Chapter 23 Ellen glanced around the familiar room, shelves over Coelus' desk now empty of their usual piles of paper. The reality of Ellen's parentage was just sinking in to Coelus. "He has to be well over a hundred. He must have been in his eighties when you were conceived." "Past ninety, actually. But he's a mage. And with enough power _" "He can be any age he wants to be. I finally worked that out, when I saw him doing it. As Master Dur he was in his seventies, as your father he was forty or so, and as himself _ ." "A hundred and twelve. And long dead if not for what he found." "I should have guessed_Master Dur. Then again, Durilil is a common enough name. Because of that silly superstition." Ellen smiled. "Remember what you told us in your first lecture, that a mage's skill can be judged by how little magic it takes him to achieve his aims. Father made himself invisible with no magic at all. A mage can't afford to change his name. If you want to hide a tree, you plant a forest and wait. Father started the rumor about naming children after mages the year after he found the Salamander." "Why, after he found the Salamander, did he disappear? If he had come back he would have been the most famous mage in history." "If you had kept on with the Cascade and done what Maridon wanted to do, used it to seize power, you would have been the most famous mage in history. Why didn't you?" "I told you, a long time ago." "You told me two reasons. There's one more you didn't think of. "Suppose you developed the Cascade, and you used it to try to do good, and only you could do it, as only Father can do_what he does. And suppose His Majesty, or the next king_perhaps Lord Iolen, if the Prince happens to die before the King does_decided that we should end the Forsting wars once and for all by killing everyone in Forstmark. I expect you could do it." It took him a moment before he could answer calmly. "I expect I could. But I wouldn't; you know I wouldn't." "Yes. And then the King appeals to your loyalty, or threatens the people you love_you might have a wife and children by then. Or tells you the Forstings have a magical weapon of their own and if you don't use the Cascade, they will conquer and kill us. At some point you either do what he asks_and I don't think you could, not really_or you use the Cascade against him. And then you are Maridon. I don't think you want to be Maridon." It was a long minute, his eyes seeing nothing in the room, before he answered. "No." "Neither does Father. What he has doesn't drain other people's magic the way the Cascade does. But it's not as useful either. You can't cure a plague with fire, or turn a flood. But it's very good for killing people. That's why he decided, after he had found what he was looking for and made his terms with it, that he should just let everyone think the same thing had happened to him that had happened to his friend Feremund." The two were quiet for some time, both thinking. Coelus was the first to speak. "So he has unlimited power, but he can't use it." "He uses it to keep from getting old. And he can use it, if he's very careful, in other ways that aren't obvious. He used it to destroy Iolen's notes on the Cascade and set fire to your papers, so that they thought it was a spell you put on them, and the damage to theirs just an accident. But he can't do that sort of thing very often, or someone might figure it out. And even though he has an unlimited pool to draw on, there is still a limit to how much fire he can channel." There was a knock on the door. A porter handed a message to the Magister and politely withdrew. Coelus read it. "His Highness is back. He wants to see me. Do you want to _" Ellen shook her head. "I'm a link to Father; the less he sees and thinks of me the better. I'll wait in your lab." It took only a few minutes for the Prince to arrive; Coelus offered him a chair, sat down himself. "What can I do for your Highness?" "Tell me what you know of Lord Iolen's doings, and what progress you have made on the project you were engaged in when last we spoke." Coelus thought a moment before replying. "The second question first; it is easier to answer. We have a schema we believe will protect a building large enough to contain His Majesty and many mages, possibly large enough to cover the dimensions of the palace. If we are correct, the protective sphere could be maintained by the efforts of a single mage drawing on a fire sufficiently fueled. It would not block all magic, or prevent people from coming in and out, unlike the protection around the College, but it would prevent any mage deploying the Cascade from spreading it into the sphere. I have written out a detailed account of that schema for you." Coelus opened a drawer in his desk, drew out the papers, and handed them to the Prince, who looked through them briefly before putting them into the wallet at his side. "If someone in the kingdom duplicates your work, this will be of some use, but only some. A mage controlling the Cascade might not be able to defeat the mages who protect his Majesty, but he would be at an enormous advantage in any other conflict. I am grateful for this, but I must still require you to do all you can to keep the secret of the Cascade. And if someone else does duplicate it, I may have