Stained Glass Monsters (29 page)

Three of the leaping foxes were stuck
immediately. Rennyn allowed the mud to encase them as they
struggled, and saw that the rest were intelligent enough to start
trying to avoid the new obstacle. That limited their movement
enough for the Sentene to more effectively counter them. Already,
most of the Eferum-Get were gone. But not killed, Rennyn realised.
The foxes had kept the Sentene busy, while the rest of the
creatures had run. A deliberate delay.

Mud was heavy, so Rennyn let it funnel
back beneath the much-churned water, and then went and sat down
while the Sentene did efficient things. She didn't know the name of
the woman whose throat had been torn out, but she recognised a body
taken out of the water as one of the Ferumguard who had travelled
to Surclere with her. Lieutenant Danress was injured: a bite to her
arm which she was trying to bind herself. Illidian would be less
than pleased.

Illidian. Had the Black Queen set the
Kellian to fighting their way from their prison? Killing people?
Rennyn looked down at the sphere in her lap, smoky black with a
shining spot of white at its core. The power rolling off it was
tangible, grown strong enough that any mage would sense the focus
nearby. Only an echo of what Solace would bring to this world.

Captain Medan squatted down beside her.
"We're going to have to hunt them through this."

"Eferum-Get acting under orders."

"Yes. The idea of them using tactics
isn't a pretty one. Feints and ambushes. Not what we usually have
to deal with, and hunting through this stuff will be painful,
especially when half of us have been instructed to return to the
city for its defence. We may find it more useful to head to the
nearest settlements and wait for them to show up, rather than
expose ourselves in small tracking parties. Now, can I talk some
sense into you?"

"Can I have something to eat?"

He sighed deeply, but went and fetched
her a bowl of thick soup, barely warm but filling. She drank it
down and handed him the bowl, then said: "It will take me about two
hours to reach Asentyr."

"Two–?" His surprise was understandable.
The journey into the marsh had been slow and tedious. Eight hours
of working the boats through shallow channels.

"Captain, if I hadn't been throwing so
much power about today, I could probably levitate all the way
there. I'll use something a little more efficient though. I want to
get inside the city's circle as quickly as possible."

"You said, yesterday, that you think
this uncle is capable of passing the circle."

"He's an outstanding mage, just lacking
the strength of a focus. Teleporting a short distance would be well
within his abilities, and totally bypass the circle's protections,
though not the alarm I added. Now that he's in this world, he would
also be able to create gates into the Eferum, and travel there and
back at will. And he's definitely capable of placing people under
injunction, and could use them to access Asentyr, though the
duration of the spell would be limited. But the city's circle is
still the first line of real protection, and I need to be inside
it. When I reach Asentyr I will hide myself and wait until there's
only an hour or two left, and then I'll head to the Hall of
Summoning."

Captain Medan rubbed at his
black-stubbled chin, made wary by the sudden flow of information.
"I get the feeling you're about to say something I won't like."

"In a way. I want you to do something
for me. You know the flag that sits on top of the tower at the
centre of the Halls of Magic?"

"I may have noticed something of the
sort."

"If the Kellian escape, lower it."

Rennyn watched the muscles bunch in his
jaw, but then he nodded. "Very well."

"Solace's obvious move is to take
control of the Hall of Summoning. Unless her son brings another
army of Eferum-Get into the city's circle, the Kellian are the
ideal tool. All that talk yesterday, the defences Lady Weston
plans, do you think it could stand against them?"

"That would depend on how much warning
we had. And–" His voice dropped. "And whether we were willing to
kill them."

Rennyn stood. It was time she started
moving. "One thing I am at least sure of, Captain." The thing she
clung to, whenever she thought about this plan. "They'd prefer
death to the alternative."

There was nothing worse than waiting.
Kendall supposed she should be glad she was in the Arkathan rather
than the dungeons, but the hours still grated by. At least she had
the dormitory room to herself. All but a handful of the Arkathan
students had been sent back to their homes until the Black Queen
had been dealt with.

