The Mage of Trelian (29 page)

Once the birds were finally taken care of — for good this time, they all sincerely hoped — Serek and Anders and Calen returned to Serek’s study, exhausted but too shaken up to consider sleep.

They tried every card pattern variation Serek knew, and then every one that Anders knew that Serek didn’t. Calen even tried making one up on the spot, just to see what would happen.

The readings were uniformly dark and upsetting. Combinations of images that meant death, and war, and pain, and destruction. Warnings of terrible consequences if they didn’t do something, but no clear indication of what that something might be.

And every time,
every single time,
the final card was always the spinning coin. The card that meant there were too many forces in play, too many possible outcomes for the cards to give them any reliable sense of what the future held.

“That shouldn’t be able to happen,” Anders said for perhaps the fourteenth time when the spinning coin came up again.

“Why haven’t you had any of your glimmers lately?” Calen asked him. “Can we try hitting you over the head or something?”

“No,” Anders said, shaking his head. “I’ve tried that before; it doesn’t work.”

“Well,” Serek said, sitting back in his chair, “I suppose we know everything we really need to know, anyway.”

Calen looked at him. “That Krelig is coming, and if we don’t stop him, he’s going to destroy everything and everyone that we care about?”

“And coming soon,” Anders added. “With his army of turncoat mages. But let’s hope no more zombie birds.” He turned to check on George, who was pecking away contentedly in his wire cage, still safely encased in Anders’s layers of protective spells. He might be the last bird left alive in the entire kingdom, for all they knew.

“And that we are still very outnumbered,” Serek said grimly.

“Oh,” Anders said suddenly. He pushed his chair back and lurched awkwardly to his feet.

“Anders?”

“Wait,” Anders said. “Something —” His eyes went wide and then seemed to focus on something no one else could see.

Serek and Calen sat perfectly still. They had both seen Anders experience his glimmers before, and the best thing was always to wait quietly until he was done.

“We will have something our enemy will not,” Anders said in that strange voice that always accompanied his visions. “We will have a chance to make his strength his weakness. He will have a chance to make our weakness his strength. Calen is the key.” He paused, then added, “Also, send the Princess to get the mages.”

They waited for him to say something else, but after a second he blinked and sank back into his chair.

“Well,” Serek said, “that last part was pretty straightforward. I assume you mean the mages who are still on their way from the Magistratum?”

“Yes,” Anders agreed. “Meg needs to go get them first thing tomorrow with her dragon, or they won’t make it in time.” He sighed happily. “It’s so
nice
when that happens. Just good clear instructions for what to do. I wish they could always be like that.”

“So . . . tomorrow, then?” Serek asked.

Anders sighed again, less happily this time. “Yes. I’m afraid so. Not early in the day, but . . . I’m not sure beyond that.”

“But — but what do the other parts mean?” Calen asked. “About his strength and our weakness and me being the key?”

“No idea,” Anders said. “That part wasn’t nearly as helpful. Although good to know that you’re as important as we thought! Always nice to be sure about these things.”

“Can I hit you over the head
now
?” Calen muttered, not quite under his breath. But he knew that wasn’t fair. Anders couldn’t control when the glimmers came, or what they told him.

“I suppose we should all get some sleep while we can,” Serek said, standing up. “But first I’ll go let the other mages know about tomorrow. And the king. And the commander.”

“I’ll go with you,” Anders said.

Calen headed for his bedroom, although he doubted sleep would find him anytime soon. He thought briefly about going to tell Meg about what Anders had seen, but if she was sleeping, he didn’t want to wake her, and if she wasn’t sleeping yet, he didn’t want to give her a reason to not be able to sleep at all.

Tomorrow. Part of him would be glad to get it over with, he supposed . . . but he was still terribly afraid that they weren’t ready. And while he’d known that he would be instrumental in fighting Krelig, he wished he knew what he was supposed to do. Vague prophecies were worse than no information at all, he thought.

