Chapter 26

It was a struggle to get the new cap onto Fen. She was quite strong, well versed in martial arts and, until we found it, well warded against the use of magic on her by use of a deflection amulet, oh, and she had a tendency to bite as well.

“Wiped,” I muttered in disgust when we could finally read her.

“Yes,” Morgana replied with a slight frown. “She helped him and then got him to wipe her so, if questioned, she wouldn’t know his plan.”

“We can have a look, Mage Morgana,” Seer Alameda offered. “There may be deep traces in her subconscious.”

“Thank you, Alameda. Try to avoid damaging her though, if you please.”

“Of course, Morgana,” she replied with a slight smile.

It took nearly half an hour but finally we had it, an Earth along the straight path to the Orc cluster. It was where Clarence had built an encampment where he could study them and prepare the grounds for what he was convinced would be a triumph of ‘reason’ over the barbaric ‘gung-ho’ methodology of the Bureaus in a peace treaty that would propel him and the Amity Caucus back into their rightful place of controlling the Council ... Or rather, that was the impression that Fen had when she’d overheard him talking to Atomus during their plotting sessions.

“I can’t believe anyone could possibly be that stupid,” Róisín replied after the Seers gave us the results of their deep scan.

“You forget, he has little or no real-world experience, Róisín,” Arch replied. “He’s never ever had to deal with the messy part of human relationships or dealt with enemies who would want to kill you. He treats everything as if he were moving a chess piece around a board in that he expects certain rules to be followed. He believes talking can resolve everything and is utterly convinced everyone else thinks the same way ... except for his opponents on his own side.”

“Weird world he lives in,” Jukar added with a wry expression on her face.

“In his own mind it’s quite logical for him to be the hero,” Morgana chuckled. “And it’s not like he lacks courage or indeed the courage of his convictions. He truly believes we are provoking the Orcs into attacking us without having given them a chance to explain themselves. A chance he intends to give them.”

“Without realising that once they have him they’ll drain him dry and attack us anyway as we really are a threat to their expansion plans,” I added.

“Yes, John. That’s why we need to stop him before he learns the hard way just what a mistake it is to assume this ‘Most High’ of the Orcs is a misunderstood gentleman.”

“We have the co-ordinates, Morgana,” Alameda announced.

“Right, let’s drop Fen off at Kurukshetra and report back to Simon, Julia and Tara.”

“I will report back to Cornelius on what Clarence is up to,” Domnus added.

“Thank you, Mage Domnus.”

The three Mages listened in silence as we gave our report in a private office in the Kurukshetra prison.

“Damn the man,” Simon simply stated at the end.

“There was no sign of Clarence when my teams ported into the site of his encampment, nor any sign that he had been there recently. Nevertheless, they are scrupulously searching the area looking for any clues as to where he might have gone, hoping that it wasn’t straight to the Orcs,” Tara added. “We suspect he was aware of the possibility of a deep scan and merely alluded to his plans to Fen, knowing we would be bound to question her.”

“Atomus knew no more than you found after we deep scanned him, nor did his wives. All however believe he’ll return in triumph and overturn this ‘repressive’ Council ... despite none of them ever really having been repressed,” Julia added.

“So we may be too late?” Arch asked.

“Decoys,” Jukar murmured.

“Pardon, Jukar?” Tara asked with a frown.

“He always uses decoys. The only confirmed sighting we have is Tír na nÓg from their Seer group. After that it was all decoys, strikes me, Mages, that we should go back there and check to see if he actually left,” she replied with a formal bow and blushing at the focus of the very senior Mages that was suddenly upon her.

“From out of the mouths of babes...” Julia murmured.

“She has a tendency to cut to the quick,” I chuckled, having been on the receiving end of Jukar’s inventive mind and tongue for turning a molehill into a mountain ... verbally speaking.

“We’ll go straight there.” Morgana said. “We should have asked Verenestra to check out her recalcitrant Daoine Sidhe. This is just the sort of thing they’d love to get involved with. And they can hide things from us very well if they put their minds to it,” she added.

“Please do so, Mage Morgana,” Simon requested.

“Let’s go. You too, Jukar, you deserve to see where this leads,” Morgana ordered.

“Thank you, Mage Morgana,” a delighted Jukar replied before we flicked out to the library of remembrance in Keldravan on Tír na nÓg.

“So you suspect he never actually left?” Vǫlva Astrid, the Æsir representative to Verenestra’s Seers group, asked with a frown.

“I suspect so,” Morgana replied. “I also suspect he’s involved with what’s left of the Daoine Sidhe. He, to aggrandise himself. They, to rain destruction down on the civilised Earths as a fitting revenge for their defeat.”

“I’ll get the gestalt going over our memories as well as those of the witnesses.”

“Your Majesty.” We all gave formal bows as Verenestra ported in, along with William and several Drow who formed her bodyguard.

“Be welcome, my friends,” she greeted us. “If he’s still here, we’ll find him. We know pretty much where our ‘rebels’ are. They make few if any bones about hating what the Fae have become. Even to the point of refusing to take the Calvagh.”

“I suspect that whilst they may know, he won’t be with them,” Morgana replied with a frown. “He’ll be with a group working under your radar ... so to speak.”

“More than likely,” William sighed. “The ordinary Fae for the most part are in full support of the new outlook. Unfortunately a lot of the former Daoine Sidhe aren’t and they tend to be the ones running various parts of the realm, even if they did swear the Calvagh, though most have contact with one who didn’t.”

