“What do you mean?” Asea asked.
“I have talked with Lord Jaderac. He sought to impress me with the depths of his knowledge, the extent of his power. It was a veiled threat of course, and he did impress me, although not in the way I think he wanted to.”
“He threatened you.”
“Old secrets have been rediscovered in the East, Asea. Things that had best been left well alone. Sorcery of the darkest sort, the kind we all foreswore when we left Al’Terra. When the next war comes it will be unleashed against you, and against me, of course, if I do not do what Jaderac, and the Queen-Empress wants. The puppy has become quite the wolf, it seems.”
“Ally with us,” said Asea. “You need have nothing to fear from him then.”
“I have nothing to fear from him now.”
“Even with Elder World weapons you could be starved out from this tower. An army need only wait beyond reach of the green light and poison your fields by night.”
“I can see you have given some thought to this matter, Asea, but you are wrong. I have power that puts me beyond the reach of siege. You can feel it, can you not? You can feel it in the air around us.”
“I can sense the gathering energies of Elder World sorcery.”
“Have you sensed power so great since you set foot on this pitiful sphere of mud?”
Asea looked at him squarely. “No.”
“I have acquired power enough to change the world,” said Ilmarec. “And soon I will demonstrate that.”
“You will not treat with us then?”
“I have no need to Asea. I will show the world that Kharadrea can stand apart. Your armies will leave our soil.”
“Lord Azaar may disagree.”
“In a few days Lord Azaar will be beyond disagreeing. If he does not leave my country.”
“It is not your country,” said Asea. “It belongs to Queen Kathea.”
“Once we are married, I will be co-ruler.”
“Married?” said Sardec.
“Yes, Lieutenant, married.”
“Kathea would never marry you of her free will,” said Asea.
“There you are wrong. She is quite glad to. She believes in the power I possess. It’s not the most romantic basis for matrimony I will grant you, but then this is a marriage of convenience on both sides.”
“I would have words with Queen Kathea about this,” said Asea.
“By all means,” said Ilmarec. “Let us go and speak with my future bride.”
Kathea was as lovely a Terrarch as Sardec had ever seen. She was tall, if not quite so tall as Asea; her hair was honey gold, her eyes cornflower blue. Her blue robes matched her eyes. Their gold trim matched her hair.
Her chamber was luxurious even by the standards of Terrarch nobility. Silken hangings from the Land of the Purple Masks covered the walls. A tall mirror trimmed with silver and large enough for her to look at herself full length was set by the door. The bed was large and hung round with nets. Elder signs were set on shelves. She looked at Asea as she entered, half-fearful, half defiant.
“Lord Azaar has sent me,” said Asea, “to make sure you are in good health.”
“Never better, Lady Asea,” said Kathea. Her voice quavered only a little.
“Lord Ilmarec tells me you are betrothed.”
“It is for the good of our land. My Lord has explained to me that it is for the best, and I agree with him.”
“Queen Arielle has already committed her armies to helping you.”
“I have a note for my queenly cousin,” said Kathea. “It begs her to withdraw her armies from the soil of my territory. My future consort is quite capable of protecting my lands without foreign aid.”
“That is why he sent the remnants of your army under Lord Esteril to be destroyed by Lord Azaar.”
Of course, thought Sardec. He suddenly felt slow and stupid. At last he made sense of the battle they had fought. If Ilmarec possessed the power he claimed, the outcome would not matter. If Esteril had won, he would have removed any threat Azaar presented. If, as was more likely, Azaar triumphed, then Kathea was bereft of the remnants of her own army, and entirely in the power of her uncle.
“I fear Lord Esteril took the matter into his own hands,” said Ilmarec smoothly. “He was ever hungry for glory, and what could be more glorious than defeating Lord Azaar.”
A brief look of despair passed over Kathea’s face. She knew how trapped she was. It came to Sardec that Ilmarec was playing a fine game here. Kathea had delivered to them the message he wanted, and they had delivered the same to her. The only question now was whether, the Lord of the Serpent Tower really possessed the power he thought he did. This could all be a superb bluff on Ilmarec’s part, but he doubted it. The stakes were far too high.
“If your curiosity about my betrothed’s health and intentions is satisfied, Asea, I will see you on your way.” The words were curt, minimally polite, the speech of one who knows he holds all the deck’s best cards.
“Tell Azaar he has three days to withdraw or he will be destroyed.”
Chapter Sixteen
Sardec hustled the Foragers through the gates of the House of Three Swans. The crawling sensation between his shoulder blades decreased. He had feared something the whole time they had made their way along the street. He had felt deeply uneasy ever since their meeting with Lord Ilmarec.
“I thank you for your efforts to get me here safely,” said Lady Asea.
“It was my pleasure as well as my duty, milady,” said Sardec. They exchanged smiles of such warmth that Sardec immediately understood the strain they had both been under.
“Perhaps once I have had a few minutes to recover, you will visit me in my chambers. We have much to discuss and little time to do it in.”
Sardec knocked on the door of Asea’s suite. He had spent the intervening time checking lines of fire from the windows out into the street and he was happy that things were as well arranged as they could be.
“Enter,” said Asea.
He made sure the door was closed behind him. In a house like this you could never tell who might be listening. She saw the direction of his look, and said, “Don’t worry these chambers are warded.”
“What is happening?”
“ Lord Ilmarec is planning a great sorcerous ritual. His damned fortress seethes with more power than I had ever expected to find in this poor drained world. Even here, behind my own wards, my head is all but splitting.”
“I am afraid my knowledge of sorcery is less than great, milady.”
“The flows of magical energy here are the greatest I have sensed since we left Al’Terra. Lord Ilmarec not only commands an impregnable fortress but the greatest amassing of sorcerous power in this world.”
“He was not bluffing then when he said he would destroy Lord Azaar’s army.”
“No. I do not think he was bluffing.”
“You think he plans to summon something?”
“I don’t know. I do know that there is more magical energy bound within the walls of the Tower than I have felt since setting foot on this world.”
“Bound…”
“There is something within the Tower that generates tau in enormous quantities, in amounts I have never felt since we left the home world.”
“I have never heard of such a thing.”
“Nor I. It was not there when I last visited Ilmarec. At least it was not active.” Sardec considered this. There could only be one possible source of such power.
“You think Ilmarec has woken some ancient device of the Serpent Men.”
“That seems the most likely explanation. The energy is strange and tainted.”