Earlier that day a squad of Sentene had
returned from the marshes. Kendall had managed to find Lieutenant
Danress, who had a bandage down one arm, but she didn't know
anything much. Rennyn had left them. If everything had gone to
plan, she was somewhere in the city. The Sentene were refining the
defences in the Hall of Summoning, and would sit there hoping she
showed up before the Black Queen did. Typical Rennyn.

Sick of doing nothing, Kendall decided
to go over to the Sentene barracks. The palace was at highest
security and nobody was supposed to be moving about right now, but
the most they could do was send her away again.

All the security meant too many guards.
They were even patrolling the barracks, for all that it was
practically empty. Kendall made it to the garden between the
Arkathan and the Sentene barracks without any problem, but then was
stuck watching one of the Ferumguard pacing back and forth, tensely
alert. He didn't even have the decency to stick to a predictable
pattern. The windows on the ground floor were too narrow to squeeze
through, and it didn't look easy to climb the side of the building.
One day she'd be able to levitate up there, which was a nice
thought, but useless right now.

Stymied, Kendall was wondering if she
could bluff her way past when she heard voices, and the patrolling
guardsman went to investigate. Not slow to take advantage, she
nipped inside and hurried along inconveniently bright halls to
Sebastian's room. There were too many magelights in the palace, and
every one of them had been left uncovered this night.

The wards itched at her as she shut the
door, but that only made her pleased she was able to tell they were
active. Kendall had made Sukata try and explain the difference
between wards and circles, but mostly because she had wanted to
distract the Kellian girl, who had gone all mute and hunched after
they'd found Rennyn crying. Kendall hadn't much liked that
herself.

The bed had been pushed to one side.
Odd. Kendall checked under it curiously, but found nothing unusual.
Otherwise, the room was tidy, the bed made, the desk clean, with no
sign of the meal they'd delivered. Except for the lines of sigils
around the walls, it looked like any other room. Dissatisfied,
Kendall took down one of the books above the desk and flipped
through it. Healing magic, which Rennyn had said she didn't do.
Maybe she'd decided to learn. With nothing better to do, Kendall
started on another book, and found that it was full of pictures of
what people looked like with all their skin gone.

This was definitely distracting, and
Kendall was busy turning the pages when the room grew gloomy. Dark
lines on the walls grew darker, then twisted across and out, as if
the shadows were stretching out fingers to grab her. Kendall was a
breath from diving under the bed when the darkness fell apart to
reveal Rennyn.

"What in the Hells was that supposed to
be?"

The black-haired woman gave her a brief,
unsurprised glance. "Teleportation using Symbolic magic. From
shadow to shadow basically. Conditional and expensive, but very
useful."

If Rennyn said it was expensive, it
probably meant most people couldn't begin to cast it. What did it
matter? Kendall took a couple of deep breaths and switched to the
far more important matter of Rennyn being here, now.

"Are you heading to the Hall of
Summoning?"

"Not quite yet." For once Rennyn looked
like she'd slept, though the circles under her eyes seemed to have
become etched in place. She sat down on the bed, holding the bulky
focus on her lap.

"Why hasn't anything happened?" Kendall
asked, frustrated by Rennyn's calm. "There haven't been any
attacks. Everyone's just sitting about. Even the Kellian–"

"Are just sitting about?"

"Lieutenant Danress told me that they
stopped moving. Since before midnight yesterday. They don't move,
and don't react if anyone talks to them. They drink a little water
sometimes, and that's it."

"No orders," Rennyn said, curtly enough
that Kendall knew she didn't like to think about it either, no
matter how cool she was acting. "She's conserving her resources.
Although they're formidable, the Kellian are tremendously
outnumbered. Since the aim is to stop me, it's logical to wait
until I'm easily located, which I will be once I go to the Hall of
Summoning. After that, I doubt Solace will be too concerned with
how many of their lives she spends trying to overcome the Sentene's
preparations."

"You've been hiding all day?"

