"Adrenne?" Dolanna said. "Adrenne is dead, Jula. She died nearly a ride before Tarrin disappeared from the Tower."
"That's impossible," Jula protested. "I received instructions from her the day Tarrin attacked me! In person! She couldn't be dead!"
"She is dead, Jula. I was there when she fell from a balcony. I assure you, it was Adrenne, and she did die."
"That just can't be! It had to be someone else!"
Tarrin stared at her. Her emotion was so strong that he felt it through the bond. She wasn't lying.
"Perhaps you were receiving them from someone you thought was Adrenne," Dolanna said clinically. "An expert in Illusion, or someone strong in Mind weaves could have convinced you that she was someone else."
Jula glared at Dolanna a moment, but said nothing.
"So, the traitor even deceived her minions," Camara Tal said calmly. "That's not a very bad idea, judging from the activities of the ki'zadun."
"Maybe this traitor knocked off Adrenne," Sarraya mused.
"I doubt that," Dolanna said. "It would be foolish of her to kill the woman she was impersonating. But it does narrow down the possible suspects. This had to be someone who did not know that Adrenne had died. Someone away from the Tower when it happened, and who does not mingle enough to hear the story."
"Since we're about done on that subject, let's get back to the other matter," Camara Tal said. "Do you know who here in Arak are agents of the ki'zadun?" she asked Jula.
The female Were-cat shook her head. "Not by name. I do know that they have a stronghold somewhere in the trades district. I know the signs of the organization. I could find it easily enough."
"And we know that they are all searching for the Book of Ages."
Jula nodded. "They know it's here. They've been looking for nearly four months, but they haven't found it yet. Or so I heard before I was flown down here to stall Tarrin."
"Flown?" Sarraya asked.
Jula looked down at the small sprite. "The ki'zadun uses trained Wyverns for fast messages and important people, Faerie. When Kravon decided I was more useful to stall Tarrin than to amuse him," she said with a slight shudder, "he had me trussed up and tied to a Wyvern. They gave the rider orders to bring me to Dala Yar Arak and drop me in a poor neighborhood. It took me nearly two days to unchain myself." She closed her eyes and hugged herself slightly. The pain he felt through her bond was sharp. The memories of what she did while she was insane were torturing her inside, though she said nothing and pretended that it didn't matter. Jula was a very good actor.
"How did they know we were coming here?" Dolanna asked.
"Agents," she replied. "They can't track Tarrin with magic, and they don't know enough about the others to track them, so they rely on agents to gather information. Once they found out you were hiding with the circus, it wasn't hard to keep track of you."
"That doesn't explain Jegojah," Tarrin said. "How did it know where I was all the time?"
"Jegojah is not normal magic, Tarrin," Jula replied calmly. "They had your hair from the fight with the Wraith, and they used it to give the Doomwalker the power to find you. It could point right to you at any time and tell someone exactly how many longspans away you were. There is no hiding from a Doomwalker." She laughed ruefully. "But that's probably a moot point now."
"What do you mean?"
"I was there when Kravon raised its spirit and interrogated it, after Tarrin killed it again," she replied. "I was kept chained up in Kravon's lab, and that's where he did all his real business. Anyway, it refused to come after you again, even after Kravon threatened to permanently destroy its soul. That's not a small complement, Tarrin. Kravon will certainly raise Jegojah again and send it after you, but not immediately."
"Why not?"
"Doomwalkers are very powerful," Jula replied. "If Jegojah resists, there's a chance that he'll break free of Kravon's control. If that happens, he'll turn on Kravon so fast that the heartless bastard will never know what hit him. Kravon has to force it to agree to being raised, either by talking it into it, or torturing its soul to force its cooperation for the raising. Either way, it won't be quick. Jegojah is an unusually strong-willed soul. Kravon will have to work at it to wear him down."
"Thank the Goddess for small favors," Tarrin sighed.
The tent flap opened, and Phandebrass stepped in. "I say, Dolanna, do you happen-" he began, then he got a good look at Jula and stopped. "Dear me, I didn't know you were entertaining a relative, Tarrin, I didn't. Do you want me to come back?"
"That's alright, Phandebrass," Tarrin said. "In fact, why don't you come in and take a seat? Your ability to ask good questions may come in handy."
"I say, if you want me to, lad," he said, closing the tent flap. "May I be introduced to your friend?"
"Friend?" Sarraya said, then she laughed.
"This is Jula, you old coot," Camara Tal said sharply. " The Jula."
"Jula? I say, you're not dead? Tarrin must be feeling ill."
Dolanna smiled, and Tarrin blew out his breath. "Jula here is spilling her guts about her former employers," Sarraya told the mage. "So far, she's been very helpful."
"I say, I didn't know Jula was a Were-cat."
"They didn't know about that, Master Phandebrass," Jula said dismissively. "Let's say that it was a rather foolish accident on my part."
"So, you're explaining the ki'zadun, are you? I say, I'm sorry I missed the first part."
"It's nothing we can't repeat to you," Camara Tal told him.
"True, true," he agreed, sitting down on a chest by the table.
"Anyway, like I said, right now they're concentrating on the Firestaff," Jula told them. "I don't know the details of what's going on here in Dala Yar Arak, but I do know that every agent they have is searching anywhere they can think of. They've even sent thieves into the Imperial Library's private vaults to see if it was there. Every other operation has been suspended. They even have the agents in the Emperor's court looking for it. That made some of the courtesans very unhappy. The only work they like to do is the kind where they lay on their backs."
"I doubt they have found it since she heard that," Dolanna said. "If they had, they would not still be looking. And they would probably turn and try to kill us."
"Why not do it now?" Sarraya asked.
"Because we're another set of searchers," Camara Tal answered. "If they know we're here, then there's no doubt they're watching us. So if we find it, they can just move in and try to take it from us."
"Precisely," Jula agreed. "Until the book is found, anyone is useful to them, even you. After someone finds it, that's when the real war is going to begin. After all, you and them aren't the only ones looking for it. Half the foreigners in Dala Yar Arak are here looking for that book, or the Firestaff itself."
"How did they know to come here?" Tarrin asked curiously.
"Because you are here," Jula told him plainly. "They know who you are, Tarrin. If you're here looking for something, they're going to look here too. Even if they don't know exactly what you're looking for."
"How could they know that?"
"Information has a way of spreading, no matter how secret it is," Phandebrass told him. "I say, there's little doubt the ki'zadun itself is infiltrated with agents of other powers."
"Most likely," Jula nodded in agreement. "Every man or woman sent here by someone else was sent here because you came here. They hope that they can get lucky and find whatever you're looking for before you do."
"I find it hard to believe that so many people know about me," Tarrin snorted.
"Tarrin, you're probably the most notorious man alive," Jula told him. "You're not even a rumor anymore. You're reaching mythic proportions."