Nightlord: Orb (84 page)

“Okay, aside from that.”

“Lots of things.  As recently as last night, you brazenly—literally—walked up here along the Kingsway.  Prior to that, you have a history of religious persecution, losing your temper, being terrible with romances, having—”

“I get it, I get it,” I interjected.  “I don’t need a list.  Have you inherited the job?”

“I hope not.  It belongs to Tort. All I do is try to help.  Do you have any ideas on how to find her?”

“Yes.  But back to my line of questioning.  Tell me more about this possible boyfriend.”

“Oh, all right,” she replied, splashing me with scalding water.  “Have you met the Baron of Karvalen?”

“There’s a Baron of Karvalen?”

“Then you haven’t.  His name is Gosford.  Officially, he is Baron Gosford of the Fortress of the East, Defender of the Eastern Marches.”

“And your possibly-boyfriend?”

“Oh, no!  He’s ancient—he must be nearly fifty.  His youngest son, on the other hand, is only a bit over twenty and much more handsome.  His name is Nothar.”  She smiled, catlike.  “I like him.”

“Then I won’t kill and eat him.”

“Thanks.  I appreciate it.”

“Anything for my granddaughter.  Any particular reason you like him?”

“He’s handsome, strong, skilled with the sword and the harp, rich, rides like he was born in the saddle, and speaks three languages.”

“But he’s not a wizard?”

“Not professionally, but he started studying with a tutor about a year ago.  He arrived when his father was elevated to baron—that was almost six years ago.  It took a while before he started seriously studying.  Karvalen is still the city of wizards, much like Arondel is the city of magicians.  The pressure to learn at least the basics is tremendous.”

“How has this paragon managed to find time for romance?”

“Who do you think tutors him?” she asked, smiling impishly.

“Clever girl.  Do you really like him?  Or is there something political to it?”

“Granddad!” she exclaimed.  She splashed me with hot water again; lucky for me it was no longer boiling.  “How can you ask such a thing?”

“I’m sorry.  I apologize.  I abase myself in contrition.  I will still always wonder if Sparky is maneuvering you.  No offense meant. I question the motives and maneuverings of all the goddish things.”

“Well… all right,” she grumbled, settling down.  “I admit he’s a good candidate for my first solstice ceremony, but it doesn’t change the fact I really do like him.  And that’s all I have to say about it.”

“You haven’t had a solstice ceremony?” I asked.

“I haven’t decided on a worthy candidate.”

“Fair enough.  Just do one thing for me.”

“I’ll try to do anything for you, Grandpa.  Just ask.”

“Make sure, whoever he is, he’s a better man than me.”

Tianna looked at me with an odd expression.  I didn’t know what to make of it.

“You really know how to mark the waters, don’t you?”

“ ‘Mark the waters’?”

“Like the coastmen.  They mark the height of the waters through the year.  It has to do with fishing and crabbing and all the rest of it.”

“Okay.  What does it mean, to ‘mark the waters’?”

“It means you’re setting a difficult condition.”  She waved a hand in the air, as though churning words to find the right ones.  “You want me to find a better man than you and I’m not sure I
can
.”

“Well, of course no one’s going to stack up against the over-inflated opinion you have of your grandfather,” I agreed.  “If he still shines after being compared to
that
, he’s probably worth keeping.”  Tianna nodded and looked thoughtful.  She leaned over the edge of the divider and looked down into my portion of the bath.

“I’d say so, yes,” she mused.  I pushed her back over on her side.

“And now I’ll try to keep my mouth shut about it,” ignoring the comment.  “After all, I doubt you need your grandfather to warn him about what will happen if he breaks your heart.”

“He already knows.”

“Oh?”

Her hair caught fire for an instant and her section of the tub started to boil again.

“You’re not the only one in the family with a temper.  I think I do a better job of keeping it in check, though.”

“Ah,” I noted.  “So, your life is going well.  I’m pleased.”

