The Vildecaz Talents: The complete set of Vildecaz Stories including Nimuar's Loss, The Deceptive Oracle and Agnith's Promise (82 page)

“What are you doing here?”  Ninianee demanded as she put down the books she was carrying.

“I am responsible for all magic done in Vildecaz Castle, and magic coming from these quarters surely demands my attention.  No door opens in this Castle that I don’t know about it, and when it opens by magic, I’m doubly alerted,” he said smoothly.  “I’ve been expecting something like this.”

“Like what?”  Ninianee’s voice was sharp.

“The two of you interfering, the way you always do.  I was afraid it would come to this.  You’re both so . . . so determined,” said Merinex, shaking his head in feigned regret and drawing a hand-wand from the embroidered sleeve of his gaihups.  “Since the separation-spell was broken, I haven’t been able to restore it.  I wish I knew how that happened, that breaking.  It shouldn’t have.” 

“Something happened without your permission?”  Ninianee marveled, wondering now why she hadn’t recognized the seething scorn in him.  If he had shielded himself so well, she began to comprehend how greatly they had underestimated him. But if the separation-spell had failed, they might still have reason to hope.

He clicked his tongue in disgust.  “If only you’d stayed away.  But with you both back, it was only a matter of time before you decided to take matters into your own hands.  You’ve done it sooner than I anticipated, but I’ll find a way to use it to my advantage.”

“Merinex, what’s wrong with you?  What’s this about?”  Erianthee asked, feeling a growing sense of dread.

“Nothing is wrong with me,” he said, his voice much less cordial than they had ever heard it, his stance that of someone intent on domination.  All of his habitual bonhomie had faded and in its place was something dark and ruthless. There was an odor of something just starting to rot about him. “You shouldn’t have come back.  There was no reason for it.  You could have stayed away for years.  I didn’t want to have to do this, but since you force it on me  –  ”

“Do what?”  Ninianee challenged.  “Vanish us, too?  The way you did our father?”

“I didn’t vanish him, as you say,” Merinex mocked her, “I urged him to go away, to be safe.  I helped him to go.”  He paused.  “That manifestation at the end of the Shadowshow, the one you thought was Nimuar, exclaiming ‘Agnith’s Treasure’?  I conjured it, so you’d be willing to leave.  The Duz knew nothing about it.  If you remained here, it was only a matter of time before you realized what I’d done to the Duz  – you aren’t so blind that you can’t see what’s obvious,” he said, regarding Ninianee with undisguised contempt.

“Well, Yulko Bihn couldn’t have done it  – he wasn’t here often enough to do more than restrengthen his limitation of Papa.  Unless he had you do things for him.”  She could feel a cold gathering around her, and knew it came from him.  Stepping in front of Erianthee, she glared at Merinex.  “Why have you been his tool for so long?”

“His tool?”  Merniex burst out.  “His?  Yulko Bihn is my tool.  He is the one who answers to me.  I was the one who blasted the talent from your father, not he.  I was the one who kept him faltering and unfocused.  Yulko Bihn came here at my behest, not to instruct me, or to jeer at your father.  He came because I summoned him.  He had to obey me because he knew I could blast him as I blasted the Duz. He couldn’t muster up enough power to do anything more than Court tricks, whereas I  – “ He broke off.  “I could do it to the two of you, you know, make you as ineffective as your father, with your talents without controls and your memories in tatters,” he said as if he had only now thought of it. 

Chilled to the marrow of her bones, Ninianee continued to goad Merinex, for as long as he was talking, she and Erianthee had time to act.  She reached behind her and felt Erianthee brush her hand.  “What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you listening?  I could blast your talents out of you and leave you as harmless as Duz Nimuar is.  He may have escaped the Duzky, but he is still under my manipulation.  In time, you will be, too.  You being here begs for me to render you harmless.”  He patted the cover of the nearest book.  “You think you’ll find the answers in here?  It takes years to acquire such knowledge.  Your father would tell you if he were here, and could hold his thoughts together.”  Merinex laughed without a trace of mirth.

“If he’s so harmless, why did you send him away?”  Ninianee prodded.  “You must have been worried about his abilities returning.”

