If he’s going to use this vessel, the wizard needs a pilot. This question settled, Hugh took out his pipe and began to fill it sparingly with his dwindling supply of tobacco. And now the wizard has two pilots—me and the elf. He can keep us both guessing, play us one off the other. Winner lives, loser dies. Or maybe not. Maybe he won’t trust the elf at all. Interesting. I wonder if I should tip off Bothar’el?
Lighting his pipe, Hugh gazed at the others from beneath hooded lids. Limbeck. Why Limbeck? And Haplo. Where does he fit in?
“The Geg you’ve brought, my son. You say he’s the leader of his people?”
“Well, sort of.” Bane squirmed uncomfortably. “It wasn’t my fault. I tried to get their king—they call him the head foreman—”
“High Froman.”
“—but that other man wanted this Limbeck to come and” —the boy shrugged—“he came.”
“What other man?” Sinistrad asked. “Alfred?”
“No, not Alfred,” Bane said scornfully. “The other man. The quiet one. The one with the dog.”
Sinistrad cast his mind around the bridge of the ship. He did recall seeing some other human but couldn’t bring his face to memory. Nondescript, a kind of gray blur. That must be the one from the newly discovered realm.
“Perhaps you should have cast the enchantment over him, convinced him that he wanted what you wanted. Didn’t you try?”
“Of course, father!” Bane said, his cheeks flushed with indignation.
“Then what happened?”
Bane ducked his head. “It didn’t work.”
“What? Could it be possible that Trian actually managed to disrupt the spell? Or perhaps this man has a charm—”
“No, he doesn’t have anything except a dog. I don’t like him. He came along and I didn’t want him to but I couldn’t stop him. When the enchantment went out to him, it didn’t work like it does on most people. Everyone else sort of absorbs it, like a sponge sucking up water. With him—that Haplo—it just bounced right back.”
“Impossible. He must have a hidden charm, or else it was your imagination.”
“No, it wasn’t either of those, father.”
“Bah! What do you know? You’re just a child. This Limbeck is the leader of some sort of rebellion among the people, isn’t that right?” Bane, head down, pouted, refused to answer.
Sinistrad brought the dragon to a halt. The ship was lumbering along behind, its wings brushing the edges of floebergs that could smash its hull into fragments. Twisting in the saddle, the mysteriarch caught hold of his son’s jaw with his hand and jerked the boy’s face upward. His grip was painful; Bane’s eyes filled with tears.
“You will answer promptly any question I put to you. You will do my bidding without argument or back talk. You will, at all times, treat me with respect. I do not blame you for your lack of it now. You have been around those who did nothing to command it, who were not worthy of it. But that has changed. You are with your father now. Never forget that.”
“No,” whispered Bane.
“No, what?” The grip tightened.
“No, father!” Bane gasped.
Satisfied, Sinistrad released the boy, rewarding Bane with a slight widening of the thin, bloodless lips. He turned back to face forward, ordering the dragon on.
The wizard’s fingers left white indentations on the boy’s cheek, purplish marks on his jaw. Thoughtful, Bane was silent, trying to rub away the pain with his hand. His tears had not fallen and he blinked them back from his eyes, swallowed those in his throat.
“Now, answer my question. This Limbeck is leader of a rebellion.”
“Yes, father.”
“And so he could be useful to us. At the very least, he will provide information about the machine.”
“I made drawings of the machine, father.”
“Did you?” Sinistrad glanced behind him. “Good ones? No, don’t take them out. They might blow away. I will look them over when we reach home.” Hugh puffed slowly on his pipe, feeling more relaxed. Whatever the wizard was plotting, Limbeck would provide him information and access to the Low Realm. But Haplo. Try to figure that one. Unless he just came along by accident. No. Hugh gazed at the man intently. Haplo was teasing the sleeping dog, tickling its nose with its tail. The dog sneezed, woke up, looked around irritably for the fly, and, not finding it, went back to sleep. Hugh thought back to their imprisonment on Drevlin, to the riveting shock he’d experienced seeing Haplo standing beside the grille. No, Hugh couldn’t imagine Haplo doing anything by accident. This was by design, then. But by whose?
Hugh’s gaze shifted to Alfred. The chamberlain was staring into nothing, his face the face of one who walks in a waking nightmare. What had happened to him in the Low Realm? And why was he here, other than that the kid wanted to bring along his servant? But Bane hadn’t brought Alfred, Hugh remembered. The chamberlain had tagged along of his own accord. And was still tagging.
“And what about Alfred?” Sinistrad asked. “Why did you bring him?” The mysteriarch and his son were nearing the edge of the firmament. The bergs were becoming smaller and the distances between them farther apart. Ahead of them, sparkling in the distance, shining through the ice like an emerald set amidst diamonds, was what Sinistrad said was the High Realm. In the distance, behind them, they could hear a ragged cheer lift from the elven ship.
“He found out about King Stephen’s plan to have me murdered,” Bane answered his father, “and he came along to protect me.”
“He doesn’t know more than that?”
“He knows I’m your son. He knows about the enchantment.”
“All the fools know about it. That’s what made it so effective. They were so delightfully aware of their own helplessness. But that wasn’t what I meant. Does Alfred know you manipulated your parents and that idiot Trian into thinking that they were the ones responsible for casting you out? Is that why he came?”
“No. Alfred came because he can’t help himself. He has to be with me. He’s not smart enough to do anything else.”
“It will be handy to have him with you when you return. He can verify your story.”
“Return? Return where?” Bane looked frightened. He clung to his father. “I’m going to stay with you!”
“Why don’t you rest now? We’ll be home soon and I want you to make a good impression on my friends.”
“And on mother?” Bane settled himself more comfortably in the saddle.
“Yes, of course. Now, hold your tongue. We are nearing the dome and I must communicate with those waiting to receive us.”
Bane rested his head against his father’s back. He hadn’t told quite all the truth about Alfred. There had been that strange occurrence in the forest, when the tree fell on the boy. Alfred thought I was still unconscious, but I wasn’t. I saw. Just what it was I saw, I’m not certain. Up here, I’m sure to find out. Perhaps, someday, I’ll ask father. But not now. Not until I learn what he meant about “returning.” Until then, I’ll keep Alfred all to myself. Bane nestled closer to Sinistrad.
Hugh dumped the tobacco out of his pipe and, wrapping it carefully in its cloth, placed it snugly against his breast. He’d known all along he was making a mistake coming up here. But he couldn’t help himself. The kid had ensorceled him. Hugh decided he could, therefore, quit thinking about his options. He didn’t have any.
48
Guided by the mysteriarch and the quicksilver dragon, the Carfa’shon sailed through the magical dome surrounding the High Realm. Elves, humans, and the Geg pressed their faces against the portholes, staring out at the marvelous world below them. They were dazzled by the extraordinary beauty, awestruck by the magnificence of what they saw, and each reminded himself uneasily just how powerful were the beings who created these marvels. Within seconds they had left behind a world of frozen, glittering ice and entered a sun-warmed green land with a shimmering rainbow-hued sky.