When Dragons Rage

18

Isaura arrived at the Conservatory and made her way to the Grand Thaumatorium as bidden—less because she wanted to be there than because she felt it her duty to attend. Her mother, again away fighting for the life of her nation, had impressed upon her the necessity for Isaura to act in her stead. Neskartu, the headmaster of the Conservatory and the most magickally adept of the sullanciri, had sent a message saying he required her help with a project. Because his summons had indicated she should join him in the Thaumatorium, she assumed it would be another display of magick for his students, and she did enjoy teaching them.

She found herself surprised, then, when she reached the chamber deep in the school’s heart. She entered through the tall archway at the head of a long, steep stairway that led down onto the arena floor. Stone terraces set with long wooden tables and chairs provided both seating and work spaces for students, but the room’s key feature was the round dais upon which great magicks were wrought for the edification of the audience. Most students looked forward to the time when they would be called upon to perform there, because success could result in their being sent forth to serve the empress in the war.

But this time, no eager faces greeted her, for all the seats were empty. In the arena waited three people, only one of whom she knew. He took the shape of a smallish man, clean-limbed but indistinctly formed. While he had depth, height, and breadth, discerning these dimensions was not easy since his entire body shifted in hue, akin to the reflections from coal oil spread over black water. He remained largely dark, save where lines of iridescent blue or green, red or gold flowed through him or shot like lightning along a limb.

Only Neskartu’s eyes remained constant. Witchlight purple orbs, they burned with a feral intensity that completely belied the sullancins wisdom. Once he had been known as Heslin and had been schooled on Vilwan. Since swearing allegiance to the empress, he had been shown great magicks and given great power. By himself he had created the Conservatory and helped Chytrine shape other sullanciri.

His mouth did not open, and his words did not actually sound in the room. / am pleased that you have come so swiftly, Isaura.

“As my mother wishes, Lord Neskartu.” Isaura slowly descended the stairs, heedless of the stone’s cold on her bare feet. She lifted her skirts enough that she would not trip on the hem, but not a bit higher than modesty would permit.

One of the other two studied her as if he wished she would divest herself of her skirts altogether, and not for the sake of safety. Tall and lean, with fine dark hair and a rakish smile that suggested he knew how handsome others found him, the man wore a blue blouse embroidered with a spiderweb pattern. He lifted his chin, then nodded in greeting, but Isaura gave no sign that she had noticed him at all.

The woman with him held more interest for Isaura. Wisps of brown hair peeked out from beneath a sheepskin hat, and the bulky coat she wore hid her form, but Isaura guessed that her thickness was more coat than body. Her eyes, a deep blue, flicked warily. The man with her was shivering because of the cold, but she was shivering because of her dislike for the place in which she stood.

Neskartu let a hand stretch from his form to point at them. These are the Azure Spider and Vienna, the Pirate Queen of Wruona.

Isaura let no emotion pass over her face as she stepped onto the dais beside Neskartu. She simply turned to face the visitors and nodded solemnly. “Welcome to Aurolan.”

The man started to speak, but Vionna stopped him by pressing a gloved hand to his chest. “Chytrine summoned us and we have traveled a long, difficult road to get here. The summons was urgent, so we should be speaking with her, shouldn’t we?”

“My mother is not in a position to greet you herself, so I have come in her stead.” Isaura’s reference to Chytrine surprised Vionna, but the girl suppressed a smile at that result. “As you are aware, the war with the Southlands demands great attention. Shifting circumstances have embroiled her in pressing matters.”

The Azure Spider snarled. “So, then, I am supposed to stay here and freeze?”

Isaura gave him a thin smile. “You will only freeze if you try to leave.”

“Is that a threat?”

Neskartu’s form swelled and color moved through him more swiftly. When his words appeared in her mind, they had become brambles. This child provided you a courteous warning about the hazards of peregrinations in Aurolan. Take pains to apologize now.

The man winced, having borne the full brunt of Neskartu’s comment. The Azure Spider did bow his head in Isaura’s direction. “Please forgive my misunderstanding.”

The snowy-maned beauty nodded slowly because her upbringing demanded it, but she did not really forgive him. The look in his eyes told her much. He, a Southlander, believed in his heart that her mother was evil. His own greed had pushed him past his fear of her, but also never let him see the true Chytrine, the one who was fighting to save the world from the corruption of the south. Her mother had suggested she might be betrayed, and Isaura found a prime candidate in the Azure Spider.

