Nightlord: Orb (97 page)

Dantos and his family—Laisa, his wife, and Caris, his daughter—were already there.  He selected a smaller set of chambers near the main baths and moved in.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I suppose it was good to have company.  Someday, the larder would start to run low and someone would have to do shopping.  I don’t even know where the local market is.

Finally, I set up the communications mirror again and called Seldar.  He answered quickly, as though expecting me.

“My King,” he said, bowing again.  “I have been expecting your call.”

See?  Told you.

“Busy?”

“Not at all.”

“Sorry for the long delay.  Things happened.”

“They tend to do so, Sire.  I trust you are feeling much more yourself?”

“If that’s a polite way of asking if I’m no longer possessed by the demon-thing created by the Devourer out of my own darker nature, then yes, I’m feeling much better.”  I grinned at him.  Seldar chuckled.

“Good.  You are aware you—the other you—has much to answer for?”

“And I’m working on plans to punish him appropriately.  I’m also looking for Tort and T’yl.  I don’t suppose you know where they are?”

“I am sorry, but I do not.”

“Speaking of locations, where are you?  I didn’t see you in Mochara, and Beltar has the temple duty here in Karvalen.”

“I reside in Carrillon, Sire.  The Temple of Justice here was refurbished and rededicated after the Church of Light could no longer enforce the belief that all other faiths were heretical.  I have the honor of presiding over the Justiciar in these latter days.”

“I’m pleased for you.  What’s a justiciar?”

“The kingdom has a system of judges and magistrates to deal with criminals and other wrongdoers.  Where the guilt is not clear, or the blame difficult to place, such cases are brought before the Lord of Justice.”

“Ah.  And you hear the evidence, render a verdict, and so on?”

“No,” Seldar replied, puzzled.  “We bring the prisoners or supplicants before the Lord of Justice’ altar.  He makes His will known, and so judgment is rendered.”

“Well, of course it is,” I agreed, disgusted.  No wonder people tended to be less curious and innovative around here.  Why bother?  You can ring up the gods and ask for help.  Just pick up the hotline to heaven and consult.

I’m beginning to think the world would be better off without the goddish things running a religion scam on it.  But I could be wrong.

“So,” I continued, “Beltar said you would want to talk, and there were things you would want to know.”

“Such as?” he asked, interested.

“First off, you know the whole thing about how my knights are supposed to be better than me?”

“Yes.  I recall quite clearly your words on the subject.”

“Good.  I’ve told this to Sir Beltar and now I’m telling it to Sir Seldar.  The idea was for me to do my best to be a good person, setting the minimum standard for the knights.  It was not to say everyone else had to be exceptional while I got to go do anything I pleased.  It’s an important distinction.”  I paced back and forth in front of the mirror.

“Seldar, I don’t know how much you went through.  I don’t know if by staying you could have mitigated the problems caused by the Demon King.  You were on the spot; I trust your judgment.  If you feel you did the right thing, then I believe you.”

Seldar turned away from the mirror for a moment.  I pretended to be interested in something on a worktable.  When he turned back, his features were composed.

“Thank you, Sire.  You may not know how much that means to me.”

“Probably not.  I may not be possessed, but I’m still medium-stupid.”

“Medium at most, Your Majesty.”

“Flatterer.  And you’re not supposed to call me that, remember?”

“I was a knight when I had that privilege.”

“Yeah, about that.  I hear you’ve misplaced your sword.  If I ever see it, I’ll be sure to give it back to you.”

“I am now a priest of the Lord of Justice,” Seldar replied, dubiously.

“So?”

“So?  Can a man be a priest and a knight?”

“Seldar, if any of my knights fail to act justly, they aren’t going to be knights for long.  I don’t see how it conflicts.  If it does conflict, I expect—as always—for you to use your built-in sense of right and wrong.  Oh, and to tell me what you think, of course.  That’s your
job,
Seldar.  It’s my job to
listen
.”

Seldar simply looked at me for several seconds, as though trying to wrap his head around the idea.  Seldar was always a bright, quick kid; I never expected to see him stumped.

“You do not require absolute obedience…?” he asked, doubtfully.

“There’s a huge difference between loyalty and obedience, Seldar.  Work on it.  In the meantime, you’ve had most of the day to look forward to this conversation.  Got anything for me?”

“Much.  First, however, I must be certain of that which has been said.  You are yourself again?”

“I am.”

“Yet, even if this were not the case, such words would issue from your lips, Your—” he broke off.  “Sire.”  I grinned at him.

“Yes, you raise a good point.” “Then, with respect, how am I to know the truth?” he inquired.

“Well, I’ve met with both Amber and Tianna in the past couple of days.  I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t me, those meetings would have gone differently.  Since they are both alive—as am I—then I’d take it as pretty conclusive.”

“Quite possibly,” he agreed, chuckling.

“I suppose I could come visit.  If I’m a demon-possessed monster, you’d be able to tell, right?”

“Here?  In the Temple?  I should think so.”

“Well, if that’s what it will take…”

“Perhaps,” he mused, folding his arms and looking up, thoughtfully.  After a moment of contemplation, he regarded me again and leaned forward.  “May I ask your plans, Sire?  What goals do you have?”

“Goals?  Oh, the whole king thing.  No.  I’m in the palace at Karvalen—the mountain—and I’m looking for Tort.  That’s about it, for now.  Lissette is on the throne and doesn’t need me, right?”

“Need?  No, I suppose
need
is too strong a word.  If she could bring herself to call upon you, she might find you convenient in some circumstances, but I do not think we can, in fairness, call it a need.”

