‘And the wraiths,’ Mark added, ‘all of them, they’ll still be in Eldarn, but I’m betting they won’t be following orders any longer. I have a strong belief that Prince Malagon has a weakness, maybe something to do with Steven and his stick. All the creatures he has sent against us have a few things in common and if we deal with Prince Malagon in Meyers’ Vale, I believe it will take care of those creatures as well.’
‘Steven has already proven himself against the clouds and the almor,’ Garec added.
Gita laughed. ‘When you put it that way, I think we have the easier task taking over the Eastlands.’
‘When will the rest of the Resistance arrive?’ Gilmour asked.
‘It’s hard to say. We weren’t expecting you fellows for a while, so I would guess another Twinmoon.’ Gita looked again at the maps spread across the table. ‘I’d like to give them that long, anyway.’
‘That should give us time to get there, but we don’t know how long it’ll take to excavate the table – if we find the table.’ Garec joined Gita near the fire.
‘It will be enough time,’ Gilmour said. ‘Do you have anyone under your command who can work magic, even simple festival tricks? Anyone at all?’
Gita glanced at Brand; something passed between them.
‘I don’t know where he is,’ Brand finally said.
‘Can we get him here in the next Twinmoon?’
‘I can send a rider, but Gita, he’s a mess. He can’t-’
Gilmour interrupted. ‘He won’t need to work any spells. He’ll simply need to receive a message from me.’
‘You’ll talk to him?’ Brand asked sceptically, ‘from the Blackstones?’ Gilmour laughed, ‘No; it’ll seem like he’s been belted by an invisible fist – unless he’s very talented, he won’t know what hit him, but it will at least confirm that we’ve been successful.’
‘So we bring him here and watch him until you clobber him senseless from somewhere south of Orindale?’
‘Exactly.’
And all he has to do is…’
‘Have a thimbleful of magic in his bones and take a solid, unexpected punch to the head.’
Now Brand laughed. ‘That, I would like to see.’
‘Send the rider,’ Gita directed.
‘Very well.’
‘Who is this man?’ Gilmour asked.
‘His name is Stalwick,’ Gita said. ‘He rode with us for a time but then he…’ She searched for the right description.
He’s a blazing idiot,’ Brand finished for her. ‘But if all you need him to do is be around here until you kick his head in, he can handle that.’
‘Where is he?’
‘Capehill.’
‘Good,’ Gita clapped her hands together. ‘It’s decided then. Brand’s company will ride south with you. We’ll bring Stalwick here and continue to build up our forces. We have many friends and supporters in the Notch, and the local mining industry provides us with an excellent cover. When Stalwick collapses, I will assume that you have done whatever it is you plan to do with this table you seek and that we should begin our march to Capehill.’
‘And we’ll meet you there,’ Gilmour finished.
‘After we go to Orindale,’ Steven interjected.
‘Orindale?’
‘Hannah and Kantu,’ he reminded.
Gilmour nodded, ‘That’s right – unless, of course, they join us along the way.’
They stayed in the cottage that night. Mark woke in the pre-dawn aven and slipped out to pile logs onto the fire. He was not surprised to find Gilmour awake and pouring over Gita’s maps.
‘Looking for an overland route to the West Indies?’ Mark asked.
‘How’d you know?’ Gilmour said.
‘I’ll give you a hint. They’re islands; you need a boat.’
‘How’s your leg?’
‘Getting better.’
‘You need more querlis?’
‘No. That stuff just makes me sleep.’
‘Come and sit down.’
Mark did. ‘What are you looking for?’
‘Nothing particularly; I just don’t sleep all that often.’
‘You’d do well in corporate America.’
‘Not me,’ Gilmour said. ‘I never had a head for business.’
‘I find that hard to believe.’
‘I heard what you said before.’ The Larion sorcerer changed the subject.
‘About what?’
‘About Nerak and his minions.’
‘Oh, that.’ Mark examined a map of Estrad and southern Rona. ‘I’ve been thinking about him, and all the creatures he’s sent to find us. They all fall along the same continuum, from real to unreal, or whole to less-than-whole, so they might have common weaknesses as well.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Gilmour admitted.
‘If Nerak only creates or summons creatures that fit a certain profile, it may tell us something about his weaknesses. He has sent ravenous beasts, wild animals, half-humans and wraiths, and all of them are similar in certain respects: they hunt, use some mystical energy either to search or to exist and they all fall beneath the power of the staff. It makes me think that might be the place to look for weak spots in his armour.’
‘That’s quite an array of nasty creatures, Mark; I’m afraid I don’t understand,’ Gilmour said.
‘Why didn’t he create a plague? Why didn’t he open the earth and swallow Sandcliff Palace with us in it? Why didn’t he have the water in Orindale Harbour swell up and drown us that night? I’m betting it’s because he can’t. There are tremendously powerful things he can do, and all of Eldarn has been living in fear of him for almost a thousand Twinmoons, but let’s think about the things he can’t do.’
Gilmour nodded, beginning to understand. ‘He can’t sense the hickory staff.’
‘Nope, and he can’t open the Fold and allow his evil master to just step outside – if he could have opened the Fold without the spell table, he would have done it by now and all of us would have been obliterated, or enslaved for an eternity.’
‘But he crossed the Fold when I opened the spell book.’
‘Sure, crossed it, but he can’t open the Fold with that book. There is nothing in there to allow his master to emerge into Eldarn.’
‘Fine, I agree – but what’s the point of what Nerak might or might not be able to do with his power?’ Gilmour rolled up the map and placed it to one side.
‘We have seen real evidence of things that can be done that Nerak has not been able to do.’ Mark was speaking quickly in his excitement.
‘Such as-’
‘Such as keeping you and Kantu alive for two thousand Twinmoons, such as sending visions of things we need to understand, such as intercepting Regona and sending her through the portal to raise Eldarn’s heir in my world.’
‘Lessek?’
‘Lessek.’
‘And you truly believe you are somehow related to Regona? I know Nerak called you prince, but I don’t know how he would have known Regona at all.’
‘Doctor Tenner.’ Mark reached for a flagon of wine and uncorked it. He poured two goblets.
Gilmour stood and walked towards the fireplace. Crouching before it, he reached out to warm his hands. ‘Tenner’s letter.’
‘Or Tenner himself. Suppose Nerak took Tenner the night he burned Riverend Palace. He would have known all that Tenner knew at the time.’
‘But all Nerak would have known was that Regona went to Randel to live with Weslox.’
‘Sure, so Nerak goes to Randel – he had all the time in the world – and learns-’
‘That Regona never arrived,’ Gilmour finished.
‘Lessek took her through the far portal, or at least he showed her the way through.’
The Larion Senator rubbed his palms together. ‘She wouldn’t have been able to touch him, but he would have looked real enough.’
Mark sipped the wine. ‘It’s evidence of yet another skill Lessek perfected that Nerak did not. If the evil minion that took Nerak only inherited Nerak’s power, then it doesn’t know the extent of what’s possible; what a great sorcerer can accomplish. Eldarn has been measuring sorcery by Nerak’s benchmark for a thousand Twinmoons when you should have been measuring Nerak against Lessek, the true master.’
‘But how could Nerak have hidden his weaknesses from the evil minion? Nerak knew his own weaknesses; we all do – he wouldn’t have been able to mask them inside his own mind. What came through the Fold hit him like a rogue wave; he had no time to cry out for his own mother, let alone hide any thoughts in his head.’