The Dreaming Hunt (54 page)

He paced across the chamber and back in agitation. Everything they'd worked for so long and so carefully would be ruined. The entire house of cards would come tumbling down around his ears, and he would have to start all over again. Stars, the centuries of waiting. The excruciatingly cautious planning. The glacier-slow movement that was only just now beginning to add up to anything significant.

They were so close to having so many disparate forces aligned to move as one against Koth. If Maximillian uncovered their network now, they might never recover from it. Everyone was linked in, and everyone would be exposed. The Emperor's chokehold on Urth was such that he would eventually crush every source of potential resistance until none was left. This might be the last chance they would get at taking down the mighty, immortal ruler.

Aurelius must not go before the Emperor alone. And at all costs, Maximillian must not get inside his head.

“Word must be sent to Aurelius immediately to present himself to the Emperor in open court. Tonight, lest his Resplendent Majesty summon our friend to a private audience where I cannot protect him.”

A state dinner was planned for that evening. Petitions would be accepted by the Emperor for a short while before the feast. It was a formality, and no actual business would be conducted during the session, of course. Usually it was a time for various official decrees and proclamations to be read in open court as a matter of law.

Talissar murmured, “We will be lucky to block a summons until tonight. Should we create some kerfuffle to distract the Emperor this afternoon, mayhap?”

“Yes, that would be wise. How easy would it be to stir up an argument between several kings over who will be the first king of Dupree?”

Talissar smiled a little. “Very easy, my lord. The kings squabble over it already. A few well-placed rumors and they will be at one another's throats.”

“Excellent. And can you see to it that Aurelius's petition is heard tonight?”

“I think so,” Talissar replied, frowning.

“Make it so,” the First declared. “Everything depends upon it.
Everything
.”

He watched Talissar leave the chamber, relieved to have such a competent lieutenant in his secret army. He dared not move personally against the Emperor lest he draw undue attention to himself by the handful of people at court who might actually take note of him. He was just a messenger, after all. A servant. Not worthy of notice as a human being.

An hour or so later, another messenger in the messenger corps delivered a message to him without comment and left. The First tore into it nervously and hastily scanned the scrawled words. The reason Aurelius had been recalled to court was because a magical weapon of some kind—a staff, charged with some sort of ritual effect—had been discharged without Maximillian's permission. Apparently, the Emperor wanted to know why.

All right, then. Maximillian would be after a specific memory from Aurelius's mind. The First had to gain access to the solinari's mind and ascertain quickly whether or not the memory was worth shielding from Maximillian and what other knowledge might be tied to said memory that the Emperor needed
not
to see.

The problem with protecting Aurelius's mind from Maximillian's probing was to do it in such a way that the Emperor did not realize information was being shielded from him.

The First did not hit upon the solution until he was almost finished dressing for court. At formal events, messengers roamed the assemblage, secretly passing notes among the courtiers. However, for the sake of subtlety, messengers dressed so as to be indistinguishable from the courtiers themselves.

The trick was not to shield the information from Maximillian at all. Rather, he should use the Emperor's own blind spot against him.

It was a gamble. But if it worked, well worth it.

Quickly, he finished the tedious process of dressing for court. The primping, powdering, and perfuming were almost too much for him today. It was all so useless and ridiculous.

Of course, the pomp and ceremony were not useless from Maximillian's point of view. The rigid rituals and rules of etiquette occupied most of his nobles' time and kept them from thinking too much about the actual state of the Empire. Which suited Maximillian's purposes entirely.

The First arrived at the Great Receiving Hall earlier than necessary, but he had to be in place before Aurelius arrived. Furthermore, he had to intercept the solinari before the Emperor noticed the mage and tore into his mind.

Not surprisingly, Aurelius waited to make his appearance until the massive hall was well crowded with nobles and functionaries. The solinari slipped in quietly, no doubt attempting to blend in with the crowd. Not that his glittering, golden skin was possible to miss in the sea of dull human flesh.

