3 When Darkness Falls.8 (64 page)

"No," Kellen said, after a moment's thought. "Not really. It's good to have the army here now, and not four months from now, though. I wish I knew what Idalia's Greater Summoning actually… summoned. And… Jermayan was my first real friend. You're my friend, too, Shalkan, but in some ways that's different. We're bound together by magic. Jermayan didn't have to be my friend, didn't have to have anything to do with me. He could have let someone else go with me to the Keystone. He was the first person — well, aside from you — to think that I might be something more than just a really bad Wildmage."

"I know," Shalkan said simply, leaning against him for a moment. As they reached the clearing where Cilarnen now lived, they heard a sudden shout of anguish. The door to the wooden hut burst open, and something small and gray streaked out across the snow.

"Catch it! Catch it! I'm not finished with it yet!"

Kellen grabbed for it and missed. Shalkan stamped down with one cloven hoof, pinning it to the snow.

Kellen picked it up as Cilarnen — barefoot, in a long gray robe — came running over the snow toward him.

The thing Kellen had in his hands resembled a ferret — Kellen had seen pictures of the creatures by now — except for the fact that it was made of stone, its body a uniform gray color. It writhed and twisted in his grasp, striking and biting at his hands, but though its small stone teeth could penetrate his heavy gloves, they had no chance against the armored gauntlets beneath.

Cilarnen slipped a noose woven of thin strands of red silk around the creature's neck and it instantly became what it had been in the beginning: a lifeless marble carving.

He took it back, and only then seemed to notice that he was standing barefoot on snow.

"Yah!" he announced inelegantly, and ran back the way he'd come, holding the stone ferret in one hand and holding up his robes with the other, hissing to himself at the cold.

Despite the sadness of the news he'd received this morning, Kellen
did
have to smile to himself. This was hardly the image of serene and perfect all-knowingness that the High Mages of Armethalieh would like to project, but it was a much more human one. When he thought of the High Magick, which had managed to free itself from Balances and Mageprices to become a weapon with nothing to hold it in check, Kellen would much rather think of Cilarnen hopping barefoot over the snow because he'd forgotten his boots in the excitement of working out a spell than of his last sight of the High Council on the day they had Banished him — bloated with smug arrogance, drunk with power, and certain that killing a seventeen-year-old boy would have absolutely no consequences.

There were always consequences.

A few moments later, Cilarnen came back, having added boots and a cloak to his robe.

"Thanks for catching that," he said to Shalkan and Kellen. "I think I need to put the spells on in a different order, really, and that one got out of the box. I really think it's better if they know who they're supposed to serve, and how, before I wake them up."

"Why are you having a problem?" Kellen asked. "You've made dozens of golems before."

Cilarnen shrugged. "According to theory, the Enlivening Spell makes the statue take on the essential nature of its form. So hounds act like hounds; birds, birds; and so on. I was making servants. Maybe that made a difference. But a ferret's essential nature is to… ferret. Which means I had better put any compulsions on its nature in place first, I think."

"That sounds like a good idea," Kellen agreed.

"But you didn't come to talk to me about the ferrets. I told Artenel he couldn't have any of them — or the snakes either — until the end of the sennight."

"No," said Kellen. "I need something else. And I have bad news."

"It's about that thing that came a few days ago, isn't it?" Cilarnen said. "Tea," he said next, regarding Kellen's blank expression.

* * * * *

"YOU were raised in the City. You know we work at night," Cilarnen said, handing Kellen a mug. He knew Shalkan's tastes by now, and tipped several honey-disks onto a plate and held them out to the unicorn. Shalkan took them delicately, one by one.

"In fact, I was just finishing up with the latest batch of stone ferrets before going to bed now, as it's simple work and doesn't require much concentration, really. But Midwinter was a time of — oh, say it was as if everything was very clear and quiet, so that I could see a long way. So I wasn't going to waste it on stone ferrets. I wanted to check as much of the Borders as I could, then see what was going on in Armethalieh.

"Well, as I've told you before, those big cities the Elves have up there are pretty well gone. I've only been as far north as Ysterialpoerin, and I've only been there once, but I tried looking for other things in the north that looked like that big house I was in — and felt like it, too — and I found two that were empty, and one looked like it had been burned. Since it had been looted, I could follow objects that had been taken from it, and a lot of them kept leading me back to Ysterialpoerin, but enough of them didn't that I could start to trace the Frost Giants; figure out where they are, and where they're going. I was in the middle of doing that — it's very boring, so I don't bother you with it unless there's actually something interesting going on — when all of a sudden there was this… it was as if there were a fire, and somebody had thrown an enormous load of coals and oil onto it."

"I don't get it," Kellen said, shaking his head.

"You really weren't paying attention at College, were you?" Cilarnen said. "Well, they didn't really want to teach us this stuff. We might have learned to think. Okay. Think of the world — everything you know — as a pond of fish. All the fish in the pond are Powers — what the College teaches us are Illusory Creatures and Imaginary Constructs, but are actually real, just like Shalkan."

"Okay," Kellen said. Shalkan snorted in amusement.

Cilarnen seemed so surprised by things that Kellen took for granted — that the Shining Folk were real, for example — but then, Kellen and Cilarnen had learned about magic and the world in two entirely different ways.

He supposed that meant that they saw the world in two entirely different ways, too.

"Now imagine I'm looking into that pond on Midwinter night, talking to some of the Powers — fish — and doing my best not to be seen by others, when suddenly, from nowhere I can see, a giant fish, bigger than all the other fish, appears in the pond."

"Is it a good fish?" Kellen asked dubiously.

