“Well, any way you look at it, it’ll be a year or two before I can get operations up and running again,” Dram said. “That is, if you decide you want another battery of guns.”
Sally came up and Dram put his arm around her; they both looked expectantly at the emperor.
“You don’t have to do that. Not now, at least. Go ahead with your mining-looks like you’ve got a good place for it. We’ll see what the future holds, but if I use any more bombards, it will be against enemies from beyond Solamnia. Now I just want to get back to Palanthas and to my wife.”
He winced as he said the last word, and Sally reached out and touched his hand. “Is… is everything all right there?” she asked.
“It’s worse than you know,” said a woman’s voice. They turned in unison, stunned to see Coryn the White standing behind them. She had obviously teleported, and her face was grim, even dour. Her black hair was tousled in disarray, and there were scuffs on her face and hands. Her white robe with its silver embroidery was, as always, immaculate.
“What’s happened?” Jaymes asked. He thought of Selinda, feeling a stab of fear in his belly.
“Selinda has been kidnapped. By all accounts, it looks like her father was to blame.”
“Is she all right?” demanded the emperor, his face ashen.
“As far as I know. But there’s more bad news: the Dark Knights have struck,” she reported grimly. “They’ve captured the High Clerist’s Tower, and they’re trying to take over Palanthas and prop the lord regent back onto his throne,” she concluded. “You won’t be able to bring your army back to the city with them holding the pass.”
Jaymes groaned, but his thoughts were already churning. “Can you take me back to Palanthas right away?” he asked Coryn.
“Yes. I was hoping you’d want to do that.”
He nodded absently, turning to Dram. “Can you accompany the legion up the pass to the High Clerist’s Tower? And bring all the casks of powder that you have?”
Dram nodded. “I’ll be there-with enough to fill three or four wagons.”
The emperor nodded gratefully, touching Sally on the shoulder. “I’m sorry to take him away from you, again,” he said. “But I’ll do my best to see that he’s back here before you even know he’s gone.”
“Go,” she said, sniffling. “Be quick about it! But… may Reorx watch over you.”
“Thank you,” he said before turning back to Coryn. She spoke another word, the magic swirled, and they were gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
You might have killed her!”
Selinda heard those words, spoken by an angry voice… a familiar voice… She tried to shake off the cobwebs fogging her mind and felt her unsettled stomach churning.
Father!
She was lying on a couch in the anteroom of his study. The loud, stern words were coming from behind the closed door. Her father was speaking to the one who had brought her there, she realized at once, the black-masked priest of an evil god.
Selinda tried to call out to her father, but again her body failed to cooperate. Instead, she tried to listen carefully, to hear the outside sounds over the frantic pounding of her heart and the labored effort of her breathing.
“She was in very little danger.” That was the priest’s voice, insistent but hardly apologetic. “And I brought her here at once, just as you ordered. Perhaps she is weakened by the pregnancy-I did nothing to harm her! Or else your other agent, the one who lured her into his place of business, might have given her something to make her ill. How far do you trust him?”
“Hale has always been a faithful agent,” the lord regent said coldly. “He knows better than to displease me.”
No! Selinda was repulsed by her father’s words, almost gagging in horror. But the truth was plain: du Chagne had contracted Lame Hale to accost his own daughter! Hale had drugged her, tied her up, threatened her-and all at the command of her own father!
She pushed herself up into a sitting position, looking around, wanting only to escape. There was another door besides the one leading to her father’s office. Standing unsteadily, she stumbled to that exit, tried the handle, and found it locked. Despairing, she returned to the couch and sat down, trying to collect her thoughts. Gradually she noticed there was only silence coming from the office. She wondered if the priest had left by some other route.
Abruptly, the door opened and du Chagne strolled in. “Ah, you’re awake,” he said with forced heartiness. “Do you think you can sit up? Would you like something to eat?”
She shook her head, looking over his shoulder. “Father! That man? Where is he?”
“The… the Nightmaster is gone.”
“He’s a terrible man, a wicked man!” she accused. “And so is Lame Hale!”
Du Chagne sighed, slumping wearily. “I had hoped things would turn out different,” he started to explain. “I mean… this was meant to be for your own good! I hoped you’d understand-”
The outer door opened, and the Nightmaster came in, pushing Melissa du Juliette before him. Her hands were bound, and there was a gag wrapped tightly around her mouth. The priestess’s eyes widened in dismay at the sight of Selinda and her father.
“Melissa!” Selinda cried, trying to rise as the priestess of Kiri-Jolith was roughly pushed onto the couch. The princess glared at the Nightmaster. “What do you think you-”
“She was spying on you,” the priest said, speaking directly to the lord regent. “I caught her outside your window-levitating, of course. I’d slit her throat right now and be done with it.”
Selinda’s eyes widened in horror. She turned to look at her father and was horrified to see he was clearly thinking over the dark priest’s advice.
“No!” shouted the princess, furiously leaping to her feet to confront the masked priest. He reached out a hand, touched her cheek, and she slumped back onto the couch. Desperately, she struggled to rise, tried to lift her arms, but she couldn’t move.
She could see and hear everything in the room, but her muscles were utterly paralyzed.
“I thought we would find Melissa here,” Coryn said to Jaymes in some surprise. They had teleported directly from New Compound into the priestess’s quarters within the temple of Kiri-Jolith. But the chambers were clearly empty. “She must have felt too much urgency to wait and gone directly to the regent’s palace herself. Or perhaps she’s merely scouting the scene. I really don’t think she would go in until we arrived to help.”
“Let’s get going, then,” Jaymes urged.
Again, Coryn cast her magic spell, and shortly the two found themselves transported to a small room. A glance out the nearby window showed that they were high above Palanthas, looking down on the city and the harbor from a lofty tower. Jaymes quickly deduced that they were in the Golden Spire of the lord regent’s palace.
“We can go down the stairs and surprise du Chagne,” Coryn explained softly. “He doesn’t expect to see anybody coming from this direction.”
They descended the spiraling stairs quickly but as silently as possible. Within a few moments, Coryn and Jaymes were crouching on the lowest balcony of the long stairway descending from the top of the Golden Spire. They could hear voices raised in anger emanating from behind the closed door of the lord regent’s office. Two men-at-arms stood before that door, looking nervously at each other.
Jaymes pointed to himself, then at the guards, indicating first one, then the other. His hand clenched over the hilt of his sword, and the white wizard took his arm, looked at him, and shook her head. With an impatient expression, he held his place.
Coryn pulled a pinch of something from a tiny pocket in her robe. Gesturing to the emperor to stay where he was, she stood and started down the stairs toward the two guards.
