THREE DROPS OF BLOOD (8 page)

"In a way, she is. I think she would like it very much if you told her so."

"Really?" The joy that lit the child's face, her eyes wide, her mouth open in an
astonished little smile, made his heart ache.

Blessed Estall, what have we done to the child--to both our children--that it
astonishes them when people care?

"Then I don't want
imbrose,
even more. But I do have it, don't I?"

"You are part Rey'kil, so that means there is some
imbrose
in you, even if it is
so faint that it will never awaken."

"Can you take it away?"

"Do you want to be a Valor someday?" he countered.

"Like Gynefra and Flyrian and the others? Oh, yes!" She yanked on his hand for
emphasis.

"You have to have some
imbrose
to be a Valor. That's what makes a Valor
different from other soldiers or warriors. Magic. It takes magic to guard Braenlicach, you
know."

"Oh." She thought, biting her lip, her forehead wrinkled in concentration as he led her
up the winding stairs to Efrin's quarters. The king and Meghianna were likely waiting for the two
of them to come for dinner.

Mrillis thought it amusing that Megassa found it more important to come talk to him
about her problem, than to be dressed up and on time for dinner. She had been so delighted about
the plan just the day before. Efrin had thought of it without any prompting from Meghianna, and
the surprise and excitement on Megassa's face when he referred to it as 'a family dinner, just the
four of us,' had given Mrillis a sweet pain.

"Can you make it so I only have enough
imbrose
to be a Valor?" Megassa
asked, when they reached the top of the stairs.

"I will have to ask the High Scholar. I'm sure we can think of something," Mrillis said,
fighting laughter. He bowed to her, forcing his expression into a grave mask. That was enough to
satisfy the girl.

Ceera, was our Emmi ever this way? So wise and insightful and... innocent, in spite
of it all?

Mrillis followed the child as she scampered down the hall to the big double doors with
the Warhawk painted across them, that led into Efrin's quarters. He reflected that raising his
daughter hadn't been so filled with peril as Megassa and Meghianna's upbringing. That was
likely why it seemed so easy, in retrospect.

* * * *

Mrillis discussed Megassa's question with Efrin after the girls had gone to bed that
night. The Warhawk liked the idea, and Mrillis contacted High Scholar Deyral immediately,
through the Threads, to ask him of the possibility. The scholars who lived in seclusion on
Wynystrys took only four days to come up with a plan. Their response worried Mrillis.

Yes, it was possible to bind Megassa's
imbrose
so only a little was available for
her use, enough to let her qualify as a Valor. Healing talent, fire talent, and speaking through the
Threads would be plenty to satisfy the girl.

That was more talent than many Rey'kil could claim, and would give her high rank as a
Valor when her training finished. Mrillis knew it implied that she had a great deal more magic at
her disposal, deeper
imbrose.
Deyral agreed, when he suggested that.

The truth is that we have kept watch on her, every time we renew the spell to bind
her
imbrose.
It is fascinating, really. She will never be even half as powerful as
Meghianna, but that half Megassa will possess is quite a lot more than most Rey'kil have. It is
good we decided to stunt her magical inheritance now, before it began to grow, or we might
never have been able to later, when she grew conscious of it and learned to use it.

But?
Mrillis prompted, smiling into the darkness of his quarters.

We are learning more than we ever dreamed possible, watching and keeping a tight
grip on her imbrose. It is regretful that we cannot trust her to grow up to use her
imbrose
lawfully. We still don't know how much influence Endor had on Trevissa, if he
sired her, and how much of a hold his warped magic has her, even after death. It cannot be
risked.

And the next generation pays for the mistakes of the generations before.

May the Estall forgive us
, Deyral chimed in.

I know you, old friend. You're indulging in scholarly talk to distract me. What is the
verdict?

We have devised a way to bind her,
Deyral said.
To shield her from the
greater part of her magical talent. But it will require bringing her here to Wynystrys.

That can be done.
Mrillis braced, knowing there had to be more. What the High
Scholar had listed for the procedure was too easy.

