He combines all the disciplines, she reminded herself. It was humbling to realize, at times, just how much she still had to learn. How long will it be before I match him?
Void himself was seated at a wooden work bench, eyes focused on an amulet. Emily stayed back, knowing better to disturb an enchanter at work. The teleport spell was fiendishly complex, even at the very basic level. She dreaded to think how difficult it would be to devise a spell that would allow her to teleport through wards safety. She’d been warned never to try. The slightest mistake would scatter her atoms over the world, never to be recombined. She shuddered and waited, clasping her hands behind her back. He would speak when he was ready.
A flicker of magic darted through the air, then faded. Void held up the amulet and studied it for a long moment, turning it around and around in his hands until he’d looked at it from every angle. Emily could sense the spell inside the gem, a sparkling piece of magical perfection. Void was good. She had accidentally destroyed a dozen gems when she’d been trying to charm them. The spell just didn’t seem to want to remain stable.
“Emily,” Void said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Bad dreams,” Emily said. “And I woke up to a pile of reports.”
Void snorted. “A third of those reports will be lies. Another third will be taken out of context. Another third will be wishful thinking. And yet another third will be something that bears a slight - a very slight - resemblance to the truth. And that is...?”
Emily had to smile. “Four thirds,” she said. “Which is impossible.”
“There’s a great deal of overlap,” Void told her. He held out the amulet. “What do you think?”
“It’s brilliant,” Emily said. Void had layered a dozen spells into the gem, weaving them together until they were practically one. “It’ll work.”
“It should work,” Void cautioned. “Do not use it in a warded room unless there’s no other choice. I haven’t been able to devise a way to test it safely. Even if I did, there are so many variables that it might work perfectly during the test and fail spectacularly when you try it for real. It’ll drop you in Dragon’s Den, the closest safe place to Alluvia. After that... I doubt it will work a second time.”
Emily nodded. “We’ll keep working on it.”
“Yes. We will.” Void stood. “I’ve prepared similar amulets for Silent and Lady Barb. I leave it to you to convince Lady Barb to wear one. She may not trust the spells.”
Or you, Emily thought, darkly.
Void let out a breath. “Did the reports tell you anything useful?”
“A great deal of background information, but very little about the revolt itself,” Emily said, slowly. “The situation is still in flux.”
“Yes.” Void started to pace the chamber. “The kingdom has been a tinderbox for years, Emily. The monarchs used the threat of the necromancers to keep the population in line. Be good or the necromancers will get you, they said. They weren’t entirely wrong, but - as you know - the necromancers were on the far side of an impassable mountain range, with Whitehall blocking the only viable pass. I think there were people in Alluvia who didn’t really believe in the necromancers. And now...”
“The necromancers are gone,” Emily finished. “And all hell has broken loose.”
“Yes.” Void stopped and turned to face her. “The monarchs demanded huge sacrifices from their people for the war, most of which were either wasted or completely pointless. Their people had - have - good reason to be angry. And that’s true for most of the Allied Lands.”
“I know,” Emily said.
“I understand why you want to go,” Void said. “But you must consider, right now, the possibility of failure.”
Emily nodded. “I have to try.”
“Yes.” Void turned away. “And yet, the odds are not good.”
He walked down the stairs. Emily felt the wards pushing at her and turned to follow him, her thoughts a churning mess. She wanted to try... no, she wanted to succeed. And yet, she had a feeling Void was right. She might fail completely. If there was someone pulling the strings, someone lurking in the shadows... Nanette? She’d worked with rebels and rioters in Zangaria before. Why wouldn’t she do it again? But why Alluvia? It wasn’t as if Nanette or Emily had any real connection to Alluvia.
She frowned at Void’s back. “Why Alluvia?”
Void said nothing for a long moment. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, why would someone trigger a revolution in Alluvia?” Emily frowned as she considered the problem. “Why there?”
“You’re assuming there is someone behind the revolution,” Void reminded her. “The monarchs are looking for a secret evil mastermind, the evilest of evils, because they cannot face up to the prospect they might be to blame. King Jorlem, a man so egotistical he named his capital city after himself, isn’t likely to believe his own people hate him so much they want to overthrow him. Like I said, it’s easier to blame someone else than face up to your own failings.”
“Yes,” Emily said. “But it happened so quickly.”
“Yes,” Void agreed. He stopped and turned to face her. “King Jorlem’s people had plenty of reason to dislike him, even to hate him. There’s no need to invent an international plot when local rebel factions can plot revolution on their own, without someone putting ideas in their heads. It wouldn’t be that hard to start laying the groundwork for an uprising, then take advantage of the original riot to get the people on the streets. All they needed was a contingency plan and a great deal of luck.”
Emily nodded, slowly. “And yet, I have orders to find the person responsible.”
Void laughed. “You can start by arresting the king,” he said. “If he’s in a cell, in rebel hands, he
