Emperor Mage (22 page)

"One
of them is just called a key," replied Daine. Kaddar glanced at her.
"Zek's asking," she explained. To the marmoset she added, "They
open what doors and cages they're made to open. Two-make locks to keep doors
shut unless you

have
the right key. It keeps folk from stealing what's ours. It also helps us keep
prisoners."

Then a
key is magic, Zek said, gray-green eyes locked on Daines face. If I'd had keys,
I could have freed my little ones and my mate.

Next
time, I will have a key.

Daine
cuddled him, "No one's ever going to cage you again, Zek; I promise."

Kaddar
unlocked the door. Open, it led to a small, dark stairwell that wound downward.

"Lights?"
asked the girl.

"Just
snap your fingers."

She
made a face at him. "I can't snap my fingers, Your Highness."

"You
can'fi Really? But it's easy. You just—"

"I
know what you just. I've been trying to for years."

He
grinned, teeth flashing against his dark skin. "You don't know how much
better that makes me feel. You can outshoot me and talk with animals, but you
can't do this." Raising a hand, he snapped his fingers, and small
light-globes embedded in the wall flickered on.

"No
need to rub it in," grumbled Daine. "Kit, are you coming?"

The
dragon went in, but Kaddar hesitated. "Maybe Zek would rather stay with
me."

I
would, Zek told Daine, nostrils flaring as the scent of big cat rolled up the
narrow stair.

Daine
handed him to the prince. "Will I need keys down there?" she asked.

"No.
The inner doors are held with bolts. They aren't locked."

May I
see his keys? asked Zek. When Daine translated, the prince smiled and held the
ring up for the marmoset to examine.

Daine
followed Kitten down the stairs and opened the door that took them into the
lions' pit The cats were awake. Moving to look at Daine, they caught a whiff of
Kittens alien scent and snarled. "It's all right," Daine assured
them, bathing the big animals in reassurance, "She's a friend. I'd think,
downwind of those inunortals, that you'd be more open-minded,"

There
was a laugh from above. She looked up and saw Kaddar leaning on the raiL
"Is that what upset them?"

She
smiled crookedly. "You'd think they never smelled a dragon before,"
she joked, holding her hands out for the lions to smell.

Entering
their minds, she could feel they missed open ranges, even the ones who were
bred in captivity, who learned of their true, wild life from the others. That
had bothered her from the first, the sadness of their days even in confinement
as pleasant as this. She could not turn them loose. Even if she could, they
would be hunted down. Now, at least, she could do something for them. Lindhall
had given her the idea when he showed her the small worlds he'd fashioned for
his friends.

She
asked the cats' permission first; they gave it. Starting with those born wild,
she used their memories to build a waking dream. From different parts of their
minds she drew scents, images, sounds, until she felt as if she'd been
transported to a hot, distant land. She gave the dreams shape with the chill of
winter rains, air perfumed with dry grass, zebra dung, fresh blood, the grunts
and lowing of herds of fat prey. Carefully she sowed the dream in each lion,
rooting it firmly in their minds. Now, when they chose, all they had to do was
shut their eyes and remember. The dream would awaken; they would be home and
free.

With
Kitten she climbed back up the stair and went to the chimpanzee enclosure.
Kaddar moved away from her as she passed, and looked at her with awe as he
unlocked the chimps' prison. One by one, she visited all the menagerie
captives. Dream planting wasn't physically hard, but it was time-consuming.
Kitten grew bored and joined Kaddar and Zek. The prince, to his credit, never
complained about how long this took.

At last
she reached the hyena enclosure. All three inhabitants sat at the bottom of the
glasslike wall, dark eyes up and watching, rounded ears pricked forward.

"Perhaps
you should pass by these," Kaddar suggested.

She
'stared at him. "Goddess bless—why?"

"They're
not like other animals, Daine, They're cowards. If an animal fights them, they
run away. They steal kills from lions, cheetahs. They even devour their
young."

She
scratched her head. For some reason, what he said irritated her. "Steal
kills, is it? Doesn't Carthak do the same? Carthak has eaten all her
young—Siraj, Ekallatum, Amar, Apal, Zallara, Shusin—even Yamut, all the way to
the foot of the Roof of the World." He stiffened up, offended
"Forgive me for speaking so plain, but you do make them sound like this
country of yours. I'm sorry to be rude when you've been kind to me, but
animals, at least, do fwrything for a good reason—to eat. To survive."

His
smile would have gone unnoticed if she hadn't given herself cat eyes to see
into the shadows around them. It was sour, but it was a smile. "You just
reminded me that hyenas are sacred to our patron goddess. You know—the
Graveyard Hag."

"How
delightful for them" she replied, also sour. "Will you let me in
there or not?"

He
shrugged and opened the door that would admit her to the stair down. Once she
emerged into their pit, the hyenas surrounded her, sniffing eagerty.

So you
came back after all, remarked their leader, the female. I am Teeu. Meet my
boys— Aranh is the one with the nicked ear. Iry has more spots than he can use.

Daine
smiled, running her hands over powerful shoulders, exploring the muscles under
the hyenas' rough and wiry fur. "I'm honored to meet you, all of
you."