to ask more of you again." "Your Highness may always ask. I do not promise what my answer will be." The two men observed each other in silence. Finally the Prince spoke. "I had a second question." "Iolen. He came here claiming to be acting on your behalf and asked me to tell him how to do the Cascade. He knew you had been here before him but did not seem to know that I had refused you. When I refused to do what he wanted, his people gagged me to keep me from speaking spells, bound me, and demanded I write out instructions for the Cascade. I think he tried to implement the Cascade and use it to put a loyalty spell on me, but if so something went wrong. While he was trying to make the Cascade work I was able to write out my own spell to counter the guards. I escaped to the village and have evaded them since." "And your lady? Did Iolen go after her too?" "Ellen? He tried, but with no better luck than your mage had. Does Your Highness know what Iolen was doing and what has become of him?" "I believe he was trying to obtain the Cascade and use it to murder His Majesty, myself and my son, and claim the throne for himself. When he failed, he claimed to have been acting against a treasonous plot by me to command the Cascade. He intends to bring this claim to Court." "Will His Majesty believe him?" Prince Kieran shook his head. "No. The use of truthtellers will prove that he tried to implement the Cascade and I did not. His Majesty will be reluctant to use them on us, but if need be I will give consent. My brother trusts me and does not trust our nephew, both with good reason. Iolen might hope enough people would believe him to force His Majesty to accept a compromise, to leave Iolen unpunished. If that is his plan I do not think it will succeed." "Could he be planning to make public what he knows about the Cascade if charges are pressed?" "That would be to openly proclaim himself our enemy. I do not think he could make such a threat and live, despite His Majesty's reluctance to spill the blood of our kin. I may be mistaken, but I believe Iolen's threat is done, and Iolen with it. But I may need to call you to Court to testify to what you saw; remain here until I send word." Almost as soon as the Prince had left Coelus' office, Ellen came back in from the workroom. "I heard what he said. If he is right _" "If he is right about Iolen, the immediate threat is over. We still need to find some better defense against the Cascade, but we may have more time to do it in. Can you stay through the summer to work on it?" Ellen shook her head. "I have a better idea. Father was planning to go back home to Mother as soon as it was safe to leave, which I expect means tomorrow. I'm planning to go too. Why don't you come along? You could work on the project there. The two of them know more about making barriers out of woven fire than anyone but Olver_and I know Mother would be interested in meeting you." Coelus looked at her, struggled not to let too much show in his face. Ellen looked back calmly. Finally he spoke. "I would very willingly accept, but you heard the Prince. He wants me to stay until the matter with Iolen is settled. He will be displeased if he sends for me and I have disobeyed. And he is right; what I have to say in his support might settle the matter." "You will come once the Prince is done with you?" "Yes. I promise." "Then I'll stay a few more days to help you work on the project and decide what we need to take with us. It will be easier for you to find Mother if I am with you." Chapter 24 Coelus looked once more at the elegant writing on the scroll, then up at Ellen. "It's from the Prince; he's back." "And?" "He isn't sending me to the capital, so I suppose everything must have worked out. It's an invitation to a dinner he's having at the inn. I think it must be intended as a victory celebration." Ellen looked unconvinced. "A long way to come just to have dinner with you. He'll try to persuade you to work on the Cascade, to have it ready just in case someone else develops it." "He can try. He invited you too, so you can keep tabs on me if you think I'm weakening." When they got to the inn, they were directed to the main dining room, converted for the evening into a private feast hall. Coelus was seated at the Prince's right, Ellen next to him, a portly older man introduced as Wilham, one of the Prince's mages, on her right, a dozen more men, mostly strangers, around the long table. The Prince stood to greet the two guests. "I am happy to see that you were able to come, Magister Coelus, and to bring your very accomplished lady. Tomorrow several of my people will want to discuss the work you have been doing and their experiments with the protective schema you provided. But I thought it would be pleasant to spend this evening celebrating what has been so far accomplished." "Then Lord Iolen is no longer a threat?" The Prince hesitated a moment before answering. "His Majesty is aware of Iolen's treason and remains satisfied with my loyalty. I have explained to him what I know of your work; he has asked me to continue to concern myself with it on his behalf." As he spoke, servants in the Prince's livery were bringing in the first course, pouring wine, serving platters. The Prince stopped speaking to offer his guests slices