Emperor Mage (20 page)

"Here's
a man who wants to go home," she said to herself, looking at the birds.
"Of all the pretty southern birds he could have, he picks you, I like his

taste."

The
birds flocked to the netting to peer at her and talk. She chatted with them for
some time, listening to them gossip about their neighbors and Lindhall. Like
the inhabitants of the glass kingdoms next door, these birds had nothing but
good to say of the mage.

Once
each bird had been greeted, she looked at the counter on the far side of the
room. Writing materials were scattered over its length, and a number of animal
skeletons stood on it, posed as they would have been in life. She also found a
large slab of limestone. Embedded in it was an incomplete skeleton, that of a
small animal with only three extremely long, birdlike toes to a leg, and a
lizards bony tail. Its skull was odd compared to those of the birds she knew,
but its end formed a beak. Most interesting, in the chipped-away stone around
it, she saw outlines of what looked like feathered wings. Missing were the
lower ribs on the right, part of the spine, the right femur, and the end of the
taiL A label on the front of the shallow box that contained the limestone read,
Lizard-bird, found in the Jalban Quarry, Zallara.

"Have
you ever seen a bird like this, Zek?" she asked.

No,
replied the marmoset. Never.

After
the Hall of Bones, she wasn't about to touch the complete skeletons. On the other
hand, surely there was nothing wrong with touching a collection of bones
embedded in rock, particularly if parts of the entire skeleton were missing.
Gingerly, she touched a thin claw with her finger.

The
flash burned into her eyes. Blinking to clear her vision, Daine heard the last
thing she wanted to hear in the world: the sound of crumbling rock. First to
come free was die skull, followed by the heronlike neck. Next came the overlong
arm bones, spine, and bits of ribcage. Pieces moved as if connected, even when
they weren't Outlying chunks of bone jumped from the rock and gathered around
the main skeleton as the hipbones separated from their tomb.

Look!
said Zek, squeaking in excitement. If there's any missing, the bones leave room
for it!

"Wonderful,"
she whispered. She didn't share

his
enthusiasm: it made her queasy to look at those

absent—or
invisible—chunks.

The
legs yanked themselves free. The skeleton tried to stand and was brought up
short, its tail still embedded in limestone. It looked back over its rump to
see what the holdup was. The beak opened in a soundless cry that revealed small
teeth. It switched its hips, freeing its tail. At liberty, the lizard-bird
extended its arms, then its legs, having a good stretch after a long nap.

Daine
sat on a nearby stool, hard. Zek, who couldn't understand why she was not
pleased, jumped from her shoulder to the countertop, skidding until he turned
and brought himself around. The skeleton was about the size of a crow. It
turned to peer at Zek, crouching to get a better look.

"With
eyes that aren't there," Daine said, and giggled helplessly. Both the
skeleton and Zek looked at her reproachfully. "Sorry."

"Mithros
bless, I didn't know you had the magical assemblage spell!" cried Lindhall.
Numair and Kaddar, behind him, only stared.

As if I
weren't having enough fun yet, thought Daine.

"It
doesn't seem to matter if pieces are missing." Lindhall walked to the
counter for a closer look at the creature. "But that's why I didn't use
the assemblage spell on my own. It doesn't work *f the skeleton is
incomplete."

If it
knew it was incomplete, the lizard-bird didn't act it. Looking around, it
stretched, wagged its arms clumsily, then leaped off the counter. All four
humans lunged to catch it, but the skeleton had other ideas. It flew up, bony
arms flapping awkwardly, as if it still wore the feathers that had left their
imprints in its rock tomb.

"But
there aren't any birds with claws in their arms!" Daine protested as the
skeleton swooped and turned around the light-globe overhead. "And its
bones are solid, not hollow like a bird's. Bats have sort-of fingers, but those
are genuine clawed toes, not like a bat's wing."

"It
was no bat. It is a link, between the dinosaurs in the Hall of Bones and
animals— birds—alive now," Lindhall explained without taking his eyes from
the flier. "The seers who look back in time have seen lizard-birds in the
same era as the largest snake-necked dinosaurs and the lesser tyrant lizards.
They have followed the lizard-bird's development, and it is true—it comes from
the land walkers."

"Instead
of scales, feathers," said Numair, as interested as LindhalL "Also a
bird's wishbone and a bird's gripping foot. But it has abdominal ribs, as
reptiles do, and a flexible tail."

The
skeleton, tired of exercising invisible wings, settled on Lindhalls shoulder.
Kaddar leaned in to inspect the empty spaces in the bones, and nearly

got
pecked. "Stop that," Lindhall ordered, stroking

the
creatures beak. "He was only looking."

"This
isn't the assemblage spell" the prince said, looking at Daine. "I've
never seen anything like this in my life. What did you do to it?"

Kitten,
who had followed the men, squeaked a reproach at Kaddar's tone. The iguanas
came in from the other room, prepared to defend Daine. "I can't—I'm
not—" Daine stammered. She looked at Numair, who was rubbing one temple.
"I think you must explain," he told her.

"These
  
rooms
  
are
  
warded,"
  
Kaddar
  
said. "That's how I could talk with Master Numair safely."

