dead.'
She shrugged. 'He has not been seen for years. I once saw mercenaries in Bhelraohwsyn showing a skeletal hand and arm in a great glass vessel amongst their battle spoils and claiming it as his. 'Twas hacked from him by their swords, they said, that turned to smoke in their hands in the doing, as they took part in his slaying.'
Rod nodded. 'And they've not been seen again, yes? Nor the bones?'
'Indeed, they have not. These thirteen summers, now.'
'Uh-huh. And where's this Bell-r-oww-sin place?'
'On the east bank of the Ladruar, where it empties into the Sea of Storms.'
Rod frowned, genuinely curious. 'Whatever were you doing there?'
'A task of the Aumrarr. A secret task.'
Rod opened his mouth to tell her that he'd created the Aumrarr, so she should hardly be keeping secrets from him, and then shut it again without saying anything.
Taeauna smiled at him as if he'd done something very noble, and murmured, 'Thank you, lord.'
Rod shrugged and proceeded to ask the next of the dozens of small questions that were now crowding into his mind. 'The Dark Helms, Tay: what are they? Who commands them?'
'Taeauna, lord. They are warriors. Cruel men in dark armor, who obey the orders given them by the one who sent them: a wizard, almost always one of the Three Dooms. Sometimes their swords or their armor or even their touch imparts fell magic on foes, but that is the doing of their sender, not any power of their own. They are slayers, sometimes battle-veterans, but they are men, no more and no less.'
'So this 'appearing out of thin air' business?'
'The wizards translocate them, by teleport and tantlar.'
Rod frowned. 'Teleport is a word I know and have written in Falconfar tales, but what is 'tantlar?''
'Before you first wrote that word, and the wizards learned to telep-'
'Wait. Forgive me, Tay-Taeauna, sorry-but are you telling me that when I write about a new spell, it falls into the laps, or the minds, I suppose, of the three wizards? Or all wizards?'
Taeauna spread her hands in a 'you're asking we?' gesture. 'Sometimes, it seems so, yes. The Dooms, however, are in a race to master the most magic, so as to destroy each other. They can't wait for your next book to hand them all the same new magic; they need to gain magic their rivals don't have. So they experiment, as all lesser wizards do, seeking to craft new spells.'
Rod nodded. 'Slow and dangerous.'
Taeauna nodded, too. 'Wherefore they spend much time and effort-and the lives of their underlings: hirelings and monsters and apprentice wizards they promise magic to, in exchange for service-in exploring and plundering tombs and ruins and anywhere else they think the magic of dead wizards, old magic, may lie waiting. That's what all of this conquering holds and subverting lordlings is about: seizing control of places that might yield up magic. Thankfully, scrying magic is weak, so they must send eyes to watch us if they want to see much. More than one hold and all of the larger lands, has seen knifings and larger battles between the spies of one wizard, and the spies of another.'
Rod nodded. 'I've used that! The plot of…'
Then he waved that thought away impatiently, aghast at the realization that he'd written about those warring agents without ever thinking the characters might be serving shadowy wizards.
'Sorry,' he told Taeauna rather tersely. 'You were telling me about teleport magic, and tantlar, whatever that is, and I interrupted. Could we go back to… uh… before I wrote the word 'teleport' and the wizards soon after learned a teleport spell…'
'Yes, lord. Before then, the Dooms, and all wizards, had to send someone to a place to work tantlar magic. After, they often teleport that someone, and it remains someone, since they can only teleport one agent at a time.'
Rod nodded. 'Okay, so what's tantlar, and where did it come from?'
Taeauna shrugged. 'I know not; tantlar-work is old. Lorontar is infamous for using it, with his skeletons.'
Seeing Rod's baffled expression, she explained. 'Lorontar suffered no Dark Helms to fight for him, or stand guard at his tower. He used human skeletons animated and commanded by him to swing swords. There were priests in those days, who went about in cowled robes, and Lorontar's skeletons often used such garb to fool folk until it was too late.'
'Charming,' Rod grunted. 'Okay, so tantlar magic works well with skeletons.'
The Aumrarr nodded. 'Better than with Dark Helms. The fire, you see…'
'No, I don't see. What fire?'
Taeauna smiled patiently. 'Lord, let me explain.'
'Er, please do. Sorry.'
'Think of a place distant from a wizard; an inn, or a farmhouse, that the wizard wants conquered or searched. Lorontar would send several skeletons, separately, in case they were seen and attacked on the journey by fearful Falconaar. They would move by night, not needing rest nor provender, traveling by day only in wilderlands, otherwise keeping hidden. The Dooms, today, would teleport a Dark Helm instead.'
'Right. So one of these skeletons makes it to the inn.'
'The skeleton nears the inn, finds a sheltered plaice not easily seen by folk who might raise alarum, gathers kindling and firewood, and starts a fire.'
'With flint and steel,' Rod ventured, nodding. He'd written of characters doing just that, many times.
'Indeed. A goodly campfire is lit, and the skeleton then drops a metal token into it that the wizard enspelled earlier, and sent with it. This is the tantlar; the fire awakens it. The wizard has a matching tantlar, magically linked to the one in the fire, but still under his hand, far away, where the skeleton set out from.'
Rod nodded again, seeing where this was going.
'Any creature induced to touch the wizard's tantlar can then be transported across Falconfar in an instant, to the tantlar in the fire, by a far lesser spell than a teleport. So the wizard can cast many tantlar spells, and send dozens, even scores, of creatures swiftly to a distant tantlar.'
'I should use this in a book,' Rod muttered. 'I could…' He stopped as fear flared on Taeauna's face, and said quickly, 'Right. I see why arriving in a fire could harm skeletons less than living men, who have feet that burn, in boots that burn.'
'Yes. The tantlar can be retrieved from the fire without ending the magic, though the chance of sending more warriors is instantly ended, but when that fire goes out, all of the transported creatures, alive or dead, no matter where they are, get magically 'snatched back' to the first tantlar, or the wizard's tantlar. Along with everything they're wearing, carrying, or holding that isn't alive, and is smaller than they are.'
'Hmm. What if someone doesn't want to go back?'
'They have to cast a spell to sever the link. I don't know what such magics are called, or how they are worked, but I know they have been worked. So enraging the Dooms, in both cases, that they teleported new agents to the spot, to bring other searchers by means of another pair of tantlar, and hunted down the wayward apprentice… it was one of their apprentices, seeking to escape, in both cases.'
Rod shook his head, feeling as wary as Taeauna looked. 'I see. I also see that what 1 don't know about Falconfar is going to get me killed, if I'm not careful.'
'I will defend you with my life, lord,' the Aumrarr hissed at him fervently. 'You are Falconfar's last hope!'
'Your last hope, you mean,' Rod murmured, smiling to try not to alarrg her further. 'Falconfar doesn't know I'm even here. Thank God.'
'What is this 'God?''
'Never mind. Just something I curse by. So are all wizards evil?'
Taeauna hesitated. 'All wizards are… dangerous. Their power makes them impatient for more, and they can easily become evil.'
'But magic isn't evil; you Aumrarr use magic, and are good. I know you are, I…'
Rod fell silent. It felt wrong, somehow, to say, 'because I created you that way.' He wasn't going to get to the verge of saying so again, if he could manage it.
