Chapter 36

“So are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?” Corec asked Bobo the day after the battle, as the two men loaded weapons from the armory into the hand-drawn carts their attackers had used for carrying supplies.

It had been a busy morning. They’d moved their camp again at first light, farther away from the bodies, and then Razai had shown up a short time later saying she’d tracked eleven of the mercenaries east before scaring them off. Then, Boktar, Sarette, and Josip had left to accompany the wagon drivers on their trip back to Livadi, along with one of the group’s own wagons. They planned to meet up with the smaller caravan on the way. Boktar and Sarette would lead the small group to Tir Yadar while Josip and Lufton took the five original drivers, and the extra wagon, back to the village to resupply for another trip.

Bobo had regained consciousness just before noon. He’d seemed mostly recovered, so Corec had recruited him to help with the armory.

“It was wonderful!” the man replied. “For a short time, I knew exactly what to do and I wasn’t afraid to do it. I don’t remember everything—it’s starting to fade—but I think I could do it again if I had to. Some of it, anyway. Maybe.”

“But what was it? Razai thinks you’re a priest.” Corec had already used his warden senses to confirm that Bobo was indeed a mage now.

“I always told you I was a priest of the Fox.”

“You were a fake priest—” Corec stopped talking when he saw Bobo’s wide grin. “You’re just saying that to annoy me, aren’t you?”

Bobo laughed. “Of course I am. But whatever happened, it was a divine blessing. I’m certain of that, though I couldn’t tell you how I know.”

“Then one of the gods did choose you as a priest?”

“It appears so,” Bobo said. Then he chuckled. “I guess whoever it was doesn’t have very good judgement. Or maybe I was the only one available.”

“You don’t know which god it was?”

“Who can say? Treya never did find out which god chose her. I tried to get her to talk about her own experience, but she was reluctant.”

“You don’t seem surprised by any of this,” Corec said.

“Oh, I was and I am. But yesterday, there was a moment of ... I guess I’d call it clarity. For that brief bit of time, everything felt right, like the world was exactly how it was supposed to be. It hasn’t quite worn off yet. Later, I’m certain I’ll go over the battle in my mind and realize how insanely stupid I acted, but for now, I’m able to put that to the side.”

Corec nodded. “So, you can heal people, like Treya does?”

“Sadly, healing isn’t one of my blessings. I only received what I needed in that precise moment. I could fight and defend myself, and banish the priests’ spells. It’s more complicated than that, but I’ve forgotten a lot of it already. I hope I’ll remember it if I ever need it again.”

“Well, from what Boktar and Razai told me, if it wasn’t for you, they couldn’t have held the line against those priests. Those other priests. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Bobo said, giving Corec a contented smile before continuing his work of loading up the carts.

Corec returned to the job too. He had a lot of thinking to do. His warden senses could identify a mage if he concentrated, but he had another sense that he wasn’t sure how to explain—that strange sense of familiarity he’d experienced when meeting Razai, Sarette, and Leena. He suspected it had begun before that, but he hadn’t been experienced enough to distinguish it until he’d met Razai. It didn’t always happen. Some mages, like the enemy Seeker or Leena’s fellow Travelers, didn’t trigger the feeling at all.

He believed it had something to do with choosing mages for the warden binding spell, even though Yelena and Hildra hadn’t mentioned anything like it.

Now, he was experiencing the same sensation again, with Bobo.

And with Ariadne.

The next day, Corec and Ellerie headed to the palace to retrieve the armor and weapons from the room where they’d found the two spell books. They were both carrying lanterns, and Corec was holding a stack of blankets under one arm.

“How long do you think you’ll stay here in the barrens?” he asked her.

“You’re worried about another attack?”

“Yes. We got lucky this time, but the snake cult knows where to find us now. Taking away their Seeker won’t help if we stay in the same spot.”

“Boktar and Sarette will be back in five days with the small caravan. The big caravan will take ten or twelve days, I think. Nine wagons total. How much time will that give us?”

“Maybe twenty days, including what we have on hand,” Corec said. “The small caravan’s only bringing enough to stretch our supplies until the big caravan arrives, and if you’re thinking of leaving soon, we’ll need to keep those wagons here, which means we’ll have to keep feeding all those mules.” Once they set aside space for enough hay and oats to feed over sixty horses and mules, it would only leave them with, at most, three empty wagons—two of which would be needed just to transport the equipment from the armory.

