Stalking Darkness n-2 Page 3

  Nysander affected a pained look. "I would remind you of the oaths you have given—"

  Seregil held up a hand, grinning smugly. "I know, I know. But after all your restrictions and secrecy, I think I've earned the right to gloat a little. All it says is, "Stone within ice within stone within ice. Horns of crystal beneath horns of stone." Or vice versa. There's no way of telling which is meant to be the first line. Why he would go to such extremes to hide anything as obscure as this is beyond me, though."

  "Not at all, not at all!" Nysander clapped Seregil on the shoulder, then began pacing excitedly. "The palimpsest begins in Asuit Old Style, an archaic language of Plenimar, which predates the Hierophantic settlements. The seemingly meaningless hidden phrase "argucth chthon hrig" operates as the key word to the hidden writing. This, in turn, is composed in the alphabet of the Hierophantic court, based at that period on the island of Kouros, yet in the language of an obscure tribe of the southern mountains across the Osiat Sea near Aurenen. I had reason to suspect as much but you, dear boy, have provided the final clues. What an amazing document!"

  Seregil, meanwhile, had been doing some further pondering of his own. "The Dravnian tribes keep to the highest valleys of the Ashek Range, building their villages along the edges of the ice fields. "Stone within ice within stone within ice." And the horns of stone part reminds me of a story the mountain traders used to tell, something about a place up there where demons dance across the snow to drink the blood of the living. It was called the Horned Valley."

  Nysander halted in front of Seregil, grinning broadly. "You have a mind like a magpie's nest, dear boy! I never know what odd bit of treasure will tumble from it next."

  "If the Homed Valley really exists, then all this" — Seregil tapped the stained vellum—"it's not just some convoluted riddle. It's a map."

  "And perhaps not the only one," said Nysander. "According to recent intelligence from Plenimar, several expeditionary forces have been dispatched west toward the Strait of Bal. We could not imagine what they were up to, but the Ashek peninsula lies in that direction."

  "At this time of year?" Seregil shook his head.

  Crossing the Bal meant making for the southern rim of the Osiat Sea, a place of dangerous shoals and forbidding coastlines in the best of weather. In the winter it would be worse than treacherous. "So whatever this "stone within ice" thing is, the Plenimarans want it pretty badly. And I take it you don't mean for them to get it?"

  "I hope that you will assist me in forestalling that event."

  "Well, it would certainly help to know what I'm looking for. If it wouldn't mean revealing too many sacred mysteries, that is."

  "It is rumored to be a crown or circlet of some sort," Nysander told him. "More importantly, it possesses powers similar to those of the coin, which you have already experienced."

  Seregil grimaced at the memory. "Then I'll be certain not to wear it this time. But if your information is correct, haven't the Plenimarans stolen a march on us?"

  "Perhaps not. The fact that they sent several expeditions suggests that they do not know the object's precise location. We, on the other hand, may have just determined that. And I am able to transport you there in a much swifter fashion."

  Seregil blanched. "Oh, no! You can't—translocation from here to the Asheks? Nysander, I'll be puking for hours."

  "I am sorry, but this matter is too important to chance anything else. Which brings us to the matter of Alec. Will he be difficult about being left behind?"

  Seregil raked a hand through his hair. "I'll manage something. When do I leave?"

  "By midday if you can manage it."

  "I think so. What will I need, besides the obvious?"

  "How would you fancy playing an Aurenfaie wizard?"

  Seregil gave him a wry look. "Sounds fun, so long as we aren't relying on my magical abilities."

  "Oh my, no," Nysander said with a laugh. "I shall provide you with items necessary to give credence to the role, and those for the task itself." He paused and clasped the younger man by the shoulders. "I knew you would not fail me, Seregil."

  Seregil raised an eyebrow wryly at the wizard. "Bet now you're glad you didn't kill me, eh? What's the hour?"

  "Nearly sunup, I should think. Regrettably, I must send you back the same way you came."

  "Twice in one night? Just be sure you drop me handy to a basin!"

