“Are you sure this time, or is this just a new guess? Think about your answer carefully, because I don’t tolerate people lying to me.” Thoran threatened Eicewald with his finger. “I might forgive your ineptitude, but I won’t forgive a direct lie.”
“After casting the spell and seeing how the creature reacted, I have no doubt that with a Greater Object of Power, imbued with Magic of Water and Life, we’d be able to destroy it.”
“Are you sure enough of that to stake your life on it?” Orten asked threateningly.
“Yes, my lord,” the Mage assured him, and his tone was one of absolute certainty.
Thoran glared at Eicewald with barely-contained rage. “It had better be true. It’s your life if you don’t succeed.”
Eicewald wrapped the Eternal Snowflake and put it back in his satchel. At once the temperature in the hall began to rise.
“The only handicap, your Majesty,” he went on calmly,” is finding an object like that for us to use.”
“Tell me you know where to find it!” the King snapped.
Eicewald nodded slowly. “I do, your Majesty. I saw it with my own eyes once.”
“Well then, we’ll get hold of it,” Orten said.
“I’m afraid it’s going to be an extremely complicated task,”
“And why’s that?” the King demanded.
“The object in question is called the Star of Sea and Life, and is in the possession of the Turquoise Queen.”
Thoran frowned. “The Turquoise Queen? And who’s she? I’ve never heard anything about a Turquoise Queen.” He turned to his brother, who shook his head, equally puzzled.
“That’s natural enough, your Majesty, since she’s very little known. In fact, there are only a few in all Tremia who know of her existence – hers, and that of her people.”
Orten was staring distrustfully at the Mage. “Who are they? What kingdom is that?”
“I don’t know about them either,” Sven said. “Nor have I heard them mentioned at court.”
“The Rangers know nothing of her either, your Majesty,” Gatik said.
“Uragh the Turquoise Queen, as she is known by her people,” the Mage explained, is the ruler of a very strange and little-known tribe which lives in the islands of the western seas.”
Thoran shook his head, as did his brother. “I’ve never heard tell of her, nor of any islands.”
“What are these islands called?”
“The Lost Islands, your Majesty.”
“The Lost Islands? Why are they called that? What realm do they belong to?”
“No, your Majesty, they’re a free realm. They always have been. People call them the Lost Islands because very few know how to reach them. It’s a tropical paradise, lost in the midst of the ocean in the far west, between the kingdoms of Rogdon and the Nocean Empire.”
Orten was scratching his chin. “Do they have a great army? Is it an advanced culture?”
Eicewald shook his head. “Not in the least. It’s a small kingdom, no more than a rather backward tribal civilization in regard to knowledge, and social, or military progress.”
“Well then, we’ll send the army, attack this kingdom and conquer it!” Orten shouted, obviously ready to do so himself.
“That wouldn’t be advisable, my lord,” Eicewald cautioned him softly.
“Why not?” Orten demanded angrily. He was not accustomed to anybody opposing him and did not like this at all.
“Because the Turquoise Queen is a powerful Sorceress: one of the most formidable in all Tremia, I’m afraid. Her magic of Water and Life is extremely powerful. It would not be advisable to antagonize her. She might be as difficult to kill as the Specter we’re trying to destroy, if not more so.”
“If she’s such a powerful sorceress or wizard, how is it that we don’t know about her?” the King asked. “We know about the most powerful magi of the rival realms. We know about Haradin the Mage of the Four Elements of the Kingdom of Rogdon, Zecly the Sorcerer of Magic of Blood and Curses of the Nocean Empire, Zanker the Mage of Spiritual Magic of the city-state of Yatro on the far eastern coast of Tremia, and others. If she’s so powerful, why do we know nothing about this Sorceress?”
“She’s not known because that’s what she wants, and she takes great care that nothing is known of her or her tribe. They live in peace within her realm, which is an archipelago of sixteen islands surrounded by a perpetual mist.”
“Perpetual mist?” Sven repeated in some surprise.
“That’s right. It surrounds the islands and is more than two leagues across. It hides the archipelago from greedy eyes. Even pirates don’t dare go into it. They say it’s cursed, and that ships which enter that mist vanish, never to be seen again.”
“Bah! Nonsense!” Orten roared. “That’s just to scare off brainless idiots!”
“That’s what’s said. Many ships have vanished in that mist.”
Sven was looking curiously at the mage. “You believe that too? That it’s cursed?”
Eicewald shrugged. “Cursed is one way of looking at it. What I think is that the mist isn’t natural. The Turquoise Queen creates it as a defense mechanism, a magical one, and hence I believe many ships go into the mist and their crews perish, unable to find their way out.”
“If she’s capable of creating and keeping up a mist like that,” Gatik agreed, “then she must be a very powerful sorceress.”
Thoran rose to his feet in great annoyance. “Whatever the case, we’re not in any condition to send an army anywhere after this fiasco in the north. Besides, I want what little manpower we have right here, defending the capital in case we’re attacked. Let’s not
