“Spells of translocation are very difficult under the best of circumstances. They involve manipulating forces of a very high order. The spells required to open the paths between normally require long and complex ritual preparations, as well as enormous power.”
Rik thought he could see where this was going. “Tamara had no time for such.”
“Wounded as she was she should not have been able to maintain the necessary level of concentration to cast such a spell even if she could. At least if she was a normal sorcerer.”
“I don’t follow you.”
“There’s no reason why you should. There are many different types of magic, Rik, and many different ways of invoking them. The Shadowblood had many gifts, magical talents that were bred into them, that they could use as easily as a man can walk or run. Using shadowgates was one of those talents.”
“You are saying these assassins could move through shadows at will.”
“Not at will, Rik. I am guessing now but I believe that opening such a gate would use up considerable energy even for a Shadowblood. I doubt she could open more than one such gate without resting.”
A thought occurred to Rik. “Could you not trace where she went by studying the shadowgate? Would they not leave traces?”
“It’s one of the properties of shadowgates that they fade quickly without leaving such traces. Perhaps if I had been with you and seen the portal before it faded I might have been able to trace it. Now there will not even be the normal residual traces of tau that most magic leaves after it has been used. You can see how such a quality would be useful to an assassin.”
Indeed Rik could. “This is how she reached Elakar.”
“That would be my guess.”
An idea struck Rik with the force of a blow. “No one would be safe from a wizard with such a power. They could come and go as they pleased and no one would ever be able to stop them.”
“You are very nearly correct, Rik. Fortunately they do have some limits.”
“I think I would like to know what they are — for my own safety.”
“The first is that their range is very short. A normal magical portal — at least on Al’Terra could be set up to span continents. A shadowgate can only stretch a few hundred yards.”
“So Tamara must still have been fairly close to us, even after she used the gate?”
“Indeed.”
“What other flaws does this magic have?”
“You can’t just open them anywhere. You need to have a very clear idea in your mind of the exit point, otherwise the gate simply will not open.”
“Why?”
“I do not know. No one does. The theory is that it is a principle of sympathetic magic — you must see the place in your mind in order to be able to go there.”
A thought struck Rik as she was speaking. “We were close to Tamara’s mansion, easily within a few hundred yards. She would have been able to open a gate into the place.”
“Yes. If there were shadows in her room or some other location she was familiar with.”
“Why would there need to be shadows?”
“It’s one of the conditions of the spell. It can only connect two shadows.”
“How could she have gotten into Lord Elakar’s chambers?”
“Perhaps she had been there before.”
“You mean she had been his lover.”
“Lord Elakar was a man of great appetite and vanity. It would have flattered that vanity to number the daughter of Lord Malkior among his conquests.”
“Were they ever seen together?”
“That can be checked. There are other ways she could have done it. If she was familiar with the Palace — which she was. She had visited it often when it was owned by friends of Khaldarus.”
“Are we safe from infiltration here?”
“There’s a reason why I change my room often, Rik, and why I order the furniture moved, and the hangings changed every night.”
You did not get to reach Asea’s age by not being careful about such things. More ideas flooded into his mind in a torrent.
“Lord Malkior would have been familiar with the Palace in which the old Queen was assassinated.”
“Completely familiar.”
“I can see how all your suspicions fit together, Milady. All except one.”
“Which is?”
“How could this spell get past wards?”
“Wards do not extend into all planes, Rik. That would take too much energy.”
“Planes?”
“Think of them as alternate levels of reality, running side by side with our world, like pages lying beside each other in a book.”
“So the Shadowgate allows you to move between two points in our world by leaving it, and passing through the world of Shadows.”
“Yes.”
“Presumably that is why the entrance and exit must be in shadow.”
“It is as good an explanation as any. I am glad you grasped it so quickly.”
“That is where my hand went when I put it into the gate.”
“Yes.”
“It was cold there.”
“Quite possibly airless too. The alternate planes are not always friendly to life, at least not as we know it.”
“So she could not have survived in there for long.”
“No one could. That is why a shadowgate is a relatively short ranged phenomenon.”
Excitement filled Rik. “Could I learn to do this?”
“Given your heritage, it is entirely likely, yes. You have a long way to go before you can weave such complex magic, Rik.”
“But I will be able to do it?”
“Perhaps.” A vision of a world in which he possessed great power sprang into Rik’s mind. All he had to do was live long enough to get to it.
A loud knock sounded on the door. “Who is it?” Asea asked.
“A messenger from Lord Azaar, Milady,” said Karim. “He says it’s a matter most urgent.”
“Have you heard the news?” Lieutenant Jazeray asked.
Sardec looked up from the report he was writing. “News?”
“It seems Lady Tamara’s coach was attacked by highwaymen last night. Her footmen were all slaughtered. She herself only just managed to escape.”
Sardec raised an eyebrow. “She was very lucky then.”
“I don’t know the whole story but it seems she managed to slip out of the other side of the coach while her footmen held the rogues off. She was only a few yards from the door of the Palace when this happened.”
“The local bandits are getting very enterprising.”
“Maybe they were not bandits.”
“What do you mean?”
“The local patriots have been very busy recently. Perhaps they hate the Dark Empire as much as they hate us.”
“We should be so lucky.”
“It could be worse. Think of what would have happened if she had been killed.”
“Would not have reflected very well on our honour, would it? Lady with Ambassador’s portfolio being killed. I have heard Lord Azaar has assigned a team of bodyguards to watch the street outside the mansion. Why are you