Cilarnen snorted. "A very good fish, I think, as it immediately started eating some of the fish I'd been trying to hide from. But still a very scary fish."

Midwinter would have been when Idalia had done her spell.

"So where did this, er, 'fish' come from?" Kellen asked.

"
I
don't know!" Cilarnen said in exasperation. "Somewhere that isn't here. Where that is, and why it's showed up just now, the Light only knows."

"What else can you tell me about it?" Kellen asked.

"Is that what you came to ask me?" Cilarnen asked, sounding incredulous. "Do you want me to summon it up and
ask
it? Kellen, I'd rather summon up one of
Them
, believe me! It's destroying our enemies, but that doesn't mean… look. A candle is a good thing to have inside your house, right? A forest fire isn't. But they're both flame."

"I guess," Kellen said doubtfully. Any time Cilarnen tried to explain something to him about magic — or
magick
— he only confused Kellen further.

"You're saying it's one of the Old Powers," Shalkan said helpfully.

"I have
no
idea," Cilarnen answered fervently. "I don't even know what an 'Old Power' is."

"You know I went to Sentarshadeen a few days ago," Kellen said. "Jermayan, well, needed help with a spell. We needed to figure out a way to keep He Who Is out of the world."

"Oh, is
that
all?" Cilarnen said sarcastically.

"Well, Idalia — and Jermayan, and Ancaladar — figured out among them that Great Queen Vielassar Farcarinon had done it once before, so it ought to be possible to do it again. And apparently it involved something called a Greater Summoning."

Cilarnen went very still.

"And she… did this… Greater Summoning. At Midwinter." It was not a question.

"She was supposed to. If she could gain the consent of all the land. I haven't heard from her since I left Sentarshadeen, but since you say this 'Big Fish' has appeared, I suppose she managed to gain what she needed and did the spell. Redhelwar says it was something that threw
Them
into confusion."

Cilarnen laughed shakily. "A Greater Power of the Light! Kellen, there are times when it's a good thing that you have no idea of what you're talking about! And to think I worried about calling up a mere Elemental! Yes, I would say that Idalia"s Summoning worked. But as for telling you precisely what it was she called… that I cannot do, save that it is old, and powerful, and on our side. But how could you have heard from Redhelwar so quickly?" Cilarnen asked. "Some new spell?"

Cilarnen's innocent question reminded Kellen that despite their cause for rejoicing, there was also new cause for grief.

"Riasen was at Ancaladar's Grove this morning. The army is at Ondoladeshiron. Jermayan… brought them south through some kind of portal. He and Ancaladar died doing it."

"Dear Light," Cilarnen said quietly. "Kellen, I am so sorry. I know he was your friend. And Idalia's."

"We needed the army here," Kellen said simply.

They sat in silence for a moment.

"Kellen," Cilarnen said. "Your Wild Magic — it's all about balancing things, isn't it? So everything has an opposite?"

"I suppose so," Kellen said. He'd never really thought about it. The Wild Magic was about doing, not about thinking about doing.

"So
He Who Is
has an opposite too?"

"I guess so."

"So this Greater Power that Idalia has summoned must be that opposite. Or at least a part of it. Because if everything were really back in balance, we'd already have won."

Kellen thought about it. It seemed right. If there was one thing he knew for sure about the Wild Magic, it was that it didn't solve your problems for you. It helped, but you had to help yourself as well.

"Then Redhelwar's right," Kellen said at last. "
They're
as weak now as
They're
going to be. And if the Greater Power can keep
He Who Is
from getting through for at least a while, this is our best chance."

"To do what?" Cilarnen asked.

"To deny
Them
Armethalieh," Kellen said. "And — if possible — to convince the High Mages to fight on our side." Cilarnen laughed bitterly.

"Well, so long as you're not planning to do that today, I'm going to bed. Unless there's something else you need right now?"

"Not today," Kellen assured him.

* * * * *

THAT had been almost a sennight ago. Today…

Today he'd discovered that Jermayan was alive after all.

"I just thought you'd like to know," Shalkan said casually, when Kellen came to the Grove that morning, "that when I was out for my morning canter, I saw a dragon in the sky."

Kellen simply stared at him.

"A dragon," Shalkan repeated patiently. "A
black
dragon. In the sky. Flying."

"An - Ancaladar?" Kellen stammered.

"Do you know of any other dragons?" the unicorn answered. "They're flying with the army. It should be here in a sennight or so."

"I — But — How — ? I mean… Jermayan
couldn't
have been wrong about his spell. Could he?"

"No," Shalkan said. "I think, when you talk to him, you may find him just as surprised by this turn of events as you are. But it's just possible — with one of the Great Powers afoot in the world again after so long — that we should not expect everything to go as we have been used to. Just a thought."

"Huh," Kellen said. "Well, if they aren't going to, we could use a few more of them going this way. I'm going to go find Keirasti. We'll tell Vestakia."

"And I suppose you'll want me to tell Cilarnen," Shalkan said, trying to sound cross, and failing.

"You know he'll feed you honey-disks."

"Honey-
cakes,
" Shalkan corrected eagerly, turning and trotting off.

* * * * *

KEIRASTI'S troop had made their way to the encampment a few days before. Kellen walked back down into the camp to share the good news with her.

She did not answer at her tent, and the flap was pinned back, indicating that she was not there. Maredhiel told him that Keirasti had gone down to the Angarussa, as she frequently did on her early morning rides. He saddled Firareth and found the Elven Knight, as he so often did, standing in the snow gazing out at the new bridge, Orata's reins in her hand.

"I See you, Keirasti," he said.