He looked around, furtively studying his captors. The Lady Mayor-no, Myrkyssa Jelan-stood at the helm of her sloop, guiding the boat confidently up the Fire River. Jelan had abandoned her pose of Lady Thoden as soon as she'd escorted Jack from the depths of Ill-Water and boarded her dark cutter. Beside her, the Shou mage Yu Wei stood stock still, engaged in some inner meditation that left his face even more expressionless and serene than usual. A half-dozen very capable-looking people rounded out the crew-Hathmar Blademark, a drow swordsman; a cold woman called Amarana, who wore the emblem of the night goddess Shar; and a short, powerful Tuigan in leather and iron, who introduced himself to Jack.
"I am called Tenghar," he had said. "I will kill you if the Warlord wishes it done."
Several others worked the boat's sails and sounded the waters as the sloop glided upstream.
"Kel Kelek! Take the helm!" Jelan waited while one of the other men, a tall and rangy Nar with a frightening pattern of facial tattoos, clambered back to take the ship's wheel. She tapped Yu Wei on the shoulder and then addressed Jack. "Master Ravenwild, if you would be so kind as to join me in my cabin?"
"I would be delighted, my dear," the rogue replied with false joviality.
No point in allowing her to see how nervous he was with this development. When Jelan had abducted him from prison in the guise of the Lady Mayor, he'd been anxious to leave regardless of the circumstances. Certainly, anything was better than death row. Now he suspected that the Warlord would make the cost of her generosity known to him.
"At least she is unlikely to simply silence me in some permanent means," he muttered. "That she could have done without removing me from my cell."
He followed the warrior and her sorcerous advisor down the narrow companionway and into the sloop's rear cabin. The Shou (no, Wa, Jack reminded himself) decor was unchanged, a delicate and spare arrangement of white screens and paper lanterns with a wide dark table of gleaming wood set at knee height so that one could sit on the floor and eat or work comfortably.
Illyth Fleetwood sat dejectedly on the floor. The girl looked up sharply as Jelan, Yu Wei, and Jack entered the room. "Oh, Jack!" she cried. "They've got you too!"
"You might say that," Jelan said with a small laugh. "Do not worry, Illyth. No harm will come to either Jack or yourself as long as Jack improves his behavior."
She was still dressed in the handsome dress and fillet of the Lady Mayor, but as she talked she undressed to reveal dark leather armor and steel beneath her robes. Jack recalled his brief flirtation with the Lady Mayor on the first night of the Game, amazed that he hadn't spotted the resemblance then, but the disguise was so skillfully done, including mannerisms and posture and voice, that it seemed that Elana-Jelan-the Lady Mayor were really three different women altogether.
"Extraordinary," Jack breathed. "The Hawk Knights comb the city for any sign of you, yet you stand in the very center of the city and direct their search."
"Who could expect it?" Jelan said. "But tonight the deception ends."
She unbuckled her sword belt, leaned the weapon against one wall, then knelt behind the table. Jelan indicated the opposite place with a tilt of her head. Jack sat down a little awkwardly, while Yu Wei took up station somewhere behind him, standing silently by the door. Illyth moved over to sit beside Jack.
"You are probably considering your escape already," Jelan began without preamble. "No matter. I only require your services for the next few hours, and if you do what I need you to do, I'll gladly let you go."
"I fail to understand why I am so important to you, my lady."
"For one thing, you agreed to hear her out, after you were warned that you should not do so unless you were prepared to accept what must follow," Yu Wei said. "We are not forgiving of broken promises."
"You retrieved me from Ill-Water to make me abide by my word?" Jack asked in amazement. "I didn't tell anyone that I had learned your identity. It was in my own best interests to keep your confidence."
Jelan smiled in a predatory manner. "I am not so forgetful of my obligations as you are, Jack." She began to let down the braids in her hair, shaking the rain from her dark tresses. She kept her gaze on Jack's eyes, refusing to allow him to look away. "Where I come from, that would be reason enough to justify the trouble I went to this evening, but, as it so happens, I do have a specific purpose in mind for you."
"You desire something else stolen, my lady?" Jack asked.
"Jack, have you ever studied to be a wizard?"
Jack leaned back, his brow furrowed. Illyth shifted uncomfortably beside him, but held her tongue. He could not see where this was going.
"No, not really. Anyone can work magic, simply through an act of will and a little practice. All those who purport to study wizardry have been pulling the wool over everyone's eyes. None of that mummery is required!"
Jelan looked up past Jack to Yu Wei. Jack craned his head to glance at the Warlord's wizard; the mage simply stood impassive, but his eyes were deep and thoughtful. He tugged at his white wisp of a beard and spoke.
"Consider this possibility, Ravenwild: for the great majority of people who seek to use magic, all that 'mummery' as you call it is required. But for certain special individuals-you, for instance-magic is something else entirely. Is that not every bit as likely as your assumption that there is a universal conspiracy subscribed to by every wizard on the face of the world?"
"Perhaps," Jack admitted, "but that would imply that I am something special or unique, and any theory that begins with such an assumption is usually a poor one."
"A wiser statement than I would have expected from you," the Shou said. He smiled in satisfaction.
"Jack, have you ever heard any tales of wildfire?" Jelan asked.
"My lady, I confess that I am at a complete loss as to the goal of this interrogation," Jack began. Jelan raised her hand, forestalling his argument, and simply waited for him to answer her question. He sighed and shrugged. "Well, of course I have. Some people say that once in a while a Ravenaar born and bred may exhibit the unusual reaction of lashing out with magic when threatened. It's always a person who has never wielded magic in his life, and it's said that the wildfire-wielder cannot control or summon his powers at will. It is an involuntary reaction to danger, noted no more than once or twice a year in the entire city."
Jack suddenly smiled and wagged his finger. "Ah, now I understand! You and your wizard here believe that my powers constitute a manifestation of wildfire! Well, I am sorry to say that you must be mistaken. I have full and voluntary control over my magic."
"Perhaps you are able to control your ability to an unprecedented degree," Yu Wei said. "Where do you think wildfire comes from, boy?"
Jack glared at him. "Who knows? Maybe it is something that only one person in a thousand anywhere can do."
"The phenomena has been observed only in Raven's Bluff, Jack," said Jelan. "Why here? Why is it that a small number of people living in this city are simply blessed with inexplicable magic? Something about Raven's Bluff instills magic in a small number of its citizens, apparently at random. And, in your case, the magic is quite versatile and strong."
"What does it all signify?" Illyth interrupted. "Where does this magic come from?"
"It comes from a device that I call the wild mythal," said Jelan. "Raven's Bluff is built on top of Sarbreen. Sarbreen was built on top of an older and deeper city, a drow stronghold thousands of years old. Here, in the deeps beneath us, the mightiest wizards of the drow once gathered to forge a mythal of their own, a font of power akin to those made by the most powerful elven wizards of centuries long past."
"A mythal?" Jack asked. He shook his head. "I don't understand."
"The mythals were the most powerful magics ever devised by the elven courts of old," Myth said, nodding. "At Myth Drannor, Evermeet, Calmaercor, and other places too, mythals were forged of elven high magic to serve the elven race. They guarded the elven realms against all harm and made possible works of wonder now forgotten."