“Twenty days, and it’ll take seven to return to Livadi,” Ellerie said. “Let’s wait for the big caravan to return, then head back. That should leave us an extra day or two in case there’s a problem.”

“Will that give you enough time here?”

She sighed. “I could stay for months and not discover everything there is to know. Or Ariadne might tell me more in five minutes than I could ever have hoped to learn on my own.”

Treya had passed along several revelations from her conversation with the Chosar woman. Ellerie and Bobo hadn’t seemed too shocked about Tyrsall being one of the Ancient cities, saying the idea had already been theorized by some historians, if only because of the name. They’d been more surprised about Terrillia, and about the fact that Ariadne had never seen a dwarf before.

“Has she spoken to you at all?” Corec asked.

“No. I looked for her yesterday, but she was never around.”

“I ran into her near the barracks, and then I saw her again when I escorted Marco to the northern colonnade. She’d turned on the lights on the third level. We really need to find out how she does that.”

“Did she tell anyone where she was going?”

“Not that I know of, but it’s not like we can stop her. This was her home.”

Ellerie nodded. “Hopefully she’ll come with us and answer some questions. In the meantime, ten days will give me enough time to finish mapping out the southern section. I’d like to explore the city in more depth, but I’ll just have to hope I can come back someday to continue the work.”

They’d reached the royal quarters, so Corec passed his lantern to Ellerie and summoned two mage lights, lighting up the chambers.

As they made their way to the formerly locked alcove, they passed a small oval table surrounded by ceramic shards. The table itself was empty.

“Did someone take the fox and the owl figurines?” Corec asked.

“Marco wanted them so I brought them out last night, but I convinced him to leave the two sets of big statues alone—and what’s left of the furniture. It’s not like we could have hauled that stuff anyway. He’s willing to negotiate on some of the other artwork he’s found.”

“So you told him about your plan?” Corec said, stopping near the alcove. He added another mage light, illuminating the suit of armor on its stand, and the weapons that still hung from the wall.

“I’m not sure it’s really a plan yet, but yes,” Ellerie said. “He was willing to listen.”

“Do you think Varsin and Burton will agree to it?”

“I don’t know. They’ll receive a nice profit from the expedition, but they’re already wealthy. The money may not mean that much to them, and Varsin really wants to push the Senshall name as being responsible for the discovery of the city. He won’t be able to do that if he can’t provide the location.” She hesitated before continuing. “I may have something that’ll convince him, though.”

“Oh?”

“Don’t tell Marco yet, but those spell books I found, I think they might be worth more than I thought. One of them in particular.”

“Enough to change Varsin’s mind? I didn’t realize spell books were so expensive.”

“It’s not so much the spells but the other information. Bobo thinks it gives instructions on how to create the metals the Ancients used. The Chosar, I suppose I should say.”

“The ones from their weapons and armor?”

“Maybe. The descriptions seem to match.”

“A light-weight metal that’s stronger than steel? You’re right, that’d be worth a lot.”

“Not as much as it sounds—the part we’ve translated so far seems rather complicated, and it requires a wizard—but it’s got to be worth something. It might be enough. But we want to make sure it works before we say anything about it.”

“Hildra might be able to help,” Corec suggested.

Ellerie frowned, but nodded. “If she’s a mage and a smith, I suppose she might have some ideas. We’ll have to be careful, though—the book won’t be worth anything if we give away the information for free.”

“Ahh, you’re worried that if she sees the book, she could create the metal herself?”

“Maybe. I’m still trying to figure out how we’d actually sell something like this. How much is the book worth? And is it worth more if we sell it just one time, or if we make copies?”

“Senshall buys and sells iron and copper. They have contracts with the mines and the forges.”

Ellerie appeared deep in thought. “Sell it to Senshall? Or sell our share of it, I mean? That might work. Let’s not say anything yet, though. Not until we know more.”

Corec nodded, then turned his attention back to the alcove, dropping the blankets to the floor and unrolling them. He lifted the maul from the weapon rack first. It started humming, and yellow sparks of light swirled around it.

“I think it’s lighter than before,” he said, setting it to the side. The hammer’s hum and glow faded while he took the two longswords from the rack. One of the swords was ornate, still in its metallic scabbard. The other was plain, with no scabbard, though the two metal bands ringing the blade suggested there had been one originally. Corec slid the bands off, then laid the two weapons on one of the blankets and rolled them up into a bundle.