Emmis glanced at Ahan. "Couldn't I read it, perhaps?"
Corinal shook his head. "I scribbled it down as quickly as I could, and I doubt you could read it. My handwriting is not one of my more impressive accomplishments." He lifted the papers. "Your doorway shrine is, as I suspected, an idol of Piskor the Generous; as long as that house is under her protection, no one within its walls shall starve, and all drinking water therein shall be pure and wholesome. To maintain her blessing you should place a copper bit in the bowl at least once a year; if it's stolen, that's fine, the goddess will consider it well spent. Should the goddess intervene directly on your behalf, extending your food supplies or cleansing your water of disease, you may be called upon, through dreams or other divine messages, to perform certain minor services on her behalf for the poor and unfortunate of the city – distributing food in the Hundred-Foot Field, perhaps. Nothing too onerous. You do not want to shirk these duties, should you be summoned; not only will Piskor's protections be withdrawn, but you will find your neighbors becoming hostile."
"Thank you," Emmis said.
Corinal glanced at his papers.
"Hagai of Lumeth was able to locate Lar Samber's son at any time, and in fact can still locate Lar at any time, by means of a blessing bestowed upon him by the god Aibem. It would seem this Hagai is a moderately-accomplished theurgist himself, though I flatter myself that I'm his better at the art. At any rate, as long as the blessing lasts Hagai can see an unnatural glow in the sky above Lar, no matter how near or far he might be, and he can simply follow this glow to locate our dear Vondish ambassador, at any time of day or night."
"I… he can do that?" Emmis asked.
"So it would seem. It's a good stunt, really; I've never encountered it before. I suspect someone in the Small Kingdoms only recently stumbled upon the idea." He cleared his throat. "On all your questions concerning Azradelle of Shiphaven, Unniel refers you to the goddess Mazhom. Since Mazhom is the goddess of courtship, I think you can guess what the tenor of those answers is likely to be."
Emmis felt himself blushing.
"On the subject of warlockry, Unniel declines to say anything useful at all, except that she knows of nothing in Lumeth that has any connection with warlocks. In every other question on your list that relates to warlockry, she insists that there is some great misunderstanding of what's happening, one so profound that she cannot explain the truth to humans in an even remotely intelligible fashion. People have been trying to get the gods to explain warlockry ever since the Night of Madness, and it just isn't coming across."
"That seems strange," Emmis remarked.
"Yes, doesn't it? Nonetheless, it's so, and the gap in understanding is so great that Unniel can't even suggest another god we might consult on the subject." Corinal shook his head. "Even the gods have their limits."
"And the other questions…?"
"Well, Unniel has no idea where any of the foreigners can be found; she suggests consulting Aibem, who is obviously capable of locating specific individuals, as Hagai's little spell demonstrates." He shuffled the top sheet of paper to the bottom and peered at the next page. "She did know how the three Lumethans got to Ethshar so quickly, though – by means of a spell called Hallin's Transporting Fissure. That took them from Lumeth to Ethshar in a matter of minutes."
"I never heard of it," Emmis said. He glanced at Ahan.
"Neither have I," the guardsman said. "I have little to do with magic."
"If it got them here that fast, it must be powerful magic," Emmis remarked. "Is it wizardry?"
"Probably. Unniel offered no details; you'd best ask a wizard if you want to know more about it." Corinal glanced at the papers. "Annis the Merchant was already in the city, and was contacted by means of the Greater Spell of Invaded Dreams."
"More wizardry?"
"That one I am familiar with; yes, it's wizardry." He turned to the next paper. "You asked what in Lumeth is guarded by protective spells; she reports that the list is relatively short. Several rooms in the government fortress they call the New Castle have wards and protections of one sort or another, the castle itself has a few spells on it, and the various entrances to a miles-long tunnel used by the Cult of Demerchan are all booby-trapped in various ways. Of course the famous Towers themselves are massively guarded by every sort of magic, dozens of spells, on all three of them, and a few assorted diaries, spell-books, lock-boxes, and the like have protective runes, wardings, and such."
"A tunnel used by the Cult of Demerchan?" That was interesting; Lar had mentioned them. They were assassins – and they were active in Lumeth. Did that mean anything?
"So she said. She gave no further information."
Emmis nodded, and considered the rest of the list. Spell-books and important government offices, yes, but…
"Why the towers? Why do they have so many protective spells? They aren't just pre-war ruins, then?"
"As it happens, you asked what the towers are, and Unniel answered, after a fashion, and that might give us a clue. She said that the towers are sorcerous talismans, the oldest and greatest sorcery in the World."
Emmis blinked. "Sorcery?"
"So the goddess tells me, and it's our understanding that the gods cannot lie. Their answers are sometimes misleading, but they don't actually lie."
"They're talismans?"
"So she says."
"But… they're towers. Fifty or sixty feet high, aren't they?"
"Three hundred feet high, actually. You asked that, too."
"Nothing is three hundred feet high," Emmis protested.
"The towers of Lumeth are."
Emmis had trouble comprehending that. He knew that the big towers in Westgate were no more than sixty feet, and they were huge. The lighthouse at the end of the eastern breakwater was perhaps ninety feet, and the Seacorner watchtower was said to be a hundred or more, and that was so tall that it took a brave man to climb it. Courage aside, Emmis had heard that some of the largest soldiers were excused from serving there for fear their weight would cause it to collapse.
And the Lumeth towers were three times that height?
Of course, they might be much, much larger at the base; they would have to be. But that made the other point all the more unbelievable. "And they're talismans?"
"So she says."
"But – talismans are mostly little things, things a person can carry. I've seen a few on the docks, and none were too big for a man to lift. Unniel says there are three of them three hundred feet high?"
"Indeed she does. I must confess, Emmis, I hadn't realized you were so interested in this particular subject; you didn't seem to emphasize it on your list."
"I hadn't realized I was, either," Emmis said. "Not until you told me they were sorcerous. So are there sorcerers guarding them?"
"Not that Unniel mentioned; she said they have many powerful protective spells, but they were mostly put there by wizards, not sorcerers."
"Why would wizards be guarding sorcery?"
"I have no idea, and Unniel did not happen to volunteer any information on the subject. Perhaps you should ask a wizard."
"Perhaps I should," Emmis agreed. "Or a sorcerer. What do the towers do? I mean, a sorcerer's ordinary talismans can find things, or talk to people far away, or knock down buildings, or answer questions, or a dozen other things – they're magic, and they're all small enough to carry. What kind of magic could possibly call for a talisman three hundred feet high?"
"According to Unniel, they keep out poisons."
Emmis blinked, and stared at Corinal. "They do what?"
"She says they keep out poisons, poisons that surround the entire World."