Ekaterina appeared to be convinced that she was always just one step from having the world strike her another cruel blow, with cause and effect irrelevant.
How could that be? Varthlokkur was no grand choice as a father figure but Nepanthe was a good mother substitute.
Varthlokkur said, “There are extreme abandonment issues.
But things were improving.”
Meaning her visit might sabotage the good work Nepanthe had done?
Everything we do, she thought, impacts others, often in ways we do not foresee.
“This is a finer meal than I expected, considering your isolation.”
“Thank you,” Nepanthe said. “Cook wil be pleased.” After that everyone seemed to wait to hear from Mist, except Ethrian, who asked after Sahmaman again, and then said, “On Great One go boom.”
...
Silence stretched. Mist became uncomfortable. Her children showed no inclination to interact with her. She did not know what to do. Her own childhood had offered no examples of good parenting.
She asked, “Could I see my father while I’m here?” Varthlokkur shifted slightly, suddenly wary.
“I know my father and uncle died here, in a trap set by you or the Old Man.”
“Actual y, by someone a step further up the food chain.
They’re in the Wind Tower. We don’t go there much. But, al right. The risk is minimal. I’d say nonexistent but I did see Sahmaman come back, in al her power.” The wizard rose.
Mist did the same. She glanced at Scalza. The boy said,
“I’l help clean up. I don’t like those creepy old mummies.” Leaving the common room, Varthlokkur said, “It’s a long climb.Another reason we don’t go up there much. Plus, the Wind Tower contains a lot of bad memories.” Mist finished the climb fighting for breath. “I’m not…used to this… altitude.”
“You never get al the way there.” He was breathing hard himself, but not fighting for breath the way she was.
Mist looked around at a large chamber that had been cleared out, then vigorously cleaned, quite recently. For her sake?
“Scalza doesn’t like me much, does he?”
“Scalza knows his family history, on both sides. He has an exaggerated ideal of what his mother ought to be. The woman inside his head isn’t you. And you won’t be here long enough to evict her.”
“I could take him back with me.” Only later did she realize that Ekaterina had not been mentioned. Which was disturbing. Mist herself had survived childhood mainly because she had had a knack for going overlooked.
Ekaterina seemed to have that same capability.
The wizard wasted no breath on the absurdity of her suggestion. “Al right. Wishful thinking. The worst of us want to be thought wel of by our children. Where are the Princes? I don’t see them.” “Here.” The wizard drew aside a curtain identical to those that masked Fangdred’s interior wal s, keeping the cold at bay and the warmth confined.
Moving this curtain showed that the room was bigger than it seemed.
“That’s where it al happened?”
“It is. The Old Man should be on the higher seat in the center. I don’t know what became of him.” That seat was empty, of course. The remains of the Princes Thaumaturge occupied lower chairs to either hand.
Varthlokkur removed the dust sheets covering them.
Mist stared, in silence, for more than a minute.
“Is something wrong?”
“I can’t tel which one is which.”
Varthlokkur confessed, “That would be beyond me, too.
This is where they were when the Star Rider left the Wind Tower. They’ve been moved several times since.”
“How did you get in?”
The question surprised the wizard. “What do you mean?”
“Nepanthe told Valther that the Wind Tower was sealed off after that night and that the sealing was proof against your power.”
“Not forever. I chipped at the spel s for years.”
“Chipped at them. And when you got in the Old Man was gone.”
“Yes. Though I’m not sure that the Star Rider didn’t take him, back then.”
“Yes. You are. You think him coming back for the Old Man was the break you needed to get through.”
“You’re right. It’s probable. With the Old Man gone there might’ve been no reason to keep the Wind Tower sealed.”
“This one was my father. He has a scar on his neck. He took the wound the night he and Nu Li Hsi murdered Tuan Hoa.” “Somewhere, in some hel , your grandfather had a good laugh the night they died.”
“I’m sure. You were here.”
“I was here.”
“That must have been a terrible night.”
“More than you can imagine, in ways more dire than you’l ever know.”
Mist nodded. Only two living beings knew the ful story: this man and Nepanthe. Nepanthe was less likely to share than was Varthlokkur. Mist asked, “How did they get here?” Varthlokkur responded with a blank look.
“Transfers are how we humble distance in Shinsan. But a transfer needs a sending and a receiving portal. Two sets for two princes. What I know about what happened is mostly hearsay. I never heard how the Princes got here in the first place.”
“I don’t remember. There is a lot about that night that no one remembers. We were al dead for a while.”
“Some more permanently than others, it seems.”
“It was not a pleasant evening. I avoid thinking and talking about it.”
“As you wil .”
She considered her father and his brother. “There is no way that they can be brought back?”
“No.”
“Ethrian’s situation put the thought into my head. You’re sure?”
“No one in this…” He paused.
Mist faced him. “The Star Rider did this to them, didn’t he?”
“No. I did. He put the remains on the seats.”
“Can he resurrect them?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure he didn’t plan to when he sealed the Wind Tower. But he is a clever devil.”
“Exactly. Considering the example of the Nawami revenants in the eastern desert.”
“You’re right. Sahmaman was barely a ghost. I’l make sure he finds nothing to work with here.”
“The Star Rider needs to be rendered permanently redundant.” “Have a care with what you say.”
“You disagree?”
“Not at al . I’l cheerful y entertain suggestions as to how to arrange that. But thousands before us have shared that ambition. Most likely thousands more wil do so after we’re gone.”
Mist stared at her father. “It wil take a bigger, faster, deadlier rat trap.” Then, “Let’s go back down. This is too depressing. Al I real y came for was to connect with my children.”
“As you wish.”
She could tel that he considered her prospects doomed.
...
Mist had gone. Neither Scalza nor Ekaterina ever warmed to her. Varthlokkur settled into that room in the Wind Tower, the curtain back and the dust covers off the dead. He reviewed the terrible memories and tried to deal with questions that Mist had raised.
How did the Princes get into Fangdred without having portals waiting?
He had the entire fortress searched, years after the fact.
The search turned up exactly what he expected: nothing.