Too bad
you weren't here before, Teeu said, touching Daine's closed eyes with her cold
nose. This close, the reek of mush and dead meat made it hard for the girl to
breathe. The hungry one was here.

This
time he wasn't just hungry; he was scared.

It's
the best we ever smelled him.

"What
hungry one?" she asked, curious.

The
hungry one, said Teeu, sniffing Daine from top to toe. The one who wants to eat
the world. He hates us, but he can't stay away. And tonight he was

sooo
afraid.

"How
do you know?"

We
smell it, Iry's voice murmured. We can smell him quite well when he stands up
there.

May I?
Daine asked Teeu. The female let her into her mind, to experience the world as
they did. Kaddar was partly right when he spoke of hyena nature. Teeu had
killed her twin not long after they were born; it was hyena custom. In some
ways they thought like a wolf pack, but their noses were ten times better than
even a wolf's. They mapped their landscape with scent as a bat would map it
with sound. She breathed with Teeu, and learned. The wind brought a bouquet of
odor to the nose, one the hyena sorted through for her. She smelled Kaddar:
lavender from his clothes, his own unique personal smell, each food he'd
consumed that night. Kitten's scent was completely alien, even to one who lived
on the other side of the wall from the immortal's menagerie. Teeu savored it,
making sure it would never be forgotten, before she turned to Zek. His odor was
musky, touched with hints of the fruit he loved, and mixed with the fear he
felt as the hyenas' smell reached him.

What
about the hungrv one? she asked Teeu.

The hyena's
memory for scent was as vivid as Daine's for sights. Their "hungry
one" smelled of expensive cloth, soaps and hair oils, amber and cinnamon,
spicy food and wine. The girl was startled to recognize it, though her memory
of that particular odor was far less strong than Teeu's.

Leaving
the hyena's mind, she comforted Zek briefly. When he was calm she called up to
the prince, "Kaddar? Why is your uncle afraid of the hyenas?"

The
prince leaned over the wall to look down at her. "Who told you that?"

Daine
rested a hand on Aranh s sloping shoulder. "Ifoy did. They smell it on
him. Kaddar, I swear these creatures can smell anything"

Kaddar
fingered his eardrop. "Kitten, is there a listening spell on us?" The
dragon whistled. The sound produced flares from Kaddar's gems—nothing else.
"Thank you. Whenever you wish, you may live with me." Lowering his
voice, he told Daine, "When Uncle took the throne a prophecy was made that
hyenas would lead his doom to him. If Chiok£ hadn't reminded him that hyenas are
sacred to the Graveyard Hag, he would have killed every one in the empire.
Instead, he keeps these. We have a saying about things like that: 'buying off
the grave diggers.'" He lifted his head. "What was that?"

She
gave her ears bat shape and listened. "There are humans in the immortals'
menagerie."

"No
one can go there without my uncle's permission." Kaddar examined the keys.
"I should check."

"Can't
we leave it be?"

"No.
Do you know the magic that can be done with griffins blood or spidren wool? If
you want to wait, fine."

She
looked at her new friends. "Do you want the waking dream, the one I gave
the others?"

Teeu
yipped her amusement. We would rather have what is here, she replied. The
smells in this place are much more interesting than the ones at home.

She
left them, racing up the stairs to the main walk. Kaddar was quietly trying to
fit keys into the special menagerie s lock. When she joined him, he was
scowling.

"Splendid,"
he muttered. "The guards have a way in, at the back of the immortals'
enclosure, but I don't want to go past them, I'd hoped I'd find a normal lock,
one for the cleaning slaves, but there isn't one. This lock is magical and my
Gift won't open it. I don't know if the underground tunnels come out this far, either."

She
heard voices on the far side of the gate. "Are you sure this is
needful?"

"A
drop of saliva from a flesh-eating unicorn in a man's food will kill him after
three days of intense pain. Its undetectable as a poison unless you know
exactly what to look for."

Daine
sighed. "I suppose that means yes. Kitten? Don't melt it; just open
it."

The
dragon sniffed the keyhole. Backing up a few steps, she gave a demanding
whistle, and the gate swung open. Kaddar strode past Daine. Zek, on his shoulder,
leaped into the girl's arms, and she and Kitten followed.

EIGHT

THE BADGER RETURNS

Humans
were in the courtyard between the cages. Some were the Banjiku she'd met, as
well as other tiny black men and women who could only be their kin. The remaining
humans were slaves. They were placing offerings—fruit, flowers, incense—before
the immortals' cages. Apparently they'd heard nothing outside the gate: they
froze in shock when Kaddar reached them.

No one
spoke. At last the Stormwing queen unfurled great steel wings, the metal
flashing in the light of torches set around the courtyard. "So, girl who
slew Zhaneh Bitterclaws." Her voice was dry and stern. "Do you come
to taunt my consort and me?" The humans went to their knees, bowing to
Kaddar until their foreheads touched stone flags.

"Does
every one of you know what I look like?" Daine asked the Stormwing.

"Your
face is in our minds," was the icy reply. "It is rare that we are
bested by one so small, and unGifted." The queen turned dark eyes on the
prince. "Have you come to see what you will inherit, mortal? Do you think
to master us? You mean nothing. These others at least know they are slaves and
give me fear because they know nothing else."