“I did it to get the two of you away from here.”  He sauntered down the line of bookcases, a strange dark halo around him.  “Believe it or not, I mean the two of you no harm.  But you can’t remain at Vildecaz as you are.  You must go, or you have to become less . . . talented.”  He made an abrupt gesture and five books flew off the shelves, crashing onto the floor.  “This is my Duzky now.  It’s been mine for years.  So long as Duz Nimuar was unable to maintain his position, I’ve had every chance to restore my Order, unnoticed and untrammeled.  For too long we’ve had to hide in remote places and let everyone think we had been eliminated.  But now I need to have this Castle as my own, and this Duzky as my fief.  Your father abandoned it, and it’s mine.”  He rounded on them, malevolence in every line of his demeanor, his eyes shining like live coals.  “So you see, you mustn’t be here any more.  I do wish you hadn’t come back.”

Erianthee took her parchment and stuck it in the back of Ninianee’s belt, then she palmed the vial of ympara-oil and slowly eased a little of it onto her hands, then slipped it back into her sleeve.  This was a big risk, she thought, and began the rite to summon Hyneimoj, the Ineffable in her crag-lion form, knowing this goddess would be able to use Ninianee’s talent to protect them from Merinex.  She made a sound like stifled sobs so that Merinex wouldn’t be alerted to her efforts.

“If you’re going to do something to us, you might as well get it over with,” said Ninianee. 

“There’s no reason to spoil my enjoyment,” said Merinex, preening unabashedly.  “I’ve had to conceal my accomplishments for more than two decades, letting all of you think I was nothing more than an incompetent fool, a Court fixture capable of nothing but basic tricks and the occasional protection spell.  It’s pleasant to have an opportunity to let you know how much I’ve done without any of you having the least suspicion.”

Erianthee smothered a wail that had in it the portion of the rite that would bring the goddess from the Outer World to the Great World.  The summons was working, she knew it, and the coming manifestation was like a fever in her.  She blocked out all notice of Merinex, leaving him to Ninianee’s attentions.

“You deceived us all.”  Ninianee changed her posture to more completely conceal Erianthee from Merinex’s gaze.

“You can’t shield her from what I can do.  Flesh alone cannot withstand the powers I command,”  Merinex said, sneering.  “With my Priest-brothers, we ruined the Porzalk Empire.  The conjure-storm will cost them treasure and lives for years to come, and nothing Riast can do will change it.  So you, Duzeons, will not require more than a minor effort on my part.”

“And what are you going to do?”  Ninianee asked.

“I haven’t quite decided,” said Merinex with false playfulness.  “There are so many possibilities.”

Erianthee continued her silent summons, leaning a little against Ninianee’s back as much for concealment as for her protection.

Ninianee made an impatient little snort, doing her best to conceal her growing fear while striving to distract Merinex from what Erianthee was doing. “While you’re gloating, you might as well let us get warmer.  You’re freezing the room.  If we could move toward the fire?”

He pointed at her.  “You’ll stay where you are.  I’m not letting you start anything foolish.  You can’t stop me.  I have far more talent than you could ever guess, and more power than anyone could imagine.  You have talent and a little power, and that isn’t enough to interfere with what I’m planning.”  His voice was loud and snapped with disdain.  “You have to do what I order you to do,”

“Or what?”  Ninianee asked sarcastically, hearing her sister begin hushed invocation to Agnith, the Preternatural.  “Or you’ll do something dreadful to us?  Aren’t you going to do that already?”  She raised her chin.

“How bad it is and how long it lasts I haven’t decided.  Your insolence will only prolong your misery.”  He smiled nastily.  “It’s a shame your father can’t see you now.”

“Can’t, not couldn’t?”  Ninianee asked, hoping that Nimuar wasn’t wholly beyond finding.  As Merinex shook his finger at her, she began to lean away from him.  She felt Erianthee’s hand on the small of her back.  It wouldn’t be much longer.  She found her concentration drifting, and forced herself to goad Merinex again.  “So I assume you killed Hoftstan Ruch, didn’t you?”

