‘Haven’t you heard? The King is dead. The Congress meets in a day to elect a new king. Of course the Prince of Krondor has to be there.’
Holding his orders as if they were so much scrap, Martin said, ‘What am I to do with this?’
‘Hold on to it, I suggest,’ offered the captain. ‘Find an inn: there should be plenty of rooms now that the Western Armies are marching home, and wait until someone comes for you.’
‘What of the Duke?’ asked Brendan.
‘Duke of Krondor? He’s with the Prince. As is Lord Sutherland, the Duke of Yabon, the Earl of LaMut, the Baron of Land’s End, and every other titled noble in the west. You’re a duke’s son and brother: for all I know you may be the highest ranking noble left. We’ve got a squire or two hanging around, but if there’s a real nobleman this side of Malac’s Cross, I’ll be surprised.’
Martin bade him thanks and turned away. Outside, they returned to the stables and saw their horses were about to be untacked. They waved away the lackeys and mounted up again. ‘We’ll give the horses a feedbag and water when we find an inn,’ said Brendan.
One of the lackeys said, ‘Try the Swan and Rook, down the road a bit on the right. Very nice place, I’ve been told.’
They thanked him and rode on. ‘So what do we do now?’ Brendan asked.
‘Find an inn. Care for the horses. Eat our first decent meal in a week, and drink a lot of ale or wine or whatever the Armies of the West haven’t consumed, and wait.’
‘What are we waiting for?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ said Martin.
Hal, Ty, Jim and Ruffio appeared in the courtyard of Jim’s private apartment in Rillanon. A moment later Jim said, ‘Something’s wrong.’
‘How do you know?’ asked Hal.
‘I know this city like the beat of my heart, as well as I know Krondor, and there’s something very wrong. Come along.’
He moved into the main hall and found a palace page sleeping on the floor beside the door. With a gentle nudge of his toe, Jim awoke the boy. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Your grandfather, sir, the Duke.’ The boy tried not to yawn and failed. ‘Sorry.’
‘That’s all right, boy,’ said Jim. ‘Now, what about my grandfather?’
‘He said if you arrived here before the palace to come straight away. He doesn’t care if you’re covered in three days of road dirt, just come.’
Jim nodded and said, ‘We’ll be along straight away.’
‘My lord,’ said the boy. ‘There’s been a carriage outside since dawn and all night and dawn again, and I’m to tell you …’ he cleared his voice, ‘“to get your arse into the coach and stop mucking about.” That was what the Duke told me to say, sir. Not my idea.’
Jim smiled. ‘All right. Let’s go,’ he motioned to the others, and they followed the boy outside.
The carriage that waited bore the ducal crest of Rillanon and the boy woke up the sleeping driver. From the mess beneath the team of horses it was clear they had been made to stand in traces for a full day, the driver and footman no doubt feeding and watering them where they stood.
As he climbed into the carriage, Jim said, ‘We’ll need a good rain to wash that lot.’
Once inside, Hal said, ‘What could be so urgent that it can’t wait another day? The King’s funeral isn’t until tomorrow and the Congress doesn’t meet for four days.’
They rounded a circular roadway, then climbed a hillside towards the palace. It took them close to the city’s outer wall and Ty said, ‘I think I see why your grandfather wanted you here straight away.’
Just beyond the wall, hundreds of tents had been pitched and the smoke from campfires filled the afternoon sky. Sentries had been placed in picket lines across the length of the encampment, facing the wall, and dark blue banners flew from tall standards.
Jim sat back, looking as if he’d just eaten something very unpleasant. ‘The Army of Maladon and Simrick. It looks like Prince Oliver arrived early and he’s decided he won’t take no for an answer.’
They rode the rest of the way to the palace in silence.
Pug pushed forward as gently as he could, his mind probing deeper into what he had come to think of as the ‘red lock’ that held together the matrix.
Magnus, Miranda, and Nakor all in their own way added their magical ability to his own. But rather than any sort of brute force, they were attempting to prevent the triggering of a trap, setting off an alarm or otherwise doing damage to the structure.
Pug was attempting to ‘draw’ a map in his and their minds as they went. Nakor had observed some time earlier that the matrix was something like a maze, but in three dimensions. ‘Even that’s an illusion,’ he had observed. ‘We are dealing with state of energy, the very fabric of reality.’
They continued their exploration.
The heavens exploded as Rider urged her mount down the Celestial Highway, oblivious to the splendour on all sides. Making the translation from the Bliss to the mortal realms took the fabrication of time, and for a while her thoughts were still tethered to the Bliss. As she sped farther from the Presence of the Source, she felt an identity emerging and her perceptions gathered inward, coalescing into a sense of self. At the end of the transition, the necessary shift from cosmic awareness to a limited sentience defined by her own physical perceptions, her identity returned. She was Rider, and her mission was vital.
Around her, star fields collided, releasing unimaginable furies of super-heated, illuminating heaven’s arc with colours to confound the human eye. Great engines of energy pulsed beams billions of miles into the night, and in clouds of gas vast beyond measure, stars were born.
The vault of the sky was cluttered with the spinning orbs of universes birthing or dying. The procession of reality’s evolution unfolded as time was warped and events ages apart appeared to her simultaneously. She did not pause to consider the magnificence of her surroundings as she raced downward, into the Rainbow Vortex. She was not equipped to appreciate the splendour, for she had no basis for comparison.
She had ridden this way countless times, yet could not remember a single previous mission. Previous memories did not return when Rider was dispatched as Heaven’s harbinger, and it was as if she were born anew. She did not question the why of it; she was content to know that when she had finished her task, she would once more return to the Presence and enter the Bliss.
A clattering of hooves told her she was no longer a thing of mind and sprit, but now a physical thing, and her mount was upon the Crystal Highway. The Crystal Highway appeared at the boundary of the realm of creation defined by thought, limitless in scope, and composed entirely of energy. Behind it lay perfect spiritual happiness, the state of oneness with all; beyond lay a transition from perfect harmony with the Source to becoming mortal once more.
She pressed on.
Hal entered the chamber with Jim, Ruffio and Ty, and found Lord Jamison waiting. ‘We have a bit of a situation,’ said the old man as the four found seats around a small table.
Jim said, ‘If you mean the total armies of Maladon and Simrick sitting outside the city walls, yes, indeed we do.’
‘No foreign army has set foot on this island in five hundred years,’ said the Duke, smacking his hand down hard on the table.
Jim said, ‘Well, as Oliver is King Gregory’s nephew, and those are his armies to command …’
‘When did you become a litigator?’ asked his grandfather.
Jim shrugged.
‘Do you think Oliver will move against the Congress if the vote goes against him?’ asked Hal.
James sat back, looking every bit his seventy-plus years. ‘I don’t know. No noble has raised an army against the Crown since Jon the Pretender, to the everlasting infamy of his name. This may be no more than a reminder that Oliver has powerful allies to the east. The Queen of Roldem is his aunt from Maladon, and that counts for a lot.’ James nodded. ‘If he marries that girl from Roldem, that would give him a solid standing throughout the region.’
‘But he’s not Kingdom-born,’ said Jim, noticing the distress on Hal’s face at the mention of anyone marrying Stephane.