“So am I.  And what about your life?  Aside from trying to find Tort and T’yl, what are you doing with it?  What are your plans?”

So I told her about Mary.  Amber already mentioned Mary to Tianna; I filled in the details.

“So if she shows up at the temple, please don’t incinerate her,” I finished.  “And that means more than simply not directing fire at her.  Her feet burn when she enters holy ground.  It means actively suppressing that.”

“I understand.  I’ll be sure to welcome her formally, and I’ll let Percel, Liet, and Beltar know. She shouldn’t have a problem with the Temple of the Grey Lady, though.  She’ll be quite comfortable around Beltar, I’m sure.  Beltar will be pleased to know you’re here, too, if he doesn’t already.”

“Percel?  Liet?  And is this Beltar the same Sir Beltar I knew?”

“Percel is the local high priest of the Lord of Justice.  Liet is the high priestess to the Grey Lady.” She paused and stared off into space for a moment.  “Hmm.  That reminds me—I have a meeting with her before the changing of the candle.”  Tianna turned her attention back to me and grinned mischievously. “Sir Beltar is your high priest of all high priests, the
deveas
of your faith.
”

I sank under the water with a bubbling groan.  A hand reached down and tugged at my hair, so I resurfaced.

“Quit being melodramatic,” Tianna advised.  “You’ve been a god for almost a century.”

“I gave it up for Lent!”

“Cry me a river of bloody tears,” she advised.  “You don’t have to show up.  Your clergy won’t even come up to you and make pests of themselves.  The Demon King didn’t like them.”

“Really?  Why not?”

“It’s an established religion with certain values, most of which he disagreed with?  That’s only my guess, you understand.  For all I know, he might have been worried about the presence of a divine being in his place of power—you might have risen up and defeated him if he ever gave you the chance.  As a priestess, I think it possible.  From his perspective, though, I think he was more likely to be afraid of being found out by them.”

“Huh.”  That made a certain sense.  I was afraid of the same thing.  “Wait, what values?”

“Mercy, kindness, courtesy, nobility,” she counted off on her fingers.  “There’s also some sort of thing about honorable conduct, or so I’ve heard.  They do keep going on about it.  You know.  Stuff like that.  The virtues of knighthood thing you kept prattling on about?  They took your blathering seriously.”

“Now you’re just teasing your old grandfather.”

“Yes.  But please don’t go disbanding them or laying down new doctrine.  They’ve had a difficult time of it while your darker nature was in control.”

“Oh?”

“He was hardly a model avatar.  They’ve had some backlash from other faiths about worshipping dark gods.  It’s why you’ll generally only find actual temples in a few places—Carrillon, Baret, Vathula, Plains-Port, Mochara, and here.  There may be others, but those I’m sure of.”

“Isn’t it a little odd for you to be advocating tolerance for another church?” I asked.  “I mean, it’s a rival organization, and Sparky isn’t big on religious freedom.”

“I spoke to Her about that.  She says you’re not so bad and I should try and get along with your priests.”

“You’re kidding!”

“She didn’t say to spread the word.  Only to get along with them.  She doesn’t agree with everything about your church, but She’s not necessarily against you, either.  It’s the idiots who worship darker powers She finds offensive.”

“
I’m
not a dark power?”

“Yes, but you’re a shadow, not a blackness.  A shadow is a place where light doesn’t shine; blackness is the opposite of light.  You require light to exist.”

“I’m going to pretend I understood that.”

“Good Grandpa.”  She leaned over and kissed my forehead.  “With age comes wisdom—a little slower for some people than others.  With that in mind, I probably should start back down.  Anything you want me to say to the inevitable questions?”

“I defer to your priestessly wisdom.  I’m not looking for trouble.”

“Someone stole Tort and maybe T’yl, and you’re not looking for trouble?” she asked, sitting up in the bath and wringing out her hair.

“Okay, I’m not looking for other trouble.”

