anybody any good to steal your pass. It won’t work for anybody but you.
Doctor, I have one for you, too. I’l see Toby, the Queen, and some others tomorrow. But right now I’m ready to col apse.” Wolf was not happy about having to wound himself, however trivial y, but did what needed doing. As did Dr.
Wachtel.
Babeltausque then said, “Friend Benedit is miserable. He’s in pain, he’s scared, and he’s exhausted. Doctor, do you want to take him with you? Or should he stay here? I have the spare cot Toby uses sometimes.” Which was, right now, occupied by the man kil ed in the explosion at the Wrench.
The barkeep mumbled.
Babeltausque said, “He says he’d be more comfortable staying with you.”
“As you wish. Come along, then, sir. There is an infirmary off my quarters. We’l keep you there til you’re fit to go home.”
Wolf stayed. Once the others were out of earshot, he asked, “You got what you wanted?”
“I did. But I can’t do anything about it now. I am exhausted.
We’l deal with it tomorrow.”
“Let me know when you’re ready. I’m enjoying this.” Wolf slipped his pass into a pocket as he departed.
Babeltausque went to bed right away. He stared at the ceiling, wondering how best to enjoy himself once they captured the girl.
The prospects were delicious.
Chapter Thirteen:
Nepanthe deposited Varthlokkur’s dinner on the table designated for the purpose, close by where he was working. “Hey. You. Wake up. Time to eat.” He did awaken, displeased with himself for having fal en asleep.
Not good.
Sorcerers who fel asleep at work became known as late lamented sorcerers.
“I was resting my eyes.”
“Right. Why are you taking chances? What are you doing?”
“Looking to build a better rat trap based on the latest research.”
It was too damned cold for rats in Fangdred. “Ethrian tried to talk this afternoon. He couldn’t put a sentence together right but he tried hard.”
The wizard moved to the food. Nepanthe settled opposite him. She had brought something for herself. She could pretend to share a meal.
“That sounds good. Why not let him help with Smyrena?
Teach him to change diapers.”
“Oh! I don’t know. He’s real y clumsy. And he gets frustrated.”
“Sometimes I think he must have had a stroke. Sometimes it feels like he’s completely aware but is trapped behind a wal he can’t break through.”
“You told me…”
“I know. But I’m no life-magic specialist. If the Old Man was here…” “He’s gone. Wishes and fishes.” She noticed a change. “What happened to the mummies?”
“I got worried that the Star Rider might find a use for them. I put them where he’l never get to them.” Each now resided inside a block of concrete distressed to look like an old aggregate boulder in the shadowed bottom of a distant canyon. And that was temporary. He wanted to reduce mummies and concrete to dust that Radeachar could scatter across a thousand miles of wilderness.
“Part of your strategy of denying him his resources?”
“Exactly.”
“Any plan for the Place of the Iron Statues?” Varthlokkur’s spoon halted inches from his mouth. His eyes went vague.
“You didn’t think about that.”
“I didn’t.” That stronghold of the Star Rider had not intruded on his consciousness for decades. “I’m amazed that you did.” With her memory problems of late. “I don’t even recal where it is.”
“Somebody went there during the wars. Maybe Michael.
Maybe one of my brothers. I don’t remember.” She had had memory problems since the night they died together. He had some himself. Even concentrating he could come up with only the vaguest recol ection of someone ever having gone looking for the Place.
He could not recal who, when, why, or what the result had been. Nepanthe said, “The night we al died…” And quit.
The pain was too intense.
“You’re right. Iron statues were there. They tamed the Princes Thaumaturge.”
“You had something to do with that place, too, once, didn’t you?” “Maybe when I was Eldred the Wanderer. I don’t remember it now.” That troubled him. He was having ever more trouble remembering details of his earliest years. It would be awful to lose those memories altogether. Things he had done, bargains he had made, impacted the world every day, even now. And his mother lived on nowhere else but inside the reaches of his mind.
Ekaterina and Scalza bustled in. They wore heavy clothing so must have been playing outdoors. Scalza hol ered,
“We’re going to see what Mother is doing, al right?”
“Don’t touch anything but your scrying bowl.” He had set them up with their own means of farseeing.
They could use the bowl any time, though he insisted on being told first. He wanted to be aware that he needed to keep an eye turned their way. Neither child ever thought much before acting. A reminder to take care might be resented but was never wasted.
Nepanthe said, “I wish I had a tenth of their energy.” She sighed. “I’d better go. Smyrena wil wake up soon. She’l be hungry. Have the wild animals bring the tray down.” The sorcerer touched her hand lightly, then resumed eating.
Mention of the Place of the Iron Statues reminded him that he had not paid much attention to the outside world lately.
Things happened where he was not looking. A lot, in Kavelin, during those intervals.
Scalza bel owed, “We found her, Uncle Varth! She’s in that tower place again.”
He pushed back from the table. This might be interesting.
...
Ragnarson thought he had the emotional instability whipped. He had to. Total control was now necessary. He had no time to waste on selfindulgence.
He had a chance to get out. Mist had something in mind. It was a razor-slash of light at the end of a ten-mile tunnel but it was there.
He had no idea what they were thinking. He meant to give no excuse to stop that thinking. This prison came close to his idea of hel .
The only way to make it worse would be to reduce the size of the cage.
“I’m living pretty damned high on the hog here, aren’t I?
When you get right down to it.”
“Excuse me?” Mist stepped in. “Who are you talking to?”
“The smartest man in the room. A fat tangle of superlatives, he is.”
“I see. Lord Ssu-ma thought you might be interested in seeing the assassin before we release him.” Ragnarson aced the test. His heart hammered and his vision reddened but he kept his composure. “You’re going to turn him loose, why?”
