“Let’s hope the bastards don’t return with reinforcements,” said Rik.
“Have a beer,” said the Barbarian. One of the apprentices grabbed Rik by the shoulder and said; “Talorean, Kharadrean, we are brothers, yes?”
“I’ll drink to that,” said Rik. A long evening of boozing stretched ahead of them.
Chapter Twelve
Fharog’s footman announced the presence of Lord Jaderac and Lady Tamara. His master had trained him well. He ushered the pair into the dining room quite as well as any of Sardec’s family retainers. Sardec rose to greet the visitors as they entered. Jaderac was dressed in a new spotless purple-black uniform with silvered epaulettes. His companion wore a blue formal dress that made her look quite stunning.
The Lady Tamara was tall and slender. Her hair was thick, blonde and lustrous, piled high on top of her head to reveal her pointed ears. Several elder signs set in blue fire-jewels glittered on her throat. There were more of them set on rings on her fingers. It seemed that like Jaderac she was a sorcerer, or liked to pretend she was.
Sardec thought he was being unfair- doubtless she was what she seemed to be. The folk of the East spent a lot of time studying the old arts, which was easier for them than it was for westerners because they had held on to most of the old libraries of arcane lore during the Schism. In its way, it was a reminder of exactly what the Taloreans would face in the coming war, and he wondered if that was the point.
Lady Asea walked forward to meet them. She was clad in a gown of silver metallic from the Old World that was a very definite reminder of exactly who she was. Her only visible sorcerous adjunct was a set of protective runes that glittered on her truesilver necklace.
Sardec stepped forward behind her, suddenly conscious of feeling shabby in his uniform jacket. Lady Tamara looked up at him flirtatiously. He noticed her lips were full and sensual. Her eyes gazed into his measuringly for a moment before she looked away. He and Jaderac exchanged bows and thus began the slow minuet of formalities that would lead them to the table.
The food was good and for the early part of the meal, as was polite, they kept strictly to the expected questions and topics of conversation. It turned out that Lady Tamara was the daughter of Lord Malkior, the former Chancellor of Sardea.
“You are very far from court, milady,” said Sardec. “What brings you to these rough climes?”
“I wanted to see this part of the world, and Lord Jaderac graciously consented to be my guide. In this and many other things.” She gazed adoringly at Jaderac, a thing that did not sit well with her earlier flirtatiousness. He wondered what was really between the pair. Briefly his eyes made contact with Lady Asea’s, and he saw that she too had noticed the gesture and its falseness. Sardec had met many Terrarch girls like Tamara before- seemingly empty headed, flirtatious, constantly in search of new conquests. Once he would have been interested, if only to spite Jaderac, but now she held no real interest for him, and he wondered at how he had changed. He thought of Rena. There was his answer. His pleasures were of a different kind.
“The Tower is one of the wonders of this world,” said Asea. The subtle emphasis on the word this reminded them all that she was the only one present who had gazed on the wonders of another world.
“Indeed,” said Jaderac. “Although I doubt its treasures can compare with those of the Queen-Empress’s palace.”
“I think the Lady Asea referred to the structure itself,” said Sardec lightly, wondering at the urge he felt to bait this dangerous duellist. “Even a Terrarch of the Old Faith must admit that the Elder Races surpassed us in some things.”
Jaderac smiled as if at the mouthings of a child. “I never suggested otherwise.”
“Have you been inside the Tower yet, Prince Sardec?” said Tamara, putting the stress on his title.
“No, milady,” said Sardec. “Although I hope to have that privilege soon.”
“But you have Lady Asea,” said Jaderac. “You were often Ilmarec’s guest in the old days. Perhaps you can satisfy my little angel’s curiosity.”
“I have seen parts of it,” said Asea. “Although there were areas that Ilmarec never invited me to, or anyone else, as far as I can tell. And there were sealed areas that not even he could gain access to.”
“I believe Lord Ilmarec has solved their mysteries and opened those ways now,” said Jaderac.
“That is indeed news,” said Asea. “He tried for centuries to penetrate their mysteries and failed.”
“There is a lesson to us all there,” said Jaderac. “Patience rewards those who have it.”
“They say Lord Ilmarec is somewhat eccentric,” said Tamara.
“You could say that,” said Asea. “He is a brilliant scholar of the Elder World, and of the Serpent Folk in particular. His monograph on the Vanished Towers is a classic of its kind.”
“The Vanished Towers?” Sardec asked.
“There are several other sites in Kharadrea where Serpent Man Towers stood, according to ancient legend. Now there are only vast craters. One is a lake. Two others could be mistaken for the mouths of volcanoes. They are all places saturated with dangerous magical energies.”
“Where are the Towers then?”
“No one knows. They are gone although there are many tokens of the Elder Races presence in the vicinity: carved rocks, tools, cave villages, huge ruins.”
“Perhaps the Towers were never there,” Tamara suggested.
“Records from the pre-Terrarch period indicate otherwise.”
“Can old records be trusted?”
“According to Ilmarec they can.”
“What became of the Towers then? I thought they were indestructible. Lord Jaderac has often pointed out to me that the Serpent Tower can be harmed by no known weapon or sorcery.” There was a note of challenge in Tamara’s voice, as if she did not quite believe Asea, or wanted to question her sorcerous wisdom.
“No one truly knows. Lord Ilmarec speculated that they might have been destroyed in some sorcerous ritual or by some potent Elder World weapon. What the ancients’ sorcery could create, it could surely destroy.”
“That stands to reason,” said Jaderac. “And now it would seem Lord Ilmarec has turned his brilliant mind in the direction of destruction as well.”
“You refer to the green light,” said Sardec.
“Yes, Lieutenant, I do.”
And there it was, thought Sardec, another reason why this pair were here. If Ilmarec has access to the ancient weapons of the Serpent Folk he could dictate the course of this war, and practically name his own price from either side. With them he could do more than hold Morven town, he could alter the balance of power in the Terrarch lands.
“I wonder if Lord Ilmarec really has learned the secret of the ancients,” Asea said.
“I have reason to believe he has,” said Jaderac. “Many of the locals witnessed the destruction of Princess Kathea’s army.”
“Humans can be such liars,” said Tamara.
“It was not only humans,” said Jaderac.
“My father always suspected Ilmarec had sinister reasons for taking up residence in that creepy old Tower,” said Tamara.
“And how is your dear father?” asked Asea.
“Lord Malkior is very well.”
“I have not seen him in oh — it must be twenty years. Not since he led the last embassy to the Amber Palace.”
“I think it pains him still that he could not negotiate a settlement between the two halves of our shattered empire.”
“No one can now,” said Asea. “No one ever could. Not since the split between Scarlet and Purple began. The differences are too great.”
Sardec was not sure of that. There were plenty of Terrarchs in Talorea, his father included, who would happily see the Terrarchy reunited. But of course they also wanted to see the empire ruled by Queen Arielle so
