“I figured,” Glissa said. “Yert reeked of serum, too.”
“Really?” Bruenna asked, genuinely surprised. “You must have gotten close.”
“Too close,” Glissa agreed.
“How’s the neck?”
“Sore.”
“Sorry. Anyway, the vedalken are saturated in serum,” Bruenna said. “When Memnarch changed them, made them more ferocious, I think their serum production and intake increased exponentially. You haven’t seen it yet, Glissa, but when the suns go down, there are hardly any stars left in the sky.”
“But the stars-they’re blinkmoths,” Glissa said.
“The vedalken are using them up. Yert too, I guess. Whatever the reason, they can communicate over any distance now at the speed of thought. Their attacks of late have been flawlessly executed. And if Yert reeked of serum five years ago …” Bruenna stood and turned to Yshkar, who Glissa still had trouble thinking of as the Kha. “That confirms it, Yshkar. The nim and Memnarch’s vedalken armies are attacking at the same time in a coordinated effort.”
“Indeed,” The Kha growled.
Bruenna turned back to Glissa. “I brought up vedalken telepathy because I found that an enterprising mage with a grudge and a scrying crystal can sometimes hear their thoughts as plain as day.” The mage grinned. “It’s not pleasant, and Dakan knows I can’t understand more than a quarter of it-but I did find a way through the teleportation shield that seals off Lumengrid when one of the vedalken became trapped outside, in the Tangle, I think. He had to have the shield opened to get back in. They’re not very creative. It was pretty pedestrian magic once I took a good look at it.”
“You broke into Lumengrid?” Glissa asked.
“Teleported in, but to do it I did have to break through some auras,” Bruenna said. “That was how I eventually confirmed you were still alive. The vedalken are fanatical about keeping records and archives, and I popped into their central library. My father used to work there as a servant.” Bruenna her mug of oily leonin pseudonush and refilled it in one fluid movement. “Even now that the vedalken don’t speak, they still write everything down. It’s compulsive. There were records of everything-troop dispatch orders, complete lists of every last artifact beast in Memnarch’s army, maps of secret tunnels into the interior …”
“Tell me you took one of those maps,” Glissa interrupted.
“Yes,” Bruenna said, “And orders about moving a precious cargo from the Dross to the interior.”
“Me?” Glissa asked.
“You,” Bruenna said. “So, to make a short story long, I figured out when they were moving you, and made sure I was in a position to pull you out as soon as there was an opening. It wasn’t easy, but you know the rest.”
“And at last we arrive at the point,” Yshkar replied.
“Patience, my Kha,” Bruenna said. “Glissa, we could spend all night filling you in on everything. It’s been a long five years. But what’s important is what you’ve learned. The Mephidross has grown, and Yert now controls over half the surface. The nim and the vedalken and worse surround us. I’ve figured out how to break into the vedalken’s line of communications. And I found something in the ’grid that might show us a chance to turn our fortunes around.”
Bruenna rose and plucked a roll of wide foil parchment from a pouch on her belt and spread it on the table in front of Glissa, pinning down the corners with goblets and cups. “We know that Yert’s surging strength has something to do with Memnarch, his part in your abduction. I’ve found something. It’s a talisman that might also be a weapon, if you can get your hands on it.”
“A weapon against what?” Glissa asked. The leathery parchment bore a painstakingly colored and labeled coalstone sketch. The sketch depicted a simple round design with angular shapes sliced from the edges, making the shape resemble an asymmetrical sawblade. A pentagon was etched into the center of the object, and at each point on the shape a differently colored gemstone had been mounted.
“I’ve seen that pattern before,” Glissa said. “On Kaldra.”
“This might be even older. According to this, it may actually be as old as the Guardian himself,” Bruenna said. “It gives the possessor power over the mindless and soulless,” Bruenna said. “It’s called the Miracore, and Yert’s got it.”
The mage held her hand about eight inches apart. “It’s about so wide in either direction. And heavy. According to this document, it’s forged from some alloy I’ve never even seen. Even Dwugget said he’d never heard of it, and none of the goblin blacksmiths think it’s even real. But I saw it. I saw it around his neck when I escaped five years ago.”
“So it ‘controls the soulless.’ How? What does that mean, exactly?” Glissa said.
Bruenna launched into a long technical explanation of the talisman, much of which went sailing over Glissa’s head. But the gist of it was that this Miracore could channel the wearer’s willpower and force anything without a sentient mind-such as the simpler animals, zombies like the nim, or constructs-to do his bidding. Its origins were unclear, though the angular, geometric vedalken script confirmed the talisman’s antiquity.
Geth’s head volunteered that he hadn’t need any such talisman to get the nim to do what he wanted.
“That’s actually a good point,” Lyese interrupted. “What the head said.”
“Yert was and still is an amateur,” Geth continued from his bag after prodding the flap open with his temple. “He’d be nothing without that Miracore. Now me, I’m a wizard. The greatest necromancer this plane has ever known.”
“Was a wizard,” Glissa corrected. “Don’t get any ideas, or I’m giving you to Yshkar.” The elf girl returned to Bruenna. “So I get this Miracore away from Yert and the nim lose their controller.”
“And then most of the forces allied against us become easy pickings for our troops,” Yshkar said. “With this talisman in our possession, we could control the nim ourselves and seize the silver beasts from the vedalkens’ grasp.”
“With luck, we won’t have to,” Bruenna said. “There’s something more. It was in a separate record. When I located you, I was also able to track down Memnarch. It was dumb luck. I didn’t expect to find anything, but I had the time, so …”
“What did you find?” Glissa asked.
“Five years,” Bruenna said. “Five years, and no one has seen him. His armies spread over the surface, but Memnarch himself? Nowhere. I found out why.”
“Bruenna, Glissa is tired. She should rest before we get into this,” Lyese said.
“No, my Khanha. I must disagree,” Bruenna said. “I looked into the serum transfer records. I found that most of the supply was being diverted to one place. The Panopticon. I dug around a bit more and found out that the serum was for Memnarch. He’s hibernating. Burning away some kind of ‘taint.’”
“Taint?” Glissa said. “He’s making himself sane?”
“It’s a contaminant,” Bruenna said. “He was being consumed by flesh. He’s using half the serum the vedalken can produce to rid himself of it. Memnarch is converting himself back into pure metal.”
“Why?”
“He believes it will allow him to ascend,” Breunna said. “But he made a mistake.”
“If he’s metal, I might be able to hurt him,” Glissa said. “Maybe-maybe kill him.”
“Exactly,” Bruenna said. “But there is a catch.”
“Of course there is,” Glissa said.
“I retrieved you from the interior early,” Bruenna said. “There are five days until Memnarch will emerge.”
“Perfect,” Glissa said. “I can take him out while he sleeps.”
“Glissa, you cannot touch him until the cleansing process is complete,” Bruenna said. “Like you, he is outside of time in the Panopticon. Inside some kind of machine. But when he emerges, he will be a different being. One you can destroy. On the fifth day, the suns will rise as one, and you have to be in the Panopticon.”