“Please let her know if she wants me for anything, I’ll be there.  Otherwise, she’s got a kingdom to rule.  I understand it might not be… what’s the word?  Acceptable?  Safe?… for me to resume the throne.”

“You intend she should rule?” Seldar asked, sounding thoughtful.

“I do.  Nobody wants
me
to.  Well, nobody wants my old self to do so, and explaining what happened won’t wash away the stain of what he did.”

“That is true.  Very well.  I will inform her.”

“Thank you.  Meanwhile, I plan to stay home and mind my own business.”  I paused.  “Oh!  And I hear the local baron… Gosford?”

“Gosford, yes.”

“…may be planning to declare himself a prince of the city, maybe king of the eastern plains.  I don’t know for sure, but that’s what I hear.  I haven’t got a mirror in the Palace of Carrillon I can call, so I’m having a hard time telling Lissette directly.  Would you do it for me?”

“I will relay your messages the instant we are done.”

“Good man.  That pretty much covers it, I think.”

Seldar smiled at me.  He seemed pleased.

“That,” he decided, “is the King of Karvalen I recall.  You may still be a dark thing attempting to hide your true nature behind a deception, but I think not.  There is a merriment about your eyes that seems less evil and more mischievous.  Yes, I think you are my King.”

“But you’ll still want to look me over in detail, right?”

“Of course.  It is only my feeling.  It is not proof.”

“Good man,” I repeated.  “You’re welcome to drop in anytime.  Take the Kingsway to the front door.”

“I will remember.  Will you come to Carrillon in the near future?”

“Possibly.  It depends on my Tort-finding project and some other things.  I do want to talk to you, though, about what went on while I was stuck in the basement.”

“Basement?”

“Buried in my own mind.”

“Ah.  I will be honored to discuss anything you wish.”

“Great!  And Seldar?”

“Yes?”

“You handed in your sword, right?”

“Yes.”

“Other knights gave up their swords and quit when it seemed I was an evil bastard, right?”

“Yes, my King.”

“Can you get all those swords, bundle them up, and send them here?  If any of them come calling—they may want to take a look at me themselves—I would like to be able to hand them back.”

Seldar’s face went through a momentary contortion and he turned away again.  It took him a minute to recover.

“My King,” he replied, turning to face me again, “I will personally see to it.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you, my King.”

“For what?”

“Everything.”

He closed the mirror.  I sat there and wondered what he meant.

The rest of the night was an exercise in finding Tort.  Wherever she was, she was shielded from rudimentary magical radar.  A somewhat more advanced form of scanning was called for.

So I invented one.

Scrying spells work on a principle of correspondence.  Point A is made to represent Point B, usually in some visual medium.  Most of the spells used are psychic ones, allowing the caster to hallucinate the location desired—or, if you prefer, grant the caster a psychic vision of the place in the mirror or ball or bowl or whatever.  My scrying spells absorb visible light and emit it at the other end, like a camera and a video screen, because that’s how I think of it.  This also allows other people to see what I see, rather than taking my word for it.

Scrying spells aren’t usually to terribly useful for finding things, though.  Given you can look anywhere, where do you choose to look?  I can look for my keys without moving from the stool in front of the scrying mirror, but I still have to steer the viewpoint of the mirror to actually look in every individual nook and cranny where my keys might be.  It saves me the legwork, but not much time.

Location spells also work on the principle of correspondence, but they approach it differently.  The simplest of them send out a pulse of magical energy—an expanding sphere of power tuned to react when it makes contact with something corresponding to the original pattern.  That’s why a bit of hair or other piece of a person can be so important; you cast the spell to find the body the bit came from.  When the spell comes in contact with the desired object or person, the caster then knows how far away it is and in what direction.

The biggest obstacle, usually, is range.  All the locator spells I learned are spherical effects.  This means their power dissipates rapidly, limiting their range in a fine example of the inverse-square law.  I would have thought someone would have come up with a directional version, something more like a flashlight instead of a naked light.  Apparently, most magic-workers seem to feel if it isn’t near them, it’s not an issue.  I think this says something about magic-workers in general.  Personally, I plan to use some basic electromagnetic theory and have a directional pulse to increase the range.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s possible to actively block spells.  Blocking scrying spells is tricky; the caster can usually see something is going on and start working to counter it.  That’s why I go to such lengths for my own privacy.  Blocking a location spell is easier.  The caster can’t know for certain he’s being blocked—usually—and doesn’t have any idea what’s blocking him.

As for the actual mechanism of blocking a location spell, there are a few choices.  A shield can cloak the subject, making it register as something else—the blue bird can be covered in a magical layer of “red bird,” instead.  The blue bird is still blue, but any spell looking for it will only find a red bird.  Disguise shields. 

Another method is to absorb the location spell.  An Ascension Sphere is an extreme example of that; it absorbs all magic directed at it and location spells fail when they encounter it.  Less obvious techniques absorb only spells, rather than sucking in all ambient power.  These also cause the location spell to fail.  Either one lets the locator know he’s being blocked; his spell disintegrates as power drains from it.

More subtly, one can prepare a defense to identify detection spells for what they are, open a hole in the pulse, and allows it to pass over the target without disrupting the spell.  The spell continues to expand normally, like light shining outward, but the defensive spell is a dark place with a shadow behind it.  Anything inside the dark place is invisible, undetected, as is anything in the shadow.  Of course, if the caster moves, the area of shadow moves, too, so the shadowed area isn’t really a good place to hide, but it can be useful in certain applications.  More often, such a defensive spell is cast on an area or object.  Then the detection shadow is merely an incidental.