Lan and Inyx exchanged looks. The nonverbal link between them formed but their confused thinking prevented any but general emotion from flowing. Inyx inclined her head slightly, indicating she desired a private conference. Lan nodded. While it wasn' t vital that Noratumi close ranks with his mortal enemy, it suited Lan' s own plans if he did so.
Plot. Counterplot. He was beginning to conspire with the best. He and Inyx walked away a few feet to talk.
For what must have been a minute, neither spoke. They were content simply staring at one another. Lan reached out and tentatively touched Inyx' s cheek, almost afraid she might be an illusion sent by Claybore to torment him. If she were a wraith, Claybore outdid himself. The cheek flushed under his touch and turned warm. Strong fingers gripped his wrist and pulled him closer, her red lips coming to his. Eyes flashing with desire, she started to kiss him.
" Wait," said Lan. " This isn' t the time. Once we are in the city, then we can speak."
" Speak?" she mocked. " Is that all you want to do? It' s been an eternity since we saw one another."
The silent communication that had been sparked now flared into a full two- way flow of information. Along with it came emotion undeniable to the woman of what Lan Martak felt for her.
" Lan my darling, I shouldn' t tease you like that. I: I know how you feel about me."
He swallowed hard and held her close when a tickling sensation started at the borders of his mind. Claybore launched a new attack.
" We must get inside Wurnna' s walls soon. The power stone helps protect us."
" What of their mages?"
" Most are dead. Most of the ordinary citizens- and slaves- are dead, also. I found in your mind the last moments of Bron. Are these the only survivors?" He indicated the haggard band of refugees resting in their saddles.
" As far as I know, these are the only ones to escape. They had no way of deflecting the magics Claybore hurled at them. If Wurnna had been more sympathetic, there might still be two outposts against Claybore."
" How do we persuade Noratumi to join forces with Iron Tongue?"
Inyx shook her head and said, " I see no way. He fears, and legitimately, that Iron Tongue will enslave him. The truce might cover the common survivors of Bron, but never a leader. Jacy is wary of all sorcerers, you included, Lan."
" I suspect there is more to it than that," he said dryly.
She looked at him sharply, but said nothing. Inyx almost blushed, something she had not done since before her marriage to Reinhardt. The bits and pieces of information she had read in Lan' s mind corresponded to those he had gotten from hers. She did not know if she was prepared for such intimacy. Of body, yes, but of mind? That was a step beyond any she had taken.
" What will we do? I sense Claybore' s attack is close."
" You feel it, through me? Interesting." Lan' s mind took in the datum and continued on, constructing various schemes and discarding them as he went. " I must talk with both Noratumi and Iron Tongue. They will either agree or cut one another' s throats by the time I am finished."
He and Inyx rejoined the others, upper arms brushing as they walked. Lan rejoiced in the woman' s nearness. They had been apart far too long. The brief sojourns with Rugga had counted only as political dealings in his mind, just as Inyx' s dalliances with Jacy Noratumi fell into the same category. He almost smiled to himself. He had outgrown petty jealousy, the jealousy that had precipitated his departure from his homeworld when one of the grey- clads had murdered his lover. But was this newfound maturity worthwhile? He had come to think in terms of temporary alliances, what was to be gained from the politics of the flesh.
Lan decided it was. His love for Inyx only deepened. And, if the brief rush through her mind was any indication, the soft emotion was shared.
" Noratumi, Iron Tongue," he said. He motioned for the two leaders to join him. With small twitchings of his fingers, he wove a spell that dulled Iron Tongue' s persuasive powers. He found it impossible, as yet, to completely negate the tongue' s enhancements, but he didn' t need that at the moment.
" I have decided. I will never set foot inside those walls." Noratumi' s words fell monotone, determined.
" What makes you think you would be welcome?" said Iron Tongue. " Your people are needed. You? Ha! You are a worthless leader who lost your city- state. What else but failure can you bring to Wurnna?"
" All our skills are needed," Lan said patiently. He tried to analyze why Iron Tongue' s words carried such magic. In dim ways he began to understand and use a weaker version of the spell. " Wurnna needs the numbers. Noratumi' s people need a new home."
" Only until Bron can be rebuilt."
" That requires Claybore' s defeat. Work for it, Jacy. With Iron Tongue."
" I will not be a slave in his power- stone mines."
" Who' d want a lazy snake like you? It wouldn' t be worth the whip leather to beat you."
The two leaders glared at one another. Lan cut through the mounting hatred.
" A truce. Temporary, until Claybore is routed. Iron Tongue, do you agree not to enslave Jacy?"
" Only if he works in the mines of his own free will. Without the stone, we cannot triumph. You know that. You came to the same conclusion."
" Will you, Jacy, work freely in the power- stone mines if it means victory?"
" Yes, but you are promising something that will never be delivered, Martak. The spiders prevent easy access to the mines. Even with my people, we are too few to fight and mine."
" If I grant free access to the mines, will that satisfy you both?"
" A treaty with the spiders?" scoffed Iron Tongue. " Impossible."
" Will you agree to all we' ve talked about, if I can do it?" Lan wrenched the reluctant nods from both men. He heaved a deep sigh and indicated the narrow dirt path leading back into the safety offered by Wurnna. The magical pressures mounting indicated Claybore forged another massive offensive. He needed the vast reserves of power stone within the city to feed his own defenses.
Juggernauts of prodigious power- all illusory- smashed against Wurnna' s defenses for twenty solid hours. By the time Lan, Iron Tongue, and the remaining sorcerers had reached the point of exhaustion, so had Claybore. The offensive slowed and finally vanished.
" How long, Lan?"
" I don' t know," the young mage told Inyx. " Claybore might start up again at any minute. He is almost as powerful as all of us within the walls. The power stone is all that feeds our defenses now."
" Can' t you use that little grimoire of yours to find a new spell that will stop him?" She pointed to the brown leather, brass- studded book Lan had dropped on a nearby table. He had been given the book of spells by a dying mage atop Mount Tartanius.
" I' ve looked. Some of the spells come easily now. I used several to send the black dragons into Claybore' s soldiers- and I hadn' t even remembered seeing them until Iron Tongue and the others worked with a modified version. I changed the spell slightly another time, but Claybore now counters it easily. There' s so much I don' t know!" He came to the point of frustration- caused tears. He had come so far, yet the path stretched to infinity before him. Claybore had spent centuries learning his magics. Lan Martak was a newcomer to this form of battle. He had unwillingly entered an arena where a strong arm and a quick sword meant nothing.
" Try to relax. Don' t force yourself to the brink of exhaustion."
" And you have just the remedy for that, I take it?"
" Of course I do."
Her lips crushed into his even as her hands wandered along his muscular body. For a moment tiredness seized him and he almost told her to stop, then he drew down and found almost limitless strength in the bracelet of power stone he wore. The change from lethargy to vitality took Inyx by surprise, but it was a nice surprise.