of meat from a roast, wedges of meat pie, sausages. One servant was passing behind the guests taking their cups, refilling them, replacing them. A second course was served. The Prince conversed with the guest on his left, a stranger to Ellen; she turned to speak to the mage on her right. "Did you have a pleasant ride here from the capital?" Wilham nodded, looked at her curiously. "His Highness tells me you are a fire mage; is it true?" She nodded. "I have never encountered a woman with that talent before. I am fascinated; your existence would seem to support the Learned Olver's views on the nature of magic." "You doubted them?" The man shrugged. "I'm a practitioner, not a scholar. I've learned two spells created by your friend Magister Coelus, who I gather follows Olver's approach, and they work. But most of what I do is older than that. His Highness takes Olver's work seriously, but I would find a woman who is a fire mage more convincing than any number of arguments about basis stars and the like." As he spoke the servants brought in the third course and the mage returned to the serious business of eating. He was a water mage and a strong one, unveiled but, like all of the Prince's mages, with protective spells of some sort on him. The servant pouring the wine too was a mage; she wondered if he was a specialist in potions, poisons, and similar difficulties. Finally Wilham finished the serving of mortress on his plate, took a last sip from his goblet, reached over for one of the candlesticks on the table, pulled it closer, snuffed out the flame. He turned back to Ellen: "Show me." She looked at the candle; nothing happened. After a few seconds she turned back to the water mage, the puzzled expression fading from her face. "You are damping it." He gave no reply, turned to the Prince, who had been watching both intently. "It worked." Prince Kieran stood up, spoke quietly to Coelus: "The situation is not as simple as I made it sound. The two of you had best come with me." He led them out of the dining room. Wilham followed, still holding his wine cup. Outside the door two more mages joined them. The Prince climbed the stair, went through the middle door into the small dining room where he had spoken with Ellen a month earlier, gestured them to two of the seats around a small table. Wilham took a seat between the table and the door, still holding the cup; the other two mages remained near the door, standing. The Prince walked once around the table speaking words too softly for the others to hear, sat down. "We are now private." He waited a moment; the other two said nothing. "Iolen fooled me. He sent His Majesty a request for a hearing, knowing that I would insist on delaying it until I could learn what he had been up to here. He then instructed his servants that he was not seeing visitors. As soon as I left the capital to come here he left heading north, alone. His Majesty sent orders to Northpass Keep to stop him, but he has a two day start, a fast horse, a courier's pass for remounts and, I expect, a fair amount of gold. Once through the pass he's on Forsting soil, with a considerable army between him and us. If he wants he can even pick up his wife and son on the way; they're with Earl Eirick, her father, a day's travel west of the pass. "Iolen wanted to use the Cascade to make himself king; he never said so, not even to his own people, but it's clear enough. He bribed his way to the mages who helped Maridon, tricked them into revealing all they knew about the Cascade, and tried to get you to give him your new version of the schema. That was where his plan broke down. He thought you were working for me and that all he had to do was pretend that he was working for me too." Coelus nodded. "I didn't give it to him for the same reason I wouldn't give it to you." "Yes. A week ago I was willing to accept that. A week hence, Iolen will be in Forstmark and everything he knows about the Cascade will be on its way to whatever mage the Forstings think can best reconstruct your work. That means that I need the Cascade now. The royal mages have implemented your protective schema, so His Majesty is for the moment safe, but there is no way we can hold Northpass or the Keep if the Forstings have all the magic on their side." "And if I still refuse?" "Do you? I think I have made it clear what is at stake." Coelus held his voice steady. "I will be happy to work on designing further defenses against the Cascade, perhaps even a way of making it impossible. No more." The Prince shook his head. "That no longer suffices; we do not have time to try to work out something new. If you will not give me what I require to defend the kingdom willingly, I will take it by force." He hesitated, but only for a moment. "You know how to make the Cascade work and I am willing to gamble your lady knows it as well; you have made it clear enough that she had been working with you. There are ways of forcing knowledge from a mind, even a mage's mind. Dangerous ways, sometimes fatal, but they exist, and they usually work. If you refuse to tell us what you know, I will use them on her; I regret the necessity, but it exists. He turned to Ellen. "I did warn you, in this room the last time we spoke." "You did." "And you warned me; I took my precautions