“Loiosh, where is Rocza?” I was, to be honest, surprised at the sinking fear I felt in the pit of my stomach.
“I had her stay behind. I didn’t want to worry about her.”
I was equally surprised by the relief that flooded through me. “You could have told me.”
“It was a last-minute decision.”
I turned my attention to the Dragonlords we had come to rescue. They were both sitting on the floor against a stone wall, with what seemed to be iron manacles on their wrists, and they were both awake. Both had their weapons with them.
Morrolan cleared his throat and said, “Welcome. I find myself filled with the desire to say something like, ‘What took you so long, Vlad,’ but I fear that you, Lady Teldra, might take it wrong, so I will refrain.”
“Damned decent of you,” I said.
“Hello, Vlad,” said Aliera. “I wondered who she would send into this trap.”
“It’s a trap?” I said. “Why, now, that’s hard to believe.”
Morrolan snorted.
I said, “How did they come to leave you your weapons?”
“Do you imagine,” said Aliera, “that they would be willing to touch them, or even come near them?”
“I see. So you have your weapons, but are unable to move.”
“Well, you probably noticed that you have no link to the Orb.”
“Uh,” I said, because, in fact, in all the disorientation, that little fact had escaped me. “Let’s see if we can get you out of those things.”
“Good luck,” said Aliera.
“Oh?”
I inspected them. There was a fair bit of slack—enough to reach the plain, white ceramic chamber pots a few paces from the wall (the contents of which I didn’t bother to inspect), but not much more. The chain was thick, and seemingly of some material a lot like iron, but smoother, and—
“There’s no lock. They don’t open.”
“Noticed that right away, did you?” said Aliera.
“Bugger,” I suggested. “How did they get them on you in the first place?”
“I don’t know,” said Morrolan.
I looked at them. “Well, so here you are, unable to move, to escape, or to act in any way. Good. There are a number of things I’ve wanted to say to you both over the years.”
“Funny, Vlad,” said Morrolan.
“I thought it was funny, Boss.”
Teldra said, “Do you think our arrival here has been detected?”
“I have no way of knowing,” said Morrolan.
“I’d have to assume so,” said Aliera.
“Well,” I said. “That ought to make things more interesting. Does anyone have a suggestion for getting you two out of those manacles?”
“You should have brought Kiera,” said Aliera.
“Yeah,” I said. “Right. What could I have been thinking of to have forgotten to have a Kiera in my pocket?”
I knelt down next to Morrolan and studied the manacles. They were completely smooth, as if they had been created, fully formed, around his wrists out of some material I had never encountered before; something very hard, dull grey, and at least as strong as iron.
“How did you get here?” said Aliera.
“The windows in my tower,” said Morrolan. “He used Spellbreaker to find Pathfinder.”
“Blackwand, actually, but yes.”
“So is the window still open?”
I said, “No,” at the same time Morrolan said, “Yes.”
I said, “Uh, I defer to your expertise.”
“Yes it is,” said Morrolan, “but I know of no way to reach it without using powers to which I have no access from here, so it may as well not be.”
Aliera said, “Have the Jenoine access to such powers?”
“Excuse me?” said Morrolan.
“Can they use your window to reach our world?”
Very softly, under his breath, Morrolan cursed. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said.
“I should imagine,” I said, “that Sethra didn’t, either.”
Morrolan and Aliera were cousins, both of the House of the Dragon. Morrolan was the sort of fellow who would restyle his hair every week or so, and take great care of his nails; and in his youth, had put entire villages to the sword when the mood took him. Aliera was short for a Dragaeran (still taller than me, of course), compact, brilliant, and more fond of a good duel than of any other entertainment you cared to name. They were both better sorcerers than I’ll ever live to be, though a bit overshadowed by their association with Sethra Lavode; but that only meant they were often underestimated.
They both carried Great Weapons; these were rarely underestimated.
Morrolan didn’t hate Easterners as much as you’d expect; Aliera didn’t hate me as much as you’d expect. Exactly how I got mixed up with these two is a long story, and probably not worth repeating, but, over the years, it is possible my association with them had done me more good than harm at least up until now.
I studied where the chains from Morrolan’s manacles joined the wall, and there was nothing there to work on—it was as if the chains were built in when the wall was first constructed. The wall itself seemed to be made of stone, except there were no stones in it, just one solid piece, as if someone had carved it out of a mountain. Well, why not? Sethra did something like that. Of course, her walls weren’t so smooth as this.
“They don’t seem to be in a hurry,” I said.
“We can assume,” said Aliera, “until proven otherwise, that they are watching and listening, and, since they know they have us all trapped, they have no need to be in a hurry, and by listening might get useful information from us.”
“Such as the fact that they can use the window to reach our world,” said Morrolan, “which we were just kind enough to tell them.”
“And you are even now repeating, in case they missed it before.”
“As if—”
“Oh, cut it out,” I said. I flipped two fingers to the world in general, just in case they were watching and the gesture was universal, then noticed for the first time that there didn’t seem to be any doors in the room. I took some time to look around the room a little more, feeling all eyes on me, but seeing no need to explain myself. The room was about two hundred feet by a hundred and fifty feet, and empty, save for several tall metal objects that looked a bit like bookshelves, but were devoid of books. Most likely, this was some sort of storage room. And, as far as I could see, there was no way into or out of it. A good way to keep your property from being stolen. I’d have to remember that, in case I ever again had property to protect and the opportunity to protect it.
“There aren’t any doors,” I remarked.
Aliera and Morrolan gave me a look as if I’d just announced that knives were sometimes sharp. Teldra nodded solemnly, but I think she’d already noticed.
I thought about communicating with them psychically, but without the Orb it’s damned difficult, not to mention exhausting.
Morrolan closed his eyes for a moment, then touched the hilt of Blackwand. “No one is listening to us,” he said aloud.
Aliera’s head whipped around, and she stared at him. “How can you know that?”
“Blackwand is not without power, cousin. Nor, for that matter, am I.”
Aliera looked dubious, but didn’t say anything more.
“Hey, Boss, do you think the Necromancer has been able to maintain contact?”
“I’d give whole worlds to know, Loiosh.”