Khyber’s forehead. «You’re burning up, Khyber. We have to do something about that or we’re going to lose you.» She glanced at the seams of greenish light leaking from the secret door and said, «Let’s move you back down the passageway a little.»
Khyber was too weak to put up much of a protest. She allowed herself to be stretched out on the passage floor while Rue opened her soiled tunic and began working on the wound. From a sealed pouch, she produced a salve. She spread it on the wound, then rebound the wound with fresh cloth from her own pack. Rue’s fingers were cool and soft, and Khyber closed her eyes in momentary relief. The pain began to lessen and the ache subsided.
« Drink this,” Rue ordered.
She gave Khyber a bitter–tasting liquid and some water to wash it down. Khyber drank it all, after telling her, «I haven’t had anything to eat or drink in a long time.»
« You need better care than we can give you here,” Rue replied, holding Khyber’s face in her hands and looking into her eyes. «You have some infection in you, that wound needs to be reopened and cleaned out. But that will have to wait.»
She looked at Bek. «That’s the best I can do for her right now.»
Her husband nodded. «Tell me about the triagenel, Khyber.»
She did so, sitting up again and explaining how it worked. «I still have the Elfstones, but I don’t know how I can use them to help.»
Bek thought a moment. «Is the strength of the triagenel uniform? Is it the same everywhere or does it vary from strand to strand?»
« There will be some variation in the strands. The building of each by the three magic users necessarily involves some ebb and flow.» She hesitated. «At least, that was what Uncle Ahren told me. The more skilled the users, the more uniform the magic. But even with the most accomplished users, there would be weaknesses.»
« Ahren would have known.» Bek looked toward the concealed door and the thin shafts of green light leaking through the cracks. «How is the triagenel attached? Your description makes it seem like a net. Does it hang from the ceiling?»
Khyber nodded. «It does. It is gathered at the corners of the room so that when the magic is triggered, it collapses about its victims and seals them away. It happens very fast, too fast for anyone to avoid, even if they are warned immediately.»
« What triggers the magic?»
« What do you mean?»
« What does it take to cause the triagenel to collapse?»
« A human presence in the room. Any human presence.»
« But not the presence of another magic?»
She hesitated. «What are you thinking?»
Bek leaned forward slightly, brow furrowed. «What if you and I were to weaken a few of the strands that make up the triagenel? Would that give a magic user as powerful as my sister a way of breaking through the net once it collapsed on her?»
Khyber hesitated, thinking. «I don’t think the triagenel can heal itself, so yes, I suppose if enough strands were weakened, a captive could break free. But how in the world are you going to do that, Bek? If you go into that room, the magic will be triggered and the triagenel will collapse on you.»
« I’m not talking about going into the room. What I want to try requires using two different forms of magic, one yours, one mine. That’s why I asked if the presence of another magic would trigger its release. Will it?»
She considered the question, and then shook her head. «I don’t think so. I think only the presence of a flesh–and–blood body will do that.»
« Then this might work. We don’t need much of our own magic to get the job done, and if we’re lucky, we won’t be detected. The magic of the triagenel is pretty strong, you said?» She nodded. «Then perhaps it will help mask our own.»
« What are you thinking about doing?» Rue said as Tagwen pressed close.
Bek sat back on his heels. «What if Khyber were to use the Elf–stones to search out weaknesses in the triagenel? The Elfstones are seeking–stones, they should be able to do that. If she can pinpoint, oh, maybe a dozen, I think I can use the wishsong to weaken them further—enough so that any sort of force applied to them after the net collapses will break them apart.»
Rue shook her head doubtfully. «That’s very delicate work, isn’t it? If you weaken even one of those strands too much, it will break through before you want it to. If that happens, won’t Shadea detect it? In fact, won’t she detect any kind of interference with the triagenel?»
Seeing the possibilities, Khyber leaned forward. «Maybe not. Yes, if Bek breaks one of the strands, that creates a flaw in the netting and anyone looking for it will know right away. But a weakening might not be detected so easily, over time the net erodes anyway. The magic slowly fails and the triagenel has to be rebuilt. So an erosion of the sort Bek is suggesting probably wouldn’t draw attention.»
The four looked at each other. «Is there another way?» Tagwen asked bluntly.
No one said anything. They all knew the answer.
The Dwarf grunted. «You better get started.»
Much farther down and deeper into the bowels of the Keep, Kermadec and his Trolls crept through the passageways of the lower levels, following the cautious lead of Trefen Morys and Bellizen. Seeking to reach Paranor’s north walls, they had worked their way steadily upward from the furnace chamber. Kermadec’s plan was to get close enough to the outermost of those walls that he could take control of one of the smaller gates, one that would not be heavily manned.
Kermadec knew something that neither Shadea nor her Gnome Hunters knew. There were too many gates for all of them to be guarded all the time, and many of the smaller gates had been permanently sealed over the years to prevent a surprise breach. But the Maturen had unsealed one of them long ago to give the Ard Rhys a means of leaving the castle secretly without having to go all the way down to the furnace chamber and the tunnels below. When he visited, she slipped from the Keep through that gate, to the meeting places outside Paranor’s walls they had prearranged over the years.
That unsealed lesser gate was their best chance of breaching Paranor’s defenses. It was small, nothing more than a single door. It would not permit a massive rush, but if enough Trolls sneaked through before they were discovered, they could mass within the walls and take one of the main gates. In Kermadec’s view, that was how Paranor would fall.
But reaching the north wall undetected, not to mention the gate in question, would have been difficult for any one person, let alone ten. It had become clear early on that some sort of search was under way within the Keep. Twice they had narrowly avoided being discovered, the first time because they had heard the search party approaching and doubled back to another corridor and the second because they were warier after the first.
So they were proceeding much more cautiously, keeping to seldom–used passageways and back stairs, tactics that were slowing them down considerably. It had taken them several hours to get that far, what with hiding and doubling back, and it was beginning to look as if even getting to where they wanted to go was in doubt.
But Trefen Morys seemed to know his way about Paranor even better than Kermadec, and under his guidance they worked their way forward, slowly getting closer.
Then, just when it seemed they would make it safely through the search parties, they slipped from a side corridor into a main passageway and ran right into one. A group of five Gnome Hunters rounded a corner right in front of them and came to an uncertain stop. Trefen Morys tried to bluff their way past, hailing the Gnomes, pretending that everything was as it should be. But the Gnomes were on guard, and they knew that Trolls were forbidden entry into the Keep. Before Kermadec or the other Trolls could stop them, the Gnomes had given the alarm.
Atalan was on top of them quickly, and three were dead before they could defend themselves. The remaining two fled, and Kermadec called his brother back so that they could do the same.
« Where can we go?» he shouted at Trefen Morys as they ran down the corridor toward a stairway leading up.
They rounded the corner of the stairway and were immediately in a second fight, this one with a much
