Wilderweird and Spiritwhisper took the wooden discs I’d crudely carved and set to work creating amulets for those of our guests who needed them – including the First Lady of Mund and her similarly shocked-looking fellows. We were all sitting in a circle between a number of huge, monolithic reeds, a spot that would be located somewhere in southern Hightown on Materium side. Whether they were avoiding us or the diviners were choosing our path with greater care than I understood, we hadn’t spotted a single fey entity bigger than a house-cat, and nothing even half as aggressive in nature. Everything around us was time-frozen in any case.
Now as we hunkered down in the dirt I had Avaelar, Zab and Zel gathered around me and Em. On the other side from the enchanters, the three politicians were looking distinctly uncomfortable without their nice chairs, but they’d been shamed into lowering themselves to the ground by virtue of the fact everyone else had been happy enough to get their clothes dirty; perhaps they’d merely been waiting for servants to miraculously appear from the supernatural surroundings, someone to help lower them to their backsides. Other than with the surprisingly-light Wenlyworth, whom I was surprised to find hadn’t dropped dead from sheer excitement at the proceedings of this extremely drawn-out afternoon, no one was going to act like their butler. Haid and Sentelemeth had adopted very refined, almost apologetic expressions as they hastily joined Wenlyworth on their noble asses.
You’d think folk who’d just had to let a lowborn sorcerer cut into their pristine, overfed flesh would have a bit more sense of priorities, but there we had it. Fortunately Sunspring had been able to do something to everyone, allowing the seal I cut into them to last longer – particularly needed in the case of the paper-skinned Lord Wenlyworth, in whose case it was a fine balance to cut deep enough for the wound to bleed without then causing him to bleed out.
Timesnatcher himself was now standing in the centre of us, slowly rotating on the spot while Tanra went prowling around the outside, keeping pace with his pirouetting – apparently this performance aided them in keeping us under their chronomantic effect. Something something increased present moments, something something minimised event-succession… I’d tuned out halfway through their explanation, focussing instead on the blade in my hand, the shapes I was slicing into the wood.
(We’d chopped up a couple of Killstop’s wooden stakes, with Zel reticent to provide reassurances about how ethereal materials would react to ensorcellment – though that perhaps had more to do with her discomfort at this exposure to powerful diviners than any certainty or lack thereof on her part. She definitely wasn’t being herself – the dainty little faerie queen was nestled in my lap, as though she wanted to hide. This whole thing had been her idea in the first place, essentially!)
We sat there in our circle, and discussed the situation. The wide-eyed politicians stared at us, looking back forth between the champions as we traded our assessments, our suggestions. Thankfully they didn’t interject too often with their pat, out-of-touch wisdoms.
“She doesn’t think of us as actual assets,” Killstop said as she paced about us. “We’re less than tools, to her. Until this happened, or until very recently, she didn’t even see us as people. Something’s changed in her, something I can’t see or do anything about. Timesnatcher?”
“Agreed,” he replied from the centre. “But I don’t think anything quite like this has happened before.”
“I don’t think this change happened due to us. I think…” It sounded like Tanra was biting her lip behind the mask, then she continued: “I think we were able to escape because she changed. Do you follow me? She’s not wholly committed, or she’s lost her way – something like that.”
“You can see all this?” Stormsword sounded sceptical.
“You’re right – no, I can’t, I’m filling in the gaps… but I don’t think I’m wrong.”
“She’s right,” Timesnatcher said, exhaustion in his voice and his stoop as he rotated on the spot.
Em looked across at me and I offered a slight shrug. Timesnatcher was thinking of the fact he slept with Lovebright, I was certain. I wasn’t going to just blurt it out like that right now, though.
“She sees us as pawns,” he went on, lifting his head again, “and although she’s never had cause to use us for anything so overt, today she’s going to marshal her forces. Pawns against pawns. She’s thinking like a human.”
Sunspring coughed loudly.
Timesnatcher gave a contrite chuckle. “What I mean is that our abilities are too diverse for her to deal with it as an enchanter, even if she’s the most powerful enchanter we’ve ever seen. She must’ve taken years… I’ll bet she found a way to draw on the Ceryad before she ever showed a face here, you know.”
“So she isn’t following instructions from her diviners?” I asked.
Timesnatcher looked at Killstop –
“It’s highly improbable.” The seeress had a dismissive tone to her voice. “She took Bookwyrm and Bladesedge as cover for Dreamlaughter; that’s why she was so vehement Dream had nothing to do with Nighteye – she’s confused about that herself, or she was, at the time, at least. And Dream herself, she’s someone else entirely -”
“But why then haven’t you been able to see what she wants?” I pressed. “And why in Twelve Hells was she trying to get me and Lady Sentelemeth to have a fight? Just so it’d look more credible I’d killed her?” I looked at the frightened, beautiful politician, this figurehead of power reduced to a shrinking mess. “My apologies, by the way… m’lady… If I’m being honest with myself, with you – I don’t think Lovebright even had me say a single thing I wasn’t feeling, on some level – but I swear, I never would’ve said what I said, how I said it…”
“I too,” frog-man Haid offered out of nowhere. “I too said what I thought, without that barrier of discernment, good judgement…” His eyes stared into the dirt between his knees, unseeing, stupid hat flopping to the side.