“That’s fair.”  A wash of fire flowed over her as she stepped up out of the bath; steam rose up and out through small holes in the wall, up near the ceiling.  She dressed as she spoke.

“I’ll go out through the lower door, if that’s all right with you.  You might want to arrange a signal or something, though.  I’ll call ahead on the mirror, but I don’t think I’d like to come in and wander around, looking for you.”

“I’ll build a doorbell,” I assured her.  I climbed out and she flicked a gesture at me, drying me instantly.  I nodded my thanks and dressed.  “Anything else?”

“Come to think of it, yes.  As long as Bronze has her grey-and-black color scheme, can I borrow her?”

Teenagers.  They always want the car.

“I have no objection, as long as it’s okay with Bronze.”

“She’ll love this.”

“Will I?”

“I think so.”

“What is it?”

“A surprise.”

I grumbled, but let it go.

I showed her to the great hall so she could talk with Bronze before I got busy on a doorbell.  It’s not hard to make a magical chime, but it is difficult to make it loud enough to be heard anywhere in the palace area—it would need to be on the order of an air-raid siren.  I could make multiple sound-sources within the area, like having a doorbell chime in several different rooms, but that would take much more work.

A psychic alarm, on the other hand, need be only moderately loud; it wouldn’t have to echo down corridors and would even travel through heavy stone doors.  If I defined the area of effect as a cone with its base at the level of the courtyard…

I was sitting by the courtyard gate—rather, the head of the ramp that was the Kingsway—working on my spell.  Tianna came up, saw I was busy, kissed the top of my head, and departed.  If she’d waited two minutes, I’d have hugged her and escorted her to the downstairs door.  Ah, well.

With the upper gate finished, I put a similar spell on the lower door, down inside—the front door, not the Kingsway private entrance.  Now, if anyone crossed either threshold, I’d know it.  I put more spells in the circular chamber with the double ramps; these would not only notify me, but also tell the intruder to depart.  No doorbell, though.  If some random schmo wanted to drop by, they could take the Kingsway.  Nobody is going to take the Kingsway casually.  If they come up that way, they think it’s vital.

That covered the alarms.  Now, for a real doorbell.

Since I didn’t have a handy bell-pull, or a bell, for that matter, I closed the door to the great hall and used one finger to trace letters—with the help of the stone, itself.  What it read, roughly, was “Beyond this door, only my rules apply.  Enter uninvited and you will never leave.  Place your hand in the hole and wait for an invitation to enter.”  To one side of the door, I put a hole about the size of my fist and forearm-deep.  Ringing the doorbell should now be suitably intimidating to keep casual interruptions to a minimum.

And, with that thought, I realized I needed some more work on the circular entry room.  It’s easy to get to and from.  Maybe a few more spells?  Something to identify who entered, possibly even intimidate or deter people poking their noses in… I probably need to come up with some sort of lock.  Should I include attack spells?  Active defenses?  No, not yet.  Maybe later, though.  But the spells needed to recognize Tianna, Mary, Bronze, Firebrand, and me, in order to accept guests.  If none of us were present in the room, the spells would encourage people to leave under their own power and at high speed.

It was a good day’s work.  It felt wonderful to be doing heavy magical work again.  Spellcasting in a low-energy world isn’t satisfying, somehow.  Good practice, yes; satisfying, no.

I wonder.  If magic is a scarce resource… no, back up.  If magic is a common resource, does it encourage a sloppiness in spells?  After all, why bother finding a more efficient way to do something if the way you have works perfectly?  Would it be worthwhile to train wizards by sending them to another world, one where they can practice magic in a magic-poor environment?  Or maybe build something like a reversed Ascension Sphere—a leaky one—to create a low-magic room?  Could I put a hole in an Ascension Sphere so the gathered energy inside vented out through a pipe?

Well, crap.  All that work to develop and build complicated power jets and the simple solution might have been staring me the face the whole time.  I’m going to have to look into this.