  2

  Alec woke to the sound of sleet lashing across the roof. Ruetha had burrowed under the covers sometime in the night. He stroked the thick white ruff under her chin and the cat broke into a loud purr.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked sleepily.

  Sitting up, he saw Seregil's battered old pack sitting ready outside the bedroom door.

  Seregil's sword belt was draped over it, the newly mended quillon shining in the milky morning light.

  Alec eyed the tidy pile with rising suspicion; Seregil had obviously been up for some time, making preparations for a journey. And he hadn't bothered to wake him.

  "Seregil?" Poking his head around his friend's door,

  Alec found the normally cluttered little room utterly impassable.

  "Morning!" Seregil called cheerily from somewhere beyond an overturned chest.

  "What's going on? Have you been up all night?"

  "Not all night." Seregil waded free of the mess with an armload of heavy sheepskin clothing and dumped it by the pack. "I found this," he said, handing Alec a dusty sack containing half a dozen complex locks. Some were still attached to splintered fragments of wood.

  "Thought you might like to have a go at these, since you've mastered most of the others on the workbench. Be careful, though. Some of them bite."

  Alec set the bag aside without comment and leaned against the door frame. Seregil was dressed for traveling and still hadn't told him to start packing.

  "What's going on?" he asked, watching as Seregil wrestled a pair of long snowshoes out of a wardrobe. "Where are you going to find snow in this weather?"

  "Give me a minute, will you?" said Seregil, checking the rawhide webbing. "I've got a few more things to find, then I'll explain what I can."

  Alec let out a sigh and went to the window over the workbench. The panes rattled as a fresh gust of wind buffeted the inn. Outside he could see Thryis' son Diomis hurrying across the back court. Curtains of icy rain rippled past, obscuring all but the closest buildings. Behind him, he could hear Seregil still rummaging about.

  Fighting down his rising impatience, he pulled on a pair of breeches and set about lighting the fire.

  The coals had died in the night. He heaped tinder and kindling on the ashes and shook out a firechip from the jar by the hearth. Flames leapt up and he stared into them, trying to marshal his racing thoughts.

  "You know, from the back your head looks like a disheveled hedgehog," Seregil remarked, emerging at last. Ruffling Alec's ragged hair, he dropped into his favorite chair by the fire.

  Alec was not amused. "You're going off alone, aren't you?"

  "Just for a few days."

  There was a guardedness in Seregil's tone that Alec didn't like. "On a job, you mean?"

  "I can't say, actually."

  Alec studied his friend's face. On closer inspection, he noticed that Seregil looked rather pale. "Is this because of last night? You said—"

  "No, of course not. This is something I can't speak of to anyone."

  "Why not?" the boy demanded, stubborn curiosity mingling with disappointment.

  Seregil spread his hands apologetically. "It's nothing to do with you, believe me. And don't bother pressing."

  "This is something for Nysander, isn't it?"

  Seregil regarded him impassively. "I need your word you won't track me when I go."

  Alec considered further objections, then nodded glumly. "When will you be back?"

  "In a few days, I hope. You'll have to do that papers job for Baron Orante, and anything else coming in that looks like a one man job. There's Mourning Nigh
t to think about, too, if I'm not back in time."

  "Not back in time?" Alec sputtered. "That's only a week away, and you're holding a party at Wheel Street that night!"

  "We are holding a party," Seregil corrected.

  "Don't worry. Runcer sees to all the arrangements, and Micum and his family will be here by then, too. You'll just have to play host. Remember Lady Kylith, the woman you danced with our first night there?"

  "We're sitting with her at the Mourning Night ceremony."

  "Right. She'll see to your etiquette."

  "People are bound to ask about you, though."

  "As far as anyone knows, Lord Seregil is still away recovering from the shock of his arrest. Tell anyone who asks that I was delayed. Cheer up, Alec. Chances are I'll be back in plenty of time."

  "This secret job of yours—is it dangerous?"

  Seregil shrugged. "What do we do that isn't? The truth is, I won't know much myself until I'm in the middle of it."