He washed up, then blew out his candle, lay down, and stared at the ceiling in the dark. He thought about the day Krelig had come through from the world into which he’d been exiled, how he’d given Calen no choice but to abandon his friends — his family — to go with him. He thought about the lessons, and the punishments. He thought about Helena. He thought about that poor stupid bird that he’d promised all those rewards to, and all the other poor birds, and about the broken Magistratum and the war with Lourin and all the soldiers who had died so far in the fighting and Meg’s betrayed eyes as he’d left her, and all the other things that Krelig was responsible for.

Tomorrow Calen would get to pay him back. For everything. He smiled coldly in the blackness, feeling more than ready for that. He wanted his revenge. He wanted it very much. And he would get it. He was the key. He would make it happen. He would make Krelig so, so sorry.

But his smile faded as he thought again about Anders’s vision.

He just hoped he’d know what to do when the time came.

E
ARLY THE NEXT MORNING, MEG AND
Jakl reported for duty at the training grounds.

Captain Varyn immediately took her aside into one of the planning stations and had her sit down across the table from him. “The commander has a special job for you.”

That was fast.
“Yes, sir?”

“Mage Serek tells us there are mages on their way from the Magistratum. But given yesterday’s events, we are concerned that they will not make it here in time for whatever unpleasantness Mage Krelig may next be planning. We have reason to believe that he will attack us sometime today.”

“Oh,” Meg said. She’d known it would be soon, but . . . oh.

“Exactly. And since we obviously want to have all available forces assembled to meet him, we need you and Jakl to retrieve them. Unfortunately, we disassembled the large transport cart for parts, thinking we wouldn’t need it anytime soon, and the others are too small to be useful. I think you can fit more people on Jakl’s back than in the small carts, but it will probably mean several trips. And of course we still don’t know exactly where Mage Krelig is, or his army, or his creatures. They could be anywhere. You could encounter them along the way.”

“All right,” Meg said. “Where are the mages you need me to bring here?”

Captain Varyn grinned at her. She knew he liked getting right to the matter at hand. It was one of the things she most appreciated about him. He was not one for endless meetings and discussions and dithering.

She grinned right back.

He took out a map and spread it across the table. “They are somewhere along this route,” he said, pointing. “That’s all we know. Mage Serek believes that if you fly in this direction, you will find them wherever they are along the path.”

“Can you send birds to . . . ? Oh.”

Varyn nodded grimly. “Right. No birds to send. They might not be expecting you. The mages here were going to attempt to contact them in other ways, but apparently that’s a tricky business at long distances.” He shrugged as if to say,
Who can understand magic?
“But they know
of
you, of course, and when they see the dragon, they can have no doubt about who you are. I don’t think they will give you any trouble.”

“Shall I head out right now, then?”

“I believe the mages want to give you a briefing first.” He looked up and past her. “Ah, here is Apprentice Calen now.”

Meg stood up as he approached. “Here to give me my ‘briefing’?”

His mouth twisted up into a lopsided smile. “Yes, such as it is.” He nodded to Captain Varyn, who gave him a little wave to indicate that he should proceed. “There are twenty-seven mages in the group we’re sending you after. They sent word when they left, so we know they are on their way, but if they had any birds with them, we have to assume they don’t anymore. They’re still too far away to contact us directly.”

“Is — is George still okay?” she asked, suddenly remembering him.

“Who’s George?” Captain Varyn asked.

“Mage Anders’s, uh, pet bird,” Calen told him. “And yes, he’s fine. The rather extensive protection spell Anders placed on him seems to have done the trick.”

“I’m glad,” Meg said. “But I’m sorry to have interrupted. Please continue.”

“There’s not much else to tell you,” Calen said, shrugging. “When you find them, you can explain why we sent you. I don’t think they’ll argue. Well,” he added, “they might argue, but not for long. And if they argue too long, just boss them around until they fall into line.”