“It bespeaks a certain temperament, to admit that,” Lady Sentelemeth said to me, her voice surprisingly level, then turned her head to Gathel Haid. “And even to follow another in such example. My thanks, gentlemen, for your candour.”
A long shot from admitting any influence yourself, though, eh? I couldn’t help but think sneeringly.
“We shall need such cool heads, if there is indeed a dragon in Mund,” old Lord Wenlyworth mused. “I don’t suppose – there’d be another drop of that fortified wine ab-”
“Icaron!” Sentelemeth snapped. “No more wine required, thank you, Feychilde.”
“I think, in answer to your questions, Feychilde,” Timesnatcher said, “she wants to use you in a certain way I may have foreseen and about which I cannot talk – so – don’t – ask.”
I shook my head. “Not good enough, T-Man. Not good enough by half. You’ve tried this on me before. ‘I can’t tell you why, but call Neverwish out!’ And then within five minutes I’ve got Star hating… Oh Yune… Neverwish…”
He nodded. “Neverwish. And… Rosedawn. There have probably been others, too…”
His voice dropped away.
“She’s been doing this for years?” Sunspring asked, a twang of pain his usually-jovial voice.
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Killstop was nodding too as she went around the circle in front of me. Timesnatcher said nothing; just wheeled away in silence.
I drew a deep breath. “But that’s beside the point, Timesnatcher. You’re the leader. That doesn’t mean I have to follow blindly. You wouldn’t tell us about Killstop coming to Zadhal –“
“Because I did not know for sure!” he retorted. “I was… guessing…”
“You risked all our lives in the name of speculation!”
It seemed I was letting it all out now. I noticed that Zel in my lap and Em by my side were both looking at my face in concern.
“The very first time we met, you fed me a bunch of nonsense I still can’t make sense of – it’s like, you can’t help yourself –“
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Killstop said, the boredom, resignation back in her voice. “Why don’t you let the experts do their thing? We don’t tell you what to summon – we trust you.”
“When you didn’t bring the liches out, when you dealt with them yourself, I trusted you,” Timesnatcher reminded me.
Killstop went on: “Trust us. Telling people their future in exacting detail is usually a guaranteed catastrophe, especially when they’re – archmages. Especially when their future is tangled with the futures of other arch-diviners.”
I caught a hiccup there. She was going to say something else instead of ‘archmages’.
What would it take, for an arch-diviner of her calibre to slip up like that? There had to be a million different things she could’ve said, and so many of them led to problematic futures that she couldn’t decide which until she’d already hesitated?
Or was it just that making me think about this was her intention all along? That the future in which she slipped up was the best one for her, encouraging her to do so deliberately?
And how did I know that Timesnatcher hadn’t told me to bring the liches out purely so that I’d see him in a different light when he ignored my refusal? What if he knew I wouldn’t have been bringing them out in any case? How would I have even achieved it, realistically?
I loosed a brief growl of irritation and bowed my head, indicating that I was giving up my interruption.
Diviners and enchanters…
“The answer to your other question,” Timesnatcher said, “is that she is clearly operating under a prophecy we haven’t seen. I think… I think I have the answer to it now. I think it is the twins.”
“Illodin’s tears,” I breathed. “She wouldn’t go after them, would she?”
Jaid and Jaroan’s faces swam before my suddenly tear-filled eyes; I sprang to my feet, sending Zel fluttering – Lovebright knew my sister was a bit of a fan of hers, I’d told her –
“I don’t mean those twins, Feychilde,” he said softly. “I mean Saffys and Tarrance. There was… there is… a destiny looming over them.”
“But my tw-“
“There are almost two million people she could go after!” he spoke over me. “If she has taken an interest in any of… our loved ones, we shall each have to bear that burden until we can know more. I can’t foresee any specific dangers.”
“They’ve not been harmed, Feychilde,” Zel said in a quiet voice, from where she now sat on Em’s knee. “I know it.”
“Our families,” Spirit muttered. “If she’s gone after our families, I’m gonna rip her droppin’ mind out, I swear.”
“Erm – do you think she knows I’m – that I’ve joined you?” Wilderweird asked in a small voice.
“We can’t know anything for certain.” Killstop actually stopped pacing around us for a moment and looked at Timesnatcher – something seemed to pass between them and then she continued on her way. “We have to get to the Ceryad. She knows this, or at least suspects it will be our goal. We can’t forget she’s got diviners she’ll use – ones we can’t see, not easily –”
“Excuse me – are you chaps talking about the Ceryad-tree?” Lady Sentelemeth asked in an overly-polite voice. “The heirloom of the Five Founders – the First Wonder of Mund?”
“I think… I think we’ve said… too much,” Timesnatcher replied thickly.
“But it has been lost for centuries!” the Lady went on, undeterred. “To think, that she should have discovered the whereabouts of such an ancient artifact, or that you… it –“
“Are you okay, Timesnatcher?” Killstop asked.
