“So, they know that you are consorting with an archdemon.” She stated, rather than asked.
Exador shrugged, “Perhaps. If they’ve figured out who Ramses is, then they probably also know that Ramses and ‘the family Exador’,” Bess shook her head slightly, “go back a long way. They also know that there was bad blood between Ramses and my ‘ancestors.’ Or so any history book will tell them.”
“Bad blood? You drove him off the plane.” Bess stated.
“Politics, my dear, nothing personal. It was simply expedient at the time. Besides, that was 3,000 years ago.”
“After he invaded your land and his people had your son killed, permanently.”
“Misunderstanding, we’ve long since resolved that. I’ve fathered a few more since then.” Exador waved his left hand dismissingly as he raised his glass to take a sip of orange juice.
“And 1,000 years ago, when he was driven off a second time?”
“Pure coincidence that I was involved in the revolution on the opposing side. Nothing more, we never even met in battle.”
“Fine,” Bess shrugged, “I’m happy to know there is nothing personal this time around either. And that you want to stick it to him again over the book for purely expedient reasons.”
“My dear,” Exador said mildly, “you’re the one who brought it up. You were perfectly correct we don’t need a third leg. You and I are more than capable of ruling over the Abyss as King and Queen by ourselves.”
Edwyrd shut the door on their room as Rupert went to take a nap. He stopped by Maelen and Gastropé’s room to see if they’d gone to breakfast yet. At least officially that was the reason; unofficially it was to see if Gastropé was in freak out mode.
Gastropé was out, but Maelen was in, sorting through a fairly good sized stack of books of various sizes. “Where did all the books come from?” Edwyrd asked.
Maelen smiled, “I’ve ransacked the Council’s general library. It’s for the use of the Council of Wizards; I seem to be able to get in no problem.” He grinned knowingly at Edwyrd who smiled back. “It’s all general stuff, nothing too confidential or top secret: say like Lenamare’s book. However, I wanted to get a general idea on what they know and don’t know about various things. I want to better understand their perspective, thinking and get a sense of their background thought process. This is pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I want to take advantage of it.”
Edwyrd chuckled. “If you can figure out what wizards are thinking, please let me know. I cannot figure them out no matter how hard I try.”
“Have you ever read any of their books or introductions to Wizardry?” Maelen asked. “They have an interesting view of reality. A bit different than we do.”
“Hmm,” Edwyrd replied. “I can honestly say that I have never read anything about Wizardry, at least not from a wizard’s perspective.”
“You could be in for a treat then. Do you need any bedtime reading?” Maelen asked.
Edwyrd’s eyes lit up, “Yes, actually I do. I have some problems with insomnia lately. It’s almost as if I was stressed about something.” Edwyrd smiled at the Seer.
Maelen chuckled, “Let me prepare you a stack of books that I think you’ll find useful. Feel free to come in and borrow them at your leisure.”
“Thanks!” Edwyrd replied.
Maelen completed the stack for Edwyrd and headed to the storeroom he’d located last night. The Sorcerer Elrose had contacted him via Johen and they’d synced a mirror of Elrose’s with a scrying bowl of Maelen’s and had had a good conversation. Elrose was outside the walls of the city with his refugee train. They were being blocked by the Rod’s army.
Elrose wanted to group teleport his people into the city and palace. Such a large group teleportation would be quite tricky on multiple levels. He’d need a large, unoccupied region and a very good ‘feeling’ for it, both visually and other senses. A teleport anchor was the term that was most commonly used. Elrose felt that a Seer, such as Maelen would be able to provide a better anchor than Lenamare, Jehenna or Hortwell.
Maelen had smiled at that. Elrose and he had never met in person, and yet Elrose still trusted him more than the three wizards with this delicate operation. Maelen found that a bit amusing. Jehenna, according to Jenn, was a Master Sorceress, and so should be able to provide a high quality anchor for the teleport; but clearly Elrose wasn’t that fond of her. Maelen couldn’t disagree with the assessment.
Chapter 75
Jenn finished the last chalk markings on the floor, the rose-colored light pouring through the tower window from the setting sun outside glinting off the bits of chalk dust still floating in the air. Jenn had slept most of the day through, and when she’d finally gotten up and went to get some food, she’d been promptly summoned to the workroom. Apparently, Lenamare and Jehenna were finally ready to make another attempt at opening the book.
She was still exhausted; she’d gotten at most a half hour for dinner before being summoned. She’d joined Gastropé who was eating with Maelen. She wished she could have said it had been good to catch up with them; unfortunately, that had not been the case.
As if the thought of multiple armies hiding in the basement wasn’t bad enough; apparently Tisdale had reported and Edwyrd, Gastropé and Maelen had all verified that the entire palace was infested with lower level invisible demons. They advised her to be circumspect when in public regions.
Seriously? Jenn just shook her head. She was getting sick and tired of demons. The entire world was literally going to hell. She wished she’d had more time to ask them the what and why of this, but admittedly they didn’t seem to have too many answers; so it would probably have just been gossiping. Still, some venting would have been nice.
At least she was going to be busy for the next few hours with the stupid book. That would take her mind off the demons. In particular, she was the lead student on this since the other students present and assisting had no real idea what it was they were trying to do.
Lenamare didn’t think the other students needed to know what they were doing and he’d even gone so far as to order Jenn not to talk about it. She glanced over to where Lenamare was consulting with Zilquar, wondering once again what was in the book that Lenamare found so incredibly important. Some long lost spell?
Even as she was musing, horns began to sound from the walls of the city. Warning horns from the sound of it. Was the Rod trying to attack the city? So far they’d just sat outside patiently, not letting people in or out without very close scrutiny.
“What is it now?” Lenamare muttered impatiently as he and Zilquar moved to the west window, squinting into the sunset. “Shit.”
“What is it?” Jehenna asked, getting up from the other side of the room where she’d been correcting some of Bromagni’s work.
“What could possess those morons to show up now?” Lenamare asked himself, ignoring Jehenna for the moment. “I didn’t expect them to come after me so soon after resolving the Exador affair. I figured their infernal bureaucracy would slow them down enough that I wouldn’t have to deal with them yet.”
“Oorstemoth?” Jehenna asked as she walked over to peer out the window. All the students were staring at the wizards expectantly. Lenamare simply nodded. Jenn got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Well, so they proved a little more resourceful in ignoring those false leads you planted.”