"Sleeping in a warded room. I can't hide
the focus completely, since it's too powerful a thing, but wards
make it difficult to track. Presuming my Wicked Uncle is even
bothering to try."

"So you're safe until you leave this
room?"

"No ward is guaranteed safety." Rennyn
turned the focus over in her lap, the chain clinking softly. "They
just make attacks and divinations harder. There is no ward which
cannot be overcome, no spell which cannot be countered, no defence
which can't be breached. Strength can be overcome by imagination.
Imagination can be defeated by strength."

"Still giving lessons?"

"Still–"

"What in the Hells is that?!"

Power. Power of the kind Kendall had
only felt at the dome around Falk, monumental, beyond the scale of
people. Rennyn stood up, obviously startled, and took a step to the
window.

"Is it the Black Queen come early?"

"No." Rennyn was gazing out over the
city, searching. "My Wicked Uncle is making his move. Strength and
imagination combined."

"I thought he was supposed to be weak!"
Kendall protested, as Rennyn started drawing power of her own.

"Was." A shield began to shimmer around
Rennyn, but she looked more resigned than alarmed.

"It's coming!" Kendall gasped, as the
bloom of power roared into something larger. Far away, all the way
down by the river, a wave was flowing toward them.

"Sit down."

"What?"

Rennyn reached out and put a hand on
Kendall's shoulder, pressing until she sat down on the bed. And
then the power reached them and everything went black.

-oOo-

"Wake up."

A man's voice. As Kendall fought her way
through groggy layers of darkness, a cold finger moved away from
her temple. Upside-down. She was hanging upside-down. Someone was
carrying her over their shoulder.

She stiffened, lifting her head, then
tried to go limp again. Whoever was carrying her didn't slow down,
but a man laughed, and then a hand gripped Kendall painfully by the
hair and lifted her head.

"Little fledgling mage," the person
said, in a pleased, purring voice. "Have you by chance seen my
nephew?"

"Wha–?" Kendall managed.

"What kind of answer is that?" the man
chided, letting go. "Well, the question will keep. Hold her
there."

Kendall was upended, her arms trapped
behind her back, but this gave her a better look at the room she'd
been carried into. The Hall of Summoning. There were bodies
scattered on the black and white floor. Sentene mages, Hand
members, palace guards with their swords and pistols fallen from
their hands. Unable to hold back a gasp of dismay, Kendall jerked
forward, but the person who had been carrying her didn't move an
inch, and her arms twisted painfully. Kendall looked back.

"Sukata."

The Kellian girl didn't react, wasn't
even looking at her. Her face was impassive in a way that made
Kendall realise that Kellian really were far more expressive than
she'd given them credit for. This girl, this thing with Sukata's
face and eyes of glass, was no more a person than a doll.

The only people upright were a handful
of Kellian, Kendall, and a man with black hair and black eyes,
dressed very finely in dark blue. He had more angles to his face,
was better looking, but was, no matter what Rennyn had said, very
much like Sebastian Claire. There was a weird shimmer in the air
above him, a hint of violet light. Hanging from his wrist was the
Black Queen's focus.

They had lost. The shock of it made
Kendall dizzy. This was the Black Queen's demon son. He had the
only thing which could stop her return. Rennyn had lost.

"Put her over there."

Kendall twisted in Sukata's hold as
Sukata's mother moved forward from the Hall's entrance and lowered
a still figure to the floor at one edge of the central black
square. Rennyn. She lay without moving, her hair making black
swirls on the marble.

"Is she dead?"

"No more than you are, fledgling." The
demon prince walked over to stand above Rennyn and nudged her with
one foot. With a sharp sideways glance he said: "Put one of the
restraints on her, then clean this place up."

Captain Illuma, eyes as empty as her
daughter's, drew something out of a black bag. A barbed and
twisting thing, like a mix between a bramble and a worm. She
dropped it on the back of Rennyn's hand, where it writhed for a
moment, then slid around her wrist. Rennyn twitched as the spiked
bracelet pierced her skin, sighed, but then lay still again.