With Meghianna.

Why?

After Trevissa, Meghianna is the closest by blood. We certainly can't depend on
Trevissa to cooperate, even if she was lucid enough on that particular day to understand. We will
need the aid of Meghianna's blood bond to get through the natural barriers around Megassa's
imbrose
. Just like their blood bond lets the two girls share thoughts.

I knew we would grow to regret that little discovery,
Mrillis said, and sighed
deeply. He could imagine how Nalla and the Council of the Queen's Ladies would react to the
very idea of Meghianna going to Wynystrys with her cousin/half-sister and being within twenty
leagues of Trevissa.

* * * *

Efrin only fought one aspect of the girls' trip to Wynystrys. He wanted to go with them,
to guard them. The Wynystrys Council and the Council of the Queen's Ladies refused to bend
and allow him to set foot on the island. The peril of bringing Braenlicach onto the island, where
so much magic congregated, to come near Trevissa with her unpredictable powers of prophecy,
would be tempting disaster and a reaction in the Threads. In the years since Emrillian had hidden
the Zygradon, Encindi and Valors and groups of Rey'kil enchanters had scoured the land in
search of it. They were hampered in their search by the necessity of keeping their enemies from
following them and learning the details of their search. Even though only the makers of the
Zygradon, and their descendants, could see and touch the bowl that bound all the Threads of the
World, there was no guarantee that some enemy couldn't damage it if they detected its location
first.

The leaders of the Rey'kil did not want to risk the reaction that would come when so
much magic came together in one place, the strength of Braenlicach meeting the concentrated
magic that shielded Wynystrys and bound Trevissa's
imbrose
. They feared the Zygradon
would react to that surge in magic power, in essence sending out a beacon like the light-towers
that warned ships away from the rocky coastlines. They feared such a signal would be seen by
their enemies. And put the Zygradon into the hands of those enemies.

Efrin could not accompany his daughters to Wynystrys and face Trevissa unless he left
Braenlicach behind, and after all this time, wielding the sword in battle, exercising the little
imbrose
he had to bond with the sword, the star-metal blade would not let him leave the
Warhawk's fortress without it strapped to his side.

Mrillis reflected later that he should have suspected something. The Council of the
Queen's Ladies, so very cautious about everything else that Meghianna did when she was not
safely in the Stronghold, didn't give more than a token protest to Deyral's plan. What did they
expect to see happen, when Megassa and Meghianna stepped foot on the island? Or what
bothered him more--had they planned this with the scholars of Wynystrys, even before Mrillis
passed on Megassa's request?

During the journey to Wynystrys, he found amusement and distraction in watching the
two sisters interact outside the routines and boundaries of the Warhawk's fortress. Meghianna
had never known or exhibited jealousy until her sister came into her life. Megassa chattered and
explored, urging her horse ahead to ride with Mrillis and Meghianna, other times slowing her
horse to ride with the women guards. Megassa was Captain Gynefra's pet. Meghianna, on the
other hand, rarely talked with anyone but Mrillis. The soldiers who guarded their party didn't
avoid the little girl, but neither were they comfortable with her, as they were with Megassa.
Meghianna noticed, and grew a little more withdrawn and somber with each day of their journey.
Nalla noticed and shared concerned looks with Mrillis, but she did nothing to chide the girl out
of her low spirits. Mrillis looked back on his own distant memories of raising his daughter, and
supported her decision to let Meghianna work through this as a learning experience.

Their party traveled from the valley of the fortress, to the Magra River, swollen with the
first fall rains, and took flatboats to Quenlaque on the coast. From there, they went overland,
avoiding the many jagged little bays and rocky countryside, cutting off three peninsulas until
they reached the shallow, wide inlet where the island of Wynystrys had been in Mrillis' youth.
There, they camped two days, until Gynefra's scouts caught signs of movement in the hills a
day's ride to the south. Someone had noticed their presence on the coast. Leading the enemy, or
even the dangerously curious, to Wynystrys and the secrets hidden there, would not be wise.
They broke camp and moved further south another day's journey.