The First made his way over to Aurelius quickly—quickly enough that he actually had to touch the minds of those around him to make them forget his rapid passage. “Guildmaster Aurelius, isn't it? Welcome to court.”

Aurelius turned to face him, a carefully polite expression on his face. “Have we met, sir?”

The First reached out and took Aurelius's hand. It was too familiar a greeting for men who had never met, but in the crush of people and the voluminous folds of their court robes, the gesture would go unnoticed.

Their palms touched, and the solinari frowned, perhaps sensing his urgent scanning of Aurelius's mind.

Great stars in the heavens
. This man was up to his neck in rebellion. And it all centered around a group of youths—extraordinary youths—each with their own special gifts, individually enough to cause Maximillian enough alarm to take action. But together, the group would have to be crushed. No wonder a patina of panic overlaid all the solinari's thoughts.

It was an easy matter to find the memory of an ornate staff topped by a spectacularly carved green rose exploding in the hands of … ahh. The ethiri girl. Rosana. So
that
was how she'd been awakened. Maximillian's magic had removed his own curse from her. How ironic. Amusement flowed through him at the discovery. If only Maximillian could be allowed to see that he might very well be the cause of his own undoing.

But no. This was the memory that needed to be erased. Quickly, the First inserted a memory of himself standing in the corner of the Heart common room into Aurelius's mind as the solinari witnessed the staff's activation. When Maximillian saw the memory and him in it, the presence of the First would instantly and irrevocably erase the entire memory from the Emperor's mind.

His hand fell away from Aurelius's. His work done, he faded back into the crowd to observe the outcome of Aurelius's audience with the Emperor from a safe distance.

He'd barely moved away from the solinari when a soldier in Imperial livery approached Aurelius. At least the guard did not raise his voice and make a fuss over ordering the elf to present himself. But the guard did make it clear that his presence before the Emperor was required immediately.

Stars. He'd barely gotten to Aurelius in time. The First glided through the crowd, paralleling Aurelius and the guard as they approached the huge obsidian throne carved into the shape of a great, black flame rising toward the soaring ceiling. Maximillian sat in the chair carved into its base, the symbolism heavy-handed. The source of the Eternal Flame of Koth was the Emperor himself. Of course, the First knew differently. But he was in no position to say anything about Maximillian's real source of power.

Aurelius ascended the golden steps with barely perceptible reluctance. Which wasn't a bad thing. The Emperor would be suspicious of anyone who did not approach him with a certain reticence. The First shifted position slightly. He had studied the acoustics of this hall in enough detail to know exactly where to stand if he were to see and hear all the forthcoming exchange.

Aurelius bowed deeply. “Your Most Resplendent Majesty, it is an honor above all other honors to come before you thus.”

“Rise, Aurelius Lightstar, and let me look at you.”

Hah. Maximillian looked
into
his courtier, not at him. The First risked a cautious probe of his own to watch where Maximillian searched in Aurelius's mind. To make sure the Emperor did not find something that he had missed.

There. Max found the memory of the staff immediately. In an instant of rage and horror, Maximillian saw the girl's gypsy curse torn away and the ethiri beneath exploding forth. Maximillian looked around within the memory to see all who were present … the blank spot where the First stood … and then the entire memory evaporated. Gone. Every bit of it. The girl, the staff, the rose, the curse undone …

“So, Aurelius. I have seen into your mind. Now tell me what I have seen.”

Aurelius's eyebrows twitched, indication of just how hard the solinari was thinking. The First dared not touch the elf's mind to give him a hint how to proceed. Not with the Emperor concentrating so intensely upon Aurelius's mind.

C'mon, Aurelius. Figure it out. If Maximillian could see the memory, you would already be on your way to Laernan's chamber of horrors.

“Where did it go, Aurelius? Where is my staff?”

Dawning understanding broke across the solinari's mind. An image of the staff leaning in the corner of some sort of locked treasure room blossomed in the guildmaster's mind.

