spymaster. Do you understand what's going wrong?'
Malark shrugged. ''We knew it would be perilous for our armies to take the field under current conditions. And that the necromancers were still formidable even with their powers weakened. But I still believe the decision to take the offensive was a sound one. We still have reason to hope for victory.'
'I'm glad to hear you think so. Now, will you trust me with a dispatch or two?'
'Certainly.' Fortunately, many of them were inconsequential. Malark didn't really think Aoth would succumb to idle curiosity, open a message, and read it along the way. Though far from stupid, the griffon rider was also a straightforward fellow with ingrained habits of military discipline. But it was best to be safe.
Malark looked down and rummaged in the box of scrolls. Aoth gasped.
Once more poised to kill if necessary, Malark turned around. 'Are you all right?'
'Yes,' Aoth said. 'My eyes just gave me a twinge.' He rubbed them. 'They still ache every once in a while.'
'Are you sure you want to take on this duty?'
'Oh, yes.' The war mage hesitated. 'But I'll tell you what. To start with, give me something that's going to Pyarados. It's a short trip there and back.'
CHAPTER EIGHT
19 Flamerule-14 Eleasias, the Year of Blue Fire
Wearing a murky, wavering semblance of his true face, Mirror trailed Bareris into the griffons' aerie. Now that the bard had returned, the ghost meant to resume his practice of following him around.
Bareris saluted and stood at attention, and Aoth left him that way for a long breath. Eventually, he said, 'I'm taking back command of the Griffon Legion.'
'Of course.' Bareris smiled. 'If you recall, I predicted you would.'
'Cordial words can't mend our friendship,' Aoth snapped. 'Not even if you sweeten them with magic.'
Bareris's mouth twisted. 'I wasn't. I won't do that ever again. I was wrong to do it before, and I'm ready to leave the legion if that's what you'd prefer.'
'Does anything remain for you to leave?' Aoth waved his spear at the many vacant cavelike stalls and the wounded griffons occupying others. The sharp smell of the salves used to treat the animals' gashes and burns blended with the normal cat-and-bird stink of the aerie.
'Captain, it's true I lost mounts and riders. But we succeeded in killing Xingax and destroying his manufactory.'
'Which is all that matters, isn't it? Your revenge.'
'I won't deny feeling that way. But destroying Xingax was the task our masters set me.'
Aoth sighed and felt a little of his anger seep out of him. 'You're right, it was. And fortunately, you didn't take the whole of the legion with you to High Thay. Maybe, when the rest return from Delhumide, it will turn out there are enough left to lead. But considering the tidings of late, I wouldn't count on it.'
Bareris frowned. 'It is much worse than I thought it would be. I understood the hazards, but still, I never imagined the campaign would go so badly.'
'Has it occurred to you that there might be a reason? A reason beyond the obvious, I mean.'
'What are you talking about?'
Aoth took a breath. 'When I was blind, I told you I occasionally glimpsed things invisible to normal sight. Now that I can see properly again, that's even more true. I can see in the dark, or through a blindfold. When an illusionist casts a glamer, I see it, but I also see through it.'
'That… sounds useful.'
'Once in a while, I also see signs. After you tampered with my mind, I saw you dangling a puppet made in my image, and when the guards came to march me to my death-'
'Someone ordered your death?'
Aoth waved the interruption away. 'I saw knives in their hands. Not long ago, I saw Malark's face turn into a naked skull.'
Bareris hesitated. 'And you thought, a skull to signify allegiance to Szass Tam, or that Malark's a deadly menace to our cause? Mightn't it simply mean that he's a skilled fighter and assassin? You and I have seen the proof of that, time after time.'
'Yes. So this new sight of mine didn't need to conjure a phantasm to tell me.'
'You're assuming you understand how it works, and that it works efficiently. You could be mistaken.'
'Maybe.'
'Why would Malark, of all people, turn traitor ten years in? He stood with us when we defied Szass Tam himself. He kept the lich from taking Bezantur in the first tendays of the war.'
'I don't know. I've always trusted him, and I'd like to go on doing it. I mentioned I was nearly killed. The zulkirs hit on the idea of vivisecting me to learn more about the blue fire. I wouldn't be here if Malark hadn't interceded. I feel like a filthy traitor myself just for suspecting him of treachery.'
'But you saw his face turn into a skull.'
'That's only part of it. Short of a zulkir, who's the one person who, if he turned traitor, could do the most to ruin our campaign? Our spymaster, the grand collector of information and disseminator of orders and intelligence. He could reveal all our plans and the disposition of our forces to Szass Tam. Steer our troops into ambuscades, or into the path of the blue fire. Sow rivalry and mistrust among our officers. Kossuth knows, they're all jealous of their positions as it is.'
Bareris fingered his chin. 'I'm still not convinced, but we did run into an interesting situation on the flight home.'
'What?'
'Some of Dimon's troops expected to march over clear terrain, but instead found their way blocked by a new chasm and an abomination that climbed out of it. They assumed that the blue fire had passed by recently. But the griffon riders had spent the day flying high enough to see a long way, and we hadn't spotted any blue flame.'
'So it's possible Malark deliberately guided Dimon's soldiers into difficulty.'
'I suppose. But why are you telling me this? Take your suspicions to the zulkirs.'
Aoth scowled. 'I can't. I mean, I won't accuse a friend unless I'm certain. I especially don't want to do it when it's my sight that put my thoughts running in this direction.'
'I understand. You barely escaped being vivisected. If they learned that you've acquired extraordinary abilities, they might insist on slicing you up after all.'
'Yes. And if that weren't bad enough, I also have to recognize that Dmitra Flass values Malark, trusts him as much as any zulkir ever trusts anyone. She has reason. He saved her life at the Keep of Sorrows.'
'So you can't denounce Malark, at least not yet, but you can't forget what you've seen, either. You'll need proof, and you must be telling me because you want
It was a good question. Aoth supposed it was because even though Bareris had betrayed him once, in the decade leading up to that moment of treachery, he'd been as faithful a comrade as anyone could want. No matter how grim and morose he became, how utterly indifferent to his own well-being, he'd always given his utmost when Aoth needed him.
But Aoth didn't want to acknowledge that out loud. 'I'm asking you because you owe me,' he said. And that was true as well.
'I do,' Bareris said, 'and of course I'll help you, even to spy on another friend. But I hope you turn out to be wrong.'
'So do I.' Aoth hesitated and tried to rein in his curiosity, but didn't quite manage it. 'You're… different. This Tammith. Even changed, she's what you need?'
Bareris smiled a smile that conveyed happiness and rue in equal measure. 'In life, she was a river. Undeath
