another voice.
'Raven, I have been expecting your report.' She felt a fierce stab of guilt. She should have done this days ago. 'I-I am sorry, Lord. I—'
'What have you to tell us?' Matokin, speaking through Berkant, cut her off.
Raven scrambled to get her thoughts together, realizing she should have rehearsed this ahead of time. 'General Weisel first questioned me about Far Movement magic. But he had already deduced that my knowledge of such powerful spells was very limited.'
'Raven, Lord Abraxis is here with me. He wishes to know why the general was interested in Far Movement.'
So, she was in the 'presence' of both the emperor and the chief of imperial security once again.
'The general seemed to want some firsthand knowledge of that particular magic,' she said carefully. 'He seemed to think it would aid him in employing it in the field.' Which, she silently added, still made sense to her.
'I see.' It was as if someone else were moving Berkant's lips. The effect was eerie.
'Also, Lord,' Raven said, her hands bunching into little fists, 'General Weisel has made some unusual comments.'
'Regarding what?'
'Regarding ... you.' Why did it feel like she was betraying the general? She was only doing her duty.
Unexpectedly, Berkant's face twisted with laughter. His chortles filled the tent. Raven stared, confused.
Finally he said, 'I doubt very much, young Raven, that anything the good general might say about myself would surprise me. Let us just put it down to hasty words, shall we?'
'As you wish, sir,' she said.
'Is there anything else?'
Raven caught herself just before she spoke. If her news wasn't important enough for Matokin to even listen to, she didn't see why she should say anything further.
'Nothing, Lord,' she heard herself say.
'Carry on, then.' Berkant's hand opened and the piece of cloth fell into his lap. He blinked, recovering
himself
'My thanks, Mage Berkant,' Raven said. 'Only doing my job,' he said, waving her off. Yes, she thought, exiting the tent. So was she.
SHE HAD PLANNED to inform Matokin about Weisel's unorthodox scheme involving the Far Movement portals. She had even meant to tell the emperor about her part in the plan. But Lord Matokin seemed uninterested in what she had to say. She felt silly now for having fretted so much about making the report.
Why wasn't her father showing her more attention? She had certainly thought this assignment was an' important one. Maybe Matokin had plans for her that she couldn't even guess at. Maybe. But why not tell her
Raven realized with a start that she was virtually pouting. That was an adolescent pursuit. It was beneath her. She was nearly two tenwinters old, an adult.
As an adult she had adult responsibilities. That meant serving Weisel as much as it meant serving Lord Matokin. It was time she got on with her duties to the general.
She sought out the unit of Far Movement mages. Weisel had written her an order that gave her the authority to use these powerful wizards' abilities. Moments later a portal was being opened for her.
Knowing what Weisel planned to use these portals for made stepping into this one a particularly unnerving experience. But she needed only to tap her strong sense of discipline to make herself put one foot in front of the other.
The air rippled before her. She walked directly into the distortion, finding herself suddenly swallowed by a new reality. This new world was a milky white, and her eye could not fix on any single feature. The landscape rolled and roiled, as if it were made of mist. She had no sense of the dimensions of the place, which was especially disturbing. Distances might be infinite or tiny. There was no horizon line, no sky, not even any evidence of ground, other than the fact that her feet didn't plunge into nothingness beneath her.
She had passed through a portal when Lord Matokin dispatched her from Felk. She had experienced this before. She followed the instructions she had been given, keeping her eyes ahead and carefully walking a perfectly straight line. Ahead, she could just make out the second portal, which appeared as another ripple.
Despite the cautions, she couldn't help but let her eyes stray a bit. At the Academy, she had never learned anything about the nature of portal magic. It simply wasn't part of the curriculum to explain the underlying principles of the arts. Instructors only showed the students how to perform feats. Knowing
But the Academy, which Matokin had founded, was interested only in producing functional magicians. Nothing else mattered. Raven, as she neared the second portal, allowed herself to silently question the wisdom of that.
As disorienting as this place was, there was something that was even more disturbing about it. Raven's steps slowed involuntarily. She looked slowly around. Something, she was almost certain, was watching her!
Her heart was beating fast. She peered into the eerie, misty surroundings, expecting at any instant to see eyes staring back at her. She realized she had stopped walking. That was a mistake. She wasn't supposed to dally.
The sense of being observed only got stronger. Panic was trying to overtake her, but she wouldn't let it. Her ears suddenly pricked up. She thought she heard something, but it was as distorted as everything else here.
Her head whipped around, trying to pin the source. Every impulse told her to get moving, to make for the exit portal. This was dangerous. Back at the Academy, the students told stories to each other about how some people disappeared when they stepped into a portal, never coming out the far side.
The sounds were growing closer, it seemed. It sounded like ... like ...
She turned suddenly and hurled herself toward the second portal, hands outstretched, a cry of fear just behind her lips. She expected a thousand hands to seize her before she reached it.
Instead, she broke through into a clearing in the woods. There were trees, sunlight, solid ground, all the comforts of reality that she had always taken for granted. Panting, she staggered, nearly collapsing to the ground.
Hands did catch her now, and for a moment she felt true terror, but she shook it off. She straightened both herself and her new clothes. A wizard in a robe was peering at her.
'Had a bad journey?' he asked.
She blinked back at him.
'It happens sometimes,' he said philosophically, shrugging. 'What was it—voices, or did you actually see something?'
Another mage stood with him, no doubt the Far Speak wizard who helped coordinate the portal opening. A small party of soldiers sat around a cooking fire, one or two of them eyeing Raven curiously, but none coming forward.
The Far Movement mage shrugged. 'It happens. Strange shapes, sounds.'
'I... thought I heard voices,' she admitted.
'Maybe you did,' the Far Speak mage said, sounding just as casual about it.
'Who knows what goes on in that other place?' the first mage continued. 'Most of the time, you walk through a portal, ten steps, and you've crossed a huge distance. No problems. Sometimes, though, you'll hear or see something. We're not supposed to talk about it, of course. Don't want to scare the troops.' He glanced sourly at the soldiers by the fire. 'Scary, wasn't it?'
'I'm perfectly all right,' Raven said, a bit icily.
The Far Speak wizard was now ogling her. 'I don't suppose you're here to
Raven sighed, disgustedly. If this was what being attractive did for a woman, maybe Weisel hadn't done her
