Storm Breaking

he thinks he is.

:Master Levy and Sejanes have already volunteered,: Altra put in unexpectedly. :I was just waiting to see if you would welcome them here. I can go back for them now, if you'd like, although it will take a few days to get there and back with them.:

Now Firesong was startled. A few days? Altra's Jumping distances had been severely curtailed! 'If it's going to take you days, I think you had better start back now,' he told the Firecat.' I don't want to think how much faster the situation could deteriorate if we wait.'

The Firecat nodded, and vanished from Karal's lap. Only Lo'isha looked at all dubious when Altra was gone.

'What's wrong, shaman?' Firesong asked politely, seeing Lo'isha's troubled gaze.

The Shin'a'in shrugged. 'I am only wondering if we should have asked permission of our hosts before we brought more folk in. Hopefully, they will not be offended by the addition of two more strangers.'

Curiously, that slight objection had the effect of hardening Firesong's decision. 'If we'd had them here in the first place, we might have a permanent solution instead of a temporary one,' he said stubbornly. 'I, for one, want them here. Wind and weather, Lo'isha, if you're worried that they might somehow overpower us and escape with secrets of Urtho's forbidden magic, Master Levy doesn't know the first thing about practical magic, and Sejanes is so old that if you spoke a harsh word to him all his bones might break under the force! They're hardly a threat, singly or together'

'Oh, I agree, but it is not my opinion you must have,' Lo'isha began, then shrugged again. 'Or, well, perhaps it is. I suppose I have as much authority here as the Kal'enedral.' He grimaced. 'Much as I dislike taking on authority, I suppose it is time that I did so.'

Since it was Firesong's opinion that it was more than time that he did so, he simply nodded and held his tongue.

Karal looked fatigued, and Firesong stood up abruptly. 'I am going to search for another hidden room. I have the feeling that this place hasn't even begun to divulge its secrets to us. Anyone care to join me?'

Urtho may have been one of the most brilliant and compassionate minds in history—but his architects were no small geniuses themselves. Firesong already had found one small, hidden room by carefully probing the floor of the 'washing' room when he noticed that water, dripped in a particular place, drained away through cracks invisible to the unaided eye. it hadn't held anything—in fact, it had probably performed the task of simple storage—but now he knew that there might be more such places under the floors here, and he had the feeling that if he just looked hard enough, he might find more than just storage areas.

'I'll help,' An'desha said unexpectedly.

He smiled. 'Come along, then,' he replied. 'I'm trying the skull chamber next.'

The 'skull chamber' was the one in which they had discovered a bizarre contraption that looked like the leavings of half a dozen Artificers and shamans all jumbled together with the remains of a few feasts. The centerpiece was a highly ornamented cow skull, and none of them could even begin to guess what the device was for. They would have been afraid to dismantle it, except that the delicate construction had already fallen apart in several places already, and the shock of their magical working had made it fall completely to pieces without any other ill effect.

Rather than use magic, since the chamber itself reeked of mage-power, Firesong was using perfectly ordinary senses; taking a cue from the water drainage, he had a skin of water with a bit of ink in it to make it more visible, and he dribbled it over the floor, watching to see if it moved or vanished.

With An'desha helping, the two of them were a lot more effective than he was by himself. It was very boring work, and he had expected An'desha to start a conversation, but he had not anticipated the subject.

'You're thinking about going back, aren't you?' An'desha said. 'To k'Leshya, if not your home Vale.'

He didn't reply at first; he pretended to be paying close attention to the water on the floor. 'I'm not used to this sort of living,' he said, refusing to answer directly. 'It's harder on me than it is on you.'

'I won't debate that,' An'desha agreed. 'And I hope you don't think I'd put any blame on you for leaving. The gryphons did.'

'But they have two children who need them,' he snapped. 'I don't. I haven't any excuse for leaving except wanting to be comfortable again!' He felt irrationally irritated at An'desha for voicing all of his excuses, as if he were so transparent that An'desha had no difficulty in anticipating what he wanted to do and his rationalizations.

The trouble was that every time he looked at Karal, he felt ashamed of himself.

'It's not as if you haven't done more than most people would have already,' An'desha said gently. 'First you faced down Falconsbane—'