He studied her.  “Does that bother you?  that I, your tame Castle magician, would rend your seneschal limb from limb and leave his head in place to watch?  He was astonished and in agony before I let him die.  At least he knew who killed him.”  This time his laugh grated.  “Or are you worried I’ll do the same to you?”  He paused and shook his head.  “No, I wouldn’t do that.  Not that I have any hesitation about killing you in any way that would please me.  In this case, it wouldn’t be prudent.  There would be too many questions asked, and I’m not ready for that.”  He paced along the bookcases again.  “I’ll make you imbeciles and that will be the end of it.  Everyone will say how sad it is that you suffered your father’s fate.”

“You must be certain we’ll die, or you wouldn’t be saying all this to us.”  Ninianee felt the parchment in her belt twitch, and the first uneasy stages of Changing come over her, this time not from the full moon, but from the arrival of Hyneimoj, the Ineffable, in the form of a crag-lion, who would make use of her for the goddess’ manifestation.  Being made of more ephemeral matter than flesh, the goddess could make Ninianee much larger than she was, and empower her with all the strength of the source of mammals.  Her body shivered and her gaunel tore as she transformed into the manifestation of the goddess, and Erianthee raised her arms to draw down the strength of Agnith, the Preternatural, with all the might of her talent to manifest such forces.

Heijot Merinex held up his hand-wand and began an incantation just as the crag-lion form of Hyneimoj reached him, penetrating his magical shield, physical enough to score his face with magical claws, striking with hard purpose to incapacitate him.  With a hideous shriek, he tried to break free of the crag-lion’s spectral claws, and fell backward, the beast landing on his chest, rending his clothes and leaving deep, bloody scoring in his chest.

Erianthee continued the conjuration, fighting against the overwhelming exhaustion that was steadily increasing within her, and slowly Ninianee returned to her own shape, prone on Merinex, who was now moaning and struggling to hold onto his consciousness.  “To Hyneimoj, the Ineffable, the honor of the Duzeons of Vildecaz is dedicated in acknowledgment for what use she has made of our talents.  To Agnith, the Preternatural, the talents of the Duzeons of Vildecaz are made excellent.”  Saying this last, she snatched a shining, diamond-folded parchment from the air before she collapsed on the floor.

Loud pounding on the door accompanied by shouts and the yelping of the spell-hounds brought Ninianee back to herself.  Looking down, she saw Heimot Merinex lying beneath her, his clothes shredded, his skin still oozing blood.  She stared at her own hands and saw them encarmined, her nails ragged, and wisps of filmy hair evaporating around her.  Her clothes were disheveled and blood-stained, and her hair was in frenzied disarray.  She got clumsily to her feet, her head throbbing, her skin feeling scalded, and staggered toward Erianthee, who lay, pale and hardly breathing, against the foot of the broad trestle-table.  She reached out to pull Erianthee to her feet in order to place her in a chair, and discovered she had marked her with blood.   “Eri.  Eri.  Wake up.  Please wake up.”

There were a series of loud bludgeons on the door, and the first crack of splintering wood.   Recalled to their circumstances, Ninianee maneuvered Erianthee into a chair and went to release the door, shouting as she did, “Put down your axe!”

The sound of her voice brought renewed shouts from outside.  Ninianee waited until some of the confusion abated, then opened the lock and operated the latch, letting the door swing open.  “Be careful,” she said as she caught sight of the four men on the landing.  “Heijot Merinex is unconscious now, but once he regains his senses he’ll be very dangerous, and he’ll need more than iron bars to contain him.”

“Are you all right?”  Doms asked as he shoved past Senijer ae-Miratdien.  “You’re bloody.”  He wanted to embrace her, but hesitated, wanting to be sure she was uninjured.

“Not my blood,” she said, nodding toward the supine form of Merinex.  “It’s his.”

“What clawed him?”  Doms asked, watching Ninianee narrowly.

At almost the same instant, “What happened to him?”  Ae-Miratdien asked, trying to hold the two scent-hounds on their leash.  Foluch put his head back and bayed.

Kloveon moved ae-Miratdien aside and hurried to Erianthee, catching her up in his arms.  “Not again.  Oh, no,”

Zhanf came to stand in the doorway.  “No, she won’t languish as she did before,”  he said, rather apologetically.  “I’m sorry it had to come to this.”  It was difficult to know to whom he was speaking, for his whole posture expressed chagrin.  “It should never have been left to the Duzeons.” 

“Do you mean you could have stopped it?”  Doms demanded, looking away from Ninianee for an instant.