Storm Warning

Ulrich simply smiled very, very slightly.

'That's going to make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Empire to attack successfully in that direction. And meanwhile, I'll bet your Sunlord is doing something else the Empire isn't prepared for. I'll bet He's feeding Solaris with better information than any of my agents can get,' Kerowyn stated baldly, then smiled at Ulrich's cautious nod. 'Well, I've got some good news for you and your people. As far as my spies have been able to determine, the people of the Empire have a state religion that venerates the current Emperor, his predecessors, and all his ancestors. I'm sure that's very nice for Charliss, but I've got no evidence that he has any special power that an Adept couldn't duplicate, which means that the Sunlord isn't going to be squaring off against another deity if He does decide to throw firebolts around.'

Karal scribbled all this down furiously.

'Ah,' Ulrich said, brightening. 'That does put the likelihood of intervention, at least within the Karsite borders, much higher.'

'Thought so,' Kerowyn said, with an even bigger smile. 'All right, then. In Valdemar, one thing that the Empire is not prepared for is the simple existence of the Heralds and Companions. We have brought mind-magic to a high art here; I don't think there's another place north of Ceejay that has people using mind-magic so— scientifically. For that matter, I don't know that there's anyone using it this way south of Ceejay either.'

Quenten shrugged. 'Not that I've ever heard of.'

Kerowyn nodded. 'That's what I thought. We had to do without magic from the time of Vanyel; we found ways to deal with problems that didn't require magic. They put a tremendous emphasis on magic—you all heard the report, they do things with magic we wouldn't dream of, but that makes them very vulnerable if they expect us to do the same and plan their magical attacks accordingly.'

Firesong nodded vigorously, Ulrich cautiously; Elspeth simply looked thoughtful. 'That sounds good for a working premise,' Elspeth said at last.

'So, this time we have one thing that we didn't have when we were fighting off Ancar—we have time, while they're busy eating Hardorn a gulp at a time.' Kerowyn shrugged. 'I know it sounds cold-hearted, but just at the moment I can't recommend helping the Hardornens directly. My recommendation is that we study the Empire, we make diplomatic overtures to them to buy time, and we find out how we can counter their magic without using magic of our own—or with using mind-magic instead. We use what we can apply with confidence to the absolute limit, because they simply will not be expecting that.'

More nods around the table, as Karal caught up with everything that had been said so far. He was very glad now for all those lessons from Alberich; without them, he'd have been lost long before this.

Prince Daren spoke up next.

'The Empire waited decades—maybe longer—before they moved on Hardorn,' he pointed out. 'They actually attacked only when they could do so with an absolute minimum of resistance. We know they had an agent at the highest levels to feed them accurate intelligence—we should assume that they have had agents there all along. If we convince them that it would be too expensive to take us, they may decide not to.'

'We can hope for that,' Selenay said. 'We can work toward convincing them of that. But we cannot risk assuming that.'

'Agreed,' rumbled the Lord Marshal.

There was more discussion, a few more pertinent comments and additions, but on the whole the real work of the meeting was over at that point. When people had begun repeating what had already been stated, Selenay called a halt to it all, and declared the meeting closed.

It was not too soon for Karal; his fingers were beginning to cramp.

And none of this had driven An'desha and An'desha's plight out of his mind. He could not wait to get Ulrich alone, and see what his mentor had to offer.

'You're very quiet tonight,' Firesong observed, as An'desha stared at lamplight reflected in the waterfall. 'Are you well?'

'Just tired,' An'desha replied truthfully. 'I did some work in the garden, and then repeated all the mage- exercises you showed me until my control felt uncertain; then I quit.'

Firesong looked pleased, and An'desha relaxed. He had made the conscious decision to keep this new friendship with the Karsite a secret from Firesong for at least a little while. That was partly because he was not certain how Firesong would react to such a revelation. Granted, Firesong had been encouraging him to be more sociable, but An'desha was not altogether sure what he would do if he learned that An'desha had made a, singular, friend. Especially when he found that friend was male.