"What is it?" Faegan asked skeptically. His gray-green eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me you've found a way out of this zoo!"
"Perhaps! Abbey, Sister Adrian, and Ottikar have found us! The captured Valrenkian Uther is with them! He must certainly know how to navigate the maze!"
His heart leaping, Faegan tossed the shawl aside, levitated his chair, and sailed up and out of the cellar. Traax quickly followed.
The scene in the square was jubilant. It was midevening, and the torches were lit. The warriors had gathered on one side of the square, and they cheered as they looked up through the stone latticework. Duvessa and Ox beamed at Faegan and Traax as they approached. Looking up, Faegan smiled. He couldn't have hoped for more.
Just beyond the latticework, Abbey and Adrian stood in a Minion litter borne aloft by six stout warriors. The women were smiling broadly. A phalanx of warriors surrounded them, and off to one side, Ottikar and another warrior held Uther between them by his wrists.
Apparently the Valrenkian hadn't been given the comfort of a litter. He dangled precariously, the torchlight showing his face red with anger and embarrassment. The warriors in the village shouted invectives at him, many of them calling for his head. For the first time since entering the village, Faegan smiled.
"This seems a fine mess you've gotten everyone into!" Abbey shouted down at him. Despite the seriousness of the situation she couldn't resist poking some fun at him. "Do you mean to say that even your powers cannot break these stone bars?"
Folding his arms over his chest, Faegan scowled. Levitating his chair he soared as close to Abbey and Adrian's litter as the lattice would allow.
"That's exactly what I mean!" he answered gruffly. Then his face registered concern. "Have you heard from Tristan and Wigg, or Shailiha and Tyranny?"
The women's faces turned grim. "There is no word from them," Abbey answered. "But that does not mean that there is reason for alarm." Then she bit her lower lip and looked down at her hands.
Sensing trouble, Faegan leaned forward and peered through the latticework. "What is it? What aren't you telling me?"
"I am sorry. There is no other way to say it. Lionel the Little is dead."
A hush went over the crowd. Duvessa looked to Traax, who took her hand. Ox raged silently, his face red.
Stunned, Faegan sat back in his chair, staring out at nothing. Then he closed them. First Geldon, he thought, and now Lionel. No one on either side of the stone lattice said a word.
Finally Faegan balled his hands into fists, pounded on the arms of his chair, and opened his eyes. His entire body trembled with fury.
"Satine?" he whispered.
Abbey nodded. "We believe so. We won't be sure until you perform the necropsy. Before we left the palace, Sister Adrian conjured a preservative field around the body. Lionel's symptoms were the same as Glendon's-madness followed by apparent suicide. If it was Satine, she crept right by the Minion guards and somehow poisoned Lionel in his sleep."
Several more moments of silence passed.
"How did he die?" the wizard asked at last.
Abbey took a deep breath. "He hanged himself."
Uther began to laugh out loud. His jaw hardening, Faegan turned his deadly gaze toward the Valrenkian. Ottikar and the other warrior struggled to hold on to the prisoner as pandemonium erupted on both sides of the latticework and several free Minions tried to attack the Valrenkian.
"Stop it!" Faegan shouted. "Don't you see? We need him!"
Realizing that his raspy voice was being drowned out by the incensed warriors, the wizard extended one hand and sent an explosive bolt skyward, shooting between the stone bars. The warriors gradually calmed.
Faegan glared at them, then pointed at Uther.
"We need his knowledge of the maze!" he shouted. Then he leveled his iron gaze on the Valrenkian once more. "But once we are free," he added, "I just might hand him over to you."
Uther sneered haughtily at the wizard. "No, you won't! It's common knowledge that every member of the late Directorate took a vow against murder! Stop bluffing! It will do you no good!"
Faegan's return glare was as cold as ice.
"You're wrong, Corporeal," he growled. "I was never a member of the Directorate. I suffer no such restriction. Your comrades have conspired in the murders of two people I loved very much. If you wish to see another day, I suggest you cooperate."
Stunned, Abbey looked over at Adrian. Neither of them had ever seen the wizard so angry. Would he really kill Uther in cold blood? Abbey decided that it was time to intervene. She removed the parchment from within her robe.
The wizard's eyes narrowed. "What's that?"
Abbey passed it through the bars.
"It's Uther's guide through the sandstone maze," she answered, then she and Adrian explained how they had induced him to draw it for them.
Faegan unrolled the map and examined it, then looked back at the women.
"Well done," he said. "But how do we know it's valid? He may be trying to trick us."
"We believe it to be accurate," Adrian answered. "But we think it best that you enter Uther's mind, just to be sure."
Faegan nodded. He looked at the two warriors still dangling Uther in the air. "Hold him tightly," he ordered.
Ottikar gave the other warrior a nod and they put a bit more distance between them, tightening the stretch on Uther's arms. The Valrenkian winced.
"Good," Faegan said. He closed his eyes.
Smiling, Adrian and Abbey waited. Any moment now the Valrenkian's head would snap back and his eyes would widen. And then they would have their answer.
But as the moments went by the women began to wonder, and then to worry. Uther seemed completely unaffected. No azure glow appeared around him, and he continued to smile wickedly at the wizard. Abbey and Adrian turned to each other with concern. Then they looked back at Faegan.
Beads of sweat had broken out along on the wizard's brow, and his face clearly showed signs of strain. Finally he let out a long breath and he opened his eyes. Had he given up?
"What's wrong?" Adrian asked.
"I am able to call the spell, but not to use it upon him," Faegan answered.
The women were stunned. "But how can that be?" Abbey asked. "His powers don't begin to rival yours!"
Thinking to himself, Faegan rubbed his face with his hands.
"The two of you must have inadvertently made him immune to the particular set of calculations required to deeply enter his mind," he answered at last.
"How could that be?" Adrian asked.
"Tell me more about this serum that you made," he said to Abbey.
"Did you use laurel seed?"
Abbey nodded.
"And mandrake?"
"Of course. You're an expert herbmaster. You know the formula as well as I. I had to recall it from memory, but I think I got it right. It calls for both of those herbs, plus several more."
"It's not your fault-neither of you," Faegan said. He shook his head.
"What you didn't know is that when laurel and mandrake are mixed for this purpose, they must never be enhanced with an additional spell of the mind. To do so inures the subject against further such intrusions for all time. Adrian couldn't have known, because she has little or no knowledge of herbmastery. And Abbey, you didn't know because you are unfamiliar with spells that your partial blood signature lacks the power to employ. Only a full wizard or sorceress who was also an herbmaster would know this. You both have much left to learn, but I commend you for trying."
"I'm sorry," Abbey said.
"Don't be," Faegan answered. "You did what you thought best." He trained his gaze back upon the Valrenkian.
"You knew, didn't you?" he asked.
Uther grinned. "Of course, you old fool! I knew what was going on the moment I saw the beaker of green fluid in your herbmistress' hands. They obviously needed information, and any herbalist worth his salt knows that the formula for the serum contains both mandrake and laurel. You know as well as I that it's the laurel that gives the solution its distinctive color. And why else would a Sister of the Redoubt be there, too, unless it was to help augment the serum with a spell? I was fully aware of how this combination would inure me. Your servants have given me a gift that I could never have attained on my own. How ironic! I put on quite a show at the time, but I wanted this, wizard-and badly. Your women willingly gave it to me."