"What did he do to you?"
I smiled at her, but she didn't look reassured, so I stopped. "He found Farsonsbane."
She started to look puzzled before the name registered. "I thought Farson destroyed it—or the boy emperor."
I shook my head. "Jakoven found it while he was rebuilding Estian castle. It needs dragon's blood to activate it."
"Oreg," she whispered.
I felt my eyebrows rise. How did she find out about Oreg? No wonder she'd accepted that I'd met the Tamerlain. From dragons to the minions of gods was a small step.
I could have left off there. She'd have believed that I'd throw myself behind Alizon for Oreg's sake.
"My blood did something to it," I said. "I need to keep every person who can claim Hurog blood away from him. If Alizon is ready, I'll declare for him. If not, Hurog will rebel on its own. It's that, or allow Jakoven access to the same power that brought down the Empire."
She stared at me a moment, then said baldly, "The reason I knew how to get into the Asylum is because Alizon is not the heart of the rebellion—Kellen is."
"Kellen?" I said, startled. The king's brother—I remembered a quiet-spoken, clever boy a few years older than I. My heart began to race with a shard of hope. Kellen was legitimate: moreover, he had been terribly wronged by Jakoven and had a just cause for rebellion. With Kellen, the rebellion Alizon was leading was much more likely to succeed.
"He's been in there a long time, Ward," Tisala said. "Since it was first built. We left him there because it was the safest place for him—Alizon knew we'd have to wait for success, too. But it's been too long. He's not insane, but … " Her voice trailed off.
"Not exactly healthy, either," I finished, inwardly shuddering at the thought of spending years in the Asylum. "How long has it been?" Kellen had disappeared sometime after my father beat me stupid; I couldn't remember exactly when. But I knew it had been a long time.
"Over ten years," she said.
What I thought must have shown on my face, because she continued, "It's not as bad as what they did to you: Mostly they leave him alone. We've been looking for a safe way to get him out. Oreg said he'd try it, with your approval."
There was a plea in her voice, and I realized she was worried that I would refuse. "If Oreg can get him out, we'll do it. We can take him to Hurog if no one has a better plan. I think the dwarves will agree to transporting him to a safer place."
I swung my legs to the floor, but was taken with a fit and couldn't do anything more for a while. When I steadied enough to pay attention again, Tisala had pressed me back on the bed and was crooning to me.
"I'm fine," I said. "Would you get Oreg and bring him here?"
She looked at me, but I couldn't tell what she was thinking. After a moment she left
I must have slept, because it seemed like I only blinked my eyes and Oreg was waiting. Tisala wasn't with him.
When he saw he had my attention, he said, "Tisala has told you of the man they want me to get out of the Asylum."
I nodded. "It needs to be done—if you can do it without risk to yourself."
"It's the risk to you I'm thinking of," he replied frankly. "If a man disappears from the Asylum the same day you get out, the king will assume you had something to do with it."
"I'm not exactly his favorite Shavigman anyway. It doesn't matter now. In the end, if we get Kellen out, the chances of my surviving to a ripe old age increase tremendously."
I waited a moment, then said reluctantly, "I hate to ask it of you, but I think it's our only chance. Alizon's rebellion needs a hero—and Kellen, as I remember him, might just be the man to pull it off."
He gave me an odd look and said, "I don't expect you to kill me again and use my bones to destroy Jakoven, Ward. Quit feeling guilty about a deed that happened centuries before you were born. You can ask anything of me without guilt. I'm old enough to refuse if I wish."
I nodded, then said, "Jakoven's found Farsonsbane."
Oreg's head snapped up and his eyes began to luminesce as they did when he was agitated. "Are you sure?"
I described it briefly, then said, "I don't know what he intends to do with it—I'm not sure really what it does. But while he had me in the Asylum he used my blood to call it to life. Something happened, but it wasn't what he expected."
Piece by piece Oreg pulled the whole story out of me. He dismissed my belief that some of the effects I thought I felt when in the Bane's presence were from the drugs they fed me.
"Blue," he exclaimed. "And the magic changed?"
I squirmed but told him, "It recognized me."
"Blue," he muttered, and rubbed his cheek absently. "I've never heard of it doing that."
"Neither had Jakoven. That's why I'm sure he'll come after me—or some Hurog, I don't suppose it matters which one of us." I had a terrible thought. "Father and his father left by-blows all over Hurog. I'm going to have to warn them."
"How did he anoint the stone with your blood?" asked Oreg. "Did he use a ceremony—"
"No," I said. "He just cut my arm, dribbled blood on a cloth, and rubbed it on the stone."
Oreg frowned and sat down beside me. "What kind of cloth? Linen, cotton, silk?"
"I don't know," I said, but I closed my eyes and tried to remember the feeling of the cloth on my cheek. "Not silk. Linen, maybe."
"Was there anything else on the cloth? Was it clean?"
"Clean," I agreed, then said, "Or it was to start with. He wiped my face with it—and I was pretty filthy."
"Sweat," murmured Oreg, then he stiffened. "Not sweat, tears. Tears, Ward. Did he have your tears on the cloth?"
Oreg wouldn't think the less of me—he'd known too much pain in his long life—so I admitted what any son of my father wouldn't have acknowledged to anyone else. "Yes."
"Ha," said Oreg triumphantly, rising to his feet and fisting a hand melodramatically to the ceiling. "Take that, you bastard. Ha!" He turned to me with a grin. "Bet that Jakoven forgot he'd wiped your face—or modern mages have forgotten the power of a tear."
"So what did it do?" I asked.
Oreg, still grinning, shook his head. "I have not a clue. But it will change the nature of the Bane—you said it recognized you."
I nodded. "Almost the way Hurog recognizes me when I come home."
He was quiet for a while and then said soberly, "Farson was the grandson of my half brother, did you know?"
It's one thing to know that Oreg is ancient. It's another to understand what that means. But with a little effort I managed to keep my jaw from dropping.
"He was stupid, unthinking, and angry at being part-blood dragon with nothing but a bit of magic to show for it," said Oreg. "He was the first born of Hurog who could not take on dragon form, and was obsessed with dragons because of it. Farson killed three dragons to make his toy, and bound their spirits to the blood gem for all eternity—I've always thought it was a variant of the spell that bound me to Hurog, but Farson wasn't as good a wizard as my father was. If I held that stone, I'd be worried about how tightly the spirits of the dragons were still bound into obedience." Oreg grinned nastily. "Maybe we won't have to worry about Jakoven long."
"Can you get Kellen out of the Asylum?" I asked.
Oreg nodded. "If he's not in the same section you were in, I'll be able to do it somehow. I told his man to meet us on the road near Menogue after he'd heard Kellen was out." He paused. "You know, he's going to have the same problems proving himself that you have had."