  "When are you leaving?"

  "As soon as I've had something to eat. Get dressed now and we'll have our breakfast downstairs."

  Alec smelled freshly baked bread as they crossed the lading room to the kitchen.

  The breakfast uproar was over. A scullery boy was scrubbing down the scarred worktables while Cilia bathed Luthas in a pan. Old Thryis sat peeling turnips by the hearth, a shawl draped over her shoulders against the damp.

  "Well, there you are at last," the old woman greeted them, though she seldom saw Seregil before noon. "There's tea on the hob and new current buns under that cloth there. Cilia made them fresh this morning."

  "And how's this lad today?" Seregil smiled, holding a forefinger out to the baby. Luthas immediately grabbed it and pulled it into his mouth.

  "Oh, he's feisty," replied Cilia, looking rather dark under the eyes. "He's got a tooth coming and it wakes us all night."

  Alec shook his head. One minute Seregil was speaking of mysterious journeys, the next here he was playing uncle to the baby like he hadn't a care in the world.

  Not that his affection for Luthas wasn't genuine.

  He'd told Alec how Cilia had offered him the honor of fathering her child when she'd made up her mind to avoid conscription. Seregil had politely declined. While his interest in women seemed marginal at best, Alec suspected the real reason for Seregil's reticence was that it would have cost him his friendship with her grandmother. Thryis had been a sergeant in the Queen's Archers in her youth and despaired that neither her son nor granddaughter had followed a military career before settling down.

  Cilia had never revealed who the child's father was, but the man must have been dark. She was fair, while her son's eyes and hair were as brown as a mink's.

  Going to the hearth, Alec leaned down next to Thryis and reached for the teapot warming by the fire.

  "You're looking down in the mouth today," Thryis observed shrewdly. "Going off without you, is he?"

  "He told you?"

  The old woman gave a derisive snort "He didn't have to," she scoffed, deftly quartering a turnip and pitching it into a kettle beside her. "There he is in his old rambling boots, chipper as a sparrow. And you here with the long face and still in your shirtsleeves? Don't take no wizard to figure that one."

  Alec shrugged. Thryis had run the Cockerel since Seregil secretly bought it twenty years before. She—together with her family and Rhiri, the mute ostler—were among the select few who knew anything of Seregil's double life.

  "Now, don't go fretting yourself over it," she whispered. "Master Seregil thinks the world of you, and no mistake. There's none he speaks so well of 'cept Micum Cavish, and those two have been friends for years and years. Besides, it'll give you and me a chance to talk shooting again, eh? There's still a trick or two I haven't shared and that fine black bow of yours shouldn't be gathering dust."

  "I guess not." Alec gave her a quick peck on the cheek and went to sit across from Seregil at the breakfast table.

  Studying his friend's face as Seregil joked with Cilia over breakfast, Alec felt certain he saw small lines of tension around his eyes. Whatever this secret job was, there was more to it than he was letting on.

  There was no use asking further about it, though.

  Upstairs in their room again, Seregil finished with his scant collection of gear and clapped a battered hat on his head.

  "Well, take care of yourself," he said, "especially on that job for the baron. I don't want to find you in the Red Tower when I return."

  "You won't. Want help getting all that down?"

  "No need." Shouldering his pack, Seregil clasped hands with him. "Luck in the shadows, Alec."

  And with the flash of a crooked grin, he was gone.

  Alec listened to his footsteps fading rapidly away. "And to you."

  Seregil paused in the kitchen on his way out.

  Pulling up a stool beside Thryis, he slipped her a flat, sealed packet.

  "I'm leaving this with you. I've got to go off for a few days. If I don't come back, this should take care of Alec and the rest of you."

  Frowning, Thryis fingered the wax seals. "A will, is it? No wonder young Alec was looking so dark."

  "He doesn't know, and I'd like to keep it that way."

  "You've never left a will before."

  "It's just in case I meet with an accident or something." Shouldering his pack, he headed for the door.

  "Or something!" The old woman's mouth pursed into a skeptical line. "Mind that a 'something' don't jump up and bite you on the arse when you're not looking."