accordingly. An hour ago you held all our lives in your hand; I know what an angry fire mage can do. Wilham is the strongest water mage I know and you are now linked to him, your talent cancelled by his." "The business with the wine cup?" The Prince nodded. "We arranged matters so you both drank from the same cup, one after the other, water and burnt wine mixed. Part of the spell." Coelus finally spoke. "And if neither of us knows how to make the Cascade safe, will you destroy us both trying to tear the information from us?" "If neither of you knows the solution you have only to tell me so; one of my men at the door is a truth teller." Coelus opened his mouth, closed it again, said nothing. "You have until morning to make your decision. Until then Wilham will keep your lady company. No harm will come to her tonight." * * * Ellen waited until the mage in the other bed was asleep, judged at least by his breathing. Eyes closed, she let her mind explore the room. Iron bracelets were riveted about her wrists, the chain between them wrapped once around the oak plank that joined the bed posts. Enough slack to lie comfortably but no more _ . The key to the iron lock to the bracelet around her right wrist wasn't in the room; she had seen it leave with the Prince. The cup _ . Outside the room two guards, two more by the inn door, a mage with them. The Prince was being careful. She moved her perception to the other bed; Wilham was indeed soundly asleep, his head beside the pillow. Everything in the inn was quiet save for a faint murmur of voices from the guards by the door. One step at a time. Shadows, at least, there was no shortage of. She wove them carefully about the head of the sleeping mage, that nothing she did would wake him. Next the chain. Too strong to break, and she could get no hold on the mechanism, shielded as it was by the iron case of the lock. The bed then; the frame was held together by glue and the tension from the rope mesh that supported the mattress. She felt her way into one of the sockets, into the linked fabric of glue and wood, unwove it. When she had finished with the glue joints she eased herself out of the bed, shifting her weight from the mattress and the rope mesh beneath it to one of the side boards of the frame. She wrapped both hands around one of the head posts of the bed, set her feet against the other, pushed the two apart with all her strength. For a moment nothing happened. Again. The far post moved. Another inch and she was just able to ease the end of the plank she was fastened to out of its socket. Once free of the bed, she slid the plank back into its socket, pulled the bed posts back together and rewove the glue; the Prince might as well have a puzzle to occupy his time. Wilham still slept. She crossed the room silently, slid her hand under his pillow, and drew out the wine cup, wrapped in a silk cloth. Clay not metal, but with at least five men awake in the inn, noise would be a problem. She felt a touch of cool air and looked up; the shutter was open a crack. She slipped to the window, swung it wide, unwrapped the cup, and threw it as hard as she could. It shattered on the stone flags of the inn courtyard. One of the guards at the front door of the inn said something; a moment later she heard the door opening and voices in the courtyard. The guards at the door heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and abruptly came to attention as their commander came into sight. "Any problem in the room?" "No sir. What's happening?" "Someone in the courtyard; I sent Hermann to check it out. But just to be sure..." He opened the door quietly, looked in. Both beds were occupied, mage and lady prisoner sound asleep. He eased the door closed again. Once the guard captain had gone, Ellen went back to work. When she was done her bed sheets were gone, and in their place was a long rope of tightly braided linen. She tied one end to a foot of Wilham's bed; he should be easily heavy enough. The other end of the rope went out the window; Ellen followed it. The rope tightened with her weight, then loosened, shook itself, and came free from the foot of the bed. A few moments later Ellen was standing in the courtyard hidden in the shadow of the inn wall, the rope coiled at her feet. She pulled shadow as a cloak around her, paused to be sure nobody had seen her escape, then set off for the jeweler's shop. Once safely inside she went to the large casting furnace at the back of the workroom_the small furnace had gone with its owner and contents. The lid came off easily; under it was a layer of fire bricks, under that a collection of flat wooden chests. The second of them contained her father's jewelers files; she set to work with them on the iron bracelets chaining her wrists. * * * Coelus looked around the small stable, one of the inn's outbuildings hastily converted into a cell for his benefit. The mage sitting in the other chair gestured at the empty bed. "I don't know what His Highness wants of you and don't want to know, but most things are easier with a night's sleep." Coelus shook his head, said nothing. If there was something he could do to escape, he could not see it. Unless Durilil came back, which seemed unlikely, or his daughter found a way out of the trap they were in. The Prince had made