Savage Messiah

CHAPTER XXXIX

Tristan shot Celeste a quizzical look, then walked over to Wigg. An eerie silence still commanded the room. Wigg's eye was still trained upon the lens at the top of the signature scope as though he thought that if he stared at the blood signature long enough, he might somehow change what he was seeing. Tristan placed a hand upon the First Wizard's shoulder.

"Wigg," he said quietly, "are you all right?"

Wigg looked up at the prince. It was plain to see that he was overcome.

"What's wrong?" Tristan asked.

"It's her blood signature," Wigg breathed. He looked over at Jessamay. "You knew, didn't you?" he asked. "That's why you wanted me to use the scope."

Jessamay nodded.

Sensing Jessamay's pain, Celeste walked over and put her arms around the older woman. Jessamay gave Celeste a startled look. Then she looked back at Wigg. A strange mixture of sadness and surprise had suddenly come over her face. Celeste held Jessamay closer.

"What did you see through the scope?" Celeste asked her father.

Wigg sighed. "Do you remember my telling you that blood signatures lean either to the left or to the right?" he asked. Tristan and Celeste nodded.

"If the signature leans to the right, then its owner is induced to practice the Vigors," Tristan said as if reciting a lesson. "And if it leans to the left, the Vagaries. The lean is determined at birth, and it is immutable."

Wigg nodded, then shook his head in wonder. "Jessamay's signature displays no lean whatsoever," he said.

Tristan scowled. "But you said that was impossible!"

"That's right," Wigg said. "And until this afternoon, that's what I believed. But the proof is right here, on this table."

He went to sit on the bed. As Celeste moved aside, he took one of Jessamay's hands.

"Failee did this to you, didn't she?" he asked. "It was part of her experimentation."

Using her free hand to wipe away her tears, Jessamay nodded.

"It was so horrible," she whispered. "I was the only one who survived. Even so, Failee hadn't quite finished her work."

"What do you mean?" Tristan asked.

"Failee was trying to convert her signature from right-leaning, to left," Wigg answered for Jessamay. "But you killed the First Mistress before it was done."

He shook his head. "Jessamay and the others were here the entire time we were. They were only two rooms away, and we never realized it. If only we had known…"

He looked back down at the terrified sorceress. "I'm right, aren't I?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "Failee wished to convert disciples of the Vigors to willingly serve the Vagaries by altering their blood signatures," she said.

"Had she completed her work, our world would be a far different place. During her last session with me, she bragged about how close she was."

"Who were the other subjects in the alcoves?" Celeste asked.

Wigg's mouth suddenly fell open and he covered his face with his palms. He shook his head gently.

"They were my other female officers of the Black Watch, weren't they?" he asked, his voice muffled by his hands.

Jessamay touched Wigg's face. "Yes," she answered. "She never told us what became of the male Black Watch officers she captured. Killed, presumably. We females were brought here by Succiu, when she returned from her raid on Eutracia. Failee gloated about it, telling us that she now possessed not only us, but the Paragon and the Jin'Saiou, as well. She said that nothing could stand in the way of her creating her fifth sorceress. Katherine, Jessica, Phaedra, Mallory-" Her voice broke. "Not all of us, but many. You and the other wizards no doubt thought us killed in battle. But we were here, suffering under Failee's hand. The bones of my Black Watch sisters lie in the alcoves below."

"What is the Black Watch?" Tristan asked.

Wigg rubbed his face. "The Black Watch was an elite fighting force formed during the height of the Sorceresses' War," he said. "Each officer was endowed. They were trained in the craft as best we knew how during those early days of the war-and all were devoted to the Vigors. They commanded handpicked Eutracian citizens who had volunteered for hazardous duty. Using hit-and-run tactics, the Black Watch came to be the scourge of the Coven." He paused for a moment, looking up at the prince.

"As the commander of all the forces fighting the Coven, I also oversaw the Black Watch. Jessamay was my most accomplished commander. We fought side by side many times. She saved my life twice."

He looked back down at Jessamay. "There is still something I do not understand. That was more than three hundred years ago. In between your capture and Succiu's bringing you here, where were you kept?"

A dark look came over Jessamay's face. "We were held prisoner in individual sorceress' cones, deep in the Caves of the Paragon," she answered. "For nearly three hundred years we lingered there, under Failee's charms of endurance. During the Coven's banishment, we were watched over by a mad, half-human, half-blood stalker named Ragnar."

For several long moments no one spoke. Tristan took Celeste's hand. They had both been scarred by Ragnar, but his treatment of Celeste-three hundred years of abuse and torture-was by far the worse.

Another sudden look of understanding crossed Wigg's face. Staring out at nothing, he slowly nodded his head. Then he balled his hands up into fists.

"Of course!" he whispered. "So that is how Nicholas managed it! I should have guessed sooner!"

"What?" Tristan asked.

"Nicholas' conversion of the consuls," Wigg answered. "We were never sure how he enticed them to the Vagaries. Now we know."

Tristan nodded. "Failee must have finished her research at some point, and recorded the calculations in the Scroll of the Vagaries," he mused. "But I obviously killed her before she could complete the spell upon Jessamay-or Shailiha and me, for that matter. Then the Scrolls somehow came into Nicholas' possession. He used the same calculation to convert the consuls, before he hid them in the Gates of Dawn."

