followed. 'One of the lords at Kenton's castle when I was there. Melizar grows bold indeed if he can snatch away the nobility as well as bondsmen.'
Jemidon looked down at the sleeping lord and rubbed his chin. 'He may know something of value. If we secure him away as you did me, how long until he can speak?'
'It took you four days,' Delia said. 'For someone older, who knows how long it would be?'
'We can ill afford to wait.' Jemidon frowned. 'How deep is the sleep?'
'If you stimulate him enough, he might respond,' Delia said, 'but only in snatches and they will be incoherent, at that.'
Jemidon reached down to roll Burdon over, but felt a numbing twinge in his shoulder. He looked up to see one of the dusting imps hovering overhead and quickly sprang aside.
'Drag him back into my sprite's sphere,' Delia said. 'We will withdraw from the rest.'
Jemidon grunted and pulled at Burden's bulk.
'Rebellion,' the lord mumbled. 'The archmage, wizards, and wine.'
Jemidon ducked to the side as the imp made another pass and then heaved Burdon from one sphere to the next. In a few minutes, he had crammed the lord into Delia's globe. Awkwardly, he squeezed in beside her and tried to keep his balance as the giant ball of emptiness rolled away from the rest.
'Thirty years,' Burdon mumbled. 'Who would have thought of treachery by my steward after thrice a decade? They have all lost their senses. Drugs in the wine. Swinging scythes like madmen, not caring whom they struck down.'
'Where is the high prince?' Jemidon shook the man's arm. 'What did Kenton do after the battle in the pass?'
'Kenton, Kenton.' Burdon's eyes flickered open for a moment in a glassy stare. 'Of his, I am not surprised. So hard. He pressed them so hard. But my own. My very own, along with the rest. As if ensorcelled, although that can no longer be.
'And now it is full rebellion. There are thousands up on the slopes. No matter how many the high prince and the others muster, they will not easily storm these cliffs against the flails and rakes. They have even taken the cages and dragged them up the mountainside for all the plains to see. They are a symbol, a measure of their defiance, and a taunt for the high prince's men to mount an attack.'
'Another battle!' Jemidon exclaimed. 'I would think the high prince would move with caution after what happened at Plowblade Pass.'
'The pass. The battle,' Burdon wheezed. 'This is far graver than the skirmish of a few companies. Far graver, no matter which side you believe was the final victor. Now all the baronies, and all their minions, are drawing together to put down the insurrection. But what if they fail? Yes, what then? Everyone is afraid to uncover what he knows to be true. If the leather vests carry the day, there is nothing standing between them and the palaces in Searoyal.
'And I saw the gravity of the situation, even if no one else did.' Burdon waved his arm, suddenly more alert. 'I sent for the archmage. It is not only catapult and shield that we are dealing with. The wizards and alchemists and all the rest whom he can muster will be needed as well. I rode with an escort of six to where he had agreed to meet at dusk. A few swallows of wine from the flagon on my saddle horn quenched my thirst. There is something wrong. I feel dizzy. I must sleep.'
Burden's face relaxed. His arm fell to his side. Eyes snapped shut; lips vibrated with the beginnings of a snore.
'The archmage is nearby,' Jemidon said. 'He would listen for sure. Far better than Kenton or the high prince.'
Jemidon looked up and surveyed his surroundings in a new light. 'Exactly where are we now? How far to the archmage and in what direction?'
Burdon did not answer. Jemidon shook his arm and then both shoulders with more vigor, but nothing happened. Frowning, he let the lord slip back into the bottom of the sphere.
'Each passing moment is time in Melizar's favor,' he said. 'We must be away.' He looked around the small bubble again, this time more critically, searching for some clues that would lead to an escape. He studied the walls in the hope of seeing a fissure and then stared up at the ceiling, trying to imagine exactly where they might be.
'Delia, your sprite,' he said suddenly. 'How can it be that you can order him about? Certainly you are no wizard. And I know the basics of the theory. There is no gratitude or courtesies with the likes of an imp or a sprite.'
'I do not dominate him as would a wizard,' Delia said. 'He already has a master.' She shrugged. 'And despite whatever you say is the theory, he states he has done what he has for favor received.'
'You were able to persuade him to pull this sphere away from the rest,' Jemidon said.
'It is not truly separate. To tangency was as far as I could persuade him. And for that, even in his misshapen face, I could see the struggle not to comply. He says he can act only insofar as it does not conflict with the instructions of his master.'
'But to give him instructions at all, somehow you must-'
Jemidon halted and snapped his mouth shut. He frowned as he felt his thoughts begin to race off to solve a new riddle. There was no time for that now. Their escape was the important matter at hand. Resolutely, he forced his concentration back in the proper direction.
He turned his attention to the walls, judging distances in the featureless surroundings. 'The void seems larger in area than the tent that rests upon it,' he said. 'Did you try sending the imp upward as well as to the left and right?'
'To what purpose?'
'We might not be that far beneath the surface.'
'I thought of that myself,' Delia said. 'Even if the sprite were to break through to free air, there would be no way for me to climb. The curved walls are too smooth.'
'Not the walls, but my shoulders,' Jemidon said quickly. 'I saw the distance Burdon descended. It cannot be far. Yes, that is it, Delia. We must burst through to the surface and then run for the archmage as best we can. Tell your sprite to rejoin the rest and then to ascend above them as the one in the center did.'
'A moment.' Delia grasped at Jemidon's arm as he squirmed to turn around. 'You act no differently from the way you did at the presentation hall. All inspiration, but with no plan to see the idea through. Suppose I were to get to the surface. What then? More likely than not, I would find myself in the middle of some armed camp. And even if I could escape and flee to the opposition, what tale would I tell? How could I do better than you at Kenton's feasting?'
'We have no time for detail,' Jemidon said. 'I will think of more as we go along.'
'As no doubt you did before charging into the vault in the grotto?'
Jemidon opened his mouth to rattle off a rebuttal, but then stopped and frowned. 'Those are hard words for one whose intent was to save you from your fate. Despite what I said to Melizar above, the quest was at least in part for you.'
'You are like the raw elixir of the alchemist, Jemidon.' Delia reached out and stroked his arm. 'I mean no disrespect of what you say. The power of your thoughts fumes and sparks. You show a great talent for seeing the solution where for others the goal is unclear. But as for means, you dash forward, grasping the first thought that comes, without a hint of a plan.'
'I cannot help how I think.' Jemidon pushed her arm away, suddenly irritated. 'And it has served you well on more than one occasion already. It was not detailed instructions that slew Drandor's pets. A carefully reasoned treatise did not misdirect Erid's blade in the presentation hall.'
'Nor was it your forethought that brought the dagger when the second of the beasts was at your throat. Your inspiration did not list all the props that made Farnel's glamour possible in such a short time.'
Jemidon scowled and grabbed at the brandel dangling about his neck. He ran his tongue over his lips, formulating what to say. He looked deeply into Delia's eyes.
She moved her hand forward a second time, but stopped short of placing it on his arm. Palm upward, it rested on the curve of the sphere halfway between where they knelt.
Jemidon looked aside and let out his breath. He rubbed the brandel stiffly between his fingers. The hint that