“This is my kind of assignment,” Meg said. She hesitated, then looked at Captain Varyn. “May I have a word with Calen alone before I go?”

“Of course.” The captain reclaimed his map and stood up. “I’ll see you off when you’re ready to leave.”

Once he’d left, Meg asked, “Why can’t they use that transportation spell? I mean, since it’s an emergency?”

He shook his head. “They can’t. They don’t know the castle or the grounds, and there’s too much danger that they might not arrive safely. And besides, Anders had a vision that said you had to get them. To be honest, we didn’t spend much time thinking of other options.”

“That makes sense,” Meg agreed. She hesitated, then said, “Calen, I just — just in case anything happens . . .”

He looked alarmed. Then determined. “Nothing’s going to happen. Jakl will protect you. And then you’ll be back before you know it.”

She glared at him. “Be quiet and listen. There’s something I want to say.” She took a breath. “I was furious with you when I realized you’d gone off to try to rescue Maurel without telling me. Gone off to do something so reckless and dangerous without even saying good-bye.”

“You’re not saying good-bye,” he said. It was almost an order.

“No. But . . . I just want you to know that I forgive you. Whatever your reasons were, I know that you thought they were good ones. For keeping secrets and . . . for leaving. With him. I was so mad at you, Calen. But I never believed you’d truly joined him. You do know that, don’t you?”

Calen was silent for a moment. Then he said, “He was going to kill you, Meg. You and Maurel and all the rest, right there, if I didn’t go with him. I didn’t have a choice.”

She’d come to think it must have been something like that. But it was still a shock to hear it.

He was looking at her beseechingly. “I couldn’t say no. Not if saying yes could save you. And there was no way to tell you. He’d — he’d stopped time, for a while. I don’t think anyone else could tell. He stopped it for just himself and me, and he told me how he was going to kill you if I dared to refuse him again.”

“You said no at first.” It wasn’t really a question. She knew that he must have.

“Of course I did!” Calen said. “But then . . . I had to say yes. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she said. She took his hands. “I’m so sorry, Calen. I’m so sorry for everything you went through.”

He shook his head. “Don’t. Don’t feel sorry for me. I — I just have to make sure it all ends up worth it in the end. All of it. We have to stop him. That’s all that matters.”

“Then let’s stop him,” she said.

He smiled at her. “Okay.”

He walked her over to where Jakl was waiting, eager to go. The dragon bent his head down so that Calen could rub the scales behind his ears.

And then Meg hugged Calen good-bye (but didn’t
say
good-bye), and saluted Captain Varyn, and climbed up on Jakl’s back, and they were off.

Meg had shared the map in her mind with Jakl while she was still sitting with the captain, so he knew exactly where they were going. She scanned the ground beneath them for any signs of Mage Krelig or his monsters, but she saw nothing.
He probably wants to give us time to wait, and worry,
she told herself.
He probably won’t come right away. He’ll want to give us most of the day to be afraid first.
It could be true, based on what little she knew about him. But Calen had also said he was crazy and unpredictable. If he was really angry, if he really wanted his revenge, maybe he wouldn’t wait. Maybe he couldn’t.

It was just about an hour before they saw the Magistratum mages in the distance. She wondered why there were only twenty-seven who had decided to leave and join Mage Serek and the others. She couldn’t imagine what the rest of them were thinking. Did they actually believe they could just sit back and not get involved? Did they still think some other solution was possible? Some compromise? With a crazy man who wanted to take over the entire world, possibly destroying half of it in the process?

She saw them start pointing up at her, saw them stop walking and start talking frantically among themselves. Gods, but mages liked to talk to one another. Well, not Serek so much, she supposed. But all the rest of them. Luckily she didn’t have to wait for them to reach some kind of consensus. She and Jakl swooped down and landed right in front of them. He sent the equivalent of dragon laughter through the link when some of the horses scattered in fear.