“Sorry,” Lyra replied sheepishly. “Guess I have too much on my mind. Let’s break for a while.”
“Definitely a good idea,” nodded Temiker. “This old body is not used to diving through the air anymore. I must learn to get more physical exercise if I am to keep dodging your mistakes.”
“You move pretty well,” chuckled Lyra. “Thanks, Uncle Temiker. You have the patience of Kaltara with me.”
Temiker smiled at Lyra and shook his head. “I would have loved to have you as my student all these years. I never knew the potential of your power. I doubt Malafar knew either.”
“How is he doing?” questioned Lyra.
“Good and bad,” Temiker replied, brushing the dirt out of his beard. “LifeTender has put him on a diet of swamp grasses and herbs to leech the drug out of his body. He absolutely hates it, but surprisingly he has accepted her direction. I think it is doing wonders for him. Some of that old sparkle is back in his eyes. He does not appear to be bothered by fits of confusion anymore and is actually quite lucid in his comments and discussions.”
“That is wonderful,” smiled Lyra. “I don’t see anything bad in that. What concerns you?”
Temiker motioned to Lyra and walked over to a bench alongside the building. Lyra followed him and sat next to him, trying to anticipate what was troubling her uncle.
“Now that he thinks clearly,” Temiker began, “he sees what a fool he has been. I think Lord Marak opened his eyes at the strategy meeting to the real character of the Sakovan people, a race he has been taught to hate since his youth. He knows now that the government lied to him. He knows that Alazar used him to further his own career and the burden of this knowledge is eating away at him.”
“Do you think he could possibly take his own life?” inquired Lyra. “Could he? Would he?”
“I don’t know,” admitted the old mage. “Malafar has always believed in one path to anything he has done, even when we were children. Once he sees a solution to his current dilemma, he throws all of his effort into it. There is never a second guess on his part; no reasoning once his mind is made up.”
“Should I assign bodyguards for him?” Lyra asked as she chewed absently on her lower lip.
“No,” Temiker answered quickly. “That would send the wrong signal and might give rise to thoughts that do not really exist. I do not know that he is contemplating suicide. I have been wracking my brain to figure out what he will do with this new knowledge. With Rhodella gone, I know him better than anyone alive and I cannot fathom what his reaction is going to be. That is what disturbs me.”
“And with Rhodella gone and his daughter anointed as the leader of a nation where he is not comfortable living, he has little to go back to in his life,” surmised Lyra. “I see where your apprehension is coming from. So how do we protect him from himself or even determine if we need to?”
“He is talking to me again,” offered Temiker, “but he still will not confide in me. I think that may take some time. Perhaps if you spoke with him at length, you could find out what he is thinking better than I.”
“Then I shall do so immediately,” Lyra decided. “Find him and bring him to my office. I think we should deal with this right away. There has been enough bloodshed in this family already and I am not going to lose my father again.”
“I will send him to your office,” suggested Malafar’s brother. “My presence at the meeting would be counterproductive.”
Lyra stared at Temiker for a moment and then nodded sadly. She abruptly spun around and marched off towards the palace. She ran into Jostin as she entered the palace and headed for her office.
“StarWind and HawkShadow are returning,” the freckled youth reported hastily. “They are just coming out of the tunnel.”
“Excellent,” nodded Lyra. “See to their mounts and send them to my office right away. I am anxious to find out how the Mayor of Campanil responded to them.”
The young boy grinned widely and bowed to the Star as he scampered off to greet the spymaster and the assassin. Lyra chuckled inwardly as the lad left. The Sakovans were not a formal people and nobody bothered to bow to the Star except at ritual gatherings. Nobody except Jostin that is. The red-haired boy delighted with any chance to bring news to Lyra so that he could be in the presence of the Star. Lyra smiled and continued on to her office.
She saw the ever-increasing pile of papers on her desk as she entered the office and a small sigh escaped her lips. She never knew that so much paperwork was demanded of a ruler. Everybody wanted her authorization to do something or purchase some item. She shuffled through the papers absent-mindedly and finally pushed them aside with a mental promise to appoint someone else to give authorizations for requests. She had not detected any dishonesty from the Sakovan people and she ended up approving all of the requests anyway. Why not let someone else handle the paperwork?
“Temiker said you wanted to see me,” Master Malafar said softly, interrupting Lyra’s thoughts.
Lyra looked and smiled at her father, “Yes I did. I am sorry that I have not had time sooner for this. I was just thinking of ways to free up more of my time. Please sit down Father.”
Malafar walked to one of the two chairs before the desk and sat down. “I hope I have not been too much of a problem for you,” he sighed. “I guess I have made a rather large mess of things lately. I do not understand how I could have been so blind. Rhodella must have laughed at me daily.”
Lyra sank into her chair and shook her head. “No Father,” she assured him. “Mother would never have laughed at you. You had reasons for your beliefs as she did for hers. Besides, you must not dwell on the past. We cannot bring Rhodella or Alfred back, so we must turn our thoughts towards the future.”
“The past looks better to me than the future,” frowned Malafar. “I had everything I could ever want and I threw it all away. The future holds nothing for me and that is what I deserve.”
Lyra bit down on her lower lip and frowned. Malafar was truly despondent. Temiker had been wise to tell her so that she could help before it was too late. Her mind whirled with thoughts, seeking direction for how she could best help her father forgive himself. Perhaps forgiveness should not be the goal, she reasoned. Perhaps a distraction would be better for a time.
“Father,” she smiled, “your knowledge of Omungan magic is unsurpassed in the world. Would you consider starting an Academy here in StarCity? I would fund any amount you might need to get it started.”
Malafar’s eyes sparkled briefly, showing the love he had for teaching his art to others, but it faded quickly. “It would not work, Lyra,” he sighed. “These people know all about me. They know that I have brought war and devastation to their doorstop. They know I have spent my life hating them and the god they pray to. No, I can never be accepted here and rightfully so. I have done a great disservice to Rhodella’s people. Each of their deaths will be on my hands. I cannot do it.”
“Father,” Lyra pleaded, “they will accept you. These are good people and they will understand. You will not have to teach anything offensive, I promise.”
“Bah,” scowled Malafar. “I never should have stopped teaching offensive magic. Perhaps the Academy could have defended itself if I had taught what I should have. I was too stupid to use my own magic even to save my wife. I have nothing to offer the Sakovans anyway. Temiker has always been a better teacher and a more powerful mage and he is not so full of himself that he demands people address him as Master. No, Lyra, I am not needed here or anywhere else.”
Lyra opened her mouth to object, but her father raised his hand to halt her interruption. “I am glad that I survived to see you again,” he smiled. “I am so proud of you. Rhodella would have been thrilled to see her little girl as the Star of Sakova. Maybe she still can.”