“I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same myself. Ashishin can be quite persuasive. Her? Doubly so.”
Mirza let out an audible sigh, his posture relaxing. “Thank you for that. We haven’t talked about it since, and-”
Ancel held up his hand. “If not for you, I wouldn’t have met Kachien. If not for Kachien, I, no, we would be imprisoned or dead. I don’t know about you, but I’d take where we are now over those choices.”
Mirza grinned like the old Mirza, all innocence that said he was up to no good. “Speaking of Kachien, what do you plan to do about her and Irmina?”
“Nothing.” Ancel suppressed the need to think about either woman. “Kachien doesn’t care what I do one way or the other. I have a feeling she’s happy with me. Plus, she still doesn’t seem to think she belongs among us, although she’s more connected to who we really are than she ever thought. My first goal is making sure everyone is safe in Torandil, then I have a good idea of where Galiana intends to take us next.”
“Seti,” Mirza said with a shrug. “Seems the obvious place. We announced our independence from the Tribunal, and we again partnered with the Dosteri, who according to all accounts are descendants of the Erastonians. The same Erastonians your father once relied on in an attempt to stop Nerian. Anywhere in Granadia certainly isn’t safe from the Tribunal’s reach. So what better place to go than home.”
“Precisely. There’s something else too. Another reason I haven’t bothered to ask after your mother’s whereabouts.”
Mirza instantly perked up.
“I believe I know where she is. Where they are.”
“Huh? Who’s they?”
Ancel smiled. “I’ll give you a moment to think.”
Mirza paced back and forth faster than before.
“You’re making me dizzy.”
He stopped and scowled before continuing to pace.
Ancel took a seat on the edge of the bed and waited.
A moment later, Mirza faced him, incredulity written across his face. “All these Matii who the Pathfinders have been capturing for years, that’s the ‘they’ you’re referring to. At any other time it would have seemed far-fetched, but it isn’t any more unbelievable than the Pathfinders being your personal guards. It actually makes sense. To fight this war, for Seti to have a chance, Galiana and the others would need an army. You would need an army. What better than to amass people who everyone thinks are dead?”
Admiration shone in Mirza’s eyes. “The same reasons no one ventures into Seti, into the old dead capital of Benez itself, is exactly why it makes a good place to hide not only them, but to take all the refugees. All the stories of Seti being infested with creatures descended from the old wars was just to keep people out.” He shook his head. “Only the gods knows how many years they’ve been about this.”
“With an army that formidable, we might stand a chance,” Ancel said.
“We’ll need it too. The other Ostanian kingdoms won’t take our return lying down.”
“No, they won’t, which worries me. Between the Tribunal’s forces already near Seti’s borders, the Vallum of Light, the shadelings, as well as the other Ostanian kingdoms, our chances still appear a bit daunting.”
“A bit?” Mirza snorted. “Never mind. I guess you can say a bit when you’re an Eztezian and so is your teacher.”
“Think good thoughts, Mirz. We came this far, didn’t we?”
“True. It’s just that those are a lot of enemies, not counting the rumor of the Kassite’s seals breaking.”
Ancel tensed. He’d held this back from his friend for so long. “Where did you hear that?”
“When I was in the common room before coming upstairs. I needed a drink,” Mirza explained.
“Well, it’s true.”
Mirza’s brows seemed as if they would shoot off his forehead past his shock of red hair. “You’re lying.” When Ancel simply stared at him, he continued, “How, How do you know this?”
“Apparently in order to release my power, it involved shattering a ward.”
“Wait,” recognition flitted across Mirza’s features, “you don’t mean when you activated the Chainin, do you?”
“Yes.” Ancel waited for the outburst, but none came.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mirza said quietly.
“Until the Entosis, I had my doubts about what I did. Besides, what was I supposed to say?”
“Hey, Mirz, by the way, I broke one of the Kassite’s wards and soon the gods will use its weakness to bring chaos to our world.” Mirza shrugged. “Seems simple enough to me.”
Ancel grinned. “Now, even you don’t believe that. You would have thought me mad.”
“Probably. So what do you plan to do?”
Mirza was taking the revelation remarkably well, which was another reason Ancel was glad his friend had stayed. Under pressure, Mirza always seemed to be at his best.
“Nothing I can do about that for now,” Ancel said. “We’ll have enough problems once we reach Seti. Until then, I’m dealing with each situation as it arises. First, we see our people safe.”
Not a single obstacle existed that would stop him from completing his father’s wish.
Chapter 44
If Ryne’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, and he had no reason to believe they were, Halvor had grown bigger. Much bigger. Whereas before the Svenzar stood three times Ryne’s height, the size of a house, now, he was double that. Each shoulder could hold two wagons. If the smiling pits of his eyes and mouth weren’t open, he could easily have been mistaken for a part of the mountain behind him, except he lacked the sprinkling of snow and ice. Another Svenzar named Kendin accompanied Halvor. With them they had two score Sven, each one at least matching Ryne’s eight feet, they too as much earth and stone as the Red Ridge Mountains. As often happened when Svenzar were near, the air smelled of wet earth after a rainstorm.
Since his days as a mere Sven, Halvor had been more than a little testy and inquisitive. Now, as a leader, a master among his kind, he carried a dignified air, a sense of being that encompassed his surroundings.
The enormous silver sphere ahead of them was the only thing more distracting than the Svenzar. It was the awakened zyphyl. Larger than even Halvor, the featureless sphere writhed and contorted, a wriggling worm that hid the yawning expanse of the Travelshaft’s recesses. Ryne cringed at the nightmares using the creature would bring.
“Hail, Guardian Ryne Waldron.” Halvor’s eyes smiled to match his widening mouth. His voice was the same musical cadence Ryne remembered, the words more notes than speech. It tinkled like the expertly plucked strings of a master takuatin player. One could become lost in such music, steered by the Svenzar to elicit emotions and reactions.
“Hail Halvor. Why not use my true name?”
“I did. Guardian is what and who you are, not what name you choose to bestow upon yourself.”
Ryne nodded.
“I am pleased to see you are in possession of your own mind once more,” Halvor said.
“As do I.” Ryne nodded to where Galiana stood a ways back with Cantor. “She told me you are here because of me.”
“Well, yes, but for more than only you.”
“Oh?”
“The shade cannot be allowed to use the shafts.”
This, Ryne already knew. The Travelshafts offered access to the Svenzar’s city of Stone deep within the Nevermore Heights. The fount of Svenzar power. “I told her the same thing, that you’re here to protect your own interests.”
“We also wanted to see your ward to safety, or relative safety. He has to be there to finish what he has begun.” The mirth fled Halvor’s expression.
“And you doubted I will be able to see him to it?”
“No. I for one have never doubted you, nor has my father, King Kalvor, but events conspire to move quickly, fast even for you humans. Your presence is needed somewhere else, but at the same time you must fulfill your obligation to your ward.”
Ryne had a sinking suspicion that he knew exactly what Halvor meant. The Svenzar had a way of seeing things, knowing what was happening in the world that he could not account for. “Where might I be needed,” he asked anyway.