Chapter 11 – Conspiracy
The black hawk glided joyfully from the window of the Guest Quarters and out across the grounds. It had been some time since Numair had taken this shape and it was truly wonderful to feel the warm air flow through his feathers.
He tried to stick to a true hawk's flight pattern. He had not forgotten that Rikash recognized that the animals were behaving oddly while in Dunlath the prior year. It had almost cost Daine her life when she allowed animals to leave their normal patterns to help her. Numair was so happy to be free to go where he pleased that it was hardly difficult to be patient enough to swoop and soar.
Too soon he saw the columns of the university. He counted windows until he found the one that was Lindhall Reed's office. Lindhall was silhouetted, standing just back of the opening, waiting. Numair the hawk took one last sweep around the building to check for observers before winging gracefully through the window. Lindhall shut the window and said, "Without seeing it, I would never have believed it."
Where the hawk had come to rest, the tall mage now stood. Lindhall brought him the clothes that Numair had asked him to store. "What would you not believe?" Numair asked as he dressed.
"Ahh, the student has become the master. I would give all my gems to learn to shape shift. Of all the things you have learned since you lived among us, I envy that the most."
Numair smiled at the praise, but shifted uncomfortably. For all the teasing he took, Numair was not vane. Yes, it took him a long time to get ready for parties and he did take pains to make his appearance just right. But few people knew that it was books that made the process take a long time. He was easily distracted by the volumes in his tower. He wondered if Daine had ever noticed this paradox about him. She teased him enough about his slow preparation, and yet she had been camping with him so often that their routine was down to a science. She knew exactly how long he took to bathe and dress for those occasions and it really was not that long. And damn it, I'm thinking about Daine again.
"If I can compel you back to Tortall, you may read the same books I did to learn. I could try to impart the knowledge to you magically, but it may not be something that one mage can understand exactly the way another does. It would be better to study the theory to –"
"That's quite alright, my friend. I doubt if I have the power to manage it. You tend to forget that your Gift quite exceeds my own." Lindhall chuckled good naturedly.
"You never cease to amaze me with your gracious nature."
"It isn't as easy as you think. Leaving the role of teacher when your student can do things you cannot -- it isn't easy." Despite his words, there was laughter in his eyes.
"So I'm learning."
"Ms. Sarrasri?"
"Yes. She is amazing. Her magic is so different and there are things she can do that I will never be able to, even if I study until I'm one hundred."
"Can she change into any animal?"
"We have yet to find one that she cannot become. Moreover, she can pull small aspects into her person. If she wants to see better she temporarily changes her eyes to that of a hawk; if she wants to hear better, she changes her ears to that of a bat…"
"Remarkable! Has she tried to put the pieces together to create a better animal?"
"Not yet, but it really is only a matter of time."
"My boy, what do you teach her now?"
"More or less it is academia now. However, she knows to bring new aspects of her magic to me if they appear. And we do spend time conducting experiments. There are spells the Gift allows that wild magic does not. She would like to find ways to harness her magic to see if she can do some of them. I oversee that for her safety and that of the kingdom."
"I imagine that your King is proud to have the pair of you. You would be very effective in battle together."
"Well, as you know from my letters, she is able to do more than I am. It is hard for an enemy to fight the horses, rodents and birds. And the kraken she called to destroy the ships – it was -- you wouldn't have believed it. It took a great deal of combined Gift from Alanna and myself to get it to go and it tried to take the bay with it. When Daine called that thing she was thirteen and she had known about her magic for weeks only."
"You are very proud, aren't you?"
Numair nodded. He realized he had been gushing and wondered if Lindhall thought anything amiss. He decided it was best to try to change the subject. So he pulled out the ruby that used to adorn one of his rings. "I have a little project I want to work on, if you don't mind."
The two laughed and talked, catching up on old days and worrying about the current state of things. While he talked, he fashioned a small bit of gold into a loop and connected it to the ruby with a little magic. It was now a pendant of protection. Before Numair knew it, an hour had passed and Lindhall went to meet Daine and Kaddar. Numair cast an invisibility spell and shimmered out of sight.
"…as if there is a sprite at work, not a spell." Lindhall was saying when he led Kaddar and Daine into the office. Numair noticed that Lindhall was carrying Kitten and he placed the dragon on the floor and dumped his robe next to her. "A small, not very clever, spiteful one." Numair chuckled silently to himself as Lindhall's robe glided through the air to drape itself over a hook in the wall. Numair had adopted that spell for his own home and had forgotten he learned it right here.
