Then a shadow blocked out the sunlight and Emmis glanced back to see that the gargoyles were entering the fissure – the entire party was now on the stairs.
Those stairs were changing. It was not that the one he stood on was any different from those above and below it, but that from where he stood they all appeared to be altered now. Instead of packed earth, the steps were stone now, and the slope was much shallower, and they weren't level – he felt as if he were walking forward on the edges of the steps, rather than walking down on their tops.
The walls on either side were stone as well, rather than earth, though he had been unaware of any change, and when he looked back they appeared to be stone all the way, there was no transition.
And then everything shifted again, and he was walking up a flight of steps, and the daylight behind him was gone entirely but he could see daylight ahead, where Ithinia was emerging from the stone tunnel into the midday sun.
If he could have picked up his pace Emmis would have done so, but the guardsman in front of him was trudging on at the same steady march he had maintained all along.
Finally, though, Emmis found himself climbing up a set of stairs in the middle of a broad paved plaza, where a crowd formed a large circle around the new arrivals, giving them a wide berth. Ithinia stood on the stones a few feet from the rift, playing her flute.
This was no plaza that Emmis had ever seen before, he was sure of that. One side was completely dominated by a tall and forbidding fortress of gray stone; the other five – yes, five; the plaza was hexagonal, like Hempfield Market, but larger and more regular – were lined with shops and tall, narrow houses.
On the side opposite the fortress the gaps between buildings, and the mouths of the streets, gave a view of empty air – there was obviously a slope on that side dropping away rapidly from the plaza. To either side of the fortress, streets climbed up a gentle slope. This plaza, whatever it was, was partway up the side of a large hill.
The architecture surrounding the plaza was subtly unfamiliar; the clothes worn by the observers weren't quite right, either, though Emmis had seen such garb before, on visitors from the Small Kingdoms. This was not in Ethshar of the Spices, he was sure. It was presumably somewhere in Lumeth of the Towers.
He stepped out onto the stone pavement – made, he saw, of the same stone as the tunnel walls – and moved to one side, to allow those behind him to emerge.
No one spoke as the guards and their prisoners climbed up out of the fissure in the pavement. When the gargoyles emerged, though, Emmis thought he heard gasps from the surrounding crowd.
Then Ithinia ended her tune with a final flourish, and slipped the flute into her sleeve; the instant the music stopped a loud rumble sounded, and the opening in the pavement closed itself up. As the two sides met the stones merged, leaving not the faintest crack; there was no indication that there had ever been a fissure.
Both the newly-arrived travelers and the watching natives murmured at this sight. Emmis wondered how they were to return to Ethshar; had Ithinia brought the materials to perform the spell again?
The wizard paid no attention to the closing fissure, though. Instead she raised her arms above her head and faced the fortress, looking up at a small enclosed balcony where a handful of men were standing.
"Lords of Lumeth of the Towers!" she shouted, her voice ringing out clearly. "Listen to the judgment of the Wizards' Guild!"
Chapter Twenty-Six
Emmis blinked. Judgment?
The people on the balcony seemed equally confused. "Who are you?" one of them shouted back. Another appeared to be translating for a third.
The Guildmaster lowered her arms. "I am Ithinia of the Isle, and I speak for the Wizards' Guild – let my companions attest to my authority!"
The other three wizards stepped toward her, facing the balcony. The oldest-looking of them announced, "I am Serem the Wise, from Ethshar of the Sands, and I say that Ithinia speaks for the Guild."
The youngest in appearance – though it occurred to Emmis that appearances could be very deceptive in the case of wizards – then called, "I am Kaligir of the New Quarter in Ethshar of the Rocks, and Ithinia speaks for me and the wizards of my city, as well."
The third said, "I'm Zikel Thurin's son of Sardiron of the Waters. Listen to her."
"Shei Lumethis!" someone shouted; Emmis assumed it meant "Speak Lumethan!" The wizards ignored it.
"Satisfied?" Ithinia called.
"Couldn't you speak Lumethan?" another voice from the crowd asked, speaking Ethsharitic with a thick accent. "Not everyone speaks Ethsharitic!"
Ithinia kept her attention on the balcony.
"We will hear you," one of the others on the balcony called back. "Shall we retire to the audience chamber?"
"No. We will speak here and now, before all these people," Ithinia replied.
The men on the balcony stirred uneasily at that, but did not argue. "What is this judgment, then?" one of them asked.
"You have abused our gifts," Ithinia said. "You have used magic we entrusted to you, magic intended for the Guild's purposes, to send spies to Ethshar." She gestured toward the three bound Lumethans. "Your representatives have hired assassins, such as this one." She pointed to Tithi. "You have antagonized the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars – this man accompanies me as spokesman for his nephew Azrad VII, Overlord of Ethshar of the Spices, Triumvir of the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars, Commander of the Holy Navies and Defender of the Gods." She turned her hand toward Lord Ildirin.
"What does the Guild care about Ethshar?" demanded the man who had first asked her who she was.
Ithinia glared at him. "I'm not done," she said. She gestured toward Lar. "And this man is Lar Samber's son, ambassador plenipotentiary from the Empire of Vond to the court of Azrad VII, and the reason you have done all this. He speaks for Lord Sterren, Regent of the Empire."
Lar bowed.
"And the rest of them?" the man on the balcony asked. "Who are these soldiers?"
"These are the men of Ethshar's city guard, brought to ensure that our prisoners remain prisoners, and that no assassin troubles any of my party. The gargoyles are my personal attendants. That young man is Emmis of Shiphaven, Lar's aide. Bragen the Black, our demonologist, and Radler the Divine, our theurgist, are here to show that the Guild does not stand alone among magicians in this; and Annis the Merchant, of Ashthasa, conspired with your spies, and is here as the unwilling representative of Prince Sammel."
"You seem to have been thorough," one of the lords replied.
Ithinia nodded an acknowledgment.
"And what are you all here for?" another lord asked.
"To keep you all from doing something monumentally stupid," Ithinia replied. "You are concerned that the Empire of Vond intends to continue its expansion, and that your lands would be a natural target for such an expansion, and you have committed crimes in order to prevent that. I am here to inform you that there will be no such expansion. The Wizards' Guild will destroy the Empire entirely should any Vondish soldier set foot across Lumeth's border with hostile intent."
That sent a stir through the crowd. Emmis glanced at Lar, and saw that he did not look dismayed in the least by this threat; instead he looked relieved.
"You should have known that we have interests in your kingdom that mean we would not allow you to be overrun," Ithinia continued. "We did not teach Morkai of Crooked Hill how to use Hallin's Transporting Fissure out of sheer generosity, or to aid you in sending out spies. But you are also concerned that another mighty warlock like the Great Vond might arise in the Empire, and that we would not interfere with other schools of magic. I hereby inform you that the Wizards' Guild will require the Empire to forbid entry to any and all warlocks, and will do everything it can to prevent any warlocks from taking any Vondish person as an apprentice. Furthermore, I have brought Bragen and Radler to assure you that the Guild will not act alone in this – we will see to it that demonologists and theurgists will aid in enforcing this decree. And Lord Ildirin can attest that the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars will join in, and will not allow warlocks to take ship for any port in the Small Kingdoms south of Londa. The Council of Warlocks has agreed to this, as well."