Kit paced the room, pretending to be absorbed in her thoughts, all the while watching the elf from beneath her dark lashes. He was a male and she might try to seduce him, but she guessed she’d have better luck seducing an iceberg. Like the cruel land in which he lived, he was frozen, dispassionate. No flame warmed him. She noted that he stood far from the fire, in the coldest part of the room.
“Why have you come to Icereach, Highlord Kitiara?” Feal-Thas asked suddenly. “Certainly it was not to enjoy our climate.”
Kitiara was about to say that she had important matters of war to discuss with him, but he interrupted her.
“Ariakas sent you here to take my dragon orb.”
“Wrong!” said Kitiara, triumphant. “I have not come to take the dragon orb—”
Feal-Thas made an impatient gesture. “Very well, you have tricked a foul Solamnic into taking it. That is much the same thing, for the orb will destroy him and the emperor will take possession of the orb himself. A clever plan on the part of his lordship, though I question what right he has to lay claim to my dragon orb.”
“I did not know Ariakas had already spoken to you of this, Highlord,” said Kitiara, nettled.
“Ariakas speaks to me as little as possible,” said Feal-Thas dryly. He tossed the Emperor’s letter onto the floor at her feet. “You can read what his lordship writes if you want.”
Kitiara picked it up, glanced at it, and frowned. “You are right, but if he didn’t mention it, how did you know about the knight—Wait!” she called out, startled. “We’re not finished talking. Where are you going?”
“To my palace,” said Feal-Thas, moving toward the door. “I grow weary of this conversation.”
“I haven’t explained his lordship’s orders yet!”
“No need. I understand them well enough,” said Feal-Thas. “I will have food and drink sent to you.”
“I’m not hungry,” she said angrily, “and we’re not finished.”
He opened the door. Pausing, he glanced back to say, “Oh, and about the elf woman, Lauralanthalasa. I know the name, but I do not know her or anything about her. She is, after all, a Qualinesti.” He spoke the word with distaste, as though it soiled his lips, and left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.
“Qualinesti!” repeated Kit, dumbfounded. “What the deuce does he mean by that? Qualinesti! And how did he know I was even going to ask about the elf woman? How did he know about the dragon orb and the knight if Ariakas didn’t tell him?”
Kit dragged a fur blanket off the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, muttering to herself. “This blasted plot is mired in magic. I’m hip deep in wizards—first that witch, Iolanthe, and now this elf. Wizards sneaking around, chanting and whispering and wiggling their fingers. Give me a fair fight with cold steel.”
She toyed with the idea of leaving Icereach. Let Ariakas deal with his elf. Ariakas was himself a user of magic. He would put this Feal-Thas in his place.
A tempting idea, but one she was forced to discard. Returning empty handed would mean admitting failure. The emperor had no tolerance for those who failed. She would certainly lose her command. She might lose her life. Then, too, Kitiara was uneasy over how much the elf knew and what he might do with the information. If Feal-Thas knew about Laurana, he might know about Tanis. And if Ariakas ever found out that she was involved with those who had slain Verminaard…
Kitiara broke out in a cold sweat.
She flung herself on the bed. She couldn’t leave, not until all this was resolved. She had to crush this Feal-Thas, break him, bend him to her will. Except for Tanis, she’d never yet met the man she couldn’t conquer. This elf would be no different. She just had to find his weakness.
Kitiara ate a hearty meal of caribou stew and drank a couple of warming mugs of some sort of potent liquor cooked up by the kapaks. Confident in herself, she crawled beneath layers of furs and hides and slept soundly.
By the time she woke in the morning, she had decided that Feal-Thas must have spies in Toede’s camp—maybe Toede himself. Someone must have heard her asking about Laurana and had reported it to Feal-Thas, and, like a shady fortune teller, the elf had dressed it up to fool her into thinking he’d done something special.
This morning she would give Feal-Thas his orders regarding the dragon orb. If the elf didn’t carry out his orders, that was no fault of hers. She had done as her lord had commanded. When Skie returned, she would leave this icebound land and its frozen wizard.
Dragging one of the fur blankets off the bed, Kitiara wrapped herself in it and set forth in search of Feal-Thas. She was immediately lost in a maze of frigid hallways. After blundering about, she encountered a kapak, who informed her that if the wizard was in the castle, he was likely to be in his library, which was located next door to the room in which she had spent the night.
Kitiara found the room. The door was closed, but not locked, apparently, for it opened a crack when she gave it a shove. Recalling how he had barged in on her last night, Kitiara thrust the door open and strode boldly into the room.
A large white wolf lying on a rug beside a chair leaped to its feet. The wolf’s red eyes fixed on Kitiara. A growl rumbled in the wolf’s throat. Its head went down, its ears went back. It bared its teeth in a snarl. Kitiara clapped her hand to her sword.
“He will be at your throat before you can draw your weapon,” Feal-Thas murmured.
He was reading a large leather-bound book and did not look up. He said something in his own language to the wolf and, reaching out his hand, lightly touched the beast on its head. The wolf settled down, but the red eyes remained fixed on Kitiara. She kept her hand on her sword’s hilt.
She was fuming. Once again, he’d caught her at a disadvantage, put her on the defensive, made her look a damn fool.
“Please, sit down, Highlord,” Feal-Thas said, gesturing to another chair.
“I’m not going to be here that long,” she told him curtly. “I have been sent to give you the emperor’s orders regarding the dragon orb—”
“My dragon orb,” said Feal-Thas.
Kitiara was ready for this argument. “When you became a Dragon Highlord, you swore an oath to the Queen. You pledged to serve her. The emperor is her chosen representative in the world. He has need of the dragon orb and he has the right to claim it.”
The elf’s gray eyes flickered. “I could question that, but let us say for the sake of argument I agree.” He sighed and closed the book. “Explain this scheme.”
“I thought you knew all about it?” Kit said disdainfully.
“Indulge me,” the elf returned.
Kitiara related how she had lured the knight, Derek Crownguard, into traveling to Icereach to find the orb. Feal-Thas frowned at this. The elf wore his long white hair smoothed back from his forehead and the dark line of his displeasure was clearly visible on his brow.
“I should have been informed that you were going to reveal the secret of the dragon orb to another. You have placed the orb in great danger. Not from this knight.” Feal-Thas waved away Derek as inconsequential. “The Tower wizards have been searching for this orb for centuries. If the Wizard’s Conclave were to hear about it—”
“They won’t,” said Kitiara. “The knights want the orb for themselves. They are doing all in their power to keep it secret. They don’t want the wizards to have it any more than you do.”
Feal-Thas thought this over and appeared to concede the point, for he made no further argument.
“You will give the dragon orb to the white dragon, Sleet. When this Derek Crownguard arrives,” Kitiara continued, “you will allow him to find the dragon orb. Takhisis will give orders to the dragon. Sleet will be told she can kill off any companions, if she wants, but she mustn’t harm Crownguard. Once the knight has the orb and it has him—however that works—he will be allowed to depart with it. He will carry it back to Solamnia and that realm will fall, just as Silvanesti fell.”