“How is the work with Oonagh going?” I asked.

“Artello believes he’s close to a breakthrough, but only time will tell,” William replied. “The bio-implant is still a long way off, as stopping it from disintegrating on exposure to air makes growing one tricky.”

“She’s also not terribly co-operative. But the Drow guards are incorruptible too, so nothing, as far as we know, would get through to her, if you think she knows anything,” Verenestra added.

“Are there Drow rebels?” Jukar asked.

“Oh yes, but they can’t get off Jingol ... Iceland the people of Earth know it as. Regent Taqual, has our Seers prevent any but those who swore the Calvagh from leaving.”

“Regent?” I asked.

“The Fae word doesn’t directly translate into your language. Regent is easier than ‘one empowered by the Queen and who acts in her name,’” Verenestra chuckled.

“Ah, right.”

“Ilzik, his son, is a chip off the old block, as one of your sayings goes.”

“Hell of a guy then,” I grinned.

“So, we can discount the Drow as being involved,” Morgana nodded.

“Absolutely, there will be some who wish they were ... assuming they ever found out, but, in general they are amongst the most loyal of my subjects.”

“Are there any amongst the rebels who might know?” Arch asked.

“Yes, we’ve summoned him for a private audience. Serice’s father, First Sword of the Morning Ghurran, along with his son and other daughter. It is the son I suspect; he refused to swear the Calvagh and has as a result removed himself from the line of succession to become the next First Sword of the Morning.”

“And you think Ghurran put him up to this to keep in with a rebel group?” Morgana asked.

“He’ll try to play both ends, as he did in the Mage wars. They might not know, but, they’ll for certain know someone who does. Currently the next First Sword of the Morning is Legolas, Talshish and Serice’s son, if anything happens to Ghurran and we know he’s not happy about that,” Verenestra said with a grin.

“I thought the other sister was older?” Róisín asked.

“She’s in a marriage from hell and refuses to divorce as she likes the title and rank, so it’s presumed. Plus her ... noble husband enjoys the monetary tax relief on the Ghurran lands. However ancient law states the First Sword of the Morning goes to a male.”

“Bit sexist,” I chuckled.

“Most of our laws aren’t, but this one was, No doubt there was a reason, but it’s lost to our official records. Ghurran might know, but no one else will, except possibly his son. Certainly his daughter won’t, she’s not exactly a favourite of Ghurran either,” Verenestra nodded.

“Why’s she at home then?” Jukar asked.

“Probably an old style convoluted Daoine Sidhe marriage where both partners hate each other’s guts,” William explained. “Put them in a room together and they’d try to kill each other and no amount of cajoling from Ghurran will convince her to have a child ... or see her husband. Apparently they had armed guards separating the two at the wedding, just in case one of them smuggled in a dagger,” he finished with a laugh.

“There are times I really don’t understand your people’s adherence to tradition,” I shook my head with a wry smile.

“I’m trying to shift it into respect for all, not a rigid code of following past examples, but I suspect it might have to wait for Arwen to break the cycle for good,” Verenestra sighed.

“Heh, if they think you’re being hard on them, wait till Arwen starts,” Arch laughed out loud, making us all grin at the thought.

“Yes, I’m quite looking forward to that,” William chuckled. “From a safe distance.”

“Oh yes, definitely a safe distance,” Verenestra agreed with a grin.

“There’s definitely a possibility that he’s still here your Majesty,” Astrid finally announced. “He met with several of our scribes before he stole the memory crystal, but none of them saw him port. We detected a port away from the library, but it might not have been him, we simply assumed it was when the scribes raised the alarm.”

“Wasn’t Atomus, but possibly another accomplice,” Morgana nodded.

“All we got from the cap was that Atomus got a message to impersonate Clarence and keep out of our reach for as long as possible. I don’t think Clarence expected Atomus to fall into the clutches of Dutoq though,” Arch agreed.

“Could the port just have been a written note? We know Atomus was on Falias waiting to act,” I asked.

“Possibly, yes,” Astrid nodded. “We detected the portal and a body, then the body vanished and assumptions kicked in as we detected the connection to Falias.”

“He cloaked himself probably,” Morgana said, looking thoughtful. “Were any of your potential rebels in or around the library that day, Verry?”

“No, they aren’t permitted into Keldravan without a royal permit and none were in use at the time,” she replied.

“Ghurran was in Keldravan though, paying his land taxes. The office abuts the library and there is a door...” William said, thinking out loud. “Officially he isn’t a rebel.”

“Just another question for him,” Verenestra grimaced. “Let’s go to my office, they’ll be here soon.”

Ten minutes later, Talusi, the house Skarlett herald, led Ghurran, his son and his older daughter into our presence and gave a grin at seeing us.

All gave the Fae bow of obeisance, something Verenestra was lax about, though most definitely not towards those whose loyalty was suspect. The son and daughter bowed swiftly, Ghurran insolently slowly, but just within the bounds of not quite giving offence.

“I trust all is well with you, Ghurran,” Verenestra greeted him, leaving off, as was her right, the First Sword of the Morning bit, a title going back to an honour given to his grandfather for leading a nigh on suicidal charge to unite the fractured Daoine Sidhe kingdoms under Oonagh. A title he was immensely proud of.