A moment later the warlock was back on his feet, unsteady but brushing aside the three swordsmen. “I’m fine,” he said – Hanner could just barely hear him. “I was caught by surprise, that’s all.” He looked around, and spotted Hanner and Sidor. He started stumbling slowly down the slope, moving like someone who had forgotten how to walk.
“Hai!” Vond called, his voice oddly weak. Hanner realized he must have used his magic to amplify his voice so often that he had trouble speaking loudly without it. “Hanner! Is that you?”
Hanner called back, “Yes, your Majesty!”
“Why are you still here? I told you to get everyone out of here!”
“And I told you, your Majesty, that it might take awhile! I had only just gotten everyone gathered when your hired bullies arrived.” He saw no need to mention that he had slept for several hours.
“Really? What took you so long?” Vond demanded.
“I am not sure how long it was; time may be different here. And there is much more to this place than just the village, your Majesty!”
Vond looked from side to side, as if only now noticing the truth of Hanner’s words. “Ah,” he said. Then he turned to the hirelings walking down the hill with him. “Gerath, why did you stop sending people back?”
“The magic stopped working, your Majesty,” Gerath replied. “Hanner thinks it’s because it doesn’t work at night.”
Vond blinked up at the bright midday sun. “It’s not night here,” he said.
“It never is,” Hanner called. “But it is in Ethshar, isn’t it?” He tried to think what he should do about Vond’s unexpected appearance, and obvious lack of magic. This was surely an opportunity to be seized. Vond was powerless here – magically, at least. He still commanded his soldiers, and with the latest arrivals the swordsmen probably outnumbered the remaining people of the refuge. Still, this might be the best chance they would ever have to dispose of Vond before he killed anyone else, or further disrupted the peace of the World.
But at least half the remaining handful of refugees were women, or men too old to fight, and they were scattered, completely unprepared, with no leaders or organization, and unarmed. If it came to open battle several people would be hurt, maybe killed, and Vond’s men would probably win. Immediate open resistance was not the way to go, then; instead Hanner resolved to watch how the situation developed, and see whether he could find a better resolution.
“What kind of magic is it?” Vond asked. “Why wouldn’t it work at night?”
“It’s another tapestry,” Gerath said. “It shows the attic of your house in Ethshar.”
“The attic in daylight,” Hanner added.
“Another tapestry? Oh, for…” He turned to glare at Hanner. “You might have told me that when you first told me about this place.”
“Didn’t I?” Hanner asked, feigning innocent surprise.
One of the soldiers sucked in his breath at that.
“No, you did not.”
Hanner dropped the pretense. “You didn’t ask.”
“I shouldn’t have had to!”
“Forgive me, your Majesty, but I am not one of your subjects. You stole my house and now you’re stealing the tapestries I spent my fortune on. Why would I help you any more than circumstances force me to?”
“Because you want to live, idiot!” Vond shouted, his voice still thin and weak. “Serve me faithfully and you’ll thrive under my rule, but this sort of pointless resistance could get you killed.”
Hanner did not bother to answer that; he closed his mouth firmly. He suspected that if this conversation had taken place back in Ethshar, he would have been smashed against a wall by now.
“Show me the tapestry,” Vond ordered.
A few minutes later all of them were standing in front of the tapestry, where Tesra and the refugee woman demonstrated several times that it was not working.
“You didn’t change anything in the attic?” Hanner asked.
“No,” Vond said. “It looked just like that when last I saw it.” Then he corrected himself. “Or rather, the last time I saw it by daylight. You’re right – it stopped working when dusk faded.”
“Then it should be fine once the sun rises again,” Hanner said.
“And if it isn’t?”
“Then we’re all trapped here.”
Vond looked at him thoughtfully. “You don’t seem very upset by that idea.”
Hanner turned up an empty hand. “I have been in worse places,” he said. “It’s sunny and warm here, and we have food, water, and shelter.”
“Is that all you want? Don’t you have a family in Ethshar?”
“I do,” Hanner said. “But for years they all thought I was long dead, and accepted it.”
Vond shook his head. “But they know now that you’re alive. No, I think you know another way out. You’re hoping to strand me in here, where I won’t trouble the Wizards’ Guild any further, but you have another way out.”
“No,” Hanner said. “I really don’t.”
The emperor studied Hanner’s face for a moment, then nodded. “Maybe you don’t. But you think there will be another way out eventually, don’t you?” Vond raised his sword and rested the point on Hanner’s chest. “Will it still happen if I kill you?”
The other people in the room all tensed, but none of them spoke, and no other blades were raised.
“Probably not,” Hanner said, trying to keep his voice perfectly steady. “Honestly, your Majesty, I don’t know of another way out, but I do know that there are people in Ethshar who care about me, and as you say, they know I’m alive. When they realize I’m missing, they’ll try to reach me – they’ll hire a magician, most likely a wizard or a theurgist, and they’ll find me, and arrange for a way out. Perhaps they’ll bring another tapestry here, or open a portal. Will anyone do that for you? I rather doubt it. As for these other people, the ones I brought here are here in the first place because no one cares about them, and the men you hired – does anyone know where they are, or even who hired them? Will anyone miss them?” He shook his head. “I’m the only one here who is certain to be missed, when my sisters don’t hear from me.”
Vond straightened up and lowered the sword. “Interesting logic,” he said. “And quite possibly true. Oh, I think there are people who care for me – Zallin and the others who stayed in Warlock House want me to give them back their magic, and I think I pleased Leth – but I concede they aren’t likely to hire a wizard to find me. I told Zallin where I was going, and that if he ever wanted to be a warlock again he would want to make sure I got back safely, but that doesn’t mean he’ll do anything. Even if someone did hire a wizard and the Guild allowed that wizard to try to find me, given that they don’t know my true name, perhaps they couldn’t. So you may be right.”
“Ithinia certainly wouldn’t be in any hurry to get you out of here.”
“Very true,” Vond said. “She swore not to harm me, but I don’t trust her. She may well be conjuring up some assassin this very minute, hoping to kill me in my sleep before I can hoist the palace into the sky again.”
“I doubt an assassin could find you here,” Hanner said.
“You think not?” Vond cocked his head to one side. “You might be right about that, too.” He looked over his shoulder out the open door, at the bright, steady sunlight. “This place could be useful.” He looked back at Hanner. “These tapestries – you bought them?”
Hanner nodded.
“They were made to your specifications?”
“Yes.”
“So I could buy more, couldn’t I?” He snorted, then laughed. “Buy, or steal. I could bring them all here, and be able to appear anywhere in the World just by walking into the right one.”
“Well, not anywhere,” Hanner said. “There are limitations. But I don’t see any reason you couldn’t have several here. I believe the higher ups in the Wizards’ Guild have an arrangement along those lines somewhere.”