The Ambassador's Mission

graduate.”

“So what sorts of magic do you learn at the University?”

“At first a range of things,” he told her. “Magic, of course, but also non-magical studies like history and strategy. Most of us turn out to be better at something, and eventually we get to choose which of the three disciplines we’ll follow: Healing, Warrior Studies or Alchemy.”

“What did you choose?”

“Alchemy. You can tell which of us are Alchemists because we wear purple. Healers wear green and Warriors wear red.”

Chari frowned. “What do Alchemists do?”

“Everything that Healers and Warriors don’t do,” Lorkin explained. “Mainly it involves magic but sometimes not. Ambassador Dannyl, the magician I came here with and am supposed to be assisting, is a historian, which doesn’t involve magic at all.”

“Can you choose two disciplines? Be an Alchemist and a Warrior – or an Alchemist and a Healer? Or—”

“We already know this, Chari,” Tyvara interrupted.

Lorkin turned to regard her. She looked at him apologetically. “We’re taught about the Guild along with the culture of many other lands during our training,” she told him.

“Yes, but I didn’t pay much attention at the time,” Chari replied. “It’s so much more interesting when it comes from an actual Kyralian magician.”

Lorkin turned back to find her looking at him expectantly. “You were saying?” she prompted.

He shook his head. “No, we can’t choose more than one discipline, but we all get a basic education in the three.”

“So you can Heal?”

“Yes, but not with the skill and knowledge of a fully trained Healer.”

Chari opened her mouth to ask another question, but Tyvara cut in before she could speak.

“You can ask questions in return,” she told Lorkin. “Chari may not be able to answer some of them, but if you let her do all the asking she’ll interrogate you all the way to the mountains.”

He looked at Tyvara in surprise. Throughout their journey from Arvice she had been reluctant to answer his questions. At his stare, her lips pressed into a thin line and she shifted her gaze to Chari. He turned to look at the other woman. Chari was regarding Tyvara with amusement.

“Well, then,” she said, turning to Lorkin. “What would you like to know?”

Though there were hundreds of things he wanted to know about the Traitors and their secret home, and Chari seemed much more receptive to questions, he suspected that Tyvara’s habit of secrecy would soon have her stopping him and Chari talking at all. Was there anything he could safely ask about the Traitors, when so much information about them was secret?

I definitely shouldn’t ask how they block mind-reading. Though I still suspect it involves a process similar to making a blood gem. Suddenly he remembered the references to a storestone in the records he’d read for Dannyl.

Was there any risk in mentioning the storestone? It wasn’t as if he knew where to find it, or how to make one, so he wouldn’t be putting a weapon into the Traitor’s hands if he talked about it.

“Remember how I said that Ambassador Dannyl is a historian?” he asked.

Chari nodded.

“He’s writing a history of magic. We’ve both done a bit of research here in Sachaka. Dannyl is more interested in filling the gaps of our history – how the wasteland was created, or when and how Imardin was destroyed and rebuilt. I’m more interested in how old kinds of magic worked.”

He paused to gauge their reaction. Chari was watching him intently, while Tyvara regarded him with one eyebrow raised, which he took to indicate interest and a little surprise.

“When I was taking notes for Dannyl I found a reference to an object called a storestone,” he continued, “that was kept in Arvice after the Sachakan War. It was clearly a thing of great power. It was lost a few years after the war – apparently stolen by a Kyralian magician. Do you know anything about it?”

Chari looked at Tyvara, who shrugged and shook her head.

“I don’t know about that one, but I know a bit about storestones,” Chari told him. “Anyone would guess from the name that they are stones that store power. Which would be very useful. But they’re rare. So rare that individual stones were once given names and their histories recorded as if they were people. All the ones we’ve heard of were destroyed long ago. It’s probably over a thousand years, probably more, since the last one existed. If this storestone existed just after the Sachakan War, it is the most recent record of one. So you didn’t know about it until recently?”

He shook his head.

She looked thoughtful. “Then either the thief hid it much too effectively, or it was broken. You said Imardin was destroyed and rebuilt?”

“Yes.”

“Breaking a storestone is supposed to be dangerous. It releases the power within it in an uncontrolled way. Maybe that’s what destroyed Imardin.”

Lorkin frowned. “I suppose that’s possible.” He considered the idea. I’ve always doubted that the Mad Apprentice could have been powerful enough to cause that much devastation, but what if he had the storestone?

“We could ask the record keepers at Sanctuary,” Chari said. “About older storestones, that is. I doubt they know anything about Imardin’s history.”

“Queen Zarala might,” Tyvara said.

Chari’s eyebrows rose. “I suppose if she lets him into the city, she’ll want to check him out.”

“She will.” Tyvara eyed him with a strange, smug amusement. “Definitely.”

Chari chuckled and turned to Lorkin. “Are you sure you want to come to Sanctuary?”

“Of course.”

“Tyvara has told you that it’s run by women, hasn’t she? Men can’t go bossing people about. Even magicians like you.”

He shrugged. “I have no desire to boss anyone about.”

She smiled. “You’re such a reasonable man. I always thought Kyralians were arrogant and dishonest. I guess you can’t all be the same. Tyvara wouldn’t be taking you there if you were. And it’s so sweet of you to come all this way and risk your life for Tyvara.”

“Well, she did save my life.”

“That’s true.” Chari reached out and patted his arm lightly. “Honourable and good-looking. I reckon you’ll do well. My people will change their minds about Kyralians once they meet you.”

“Yes, in no time we’ll be exchanging gifts and swapping recipes,” Tyvara muttered dryly.

Lorkin turned to look at her. She met his eyes briefly, then looked away, frowning. She’s not happy about something, he thought. His heart skipped a beat. Does she think Chari is going to betray us?

“So tell me more about the Guild,” Chari said behind him.

Tyvara rolled her eyes and sighed. Relief and amusement replaced apprehension. She was simply irritated by Chari’s chatter. Well, I hope that’s it. I wish I could talk to her. They’d not had a private moment together since Chari had found them.

He felt a stab of frustration. I wish I could talk to many people. Mother and Dannyl for a start. He thought of the blood gem still hidden in the spine of his notebook, tucked into his clothing. He’d had no chance to use it without revealing it to Tyvara. And now Chari was with them, there would be even less opportunity to use it. Perhaps he should have let Tyvara know he had it. But it is my only link to the Guild. If I’m going to chance losing it, I must wait until the risk is unavoidable. And if I’m going to negotiate any sort of trade or alliance between the Guild and Traitors, I’ll need a way to communicate between them.

In the meantime, he might as well do his best to establish good relations between his country and the Traitors. Turning back to Chari, he smiled.

“More about the Guild? What would you like to know?”