If they had been on the ground floor Kolar might have tried to slip away, but they were on the fourth floor; the front door was a long way away. Kolar glanced about, wondering if there might be some other exit.
That was how he happened to be looking directly at the attic door when it opened and a girl peered timidly out. She spotted him immediately, and froze.
Kolar quickly raised his hands, fingers spread, to show he meant her no harm. He smiled at her, then threw a quick glance into the bedchamber. The warlock was getting the next man ready to touch the tapestry, and paying no attention to anything outside the room.
Kolar made his decision, and trotted quickly and quietly over to the attic door. “Hai,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Who are you?”
“Detha,” the girl said. “Detha of Newgate.”
Kolar took in her worn clothing and said, “You aren’t one of the maids, are you? What are you doing here?”
“I…I was Chairman Hanner’s guest,” Detha said. “But that soldier threw me out.”
Kolar cocked his head. “What soldier?”
“The one in charge called him Tesra. He wore the same uniform you do.”
Kolar knew who Tesra was; they had chatted a bit on the way from Shiphaven. He had been one of the first to disappear into the tapestry. “You were on the other side of that magic tapestry?”
She nodded.
“Is that where this door goes?” He tapped the wooden panel.
“Ah…sort of.” She looked up at him, then past him at the corridor. “Where am I supposed to go? No one told me.”
“No one told me, either,” Kolar admitted. “I know the warlock wanted you out of his house, though.”
Before Detha could reply, a third voice called from behind her, “Who are you talking to?”
Kolar frowned and pulled open the door, peering over the girl’s head. He saw stairs going up, and at least a dozen people standing on those stairs, looking down at him.
“More of you,” he said.
“They’re throwing all of us out,” Detha said.
“Some of us didn’t wait to be thrown,” one of the men on the stairs said. “But they didn’t say where we should go.”
This looked like an excellent opportunity to make himself useful without going through any magical portals. “Wait here,” Kolar said. “I’ll go ask.” Then he turned and trotted back across the passage and leaned into the room where the warlock and perhaps a dozen of his other mercenaries were waiting. “Your Majesty?” he said.
The warlock turned. “What is it?”
“There are people appearing. They say they were on the other side of the tapestry, and our men have been sending them back here.”
“Appearing? Appearing where? Why aren’t they appearing here?”
“They’re…well, I found them on a stairway on the other side of the hallway. I’m not sure if that’s where they’re appearing – is there a fifth floor?”
“Show me,” Vond demanded.
Kolar bowed. “Of course, your Majesty. This way.” He stepped aside to allow Vond out of the room, and when the warlock had floated out into the hallway Kolar pointed to the open attic door. Detha was standing framed in the doorway, watching apprehensively.
Vond swept across the hall and hovered over the girl, then spoke, inhumanly loud. “You are one of Hanner’s guests?”
“Yes, your Majesty,” Detha said, making an awkward attempt at a curtsey.
“You went through the wizard’s tapestry?”
Detha glanced back over her shoulder at the others. “Yes, your Majesty. We all did.”
“Why are you coming back here, instead of where the tapestry is?”
“Because…because the return magic comes out in the attic, your Majesty.”
“It does?” Vond peered past her at the unlit stairs.
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“I didn’t even know there was an attic!”
Detha had no reply for that.
“It can’t come out anywhere else?”
The girl looked confused. “No, your Majesty. Just in the attic.”
“Hanner didn’t tell me that.”
Again, Detha had nothing to say.
“Where is Hanner? Has he come back yet?”
Detha glanced back up the stairs. “He was there…”
“He was off to one side,” someone called from farther up. “He hasn’t come through yet.”
“Your Majesty?” someone else called. “Could we come down, please? It’s getting crowded here.”
“Of course! Kolar, get them out of there.” Most of the other swordsmen who had not yet touched the tapestry had followed Vond out into the corridor, and now the warlock turned to them and ordered, “Escort these people out of the building. Station yourselves with one at the top and bottom of each stair, and see that they all leave.”
Kolar stepped forward and put a hand on Detha’s shoulder, guiding her out of the attic stairwell and directing her toward the stairs down to the third floor. One of the other mercenaries, a man whose name Kolar had not caught, positioned himself at the top of those stairs, while others trotted down to take up their posts further down.
Detha was followed by a string of others, and Kolar set about making sure each of them made an orderly exit from the attic, and was headed the right direction. Vond hovered nearby, watching, as person after person emerged from the attic and crossed to the stairs going down.
As he herded an old man out of the attic, Kolar was startled by a shout. He turned.
One of the refugees had tried to duck aside, back into the room with the tapestry, and the guard at the top of the main stair had moved to head him off. The steady downward flow had been interrupted as the other exiles turned to see what was happening.
Then the man was suddenly flung across the hall, slamming into the opposite wall.
“You will not go back there!” Vond roared, his voice magically amplified. “You will leave this house now!”
Shaken, the man got to his feet, gave Vond a single terrified glance, then stumbled down the stairs. The instant his head disappeared around the corner of the landing, the rest of the procession began moving again, and in a matter of seconds it was as if the incident had never occurred. It was about that point that Kolar noticed the daylight was fading. Vond had apparently noticed, as well; he waved a hand, and the lamps on the walls all blazed to life.
After several more minutes and several dozen people there was a break in the steady stream descending the attic stairs, and as Kolar leaned through the door to see whether more were coming, Vond asked, “How many is that?”
“I don’t know, your Majesty,” Kolar said. “I wasn’t counting.”
“I didn’t see Hanner.”
“I wouldn’t know, your Majesty. I’ve never met him.”
Vond frowned. He glided through the door and up the stairs, glowing gently.
Kolar made no attempt to follow his employer, but instead waited at his post by the attic door. A moment later Vond called down, “There’s nothing up here.”
Kolar could not think of a useful reply, so he did not respond.
“There’s no portal that I can see,” Vond continued. “I don’t feel any magic at all. It’s just an empty attic.”
Kolar waited, and a few seconds later the warlock swooped back down the stairs and out into the corridor. “Do you think they could be appearing somewhere else now?” he asked.
Kolar turned up an empty hand. “I couldn’t say, your Majesty. I don’t know anything about magic.”
Vond frowned. “I don’t sense anyone new.”
“Maybe that’s all of them, then.”
Vond shook his head. “I didn’t see Hanner, and even if that’s all the trespassers, what about Gerath and the others? Why haven’t they come back?”