Storm Rising

It was hardly fair.

I know. Life's not fair. He sighed. And I'm putting off stating a decision I've already made. 'You took my message to An'desha?'

:As soon as you wrote it. He'll scry as often as he can, and check the tube for a message. Just as you asked. If there's anything there, he'll send for you and you can send me to fetch the tube,: Altra told him, blinking his eyes lazily. :Don't expect an immediate answer, though. It's probably going to take a few days before he makes up his mind, but we both know he's going to do it. He can't afford to pass up this chance.:

A few days. Altra was probably right, but these few days were going to seem like an awfully long time.

:Excuse me,: Altra said suddenly. :I should be going.:

The Firecat stood up, and vanished, the weight of his body lifting magically from Karal's feet and leaving behind only an impression in the blankets.

Now what on earth could have caused that?

'Altra? Altra?' Karal called in confusion. 'What—'

Someone tapped on the outer door in the next room, and opened it. Light footsteps neared the door of his bedroom.

Natoli stood in the frame of the open door, one arm loaded with books, and the other holding the doorpost.

'Hello,' she said. 'I thought you might be lonely. I figured I could keep you company as long as you're sick. Just don't pass it on to me, all right?'

He smiled. 'I promise I won't,' he said, knowing that was a promise he could keep. 'I couldn't tell the Healer, but it's only jumping sickness. Nothing you can catch.'

'Oh, good,' she said, smiling, and sat down beside him. 'That's just what I wanted to hear.'

Those few days are going to pass awfully quickly.

* * *

Karal and An'desha were pretending to look over some papers before the Grand Council meeting, but that was only the excuse so that the two of them could have a word before they upset everything with the little burden Altra was going to deliver.

'You're sure it's all right, the message is safe?' Karal asked An'desha in an urgent whisper. 'I mean—look, there's Selenay and Solaris sitting together. One trap could eliminate them both!'

'I checked it, Altra checked it, and you checked it,' An'desha replied. 'Really, Karal, given the propensity for nasty surprises that Ma'ar and his successive incarnations had, and all the information on them they left in my memory, you can trust me to find a mage-trap in a piece of paper! And anyway, Altra says that a mage-storm hit the Imperials again just before he went to get the tube. He doubts anything as delicate as a complicated trap would have survived.'

'All right,' Karal sighed, fiddling with his pens. 'I'm just nervous.'

An'desha gave him an oblique look. 'You should be. I have to go sit down or it's going to look odd—we all agreed that it shouldn't look as if we had anything to do with this when it happens. I'll see you later.'

An'desha hurried to his own seat as the latecomers for the Grand Council meeting arrived. When Tremane had finally put something in the message-tube, Altra had gone to get it, but he had not given it to them immediately. He asked them to think first about how it was to be presented.

Karal had wondered about that phrasing, until it dawned on him that if Solaris had any idea that he had gone behind her back to open negotiations with Tremane, she would probably see to it that the overture never got any further than that first message. She would also flay him alive, but that was incidental to the bigger scheme of things.

For that matter, Selenay might feel the same as Solaris about being circumvented.

The only person who knew they were going to be investigating the Imperials was Talia, and she had no