"Someone is weaving Threads," Meghianna said, when they were three hours of riding
away from their previous camp. She looked back over her shoulder, as if she could see through
the trees, along the winding coastline and high bluffs to the shallow inlet.

"What are they doing?" Megassa called, urging her horse up alongside her sister. "Who's
doing it?"

"Wynystrys' warriors," Mrillis said.

"Valors?" The younger girl looked back with interest, as if she could see through the
obstacles to her vision.

He muffled a grin at just how identical they were in such a pose, with only a thin frown
line of concentration between Meghianna's eyes differentiating them.

"Only in the broadest sense," Captain Gynefra said, coming up to join them so the two
girls were framed between her and Mrillis. "They possess so much
imbrose,
matched
with their weaponry skills, they make the strongest Valors in the Warhawk's service seem like
clumsy little children, with sleight-of-hand tricks instead of true magic."

Megassa nodded, frowning, duly impressed. Meghianna nodded once, her frown
deepening, before turning around in her saddle again.

"They're weaving a basket, high up in the air," the older girl reported after a moment.
"To trap the people who were spying on us?"

"Only if those people use magic of any sort to try to follow our trail," Mrillis said,
nodding.

"People want to hurt Wynystrys, or just steal it?"

"There are as many answers to that question as there are enemies of Wynystrys and
magic, the Rey'kil, the Warhawk, and Lygroes itself." He laughed when she rolled her eyes,
mouth flattening for a moment in purely childish disgust for his rhetorical answer. It was good to
know the child's spirits had returned to normal.

Ahead of them, a shimmering haze formed in the air, framed between two saplings
trimmed in a lacy haze of crimson and gold-edged leaves. Mrillis nodded, pleased at this sign
that Wynystrys' guardians were satisfied that the travelers were safely out of reach and out of
sight of anyone who could cause the island harm. He watched Megassa more than her sister, as
their party approached the magic-laced doorway. The girl didn't react until they were only two
horse-lengths away from it. Then she frowned and rubbed her arms, looked to her left and right,
and finally saw the haze of magic in front of them. Her little mouth opened in surprise and
wonder. He saw no greed, no real interest in the working of magic. That satisfied him just as
much as this evidence that the regularly renewed spells to bind her
imbrose
did their job
well. If the Estall blessed them, by the time Megassa reached adolescence, her inborn magical
talents would be so stunted and limited, the spells would no longer be necessary. She would in
effect be crippled, but only in the sense that a chicken was crippled by its clipped wings.
Megassa would live a full life, with many opportunities to be satisfied and fulfilled, and
protected from those who would harm her or use her to harm her father, her sister, all of
Lygroes--much as chickens were protected from predators.

Mrillis decided in that moment, watching the different reactions of the sisters, that he no
longer cared for the metaphor equating Megassa with a chicken. She was no longer the child
living in hiding and anonymity far away. He had come to care for her, and it pleased him that she
wasn't afraid of him. It pleased him more to see the healing in Efrin, evidenced by the affection
he showed both his daughters. Megassa had helped to bring that about. Mrillis hoped that one
day she would be her father's support and comfort and guard, as equally as Meghianna. The
world needed all those of the Warhawk's bloodline, if it was to survive the creeping pestilence of
the Encindi presence.

"It's a tunnel," Meghianna announced, when they stopped their horses so close to the
shimmering doorway, the rippling surface of the magic haze nearly touched Mist's nose.

Mrillis was pleased to see the mare was sensitive to the presence of the magic, but it
didn't disturb her. After a few snorts and flaring of her nostrils, Mist ignored it and stood still so
Meghianna could look her fill. Mrillis turned his gaze sideways so he could see the Threads, and
was pleased to see the tendrils of
imbrose
Meghianna sent out as feelers, testing the
magic.

"A tunnel, yes. A temporary tunnel to Wynystrys," he said.

"Then we won't get on a ferry and cross the water to the island?" Megassa said. "That's
good. The horses won't get scared."