Neskartu shifted his gaze to Vionna. My mistress bids me to give you a message. She forgave your inability to destroy Vilwan because you did bring her a cargo of students. She continued to trust you, but you failed her when you allowed the sapphire Truestone to be stolen. Had you just given it to her agent, it would not have been lost. You cost her something she held most dear.

Vionna’s chin came up and her eyes slitted. “And she wishes me to atone for my failure?”

There is a way, yes. The sullanciri’s form sank back to normal. However, you are required to pay a price to earn the chance to atone. As you cost her something dear, so she demands something dear of you.

“And that would be?”

Your paramour.

Even before the realization that Neskartu was talking about him had registered on the Azure Spider’s face, Vionna had nodded her assent. A thread of blue energy rose within the sullanciri’s form, then lashed out. It slapped against the Azure Spider’s chest and melded itself to his blouse, stiffening it so the man’s arms shot out straight to his sides at shoulder level.

“You can’t do this to me! Vionna, darling, you can’t let them do this to me!” His hazel eyes widened as blue webwork flowed down over his trousers and boots, further restraining him. “Vionna, think of what we mean to each other!”

The pirate queen regarded him coldly. “You or death? Choices, choices. You were fun, but a blanket can keep me warm at night and doesn’t become petulant when it’s not the center of attention.”

“Vionna!”

The woman backhanded her lover, and Isaura recoiled from the violence. The man began to sob. Bloody spittle mixed with tears and ran down to drip off his chin.

Be still, Vionna, for you have given him to my mistress. Damage her property no more. The energy tendril thickened and lifted the Azure Spider from the dais and hung him in the air as if he were bound to some unseen crucifix. Now, for you, who shall become known as Spyr’skara, you have been fancied a legend. From this point forward you shall join the greatest of legends. My mistress has decided that despite your failures, you will be allowed to join the sullanciri and serve her. You will be more than the sum of all your past. Do you wish to serve her?

Isaura watched the man and waited for him to agree. She had studied the spells that had to be worked to transform a being into one of her mother’s elite. While they could be worked on someone who was reluctant, that reluctance blocked them from enjoying their full power. A sullanciri created by Neskartu, as was evidenced by Ganagrei and the other lesser sullanciri, would not be as powerful as those transformed by her mother. Myrall’mara, Nefrai-kesh, Nefrai-laysh, Neskartu, and Ferxigo had been blessed among her generals and fashioned by her hand alone. The lessers had been worked in concert with Neskartu, but Spyr’skara would be the first he had done without her.

And this is why he needs me. While Neskartu was extremely powerful, his core humanity hampered him. Though he had learned much since his transformation, certain concepts about dealing with the Aurolani school of magick eluded him. Isaura, whom Chytrine had tutored personally for decades, had grown up understanding that system. She could work the grander spells that would contain and reinforce the transformation.

As she had been taught, magick itself flowed through reality in a massive, surging river with eddies and currents, rapids of varying severity and deadly sinks that could suck down even the most careful of mages. Human magick did not recognize the river for what it was, but thought magickal energy just a pool from which the substance to work spells could be drawn. Human mages did recognize dangers in dipping magick from the pool, so their spells were arranged to be a series of handholds and belay lines that would prevent them from slipping too far into the pool and drowning.

While their prudence doubtlessly saved many a foolish mage, it also prevented them from accessing deeper, purer power. A thirsty man might settle for any water, but given a choice would go for cooler. Human magick never allowed its practitioners a chance to find that cooler water and, hampered as they were, they remained unable to truly grasp that they were dealing with a river.

The elves and urZrethi had progressed enough to know that the pool did have motion in it, and that some energy was better than others, but still the idea of the river escaped them. Neskartu had learned enough to perceive motion and different currents of different values, but the vastness of the river escaped even him. Isaura suspected he was afraid of how much power could be had, and afraid that he might just dive into it and never surface again.

That latter fear was one she had known when she first had her eyes opened to the true nature of magick. Her mother allayed that fear by showing her how to read the river. Isaura now could follow the flows. She could look forward and back, spot eddies and sinks. With a thought here or there she could navigate across the flow to reach those currents she required to perform her magicks.

The Azure Spider lifted his head. “I accept.” He glared sidelong at the pirate queen. “I move beyond you.”

The blue energy flared, and the man’s clothing instantly combusted into an azure flame. The man writhed, though the fire he breathed in so seared his throat that he could make no sound. He fought for a moment, then the flame closed around him in a tight blue shroud. His feet rose, his arms came in. For a moment or two his elbows, head, heels, and knees stretched the shroud, then the shape solidified and flowed into something akin to an egg, retaining the blue hue and exhibiting a spiderweb pattern in black over the surface.