Numair didn't know how Kitten would react to his invisibility spell. He focused on trying to stay out of her line of vision while Lindhall showed Daine his pets. However, Numair was distracted when Daine started talking to the animals. He forgot himself, watching her move gracefully from tank to tank to chat with the various inhabitants. Kitten's shrill whistles of ire let him know his folly. He ended the spell and shimmered into view.
"You had to inform everyone," he scolded. But kitten nibbled on his breeches, affectionately. He smiled to himself. He couldn't stay angry. Kitten was like family to him, almost as if she were his child instead of a baby dragon. He scratched the top of her head.
"But – I saw you, in your room," Daine protested. She looked confused.
"It was a simulacrum. I'm expressly forbidden to leave the palace," he explained. It was actually a pretty good bit of magic, although the simulacrum in his room had nothing on the one waiting in the dark in Lindhall's workroom. That simulacrum was his insurance policy in case Ozorne became inhospitable.
"What if one of their mages came around, looking for you? What if the emperor spies on you?"
"I embodied it with sufficient amounts of my Gift to deceive anybody. Should someone try to disturb the copy, it will enclose the room completely, so no one will enter until I am back inside."
"And if you're caught?" she scolded, "He'd love to catch you breaking the rules!"
Numair wanted to say something to soothe her, but it was Kaddar who spoke next. "Daine, we had to talk. There's no other way we can do it without being spied on."
Daine turned on Kaddar and Lindhall. "You knew he'd be here this morning. That's why you brought me."
"I also wanted you to see my friends." Lindhall stated softly. "You are more than welcome here in your own right, my dear."
Numair watched a smile slowly light her face and she nodded to Lindhall. But turning back to Numair, Daine said something that cut him to the bone, "You could have trusted me."
He took her hands in his and looked into her blue-gray eyes. "I do trust you, Magelet. I simply didn't wish to discuss it under Ozorne's roof. You aren't particularly adept at concealing your state of mind. You would have been visibly apprehensive if I had left with you and His Highness, whether I was invisible or not." He struggled to pull from her gaze. Why was she affecting him like this? She looked crestfallen that he had not confided in her.
Then her lovely face broke into a scowl. "How did you get here?"
Past a lump in his throat he answered, "Hawk shape. And now, we've little time and much to discuss." He felt like a traitor. It was right to stick to business however. "Would you mind looking at the aviary for a while? Or would you like to be privy to our discussions?"
"I'll go look at the birds," she said hastily. "I'm tired of secrets. Kit? Stay or go?" As Kitten shook her head and sat, Numair became aware that he still held both of Daine's hands. He let go reluctanctly and looked toward Lindhall to see if he had noticed. If he had, there were no outward signs. Numair realized he was behaving like a guilty man. He would have to distance himself from Daine, if he were to function normally.
Lindhall lead Daine to a door on the west wall and she left.
Kaddar became immediately focused on the job at hand. Nervously he approached Numair and began to speak. Numair silently set a truth spell to measure his honesty. "My uncle does not want peace. I don't know why he brought you here, but I do know that what we saw last night was a show of strength with a purpose." He began to go over information he had learned from talking to soldiers when he took Daine walking the day before. The navy and fighting mages were going to move against Tortall from four separate fronts. They had magical weapons numbering in the tens of thousands. He shared troop numbers and battleship armaments, turning whiter and whiter as he spoke.
The news was frightful. The Prince kept his back straight as he spoke though Numair knew it was difficult news to impart. How odd that I disliked this young man upon our meeting. Kaddar was Ozorne's blood relative, but apart from that there was little alike between them. Kaddar was more down to earth and had the nature of a leader. They didn't even resemble each other very much. Kaddar was much darker and had an open, eager face. And Numair knew that being related had little to do with nature. Alanna and her brother Thom were twins. History showed that they had completely different natures. Kaddar could no more help being related to Ozorne, than Jon could help being related to his dead and evil cousin Roger.
Then, Kaddar told Numair about the temples. If the Gods were unhappy they had plenty of reason to be. This was a frightening prospect to Numair who had known that Ozorne's respect for the Gods was limited, but had not realized he had lost it completely. He wanted to reasure Kaddar somehow, but there was little he could say. When one God was angry the results could be catostrophic. He could not imagine what would happen if they all were.
Numair put a hand on Kaddar's shoulder reassuringly. He knew that Kaddar had told the truth as he believed it to be and he knew that it had taken amazing courage to do what he had done. It was clearly treason against his emperor and it could cost him his life. But Kaddar had made the decision to do what was right for his people and what was right before the Gods. "If we can ride this storm, I promise you I will work to help you solve the drought to heal your lands and your countryman. I swear this upon my honor. King Jonathan of Conte' will receive your intelligence. And the King will know of your role in our future survival. When you inherit your reign, you will know our gratitude."