"What's
in place here is unlike normal warding spells," added Lindhall, leaning
against the counter. The
 
lizard-bird
 
on
 
his
 
shoulder ran
 
his
 
beak through the mage's fine, gray-gold
hair, grooming him. "The emperor must never suspect these rooms are
warded, or he would come to discover what I have that's worth concealment. If
he or his servant mages try to eavesdrop in these rooms, they will hear only
dull, innocent conversations and noises made by my animals."

Daine
whistled. After two years with Numair, she had an idea how complex a
spell-weave like that would be. "It's a new thing that's happened,"
she told Lindhall and Kaddar. "I'm not sure of the details... Numair, what
should I say?"

"All
that you told me yesterday," was the quiet reply.

She
obeyed. When she finished, no one said anything. Waiting for one of them to
speak, Daine went to talk to the aviary birds. They wanted reassurance that the
bone thing was not going to get into their home. Daine soothed them until they
returned to their normal pursuits.

The
first to speak was LindhalL "You mean it isn't permanent?" The
skeleton, bony tail hooked around the mage's neck, was gnawing his shirt
buttons. "He'll stop being alive?"

Daine
nodded. "I'm sorry, but it does seem to run out, after a time." She
wanted to add that she wasn't sure if the vulture had run down, since the old
woman had taken him, but thought the better of it at the last minute. She
didn't want to start coughing again.

"You
should try this in the Hall of Bones," the older man remarked, turning the
skeletons head from a necklace he wore under his shirt. "Stop that. If you
bite it, you'll hurt yourself. Although I suppose it would be a bit
inconvenient if any of the dinosaurs were to walk away."

Kaddar
made a face at Daine, who giggled. "Inconvenient puts it mildly," the
prince drawled. "But Daine's right to keep this secret. I hate to think
what my uncle would do with someone who has such power. Can you imagine? An
army of dead

creatures
that cant be hurt by normal means?"

Daine
thought of the great fused lizards, with their plates and spikes of bone, and
shivered. One of them would do serious harm in a small village.

"It
would be precisely to his taste," agreed Numair. "He might decide
such power is worth a war in Tortall, perhaps even all the Eastern Lands."

"Well,
while he's with us, I am going to call this one Bonedancer," Lindhall
declared, stroking the lizard-bird's skull. "There's one thing I find
troublesome about all this, however. Numair is right—wild magic does not
function this way, as far as we can determine. What is the provenance of this
power? Even the Black God is unable to give a semblance of life to the
dead."

"Mynoss—?"
  
suggested
  
Kaddar.
  
"No.
  
He judges only"

"In
The Ekattatum Book of Tombs it's said the Queen of Chaos once raised an army of
the dead," murmured Numair.

"But
the Scrolls of Qawe Uemage refute it," Lindhall replied. "According
to him, the Queen of Chaos assembled dead wood and stones to be her army. No,
the only god, I believe, who can resurrect that which was once flesh and is now
dead is the Graveyard Hag."

"That's
right," Kaddar said. "Remember? There are
   
legends
   
of
   
bonedancers—the
   
resurrected dead—from the fall of the Ikhiyan dynasty, and the
end of the Omanat priest-kings—" He stopped, realizing what he was telling
them, and the men looked at each other.

Daine
s throat locked as if a bony hand gripped it. —Don't even think of it, dearie—a
voice advised insider her head. —It doesn't suit me that these handsome friends
of yours should know I'm about. My, they're a taU set, aren't they? Not a one
of them under sixffct. I like these big fellows. Make a girl feel sheltered and
fragile, that's what I always say.—

You're
as fragile as granite, thought the furious Daine.

—Of
course,—was the amused reply. —I'm a goddess after all. But it's nice to feel
as if I might be fragile, old and rickety as I am. Now, remember, I'm keeping
an ear on you, so don't try to warn them. If you force me to silence you fast,
I might hurt you.—

The
hand on her throat squeezed, and Daine gasped, fighting for air. When her knees
buckled, Numair caught her and held her to a seat. "Are you all
right?" he asked, dark eyes worried. "Bringing things to life tires
you, doesn't it?"

She
nodded. Kaddar went into the other room and returned with a pitcher and a cup,
which he filled and handed to her. Daine sipped. It was water, freshened with a
leaf of mint.

"We
have to be careful talking about the Graveyard Hag," he said, gently
teasing. "Yesterday she had a coughing fit in the Hag's temple. It didn't
let up until we were outside."

Lindhall
frowned, troubled. "Should you have visited her temple?"

"We
visited them a//," said Kaddar.

"It's
my fault," Daine said, voice hoarse.
 
"I wanted to look at them."

"Uncle
can't fault me for doing it when he told me to take her wherever she
wanted."

"No,
of course not," Lindhall still looked uneasy. Clearly shaking it off, he
said, "Numair, I think you must be getting back—it's almost noon. And what
will you young people do? I could have lunch brought to us and then show you
around a

bit."

Daine
smiled at the fair-haired man. "I'd like

that,
if it's all right with Kaddar. I can get to know

your
friends better."

Lindhall
smiled as the lizard-bird preened feathers that were long gone. Numair took a
deep breath and began to shape-change. "Only when he was completely a
hawk, oversized and black, did Lindhall open a door so that he could fly into a
garden, and away.

That
night, Varice shifted the banquet to a series of broad, shallow terraces
overlooking an ornamental lake. Daine and the prince were dinner partners once
more, seated at the end of the main group.