The egg hovered in the air and Vionna pulled back. “What are you doing to him?”

That which will please my mistress. That which will allow him to fulfill her desires. Neskartu shifted his gaze to Isaura by floating his eyes around to the left side of his head. You know your part, Princess.

Isaura drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then closed her eyes. She invoked a simple spell that allowed her to see things in the realm of magick. By this sight, Vionna did not register at all. Neskartu appeared to be much the same as always, and the Thaumatorium glowed green with the residual effects of countless magicks.

The man inside the egg had taken on the grey of ash. Stepping forward, Isaura invoked another spell. She reached her hands up, and they passed through the sides of the shell as if it were not there. Had she desired to do so, she could have reached into the Azure Spider’s chest and with the brush of a finger stilled his racing heart. She knew that could be done because she had seen it done with animals, but her mother had only done that so Isaura could learn to set it to beating again before the soul had left the body.

With her hands in place on his head and heart, she concentrated and felt the river flowing around her. There was little for her to see and less to hear, but currents raced past, teasing and buffeting—at times playful and at others resentful. The most violent she let slip past, then found one that suited her needs. Isaura drew it into her, then projected it into the man.

Pure magickal energy flowed into him, dissolving his physical nature as quickly as boiling water dissolves inkstone powder. The energy flooded into the shell, roiling and rising, fighting the confines. Surges shot to the apex, then dripped back down again, unable to escape and seeking a place to run.

A surge of energy from Lord Neskartu injected itself into the mix. It provided direction through a complex series of spells. Isaura caught hints of urZrethi magick, but since the object was transformation, that hardly was a surprise. Other bits and pieces, elven and human, swirled past, then odd things joined them. Neskartu had clearly been fashioning some magicks of his own. They came from human roots, but had been woven differently and were unrecognizable.

Is this the betrayal my mother fears?

Though no answer came to that question, the magicks the sullanciri employed did their work. The Azure Spider shook and twitched. His spirit clawed at the new shape in which it was imprisoned. She could feel the man’s outrage and shock, but she did not pity him. She could understand fear, but she knew the rewards her mother would grant for serving her. In the world free of southern tyranny, he would be among the most grand heroes, worshipped for all time.

It is done, Princess.

Isaura nodded and drew her hands back, then returned to her place. She I blinked, canceling the spells she’d cast, and slowly smiled at Vionna. “It went well.”

The pirate queen had paled and stared wide-eyed at the floating egg. , “What did you do?”

One last burst of power flowed from Neskartu and toward the egg. The floating ovoid blazed blue, then began to shrink. From the size of a man’s torso, it shrank slowly and silently to something barely larger than a hen’s egg. At the last it drifted to Vionna and she cupped it in both hands. The magickal cord connecting it to the sullanciri snapped and she almost dropped the egg.

He will rest now. You shall keep him close to you, nestled against you, for warmth—his, not yours.

She shook her head. “I am not some hen to incubate an egg.”

Neskartu’s thoughts lashed her. You are what my mistress wishes you to be. And not a hen, a courier. Spyr’skara is required in Meredo a day hence.

Vionna frowned. “Impossible. That journey would take months.”

My mistress knows you fail at the possible, so she would not set before you the impossible. You will be conducted there. When you are, open the egg and release him.

“Will it be safe?” The pirate queen looked at the egg. “He was not pleased with me before, and I suspect he will be less so now.”

He will do as bidden and, for now, he is bidden not to harm you. You have a more important task, for you shall take the princess with you.

Isaura’s silver eyes grew wide. “To the Southlands? I am going south?”

It is as your mother desires, Princess. You will go and observe. She wishes this. She wishes you to bring the ruby replica so you may aid in the recovery of that Truestone. A certain pleasure drifted through the sullanciri’s thoughts. In there you will learn, Princess, learn much that will determine the future.

Isaura started to smile, then a shiver shook her. She had never ventured outside Aurolani domains. While she hungered to see the world her mother had described—no matter its faults—the prospect daunted her. She feared her reactions but, far worse, she feared disappointing her mother.

She nodded. “I shall do as I am bidden, Lord Neskartu.”

Of course you shall, Princess. The swirling of colors in his form quickened. And you, Vionna?

The pirate looked at the egg, then sighed. “It seems the custom to do as one is bidden. I shall not disappoint.”

Very good. The alternative would have been unpleasant. The sullanciri let an arm flow out to the left. Come and enjoy the rewards the empress offers her allies. Tonight you shall be feasted, and tomorrow you shall earn even greater favor.