If he could have cheered aloud without giving it all away, the First would have done so in that moment. Aurelius had summoned the
perfect
memory to mislead Maximillian. Images of fleeing looters, rioting in the streets of Dupree, and soldiers brawling with the locals filled in the rest of the gap in Aurelius's mind, unquestionably real and just as unquestioningly misleading.

Aloud, the guildmaster said regretfully, “Your Resplendent Majesty, there was a break-in to the Mage's Guild storehouse. I regret to inform you that the item in question disappeared. I take full responsibility for the theft—”

Maximillian raised a hand to stop the obligatory scraping and mea culpas, and Aurelius fell silent immediately. The man was no dummy and read the Emperor as well and quickly as any experienced courtier. There might just be a chance that the rebellion would escape this night intact, after all.

The Emperor leaned forward in his seat and lowered his voice so that none but those closest to him could hear—or anyone standing in the exact spot the First stood. “So you have no idea upon whom the staff was discharged?”

The moment of truth. Urgently, the First projected a single word into Aurelius's mind, doing everything in his power to wrap the word in his own essence, thereby shielding it from Maximillian's detection.
Lie
.

Both Aurelius and Maximillian frowned faintly. One because he heard the word, and one because he did not—or rather he heard it and instantly forgot it.

The First held his breath as Aurelius took a deep breath and spoke. “I do not know who received the ritual held within the staff.”

Maximillian probed Aurelius's mind deeply, seeking truth. He must sense a lie. But without any other truth to replace it and the First's camouflage wrapped firmly around the lie, he could only accept the solinari's words at face value. The Emperor murmured, “Let us be frank with one another, Guildmaster. That staff was meant for one whom most think to be dead. An old friend of both of ours.”

Aurelius gasped lightly. The Emperor must have projected an image of General Tarses directly into the elf's mind.

“I miss my old friend. I need you to find him. And when he is found, he needs to be … restored. You helped him once before. Can you do it again?”

The First shifted his stare to Aurelius. Could the powerful mage clear the taint of the Hand of Winter from Tarses? It would be an impressive feat. Perhaps the unique ability of solinari to absorb magic made such a thing possible.

“I will do my utmost,” Aurelius responded soberly to the Emperor.

“Find him. Fix him.”

Aurelius bowed deeply. “So shall it be, Your Resplendent Majesty.”

The First exhaled the breath he had not realized he was holding. He had bought the rebellion a little time. But would it be enough? Maximillian's patience would not hold forever. And when he took action, blood would flow in the streets.

 

CHAPTER

27

Raina was relieved to be lost in the wilderness with just the trees and her friends for company. Even if they did set a grueling pace in a futile effort to stay ahead of those cursed hounds. Except for the occasional bump or bruise, none of them required much in the way of healing, particularly now that she and Rosana weren't having to pour constant healing into Will and Bloodroot to keep the tree lord from killing Will.

Which was just as well. The voices in her head were with her constantly now and growing louder by the day. She began to wonder if she would be able to hear herself to cast magic around the din in her skull. Ever since they'd left Dupree, the mutterings had been getting steadily noisier and more insistent.

Any trail left for them by Tarryn had disappeared. They had taken the decision to go ahead and turn toward the north lest they overshoot Kerryl's path entirely. They could only assume that his destination with his hostages was in this general direction.

Summer was turning to fall around them, and the forests of paper birch, ash, and silver maple gave way entirely to the massive pines of the Quills. But before they disappeared altogether, the tree leaves turned from green to every conceivable shade of red, orange, and gold, shivering in anticipation of the winter to come. It was breathtakingly beautiful and the most peaceful place she had ever been. She might even go so far as to call herself happy out here were it not for the threat of hounds, or of meeting a Dominion patrol, or Kerryl Moonrunner himself.

She began to understand why the people in this region chose to live in tiny, squalid settlements. As dangerous as life might be out here, they were free of the Empire. Free of taxes and slavers and being under constant surveillance. If Justin were with her, she would find some remote village outside the Dominion lands to settle in and never go back to civilization. But he was not here, and she had a quest to complete. A responsibility to her family and the people of Haelos to see through.