Then all of a sudden, in a chilling echo of his earlier outburst when it’d been me on the receiving end, Timesnatcher broke off his measured rotation – he brought his arm up, pointing over Spirit’s head, and mumbled: “There!”
This time he didn’t lunge forward, blade extended – this time he wasn’t under a murderer’s influence, and his potential target almost certainly was…
Nevertheless, there was a tiny seam in the air, already closing before I became fully-aware of its existence.
A miniscule hole, big enough only for an eye to peer at us –
But it couldn’t close, could it? It would be anchored there by the chronomantic effect –
It closed.
“Valorin!” Killstop said in a clear tone of challenge, a dagger appearing in each of her hands – not the kitchen knife. “And a few of his friends.”
“They have their own time-bubble?” Sunspring growled.
“How do they know where we are?” Lady Sentelemeth asked.
No one seemed to want to answer either question. Time for talk was over.
I unfolded my pre-prepared shield, its stars spinning in place before they were even fully formed, and quickly spread my full complement throughout the area. Avaelar unfurled his hidden wings, taking up a crouched combat posture, while Zab hid behind him.
At the same time, electricity came down through the tower-like reeds, congealing in Stormsword’s hands and in her eyes; here in this place and time in the otherworld, the lightning was pinkish in hue, almost like a little blood was mixed in with the radiance. It arced across her knuckles and between her fingertips.
Sunspring bellowed, generating a tremendous noise that belied the gnome-shape’s size; even as he roared he changed, and it was no feline or canine snarl – it was a deep, loud, primate rumble. Within a heartbeat he’d become something akin to one of the gorillas they sometimes displayed at Firenight Square, only twenty feet tall and with fur a subtle shade of dark green.
The gorilla-gnome reared up to his full height and stepped in front of our arch-enchanters, who were in turn drawing their own ensorcelled weapons, hunkering down beside Lady Sentelemeth, Lord Wenlyworth and Lord Haid. Spirit had one of Killstop’s in his hand, dripping blue stuff from the tip that evaporated the instant it broke contact with the metal.
I moved my hand to create a second shield about the politicians and their protectors, flicking my gaze back to Timesnatcher, expecting his booming voice to command us, spur us on into action.
But when I looked at the arch-diviner I noticed for the first time – his pallor beneath the mask, the trembling that was arresting the fluidity of his motions.
Something was horribly wrong with him.
“Lovebright?” I whispered to myself.
“It’s the spell!” Killstop cried. “Our spell! He’s going under!” She abandoned her post and sped to his side, put her hands on him, lowered him to the ground.
He seemed to be only vaguely aware of his surroundings; he appeared to be staring at his outstretched hand, and still he didn’t speak.
“Can we do anything?” Stormsword asked quickly, more pink light cascading down to join the glowing mass gathered around her hands.
“No, no…” Tanra sounded panicked, and she waved off Sunspring who came stomping over, still a twenty-foot green gorilla. “This isn’t physical – this is his power – damn it, Timesnatcher! Timesnatcher, can you hear me in there?”
She was practically yelling into the side of his head, and he wasn’t reacting one iota.
I filled my lungs before shouting over her: “Sunspring, watch the other side too – they don’t have to come through the same place twice!”
“I’m aware of that, young man!”
I was still keeping my eyes on the two arch-diviners, and I put another separate shield over Timesnatcher. “I’ve got shields over the whole place. Killstop – Killstop, listen to me!” When I bellowed she raised her face. “You’re going to have to get all their amulets bef-”
“It’s already too late!” she cried right back at me.
As the control slipped and their time-instant caught up to ours, they came through three gateways just beyond my farthest shield, spreading out in a semi-circle around us, and I saw that Killstop had been wrong.
It wasn’t Valorin and a few of Lovebright’s kidnapped champions.
Or rather, wasn’t just them.
The arch-magister was there, leading the group in the middle, his shields raised – but Netherhame and Shallowlie accompanied him, along with over a dozen others.
Some people I knew. A few I’d fought alongside.
“Elkostor,” Stormsword murmured.
I recognised the magister-wizard from Zadhal.
“Spirit, link us already!” I hissed, then, louder: “Do not do this thing! We are not your enemies!”
“Listen – to – him!” the twenty-foot druid commanded in a terrible voice. “Fangmoon, listen!”
But the druidess didn’t respond, and the ice elemental next to her shrugged his shoulders.
“This is going to be fun,” Winterprince grated, ignoring Sunspring, extending his titanic ice-blades from his fists and pointing one of them right at my face.
“This is not goin’ to be fun,” Spirit thought.
“See, fate beckons,” Starsight declared in a clear, solemn voice, his robe and already-drawn spellbound blades gleaming. “Already Timesnatcher has fallen. Lay down your arms, and we shall treat fairly with you.”
“Maybe we should l-listen to them…” Wilderweird stammered aloud.
“Run!” Killstop said, blurring to her feet –
“No,” I spoke grimly into their minds. I’d seen the results of flight, seen the way we’d be isolated, cut down alone. There were diviners with them – Killstop wasn’t seeing clearly.
“No.” I repeated, more confidently. “This time, we fight.”