  "I'll do my best to avoid it."

  Outside, the sleet had turned to rain. Pulling the hood of his patched cloak up over his hat, he dashed across the slick cobbles to the stable where Rhiri had his new mare saddled and ready. Tossing the fellow a gold half sester, Seregil swung up into the saddle and set off at a gallop for the Oreska House.

  3

  It was midafternoon before Nysander completed his preparations for the translocation. "Are you ready, Seregil?" he asked at last, looking up from the elaborate pattern chalked on the casting-room floor.

  "As ready as I'm likely to be," Seregil said, sweating in his heavy sheepskins. He carried his pack, snowshoes, and pole to the center of the design and piled them on the floor.

  "These should establish your reputation as a wizard."

  Nysander held up a half-dozen short willow rods covered with painted symbols. "When broken, each will produce a different gift for your hosts. But you must be certain to keep this long one with the red band separate from the rest. It contains the translocation spell that will carry you back."

  Seregil tucked the red wand carefully away in a belt pouch, then slipped the others inside the white Aurenfaie tunic he wore beneath his heavy coat.

  "These are the most crucial items, however," the wizard continued, stepping to a nearby table. On it sat a wooden box two feet square and fitted with a leather shoulder strap and a strong catch. It was lined with sheets of silver engraved with magical symbols and contained two flasks wrapped in fleece.

  Seregil frowned. "What if this crown or whatever it is that I'm after is too big to fit inside?"

  "Do the best you can and return to me at once."

  Seregil lifted the flasks. They were heavy, and the wax seals covering the corks were also inscribed with more symbols. "And these?"

  "Pour the contents around the crown and inscribe the signs of the Four within the circle. It should weaken any wards protecting it."

  A nasty twinge of uncertainty shot through Seregil's innards. "Should?"

  Nysander wrapped the flasks carefully in the fleece and shut them in the box. "You survived the magic of the disk with no assistance. This should be sufficient."

  "Ah, I see." Seregil glanced doubtfully at his old friend. "You believe the same inner flaw that kept me from becoming a wizard protects me from magic as well."

  "It seems to be the case. I only wish it did not cause you such distress with translocations. Consideri
ng the distance involved in—"

  "Let's just get it over with." Seregil gathered his gear in his arms as best he could. "The Asheks are far enough west that I should have a few hours of light left, but I'd rather not press my luck."

  "Very well. I have done a sighting and should be able to send you to within a few miles of a village. It will be safest to drop you on the glacier itself, rather than risk hitting the rocky outcroppings along the edge."

  "That's very comforting. Thanks so much!"

  Ignoring the sarcasm, Nysander placed his fingertips together in front of his face and began the incantation.

  After a moment a particle of darkness winked into being within the cage of his fingers. Spreading his hands slowly, he coaxed it larger until it spun like a dark mirror in front of them.

  Seregil stared into it for a moment, already queasy.

  Tightening his grip on his snowshoes, he took a resolute breath, closed his eyes, and stepped forward.

  The whirling blast of vertigo was worse than he'd feared. For most people, a translocation was as simple as stepping from one room to another. To Seregil, however, it was like being sucked down in some vile black whirlpool.

  It seemed to go on endlessly this time, buffeting him with darkness. Then, just as suddenly, he tumbled out into frigid brightness and sank up to his hips in drifted snow.

  Stuck fast, he bent forward and spewed out his scant breakfast. When the spasms were over, he struggled free and crawled away from the steaming mess.

  Collapsing on his back, one arm over his eyes, he lay very still as the world spun sickeningly. The wind sighed over him, blowing fine ice crystals across his lips. Rolling onto his belly, he retched again, then cleaned his mouth with a handful of snow.

  At least Nysander can aim, he thought, looking around.

  The glacier hung in a steep valley. At its head a few miles away a pair of high peaks towered above the rest, marking a narrow pass and giving the valley the name Seregil had remembered.

  Slanting sunlight reflected back from the white expanse before him, bright enough to make his eyes water.