"During my time with her, Failee talked about the Scrolls, and the science of Forestallments," Jessamay said. "Where are the Scrolls now?"

Tristan exchanged glances with Wigg. "The Scroll of the Vigors is safe in Eutracia," he said. "But the Scroll of the Vagaries is in the possession of…other forces. And I fear we have not heard the last of its new owner."

Jessamay took hold of Wigg's robe. Her eyes searched his face.

"I must speak to you alone," she said. "It is vital. I mean no disrespect to the Jin'Sai or to your daughter, but you must grant me this request."

Wigg smoothed her hair. He nodded.

"Very well," he said, "if it means that much to you."

Wigg looked over at Tristan and Celeste. Tristan nodded, and escorted Celeste from the room. Then Wigg turned back to his old friend.

"First I must ask you a question," he said. "I must admit that we did not come here searching for you. We came seeking someone else. Someone known as the 'Scroll Master.' Do you know anything about him?"

"I do," Jessamay said. "From what Failee said, it sounded as if he resides in Eutracia, where he guards something called the Well of Forestallments. I will gladly tell you what I know of that later. But right now you must let me speak. When I tell you, you will understand why."

"What is it?"

Jessamay looked away for a moment. When her gaze returned to him, her eyes were again full of tears.

"Your daughter is dying," she whispered.

For several long moments Wigg felt frozen in time. As his mind started to work again, he stared blankly at Jessamay. Anger boiled up within him.

Suddenly he grabbed Jessamay by the shoulders. His powerful aquamarine eyes seemed to bore right through her.

"You lie!" he shouted.

Jessamay turned her face away.

"You couldn't possibly know such a thing! You have been locked away for nearly three centuries! Celeste is fine!"

"Please, Wigg, you must listen to me!" Jessamay said quietly. "You have no idea how much it hurts me to tell you this."

Coming to his senses, Wigg let her go. "Forgive me," he said. "But I love her more than my life. What you are saying simply cannot be true." He looked longingly back at the door his daughter and the prince had just gone through.

"I know," Jessamay said. "But she is slowly dying, just the same."

"How could you possibly know this?" Wigg asked.

"When you examined my blood signature, you saw the many Forestallments there?"

Wigg nodded. "I presume Failee added them."

"That's right," Jessamay answered. "I have no idea what unrealized gifts they may one day hold," she said. "But before she died, Failee activated at least one of them."

"What is it?" he asked.

"I am able to examine a person's blood signature without first making them bleed," she said.

"But that's impossible," Wigg argued.

"No, it isn't," Jessamay answered. "At least not for me. The place in the body the blood comes nearest the surface is one's eyes. You need only look into a mirror to know that I am right. I can examine the blood signature in the veins that run through the whites of a person's eyes."

"Amazing," Wigg said. "But why would Failee want to perfect such a gift?"

"Think of the tactical advantage," Jessamay said. "By simply looking into someone's eyes, you could quickly discern whether he or she was of the Vigors or of the Vagaries. If we had had that skill during the war, Failee's spies would have been of no use to her."

Nodding, Wigg closed his eyes. "Of course," he whispered. "But what does all of this have to do with my daughter?"

"When Celeste held me, she was near enough for me to look deeply into her eyes. She is blessed with time enchantments, is she not?"

Wigg nodded. "She is nearly as old as you and me."

"Her blood signature is eroding," Jessamay said. "I believe it has had recent union with blood far stronger than hers, blood that must have been tainted by the craft. It is overcoming her signature and slowly destroying it. At least one-third of it has already vanished. The tainted blood has left minute traces of azure in its wake. And although she may not have told you, Celeste is no doubt weaker and fatigued. If you don't believe me, you need only examine her blood signature yourself to know that I am right."

She took her old ally by the hand. "In an endowed person without time enchantments, this would simply result in his or her loss of the craft," Jessamay said. "But in Celeste's case-"

"As her blood signature dies, so will her time enchantments," Wigg acknowledged. He covered his face with his hands again. "As they do, she will become dust upon the wind."

Beside himself with pain, he looked into Jessamay's eyes. "Is there any way to save her?"

Jessamay shook her head. "I do not know," she answered. "Such intricacies of the craft are beyond my knowledge. I can only tell you what I see. But it would seem that if whatever caused this could be made whole again-untainted, as it were-and united with her blood once more, there might be a chance. But your daughter's time is running short."

Wigg stood upon shaking legs. Looking out but seeing nothing, he shuffled over to the balcony doors.

He knew what had polluted his daughter's blood-and what had caused the azure glow that surrounded her after she and Tristan had made love. Somehow, Tristan's altered blood, carried into her with his seed, had been absorbed into her body. And now that tainted blood was killing her.

Wigg closed his eyes. In the end, it didn't matter whether my daughter carried Tristan's child or not, he thought.

But then he was struck by a glimmer of hope. If Tristan's blood could be restored to its original state and he again had union with Celeste, perhaps the effects might be reversed, and she could be saved.

But the secret to Tristan's blood remained as elusive as ever. Through an innocent act of love, the Jin'Sai had unknowingly begun the death of not only the love of his life, but his mentor's only child. And the First Wizard felt powerless to stop it.

As Wigg looked out over the balcony, a cool breeze caressed his face. Birds sang. My only child is dying before my eyes, he thought. Yet outside the birds are singing.

In a fit of rage, Wigg fell to his knees, raised his face to the sky, and screamed at the heavens.