one mistake that Coelus could see_he had once made the same mistake himself_but he doubted that it would be enough. Rorik, the mage guarding him, was surely both stronger and more skilled in the application of magic than he_at least applied to situations like this. Inventing spells was a useful skill, but he was used to taking weeks to do it, not hours or minutes. No doubt there was some spell ideal for the circumstances. No doubt he would come up with it a week too late. Absent force or guile to use against the Prince, what about persuasion? Ellen did not, after all, know how to construct the Cascade. The Prince's truthtellers would vouch for it if she said so. But then there would be more questions. Whether she knew what had gone wrong, first with Maridon and then with Fieras. That knowledge, forced from her, could cost her father's secret as well as his. It occurred to Coelus that he had one advantage in any conflict with the Prince's people; they could restrain him but could not risk any serious injury. No doubt His Highness had made that clear. Looking down, Coelus noted a tiny dust devil swirling a foot from his chair, recognized it for his own absent minded work. Fire was good for killing people; how could air be used? He gradually eased the miniature whirlwind along without looking at it, until it was spinning a few feet behind his guard's back. The floor of the stable was dirt, dried dirt was dust. Dust _ . It took most of five minutes to sweep enough dust into the whirlwind, now a good deal less miniature. Coelus stood up. "I suppose you are right; I'm for bed." He took two steps towards the bed and the door behind it, spoke a Word, bolted for the door. He heard a crash behind him as Rorik, blinded by a facefull of dust, pitched over his bed and down. The door was closed but unbarred; Coelus pushed it open, stepped into the darkened courtyard, and collided with a large, solid figure. Effortlessly, the guard picked the mage up, carried him back into the stable and held him firmly until Rorik, face dripping, returned with his eyes cleared of dust. Coelus spent the next hour in bed pretending to sleep, feeling through memory for voices and words, while Rorik, his chair pulled back into a corner, watched him. It took two hours more to assemble the pattern of voices, spells, and acts, occasionally mumbling sleepily to himself. The first few times, Rorik came over to the bed to listen, returning to his chair only as Coelus fell silent. Outside the door the air began to move. The faint moonlight would have shown a watcher, had there been one, a spiral of dust and straw, its top knee-high to the silent guard whose eyes were fixed on the door. The baby cyclone drifted across the yard, picking up air and force from gusts of wind blowing past the corners of the outbuildings, straw from the ground, more as it passed over a half-full manger, growing. It was a column of whirling straw nearly twelve feet high when its foot touched the guard's lantern, caught fire. Rorik heard footsteps outside, a clamor of voices, then one he knew, the Prince's, pitched as in speech but loud as a shout. "Fire. A Fire mage." By the sound of it, one of the horses must have taken fright. Men were yelling. The Prince's voice was heard again, lower, from just outside the door: "You had best come with me." Rorik glanced at the figure on the bed, spoke three Words, made a twisting gesture, and went to the door. The Prince was out of sight, but the cause of the commotion was clear enough, a towering figure of flame twice a man's height moving about the inn courtyard. He stood frozen for a moment. The sound of the Prince's voice from the far side of the figure sent him off around the courtyard in search of it. Coelus tried to throw off the blanket; nothing happened. His arm was limp against his chest, his muscles like water. He took a deep breath; his torso at least was still his, and his voice. A wriggle and twist got him to the edge of the bed, to the floor in a tangle of blankets. With luck, with the mage who cast the spell gone, the shock would be enough. He made it to hands and knees but no farther, and in a moment collapsed back onto the ground. Water. The words of Rorik's spell; Coelus reached back through his memory. Water and weakness. The fourth counterspell he tried worked; this time he made it to his feet. The other mage's cloak and hood, both of dark wool, were on the back of his chair; in a moment Coelus had them on and was out of his cell into the chaos of the courtyard, whipping more wind into the burning column of straw. The back door of the inn opened, a tall figure against the fire-lit room. This time it was the Prince's real voice, lifted in a yell; Coelus filed it in his memory for future use. "The fire mage is out. Ward as best you can." Behind the Prince a second figure. Coelus discerned Wilham's voice, words in the true speech, moving hands. The burning whirlwind went out_where it had been was a column of steam that a puff of wind blew away from the inn door. Shadowed by its spreading fog, Coelus darted for the nearest passage between two outbuildings. In a moment he was in the street beyond. "Get rid of the cloak; they may be able to track it." Coelus spun around, saw nothing, reached out, gathered Ellen into his arms.