Captain Medan squatted down beside her. "We’re going to have to hunt them through this."
"Eferum-Get acting under orders."
"Yes. The idea of them using tactics isn’t a pretty one. Feints and ambushes. Not what we usually have to deal with, and hunting through this stuff will be painful, especially when half of us have been instructed to return to the city for its defence. We may find it more useful to head to the nearest settlements and wait for them to show up, rather than expose ourselves in small tracking parties. Now, can I talk some sense into you?"
"Can I have something to eat?"
He sighed deeply, but went and fetched her a bowl of thick soup, barely warm but filling. She drank it down and handed him the bowl, then said: "It will take me about two hours to reach Asentyr."
"Two–?" His surprise was understandable. The journey into the marsh had been slow and tedious. Eight hours of working the boats through shallow channels.
"Captain, if I hadn’t been throwing so much power about today, I could probably levitate all the way there. I’ll use something a little more efficient though. I want to get inside the city’s circle as quickly as possible."
"You said, yesterday, that you think this uncle is capable of passing the circle."
"He’s an outstanding mage, just lacking the strength of a focus. Teleporting a short distance would be well within his abilities, and totally bypass the circle’s protections, though not the alarm I added. Now that he’s in this world, he would also be able to create gates into the Eferum, and travel there and back at will. And he’s definitely capable of placing people under injunction, and could use them to access Asentyr, though the duration of the spell would be limited. But the city’s circle is still the first line of real protection, and I need to be inside it. When I reach Asentyr I will hide myself and wait until there’s only an hour or two left, and then I’ll head to the Hall of Summoning."
Captain Medan rubbed at his black-stubbled chin, made wary by the sudden flow of information. "I get the feeling you’re about to say something I won’t like."
"In a way. I want you to do something for me. You know the flag that sits on top of the tower at the centre of the Halls of Magic?"
"I may have noticed something of the sort."
"If the Kellian escape, lower it."
Rennyn watched the muscles bunch in his jaw, but then he nodded. "Very well."
"Solace’s obvious move is to take control of the Hall of Summoning. Unless her son brings another army of Eferum-Get into the city’s circle, the Kellian are the ideal tool. All that talk yesterday, the defences Lady Weston plans, do you think it could stand against them?"
"That would depend on how much warning we had. And–" His voice dropped. "And whether we were willing to kill them."
Rennyn stood. It was time she started moving. "One thing I am at least sure of, Captain." The thing she clung to, whenever she thought about this plan. "They’d prefer death to the alternative."
Chapter Twenty-Four
There was nothing worse than waiting. Kendall supposed she should be glad she was in the Arkathan rather than the dungeons, but the hours still grated by. At least she had the dormitory room to herself. All but a handful of the Arkathan students had been sent back to their homes until the Black Queen had been dealt with.
Earlier that day a squad of Sentene had returned from the marshes. Kendall had managed to find Lieutenant Danress, who had a bandage down one arm, but she didn’t know anything much. Rennyn had left them. If everything had gone to plan, she was somewhere in the city. The Sentene were refining the defences in the Hall of Summoning, and would sit there hoping she showed up before the Black Queen did. Typical Rennyn.
Sick of doing nothing, Kendall decided to go over to the Sentene barracks. The palace was at highest security and nobody was supposed to be moving about right now, but the most they could do was send her away again.
All the security meant too many guards. They were even patrolling the barracks, for all that it was practically empty. Kendall made it to the garden between the Arkathan and the Sentene barracks without any problem, but then was stuck watching one of the Ferumguard pacing back and forth, tensely alert. He didn’t even have the decency to stick to a predictable pattern. The windows on the ground floor were too narrow to squeeze through, and it didn’t look easy to climb the side of the building. One day she’d be able to levitate up there, which was a nice thought, but useless right now.
Stymied, Kendall was wondering if she could bluff her way past when she heard voices, and the patrolling guardsman went to investigate. Not slow to take advantage, she nipped inside and hurried along inconveniently bright halls to Sebastian’s room. There were too many magelights in the palace, and every one of them had been left uncovered this night.
The wards itched at her as she shut the door, but that only made her pleased she was able to tell they were active. Kendall had made Sukata try and explain the difference between wards and circles, but mostly because she had wanted to distract the Kellian girl, who had gone all mute and hunched after they’d found Rennyn crying. Kendall hadn’t much liked that herself.
The bed had been pushed to one side. Odd. Kendall checked under it curiously, but found nothing unusual. Otherwise, the room was tidy, the bed made, the desk clean, with no sign of the meal they’d delivered. Except for the lines of sigils around the walls, it looked like any other room. Dissatisfied, Kendall took down one of the books above the desk and flipped through it. Healing magic, which Rennyn had said she didn’t do. Maybe she’d decided to learn. With nothing better to do, Kendall started on another book, and found that it was full of pictures of what people looked like with all their skin gone.
This was definitely distracting, and Kendall was busy turning the pages when the room grew gloomy. Dark lines on the walls grew darker, then twisted across and out, as if the shadows were stretching out fingers to grab her. Kendall was a breath from diving under the bed when the darkness fell apart to reveal Rennyn.
"What in the Hells was that supposed to be?"
The black-haired woman gave her a brief, unsurprised glance. "Teleportation using Symbolic magic. From shadow to shadow basically. Conditional and expensive, but very useful."
If Rennyn said it was expensive, it probably meant most people couldn’t begin to cast it. What did it matter? Kendall took a couple of deep breaths and switched to the far more important matter of Rennyn being here, now.
"Are you heading to the Hall of Summoning?"
"Not quite yet." For once Rennyn looked like she’d slept, though the circles under her eyes seemed to have become etched in place. She sat down on the bed, holding the bulky focus on her lap.
"Why hasn’t anything happened?" Kendall asked, frustrated by Rennyn’s calm. "There haven’t been any attacks. Everyone’s just sitting about. Even the Kellian–"
"Are just sitting about?"
"Lieutenant Danress told me that they stopped moving. Since before midnight yesterday. They don’t move, and don’t react if anyone talks to them. They drink a little water sometimes, and that’s it."
"No orders," Rennyn said, curtly enough that Kendall knew she didn’t like to think about it either, no matter how cool she was acting. "She’s conserving her resources. Although they’re formidable, the Kellian are tremendously outnumbered. Since the aim is to stop me, it’s logical to wait until I’m easily located, which I will be once I go to the Hall of Summoning. After that, I doubt Solace will be too concerned with how many of their lives she spends trying to overcome the Sentene’s preparations."