Viltred laid a hand on the rim of the bowl and now it shimmered with mingled blue and green light. Usara nodded to Planir, laying his own hands on the sides of the bowl and the circle of colors developed a yellowish undertone. Naldeth stretched out his hands, palm down over the water, and a reddish tint warmed the swirling pattern. The waters circled faster and faster, a vortex plaiting the liquid light in a dizzying spiral until Planir dipped both his hands into the center of the well and the bowl rang with a chime like a great temple bell. I could hear the watching mercenaries stir and murmur behind me but Planir’s steel gray eyes held my gaze in a viselike grip.
“Watch and tell me what you recognize.” The Archmage spread his hands and an image rose from them, a circle in the empty air, edged with an ever changing pattern of the colors of wizardry, the clarity of the vision startling in the midst of the early morning mists. The picture moved and swooped, circling until I saw the placid expanse of the estuary, the wizard’s ship at anchor. I blinked as my eyes swore every oath they knew to tell me I was moving, while my ears denied them absolutely, leaving my stomach churning violently somewhere in the middle. I’ve never suffered from seasickness but now I made a mental note to be more understanding to those, like Livak, who do.
The river sped away beneath the magical mirror, the banks on either side narrowing, growing more steep, white water now breaking the swirling greens of the current, the flatter grasslands of the coastal plain shrinking as the forest marched down to the water’s edge. I found myself swaying and tilting as my vision convinced me I was somehow traveling over this landscape, high as a bird but effortless in this enchanted flight. Peering in a futile attempt to see around the corner of the image and completely caught up in the spectacular improbability of the experience, I nearly missed it.
“There, back a little, on the near side, that’s the entrance to the gorge!” I struggled with the words as Temar’s memories came clamoring out of confinement and an urgency I could not explain filled me with dread.
Planir closed his eyes for a moment and the image wheeled round, whispers on all sides telling me I wasn’t the only one finding this more than a little hard on the gut. The sunlight in the spell shone down on a narrow defile, ferns and wiry stems of opportunist bushes very nearly concealing it completely as a small torrent bubbled its way over a rocky bed to lose itself in the main flow.
“Where exactly is this?” Planir demanded, looking intently at the vision from his own side.
“It’s a little way upriver from the mining settlement.” I had the answer before I realized I knew it. “Temar and Den Fellaemion managed to get the survivors away on the boats and then marched them to the mines to get them away from the moorings.” A flood of recollection threatened to overwhelm me, the shouts, the weeping, the outburst of anger as frustrated people with nothing more to lose save their lives rounded on those driving them so hard for the sake of their salvation.
“Do we know where that is, ’Sar?” The Archmage rounded on the younger wizard, whose face was grim with effort as he poured his power into the spell.
“Yes,” he said shortly.
Planir clapped his hands and the unearthly vision was gone, leaving only a bright pattern lingering inside my eyes, shooting across the pale morning light as I rubbed them. The mercenaries began to drift away, curiosity and misgivings in their low-voiced conversations, a few stumbling over unseen obstacles with attention momentarily elsewhere.
“Archmage!” Kalion pushed his way toward us, an expression of intense annoyance creasing his fat jowls.
“Hearth-Master,” Planir greeted him with smooth courtesy.
“Why was I not wakened for this scrying? I would have thought I was the obvious choice for anchoring the nexus and—”
“Archmage!” The urgency in Shiv’s voice turned every head toward him. He was still leaning over the broad silver bowl, scrying alone now. “It occurred to me to trace down the river on the other side of the watershed, to see if it offered a better route from the coast. Just look what I’ve found!”
We crowded around to look down into the shining water. The bowl showed three ships riding easily on the calmer waters of the coastal reaches, anchored just off an inlet that I recognized from Temar’s encounter with the stolen Salmon. I looked up to see every face grim.
“That’s where the Elietimm attacked the colony’s ships,” I told Tonin, who nodded thoughtfully, checking a much folded piece of parchment.
At this size, each boat looked more like a child’s toy than a real vessel. Still, no child’s toy would have tiny figures moving around the decks and rigging; well, not outside Hadrumal certainly.
“Could this be a deception?” I asked suddenly, remembering the illusions the Ice Islanders had wielded to such deadly effect before.
“I don’t see why it should be,” said Planir thoughtfully. “They have no reason to know we’re here, after all.”
“Are you sure of that?” Otrick elbowed his way to the Archmage’s side. “Haven’t they followed us here?”
“I don’t think so,” mused Planir. “Could you expand the radius a little, Shiv, show me some of the coast? No, there, that camp looks well established. That’s a base for exploring the interior, I’d say. Back to the ships, if you’d be so kind, thank you. Look, that sail’s been jury-rigged, and you can see a season’s fouling on the bottom of that ship riding high in the water.”
The Archmage looked up at the circle around the bowl. “I’d say that’s an expedition that’s spent the summer here, charting and surveying. However, I would certainly say it suggests Elietimm interest here is at least as urgent as ours.” He looked over at me. “If Messire D’Olbriot is looking to re-establish a colony here, I think he might have to evict some sitting tenants.”
“That’s a service I think we could very well look to render the Sieur,” Kalion mused, expression intent.
“That’s the enemy, is it?” Arest pushed Kalion aside to loom over the bowl, scowling darkly as the fat mage attempted to recover his position before thinking better of it.
“Thank you for joining us,” Planir greeted the warrior with a trace of irony.
“So what are you going to do about them?” demanded the big mercenary. “They’ve got four or five times our number, given the size of those ships. If they find us we’re dead and booking passage with Poldrion. You either have to kill or capture them.”
“How far away are they?” Planir inquired of Shiv thoughtfully.
“No more than a handful of days’ sail.”
“Too close,” the Archmage grimaced and shook his head. “I think you’re right, corps-master. We cannot afford to risk having them at our back, or them getting wind of what we’re doing.”
“You’re simply going to kill them?” Tonin’s expression was aghast.
“Give me one good reason why not?” challenged Arest. “They’ll kill us without a second glance at the runes if they find us!” The scholar subsided in unhappy confusion.
“Taking such decisions is part of the price for taking a place at the highest tables,” Kalion did not look in the least distressed at the prospect. “It’s a matter of statecraft, mentor.”
“I’ll soon knock the bastards out of this game,” Otrick’s eyes sparked blue fire as he spread his hands over the bowl.
“I don’t want to alert them unnecessarily,” Planir laid a warning hand on Otrick’s arm. “Use wind and wave, work with Shiv and simply drive the ships on to those rocks. That will suffice for the present.”