"So the Gifts are useless?" asked one Councilor, his voice sounding strained.
"No, no—only Farsight and Foresight!" Joyeaus hastened to say. "Mindspeech works perfectly well, and Fetching as well, at least as far as we can tell. We've never depended on Foresight, it's too rare a Gift and too erratic anyway."
I can vouch for that, Alberich thought grimly.
"And we've never depended entirely on Farsight either," Selenay put in, her high, young voice carrying over the muttering (and, yes, there was rising panic in those voices) of those around her. "We'd be fools to depend on any single source of intelligence, gentlemen! You may depend upon it, there are other ways of finding things out at a distance. Including—" she added, with a touch of irony, "—common spies."
"Animal Mindspeech," replied someone. Alberich couldn't tell who, precisely, for the background chatter distorted the sound. The voice was female, though, and very confident. "The Chronicles say that the Hawkbrothers of the Pelagiris Forest use Animal Mindspeech with their birds as spies. Surely we can do the same? Or listen through the ears of a horse or hound?"
The muttering subsided, and what there was of it sounded less panicky. Sendar turned to Joyeaus. "Deal with it, Joyeaus. Find the Heralds with Animal Mindspeech; see what you can do. Ask Myste what's in the Chronicles. Perhaps the Heralds of our generation have not needed to worry about their Gifts being blocked, but there's no reason to think it hasn't happened in the past somewhere, and if anyone will know where, when, and what was done about it, it will be Myste."
"Sire." Joyeaus bowed and edged her way out of the crowd.
No wonder the voice had sounded familiar, and he felt that familiar apprehension whenever he thought of the half-blind Herald-chronicler-in-training. Well, at least he'd given her enough skill to get herself out of trouble if she had to, and he could count on her strong instinct for self-preservation to keep her out of the fighting itself.
Unless, of course, there was no other choice. But if that happened, everyone in a white uniform with a mount that was even vaguely pale in color was going to be in danger. The Tedrels knew better than to let a single Herald escape alive.
It has to be Sunpriests that are helping them, though. No mage worth the name would serve Karse or the Tedrels. No mage worth the name will serve where the Mercenary Guild won't. Even one of the blood-path mages wouldn't serve the Tedrels, in part because the Tedrels themselves would know better than to trust one of that sort. You didn't want a bloodpath mage around; when sacrifices ran short, they tended to grab whoever was closest....
That didn't make things any better, however. The Sunpriests had power. Everyone knew about the invisible creatures they commanded that stalked the night, able to see into a man's very soul and discern if he was a heretic and a traitor, and thus, their lawful prey. He himself had heard them, howling in the distance.
:Then why didn't they take you?: Kantor asked, with none of the ironic humor he might have put into such a question.
:Because I am no heretic,: he replied, with none of the sharpness he might have put into a reply, because Kantor was not teasing him, and deserved candor. :I follow the Writ as well as I may; and though I often fail, failure does not make a heretic, blasphemy does. They hunt those who would deny Vkandis, not the sinner. If they hunted sinners, there would be no man or woman safe in Karse, and precious few children. And as for their other prey, I am no traitor to Karse or my people.: There was heat in his last sentence, though; he couldn't help himself, and Kantor reacted to it.
:Peace, I only asked to see what it was that these creatures that haunt your darkness might seek,: he said soothingly. :I suspect in part it is a feeling of guilt, and in part, the fear that such guilt would cause. Especially in those who think that such creatures can read their souls, and know that the Sunpriests would not approve of what is there.:
Well, that was a novel suggestion. And it was one he would think about in depth—and perhaps discuss with Myste, since she was here—but later. For now, since the mere mention of the fact that other peoples had as much or more magic at their disposal as the Heralds did, seemed to cause Sendar and the others to act as if they were momentarily stunned, he had other things to worry about. :Take it as read, you and the other Companions, that the Sunpriests are going to try to block whatever Gifts we use,: he advised. :I don't know how well Sendar and Joyeaus understood what I was trying to tell them—:
—and even now he truly didn't understand how the possibility hadn't even occurred to them.
:We probably can't do anything about Farsight and ForeSight, but I defy them to block Mindspeech with the Companions boosting it,: Kantor said with determination. :And we might even be able to boost the other Gifts on an irregular basis.:
Good enough. Now for the rest; he waited until there was a gap in Sendar's orders, and interrupted.
"Majesty," he said clearly, with a touch of sharpness, "if blocking FarSight the enemy suddenly is, when until now he has not, then is it not that he does not want to be seen? And steps is taking, of that to make certain? And that would be—why?"
Sendar stared at him a moment, his brow furrowed, and again Alberich cursed his lack of expertise in Valdemaran. But it would have taken him a quarter-candlemark to work out how to say it clearly, and they didn't have the time—
The others just stared at him, probably trying to untangle his mangled syntax as well. Selenay, who was far more used to the way he spoke, uttered an oath that would have made one of the muleteers blush.
"They're moving!" she said—no, shouted—before her father could rebuke her for her language. "Father, the Tedrels, they knew we'd be watching them, they didn't care until this moment since all we'd see is their troops building, but now they don't want us to see them because they're moving!"
Sendar swore, in language even stronger than Selenay's (and there was no doubt in Alberich's mind where she'd learned to curse so fluently). But he put up his hand to quell the raised voices around him, stilling an incipient panic with a single gesture.
Alberich hoped that Selenay was taking note. This was the sort of thing a Monarch needed to be able to do by sheer force of personality.
"Even if they could fly—which they cannot—they could not be at our Border before three days have elapsed," Sendar pointed out. "Since they must move on their feet and those of their horses, it will be longer than that. We have a dual task—to find another way to gain the intelligence that FarSight would have given us, and to prepare the army to meet them. The former is in the hands of Joyeaus and Myste, and if any two Heralds can find what is needed in the past, they can. So, my friends, let us bend our minds to the latter, for it is time to finish our strategies. That is what we can do."