No excuses. Staying away from this story is just plain wrong and I shall keep writing it if it kills me. I do know my apologies for this lateness will probably not be forgiven, but, ah, well, I understand.
Nothing from any of Tamora Pierce's works of fiction belong to me. Any you do not recognize, Hagen and Garian for instance, are mine and should not be used by anyone BUT me.
The Duke shut the door of the small dark-paneled room and turned to its occupants. The Tortallan guests looked even more tired now than ever, and Numair and Alanna especially looked lost in dark thoughts.
"Now tell me what's going on. Clearly we have a problem here and if we don't want a riot on our hands you will tell me where this...man... comes from. What was his name again?"
"Hagen. Hagen Hadensra. Son of Inar Hadensra. Inar was a war criminal and mage who was an essential person in a war to overthrow the kingdom of Tortall. His almost godly talent for magic was, luckily, not passed on to his son, but he did generate a cult-like following before his demise."
The Duke nodded at Alanna in thanks before turning to Numair. " And why was he so happy to see you, exactly? He came looking for the Lady here, and ended up screaming at you instead."
Numair sighed deeply and bowed his head. " I killed his father. In fact, I exploded his father, to be precise. It's not really a secret. You can't hide a hole like that very easily."
Resting his elbows on the large oak table, he stroked the bright silver hair at his temples. "What worries me the most are these followers of his. They call themselves the Children of Wratha, an ancient god of war, long forgotten to most. They say his eyes were made of rubies that burned with fire when he was enraged. Inar Hadensra had a ruby eye. When the group discovered him they believed he was their god incarnate and worshipped the very ground he walked on." He paused and shook his head before continuing on.
"After his death it was believed they would immediately adopt the son as a figurehead and use him as an excuse to begin another assault on Tortall. For, after his death, their ideals had been shattered. In their minds, their god had deserted them, if he had ever existed at all. Unfortunately, they understand, quite deeply, how to maintain a hold of power over people. The leaders of the cult have obviously restored their disciple's beliefs. Or at least manipulated them into a new course of action.
He looked up now, his deep eyes tired and dark, and addressed the group huddled mournfully around the table.
"They are highly skilled at manipulating lesser minds. I believe a mage dwells at the heart of this matter. If they have brought him, or any of their other agents here as well as Hagen, we will have a panic on our hands in less than a few days."
Sandry turned to him then. " So is there nothing we can do about this? It would seem all you know about our enemy is that they idolized some mage long ago and are now plotting to attack your kingdom the same as before. Did you not know of this before?"
Alanna shook her head this time. " No, unfortunately most of the Children of Wratha live in small encampments in the very Northern reaches of Scanra. We briefly covered their lands in our talks yesterday I believe." The duke nodded in response.
"You did. The northern lands, correct? You talked about the recent war and these ...killing devices that were used."
Alanna bowed her head at him in agreement. " We pulled several of our key agents from that field after a few months had passed. The more Northern edge of Scanra is mostly tribes and hillmen, and normally not a threat to us. It would seem our... lack of foresight... is to blame here. After so much time has passed since the Immortals War with no news of the Children of Wratha, we had assumed they had simply disappeared and had been swallowed up in the course of time. It would seem we were mistaken."
" Our main goal now," remarked Alanna, " is to find out from Hagen how exactly he managed to get here on a Hurrock without water transport. It could be they landed days or weeks ago and you didn't hear of it but I find that unlikely. More likely is that they were following us before we got sucked into the storm and then followed the trail of power that Numair and Trisana left behind as we were dragged here. It would make sense of why they didn't attack us the first day we were here, when we off our guard and so tired out."
Tris made a positive noise in the back of her throat. " If they were on the outskirts of that storm they might have simply observed in which direction I pulled the ship, or if they have a mage as Numair suggests, he could have tracked the traces of Numair's power. They could have been days behind you, simply tracking him, when the storm hit, and followed you through. But that still doesn't explain how they got here so fast," she realized. Her mouth twitched into a frown. " How did they get here so quickly? Gods know I pulled you unnaturally across the Endless Sea."
The duke held up his hands in a gesture of peace. "I believe the magical debates should be left for later, after we gather more information from our rather unpleasant guest. For now, I suggest you get changed out of your finery and get some much-needed rest. If we have an inter-continental political struggle on our hands, you will want to get sleep while you can. I have a feeling it will be scarce in the coming days."
The party agreed in various levels of enthusiasm and rose, exiting the conference room in favor of warm beds. Trisana stayed behind, her chin cradled in her fingers, her elbows resting on the hard table. Garian paused on his way out of the door and walked around the table to stand beside her.
" Lost in thought?" he asked softly. Tris's eyes glanced up at him and away, a deep breath sagging out of her body like wind out of a sail. Chime, forgotten up until this point, made a similar hissing sound and dropped to the table, her delicate forefoot pawing gently at Tris's arm.
" I'm fine," she remarked, whether to the petite glass creature or to Garian, he couldn't say. " I'm just afraid that I might be the cause of this. If I hadn't dabbled stupidly in the weather you would never have been caught up in this." She turned her face up at him and grinned ruefully. " I feel like a child, caught with my hand too deep in the cookie jar." Sighing she held out her hand to Chime and rustled to her feet. She was headed for the door when Garian softly grabbed at her elbow.
"If you hadn't, we never would have met. To me that would have been worse than finding out a hundred plots against us." She turned then her bright eyes soft and kind. For the second time that evening he was struck by her beauty. Her large eyes were amplified by her spectacles, which hovered now on the tip of her nose.
"Thank you. I am glad to have met you too, Garian Salmalin of Tortall." She replied softly, those large eyes turned on his own.
He smiled and squeezed her elbow before opening and holding the door for her.
So short, I know.
Please R&R. Critiques welcome. Mindless dissing is not.
I love you if you read this.
