“So that’s one great burst of magic. Do you think Jex is up to dealing with it yet? Can you ask him?”
“He can hear what we’re saying. He’ll probably tell me tonight. But last time it laid him out for weeks, though he’s a lot stronger now than he was then.”
“And if we’re on the right track that’s only going to be the beginning. There’s going to be another great burst when we find this thing, whatever it is, about as much as happened when we got Jex back, at a guess, and we went all the way down to Tarshu just to hide our doing that. There isn’t going to be anything to hide us this time. And then we’ve got to use it somehow. That’s three huge explosions of magic. Tarshu’s going to be small stuff beside it. And you’re going to have to stand it all.”
“I’ll manage. Don’t worry about me. The Watchers are going to be on to us almost at once, aren’t they? There’s no way Jex can screen all that.”
“I am worried about you. We all are. We worry about you every time we look at you. You’re skin and bone, almost, in spite of what Jex is doing to shield you, and your eyes are pits and you’re sleeping fifteen hours a day. The only good thing is that you eat like a lumberjack, but you’re still burning yourself up.”
“I’m all right. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“I know you are, and I’m happy for you. But listen. Yes, you’re right about the Watchers. Anything we do has all got to happen extremely quickly, so that we can be away and out of this universe, whatever that means, before they catch up with us. We can’t take Striclan without him finding out all about other universes and so on, and we can’t just leave him behind at Barda because then the Watchers are going to get hold of him and squeeze everything they can out of him. He’s a tough little guy, but that’s not going to do him much good. Or us.
“I like Striclan. It isn’t only for Saranja’s sake that I don’t want anything like that to happen to him. But we’re talking about you, Maja. I don’t believe that even if Jex were fully fit, he’d be up to protecting you against this sort of magical cataclysm. It may very well knock us all out. I know I was pretty shaken by Tarshu, and again by what happened at the sheep-fold, and I know what that did to you. So if we can persuade Striclan to leave us I’d like you to go with him.”
“I can’t. You won’t find the Ropemaker without me.”
“You can’t be certain of something like that.”
“Yes I can. I just know. It’s what I’m here for.”
And if you’re going to be there, so am I.
Ribek started to say something and stopped. He sighed heavily, gazing down at his hands. It was strange to see him looking so unsure of himself.
“Let’s see what the others say,” she said.
“I doubt if Benayu will even hear me asking. He’s been in a complete dream these last few days, in another universe, almost. I suppose that might even be true.”
“He’s doing a lot of stuff inside himself. Getting ready for Barda, I think. Let’s see what Saranja says about Striclan.”
What Saranja said was, “I’ve already told him he can’t come. He wants to talk to you about it.”
“After supper tonight?”
“I’ll tell him.”
What Striclan said was, “Miss Saranja tells me that I cannot come to Barda with you. I have pleaded with her before now, but she has just told me that it is also your joint decision, made independently from her, and coincides with her wishes. So I am forced to accept it. But I have a favor to ask, nevertheless.
“She has told me nothing about your reasons for going to Barda, but I have deduced that what you are proposing to do there is extremely dangerous, probably involving a direct confrontation with the authorities in Talagh, whom you call the Watchers. I am of course well aware of their power and their ruthlessness. I believe you must have some hope of success, some factor they have not taken into account, but however good a hope that is, you think it very likely that you will all perish in the attempt, and you accept the risk.
“That is your right. But I think I also have acquired some minor rights from our association. I assume that you are aware that Miss Saranja and I have become emotionally involved with each other. Since my mother died, there has hitherto been no one in my life about whom I have cared deeply. I have met and liked many people, but there has been no one, until these last few weeks, whom I have loved. If she is now to be taken from me, am I to live out the rest of my life ignorant of why this was necessary?”
What a strange man, Maja thought for the umpteenth time. Here he was, desperately in love with Saranja, worried to bits about the unseen dangers ahead of her, yet talking about it like a fussy schoolmaster teaching bored kids about something that had been over and done with years ago.
“We can’t tell you much, I’m afraid,” said Ribek. “It isn’t that we don’t trust you. We didn’t, at first, of course, but we do now. It’s just that some of what we’re trying to do means that we know stuff it’s extremely dangerous for anyone to know—dangerous in the end for everyone in the Empire, not just themselves. I’ll give you an example. We’d barely started on our journey, in fact we’d only just met Benayu, when we did something that happened to attract the Watchers’ attention. It was no use running away. They had the power to trace us wherever we went. A very dear friend of Benayu’s, a sort of middle-range magician, stayed to confront them, deliberately destroying himself in the process. He did this partly to make it seem that he alone had been responsible for the magical activity they’d noticed, so that we could escape, but partly also because he knew a lot of the stuff I was talking about, and he was determined not to let the Watchers get hold of it.
“So I think the best I can offer is that you tell us what you know or have guessed—I bet it’s a lot more than you’ve let on—and then we’ll decide what else we can tell you.”
“Very well. I have already told you that I believe you are expecting some kind of confrontation with the Watchers at Barda, but I will start at the beginning. We have been maintaining the fiction that the four of you are close kin, but for some time I have not believed this to be the case, though I detect some family likeness between Maja and Miss Saranja, and you have just now told me that you met Benayu after your journey started. There is a further anomaly about your party, in that Rocky could well be a horse from a prince’s stables, and it is unlikely that a group of your apparent social standing should possess such an animal. This leads me to suspect that he has magical qualities that have not manifested themselves in my presence.
“Ribek has some kind of minor magical affinity with water, but not much else, I believe. Miss Saranja, of course, has her ability to destroy demons, but I think that is not a direct attribute of hers, but is associated with the object she normally wears beneath her blouse. There is something mysterious about Maja but I have had no indication of what it might be. Sometimes she seems to be listening to voices no one else can hear. Once or twice I have noticed one of you glance enquiringly at her, and her reply with a slight nod or headshake. This may be connected with her lizard pendant. I suspect that there is more to that than meets the eye.
“Benayu, on the other hand, already has considerable powers, and when he is older will be a remarkable magician, even by the standards of the Empire. This raises the question of why he has not used those powers to facilitate your journey. No doubt he could have transported you all to Barda almost instantaneously. I presume he chose not to do this because magical activity at that level would have been certain to attract the attention of the authorities. But I have been wondering why, apart from the minor change in my mule, he has done nothing that I can perceive to hasten your daily progress beyond what is natural. It is true that you have made rapid marches, and yet, except for our three encounters with groups of brigands, as far as I have been able to perceive he has not exercised his powers at all.