian said, when it was just her, Meghianna,
Mrillis and Graddon in the link together.

We have no control over the future, we have no way of changing the past,
Mrillis said.
All the Estall asks of us is to do our best, do what is right and true and
honorable. If we fail, we will stand before our maker with our heads held high, knowing we
served well.

But I do not think we will fail. We might not attain all we planned, but we will not
fail. The world that comes of this battle... I think it will be something none of us can
imagine,
Graddon said, and his warm, rumbling chuckle came through the Threads,
wrapping around her like a comforting embrace.